#i just love when two characters/parties battle and another joins in

[hanayotta]

i think there should be mdzs rap battles in the style of the 'this is war' series by falconshield (also the anime rap battles that have been a thing these past years) it would be sooo cool like there could be playful ones, set during the lectures at gusu; just wwx&lwj going at each other, maybe even lwj not having lots of lines (according to his personality during youth), sibling dynamics between wwx&jc&yanli, the yunmeng twin heroes bitching @ jzx for being a prick to yanli... just light stuff between teenagers, like character introductions and then rap battles for the various dynamics in the different arcs - jiang, jin, nie and gusu vs. wen - wwx/yiling patriarch vs. all clans - the entire yi city arc by xy, sl, xxc and aq!!! maybe even with some kind of outside narration framing the story from the past? - the juniors and so on and THEN - the guanyin temple scene!!! just. interpreted as a rap battle with all the big shot characters involved and aaaall of its original messiness

sadly i can neither write verses nor compose music nor edit well but pls i would offer 🤲 all the ideas and support i have

[pinkiemachine]

We need the entire El chronicles! (not in a pressurey way)

Lol! Okay, so here’s all I’ve got so far of DAWN OF SUPERMAN, to recap (full versions linked below):

SEASON ONE:

—Krpyton gets destroyed by both their collapsing sun and a massive civil war.

—Jor-El and his family try to escape Zod and his followers and head to the secret Kryptonian colony.

—Zod finds them and when Jor-El ejects his loved ones into space in escape pods, Zod opens fire, killing Zor-El and Alura, and knocking Lara, Cal, Kara, and Krypto of course. Jor-El evades capture.

—Lara and Cal land on Earth and Lara dies from an injury sustained in the blast. Cal is then left in the care of the humans John and Martha Kent.

—Clark has adoptive siblings, Micheal, Sean, Rueben, and Suzie.

—Cal’s desire to find his alien family leads him to become an investigative journalist and he moves to Metropolis in his early/mid twenties where he meets Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen.

Now, the rest of the season I haven’t fleshed out as mush as I have Season 2, but that will be fixed in months to come. For the moment, here’s the basic outline: The premier two-parter follows the events stated above, along with lots of little anecdotes of Clark’s childhood. Then, once he arrives in Metropolis, things become a bit episodic. One episode, we’ll be watching Clark try to adjust to life in the big city and become Superman for the first time, then the next, we’ll be exploring Lois or Jimmy’s characters, fighting interesting villains like Livewire or Banshee, and building up Lois and Clark’s relationship. (Side note, Martha made Clark’s suit for him. When Clark was a kid, he asked her once to make him an outfit that looked just like the ones in his family holophoto, including his family crest on the front. Naturally, Clark had outgrown that old costume, but just before he moved out, Martha surprised him with a fair well gift: a new Kryptonian-style suit.)

HOWEVER… there’s another story growing beneath the surface. Ever since Clark became Superman, he’s had eyes on him. The whole world is watching this man become the most powerful, most undefeated superhero of all time, but that’s not precisely why the government’s interested in him. They’re interested because he’s wearing the same crest as the alien woman they found twenty+ years ago. Waller is immediately on the case, and she sends out a lackey to bring Superman in for questioning. (Haven’t decided who this character is yet.) When Clark realises that the men in black suits are coming after him, he immediately gets spooked and worries for his family. If they got hurt because he was being reckless and showing his powers publicly, he’d never forgive himself. So Superman’s gotta lay low for a while. Eventually, though, Waller figures out his secret identity, but Lois winds up being the one to save Clark for just a little bit longer, threatening to run this story in the papers if they don’t leave Clark—an innocent and upstanding citizen—alone. But as soon as the two of them have a moment, Lois immediately asks what’s going on and Clark reveals that he’s Superman.

By now, Waller is getting antsy, but there’s someone else who wants to join the party. Lex Luthor. He’s been funding the research on the Kryptonian pod, and LexCorp has been reaping the rewards of learning the secrets of their advanced technology for years. He crafts a machine/suit/(need to read the comics) that can go toe-to-toe with Superman and almost beats him. Doesn’t though. Lex will remember that.

By now, Clark is sick of running and hiding. Time to take the fight to them. With help from Lois and Jimmy, he tracks down the secret base where the pod and his mother’s remains are being kept, and the final battle commences. Waller loses, Lex loses his hair, they both swear revenge, and Clark takes back what’s rightfully his. He buries what’s left of his mother on the farm, and stores the pod in the shed temporarily. It’s a triumphant yet slightly melancholy ending for our heroes, especially as Clark and his brother get a chance to really talk some things through while he’s home visiting. Then Lois gets introduced to the family, and for a moment, everything’s right with the world.

Little does Clark know, though, that there’s a probe droid on Earth, watching him, and now it’s flying back out into space to report what it’s found to its boss. Zod.

SEASON TWO

—Zod shows up, tries to manipulate Clark, but they wind up fighting instead, and Clark beats his butt off the planet. He does manage to spook General Lane, though, and now he’s dead set against Krpytonians and what they could do to the planet if they so choose.

—Anyway, now Clark knows that his father is actually alive, and there’s also a secret colony of Kryptonians out there. He decides to look for them.

—The team (plus extra members) journeys into space where they meet all sorts of new aliens, including Green Lantern, and they also cross paths with Kryptonite.

—Then they find Kara and Krypto, who lead them to the colony.

—Along the way, they also manage to track down Jor-El, and he and Clark get to have a well-deserved reunion.

—They go to the colony together, but Zod follows them. There’s a big battle, Zod gets booted to the phantom zone, his ship is destroyed, and the colony is saved.

—PSYCH, just kidding. One of the extra members of Clark’s team is military, and he has secret orders from General Lane to kill any and all new Kryptonian forces he may encounter. So, using some Kryptonite he kept hidden, he makes a bomb and blows the colony sky high.

—Clark, Kara, and Krypto are the only Kryptonians to survive.

(Clark briefly wants to set Earth on fire…)

—Then Clark discovers that, on Jor-El’s ship, his father had made many recordings and created an A.I. Version of himself for company. This is now all Clark has left of him as they fly back to Earth.

—The ship later gets parked up the Arctic, becoming Superman’s Fortress of Solitude.

—Clark’s laid low with grief, but Lois and his family are there for him now more than ever. There’s still hope for the future.

THEN comes JUSTICE LEAGUE: HEROES RISING!

At the moment, I’m still working out which stories of Superman’s will be adapted into the show, but the main idea is that every season, there will be at least one or two BIG over arching plots that center around one of the main characters and an arch foe of theirs, like OG Teen Titans. But less episodic. Or, at least… not episodic like putting a tournament episode right in the middle of the Judas Contract arc, and more so like Avatar the Last Airbender episodic, where we’re having fun, but also learning more about the world and how various aspects of it work. The first major villain(s) will have something to do Zatanna and/or Green Lantern.

Speaking of the other heroes, here’s a quick little tidbit: So, Batman’s actually the one who brings the Justice League together. It falls into one of his contingency plan models. In case of emergency, CALL EVERYONE. During his first two seasons of BATMAN: GOTHAM FILES, he’s already come across The Flash—and Wonder Woman, over the course of the first two seasons of WONDER WOMAN: HEIR TO OLYMPUS, she’s become familiar with Atlantis and their royal family. And if you remember, Clark’s already met Green Lantern (Hal Jordon). Now all that’s left is Zatanna, hence I thought a Zatanna-centric Season 1 might be a good idea. Magic is a threat the rest of the Justice League can’t easily combat on their own. But I also had a thought, like what if I combined the Zatanna villain with the GL villain—SPACE WIZARDS!!! Idk, just thinking about it. Anyway…

I sadly haven’t had a chance to write Season 3, but what I do know (for just general stuff that’s supposed to happen eventually) is that Lois and Clark do get married and have a little boy named Jonathan. Then, some time later, Clark and Kara get called away into space on urgent business, and that’s when someone new appears: Con-El, aka Conner Kent, aka Superboy. He comes crashing down to Earth in an escape pod just like Clark’s, claiming to be a member of Superman’s family. After much convincing of the Justice League, they let him stick around until Clark gets back to truly vet him. In the meantime, he slowly gains the other heroes’ trust, becomes a member of the second generation of Teen Titans (The New Teen Titans) and helps save the world. HOWEVER… turns out he’s been working for Lex Luthor this whole time! Dun dun dun! I’ll save the rest of that story for later, heheheh…

Then, of course, when Jonathan grows up, he becomes the next Superboy and joins the third generation of Teen Titans, (Ultimate Teen Titans), and has some adventures of his own. Haven’t decided what his big arc will be yet.

Would love to do a mini-series following Kara when she was lost in space. T’would be cool.

And that’s currently all I have written, story-wise, for the Kents. Personally, I don’t really see many of the other SuperFam characters to be especially relevant to the story, or interesting, so I’m probably gonna either scrap them or repurpose them, unless there’s just, like, a MASSIVE fan outcry. It’s just that the whole point is that Clark and Kara are THE LAST KRYPTONIANS. The last of their kind, that’s part of their whole story—being alone. You can only get away with new Kryptonians falling out of the sky so many times before it gets old. And Conner was lying about his origins, so I can get away with that.

Here’s some fun stuff I wrote about Krypton and Kryptonians 👇

Here’s the Fall of Krypton and the El family’s escape 👇

Here’s the next part of Clark’s Origin Story 👇

Here’s a deep dive into Lois and Clark’s relationship 👇

And here’s Season 2 in-depth 👇

[loveandfictionforall]

Obsessed with BG3 and I just discovered your wonderful blog! If you’re down, could you please do headcanons for what a date night would look like for Wyll, Astarion, Karlach, and Laezal (I can’t spell her name from memory im sorry 😭)

Aww, you are just so cute! I will try my best, because oh boy, I don't like Lae'zel :D

Astarion

As a very morally grey character Astarion calls a lot of things fun.

