#but this is a place where you can transition to dragon with the power of friendship and cooking

[hwashitape]

giant frogs if they slayed

[celepom]

For Transgender Day of Visibility, here’s several books about Gender that I haven’t recommended before (I Think)!

Fine: A Comic About Gender

By Rhea Ewing

As graphic artist Rhea Ewing neared college graduation in 2012, they became consumed by the question: What is gender? This obsession sparked a quest in which they eagerly approached both friends and strangers in their quiet Midwest town for interviews to turn into comics. A decade later, this project exploded into a sweeping portrait of the intricacies of gender expression with interviewees from all over the country. Questions such as “How do you Identify” produced fiercely honest stories of dealing with adolescence, taking hormones, changing pronouns—and how these experiences can differ, often drastically, depending on culture, race, and religion. Amidst beautifully rendered scenes emerges Ewing’s own story of growing up in rural Kentucky, grappling with their identity as a teenager, and ultimately finding themself through art—and by creating something this very fine. Tender and wise, inclusive and inviting, Fine is an indispensable account for anyone eager to define gender in their own terms. 

Galaxy: The Prettiest Star 

By Jadzia Axelrod & Jess Taylor (Illustrator)

It takes strength to live as your true self, and one alien princess disguised as a human boy is about to test her power. A vibrant story about gender identity, romance, and shining as bright as the stars. Taylor Barzelay has the perfect life. Good looks, good grades, a starting position on the basketball team, a loving family, even an adorable corgi. Every day in Taylor’s life is perfect. And every day is torture. Taylor is actually the Galaxy Crowned, an alien princess from the planet Cyandii, and one of the few survivors of an intergalactic war. For six long, painful years, Taylor has accepted her duty to remain in hiding as a boy on Earth. That all changes when Taylor meets Metropolis girl Katherine “call me Kat” Silverberg, whose confidence is electrifying. Suddenly, Taylor no longer wants to hide, even if exposing her true identity could attract her greatest enemies. From the charming and brilliant mind behind the popular podcast The Voice of Free Planet X, Jadzia Axelrod, and with stunningly colorful artwork by Jess Taylor comes the story of a girl in hiding who must face her fears to see herself as others see her: the prettiest star.

To Strip the Flesh

By Oto Toda

A moving collection of six short stories that explores what must be stripped away to find the truth and celebrates the beauty of embracing who you are. Chiaki Ogawa has never doubted that he is a boy, although the rest of the world has not been as kind. Bound by his mother’s dying wish, Chiaki tries to be a good daughter to his ailing father. When the burden becomes too great, Chiaki sets out to remake himself in his own image and discovers more than just personal freedom with his transition—he finds understanding from the people who matter most.

Sir Callie and the Champions of Helston 

By Esme Symes-Smith

In a magical medieval world filled with dragons, shape-shifters, and witches, a twelve-year-old hero will search for their place as an impending war threatens. A thrilling middle-grade series opener that stars a nonbinary tween and explores identity and gender amid sword fights. My name is Callie, and I'm not a girl. I am here as Papa's squire, and I want to train as a knight. In a world where girls learn magic and boys train as knights, twelve-year-old nonbinary Callie doesn't fit in anywhere. And you know what? That's just fine. Callie has always known exactly what they want to be, and they're not about to let a silly thing like gender rules stand in their way. When their ex-hero dad is summoned back to the royal capital of Helston to train a hopeless crown prince as war looms, Callie lunges at the opportunity to finally prove themself worthy to Helston's great and powerful. Except the intolerant great and powerful look at Callie and only see girl. Trapped in Helston's rigid hierarchy, Callie discovers they aren't alone--there's Elowen, the chancellor's brilliant daughter, whose unparalleled power is being stifled; Edwyn, Elowen's twin brother, locked in a desperate fight to win his father's approval; and Willow, the crown prince who was never meant to be king. In this start to an epic series packed with action, humor, and heart, Callie and their new friends quickly find themselves embedded in an ancient war--the only hope to defeat the dragons and witches outside the kingdom lies in first defeating the bigotry within.

I Think I Turned My Childhood Friend Into a Girl 

By Azusa Banjo

It's a familiar story: a popular high school student gives their plain friend a makeover and transforms their life. But this time, the path to a new life isn't quite so straight and narrow. Kenshirou Midou has loved cosmetics all his life, keeping his obsession secret from almost everyone except for his childhood friend Hiura Mihate. One day, Kenshirou gets permission to practice applying makeup on Hiura, and the results are earth-shattering: Hiura's appearance transforms from a plain, undersized boy to a pretty, petite girl, and Kenshirou discovers just how freeing it is to apply his passion! Yet he's not the only one who finds the process liberating. Hiura likes the makeup, and the subsequent dress-up in feminine clothes, and decides to start wearing the girls' uniform to school. Kenshirou doesn't understand if he's unlocked something in Hiura, or if he's simply seeing a new side to his childhood buddy that he never noticed before. What are these feelings bubbling between them now--is this attraction truly new?

My Androgynous Boyfriend 

By Tamekou Wako and her androgynous boyfriend don't exactly have the most traditional of relationships. She spends her days working hard in the world of publishing, while he spends his time obsessing over fashion and makeup--all with the goal of making himself beautiful just for her. This romantic slice-of-life story is about love, relationships, and breaking with tradition!

[sunevial]

Reasons Why You Should Move To The Torn Veil

It's a night market

It's a giant, sprawling, night market full of people from a million worlds who have come to trade and to live and to rest and to find themselves

There's boats with people on them and the people on the boats in the river can sell you things

GOOD

PUBLIC

TRANSIT

A dragon runs the city

Specifically, an undead dragon, who turned her body into ice and now possesses both a giant dragon-sized suit of armor and a smaller humanoid shaped construct, runs the city guard

She gives paladins sworn to the city cool dragon weapons

And she's very excitable

YOU DON'T NEED A CAR. THE STREETCARS MIGHT BE HAUNTED, BUT YOU DON'T NEED TO PAY FOR CAR INSURANCE

There's good liches

Well, morally complex and slightly scary liches, but good liches

One of them runs a library. My friends think the lich that runs the library is hot (not wrong)

Vampire blood bars

Or blood in juice boxes if you prefer that

And art deco vampire speakeasies

These posts about the wildest oneshot I've ever ran will make more sense because I ran that oneshot in the Torn Veil

(i said more sense, not complete sense, the math my friends did still breaks my brain)

STREETCARS, NARROW ROADS THAT DON'T REALLY FIT HUGE CARS, GONDOLAS, FLYING CARRIAGES DRIVEN BY LICENSED PROFESSIONALS

Corner stores and restaurants from every culture, real or otherwise, serving foods that have existed forever and do not exist anymore

Memory river that lets you travel to a million different afterlives

Fishing in the memory river for memories

Slime Carriage Driver

ACCESSIBLE

DENSE

URBAN

HOUSING

I'm queer and mixed SEAsian and this is what happens when I'm allowed to be incredibly self indulgant

The answer is Haunted Spooky Less Fucked Up Sigil, apparently

The massive park full of nature spirits born from plants left at people's gravesites

Necrodancer rave clubs with ghosts playing EDM and power metal

Specifically made constructs that can house ghosts and other spirits, giving them back a semblance of agency after being violently separated from their bodies

Or cause they want a ghost mech

Pop off

CATACOMBS HOUSING SKELETONS FOR THE SKELETON WAR

THE CITY IS FIRMLY ON THE SIDE OF THE SKELETONS

BY THE WAY

IF THAT WASN'T ABUNDANTLY CLEAR

They're used for the defense of the city and are largely controlled by said necrodancers playing the EDM and power metal

It's always dusk

And a little chilly but in a nice way

Well, sometimes it's warmer, the dragon in charge of the city guard can also control the weather

She does that so the farmers can get rain

The skeletons also pick fruit on the farms btw

There's many uses for a skeleton and sometimes those uses are animating it so the skeleton can pick delicate fruit that has to be harvested by hand

A friend of mine loved this place so much that there was a real timeline where he ran a oneshot in the setting before I was able to run a oneshot in the setting

The oneshot took place in a place called the Dead n' Breakfast

It's run by a skeleton who's also a vampire

Her name is Constance

I love her

NO RENT

WHY IS THERE NO RENT YOU MAY ASK

WELL BECAUSE THE CITY JUST MAKES BUILDINGS AND NEW FLOORS TO APARTMENT BUILDINGS APPEAR OUT OF THIN AIR

(you do need to pay a little bit of tax though)

(because while the city has figured out how to make modern buildings, it has not figured out electricity or plumbing or streetcar rails)

btw the city is alive

kinda

sorta

hard to explain

Street Food

Every Street Food Ever

Like if you want some, it's there, and it's real nice and real cheap and sometimes people will just give you food for free

Sometimes a nice ghost makes it for you

Sometimes it's a skeleton babushka

The knowledge that there's other people caught between life and death, that there is a place for the lost and the wandering, that there is a place where life and death have different meanings and that complicated relationships with life and death can be a little less so, that families can reunite long, long after they were supposed to, that there is a place that calls the lost and calls them home and calls them somewhere that is safe, it is a place you can be finally safe

Ghost Macy's

[horizon-verizon]

I’m genuinely still wondering how the writers took one look at F&B and went “the stepmother and her stepdaughter should totally be in love” like seriously not hating, how’d they even get to that conclusion ? They genuinely thought “maybe Alicent started romancing Rhaenyra when she was 16 and Rhaenyra 7 ?”

They didn't genuinely think that Alicent and Rhaenyra were besties in canon, they understood it was always a parent-child/step-relation and that Alicent was 10 or so yrs older than canon!Rhaenyra. It's just that they decided to run with a change between the two bc--Miguel Sapochnik's wife? suggested--that this relationship would be less "sexist" than the Wicked Stepmother trope that defined, is when an older woman jealously plots and/or tries to either kill or depower her more beautiful or desireable, "innocent" stepdaughter. Traditionally.

The issues with this thinking is that:

They replaced Alicent's characterization with a 15 year old who gets sexually abused for years, and before that forced to "seduce" the king by her own father.

Alicent is far less ambitious, driven, consistent, and intelligent than bk!Alicent, and i refer esp to her in episodes 8-9 in the last three adjectives but you can kinda also trace it to at least the 2nd episode when she's peaking to Rhaenyra. On the whole, her ambition has also been easier to disguise as her desire for "peace" when it's really just the status quo so that she can feel that she's been part of a great exchange--her suffering for her higher place as a Queen. Could have been good in a sense, if only again, she had been intelligent.

So they really didn't make that much of an improvement on the "less/no-sexism" front, and I say this bc the transition from who alicent was to what we see in the show is where the sexist rationale lies [next paragraph]. And there is a reason why wicked stepmothers are still relevant...because women absolutely will turn on children or abuse them for power or to ensure their own children's survival, no woman was a feminist, and Alicent in the show ends up still harassing and abusing Rhaenyra anyway! Any and all tropes with female protagonists/antagonists in past stories and fairytales or myths can be sexist according to how it's handled. Finally, Rhaenyra is not a perfect example of an "innocent" princess in the traditional Wicked Stepmother trope because she has sex outside of marriage and she rides a dragon--dragons are usually positioned as one the side of "evil" in Western patriarchal tales.

Some argue that HotD's dynamic is better or better conveys the message of the story bc they think that this whole "women-are-peacemakers-for-war-mongering-violent-men" is itself not sexist [rhaenyragendereuphoria]. Bc it still denigrates ambitious women, or ambition and assertiveness in women, to make the implication that to be violent or just actively go after that which has been socially kept from you based on your gender is absolutely unethical. Or that this element has no ethical value in itself.

Espe when we see how Targ women have been sidelined & abused for years until the Targs lose their dragons--Rhaenyra's Syrax was very fertile during her happy years and though men can ride dragons, we tend to see more laying or more dragons/bigger dragons in the earlier part, more female-friendly part of Targ history when they were still in their process of assimilation--and lose their weapon against the Others until Dany reawakens them.

