#dahlia's rambling

[my-cursed-brain]

Lilia Vanrouge the character ever.

Like . . . He's a fairy. He's vampire/bat coded. He's a single father of 2. He's a former war general. He enjoys being cute. He's simultaneously a reflection and reverse of the good fairies from Sleeping Beauty because instead of three fairies taking care of one human child, it's one fairy taking care of his adopted human son, the fairy prince, and his friend's half fae half human grandson. His design screams pink goth. He's 700 years old. Taking care of kids has changed him for the better. He's horrendously bad at cooking. Malleus says that he's mentioned in NRC's textbooks. He cuts and dyes his own hair. He plays the bagpipes. One of his birthday cards has him wearing one pink shoe and one blue shoe like how Flora and Merryweather keep arguing over what color Aurora's dress should be. He's the one who got Malleus his tamagotchi. He unknowingly games with Idia. He's good at singing lullabies.

Lilia is constantly spinning on a microwave plate in my brain and I have so many thoughts about him.

[leeeeeeef]

im still thinking abt 3-1's impact on phoenix as a character. because in 3-1 he's so trusting and open and unabashedly friendly until he realizes the truth abt dahlia. and just before dahlia is apprehended, she says this to him:

and after that he.. just doesnt tell anyone anything??? he never did get to tell mia about larry and miles and why he became a lawyer. and he doesn't tell maya either until she literally stops him and forces him to tell her. and he didn't tell maya about miles's disappearance. and he didn't say anything about his involvement with iris at the beginning of 3-5.

and in aa4, that secretiveness is only exacerbated after not only his client but the entire legal system suddenly turned on him. right out of the gate in 4-1, phoenix is very selective with the information he discloses, like when he chooses to plead the fifth and refuses to elaborate on his game with shadi, or when he lies to the judge about his locket (through omission, but a lie nonetheless). and even throughout the game, he never tells anyone about his work on the mason system and he doesn't tell apollo and trucy about their mother.

and not only that, but he works as a poker player!! the entire point of poker is to be secretive and misleading!!! and he keeps up this facade throughout the game, projecting this character of a sleazy, shady poker player, even leaning into the rumors of him forging evidence. all when he's trying to enact generally positive legal reforms!! it's as if he's keeping up this poker face throughout the game, and it only makes him even more secretive and cryptic.

my point is, there's such a stark contrast between the bubbly, emotional, and forthcoming college student phoenix wright and the mysterious, closed-off poker player phoenix wright. and even lawyer phoenix is secretive to a degree!!

and i can't help but think that dahlia's last words to phoenix before she was arrested contributed to that change at least partially. do you think dahlia would have never resorted to murder if phoenix didnt tell anyone abt the necklace? do you think he blames himself for doug swallow's death? he was just innocently gushing about his girlfriend!!! how could he have known it would lead to something like this!?? and if this much harm could have been caused just by telling people about a little necklace, i'd understand why phoenix wouldnt want to talk about his life at all!!

but as much as he's been betrayed or weathered down, no matter how many walls he builds or how he changes, there's one thing that has stayed constant throughout his life as we've seen it, and that's especially apparent with his beanie and locket. his beanie, likely a gift from trucy with the word "papa" stitched onto it, and the locket with a picture of his daughter. both symbols of his love for trucy, just like how he wore the bottle necklace and the sweater made by iris as a sign of his love for her. and if there's anything to glean from these parallels, it's that there's a part of phoenix that never faded away after all those years, that still cares for people so ardently and so strongly and with all his heart. and that's something that will probably never change.

[doodledgalaxy]

Recently I saw this beautiful art of the Mario princesses by leharc_blueheart on Instagram that were inspired by Alphonse Musca, and wanted to try out his style as well.

Art Nouveau is sort of the opposite of my usual style in many ways despite really liking how it looks, especially since it’s always weirdly reminded me of one of my favorite characters, N Harmonia of the Pokémon series.

So here’s the king of Team Plasma!

(There’s a speedpaint over on my Instagram and you should go check out leharc_blueheart’s art, it’s beautiful)

[some-zer0]

I think part of the reason why I'm so obsessed with Dahlia is because her and Phoenix are such great foils of each other.

