#and his character was released to coincide with his appearance in the story

[pwurrz]

“why is childe always associated with liyue” because that’s where his husband lives <3

[tenebrous-if]

LINKS:

🜲 Play the Game

Estimated Release: N/A

🜲 FAQ

🜲 Pinterest

🜲 Character Descriptions

🜲 Family Descriptions

🜲 Map of Arvandor

🜲 Genre(s): Fantasy, Romance, Drama, Hurt/Comfort, and Action/Adventure.

🜲 Rating: Tenebrous is an 18+ Fantasy IF set within the mythical world of Arvandor.

The Kingdom of Aetheria, within the world of Arvandor, is a nation ripe with history. King Lysander du Aetheria rose up and led the fledgling Aetherian Army against The Forsaken One— Herald of the Abyssal Uprising— and came out victorious when everyone else had failed. With his victory, Lysander placed Aetheria as one of the key pillars of keeping Arvandor safe; allowing for peace to reign over the continent for centuries.

Peace, however, was never meant to last.

The Order of Netheron, Followers of The Forsaken One, had captured you at the tender age of fifteen, holding you captive for a decade within a tower only labeled as “The Spire”. All due to their wish of resurrecting their fallen deity— something that they believe could only be accomplished by using the blood of King Lysander’s descendants; it was a ritual that didn’t go as planned— one that did bring back their deity, but only for your eyes and ears only; the both of you attached to the other in a way that probably wasn’t intended.

And that’s how you spent the last decade of your life… Growing used to the presence that now appears whenever the time calls for it. It isn’t until your twenty-fifth year that you’re finally found and taken back to Aetheria, to everything you had long thought you’d lost.

Your time in the sun, however, was short-lived as the tidings of an even darker uprising was beginning to grow— one that threatens to demolish everything and everyone.

Can you figure out how to save your home?

🜲 Create your Aetherian Royal:

Name/Nickname

Gender [Male, Female, or Non-Binary]

Appearance

Hobbies

Personality [Mainly involving unique reactions to certain situations— the MC is semi-set in some ways]

🜲 Romance 1 of 4 potential love interests— each offering their own unique experience within the story and how the world at large will react to the burgeoning relationship.

🜲 Bond with your family after being apart for so long. They have missed you a great deal. [The MC is a middle child.]

🜲 Harness the magic that flows through your veins due to the gift of your blood.

🜲 Choose from a variety of skill sets that your MC may be able to acquire. [Note: This means you can choose something to specialize in, instead of having to constantly choose between being a diplomat or warrior. You can instead choose to be a swordsman while also focusing on the art of diplomacy.]

🜲 Build a codex from the various interactions that you can have throughout your story— from places, to people, to old legends that have tested the passage of time within Arvandor.

Astorian/Astoria du Aerilon: The Heir to Aerilon, and the person that was your betrothed from the time you were seven until your disappearance. Astorian/Astoria spent every winter with you, and you every summer with them, in hopes that a union between the both of you would bring your countries together. You remember many things from that time of your life: their warm laugh, brazen attitude, arrogant smirk, and their inability to stay still for long. Meeting them again? It simply proves how much can change in a decade. [Can choose to have been in an almost relationship with them or still rivals.]

William/Wilhelmina du Arvandor: A recent addition to the Holy Order, who has an iron-clad need to help and be of assistance to anyone that may require it. Being a Paladin has been something they’ve strived towards for the last eight years of their life; training being second to nothing. It’s simply a mere coincidence, or the Divine’s Will, that their first major mission was to rid Arvandor of the last dregs of Netheron… A mission that brought them to The Spire, with a small band of warriors, to carry out that very task— wherein they find the Lost Heir of Aetheria. You.

Gabriel/Gabrielle Adair: Being renowned within the arcane arts, having achieved the rank of High Mage within the Aetherian Institute of Magic, it’s of little surprise that the royal family of Aetheria would call on someone with their skill set— if it weren’t for the scandal that still plagues them. You’re not sure what could have been so bad that would force them to retreat within themself like they have, especially if your parents had seen them fit enough to tutor you, but it’s obviously something that weighs heavily upon them. Will it be possible to wrangle out the secrets of their past when you’re still trying to figure out your own gift?

Ilyran/Ilyria Caelestis: The Forsaken One, an individual that’s visible only to your eyes from a ritual gone wrong. There isn’t much you can glean from them, after all you can only take what they say with a grain of salt, but the shadows that lurk within their eyes has nothing to do with the darkness that now lives within them. It’s hard sometimes to look at what they’ve become when you’ve seen what they were in Old Texts, when they weren’t the Forsaken One, weren’t the Divine’s Disgrace… When they were simply Ilyran/Ilyria Caelestis, High Priest/Priestess of the Holy Order.

[vsimp]

he catches you writing smut (18+)

pairing: Kamisato Ayato x F!Reader

genre: smut

wc: 2.6k

kink warning: a line or two about panty sniffing lol

There was a pretty popular erotic novel currently published by the Yae Publishing House. Hundreds of copies so far have been sold in Inazuma. It was released by an anonymous author, a story telling the tale between a CEO and his secretary. Although the people weren’t too familiar with the concept of a corporation, people really did enjoy the little power dynamic between a dominant CEO and his submissive secretary. Smut had recently grown popular in Teyvat, and this erotic novel was the current driving force of it all.

Little did they know that you were the author, the current lady of the Kamisato Clan, and the Yashiro Commissioner's wife. You had based the male lead off of your own husband. Surely if you revealed your identity, the whole of Inazuma would be in uproar and you would soil the Kamisato Clan’s name. That was why it was your own dirty little secret, the fact that you were writing erotic fiction based on you and your husband, a little secret that only you and Yae Miko know.

What you didn’t expect was for the novel to reach the insides of the Estate. Housekeepers were gushing about it during their breaks, retainers were talking about how their partners wanted to try these different positions from the novel… You couldn’t help but be mortified, yet flattered, that so many people enjoyed your dirty novel.

It wasn’t until the news had reached your husband’s ears did you really, really get in trouble.

Kamisato Ayato called his wife to his study after a long day of duties for the both of them. Usually, he would invite her to tea if they had the time to talk about what they had for plans during the week.

You took a sip of your tea, relishing in the nice silence after a bustling day and the warmth that the tea brought.

“There’s this novel that has been the talk of the town lately,” Ayato said and you did everything you could not to choke on your tea.

“Ah, I heard the staff speaking about it this week. My, I wonder what had caught their attention like so…” You replied as casually as you could.

“Mm.” He replied briefly and took something out of his jacket. You tried not to tense up as you recognized the familiar pink book cover, of course graced with the illustration of the main couple that suspiciously had the same hair color as you and Ayato. “Ah, yes, let me read the title out loud. ‘The Nightly Trysts of Hayato and his Lover.’ Hm, a strange title indeed. This ‘Hayato’ character has a similar name and appearance to mine.”

You wanted to cringe at the entire name. Guuji Yae was the one who suggested such an embarrassing title. She said it would attract a more mature audience who enjoyed that sort of fantasy. Ayato maintained his relaxed smile despite reading all of that, and you didn’t like it one bit. It meant he was currently hiding something he knew, and you were too scared to delve into what exactly that was.

“Ah…” You had to keep your calm, even though you wanted to scream into your own pillow right now. If you showed any sort of discomfort or anxiety, your husband would recognize it right away. After all, nothing came past your husband with that sharp mind of his. “Perhaps it’s just a coincidence?”

“Hm, maybe so. Shall I read the summary?”

No. Please, archons, no.

He continued anyway, despite your inner thoughts pleading him not to. He read off the summary on the back of the book with his same laxed voice, detailing a CEO who was currently smitten by his secretary, who starts to avoid him at all costs once she sees him half naked on a business trip. The CEO, frustrated, chased after the secretary and had an erotic time with her in his office.

“It sounds interesting,” you forced a smile on your face.

“Doesn’t it? I started to skim through it whenever I had time off during the day.”

“Oh?” You wanted to cry at this point, a wide smile plastered on your face. He’s noticed. He’s definitely noticed. “Do you like it so far…?”

“It’s surely an interesting read. This male lead named Hayato… The way the author describes him, with light blue hair and light blue eyes and a small mole on his left lower lip…” Ayato’s smile remained the same, although the corner of his eyes crinkle a bit, indicating a more mischievous look. “He sure does sound like me.”

“Haha…” You let out a forced laugh. “Maybe someone is a fan of your appearance.”

“It appears so.” He flipped through the pages casually. “Such a detailed little novel. This author sure does have a penchant for writing erotic scenes.”

“They must be passionate about their work.” You felt like your smile could break your face at this point.

“Mm… The female lead sounds quite familiar as well. Her name is similar to yours.”

“I-is it?”

“Indeed. The same eye and hair color too.”

“Wow. What a huge coincidence!”

He chuckles softly. “My dear, there’s no need to play dumb anymore.”

“Whatever do you mean?” Your voice wavered a bit, but you were committed to it.

“You’re going to keep playing this game? Very well then.” He stood up and took your hand.

“A-Ayato?”

With one fellow swoop, he helped you to stand up. Before you knew it, he led you over to your bedroom, locking the door behind him and guided you to sit on the edge of the bed.

“Let me read out an excerpt I found interesting,” Ayato stated as he looked at the book, although he made small glances at you too while reading. “He pins her down to the bed and kisses her passionately. His blue and white sheets were softer than anything she’s ever felt, but that thought was soon taken away by the force of his lips upon her.” His usually relaxed smile soon morphed into a smirk. “My, I didn’t realize you were such a big fan of our blue and white sheets.”

