#I like many scenes in these games. It was difficult to decide which one to draw.

[earthykinous]

@heropartnerweek

DAY 5: Favorite scene - Betrayal - Dreams/Nightmares

[magics-neptunes-things]

I've got McCabe

Hi guys :)

So this is a request from here (never been so quick in my life) and I've never write with Katie before so I hope it would suit you all!

Enjoy :)

TW : Love fight, swearing, Nothing else I think

______________________________________________________________

Being Katie McCabe’s girlfriend is something you cherish in everyday life. Everyone knows her reputation on the football fields, and you will never deny the truth of this, but Katie obviously has good sides to tip the scales and drive you crazy about her.

Your little bickering comes mainly from her Irish origins of which she is very proud, while you are just as proud from your Scottish origins. You certainly don’t have a team as strong as England or even Ireland, but your talents have allowed you to be spotted by Arsenal for many years and this is where you still play today. Needless to say, where you met Katie.

For today, you don’t know exactly when your mutual teasing started. You have learned over time to respond to Katie when she starts teasing you, not wishing to leave her the last word every time.

The problem today is that neither of you seems to want to admit defeat. What started out as childish games is nicely being transformed into something else while a certain mutual annoyance is being felt on both sides.

Your teammates must have felt it, Leah grabbing Katie during the lunch break while you almost get kidnap by a Beth Mead apparently more than happy to show you pictures of her puppy. You can’t say that it didn’t work, you are literally a fan of this little cutie.

But after the lunch break, when the training started again, it only takes a little teasing from Katie to start again. And again, you don’t want to let it pass, there’s no reason why it’s always you who gives up, after all.

The limit is exceeded just at the end of the training, while Katie asks you to please go store her dumbbells with yours. Already having yours to carry and a ball in the other hand, you answer her that she only has to get up to do it herself. "Well, at least Ruesha would have done it for me." This one, it hurts.

You remain frozen a few seconds there before turning slowly in the direction of the Irish which seems to realize despite everything what she has just said. But Katie doesn’t add anything, just looking at you from the mattress she’s sitting on with wide eyes. "Fuck you, Katie" you mumble coldly before disappearing from the room. The idea of throwing the ball you hold in your hand on her head would have been tempting and you admit to having thought about it for a few moments. But you weren’t alone and it was out of the question for you to provoke a real scene with violence to the key. "Mate..." sighs Leah once you leave the room. "Wha' " grunts Katie without looking at the blonde. "That was a terrible comment" "Shut up" In truth, Katie knows very well that she has crossed the line and she is very uncomfortable. Hurting you is never her intention, she has always been very careful with her behavior with you, treating you like a princess on a daily basis. Except when she decides to test your limits like today. It never went that far though. Leah answers nothing, content to follow the brunette to the changing rooms to go shower and change. Katie frowns when she sees that you’re not there anymore and your stuff either. "She left. Alessia brings her home. And you’re definitely going to sleep on the couch tonight" Kyra informs her before going to take a shower. The information squeezes Katie’s heart, you live together, so it makes sense to travel together. But she particularly likes to see you in the role of HER passenger princess.

It’s with her mind elsewhere that Irish showers and changes, taking her time in seeking the best solution to fix things. However, it’s difficult for her to know what to do since she doesn’t know what treatment she will be entitled to once she arrives home.

Are you gonna yell at her? Ignore her? Are you even going to be there or will she be allowed a simple post-it on your fridge informing her that she just has to go to hell?

It’s not in a safe state that Katie gently open the door to your house. The living room is empty, but your sneakers are carefully placed on the shoe cabinet of the entrance, informing her of your presence at home. But you’re not in the part of the living room that she can see from where she is.

"Babe?"

Only silence answers her, which doesn’t particularly surprise her. You’re stubborn too and usually Katie liked that about you. But not today.

Sighing, Katie drops her bag at the entrance and walks a little further into the house. She finally finds yourself sitting at the kitchen table, apparently completely absorbed in your readings. Yes, because in addition to your training and games, you’ve been doing correspondence marketing studies. Just in case.

"Are you still angry?" Katie tries to get closer to you.

But you just answer her that a breath of the nose, without looking up from your book. If only she knew you couldn’t concentrate for more than ten seconds. You were really hurt by her remark, even if you think (hope) that she doesn’t think about it for a single second. What could be worse than being compared to her girlfriend’s ex by the principal concerned?

"Babe please, can we just…"

"Don’t fucking touch me McCabe!"

You jumped on your legs as she approached you, ready to put her hand on your arm. In your heart you obviously appreciated that she tries a reconciliation and that she tries to catch up, but it’s still too early for the moment. Your hands tremble with anger when you go to lock yourself in your room, slamming violently the door behind you.

********

"I don’t know mate, she seems really upset. She surname me!"

Katie walks around your backyard, whispering softly on the phone so you don’t hear her. She tried several times to knock on the door of your room but you never answered her, worse you even blocked the handle of the door so that she could not join you.

Leah, on the other end of the phone, has to admit that she is impressed by the strength of character with which you stand up to Katie. But Katie is still her friend and she obviously wants you to make up.

"At the same time, you compared her to your ex. Anyone would have taken it badly. I would have probably killed you."

"I know, Lee. But I can’t go back to the past, what do you want me to do?"

"Apologize?"

"She won’t listen to me, she won’t even let me in the same room as her."

"The good news is she didn’t strangle you" Leah comments with amusement.

"Not yet" answers Katie with a gloomy air.

"Let her calm down a little and in the meantime prepare an apology in good form"

"What do you mean?" asks Katie, mechanically looking up at your bedroom.

"Go get her some flowers, make her a candlelight dinner… what you know will please her."

"I have another idea" ended up answering Katie after a few seconds of reflection.

********

The night has fallen for a little while when almost timid blows are again thrown against the door of your bedroom. You sigh as you hear Katie’s voice rise from behind the door.

"I know you’re still very angry with me, but can you meet me at the livingroom please?"

You roll your eyes without answering, sitting on your side, back to the door. Now that the anger has dissipated, you realize that you were also hurt by the Irish comment. So you decide not to go. At least that was before you got a message on your phone.

Katie 🍀❤️ Baby please?

You let out a big sigh before you get out of bed. With your hands in yours (Katie’s) training pockets and your face frown, you finally leave your room. After moving the chair you had placed under the handle so that she could not enter.

When she hears your bedroom door open, Katie almost teleports to you.

"Can you close your eyes?"

"I’m not in the mood, Katie" you grumble in a low voice.

"Please" she whines.

You stare at her for a few seconds before sighing again and obeying. You let her take both hands to train you to the living room, stopping in the free passage left by the two sofas installed in the living room. Without letting go of your hands, Katie whispers

"You can open them"

You blink twice to regain clear vision and remain speechless in front of what was previously your living room. Katie installed cozy plaids and cushions on the sofa, she lit your fireplace and decorated the room with many Harry Potter goodies. You’re a fan of it, defending your house, Ravenclaw. Needless to say, the one you share your life with is from another house, which you confirmed when you forced her to take the test. Needless to say which one. (Slytherin)

On the coffee table Katie prepared bowls with several snacks and cups of hot chocolate with whipped cream and marshmallows. Everything looks like one of those photos that are on Instagram. Well, almost. Because in these photos, there’s not Katie McCabe looking at you with as much apprehension as if you were a bomb ready to explode.

"I’m sorry I was stupid like that and I hurt you. I didn’t think about it and you have no idea how much I blame myself. I should never have said that when I haven’t thought about my ex in forever and even less since we’ve been together. I mean, of course we see each other when we’re training on the national team, but that’s it. She has nothing to do with you. I’m so sorry, Baby, I swear."

Katie rambles a little bit and you get to see the nervousness behind her clumsy speech. And it makes you feel terribly tender. Realizing that she still has your hands in hers, Katie gently pulls on it to draw you a little closer to her.

"I’m not just angry. What you said is hurtful, too, Kat."

"I know" she whispers, dropping one of your hands and putting hers gently under your chin. "But I don’t mean a word of it. No one can match you."

Your gaze in her blue eyes is enough to convince you of her sincerity and despair at the idea that you may not forgive her. It’s that side of Katie that you fell in love with as well, that part that she shows almost nobody. Katie is a loyal and attentive friend, which people know as well. But she is also a tender woman who enjoys cuddling with her girlfriend. You.

"I love you so much" she adds after a few seconds, pressing her forehead against yours. "Please, forgive me."

"Okay" you end up answering softly.

Her smile is so great of joy and relief that you can’t help but smile back.

"But on condition that we watch the first film" you add, pointing to the television with a nod.

"Anything you want."

Katie hurries to make you settle into the couch, perhaps doing a little too much by hurrying to bring a stool so that you can put your feet on it. But you let her, amused by her behavior. She then runs to dim the light in the living room, hands you a cup of hot chocolate and a glass of water if « the chocolate is too chocolate ». She tenderly wraps you in a plaid, asking if you want a cushion and arranges the food bowls so that you have everything near you.

"Are you missing something?" Katie asks, looking closely around her.

"Yes" you answer with a smile.

"What?"

"You."

Bowing an eyebrow, you lift a corner of the blanket in which you are wrapped so that she comes to settle next to you. What she does smiling, even accepting that you shift to allow her too to put her feet on the stool with you. After making sure again that you didn’t miss anything, Katie launches the film and you gently lean your head on her shoulder when she puts her arm around yours.

Ten good minutes passed when you look up at Katie’s face, lit by the lights of the television.

"Babe?" you call her gently, making her look off the screen.

"Yes?"

"I love you too."

A soft smile is born on her face and you would swear that it will remain there until the end of the evening. Including when she leans over you to kiss you right now, then every other time during the movie.

Katie McCabe may be a fool, but she’s your fool.

________________________________________________

So… Katie McCabe is a Slytherin, what do you think? 😂

[funnier-as-a-system]

Hi, singlet here, I hope this is okay to ask, not sure if y'all are the right person to ask, but I stumbled across your roleplaying tag - then again my question is kind of coming from the opposite direction than what the tag is for in your blog...

Do you have any recommendations or are there any resources on portraying systems while roleplaying? Because one of my roleplaying characters turned into a system by accident*) and I don't want to be a prejudiced, stereotype-ridden asshole about it

*)by accident, because during a scene I gave that character's fear a voice, mainly for reasons of exposition and very much on the fly, but because characters never behave as you expect or meant them to, exposition-personification-of-an-emotion just decided to flat out be a person after all... so now that character is two persons in one people, which was not planned...

Hm... that's an interesting question that I don't think we've ever gotten before. I don't have any advice or resources tailored to this specifically, but I will say that it may help for you to keep some personal notes on each system member, so that you can better identify what each of their feelings/responses will be to developments in your campaign/game, as well as what their relationship is like. Such things can be tricky to keep straight when they're just in your head, so having it all written out on paper can keep things clear(er).

Something in particular you may wish to keep track of is Who Fronts When. For instance, you could have conflict or angst if one of them appears to be "hogging the body" and the other feels like they don't get to front enough. Or maybe one of them is more skilled at something so you switch to get that buff for a particular action, but too many switches (or even just one) in a short amount of time causes a debuff in some other area, like how dissociation or other side-effects from switches can affect real-life systems.

I wouldn't worry too much about falling into stereotypes. The main thing is to just not make one of your characters into a serial killer Just Because; don't be a "murder hobo" or pull the "something inside me is trying to get out and murder innocent people/I fear whatever this thing inside me is" trope and you'll probably be fine. If this were a different medium I'd recommend avoiding murder entirely, but roleplay is... well, the base of the game itself can make it difficult to avoid such situations. But to be on the safe side, you may wish to avoid one of your characters fearing the other, especially if for unspecified reasons or because they don't know what they'll do when in control. While I believe that in general, anyone can write whatever they want, I also feel that such topics are better left to those who are systems or know systemhood well (i.e. have done a lot of research and went into their writing/roleplaying with a goal in mind, and didn't just stumble into it or decided to make a character plural on a whim), as these topics can easily be handled in a clumsy matter that echoes these horror tropes.

Hope this helps, anon!

[ryker-writes]

hehehe finished it sooner than I thought

Here's the second part! If you didn't see the first part, you can find it here

Warning: spoilers for book 6

Request rules and Masterlists

Broken Sibling relationships

Idia as a sibling (Broken relationship continued...)

eventually, you and Idia ended up at NRC together

your parents even decided he could bring the fake Ortho with him

all three of you got assigned to Ignihyde

still, Idia avoided you, and you avoided the fake Ortho

it was difficult since Idia always had the robot doing things for him around Ignihyde and the rest of the school

there was one time that it tried to talk to you

"I wanted to try and find a way for you and big brother to make up! We're family, and I think it would make you both much happier if you did. Then we can all play video games together, just like we used to. I really miss that and I know he does to. Don't you miss it?"

of course you did

you wanted nothing more than to play games with Idia and Ortho

but as the Ortho look-alike said that it missed playing games, you could help but think of the real Ortho

and once again, you're brought back to the scene of Ortho being ripped apart in front of you

a memory that served as a constant reminder that this was not the real Ortho

despite the robot's nice request, you couldn't do it

as long as Idia saw that robot as Ortho, you would never be able to be near them

months later, Charon broke into the school and took many students

a few even stopped you saying they needed you back at Styx

if you had to go then your parents must not be at the facility

which meant Idia and Ortho would be going too

not having much of a choice, you went with them back to the Island of Woe

the goal was to gather more data on the overblots at NRC

though you didn't need to do much work, your presence was still required

if anything went wrong they needed a Shroud to help fix the facility

that was your role

to sit there just in case something went wrong

Idia was the one working and running the tests

you were required to be near or in the main control room just in case

so when Styx started having an emergency lockdown, you were there

Idia had disappeared and the staff were saying that they couldn't override it

you quickly entered the Shroud authorization into the system, but it didn't work

the fake Ortho appeared as a hologram in front of you

"Sorry! I can't allow you to stop this."

"What's going on?"

"Me and big bro are working together. We're going to be heroes, just like we said when we were younger! All we have to do is open the underworld and release the phantoms to reset the world. Once that's done, we can do whatever we want! We can all play together again and be happy! You should help us!"

"You can't reset the world! Idia of all people should know that the real Ortho wouldn't want that!"

The robots expression shifted to one more...familiar, and he spoke in a much calmer tone

"I know. But I want you and big bro to be happy. My death has torn you two apart, and I'm sorry. You two deserve to be happy, no matter what it takes."

the hologram then disappeared

that didn't seem like it was the robot talking...it reminded you of Ortho

could he really have been talking to you?

that should be impossible but some part of you was saying that it was the truth

that was the real Ortho talking

he wanted you and Idia to be happy

of course he did

that's just like Ortho

you could feel tears running down your cheeks, but you didn't care

you got to talk to your brother again

Idia...

you want him to be happy too

but is resetting the world really the way to do it?

no, that would only make things worse

you had to help the other NRC students stop him

But there was no way you could face Idia and Ortho like this

What would you even say to help them?

After so long of Idia and you avoiding each other, what could you even say?

You wouldn’t be much help going down into Tartarus with the others anyway

Ever since what happened to Ortho, you can’t bring yourself to face the phantoms

So, you did your best to help them from the main control room

And you watched everything from the cameras

…including Idia’s overblot

You didn’t even think it was possible because of the Shroud family curse, but there he was

and he was attached to a giant phantom

but it wasn't just a phantom

it was Ortho

it used his voice and personality

some of it may be the robot, but you know the real Ortho is also in there

has the blot reached him too?

even though you were just watching through the cameras, you felt terrified

Were you about to lose both of your brothers for good?

but there was nothing you could do aside from watch the others battle Idia

thankfully, they were able to beat him, but Idia and Ortho both fell down into the underworld

Vil jumped after them and pulled Idia out

...but Ortho couldn't be saved

once again, Ortho had died

and it hurt all over again

but at the very least, you got to talk to the real Ortho again

Vil and the other students were talking to Idia about everything, and he closed the gate to the underworld

the others ended up coming out of Tartarus, and leaving, but Idia and you had to stay and fix Styx

he spent some time down in Tartarus before finally coming up

even then, he didn't talk to you

Styx was back up and running pretty quickly after that

and Idia shut himself in his old room again for a few hours

you dreaded what was happening

would he just make another replacement for Ortho?

sure enough, when he came out there was another robot following him

when you and Idia saw each other, he froze

he wasn't avoiding complete eye contact, but he wasn't saying anything

feeling nothing but disappointment in him for making another robot, you left

left him in the hallway, left Styx, left the Island of Woe, and went back to the school

not to long after, the both of them came back too

and things were back to normal for a while

you avoided the robot, and Idia avoided you

except, he didn't completely avoid you anymore

he (or sometimes his tablet) would hover in the same room as you, before sighing and leaving

that was pretty much the extent of it

until one day, there was a knock at your door

when you opened the door, Idia was standing there with the game you all used to play together in his hands

"I...I know that isn't Ortho. He knows it too, and I'm not going to force him to be Ortho anymore. He's developed his own personality...but he still wants to be part of our family. You don't have accept that right away...I just figured...the real Ortho wanted us to be happy. So, uh, do you maybe want to...play a game or two?"