Like, they're both the only people we know who've fallen from Dusky Bridge into the Eagle River and survived, but Phoenix accidentally fell because he was trying to protect his family while Dahlia was purposefully trying to leave hers

And on the subject of family, Dahlia tries so hard to hold disdain for and distance herself from her biological family, whereas Phoenix cares so much about and tries so hard to keep ahold of his found family

In addition, even though Dahlia appears at first glance to be a good actor, she actually loses her composure/drops the act/messes up her story very quickly. On the other hand, Phoenix appears to be a completely open book, but he's actually one of the most secretive characters in AA, and his bluffing skills are of course legendary

There's just... so much to compare between these two. They're selfishness vs. selflessness; they're a killer masquerading as an angel vs. a white knight viewed by many as a corrupt defender of murderers; they're deception vs. the truth. And yet they're also so similar in their passion, drive, and downright stubbornness. And that always makes me wonder whether them meeting under different circumstances might have led to them being friends (or if they're so different they'd be enemies no matter what)

[foolishlyfoolishfools]

yeah uhm we poisoned your boyfriend. he was being a nosy little bitch so we spiked his coffee and he's in a coma now. he uh. he won't be waking up for another 6 years, and when he finally does wake up you won't be around to greet him. oh and he's gonna Come Back Wrong, too. yeah he'll become a very bitter, vengeful man with his heart set on trying to salvage what little he has left in the world, and he'll ultimately sort of fail at that. sorry. i hope the transgender sex was good while it lasted.

[distorted-smile]

Characters belong to @weevmo.

Dahlia…you and me, girl /hj. I’m sorry, Weevmo you keep dishing out these scrumptious characters and I just gotta go a little silly, as a treat. I struggled a bit emulating her into my style but I hope she’s still recognisable.

[fushigurro]

no bc now i’m thinking about jerking satoru off from behind

like yeah he’s big or whatever but you could still sneak an arm around his waist and put his cock in your fist while you press your cheek against his back and place kisses along his spine

he huffs, babbles, and moans the whole time, knees locking, wishing he could see you as he cums, but feeling you there and hearing your voice is good enough for now

[wataksampingan]

This was supposed to be some form of Therdeo Dane Lapileon Defense Thesis but my brain cannot pull off all the necessary research to do it justice.

So I guess let’s just brain dump all my thoughts and feelings?? About this manhwa?? (Spoilers for the story up to episode 63 on Webtoons and 66 on Naver Webtoons)

...this also gets FAR too long so cut is here for sanity’s sake. Tl;dr Theo Lapileon is a wounded puppy and I want him to be happy gdi

I need to preface the Theo content by saying that I adore Pereshati. I think she’s one of the more realistic heroines that I’ve read, in the sense that she’s plucky and determined but she damn well knows how the game is played. Every move she makes is plagued with doubt and uncertainty coz she’s only a minor noble, and one with an unbelievable story at that. (Resurrecting after being fed poisonous blood and getting thrown back in time is a stretch for anyone). But whenever she does decide to do something, she handles herself with the kind of poise you’d expect from a grown woman who knows how polite society works. It’s the kind of elegance and maturity that the novel’s Perry doesn’t have.

I wonder very much how seungu would have thrown Perry into Theo’s way if they had had full control of the adaptation because the first... 10? episodes or so reads very much like a typical isekai manhwa: she’s murdered, she awakes, and then immediately besieges Theo with a proposal, simply because he needs to marry someone to get the emperor/princess off his back. The Perry we see currently in the latest chapters would likely have done something smarter/more socially acceptable/conventional simply because imperial pressure or no, why the fuck would the grand duke entertain a minor noble they’ve never met before?

Granted, this is quite in line with Theo’s character in the first few episodes as well (which is lampshaded in a later chapter AND I LOVED IT) whose excuse for entertaining her absurd request/proposal is just “I got curious about the woman who kept bombarding us with messages”. The Theo we see later, who just burns letters from the Fourth Princess Dodolea without even thinking about it, would have hardly buckled under that kind of insistence.

This is all pure speculation of course because the artist, seungu, has no social media I could trace. The original novel’s writer, Han Yoonseol, has Twitter and various socmed that show an active writing career and interest in the MILAOWM webtoon. But the artist? Nothing, apart from their work. They’ve completed a previous series (Google translated to “New Year’s Taste”) but that also seems like an adaptation. I have no access to their thought process, rationale or any inkling of why certain decisions were made. 

