#for anyone asking yes i spoilered it bc my friends haven't seen it yet

[iholli]

bro Superman: Man of Tomorrow was pretty good but (spoilers)

can I get a "does the dog die" for J'onn because I was not ready for that scene and I was sitting on my front porch sobbing even though I KNEW he was going to come back bc it's a superhero movie and nobody actually fucking dies right

THAT STILL FUCKING HURT. DC WHY.

(at least he got to come back all cool and dramatic and then deliver his "so I could save your ass" line to try to be cool but just ended up being kinda awkward and adorable okay. 10/10 let Lobo teach him more swears)

[jsdgfsdf]

Could u tell me some lore about ur OCs like asher and theory :o

Ok I just woke up so sorry if any of this is strung together badlky BUT! Yes! I'll explain both of those guys since you asked but if you wanna know about anyone else you can specify again (And also if you wanna know anything else abt these guys)

Asher......ok starting w the basics here he's supposed to be the main character of a game (Nothing Good Ever Happens it was a working title that stuck) i started working on Feb 2023 i think? And his main premise is he's kinda just a sad little angry dude who doesn't socialize w anyone cus ppl = shit (tfw have to act like you hate everyone to mask the fact that you think everyone hates your guts&every move including when you so much as breathe). You cvan listen to his playlist [here] to get a better grasp of that if you'd like but that is essentially him. He's based off of the 2012/2014 pastel gore omocat tumblr aesthetic too cus thats what i was really into at the time (still am now just less so ig) *Also his voice claim is jonathan coulton i should specify. all of my guys have voice claims i just haven't gotten around to writing his down yet So there you go

He lives in an abandoned apartment that nobody cares abt on the south side of Babylon which has a population of like ~3 ppl/denizens (compared to the at least maybe ~1000 on the north side which is separated by a gate) including asher. you can read about denizens [here] BTW But they basically just pboil down to aliens but they're advanced humans pretty much. Asher doesn't really leave his apartment much he's kinda the current definition of NEET w/ all the added "guy who never leaves his room" points.

^Ashers room & the apartment floor hes on respectively and then south & north babylon (the pink and blue sqwuares are gonna be water it's also kinda derived from this Other game i ws making called Debt and cathat's in it..basically the same kinda location type at least appearance-wise if i had the files for that on this computer id put an example here) also i don't remember what who was phone was supposed to mean in that context

He DOES have 1 friend though named Connifer and they've been buddies since childhood (asher was not always like this but circumstances make the man and such) they just don't hang out as much as per asher being asher. But connifer cares enough to keep the connection and he visits asher every once in a while just to keep him in check that's actually how the game is supposed to start

Theory is..theory..i made him after watching an asmr video and going I need to make something out of this. so i did. I don't really know if theres much more to say abt him beyond what i put on his character page (kinda assuming youve seen it already but putting it there for good measure) i havent been focusing on these guys At all lately. UMMMM I can tell you his role in the game thou sorta the story i've mad efor him but it's kinda spoilers if i ever finish this damn thing

EDIT:I forgot to explain wwhere the morgue is. It's just past the place where welt is (up top on north babylon you can see the sorta icy portion that's where welt lives) i think but its separated by a cliff and nobody ever goes to the morgue bc well To get to it you have to fall off a cliff there's no other way. it's all dark and dreary too at least like 500ft below where everyone else is. Essentially asher &connie have to take a detour to get to the botanical gardans (where connie wanted to bring asher IN the game0 bc the argument and yadda yadda they end up @ the morgue.. theres also one other guy who lives near it and he's a whole nother can of worms but you can see his playlist [here] it's pretty much all i have for that dude (Doesnt even have a name)....i don't know