Without a doubt, the bedsheets in the room you shared had always been blue and white for the last few years. Suddenly, he pinned you down against the sheet, his hand pushing your shoulder gently so you rested back against the bed, just as he had read from the book. And then he simply leaned down to kiss you, his soft lips meshing with yours as you felt yourself melt in his embrace. Your lips came together gently, although there was a playful bounce to his kisses that you did not expect, and soon, his tongue ended up pushing against yours.

He chuckled after he parted away from you, leaving you panting and breathless from the makeout session. “Cat got your tongue, my dear? Or will you finally admit the truth?”

“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about…” Your cheeks grew hotter as he tried to corner you into admitting that you were the author.

“Mm… Sure, you don’t.” His lips made their way to kiss your neck, his tongue hot as he bit and sucked on the skin there. “Did you really feel that lonely that you had to write erotica off of our experiences? Have I not shown you enough attention lately?”

“D-Don’t say that…!” Your voice grew weaker as he teased you, your resolve slowly crumbling the more he kissed you. “You know that’s not the case…!”

“Hehe,” he let out another small chuckle. “You’re so cute when you’re flustered. Tell me, y/n, do you just like our experiences so much that you put it into a novel?”

You gasped as his hands went under your robe, undoing your clothes and caressing your breast through your undergarments. His fingers tease your nipples through your bra, pinching the sensitive bud and flicking it around. You let out small whimpers from the teasing.

“Shall I reenact one of the scenes I was particularly fond of?”

“Please no…” you begged. 

“Why not?”

“I-it’s embarrassing.”

“I think it’s endearing that my lovely wife has such vivid fantasies.” He smiled down at you and then started to strip you naked of your clothes. “I could drown in the beauty of your body, my love.” He repeated a line from the novel as he kissed down your neck to your chest.

You let out soft pants as he unraveled your body, his eyes raking every inch as if he hadn’t memorized it all already. He gave your breasts another squeeze, pinching the bare nipple before he slowly dragged it down your rib cage to your lower abdomen before resting right in front of your aching core. It just sat there, his palm digging into your mound as your hips buckled, wanting more and more stimulation.

“Patience, love…” Ayato gave you a calculating smirk as he picked up the book once again and flipped to a bookmarked page. He read off another excerpt. “He buried his face into her pussy, panties on, sniffing and tasting her neediness that drenched through the soft fabric.” Ayato took a finger and ran it gently along your slit, and you did everything you could not to beg him for more despite your legs trembling slightly from anticipation. “My, I didn’t realize my wife had such fantasies about her panties like this. Such a pervert, wanting me to sniff her precious flower like a deranged animal .”

“Mm… n-no, t-that’s not true…” you tried to deny, but your flushed body and face were saying otherwise. 

“Such a lewd expression,” he chuckled and crawled down, taking a sniff of your core straight through your underwear. “You smell delightful,” his voice deepened, almost guttural, as his tongue dipped to languidly lick at your clit. 

You let out a soft cry, which was like music to his ears. Ayato wanted to laugh in amusement, his own mind twisting into pure sadistic pleasure. Who would’ve known that his own wife would be such a naughty little thing? He savored her taste, enjoying the way she writhed beneath him. With one fluid motion, he pulled her underwear off and sucked at her wet core, kissing and slurping all of her love juices. 

Your mind was all fuzzy as pleasure filled your lower region. Your legs wrapped around his head, hips buckling as he ate you out, dipping his tongue into your pussy as deep as he could before taking it out to swirl around your clit. It reminded you of the scene you wrote in the book, and you wonder how committed he was going to be to the scene.

Nevertheless, it seemed like he was going to tease you nonstop until you finally admit that you were the author.

He then pushed a finger into you, stretching out your walls and he admired the way your walls tensed around his digit, how your moans grew louder and louder. One, and then two, he started to pump his fingers, curling them to hit the spot you liked the most whilst his tongue continued flicking against your clit. Your hands made its way to his soft blue hair, and it wasn’t long before you came all over his fingers and lips. 

You panted as he took himself out of you, your eyes watching as he licked your juices off his fingers before he positioned his waist in between your legs.

“Are you ready, princess?” His hands undid his pants, taking out his cock as he rubbed the length against your sensitive slit. You just came, after all, so he was getting well lubricated with your juices.

You whined a bit as you needily stuck your arms out, and Ayato chuckled as he bent down to meet your lips. Your arms wrapped around his neck to pull him closer. He kissed you deeply and a bit more rough this time as you felt his cock grinding against your wet, warm pussy. He wanted you so bad, but he also wanted to stay committed to his teasing.

“Mm… Ayato, put it in already…” You scolded him as he continued to grind against you, occasionally slapping the tip of his rock hard cock gently against your clit. 

“I don’t think so…” He said after pulling away from your tongue, smirking down at you. He hissed a bit as he continued to rub his length up and down, his other hand making its way to squeeze your breast. “Not until you admit it.”

“Are you seriously still on that?!” You moaned in frustration, wiggling your hips in hopes that he’d just put it inside and fuck you relentlessly to dull the growing ache in your lower abdomen.

“Well, we are following the scene in the novel to the tea. I just want to confirm that you are truly one of the main characters.”

You couldn’t take it anymore. You were so horny for anything that you didn’t care at this point.

“Fine! Fine, yes, I admit it. I wrote the book. Now hurry up!”

Your husband leaned forward, placing a hand beside your head to hold himself up as his other hand started to push his cock in just a bit.

“Hehe, so demanding.” You gasped as he pushed his entire length in you. “And yet, you’re such a good girl.”

His hips slammed into yours, his lips kissing and sucking the skin of your neck. You could only grip him tightly as he fucked you deeply and thoroughly with the only goal to draw out your sweet moans that he loved hearing so much. He grunted as he felt you squeeze around him, taking you over and over until you were crying out his name.

His lips slammed back onto yours, exploring your mouth as his cock pushed in and out. He wanted to leave you as a sputtering mess, until you can’t think of anything else but him and his long, aching hard member.

“You’re such a dirty girl, writing those lewd scenes about us.” He muttered in your ear, hissing as he felt you tightening every time he uttered some dirty words. “Is that your fantasy? Me fucking you hard in my office with my employees outside?” He chuckled as you were too caught up in pleasure to respond. “Hm? Or do you just like the idea of me fucking you wildly out in the open?”

He pushed your legs as far up as he could and he continued to slam down into you.

“Shit…” He cursed, so unlike his normally composed self. You were the only person in this world who could unravel him completely. You, and you alone. “You feel so good, princess…”

The sound of his skin slapping yours filled the room, coupled with your moans and his quiet grunts. He slid in and out of you with ease at this point, stretching you whole. He watched your breasts bounce to his movements and he didn't hesitate to squeeze and play with them as he wished.

He fucked you in different positions, bending you over the bed, on your side with your foot high up in the air and leg over his shoulder. He couldn’t get enough of you, making you cum over and over again before sputtering his own seed deep into your walls, enjoying how you clench and convulse from his cock alone.

“Mm…” He hummed as he kissed your shoulder tenderly, his cock still deep inside you as he finished cumming, drawing out small thrusts as he got the final load out. He could drown in the sound of your moans, and suddenly, he understood the appeal of your erotic novel.

Ayato took himself out of you before collapsing next to you, holding you closely in his arms. He kissed your forehead as you both panted from the heavy exertion before he looked at you with that mischievous smile.

“So was that enough for you to write a sequel?”

[saruslumber-01]

Quick take on Jiaoqiu’s trailer

As always, I love to take screenshots whenever there’s some images flashing and this time, I did the same thing.

Before I actually talk about the trailer, I want to point out how (to me at least), the theme/ost doesn’t really match him. Or rather, how he appears to be.

(Imo it’s a similar case to jade’s trailer, you’d think she’d have something more… idk tempting in a unsuspecting way, like when you believe you made an amazing deal, only to later meet the terrible consequences.

Well anyway, the thing that I noticed is that both in jade’s trailer [or at least splash art and references/motifs] and in jiaoqiu’s, they hold an apple in their hand. I get why in jade, but in jiaoqiu’s? That very weird to me)

(Here you go, the moment, I’m talking about ^)

What I ACTUALLY wanna talk about that caught my attention, is the eyes we see all over the trailer.

I get it, he always keeps them closed, but from the trailer it seems it was not just a stylistic choice to make him this way, but actual lore behind it. (Ofc I might be wrong since we still know NOTHING about his backstory, and I’ll probably talk more when I’ll read his char stories after his release)

Idk, to me this feels kinda weird to get his eye to pop out like that (and it reminds me of firefly’s trailer). Not only that, but we get a moment where we see a fox spirit (?) made out of fire which is oddly similar to Tail’s ‘true’ form (huohuo ult). AND then from the fox’s eye it smoothly transitions into jiaoqiu’s eye. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

To me, it might foreshadow that the “eye thing” that is going on with jiaoqiu is becase those are not his natural eyes. Rather, they’d ‘changed’ (idk how to explain that) into the golden ones, as if he got possessed by that fox spirit (or maybe I’m just reading into things too much, who knows).

More eyes screenshots (which kinda remind me of sunday AND bring us to my next point)

What I want to talk about is the placement of those eyes.

Please don’t tell me I’m the only one who didn’t think it looked somehow familiar…

Rings a bell now?