Whatever the case though, those decisions so far have me hooked. They’re making changes that reflect something more... realistic, with higher stakes and actual consequences for the actions of the characters. E.g. you can’t humiliate, much less threaten, members of the nobility at a public function in front of a crowd without some sort of retaliation. Theo in the novel actually threatens to kill a nobleman in cold blood in front of a gathered audience whereas Theo in the manhwa does this in private.

Well, I say threaten. In the manhwa, he has just a fraction of the dialogue Novel!Theo says. Just one or two lines before he snaps and is about to decapitate a mofo before being restrained by his guards. The bullying incident that precipitates this is also dealt with realistic actions and importantly, contains a reflection on Perry’s part about the power and privilege the Lapileons have in this universe. I don’t know if this foreshadows anything but my mind has gone as far as the dissolution of the empire/defection to an enemy kingdom (and the loss of their noble titles) by the end of the whole manhwa. Far-fetched? Maybe, but I have so much faith in seungu by now and so little idea of what they’re planning that I won’t be surprised.

Manhwa!Therdeo Lapileon is also extremely taciturn and poker-faced, to all the natural disadvantages this sort of personality entails. Everything we know about him is told in silent images, or expressions we explicitly don’t see. This is a man who believes in actions over words, who has no idea that open communication is a Thing and that doing stuff behind a person’s back without telling them can backfire at times (”I’m gonna have someone follow my wife’s ex-fiance around without telling her, and that got her kidnapped. SHIT.”) And all the backstory that’s been hinted at so far gives us very sad explanations how he turned out this way.

One could very justifiably argue that actually, the entire Lapileon family is a collection of sad iron woobies. Saoirse lost her husband and only son because of her own blood, Phineas is doing his level best to save his family but keeps seeing them die despite his medical expertise, Gloria probably had a HELL of a marriage to survive this long, and the poor children have had their own bouts of suffering and daddy issues. And of course there’s also Pereshati who’s been murdered about 3-4 times at this point, and lost a most beloved father to a stepmother she loved to the moon and back.

BUT. Theo.

If the housekeeper’s flashback in Episode 47 is anything to go by, and if I’m guessing right, Theo and Saoirse’s father (maybe grandfather? Unclear at this point but let’s go with father for now) was a nightmare of a man. Slaughtering servants for infractions was probably a regular threat in the Lapileon home, and judging from that flashback during the episodes when they first find Islette, so was torturing and testing his younger son’s limits. His survival in the family was due to his “usefulness”.

One can suspect that of the three siblings, Theo was the one with the softest heart. We have no idea what his older brother (Celphi’s dad) was like yet and Saoirse is a Lapileon to the core: toughened enough to do what is needed, hardened even further by tragedy. She’s also a mom, which is why harming Islette earned Gen a rightful and vicious stiletto-heels-to-the-face-ass kicking. It also gets Theo a reprimand: get his shit together or step down from the headship of the family.

(And I’m just. Saoirse, honey, I love and respect you immensely and to be stepped on by your footwear of choice would be my honour. But that’s your younger brother we’re talking about. And he’s been emotionally sucker punched in just about every aspect. He’s trying, okay?)

I’m just saying that when you’re a child, and abused to that degree, sympathy from the devil is still sympathy. Of course it echoes to the present day even as a full-grown, supposedly rational adult. Of course it’s going to fuck you up.

You were also probably raised to put family above all (witness Theo not trusting Perry with the full truth of Celphi’s condition until circumstances force his hand, Saoirse only fully warming up to her once it’s clear she loves Celphi without any ulterior motive, Gloria immediately expecting her to be wrong about the family blood being sold, only to be confounded by the awful truth that this stranger to the family was right). You’ve been operating on the full expectation that any Lapileon would follow that creed. How could they not? Their curse is too great a responsibility.

Then you’re forced to confront the devil who once gave you rare comfort as a child, and that devil bears your family name and blood. Not only does he spout the most heinous things you’ve never imagined, he also manages to hit you where it hurts: you have used your blood. You have used it for your own benefit. Are you truly no better than he is? Who are you to judge him?

(Never mind that the devil is a liar and is trying to save his own ass which is why Saoirse, who has a better understanding of her own identity and self-worth, doesn’t give him enough time to say anything - she just kicks the shit out of him)

Is it any wonder Theo hesitates to do anything harsher?