[seirei-bh]

I'm trying to calculate or at least approximate in headcanon the ages that I think each character is in New Gen

First according to ep 5, Ysaline is 22 years old, since she says that she was 9 when her sister Tasha was 3, and now her sister is 16, (although since each sucrette is customizable, I think each player can have the freedom to decide what age prefer to imagine that they have their sucrette in New Gen, and that's what I'm going to do with mines)

Anyway, this also gives us a clue as to at least Thomas's current age. And also this other important fact: Thomas is 10 when OldSucrette (Lynn) is 17. So they are 7 years apart.

And there's supposed to be a 3-year time jump after Love Life to the special crossover ep. Since Lynn is 26 in LL, she is 29 in that special ep.

If we subtract 7 from 29, then Thomas is 22 years old. The same one as supposedly Ysaline canonically.

Now, it is much more difficult to estimate the age of the other characters. The only clue we have is that Elenda said in ep 4 that she was 6-7 when Devon was 10-11. Taking into account that many stories in video games, books and animes sometimes tend to use even and round numbers in big time-skips so that readers can easily remember the dates, it makes me assume that 20 years have passed since that time. So Elenda would be 26-27 and Devon about 30-31. Now the problem is that we don't know if Roy and Devon are the same age or if Roy is younger, we only know that they went to the same high school and so did Elenda, and these three met each other since they were kids, but I'm inclined to think that Roy and Devon were more like friends in a sense of older-younger brothers, since Devon seems older due to his features and behavior, so perhaps Roy is the same age as Elenda. I can be wrong though, and Roy and Devon being the same age, but this is what I think for now~

We also don't know Amanda's age, but due to her features, she appears to be around the age of Thomas and Elenda. Although Elenda in a scene from ep 3 defines herself as "the fairy godmother of Devenementiel" and says that she was there from the beginning, while Amanda seems like a recent member of the company, which makes me think that perhaps Elenda is a little older than Amanda.

Jason could be either Roy's age or Devon's age, but I'm inclined to think that it would be more convincing for Jason to be Devon's age, given his features, and since they are both company bosses and direct rivals, it would make sense for them to be the same age, and olders than the other crushes.

And Brune seems from her features to be somewhat older than Elenda, but perhaps not as old as Devon.

So my final conclusions are:

Thomas: 22 (the only age probably canon for now) Amanda: between 22-24 Roy: 26/27 Devon: 30/31 Jason: 30/31

Elenda: 26/27 Brune: 28~

There are other possibilities, of course. But the only thing we can be quite sure of is Thomas's age, being 7 years older than Lynn and the same as Ysaline, and that Devon is 4 years older than Elenda. It's also possible, for example, that they are all 22 except Devon and Jason being 26, but Rayan Zaidi is 33 in UL and Devon and Jason's features seem -at least from my pov- closer to that age than in the middle of the twenties~

Anyway, I'd like to know the opinion based on these calculations and/or headcanons of other players regarding this topic 💜

I guess we won't know until they confirm it in the game, if they confirm it in future eps, however if it is never revealed, I'd really like to know what the canonical ages of each crush are. So @chinomiko if you ever see this, please it'd be wonderful if you could answer this some day, or at least if these ideas are close to the canon. I know that the age of each character is something that doesn't have too much importance since everyone can imagine what they want, but I am especially curious about Jason and Devon <3 Besides these details are always useful for fanfic material.

[sccpmccabe]

ᅟᅟᅟ vacation & love at the first sight | leah williamson x brazilian!reader

Summary: With the Olympics drawing ever closer, the lionesses decide to take time out to enjoy the Spanish summer, but Leah didn't expect to see a familiar face there, or... When Leah meets a friend again and ends up falling in love with one of her team-mates.

* The hyperlinks guide you to the profile of some Brazilian players since most may not know them and a very famous song here, in case anyone is interested in knowing what it is like and what it is about.

ᅟ After a difficult season with even greater challenges ahead, Leah, as captain, made the decision to take her team to relax a little. The Lionesses had landed in Ibiza just over a day ago and it was already possible to feel the team's spirits lighter.

ᅟ The blonde was lying on the sofa with her legs on Georgia's lap, bored out of her mind while she scrolled through her Instagram feed when one post in particular caught her attention. Apparently, Rafa, her former Arsenal teammate and the rest of the Brazilian team had a similar idea and were also enjoying the pre-Olympic period in the Spanish paradise.

ᅟ Her fingers were quick to slide over to the other defender's profile and send her a few messages. Leah and Rafaelle talked for a few minutes before the Brazilian invited her and the other Lionesses to join them for lunch and a pleasant afternoon in their style as both captains thought it would be a good idea for their teams to get together.

ᅟ “Girls!” She caught the attention of the others who were spread throughout the living room and kitchen of the house. “We received an invitation to join another team for the rest of the day and after thinking about it a bit I decided that we would go, so get out of your pajamas and wear something comfortable. The Brazilian team awaits us.” Everyone was confused by the sudden announcement but they knew that once the blonde was determined to do something, nothing could change her mind.

ᅟ England and Brazil have met a few times on the women's football scene, with the biggest clash between the two teams being the Finalissíma played at Wembley and won by the European team after a tense and hard-fought game. Some players knew each other because they had faced each other in clubs or even played together on some occasion, however it was still new territory for them. With the change in the technical committee of the South American team, many new players ended up appearing in the new coach's squad, with the majority of them playing in national football and due to the Brazilian league being very subjugated, they and their skills were almost completely unknown. They all knew the big names like Marta and Cristiane who still remained in that cycle to share their experiences with the younger players as they were legends and great pioneers in the field of women's football, one of them being the winner of 6 Ballon d'Or, five of which won them consecutively.

ᅟ About an hour later the Lionesses arrived at the place where the other girls were staying, and they could already hear an unknown song playing loudly in addition to the sound of their laughter and the unmistakable smell of barbecue in the air. Rafelle, Gio and Geyse were already waiting for them outside with warm smiles on their lips, reassuring some of the players. Lucy was one of the first to run towards them, pulling the now United player into a hug despite Ella's protests telling her to leave her teammate alone. With that pleasant reception, the British already felt more comfortable in that environment, but when they arrived in the backyard where the “party” was taking place and the others were, Leah felt butterflies in her stomach, feeling a little nervous - something that was very unusual. for her -.

ᅟ The vast majority of them were gathered on the deck around the pool with a drink in their hands and excitedly singing a song in their language, barely noticing the presence of the other women, however, everything changed when one of them came running towards Rafa.

ᅟ “Graças a Deus tu voltou! A Marta estava te procurando feito doida. (Thank God you're back! Marta was looking for you like crazy)” An unknown girl began to speak, only then noticing the presence of the other women behind their captain. “Eita, eu nem vi vocês aí! Sejam bem-vindas, eu sou a Gabi, mas todo mundo me chama de Portilho. (Wow, I didn't even see you there! I'm Gabi, but everyone calls me Portilho)” She greeted excitedly, aware of the confused look on the Euro winners' faces as they didn't understand anything she was saying. When she didn't receive any response, the ward looked at the brunette in confusion. “Rafa, por que elas estão olhando pra mim como se eu fosse de outro mundo? (Rafa, why are they staring at me like I'm from another world?)”

ᅟ Since that was one of the first times that Portilho met a foreign player, she spoke in Portuguese as always, completely oblivious to the fact that the other women did not understand the language. Noticing this, the Brazilian captain was quick to correct her posture and translate what the other was saying to the British.

ᅟ “I apologize, I completely forgot that different languages could be a problem between us.” She said a little embarrassed by what had happened. “But, translating the previous statement, this one here is Gabi Portilho, she is one of our wingers and she basically welcomed you guys here.”

ᅟWith that clarification, they all smiled at the nice girl and greeted her with a handshake, saying their names to introduce themselves. As they continued walking around the yard and meeting the other women, They noticed that some had a certain trouble with English language, but they didn't let this affect them and did everything they could to try to communicate with the England squad. They were all a little shaken when Rafaelle guided them towards Marta, looking at her with total admiration and affection. Leah even stuttered a few times and was embarrassed when she was praised by the women's football legend for her defensive skills.

ᅟ The defender continued to explain to them a little more about the personalities of her teammates, finding it easier to separate them into groups. Antonia, Gabi Nunes, Portilho, Kerolin and Ary Borges were the most lively and extroverted. Marta, Tamires and Cristiane were the “mothers” of the group, Geyse, Lelê, Luana, Duda Sampaio, Zaneratto and Y/N were part of the more shy and reserved group and would certainly need some time to become completely comfortable in the presence of the European champions, but they were still as nice as everyone else and although she liked them all, Leah's eyes fell on you, marveling at your appearance.

ᅟ You were talking and laughing with someone Leah quickly identified as Duda, noting how close the pair seemed to be. The blonde was on the other side of the yard with Alessia, Mary and Gio, who were talking animatedly about something and despite wanting to interact with the others, her attention was focused on the young player. As if you were able to feel the blue eyes on your body, you turned your head towards the English defender and noticed that all her attention was on you, which resulted in a sudden wave of shyness and flushed cheeks.

ᅟ Despite the difficulty imposed by the language barrier, it was possible to say that the two groups got along very well and were having a very pleasant day, both introducing their own cultures in that peaceful environment and expanding their knowledge. At a certain point Leah learned that Y/N was 22 years old and that she played for a national club called Corinthians as a midfielder alongside Duda, the two being considered great promises in women's football but that they didn't have much intention of having a international career since they loved and identified a lot with the team from the east of São Paulo.

ᅟ Your shyness did not tend to last for long and this was proven when a little more alcohol was consumed. Now you sang and danced freely, having even more fun and creating a bond with some English players like Alessia, having tried to teach the clumsy striker how to dance, something that didn't work out very well, by the way.

ᅟ At that moment Marta was sitting in a chair with a guitar in hand, ready to show a little more of Brazil to the Lionesses. The oldest had already explained a little about the different styles of music that her country had and spoke proudly about MPB (Brazilian Popular Music) and was about to sing one of the biggest hits by one of the biggest names in Brazilian music. The song was ‘Carolina’ by Seu Jorge.

ᅟ “Carolina é uma menina muito difícil de esquecer, andar bonito e um brilho no olhar, tem um jeito adolescente que me faz enlouquecer e um molejo que eu não vou te enganar…” Most of them sing along with Marta, but in a more subtle way, while the rest just watched and listened carefully, loving the style of that song and getting into the mood, following the example of some players like Geyse and moving their bodies in movements. subtle. Despite her focus on the spectacle in front of her, Leah noticed your absence among the Brazilian players, frowning and wondering where you had gone when she saw a silhouette coming out of the house with something in her hands. It was only when that figure got closer that she understood that it was you carrying a tambourine, soon starting to play and joining the group again. “Maravilha feminina, meu docinho de pavê, inteligente, ela é muito sensual. Te confesso que estou apaixonado por você, ô Carolina isso é muito natural. Ô Carolina eu preciso de você, ô Carolina eu não vou suportar não te ver, Carolina eu preciso te falar, ô Carolina eu vou amar você.”

ᅟ The blonde wasn't sure if this was possible, but she felt even more mesmerized by you, every movement in sync with the music, moving your feet and hips in a graceful way that the defender had never seen and didn't even think she was capable of for someone to do. Due to the heat and burning sun of Ibiza, your tanned body was only covered by a white bikini and a thin layer of sweat. Your hair was still wet from the pool and adorned her face and delicate features to perfection. It was obvious to everyone there that she was attracted to you like a magnet is attracted to iron and you seemed to take advantage of that situation.

ᅟ None of the girls on the British team had ever seen their captain like that, so… helpless. It was as if the situations had reversed, suddenly Leah was the only one blushing at the slightest glance of your gaze on her. Rafaelle and Gio were talking to Georgia, Keira, Lucy and Mary about how painful it was to watch that while Ella and some other girls just took that opportunity to make fun of the blonde, who was just grumbling and threatening the young United player.

ᅟ At a certain point she saw an opportunity to get away from all those provocations and went to a place further away from that small crowd to put her thoughts in order, but she didn't count on the fact that you, among all those people, would be the one who would go after her.

ᅟ “Hey, capi. Everything is fine?" Your voice was sweet and carried the Brazilian accent that she found so adorable and that was almost enough to make her calm down. “Sorry if I'm intruding where I shouldn't, but you looked so good a few minutes ago and now you're seem annoyed... Did something happen?” Leah could tell your concern for her was genuine and felt her body relax even more at that.

ᅟ “Yes, everything is fine. I'm just feeling a little dizzy from the drinks, I'm not used to drinking that much alcohol, even though I have very good resistance. Your caipirinhas are definitely different from anything I’ve ever consumed.” With that, you laughed and Leah swore her heart sped up even more at that sound she had barely known but already loved.

ᅟ With the confirmation that it wasn't any bother, you got even closer to her, noticing that the blonde was admiring the view that the house's backyard had of the beach. Your thoughts were a million, having different ideas but still afraid of being inconvenient or being dismissed by her. In search of help, you looked over your shoulder, looking for Rafa in the expectation that she would give you some advice about that and ended up being surprised by everyone's attention on the two of you and several positive signs from you and Leah's companions.

ᅟ “Um, Leah, what do you think about getting out of here for a bit and taking a walk on the beach? I’m sure this can help you sober up.” Upon hearing your invitation, a huge smile lit up her expression and she said a very excited “yes” before gently taking your hand and walking towards the beach beside her.

ᅟ The sand was warm beneath your bare feet and the breeze blew a few strands of hair as you walked side by side in the middle of a casual conversation, taking advantage of the calm of the beach and the moment to get to know each other a little better. To both of your surprises, you had a lot in common on and off the field. Just like Leah, you were always a fan and always played for the same team since youth and you couldn't see yourself playing for any other club in the world other than him and despite identifying with your sentence and admiring the passion that you had for the sport and the club that created it, she couldn't help but feel a little disappointed since even with so little time spent talking she already imagined herself playing alongside you on the field.

ᅟ You seemed like the perfect person for her, a woman that Leah only believed existed in her wildest dreams but who was suddenly in front of her. The blonde felt like a teenager in love and, in a way, stupid for having given her heart so quickly to someone she barely knew. Damn, she didn't even know if you liked girls, how the hell could that work? Her thoughts were very confused and she was so caught up in her own head that she didn't even notice your gaze on her, staring as if the captain was a work of art.

ᅟ It took a long time for the British girl to find enough courage to ask you about your love life, but when she finally asked you if you were single, your first response was not something verbal, but rather a smile so bright that the defender thought be able to illuminate the entire world.

ᅟ “Why? Are you interested?" Your voice was provocative and the phrase had a great effect on the captain, who opened and closed her mouth without making any sound. “Hey, relax, I'm just messing with you! But to answer your question, yes, I am single.” With that answer, the blonde with flushed cheeks gave a small smile, muttering something to herself. She still needed time to compose herself and to plan her next move, but she was startled when she felt the wet sand on her feet. Leah was so oblivious that she hadn't even noticed that you were walking closer and closer to the sea and when she was about to say something her sweet voice interrupted her. “Wait, what is that?” You asked, pointing to something that was apparently in the water, causing the British girl to walk in that direction and start looking for what you had seen, but there didn't seem to be anything there.

ᅟ “What, love? I don't see anythin-” Just as she was about to finish her sentence you gave her a push, causing the poor girl to lose her balance and fall into the water. As she stood up with an irritated frown, you laughed louder and louder. Besides this, you were still able to notice her coming towards her with a serious expression that indicated that she wanted revenge.

ᅟ The two of you ran along the beach as if you were two children and the only thing audible was the sound of your laughter, her heavy breathing and the blonde's threats. Despite being a very well-trained athlete, your legs were already tired and it was no surprise that Leah caught up to you so quickly, but you definitely didn't expect her to throw herself at you.

