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kris-mage-fics · 1 year

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Five Comfort Characters, Five Tags

Tagged by @georgiedoesntfloat - This was way harder then I expected because I had to decide what a 'comfort character' even means to me! (Also, I'm not tagging anyone because I tired from editing and this has been sitting in my drafts for days. So if you see this and want to do it too, awesome, consider yourself tagged!) 1) Falkor from The Neverending Story

My sister and I watched the movie a lot when we were kids, and we both loved Falkor so freaking much! He somehow made me feel like things would be okay, both in the story, and even in my own life. Which, frankly, was something I desperately needed growing up. (If you also loved this movie, I highly recommend reading the book! The movie only covers the first 40% or so of the book.) 2) Sarah from The Labyrinth

This was another movie we watched a lot. Looking back I think Sarah was a good hero for me, and in some ways I really related to her. She was another character that made me feel like I could defeat the odds against me and come out the other side. 3) Cove Holden from Our Life: Beginning & Always

This was the first VN I played, I didn't even know what visual novels were when I started playing it! At the time I found it, I was going through a lot in my life, and playing it a billion times helped me work through some really big things. Cove is so kind and really supportive of the MC, the friendship between the two of them is really lovely. Cove, and this game, literally changed my life for the better in multiple ways. 4) Haron Milirose from Ebon Light

Haron's brother, Ernol, may be my favorite romance in the game, but Haron is my comfort character. He's positive, sweet, and flirty in a way I actually think is fun. The MC goes through some shit in this game, and Haron is a ray of sunshine through it all - and he calls her "shining light"! This assassin-in-training takes the honor of being the subject of the first fan fic I wrote. Yes, this was the game that pushed me to start writing, and it's the game that first put the idea in my head that someday I could make my own game. (If you can't read the text, it says: "I said that in complete innocence, madralee." Trust me, his comment prior to this was not completely innocent.)

5) Red Antiqua from Shepherds of Haven (but almost tied with him for comfort characters are: Shery Acquell, Trouble Alder, Caine Tavadon, and Mimir.)

First off I love all the characters in Shepherds of Haven so much, but only some of them would I consider comfort characters. Red very narrowly wins over the rest in the comfort character category. I can't feel bad when I'm playing a scene with Red in it. His kindness, maturity, gentleness, and nerdy infodumps about magic always cheer me up. Red's a bit of a flirt too, but in a different way than Haron. He's another character that makes me feel like things will be okay, even though sometimes the MC has to reassure him since he's a worrier. (This is only part of a beautiful fan art by @stilwaterbutcher of Red and her lovely character, Guinevere. Please go look at the full piece! Y'all have no idea how hard it was to pick only one fan art of Red to use, there are so many stunning pieces out there!)

#apparently comfort characters for me have to be positive or make me feel like I can get through hard times (or both)#I really wanted to pick someone from The Princess Bride but I realized it's a comfort movie for me but has no comfort characters #but it was another movie my sister and I watched a ton when we were growing up #I had it memorized for a long time and I *really* suck at memorizing anything that isn't set to music #the neverending story #the labyrinth #our life: beginnings & always #ebon light #shepherds of haven #tag game

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asian-ascian · 2 years

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Still thoroughly obsessed with @shepherds-of-haven and Liv, but also obsessed with Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint, and I had the brilliant idea of “why not an ORV AU”. I finished the Fifth Scenario Arc a few days ago and.....oh my god.....Shin Yoosung.....crying in the club but it also gave me major inspo, especially after I found out I could actually save Rika if I used a WoP instead of magic oop, time to restart my game--

N e ways, major spoilers for ORV below. Some more ramblings at the end too, if you wanna know more about my AU bs.

It should be raining, Liv thinks dully, as she casts her gaze up to the sky. Grey, cloudy, but no rain, no snow. In moments like this, when someone meets a tragic end, it should rain. Isn't that how it always goes in the novels?

Is this world not a novel come to life in all of its terrifying, terrible glory?

[Personal Skill, The Fourth Wall, is shaking faintly.]

Judging by the crying and wailings of both her companions and the other incarnations around her, Liv is not alone in this feeling of bitterness and melancholy.