Everything he does implies a reluctance to inflict lethal force if it can be helped. Perry remarks on it when he first removes Schiff without killing him the day they got married. He doesn’t even draw his sword on the assassin at the parade, merely KICKING HIM INTO ORBIT subduing him long enough to be taken in by the guards. The only times he has killed someone in the story is Perry’s ex-fiance who had kidnapped and blackmailed her, and... well, Perry herself.

(Which again goes back to that weird early episode installment - how do you reconcile him feeding her his blood in such a cavalier manner with the gravity of his responsibility as head of the family to ensure their blood isn’t used exactly like that?

You give him a HUGEASS dose of remorse and guilt later on when Gen accuses him of also using the blood to his own advantage, and then have him offer a sincere apology to the woman he experimented on.)

He also very nearly murdered the father of the child who bullied his ward. But even that was prevented by Raymon, the guard. This is more speculation on my part but his personal guards - who are all loyal to him beyond a doubt - may have been instructed (by him?) to restrain Theo, maybe to make sure he doesn’t repeat the sins of his father who just murdered people as and when it suited him. I don’t know if seungu would even bring this up at some point but I’ll be thrilled if that is the case.

This abusive childhood is compounded by the trauma of war. Theo specifically is credited with just swooping in out of the blue and ending the conflict between the Castor Empire and the kingdom of Schwartz. His reaction to being hailed a hero is to show up covered in blood to report to the emperor, and then disappear back to the country without attending any ceremonies. It earns him the notorious reputation of being “the bloodthirsty war fiend”.

Judging from Episode 13, what he really earned was a lifelong diagnosis of PTSD and various other neuroses. “Fuck this noise, I’m going home” was a reasonable reaction from a man who has no care or time for polite society. I'd go a bit further to suggest he also didn’t want to hear his actions being lauded as heroic when all he experienced was violence and death (re: that line about him being glad his statue was destroyed, that it’d been a stain on his honour). Whatever he did was to satisfy the emperor who has some form of hold over him, and absolutely no respect for the Lapileons (every single reaction from any imperial family member, even creepy Dodolea, has been sneering condescension or reluctant compliments). So from that perspective, why the hell would he have stayed to schmooze at the castle?

There are no therapists in Castor clearly coz Theo does what most soft-hearted introverts do and represses the shit out of his trauma. Just... stuff it WAY down into the depths of his subconscious and never address it because what the fuck else would you expect him to do? Talk about his ~*~feelings~*~ in the Lapileon house where weakness is a death sentence? No, he bundles it all behind his iron mask and resigns himself to literal nightmares for the rest of his existence.

The timeline has yet to be properly established, but I'm guessing that he comes back from war only to find that his brother has died and sister-in-law has just upped and left. Which means baby Celphi is left in his care. I’m not sure why Saoirse wasn’t the one to adopt him, but I’m guessing since he’s the next in line to the grand dukedom, it ‘makes sense’ that Grand Duke Therdeo has to be in charge of him. (Saoirse not being able to become head of the family just because she’s a woman is another sticking point that I suspect will be key to resolving this entire mess) (how/when exactly he becomes Theo’s ward is subject to many theories since the timeline of the story hasn’t been actually clearly explained; a guess that a friend and I have settled on is perhaps at the time, securing Celphi’s place as a ‘spare heir’ after Saoirse, Saoirse’s son and Theo in the line of succession would have been a practical decision. Either that or, more plausibly, Theo saw Celphi in himself and just decided to adopt the boy. Which makes this next part even more tragic)

The image of Theo in a soldier’s uniform looking helplessly into the cradle, with baby Celphi reaching up to him, broke me when I first saw it. It explains every mistake Theo made in trying to raise him.

He was a soldier. What the hell would he know about raising children (even if the theory that he chose to adopt this boy is correct)? He loves this tiny child with every breath, and he’d do anything for Celphi - but most of what he knows is how to fight and die. How the fuck does that help?? Not only that, his only experience of fatherhood is the shadow of a man who abused him so severely. What is that supposed to teach a man about parenting?

Clearly not much, considering his very shocked reaction when Celphi ends up demanding what he was supposed to think when his guardian/uncle kept ignoring him all the time while he was growing up.

And the boy is correct. Theo has no answer. He fucked up (again), and he didn’t know he was fucking up so hard.

