#and if they’re already associated with dragon features

[lordkingsmith]

@augment-techs

Birth from a Serpent’s Egg: According to certain traditions, the basilisk is believed to be born from a serpent’s egg incubated by a rooster. This unusual origin story contributes to its hybrid nature and may be associated with its deadly qualities.

Rooster Characteristics: As a result of its supposed birth from a serpent’s egg incubated by a rooster, the basilisk may exhibit rooster-like qualities, such as a comb on its head or other features associated with roosters.

Flight: In some depictions, the basilisk is described as having wings, enabling it to fly. This dragon-like characteristic adds to its mythical and supernatural nature.

-

Useful page I was referencing last night. Normal human!Spike’s an orange or a gold and a normal bird, probably a bittern. But putty!Spike for the angst with Thrax is a green hybrid snake-bird that is the basilisk. Born of a snake’s egg incubated by a rooster. It really kinda lines up with him. Especially with having the features of its true nature and the features of its rooster parent

[alligator-tearzz]

R.I.P Van Der Linde Gang 💔 You would have loved:

(seen a few ppl do this,, if you started this definitely lmk and I’ll credit u !!)

updated to add Kieran and Sean

Dutch - Self help books, those podcasts where people give you terribly incorrect health information and claim that they’re doctors

Uncle - The massage chairs in malls, Frank Gallagher, insane reddit stories that definitely never happened, scamming disability cheques from the government

Abigail - iPhone’s share your location feature, the Parent Teacher Association, audiobooks

Arthur - Remote control racing cars (aarwh it’s a toy boat!), the catch and cook youtube videos, Cowboy Carter by Beyoncé, free healthcare mayhaps…..

John - Maury, The sassy man apocalypse on TikTok, Sitting and watching Bluey in a trance with Abigail after Jack has already gone to bed

Miss Grimshaw - Supernanny, Judge Judy, Spas, Massages, Bear Grylls probably, Bed Bath and Beyond

Sadie - Streetwear, absolutely bodying men on FPS games, Rage rooms

Charles - Axe throwing to get the frustration out, wildlife protection acts, David Attenborough, ATLA

Javier - The head massage you get when you get your hair washed at the salon, edibles, Guitar Hero, collecting vinyls

Hosea - Game shows like The Chase and Deal or No Deal, Dolly Parton probably, cruises, community libraries where you take a book and leave a book behind

Strauss - Cryptocurrency, whatsapp scams

Mary-Beth - Wattpad, Ao3, Booktok, you name it. Those fanfic movie adaptations like After, 50 shades of Grey etc, Cottagecore aesthetic, Taylor Swift, TikTok edits, Bridgerton

Tilly - Those ‘Day in the Life of’ Tiktoks, Jazz bars, Chloe x Halle, cruises as well

Karen - How To Get Away With Murder, Bottomless brunch, Reality shows with a bunch of drama like Love Island or Married at First Sight, Ru Paul’s Drag Race

Bill - Mardi Gras, Brokeback Mountain 😋, Home Depot, probably, those giant American cars that are on the verge of being trucks, Call of Duty

Pearson - Those late night infomercials that show random kitchen utensils like a garlic mincer or a nutribullet blender, Reddit, Spending money on E-Harmony, standing in the club and staring awkwardly at a woman, Dungeons and Dragons

Lenny - Online self paced university, Jordan Peele movies, Studio Ghibli movies, Noise cancelling headphones, The Last of Us

Kieran - Animal crossing, Saddle Club, the Wikihow “how to talk to girls” page, taking horrible advice from tik tok just because the person who posted it sounded trustworthy, astrology probably

Sean - Getting drunk at local football games and heckling the other team, claiming he’s not into Karen’s reality shows but then standing there watching the whole episode with his arms crossed while asking her about every single person and their drama, would most definitely be famous for yapping on Twitter, Derry Girls would be his fave show

[literaryvein-reblogs]

do you have any tips for writing and creating creatures for a fantasy setting? (something similar to the monster hunter franchise)

Writing Notes: Fantasy Creatures

BELIEVABLE

Special character types are abundant in fantasies. Some examples are fairies, giants, ogres, dragons, witches, unicorns and centaurs. We love these characters because they are so different from what we find in our daily lives. However, a good author can shape the character in such a way that the reader has no problem believing that such a being could exist.

PURPOSE

Before creating your fantasy creature, ask yourself: What is the purpose of including this fantasy creature? The reason this is an important distinction is that it will determine how much information about your creature you’ll need. If they’re only in your story for the plot, you don’t need a lot of information on them—just what you need to move your story forward. However, if they’re in the story for a longer, more intimate reason, you’ll need to know things like how they move, what they like, etc.

SELECTING YOUR CREATURE

Selecting a creature may mean borrowing a previously-created animal from myths or stories that are familiar to your reader. Here are sample articles describing common fantasy species and mythical creatures.

Read widely: There are a lot of really interesting myths and stories out there with creatures that might fit your narrative.

Do the unexpected: If you’re going to go with a widely-recognized creature, don’t be afraid to put your own twist on it. This will help your story stand out among the crowd and put your own mark on the genre.

DEFINE THE BASICS

Name: Choose names that suit the world you are building. Consider the culture, language, and history of the fantasy realm the character is from. If you’re finding that you’re a little stuck with what to name the creature you created, it’s okay to turn to other sources. If you already have a fictional language in your story, you might want to create a new word for your creature. If not, you may use this site: www.fantasynamegenerators.com. They also have a generator specifically on Monster Hunter.

Age: Determine the age of your character and how it influences their perspective and experiences.

Race/Species: In a fantasy setting, characters can belong to various races or species. Consider the unique traits and abilities associated with each.

Here is a general checklist for character building, but it might also aid you in making your fantasy creature.

PHYSICAL TRAITS

Appearance: Describe your character's physical features, from their hair/eye colour, height, build, etc. Is it large or small? Can your protagonist ride it? Eat it? How is it killed? All of these will be useful when you describe the creature to your readers. Consider how these aspects tie into their background or culture. You do not have to completely describe your character. Allow the reader to establish a view of the character or use other characters to describe how your characters might look.

Clothing/Armour: The attire of the character can reflect their personality, status, or the realm they come from.

PERSONALITY

Personality Traits: Create a list of personality traits. Is your character brave, shy, sarcastic, optimistic, or reserved? Think about how these traits influence their actions and interactions.

Motivations and Goals: What does your character want? Their goals and motivations drive the plot and reveal deeper aspects of their personality.

BACKSTORY

Origin: Where is your character from? What is their cultural background? How do these factors shape who they are? Backstory is essential, however take note of where and what you introduce throughout the story development.

Significant Events: Highlight key events in your character's past that have shaped them. Traumas, triumphs, and experiences all contribute to their development.

INTELLIGENCE

This is important because it will define how other characters interacts with the creature.

If it’s a minor character, will your protagonist constantly need to be checking in with it and giving it direction?

Or is it able to function on its own with little maintenance?

SKILLS & ABILITIES

Magic or Special Abilities: In a fantasy setting, characters often have unique powers or skills. Is this creature tied to the magic of your world somehow? If so, what kind of magic? How can it use magic? What does this mean for the protagonist and their journey? Define the limits and rules governing these abilities. Set some limitation or something that can prevent the magic to be limitless – even superman has a limitation.

Skills and Talents: What is your character good at? Are they a skilled warrior, a talented musician, or a cunning strategist?

FLAWS & WEAKNESSES

Imperfections: No one is perfect. Give your character flaws or weaknesses that they must overcome or learn to live with. This is part of their growth and development throughout the story. The character growth need not always be positive, they can also become bitter through experiences.

Internal Conflicts: Explore the inner conflicts. These can add great depth to your character and the reader can get to experience the inner workings of the character’s thoughts. Internal conflicts can be moral dilemmas, unresolved issues, or fears.

RELATIONSHIPS

Family and Friends: Define your character's relationships. How do they interact with family and friends? Do they have allies or enemies?

Romantic Interests: If this is relevant, consider the romantic aspects of your character's life. How do they approach love and relationships?

CHARACTER ARC

Growth and Change: Plan the trajectory of your character's development throughout the story. What challenges will they face, and how will these experiences change them?

QUIRKS OR HABITS

Mannerisms: Give your character unique habits, gestures, or ways of speaking that make them memorable. This will help create differences in your characters.

Hobbies: What does your character enjoy doing in their free time? Hobbies can add depth and relatability.

TITLE

Titles or Roles: If your character holds a specific title or role in their world, define it. Perhaps it is a royal title, a knight, or a librarian. Titles can reveal a lot about a character, their traits and personality.

ENVIRONMENT

This is where your creature will be found in the wild.

An creature's environment is reflected in their bodies: moles without sight (unnecessary in the pitch-black underground) have excellent senses of smell and hearing.

Mammals that live in the ocean have blowholes and animals that live in trees have prehensile tails, long, curved claws, or sticky pads on their feet.

What your animal looks like will be informed by where they live.

Here's an article on The Psychology of World Building

AVAILABILITY

Is this creature widely found, like deer, or are they rarer?

What’s caused the abundance or scarcity in their population?