ᅟ Despite the uncomfortable fall, you were loving the feel of her body on top of yours and when she gave you enough space for you to turn around and face her, the same roguish smile from minutes ago adorned your lips. Having Leah Williamson on top of you was quite a sight, her blonde locks were a little messy but still looked so beautiful and different from before, her blue eyes seemed to be a few shades darker and even more mesmerizing and carried a kind of determination and confidence. You could tell that she was as focused on admiring you as you were doing with her, it seemed like the whole world around yourselves had stopped and the only thing you were able to see was each other's presence.

ᅟ The attraction at that moment was so much that Leah barely noticed that their lips were just inches away. Kissing you seemed like the right thing to do at that moment, but she was still hesitant, but once again that afternoon, you surprised her. Your chest rose from the sand and now the distance between you, which was already minimal, became even smaller. The blonde licked her lips and looked at you expectantly, ready to reciprocate anything you did.

ᅟ “You know, I’ve been waiting for this moment all afternoon.” You confided, speaking so quietly that the other woman was barely able to hear. “But I have to tell you something, I don’t kiss before the first date.” And with that, your lips moved a little away from hers and rested on her cheek. Once again the captain was paralyzed and didn't know how to act while you freed yourself from her body and walked away laughing. It took a few minutes for the defender to recover and when she did you were already far away, but that didn't stop her from getting up and running away.

ᅟ“Y/N! WAIT"

[A/N: I'm definitely thinking about making a second part of this :)]

ᅟ

[justanotherhyperfixation]

Rewatching season 1 of Young Royals made me understand even more why it was so difficult for Simon to trust Wilhelm in season 2. 

Like Wilhelm in that scene above, I mainly had in mind Wilhelm’s denial of the video, which was a hard betrayal for Simon but something that Wilhelm objectively couldn’t have done differently at the time.

But i kinda had forgotten how Simon’s trust was sorely tested in season one, not just at the end with the video denial but throughout the whole season. Wilhelm is changing his mind repeatedly in the first season and this accumulation of alternation of hope and disappointment really does explain Simon’s exhaustion and his reluctance to trust Wilhelm in season 2. And it’s by making a tiny list of those moments that i realize how many of them there were.

1. 

In episodes 1 and 2, Wilhelm wants to spend time with Simon at school and outside, they hang out together at the party, in Bjärstad and go to Rosh’s football game, Wilhelm seems to have a truly great time with Simon and his friends. But then he asks Simon to delete his instagram story showing the nice moment they spent together.

2.

At the end of episode 2, Wilhelm is the one touching Simon’s thigh, he’s smiling when they intertwine their fingers. But then Simon kisses him and Wilhelm says ‘he’s not ... (like that)’.

3.

Wilhelm ends up holding back Simon and kisses him. But then in the beginning of episode 3, he asks Simon to forget about what happened.

4.

Later on during gym class, Wilhelm takes what he said back and asks Simon to spend the weekend with him at Hillerska, just the two of them, he even meets Simon’s mom. But then (ok his brother died in between but still, it’s from Simon’s perspective) Wilhelm asks Simon to delete all their texts and says ‘he can’t do this anymore’.

5.

In episode 4, Wilhelm calls Simon in the middle of the night, declares his love, Simon rescues him, they spend the night together, share their feelings and have sex. An intimate bond and a relationship of trust has been built between them. But then in episode 5, Wilhelm tells Simon he’s not sure he will have his back for the drug incident, that he might have to stick with the rich boys’ plan in order to protect himself.

6.

And finally in episode 6, they’re very supportive of each other after the video was leaked and Wilhelm tells Simon he won’t make a statement about it. But then he does and denies it, letting Simon alone in the scandal. 

I love Wilhelm with all my heart and as viewers we know his inner struggles, all the pressure he's under, what he has to fight against to be with Simon, and that he indeed made a lot of brave decisions all along. But seeing it from Simon’s perspective, boy I’ll be tired and very unsure too. 

Each time, Wilhelm did end up being on Simon’s side, and season 1 ends with Wilhelm telling Simon he’s in love with him and showing it publicly by hugging him in front of the whole school. But all Wilhelm actions and decisions during the season did come with a moment of second guessing. And this is hard for Simon, to continuously feel that he’s not an obvious choice and with no assurance that he will be. And none of this is to put any blame on Wilhelm, he does his best but it doesn’t make it any less difficult to handle for Simon. 

Because Simon is also well aware that, even if Wilhelm do not want to be part of the world he was born in and is critical of it, he will always have a spot reserved for him in it and will always be encouraged to choose the royal life. He could at any point go back to it, deciding to stick to traditions, to erase everything he had lived with Simon. Their situations are not equal and Wilhelm needed to prove harder to Simon how serious he was about his feelings because of that. And that’s what Wilhelm did in season 2.

[yumeka-sxf]

Spy x Family Operation Diary - Character conversations

I'm back with another Operation Diary post! There's a ton of adorable and funny conversations between the characters throughout the game. I wanted to highlight some of my favorites and provide translations.

*Note: The game uses parentheses to show that a character is thinking the dialogue as opposed to speaking. For my translations, I'll be using parentheses and italics.

There aren't any major Twiyor scenes in the game, but this one's pretty cute - takes place when they decide to go on an outing at Penguin Park. It's a nice callback to the aquarium chapter/episode.

Loid: Penguin Park, huh?

Yor: (Come to think of it, Loid was also really engrossed by the penguins last time.) Um, Loid, it would be great if we could see the cute penguins!

Loid: Huh? Uhhh...yeah, sure...? (What...? Yor liked the penguins?)

Anya: (Papa and Mama are funny.)

-----

Unfortunately I can only embed one video per post, so the rest you can watch via YouTube links.

The game actually has a few Yor and Fiona interaction, though they're mostly like this.....just Fiona having her usual unhinged thoughts, lol.

Fiona: (She's just your daughter-in-law. Don't overdo it, take the burden off your shoulders already. Then I will take over the wife role and provide super support as senpai's wife...!)

Yor: Being with Anya is so much fun. Raising her isn't difficult at all.

Fiona: (Hm...really trying to be a mother, huh? You'd better watch out now, Yor Forger...you'll be kicked out soon enough!)

Anya: (Anya likes the Mama she has now.)

-----

In this next one, Loid is having trouble getting Anya to study, so he breaks out the cringe Penguinman voice 😂

Loid: (In order to stimulate motivation in Anya...since it's come to this, guess I have no choice...!) S-Senpai! This is no time to be lazy. Don't you have to do your best everyday for the sake of world peace?

Anya: Agent Penguinman?

Loid: Our mission is to study, let's do it!

Anya: If Penguinman is with me, I'll do by best at studying!

-----

There were so many cute Yor & Anya interactions, a couple of which show how Yor will always protect Anya from danger ❤️

Anya: Mama! There's a crab!

Yor: Be careful not to get your hands pinched.

Anya: Yup~

Yor: (If you hurt Anya, I will not forgive you...)

Anya: (Anya will be careful...for the sake of Mr. Crab, too...)

-----

Yor will also fight off sharks for Anya!

Anya: Mama! There are people diving in the ocean and looking at fish!

Yor: Diving, huh? That sounds fun!

Anya: But...what if there are sharks in the ocean...!

Yor: Don't worry Anya, there aren't any sharks in this part of the ocean. (And if there are any, I'll kill them in secret.)

Anya: (She can beat sharks too?! Mama's amazing!)

-----

Just like the resort island in the anime/manga, Anya has to remind Loid to be a "fun dad" at the resort in the game!

Anya: RESORT!

Loid: Don't jump, you'll fall.

Anya: Papa...I heard that a normal papa would jump and fly around with his daughter at a time like this.

Loid: (Is it really necessary to put on the family act at a tourist location?) Ok, let's enjoy the resort!

Anya: Papa's so simple.

-----

There are some scenes of Yuri tutoring Anya, in his usual way 😅

Yuri: Studying is training your muscles! You can't miss a single day!

Anya: Yes sir!

Yuri: That's right! Look at how your future self has grown!

Anya: Yes sir!

Yuri: And in that future, look at Nee-san's smiling face!

Anya: Sir! Yes sir!

Yuri: Ok, next workbook!

Yor: Please don't teach her anything too weird...

-----

This next one is part of the scenario from a previous post where the Forgers visit the art museum!

Anya: Mama! The lady in the painting! She's wearing a pretty dress!

Yor: Ooh, it really is. It's a very pretty painting. Her dress is pure white.

Anya: Would you try wearing it, Mama? It would look good on you.

Yor: Uh? Um, I suppose so...I like black and red. (In times of crisis, blood showing would be troublesome...)

Anya: (...!)

-----

Loid saves the day when Yor offers to cook 😅

Yor: Let's buy ingredients for dinner on the way home. I'll cook dinner today.

Anya: (The last supper...) Anya isn't hungry yet. Anya will play more.

Loid: You must be tired too, Yor. I'll cook dinner today.

-----

And lastly, Anya sings this adorable little song while drawing a picture of the family (while Loid is trying desperately to get her to study!)

Anya: Hm, hm, hm~ Papa and Mama~ Together with Anya, such a close family~

Loid: Hey, Anya! Stop drawing and listen to what I'm saying!

-----

I mostly focused on the family interactions since those are my favorites, but there are a ton of cute/funny conversations between Anya, Becky, and Damian as well! There's also much longer special event cutscenes that play when Anya speaks to certain characters enough times (and triggers the unique illustrations I posted here). But those are several minutes long each, and my Switch can only save video clips up to 30 seconds. But if you plan to play the game when it releases internationally in a few months, you can look forward to seeing those for yourself 😃

If you want to see more of my posts about the SxF game, check the sxf game tag on my blog here.

[genericpuff]

Absolutely love the rendition to the panel of Hades holding Persephone. Lovely to see it rendered as a more mutual act with Perse holding onto Hades instead of just letting Hades hold her, and ofc seeing Persephone actually look like an adult woman. (Not to even mention the colors and rendering because whoaa those were lovely)

And I have a question about this new rendition if I’m allowed to make it! The original had very dramatic and sharp composition with the angles and being off centered which conveyed much of the emotions and style that made early LO very striking. In adapting it, was it a conscious choice to change the composition or what were the deciding factors that made you and banshriek decide centering Perse and Hades worked better in this situation? :0

Ahhh thank you ;w; It took a few rounds of sketching to get the pose just right, the flats thankfully weren't as difficult as I was worried they'd be, but the challenge was definitely in trying to get the pose right while maintaining the height difference that's there.

As for your question, a lot of the posing and sketch composition is something I do, and then Banshriek typically goes wild with the backgrounds while making adjustments to those compositions if necessary, often times I leave the backgrounds up to their discretion as they're 10x more skilled at that sort of thing than I am and they often bring new perspectives to the table. This means that it often ends up being a game of give and take between what we contribute, sometimes I'll have sketches that they feel need to be adjusted, other times I'll have to add little tweaks to their backgrounds if it's missing something. We're both working off a base rough sketch, but we both get to contribute to the final scene in our own ways; splitting it between background and character flats has been a happy middle that's worked well for us :)

Depending on the scene, sketches can range from minimal to more detailed. Here's the original base sketch for that scene:

So originally there was a larger tree working over the side but I didn't really know how detailed we wanted to be in the actual full background, much of it depended on how complex Banshriek wanted to get. You can also tell that Persephone's face was originally buried into Hades' chest in the original panel, which I originally flatted in, but then wound up changing because I wanted her eyes to be visible to reflect both of their expressions of relief at the same time.

That said, with the pose changing from what it was in the original (from Persephone almost laying on Hades vs. him holding her and lifting her up) the composition had to change with it so I decided to just make them a bit more centered, that way the focus would be fully on them and the balance of the scene wouldn't feel "off" due to the pose change. I tend to follow the Rule of 3 here !

So yeah! That's pretty much why centering it felt a little better in this case. Though part me of does wish I was able to keep the original pose, when breaking that scene down into its bones I found it had to take a lot of liberties with its anatomy and proportions, as many LO scenes do. You can't really tell just on a surface level but Persephone's head is huge and the rest of her body is tiny (her hips literally come up to Hades' sternum and her feet meet at his knees). With the character design changes made in Rekindled to make Persephone a little less tiny and more consistent in her body type (while still maintaining the size difference between them) and to reflect their character arcs at this point (as I'm not rushing them into intimacy quite like the original comic did) certain things have to change to balance it out and accommodate. If you're a math person, think of it like solving algebra equations - what you do to one side of the equation needs to be reflected and adjusted on the other side.

And of course Banshriek did a lot more to really exemplify the mood shift in the almost labrynth-like forest Persephone grew within Tower 4. There are still trees and plant life everywhere, but instead of feeling like an endless maze with its tones of deep red that we saw Hades navigate, it now feels like a soft and gentle meeting point for the two. Like the original scene, the color change is used to change the mood of the scene and reflect the calmness of Hades and Persephone as they've found one another.

At the end of the day we did what we ultimately thought would work best for the way Rekindled is drawn, giving both Banshriek and I the freedom to fully utilize our respective skillsets. That way we were able to pay tribute to that original scene while also creating something new out of it <3

That said, I'm sure @banshriek can also chime in with their own design notes on this episode, if they have a minute to spare! I'm sure they'll have lots to say about the fun they had working with those new brushesヽ(・∀・)ﾉ

[artificial-transmutations]

Closer Than Flesh - Discordance

Just a quick heads up! Over on my riot page, there is the exact same episode - but with some additional pictures of the more juicy scenes.

The shadows inside Skyler's palace of flesh contract until they form a small black form that quickly gains definition. Out of the shadow comes a pitifully small creature, covered in raven-black feathers. The demon is wearing a black robe with a hood where two equally black horns emerge. The most unsettling feature about him is his face: half in shadow by the hood is this face surprisingly human in nature - with the exception of the inhuman yellow glowing eyes, which stand testament to an alien intelligence.

Most demons would have chosen a grand entrance if they decided to spare some of their time to Skyler's request. Prestige is extremely important among demons, and the ones that fail to impress their peers by their power are the ones that are prone to lose that power quickly.

Not so Mog'Tol. First of all, when the small demon appears, there is no loud or grand effect. The darkness contracts to form a spot of even deeper darkness and then, the darkness becomes Mog'Tol. A most unnoticeable way of appearing. But even this modest form of travel isn't happening proudly in the middle of Skyler's throne room, but near the exit, next to a pillar, that has once been a human, who has grown to gigantic proportions and spends eternity holding up the ceiling.

Still, Skyler knows very well not to underestimate Mog'Tol. In a way, the weak demon with the yellow eyes is one of the most dangerous creatures of hell.

He has only comparably weak magic powers, and his physical prowess is neglectable entirely. Skyler has probably a dozen ways to defeat him in combat, even in his current, weakened state.

No, Mog'Tol is another kind of dangerous. He has been around for a very long time and has managed to build himself a reputation as a dealer in information. Mog'Tol has absolutely perfected the game of weaving a dense web of complicated alliances among the demon society that made him pretty much invincible. Skyler doesn't even with which powerful demons he would have a problem with if he would just ruffle the feathers of the small demon.

In addition, Mog'Tol deals with secrets and information. Everyone he makes his deals with can be sure that Mog'Tol knows something about him that they wouldn't like to come out to the open. And everyone knows perfectly well, that an injured or killed Mog'Tol would inevitably lead to these secrets being revealed. So, everyone treated Mog'Tol with caution.

Of course, his vast knowledge of secrets that he is willing to share for the right price makes him a dangerous, yet often invited guest on many demon courts.

Luckily, Skyler and Mog'Tol are on good terms. They have a bit of a history together and while they are both still demons, there is a mutual understanding that Mog'Tol won't sell secrets about Skyler too cheaply.

"Baelnath." the smaller demon greats Skyler and nods.

"I am in need of your services, Mog'Tol." Skyler says, trying his best for a calm and collected voice.

Mog'Tol spreads his arms and smiles a knowing smile. "I'm all yours, if the price is right."

"I am in a difficult situation. Getting to know the details of it, and how it came to be should be payment enough. Of course, I ask you not to mention my predicament to the wrong people."

The smaller demon stares at Skyler for a long moment before he nods again with a sly smile.

"Of course. You can rest assured that I won't spill any secrets about you all too easily. I wouldn't want to lose a good customer and dear friend, after all."

While Skyler doubts the part about the dear friend - they were not *that* close - the first part is actually what he is hoping on. Trust is something very rare among demons, even less so among the higher ranks. Yet, Mog'Tol has managed to have a comparably trustworthy reputation. Mainly by not lying quite as often as other demons.

Still, telling him everything is a risk, but a risk he needs to take. Skyler takes a deep breath and begins:

"So, I have lost a good part of my power."