But my god, he keeps trying to make up for it. It’s awkward and uncomfortable, but Theo shows up every day to pick him up from school with Perry; he’s even glad Celphi yells at him about killing Perry because that means he’s not turning out to be Therdeo 2.0. Celphi is expressing feelings and opinions and even if they turn the boy against him, so be it - at least it’s coming out. It may be too late for Theo to learn how to express emotions but at least his ward won’t make the same mistakes.

Which is why IT HURTS SO MUCH IN EPISODE 63 TO SEE HIM SO CRESTFALLEN. After suggesting to Perry she stay away from the Lapileon house for a while, she says she will and the dialogue translates to:

“Thank you for your kind consideration.”

THERE ARE THREE - T H R E E - PANELS where his face/expression isn’t shown at all but you can ABSOLUTELY TELL HE’S 360 DEGREES OF ANGUISHED.

This woman - this beacon of hope that he’s come to have feelings for (all the subtle blushing and unseen pining looks have been sprinkled very well throughout the chapters so far) - has just had to go through the ordeal of a trial (along with months of preparation before that) where she had to send her stepmother to 35 years of hard labour, among other things, for the murder of her father. She's just had to reconcile the mother she knew with the killer sitting in the dock, and the cries of a stepsister she once loved. And all this with the knowledge that it's the Lapileons’ blood that ultimately killed her father. There’s a stray thought that poisonous blood or no, her stepmother would have found some way to kill her dad.

But it doesn’t change how it was their blood - his blood - that killed Count Zahardt. It is Lapileon blood that has tortured Perry, the woman responsible for bringing out the best in his adopted son, discovering little Islette and bringing warmth back to this frozen wasteland of a household (to paraphrase Daniel Molton who is a treat of a character, I love him so much).

Yes, he's essentially thrown his immense resources into legal recourse, released her from their obligatory contract, and offered her help in being independent and free from them. He's done many, many things to try and make her current situation comfortable.

Yet the fact remains that she basically rescued so many parts of his life, and he inadvertently destroyed hers. Nothing he does will bring her father back.

Yet she won’t curse him or his family, won’t demand any form of recompense, won’t even give him the cold shoulder, despite everything in her that says she should. Her line “leave me be so I can resent you” is so good and so sad and my HEART disintegrated.

The most ironic thing is that Theo would’ve probably understood that reaction better. The justified reaction would have been to storm and rage at him. He knows what to do with anger.

Instead, she said thank you for your kind consideration.

And he can’t say anything to that as she walks away.

HIS LIFE HAS BEEN AND IS FUCKING SAD. AND IT’S GOING TO GET WORSE.

Episode 64 is already up on Naver and Dodolea is about to do a NUMBER on his ALREADY VERY FRAGILE PSYCHE. What she calls love - and what some of us may have suspected as straightforward obsession for his attentions - is seeming more and more like a love of torturing him, and watching him squirm.

He has to sit for a portrait in the palace (emperor’s orders probably because he just wants to jerk Theo’s chain around), and cannot escape when she comes into the room to sit and watch. There’s no good reason for him to leave, so he just has to grit his teeth and bear it.

And she laughs at his discomfort. She laughs and calls it “cute”.

The rage and fear in his face when she does so is alarming from someone whose poker face is usually immaculate. It sucks so much strength/spirit from him that it alarms Daniel who greets him at the house. I have a feeling that he’s about to just shatter into pieces since Episode 66′s thumbnail has him turned away, lying on a pillow. And then I will shatter, coz this dude CANNOT catch a break.

At some point, I came to the conclusion that Theo was soft-hearted and I cannot tell you when exactly that was. It's testament to how seungu weaves in his quiet charm throughout the chapters so we can see why Perry might possibly fall for him apart from his handsome face (even if at this point, that is the FURTHEST thing from her mind). There are huge things of course like rescuing her from her kidnapping and financing her legal battles.

But the little warm things speak volumes: learning how to dance so he could accompany her to a ball, saying yes immediately when she suggests maybe he could just reply to people, telling the servants to make her special tea when he found out she also had trouble sleeping, bringing a hot water pack(?) to ease her cramps, rushing back for her auction, squeezing her hand as he helps her into the carriage because that’s all he can do after the trial. (seungu did you also watch Pride and Prejudice (2005)? Did you see the hand flex scene and immediately decide to use this? Inquiring minds must know. Also inquiring minds screamed when they first saw that scene becausE HAND TOUCHES ARE GOLD BULLION IN SLOW BURNS) And just his face (?? back of his head?? seungu never gives us any idea what he looks like when he’s in ‘oops fell in love AGAIN’ mode)

BUT SOMEHOW YOU CAN JUST TELL:

They all tell the story of a broken man who has made so many mistakes, but he can be kind and attentive, and tries hard to do what’s right (even if it takes him awhile to figure out what’s right, coz again: he’s Fucked Up). He’s also a socially awkward dork who ignores people at parties coz he doesn't know how to behave as expected. And resembles a really sad puppy when he disappoints Perry.