This will affect how your fantasy world sees the creature and how your reader sees the protagonist for interacting with it.

RELATIONSHIP TO HUMANS

Is your creature revered? A nuisance? An almost-forgotten legend? A vital part of the local people’s diet?

Knowing these things will help you to navigate your story.

If your protagonist wanders into a town and they’re tasked with taking care of a local pest problem, that’s one thing. But if they kill a creature in the woods and then wander into town with it, only to find out that this town worshipped the creature, that’s a whole other plotline.

Try to create characters with depth and complexity, allowing readers to connect with them emotionally. The more thought and detail you put into building your characters, the more vivid and engaging your fantasy world will become.

Sources: 1 2 3

Hope this helps! If you find it useful in your writing, do tag me or send me a link. I'd love to read your work.

[skyedancer2006]

Ok so Cookie Run hyperfix go brrrr I wanna talk about the Beasts for a bit :)

I’m absolutely loving these guys so far; they’re such good mirrors of each of the Ancient Heroes (especially Shadow Milk to Pure Vanilla, but that’s a topic plenty of people have talked about before lol). Them being negative flips on the Ancients’ virtues, showing how even things like Knowledge and Resolution can have harmful sides, is something I enjoy a lot, and I’m looking forward to what the game does with Eternal Sugar and Silent Salt once they release.

Right now though I want to ramble about their title: Beasts. Why are they called the Beasts? Aside from the mass destruction and chaos they caused, the name doesn’t seem all that fitting. They aren’t animalistic in any inherent way; they aren’t “mindless beasts” as the saying goes. They were former heroes and saviors that had a fall from grace.

I’ve seen some fan works giving them more beastly forms they can change into like the Dragon Cookies do. And if anyone knows me, you know I love a good old transforming/shapeshifting character! So I latched on to this headcanon real quick, cause honestly it would make their title make a lot more sense. Also it’s just cool :)

So, what sort of creatures would these theoretical other forms resemble? Time to analyze each character, their design inspirations, their symbolism, and more to determine this. This got long, so I’ll put it under a cut

Shadow Milk already has a very clear connection to snakes, both through the religious symbolism with the Garden of Eden (which is seen in his gacha animation via a snake eating an apple; image below), and with snakes often representing lies and trickery; Deceit.

So him being something snake-like is the obvious choice.

Mystic Flour is also relatively easy: spiders. There is an abundance of spider enemies in the Pagoda areas, with the boss of the first half being the Webbed Spider Queen:

This spider already bears a resemblance to Mystic Flour, with its abdomen having markings that look like her face and Soul Jam. It also comes out of Mystic Flour’s cocoon, which honestly looks like the stereotypical “spider cocooned its prey” depiction, background webs and all.

Mystic Flour cookie’s philosophy about enlightenment and letting go of worldly desires is heavily based on Buddhist beliefs, and spiders actually do have some symbolism in Buddhism and the Vedic philosophy from India. In the Vedas, spiders are depicted as hiding reality in illusion, similar to the illusory perfection Mystic Flour creates. And a spider web is a common way of explaining the Buddhist concept of interpenetration; all phenomena in the universe being interconnected. Less connection to Mystic Flour there, but I wanted to note it.

Burning Spice also has religious symbolism behind him, this time coming from Hinduism. He is heavily based on the destruction deity Shiva’s more wrathful depictions. In Hinduism, destruction is more of a neutral force; part of the balance of the universe along with creation and preservation (the deities Brahma and Vishnu respectively). Burning Spice being such a harsh inversion of that neutrality fits the Beasts’ theme of being twisted virtues.

Shiva has a few animals associated with him, such as bulls, cobras, deer, and the one most important for this discussion: the tiger. Burning Spice already has stripe markings on his arms, and his main follower that we see in the game is Nutmeg Tiger Cookie.

Making Burning Spice a tiger would be a bit odd because of Nutmeg Tiger’s existence as one of his followers, but the idea of a giant, wrathful, firey tiger is just too perfect for Burning Spice in my eyes. Maybe add in some bull features to make him stand apart a bit more.

Eternal Sugar and Silent Salt I can’t really do much with yet since we don’t know anything about them other than their respective corrupted virtues, being Sloth and Silence. Eternal Sugar’s design seems to have an Angel and Devil theming, so perhaps some sort of bird? And Silent Salt I have absolutely no ideas for. I’ll have to figure these two out once they get added to the game and we learn more about them.

Anyways, hope yall enjoyed this silly analysis thing :) Also take a bonus doodle of snake/dragon Smilk that we did before making this post and that inspired us to write it in the first place lol (design still being workshopped; looking at him now we really should have made his hair into a cobra hood)

[raayllum]

9.2k wordcount for chapter 3, featuring more set up, some heavy handed chess and apple symbolism, and burgeoning plot progression

The Associate Crow Lord brought the mail in breakfast, which was an overall normal occurrence. Most of the time, none of them received any mail except for Ezran, which Opeli would swiftly put in a stack off to the side to be addressed post-meal, but occasionally there had been a couple of letters for Callum, largely in communication with officials from Xadia about certain texts or magical items he could get his hands on for studying purposes. A few times there had been proposals from other noble families that had snuck through, but those had been returned unopened even before Rayla had come back, and he certainly wasn’t going to open them now.  There was the usual assortment for Ezran, maybe a few more than usual, and then the Associate Crow Lord nervously held one out to Rayla. “For you, uh, my Ladyship.” It was a title that had been bestowed only after the wrongful arrest, and Callum knew the only reason Rayla didn’t scoff was because she was too surprised. “For me?” “Is it from Evenere?” Callum asked. The seal looked Lux Aurean gold, not Evenerean green. “No.” Faint, familiar light emitted briefly from the parchment as she opened it. “It’s from New Aurea.” “Already?” Ezran inquired. “We just wrote them yesterday—” Rayla shook her head, eyes quickly scanning the letter. She went paler with every word and Callum did his best not to stare; he’d never seen her like this. Fearful, yes, but not frightened . “No. They’re... they’re asking me about a Moonshadow folktale. It’s nothing.” It was not nothing, but Callum wouldn’t push it. Not in front of everyone.  “If you say so,” Ezran said a tad uncertainly, sighing when he turned his attention to the stack of scrolls in front of him. He looked to Opeli. “Nothing from any of the elven representatives of the dragons yet, either?”

[just-jae]

The Quiet Misogyny of OC Artists [commentary/study]

This is a fantastic video wherein data is gathered on gender favoritism and bias in creators against women characters.

Not only did I find the results surprising and disappointing it also helped me reflect on my own work. 

As a reminder, this video essay and interpretation of it’s data have nothing to do with judging people as people (whether they’re good or bad or actively hate women etc) rather it’s about creativity bias.

Mind you, I’m a black, androgenous woman myself who has also struggled with internalized racism and sexism. and I KNOW I struggle with it. When I was younger I grew up around mostly white peers and much of the media I watched centered white male characters (and if they weren’t canonically white, me being a preteen in 2010′s America, definitely interpreted them as white. I vividly remember the moment I realized many anime characters were meant to be assumed as japanese but didn’t do out of their way to “look” japanese bc japanese was already the assumption.

Consequentially when creating characters, most of them where white (if not white coded) or male even if the stories themselves featured a female protagonist. When I did make black or female characters I was only doing so for diversity, as in, I’d notice that all of my characters were white or male and go “Oh let me sprinkle in some who are different.” as an after thought.

The first black character I’d ever created was an antagonist, and a literal other. It was a society of people with bird wings, and this one black character was an outsider, had dragon’s wings and was a political enemy warrior who hated rules and refused to wear a shirt.

Mind you this could be a very well thought out character, but I was like, 12. It was NOT thought out or tasteful.

I actively struggle to see a woman or a minority character as having potential, depth, nuace, or even diverse possibilities.  I was disinterested in women characters specifically bc it felt like they couldn’t have depth. I had been conditioned to define being a woman (or a girl) as a very specific kind of character. Meanwhile it felt like I could do literally anything I wanted to with men characters. And as someone who already didn’t find appeal in femenine culture as a person irl, It pained me to have to write or drawa a “woman” bc it felt like I had to write or draw things I already hated being around and didn’t find interesting at all (grew up with a lot of toxic femininity and misogyny)

I absolutely love this video bc from what I understand, a lot of the artists online ARE women, girls, and minorities. And it’s so interesting to see actual proof of this phenomenon.

Mind you, many new shows in the past decade have been much better at having rounded and nuanced feminine characters (and usually the story is also VERY queer).  LoL: Arcane absolutely blew complex the concept of diverse, nuanced, complex and interesting female characters out of the water. 

And honestly the frustration expressed in this are the very frustrations I’ve grown up with when I saw women in media or “genderbends” where people would take a character and make them a different gender by changing things that have nothing to do with gender.

So yes I have been literally forcing myself to write more women and non-white characters, but specifically writing them the same way I write men. And honestly I’m finally starting to actually love my femnine characters more for it. And bc of that femeninity itself and the parts that I actually like and find interesting also get to breathe instead of being shackled to and strangled by that horrid mangle of toxic femininity and misogeny that I associated it with for so long.