It undervalues how Rhaenyra was Alicent's victim and how she was a victim of green misogyny in her usurpation, how it is the greens' fault how there was ever a war in the first place, how they are the ones who would be willing to risk a war to obtain power and hypocritically upend "social order" by going against the King's word. To diminish this fact and to argue "two canons" or "unreliable sources" is also to argue that F&B is not a narrative framed with GRRM vs Gyldayn, and thus there IS a certain narrative through-line or truth aside from Gyldayn's purpose and to ignore how history treats women, how GRRM already describes what sort of person Rhaenrya is so you can rewrite her "ult-femme" pride into a much more apologetic, friendless persona.

Yes, GRRM is describing the horrid effects of war and how this particular war devastated the country...that doesn't mean that misogyny wasn't a defining element as to how that war happened or that defiance is a necessary thing to witness in a female character with the society we have in Westeros. This is itself another trope designed to make women bear the responsibility of a man's violence through bio-essentialism, even with Viserys & Jaehaerys not wanting war bc even Jaehaerys at many points was willing to use force to enforce his own will, authority, etc. whereas Viserys could have done well to put his foot down in certain times...why not Rhaenyra when she is forced to face the consequences of these two men's policies or actions?

This all goes for Alicent, too, why not TELL A HUMAN TRUTH and show how a woman determined to use patriarchal principles to uplift herself and her kids in a world where she'd expect to only have higher positions through marriage? She'd still be evil because she's directly mistreating and plotting against a child into her teenhood, but she'd be more understandable simultaneously. As it is, Alicent's fakeness in the show is more intolerable bc w/o Rhaenyra's fire the writing is constantly giving us the impression that Alicent had "good" reason to hate Rhaenyra for being herself or trying to gain a bit of agency. And it's in of itself a total lie on their parts, a bad-faith manipulation or a misunderstanding. That Rhaenyra' issue was her having "bastards", not the misogyny against her. The showrunners themselves have said how different Rhaanyra's kids look diff from Laenor, using the Velaryon's skin to "make it obvious" when that was never the actual concern or thing that mattered! to courtiers and to the scheming Alicent, yes, but not the philosophical core of this story!

Here is a reblog/post by @xenonwitch about how HotD is written in the male gaze and how Alicent ended up the way she is.

[its-me-vixen]

I enjoyed talking to you about it, and you said you have more to say, so... elaborate on your kfp 4 rewrite? I've been living off seeing people try and fix this movie, and there's not NEARLY enough variants around. I'd love to hear more, especially since I'm not super well-versed in the franchise lore, specifically Tai Lung as a character.

OOh In that case bestie allow me, as someone who's hyperfixated on the series off and on, to ramble. This might be long becuase I'm justing wingin it lol

So Tai Lung as a character is introduced as basically Shifu's first adopted child, an orphan he took in to train in Kung Fu with the specific intent of making him into the Dragon Warrior. Oogway denied this, causing Shifu to abandon Tai Lung, forcing him out and causing his turn to evil after everything he had trained for his entire life was taken away from him.

This series of events is why Tigress (also an orphan Shifu took in) is raised much stricter, with an emphasis on a lack of feeling.

This also is Shifu's main character arc; the transition from thinking that everything he's done has earned him control over the future but realizing he is at the whims of the universe no matter how much he try's to change things. This is extremely contradictory to how he was presented in KP4 where he's suddenly encouraging Po to make his exact mistakes in KP1 all over again, with even less effort.

Back to Tai Lung - His entire life was consumed with the acquisition of the Dragon Warrior scroll, and the appointment of Po was at odds with everything he had ever believed about the way the world worked - that raw power and skill was all that mattered. Po defeats him of course, and send him to the spirit world.

In the events of the third movie, the chi of all Kung Fu masters in the spirit world is stolen to be used by General Kai, and we can assume Tai Lung was included in that, which would have been another defeat that could have pushed him further from that ideal still. I haven't thought this aspect all too much, but with the way they present the spirit world one could assume some character change and growth from the years he spent there. I think this would contribute to a growing sense of questioning things, along with rage at failing.

This growing feeling would be brought to the surface when Tai Lung is summoned much closer to the beginning of the movie, in an opening scene taking place on the night of the blood moon, or whatever allows the spell to happen. Tai Lung is not the first to be summoned, and witnesses specifically General Kai get absorbed - similar to yours, with no body remaining. The sequence could be made to parallel Kai's own ability to take the chi of others and turn them into Jade figures, maybe leaving them transfigured into some kind of object. I'm picturing that lovely golden tree palanquin, maybe they become the jewels. The process is through a specific item with a single task.

More exploration of the Chameleon as a Sorcerer would be very important. In this scene, Tai Lung would be the audience POV witnessing what's happening. He is powerless in the moment, to his increased and endless frustration, but something unrelated happens that allows him to escape mid-absorption. We don't clearly see who or how the spell is happening, its obscured and more esoteric. The vibe is much darker, in a visible sense.

He is left powerless, unable to remember or do any kung fu, and is forced with very little choice in how to recover his power at all. He has had some ability to observe Po from the afterlife, and knows that he is now well established as the Dragon Warrior, and that he is unfortunately the most powerful person, and thus the one capable of defeating this new evil. He is reluctant, but could have some interaction that sets him on the path, like getting shoved aside by someone now much stronger than him and seeing some kind of poster about Po.

The Dragon Warrior would be more popular in my version, if only like a bit of a Mascot. This guy has saved the capital, he found the lost city of the Pandas, people may not know exactly who he is, but they know the Dragon Warrior. In the first movie, there was merchandising for the Furious Five, so there certainly would be for Po, too.

Cut to Po kicking butt, devolving into a montage of battles that he handles well and gladly, happy in his routine, until there's another transition where he's entering the Jade Palace. Shifu is noticeably older, Po has some new visual changes to his design/outfit the imply more experience and maturity. He regards Shifu with respect before relaxing into his casual, comedic self. Shifu has actually found peace, more resembling Oogway in the first film, his arc has finished and he is enjoying a peaceful life.

The Furious Five has dispersed to create their own schools or take on more permanent responsibilities elsewhere, going where they're needed. Po has put off settling down in any way, and is used to being alone on missions, seeking adventure. He finds it difficult to stay in one place for long now that his world has opened up. His dads have that scene where he's late, he's often far from town these days.

Shifu has been trying to get him to stick around for longer stretches, telling him to teach classes.

(If we consider supplementary media, Po has already had storylines about being kind of pushed into being a teacher, I recommend Kung Fu Panda: The Paws of Destiny, so while that's an aspect of this I don't want it to be the central theme of his arc over the movie.)

Shifu announces to Po that he wants to step down and is naming Po as his successor, and suddenly there's a looming future where he becomes the Master of the Jade Palace instead of the Dragon Warrior.

Po has some kind of imagination sequence about becoming something he isn't, settling down, no longer being a warrior.

Shifu snaps him back to reality and encourages him to oversee a new crop of students, illustrating how there's nothing else that needs to be done. Po oversees a scene with auditioning students. Shifu is absent. He is very bored, antsy for the thrill of adventure, but being forced to let others handle it instead. In a parallel to the first movie, Tai Lung bursts into the courtyard in the middle of the proceedings, causing a full response from the guards, all shaken because they're watching a ghost collapse to the ground. Po jumps at the opportunity for something he perceives as a task only he can accomplish.

{I'm not a great comedy writer, so please assume there's also jokes and light-hearted air to this lol}

Po confronts Tai Lung in private (jail? I'm unsure, I wasn't into how they did that) wondering what the heck is going on. Coming back from the spirit world is a thing that's been established in this world, so he wouldn't bee too shocked I don't think? He'd also be defensively cocky because he's beat this guy before, but seeing Tai Lung's actual state would defuse the tension. Po gains a feeling of sympathy for him.

Tai Lung tells him about a new, growing evil, and that no matter how much he hates it, if he wants to regain his power and return to the spirit world, he needs Po's help. They leave for Juniper City. The journey actually matters this time around, illustrating the growth of their connection, while the dynamic is similar to the journey in the film. Po is overly friendly in the eyes of the pissed off, exhausted Tai Lung, pushing his boundaries. Po is wired and a little stressed, deflecting with a manic energy. Tai Lung is jumpy and snaps often now that he feels powerless. Po offers to help him re-learn, but is quickly shot down, and so circumvents it by acting like he's casually "practicing" things. Eventually Tai Lung would have to ask a question and they would make progress forward. Tai Lung would have been clinging to the idea that he was the best and needed to get HIS power back, and that nothing Po did could be anywhere near as good, being very stubborn etc but Po would casually wear him down. They make genuine progress by the end of the sequence.

Po has a vision about the villain, and the consequences of their plans going unchecked during the last night. There is a moment where Tai Lung shows concern for Po - some kind of emotional connection. They're both awkward about it lol

When they approach the border of the city they have some kind of encounter with a citizen who gets terrified or something? Something that makes it so they have to lay very low, perhaps they're wanted, perhaps the rumor of the ghost of the formidable villain Tai Lung has been haunting the countryside. They end up in a situation where they are saved by Zhen - a fast-talking street thief of Juniper City. Also not Awkwafina lol

Tai Lung is suspicious of the fox, but Po sings the praises of helping others in need and putting good out into the world. He's still trying to be more eloquent with creating proverbs over the course of the movie, but doesn't notice saying decent ones when he isn't trying.

Zhen leads them to the underground crime syndicate place and listens incredulously as Po overshares about their goals. She says that if something like that was going down in Juniper City, she'd know about it! Tai Lung describes the place he remembers escaping from, its the palace (much less dramatic but still heavily fortified). Zhen tells them that they'll need her help to get in.

Other denizens of the underground avoid her and ignore Po, making a few scared reactions to Tai Lung. There is gossipy, nervous whispering. Time passes, Zhen has befriended Po with food and conversation. They even have a small, genuine moment of connection over something while Zhen explains their approach.

The group invades the castle.

Zhen is taken out early and encourages the others to go on without her.

They encounter the Chameleon, we get a reveal of them. I would redesign the Chameleon to be a more shadowy figure, literally, with a constantly shifting appearance in some way. A normal chameleon in this world would be able to shift colors but would otherwise look fairly simple. They are hurt by the world, and feel abandoned and isolated. There is emphasis on how their sorcery has changed them, physically and mentally. I'd also like them more androgynous as a personal choice. They are menacing and formidable, their own guards abandoning the fight as soon as magic kicks up. This is the big, flashy, gorgeous fight scene.

Tai Lung is incapacitated via sorcery. The ability to take any shape is shown here, and the transition is much more complete. Po faces the Chameleon on his own, and it's more of a draw than a defeat. He is thrown off by the mental aspect of recognizing the Masters, Chameleon fumbling with a lack of practice at these new powers. They experience joy at the intense power at their disposal. I think the Chameleon should also be a bit more mentally unstable. There's monologuing where we learn that The Chameleon's goal is to absorb Po, China's strongest warrior, and take over China. There's some kind of dialogue like,

"No Kung Fu Master could ever defeat me!"

Po gets trapped, and is saved by a self-sacrificial move from Tai Lung, forcing his escape through the floor.

Po is alone and ends up back in the underground, feeling like a failure as a leader, projecting the feeling on his running away from his responsibilities. There would be hints of his self-doubt and deflection prior.

The dads' storyline is fine, I love them, best pairing in the whole series tbh. I'd probably just shift it so they end up also in the underground, maybe feeding all the criminals haha

Po meets up with them there, feeling supported by their presence and encouragement, some kind of scene where they help him see his worth and continued potential. Po rises to the challenge of being a leader, rallying the criminals together, and having a comical scene where they all show off their various skills, and Po has to come up with a plan that uses their skills that aren't Kung Fu, the only option is to try something new.

They pull off an infiltration, the group emerging back into the throne/ritual room, there's combat, it's comical and creative. Po finds a restrained Zhen, and is happy to see her until she begins to lose her form - Zhen was always The Chameleon.