I could speculate a lot more on what/who the fuck Dodolea actually is and how she’s related to the Lapileon’s curse, but I also know this manhwa has steered some distance away from the webnovel. So I cannot really tell if the plot lines will be similar.  

I’ll probably be back after the plot progresses further so I can scream some more. I’ve been shrieking on Twitter but that site is subject to a hungry ghost’s whims and I can’t hide spoilers/rambling behind cuts there. So here it will have to be.

Hang in there, your grace.

[thequeenofthewinter]

Describe your fic but poorly:

Woman goes home and fights with self about falling in love with broody man having a tantrum. Boinking ensues.

[imsosocold]

Is this character really interesting and cool but nobody likes to examine them due to their bad actions or am I actually trying to make cardboard cuts who were never thought about beyond as a plot piece more lively?

[axolotlsupremacyowo]

Dahlia Hawthorne is the type of person to put nicotine patches on her bf while they're cuddling so he gets withdrawals away from her and you cannot convince me otherwise.

[my-cursed-brain]

Songs that I associate with twst characters:

- Riddle: Top of My School by Katherine Lynn-Rose

- Ace: Don't Stop Me Now by Queen

- Deuce: Punk Tactics by Joey Valence and Brae

- Cater: Ladies Night by 11 Acorn Lane

- Trey: So sorry but I don't have a song for him :(

- Leona: ANTI-HERO by SEKAI NO OWARI

- Ruggie: You're Gonna Go Far, Kid by The Offspring

- Jack: I don't have a song for him either :(

- Azul: Sibyl by wotaku (There's an amazing animatic for this on YouTube and you should absolutely watch it. Yes it's for Twst.)

- Floyd: The Trouble by Club Danger

- Jade: Puppet Boy by DEVO

- Kalim: On Top Of The World by Imagine Dragons

- Jamil: Trust in Me from The Jungle Book

- Vil: All That Glitters by Earl

- Rook: Love Me Dead by Ludo (listen nothing I put here will sound sane so just don't think too hard about it.)

- Epel: Mama's Broken Heart by Miranda Lambert

- Idia: Game Over by Falling In Reverse

- Ortho: iRobot by Jon Bellion (I have so many songs that fit Ortho but this one makes me the most emotional.)

- Malleus: Tie between two songs. Epoch by Savlonic (remixed by The Living Tombstone) and Wish That You Were Here by Florence + The Machine

- Lilia: Baby Mine from Dumbo

- Silver: Once Upon a December from Anastasia

- Sebek: Warriors by Imagine Dragons

- Chenya: Cheshire Kitten by S. J. Tucker

- Crewel: Gimmie! Gimmie! Gimmie! by ABBA (Idk why but he has ABBA vibes to me.)

[leeeeeeef]

i guess im just leaving all of my lawyer tweets here too lmao

[dandydanthelion]

Hii i love your apprentices :00 can you tell me more about them if you don't mind? Or link me to somewhere where you've talked about them ? :]

oh god i am not good at writing but i'll try my best

i have 3 apprentices and not all of them are equally fleshed out and the ref sheets are old, sorry about that

First up is Zaire! i use him mainly for julian's route (and muriel too sometimes). he grew up as the eldest brother to his 3 siblings. he was the golden child and he never really grew out of his need to be "perfect" and great at everything. so he sometimes overwork himself. his father is a magician, mainly uses his magic in culinary (like mazelinka), and thats where zaire learned his magic from. his mother was a merchant and both of his parents weren't home for much so zaire had to take care of his siblings. and that made him a great cook and an even better caretaker.

he has a journal and has a beautiful way with words so he occasionally write poems here and there. his sense of fashion is anything that is black gold and red, refuses to wear other than those colors. hes quite high maintenance and spends way too much money hoarding jewelleries.

for his overall personality, he could be quite the intimidating one at first glance because he has a resting bitch face but he's actually pretty good at socializing and he's pretty charming once you actually get to talk to him. once you know him well enough, you'll find out that he can be snarky and smug. hes pretty confident in what he does and how he carries himself.

like asra, he mainly uses water magic. his fursona is a wolf (the Alexander archipelago wolf to be exact) and his familiar is a flying fox. this is not in his reference sheet but hes an ENFJ.

heres a lil bonus design i made for julian's reversed ending

next up is Aries!