[somebodys-somebodies]

Giving this to a couple of the Entities when they have time, I’ll leave it in the drafts until at least Ruger has had a chance to answer, and hopefully Shekel, cause those two would like it I think. I’d also love to see Damian respond to get to know him a bit better, but I know technology is not his thing. Not sure if Pitt or Rocky or Grey will be interested but they would be neat as well <3

Ruger:

1. Despite already being an alter, I’m a therian! I have my own human body in the inner world who is a therian. This confuses our host. I find that funny.

2. I’m a Rottweiler!

3. Sometimes I feel more dog like than others, but it’s usually a gradual change.

4. I stress everybody out because I eat a lot when fronting and usually we have trouble with food (but I am always so so hungry and I will always be so so hungry)

5. They seem neat! I don’t front enough to make friends but they’re cool

6. I have a collar with a tag that says beast on one side and whore on the other, and I love it.

7. Nah. We vibing. This is also something that confuses the host.

8. Find what brings you joy.

9. See collar mentioned above

10. I exist as a creature of passion and greed to balance out the system’s prevalent fear of appearing too needy or demanding or excessive.

Shekel:

1. I don’t have any particular association with the body so I don’t use specific terminology. In the inner world I’m an abandoned mutant/laboratory experiment.

2. Types of animals? I’m partially a person and partially a wolf, although some of my features are a bit more horse or dragon like.

3. I don’t shift, although Jay (our host) says I have a very vivid feeling when I switch in and can fuck with his perception of the body if that makes sense?

4. I don’t do much life outside of the inner world so it doesn’t effect me much, but I prefer wearing fur and eating fish when I’m fronting, stuff like that.

5. I don’t engage with strangers, I’m one of the boundary focused alters - others like Rocky love making friends and getting close to people, but some of the others and I have to mitigate that by being inherently suspicious and fast to push people away. In other words, the community looks very nice but I don’t trust anyone enough to engage much.

6. Unironically, werewolf smut is nice and feral and affirming. I also like that the body is used to walking on its toes, the way my legs are built doesn’t translate well to a human shape and being up on the toes is one of the only things that feels right.

7. Always. The body is a foot and a half shorter than I’m supposed to be, it’s the wrong shape, I don’t have fur or claws or ears. The only things that are right is the set of my shoulders and the fact that I’m bipedal.

8. Be fierce, but be kind. Love hard, but don’t force yourself to be tame.

9. My fur vest helps, and we technically have a tail, but I don’t get too dysphoric about the lack of a tail so I don’t usually use it. I want claws.

10. We suspect I’m a knockoff and divergent version of Wolf from The Lunar Chronicles, and while even in the internal world I’m not built to be good at fighting, I’m pretty sure I exist because we felt powerless and needed someone feral enough to protect us.

Pitt:

1. I consider myself nonhuman.

2. I am an angel.

3. I do not shift or change.

4. In the inner world I am blind, so seeing is a challenge when fronting.

5. N/A

6. Having our glasses off helps.

7. Not particularly. I miss my wings when fronting sometimes.

8. I have no advice.

9. No, it wouldn’t be enough.

10. In a way, I have the most religious trauma since I was a part of it, a part of god, and now I am cast aside. I formed so that Jay doesn’t have to feel guilty over what he has been through. He is not alone. I will keep him company.

Grey:

- I don’t know what categories there are. I’m just…. Here, and not remotely human.

- I’m a forest cryptid and my physical form is somewhat close to a wolf with something Wrong with it.

- my form… wavers sometimes, but I don’t know if I’d describe it as a shift.

- I don’t front much, but when I do I’m the second most likely to be nonverbal and the most likely to snarl/snap my teeth/bite anyone who crosses my boundaries (that unfortunately are much stricter than the boundaries of most of the others)

- I know nothing about the community.

- I’m very nocturnal, so I tend to stay up and Lurk in the dark.

- I don’t feel dysphoria. My true corporeal form is unable to fully contain me so it makes sense that this human body can’t either.

- to new alterhumans: if growling is the best way you can express your boundaries in the moment, it is a valid method and it’s not your fault if people don’t understand.

- I don’t need gear.

- long ago there was a boy that was hungry. His teeth grew long and his heart grew inky and his hands grew claws. The forest shoved into his soul, ripping it open and pressing inside. The boy has been hungry so long he cannot feel it - but if you try to take his food from him the wolf he became will shred the flesh off your bones.

Damian:

I don’t know shit about dick so who knows

I’m a demon

I don’t shift

I don’t live everyday life

I didn’t know there was a community

I think hitting someone with my car would feel good but I am not supposed to try that

I have a vivid sense of self but I don’t feel uncomfortable inhabiting this body, my true form overlays it in a way so it’s kind of like a possession and feels perfectly fine

I’m pretty sure any advice I have to give is not something Jay would let me say

It would be fun to have synthetic teeth, but I don’t think anyone could make teeth that actually match my true form

I came from hell to fuck around :)

(So much barking) Rocky!!!

1. Ohhh!!!! There are categories?? That’s awesome!! :D I dunno

2. I’m an Australian shepherd mix!! Not really a therian or anything, I’m just A Doggo :]

3. I don’t shift I just am ^-^

4. Uhhhh idk!!!

5. I LOVE COMMUNITIES BC I LOVE PEOPLE PEOPLE ARE THE BEST

6. Wiggling around and barking and stuff!!

7. … :D … I have never felt a bad feeling in my life!!

8. Hiiiiii I love youuuu

9. I have a collar and a tag with my name on it!!!!!!

10. Uhhhhh I exist to wiggle and bark and love people!!! ^-^

If you are an alter/nonhuman, reblog and answer these questions!

(don't be afraid to write a lot, do what you want ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯)

1/ Which category of alterhumanity do you belong to?

2/ What/who is/are your type(s)? (if you have any)

3/ Do you experience shifts? If so, can you tell us your most common shifts and your strangest cameo shift (if you've ever had a cameo shift)?

4/ How do you experience your alterhumanity in everyday life?

5/ What do you think of the community?

6/ What are the things that make you most comfortable and euphoric in your alterhumanity?

7/ Are you experiencing species dysphoria?

8/ What advice would you like to say to a young alterhuman who has just awakened?

9/ Do you have/want to have gears?

10/ Do you know/have any theories about the origin of your alterhumanity? If so, tell us! (all beliefs are legitimate)

11/ Tag someone/a creature to answer these questions!ㅤᵕ̈

[moplayspoke]

Let’s be real here…

I never want series/movie adaptations of my favorite books because they would have to cut so much out that the story itself loses its soul (looking at you Harry Potter series).

Game of Thrones diverged completely from canon and had the shittiest ending of all time.

House of the Dragons works because it started mostly as a novella-like factual series of mini stories. The writers/directors have more creative control.

And it’s impossible to get the perfect face, the perfect voice, and charisma of certain main characters. Impossible.

Rhysand? Ain’t no fucking way he will be casted “correctly”. No one will be happy. I hope it doesn’t make it to air either because they will butcher it outside of any action scenes.

And I will NOT be watching Fourth Wing if it ever makes it to air. I know something about it will piss me off too much. There is already talk of cutting important scenes.

And Xaden will be casted poorly. The man is described as the sexiest man alive with tawni skin (and bronze features) and a perfectly angular face. There is no fucking way they’re finding anyone to fit his shoes.

Violet, on the otherhand, is an easy cast in my opinion.

The fact that book fans already argue about which race Xaden is most closely associated with already tells you NO one is going to be happy with his casting.

And THAT’s only his looks.

His personality is more complex.

He’s supposed to be a grumpy, broody young man who is good at playing an asshole and even better at hiding his true emotions (but not completely).

His actions have to be purposeful but not without some edge to it that you can tell when something about him is *off*.

His feelings have to be extremely subtle to the point where only those who know him WELL can identify them. His ticks. His tells. Etc.

That’s fucking hard to pull off. And there’s no way in hell they will be able to find someone who emulates all of that in one actor. No fucking way.

[emsartwork]

Originally phoenix but it overlapped too much with the bird aspects of harpix so instead its now COATLNIX!! primarily named after the Xiuhcoatl fire serpent of Culhua-Mexica (Aztec) lore. I ended up kind of combining the phoenix and the xiuhcoatl and weirdly some aspects of Hephaestus for this. I have no idea where my brain originally wanted to go lol. 

lore and design notes and stuff below as usual

So just like Sirenix, Harpix, and Dryadix, Coatlnix is earned through a quest. Elemental quests are traditionally initiated through the corresponding elemental companion, but a “cheat code” exists in the Elementix Compendium to kickstart each of the quests with out a companion (if the fairy already has Harmonix obvi). The Coatlnix quest is. weird. A lot of the fire/energy associated ethereal magic doesn’t have a super concrete element to work with in the magic dimension, so the quest is less about obtaining physical objects and more about using magic to manipulate objects. The Coatlnix quest requires a fairy to take a small piece of metal, wood, stone, or other natural elements (metal is traditional) that can be transformed by fire. They put the chosen item in the middle of a cardinal direction magic circle. The fairy then has to focus their magic and send four tendrils of magical flame through the cardinal directions to the item. The goal is to transform the item into a Coatlnix Ingot. this sometimes takes Fairy several tries, especially if they haven’t studied witch-style spell casting. After the fairy succeeds, they present the Ingot to the Source of Coatlnix on planet Magix. and it takes shape as part of the neckpiece/armbands in the transformation. Unlike like the sirenix pearls and harpix feathers, there are no riddles to solve to get a seed, instead Coatlnix is more like Dryadix. The Elementix Compendium discusses mineral selection, smithing, glass blowing, wood burning, and proper ritual magic techniques. There is still some kind of virtue trial in order to get the ritual to actually be effective but its literally just like. attention, perseverance, dealing with frustration, etc. 