He would start a bit more lightly, going out with you to eat something fancy. He will do his usual act, all smirk and suggestive comments until you were laughing, bantering and flirting with each other.

But that doesn't statisfy Astarion. He wants to be unique, because he is unique.

And he begins to lead you through the streets, with one destination in mind - a party for noble people, invites only. But when did this part ever stopped Astarion?

With his silver tongue, a roguish smile and a wink directed at you, he would charm the guards and soon you two could enter.

Absolutely out of place, you were sticking out like a sore thumb.

Soon enough some people were approaching you but Astarion quickly vanished out of sight as he noticed it, leaving you to deal with the mess while he watched in the shadows, observing how you handled it.

If you handled it well, Astarion would appear, lightly groveling and charming you because he now knew that you were capable and intersting enough to keep company with.

If you didn't handle it well? Well, Astarion would watch with a chuckle how the guards took you with them.

Wyll

Maybe you should rather go out with Wyll because he is a true charmer.

Wyll would be half an hour too early, after he prepared everything of course. He would even have some nicely picked flowers there for you, all of them searched and picked by him.

As soon as you would approach, he would give you the flowers, kissing lightly your hand and then blindfolding you to lead you to a beautiful meadow.

A picnic in the dark, in a magical place and with candels everywhere? Exactly. Wyll would lead you to the fluffy blanket, giving you a glass full of wine and gently offering you some fruity sweets.

You two were talking for hours, shoulders lightly brushing against each other, fingers sometimes grazing while reaching for the same thing.

And as the night progressed, Wyll would slowly inch in your direction, so sublte you wouldn't notice it at first.

His body warmth would keep you from getting cool while you two were sitting there the whole night until the first sun beams tickled your nose.

Karlach

A date with Karlach would begin with going to a party.

She loves alcohol and the good mood a party brings.

With good movements she would tease you until you finally joined her on the dance floor and you two wouldn't stop until your feet were hurting so much you couldn't stand up anymore.

Before you would be able to react, she would pull you on her lap or sit down on your lap, whichever you more prefer. Either way, she would lightly massage your shoulders, enjoying the feel of being able to touch you.

After some time you two would leave. Karlach would lead you to a nice, cozy inn, renting a room for you but don't worry, nothing would happen if you were too drunk.

Instead Karlach would rather wrap her arms around you, tugging you close to her while she slowly drew lines with her fingers. She would ask a lot of questions, maybe even a kiss or two would happen but if it did, it would lead to a full blown makeout scene.

Lae'zel

Lae'zel would never call it a date, since Githyanki are very forward and no nonsense. She would rather call it, that you two were preparing for another battle.

She would traing with you, attacking you fiercely and without hesitation. If you are able to keep up with her, she would approve more and more until Lae'zel would straight up kiss you and ask to sleep together.

There would not be much romance but if you did good in any way on any topic, she would appear every so often and request a strict training with you which would lead to sex.

Caring is not really in her nature but sometimes she shows some rare kinds of caring when she wraps a wound of you.

Nevertheless, her missions and her race is the most important thing for her and will always have her priority.

[mahercbeaucoup]

TTRPG Design Lessons from Wildermyth

I've recently been spending a good deal of time thinking about solo RPGs and playing Rangers of Shadow Deep, a solo miniature game. My brain has been buzzing with ideas for solo game design, but I wanted to extend my research into video games, and so I found myself playing Wildermyth. This game has been on my radar for years, but I finally took the time to sit down with it. I enjoyed the game's first campaign, and I came away with some lessons for solo TTRPG design.

Procedural Stories

As your party of heroes wanders the world of Wildermyth, the player is treated to vignettes of the characters' encounters with their environment. These little stories build much of the player's connection to their band of heroes, especially the ones who join later and appear less often in the main plot.

Coming from the OSR world, a natural comparison arises to random encounters, especially during overland exploration. But whereas OSR encounters can follow any structure (and it is not uncommon for them to merely provide a moment of flavor), the Wildermyth vignettes always result in a meaningful change to the game state (as far as I can tell). A character may gain a new item, or change in some unexpected way, and the player will have a choice to make. Because a vignette always results in some sort of change, the game has a continuous feel of forward momentum.

In solo games, I struggle with developing side characters (or characterization at all, if the game is primarily skirmish-based). Looking at Wildermyth's approach, I can see the potential for a spark table to take one or two characters and create a little side-adventure for them, giving them a little color and differentiating them from the others.

Overworld Map

Wildermyth's map is broken down into regions, and each type of region contributes a different gameplay option. Some areas may have ruins you can reclaim, giving you increased resources or "Legacy Points" (a type of special currency), that you can use to grow and enhance your party. Some areas might allow you to build a bridge across a river, or tunnel through a mountain pass, into an adjacent territory. Villages provide recruitment opportunities, and new areas need to be scouted.

Crucially, every action requires time to complete, and the world is always moving on. Timers count down to the next bad event, armies march across the map and destroy settlements, and the deck of potential enemies is always growing stronger. Even when you acquire enough party members to split them up over multiple locations, it always feels like there is never enough time to get to everything you want to.

This system is simple, but it adds rich, opportunities for gameplay. I would love to experiment with this kind of campaign layer in an otherwise more traditional skirmish game. By adding simple concrete benefits to the control of a region, a huge amount of gameplay naturally emerges, even before diving deep into other sorts of quest hooks that will develop.

Enemy Behavior

When it comes to the tactical battles, the enemy AI seems to be very simplistic (as it is in most games of this type, and video games in general). But this isn't a knock against the battles, because the game's designers clearly understand that you can compensate for AI with varied enemies and scenario design.

I could very much picture running these enemies manually, each one operating by a different tactic that is simple enough to execute manually, while also appearing in enough unique combinations and situations to the player on their toes. One enemy might always charge to the farthest character it can reach, while another might draw characters toward it. These are just a few examples from Wildermyth, but they demonstrate how a few simple enemies can drastically change the tactical situation.

Interfusion

The mage class in Wildermyth has "Interfusion" as its primary ability. This lets the character manipulate the scatter terrain in the environment, with different types of terrain offering different tactical benefits.

I haven't seen this kind of approach to magic before, and I think it has good potential on the tabletop.

Putting it all together

After playing Wildermyth, I have a clearer picture of the game that is brewing in my mind: a cross between a skirmish game and an RPG (hardly a new idea), focused on a war band securing an area, and reacting to dynamic threats with varied enemies and approaches to AI. It's the smallest of seeds, but I have a vision for what it can grow into.

[swiftsaltsweet]

Two Knives Chapter 2: Kyoshi- Responsibility and a New Promise

Characters: Rangi and Kyoshi (RoK characters tbh)

Pairing: Rangshi

Summary:

Things have been stressful for Kyoshi. First, she sang a poem and now the whole kitchen staff thinks it’s about Rangi, and is sure that there will be gossip. Then, Yun asks her to join him for the Fifth Nation treaty signing. Now Rangi’s acting strange. It’s becoming a bit much for Kyoshi’s small corner of the world.

(Canon Divergent AU- Kelsang wasn’t the one who heard the poem?….aka What if it took longer for them to realize Kyoshi was the Avatar?)

Other Sites: AO3 

A/N: “Ok so I finish chapter 1, now I’ll try to get chapter 2 done ASAP for next week :D” *gets possessed and cranks out 5 more chapters* ……………………ok y’all are getting this early o.o …..I may have scared myself with how fast I made these ;w; jaskldfjal 8U

__________________

The deadline for the Fifth Nation meeting was quickly drawing nearer. Everyone told her that it would be fine and there was nothing to worry about. Just stand there and be your usual, unnoticeable self!

Jianzhu apparently had gotten her a battle outfit to protect her. She would consider it thoughtful, and would’ve been happy…. If it wasn’t for the fact she knew he and Yun fought over her tagging along.

It was very apparent Jianzhu wasn’t happy with the turn of events, but he caved into Yun’s desire because he loved him. The same couldn’t go for the other “Kyoshi shouldn’t be coming with us” party member. 

Rangi had been, and still was, very vocal about Kyoshi not going. She’d never seen her friend so agitated in the two years they’d known each other.

She was even giving the Avatar a hard time!

“Are you disobeying your Avatar?” Yun asked during one of their repeated bouts. Each time he lost a little of his playfulness and it devolved more into a resigned sigh.

“No. I’m just voicing an opinion,” Rangi answered.

“Well I’m ignoring it.”

“Shame, it’s the only smart thing being said around here,” she shrugged nonchalantly. But her stomps as she left Kyoshi and Yun behind betrayed her demeanor.

Yun and Kyoshi could only stare wide-eyed at her as she left.

“She’s never talked back like that before,” Yun stared in amazement. The three would usually let loose when they were alone, but Rangi never acted that insubordinate towards him. Well no, that wasn’t accurate, she’d never acted insubordinate ever, the worst she did was maybe give him a slightly hard time.

“Maybe she’s just stressed?” Kyoshi offered. Kyoshi was feeling stressed as well. Between her poem and the whole Fifth Nation thing, she was having a hard time sleeping at night. It didn’t help that Rangi was acting strangely on top of it all. “Maybe I shouldn’t go?”

“No! No, please, I need you to go,” Yun grabbed Kyoshi’s hand pleadingly.

Kyoshi playfully swatted it away. “Alright, alright, calm down.”

Yun sighed, relieved. “But maybe you’re right. Maybe she is stressed….”