I also ‘circled’ the flower she has on her ‘crown’ as it resembled the anise jiaoqiu uses in his skill, and ALSO popped up a few times in the trailer.

I know I might be digging too deep, but I feel there something very eerie and off about jiaoqiu as a character in story, and as a playable character.

I’m sure everyone remember how jiaoqiu’s a cook, a healer, right? Then why on earth is he a nihility unit? I’ve seen sooo many people being confused about it, and I’m sure HoYo wouldn’t mention it that much, unless it was important to the story.

And before anyone goes and says “wdym phantylia got a new victim?” NO. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m trying to prove that jiaoqiu isn’t probably just some random foxian who knows how to cook (and take care of feixiao). That there’s connections that all come back to the word “possessed”.

Tingyun? Possessed by phantylia (and spexulated to return in later versions)

Huohuo? Got her tail ‘possessed’ (I don’t remember too well, sorry) by Tail, AND in her trailer (which has a lot of flashing images and yin yang in there [I’ve got screenshots for both trailers to prove]) she is possessed by Tail, a heliobus. And what is a heliobus? Some kind of fox spirit! (Or at least I think so…)

What I’m trying to say is that there’s some kind of ‘possession’ when it comes to jiaoqiu.

(And another character that got flashing images and got possessed [outside of jade and huohuo] is sparkle! And don’t you agree that in terms of the overall vibes, their trailers does seem quite similar?)

So uh, yeah! That’s all I wanted to share.

I’ll probably do one more post for just the similarities in the trailers of jiaoqiu, jade, huohuo and maybe sparkle

Thanks for reading my ramblings and getting through to whole thing, I appreciate it a lot!

[accio-victuuri]

March CPNs

this month’s banner theme is tennis boyfriends! lol. when i saw it, i knew it would fit, cause this month was also when WYB went for the lacoste show and most interviews was him talking about tennis. and who is the other actor who mentioned this sport too? another coincidence! why is it always them? 😂😂😂 from new au pairings, coins, similarities and kadian drama— this month delivered the goods to us!

time to review and look back at the delicious candies we ate this month:

• the bone necklace potentially getting replaced because of some anti rumors and what it means.

• circle elements in xzs vlog is a nod to cpf comments that have yellow circles

• lacoste and bjyx

• yibo shows cpfs some love at chanel pfw

• here are some other pfw minor clownery. 🌸

a nice detail seen in his clothes/jacket are red and green flowers. you all know how we feel about red and green in this fandom. yeah, this must be a stylist’s choice blah blah blah but that just how cpns work. and it’s so cute too!

descendants of the sun parallel! please! you all know i’m weak for this shit. chenwei will always reign supreme, but what if chen yu decides to go full on army or whatever.

i also found it funny how fans are noticing the difference with their clothes. xz was revealing in his own way & wyb was all covered up. of course these are two different brands so the clothes and everything will not be the same. but that’s actually what’s good about them, how different they are. and yet— they complement each other really well and have the same values in life. they try and learn what the other person’s interest is so they can have a better relationship. 🤍

posing with their female seatmates 🤣🤣🤣

• a similarity we noticed too was that wyb was on his phone before the lacoste show, and it reminded us of how xz was doing the same at gucci mfw. i think we went 👀 because for xz, we were already clowning that he was messaging wyb or reading message from him then something similar happens to wyb. it could be a completely different thing and who can blame them for checking their phone while on “downtime” — but let us be with our fake story from these two incidents 😌😌😌

• on 3/5 chang feng po lang released a new character poster for wyb’s character wei ruolai. because of it, a new AU pairing was born. wei ruolai x patient #5. i swear. their characters look good together! some also pair wei ruolai up with xiao sa or chunsheng 😂😂😂

i have to say younger chunsheng before he went to military and ruolai match so well together!

• same answers on fashion week interviews: comfortable dressing & the color black

• another perspective on the coin that appeared in zz’s vlog - relation to wei ruolai and war of faith trailer this is further “proven” when wei ruolai’s character posted was revealed and he was tossing a coin. look, i know it’s highly unlikely that the whole concept was a way to tease us with WYB’s drama. but it’s a nice double meaning and more! 🪙🪙🪙

• since there is a new character out for one of them, another new AU pairing was born! wei ruolai x xiao chunsheng 🤍🤍🤍

• the two of them being featured at vogue website as stand outs during their respective fashion week appearances. it’s not really cpn but more on them being the power couple 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 and i’m just so proud of them. years later, they still shine so bright and it has no signs of even fading.

even with weibo engagement, both of them were on top during their respective events. no one could even come close. and why, it’s so hard for them to work together, or why no one would allow that to happen cause it will be game over. lol.

• our dearest tennis couple 🎾 ; this has become more prevalent in the fandom because of wyb’s lacoste ad!

• the inception possibility - tbh i’m just desperate to relate this movie to them and a cpn 😂😂😂

• the collab between cotti and dove - this is most likely a business movie that has no input from xz and wyb. these are big brands that take care of their company but what’s sus is how cotti posted the announcement of this collab at 10:05. you would think dove would be the one to do that since xz is their endorser. or they could use 10, 10:10 or 10:30 posting time which are equally usual time slots for brand announcements. but no. it feels intentional on their side to use that association. of course it led to some drama but we still made some lemonade out of it by going through some old endorsement CPN examples that was funnily enough, dug out by solo fans who are clowns themselves.

• some are clowning (slightly) over WYB’s alleged kadian a day after the cotti drama when he FW the post for olympics because it read a (14:38) lifetime zhanbo. but you all know how picky i am with kadians. the vcr was shared 14:30 so i guess he only had a narrow window to share, not sure if intentional or not. for me, personally, not everything is kadian. considering the topic too, this is a national/international event. i don’t think it should be used for cpn. i’d like to think WYB is more professional than we are. but who knows 🤷🏻‍♀️

• this bts video from war of faith! it shows wyb being active — moving around and doing some exercises. reminds us so much of how xz was like during SBMS bts that was released. they are so similar!

• GG’s weibo post the night before WoF premiere

• adding this to the list of brands they both use for their wardrobe: NANS. as usual disclaimer, these are clothes used in brand shoots and may have been chosen by hired stylist of the brand or their own. who knows. i just like archiving stuff like this, especially for lesser known brands that seem to only be worn by them. some examples below:

lesser known because XZ/WYB are so popular so you would expect them to wear name brands. if not, a company that the general public likes. on weibo, the brand only has 132k followers which is pretty low and they don’t repost photos of celebrities who used their clothes— nothing about WYB or XZ or anyone else.

• 3/21, premiere date of WoF, WYB shares a new trailer for the drama. The weibo account of WoF posted @ 9:58 and WYB on 10:06. So the CPN is, did he miss? was this supposed to be 10:05? considering what XZ did the day before with his post. Personally, i’m relieved that he didn’t do it 10:05 to prevent drama with his so/os because this time is crucial. we can’t afford these sensitive ass fans turning away from him and not supporting his work. he is too smart for that, he knows all too well how these things go.

I like this interpretation from cpfs that he didn’t miss, it’s yibo, if he wants to do it 10:05 he will. but he has limits right now, those who know (us cpfs) will get the meaning and understand him. and we do. we always do 💛

•xz molsion live show clues: lego/puzzles, camping and chasing dramas

• xiao zhan calling wyb lai lai ( fake rumor )

• 3/25 XZS post where the 380 yuan fan makes an appearance and the 8th picture significance

• 3/26 fake rumor 🗣️🗣️🗣️

wls wants xls to call him “gege”, xls didn’t, so wls tickled him, xls had no choice so he called wls “gege” softly, after he said it he blushed so hard, and wls didn’t allow us to look 👀.fake rumor don’t believe it

• 3/27 IQIYI livestream/ watch-a-long event with WYB and him smiling when the host said side by side in the snowy mountain part one . part two 💛💛💛

• 3/28 we got to see a VCR of ZZ and his style looks similar to Bobo’s

• new lounge wear brand cp! bananain x miiow 😍😍

• a cute coincidence that in episode 21 of WoF it is revealed that in his hometown, Wei Ruolai has a nickname: “gou gu zai” = Definition: Jiangxi dialect. Refers to a child who has just entered his youth. Young people, they are not deeply involved in the world, but they are full of energy. like a puppy, lively and noisy.

it is exactly like gouzaizai but that one is from Chongqing. i know this is a script and fiction, but the director himself said that when WYB went in as Ruolai, he was inspired by WYB’s personality irl. It also means we were all right, looking at Lai Lai as a puppy during the show.

it’s just so nice to know that GG already found out what WYB’s personality was like early on. that he is a puppy — and feeds more truth to the cpn that GG was the one who gave the 🦴 necklace. a bone for a puppy.

• XZ’s xinxiangyin live “clue” on what activities they do spending time outdoors

-END.

P.S: and that’s the 1st quarter of the year done! just like that! actually, a lot of things happened in the fandom and i’m happy that both the boys continue to be active and we always have content. i also wanna take this time to thank everyone who supports both of them + cpfs who interact with me & my posts i appreciate you! <3 i hope the community here continues to grow and we all have this safe space to be cpfs 🤍🤍🤍

<<< previous month

[corgi-cthuwu]

I personally have this big ass theory on Malek. I was combing thru Reddit looking at others' experiences when the June update released and it got me thinking.

There's two main theories:

1. Malek is the Beast either as Moloch or JUST the Beast with no connection to Moloch.

2. As everyone else could be angels, Malek is Maalik or the Angel of Hell in Islamic Religion.

When Malek first appeared, a lot of readers immediately got the 'the creeps' from him. People were wondering what his role was in the story. Was he the Beast? Some sort of demon or manifestation of evil?