Design! I’ve described Coatlnix/Phoenix before when talking about Daphne and the elementix here and largely I did stick to the original aesthetic. I didn’t cross the fabric and the metallic bodice as much as I wanted but that’s just how it happens sometimes  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ . So Coatlnix features! Hair turns into fire in the fairy’s magic colors and mimics the fairy’s natural hair texture, the eyes are also completely color filled. A metal neck piece matches the wrist/hand bands in shape and color.  A metallic, segmented, bodice with dark edging. The skirt is pale loose fabric, it can be multiple pieces, looped, tied, bunched and occasionally attached to the bodice. All feature safety shorts underneath because that’s important to me lol. Shoes are metallic strappy sandals. A sheer piece of fabric streaked with metal flecks is attached at either the wrists or the fingers and usually goes up the back to attach to the bottom of the bodice or the neck piece (in between the wings). The wings are very glowy, and resemble feathers in flame. So for biological reactions, Tecna has a little, Stella is about average, and Bloom is.... unique. because she’s Bloom. The bio changes mimic the Coatlni. Fairies gain a feather crest, feathered collar bones, flat scales on the breast bone, regular scales on the hands and lower legs. The hands/feet also gain talons and the feet extend to become more digitigrade. While the least human looking of the elementix inspirations, Coatlni still have a human-esc consciousness and create their own impressive communities on the shelves of volcanos. They look like snakes with feathers and two small arms. The feathers are actually more like extended, flexible, scales, they’re very shiny and gem or metal like. 

 (Sketchy coatlni below, im iffy on the wings) 

BLOOM. So bloom is real wild in this one because she has the dragon flame attached to her core. With out the dragon flame she would look a lot more like stella (gonna do a Daphne set eventually or you can go to my patreon to see a sketch version of nodragonflame!bloom) So bloom gains more dragon like features than Coatlni ones. horns, fangs, dragon ears, larger taloned hands and feet, feathered flame on her forearms and calves, more powerful dragon-y legs (as opposed to the smaller dexterous coatlni style ones), and more protective scale patches.

idk what im gonna work on next, maybe cosmix? maybe elementix witch forms? feel free to let me know what you’d wanna see lol 

[dailyadventureprompts]

Player Home: Tolva’s Hearth 

Home is where the hearth is. Be it cozy cottage, grand keep, or meager roadside fire, kindness and magnanimity will always stand against the cold and lonely dark. 

Setup: With their current adventure coming to a close, the harvest brought in, and snow looming on the horizon, it’s time for the party to start thinking about where they’re going to hunker down for winter. No sense trying to delve ruins high up in the mountains and risk getting buried under an avalanche, the treasure and monsters will be there come the spring thaw. 

Why not let them get used to their new home base during a restful bout of  cabining, letting them warm their feet, prepare for future festivities in the village, maybe get involved in a snowball fight or two? For whatever their need, Tolva’s hearth is there to provide, built with sturdy walls to keep out the drafts and deep cellars to ensure they’re well provisioned through the darkest months. 

Adventure Hooks

Why was such a quaint little cottage left abandoned for the players to buy/inherit/be rewarded with? Well, it might have something to do with the fact that the valley that the home and it’s associated buildings occupies happens to be within the territory of a particularly vicious dragon by the name of Ryngale, who scared off the previous inhabitants after devouring most of their livestock. Like most adolescent dragons, Ryngale spends whole months or years hibernating, awakening to raid and gorge itself for weeks on end. Just after the players have settled into their home, Ryngale ends up being awoken by a group of local hunters and terrorizes the surrounding forest and settlements desperate to find something to feed on in the lean winter months. 

There’s a door in Tolva’s hearth that just won’t stay closed, as each morning the party finds that no matter how securely they barred it, it’s always furled open, letting snow, bone-chilling wind, and once a very daring wolverine into their home. The culprit of this constant disruption is a housefey by the name of Skelter, who took up residence in the hearth after it was abandoned. Skelter is mousey and shy, and is so conflict adverse that he’d rather try and drive the party out by being a nuisance then actually introduce himself to his new housemates. 

While moving themselves in to their mostly furnished new domicile, the party finds an old, weathered table in one of the basements. Long enough for an entire family to sit at, it appears to have been carved with what can only be a treasure map leading up into the mountains. Surely they can wait for the passes to clear and the soul-stealing blizards to die down before they set off in search of buried riches, right?......Right?

If you’d like to use Tolva’s Hearth as a break between major campaign arcs, consider running a small number of oneshots framed around the idea of the party and their winter visitors telling stories around the hearth, allowing you to dial in on different aspects of worldbuilding. These stories can be anything form personal flashbacks to fantastical fables to local legends, perhaps even allowing other players to run for short adventures of their own. 

Features & Upgrades: 

Players who explore the grounds around Tolva’s hearth will find a number of charms and bells hung between the trees, providing an already festive charm to their new home.  These trinkets are however part of a now deteriorated ward that covers the entire property. If the fallen sections of trinkets are salvaged from the dirt under the snow, or replaced, the whole property becomes affected by the Hallow spell, granting resistance to cold, immunity to fear, and lessening inclement weather that falls upon the area. 

The valley around Tolva’s hearth is famed for it’s hunting, providing bountiful meat and furs throughout the year. Or At least, it’s supposed to. Unsurprisingly having a dragon use the area as it’s personal buffet every other year has affected the local wildlife. Slaying Ryngale will have the area flourishing in no time, and may even lead the party into some more fantastical hunts later on

Investigating a derelict (seemingly haunted) building deep in the woods reveals a generations old attempt to set up a sugarshack, a processing house for  making delicious sugar and syrup from the numerous maple trees that fill the valley. Fetching the right materials and hiring workers could take some time, but it could lead the party into a lucrative side gig and a lifetime supply of pancake toppers. 

[ur-typical-nerd]

(finger guns) I got you buddy-

Capsaicin/Kouign Amann/Prune Juice: Already gave you my ideas for her!

Dark Cacao/Pitaya: My first instinct for them is “rowdy warrior”, but that feels too easy. Then I remembered that dragons are lizards, and lizards are cold-blooded. Would that make sense in canon? Probably not. Is it still really funny? Yes. So my interpretation of Dark Sapote is a big, sleepy lizard who can kick butt as efficiently as their dad. Spends most of their time trying to stay warm and sleeping, though. They’re much rowdier in warmer temperatures…which they don’t experience often.

Golden Cheese/Ananas: I like the wing arm idea! As for ideas, I personally see them as a treasure hunter. It feels like the natural combination of Golden Cheese’s golden aesthetic and the dragon’s association with treasure. As for personality, they probably have a bit of an ego (can you blame them considering their parents?), thinking they know more than they actually do, and reckless. They probably give their mom Golden Cheese multiple heart attacks per day lol-

Coffee Candy/Baguette: For buns (if you haven’t already thought of it), maybe try putting them on the sides of the head Princess Leia style? Hat’s cool too; that could be a really cute little hat. As for personality/ideas, they’d probably work at the TBD like their parents; maybe as someone who investigates weird time stuff? Probably super curious and determined, probably gets into trouble because they didn’t think about the consequences first.

Financier/Pistachio: Maybe knight? I dunno, that’s all I could think of. As for personality, maybe a bit more cheerful and relaxed to contrast their parents? I don’t know, I’m struggling with this one.

Milk/Black Raisin: Traveling adventurer/survivalist! It combines Black Raisin’s whole survival thing and Milk’s traveling adventures with Purple Yam! They probably have a few scrapes and scratches due to their adventures and a huge backpack. They’re probably really sweet and cheerful like their dad while being very survival-savvy and perceptive like their mom. Not really related, but I like to imagine that they’ll occasionally find a raisin crow and begin chatting with it because it makes them feel like their mom if on their travels with them.

Esterhazy/Earl Grey: From my perspective, there are two ways you can go about their design:

Extra big Cookie with lots and lots of fluff, fangs, and other werehound features.

A normal cookie that can shift into a cake werehound a la Werewolf Cookie.

Either way, they’ll probably be a bit unintentionally intimidating. As for personality/ideas, I personally see him as either a polite, formal yet friendly individual that tends to bottle their negative emotions (mostly anger) or a rebellious little punk with a short temper. Either way, anger issues are a main crux of their character. They’re probably real strong (because werehound…DNA? Do cookies have DNA?) but can usually control it well and use it in their work (maybe bodyguard?). 