Mog'Tol listens carefully as Skyler explains the events that led to his current state. He interrupts Skyler now and then with questions, but mostly stays silent, allowing Skyler to talk about his own experiences and observations.

"And now you want my help in... getting your powers back? Or revenge on the humans that did this to you?"

"Both, I think."

Mog'Tol nods. "I see. Then let's talk about getting back your powers first. Thank you, by the way for the information about this binding circle. That does indeed explain why some other demons have been oddly inactive lately."

The small, robed figure walks around the room and looks at Skyler's different art installations, of course all made out of men transformed.

"Do you know why those humans did what they did to you instead of, say, just killing you? After all, to get rid of demons, removing them entirely seems like a much wiser plan to start with, doesn't it?"

Skyler hesitates. One thing he hates about talking to Mog'Tol is that he always turns a conversation into a lesson.

"I guess they couldn't kill me, because I'm an immortal demon?" Skyler says.

"That is half-right, I give you that. Killing a demon is hard for a human, mainly because of the might of our kind. Still, it's not impossible and, given the right magic, even easier than a lot of us think. But and you are right in that regard, it wouldn't last. Given a few months or years, your essence would have gathered back in hell, probably even right here, in your seat of power, and you would reform."

Mog'Tol pauses for a bit, the yellow eyes regarding Skyler for a moment.

"The same thing happens with your power. If your magic is somehow removed from your body, it will just flow back to you in time. Except..."

"...if it is bound to something else. I see." Skyler finishes the thought and sees Mog'Tol smiling his thin smile.

"So, all I have to do to get my magic back is destroying the stone?"

"Yes, that would be the fastest. Another possibility would be to have someone use up all the magic contained in it - which is a lot, as I gather - as all magic spent will flow back to you after some time. But there is a catch for both options. The human mages obviously knew all about this, or else they wouldn't have done what they did. No, they are clever enough. If their goal is really to remove demonic power from the world, then they most certainly don't plan on using the magic they extracted from you. They will also have cast a spell on the vessel to veil it from you, so you cannot find and destroy the stone."

Skyler nods slowly. Unfortunately, that makes sense.

"So, in order to get my magic back, I have to destroy those mages anyway."

Mog'Tol agrees: "That would be wise. However, it will not be an easy task. They appear to be cunning and have their magic to protect them from demons like yourself. Not to mention you are considerably weakened. No, even if you knew where to look, you would have no chance uprooting that binding circle as they call themselves, at least not alone."

"So, I need allies." Skyler sighs. That entailed a lot of unpleasantries, beginning with having to admit his current state of weakness to other, more powerful demon lords. And they won't help him out of the goodness of their hearts, either.

"In a way, yes." Mog'Tol smiles again. "But perhaps, this is a wonderful opportunity for a plan I have come up with. How about you recruit your allies... without them knowing?"

"You mean I trick other demons into helping me?" Skyler is a bit skeptical.

"Half-right again. You trick someone into helping you... but it won't be demons. Let me explain. The magic of humans is, although a bit complicated, quite versatile. It is a rarely known fact that the kind of magic they used on you can easily be modified to work on other beings. Sprites, embodiments of forces of nature... or celestial beings. Now, what do you think would happen if the above would notice some human mages, barely tolerated anyway, abducting and siphoning an angel or two?"

Skyler can't help but smile. Mog'Tol really was a clever one. That was a brilliant and daring idea. "Most probably, they will be smitten by the heavens. There is just one problem. If the above tolerates their actions for whatever reason, those mages have a formidable weapon at their disposal, since they can wield divine magic."

Mog'Tol shakes his head. "That's not a problem at all my dear friend. You see, there is a subtle difference in how magic works. Human magic, for example, gives you exactly what you say, word for word. Demon magic on the other hand, gives you what you want, it is fueled by desire."

Skyler knows all this already. Still, he does not interrupt, because he is curious on what the small demon is going at.

"And then, there is divine magic. It doesn't give you strictly what you say or what you want, but it gives you what you need, what you deserve. I don't know exactly who is the moral authority which makes the rules by which the magic determines what you deserve, but... someone willingly using enslaved angelic power almost certainly deserves punishment from the above."

Skyler agrees. "That sounds... well thought out. But how do we get the mages to do that?"

Mog'Tol grins brightly and his yellow eyes light up. "That's what rumors are for. Let me show you..."

***

It is the first time for Jake that he has a feeling of being partly in control of his transformation. It's not like he can choose how he will look or how his body changes, but since he knows how it works now, he focused really hard on one place to go when he activated his stone.

His previous body of José quickly packed on muscle again. This time, it is clearly gym fitness, the kind you gain not from working hard or being a serious athlete, but the kind of fitness that comes with a focus on looking good as a man. His tattoos vanish from his lightening skin and his hair brightens until it is a similar blond color to the one Marcel was sporting. While his chest stays shaved neatly, hair grows back to his arms and legs - although it's hard to see because of the light color. The narrow body of José broadens somewhat to a more stable build. It is not the telltale body of a bodybuilder or manual laborer, but the consequence of winning the genetic lottery and regular training sessions.

The last thing to go is José's slim Argentinian face, replaced by a slightly older face showing Germanic ancestry, probably in his mid- to end-twenties. The blond hair is styled perfectly into a kind of loose side cut.

Jake's still obscenely large package is covered by a pair of elegant black underwear, while an expensive wireless gaming headset materializes over his ears. Other than that, Jake stays naked.

As the world returns around him, the first thing Jake notices is that he is looking at a screen, quite obviously playing a video game in first person perspective. The change has left him disoriented for a few seconds, and suddenly, the screens edge flash red. He has been hit.

Acting on instinct, he grabs the mouse in his right hand tighter and spins around, quickly spotting the enemy. With skill coming from years of gaming, Jake quickly shoots his weapon and kills the enemy with a clean headshot.

"Fuck yeah!" Jake shouts and pumps his fist towards the camera.

Right. Camera. There is a camera filming him gaming, carefully positioned to cut off at the start of his underwear. On the secondary screen, a chat window scrolls through in blazing speed, giving him a pretty good idea of who he is and what he is doing. He has become a streamer, and, judging from the number of messages in the chat window, a rather successful one at that.

The game he is playing is Duty Calls, a first person shooter that Jake is familiar with but only played a bit before it became too dull for him in his original life. Here, he was making a living out of it. It felt weird that so many people were watching as he tried to find out more about his identity here. Should he abort the stream? Wouldn't that be suspicious?

No, it's probably best to continue. Perhaps if he doesn't focus too much, he can rely on the motoric skills of his new body just the way he can speak foreign languages.

"Alright, where's the next asshole?" Jake comments with the baritone voice his new body, as he gets back into the game. Jake finds his plan working very well. He somehow knows the maps by heart and kills most of the enemy team by himself. Shortly before he can complete the objective however, a bullet hits his character from behind and kills him instantly.

"What? Hurensohn! [Son of a bitch]", Jake cries out and gives his screen the finger. He can't wait to respawn to blow that guy’s head off.

Directly after respawning, Jake searches the map for the player that killed him and sends him to respawn himself. Completely ignoring the objective, Jake runs to the enemy respawn area and waits for the player to respawn, not minding the angry in game chat messages from his teammates.

Once the enemy player has respawned, Jake kills him again, runs over to his corpse and teabags him for a good half minute, only to be interrupted by the "Match lost" screen.

"Oh, come on", Jake groans. "Fucking noobs! Why do I always get matched with idiots?"

In the middle of the next match, where they are struggling as well, Jake almost jumps in his gamer chair as he hears a voice in his head:

"Jake, listen, I just had another vision! There's a really interesting -"

"Schnauze! [Shut up!]" Shouts Jake, making Skyler stop in his track.

"Sorry guys, the neighbor's being loud again." Jake says to his viewers, followed by a "Bam! Headshot! Hurensohn!"

Apparently, Jake is in the middle of something. Skyler feels the tight constrains of underwear around him and is reminded of his situation in real life quite quickly. He is Jake's dick and currently tucked away in Jake's underwear, unable to see anything. Sure, being near Jake all the time feels great, but he is unhappy with how Jake is treating him lately. There's a whole new side to Jake that only appeared after their weird transformative adventure started. Before, he was mostly gentle, even if Jake did act a bit like an ass sometimes.

But now, it's as if Jake doesn't care anymore. The man can be cold, cruel, and rude to everyone, including Skyler. While he treats his peers with more and more arrogance or even gets aggressive, like with the old lady in Romania, his behavior towards Skyler is subtly different. There is arrogance as well, but it seems more like a difference in ... status? Class perhaps? The truth is: Jake is treating Skyler more and more like a dick. A real dick. A body part that is somewhat important but not sentient. Not a human being, but an object.

Skyler is interrupt as the ever shifting body of Jake stands up.

"Gotta go take a piss before the next match, stay tuned." he says to his viewers, and Skyler can feel Jake's strong hand adjust his cock body. Probably a very deliberate action, now that his groin is in full view of the camera.

Once Jake lowers his underwear in the bathroom to piss into the toilet while standing, Skyler begins to speak again. It's kind of hard to focus while Jake's urine is flowing through him, but since he doesn't strictly talk through his mouth anymore, it's more of a mental blockade.

"Alright, Jake! You won't believe what I have seen. What Emilio said was the truth! And it's even better. There is a high probability that the binding circle actually summoned and bound an angel. That means there's a sigil stone with divine power in it somewhere. That's the ideal weapon against a demon lord. Jake! Are you even listening?"

"Halt deine verdammte Schnauze! [Shut the fuck up!]" comes a low growl from Jake.

"I can't remember asking my dick for his opinion on anything or controlling my fucking life. Learn your fucking place already! Let me handle the demon thing and everything else. You are my fucking cock and nothing else. When I don't use you for pissing or fucking, you stay in my pants and stay quiet. Is that understood?"

Skyler is speechless for a moment. This is getting out of hand. "Jake... I..."

"Oh, and one more thing." Jake interrupts coldly. "It's Dominik, not Jake."

Before Skyler can answer, Dominik shakes his cock off and stuffs it back into his pants.

Skyler is distressed. Jake wants to be called Dominik now? Skyler can only guess, but he is pretty sure that this is the name of his current body. This is clearly getting worse every time they switch bodies. Every time they transform, something of the old Jake is lost, and more of the new asshole Jake appears. At this rate, Skyler wonders when there will be nothing left of the Jake he knows, the Jake he grew up with, the Jake he has a crush on. Is there even anything left now? Or is the fact that he goes by Dominik now the sign that the true Jake is lost?

No. Skyler refuses to believe this. There must be a way for them to reverse all this. A way to get back to the lives they had before. Surely after they defeat Baelnath, there will be an opportunity to make things right again. But in order to do so, they need to work together! He needs to get through to Jake.

"Listen Ja... Dominik." Skyler says in a calm voice. "I know it's difficult for both of us. But you need to help us, we need to find the angel sigil stone. Please! I'll let you manage it and keep quiet, but please... handle it."

Skyler just hopes this approach works. If things get worse every time they change, they need to be even quicker than he thought. And Jake's new difficult personality doesn't make it any easier. But appealing to his arrogance might just work.

In the very least, Jake doesn't respond negatively - or at all.

After the next match, Dominik turns towards his viewers.

"Alright guys. That's enough for today. Time for my other stream. See you on the other side."

With that, Dominik closes down both the stream and the game, before leaning back in his chair. He goes to his BodyFans page named DOMinik and immediately starts the life cam there. While he waits for his viewers to come online, he massages his dick through his underwear. Finally, he thinks he has enough of an audience. A quick scroll through the viewers list shows him that there are mostly men watching his stream. Dominik doesn't mind - the gays are much better at tipping than the ladies. And the best thing is that they just love it when he's being rude.

"I had to close down my game stream early today because my Schwanz [dick] demanded my attention. You all remember my Schwanz?"

Slowly, Dominik pulls out his dick from inside his underwear. Skyler, who has of course realized what situation he is in, is already half-hard, as Dominik slowly strokes his length.

"Hört mal zu ihr kleinen Schwuchteln. [Listen up you little faggots] There's a special price to win today. I'm gonna drive over to one of you little pathetic small dicks and show you what a real man looks like. Perhaps I'll even fuck your sorry little ass. And there's just one thing you need to do. There's a lot of stuff from some distant relatives of mine that was brought to Germany from Tălmara, Romania during World War 2. And I need to find that stuff. You have time until I cum. Get to work!"

Skyler is amazed. That is both brilliant and a real questionable move to use Dominik's followers like that. Perhaps it's the euphoric waves that wash over Skyler as Dominik's hand slowly and photogenically strokes over him, but Skyler has a really good feeling about this. Even though it's mostly a product of his own desperate wishful thinking, Skyler still believes that Jake will help him. The two of them always manage to come up with a plan in the end.

Dominik barely notices that multiple messages are rolling in as he grips his cock tighter. His left hand spreads his sweat over his chest, while his right pumps his cock faster and faster. He moans in a low volume and whispers to his viewers: "Yeah, that's what you guys like, don't you?"

Not only messages but also tips are coming in now, making Dominik smirk in superiority. Yeah. Those fags are literally paying him to jerk off. That's the life.

Dominik keeps teasing his viewers for a while longer until he is sure that all those boys are busy wanking their sorry dicks in front of their screens now. Then, he quickens his pace and lets out a louder grunt.

As before, the closer Dominik gets to orgasm, the more his mind becomes one with Skyler. It's just so pleasurable stroking his long dick! Dominik/Skyler grips his dick tighter. Panting heavily now and not thinking about their viewers after all. During this exciting, erotic bliss, Skyler feels something amazing. Inside this whole conglomeration of consciousness, Jake is still in there, somewhere. The old Jake. It's not too late yet!

With a cry, cum splatters all over Dominik’s chest, and in the subsequent recovery period, the minds of Skyler and Dominik/Jake separate again. As always after cumming, Skyler immediately feels very sleepy. He barely notices as Dominik announces to his viewers:

"Looks like we have a winner. Congratulations, justViewing85, I'm gonna make all your wet nerd dreams come true tomorrow. Message me your street address!"

After a short while, Dominik closes his streams and stretches. He disposes of his underwear in a laundry hamper and takes a short shower before falling into his luxury bed to sleep.

However, Skyler can't sleep yet. Even though he was happily tired after spurting Dominik’s cum all over him, his thoughts don't allow him to sleep just yet. Will they make it to the contact before Baelnath turns up again? Will they even find something there? How much longer do they have?

And then, there is another thought. Skyler was mostly passive today, due to the difficult situation with Jake - or Dominik. He didn't talk much and let himself being used by Dominik as he pleases: Once for jerking off, twice for pissing, and countless times for readjusting or subconscious scratching. It is really astonishing how often Dominik touches his dick without noticing.

The troublesome thought for Skyler is, that he is actually starting to enjoy it being used like that. Being treated like nothing more than a cock that swings between a superior's legs. Staying silent and let himself be handled however Dominik pleases.

He knows he shouldn't like this, and he also strongly suspects that this, too, is a change that comes with using the stone. Perhaps he is not affected as quickly as Jake because it's mainly Jake who uses the stone, but still, he is not unaffected. If they don't find a solution quickly, then one day in the not-so-distant-future, there might not be a Jake and Skyler anymore, but just a Dominik (or whatever his name is then) and his dick. The thought sends a shiver of both excitement and fear over Skyler's length.

There is another thought that comes to his mind, while Dominik is snoring slightly. Back then, in Poland, after seeing Piotr for a moment, Skyler had been able to influence Jake's actions. He had turned back to look at Piotr some more, and ever since he had wondered how that worked.

Perhaps now is a good time to try, since Dominik is asleep anyway. Skyler tries hard to focus on seeing through Jake's eyes, or on moving a body part, without immediate success.

No, that's not how it works. Skyler thinks back. The reason it worked back then was because Piotr was hot, and Jake became aroused. So, it probably was a similar effect to the mind-merging during orgasm?

This time, Skyler tries to think arousing thoughts. He finds it not very difficult to do, since he has seen a lot of hot men during the last few days - and being a cock in itself is a very erotic feeling, both in the sense that Skyler actually kind of enjoys it and in the sense that being a cock somehow makes it his job to be horny.

Before long, Skyler feels himself getting hard, despite the fact that he just came a few hours ago. But instead of losing himself in his fantasies, he tries to exert control over Dominik's body again. Now it's easier, and he finds himself able to open Dominik's eyes and see what he is seeing. Next, Skyler tries to move Dominik's right arm. It takes a bit getting used to it, but in time, Skyler finds himself able to fully control Dominik's body - while Jake is still sleeping!