Ok he's supposed to be sorta the final or one of the bosses in the game....?? Euuh something about him knowing asher or something he's kinda just ever present maybe i don't know if i wanna go w that though. He speaks weirdly btw i don;t think i specified that he probably calls asher "boy" mostly. Schmancy. At some point asher and connie have to go thru the morgue because they gell off a cliff cus of an argument i don't know. And then they meet theory at first they think the morgue is just some rundown abandoned place but then BOOM There's a guy here. Theory's like asher dont you want to be free from your social responsibilities...! Join me we can work together and such and ashers like No dude you're weird as shit and then the whole boss fight starts cus theory gets real mad/agitated about it. Oh i have a wip theme sorta for it i'll leave it as a treat sorry the mixing sounds like compelte ass

Al;so fun fact his voice claim is will wood bc i listened to 2012 and the "FUCK" at the beginning is like peak theory when he accidentally drops liek a scalpel or something i heard it and went yuuup. Theory. Also it just fits cus hes Crazay! I'm really sad i dont have much else to say about him i moved onto edward too fast for him to have any real development..one of my most beloved ocs that i've made (i was really excited when i realized i finally had a mad scientist type character i actually gave a shit about) and he might as well just be a damn shortcake shell dude has got almost nothing

BUT. THANK YOU FOR ASKING......................! Hearts and stars emojis always a joy to talk about my guys

[loregoddess]

10, 12, 14, 33(and if yes 34) and 35!

10. Who is your favorite royal? Gosh, it's hard to choose, bc I actually like all of them a whole lot for different reasons, and also used every single royal as part of my main team for my first playthrough. So I'm cheating and saying all of them.

12. Who is your favorite retainer? Again, it's...hard to choose just one. Party bc the entire cast of Engage is so, so good and this is the first time I haven't been neutral or disfavorable towards at least one playable character for a FE game. I guess if I were to choose just one retainers per royal, I'd go with Clanne and Framme (bc there's only one "royal" for Lythos), Etie and Chloe, Amber and Citrinne, Zelkov and Rosado, and Pandreo and Panette...and Mauvier for being Veyle's only retainer.

14. Who is your favorite recruitable character of the ‘other’ category? Aside from Veyle who feels a bit too plot-important to slot into an "other category", probably Yunaka. She's such an interesting and fun character!

33/34. Did you give the Pact Ring to anyone? If so, who was the first person you gave it to? Pandreo, his supports with Alear are really sweet and I just love the two as a pair. Which is funny since I'm usually pretty neutral towards or just uninterested in most "avatar" pairings. Something about how well Alear's characterization and writing are handled I guess.

35. Spoiler slot! Talk about whatever spoilery thing you want and how you feel about it. (Ask this one at your own risk.) Hmm, I've vaguely mentioned this before but I find a lot of the recurring themes in Engage really fascinating, especially bc I actually think the story is one of the most well-written for a FE game I've yet seen, but like, how well the themes of the story echo through every part of it. I'm not gonna write an actual analysis essay or anything, but I wanna chat about the theme of identity and self a bit, bc it's like, amazing how interwoven that theme is into the fabric of the story. (under the cut bc spoilers, and of course, length)

So obviously there's Alear, whose entire arc is sort of "becoming the divine dragon", but like, it's also interesting to note that, as we see in the one cutscene where Past Alear gets zapped through the heart by Sombron and is "dying" in Lumera's arms, Alear says they want to be a good dragon, rather than a divine dragon per se. Which is a fascinating distinction bc like, while early game Alear comes to associate fell dragons as being "bad" and diving dragons as being "good" (though late-game Alear knows this isn't true), the story goes out of its way to show the audience that fell does not equal bad and divine does not equal good, since Veyle's true nature is incredibly kind, and even with all her divine power Lumera's still able to be brought back as a corrupted and twisted to try and kill her own child. So when Alear has the crisis about actually being a fell dragon, all their friends backing them up and talking Alear down from fleeing isn't just a really good bit of team dynamic writing, the scene also reaffirms the idea that it's not about whether Alear is fell or divine, but rather that Alear is actively choosing to do good and has, in that way, actively become the "good dragon" they wanted to be a thousand years earlier.