Licorice/Royal Margarine: I think I might have suggested this before, but they could be an animal trainer/beast tamer because of Buttercream and Licorice’s minions. As for personality, they’re either going to be a) trying to be just a Normal Guy, or b) Weirder than both of their parents. Probably a bit of a weird animal lover. Also they need dark gold, flowy hair.

Alright, well I’m having trouble with fankids, and maybe asking for suggestions will help

I’ll try to keep the list shorter this time, and it’s just focused on character suggestions, not flavors. I already have names for the characters, so I don’t need suggestions there, just on what to do for the characters

Capsaicin/Kouign Amann/Prune Juice: all I got is Bloody Mary and that they’re probably female

Dark Cacao/Pitaya: Dark Sapote, but that’s it

Golden Cheese/Ananas: Golden Kiwi, and that they might have feathered wings and/or winged arms

Coffee Candy/Baguette: Coffee Bun, and maybe a hat (also I cannot figure out how to put the buns on their hair without it looking like CC)

Financier/Pistachio: Florentine

Milk/Black Raisin: Sweet Milk

Esterhazy/Earl Grey: Medovik (also I have no clue how I’m gonna design this one)

Licorice/Royal Margarine: Butterscotch

I’ll just stop with these for now before it gets too long. I tried to not ask for the normal ones and go with relatively newer ones

[ahalal-uralma]

Types Of Dragons

A list of Dragons that fly in honor of Dragon Appreciation Day (but not really, I was already making this post and procrastinating). This is for fun and I’m not claiming to be an expert on the subject.

Dragon : Germanic & English, mostly

Art Credit: Ciruelo Cabral

Key features: Serpent-like, winged and has four limbs. Generally smooth or scaly, but can also be hairy. They are large with muscled bodies, most of the time, but they can vary in size.

Often known for their fire breathing, relaying earthly wisdom, strong sense of justice and hoarding treasure. If you’re lucky, one might share a tale of their youth or regale you with a poem…but, they’re terrible singers.

They have a vendetta against sheep. Most likely to be residing in a cave, mountain or holding a princess hostage in a castle tower for arbitrary reasons. They like to amuse themselves at the expense of love-struck knights. Don’t ever ask one whose bones are wedged in their teeth.

Also, low key might be allies with the princess or a sorcerer (or both, and sometimes they are the same person). Dragons love eating fish and collecting gold. They’re easily distracted by shiny things.

Some well-known dragons in various forms of media include Draco (Dragon Heart), Smaug (Lord of The Rings), Dragon (Pagemaster) and Toothless (How To Train Your Dragon) just to name a few of them.

Amphithere: American, Mexican, North African and European affiliations

Artist Credit: Sleeping Fox

Key features: A serpent with feathers. They are large, but unlike the dragon are more lithe in form. They are winged and limbless (usually). Often mistaken for the Wyvern who has two limbs. Their wings can be bat-like with feathers or entirely feathered like a birds. They are the most colorful and stylish of dragon-types.

They are known for divine power, connections to spirituality, wisdom, being gate keepers and draining the life force of foes.

They are masters of grudges and will block your path to heaven for staring at their food wrong. They are incredibly analytical and intuitive.

There are not too many known Amphithere’s in media outside of Dugald Steer’s Dragonology and specific Mythos.

There is the Aztec God Quetzalcóatl who is accredited to being the creator of wind and rain storms. Additionally, he is perceived as the creator of humanity.

He is the God of education, arts, agriculture and science. He gifted humanity with cocoa beans and chocolate.

You can continue to read more about him here, here, here and also here to start you off.

Please be respectful and use this knowledge for curiosity and appreciation reasons only.

Devotes may not associate him literally with dragons, which is why I consider him strictly to be the possible inspiration for the Amphithere mythos. According to my research, he is still worshipped by the Cora and Huichol tribes.

Anyway, this wraps up for part one. If you’re wanting to learn anything more specifically then you can apply your own reading and research skills at your leisure. ♥️

[chifuyusfingers]

Im obsessed with ur coloring in the boys tattoos works!! Could you do the reverse? Where they color in yours? With whoever u want!

~Tokyo revengers members Coloring Their S/O Tattoos.~

Mikey | Draken | Baji | Chifuyu

{Heya! I didn't put much into it but I hope you like it! And thank you though!}

----------------------------------------------------------

M i k e y

You had no hesitation letting him color your tattoos. “Have fun, babe.” You pinched your cheek and relaxed under the big tree you were both sitting under. Today you had thrown all your plans away just to be with mikey all day.

The wings on your forearm was now stained in hues of purple and green with accents of yellow. “So, besides today, how have you been lately?” Your gaze swayed from him to the inside of your eyelids as you were drifting to sleep slowly. “Okay, I suppose. School is annoying.” He laughed and your heart twinged with love.

You chuckled and looked down at your arm. "Mikey you done?" All you could hear was just a "hm".

“Let’s just rest for a little bit I'm tired.” You pushed the markers into the grass and your arm wrapped itself around his waist as you pulled him down and into your side. Mikey couldn’t fight it as his ear was filled with the sound of your mellowing heartbeat. Your fingers danced in his hair till you knew he was fast asleep.

You stayed awake just looking at his angelic features as the sight of your multi-colored arm shifted your focus. It was so meaningless to him but you loved it as you knew that it came from his heart and mind.