“Because of the Fifth Nation?” Kyoshi asked. Maybe he had some insight about Rangi, the girl had been mostly avoiding her for the past few days. And if she wasn’t, she was uncharacteristically silent. She didn’t even reprimand her when Kyoshi was late one day!

 “No I think it’s because of-” he stopped himself and glanced at Kyoshi. “I mean, yes I think that’s it.” 

Kyoshi drummed her fingers on her knee, not buying his tone. She couldn't help but wonder if both of her friends were hiding something from her.

_________

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

The rain outside had been tapping at her window for hours now.

Tomorrow was the day. The day they’d fly and sail out to meet with the Fifth Nation, and Kyoshi couldn’t sleep. Her eyes felt like they were being pried open by some external force. That external force being her own anxiety. Wait, maybe that was something more internal? Great, another thing to think about and keep her up!

She tossed and turned, but nothing could settle the earthquake inside her being. 

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

If only the rain would stop, maybe then she’d feel more restful?

Tap. Tap.

Tap. Tap.

Tap. Tap.

Great now the rain is picking up. She thought.

Tap. Tap. Tap. TAP TAP TAP!

Kyoshi shot up out of bed. That wasn’t the rain, that was her door!

W-who could be here at this hour? She thought as she grabbed her night robe and threw it on over her sleep clothes. 

When she opened the door, she was met with something both familiar and unfamiliar. It was Rangi, but she wasn’t in her usual spiked armor. Instead she sported a sleeveless white tunic and her red trousers. It was strange seeing her like this, the spikes had almost felt like they were a part of Rangi. It was hard to separate the two.

For once, Kyoshi was able to see how well defined her muscles were, now that the shell had been stripped away. As well as the curves that were once hidden as well-

Kyoshi shot her eyes to Rangi’s face as fast as possible, to keep herself from ogling at her. 

Rangi bore the same stern expression, looked Kyoshi up and down once, and then looked away. 

“Rangi, what’s going on-gah!” 

Rangi shoved something into Kyoshi’s arms. “To protect your hands…” She mumbled. Then she promptly turned and walked away.

Kyoshi stared after her until her figure had turned the corner and left. Then she finally looked down at what Rangi had given her. It was a box. 

Kyoshi slowly opened the present, inside there was a pair of high quality leather gauntlets. The sight of them caused Kyoshi’s throat to sting, and her chest to heat up.

She closed the door to her room, and held the gloves close to her chest, as she finally and slowly drifted away into a shallow sleep.

_____

Kyoshi was a bundle of nerves. Being surrounded by so many daofei set her on edge. Well, it’d set anyone on edge she’d suppose. She wondered if Yun and Rangi were as nervous as she felt. Rangi seemed perfectly composed, yet intimidating, as usual. Yun was working his charm with a nice fake smile. 

Kyoshi looked around and saw all the “servants” that were sneaking in and out. They were the kidnapped villagers. 

Kyoshi started to violently shake looking at all the hostages. Then she looked at her food, and wondered if it had been poisoned. It took all her effort to keep her breath quiet and even.

Rangi was right, she shouldn’t have come. She was nothing more than a liability. What was she thinking? 

She couldn’t bear to turn to Rangi, who was seated next to her. Couldn’t bear to look her in the eye and see Rangi respond with an “I told you so.” 

So instead, she sat there shaking. On the verge of hyperventilating.

Until she felt something warm clasp her hand. 

Kyoshi looked down, it was Rangi's hand, laying over top of hers. Kyoshi could feel pulses of warmth coming through her double layers of gloves, the top being generic snow gloves and the bottom layer being the ones Rangi gave her.

Kyoshi found the courage to look at Rangi's face, and instead of seeing the same stoic expression or one of reprimand…. She saw concern. Just slightly, only softened just enough for Kyoshi to notice.

Rangi squeezed Kyoshi's hand once. Stay strong. 

Kyoshi's response was to readjust her fingers so that they would interlace, hoping to be completely entangled by the warmth. By the courage Rangi was sending to her.

She thought she heard a small gasp come from Rangi, but at that moment there was a big uproar of cheers coming from Yun's pai sho section.

Kyoshi and Rangi turned their attention back to the party, hand in hand. They stayed like that….. 

Until Takaga decided to air Kuruk’s team's dirty laundry.

_________________

Kyoshi found herself in a new form of torture. Rangi was helping Kyoshi strip her armor off. Or really Rangi was doing it all herself, while Kyoshi stood there like a lump on a log. 

It probably wouldn't have bothered Kyoshi too much in any other circumstance, but Rangi was wearing a thin cotton shift and her hair was down for once. Which meant that Kyoshi could see a lot more of her body than she could previously.

She could see every flex Rangi's muscle made as she removed each armor piece. She could see how her hair waterfall off and caressed her strong shoulders. How the cotton clothing hugged her-

“You can't sleep in that get up. Especially not the armor,” Rangi said. Kyoshi barely registered the words, she found herself too busy gawking at Rangi’s figure.

“Shouldn't you be sleeping with Yun?” Kyoshi asked, not really thinking of how she was phrasing her question.

Rangi’s head turned so fast she almost snapped her own neck. 

“You know what I mean,” Kyoshi said.

The redness faded from Rangi’s ears as quickly as it came. “The Avatar and Master Jianzhu are reviewing strategy. Master Amak only ever sleeps in ten-minute intervals throughout the day, so he and the most experienced guardsmen will keep watch. The order is that everyone else should be well-rested for tomorrow.”

The duo settled beneath their furs. They laid there in silence, Kyoshi unable to fall asleep due to the sound of Rangi's breathing. She was so close. And the heat she radiated under the shared blanket was so warm. She tried to keep her body still, afraid of it moving closer towards her friend than she should, but found herself shifting every so often.  

She needed a distraction, and right as she was about to ramble about what Tagaka had said about their family, Rangi spoke up.

“Why didn't you listen?” Rangi whispered.

“What?” Kyoshi's eyes widened and chanced turning over. She stared at Rangi’s back, she wasn't sure if she heard her correctly.

“Why didn't you listen to me?” Rangi repeated, just a little louder this time.

Kyoshi settled to lay back on her back and stared up at the tent's ceiling. She didn’t have an answer that she knew Rangi wouldn’t call “stupid.” That she made a promise to Yun first. That she was afraid she wouldn’t see Rangi again, and was willing to put her life at risk to get as much time with her as possible. You know, totally normal friend things.

And she really didn’t want Rangi to say “I told you so,”..... so she decided to play dumb instead. “I don't know what you mean.” 

Something soft hit her in the face. Kyoshi looked over when the object was removed from her field of view, Rangi had hit her in the face with her pillow. Kyoshi's breath hitched when she realized their faces were only a few inches apart.

Rangi raised her pillow to strike again. “You know what I mean! Don't act like you only have rocks in that head of yours!”

Staring at Rangi’s disgruntled face, and her apparently thinking a pillow fight was the best way to punish Kyoshi….. Well… Kyoshi couldn't help the burble of laughter that escaped her lips. It only got louder when Rangi hit her again.

“I-it's not funny!” Rangi cried as she kept hitting Kyoshi with the pillow. Kyoshi just laughed harder with each hit.

“S-stop it!” Kyoshi cried, laughing with tears in her eyes. She reached over to grab the pillow from Rangi's hand.

“K-Kyoshi! Stop it!” Kyoshi felt Rangi grab hold of the front of her lapel and attempted to push her, but Kyoshi already had the pillow in her hand.

Kyoshi laughed. “But you're the one who…started…it.” In the tussle, her and Rangi had gotten closer, they were now nose to nose. Eyes boring into each other. Their breathing tickled each other's faces. Rangi’s flowery scent overtook Kyoshi's senses and she was starting to lose herself in it.

“Kyoshi….” Rangi murmured. Her face was red, and her eyes shifted away from Kyoshi's, shifted downwards.

Ashamed? Uncomfortable? Kyoshi couldn’t tell why she broke the eye contact. Kyoshi gulped, her heart was in overdrive. There was no way this was good for her health.

Kyoshi felt Rangi's grasp on her and the pillow loosen, and Kyoshi took her opportunity to turn back over, hugging her side of the sleeping quarters as much as possible.

“W-woops! S-sorry about that,” she tried to play it off nonchalantly, like a coward. “Sorry for messing around, we should get to sleep. Big day tomorrow!” Her voice shook, she knew her voice shook. But it was the best she could do to keep her cool. 

She laid there for a good while, and wondered if Rangi had fallen asleep.

Then, Kyoshi felt two hands and a forehead press up against her back. “You have my pillow, stupid.”

Kyoshi snapped her arm and threw the pillow back to Rangi’s side. She must've overshot it or something, because Rangi didn't make a move for it. Instead, she could feel the firebender snuggle closer into Kyoshi’s back, her knees bumping against the back of Kyoshi’s own; and then the rest of her body melded into her shortly after. Rangi’s breathing slowed to a crawl, until Kyoshi was sure she'd fallen asleep. 

Kyoshi did not move, afraid of disturbing the sleeping girl pressed up against her, who surely had a lapse in judgment. Instead she enjoyed the way Rangi’s body heated her own, and a different kind of warmth settled in her stomach and chest and that didn’t originate from the hearth that was next to her.

Kyoshi didn't go cold that night, nor did she get any sleep.

____

Kyoshi took a hard tumble down the iceberg’s mountainous terrain. She had just gotten free of a waterbender who tried to pull her down into the iceberg, but they hadn’t made their hole big enough for her. So she was able to break free with a swift kick to the face. Unfortunately, when she broke free she fell over the side of the icy cliff.