I feel like this sense of struggle between "who the character was and who they want to be" is echoed in a few other characters as well. The most obvious is Yunaka, who is at the active transition point between being an assassin and trying to be...well, literally anything else, but she's notably trying to become a better person. And we get to see her right in the messy part of trying to become someone she's never been but wants to be, where she doesn't know how "normal" people talk and act so she's trying out everything to see what fits in. And the neat thing is that she runs into Alear and friends who all just, more or less, accept Yunaka at face value. Alfred makes a point of telling her he doesn't care about her past and refuses to pry (although given that he's hiding secrets about his illness, is this even really surprising that he'd afford Yunaka the same privacy he wants for himself?), Alear also has no issues trusting Yunaka, and when Citrinne (who was deeply suspicious of Yunaka) learns all of Yunaka's story, Citrinne also moves to accept that Yunaka truly isn't an assassin anymore and is making strides to be someone better.

Everyone being so willing to accept and work with Yunaka really sets the narrative stage for the Elusian characters to switch sides and join the team, and even for Veyle and Mauvier to switch sides, bc we already know that Alear is willing to work with people who've done bad things in the past if they're willing to work towards being better and doing good (and this is, of course, also a major part of Alear's character arc, having gone from Sombron's pawn to actively fighting him).

It's just neat! I dunno, it's really interesting to see one type of character arc or narrative theme show up in so many different areas and reinforce the overall narrative. There's other characters who fit into this theme in some way or another (Panette going from being the fantasy equivalent of a biker thug to the prim and proper retainer, Kagetsu being a runaway prince, Amber trying so hard to become a hero of legend). But like, yeah! It's very, very good writing. I don't think most people give Engage the credit is deserves for it's writing bc it's actually so, so good.

[xiu21chen99]

hxh headcanon/imagine.

again... still about hisoillu but about their engagement instead of illu's influenced fashion choice.

also this is more of... idk it gave reason why they chose to marry instead of uh other ways i guess??

i've seen so many fanarts where illu would break the news to the zoldycks or how killu would react to having hisoka as his brother in law- like srsly it's meme worthy at this point- and lotsa ones that showed how hisoka proposed as a joke or smtg but... I've been overthinking abt it these past few days sO i present to you how i think "the big question aka the proposal" happened... (manga spoilers??)

it's after hisoka resurrected himself obviously, and def after he killed kortopi and shalnark (so he knew there was gonna be empty slots in the spiders' lineup)

i imagine illu went back to the zoldyck estate after the whole fiasco and only heard of hisoka's "death" from rumors while he was on a mission

and then when he was idk maybe contemplating on whether or not he should visit the body(?) to pay respects or something, he gets a text message from the devil himself

their text went like this probably:

hisoka: hey~ where are you right now?♠️ (and no u can't tell me hisoka doesn't text w card suits u just can't-)

illumi: who are you and how did you get the phone you are currently using?

hisoka: ooh~ illu~ i feel betrayed, did you delete my number?♣️

illumi: hisoka is dead

hisoka: *image attached*

illumi: oh

illumi: hello hisoka, how are you still alive?

hisoka: you sound disappointed~♦️

illumi: i kind of am...

hisoka: rude, just tell me where you are♥️

...and that's how they met up?? ngl i think illu has a know-it-all syndrome where he just has to,,, k n o w everything

he's curious so he agrees to the meetup ofc

he's also surprised when he sees hisoka is in good shape when they meet (idk at a bar in an unknown city?)

they drink whiskey on the rocks because... you know...

hisoka explains how he survived and his next plan of action (which is terminate the spiders)

illumi makes a mental note of nen after death bc he's heard and seen it all before but... not to this extent,

this is gonna be,,, bland but i think this is the logic behind why hisoka chose to get married/engaged instead of just paying up front (reference to the ten dons' commission to get chrollo killed and chrollo's commission to get the ten dons killed)--

anyways here's how their conversation goes:

i: "why did you want to talk in person?"