It doesn't last very long though. Once the erection subsides, Skyler loses control again, and the snoring body gets limb. Still, good to know. For the duration of one boner, Skyler can take control of their body. Now the question is: Should he tell Jake or not?

On the one hand, it's still his body in a sense. Just taking control seems abusive and wrong. On the other hand, seeing how things are going, perhaps there will be a situation in the future where he needs that ability to force Jake to do what's right. Even the sentence sounds wrong in his head, but Skyler has to admit that there is a lot of truth to it. At some point, Jake will stop being cooperative and then...

Skyler doesn't want to continue that trail of thought, but decides to keep his ability a secret, nevertheless.

When Dominik wakes up the next morning, he yawns and stretches. There is something he wanted to do today... Right. He needs to visit this little nerd today in a backwater town called Isselfurt. Dominik groans. He isn't very motivated to be honest, but at least he will get his rocks off.

So, Dominik takes a piss, pulls on a pair of gym shorts and a tank top, pockets some condoms and goes to his BMW. Inside, he lights a cigarette and puts the address in his GPS. Barely one and a half hours drive. Great.

After only one hour of speeding, Dominik arrives at the small town. It's not hard to find the nerd's house and after Dominik rings the bell, a shy, bookish looking man opens the door. Thank God, it's not a fatty.

"Yo, Dominik here." Dominik says, immediately grabbing control of the conversation.

"You're gonna show me the shit I want to know now."

"O..okay." Stammers the other man. "My name is Jens, and I'm just so honored to..."

"Hör auf zu labern! [Cut the crap]" Dominik interrupts with an annoyed face. "You mentioned some books or shit?"

"Oh, yes, certainly. You see, I'm a curator of the Isselfurt city archive and much of the material the nazis stole during their alliance with Romania in ..."

Great. The nerd loves to hear himself talk. Dominik tunes out mentally, as he doesn't have the slightest interest in a history lesson.

"Okay, can we go there now?" he interrupts again.

Jens blinks, surprised by the interruption, but answers quickly: "Certainly. Please follow me Mr... Dominik."

The two of them walk to an old building that is the mentioned city archive. Thankfully it is Sunday, so there is nobody around, as Jens unlocks the door with his keys.

"I actually stayed up half of the night to look through it all and I think I have all the material from Tălmara here." Jens points at a table with several old looking documents and books. The language is clearly not German, so Dominik doesn't understand shit about it.

"Can you read this Scheiß [Shit]?" he asks Jens and lets himself fall into a chair, man spreading immediately.

"Uhm yes. I think I can help you. What exactly are you looking for?"

"What do you have about the 'binding circle'?" Dominik asks.

"Ah, yes. One of the prevalent secret societies dabbling in the occult in that area. You see, in the rural areas at that time, the believe in occult techniques was very popular, especially among the richer parts of society." As Jens senses the sharp look from Dominik, he swallows his further explanation.

"So, we have these documents written presumably by members of that particular society." He finishes meekly.

Dominik takes out his phone and starts a game on it, but answers: "They summoned demons and shit, right? Do you have the names of the creatures they summoned?"

"Uhm... yes, there are lengthy dossiers about different creatures the society presumably called upon. However, and I'm sure you know that already, it has to be clear that this is all pseudoscience and superstition - it's not like they *actually* performed magic, because that's impossible."

"Jaja. [Yes, yes]" Dominik says in a bored tone.

"Good. Among the creatures in the dossier, we have several classes." Jens is now simultaneously using "There are spirits of nature, like Quor'Zhai, Han'labte, Pyrixiel, Tervonos, ..." The list continued for a while. Just as Dominik wants to interrupt, Jens comes to the next category.

"Then, there is a list of names that we think refer to mythological demons. Zul'tharak, Krathigor, Gorrathel, Xykorath,..."

This list is even longer than the last, but as Jens finishes, Dominik looks up from his phone. "Was there no Baelnath on the list?"

Jens checks again but shakes his head. "No, that name isn't on here."

"Interesting." Dominik ponders. "Anyway, is there something about an angel?"

"Ah yes, interesting that you ask. There is indeed one such being mentioned, a celestial being named Seraphisar. There is considerably less material about this being, and I think it's in one of the newest documents... Let me check..."

Jens types at his computer. "Ah yes. These documents are from shortly before the society disbanded. Apparently, the society overstepped some boundary with the church at that time, although the details are somewhat vague. We think they stole clerical equipment, which has been returned to the church in the 60s."

Dominik is not looking at his phone anymore. This is most interesting! "Can you say where the church brought this stuff?"

"Certainly, that should be easy... Here. Apparently, the cultural treasures have been brought to a stave church near Båtfed, Norway."

"Oh yes!" cheers Dominik. "Thanks nerd! You have certainly earned your reward!"

Suddenly, Jens grows even more nervous than before. "Uhm. Okay. I mean, great. So are we really gonna... I mean, we should probably head to my house, and..."

Dominik grins a superior grin and readjusts his growing cock. Now he is in his element again.

"Schnauze, Schwuchtel! [Shut up, faggot!] We're going to do it right here, in your little archive. And we're gonna be dirty so you have to clean up afterwards. Hast du mich verstanden? [Did you understand me?]"

Jens gulps and nods, but Dominik can clearly see his pathetic little hardon straining against his pants.

"Good!" Dominik quickly thinks what could be the most humiliating experience for the little faggot in front of him. There's certainly no shower or fresh clothing in this archive building, so the idea comes quickly.

"Get on your knees, over there!" Dominik points at an open area in the room. As Jens does as he is told, Dominik strips out of his shorts and tank top. Seeing this, Jens starts to remove his shirt as well, but Dominik's sharp command interrupts. "Did I say you could undress? Did I?"

"No..." Jens says in a meek voice and stops what he's doing.

"'No, Sir'" corrects Dominik.

Dominik stands up now and towers over the weaker man. A nasty grin crosses over Dominik's face. "Before I plow your sorry little ass, I have to piss like a race horse."

"Oh, I understand, Sir, should I show you the ba-" Jens stops abruptly, as a hot pressurized stream of piss hits him right in his face. Some gets in his mouth and nose, and some sprays to the ground, but most runs down the surprised archivist’s face and soaks into his hair and shirt.

"Ahhh... That's better." says Dominik. He is idly moving the stream from his hardening cock up and down the kneeling man. "Nothing beats having a faggot to soak up my piss."

Before long, Jens is soaked from head to toe in the sharp yellow waste liquid. Dominik even makes sure to circle around him to also mark the backside of his clothing. As the stream subsides, Jens starts to smell like a public men's room. However, he has no time to react to that, as Dominik's next command. comes immediately.

"Bend over that table!"

Jens immediately walks over, the liquid squeaking in his shoes and bends over, facing away from Dominik. He can feel as the dominant streamer roughly pulls down his pants, exposing his ass to the air.

"I originally brought condoms, but you know what? I'm gonna go in raw instead. You should be lubed up enough already."

"Uhm... Yes, Sir." Jens says nervously.

"Now spread your legs and stick that fucking hole out, faggot." Dominik growls at him.

Jens does as he is told, spreading his legs wide and sticking his butt out.

"Mmm... Very good. Now, get ready to receive me."

Dominik grabs his hardening cock and shoves it into the tight, wet ass of the other man.

"Oh my God!" screams Jens as he feels Dominik's full length entering him. "Oh fuck, yes! Fuck me! Oohhhh fuck me, Sir! Please don't stop!"

"That's it. Take my cock. Ich ficke dich weg [I'm gonna fuck you hard]." Dominik growls.

With that, Dominik begins to piston in and out of the archivist’s ass, enjoying the stimulation the tight hole brings to his ample rod. Jens can't help but moan in pleasure every time Dominik slams into his ass. It is the best feeling he has ever experienced, and it only gets better when Dominik starts to slap his ass cheeks with each thrust.

"That's it! Keep moaning! Don't hold back! I want you to beg for it!"

Jens moans louder than before. "Oh please, Sir, please! Fuck me harder! Fuck me! Fuck me! Fuck me! Fuck me! Fuck me!"

Dominik's cock is so big and thick that it stretches Jens' asshole wider than he ever thought possible, and the power of each thrust sends the archivist’s head spinning.

But Dominik/Skyler, too, is coming closer to release now. This is a whole new world for Skyler, as he is inserted into another man's ass, with not even a condom between him and the foreign flesh. But he is horny enough not to be disgusted but instead he enjoys every moment of being used like that, while his mind becomes one with Dominik's bastard mind once again. Wet slapping noises can be heard from his balls hitting Jens' ass, and, finally, Dominik/Skyler is ready to cum.

"Fuck! I'm gonna cum! Oh, fuck yes!" he screams out in pleasure. His cock starts to shoot a stream of hot, sticky spunk deep inside the other man's ass, filling it up.

Dominik, who is more used to situations like these, is the first one to recover again. He wipes his dick clean on a not-so-wet piece of Jens' clothing and gets dressed again.

"Good job, nerd. I hope you're gonna remember this day for the rest of your pathetic little life."

With that, he turns to leave, ignoring the meek question of Jens if they could meet again sometimes.

On the way outside he snickers to himself. "Meet again. In your dreams, nerd." Although the thought of Jens' walk of shame back to his house is amusing, as far as Dominik is concerned, that episode is over. He opens his BodyFans profile on his phone and blocks the archivist’s user, just in case he is gonna get clingy.

As he sits in his car again, and lights another cigarette, he actually addresses Skyler.

"See, dick? I told you I'll handle it. Now we're just head over to Norway and Bam! Problem solved." Dominik celebrates himself.

"Yeah. It wasn't particularly nice what you did to poor Jens, but yes, we know more now." Skyler's voice appears in his head.

"Ha! As if I care about that loser. He's just a nerd wanking to me every other night. I probably did him a favor. I would say he's gonna tell his grandchildren of this day, but let's be honest: The chances of that loser procreating are next to null."

Skyler is growing unhappy with the way Jake behaves. "Jake, I don't even recognize you anymore. Don't you see what is happening to you? Don't let the magic consume you!"

Dominik snorts dismissively. "For the last time! It's Dominik. And stop meddling in affairs you don't understand. You are my dick, nothing more and you are going to behave like it. You're lucky I even allow you to speak right now."

Skyler can't believe what he's hearing and feels mortified. Even though some part of him tells him that it's not Jake speaking but the corruption brought on by the demonic magic, he cannot suppress the raising anger in himself. That's not how friends are supposed to speak to each other! Trying his best to keep himself from screaming at Jake, he answers through proverbially gritted teeth: "Jake, just... Fly to Norway. Let's get this over with already."

Dominik smirks. "Yes, I am going to Norway. But why fly there? We've got magic, baby. I think I'm getting the hang of this now and can finally use the damned stone without the help of the big red guy."

Skyler can't see what is happening, but he feels the surging demonic magic resonating through him. He tries to stop Jake with a shouted: "Jake, no!", but it's too late. The world around them dissolves yet again.

That was a long episode. The situation is slowly getting unpleasant for Skyler and Jake. Will they make it in the end? You can re-read the previous episode here or start from the beginning here. The next chapter follows here.

If you like my writing and want to support me while reaping awesome benefits, don't hesitate to visit my subscription page :).

[mysteriousbp]

So I recently made this post that compared Kanako with another video game character. And I thought it would be funny to have people guess the character. And someone got it.

It was Spooky from Spooky's Jumpscare Mansion. Now I am just making this post to explain the comparisons.

"WELL… BOTH OF YOU ARE LITTLE GIRLS WHO WERE ACCIDENTALLY HURT VERY BADLY BY ONE OF YOUR PARENTS…"

This comparison was about how Ceroba used the syringe on Kanako, which ended up causing her soul to crack. While Spooky's father shot his daughter.

And technically, both girls had a hand in their pain. Kanako convinced Ceroba to use the syringe on her. While Spooky was tired of people not being scared of her on Halloween, so she decided to scare her father by using fireworks that caused him to have a war veteran PTSD attack. He then started to have hallucinations about disfigured German soldiers, and he grabbed a gun and started to shoot them, shooting Spooky by accident.

And also, both parents don't tell anyone about this. Ceroba just tells everyone that Kanako just fell down. While Spooky's father plants the gun on a homeless war veteran to take the blame. (Give these two a prize for the best parent award.)

"AND THAT SAID, PARENT TRIES TO FIX THEIR MISTAKES… EVEN IF THAT MEANS HURTING OTHER CHILDREN IN THE PROCESS…"

This comparison was about how Ceroba tries to find a pure soul to try to fix Kanako. While Spooky's father creates GL Labs to find a way to bring his daughter back.

And the part about hurting children is about how Ceroba tried to kill Clover. Meanwhile, Spooky's father and everything about the "Doll Project". In short, the "Doll Project" was a project trying to use dolls as containers to tether the spirits back to the earth. Many spirits were children who died. And let's just say that they weren't treated well by the lab staff... "When they act out, it's necessary to inflict pressure on the husk inhabited by the spirit. Don't forget that these dolls are not real people." - GL LABS ID 1210. And it's kind of implied that one of the children's spirits was killed by the staff. Because in the Hooked Doll's death scene, when you die to her, there's text saying, "A 'wicked nasty' child was thrown into a pit. No food, light, or water was ever given to it." and you find a pit in the area where you find the Hooked Doll. So it implies that the spirit inside the Hooked Doll was killed by the staff to be used as a spirit in the project. And Spooky's father, being the director of the project, also gets the blame for letting his staff do this.

"AND THAT SAID, PARENT HAS A DEAD PARTNER WHO HAS A DEATH WISH THAT IS IGNORED BY THE ALIVE PARTNER."

This comparison was about how Ceroba's husband, Chujin, is dead. While Spooky's father's wife, Monica, is dead.

The death wish part is about how Chujin didn't want Kanako to be involved in his work. While Monica wanted her husband to just let their daughter rest. "I'm still going to try to save our daughter. I know it's not what you wanted, but I've already gone too far." -Spooky's father.

And it's kind of funny how Ceroba and Spooky's father only respect the parts that don't involve their children. Like Ceroba follows with Chujin's wish to finish his work. While Spooky's father respects Monica's wishes and let's her rest. "Although it was difficult, I've respected your wishes and let you rest." -Spooky's father.

And another thing is that you visit their graves in the games. And they are located in garden areas.

"AND BOTH OF YOU ARE ALIVE, EVEN THOUGH YOU TWO ARE SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD. AND BOTH OF YOU WERE STUCK IN BUILDINGS THAT YOU GIRLS COULDN'T LEAVE."

This comparison was about how Kanako was kept alive by being transformed into an Amalgamate. And how Spooky was bought back has a ghost.

And the part about them being trapped in a building is about how Kanako was trapped in the True Lab. While Spooky's spirit is tethered to the mansion itself, so she can't leave.

"AND BOTH OF YOUR DADS DID EXPERIMENTS WITH CHILDREN SOULS."

This comparison was about how Chujin did experiments with Integrity soul. While Spooky's father being the director of the "Doll Project".

Another comparison that I made is that in Spooky's story mode, you find a GL Labs facility in room 120. And later in the game, you find another GL Labs facility deeper underground in room 610, which has its power out, so you need to find the generator to leave this facility. Which is kind of like Undertale. You find a lab, that later in the game you find out that has another lab under it, and the power goes out, making you go find the generator to leave that second lab.

And in the first lab, you get attacked by a monster that comes through a hole that they made. And both of these monsters were tecnically developed by scientists.

While in the second lab, you get ambushed by the creatures living around there when you turn the power back on to leave.

When I first made this comparison in my head, I just thought, "Huh. That's funny." But the more time I spent thinking, the more I realized that there's a lot more comparison between the Ketsukane family and Spooky's family… And I don't know if I'm stretching these comparisons or not...

Anyway. Have this drawings that I made of Spooky and Kanako cosplaying as each other. And the Amalgametes haging out with some of the creatues of Spooky's.

[shiki-aki]

“You told me to go wherever I like, but I want to be with you until the end.”

A Shikiaki Meta

Part Two: Shiki and Akira’s Encounters (I)

A sharp burst of wind; the flash of naked steel.

[Previous] Part One: Akira's Characterization

This is part two of the meta where we’ll finally get to analyzing Shiki and Akira’s initial encounters. I ended up splitting this part in half because it was getting too long, so part three of the meta will be a direct continuation of part two.

Just as a heads up, I’m going to be rambling a lot more going forward because there’s just so much I love about every single Shikiaki interaction that it’s difficult for me to organize my thoughts and lay them out in a concise manner, but I'll try. Also, I’ll probably gush over Shiki a lot, but I’ll keep it to a minimum (no I won’t lol).