Kyoshi wobbled as she stood up, she saw Tagaka with Yun, he was encased in ice. A wave of fury rolled over here. Kelsang was injured, Yun was kidnapped, and Rangi……she didn’t want to think about what happened to Rangi. Unlike Kyoshi, Rangi, and a lot of the other soldiers had been pulled down into the iceberg by the waterbenders. Kyoshi tried to tell herself that she was fine, she’d make it out of the iceberg. She was Rangi, she could do anything! Plus, she was with Hei-Ran and Jianzhu. Surely she would be fine….. Right?

Kyoshi shook her head. Right now, all she saw was the woman who was the cause of all her grief. And she would make her pay.

“Give him back,” Kyoshi gasped. She gripped her side with one hand, and had the other extended out. As if trying to reach for Yun despite his distance. 

Tagaka put a boot on the ice encasing Yun, and leaned on her knee. “The colossus speaks,” she said, smiling. She watched patiently as Kyoshi slowly staggered towards her. For someone who was wary of Kyoshi’s height at first, she seemed well at ease now that Kyoshi was injured. 

Kyoshi swore at the pain in her body, the tumble she took down the iceberg had hurt her more than she thought. But it was nothing, Yun meant more to the world than her cracked ribs. Her fingers flexed instinctively towards Yun, and felt a pull. 

“Give him back. Now.” She meant to sound angry and desperate, but instead she came across as pitiful and hopeless as she felt inside. She wasn’t sure if Yun could breathe in there. Kelsang had gotten hurt because of Tagaka’s ice spikes too. She wasn’t sure if Rangi was alive…..

Rage was swelling inside her. This woman was taking everything she held dear.

“Eh,” Takaga said, looking down at Yun. “I saw what I needed to see in the boy’s eyes. He’s worth more as a hostage than an Avatar, trust me.” She made a motion to shove Yun off the side with her foot, but was stopped by a concussive blow to the face. 

Kyoshi didn’t know how she did it, but while Tagaka had briefly looked away, Kyoshi had found the energy to close the distance between them and landed a dirty blow on the daofei. 

Kyoshi followed up the punch by tackling Tagaka to the ground, and proceeded to unleash a barrage of punches. They were so powerful it was almost like a shockwave, it blew apart her snow gloves, only the leather gauntlets beneath could withstand the blows. The blows sent cracks through the ice both under Tagaka and in Yun’s prison.

“What-guh- are you?” Tagaka gasped through a brief reprieve where Kyoshi's fists landed on her shoulders rather than her face. Kyoshi’s response was her own gasping breath as she didn’t let up.

Kyoshi felt a glow of light flash over her eyes, and the prison next to Yun burst open with a glow of its own. He’d figured out a way to waterbend out of his prison. 

Yun briefly looked at Kyoshi but his attention had quickly been captured by some of Tagaka’s nearby men. Kyoshi didn’t take her attention off of Tagaka for one second. This time, each hit felt like the earth was shaking beneath her. A push every time she brought her fist down, a pull everytime she brought it back. 

Yun used the rock glove, what little earth he had, to fend off the oncoming attackers. He dropped down into a deep stance, and pushed his earth out at his targets as hard as he could while Kyoshi raised her fist back for another big blow against Tagaka. Just as the two earthbenders enacted their next move, the earth shook with the intensity of the earthquake, and sheets of the seabed rose up from the sea. 

Several ships were taken out, but a lot of the remaining ships maneuver their way around the sudden rocky terrain. 

Kyosh brought her fist down onto Tagaka, but ended up whiffing the air instead as she felt a water whip hit her in the side. It knocked her a few feet away and Kyoshi hit the ground hard.

For a moment, she thought maybe Tagaka had done it to her, but when Kyoshi looked back, she realized it was one of Tagaka’s guards who’d somehow snuck by Yun. The man raised his arms and water over his head, the water turning into an ice spike, and aimed it at Kyoshi.

Kyoshi tried to rise to her feet, but felt overwhelming exhaustion as she attempted to do so, her limbs falling dead beside her. All she could do was look up, and wait for her head to join them.

“Kyoshi!” heard a familiar voice cry out to her. A giant fireball stopped the waterbender in his tracks and knocked him back. Rangi had come to the rescue. Just in time for Kyoshi’s vision to start to waver, and the cold to seep into her, as well as relief.

“You did good, kid,” said a man with a husky voice and an accent like Master Amak’s. “They’ll be telling stories about this for a long time.”

Kyoshi tried to turn, afraid another waterbender had snuck up on her, but the effort was too great for her. Her eyes became heavy as she sunk down into the ice. The last thing she saw was Rangi’s bleeding face as she came running to her, screaming her name over and over. 

___________________

It was warm. Way too warm for it to be the iceberg she was on. Kyoshi opened her eyes to see a familiar brown ceiling. She was back in Yokoya.

“Kyoshi!” A familiar voice cried. Rangi’s face came into view. “You're awake! Are you feeling alright?”

Her face was creased with worry, she had a gourd in her hand.

Kyoshi tried to speak but all that came out was a rasp. Rangi instantly put the gord to Kyoshi's lips.

“What happened?” She asked when she finally felt she'd be able to speak without coughing. “Where's Yun?”

She could have sworn he had been freed, but if his personal bodyguard was here then maybe-

“He's fine,” Rangi replied in a sullen tone. “Master Jianzhu and my mother are with him. He’s plenty guarded. Yun ordered me to be here to make sure you were alright.”

Kyoshi figured Rangi was upset that she got booted out here, stuck with Kyoshi, unable to perform her real duties.

“Sorry, you should be with him instead of me.” Guilt rose inside Kyoshi. She’d been nothing but trouble for Rangi since this whole mess started. She wondered how she was ever going to repay her friend.

“Yeah you better be sorry,” she stood up from her chair. “Think of yourself for a change!” She was yelling at Kyoshi now.

Kyoshi stared at her wide eyed. 

“You've been asleep for three days, Kyoshi! Three days! Do you know how worried I was?” Rangi’s chest heaved as her voice wavered. 

“I-I’m sorry!” Was all Kyoshi could strangle out under Rangi’s heated gaze.

“I didn’t think you were ever going to wake up!” her voice cracked, and tears were welling in her eyes as she collapsed back in her chair. “How could you be so reckless?”

Kyoshi felt dizzy, the change in Rangi’s emotions over the past few weeks had been too drastic and it was too soon after waking up. She scrambled to sit up more, and leaned over and cupped Rangi’s cheek with a hand, forgetting if she was violating Fire Nation decorum or not.

“Oh….” Rangi gasped, as Kyoshi wiped the tears from her eye. She brought one of her own hands up to hold Kyoshi’s hand in place, as she closed her eyes and leaned into the touch.

“Rangi, I’m sorry,” Kyoshi started. “You were right, I shouldn’t have gone. I’m sorry for all the trouble I’ve caused.”

Rangi made a sharp noise as she inhaled, and moved her head to the side so Kyoshi's hand covered her mouth. “T-take responsibility, you idiot!” she sobbed.

Kyoshi’s eyes swirled, she didn’t know what Rangi meant by that, but decided to roll with it. “A-alright…. I’ll do whatever you ask of me, without question!”

Another sharp inhalation. “You promise?” She finally opened her tear-filled eyes and looked at Kyoshi.

“Promise,” Kyoshi said, smiling at her…and the other three Rangi’s that somehow joined.

Kyoshi’s head suddenly felt very heavy, and she briefly wondered if she had gotten up too fast. She didn’t really have time to think as her head hit the pillow, and she heard Rangi calling her name again.

_____________________

A/N: I know I wrote out the “Let’s talk about your mom’s murders! :D” scene ;w; I didn’t want to, but I needed to add the other convo in (even though Rangi didn’t get her answer) and it just wouldn’t have flowed if I tried to squeeze both in. Hopefully we can get that convo in at a later date :’D

Anyway, fun fact! This was supposed to be chapter one! :’D The Tagaka scene was the first thing I wrote, then after Kyoshi collapsed it was supposed to be a flashback/dream of when she sang the poem, and then it ends with her waking up with Rangi next to her (and the intent of hinting that Rangi heard the poem).......and then I changed how I wanted things to go! :D I like the new order but….yeah…. Fun fact! 8U

[blackjackkent]

As I have done for the last two major patch drops, here's a collection of things that stood out for me in the Patch 7 patch notes! :D

There's quite a lot of them - and this isn't even close to the whole list of changes, so definitely check out the full patch notes here if you're interested.

-----

First of all, the things I'm actively excited about:

Introducing 'Evil Endings': Brand new cinematic endings for the truly villainous playthroughs. (Exciting! I've started pondering what my next BG3 liveblog will be - though I might switch to another game for a while first after Rakha is done - and I am starting to lean towards reworking Alexis, my bard, into an evil-run Minthara-mancer. So... intrigued to see more of this in the future!)

Added our very own Mod Manager, which lets you browse, install, and use mods created by the community. (I don't know details about the existing modding process but the new system seems like it'll be pretty intuitive so - hype!)

You can now start Custom Mode games using Honour Mode mechanics when starting a new playthrough. You'll be able to do this via the 'Ruleset' dropdown. (Neat! I may do this as well on my next liveblog playthrough - not the difficulty changes but just forcing me to stick to my choices with one save.)

The kuo-toa that promised to build you an army will now support you in the final battle. Unless they all died in Act I. (Amazing. I'm unironically in love with this addition.)

The help that the Gondians promised for the final battle will now arrive in the form of a friendly Steel Watcher. Apologies from Zanner Toobin for the delay.

Added a dialogue option asking for a kiss in more paths of Wyll's epilogue dialogue.

A bug that had been preventing Wyll’s romance greeting from triggering has now been fixed, so players in Act III who have a stable, loving, and committed relationship with Wyll will now see his romance greeting triggering correctly.