It was him– perfect.

~~~

B a j i

“Y/n! ” Baji called as he stepped into the large house. “I believe she's in the gazebo or her office, Mr.” One of the worked associates greeted baji at the front door. He grabbed the bags from baji's arms as he started walking. He was off towards the back of the house to find his fiancee.

“Y/n-!” he called as he rounded the corner of the house and into the back yard. The gazebo was empty. He stopped and stared for a moment. He was sure that this is where she'd be.

“Up here, my love.” A voice said as he looked up to see Y/n at her office balcony. “Hey there” he waved as your eyes squinted in a smile. “How was your day out?” you asked as you brought your teacup up to your lips. “It was okay~I have something to show you!” he called and held up a small shopping bag in his large hand. “I’ll be right up!” he raced back into the house and up the stairs to where you already stood waiting for him in the doorway to your office.

“What’s so amazing that you found today?” your eyebrow raised and he opened the bag quickly. “But first-” You interrupted you as you grabbed his face gently and gave him a passionate kiss. “What’s this for?” he asked as he continued to stare at your face lovingly. “Just happy to see you is all.” You smiled.

“Now, show mee.” he motioned to one of his hands that was stuck in the bag he held. He was brought back to reality and pulled the plastic package out of the bag.

“…Markers?” you asked and your tone of voice made him laugh. “Not just any markers. They’re tattoo markers. They’re safe for the skin.” He corrected you and you rolled your eyes. “You’re still on this?” You asked with an amused expression. “Of course I am! This was the deal and my love for you is way too much so.” he said shoving them into your hands so you could inspect the box.

You read the back and you had to admit he was right.

“You said I could color your tattoos IF I found tattoo markers. Safe for the skin and everything!” You knew he did it and that you had to hold up your part of the deal. “Okay fine.” You sighed as you handed the package back. “Yay! Beautiful Thank you!” He jumped and laid a gentle kiss on your nose.

“We can do it later before dinner.” You agreed.

—-

“Finally! You take forever.” He sighed as you moved your sunglasses up your nose. The grass tickled your bare legs as baji sat next to you. “I couldn’t help it. Chifuyu that jackass didn’t want to hang up the phone.” he stood on his knees and moved behind you. His hands gently rubbed your shoulders as your head fell in an exasperated manner.

“I hate to burst your bubble, Y/n. But, I called you out here for the deal. Not a massage.” You whined as you flopped down on the grass, your t-shirt lifting on your back.

“If this stains, I will make sure to throw out all color in your life. Your life will be a dull kaleidoscope-” “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever you say, you big baby.” He laughed and opened his pouch full of the tattoo markers.

He lifted the back of your shirt more till the full picture was revealed. A dragon with demons following was the full picture- a dark reality…that he were going to make colorful. What can he do he loves your tattoos so much.

He sat on his lower back and got to work filling in the different parts of the dragon. Every once in awhile you would spasm and try to make him mess-up. Yet, with a slight tug on your hair, you would become limp and obedient again.

“I’m almost done.” Was the phrase that almost made you weep with joy. “Finally.” You let it slip and you felt a tug on your hair again. “Ow.” You rubbed your head. You could feel him draw and move the felt-tipped weapons on his back.

“Finished.” He cheered and grabbed his phone to take a picture. He showed it to you and ombre scaled decorated the dragon with the demon’s faces were colored red and blue. It looked nice. You saw a couple of smiley faces hidden in there and felt like everything looked complete.

“Okay, my turn now!” You yelled and grabbed his arm. You struggled and pulled him to the ground and grabbed the black marker that was in his hand. “Y/n, no.” he said strictly. “This wasn’t apart of the deal.” He expressed. “Excuse me? Sorry, I don’t speak Japanese.” Your english rambled off quickly from your tongue. He decided to just deal with it as you took your time drawing a mustache on his face along with random doodles you could think of.

You finally stopped your antics and took a picture with your phone to look at afterward. “You look so cute, look!” You pulled up the picture and shoved it in his face. “I look gross man!” He ridiculed but you wrapped him up in your arms quickly,

“My gross man.”

D r a k e n

You were on your period and hell you were pissed, your mood swings were just making the situation more shitty.

Draken on the other hand was just trying to help you but every now and then you'd snap at him for absolute no reason. "Oi, can you stop whining for once?"

He said with pretty much no emotion at all. And that's all it took for you to break down in tears.

Draken was taken aback, "babe hey, hey, I'm sorry I didn't mean it like that please stop crying- I". “Wanna play tic-tac-toe?” He asked and you looked around, surprised he was asking. “Um-” He didn’t wait for an answer and grabbed your legs– pulling you closer to where he sat.

Draken took the permanent markers out which was on the floor for god knows why. You wiped the rest of your tears and grabbed the orange marker out of his hand. He lifted the sleeve of his long shirt and created the grid in black ink. “Wanna go first?” He asked and you took the opportunity to land an 'X’ in the grid.

“Fine. You win this tournament. But, I know I’ll win next time.” You said laying back and closing his eyes.

The bottom of your shirt lifted and he could see the familiar black ink on your side. “Stop staring at me like that, pervert. I have rights.” You pulled your shirt down and he let a laugh rip through your chest.

“Chill. I was just looking at your tattoo.” He said and you shrugged. “What about 'em?” You asked as his eyes closed once more. “Nothing. Just looking,” he sighed, “I wanted to be a tattoo artist before all of this.” One eye peeked open and you looked suspiciously at his figure. “Are you any good?"

Draken just chuckled at your question.

~~

“Give me one!” You lifted the side of your shirt and waited patiently.

He shrugged, finding nothing else better to do. You already had black ink staining your skin so he decided to add on. It was another simple dragon but it fit your character and personality perfectly.

Time seemed to slow as you tried to take a sneak peek of the masterpiece he were currently working on. You planned to take a picture later and get it done, yet, it would have to be in secret.

All of a sudden, the bedroom door popped open. “Welcome back to Earth.” Mikey greeted. He capped the marker and helped you up.

"Why are you here" You asked while getting up, "Rude Y/n Chan, I'm still gonna answer your question though POLITELY, Ken-chin called us here so that we can go on a short trip or something to make your day better. Right ken-chin". Mikey looked over at draken, "Right whatever, can we go now?" He looked over at you for your response and all you did was kissed his neck because of your damn height and tagged along behind Mikey.

“Woah. You got a new tattoo?” Hina said as she lifted up your shirt and you shooed her hands away.

“Eventually.”

C h i f u y u

"I GONNA THROW UP ON YOU WITH ALL MY MIGHT IF YOU TRY TO GET NEAR MY TATTOOS MISTER " You exclaimed loudly as he started following you like a lost puppy around the kitchen, where you were busy making your 'grilled cheese'.

"Babe C'mom little color won't hurt and it's not like I'm trying to bite your tattoos off-". " See, there you said it, you're exactly gonna bite my tattoos off" Chifuyu sighed having enough of your nothings, he suddenly back hugged you, you can feel his large hands wrapped around your hip.

"What do you think you're doing?". You asked as you turned around to see his face,

"If you're not gonna let me color your tattoos then I prefer to stick with you like a koala, and you sure as hell know I ain't letting go." Chifuyu said and you eventually gave up because you knew nothing will change even if you don't agree with fuyu.

So now here you are sitting on chifuyu's lap as he continued to color the wallflower on your shoulder. "You done?". "Hold on a minute babe it's almost over, -All done" Chifuyu replied.

You sat up and started making your way to the mirror to see what he actually did " Y/N!!! Wait" chifuyu voice said and you turned around to see your boyfriend running over to you.

"Wha-", before you could finish your sentence he lifted you up and threw you over his shoulder. "The actual fuck chifuyu, what did you do! PUT ME DOWN YOU ASS"

"It's just better if you don't see it ya know, and I'll make sure you don't see it until I leave" Chifuyu chuckled quietly as he continued making his way to your bedroom.

-------------------------------_-----_-------------------------------------

[strangerthings4theories]

Billy Is A Christ Figure, a.k.a. He Will Die And RISE AGAIN

This isn’t a radical statement. Literature and film teem with “Christ figures” who symbolically (or literally) die and rise again. Billy is just one of the Duffers’ additions to a long, venerated tradition.

Let’s dive in, shall we?

>>Billy’s story lines up with the Christ figure concept.

I really like how Christopher Lansdown explains it:

Christ figures in literature are - when done well - characters who relate to the rest of the story as Christ related to the world. [Salient features include...]

1. Saves the world from the effects of the misuse of free will. 2. Has a dual-nature where one of these natures is what allows #1. 3. Bridges the gap, in his person, between the two natures. 4. Sacrifices himself willingly for the sake of the world. 5. In sacrificing himself, takes the problems of the world into him and conquers them, thus saving the world from them. 6. Comes back from the sacrifice because of his other nature.

Billy’s storyline hits several of these notes already. First, he saves the world by sacrificing himself willingly. Second, he’s presented as having two natures: his corrupted monster-self (the bully in S2; the puppet of the Mind Flayer in S3) vs. his innocent child-self. (You could describe him as being human and divine too. I’ll get to that in another post.)

When he stands up to the Mind Flayer at Starcourt, he begins the process of integrating his two natures. That’s why he looks so childlike here: his innocent child-self is coming out for the first time in years.

All that’s left is for him to “come back from his sacrifice.”

>>The Duffers infuse Billy with Christ symbolism.

The most obvious example, imo, is the special necklace they gave him. The genius @aeon-of-neon​ figured out that his necklace is a Lady of the Pillar medallion - i.e., a depiction of Mother Mary with baby Jesus. 

On its own, the necklace tells an incredible story. It suggests Billy is symbolically the Christ child, and at some point his mother - symbolically the Virgin Mary - had the medallion blessed to protect her son. (I think we all recognize Neil wouldn’t give a shit about protecting Billy.)

The show reinforces that reading in subtle yet mind-blowing ways. In his last shot in S2, Billy is pictured in front of a Christmas tree. This associates him with the meaning of Christmas, which is the birth of a child who will save the world.