{Adored your idea for that so don't mind if I use some inspiration here!!}

A more chaotic fight ensues, everyone coming together to conquer the Chameleon with their unique gifts and new things they practiced that were explored prior. Po has a realization regarding how skills aren't exclusively useful in their original contexts.

The fight sequence ends with the item for the absorption being used against the Chameleon, while also releasing all of the previous victims, and restoring their powers. They also begin unsummoning, Tai Lung taking the item now containing all of the sorcerer magic with him into the Spirit World. Po and Tai Lung have a moment of mutual respect before he goes.

The chameleon isn't sent into the Spirit World, but is instead offered a place at the Jade Palace by Po, offering to help them learn something new.

Po would return to his responsibilities, but also give them his own unique flair!! Time would pass and you'd see The Chameleon/Zhen growing into the better person they didn't think they could be. We get a bright ending showing hope for the future.

~~~

Okay I feel batshit insane after spending like two solid hours on this??

2300+ words later and here I am lol I kept going back and revising to try and make the story beats and themeing consistent, but I haven't like, edited this with any consistency. So don't judge me if somethings don't quite make sense lol And god the pacing feels so off writing like this but hopefully it still makes sense????? Anyways. Thank you so much for asking what I would do, I had a blast thinking about this in detail!!

[eldritchamy]

@creative-sparx replied to your post “science fantasy is such a hard genre to be into...”:

The magic system in Diane Duane's Young Wizards series is handled very much like a science with many different categories, grounded mostly in the concept of entropy I believe; I would say it is very much a fantasy using science elements rather than science fiction using fantasy. As a bonus, Diane is a very active and friendly Tumblr user who often engages in the specifics of the system with fans, and has a lot of writing credentials in both fantasy and science fiction.

Now that sounds like something me and my own magic system might be interested in reading.

I think what I'm looking for is not Science Fantasy, (which seems to be just a synonym for science fiction), but Scientific Fantasy.

I want a world where magic is just a fact of the world and is studied like any other science. It's just part of how the world works, as recognized and math'd out as gravity.

So much of Urban Fantasy fucks up the worldbuilding by just slapping a magic system on top of a world that is otherwise exactly like ours. And a world exactly like ours wouldn't exist at all if there were magic. If magic was a TOOL that people could use to SOLVE PROBLEMS, it would be USED to solve problems the same way we would think to use machines and electricity. Those solutions, and the new problems people would discover by using them, would look nothing like our world at all.

In a world that has had access to magic over a long period of time, the kinds of problems you CAN solve, and even the kinds of problems you would THINK OF AS PROBLEMS IN NEED OF SOLVING, would be radically different from the problems our world, and our technology, has developed to deal with.

Long range communication wouldn't be solved by a box with electricity trapped inside it. There would be magical approaches to solving that problem. Okay, MAYBE a crystal tablet that can display information is a good enough idea that someone would think of it. If the world is old enough? Sure, someone has probably figured out that electricity exists and can be used by people who are less skilled or comfortable with magic to solve similar problems, but magic wouldn't just be slapped onto the surface of an otherwise unchanged world. The entire structure of society and the tools it creates and uses would be completely different.

Like Senshi using earth golems as a kind of farmland that manages its own water supply and fights off pests. LIVING HYDROPONIC CONSTRUCTS. That's brilliant.

The entire fucking world would be radically changed in more ways than even a very dedicated worldbuilder could ever really imagine. Public transit could be magic based, even teleportation based. Energy grids could be powered by magic. Something equivalent to an elevator could be done through levitation fields. Shipping could be managed through demiplanes that open in multiple places. Medical science could incorporate magic as a diagnostic tool. With an extreme level of fine control, surgeons could heal incisions or tissue damage without stitches. Magic wouldn't need to be a separate form of education, the basics would just be taught alongside the water cycle or the respiratory cycle.

People would make jokes 20 years after graduating about how mana is the powerhouse of the soul.

THERE'S NO GODDAMN REASON FOR A WORLD WITH MAGIC TO BE LOCKED TO THE AESTHETIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE.

Magical constructs could be teleported into orbit for space research. Think of the possibilities of a magic space race! Astromancy wizards summoning familiars on the moon!

There's so much more you can do with a magical setting than mud and castles and dragons and liches and horses. It's FANTASY! FANTASIZE! IMAGINE SOMETHING!

What if instead of meeting in a tavern you were stuck on a 3 hour connecting flight together on a sky train. You meet at the airport on your way to a tourist trap in the fey realm for spring break while working towards a degree in Arcanodynamics, and bond over the fact that it kinda sucks, and that pixiedust pretzel was in no way worth SEVEN gold, and their internship at the alchemical research hospital doesn't pay enough for this shit.

[msweebyness]

Class of Heroes Intro

Here's the final installment! The title sequence for Class of Heroes! As always, @imsparky2002 and @artzychic27! Enjoy!

(Instrumental of "Ever Ever After" begins to play. The camera shows a panoramic view of a gorgeous and old-fashioned palace, before zooming up to the sign in the front courtyard, which reads, "Francois Preparatory Academy" in looping golden script. The screen then shows several interior shots of the gorgeous school; the grand ballroom, the massive theater, a classroom, the main entry hall, before zooming out to a field of emerald green grass outside the school.)

(We come to a dirt clearing in the middle of a field, where a girl of Eurasian descent, donning a practical pink hanfu is practicing motions while wielding a sword with a hilt carved to resemble a dragon, an expression of determination in her blue eyes...only for them to shoot open wide as she trips over a rock, prompting an exasperated groan from the small black cat hovering nearby while a small red cricket hops over to check on the girl.)

*TITLE CARD: Marinette: Honorable warrior...and a bit of a klutz!*

(The camera zooms into something golden resting at the edge of the clearing, and we are suddenly following a long, long trail of silky blonde hair, eventually landing on a boy with sparkling green eyes, perched on a windowsill, smiling brightly as he is brushing out his fifty-foot locks. The boy begins to hum a soft melody, causing his hair to begin glowing a brilliant gold, as the small teal snake wrapped around his shoulders hisses in content.)

*TITLE CARD: Adrien: Sunshine prince with a whole lotta hair, and a special power that comes with it!*

(Adrien smells something cooking and looks in the window of what is revealed to be the cafeteria. The camera zooms into the kitchen, where a girl of creole descent with her hair tied back is mixing ingredients into a large pot of gumbo. She adds a few shots of tabasco, deeming it perfect after tasting a sip, and begins ladling it into bowls for the lunch rush.)

*TITLE CARD: Alya: Determined workaholic with a passion for good ol' southern cookin'!*

(On their way out of the kitchen and into the cafeteria, one of the cooks trips over a bump in the rug and falls over, sending the tray of gumbo bowls he was holding flying into the air. However, before they can hit the ground, the bowls and airborne gumbo are trapped midair in a glittering blue aura, floating and reassembling themselves on the tray as the cook is set back on his feet. The camera then pans over to a boy with a dark pink cap, comfy pastel clothes, a laidback smile, and a glittering wand.)

*TITLE CARD: Nino: The best bro you could ever ask for, with a magic touch!*

(Nino turns and winks at the audience, pointing his wand, and with a *poof* the scene changes to the warm and yet grand atmosphere of the school's library. The camera pans over the shelves before coming to rest by a roaring fireplace, where, in a large armchair, a girl with short blonde curls and wistful blue eyes sits with a book, reading about far-off places, daring swordfights, magic spells and a prince in disguise!)

*TITLE CARD: Rose: Fairytale-Fanatic bookworm who sees the beauty beneath the surface!*

(The camera pans over to a window with roses growing in a pot on the windowsill, before being whited out by the sun, allowing the scene to transition outside, to the school's maze-like garden. Moving into a row of tall rosebushes, we see a girl with silky black fur and large horns walking down the path, before she stops and gently takes one of the roses in her black claws, admiring its beauty.)

*TITLE CARD: Juleka: Beastly princess who proves that beauty is found within.*

(Juleka smiles softly as she hears a soft melody floating through an open window, making the camera pan to the left in order to look inside. Sitting before an ornate grand piano is a boy with his teal hair pulled back in a ponytail and a gentle smile, his fingers flying expertly across the keys, weaving a story through music as he smiles peacefully.)

*TITLE CARD: Luka: Mellow maestro who plays mesmerizing melodies for all the land!*

(The camera suddenly pans up into the sky, where a horse with orange-brown fur and golden wings is swooping through the clouds. The camera follows him as he swoops downward towards the main entrance of the school, where a very muscular boy with a goofy, but cute smile is carrying a stack of large crates up the front steps. He sets them down, giving a wave to the grateful teachers as he bounds down the steps.)

*TITLE CARD: Kim: Loveable Himbo with the heart of a true hero!*

(Kim smiles with a dreamy look on his face as he hears a familiar and gorgeous singing voice approaching. The camera pans upward to see a girl with adorable freckles and wavy red hair walking towards and descending the steps, twirling with a bright smile as watches the people around her with bright and curious eyes.)

*TITLE CARD: Ondine: Mermaid princess who's happy to be part of this world!*

(Suddenly, Ondine's foot catches on a step and she begins to fall, bracing for impact with the ground. Thankfully, Kim is there just in the nick of time, catching her in his arms. With a loving smile, the two give each other a soft kiss before Kim is splashed with water from a nearby fountain, and we turn to see a girl with the scales of a tropical fish and sharp teeth smiling mischievously.)

*TITLE CARD: Missy: One feisty fish but a friend to the end!*

(Suddenly, a colorful carpet whizzes across the screen in midair, the camera hurrying to follow it. Once we catch up, we see a girl with messy pink hair and patched-up clothing smirking as she looks over the contents of the wallet she snatched off of one of those jackass royals. Turning to the screen, she gives a two-finger salute.)

*TITLE CARD: Alix: Former street rat with sticky fingers and attitude to spare!*

(Alix is then grabbed by the back of her collar by a blue hand, jerking her with a yelp and pulling Carpet to a stop. The camera does a spinning pan to reveal a boy with cerulean skin and an abundance of gold jewelry looking at Alix with an unamused expression. He holds out a hand, and Alix reluctantly forks over the wallet, which he returns to its owner with a snap of his fingers.)

*TITLE CARD: Ismael: All-powerful genie getting a taste of life as a free man!

(Alix and Ismael look up as a microdrone flies across the sky, carrying some documents with what looks like mechanical plans. The small robot flies in through the window of a small mechanical workshop, where a bespectacled boy dressed in baggy and comfy clothes works at a cluttered desk, turning to look at a large, marshmallow-like blue robot before turning and examining the plans.)

*TITLE CARD: Max: Robotics genius with a mind that just won't quit!*

(The scene suddenly cuts to an archery target in a field outside the school, which is pierced dead in the center of the bullseye. The camera pans to the side, showing the same thing happening to several other targets. The camera then pans back to show a girl with short black hair and a practical junihito aims another arrow straight toward the screen, her expression fierce and focused.)

*TITLE CARD: Kagami: Cold and quiet princess with a fiery heart and deadly aim!

(We hear a soft, almost angelic voice singing peacefully from somewhere offscreen, and the camera gently drifts into the nearby forest, coming to rest in a flowery clearing. Surrounded by a ring of light that almost resembles a halo, we see a girl with soft blonde curls and tender amber eyes, singing beautifully to a dove perched on her finger, as a bevy of other woodland creatures are at her side, listening with rapture.)

*TITLE CARD: Mylene: The fairest in all the land, of both heart and face.*

(Mylene smiles in a loving way, looking up at the school's belltower as she hears the grand chimes of noon sounding out. The camera zooms up to the tower, swooping in through the window, and weaving through the bells from above before resting on a tall, muscular boy with a hunched back and a slightly sunken eye, who smiles as he ceases pulling on the thick ropes, listening to the bells chime as three small gargoyles swoop around the rafters.)