In Act II, Minthara will now react to you having knocked her out in Act I.

Made the romance scene at night with Wyll in Act III unskippable if it triggers to avoid accidentally skipping it and not being able to finish the romance arc.

To improve her chances of survival, Hope now has a new passive called Last Hope that grants her Death Ward for free when she enters combat.

Fixed a bug causing Dark Urge characters to get renamed after using the Magic Mirror. (This threw me for such a loop when I accidentally did it with Rakha.)

When playing as the Dark Urge, if you invite her, Alfira will now actually join your party as a controllable character if there's room for her in your party setup. Temporarily, of course.

Fixed several issues with the portrait that Oskar gives you. Principally, the image on the portrait will now be that of the active character claiming the reward, regardless of their position on the Party Line. (THANK THE GODS. I'm still not over having so many feels about Hector commissioning a portrait of Karlach to have after she was gone, and Oskar cheerfully handing him a painting of Jaheira to look at instead. XD )

Karlach will now tell you her backstory if you reach the point of no return in the Shadow-Cursed Lands even if you didn't confront the paladins of Tyr.

You can now return Mol's eyepatch to her when you find her in the Guildhall.

Fixed the Monastic Robes stretching into a violent-looking point when you wake up on the beach after falling from the nautiloid. (Thank god - this happened all the time with Hector and it drove me crazy. Hopefully this means it's been fixed in other parts of the game too.)

-----

And then the changes and bug fixes that made me laugh:

If Dror Ragzlin finds himself inside the spider pit [in honor mode], he'll try his best to befriend the spiders residing there with a new spell called Arachnid Compulsion so they can band together to fight the real enemy - you.

Malus Thorm has a new Legendary Action called Grasping Appendage. ( Oh dear. 😬 )

We noticed some of you hiccoughing bubbles, so the action for washing yourself with soap and sponges is now called 'Use' instead of 'Consume'.

You can no longer cheese the Leap of Faith trial at the Gauntlet of Shar by just clicking the final platform and letting your character pathfind their way there. Shar threatened to smite us if we didn't fix this one.

Fixed Minthara's body sometimes turning invisible on the Level Up screen. (We sorta liked the floating-head-and-hands look, but hey.) (Eyyyy, I ran into this in Rakha's run and it made me laugh a lot. XD )

Added a new idle animation for Minsc at camp - Boo may or may not have taught him some tai chi.

Karlach will no longer brush the shaved side of her head.

If you're in holographic form in the epilogue, Wyll won't automatically assume he's talking to Lae'zel.

Companions should now be more sympathetic to Astarion fleeing from the sun.

Fixed several issues (related to resurrecting characters via Withers, restructuring the party at night, and automatic camp night scenes) that would trap you in an eternal slumber, unable to end a Long Rest.

Fixed several occurrences of Wyll still having an exclamation mark above his head when he already told you everything he had to say. 

Minthara does, in fact, now have something to say about Orin after you kill her.

Fixed the fade-to-black after Karlach's scene in Avernus at the end of the game, which would give you a very brief glimpse of Game Developer Land.

Fixed some issues with Long Rest: Loading a save made during a Long Rest could cause a crash and you could sometimes get stuck in a Long Rest forever and ever, amen.

Fixed a blocker related to Orin's dagger, which will now respawn near the altar if you hurled her into a chasm and a cultist picked it up before you did. (Because it's bound to her, it would zip back to her corpse in the chasm, lost forevermore.)

Monks' Clench of the North Wind spell now targets up to 2 characters at Level 9. They just have to clench a little harder.

Priestess Gut will no longer hit herself with her own conditions. Silly gob-gob.

We've suggested to Yurgir that when he's invisible he should take advantage of it and actually try to move around a little so that he's harder to find.

Fixed some technical names showing up for each of Ansur's limbs. Naming them all 'Ansur' was the ansur.

Raphael can no longer steal souls from creatures that narratively don't have souls, such as Undead and Constructs.

Kled doesn't have Dror Ragzlin's Legendary Actions anymore. Dror's not one for sharing.

Fixed how the Chest of the Mundane handles item stacks higher than its maximum. (It should no longer gobble up your enormous coin stack and spit back a measly 21 cups in return.)

Prevented summons and followers like Glut from being able to consume Noblestalk. Yes, your Mage Hand probably ate it. No, we don't know where its mouth is.

When Withers resurrects an avatar, the Dream Guardian will no longer immediately prompt another nearby avatar to loot them for a tadpole. Similarly, dead, dismissed avatars will no longer trigger this same prompt. Some decorum, please.

When multiple characters in the party discover a trap or hidden item, only one will comment on it. We figured you don't need four people telling you to watch out for the same trap at the same time.

You can now swap out party members by speaking to the companion you want to replace even if the one you want to replace them with is Wild-Shaped. What your companion will think of you replacing them with a sheep is another story.

Fixed multiple spots where Perception checks were being made through solid objects.

Elminster should no longer react to crimes that don't affect him. (We distracted him with some Stilton.)

Fixed an issue on multiplayer where Gale would briefly appear to be in his undies for the client if the host has the Donate UI open and Gale is wearing magical robes that he can consume.

Fixed a bug that would let you waltz your way through destructible walls without actually destroying them. (You could attempt to attack the wall and your character would pathfind right through it in search of a comfortable spot from which to take a swing.)

Bald characters with the Wet condition will no longer have darker scalps.

You can no longer loot the underwear of non-recruited companions when you knock them out. (Justice for Minthara's dignity! \o/ )

Fixed a split screen issue where Invisible characters would sometimes not render at all for a second player joining the game. We need them to be invisible, but not that invisible.

Fixed a bug where your party members would very quickly change out of their armour and into their cosy camp clothes when you talked to them after having left the Astral Plane. We don't really blame them for being so desperate to hit the hay.

Fixed an issue where resurrecting a mind-controlled Nightsong would cause enemies to become allied to you.

During the final battle, backup companions being called upon with ally abilities will now appear with some clothes on for the occasion.

You can no longer use the Active Search feature to bypass the booby-trapped display case in Ramazith's Tower and pick up the key inside it. Smarty-pantses.

Improved Lumbar support: Lumbar will now stand still after you paid him to hit him.

Fixed a bug where interacting with the crate full of explosive toys in Rivington could cause you to get stuck in an endless loop of crime dialogues (being interrogated and sent to prison) and/or in combat with temporarily hostile NPCs.

Fixed a bug where dropping or selling certain items looted from the Lower City graveyard could cause NPCs to react as though you'd committed the crime of moving a corpse.

Fixed Cordrane the Recent being able to raise a zombie in Sorcerous Sundries when he shouldn't be able to, like when he's dead or Silenced.

Shadowheart is now more engaged with the flora and fauna at camp. (I don't know what this means but I hope it means she plays with the owlbear and Scratch.)

A camp night scene with Shadowheart will no longer trigger if she's not in the party and, uh, also dead.

Fixed Gale's 'splosion sometimes not showing correctly, meaning you'd get a Game Over without knowing why.

Fixed your player character introducing themselves with the wrong name when talking to Mizora.

Fixed Avatar Lae'zel behaving like a companion at the end of the tutorial and telling you (or telling herself) to hurry.

Kagha will now be imbibing if she's at the tiefling party. (I didn't know Kagha could even COME to the tiefling party. O.O Is this if Halsin's dead? )

Fixed Abdirak's self-flagellation idle animation. (Game dev must be a weird job sometimes. :P )

Ward Magmar and Ward Pistle, the duergar at Grymforge, will now make a snide remark if you're playing a small race.

Shadowheart and Lae'zel will now have new equipment if it was taken during the nautiloid escape and they have travelled sufficiently far to realistically acquire it before getting recruited.

Benryn will no longer follow you to camp or leave with you through a waypoint while you're in the process of escorting him out of the burning building at Waukeen's Rest.

Fixed Korrilla being killable in the goblin camp prison after she kills Priestess Gut. This was causing her to spawn as a corpse later on in Act III.

Fixed a bug where leaving the Shadowfell could resurrect an unrecruited Shadowheart and have her turn up at your camp anyway. She just liked the cut of your jib.

Karlach's death scene no longer ends abruptly when a non-gith player chooses to leave with Lae'zel.

Fixed a bug where, if you promised Cazador to bring Astarion to him and Astarion was in your party, you could go to Astarion at camp and tell him to replace himself in your party.

Zanner Toobin will now trigger the self-destruct sequence correctly instead of suddenly forgetting he was supposed to be in a panic because of the Steel Watcher Titan.

Told Devella to be more patient and wait until the end of the dialogue before she moves on to Basilisk Gate after being saved from Dolor.

Jogged Nine-Fingers' foggy memory - she will now recognise you when you bring Jaheira to her after she asked you to.

Shadowheart no longer sometimes still thinks that Viconia is alive after having killed her. Poor thing.

Wulbren will no longer comment on Toobin's daughter being dead if Toobin is not present.

Gave Sticky Dondo more lines to yell to sell his wares in the Guildhall. (Thank fuck tbh.)

Fixed player characters and the Narrator talking over each other when interacting with Minsc's relics in his hidden chamber. (MINSC HAS A HIDDEN CHAMBER? I have some hunting to do with Rakha lmao.)

You can no longer open the barricaded doors at the Crimson Draughts apothecary from the inside. We forgot barricades are supposed to work both ways.

Yoinked Sceleritas Fel's hat back from Helsik's desk.

You should no longer potentially see the great empty void of Game Developer Land after starting the epilogue.

Added more lines for Jaheira and Minsc to exclaim during the battle with the Stone Lord.