It got to the point where I saw someone mention the Angel Maalik-- the Angel of Hell in Islamic religion. (Considering three out of four main male LI's may or may not be named or have some connection to some angels in Christianity, I had to look up whether or not 'Malek' had some resemblance to a theological character.)

This started some conversation, and I saw someone else mention that Malek actually reminded them of 'Moloch'-- looking this up, Moloch is apparently a Canaanite deity associated (if not the name of the sacrifice itself) with child sacrifice.

They theorized that maybe Malek was actually Moloch-- or the Beast who her cult was worshiping-- who is hunting down or watching the MC because she was supposed to die with her cult that day the SWAT team came in. He missed a sacrifice or something. By extension, Ruth would also be connected to this.

And he said himself-- it's a coincidence that she and Ruth rekindled upon meeting in college, when they were both in the same cult as children. They didn't plan to be friends, or share trauma and meet up. They just bumped into each other, I think. It's also a coincidence that he just so happened to be a professor teaching at that college. (And somehow, he had a relationship with her even tho MC knew her as pious.) He did mention though that he would ask Ruth about the cult, but it was a touchy subject and she preferred not to bring it up. Honestly, if all he wanted was the information, he took the most controversial way to do it.

Which is the weird thing-- if he's the Beast himself, why does he just want information? Why didn't he do something to Ruth once he got what he wanted? He just casually has a day job. (Also why does he own a hotel?)

What disproves this theory (at least, about Moloch), is that Moloch isn't Christian. Moloch is a Canaanite god. MC said that her cult was under a branch of Christianity.

I looked up Moloch, then looked up the goddess Astraea. I noticed one thing-- they're both mentioned (though Astraea very briefly) in Paradise Lost. Moloch is one of the deities working with Satan in his plan to claim Heaven by using Adam and Eve's temptation in the Garden of Eden. Satan also has a third of Heaven's fallen angels and other demons working with him in the uprising.

Malek has this immediate interest in Astrea. First from the MC but later on for his entertainment because he's bored with his monotonous life, as he says, "it is not every day one meets ghost hunters."

⤴️

THIS LINE. EITHER HE'S BEING VERY PRESUMPTIVE OR HE JUST FUCKIN KNOWS

> He said he had no prior knowledge of Astrea before the MC introducd him to it, but he could be lying (or he genuinely didn't have any idea but that information hasn't been revealed yet, which is more likely).

When he and Mikael make an arrangement to work together, he seems a bit too eager.

> "Malek smiled a little bit too cheerfully and extended his hand."

Three out of four of the male LI's are named/have names that closely resemble some angels in the bible. Mikael, could be Archangel Michael-- the chief of angels. Then there's Raphael who IS proven to be Archangel Raphael, and lastly there's Cassiel, who could be Archangel Cassiel, one of the Seven Archangels in the bible along with Michael and Raphael.

If Malek is the Beast himself... His interest in Astrea could indicate wanting to get through the inner-workings of the agency (Heaven, I guess) because of the three guys over there who could be literal angels. He wants to get the upper hand, maybe using the MC from within with her connection with both the agency and the Beast. There's a similar plot in Paradise Lost. The classic Heaven vs. Hell. Hell is working from the inside, through 'Paradise' which is the Garden of Eden. Hell being the snake. It's been described as a civil war by some.

TLDR;

Anyway, what's more likely? The fact that Malek is the Beast MC's cult was worshipping when she and Ruth were children, he's extracting information about his own cult for some reason, and he's slowly but surely getting what he wants... OR...

That he's Maalik, the Islamic Angel of Hell and is tasked with overseeing its gates and sinners? Which makes more sense because he's a forensic psychologist? His last name is literally SINNER.

But if he is Maalik, why is he going against Astrea...? He is an angel, after all.

In any case, Malek could still be connected to the Beast without being it. He seemed awfully guilty/self-aware if MC picks him during the scene where she dies.

Or he could still be the Beast and the rest of the info hasn't been expounded yet.

...Maybe he is Maalik, but SOMEHOW got kicked out of Heaven (fallen angel?) and is now working with the Beast?

- Hence his controversial black-and-white opinions about society (other than having to guard sinners for a living, being kicked outta Heaven must make you question things), his "take the most out of life" attitude (where society suppresses you so it's easier to dispose you later), his sudden guilt, and eager interest in Astrea.

- It would also makes sense why he's being so nosy about the Beast, and the cult-- it's because he's working for it. The connection between MC and Astrea would be too perfect if this was true. He wants information. He is the snake that goes against Heaven.

[yuurei20]

Hi YuuRei. How are you? Purely from a speculative standpoint, who do you think from Savanaclaw and Heartslabyul will get the special SSR for Book seven and why? I’m kind of curious to hear your thoughts. Do you think it is possible for more than one Heartslabyul member to get a card?

Hello hello! ^^ Thank you for this question!

(Small Book 7 talk under the cut, no plot spoilers, but just in case!)

For Books 1 through 6 Twst's system was characters receiving special SSRs timed to the release of their dorm members being the focus of the story!

For Book 7 Twst's system is: characters receiving special SSRs timed to the release of their dorm members being the focus of the story 👀

It is for this reason that I am fond of the theory that all characters will be receiving special SSRs! ^^

Another point in favor of this theory is the new titles that have been released within the game, for players to earn by collecting 10 different cards of the same character.

Ortho's new title is "Guardian of the Underworld," Lilia's is "Seeker of the Cradle," Sebek's is "Knight of Lightning," Rook's is "Hunter of Love" and Kalim's is "Renowned Ruler of the Oasis."

And anyone who has completed the story through Book 7-9 can tell you that that is a little on the nose to be a coincidence 👀

And the characters who have received new titles are: all of them! ^^

Covered in an earlier ask, this also poses the question: is Ace being set up as the "trump card" of the entire game, which was hinted at in both his dorm uniform card summon line and in his new title? 👀 (phrasing was changed on EN but is the same on JP)

Anything is possible! ^^

There are of course counterarguments, such as where are Malleus' "Lord of the Abyss," Silver's "Knight of Dreams," Idia's "King of the Underworld" and Epel's "Enduring Poison Apple"?

I have seen plot-relevant explanations for Malleus', Silver's and Idia's missing cards, and when it comes to Epel, there are theories that maybe some of the characters being skipped in Book 7 might be getting their cards during whatever comes next? 👀 Or maybe Epel will be returning in 7! ^^ We do not know!

To the original question, the Savanaclaw/Heartslabyul titles are as follows!

Leona: Ambitious King Ruggie: Cleaner of the Savanna Jack: Solitary Lone Wolf Riddle: Crimson Ruler Trey: Benefactor of Clubs Cater: Bystander of Diamonds Ace: Trump Card of Hearts Deuce: Spearman of Spades

If the popular "new dorm series" theory is correct then we will likely be seeing the remaining six characters sooner or later, with the only question being the order in which they will appear ^^ Exciting!

Rook, Kalim, Ortho and Lilia all had a strong influence on their respective dorm members overblotting (Silver was technically the catalyst for Malleus, but his card branches off into another theory), so if we would like to make an assumption based on that pattern perhaps Ruggie and Trey will be coming first? :> But it is anyone's guess!

[agnoscoveteris-vestigiaflammae]

Okay this might mean nothing but…get your red string ready cause this is my Doctor Who S14/S1 theory masterpost

*Disclaimer in case of inaccuracies, I started writing this before Dot and Bubble was released and then I got busy and more things happened and now it's release day for The Legend of Ruby Sunday (which won’t be available to watch in my country until this evening) and I didn’t want it to go to waste so I finished it lol okay thanks* 

I’ve been thinking a lot about @waywardwes9 ’s theory regarding Ruby Sunday and other character names in this series of Doctor Who. So we’ve had Ruby SUNDAY, MUNDI (Monday) Flynn in episode three, and MARTI (Mardi/Martes/Tuesday/etc) Bridges in episode four, with dialogue bringing attention to the uniqueness/significance of each of their names. So when the casting list was released for episode five, ‘Dot and Bubble’, I couldn’t help but notice…Cooper Mercy, a slightly adjusted form of the words Mercury, or Mercredi (fr)/Miércoles (sp)/Mercoledì (it)/dydd Mercher (welsh)/etc. all of which means Wednesday!! So up until episode six, ‘Rogue’, this theory appeared to be holding up. It then became difficult to speculate further as we had little to no character backgrounds for these individuals and the cast lists for the remaining episodes are still incomplete but twice is a coincidence, four times is a pattern. 

Now we know that in the ancient Greco-Roman tradition, the days of the week were named after the sun, moon and planets which were in turn named after certain gods:

Monday - Moon - Selene/Luna

Tuesday - Mars - Ares/Mars

Wednesday - Mercury - Hermes/Mercurius

Thursday - Jupiter - Zeus/Jove

Friday - Venus - Aphrodite/Venus

Saturday - Saturn - Cronus/Saturnus

Sunday - Sun - Helios/Sol

Because of her surname, Ruby Sunday would be aligned with the Roman God ‘Sol Invictus’, who was considered the most supreme or important god for several decades of the mid to late Roman empire. So I decided to do a little research into this deity and found out that his feast day and the main festival dedicated to him, ‘Dies Natalis Solis Invicti’, occurred every year on December 25th… The day on which at the stroke of midnight, baby Ruby was discovered in a snowy churchyard, after being abandoned by her mysterious mother. This could just be a coincidence but it’s interesting nonetheless as it adds to the themes and theories regarding the “Pantheon of Discord” which includes godlike figures such as The Toymaker and Maestro. Could this suggest that Ruby is secretly a member of the Pantheon of gods? Or maybe she was created to be a pawn, a messiah-like figure, in their masterplan? Or maybe she’s a part of an antithetical pantheon of ‘good’ gods?