*TITLE CARD: Ivan: A big guy with some atypical features but the gentlest heart.*

(The camera pans deeper into the forest, the trees growing thicker, covering the area in shade, soft grasses and dark flowers, where another song, the wistful melody of 'Once Upon a Dream', is being sung by a boy with brilliant red hair, who is drawing in a sketchbook as he spins contentedly through the woods. Suddenly, he lets out a loud yawn...and collapses on the soft grass, snoring peacefully.)

*TITLE CARD: Nathaniel: Creative prince who has a bit of a narcolepsy problem...*

(The camera pans over to where some frost has begun to spread through the grass. We follow the trail to a small pond, which has been frozen over by a thick layer of ice, on top of which skates a raven-haired prince clad in shimmering blue, his green eyes twinkling as he sends wafts of snowflakes from his fingertips into the air, forming different shapes and patterns.)

*TITLE CARD: Marc: Sweet but nervous royal with the chilly power of frost!*

(The camera flashes back to the school, skimming along the ornate floor of the grand ballroom, coming to rest on the motions of a broom, sweeping dust into a pan. The shot then pans up to reveal a girl with shining blonde hair dressed in simple work-clothes. She hums 'Sing, Sweet Nightingale' to herself as she continues to sweep, smiling at a mouse that darts up onto her shoulder.)

*TITLE CARD: Zoe: Former housemaid and world's most patient stepsister!*

(The camera pans upward to a nearby banister, where a girl with tailored blonde curls and a froufy yellow dress watches Zoe cleaning with a pensive expression, while also examining her nails to make sure each one is perfect. She then turns with a huff to leave, casting a remorseful glance at her half-sister before she goes.)

*TITLE CARD: Chloe: Former bully who's slowly learning the value of goodness.*

(The shot switches to the school's lavish dance studio, where a girl with neat ginger hair and skin carved from pine wood is performing an intricate tap dance routine. After executing a few flawless turns and kicks, she takes an ending pose, to the applause of her peers. She notices a scratch in her arm, takes out a block and begins to sand it out.)

*TITLE CARD: Sabrina: Wooden girl who won't be anybody's puppet anymore!

(The shot changes over to the school's elaborate display of trophies and student art...which have been knocked asunder by a group of rambunctious students. Suddenly, the fretting teachers watch as a blue aura surrounds all the paraphernalia, levitating them back into pristine order. The shot rotates to show a blonde girl with glittering wings, clad all in blue as she wields a star-tipped wand and gives a stern look to the sheepish students.)

*TITLE CARD: Aurore: Motherly fairy who maintains order as best she can!*

(With a clean swoop, the shot changes to the in-school TV studio, where a girl with dark hair, and the ears, tail and eyes of a lion, nervously flicking through the script of the report she's about to give. Hearing the call of "Rolling!", she looks up at the camera, putting on their best smile.)

*TITLE CARD: Mireille: Future Lion Queen who's ready to stop running away from her past.

(From somewhere up above, we hear the sound of jingling bells, and the camera pans up to see a small fairy with a short pixie cut, clad all in green whizzing down the hall with some miscellaneous supplies in a bag at her side, dodging past the heads of other people, no doubt focused on her newest project.)

*TITLE CARD: Lacey: Spunky fairy with a talent for tinkering and ingenuity.*

(The scene cuts to a field outside the school, where some snooty princes are engaging in a game of croquet. Suddenly, all of their mallets are swiped from their hands. While they’re looking around in confusion, one prince is tripped and falls head-over-ass from his own mallet. The audience hears mischievous laughter from someone, and the camera pans over to a boy with bright red locks, clad all in green, grinning broadly as he flies away.)

*TITLE CARD: Simon: Neverland jokester learning the value of growing up.*

(The shot transitions to a road outside the school, which is blocked by trees from a recent storm. An extremely tall student with wild curls and colorful overalls steps up, easily demolishing the trees with their massive fists and clearing the way for cars and carriages to pass through without trouble.)

*TITLE CARD: Denise: "Bad Guy" with a huge heart coded to be good!*

(The shot changes to a wide view of the entrance to the school’s gorgeous gardens, where more and more flowers seem to be growing by the second! The camera then pans over to a girl of Indian descent, dressed in beautiful, colorful floral prints, who is growing rows and rows of roses and carnivorous sundew, humming lightly to herself as the different colored pollens stain her clothes.)

*TITLE CARD: Reshma: Family golden child with serious flower power ready to express her true self!*

(The shot then changes to the main gates of the school, where a crowd of people has assembled around a teen with curly hair, dressed in 90’s inspired pop garb. They give everyone a smile as they pose for picture after picture and sign numerous autographs.)

*TITLE CARD: Cosette: Beloved popstar with a voice to make a siren blush!*

(The scene then transitions to the school’s grand amphitheater, where a show of epic proportions is being put on, complete with music, lights and a full chorus. In the center of all the grandeur is a student clad in gold jewelry and stylish Inca robes, belting each note perfectly and loud enough for everyone to hear.)

*TITLE CARD: Jean: Bigshot emperor with theatrical flair who's learning to watch out for the little guys!*

(With a dazzling smile, Jean produces a blue desert flower in his hand and tosses it to someone in the crowd. It lands in the hands of a prince clad in shimmering teal whose eyes twinkle behind his glasses. He gives the emperor a soft smile as he pets the tiger reclining at his side.)

*TITLE CARD: Austin T: Spirited prince who's not a prize for anyone to win!*

(The scene then transitions to a dark hallway, shadows creeping around every corner. Suddenly, the audience hears an eerie giggle sounding from somewhere in the darkness. With a deathly shriek, a girl who appears to be a skeleton, dressed in a trimmed and macabre black suit with a lacy gothic parasol appears, causing the camera to seem to jump. The girl giggles, her unearthly violet eyes twinkling.)

*TITLE CARD: Eri: The Pumpkin Queen of Halloween, always ready for a good scare!

(The camera then drops to the floor, showing a detached blue hand carrying a handful of flowers as it scuttles along the floor. It then jumps up to reattach itself to a patched-together boy with shaggy black hair, fiddling with a vial of something called ‘Fog Juice’.)

*TITLE CARD: Anthony: Ragdoll with a snarky streak and Eri's voice of reason.*

(Anthony smiles as he hears a lovely voice humming a soft tune, and turns to see a prince of Hispanic descent walking towards him, gently stroking a small rabbit in his arms on the head. The young royal blushes as the ragdoll hands him the flowers he had collected, squeaking in happy surprise.)

*TITLE CARD: Jesse: Gentle and musical prince with a secret love for the spooky!*

(The camera zips out of the dark hall, stopping at a doorway when a cheerful bark is heard from inside the school’s graphic arts studio. A well-put-together girl with the ears and tail of a cocker spaniel trots out, watching her latest project on her tablet, making tweaks as needed, her tail wagging in seemingly constant joy.)

*TITLE CARD: Ayesha: Perky puppy who loves making peppy cartoons!*

(Ayesha’s ears perk up as a girl with neatly arranged dark curls and thick glasses hustles by, carrying several scrolls and maps while reviewing an ancient text in a book, weaving effortlessly through oncoming students as she takes notes on her cell phone.)

*TITLE CARD: Dot: Quirky but organized librarian with a fascination for the undiscovered.*

(As Dot passes, the shot focuses in on a student in a dark purple chiton dotted with punk-rock accessories, watching the passing students with a somewhat bored and detached expression as they spin a small white flower between their fingers.)

*TITLE CARD: Roxie: Snarky rebel against society with some heavy debts to pay.*

(The shot then transitions back to the woods outside the school, where a student with perky glasses and blue-black hair pulled into a neat bun sketches a detailed diorama of a young mother squirrel in its habitat, adjusting their yellow dress as they make sure each detail is immaculate.)

*TITLE CARD: Petra: Gifted sketch artist with a passion for the natural world.*

(The camera zooms up to a window of the school, revealing what seems to be the chemistry lab…for only mere seconds before the room is engulfed in an unusual pink smoke. When it clears, a student covered in pink powder, clad in a white labcoat and platform sneakers grins madly at the success of their latest experiment.)

*TITLE CARD: Anais: Eccentrically brilliant chemist who'd love to be a superhero!*

(Just outside the chemistry lab, a girl with wild red curls and a stylish leather jacket appears to be fiddling with the hi-tech wheels on her skates, trying to adjust them to lower resistance and amplify her speed. With a smile at her seeming success, she takes off down the hall in a blur.)

*TITLE CARD: Aggie: Skating speed demon with a brainy edge and 'tude to spare!*

(In the school’s main office, a girl with well-groomed white fur and the ears and tail of a mouse adjusts her fluffy purple cap as she arranges a stack of documents for a missing child case in perfect order, ready to be sent to the RAS.)

*TITLE CARD: Candace: Passionate social work intern with natural leadership skills!*

(The scene then transitions to the school’s basketball court, where a tall boy of Korean descent with short, spiky hair of a bright red hue is dancing to ‘Nobody Like U’ through his headphones as he scores three-point shots effortlessly in succession of each other.)

*TITLE CARD: Soo-Yeon: Pop Band Fanboy who's a beast on the basketball court!*

(The camera then exits the gym and zips through the hall, until entering the door of the school’s shop classroom, where there’s been an accident with some of the equipment. A tall girl clad with a pink cap and clad in white overalls whips out a golden hammer, tapping it against the broken machines and repairing them instantly.)

*TITLE CARD: Margo: Fix-proficient video game hero who wants everybody to be happy!*

(Outside the shop classroom, a girl of Asian descent wearing a flat hat and a strip of fabric over the lower half of her face watches the passing students with keen eyes, never seeming to rest or change expressions for a moment.)

*TITLE CARD: Staci: Warrior and friend of the dragons, not the best with trust.*

(The shot changes to an overhead view of a police-academy modeled obstacle course, overseen by a surly instructor. With a high trill of the whistle, a girl with short auburn hair and the ears and tail of a rabbit, begins the course, blazing through it in record time as the other students watch in awe.)

*TITLE CARD: Parker: Aspiring cop-to-be and the most determined person you'll ever meet!*

(The camera then once again zooms back to the woods, climbing up a tall oak tree and stopping on a particular branch. On that branch perches a muscular boy with the features of a fox, shooting arrows at falling leaves with a relaxed smile.)

*TITLE CARD: Brecken: Big-hearted jock who gives back to the community in his own way!*

(Brecken turns with a smile as someone lands delicately on the branch next to him. A girl with immaculate brown curls, a stylish blue coat and a delicate red parasol dusts herself off as she hums a merry tune to herself, having just completed another babysitting job. She did so adore children!)

*TITLE CARD: Evie: Devoted and near-perfect caretaker of the young with a passion for parasols and song!*

(Down below, beside the entry road, a wheelchair-bound student with wire black curls and a variety of mechanical parts films the procession of carriages for a class assignment, an easy and spacey smile on their face as she cheerfully greets everyone who passes by.)

*TITLE CARD: Mona: Friendly half-car who's always smiling, even when they're confused as heck!*

(The scene then transitions to the school’s kitchen, where a girl clad in wizarding robes is simultaneously leading the dishes to the sink with magic and solving complex math equations on a blackboard, murmuring quiet little utterances to herself as she works.)

*TITLE CARD: Eloise: Brilliant mathematician with the additional talent of ancient sorcery!*

(The scene then changes to the school’s cafeteria, where Alya has just brought a bowl of her gumbo to a blonde boy clad all in pink, stopping a moment with a fond smile to listen to him chattering excitedly about some new happening at the school.)

*TITLE CARD: Austin A: Spoiled southern beau with a sweeter side once you get to know him!*

(Just outside the school, a hapless chicken nearly walks right into an open manhole cover, only for the water from a nearby fountain to scoop it up, and deposit it into the waiting arms of a boy with dark red hair and tattooed arms, who gives its head a fond pat.)

*TITLE CARD: Austin Q: Cranky Chief's son who shares a special connection with the water!*

(The camera follows a boy in spiffy dress clothes with his hair pulled back in dreads as he talks rapidly on the phone about an upcoming superhero publicity event he has planned, wanting everything to go smoothly.)

*TITLE CARD: Austin B: Hero enthusiast who wants to shed some light on super prejudice!*

(The scene changes to that of the school's state-of-the-art training facility, where a young man with shaggy blonde hair and dark-hued battle armor is battling a magical simulation with his sword. He is swiftly victorious, sheathing the blade...only to notice something glowing in his pocket. He takes out a small, smooth blue gemstone, staring at it with an unreadable expression.)