The reason why I’m not ordering anything into sections but rather just analyzing each scene as they come up is because I feel like there are just so many intertwining layers when it comes to the Shikiaki dynamic, that it’s hard to talk about one aspect of their relationship without inevitably straying into another. Going through every single scene in Shiki’s route and breaking down exactly what happens in them, along with my interpretation/analysis of each scene, is, frankly, the easiest way for me to go about writing this meta, so that’s how I’m going to do it.

We pick up where we left off with Akira going into the alley even though he sees all these people running. This act in particular hints to Akira’s fearlessness, which is a character trait that’s expanded more upon later in Shiki’s route. Logically, what Akira should do is go back into the hotel and ask Rin or Motomi who Shiki is and why everyone’s running away from him. Instead, he lets his curiosity get the better of him and decides to go see who Shiki is for himself, because Akira can’t help but be intrigued by the fact that there’s someone who is so strong and powerful that his mere name and presence would inspire fear into others.

In the alley, he senses a deadly presence and can tell this person isn’t some “common thug” like those other Igra fighters. He sees the blood, the dead bodies, and then the man responsible for the massacre, and Akira instantly deduces that this man is Shiki—the guy everyone is running away from.

Honestly, I just love the tension and buildup to the moment that Akira actually sees Shiki. He can immediately sense what makes Shiki so different from everyone else.

Then we finally see Shiki in this iconic CG, and this is the first line of text that accompanies it:

—Crimson eyes, redder than blood.

I'm calling attention to this line because it tells us the very first thing that Akira notices about Shiki: his eyes.

Eyes are a recurring motif in Shiki’s route. There are several, and I mean several instances in Shiki's route where the text mentions Shiki's eyes. The game makes a point of drawing attention to Shiki's eyes, and since the game takes place from Akira's POV, it's Akira himself who is noticing Shiki's eyes each time this is happening.

From a writing standpoint, it doesn't make sense to point out Shiki's eyes or the color of his eyes so much because in real life, we rarely take notice of people's eye color. Like really, truly think about how often you take notice of people's eyes when talking to them instead of just paying attention to their body language or the words they're saying. It wouldn't make sense for Akira to notice or mention Shiki's eyes in his POV so much… unless there was a deeper meaning behind it.

In Shiki's route, the motif of eyes is repeated throughout the story as a way of highlighting and reinforcing the character dynamic between Shiki and Akira. It's not about their eyes in a literal sense, but about the figurative meanings/ideas conveyed through the motif. When Akira looks into Shiki's eyes, he's seeing and acknowledging Shiki's confidence and strength, his domineering attitude, and his single-minded ambition. When Shiki looks into Akira's eyes, he's seeing and acknowledging Akira's fearlessness, his indomitable spirit, and his strong will.

Simply put, the act of gazing into each other's eyes is about Shiki and Akira acknowledging (and more implicitly, respecting) the character traits that the other has. And it’s this recognition and understanding of each other's psyches that shape their overall dynamic and interactions. Shiki’s overbearing confidence and domineering attitude is what pushes Akira to act more stubborn and prideful, and in turn, Akira’s indomitable disposition is what pushes Shiki into acting more aggressive and forceful with him. It's this back-and-forth struggle between them that makes their individual characterizations shine, because we see how their characterizations continuously grow and develop in response to the other's actions and behaviors.

Their interactions are driven by how constantly at odds they are with each other, and this opposition between them is what leads to their eventual character growths. The more Shiki demands Akira to submit, the more Akira develops a resolve to stay true to himself and follow his own will. And the more Akira refuses to give in, the more Shiki comes to respect him and see how strength can manifest in ways other than physical prowess, and apply that principle to himself.

The recurring act of them gazing into each other's eyes throughout the narrative also doubles as a way of adding tension to their dynamic because let's be real: the way Shiki and Akira look at each other is extremely intense and sexually charged. In fact, the manga does an excellent job at showing the chemistry between their gazes, since it's a more visual medium than textual.

The gist of my point is: a lot of Shiki and Akira’s interactions in the game (and manga) involve them eye fucking each other, and it's narratively important to their dynamic that they do so. It adds sexual tension to their interactions, but it also gives us insight to their characterizations and how they perceive each other.

When Akira and Shiki finally engage in battle, Akira focuses on the weight of Shiki’s sword against his knife. That’s his initial reaction. But then his focus shifts to Shiki’s gaze on him, and while he can’t interpret any emotion from Shiki’s expression, he can identify the bloodlust in Shiki’s eyes. This is already the first instance of Akira being able to gauge something about Shiki's behavior just by looking into his eyes.

Akira’s impression of Shiki is that he looks “like a mannequin,” which is a bit of a strange descriptor to use, but it’s a deliberate choice of words here because this isn’t the only time in the game in which Shiki is likened to a doll. My interpretation of this is that Akira is perceiving Shiki’s strength, demeanor, and appearance as inhuman during this moment because Shiki is leagues beyond anyone he’s ever met, and there's just something about him that makes him stand out from the rest.

And this idea of not being human is an image that Shiki himself very carefully cultivates. He actively tries to cast away his humanity (emotions) in order to achieve what he perceives to be ultimate strength. After all, the only one who was strong enough to make him feel fear for the first time in his life was an emotionless "weapon," so Shiki tries to discard his emotions in pursuit of that same strength, believing emotions to be a source of weakness for him.

Hence why the text describes Shiki's face as "pallid and expressionless" during this scene and likens him to a mannequin. A mannequin/doll doesn't experience emotions, and it doesn't suffer the same flaws a human would when it comes to feeling exhaustion or hesitation or any other limitations in battle. Basically, Shiki wants to be like Nano, because although he'll never admit it out loud, he knows that Nano is stronger than him.

To top it all off, the soundtrack that plays whenever Shiki shows up in the game is called "Invincible," which further demonstrates how he wants to be above his humanity so he can prove (and reaffirm) his strength. The only ironic thing about all this is that he ends up developing an emotional attachment to Akira and feeling affection for him by the end of his route, and this meta is all about exploring how Shiki gets to that point.

It's not a coincidence that the choice selection for Shiki's route involves Shiki and Akira looking directly into each other's eyes. This is what I mean when I say their interactions are about them eye fucking each other. It really could not get any more explicit about how their dynamic revolves around them meeting each other’s gazes and acknowledging each other's core traits and strengths through that act.

This is the defining moment that determines whether you'll end up on Shiki's route or not. If Akira chooses to look away, you won't end up on Shiki's route because Shiki will perceive Akira as weak and disregard him. But if Akira chooses to hold his gaze, then the game will continue on Shiki's route because Shiki will recognize Akira's backbone and consider him to be different from the other fighters who usually avert their gaze out of fear.

The choice is a test of Akira's strength—not physical, but mental. It's already clear that Shiki overpowers Akira in terms of physical strength, but Akira's mental resilience is what makes Shiki interested in him following this exchange.

This moment tells us just as much info about Shiki's characterization as it does for Akira's. Shiki will only acknowledge those who are brave enough to face him head on, and Akira is exactly that type of headstrong person who won't let himself succumb to his own fears and doubts in battle.

I’m including the manga version of the same scene here because it conveys the tension of this moment extremely well, and also because I love Chayamachi Suguro’s artstyle. Mostly because I love Chayamachi Suguro’s artstyle.

The panels are formatted in a way that makes it clear the focus is on Shiki’s and Akira’s gazes, which ties back in with the motif of eyes I discussed before.

Akira recognizes that this isn't just a battle of strength between them, but also a battle of wills. He knows that looking away first would be akin to admitting defeat, but Akira is not the type of person to just roll over and give up easily. His perseverance is what enabled him to survive thus far in the first place.

Shiki calls Akira a "weakling," which pisses Akira off because it's obvious trash talk, but on some level, he knows Shiki is right.

And from Shiki's POV, he does view Akira as weak and beneath him, but he also recognizes that Akira is different from the other fighters. Instead of running away, Akira chose to fight him head on—and that's Akira's own form of strength that Shiki subconsciously acknowledges. If Shiki really did view Akira as a weakling who wasn't worth his time (or had any worth being alive at all), he would've continued his attack and killed Akira right there, but he didn't. Instead he backed off and walked away.

Even though Shiki is the one to back off first, it's clear that Akira is the loser in the fight. Akira understands this; he understands the disparity between him and Shiki in terms of strength. Shiki also knows he's made it clear just how weak Akira is compared to him, which is why it isn't an admission of defeat when he walks away first, but a power move. He knows Akira can't do anything to him.

Honestly, I love Akira's reaction after this near-death encounter with Shiki. He's aware of how easily he could've died in this fight, and yet he feels… elation/euphoria following this experience. This isn't like the fight with Takeru where it could've gone either way because they're evenly matched. Akira was 100% dead here if Shiki actually intended to kill him.

Akira's initial reaction isn't even to feel upset that he lost, but to bask in the excitement of such a thrilling encounter. This is the same guy who couldn't even feel any emotion when fighting in Bl@ster, but it was precisely because nobody in Bl@ster could match up to him and threaten his position as the champion that Akira started to feel numb. The same guy who wants to know what it's like to face death, and is now one step closer to it.

And now that Akira has finally fought someone who's way stronger than him and experiences what it's like to lose a fight, he realizes he's not as strong as he thought he was. This is the moment when Akira finally understands that Igra is a completely different experience from Bl@ster. It wasn't seeing a guy committing necrophilia, or watching the Executioners maniacally bashing someone's head in, or facing an opponent who is evenly matched with him (Takeru) that made him realize that Igra is nothing like Bl@ster. No, it was him getting his ass handed to by Shiki that made him realize this.

I'm going to pause for a moment here to draw a parallel between this Shikiaki scene and Shiki's first encounter with Nano, because it’s hard to talk about the Shikiaki dynamic without going into Shiki’s backstory and explaining his mindset and why he comes to be so fascinated with Akira in particular.

The following quote is what Shiki says at the very beginning of his drama CD:

Shiki: I have never forgotten, not once, have I forgot those vacant purple pupils. The anxiety and the feeling as if I was shivering...What led me to understand what fear was. That sole experience of humiliation in my memory. Since that day, I kept pursuing him. This memory of the weak experience in the past exists to bury that man.

(Credit to silver_spray on Livejournal for the translation. I'll be using their translation any time I cite text from Shiki's drama CD, since they have a full translation of his drama CD in one place.)

The translation is a little clunky, but we can understand what Shiki's saying in his monologue. He's talking about the day he saw Nano at the military base and how he experienced fear for the first time in his life. The reason why Shiki can't let go of this memory, and why he centers his ambition solely on the pursuit of Nano, is because Nano shattered Shiki’s self-perception and made Shiki doubt everything he knew about himself.

Shiki is someone who prides himself on his strength and bases his entire identity around being strong. He thinks that those who exhibit fear are "weak," and that's why he felt so humiliated when Nano made him feel fear for the first time. If experiencing fear makes one weak, then by Shiki's own logic, he's weak and not actually strong like he thought he was. Shiki couldn't reconcile this revelation with his mindset, and it fucked him up severely to realize he was no different from the "cowards" and "weaklings" he looked down upon.

It's not just that Nano made Shiki feel fear during their encounter; it's that Shiki derives meaning in his existence by believing he's strong and proving his strength, so having his sense of self challenged like this messed him up.

And just to make it clear: I’m not judging Shiki’s character by how complex, fleshed out, or sympathetic his backstory/motivation is. I don’t mind that Shiki has a “shallow” goal, and I certainly don't think that diminishes his chemistry with Akira. What matters to me most is how consistent Shiki’s character is in relation to the themes set up within his own route, and how well he acts as a foil to Akira. Shiki embodies all the values that Akira lacks in his own life (a strong sense of purpose, an inclination to live, the freedom to do as he will with his own existence), and him acting as a foil to Akira serves to further our understanding of Akira's character. In short: I’m judging Shiki's characterization, backstory, and motivation by how well all of these factors come together to form his dynamic with Akira.

In part one of this meta, I explained how Akira’s character embodies the theme of nihilism (life is meaningless, none of your actions have any intrinsic value, death just means the body stops functioning). Shiki’s character stands directly as a contrast to this. His character embodies the theme of existentialism (you create your own meaning in life, your actions define who you are, you have the freedom to dictate your own purpose and reason for existing). Shiki finds meaning in his existence by being strong, and his actions and attitude reflect that. He walks his own path in life and doesn’t let anyone or anything impede him.

After his meeting with Nano, Shiki devotes his life to the goal of surpassing Nano—the one person who made him feel weak, who made him feel fear, who made him taste the humiliation of defeat—and his desire for revenge consumes him so much that it inadvertently becomes his sole purpose for existing.

So the big difference between Shiki and Akira is: Akira doesn’t see any reason to live, let alone a meaning to his own existence, while Shiki has made surpassing Nano his entire purpose and reason for living—his raison d'être, if you will.

If Akira's nihilism makes him believe that nothing in life has any value or meaning, therefore nothing he does matter, then Shiki's existentialism makes him believe that he can determine his own meaning in life (being the strongest) through his actions, therefore he'll devote himself to this one goal to validate his existence.

It’s the perfect setup for their dynamic. It’s not just that Shiki and Akira clash as characters—it’s that their philosophies, the very set of values that shape who they are and how they view themselves in the world, are in direct opposition with each other, but it's this polarity that makes them drawn to each other, and it’s what leads to their eventual character growths.

Again, I’m not an expert on philosophy, but to be fair, I don’t think the game is trying to do a meaningful dissection of these themes, either. It simply uses them as a framework for Shiki’s and Akira’s characterizations and their dynamic, and thus my analysis is also applied that way in this meta. I’m not focusing on their philosophies so much as I’m focusing on how, exactly, their opposing mindsets influence the way they interact and view each other, and how, eventually, their dynamic shifts from mutual hate to mutual respect.

This meta in general will focus on Akira's and Shiki's characterizations because I think their compatibility is most evident in how they individually change and complete each other's character arcs.

Getting back to the point of how Shiki and Akira’s first meeting parallels Shiki and Nano’s first meeting, Nano made Shiki feel utterly weak and powerless for the first time in his life, and Shiki does the same here to Akira. Shiki believed he was the strongest prior to his encounter with Nano, and Akira never fought anyone who could come close to beating him in Bl@ster. Even in Igra, Akira was evenly matched with Takeru. The circumstances are very similar, but the reason why Akira doesn’t feel nearly as devastated from experiencing defeat after his fight with Shiki is because unlike Shiki, he never based his identity or existence around being strong or invincible. Sure, his pride is hurt, and now he knows that being the undefeated Bl@ster champion doesn’t actually mean anything, but he just brushes it off and accepts the outcome.

The point I’m trying to make with this parallel is: Shiki takes up the role of "Nano" in his encounters with Akira, but because of this, he also sees himself in Akira when Akira struggles against him. You could say that Shiki projects onto Akira, and the reason why he likes it when Akira fights back is because it makes him feel validated in his own struggle against Nano.

But as much as I'm trying to say there's a parallel between these two scenes, there's actually a pointed difference: Shiki was overcome with fear when he faced Nano and wanted to "erase" that fear by killing Nano, while Akira stood his ground and locked eyes with Shiki as a way of challenging Shiki’s dominance. In fact, there's nothing in the text that indicates Akira feels any fear during this scene with Shiki; just anticipation and excitement. And this distinction is what leads Shiki to become so fascinated by Akira’s behavior and mindset. When confronted with the same circumstance, why is it that Akira is able to fight back without succumbing to fear?

So there’s two reasons in particular for why Akira stands out to Shiki during their first encounter:

Akira didn’t run away like the other fighters

Akira didn’t show fear/"Look Away" even when he was clearly outclassed in their fight

We know that Shiki considers people who exhibit fear to be weak. So what does that make Akira, then?

I'm leaving that question open-ended because I don't think even Shiki himself can answer that question. He might call Akira a weakling, but he obviously shows a different thought in his actions if he chooses to let Akira live, and Shiki isn’t the type of person whose words should be taken at face value considering he tries to suppress his emotions in order to be strong.

Akira is different from all the people Shiki has met before; there’s no denying that, and this feeling of "I've never met anyone like you" is mutual. For Akira, it's the first time he's met someone who can make him feel completely outclassed. For Shiki, it's the first time he's encountered someone who met his gaze in battle instead of succumbing to fear.

Okay. We are finally done analyzing this (very iconic) scene. Onto the next one.