Fixed a bug where it was possible to get stuck in a dialogue with the Emperor about killing Gortash if you clicked on Gortash's corpse with Karlach (which starts a dialogue, after which she leaves the party and goes to camp) while, with another character, you also clicked on Gortash's body and sent his gauntlet to Karlach via the context menu right before her dialogue ended and she left the party. Yep. You can read it again if you want.

If you fail a pickpocket attempt at High Hall, your allies will no longer become hostile towards you. We reminded them that the fate of the world lies in the balance and that you play a pretty big part in it, thief or not.

Fixed Gortash's title potentially reverting back to 'Archduke Nominee' when reloading a savegame after the ceremony.

Wyll will no longer talk about hunting down Mizora when she's, like, right there.

The 'Embrace Your Potential' quest will now close if you choose to squelch the Astral-Touched Tadpole beneath your toes like a sentient little grape.

Jaheira's journal could at times say she had something to talk to you about, but then she wouldn't discuss it. She's a bit less tight-lipped now, so you know what to do in the city.

Someone pulled the ol' switcheroo on the Eldritch Knight and Battle Master subclass icons. We've switchereed them back.

Fixed a bug where examining a character and then examining an item would merge both character and item into a monstrous model in a single Examine window. The character would also be T-posing and naked.

Removed the turrets from the ground floor of Wyrm's Crossing since they weren't supposed to be there in the first place and never worked.

Fixed an unreachable fruit porridge in Wyrm's Rock. Makes you wonder how it got there in the first place.

Moved an unreachable book ('On the Greater Healing Potion') at Last Light. (Unironically this has driven me crazy on every playthrough.)

If Minthara's camp trousers get blood on them, the spatters will now be spread across them more tastefully rather than concentrated between the legs. (Holy shit.)

Kerz, the half-orc hireling, was wearing clothes that didn't fit properly. We found a tailor and everything's looking spiffy now.

Fixed some particularly intense and alarming-looking smoke coming out of the chimney at the Rivington General.

Gave a skirt to the chicken lady who mentions a skirt.

Companions in Wild Shape at camp will no longer perform their idle animations as though they are still humanoid.

Companions in Wild Shape at camp will no longer perform their idle animations as though they are still humanoid.

Fixed the animation for the Crawling Claw's footsteps. (Fingersteps?)

Fixed Brynna's clothes clipping through her arm and revealing her armpit. She informed us she was not, in fact, begging for a tickle.

Fixed the Graceful Cloth and Mighty Cloth looking like crop tops on male halflings.

The magicians outside of Sorcerous Sundries were yelling and casting spells so loudly that it was hard to hear your companions over them if you spoke to them nearby. We've toned this down and cleaned up the mix.

Added death vocals ('uurghghhh's) for dragonborn and half-orc NPCs.

Fixed the name of a decorative pot in the Colony, which was lying about being a cookpot.

Tweaked the spikes on the artefact in the dialogue where it passes from Shadowheart over to you so it doesn't look like it's impaling you.

Fixed your hand clipping into your face while smearing poo on it.

Told Wyll he doesn't need to hold his sword threateningly close to the chest of small races during his recruitment dialogue.

Fixed Mizora's body popping when she comes to pay Wyll a visit at camp. Save the popping and locking for the club.

Fixed Volo's hand clipping into your head while he performs his highly professional and sanitary surgical intervention.

Fixed the Dream Guardian's leg getting all jittery when they kneel down to let you stab them. The facade of stoicism breaks a little when you can see their legs turn to jelly.

Fixed a bug where biting off Crusher's toe and then defeating him in a fist fight would result in a cinematic where the toe was still present. An embarrassing inconsistency in an otherwise realistic chain of events. (I noticed this on Rakha's run and was judging you so hard, Larian. XD )

Fixed Shadowheart sometimes turning her head concerningly far over her shoulder during her recruitment dialogue at the Emerald Grove.

Fixed minor pops when playing as Avatar Shadowheart if the artefact explodes and kills Lae'zel. (This can happen???)

Fixed your character snapping their body backwards and wibbly-wobbling around as though trying to pass beneath a cursed limbo stick in the cutscene where Kar'niss approaches you in the Shadow-Cursed Lands.

Fixed the chalice that you hold when talking to Jaheira at Last Light vibrating suspiciously after you set it down on the table.

Fixed a Reconstituted Duellist's line getting cut off prematurely. He really, really wanted you to hear him finish saying 'come to my inner chambers'.

Dark Urge characters who have not cured themselves of Bhaal's influence or who have embraced Bhaal at the end of the game will no longer appear in Karlach's final scene as though they didn't just stalk off on a mad hunt for blood.

During Gortash's inauguration, Ravengard's head, sword, and legs will no longer leave his body suspended in the air behind him when he walks down the steps. (😱 )

Fixed a cinematic bug where the submersible would approach the Iron Throne and, the moment it arrived, would nope out and appear to reverse back to the surface.

[rainwingmarvel7]

Lore Dumping About D&D Characters, Part 1

I may not be able to play all of these characters anymore, but that doesn’t mean I can’t yap about them and show them off like special little figurines!

Taura Elistacia - Half-Elf Battle Smith Artificer (Status: Retired)

Since I lost the friends I played the campaign that Taura was in with, which was set in Wildemount, I can’t play her anymore, but she is by far my favorite of my D&D characters to date.

“Hailing from the industrial town of Hupperdook in the Dwendalian Empire, Taura was the daughter of a renowned human inventor and an elven woman. Her mother left shortly after she was born, something she never got over, leaving her to be raised by her father until she was ten, when he was murdered in front of her. After that, she was forced to live a life on the streets, struggling to survive as, all the while, she taught herself in the ways of inventing and engineering, using both her father's teachings and what she learned on her own, from watching others and figuring things out herself. Eventually, using her newfound skills, she managed to get herself out of the streets, and, alongside her robot companion, Tink, finds herself ready to explore just what's out there waiting for her.”

Fun Facts: Her prized weapon is a rifle called “The Matron’s Whisper”, imbued with the power of the Raven Queen, and whenever she gets a critical hit, she turns invisible; she is a Percy De Rolo fangirl; despite having a 9 in charisma, she had the most romantic success of anyone in the party; she cried her way out of jail; she had a prosthetic hand (she accidentally blew her hand off while testing out one of her guns); she wears a gold necklace with a red jewel in the center given to her by her father and rarely ever takes it off

Styrmiria - Tiefling Path of the Storm Herald Barbarian/Storm Sorcerer (Status: Retired)

Another character I can no longer play without the friend group, Styrmiria was part of a homebrew campaign, and I love her very much. She is the reason Barbarian is now one of my favorite classes to play.

“Styrmiria was born into Clan Siris during one of the largest Maelstrom expansions in a century, thereby gaining the power of the storm due to the circumstances of her birth. She spent much of her youth training and honing her talents, eventually becoming a good enough warrior to be allowed to join the Unifier's Honor Guard as a representative of her clan. However, after one particular mission, in which she was charged with accompanying the Unifier into the Maelstrom to get to a diplomatic meeting in Marielen, she was exiled from her clan due to having contact with the Maelstrom, a choice she willing made knowing the consequences. Unable to return home, she instead made her way to Vandrin's Folley, where she met Cade Underbrough, a halfling scholar, and began a relationship with him. During her time in Vandrin's Folley, Styrmiria has begun having ominous dreams of the Maelstrom dying and releasing its energy somewhere, ending with visions of the storm clouds gathering over mountains in the north and the howling of wolves...”

Fun Facts: She fought and killed a giant boar single-handedly and then sent the head to her boyfriend; her great-ax is called Scourge and it prevents anyone it hits from healing; she was the mother-figure of the party; she has the ability to charm people because on her homebrew Tiefling sub-race

Laressa Laenys - Tiefling Circle of Land (Desert) Druid (Status: Active)

Laressa is part of a homebrew campaign with entirely different people than the others, so she is still one that I play! She is very iconic and very traumatized and I love her.

“Laressa was born to a half-elf father and human mother, Andol and Lerile Laenys in a small town located at the base of a mountain called Alryne. She was one of two children, the other being her younger half-elf sister, Londrai.

Although she was loved and accepted by her family, others didn’t share their sentiment, and she was often the subject of ridicule and resentment.

Despite her parents’ attempts to shield her from it, Laressa was well-aware of what was going on, and as a child, it made her very upset. Oftentimes, she would get into fights with other children who made fun of or insulted her for being a Tiefling, which only got her into more trouble and made things worse.

However, when she was around 12 years old, in one particular fight with a boy named Raylen Slatebane, she accidentally burned him with an unintentional use of Hellish Rebuke, severely damaging his face. The townspeople were furious with her and demanded that she be punished. Her parents managed to prevent her from receiving any serious repercussions, but Laressa never forgave herself, and neither did the townspeople.

She closed herself off, spending more and more time away from the town, in the woods beyond it. She had always had an affinity for nature, with a special connection to it that no one could quite explain. Her father believed it came from his mother, a once-famous elven druid named Zylphine Laenys, while her mother thought it was a blessing from the gods.

Regardless of where her abilities came from, Laressa had them, and she decided to focus on learning how to control them so that she would not hurt anyone else and use them for good.

For a while, she was making good progress, until an incident, when she was 16 years old that ended up in the destruction of several buildings in the town and several injured people when she unintentionally caused an earthquake in response to being harassed by a group of teenagers, including Raylen. One of the teens, Raylen’s girlfriend Zelile, ended up being killed in the earthquake, and after that, Laressa knew that she couldn’t stay anymore, as the townspeople who had so despised her would never forgive her.

So she ran away, without even getting a chance to say goodbye to her family. She does not know if they are still there or what has happened to them since she left.