In the sauna in S3, Billy passes in front of a poster for the Hawkins Fourth of July parade. A lot of people have latched onto the “American” symbolism here (as they should - I’ll address that in another post). I’ve even seen people talk about the stars on the poster giving him a crown of thorns or saintly halo. But I haven’t seen anyone mention that the poster gives him a crown of stars like Mary, Queen of Heaven. 

"A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads." (Revelation 12:1-3)

Combined with the necklace, this small detail suggests his mother, aka the Virgin Mary, is watching over him as he battles the Mind Flayer, aka the Dragon.

Now look at this screenshot again--

See how prominent his necklace is in the frame? That’s not an accident. The Duffers had to direct and light this shot just right to achieve the desired effect. If you look closely, Dacre is standing in an awkward, unnatural position. I can practically hear the Duffers saying, “Shoulders forward, Dacre... a little more... now tuck in your abdomen and push your chest out... that’s it!” All while they’re trying to avoid getting too much light on the necklace. It needs to be well-lit but not washed out.

All that work was for a good cause. The shot suggests Billy’s mother is with him in his moment of sacrifice. He’s just reclaimed her memory, and now he’s honoring it as he lays down his life for the world.

Yeah, it hurts :)))) but there’s more to cover...

...such as Billy’s crucifixion poses.

The crucifixion pose is common enough in film that it gets its own entry on TVTropes. The first sentence of the entry? “It’s very common for a character who just performed a Heroic Sacrifice to be lying with their arms outstretched like the crucified Jesus.” 

We see that with Billy multiple times.

In the sauna, El lifts Billy in the air right before she deals the “death blow.” He hangs there for a moment, arms outstretched. My inner Christian teenager thinks of John 3:14-15: “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man [Jesus] be lifted up [on the cross], so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”

To really drive the point home, the Duffers put Billy in the crucifixion pose AGAIN, at the moment of his actual death, while he shouts at the Devil. (The Mind Flayer is symbolically the Devil/Satan. Stick a pin in that, we’ll come back to it at another time.)

The Mind Flayer then kills Billy by impaling him (Christ being impaled by the spear, anyone?), and Billy falls to the ground, arms outstretched yet again.

Guess who else dies sacrificially... and gets Christ symbolism at his moment of death?

It’s less obvious with Hopper; he isn’t shown with his arms outstretched. Instead, the Duffers give the crucifixion pose to Joyce right before she deals the “death blow.” She is in the pose on Hopper’s behalf.

Take a screenshot at the right instant, and the beams of electricity shooting out of the “key” machine even form a cross behind her. 

(This scratches the surface of another subject: the STRONG PARALLELS between Hopper and Billy. Stick a pin in that, too... *sigh*)

Well, guess what. We already know Hopper’s coming back. David Harbour even compared his return to the resurrection of Gandalf, the Christ figure of the Lord of the Rings:

"Gandalf the Grey who fights the Balrog and then becomes Gandalf the White. It’s the idea of the resurrection of the character. And mythologically, Hopper, in a sense, had to change. I mean, you couldn’t go on the way he was going on. He has to resurrect in some way. So it was a great opportunity to do that. So we’ll see a very different guy going forwards. The same guy but in a different vein.”

"[He] had to change... [he] couldn’t go on the way he was going on...” Doesn’t that describe Billy exactly?

»»————-　✼　————-««

Ugh, there’s a lot here, guys. I haven’t even touched on all of Billy’s Christ symbolism yet. I’ll have to save the rest for another time.

Until then, I’ll leave you with this very interesting song from Billy’s official Spotify playlist...

Muthafucka I’m back From the dead I’m about To raise hell Out of my coma I’m ready to show ya That season of my life is done...

»»————-　✼　————-««

P.S., all of this explains why Dacre proposed the idea that Billy’s mom was literally a virgin. It’s batshit crazy and makes NO sense... unless he and the Duffers were discussing Christ imagery for Billy.

»»————-　✼　————-««

The “Billy Is Alive” Meta Series

For updates, follow the hashtag #billy is alive meta

[redwolftrash]

SMP ideas

1. food + fantasy -- mods included would be:

- genetic animals (adds genetically realistic animals with a ton of features and more detailed, realistic sprites)

- ice and fire (adds dragons + associated items like their bones, their blood, their scales, armor you can make from them, etc.)

- mod that adds unicorns + pegasi? couldn’t find any recent ones

- crop/food related mods such as pam’s harvestcraft, wild crops, croptopia???

- idk maybe some cool weapon mods? i’ve never made an SMP, much less a modded one, and i went through hell getting RLcraft up and running so i’d probably need help

2. hellmare (inspired heavily by natillumi’s “minecraft but i turned it into a horror game” series) -- mods included would be:

- battle towers/towers of crazy death (adds those towers with the golem on top filled with cracked loot)

- YUNG’s better caves (cave overhaul that adds lava caverns, underground lakes and rivers, flooded caverns, etc.)

- YUNG’s better mineshafts (adds 13 biome variants for mineshafts, completely customizable mineshafts, abandoned workstations, workstation cellars, ore deposits at the end of tunnels with every vanilla ore, abandoned miners' outposts, and surface openings with features listed having variable rarity)

- better portals (adds the ability to see through the other side of vanilla portals, i.e. nether portals and end portals, and you can pass through portals without loading screens)

- bloodmoon (adds a blood moon with a 5% chance of happening; when it happens, more mobs will spawn and night, the spawn limit is increased, and mobs will spawn closer to the player but only on the surface; you can configure whether players/you are allowed to sleep through the blood moon night + whether mobs spawned during the blood moon vanish at dawn)

- camouflaged creepers (changes creeper textures to the block they’re standing on, essentially making them into chameleons)

- castle dungeons (adds procedurally generated castle structures)

- deadly world (adds mines, silverfish veins, lava pockets, and “things that shoot arrows everywhere” [???] using the blocks and features of vanilla minecraft)

- dimensional doors (adds doors that create portals when placed, rifts when the doors are destroyed, pocket dimension dungeons, monoliths, several fabrics of reality, and a limbo dimension)

- doomlike Dungeons (adds dungeons meant to look like doom dungeons)

- dungeons2 (adds procedurally generated, multi-level, customizable dungeons)

- dynamic lights (makes items that emit light illuminate the area around them if equipped or dropped)

- end reborn (adds some confusing stuff...i’m not sure how i can summarize)

- epic siege mod (adds customizable awareness radius for mobs, allows creepers to breach through walls, spawn charged, ride other mobs, and leave fire behind when they explode; disables beds; allows skeletons to have sniper-like accuracy; allows endermen to teleport the player they’re attacking; allows zombies to infect players so when they die, a zombie rises from their grave and allows them to dig and pillar up to players; allows all mobs to attack villagers with the abilities above, giving them a higher chance of wiping out villager and allows them to swim underwater; adds a chaos mode for mob FFA death matches; allows attacking mobs to divide themselves up between targets; gives mobs the ability to evade player attacks; allows spiders to web victims to the ground; allows for every feature above to be customized)

- eyes in the darkness (adds a mob called ‘eyes’ that giggle and can be removed by making eye contact or walking into them; allows eyes mob to become more transparent than they already are if the player has the night vision effect; allows eyes mob to become invisible if a torch is placed while the night vision effect is active; allows eyes mob to sneak up on players not looking at them and both jumpscare and them)

- general disasters (adds sinkholes, earthquakes, and volcanoes, all of which can damage the world around them)

- hardcore darkness (makes it so light level 0 is pitch black by removing minimum block and sky light)

- legend of herobrine (adds a variety of items, crafting recipes, structures, and a biome related to herobrine, as well as herobrine himself with multiple mob variants)

- mutant beasts (adds mutant versions of vanilla mobs; adds a spider-pig and a method to get it; adds chemical x, which is made with several mutant mob drops and is needed to make the spider-pig)

- netherEx (revamps the nether, adding new biomes, mobs, blocks, and items)

- optifine (optimizes minecraft’s performance and graphics)

- realistic torches (adds unlit torches that need to be lit with a craftable matchbox; torches will burn out after a configurable amount of time [60 minutes real time/3 in-game diurnal cycles by default] to encourage players to seek out more permanent light sources; makes it so torches are extinguished when rained on; makes it so torches generated in vanilla structures will be replaced by unlit torches; adds permanently lit torches that can be crafted using a glowstone crystal; makes it so blocks and items that create a light source will emit light when held (pre-1.14.4)) note: in natillumi’s gameplay, they find structures that have torches that are pre-lit and don’t extinguish. not sure how or why.

- recurrent complex (adds 200+ configurable structures; allows you to create, preview, and configure your own structure(s); adds randomized structure contents; replaces vanilla trees; allows you to generate structures inside of other structures; adds randomized, modular mazes; adds custom sapling spawns)

- rex's additional structures (~155 new small and medium sized structures)

- roguelike dungeons (adds large, underground, procedurally generated dungeon structures with loot)

- SCP lockdown (adds 120+ facility blocks, 50+ items including night vision goggles, 76 SCPs with revised designs (including functional items), a document crafting system to spawn containment chambers, a tiredness system that steadily worsens the more time is spent without sleep, and new potion effects)

- SRParasites (adds hostile, dangerous, and potentially frightening parasite-themed mobs that spawn in any biome and aren’t damaged by sunlight; adds parasite-themed mob adaptation system, reinforcement system, and merge system; allows parasite-themed mobs to attack other hostile mobs [optional])

- the midnight (adds a new biome called the midnight; adds crystals and new mobs as light sources in the midnight biome; adds rifters, a hostile mob that will drag you into the midnight biome; adds rifts/portals [depends on the version of minecraft you’re using with the mod], the former of which often has rifters nearby)

- twilight forest (adds the twilight forest biome, which can be accessed via a portal made of grass/dirt/podzol/mycelium in a 4x4 block frame with flowers/plants/leaves/mushrooms and water in the 3x3 square in the center with a diamond tossed into it; adds several dungeons; adds bosses and boss battles with elaborate mechanics; adds unique, functional treasure and loot)