So returning to the characters named after weekdays, we may have expected a character with some variation of Thursday/Jeudi/Giovedì/dydd Iau/etc. as their name to appear in Rogue but unfortunately, there appeared to be nothing at all that would correlate to this theory… until people began to notice that the ring which Rogue uses to propose to The Doctor is emblazoned with The Caduceus, the staff of Hermes… also known as Mercurius or Mercury. 

It seems that our story has become stuck on Wednesday instead of continuing with the remaining weekdays, but why? Why could Wednesday or Mercury be significant?  Well gang, guess what the god Mercury is known as…

THIS IS HOW THE TRICKSTER TRUTHERS CAN STILL WIN !! Additionally, Rogue’s name originates from the DnD archetype, ‘Rogue’, who is regarded as ‘the trickster’. Very Inch Arresting. but we’ll return to the Trickster as ‘The One Who Waits’ theories a little later on.

The theory regarding The Caduceus can also play into the theory about Rogue possibly being an incarnation of The Master, or signalling the return of The Master. The Caduceus symbol, which can represent travel, thievery and mischief (which aligns with characteristics of The Rogue, The Trickster and The Master) is commonly mistaken or used in place of The Rod of Asclepius, which is used by healthcare organisations as it represents healing, care and the duties of doctors (which obviously aligns with The Doctor). 

These antithetical yet similar symbols could easily represent the Doctor and The Master and their shared past and turbulent relationship, or alternatively could represent the theme that things that appear too good to be true usually are, but who knows.

Now if you’ve made it this far, stay with me for this part because we’re about to get even more delulu, but I promise we’ll come back around into more plausible theory territory very soon. 

So with all this attention being drawn to character names, I decided to do some further research into the names of the characters named after days of the week and found something interesting. In the case of Mundi Flynn, we can presume Mundi is intended to mean Monday but Flynn actually means…Red or ruddy/reddish, which would make her name Monday Red… or Red Monday… just like Ruby Sunday. This got me extremely excited…until…I couldn’t find any connections to the colour red within Marti’s surname ‘Bridges’. However… Marti is named after Mars, which is known as… The Red Planet! Which would still make her first name Red Tuesday, or even Ruby Tuesday just like the famous song by the Rolling Stones. Now That is a stretch but we persist nonetheless by going even deeper into delusional valley with Dot and Bubble’s character: Cooper Mercy, Cooper…an uncommon name that is very close to the word ‘Copper’.. another shade of red, making her Wednesday Red/Ruby Wednesday. Also worthy to note that the character Cooper had red hair, which was a purposeful choice as it is not the actor’s natural hair colour. Okay, last one… while there doesn’t appear to be any weekday names mentioned in Rogue, (as we seem to be stuck on Wednesday) I couldn’t help but notice that ‘Rogue’ is an anagram of Rouge… the french word for red. Listen, either this all actually connects or RTD has quite literally been sprinkling RED herrings throughout the narrative. So what could this mean? Personally, this kind of repetitive naming convention reminds me of a dream-like logic or storytelling convention centred around Ruby,  which could play into everyone’s TV show/fairytale/dream theories (which are too expansive to get into and I don’t have much to add).

*I’ve heard that the Identity of Susan Twist has been revealed in today’s episode but thankfully I haven’t seen any spoilers yet so just ignore this if it’s completely off the wall lol*

However, this could also link to the idea of Susan Twist as a show director or writer, making cameos throughout her own work. In this light, she could be considered The Storyteller… TS… but if you physically twist the initials around…ST… Susan Twist.  

Then, there is of course the theory that Susan Twist is a physical manifestation of the Tardis. Particularly because in The Legend of Ruby Sunday she has been listed as Susan Triad, S.Triad, an anagram of Tardis. Could it be that the tardis is broken down or malfunctioning and is creating these scenarios to keep itself, the Doctor and Ruby entertained? I guess I’ll find out tonight hehe.

Okay getting back to The Trickster theory. By now most people have probably seen other posts that show that Ruby’s musical theme is almost identical to The Trickster’s theme from SJA, that the Doctor invoking a superstition at the edge of the universe could have brought back the Trickster,  that RTD could be using Ruby as a replacement for Sky from SJA, the baby that Sarah Jane discovered abandoned on her doorstep and adopted, who was originally supposed to be revealed as a child of the Trickster and a trap for Sarah Jane, and as well ofc that the hooded figure that drops baby Ruby off obviously resembles The Trickster. 

But another thing I can’t stop thinking about is the theme of the fragility of memory and existence that has been popping up throughout this series, particularly in the first few episodes, and how this correlates to the powers of The Trickster. In Space Babies, we see how the doctor’s memories of the night of Ruby’s birth are manipulated in real time to show him something totally different. In 73 Yards, we see how the Doctor is zapped out of existence, and then brought back through a future-past paradox. In several episodes we see the blurring of reality, the past and fiction with events such as the snow from Ruby Road appearing in places where present day Ruby is. We see on two occasions how history is changed by the simplest of actions such as stepping on a butterfly or a fairy circle. And of course in 73 Yards we hear Kate’s cryptic “This timeline is suspended along your event” line. All of these elements appear to correspond with the Trickster’s powers of time and memory manipulation as demonstrated in SJA, to the point that I’m actually gonna be disappointed if all this build up doesn’t result in an appearance from everyone’s fav SJA villain lol. 

Another thing to consider is The Doctor’s continuous references to the sea constantly getting closer to the land such as the “Everywhere is a beach eventually.” line from episode three and the “The war between the land and the sea” comment in episode four, the latter of which could of course just be a nod to the forthcoming dw spin-off series of the same name… or… could in fact be a reference to ‘the one who waits’. The last time the Trickster was defeated he was locked up in a box and thrown into the ocean, where he could be waiting patiently to return to the shore, to claim what he wants. Could this also be linked to Mrs FLOOD, whose water-related name may suggest that she is the one who waits for the oncoming flood. Who knows ! I’m just throwing things at the red string board and hoping something sticks. 

Okay that’s all for my crazy wacky wild bananas bonkers theories today. Can’t wait to see how many of these are disproven in approximately one hour lmaoooo. If you made it this far, I commend ur patience <3

[suzuran777]

Review: Tokyo Satsujinki (Holicworks)

I finally finished the other new BLVN I bought recently, Tokyo Satsujinki! This game was released last month, by Holicworks who are known for previous games like Taisho Mebiusline, Tokyo Onmyouji and Tokyo 24 ku (yes they're aware of all of their similar sounding "Tokyo" titles lol). I guess this game might be a bit difficult to review because it’s extremely story-heavy and I would still like to keep this review spoiler-free, but I’ll try my best! Right now it's also only available in Japanese, but as Tokyo Onmyouji was translated, maybe this one will be picked up too one day.

The main character, Kurotori Yuzuru, is a civil servant who works for the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. He belongs to a countermeasure group who fights against a negative force, often referred to as "Aramatsuri". In this world, both Aramatsuri and Amaterasu are powers that reside within humans. Amaterasu brings positivity and happiness, while Aramatsuri is deemed evil and leads to misfortune.

Only those with special powers are able to see Aramatsuri, therefore these are also the only people who are part of the Aramatsuri Countermeasure Division, which Kurotori and some of the other main characters belong to. A common way of confirming that one possesses special abilities, is by asking them about the appearance of Yoyogi Park Clock Tower. Only those with special powers are able to see the big pink flower on top of it, which suddenly appeared one day and doesn't look like it's from this world. Especially the Kabukicho area of Shinjuku is heavily affected by the negative impact of Aramatsuri, so this is a location where a large part of the story in this game takes place.

The recommended route order is Tendo > Tsubaki > Isshiki > Inami, but don’t be surprised when you suddenly have to enter Inami’s route to make progress in Isshiki’s route. This games makes use of a flowchart which shows you where the endings are, and which ones you still need to get, but it doesn’t really tell you what choices to make. Especially near the end it’s a lot of trial and error, but it’s not too difficult and I kinda had fun figuring it out myself! On the other hand, I also saw some comments that it’s a bit annoying when you want to finish a route quickly, which I understand... so be prepared that the last two routes are long. I think you can also start with Tsubaki's route because plot-wise it won't change a lot, but I'm pretty sure the other two routes are locked.

A big part of the story in this game focuses on Kurotori, the protagonist. Kurotori’s powers are a bit special compared to the other characters because not only is he able to manipulate Aramatsuri and change it into any shape he wants (he often uses it to create a sword), he can also use the power of goddess Ame-no-Uzume. She's the goddess of dawn, meditation and the arts, and in Shinto religion, her story intertwines deeply with that of Amaterasu Omikami, the sun goddess who also plays an important role in this story. It is also not a coincidence that the positive powers in this game are called "Amaterasu" because some of the characters can use the powers of Amaterasu Omikami.