h: "oh y'know, for old times sake."

i: "...right"

hisoka laughs, "okay so maybe i want to ask you for a favor..?"

confused, illumi asks, "why could you not have just texted if you wanted me to kill someone for you?"

h: "no, no- wait, actually, you're not too far off."

i: ~mOrE cOnfUsiOn~ "huh?"

h: "how do contracts for assassination work in your... family business?"

i: "half the promised pay before, the remaining half afterwards. should the target be eliminated by a third party, the assigned zoldyck still gets the pay and should the employer die, then the contract is terminated and the zoldyck will report back immediately."

h: "and has anyone made a contract to have themselves terminated?"

i: "i beg your pardon?"

h: "what complications will arise should your employer's target be... themselves?"

i: "i believe... i have never encountered such circumstance before. the people who hire us are those who have enough money and resource to have their enemies killed quickly. no one's tried to test the zoldyck assassination prowess."

h: "so... how will that work?"

i: "are you implying this is the reason why you have contacted me today?"

h: "yes~ ♥️" (how he said a heart emoji out loud is up to you, reader)

i: "it will be a pointless paradox. logically, the zoldyck will only get the employment bill. and i, myself, do not find pleasure in going for the kill like you lest i get my reward, so you will not get a contract out of me, hisoka."

h: "is there no leeway?"

i: "a zoldyck stands up to their word. so no."

h: "even for a friend?~ ♦️"

i: "we are not friends, hisoka-"

hisoka raises his glass of whiskey along with his eyebrow.

i: "oh..."

h: "didn't you tell dear killua that a zoldyck didn't need friends?"

i: "you... are an associate, someone reliable in the killing world. it's different."

h: "hypocrite"

i: "i ask you for favors and you make me return them. it is not like we spend our time together leisurely like killu with that island boy..."

hisoka clinks their matching glasses of whiskey even though his is already empty, a shit-eating grin on his lips.

i: "you suggested we meet here."

h: "this isn't the first time we went out to drink, right illu?"

i: "regardless!! i will not kill you just for half the money. i do not like wasting efforts on fruitless missions."

h: "as i said, is there no exception, to make sure you get my money if you were to succeed in killing me?"

i: "are you doubting my skill, hisoka?"

h: "that's not the point right now~ ♠️"

i: "wait, why do you want me to get all of your money?"

h: "haven't we just gotten over this subject? because you're my friend, of course."

i: "i... we are not friends, hisoka."

hisoka claps, "that's it! illumi!! ♣️"

i: "eh?"

h: "marry me! that way in our prenup I'll make sure you get all of my money, and even without a prenup you'll still get it since you'll be my only relative! that solves it!"

i: "hisoka, are you sure death did not took a toll on your brain? you did say you used Bungee Gum only on your heart and lungs..."

h: "i'm being serious, illumi!! and doesn't this solve your earlier conflict? we don't have to be friends, we'll be husbands!"

i: "do not use that tactic with me, you manipulative bastard. stop joking."

h: "this is purely beneficial for you, honestly i don't get why you just won't accept it."

i: "then humor me this first, why now?"

h: "dear illu, i've been to literal hell and back. i think it's time to leave my mark in case i fail to escape death again."

i: "was it that bad?"

h: "you'll love it there, illu~ ♥️"

h: "on a more serious note, though, i do plan to marry you. out of everyone i've encountered, you're the most eligible candidate. you're powerful, fully capable and extremely pretty to boot! you're the ideal husband!"

(blushing obviously, illumi downs the remaining whiskey in his glass) i: "death has changed you, hisoka."

h: "so?"

i: "fine."

h: "excellent!"

and in one fell swoop, illumi has a pin against the curve of hisoka's jugular, wrist held tightly by hisoka- a card matching against his own neck.