After wandering for several months, crossing over the mountains, she ended up in a vast desert, where she became lost and almost died, before being saved by a caravan of earth genasi druids, who took her in and trained her in their ways. She became close with a woman named Torra, who became her mentor and maternal figure and taught her many of the druidic arts that she currently uses. She also formed a close relationship with another girl around her age named Fiara. They quickly became friends once Laressa joined the caravan, and their close friendship eventually became something more.

Laressa stayed with the earth genasi, traveling the desert and learning their ways, until she was 23 years old. It was then that the caravan was attacked by a female ancient blue dragon, Kariyth, whose hoard was located within a desert mountain the caravan was passing by. Most of the caravan was killed, and Laressa was forced to flee with Fiara when Torra sacrificed herself for them to escape.

They made it to an oasis city, Drona, run by an eccentric elven warlord called Hernelis Danorron, who found use for their druidic abilities and allowed them to stay if they swore themselves into his service, which they agreed to, ready to do whatever it took to survive.

However, a few months after arriving in the city, it was attacked by another desert warlord, and although Drona was able to defend against him with the help of Laressa and Fiara, in all the chaos of the fighting, Fiara was mortally wounded. Laressa held her as she died. And for the first time in a long time, she lost control.

After that, Laressa swore to take revenge on all those who had taken the people she loved from her, the warlord and Kariyth alike, and to protect those who cannot protect themselves, so that no one had to experience the pain and loss she had, to go through the life she had.

But for now, she wanders, offering her services to those who need it, biding her time until she can get her justice and leave the world better than when she came into it.”

Fun Facts: She has a crush on someone in the party; she barely hits anything ever lol; she prefers to wild shape when she fights (I just usually forget to do that); she has a pan flute that lets her summon an army of rats (no I am not making that up)

[alterchaos]

SCHOOL

The weekend is over and Thorndyke siblings return to school, both eager to make some changes in their lives...

(cw: bullying; please read the foreword)

inspired by: Sonic X Episode 6

PREVIOUS CHAPTER: A BATTLE BETWEEN BROS

NEXT CHAPTER: PARTY HARDLY

A quick foreword from the author:

Hi, everyone. I want to start out this chapter in particular with a few words. This is one of two chapters in this series that will openly depict the act of bullying, including things that may be distressing to read. Reader discretion is advised; however, the scene itself is short and isolated from the rest of the content and towards the beginning. If you wish to skip this scene, stop reading when you see a row of ♡♡♡ and pick back up when you see the same row later down the page.

I also want to make clear that while the issue of bullying is central to Eve’s character, and she has been through it countless times, it is not a place I want to actively sit in more than necessary. One scene is enough to get the point across (more on the other chapter when we get to it). Alter Chaos is supposed to be a story about hope and how we can heal through love. This is only a starting point for the long journey and development that lies ahead for her, and while we need to take the time to acknowledge that it happened, we also need to be willing to let it go and keep moving forward.

Beyond the story purpose of this scene, I am a passionate advocate against bullying. It is real. It does happen and it is a horrible thing I would never wish on anyone. While I adjusted a few parts and phrases to be less intense, these are all real things that were said and done to me in school, starting at her age (7), by both faculty and students alike. I don’t say that to ask for pity. I’m over it. I’ve made my peace. I say it to offer a level of groundedness and nuance that may otherwise be missed, especially in the Sonic and shonen-ness of it all.

I write to all of you to look inside yourselves and to believe that you can be brave, even in the smallest of ways. We all have that choice deep within ourselves to be who we want to be. Nobody can ever truly take it away from us.

All we have to do is take that first step.

—----------------------------------------------------

riiiiiiiing

The children of Station Square walked into the school, ready to begin another day full of learning. None though, were as excited as the blonde girl whose hair ribbons blew wild and free in the warm spring wind. She smiled with confidence. After having stood up to that Eggman villain the other day, she was ready to face whatever lay ahead.

She was cool now.

No bullies could bring her down.

“Evelyn!!”

The girl in question held her head high and kept on walking.

“Hey, Evelyn!! Wait up!!”

However nice he’d been to her that day, it still didn’t change a thing.

“Slow down!!”

Besides, even if she did want to believe it, he’d never change that easily, right? As soon as he’d see his friends, he would join them, just as quiet as always even when they were mean to her. She knew that. He knew that.

So why was he still being so persistent?

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

“Hey look, it’s the complete waste of space.”

“Right on schedule, freak.”

Eve didn’t need to look to know who was there. Her heart skipped a beat in a moment of fear, their words cutting deep like a blade. This time, however, she wasn’t alone nor defenseless.

This time, she had Sonic.

She took a deep breath, continuing her walk into the school building with each courageous stride.

“Huh? Too good for us all of a sudden?”

Keep walking. Keep walking.

She heard footsteps closing in.

“Say something, you fat, ugly freak!”

Don’t cry. Don’t cry.

In less than a moment, she felt a powerful grip on her tiny wrist.

“Ow! L-Let go!”

“Or what? You think you’re so much better than us just because your precious mommy and daddy are so rich and famous?”

Eve looked around for help with pleading eyes, though all that saw simply turned away. Whispers and laughter filled the air as she attempted to struggle her way free to no avail…

Weak…

Helpless…

She looked back to her brother with the same plea, all hope leaving her as she watched him stand there, frozen in place. She’d been a fool.

Nothing had changed.

One of the bullies smirked while the other chuckled to himself, “At least your pathetic, pushover brother gets it.”

The girl’s face grew red as she quickly turned away from him. She struggled to get her wrist free a bit more, but was stopped by a sudden jerk, bringing her face close to the rotten duo’s. There was no escaping the words that came next.

It was always the worst part.

“You’re worthless. Nobody wants to be your friend. Not even your own mommy and daddy want to be around you. So do us all a small favor and throw yourself off the school roof.”

Her eyes flew wide.

“Just go and die already.”

With that, they loosened their grip just enough for Eve to yank her arm free. She ran into the school building in a panic without looking back.

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

—----------------------------------------------------

As his sister disappeared down the school hall in a hurry, Chris wrestled with himself. He’d been so ready to stand up for her, to tell those two off the moment he’d seen them and yet, he hesitated, and that hesitation cost her so much more than simply a good day at school. They were right: he was a pushover, pathetic, unable to live up to the courage and heroism of his new friend. He felt disheartened at the new and loving bond he’d no doubt just lost with her, clinging tightly instead to one built on malice and harm, and he had no one to blame this time but himself.

However…

Chris clenched his fists.

Even if she’d never forgive him for abandoning her for so long…

He looked at the two laughing children with a newfound determination.

That also meant he had all the power he needed to make this right.

Terrified yet ready, Chris took the first steps forward towards creating the future he wanted.

—----------------------------------------------------

sniff hic

Eve wasn’t aware of where she’d ended up, just that she knew it was quiet. Quiet meant that there was no one around to hurt her. Quiet meant safe. She didn’t care to look at which hallway she’d ended up in, opting instead to stay curled up with her face buried in her knees. She just needed to cry herself dry before heading to class. That way, no one would bother her with the details of what happened or get roped in on her behalf. She didn’t want anyone else to suffer the way she did.

She just wanted to be left alone.

“Excuse me?”

No. She just wanted to be left alone.

“Evelyn, right? I saw you running through the city the other day.”

The voice did sound kind though, almost like Sonic’s. Wet, aqua eyes peeked up from the comfort of her knees.

She sniffed, wiping a tear away, “W-Who are you?”

The similarly blonde girl smiled at her, “My name is Helen.”

“H-Hi, Helen…”

“I saw you running through the halls crying just like you were back in the city. Are you okay?”

Eve began fidgeting nervously with a small strand of her hair, “S-Sorry for worrying you…”

“Why are you apologizing?”

“I-I…I don’t w-want you to feel hurt b-because of me too…”

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

Eve slowly began unraveling herself from her knees as she told Helen everything, all the things the bullies were saying to her as well as everyone’s reluctance to help despite her pleas. She didn’t know why but, despite the knot in her stomach, she felt she could trust her. She expressed not just the day’s incident, but prior incidents as well, feeling a bit of weight release from her chest as she acknowledged each out loud. Helen watched without judgment, listening intently until the small girl was finished.

Helen grabbed a few tissues from her backpack hanging off the handlebars of her wheelchair, handing a few to Eve to help clear her nose and wipe her tears.

“Thank you for sharing that with me. That must have been so hard and I’m so sorry you had to go through that alone. If I’d known…nevermind. Do you feel any better?”

Eve nodded, too embarrassed and nervous to look the older girl in the eyes.

“Hey, there’s no shame in feeling the way you do. Believe me…” Helen paused a moment before continuing, “Would you like to join me and my friends for lunch today? You aren’t allergic to anything are you?”

Eve shook her head, “A-Are you sure? I-I don’t want them to go after you too…”

“Hmph!” Helen flashed a confident smile, pumping up one of her muscular arms in a display of strength, “Then I guess they’ll just have to deal with me too!”

Eve giggled, wiping away her remaining tears, “Y-Yeah! I’ll see you at lunch then, Helen!”

—----------------------------------------------------

After receiving her tray of food and searching nervously for her new friend, Eve found Helen at a table with two other kids around her age. She waved, beckoning the fidgeting girl over with a free hand. Eve made her way over to the trio, sitting next to Helen before releasing a small, sheepish smile.

“H-H-Hi…”

“This is Evelyn, guys. She’s my new friend I told you all about earlier.”

“A-Actually…u-um…E-E-Eve is f-fine…”

A dark hand was the first to reach out, “Hey there, Eve. I’m Danny!”

Eve shook it back, “H-Hi, Danny…”

“And I’m Francis!” The redhead with freckles followed suit with a fair hand.