The first route I played is Tendo's route, Kurotori's coworker who also works for the Aramatsuri Countermeasure Division. He is one of the people who can use the power of Amaterasu, and his family specializes in using Japanese swords, so that’s his preferred weapon of choice. The Aramatsuri Countermeasure Division is a secret even many governmental organizations and the police don’t know about, therefore they can't carry weapons or fight Aramatsuri in locations where other people can see them. Their manager, a woman called Mikiko, is also an important character in this game (she's the one sitting in the chair in the image below!). Tendo's route mostly focuses on his brother's disappearance, who also used to be part of the same division. Before he went missing, his brother attacked and killed his coworkers during a mission, and now other employees seem rather suspicious of Tendo too, wondering if he will turn against them too. Tendo however, also doesn't know why any of this happened.

The next route I played is Tsubaki’s route, who's an aspiring actor who tries his best to find new jobs. Even though he tries his best to live a normal life, his family has a long history of unfortunate incidents, and many family members either died or went missing. If that wasn't bad enough, Tsubaki also gets regular visits from the god Sarutahiko Ookami, who wants to use Tsubaki to sever Kurotori’s ties with Ame-no-Uzume, Sarutahiko’s wife. Tsubaki doesn’t really want to do this, but there's not much he can do against the will of a god. In the common route of the game, Tsubaki tries to attack Kurotori while wearing Sarutahiko's mask, concealing his identity, but Kurotori kind of suspects that it was him. As he learns more about Tsubaki, part of him wants to deny this though, because he believes Tsubaki might also be a victim of all of this. I enjoyed the casual interactions between the characters in this route too because it shows that Kurotori doesn't really use smartphones or computers (other than for work-related reasons), so Tsubaki has to teach him how to use apps like Line...!

After this I started playing Isshiki’s route, a mysterious bartender who’s also an Onmyouji and can use the power of Onmyoudo. This technique allows him to cast spells using the powers of astronomy, and methods range from Yin/Yang, the Five Elements, shikigami (cursed spirits) an a whole bunch of other things (if you played Tokyo Onmyouji you probably know too!). He can also use the power of an Inugami who he calls “Kota”, the curse of a dog spirit. If you're familiar with Inugami.... you immediately know this route will be dark, because Inugami are beings that can only be created by humans, involving a brutal ritual, eventually killing the dog. As you can see in the opening movie it's not Isshiki's fault, but man this backstory made me sad.

I think this is the route I liked the most though because in most of the other routes Isshiki is kind of like the villain and his visions don’t align with the other main characters, so I really wanted to see his side of the story. After finishing his route it was almost hard to continue with Inami's route because both of them are always fighting and I kind of agreed with Isshiki's reasoning more, but I did want to see the final endings. A name that gets mentioned a lot in this route is Amatsu-Mikaboshi, a star god who would not submit to the will of the other Amatsukami (the kami of Heaven), and I think it's good to remember this name when you play the next route too.

So the final route focuses on Inami, who is another coworker of Kurotori. He can also use the power of Amaterasu, and is originally from Okinawa. Even though he's their coworker, the others don't actually know a lot about him. He's quite skilled and spent a lot of time learning about many different magic techniques. In his route, you finally learn a lot more about who Inami is, but there's also a lot of backstory related to Kurotori, which doesn't show up in other routes. Even though I do prefer Isshiki's route, it’s not like this route makes the other routes feel irrelevant or less important, which sometimes tends to happen when games have a "true" route. I'm not sure if it's the design or his behavior, but Inami did remind me a little bit of Misaki from Taisho Mebiusline lol! Though that could make sense because it's the same writer and company of course. This route has two really good ending songs by the way, which I keep listening to...!

Final impressions I think those who enjoyed other Holicworks games like Tokyo Onmyouji and Taisho Mebiusline will definitely enjoy this game too! I missed playing their games, so I was definitely happy to play this one. I think it might be a bit difficult to get into for those who don't want to read a super long story with only a few 18+ and romance scenes. It definitely took me about 50 hours to play all of the different endings. This includes trying to figure out what to do next though (I think some people already started making a guide, if you want to avoid that though, so check Twitter/X first). If something in the early routes feels left unexplained, there's a big chance it will show up in another ending. Sometimes I was surprised how even little details I never thought much about were somehow story-relevant.

Like most of their previous games, a large part of this story also references various terms related to Shintoism, and names of many of the gods/kami are directly mentioned in the story and play a huge role in it, so I think it would be a good idea to keep track of those to understand some of the references. However if you don't get all of the references, I think it's still not impossible to understand the story and the endings, I just think it's fun to look everything up! Talking about endings… This game has a lot of them, so be prepared to keep loading your save files.

As usual the music in this game is really good, I especially liked the songs by Lily & Morrigan. I liked the art too, especially the action scenes were cool and some of the CGs are animated. I'm a big fan of Kurotori's design too, I love the lower lashes, black nails and high heels!! If I had to complain about something, I guess the 18+ scenes sometimes felt a bit awkward, but that could just be a me-problem because I am very picky LOL (and each route only has like 2 of them).

I really want to see a continuation of some of these routes tbh! I think there's definitely potential for a fandisc. I got Isshiki's pre-order bonuses, which includes a short drama CD that takes place after his main ending, so I'm going to assume all the other characters also have this. I guess I'll end this with a fun fact, Isshiki’s bar in the game (Arca) actually exists in real life too, and I’ve already seen a lot of fans go there to enjoy the drinks. So if you're ever in Shinjuku, you might be able to visit! It's near Sanchome station.

[perfectlyineffable]

The Matchbox Trick

When I watched through season 2 for the first time, I made notes as I went along, because I'd seen that Neil wanted this to be a mystery story, and he'd wanted the episodes to be released weekly to encourage discussion and theorising. Most of my notes were jumbled and half-formed thoughts that I scribbled down before eagerly hitting 'next episode', so there's very little considered writing in there. But one of my theories I was certain on from the beginning was that of the matchbox trick.

This is a long post, so the explanation is below the cut:

The Trick

For those that don't know, the matchbox trick is a very simple example of sleight of hand magic. You have an empty matchbox, the magician puts something into it (say, a coin), says the magic words, and the thing vanishes from the box! Then they say the magic words again, and it reappears! Magic.

If you don't know how it's done: very simply, the inner box of the matchbox is divided in half, and when saying the magic words, the sleight of hand is to spin the box round, so that the other half is shown instead, whether that's empty (it disappeared!) or full (it reappeared!).

The Hints

I first thought that this season might be a matchbox trick when Gabriel's matchbox first appeared on screen - after all, it's clearly important, there's a mystery to be solved, Muriel seems shocked by it, and we know Aziraphale's a magician. I thought it'd be a trick that plays out on screen, and he'd be the one to figure it out.

I was even more convinced of it when Michael examined the box for the first time. Because she doesn't just open it at one end to see if it's empty - she opens it at both, one after the other. And yet she doesn't take the whole inner box out (that would reveal the divider and give the trick away). So I was certain this was Neil/Douglas/the team giving us a clear but subtle set-up that there would be a matchbox trick this season.

Then there are other references/hints dotted throughout the season, too:

In episode 3, the Resurrectionist pub sign has two sides to it - Aziraphale only notices one on the way in, but we're shown both, and then he notices the other one on the way out. We're being shown how the trick is done, even if the characters in the show don't understand it yet.

In episode 4, Aziraphale performs another, slightly different sleight of hand magic trick by replacing the photograph in the envelope with a pamphlet instead. This is a slightly weaker link to the specific trick of the matchbox, and arguably the gun trick has just as much sleight of hand (mouth?) in it, but since it's close-up magic I thought it was relevant, like Neil saying to us: 'close-up sleight of hand tricks are important here'.

And of course, empty matchbox, empty cardboard box, empty archangel mind. There seemed to be a thread between the three, so I thought the 'important thing to prevent something terrible happening' would be in the cardboard box, and Gabriel's memories would still be in his head, you just needed to metaphorically turn him around to get them to reappear.

So I spent most of the season convinced that Gabriel's 'empty' cardboard box with a 'this way up' sign on it held an extra-dimensional space that could only be accessed by opening it upside down (the arrows pointing downwards, the direction he'd metaphorically gone from Heaven).

And I was... half right. You did in fact need to flip the box over to figure out the trick. But you didn't need to open it, the answer was just scrawled on the bottom. Huh. Okay, fair enough. Close enough.

The Theory

I was willing to accept that half-right was close enough on the cardboard box front. Maybe the attention to the matchbox was just telling us to flip it over, not open it upside down. Maybe Michael opening both sides of the matchbox didn't really mean what I thought it meant at all, it was just a coincidence or a red herring or the only thing important about it was its existence, not it being opened. Maybe the way the show highlighted the text on the matchbox was meant to hint that you should look for writing on the cardboard box, and that was all.

Then I read this meta by @ariaste. Now, I'm not sure I fully believe in it (I've been burned before by complex fan theories), but it's certainly thorough and convincing. And if it is correct... then maybe the matchbox trick was intended to be there, as yet another setup with no payoff. Maybe it's another clue that things aren't all what they seem.

Maybe the whole of Season 2 is a vanishing act - on Gabriel, on memory, on Aziraphale and Crowley's relationship - and the answer, all that's been lost, will be returned to us in Season 3. When the quote on the matchbox will make sense, when all of the dropped threads and setups-with-no-payoffs will be cascaded into action, when the box will be opened rather than only flipped over without anything being revealed.

Maybe this is nonsense rambling. Maybe I'm seeing details that aren't there. But either way, I trust Neil. Season 3 will be worth it, I believe that much. Everything will be okay in the end.