"not yet, dear husband." hisoka whispered into his ear, "we have to manage the papers first. and i've a request before you do."

they let each other go at the same time, not even breathing an unnecessary breath in the other's personal space (well, they're nearly pressed thigh to thigh anyways, what's the point of personal space anymore-)

"a condition rather than a request, really."

"what?" hisoka orders them refills, and downs his when it arrives.

"join the ryodan first."

glass already pressed on thin lips, illumi's confused hum resonates softly into the concave utensil. "why?"

"so things can get more interesting. i assume you know of the dark continent expedition that's soon to take place?"

"father has advised i take part on it, since kalluto told me the ryodan plans to rob some cliches who'll join the expedition- to look after him. you want me to join them?"

"yes, and i plan to board as well, don't fret."

illumi's eyes turn to slits, "how should i know you would be there? i can't take your word when you might just disappear when we've all boarded."

hisoka grins, wide then wider, "you should know by now illu, i plan to avenge my wounded pride. that damned chrollo didn't even fight me properly."

tilting his head, illumi stared at the man beside him, "is that not contradictory? i thought you did not mind your opponent using whatever means necessary to win?"

"magicians use tricks and misdirection to awe the audience," hisoka says almost thoughtlessly, "chrollo's a narcissistic hypnotist who used the audience as a damned shield because he knew he couldn't handle me face-to-face."

he groans, tinged in regret. "i shouldn't have picked heaven's arena, if i'd chosen a more discreet location then maybe the damage won't be this bad."

"damage?" illumi rests his chin on his palm, facing his husband.

hisoka swipes a hand over his face, and the glamour comes off. the picture he sent illumi now present in front of him. he was missing a nose, his left hand didn't have any finger left and dried blood chipped on his white skin. "oh."

with another swipe, everything's made correct again. hisoka was grinning again. he downs the remaining alcohol and leaves jenny bills under the emptied glass.

"come, lovely husband. we're to elope and legalize our union!"

illumi follows suit after downing his own glass, "i think there might be another loop hole, if you were to join the family. zoldycks do not kill family."

"so if i were to wed you, here and now, you'd think me more of a family than alluka?"

"alluka is not family."

"are those your words, illumi? or silva's?"

"i..."

"wow, you're really just as fucked up as i am."

"where do you plan to take me? i've just said i cannot kill family."

hisoka chuckles, "then you're the one to take my name, of course."

"preposterous!"

"who the hell still uses that word?"

"i am and will always be a zoldyck-"

"exactly. it's just legal papers, if you kill me then you'll just be a widow and even get your name back! see how everything'll work out in the end?"

"hisoka-"

"are you doubting your skill of assassination, my dearest husband?"

"... i better get the most expensive ring in this damned city."

"that's the spirit! now let's go get married!"

"wait, hisoka. what is your last name?"

later that night, when they leave a chapel, something gold glimmers on hisoka's bungee gum/texture surprise ring finger. a matching one around illumi's finger.

unlike hisoka, though, illumi had an extra red glimmer right under that gold, in the dead center of a silver band of intricately designed pattern. hisoka had foregone the traditional diamond in favor of a 16 carat ruby engagement ring, such a curious choice but illumi accepted it all the same...

(much later on, hisoka took both rings as collateral and reminded illumi that he would get them back even if he died bc it was in their damn prenup- and bc it was technically bought under illumis name and that's how hisoka assured illu that he'd be on that black whale,,, bc he had the rings and planned to give them back to him there)

"I thought a red gemstone was better suited for the rather bloody and murderous ending that our relationship will inevitably come to, wouldn't you agree?"

-Hisoka Morow whenever someone mentions his preference of proposal ring...

"I disagree with most of his ideals, our relationship has always had a fragile foundation, and I knew from the start that we'd eventually end up killing each other."

-Illumi Morow, nee Zoldyck when asked about his thoughts on his husband...