*TITLE CARD: Felix: Raised to be a lawman, destined to fall between right and wrong.*

(The scene changes to the school's lush courtyard, zooming up to stone pavilion, where a skeletal girl clad in gaudy orange plays a soulful love song for an adoring crowd, only for her expression to darken as she hears two students murmuring about how they had heard this song before...and not from her.)

*TITLE CARD: Lila: Performer with a closet full of dark skeletons to hide!*

(In the grand entry hall stand two women, one with shimmering fairy wings and another in distinguished wizard robes. Caline Bustier and Olga Mendeliev, the teachers of the famed 'Hero Classes'. The two magical teachers turn to face the entrance of the school as the grand, gold-plated oaken doors fly open, allowing the students to walk in as sunlight dances on the gleaming tiles. Directed by their educators, the students gather together under a massive stained-glass window, smiling at the camera for the final group shot.)

(With a grin and a flick of Nino's wand, the title appears on the screen in looping, grand cursive with a poof blue pixie dust: "Class of Heroes". A rainbow of fairy dust rains down, sending us to black screen.)

And that concludes this little miniseries! I hope you enjoyed, and lave your thoughts in the comments and reblogs!

[littleeyesofpallas]

can you do Bleach Name game for ichigo's friends in Karakura Town?

Ya know it's weird that i haven't done it already... I kinda thought I had, honestly. Yeah, let me resurrect this long dead series of posts...

Inoue Orihime[井上 織姫] read most literally as something like "Well+Top"(as in the top of a well(for water)) and "Weaving+Princess" but of course the name Orihime is just taken directly from the mythological figure behind the tanabata festival. It's possible the name Inoue in that context could be used to reference the Well Mansion, one of 28 categories of constellations in Chinese astronomy. Although in Tanabata Orihime refers to the star Vega, which as far as I can tell is not part of the Well Mansion.

In any case, the myth of Orihime and Hikoboshi was the basis of Kubo's original Bleach one-shot, which itself got reworked into the plot with her brother Sora, the hollow Acidwire. Ichigo lost prettymuch all of his associated hikoboshi themes in the transition from the one-shot to the serial title, so her name is kind of vestigial. The one lingering detail that was never built on was how her rejection powers were said to verge on the territory of god, and in the tanabata myth Orihime is the daughter of Tantei[天帝]:"Heaven Emperor" one of several epithets for the Jade Emperor, a figure hailed as a human ascended to immortal, the First God, and a supreme ruler over other gods. But despite that very slight thematic alignment, she was never given any divine origins.

Her bother, Inoue Sora[井上昊] reads, "Well+Top" and "Sky/Heaven," where Sora[昊] is a synonym with Ten/Ama[天]: "Sky/heaven" and both a synonym and homonym with sora[空]: "sky/heaven/void." (And it's a bit of a tangent, but that last one is the same word Kubo uses in the name Kuukaku[空鶴], Karakura town[空座町], and when Aizen says, Ten no za no kuuhaku[天の座の空白]: "The Throne of Heaven is Empty.") He was a rewritten from what was originally Orihime's late grandfather in the one-shot, which aligned more obviously with the father Heaven King role of myth.

Sado Yasutora[茶渡 泰虎] I think I've mentioned before, reads "Tea+Ferry" and "Peaceful+Tiger" which just seems to literally describe him as an immigrant(traded over on a boat, like tea) and as a gentlegiant type. It's also very possible Kubo just wanted to nickname him "Chad" and found a name he could squeeze into that, rather than worry about the meaning of the name first.

Arisawa Tatsuki[有沢 竜貴] I don't really know how to parse part of her surname here, "Posession/Existence+Swamp" seems to be the literal breakdown? It's also just an actual surname people have, as is Inoue --Sado by comparison however, is not. In any case, her personal name is "Dragon+Noble/<indicator of high rank or status>." This is why she and Orihime get a paired Princess and Dragon motif.

Asano Keigo[浅野 啓吾] reads "Superficial+Rustic/Unsophisiticated" and "Disclose+Me" basically just calling him surface level, simple, and open. He's exactly what it says on the label. Can be read like an open book. Then there's his sister...

Asano Mizuho[浅野 みづ穂] and her name is the phonetic MIDZU+"the ear of a plant/head of a spear/tip of a brush." There are kanji that could go with that but for one, I'm not just gonna take blind stabs, and besides if Kubo had wanted to ascribe obvious meaning to it, he'd have done so. No idea what to make of that one. Considering she's extremely minor and secondary to an already minor character at that, I'm willing to bet he just picked it to be aesthetically pleasing.

Kojima Mizuiro[小島 水色]: "Little+Island" "Water+Color," that is of course as in "Color (of) Water" and not to "water color paints," those have a different name entirely in Japanese. I don't know that his name really says much about him, but considering a lot of weird little details of his fairly minimal appearances across the series, I have my own crackpot theories about Mizuiro, but this isn't the time or place...

Honshou Chizuru[本匠 千鶴]: "Book+Artisan" and "1,000+Crane(s)" the association of paper craft and cranes points pretty obviously to origami, and 1,000 origami cranes (senbazura[千羽鶴]) which evokes a meaning of longevity and recovery from illness. Also the Bookishness vibe seems to be evoked in her general glasses girl design.

Kunieda Ryou[国枝 鈴]: "Country+Branch" and "(Small)Bell." "County" like a "nation/kingdom," not like "rural" as in Asano's name. The small bell evokes a clear but subtle ring, which is kind of reflected in her quiet and intelligent demeanor.

Ogawa Michiru[小川みちる] "MICHIRU" is phonetic so no attributed meaning, but her surname just means "brook/stream" (lit."Small+River") a very on the nose nod to her diminutive size. I never noticed until now but she always has different sheet music notation hairpins.

Natsui Mahana[夏井 真花]: "Summer+Well" (again, like with Inou, the structure you fish water out of, not the adverb) and "Pure/Genuine+Flower." She's an extremely minor character so I don't see there really being much overt meaning to this. Summer seems to evoke her tan*, and Flower beauty, and she's a busty tan girl. (*you know I said that on reflex, but now that i think about it, I don't know that Kubo himself ever actually drew her in color... that may have been an anime thing.)

Ochi Misato[越智美諭]: "Surpass+Wisdom" and "Beauty+Admonish" which I guess I've never looked at before now. It's not that she isn't a cute character design(and I've got a thing for kind of homely teacher characters anyway...) but I didn't realize Kubo was trying for, like, a "hot teacher" thing with her?

And those are basically all the important ones, and frankly a couple not so important ones... I'm not getting into any of Kubo's little inbetween doodles, or god forbid that ridiculous number of random Karakura High students he dumped into Burn the Witch.

(sorry i got lazy and didn't finish digging up pics for everyone, but I at least made sure to have reference for the obscure characters that some people might not remember)

[francesderwent]

Pls help I finally got a new library card and I'm drunk with power and the need for more books except I have no idea what to read next after finishing The Queen's Thief. *hands out like Oliver Twist* pls, miss, can I have some book recs??

AHHHHHHHH I am ALWAYS so excited to talk about books!

So first of all, my condolences. You have so many amazing books ahead of you in life—we all do, God willing!—but nothing will ever be the Queen’s Thief again!! And that’s a moment I think we need to acknowledge.

With the one data point of the Queen’s Thief, there’s not very many obvious places to go, since there's nothin' else like it!! So basically what I’m going to give you is Cate’s Greatest And Most Approachable Hits. Some of the stuff I love is weird, and I recognize not everybody is going to care for it! But the stuff on this list, I would pretty much recommend to any and everybody!!! You might not like it, but hopefully you won’t think I’m crazy for recommending it lol.

[One asterisk has references to adult content, two asterisks has some skippable sex scenes on page.]

The Goblin Emperor, by Katherine Addison.* This is the one and only book I recommend in relation to the Queen’s Thief, specifically if you really liked King of Attolia. The Goblin Emperor is about a forgotten and exiled distant royal who unexpectedly inherits the throne. There are so many characters and so many names and everybody uses the formal “we”, so it’s not a quick or easy read, but this book is about love discovered where you least expect it and man oh man it makes me cry.  

I’m going to make my own weirdo transitions based on perceived similarity like a very drawn-out version of the "I've connected the dots--I've connected them!" meme. And from The Goblin Emperor and its unloved monarch, I’m going to move to:

The Hero & the Crown and The Blue Sword, by Robin McKinley.* These are the only Robin McKinley books I’m putting on the list, because they’re just the best ones, and because Aerin is my heart. The Blue Sword was written first, but The Hero and the Crown is a prequel, so you can read whichever one first. The Blue Sword is about a young woman who moves to an outpost of a barbaric land of horsemen tribes and then is kidnapped by a barbarian king. It’s about the meaning of home. The Hero and the Crown is about an extraneous princess who tries to carve out a place for herself in the country that hates her by taking care of pests, i.e., small dragons. It’s about service. They’re both so, so good.

From extraneous princess I’m taking us to:

The Two Princesses of Bamarre and Ella Enchanted, by Gail Carson Levine. You may have read them as a kid, but I’m here to tell you, they hold up!! Two Princesses is about one adventurous sister and one timid sister, but when the adventurous one falls ill, the timid one has to go on a quest to find the cure. Ella Enchanted is a Cinderella retelling, but Ella was cursed at birth to always be obedient. It’s one of the best fairytale romances there is! If you’ve seen the movie, forget it! Nothing alike! The book has a heart!

From retelling to retelling:

Princess of the Midnight Ball and Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow, by Jessica Day George. These are more recent than Levine’s retellings, but they were an instant classic for me! Princess is a retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses, told from the perspective of the oldest daughter and the under-gardener. It is so sweet and so romantic. Sun and Moon is an East of the Sun, West of the Moon retelling, it’s kind of a wacky fairytale but she totally makes it work. I love George’s depiction of sibling relationships in both of these books!

From retelling to retelling to retelling:

Spinning Silver, by Naomi Novik.* This book follows three women: one a Jewish moneylender resolutely freezing her heart to drag her family out of poverty, one an eldest sister trying to survive her father’s plans and her mother’s fate, and one an unattractive noblewoman whose father wants to marry her off to the czar. It’s a Rumpelstiltskin story. It’s a faerie story. It’s perfect.

And one more retelling because I love them:

The Goose Girl, by Shannon Hale. It’s kind of The gold-standard fairytale retelling for me?? All the elements of the original are there, and there’s some exciting twists, but it all hangs together. It’s just a good novel.

I'm gonna transition to another Shannon Hale novel:

Austenland, Shannon Hale. You may have seen the film, and I like the film! But the book is better. It’s about a woman who’s had a string of unsuccessful relationships and keeps running back into the arms of one Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy. She has the opportunity to attend an immersive regency experience, with costumes and actors as the Austen-esque heros and rules about who goes into dinner when. Will this last hurrah get the fantasy out of her system? What does reality have in store for her?

From Austen we’re gonna move to Heyer:

The Grand Sophy, by Georgette Heyer. Georgette Heyer is The regency romance author, and I think The Grand Sophy is probably the best starter book. I don’t think Heyer is dumb, and I don’t think Austen isn’t funny, so I’d say Heyer is Austen plus shenanigans. Sophy moves in with a family whose lives are all run by the relentlessly practical eldest brother. Sophy doesn’t take direction.

From regency romance to regency fantasy:

Mairelon the Magician, by Patricia C. Wrede. I don’t think you can go wrong with Wrede, but this book and its sequel are probably my favorite of hers. Street urchin Kim is hired to rob a performing magician, but it turns out he’s actually a magician, and he takes Kim along to help him unravel a plot. I’m a massive sucker for “regency England but with stuffy wizards” and Wrede just does it best!!  

From Mairelon I’m moving to Wimsey, which makes perfect sense to me but might not make sense to anyone else:

Clouds of Witness, by Dorothy Sayers. This is the second book in the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, but I think I would recommend starting here. A murder takes place in the Wimsey family home and Lord Peter has to bring his disreputable talent for detecting home. Wimsey is hilarious, and also if you read enough of his books you will fall in love with him a little, but the Wimsey mysteries are all also just really good mysteries!

Classic detective to classic detective:

The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, by Laurie King. Young orphan Mary Russell happens across a retired Sherlock Holmes and thus begins a lifelong partnership. This book is lovely, meandering through small stories of childhood and little cases to something more dramatic at the end. It’s about finding a kindred spirit and coming of age.

The transitions have been fun but at this point they are getting Difficult. Let’s transition from a book about a young girl to another book about several young girls:

The Penderwicks series, by Jeanne Birdsall. I think you’ve read these already, but I would hate to leave them off, since this list is my gift to posterity! The Penderwicks is how Little Women felt when I was a kid! Sisters who love each other! Mischief! A Very Interesting Boy! I love the way Birdsall writes children so much—it makes me remember what it felt like to look at the world like that, and it heals something in me, it really does!

I can make this work! Batty is an animal lover, so we’re gonna transition to:

Protector of the Small series, by Tamora Pierce.* This is the third of three quartets set in the same universe, and previous characters will definitely show up, but these ones are both the best written by far and also the ones where Pierce’s second-wave feminism gets in the way the least. If you like these I fully support going back and reading Song of the Lioness as a prequel! First Test is about Keladry of Mindelan, the young daughter of diplomats who’s the first girl to openly be trained as a knight, after her heroine Alanna made it by pretending to be a boy for years. Kel is a no-nonsense kind of person, and a brilliant tactical thinker, but she also has a heart for the helpless—she befriends the sparrows at her window and hates bullies and protects servants. She’s a fantastic heroine.

The last book in Protector of the Small and the last book in the next series are *handshake emoji* but I can’t tell you why, sooo

Scholomance trilogy, by Naomi Novik.** Nobody will shut up about these books, including me, and there is a reason why!! They’re astounding! Galadriel Higgins is a student at the Scholomance, a death trap of a magic school that wizards send their children to because it’s at least better than being constantly in danger in the outside world. El has made her peace with the competition of life—not everyone is going to make it, you can only look after yourself—but then she has one too many run-ins with the school’s shining hero, Orion Lake. She has a real talent for death and mass destruction and alienating people; he has a real talent for killing monsters and forgetting people’s names. Magic demands balance, after all…doesn’t it?

From here I’ve got no choice but to go to:

Folk of the Air trilogy, by Holly Black.** Spiritual sisters with the Scholomance books: why? Because I said so. These books are a fairytale about love and power, and they’re absolutely modern but totally true. Jude’s parents were killed by a Fae when she was a small child, and her parents’ murderer brought her and her sisters back to court with him and raised them as his own as a matter of honor. She’s a human where humans are playthings and servants, the only home she’s ever known is full of dangers for her, but Jude is determined to prove her worth. If she can’t be as good as them—she’ll be so much worse.

Folk of the Air seems like it’s making fun of notions of goodness and true love and then quietly subverts our expectations by making them more true than even we thought, which brings us to:

Discworld, particularly Guards! Guards!, by Terry Pratchett.* Guards! Guards! is dedicated to the members of the palace guard who appear in one scene in every adventure to run at the hero one by one and then be cut down. I’m really struggling to describe it. It’s about a tiny group of cynical, jaded guardsmen who have given up on their city, until two things happen: a young, hopeful new recruit joins the ranks and doesn’t know yet why laws are flimsy things to be swept under the rug. And a dragon attacks. You can famously start Discworld anywhere, but I’d start here.

And finally, last because it’s unsortable:The Scorpio Races, by Maggie Stiefvater. I can’t in good conscience recommend the Raven Cycle because it’s so unsatisfying and also it will ruin your life, but the girlies deserve a little Stiefvater, as a treat!! And Scorpio Races is the only book of hers I’ve ever read that has an ending that seems fitting. Puck lives on a small island famous for one thing only: in November, bloodthirsty horse-like things come out of the water. And islanders capture them, and train them, and race them—even if it kills them.

[lemonhemlock]

https://twitter.com/Targ_Nation/status/1611158240359759872?t=bfo77HLITj21KBLCUKx6fA&s=19

Seeing all those likes took years off my life

i don't even know where to begin............

"centrist bs" - the concept of left and right doesn't exist in a medieval setting ...................

where was this energy when cersei was committing abuses left and right and placing her bastard children on the throne? why didn't "the modern audience" "almost unanimously stand by the side of the woman being usurped of her throne" back then? 😵

but this isn't even about one side being more wrong than the other or both sides being awful or war being horrible as a rule or the smallfolk always paying with their lives and livelihoods when the high lords play their game of thrones

that entire tweet is predicated on not grasping the basic principles of the polity they are operating within 😫 you cannot define usurpation based on absolute primogeniture when that society relies on male primogeniture for inheritance, in that context it literally means the opposite

words don't somehow gain whatever meaning you want based on what you think is fair, same how laws don't materialize into existence just because you say so. any kind of law is a social construct, doesn't exist outside the confines of society and requires a certain kind of framework in order to be accepted & enforced. if proposed laws are not accepted by the majority and cannot be enforced, they only exist on the astral plane

there aren't even any proper institutions in westeros. literally the only ones i can identify are the crown and the small council, which serves as a kind of proto-government. there's no parliament, there's no proper justice system, no magna charta. the only courts that seem to operate are Faith-based courts and your liege lord's judgment. medieval-style legal systems and law enforcement are headache-inducing as a rule anyway, but feudal monarchies generally involve constant negotiations and power leverages between kings and their vassals

a more apt characterization of the Dance would be what exactly and how much can the targaryens get away with now that they've decided to impose themselves as rulers of a unified westeros. so far, they had to accept the religion of the land (aegon the conqueror was anointed by the high septon) and were forced to renounce polygamy. they got to keep practicing incest as a result of jaehaerys' successful doctrine of exceptionalism. see? negotiation. now the question remains - are they going to respect succession laws like a normal person (i.e. Andal Law) or are they going to resort to this ridiculous circus every time a targaryen monarch dies? because at the point of the dance, there had hardly been a straightforward transition of power since the conquest

for the internal coherence of this fictional world to be maintained, the nobles should be pushing Andal inheritance rights like crazy, because their own succession is decided on the basis of that and they would be directly interested in not fucking it up for themselves or their descendants by having weird precedents set by the royal family. a lot of these lords, if not most, have bastard siblings/children of their own, as well as elder sisters/daughters. it doesn't make sense for them to threaten their own stability for the sake of rhaenyra of all people, who isn't even good at her job and has done absolutely nothing to endear herself to them. what could they possibly gain by supporting her?

the question of the monarch imposing a law is much more believable in a centralized state, which westeros most definitely is not. imposing laws can also be done via force, of course, as long as """the state""" retains the monopoly on violence. the targaryens' v effective military superiority has so far been conferred by dragons. but rhaenyra's side isn't the only one that has dragons anymore. the opposing faction, i.e. the side who'd perpetuate Andal law, also has them now, as it happens. ergo war.

this situation is absolutely not similar in any way to today's democracies where laws are voted by parliament and the rest of the country have no choice but to abide by them or else the police come knocking on your door and hand you over to the our modern justice system, where your punishment is set by objective specialists & not decided by crazy stunts like trial by ordeal or the whims of your liege lord

tldr: there is no incentive for westerosi nobility to break andal succession law for rhaenyra, since it would be legal self-sabotage by setting a precedent that could come to bite those very same people in the a*se. rhaenyra is NOT an only child - by having trueborn brothers, the only way she can ascend is by breaking the laws & customs of the land. ergo disgruntled lords will inevitably flock to alicent's sons to form covert alliances & subversive power centres that, in time, will erupt in open rebellions. real-world historical examples attest to this happening with or without the consent of their respective figureheads (eg. lady jane grey) - i.e. it doesn't matter if aegon/aemond/daeron play happy families or not. in turn, the only way rhaenyra can prevent this is by executing her brothers/their male descendants. the greens don't want to die => the only way of achieving security for them is by claiming the throne.

alternatively, rhaenyra's life is not in danger as long as she bends the knee, as no-one in-universe would take her claim seriously with 3 living brothers. rhaenys also bent the knee to viserys after losing an election and is still alive. i'll say it again: it is not in the lords' best interest to support rhaenyra in the first place. if we are to go by any logic - what would they gain, should they flock to her? they would destabilize the line of succession for themselves for a (pretty terrible) queen, a reviled king consort and a bastard heir. but, as far as advantages and favours are concerned, what would they be, specifically? in order to outweigh the above-mentioned disadvantages?

you should all blame viserys for getting remarried and fathering sons, because had rhaenyra remained an only child or had only sisters, none of this would be happening & she would have become the first ruling queen of westeros

[nyxlarkyn]

I'm just sayin that, to snuff out knowledge you start with the books first:

Ever After's Warriors

Maria said that her father could only find legends about her kind. So, then they are legends, storybook legends in fact.

Storybook legends that somehow managed to leave The Ever After through their abilities.

Every time we've seen the girls transport from another location to another, the transition has the exact same effect that Rubys eyes have.

We will come back to this transition and move on to this one:

These intro shots feel really similar. Note the focus/zoom on the Jabberwalkers eye before speeding through. The fact that the Jabberwalkers face is hidden behind a metal mask with silver highlights that make the mask look like a butterfly (the symbol that comes around Ruby and her SEW powers a lot) really makes me think it's related to Silver Eyed Warriors. Doesn't have to be one necessarily, there's many possibilities on how they fit within these warriors' legends.

Either as beasts they had slain with their abilities in Ever After, another form of a Warrior much like the Hound, or something seeking to destroy SEWs. Seeing the lack of reaction to Ruby, it's easy to doubt it. Yet the creature had a lot to process as well, with Yang chasing him and three more threats. (Curious if Summer hiding her face as the blacksmith could be in part of the Jabberwalker.)

If the Jabberwalker is something seeking to kill SEWs, people gifted by the God of Light with some of his powers. Then, as others have mentioned, surely the God of Darkness could create creatures set out to destroy them. To balance it out.

We know he's not above doing that when he created the Creatures of Grimm after the creation of humans. So, when his brother decides to create a type of warrior that can easily destroy his Grimm, he creates one that can kill them. This time in his likeness since his brothers' eyes in dragon form is silver just like his warriors.

One issue I have with Silver Eyed people in Remnant is that they shouldn't be possible in Remnant.

What we are told is that the Gods wipe out Humanity leaving only Salem, and that humanity will eventually return, but they are gone until humans sort themselves out. Therefore, the God of Light shouldn't be able to give selected humans his powers.

Where would he give humans silver powers then? In his and his brothers dumping ground of creations.

Let's say a warrior manages to come to Remnant in order to escape the Jabberwalker. Ever After reacts to emotion. So how would a warrior, one whose abilities, the very magic made to create the world, held within their very eyes react when they want to disappear/escape from where they are? Could they teleport the same way the world teleports others, but their desperation takes them to another world entirely? (Fuck that could be what "The Boy Who Fell from the Sky" be about since Ruby has so many themes about falling and rising.)

Once Salem discovered SEWs were from books and/or discovered information of them in books that showed their other worldly powers, powers that could rival hers, she decided to wipe the books out before the warriors.