- weather2 (adds localized weather; replaces vanilla clouds with dynamic, particle-based clouds; replaces vanilla rain and snowfall with a particle-based version that blows in the wind; adds rainclouds that build up moisture from water/moist biomes; adds stormfront system that uses biome temperature to create storms; revamped look of storms from predecessor mod; adds forecast block that projects active storms on a grid; adds machine block that can create various storm types at the location it’s at; adds deflector block that can destroy storms in a 150 block radius to protect player creations; adds wind vane and anemometer to show the wind’s direction and speed, respectively; adds GUI to configure the mod’s most common features; adds falling leaf particles and waterfall effects; adds sound effects for wind blowing through trees and waterfalls’ rushing water sounds; adds gradual, smooth fallen snow buildup [off by default as it’s apparently “memory hungry”]; adds layered sand build up; adds more intense visuals with fog and particle action)

- weeping angels (adds weeping angel mob that has 5 variants, can teleport you on contact to random locations/dimensions, has a creepy laugh that seems to play at random, has both music and suspenseful sounds that plays once one enters your vision, and can only be destroyed with a pickaxe or a chronodyne generator; adds a new item called the ‘timey wimey detector’ that alerts player(s) to nearby weeping angels; adds chisel that can change the appearance of decorative angel blocks, the angel’s pose, and the angel’s type; adds a new ore named kontron used in the ‘timey wimey detector’s crafting recipe)

[bakersstreetirregulars]

The Frost Witch and the Lantern in the Snow

🥐 …and she’s gone. You can never guess what Twizzly Gummy’s up to on the cusp of winter…

🍮 Winter already? Yay! Ginger Claus is coming soon! Actually, we have a lot to show you! It’ll be fun! Log in daily for the next couple weeks and get plenty of gifts along with a thousand free Crystals every day!

Super Mayhem: Frozen Domain

🥐 The Dragon’s Valley Season is now over, and the Frozen Domain season has begun right away! Don’t forget to collect your season rewards if you participated last month! As for this season, while the basic rules remain the same (see Carrot’s instructions on how that works from the previous update), new features have been added to make the battles more fiery on the snowy plains such as the introduction of a guild reward based on how EVERYONE in your guild ranks in at the end of the season! During every battle this season, you’ll be joined by Snow Elementals that’ll pelt the opposing side with snowballs! The first 2 teams will be joined by the Young Snow Elementals while your final team is backed by a Snow Elemental Golem!

🍮 What about the rewards?

🥐 You’ll rank in with more rewards when you increase your tier as follows:

Join the Season: Frozen Domain Competitor Profile Icon

Chocolate 1: 5 Mayhem Tickets

Bronze 2: 30 Level 3 EXP Star Jellies

Bronze 1: 200 Frost Crystals

Silver 3: 30 Topping Pieces

Silver 2: 5 Mayhem Tickets

Silver 1: 50 Level 3 EXP Star Jellies

Gold 3: 5 Time Jumpers

Gold 2: 30 Topping Pieces

Gold 1: 300 Frost Crystals

Crystal 3: 5 Mayhem Tickets

Crystal 2: 30 Level 4 EXP Star Jellies

Crystal 1: 3 Special Cookie Cutters

Diamond 3: 10 Time Jumpers

Diamond 2: 30 Level 5 EXP Star Jellies

Diamond 1: 2 Solid Almond M

Master 5: “Protector of the Valley” Arena Statue Design

Master 4: 30 Level 6 EXP Star Jellies

Master 3: 2 Swift Chocolate M

Master 2: 50 Level 6 EXP Star Jellies

Master 1: 2 Searing Raspberry M

Top 500: Frozen Domain Top 500 Profile Icon

Time Jumpers

Speaking of Time Jumpers… since we had such a massive surplus of them, I actually just got the go-ahead from the Director to make them known to everyone! They’re special mechanisms employed by the TBD to power their central Time Machine. If you have one, use it before entering a battle that you ALREADY COMPLETED to skip immediately to the end of the ordeal where you win the battle and reap all the rewards! There are a few clauses to their usage, however:

You must complete stage 4-1 in World Exploration to access them

Their use is limited to World Exploration (both Story and Dark Mode), Daily Bounties, the Tower of Sweet Chaos, and the Tropical Soda Islands

World Exploration stages can only be time-jumped if you already claimed all 3 stars from that stage in a previous attempt (where no Cookies were KO’d after you defeat every enemy in the stage and claim victory)

You can’t use them if you don’t have the resources to start a battle (Stamina Jellies, Bounty Challenges, Searing Keys, etc)

Wanna find more of ‘em? It’s no puzzle at all, and it’s actually quite easy! You can find them by completing events, exploring episodes 8 through 12 using the Bear Jelly Balloon, buying them in the Medal Shop, and by purchasing them in select packages (although such packages are limited in quantity and are priced very differently, so spend your personal funds wisely!)

Frost Crystal Gacha

🍮 Ooh, Ooh! Tell them about the story of Frost Queen Cookie!

🥐 Sure! Actually, we’ll need some Frost Crystals to advance the story past the introductions. Complete all 62 missions on this list and you’ll get enough Frost Crystals to complete the entire story and get to pull from the associated Frost Crystal Gacha 163 times! As for the gacha itself, it follows the same principle as the ones before it such as the ones for Pure Vanilla, Sea Fairy, and Hollyberry. Spend 100 Frost Crystals to pull once, or spend a thousand to pull ten times! You’ll have better odds at finding her compared to any other gacha currently available:

That’s 0.054% for regular gachas, 0.301% for the Frost Crystal Gacha for finding Frost Queen directly. For her soulstones, the regular gachas have a 0.308% chance, while the Frost Crystal Gacha banner has a flat 1%.

Watch out if you’re going to pull from that gacha, however, as the odds of finding Pure Vanilla, Sea Fairy, or Hollyberry there are all calculated to be exactly zero percent! There are no safety nets or guarantees for pulling ten at once compared to one pull. Your only guarantee is finding Frost Queen with a 100% probability on your 250th pull, and if you’ve been doing the math with me so far, that doesn’t add up to being able to find her on the Frost Crystal missions alone.

The daily login rewards AND Super Mayhem rewards give you a thousand Frost Crystals total, totaling in at 173 pulls for free as of now. You’ll have to wait for a secondary mission event later in a midway update, or buy them from packages to meet her under the 250-pull milestone.

Cotton Cookie & Frost Queen Cookie

Cotton Cookie is an Epic Cookie, and a young and hopeful shepherd that always seems to be longing for her special someone, and is also a Rearguard Supporter. Her special ability “A Warm Light” allows her to shine a lantern on her allies to slowly but surely heal them for a short time while also increasing the Attacking Power of allied summoned creatures (such as the Snow King, Licorice Servants, and Pompon). She also summons a herd of sheep that trample and stun enemies in their path before they fight alongside Cotton Cookie for a short time. Certainly a prime example of hope in their darkest hour, isn’t she? You can find her in a dedicated (and super-extended) Gacha banner with increased odds of meeting her!

Frost Queen Cookie, on the other hand, is a Legendary Cookie, a Magic Cookie, and a Cookie that stands in the middle of the formation. Her “Frozen Squall” casts an icy storm over the entire enemy formation, dealing damage and freezing EVERYONE for a couple seconds. Once they thaw out, they suffer even MORE damage that does even more harm than the initial storm ever did on top of what they already suffered unless the deep freeze is dispelled by another ally or treasure. As for Frost Queen herself, her heart is all but frozen, and she herself is immune to being frozen. Targets that were frozen will also have their cooldowns paused. You can either find her at impossible odds in any gacha banner, or attempt to find her in the Frost Crystal Gacha for improved odds.

Other Notes

Besides those two Cookies, Moon Rabbit and Raspberry Cookies’ soulstones have been added to the Mileage Shop. There are also a few balance changes that should be noted:

❄️ Snow Sugar Cookie is now more resistant to interrupting effects while using their “Blizzard” ability with their ability description updated to reflect that:

“While Snow Sugar Cookie is using their skill, they will briefly become resistant to interrupting effects.”

💀 Licorice Cookie’s ability description was updated to account for using his ability before any preexisting Licorice Servants disappear:

“If the skill is used before the existing Licorice Servants disappear, new additional Licorice Servants will be summoned.”

🪶 Black Raisin Cookie will now prioritize opposing Cookies first before summoned creatures when using her “Shadow Watcher” ability.

Topping Update Info

2 Extra Topping Presets for Cookies were added to the Sugar Gnome Laboratory at levels 7 and 8

Toppings can only belong to one preset at a time

You can now favorite toppings and assign them to one of four groups, where you can find them easier. You cannot break down favorited toppings

Changed the order of appearance of toppings of the same type, rarity, and level:

ATK > DEF > HP > ATK SPD > CRIT % > Cooldown > DMG Resist > CRIT Resist > Amplify Buff > Debuff Resist

Toppings with the same first effect will be sorted by the effect’s value in descending order

New Kingdom Arena/Battle Updates

With a 4th “beyond-Epic” Cookie being added, there is now a maximum limit of 3 Legendary/Ancient Cookies that can be used at once in Kingdom Arena and Super Mayhem (that means no, you can’t recreate anything regarding the Five Ancients in the Arena once all 5 are in the game beyond the tutorial)

Victory trophies increased by 40-60% by tier, while defeat trophies deducted are also increased by 40-45% by tier

The “Healing Received” metrics in the battle report will not accommodate overhealing (Healing received which would exceed a Cookie’s maximum HP)

Cookies’ vertical altitudes while in the air will not influence range calculations for various skills and attacks

If an ally and an enemy both use a buffing ability and a buff-dispelling ability, the dispelling ability wins out

Other Updates

Seamstress’s Pin Cushion effect for increasing summoned creatures’ attack power increased from +70% to +80% at level 12 (+0.91% per level upgraded)

Legendary Soulstones in the Rainbow Shell Gallery will now cycle between Sea Fairy and Frost Queen

Time Jumpers, EXP Star Jellies, and Topping Pieces will now appear in the Medal Shop

New animations for getting Halloween Masquerade costumes for Fig, Latte, Strawberry Crepe, and Madeline

Rainbow Crystals received will now appear in your gacha history for pulling dupes

Speech bubbles will no longer go over the main UI in your home kingdom and on the Tropical Soda Islands map

On/Off toggle switch added to auto-production resource buildings (Lumber Mill, Jellybean Greenhouse, Sugarworks Jar)

Topping rewards from the Bear Jelly Train increased from 1-5 to 3-12

Arrow button with Cookie Level Up that appeared after tapping a Cookie in your kingdom was removed

Whew! That should be everything there is to explain for now! This one’s gonna be extra-long for sure after you collect the thousand-crystal compensation for them extending the maintenance again, since the events for Cotton’s banner and every legendary gacha banner is stretched to 8 whole weeks! So hunker down, have some cocoa with some friends and family, and enjoy the snowy holiday landscape that’ll last you through Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day!