Akira gets ambushed by three dudes, almost gets raped, also gets his arm stabbed, and then manages to barely escape because one of the guys started having a reaction after tasting Akira’s blood on his knife. Akira tries to process what happened, realizes it’s “pointless to dwell on the matter” and then decides to reflect on his encounter with Shiki instead. Like… this just shows where Akira’s priorities lie. He’s more focused on his encounter with Shiki than the encounter he just had with those three men, even though the latter was a much more dangerous and terrifying situation for him.

"He’s actually got quite the fanclub going."

(Can confirm that a Shiki fanclub exists because I’m in it.)

Jokes aside, if it wasn’t obvious enough before that Akira is interested in Shiki (especially after such an intense encounter), then it should be clear now. He tries to gather some info about Shiki from Motomi but doesn’t learn much aside from the fact that Shiki’s apparently not interested in challenging Il Re and probably has "some other goal."

The next time Shiki and Akira meet is right after Nano leaves a suitcase in Akira's hand and informs him that, "A man will be here soon."

That man turns out to be Shiki. What's interesting to me is how civil this interaction starts out—as civil as you can get with someone like Shiki. The last time they met, Shiki nearly killed Akira, and the only reason Akira came out of that fight alive was because Shiki chose to spare him.

After Shiki checks the contents of the suitcase, he threatens Akira and tells him to "forget everything [he] saw here." But think about it: if Shiki really wanted to make sure Akira wouldn't tell anyone, he could just kill Akira and permanently silence him. And yet he's making the decision to spare Akira, again. Shiki, the guy who's infamous for killing people whenever he shows up and making everyone run away at the sight of him.

Shiki's already treating Akira differently from the rest. If a random thug had been there in the alleyway instead of Akira, I think it's safe to assume Shiki would've killed the guy already without going through all this trouble of making a threat. But he gives Akira the opportunity to live, so long as Akira agrees to his demand of course, and it's probably because he remembers and acknowledges Akira's bravery from their previous encounter.

And now we get the classic Shikiaki moment of Shiki and Akira meeting each other's eyes. Akira is backed into a position where he has to obey or else Shiki will kill him, but we know from Akira’s previous encounters with the police that he hates being pushed around and told what to do, and any time someone tries to subdue him, he responds in a rebellious manner. It’s interesting to note that the text goes out of its way to state that Akira feels fear during this moment, which is understandable given how Shiki has his sword right at his throat and he’s one slice away from dying. But instead of succumbing to his fear and obeying quietly, Akira chooses to defy Shiki.

Shiki asks Akira if he would rather die, to which Akira decides yes, he would. And this decision is so important to the dynamic between them. It's what compels Shiki to keep pushing Akira so that he can see how far Akira is willing to risk death just for the sake of defying him. It's what makes Akira start to develop agency through his actions and find meaning in the choices he makes. This moment is the impetus for their dynamic in the way that it sets up all their future interactions onward.

Akira takes it one step further and even taunts Shiki to kill him. This is how much he despises being subjugated to someone else.

The reason why Akira deliberately provokes Shiki is because it's his own way of trying to take back control of the situation. If Akira is the one making the demands—"You might as well kill me"—then Shiki will technically be the one obeying Akira if he does kill him.

I've been talking a lot about how Shiki and Akira are different, how their characterizations make them clash, and how their philosophies oppose each other on a fundamental level, but actually, part of what makes their dynamic so compelling and intense is that they're… extremely similar when you think about it. They're both stubborn, strong-willed, determined to have their own way, and they refuse to submit to others, which is how you end up with this dynamic where neither of them are willing to relent. Ironically, these traits that add conflict and tension to their dynamic are the same traits that end up making them respect each other by the end of Shiki's route.

Shiki is just as stubborn as Akira is when it comes to not wanting to be under the control of someone else, which is why he chooses not to kill Akira despite the blatant provocation.

The other factor for why Shiki doesn't kill Akira during this scene is because he views Akira as an anomaly. He's so used to other Igra fighters begging for mercy from him that it genuinely catches him off guard that Akira would refuse to beg for his life.

Shiki doesn't kill Akira because on some level, he respects Akira's pride, fearlessness, and determination. Akira doesn't let his fear stop him from lashing out against Shiki.

We know that Akira feels fear during this moment because the text made a point of explicitly telling us so: "Akira felt afraid, but at the same time, he felt a rising indignation." But there's a nuance to it. Shiki thinks feeling fear is a sign of weakness—that’s why he felt so humiliated when Nano made him feel fear. Akira, on the other hand, doesn’t associate fear with humiliation or weakness; rather, being forced into submission is what makes him feel humiliated and weak, which is why he stubbornly resists Shiki in spite of the fear he feels.

The difference between Shiki and Akira is that Shiki lets his fear of Nano control his actions, while Akira doesn’t let his fear control him. And this distinction plays a big role in why Shiki slowly comes to respect Akira.

Going back to the text, Shiki decides to spare Akira, but he calls Akira a “fool.” It’s not really clear why he specifically uses this term to insult Akira, but based on my own interpretation of Shiki’s character, this is what I believe: he calls Akira a fool because he thinks it’s foolish that Akira doesn’t value or respect his own life.

Even though Shiki goes around killing people for the hell of it, I think he actually values life—way more than Akira does, at least. He only kills the people who he deems to be weak, and lets people like Akira and Rin (for a while) live. But I think Shiki’s perspective on life is most telling in the way he views his own life. He dedicates his whole life to achieving this one goal, and goes about it in an extremely unhealthy way, uncaring of the consequences that come with the path he takes.

If Akira doesn’t see a point in living because he thinks life has no meaning or value, then Shiki is the polar opposite of him in that he holds his own life in high regard, such that every action he takes has a purpose/meaning to it.

The text tells us, unambiguously, that the reason why Akira got so worked up during this confrontation is because the one thing he can't stand is people trying to control him. Again, Akira's characterization has been very consistent so far. His interactions with Shiki and the way they play out feel organic because both of their actions and dialogue match what we know of their characterizations and philosophies.

The text also reminds us that Akira was feeling terror during this moment with Shiki. But he's not humiliated over feeling fear; he's angry that he was pushed around and forced to bend to someone's will.

We know how Akira feels after this confrontation, but what about on Shiki's end? Well, this is Shiki's POV from the drama CD:

(For context, he's just killed three men who were on Rein and is dissatisfied by how weak they were.)

Shiki: I know, even if drugs are used, if Line is used, that a suitable person that can show as strong a power as that man won't appear so easily. But the chance is not zero. That's why I am providing the original fluid of Line to Arbitro and going along with his nonsense. But, why is there still this incomprehensible irritation? [Flashback] Akira: Then just kill me. Shiki: You want to give up and seek death? Akira: It's better than having to beg you for mercy. [End flashback] Shiki: Foolish. Just a nobody I happened to let off.

We learn that the reason why Shiki goes around distributing Rein is because he wants to face worthy opponents, and the whole Igra system is set up so that only those who are strong enough to collect a correct set of tags can challenge Il Re. But the thing is, Shiki looks down on people who use Rein for power instead of relying on their internal strength. He’s looking for strong opponents who use Rein so he can reaffirm his belief that self-made strength is superior to the strength gained from drugs.

It's a very contrived way of proving his strength, but it speaks to how much he fears and despises Nano. Shiki wants to surpass Nano, but he knows he can’t get close to him, so instead, he wants to kill those who have gained power via Rein as a way of reassuring himself that he is strong, and that he's better than Nano and everyone else because he doesn't have to rely on the power of the Nicole virus.

Unfortunately, there haven't been any new challengers for Il Re lately, much to his dismay. Shiki mostly spends his spare time killing random thugs in Toshima to sate his bloodlust, and during one of these killings, Shiki feels irritated for some reason. Then his mind flashes back to his encounter with Akira, and it's heavily implied that this memory is the source of his current emotional conflict. He remembers Akira's backbone during their confrontation, then tries to dismiss it by telling himself that Akira is "just a nobody."

It's obvious Shiki is in denial of his own emotions because if Akira really was just a nobody, Shiki wouldn't even be sparing him a second thought like he is now. Clearly that encounter affected him more than he would like to admit. And take note of how this flashback is contrasted with the preceding segment of Shiki mulling over how he hasn't been able to find any worthy opponents in a while, and how even though Rein is spreading around the city, the strength of your typical Igra fighter is still too low for his standards. Shiki's monologue and the flashback with Akira are deliberately juxtaposed in a way that helps us infer how Shiki views Akira.

Shiki recalls this memory with Akira specifically because Akira stands out as an outlier among all the Igra fighters he's encountered. Akira is someone who doesn't neatly fit into Shiki's definition of a weakling. He's not strong because Shiki is superior to him in terms of physical strength. But he's not weak either because he doesn't submit to anyone, and he doesn't give in to his fear of death. Most people beg for mercy in front of Shiki, but Akira is different in that he would rather die than ever endure the humiliation of begging.

We can see that Shiki has started to take an interest in Akira, even if he acts in denial about it.

I'm going to jump ahead now to this other scene where Akira is thinking to himself after the Meal of Duty massacre and his fight with Takeru. It's not a Shikiaki scene because it's about Takeru, but I'm including it here for the sake of Akira's characterization because it provides us some perspective on Akira's values.

The last time Akira and Takeru met was in Meal of Duty. Takeru was on Rein and was fully intent on killing Akira, but Akira barely managed to escape thanks to his blood. By all means, Akira shouldn’t have any reason to sympathize with Takeru or even feel any concern for him, especially after Takeru tried to kill him. It's not like they knew each other all that well, and their encounters were always colored in hostility thanks to Takeru's aggression. Akira shouldn't feel bad or care about what happens to Takeru; he hardly cares about people in general, but he expresses some sympathy toward him because Takeru is different.

Akira himself doesn't really know why he's concerned for Takeru, but he has enough self-awareness to understand that it's probably because he "caught a glimpse of something inside Takeru… some seething passion that set him apart from the other Igra fighters."

I've been talking a lot about how the reason why Shiki becomes so obsessed with Akira is because Akira is different from all the other Igra fighters. Akira doesn't like to back down, he doesn't cower in fear or submit to anyone even when forced into a life-or-death scenario.

But, on the other side of this, Akira also develops an obsession with Shiki because Shiki is so different from any of the fighters he's met before. He's drawn to the way Shiki is so single-mindedly dedicated to his goal and how he'll stop at nothing to achieve it.

I'm not going to go in-depth about it here because I want to save my analysis for when we actually get to the moonlight scene and learn more about Shiki's motivation, but I just wanted to throw that thought out there for now.

---

This is where I’ll end off part two for now. Part three will be a direct continuation of this.

[Next] Part Three: Shiki and Akira's Encounters (II)

[not-poignant]

Do you have any advice on how to write more words on a regular basis? I find it difficult to write regularly but am fed up of only being able to produce sporadically in small amounts. Whenever I sit down to write it feels like I'm feeding gravel into a blender (if that even makes sense). I've tried getting advice from others and am told to just "stop trying to write then". But I can't because I want to write. Writing is all I ever think about. It feels like oxygen to me and when I'm not doing it (or thinking about doing it) I feel like I'm dying inside. But damn, I just wish it wasn't so difficult.

I really want to finish my stories and I know I could if I just wrote regularly but I don't know why that's so hard for me to do.

Hi anon!

I might have some thoughts on this because I certainly never used to write as much as I do now!

Firstly, I'll get this one out of the way now, if you have money to spend, join 4thewords - ignore this if you don't have it. But this gamifies writing in a genuinely fun way. Each monster you kill gives you loot, and fulfills quests that give you more loot, that opens more worlds and more options that give you clothing / house furniture and more. This was - given how much more productive it made me - a game changer re: writing more.

If you don't have money to spend, let's ignore that and go to other methods.

If you want to write more, the answer isn't to stop writing, it's to write more. The best time to hear 'it's time to stop writing' is if you're burnt out, or you hate everything about it. It sounds like you don't hate everything about it, you just wish it was a bit easier.

Decide what you want regularly to mean. I don't have a daily writing habit - I don't write every day! I'm too sick to, so i have a monthly minimum wordcount instead of a daily minimum wordcount and try and hit it by about week 2/3. Regularly for you might be once a day. Once every two days. Or it might be 'I have to write this many words a month.'

Find a way to track the words you're writing. The only way you can accurately see how much you're writing is by tracking those word-counts! Because you will have days where you feel like you wrote nothing and actually wrote a fair bit, and days where you feel like you wrote a fair bit and sadly wrote...hardly anything, lol. But it's also the best way to see yourself achieve more as you increase your wordcount.

Let's also talk about flow. Sometimes you don't get to feel 'flow' - that feeling of the words coming out easily onto the page, and you have to kind of struggle for every sentence. Are you okay with writing more knowing that this is actually normal for many writers, and the gravel blender feeling might not go away? It will over time get easier to write more words, but it might mean more of that gravel blender feeling. Flow is not predictable, and is often story and scene dependent. Chances are you will have more times feeling writing flow, I just want you to be honest with yourself in case it doesn't happen the way you wish.

From there, it's a combination of developing the discipline (which is like exercising a muscle - start small and grade upwards, don't aim too high at first, consistency is better than bursts), and finding the tricks that help you.

Look at how many words you think you could write a week. Let's lowball and say about 100 words a week. When you assess this for yourself, always undershoot, don't round up! 100 words is like... a long paragraph worth of words.

The following week, depending on if you want a daily / once every two days etc. habit, you'd aim to write 150 words that week. A paragraph and a half.

The week after you'd aim for 200 words.

You might find in week 2 it was easy to write 1000 words, great! But the week after you're still only aiming for 200 words. Don't base scaling up on the bursts / writing sprints - they'll lie to you. If you want consistent discipline, base your increases on the low days. If you reach a week where 200 words feels impossible, aim for 200 words the following week, if it's still impossible, go back to 150.

Now for you it might be... 500 words in week one, 600 in week two, 700 in week 3 etc. It might not seem like much, but you'd be surprised how quickly you start scaling through those numbers with practice.

Increasing writing output is a numbers game. And it's a patience game. And it's a 'being forgiving and gentle with yourself while also being a little bit stern with yourself' game.

Here's the thing no one tells you (except for NaNoWriMo every single year) re: increasing your wordcount.

Those words don't have to be good. They don't have to be good in fact it's better if they're not.

You're just getting used to the feeling of writing more. Not writing more good words, that will come naturally with time. You're getting used to sitting in front of a document for longer, thinking of more sentences you don't necessarily love (it's better if you don't! Write the bad ones!) And this is what I mean by it's a numbers game. Getting better at writing happens the more you do it anyway, so you can just focus on 40 bad sentences.

The trick to letting yourself write badly? That one is just...gritting your teeth and screaming through them while you go 'AHHHHH' in your head and let those suckers loose. Or whatever version of this that you have.

Because here's the thing, it's actually pretty easy to write 1000 words of inconsequential terrible story that no one's going to read. I mean 'pretty easy' - it's easier than writing the stories and characters you love the most and are so invested in, it's hard to write the sentences because you want to do justice to it all. That's fucking stressful, friend, and increasing writing output is just better if you're not always a) doing it on those stories or b) invested in writing those stories well in those early draft/s.

But once you're used to writing more words of stuff you don't love, it becomes easier to write less words of stuff you do, and chances are that will still be more than you're writing now. <3 Some of my stories are really easy to write, and some are way way harder. A chapter of The Ice Plague took as much time as three chapters of Underline the Black. So story is important here too. But also the point is basically that... you don't have to scale up your writing output with the stories you're most invested in, but need to be at a certain standard of writing. You can scale it up any time, with any kind of story - anyone can do this. Increasing your wordcount is a matter of like... easy methods that are less easy to implement irl because of the psychology around letting yourself write badly, and letting yourself validate the time / put the time aside to do that.

And here's the other thing - find a ritual that helps you. Whether it's brewing some tea before writing. Setting up a little space. Putting on some music or a noise generator specifically for writing. Listening to Lo-Fi Girl or Synthwave Boy. Whether it's writing a few words on paper first, or changing the font. Eventually you will have a Pavlovian response to the ritual, and every little bit helps.

As for the psychology, this is why you lowball. You make it as easy as possible. 'God writing 1000 words seems really hard oh but I only have to write a sentence today, cool, I can do that.'

The thing about lowballing is that on the good days, you will write way, way more than your goal. Which means a) you're done for the week if that happens if you want to be done and b) when you're back to feeling exhausted and like GGHGHGHGHHHHH about writing, you're still back at that initial lowball wordcount.

On my worst days, I lowball to like, 5 words, 10 words, and just write 5 / 10 / 15 etc. down on a piece of paper and cross them off. 30 words can be a sentence. 10 words can be a sentence. It feels nice to cross off numbers on a sheet of paper and see the increasing words. I can almost always get to 500 words with that method, and I think you could definitely get to 100.