This could be why she made the hound in the first place. An homage to the creatures who first posed a serious threat to them in her own twisted way.

If y'all have any more thoughts please let me know

[fandomstars]

Fairly Odd Pokemon

Warning: Mentions of neglect/child endangerment. Also, this is a long headcanon thing fyi.

* = Shiny Pokémon

M = Male F = Female G= Genderless

*Insert move* -> *insert move* = Can use both (Like a power level dynamic. Example, using water gun in small fires, and can transition to hydro pump for big fires. Can alternate between both no problem (well more energy needed for hydro pump in comparison but still). Counts as one move though.)

Also, this is an AU where Timmy is the protagonist instead of Ash. Also, all of Ash's travel companions are replaced by FOP characters. And this takes place in Unova (since it's close to the US, right?), with Dimmsdale just on the outside border of the region. Also, yes other region Pokémon appear, all but Galar and Alola. Why? Maybe some magic got involved long ago to make it happen. ;)

Plus, Poof is the older of him and Timmy in this AU.

And yes, the evil Pixies team is named after LOR dragon Smaug. Reason is Pixies are money makers, and I figured what better name for their evil team than of a treasure/gold hoarding dragon? Meanwhile Team Mishap is the Anti-Fairies, whom unlike Pixies, don't hide them being the bad guys at all.

A Summary (if possible/needed): In the small town of Dimmsdale, 10-year-old Timmy can finally become an official Pokémon trainer. Though throughout his journey, he will have to face the evil Team Mishap (Anti-Fairies) and Team Smaug (Disgusted as the business corporation Pixie Inc.). Making friends, making enemies, all while trying to become the very best and make a name for himself? The world really isn't going to make it easy is it.

Characters:

Timmy

Gary

AJ

Chester

Tad

Chad

Trixie

Veronica

Tootie

Elmer

Sanjay

Poof

Foop

More possibly to be added...depends on if you guys want more (request in inbox of possible oneshots/headcanons for this and all characters! Pokemon included!)

———-

Bios:

Name: Timmy Turner Fairywinkle-Cosma

Age: 10

Occupation: Pokémon trainer / Gym challenger / Coordinator

Hair color / Style: Light Brown and spiky

Eye color: Blue

Outfits:

Regular - Pink t-shirt, blue jeans, and matching blue sneakers

Contest - Light blue tuxedo with matching tie, blue mask, black dress shoes, and fingerless white gloves

Training - White kung-fu outfit with pink, green, and purple striped belt

Facial features: Buck two front teeth

Other: Has a small facial scar on the bottom of his chin

Backstory: It happened when he and Gary were four, their mother and father just happened leave them at the camping site and drove off home. Lost and scared, the two mistakenly took a hallow tree as a resting place, when it was a Beedrill nest (luckily said mons were sleepy still, and simply dazed out. But that didn't stop some, as those Beedrill had the move Sleep Talk and or Snore.). They ran off screaming, but before they ran into a Pokémon ranger, they fell into a ravine where they got said scar. Getting said scar, Gary with a mere identical one on his chin too, were brought to a nearby hospital where local police came to investigate. So, the CPS later is called, and the twins are dropped off at Wanda and Cosmo's for the night, to later being adopted and living permanently there once the forms were done and their 'parents' were imprisoning for child abandonment and other crimes.

Personality: He's overall a very caring individual, at least those closest to him. Around strangers he's a bit cold, due to lack of trust of many people compared to Pokémon, especially adults. He only at first, was kindhearted and open to his godparents, twin and godbrothers. Then later A.J. and Chester. Sometimes he can get a little into his head and turn selfish in case of popularity. Thankfully, Gary is the one who is able to pull him back and get his head straight. He's very protective though of those he cares for, especially Pokémon.

Hometown: Dimmsdale

Starter: Totodile (Nicknamed Chomps) (Professor Juniper got a switch up with new starters that year, and so the twins got different starters of different regions)

Family:

Mrs. Turner (Estranged)

Mr. Turner (Estranged)

Wanda Fairywinkle-Cosma (Godmother / Adopted Mom)

Cosmo Fairywinkle-Cosma (Godfather / Adopted Dad)

Poof Fairywinkle-Cosma (Godbrother / Adopted Older Brother / Older twin of Foop)

Foop Anthony Fairywinkle-Cosma (Godbrother / Adopted Older Brother / Younger twin of Poof)

Gary Fairywinkle-Cosma (but just goes by Gary cause the last name doesn't sound "cool") (Twin brother) (Older by 1 minute)

Best Friends: A.J. and Chester (Also traveling with)

Acquittances: Sanjay and Elmer

Rivals: Tad, Chad, Remy, Tootie, Trixie (not to her acknowledgement), and Francis

Enemies: Teams Mishap (Anti-fairies), Team Smaug (Pixies), and Vicky

Possible Love Interest: Trixie / Remy (not till way later, and not until he gets over his crush on Trixie..so awhile)

Pokémon Team:

Nickname -> Pokemon -> Ability -> Moves

Chomps | Totodile -> Croconaw -> Feraligatr | Torret | Agility, Bite -> Crunch, Dragon Claw, Rain Dance, Aerial Ace, Water Gun -> Hydro Pump, Metal Claw, and Shadow claw

Ace | Weedle -> Kakuna -> Beedrill | Swarm | Pin Missle, Poison Jab, Agility, Brick Break, Aerial Ace, Swords Dance, Sleep Talk, and Double Team

Hevy | Phanpy -> Donphan | Sturdy | Rollout, Earthquake, Slam, Hidden Power, Stone Edge, Fire fang, Ice Shard, and Iron Defense

Thorn* | Egg -> Eevee -> Leafeon | Chlorophyll | Razor Leaf -> Magical Leaf, Bite -> Crunch, Swords Dance, Quick Attack, Facade, Energy Ball, Iron Tail, and Shadow Ball

Cleft | Pikachu -> Raichu (Alola) | Lightning Rod | Agility -> Quick Attack -> Double Team, Thunderbolt -> Thunder, Mega kick -> Mega Punch, Psychic, Dig, Iron Tail, and Grass Knot

Ally | Slyveon (twin of Gary’s) | Pixilate |

———-

Name: Gary Turner Fairywinkle-Cosma (Goes by just Gary since it sounds 'mysterious/cool' without any last name. Only uses it for documents, tournament sign ups, and with family.)

Age: 10

Occupation: Pokémon trainer / Gym challenger

Hair color / Style: Black and grease style

Eye color: Blue

Outfits:

Regular - Red coat, white t-shirt, blue navy pants and blue sneakers, also wears a pair of black shades

Training - White tank top and matching pants, with a green and pink belt with purple highlights

Facial features: Buck two front teeth

Other: Small scar on the bottom of his chin

Personality: He tries very hard to look and be cool wherever he goes, but it's really a shell of whom he really is, and only Timmy and his Pokémon know for a long while. Not that he doesn't get cocky or arrogant sometimes, but he's more mellow more than anything. Despite being the same age, he's very protective of Timmy, and such events to trigger this can actually break the arrogant shell he holds. He's been like such since the Beedrill incident. He's also secretly a nerd but hides his high intelligence with sass (or with sass if needed). But in private, likes to geek out with Timmy of their favorite Pokémon and trainers in the world.

Hometown: Dimmsdale

Starter: Chimchar (Nicknamed Jazz)

Family:

Mrs. Turner (Estranged)

Mr. Turner (Estranged)

Wanda Fairywinkle-Cosma (Godmother / Adopted Mom)

Cosmo Fairywinkle-Cosma (Godfather / Adopted Dad)

Poof Fairywinkle-Cosma (Godbrother / Adopted Older Brother / Older twin of Foop)

Foop Anthony Fairywinkle-Cosma (Godbrother / Adopted Older Brother / Younger twin of Poof)

Timmy Fairywinkle-Cosma (or 'Tim Tim') (Twin brother) (Younger by 1 minute)

Best Friend (s): Timmy, Foop, A.J., and Chester (latter two redundant to admit)

Acquittances: Remy and Trixie

Rivals: Tad, Chad, Remy, and Francis

Enemies: Teams Mishap, Team Smaug, Francis, Vicky, and anyone who hurts his family

Possible Love Interest (s): Kinda flirts with anyone, but secretly has a crush on either Chad, A.J., or Trixie (he kinda flirts so much, that he has no idea what is genuine till later on.) 

Pokémon Team:

Nickname -> Pokemon -> Ability -> Moves

Jazz | Chimchar -> Monferno -> Infernape | Blaze | Mach Punch -> Close Combat, Ember -> Fire Spin -> Fire Blast, Flame Wheel -> Flame Charge -> Flare Blitz, Iron Tail, Dual Chop, Shadow Claw, Stone Edge, Acrobatics, and Attract

*Maximus | Weedle -> Kakuna -> Beedrill | Sniper | Pin Missile

Gladiator | Scraggy -> Scrafty | Moxie |

Titan | Krokorok -> Krookodile | Intimidate |

Ivy | Mienfoo -> Mienshao | Inner Focus |

Luna | Egg -> Eevee -> Umbreon | Synchronize |

In Rotation:

*Crystal | Sylveon | Cute Charm | Charm, Quick Attack, Swift, Moonblast, Detect, Dig, Psyshock, and Shadow Ball

[shadowfloofster]

Been working on this for a while, but let me introduce you all to

The bone storm au

In this au, when Monkey king fights the LBD in JTTW, she escapes before she can be trapped or defeated but is incredibly weak.

Monkey king eventually returns to FFM, but as it's on fire and being burnt down by Erlang (A lot later than originally). He goes around and rescues as many residents as he can before going into the caves.

Macaque is already in the cave with a few of the monkey residents. Half his fur is stained black from the ash and smoke, he also has minor burns on him but they heal quickly and easily.

After Monkey king saves as many residents as he could, him and the monkeys stayed in the caves while they grieved for the lost residents and mountain, losing many due to their home being unable to support them.

Sun Wukong rarely leaves the mountain anymore, terrified his residents and queer plantonic partner (Macaque) would end up dead if he left them alone again. The only time he left was if they were desperate for food or was visiting DBK and PIF.

Once FFM is regrown and can sustain life better again, they decide to try have a child of their own and with help from PIF and DBK as they'd just had Red son, they were able to find a way that meant it would still be both of theirs, but they wouldn't have to naturally conceive them.

MK is born to the monkey demons, being named Sun Sying from his multiple star markings.

Once Red son is 2, they have to seperate him from the Samadhi fire. The fire seems to have gained a slight consciousness, influencing the young Red son. They had to seperate it into 4 pieces to stop the fire being able to free itself. However, a piece of the fire escaped, flying away before the others can track it down.

The 4 that seperated the fire are DBK, Monkey king, Nezha and Ao Lie, being the 4 most capable at the time while Macaque and PIF made sure neither child (Red son and MK as Monkey king is too anxious to leave them at FFM without him)

After a few years, the LBD returns. However, thanks to the Mayor, they found out where FFM was and made sure that wherever she went, it would not be seen nor heard by the monkey demons before it's too late.

Monkey king and Macaque raise MK on FFM, completely ignorant to the bone demon taking over the world. Until, a bunch of refugees, including DBK, PIF, Red son, the dragon family (including Mei), other demons and humans turn up on the flaming mountains and beg to stay there as the lady bone demon has taken over their home.

Because of the new group living on the mountain, they needed to settle them all otherwise it could cause chaos. Once they were settled, Monkey king and Macaque left to try and find a way to defeat the LBD, though MK and Red son (Now 6 and 7, MK socially transitioning, renaming himself Qi Xiaotian) sneak after the pair but get caught once they're too far from the mountain to go back safely as the LBD can recognise the monkey's powers.

The ground is covered in snow and large spikes of ice everywhere. Eventually though, they come across a small village of shapeshifters, after one of the young children 'attacks' Macaque's tail, his parents come and offer them a place to rest in the village as an apology. The group agree due to the cold and the monkey demons not being used to it (except for Macaque thanks to his shadows)

They find out the village has survived for so long because a fire has been passed down for generations, after someone got hit with the fire mid transformation, forcing it to join onto them and combine with their body.

Monkey king and Macaque, realise it's the Samadhi fire, and the cub who pounced on them before is the current wielder of the escaped piece of fire.

Suddenly, the LBD attacks the village, recognising MK using Monkey king's 72 transformations to entertain the snow leopard cub and alerting her to them being away from the mountain.

The parents of the cub, Plum, beg them to take him with them as his fire could help others and they get a bad feeling that if she got hold of it, it would end badly for everyone. The monkey's reluctantly agree as Macaque grabs his partner, kid, nephew and Plum and drops through a shadow, jumping in and out of them to get back to the mountain before thr LBD can get to them all.

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

After adopting Plum and helping the cub properly use the fire, he grew up on FFM with Red son, Mei and MK as older siblings and the monkey demons as his dads.

Once they're all nearly adults (Red son 20, MK 19, Mei 17 and Plum 15) Plum suggests they go put to see what's outside the mountain, as Mei had never seen it and Plum hardly remembering it as he was only 2 when they went back to the mountain. While Red son and MK don't think it's a good idea, Mei and Plum convince them after a bit of persuading though.

Thanks to MK's shadow powers, they all quickly get off the mountain and start exploring, Plum excitedly bouncing in the snow like he used to at his old village in snow fox form.

Plum gets seperated from the group however, jumping around in the snow and digging into it as they went to explore a sound nearby. The LBD takes this as a chance to attack him, MK, Red son and Mei quickly making their way over as she takes partial control over him.