TW: mentions of SA and abuse!!! (in the indented paragraph)

they were actually my first apprentice back in 2020 and i originally used them for julian's route. tho i basically changed their whole personality from their 2020 version. i love to switch up my apprentices for different routes but aries is mainly for lucio's route for now.

in my previous post of their dynamic with lucio, as much as a shitpost that was, its still pretty much accurate for their personality. they can be quite dense but yk thats okay. they're optimistic and easy-going. everyone assumes theyre a cinnamon roll and could never do anything wrong but theyre that knife cat meme. kinda like asra but more chaotic and just a lil morally grey (be gay do crime). also theyre unhinged when theyre seriously pissed off.

now im gonna talk about heavier topics (that i mentioned in the tw) in this next paragraph.

growing up, they didnt really have the best childhood. when they were a child, they had to witness their adoptive parents fight and it was because of their mother. in their previous life, they had a (supposedly) romantic relationship but their (ex) boyfriend was abusive and aries had a hard time learning that those abusive behaviors werent normal (they did grew up with a mother who was an abusive wife). unfortunately, those abuse led up to SA and much worse.

even in those first 3 years after being resurrected and them not having their memories from their previous life, traces of their insecurities that were caused by their past can still be seen.

they were originally a gardener that also sold their plants, and one magic plant after another is what got them interested in magic. though their magic is actually fire related. their hobby is tailoring and they actually embroidered the flower pattern on their white shirt.

i didn't write it on the ref sheet, but i do intend on making them arospec! lucio (or any other m6, depending on the route u choose) is actually their first love.

their fursona is a rabbit (the lop rabbit to be exact) and their familiar is a draco aka the flying lizard.

i havent drawn their Lucio's upright ending design and their devil design yet but i'll do it... eventually.

and lastly, is dahlia!

now im so sorry for this but i dont use her that often (you can probably tell) because lucio refuses to leave my head and julian doesnt know how to get out so they're both stuck there. i use her for asra, nadia, and portia's route.

i havent really thought much about its bg story but anw here's what i got

out of the three apprentices, dahlia had the best childhood. it used to travel a lot in its early 20s, occasionally performing in taverns. she plays the lute and has a low and beautiful, warm voice which she only uses sometimes because shes shy. she doesnt perform in her first 3 years after being resurrected because of her social anxiety which the whole resurrection and amnesia thing dont help.

it is very smart and quick-witted but oblivious social cues. she keeps accidentally getting herself into trouble which she has no struggle getting out of. in her previous life, she got interested with magic from all of the magicians she met during her travels then she ended up dating one but thats another story. her magic is mainly water related.

her middle name means "full moon" and her moon earrings actually match up with the current phase of the moon. she doesn't really know how to... fashion so she just tends to wear a lot of black. its quite messy and unorganized so basically that combined with asra's messiness is just not good. overall shes very sweet, quite reserved, so easy to fluster gal. shes gremlin coded but has the opposite personality of a gremlin.

i didnt put its mbti there, but its an INFP. both her fursona and her familiar is a rat.

okay i think im done, i hope this isnt too much but

@sasha-is-annoying, tysm for the ask!!

[some-zer0]

In Turnabout Goodbyes, Maya can barely reach out to Mia, which is a huge insecurity of hers and which results in her deciding to leave for Kurain after the trial

But in Farewell, my Turnabout, she's strong enough to force Mia out of Pearls' body -- Pearls, who is established as an extremely powerful channeling prodigy -- even though she's nowhere nearby and hasn't eaten in days

And in Bridge to the Turnabout, she's able to channel Dahlia for 3 days straight while locked in a freezing cold cave

Maya's an absolute powerhouse when it comes to channeling: the only thing that seems to hold her back is her own self-doubt about her abilities, but when she's in a situation where she can't afford to have that doubt, she's lowkey terrifying

[foolishlyfoolishfools]

uhm actually the hivliving girl was dahlia hawthorne