[vynegar]

"Albie" (main story 11-21)

At the end of Episode 11 (Part 1), we find out that "Albie" is simply a name that Vyn made up on the spot when Rosa asked. He may have been inspired by his own birth name, Vilhelm Richard Albert de Haspran.

In Chinese, Vyn choose the name "阿明". "阿" is a prefix used to form nicknames, "明" can be a name but also means "bright, clear". In Vyn's Romantic Rail Getaway card "Food for Thought", he tells us the meaning of his name:

You can see the character 明 appear in the word 明亮 ("bright"), although 明 is such a common character that I wouldn't say that this Chinese text alone is enough is sufficient evidence to show the connection between the two names. It's the way that the "Albie" and "阿明" happen to coincide in the name "Albert", which made me take note of Vyn's "careless" choice in name.

If the Chinese name was intended to subtly reference "Albert", I can certainly imagine imagine this as one way to preserve that reference through translation, even if it becomes more obvious. We do have an example of the translation preserving plot-relevant wordplay in a name: Lowe Leare ("Lowly"), originally 萧仁 ("小人", both pronounced "xiao ren" but with different tones). However, there's also an incident of a plot-relevant name being missed through translation, though it was in an event (not the main story) that probably foreshadowed a distant plot point and had infamously bad translation issues.

Anyway, it remains possible that "Albie" is a coincidence. However, after Vyn and Rosa wrap up their conversation about Albie's name, the narration makes a comment on the importance of that moment:

It isn't until the whole case is settled that you are surprised to realize something... You had briefly touched on the key to cracking the case at this very moment.

...which at least gives me enough confidence to not feel silly writing up a whole post about it. We've only seen part of this case, and there's a lot of mystery still surrounding Vyn's behavior so I don't have any definitive hypotheses on why Vyn might have chosen his own name for Albie. Is there something that made Vyn seen himself in Albie? Did the delinquent's attitude remind Vyn of the cruel, stratified world that he was born in? Is he reminded of how people who have imperfections will be tossed aside and abandoned? I guess we'll see when part 2 of this episode is released.

[remy2fang]

A.K.I. Lore Predictions from 2022

I have permission to post our conversation from a tiny private discord server. We’re mostly F.A.N.G girls and Shadaloo enthusiasts.

I was looking at our silly old speculations about A.K.I. back in early June 2022…and many of them end up being correct lol. This was the time when no one has any idea what her character was going to be like. SF6 was set to launch on June 2, 2023 and A.K.I. dlc would be released on September 27, 2023. In June 2022, we only had the roster leak picture and that’s it. The only clues we had that time was her acronym name, nationality, and purple claws, which points to F.A.N.G for those who actually saw the connection. But even then, a lot of people at the time thought she had no affiliation with F.A.N.G because they look so different from each other …and that most people didn’t notice any FANG traits from her. Also, a lot of people initially thought she had a Vega connection because of the claws. Another character people thought she was associated with was Kurow Kirishima from Rival Schools because they both look similar with their hair color, clothes, and …claws.

Nevertheless, I think our discord thoughts hit the target in several places. One friend was right that AKI is FANG’s biggest fan (we still referred to her as Phantom at the time because of the TOXICITY story). Comatozoid was right that Bison found someone else, but it’s Rosinante the horse LOL! And Bison has a soft spot for him. Fumi was right that AKI is a top, because official art have her chasing/trapping a reluctant FANG lol 😂😂

Minareee3 was right with the character dynamics in which AKI loves FANG but FANG told her “No,” which is basically canon in SF6. And I said that AKI doesn’t want Bison’s attention towards her because in-game she wants FANG’s attention instead lol.

I think we were all onto something back then because that’s how much we know about FANG and Shadaloo, and that we were able to correctly predict these outcomes. That’s how much we love them…even if we go on our silly shippy headcanon territory 😂😂💜💜

I like how we joked that Bison might turn his attention to AKI because she’s a cute sexy lady and FANG would get jealous. But with their in-game win quotes, Bison didn’t care much about AKI and was more interested in knowing about FANG! It’s in that win quote where BisonFANG shippers could rejoice hahahahahha.

Ngl, I was genuinely nervous on how FANG would be portrayed in SF6 if he were to appear in it. Now that we all know what happened thus far in the game, I’m glad Capcom gave more attention to FANG than what we’ve hoped for. It was definitely more than we thought. And they did a good job on his character too. They gave him a cool new look, expanded on his character by showing his more kinder side (still evil btw), and giving him an important role in the story post-WTM.

Also, Comatozoid predicted Bison’s SF6 character correctly as a homeless amnesiac lol. This was on May 31, 2024, which was about a week before Bison was announced on June 7, 2024.

Hmm, our fun-filled conversation and the Bison announcement was exactly 2 years apart. What a coincidence!

F.A.N.G appreciators are always the absolute best!! 💜💜

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Song of the Day - “Space Oddity” Today marks the 55th anniversary of the release of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” - July 11th, 1969. Written by Bowie about an astronaut, Major Tom, whose fate seems ambiguous as he floats up in space unable to connect to Ground Control below. Bowie said later that it was mostly about his own feelings of alienation at that time, but that it also was written to coincide with the launch of Apollo 11, which launched the very same day as the song’s release. He said that he felt the space craze of the time regarded astronauts more as as automatons rather than humans, which he found so sad. As he put it, “It came from a feeling of sadness about this aspect of the space thing, it has been dehumanized, so I wrote a song-farce about it, to try and relate science and human emotion. I suppose it's an antidote to space fever, really.” At first, the song was received with mixed reviews. There were some who saw it as controversial since it was kinda a negative story of the fate of an astronaut at the time that the wishful public narrative wanted it to all be heroic and positive. The tracks was actually banned by some radio markets. But Bowie began to have multiple TV show appearances doing this song, and also the track was put onto his next album. It wasn’t really a hit until a few years later. After Bowie had become a bigger star, the track was reissued and became a #1 hit in England. The character of Major Tom would reappear in several Bowie incarnations over the next decades. Eventually, on his last album, “Blackstar”, the title track and its music video featured a dead astronaut whose jewel-encrusted skull gets taken by a woman with a tail to an ancient otherworldly town where a ceremony happens with it, while his bones float up towards a solar eclipse. The song, while not one of Bowie’s huge hits, has become seen as one of his best songs. It has made a zillions lists of best songs, including the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 songs that shaped rock and roll, and is in the the Grammy Hall of Fame.

[Mary Elaine LeBey]

[ffsanaaaa]

Ok, now that the first pjo season is finally over (😭) I want to share my pitch for the future adaptations from the Riordanverse, because since daydreaming is for free I will now pretend I work with Rick and Disney and tell you what I'd do if I were their Kevin Feige.

First of all, do we all agree that if Heroes of Olympus really gets adapted it should be a separate show, and not PJO 6th season, right?? I hope so because they're completely different stories. So, if we will already get 2 connected shows, why can't we get more?

And maybe it's because I'm a big marvel fan but I really believe in the power of crossovers. There's something magical about seeing characters originally from two different worlds/stories interacting with each other, and I'm not only referring to the MCU. I mean, remember the episode where Hannah Montana and the Wizards of Waverly Place all went aboard on Zack and Cody's cruise ship?? Or when all the Disney Princesses appeared together on Ralph Breaks the Internet???

So imagine having 2 original spin-offs released in the years between each season from PJO. That way we would get the chance to meet not only Camp Jupiter but also some of the characters who are originally from there before HOO.

My idea of a title for the first show is "The Children of Rome", and the story would be set right after the events from Sea of Monsters/PJO Season 2, where we would follow Reyna as one of the main characters and all the journey she went through after her encounter with Percy and Annabeth on Circe's Island.

From being kidnapped by pirates to being trained by the wolf Lupa (which I think it would be really nice to actually see, since we only got a brief explanation of how it works in the books) until she finally arrives at Camp Jupiter and is first welcomed by Jason. Here I think there's even a great opportunity for a parallel between him and Thalia, since season 2 will have ended with Thalia resurrection and her iconic line (that could be adapted so to fit her last name) "I am Thalia Grace daughter of Zeus", so Jason's first introduction could be with him saying "I am Jason Grace son of Jupiter" (I already have chills only from imagining the scenes).

This could be a 3 or 4 seasons show, where we would see Reyna and Jason ascending to Praetor and their battle with the titan Krios, and in the last season (after PJO’s last season) we would see Nico's, Hazel's and Frank's arrival, wrapping the series with Jason disappearing.

Now for my second spin-off idea, it would be set after Titan's Curse/Season 3 and we would follow The Hunters of Artemis, which is already a great title by itself, and I would be satisfied with only one season but I would definitely not mind if we got more!

It would be a simpler show, with basically badass (ace) girls adventures, to see what they've been up to during the events of book/season 4, while we also get to know more of Thalia, her past trauma and how she misses her brother since she doesn't know he's alive. The Demigod Files story, The Sword of Hades, where Percy, Nico and Thalia go to the underworld and meet Bob could even happen in this show through her pov, that way we would understand better why she got so shaken with their encounter with the goddess of ghosts and regrets.

All of that would be a nice contrast with Jason's journey, since he was too young when he got to the Camp and doesn't remember much from his past with the exception that he was abandoned, so he doesn't even imagine that there's someone who cares and misses him. All of this would culminate in HOO first season when they finally get reunited.