From beside her, Caine swipes at his eyes, his other hand slipping into Liv's and clutching it tightly. Instinctively, Liv squeezes his hand back. The younger Rika buries her face into Liv's opposite side, and Liv feels her coat getting soaked. Absently, Liv strokes the top of Rika's head.

The final Disaster has been defeated, but Liv does not feel like celebrating, not when victory meant the loss of someone who could have been saved—someone who she had been so close to saving, were it not for that damn dokkaebi.

The Rika of the future, the "Disaster of Floods", has died, while they get to live on.

[Personal Skill, The Fourth Wall, is shaking faintly.]

Bronwyn comes up next to her, silent. Instead of its usual intimidating, foreboding effect, this silence is subdued. Somber.

Regretful.

“I didn’t want it to end this way,” Liv says plainly.

Despite the quietness of her statement, the fact that she's broken her usual silence speaks volumes of the weight on her shoulders.

Attack me, the older Rika had begged Liv in her mind over the roar of battle, fighting against the will of the dokkaebi.

[Personal Skill, The Fourth Wall, is shaking faintly.]

“I didn’t want her to die.”

Stop me, Rika had pleaded as Liv closed in on her, her skin burning and cracking as she pushed through the ether storm with her weapon in hand.

Rika wanted Liv to kill her.

[Personal Skill, The Fourth Wall, is shaking faintly.]

“I wanted to save her.”

But even then, Liv could not bring herself to strike the finishing blow. Even then, she could not honor Rika’s desperate request, instead letting another do it in her stead.

Silence.

Then—

“I know. Thank you.”

Startled, Liv turns her head to look at Bronwyn, blinking up at him with a bewildered look in her eyes. His face resolutely stays trained to where the elder Rika perished, something pained and tortured swirling in his gaze in a rare moment of vulnerability.

“You tried to help her, all the way to the end. You refused to give up on her, even when I already had, and she herself did as well.”

Oh.

Ah.

[Personal Skill, The Fourth Wall, is shaking.]

Liv remembers, then, the look on the elder Rika’s face when Liv found her after reviving.

The conflict. The agitation. The turmoil.

She remembers the look on her face when Liv declared her intentions to spare her, to save her, for the entire channel to hear, the look on her face when all the incarnations stood by her side and refused to take up the bounty scenario.

The confusion. The realization. The uncertainty.

The hope.

[Personal Skill, The Fourth Wall, is shaking.]

Bronwyn turns to her. He still looks troubled, but he forges on with a resolute sort of determination.

“I still do not trust you. I do not know if I ever will. But you have a kind heart, Liv Novak, despite your or anyone else's claims otherwise. You may have failed to save her life, but you saved her in a different way. Her…” He hesitates, then adds tentatively, “...and me, as well.”

There is a lump in Liv’s throat that she can’t seem to swallow down.

Attack me, the older Rika had begged.

Stop me, she had pleaded.

[Personal Skill, The Fourth Wall, is shaking.]

Liv remembers this chapter in Ways of Survival well. It was her favorite one, after all, despite her dissatisfaction with the conclusion. Liv remembers reading about the elder Rika’s hatred, her betrayal, her despair. Liv remembers Blade Bronwyn’s mistakes, the careless words, the little things that drove Rika to the edge. Liv remembers the sympathy she felt for Rika, a little girl forced to grow up too fast, forced to watch her companions die, forced to travel alone through the labyrinth of worlds for over a thousand years in a desperate attempt to save her friends, forced to watch the person she admired the most become someone she couldn’t recognize. Liv remembers loving the chapter because it invoked such strong emotions in her. Liv remembers wanting better for the woman Rika became.

As a mere reader, she could do nothing to change Rika's fate. When the novel became her reality, she thought that maybe, just maybe, she finally had a chance. She had foolishly believed that now that she was no longer a mere spectator, but an actual “protagonist”, she could get the best outcome, the best ending.

But in the end, omniscient does not equal omnipotent.

In the end, she was still powerless in the face of thousands of heartless constellations.

In the end, Rika still died, and Liv Novak could do nothing about it.

…And yet—

“Thank you, Liv Novak.”

Liv feels something heavy and hot building up behind her eyes as Blade Bronwyn meets her gaze head on—just as intense as ever, but compassionate of her plight for the first time ever since they’ve met.