Plum is freaked out, his vision and hearing going distorted before he shoots off in a ball of flames, disappearing before the LBD attacks the trio, though the escape back to FFM and have to tell their parents what they did.

They're unable to find Plum, no matter how much of the area Monkey king, Macaque, PIF and DBK looked so, reluctantly as he had the fire, they go back to the mountain, deciding they couldn't leave it any longer and had to try find a way to defeat her.

Months of planning, led to them deciding that they'd go to her main fortress and scout around, try see what they could find. Macaque, Monkey king, Princess iron fan, Red son, MK and Mei are all part of the team, splitting into two teams to try cover as much ground as possible without leaving anyone vulnerable.

They decide that two groups of three work well, one to get them away quickly (MK and Macaque) one for defense against possible LBD attacks (Red son and PIF) and the other for attacking if anyone gets in the way (Monkey king and Mei)

While Red son, MK and Mei are searching the fortress, Macaque, Monkey king and PIF going the other way, they look into any rooms they can, MK checking each room in case there was a trap in there.

Until they find a large room that seems to be full of cells. Most are empty, a few skeletons inside until they find one that's completely sealed but has a thick layer of glass to look inside.

The three just about see a figure inside, unsure who it is in the darkness of the room and cell. So they carefully try find a way in, the figure tensing as Red son and Mei are able to force the door open.

They notice the figure tense as they enter the room, the figure covered in blood like the room until they notice familiar features, realising it was Plum.

Once they get Plum to realise it's them, they quickly tell the other three and leave with him, Macaque and Monkey king babying the shapeshifter for a while as they make their way back to FFM. They find the place partly covered in ice however, the ice spreading still.

Macaque hears an aircraft nearby and quickly checks it out before bringing the others there, finding out Sandy and Red son had been working on it in case they needed a quick escape, so they were able to use it to get as many residents away as they could before the ice got them.

Now, with part of the Samadhi fire back and one of the rings thanks to DBK keeping it with him, they start searching for the last three rings, to try finally defeat the LBD and take back their world

=====================

Any questions feel free to ask! This was long but I was excited to finally show it all, designs and facts about them in a minute!

[lookbluesoup]

One Twin is Transgender Musings

I have been thinking about this a lot lately and felt compelled to ramble. I’ve seen plenty of people headcanon Alphinaud as trans before, but wanted to collect my thoughts about in one place! No shade on people who don’t share this headcanon, I think you’re valid either way! 

Why? 

Science!!! In real life, identical twins are always born the same sex. They’re the result of a single egg that splits in two so all of their genetic information, including chromosomes which determine sex, are the same. (Non-identical twins, by contrast, are created when two separate eggs are fertilized by two separate sperms, so their genetics can be very different) This is a fantasy world where the moon is a prison for an angry magic dragon and a goddess made out of a giant rock sends you cryptic visions about how to save the world, so yes, genetics could work differently here too. But one of the twins changing their gender would be equally feasible.

Despite having different genders, Alphinaud and Alisaie are constantly mistaken for each other, to Alphinaud’s vague displeasure and Alisaie’s outrage. Which could imply at least one of them transitioned.

In particular, Master Matoya refers to Alphinaud as “Louisoix’s granddaughter” when they meet, which results in a quiet but firm correction from him. If Alphie is trans, you could interpret that anywhere from him not passing and her not knowing he’d transitioned, to Matoya misgendering him out of forgetfulness. When he asks about her relationship to Louisoix, she goes on to correctly refer to Alphinaud as “boy” and insists that she’s known him since he was a newborn. Alternatively, if Alisaie is trans and Matoya hadn’t seen her since she’d transitioned, Matoya could have mistaken Alphinaud for his sister and been trying to correctly gender her.

Fantasias! How canon are these? I don’t know. Despite being something that would be incredibly useful to a number of trades, they’re not to my knowledge ever referenced in game dialogue, and exist only to give ffxiv players a way to overhaul their character’s entire appearance, including race and gender. The description text refers to “legend” about how to use them. So at the very least they must be rare, either a relic from a lost age made with lost alchemy, or otherwise extremely prohibitive to craft in cost or materials or education. But who would reasonably have the resources to obtain something like this? Well, the obscenely wealthy and politically powerful Leveilleurs of Sharlayan, a city-state devoted entirely to the accumulation of knowledge and the furtherment of sciences, with a giant-ass library chock full of tomes on obscure, restricted, advanced, or otherwise forbidding arts, and Gleaners wandering the world far and wide to bring back obscure finds. If one of the twins came out as dysphoric to their parents, it’s hard to imagine them not upending heaven itself to help their child transition into a more comfortable shape.

If not Fantasias, glamours! Enchantments to fool the eye are widely and casually used by magic users within game lore, from things as simple as changing one’s clothing or the age they appear, to something as grand as concealing an entire canyon system from enemy view. One could easily use glamours to alter their gender expression.

Which Twin?

Though I’m personally a fan of the ‘Alphinaud is trans’ idea, it would almost make more sense to me if Alisaie was the one. Whichever twin did so didn’t feel the need to change anything else about their appearance except for their chest and potentially their bits. If AFAB, one might expect Alphinaud to make his features more masculine. If AMAB, Alisaie would already have the benefit of looking generally feminine from the start, and doesn’t seem to care nearly as much about her presentation to begin with. If one of them was going to change only the minimal amount and be done with it, she seems the more likely of the pair. 

Alisaie’s insecurity over being in her ‘brother’s shadow’ growing up could be compounded either by his transition leading to more attention and affirmation for him by family and friends, or by her own transition causing her to struggle with additional feelings of Otherness and isolation from her peers.

Alphinaud is implied to be quite a charmer with the ladies at the Studium (or at least shameless in his pursuit to impress them), whereas Alisaie struggled to even maintain strong friendships there. Similarly, this could be Alphinaud’s newfound euphoria lending him confidence, or Alisaie’s fear of being treated like an imposter holding her back (I’m also tempted to adopt a a demi or graysexual headcanon for Alisaie, given how she’s also seemed to struggle in this area compared to her brother)

You could also say they’re both trans, they both transitioned and really just traded genders, which would also be amusing.

[charms-of-earth]

My d&d game is such a sexually charged game bc we’re all so horny and comfortable with each other so its become a bit of a dating sim. My character, Seta, is a changeling ranger who replaced a prince when he wandered into the woods as a very young child. A hag (a green hag I think) was behind it all and who knows what plans she had for Seta and the real prince of Vinia, Julian. 

So, Seta saved his childhood crush a few sessions back (Jasper) and there’s been sexual tension between the two of them since then, and then we went into the Fey Wilds to rescue Julian and since then there’s been sexual tension between him and Seta as well bc its like, would you fuck yourself if you got the chance? Also, Julian argued that Seta could have looked like anyone for all these years and chose to look like Julian because he wants him, but in reality he wants to BE him. He’s never felt like he belonged anywhere because of his nature as a fey creature and his wanderlust. 

So recently, we rescued a guy who has been stuck in a wax golem suit for months (years?) and his soul was all that remained. We were given a gem from a dragon’s hoard for something else that we didn’t end up needing it for that could give someone a body made of whatever it touched after doing a little ritual. So, Seta touched the gem after placing it in the suit, which meant that the guy (Slaine) was now a changeling because it didn’t just matter what substance touched the gem (flesh) but who exactly touched it. 

So now, we have this guy following us around the city who’s going to help us fight this giant monster who claims to be a hero of the city from before the big disaster that hit the city that wiped out most of the population. And that’s not even the best part. He starts flirting with Seta for some reason despite there being two other guys who are vying for Seta’s attention. 

Seta is not good with relationships, he tries to avoid them if possible, but he can get a little blinded if someone is paying him a lot of attention and compliments so it’s only a matter of time before Jasper and Julian notice what Slaine is doing and there’s going to be drama. 

I really like shipping Slaine and Seta though bc they’re both changelings so they can both look like anyone they’ve seen and be whatever sex they wanted. I think that holds a lot of potential for really steamy roleplays and really good smut that I could write. It’s great for other reasons too of course, but like I said, my d&d group is really horny and also really gay. 

I haven’t revealed this to the other players yet, but Seta is going to have a moment where he realizes that he doesn’t have to look like Julian anymore, the hag is dead and the kingdom is in ruins and he no obligations to anyone. He’ll find the right person and get their permission to look like them (preferably someone who he knows only in passing) and be someone else! So, he’s kinda trans because he’s not going to choose someone male. Yay for d&d characters transitioning! If only it was that easy in real life. That would 100% be my super power. The ability to shapeshift into whoever I wanted. 

[knght0wl]

just finished the game

botw and totk shouldve released together as a packaged deal to make it worth the total $70, like a chapter or part 1 and 2 kind of thing. i get making games takes time and you cant please everyone in the corporate world but still

gripes. annoyed you can’t find and wear gerudo vai clothes anymore, peeved they saved the data of your horses but not all your clothes, and the items you’d hung up on the walls of your hateno house (they honestly couldve just had bolson hold onto your stuff in storage for your newly bought house in totk). Ticked they didnt transfer over the data from your shiekah slate compendium to your purah pad, link should already know what all/most of the edible food stuffs, creature ingredients, and monster parts are if youve played botw on the same device.

something i hated but this extends to most japanese games: i wish we could skip cutscenes especially if they were the same animation x5. also didnt like the way they introduced the tutorials via shrines, mainly boring and sometimes frustrating. went into two of the temples not realizing i needed the characters to be there and say their dumb little comments before activating them. very handholdy and feels like theyre talking down to you, not trusting you to make the conclusions on your own/can’t pick up on where the designers are pointing to or where they want you to look or go

HATE HATE HATE how they made the dark skinned great fairy hypersexual that says innuendos constantly, double hate how some npcs have light lips that look a little too similar to jim crow art, its 2023, jesus fucking christ.

wish you could just summon the sage’s wills through a wheel or assigned buttons like in botw, having them out like that was clunky and the ai was not fun to work with especially the mecha and riju, turning em off is an option, and running around the same monsters all the time that riju and sidon can kill in 2 or 3 hits is also an option.

wish the depths were more spooky/scary or atleast darker in themes, more stuff to interact/look at, Something. skeletons laying around everywhere, gibdos even, maybe apparitions of the lost souls standing or laying around or in a fighting pose idk the entire place was pretty big but bland/lacked character. that can also be said for the sky islands too really.

storywise, it wouldve been cool to see past heroes and princesses coming together and teaching link and zelda stuff alongside rauru and sonia’s powers. wouldve been way more interesting to see the different heroes’ journeys and how they defeated their version of ganon/related event (that would then contribute to how to better defeat our ganon?) in times past, rather than the rehashed cutscenes with the powerstone holders or whatever getting decimated from each of their perspectives

the ganon fight cutscenes made me wish we were playing that game instead of running around looking for zelda. i did like the game, but only in the sense that i liked the artstyle, the ascend ability and the fact that the roads, strongholds, and towns feel a lot livelier. and i really liked the end fight with ganon, that was tense and fun (personalized opinion since i didnt have enough sundelion meals and was on 1 heart before the transition to the dragon fight); a major step up from botw’s ganon fight