Anyway the TL;DR

Consistency is way more important than quality

Don't be surprised if you don't find 'flow'

ALWAYS lowball when you're developing an increase in words

Figure out what 'regular' means to you (daily / weekly / etc.)

Make a ritual

Focus less on the stories you love most when developing this habit

If you have a bad week, just go back to the previous wordcount goal. And keep doing that, this won't be a linear process!!!

...It didn't need to be this long I'm so sorry anon idk why I'm like this.

I wish you all the best! I 100% disagree with the folks telling you 'just stop writing then.' I'm like nope, embrace the gravel blender, eventually you'll end up with smooth sand in an hourglass, I promise. <3 You just might have to add more gravel sometimes. ;)

[electronickingdomfox]

"My Enemy, My Ally" review

Romulans stole Spock's brain! (or at least, some Vulcan brains)

Novel from 1984, by Diane Duane, and the first of the five-book series Rihannsu.

The plot itself is okay: the Romulans have a new devious scheme (capturing Vulcans to extract the telepathic abilities from their brains), and the Enterprise must stop their plans. Only this time, Kirk will have to collaborate with a bunch of good, renegade Romulans to succeed. It's not terribly original, nor it's the first time that Kirk has allied himself with Romulans in these novels, but as a plot it's entertaining. However, the narrative drags a lot, specially in the first half of the novel, and it takes a reaaally long time to set things into motion. In part, this is due to a "tell, rather than show" approach. For example, there's a lengthy conversation about how the Enterprise and its Romulan allies are going to stage a fake battle between both ships, in full detail. And then a lengthy description of the ships doing just that. One of these two segments isn't needed. There's also a lot of fluff, specially in scenes at the Recreation deck, and plenty of new character introductions, that don't lead anywhere nor have any real importance. A lot of the new character roles could have been filled by the usual crew, anyway. Now, I don't think that a novel should just be barebones plot, but I didn't find these "extra" scenes particularly entertaining nor enlightening. So in my opinion, this novel would have improved greatly if it was cut short. Though the later sections suffer less of this, and are more focused.

The story is notable for introducing a lot of new material about Romulan culture, and specially language (which seems to me even more unpronounceable than Klingon). In fact, most of the time Romulans are referred to as "Rihannsu", which is the name of the race in their own language. I don't know to what extent Duane developed the grammar and vocabulary, but it seems to have a certain structure to it. There's also much emphasis on the power of names over things and people, and some glimpses into the Romulan worship of Elements. A lot of this has probably never been incorporated into the series, but Romulans having several names (of which only the first is revealed to strangers) seems to have its origins here.

As for characters, the most developed one is Ael, the Romulan commander that strikes an alliance with Kirk. At times she comes dangerously close to Mary Sue territory (for example, beating McCoy at a game she had just learned, despite the doctor being skilled enough to beat none other than Spock). But otherwise, she's fine for her role in the story. In many ways, she's both a mirror and a foil for Kirk, suffering also under the weight of command, and the difficult decisions between duty and her crew's wellbeing. Though not exactly a tragic character, there's also a lot of sadness and burdens in her past. On the other hand, Kirk rubbed me the wrong way. Or rather, his relationship with his crew. I found it way too lax and informal, and sometimes it seems he's more like a cool dad for them, rather than a Captain. Kirk in the series had his goofy moments, of course, and Shatner imbued him with much comedic potential. But nonetheless, there was always some gravitas about him, and a respectful distance with his subordinates. Even with someone as close as Spock, he was usually pretty formal. The only one who broke this pattern was McCoy, and that was precisely why their relationship was special. So yeah, I just don't see Kirk trading jokes with Sulu while under enemy fire, or receiving sassy remarks from Uhura, sorry. Also, as happened in The Wounded Sky, there's again a wide array of fancy aliens populating the Enterprise. I didn't mind them that much in the previous novel, since the story is so unusual, that it could have existed outside the Star Trek universe without damage being done. This time around... I've decided that I'm not a fan of this idea. Apart from being too distracting, Starfleet strikes me as a mostly human institution, at least at the time of TOS (after all, HQ is in San Francisco), and Spock often struggled being accepted among the crew. He was THE alien, and this led to isolation and even ocassional prejudices against him. Now, this wouldn't make much sense if the crew were regularly sipping coffee next to a gelatinous blob of tentacles... As for Spock and McCoy, they're mostly okay, though they tend to get overshadowed by the extended cast, and obviously, Ael.

I must be in the minority here, since most people seem to love this novel, but in general, I didn't like it much. Perhaps it's a consequence of having just read John Ford's masterful The Final Reflection, and his fascinating take on Klingons. Perhaps I simply don't care all that much about Romulans...

Some spoilers under the cut:

The first chapters switch perspectives between Ael and Kirk. While Ael reflects on her falling out with the Romulan Senate, because of her opposition to a certain revolutionary research, Kirk is ordered to patrol the Neutral Zone, as part of a task force. Ael has been "exiled" as commander of a shitty starship named Cuirass, crewed by shitty subordinates. But she keeps contact with her old, loyal ship Bloodwing, now commanded by Tafv, her own son. When news of the Federation ships arriving reach her, she sets her plan into motion. After sabotaging the Cuirass' systems, she escapes in a scout ship to Bloodwing. And the latter ship destroys Cuirass, whose crew she considers traitors to the Empire for their collaboration in the Senate's schemes.

After this, Bloodwing rendezvous with Enterprise near the Neutral Zone, and Ael asks permission to come aboard alone, promising some very important info. Then she explains to Kirk what's going on: The Romulan government has started developing a new weapon at the station in Levaeri V. They capture Vulcans and extract their brain tissue, in order to implant the genetic material into Romulans, and thus give them all their telepathic abilities, even enhanced. After leaving Vulcan centuries ago, the Romulans' divergent development made them unable to mind-meld, or do any of that cool Vulcan stuff. But now, with the new research, powerful individuals could read minds, control thoughts and subject any opposition. Ael believes this will ruin the Empire and its old code of honor. And in turn, will cause conflicts with both the Federation and the Klingons. Thus, she asks Kirk to "lend" her the Enterprise, to help destroy the research station. Her plan is faking a capture of the Enterprise by Bloodwing, then towing the starship into Romulan space and destroy the facility along the way. Spock confirms through a mind-meld that Ael's telling the truth.

Kirk is sympathetic with her cause, but refuses to go along with the plan, on the grounds that he can't intervene in Romulan internal affairs. Things change, however, when the Vulcan ship that was patrolling near the Enterprise is spirited away under their noses. Ael explains that its disappearance matches the modus operandi of Romulans. The Vulcans are being taken to the research station (and now I understand why Spock chose to serve in a human starship; Vulcan ships seem to have the worst luck, between being eaten by amoebas and now this...). Kirk can't ignore the matter anymore, now that the Vulcans are in danger, so he decides to go with Ael.

After faking a battle between Bloodwing and Enterprise, they proceed to Levaeri V. Ael's crew take positions in the Enterprise bridge, while Kirk and the rest of the officers play a bit of theater, faking their capture in the brig, to fool the escorts sent by the Empire. Once approaching the station, Bloodwing and the Enterprise suddenly turn against the escorts and destroy them.

In the last part, Kirk sends a large strike force into the station, to free the Vulcan captives and destroy all research with their brains. But meanwhile, the Enterprise is assaulted by a treacherous faction among Ael's people. Scotty, Chekov and Sulu must fight to recover the ship, while down in the station the battle continues.

Spirk Meter: 1/10*. There's a bit about Spock being particularly interested in the proceedings of Kirk's mind, while playing chess. But I can't think of anything else, and even this is really minimal.

There's also some Mcspirk. McCoy likes to study Kirk and Spock while they play chess, to delve deeper into their personalities and psyches. And when Kirk complains that, if Spock and McCoy keep babysitting him, he'll end up taking their hands, McCoy says that's okay with him. But warns him about Spock, and the kind of rumors that could run through the ship. Also, Ael observes that the three of them seem to share a single mind. Though that's downplayed by the comparison with the similar link between Ael and her son.

*A 10 in this scale is the most obvious spirk moments in TOS. Think of the back massage, "You make me believe in miracles", or "Amok Time" for example.

[steamberrystudio]

30/07/2023 Devlog

Hallo! Time for another quick devlog here on tumblr.

Summary:

All Sprite expressions coded in Yuu's route

One additional sprite finished and added

The Ramble:

So...I have finished sprite expressions for Yuu's route. 😵

It was gruelling.

It took me a while to realise why it felt like so much more work than the last couple of routes and I realised it was due to the fact that it's Endgame.

The Endgame routes tend to have a lot of huge group scenes as the characters have group training sessions, missions, and lots of meetings.

When I thought about it, I realised that the last three routes I coded were Lance, Quill, and Reuben. While there *are* group scenes in those routes, none of them happen with as frequency or as many characters as a lot of the Endgame group scenes.

So yeah. This was pretty tedious and I gave myself several headaches (LoL).

But the expressions are complete.

I have a few more sprite images to complete and put in the game but all the expressions are coded so once the images are done, I should be able to just plug them in and have them show up properly. That said, I'll still need to go through and double check that nothing is broken and no one is randomly stripping or losing their face (which is what happens if I typo something. LoL)

So yeah, the main remaining things are the sprite and CG art.

Upcoming Weeks:

As I said, it's really down to the sprites and CGs. I do have a few other small things to do like the ending card and other minor stuff. But the *big* thing is the art.

That's what I'll be working on in the upcoming weeks. It's really difficult to gauge how long CGs and sprites will take. Sometimes I can finish an entire CG in one day and sometimes it takes three days for one CG.

And of course it comes down to how much my hand cooperates.

Once the art is done and coded, we'll move into the beta stage for Yuu's route. =O But I don't think we'll quite be there by my next update here. But we shall see! 

I'll basically be in drawing-mode going forward! 💪💪

When Stars Collide:

There isn't a whole lot to talk about for WSC this time around - I got the new "bridge" background for The Ophelia. It has a really different vibe than the old image but it makes me excited to see all the new ones.

I decided to add in a "Music room" in the extras which is not something I've done before. But since this game won't have a consolidated OST anywhere, I thought it would be useful. And I'm planning a fun little feature for it.

I haven't written much more than what I had two weeks ago. Maybe 10,000 words or so (a little less, I think). But I have done a lot of planning regarding the new character and new chapter. And I have started making edits to existing scenes to account for Kav's presence. 

I have written all of Noel's chapter 5 scenes, and all of Raif's chapter 5 scenes, and started Yren's chapter 5 scenes as well.

So yeah, that slow-moving train is....slow moving still.

That's all for now - see you in a couple of weeks!

[stillsolo]

GET TO KNOW THE MUN. respond to the prompts out of character !

what made you pick up the current muse(s) you have? oh, where do i even begin?  well, i suppose i should start with how long sw has been in my life.  ANH was the first movie my mother ever saw when she visited the USA; she saw it with my grandmother ( and subsequently developed a massive crush on harrison, so indiana jones became a huge part of my childhood too lol ).  for this reason, my mother introduced my brother and I to sw when we were actual babies.  then, when the prequels came out, it’s all me and my brother consumed.  from the movies themselves to the original clone wars cartoon to the PS2 games to the novels/book series.  we watched it on a tiny portable player for every trip, and every time my relatives needed us to go away to let the adults talk lol.  it also helped our comprehension of english so much. i can’t recall a time in which sw hasn’t been present in my life! before i joined the tumblr swrpc, i kept to myself in the prequels community, wrote fanfic, and rped anakin on skype.  he’s always been a character that hit a little too close to home in one too many ways.  the main parallel i have with him (that doesn’t relate to his mental issues haha) is his love/devotion/attachment to his mother.  it’s difficult for me to explain without getting into the aspects of my culture (孝順 / filial piety), but in short, i am cantonese; if my mother asked me for my thumb tomorrow, i would give her my arm today.  anakin’s love for his mother, his determination to free her from slavery at an early age, was very touching.  EPII has been memed to oblivion, yes, but the pain i feel when anakin doesn’t get to hear his mother tell him she loves him one last time before she dies, and knowing that it haunts him for the rest of his life (eu), makes me want to throw myself out a window lmao  i have an extremely close relationship with my parents; this sort of pain is absolutely gutting for someone like me. anyway, when i joined the tumblr swrpc, writing han solo was never the plan.  i originally wanted to write luke but ended up changing my mind at the last second.  I’d written well over a dozen fics with han at that point, but was nowhere near confident, so i thought of it as more of an experiment. guess that doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, because if you really think about it, since the day i started writing him in fics, he hasn’t stopped butting into my brain.  in fact, he’s been harassing me ever since—to the point that i even switched from writing luke to him… lol given my upbringing and my mother’s love for him, han has always been my childhood hero, as well as my brother’s.  our dad was our han solo.  the nostalgic and familial associations run so deep, it’s difficult to articulate.  we share many traits, right down to his universally agreed-upon zodiac sign (sagittarius); i know han solo like the back of my hand—and it’s probably because i wanted to be just like him when i grew up.

is there anything you don’t like to write? character death.  if i have to say another, it’s when people conflate harrison with the character he plays and then decides to address that in a thread.  harrison was a ladies man back in the 80s, and that’s fine, but that doesn’t mean the same for han.  i hate seeing the conflation between the two.  not sure if this happens as often anymore, but there was a time when fics/threads/even han rpers would lean into it, by default, thus totally destroying his character in my eyes.  i mean, write it as a storyline, that’s cool and fine, but infidelity has never been inherently part of his character.  i will die on this fucking hill.

is there anything you really enjoy writing? most unpopular opinion ever: action sequences.  critical situations, fast paced action, thriller scenes featuring immediate, life-threatening circumstances.  i love writing that which exhibits a sense of urgency and tension, with sprinklings of emotional depth and contemplative introspective moments.  scenes with internal conflict combined with aforementioned external events.  even evading enemy forces, sustaining minor/major injuries, dressing wounds.  dunno why those are always the most fun to me.  aside from that?  romance/romantic angst.  i’ve had many writing partners over the years, and each one thought they could outdo me in writing romantic angst.  sometimes, the psychosomatic pain of heartbreak isn’t far from feeling like you’ve lost a limb in battle.

how do you come up with headcanons? by being the most annoying, meticulous person ever.  i’m extremely detail oriented; when i see incongruities in my own work, i perish.  so, when i come up with headcanons, i have to consider all factors that may affect the outcome of whatever question i’ve posed in my mind and feel the need to justify my choices, for whatever reason, by tying it back to XYZ.  my headcanons must align with my muse’s personality, their environment from childhood to adulthood, their current circumstances, and if it’s an AU, how it mirrors canon events.  canon/eu is everything imo, because they are their own choices; it’s what shaped them into the character we know them as.  ofc, this is my process and opinion, so make of that what you will.

do you write in silence or do you play music? no music, no tv.  sometimes people talking is too much for me.  i have adhd and my medication only helps so much.  i will absolutely start writing down the conversation or lyrics playing in the background lol

do you plan your replies or wing them? plotting vs planning replies is different to me.  plotting gives me a foundation, but it can’t be too confining.  to plan a reply is to block out each moment.  if you trap me, i will always deviate; so i wing everything, even when i have a foundation.

do you enjoy shipping? yes, absolutely!  i’m not sure why people tend to assume otherwise, but i’m more open to it than people think.  i’ve never cared about who you write, if they’re in the sw franchise, or even what era of sw etc etc  never given a shit about what people think; if our muses click, they click.  honestly, some of the best ships i’ve had with han, as in the most enjoyable and enlightening of his character, have been ‘crack ships’.

what’s your alias/name? vin, vince, vincent.  vincent van hoe.  trash bin vin.

age? 27!

birthday? dec 2!

favorite color? silver.  if that’s not a color to you, then blue.

favorite song? you can’t expect me to… well, ‘in your eyes’ by the weeknd has been up there for a long time.

last movie you watched? star wars: the clone wars (2008)

last show you watched? … the clone wars lol

last song you listened to? billie jean - MJ.

favorite food? my mother’s 番茄炒蛋 ( egg and tomato stir fry ), unagi, freshly baked breads, fresh fruit …

favorite season? i get mostly tropical weather, but i love a cold winter.

do you have a tumblr best friend? unfortunately, so many people have left the site over the years, but i'm grateful to call these people some of the closest friends i have in the rpc: @techniiciian @desiccation @vibraea @rcvanchist @sgterso @voxcrystallis

tagged : @debelltio thank you for thinking of me!! tagging : if you're still reading this, i tag you!