No, it’s not a coincidence that I’m focusing a lot on Jason, but ironically the reason for that is not because he’s my favorite character, actually between the seven demigods from the prophecy he’s one of my least favorite, and I hardly ever find people in the fandom who has him as their favorite, which I think is pretty sad (specially now that I finally finished reading The Trials of Apollo, because I honestly I want to scream everytime I think about how much he is underrated and poorly explored as a character).

What I believe to be the reason for all of this is that, even though they’re nothing alike, Jason is often compared to Percy due to both being the son of one of the most powerful gods in Olympus and pretty much the leaders of their respective Camps. But that’s still not a fair comparison, because it’s like “who do you prefer, the boy we’ve known for 5 books already in which we got to first know this amazing world through his eyes, thoughts and feelings… or this dude we just met and that people say to be as good as him?”

Not only that, but between all the new characters we get to know in HOO (if I remember correctly) Jason is the one with less flashbacks scenes, and I get that this happened because he lost his memory, but this makes that most of the information we have about Jason's past is told to us, and not showed.

So, deep down, we know why Jason's personality is so different from Percy's. We know he'd struggled since he was a little kid due to the pressure of being raised to be a leader in such a cold and harsh environment. We know that even though he was immensely admired in Camp Jupiter he was still deeply lonely and insecure, mainly because of the lack of a parental figure to give him unconditional love making him believe that he only had value if he was of use.

We know he is incredibly powerful and led the Camp through tones of victories. But we haven't seen any of this half as much as we've seen him getting hit on the head, so in the end that's how he's most remembered: a nice and serious guy that got hit a lot on the head.

A spin of series would give the fans a chance of really seeing all that and understanding Jason (and other characters like Reyna and Thalia) better. And, again, it might be simply because I'm a huge MCU fan, but I truly believe that if we got to meet the roman characters and camp before HOO the feeling of seeing those worlds collapsing together and interacting would be so powerful!!

In the books what happen is that we see characters that we don't know yet (therefore don't like yet) arriving at a place and meeting characters that we already love, and then in the second book is the opposite, we see a character that we already love arriving at a place and meeting characters that we don't know yet (again, therefore don't like yet). But if we got to meet everyone separately all we would feel right away is excitement!

I’m not in any way trying to demerit the books!! It’s just that now with the series we have the chance of doing something new, of really adapting this story to a new media format in the best way possible! And, since the spin-offs would be original stories, the writers and Rick not only would have the opportunity to create more freely but also to surprise the fans who had read the books already.

I’ve been sitting on this Idea since the Disney+ show was announced and I know the odds of it happening are pretty low, but I decided to share this idea with othe people who also loves these books so we can freak out together.

[nerdyvocals]

Need to know your thoughts on Cynthia putting on that jacket when they get home from the dance. Cause I have a couple theories which both might be false.

1. The jacket is their father’s jacket and Cynthia needed some type of love so put the jacket on for comfort.

2. The jacket could be what Cynthia wanted to wear to the dance…

Would love to know your thoughts on this scene.

Hooo boy I am so glad someone asked me specifically about this, because I am actually very qualified to talk about it!!!

If you don't know me; Hi, I'm Levi, I am a theatre student, I'm currently working toward a degree in costume design and technology, and I have Big Opinions on clothing. Before I actually start talking about said opinions, let me first give a quick rundown on Costumes 101. Disclaimer: my education has been largely in the realm of stage production, but in Costume Land there is a very large overlap between stage and screen, with the main differences being on the technical side, which I will get more into later. That said, given the genre and tone of this show, my stage knowledge will apply.

And a word of warning: this anon has released a beast and this is going to be a long post, therefore I am putting my analysis under the cut. Also, apologies to those I tag, just want to make sure images and gifs get their proper credit.

Now, first and foremost, the purpose of costume on both screen and stage is to give insight into each character and passively tell a story. Therefore, nothing is coincidence and everything is intentional. Color, silhouette, piece, and style are all meticulously selected to bring a character to life and tell the audience who they are.

Example: In the live yesterday, Tricia Fukuhara mentioned requesting a beret she saw in the costume shop for Nancy, and while they did end up putting Nancy in several hats, she was told berets specifically were reserved for another character, Lydia. We do actually see another thespian with a beret, Alice (who IMDb tells me is played by Emilee Nimetz), which has... interesting implications, but that's for another post.

So let's see what we're working with here.

(gif by @stbot)

The first thing I notice is fairly obvious: this coat doesn't fit. That shoulder seam should be sitting right on the ball of their shoulder (think top of the shoulder cap); it's nearly halfway down their upper arm. Think it looks long here? Even when they're standing, it hits about mid-thigh. Not to mention that the sleeves themselves are baggy and way too long. They are swimming in this coat.

What does this mean? This coat isn't Cynthia's.

One could argue that it wouldn't be outside the realm of possibility that Cynthia would own an ill-fitting coat; given the time period, I imagine it would be hard for a girl to find men's clothing in her size. Except, for the most part, Cynthia's masc clothing does fit.

(gif by @greasegifs)

(gif by @wlwshipper)

(gif by @greasegifs)

(Image by @jealous-kippen)

Cynthia clearly has no problem finding men's clothing that fits. That said, there are technical reasons behind why a garment must fit beyond story-telling. Namely: actors' safety.

Out of any single one of Cynthia's looks, I would argue that this monstrosity:

(Image credit: promo shot)

would be the most likely candidate for ill-fitting garment, character-wise. Everything we know about Cynthia suggests that they aren't the type of person to buy a dress they will likely only wear once (i.e., they are poor: single-parent home, always hungry, excitement over free food (Buddy's campaign candy), and it appears that they live in an apartment).

All this to say, it would make sense for this dress in particular to not fit, and yet, it does. Why? There's a dance scene. While the hand jive itself is not a particularly intensive dance move, Ari is standing on tables, climbing on cars, jumping, crouching, all manner of things that would be dangerous to do in a garment that was too big.

(Side note: I've seen quite a few people suggest that this is an old dress or possibly a hand-me-down from somewhere, or if anything, purchased second-hand. I have reason to believe it's not, but again, that's another post).

Of course, Ari, and by extension, Cynthia, isn't doing anything in the Coat Scene (tm) that would endanger them by wearing something too big. Even still, given their previous wardrobe, it's out of place. And like I said before, nothing is coincidence and everything is intentional. And why is it significant that the coat is too big? Because nothing else that Cynthia wears is.

Now, all this was a very long-winded way to say that this is Papa Zdunowski's coat. It's clearly not Cynthia's, and their dad is the only other person they live with. So yes, dearest Anon, your theory is most definitely correct.

Cynthia had just had probably one of the worst nights in their young life. Their friend group has fallen apart, they've messed up big time with their oldest friend, Richie has been arrested, and they're being forced to confront that they are queer. They come home to an empty house, either literally (dad's still at the shop and mom hasn't been there in a long time) or figuratively (dad's asleep, and mom hasn't been there in a long time). Either way, it's not like they can really talk to anyone about what's been going on with them. But they desperately need comfort. So what do they do?

They wear their father's coat like a hug and get drunk on the couch.

Thank you and good night.

(if anyone wants to hear the costume tangents I forced myself to avoid or just wants to hear more costume rants, feel free to hit up my ask box or dms. I chose this career for a reason and if you give me permission, I Will Not Shut Up.)

[accio-victuuri]

i’ve thought about whether i should bring up the topic again cause i’ve already mentioned it earlier this month when WoF trailer came out. at the time it seemed kinda insignificant and a reach but it is gaining some traction in the fandom again. as usual, if something is even close to being important, it will always show up and the meaning is gonna be clearer the days go by. as soon as WYB shared his character poster and that coin was so prominent, the cpn became more solid. during the trailer, we didn’t know just how significant it was to the point that it’s Wei Ruolai’s symbol. he is not only holding it, but tossing it kinda like how GG did in the vlog.

yes, this is universally, how people do a coin toss so it’s not like some niche gesture that only the two of them will know. however the key here is how close it appears between them. the vlog is released 3/2 and then the new trailer for WoF 3/6. the first bts for yibo as lai lai was also of him studying the coin with his colleagues. i know it’s highly unlikely that the vlog’s whole concept was a way to tease us with WYB’s drama. let’s give credit to where it’s due, xz and his team have always been really creative with how they present their content. maybe at this point, xz was already kinda into this coin and the team thought about integrating it into his vlog’s theme and story. at the same time, this also made GG somewhat become a messenger that WoF is coming soon, we just didn’t pick up on it.

one other favorite speculation i love is how some are saying that this could be the same coin WYB’s Wei Ruolai is using. 🪙 that WYB took one from the set or got one of his own which is similar and gave it to XZ as a keepsake. and i absolutely love the thought of XZ taking it with him to a foreign country to remember him by. kinda like how in the lacoste show, WYB was wearing a lacoste necklace, but inside was the 🦴 because he had to have it on him.

A coin is not as flashy compared to if GG suddenly shows up with a jewelry on him and use it consistently like WYB does. This kind of lowkey thing to remember someone by is so on brand for GG. I also remember GG sneakily mentioning WYB’s character in one of his weibo posts that was shared last year, 3/5! What a coincidence! Why GG thought of (allegedly) giving that clue may mean Wei Ruolai is a character of WYB he is fond of. 🤍 think about it, at the time the vlog was released, no one knew about this tidbit about WYB’s character. that in itself holds weight for this cpn.

Let’s see, maybe this coin will show up again in GG’s vlog or whatever — by that time, we will know that is has more significance than a random vlog prop.

P.S: If you haven’t already, don’t forget to reserve WoF over at IQIYI App. Let’s support WYB’s new drama!

source.