“H-Hi, Francis…N-Nice to meet you b-both…” She didn’t even realize the small knot she was making in the strand of hair she was twirling around her finger.

Helen placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, offering her reassurance, “Don’t worry, Eve. You can be yourself around us.”

Danny picked up, “Yeah! None of us really had anyone to hang out with for one reason or another, so when we realized that we each had that in common, well…”

Francis jumped in, “Boom! Instant friendship!”

Eve smiled a bit more, a bit of tension leaving her even though her voice remained soft, “That’s really sweet. Th-Thank you for inviting me in to be a part of this.”

“Of course!”

Her smile fell as she noticed the pair of bullies storming to a table off to the side. They seemed to have a hard time sitting down, as if they were sore or in pain. Eve’s curiosity piqued though when they turned their heads, locking eyes with her. If looks could kill, she would have been dead seven times over. Even more curious, however, were their faces: one donned a swollen black eye while the other had a couple large bruises lining his cheek and jaw.

Francis was the first to comment, “What happened to those jerks?”

“I don’t know,” Helen stared them down just as intensely, “But I don’t like the way they’re looking at our friend here.”

Danny pounded a fist into his free hand, “Yeah, well, they’ll just have to deal with us first.”

Before Eve had a chance to try and calm them down, her gaze shifted to that of the door where a beaten, bruised boy slowly made his way into the cafeteria holding an ice pack to his eye. She recognized the auburn, spiky hair immediately, her eyes flying wide in surprise. No attempts at logic explained the phenomenon before her, nor could it have prepared her for what she saw next. Despite the state he was in and the embarrassment he should be feeling as all eyes fell on him in shock, he stood tall, smiling to himself without a care in the world.

There was no regret in his eyes.

Had he…

Had he really…

“Chris-?”

CRASH!!!

Time slowed in that instant as the glass panels of the cafeteria windows shattered. Screams filled the large room as everyone ducked under their tables, avoiding the debris. Rumbling could be heard throughout the halls as part of the infrastructure crumbled along the outer edge of the now-shattered wall. Everyone began to run for the exit doors in a desperate attempt for escape, yet their paths were blocked in mere moments by a set of large and imposing robots. Looking back to the shattered windows, a massive robot with spider-like limbs now blocked the way, locking in all of the students and teachers for whatever awaited them next. The cockpit of the massive robot descended, revealing a large, mustached man inside.

“Eggman…”

“Who?”

“W-We have to run!”

“Ah. Ah. Ah. Not so fast, pipsqueaks.” Eggman’s voice boomed over the hijacked loudspeaker.

“Who are you!?!?”

“What do you want with us!?!?”

The man twirled his mustache just like the villains in Eve’s favorite cartoons, “Me? Why I’m only the greatest scientist in the known universe! The wonderful, the ingenous, Dr. Ivo Robotnik! My purpose at your fine establishment today is to recruit all of you young and bright minds to join my glorious empire, the Eggman Empire!! NYAHAHAHHAHAAA!!!”

“Like we would ever join you!!”

“Yeah!!”

“I thought that might be the general consensus, which is why I stayed up all night preparing your new curriculum. Anyone who refuses to comply will not be allowed to leave. HO HO HO HO!!!”

Eve stood tall, throwing a small piece of debris at the cockpit, cracking it in one hit, “We aren’t scared of you!! Sonic will come to save us before we know it!!” She wasn’t about to let the villainous Eggman hurt her new friends. Even if she couldn’t do much, she would stand and fight.

“Who’s Sonic?”

“Dunno.”

“Sonic?”

Whispers of this mysterious hero began floating around the cafeteria, instilling hope.

Eggman looked to the source of the outburst in a fit of rage, his eyes instead going wide with recognition over the small, frail girl before him. He smiled sinisterly, “My, my, my…I remember you. You’re that insignificant speck that ruined my plans last time with your ridiculous plane stunt.”

“Evelyn? Ruined plans?”

“Plane stunt? Did she really?”

“No way…”

Eve paid no mind to their whispers, continuing to stare down the villain before her in a bold act of rebellion.

Sonic would save her.

She had no doubt.

She had nothing to fear.

“Hmmm…very well. I guess I could do with one less minion.”

“-!!?”

One of the robotic arms swiftly lunged at her, claws stretched wide and ready to steal her away. Eve didn’t have time to run by the time she noticed. Just as it was about to grab her though, she felt a push and her back hitting the ground beneath her. Her eyes flew wide as she witnessed her savior, in the grip of the robotic claw.

“CHRISTOPHER!!!”

Time slowed as Eve watched her brother, his eyes wide in fear, be ripped away from her. The robotic arm jerked him slightly as it prepared itself. Then, in one swift motion, it flung itself to the side of the robot’s body, releasing it’s clawed grip from behind. Chris screamed as his body launched into the air, away from the school. Eve ran to the shattered window panes of the second-story building, trying to reach out to him when he was already miles away, fading from sight as he fell into the city skyline nearby.

And then, he was gone.

“NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!”

Eve collapsed to her knees in horror, her tears and rapid, shallow breaths overtaking her as the full weight of what just happened sunk in. Chris, her brother, was gone and it was all her fault. If only she hadn’t tried to be brave, to act cool in the face of danger, to be some kind of hero. She put everyone in danger again, and now he was gone without her ever having the chance to acknowledge that he cared, to give him the chance that he wanted to be there for her. She was right.

They were all right.

“Hmmm…I was going to get rid of you too but I’ve changed my mind. I think we all learned a valuable lesson here today. Isn’t that right, class?”

“Wrong, Eggman!”

Everyone turned their faces to the sight of the hero standing tall atop the robot’s shoulder piece. His figure was silhouetted by the light of the sun, and his emerald gaze glowed fierce and unforgiving. In his arms rested the semi-conscious figure of a boy with spiky hair.

Eve began sobbing joyfully at the scene. He was alive! Her brother was alive!

Chris was alive!

“RRRRRRRRRGHHHH!!!!!! YOU BLASTED HEDGEHOG!!! FINE!!! I’LL TAKE YOU OUT MYSE-!!!”

He didn’t have a chance to finish that statement before the blue figure grabbed one of the robotic arms with his free hand, pulled it close, and stomped it down hard into the cockpit. Eggman ducked, barely avoiding the claw as his latest creation began to fail him. One by one, each of the robotic arms began to lose their grip on the side of the building, causing the machine to begin to tumble. The large hedgehog jumped down without a word, Chris still in his arms. He tapped the struggling robot with his foot, giving it just the push it needed to fully lose its grip and tumble to the ground below. He watched just as quietly as Eggman broke free from the cockpit, calling upon a smaller robot to take him away up into the sky.

The mysterious hero bent down close to Eve, his vengeful gaze still fixed upon the robots at the door, “Hold him for me for a sec, will ya?”

Eve complied, hugging Chris tightly as he disappeared. In a simple gust of wind, all the robots were wiped completely out, their shells lining the floor in a metallic massacre. The swift hero then reappeared at her side as if he’d never left.

The fight was over before it ever began.

“...”

“...”

“YEEEEAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!”

Roaring cheers from students and teachers alike filled the cafeteria. Everyone was saved and chanting the name of their mysterious new hero, Sonic the Hedgehog.

Everyone that is…except Eve.

The small girl simply sat there in complete shock, trembling like a leaf between the horror of nearly losing her brother and the awe of witnessing Sonic’s raw power. It was all too much to take in and her mind simply couldn’t process it. Sonic, noticing this, immediately knelt down to her level. All signs of the frightening, vengeful warrior were gone, replaced by the kind and gentle friend she coveted so much.

“You okay?”

“Y-Y-Yeah…”

“Are you sure about that, sis?”

Eve’s eyes met her brother’s. While he was busy smiling in his beaten state, her face grew hot with tears. She didn’t know what she felt more in that moment: anger, joy, it didn’t matter. It was simply all too much for her to hold in.

“Y-YOU IDIOT!! YOU’RE SERIOUSLY ASKING ME THAT!! FIRST YOU GET BEAT UP FOR ME AND TH-THEN-!! I-IF YOU HAD REALLY-!! I-I NEVER WOULD HAVE FORGIVEN MYSELF!!” She began sobbing and shaking harder, “Y-YOU SCARED ME!! I-I-I THOUGHT YOU WERE-!!”

Chris pushed past his pain and hugged his little sister with a slight wince, “Sorry, Evelyn…”

She hugged back, “Eve is fine. It’s what my friends call me.”

Sonic smiled at the display, his heart overflowing with happiness seeing the growing bond between these two siblings. While at their side for support, he took care not to disturb such a special moment for them.

Eve was the first to pull back, looking over his injuries with concern, “Y-You’re really hurt because of me. I’m so…I’m so sorry.”

Chris winced again as he shifted his position slightly, “Y-Yeah…they got me pretty good, huh?” He laughed before smiling, “I finally did it though! I stood up to them! From now on, nobody bullies my little sister and gets away with it!” He ruffled Eve’s messy hair slightly in his own, unique way, getting a small laugh from her.

“Wait, so Eggman wasn’t the one who beat you up?”

“Nah. He barely even left a scratch…apart from throwing me halfway across the city of course hehehe…”

Sonic breathed a sigh of relief. His rage and thirst for vengeance quelled knowing that Eggman hadn’t gone that far.

“Wow!! Sonic, right!?”

“You’re so awesome!! Can we have an autograph!!”

Eve shuddered, turning away with panicked eyes from the two bruised kids excitedly rushing Sonic for attention.

Chris decided to follow up Sonic’s question with a devious smirk, “Actually, I got beat up by the two bullies that have been harrassing my little sister for so long. When I confronted them, they called me all sorts of names before one of them punched me square in the face. I didn’t just take it though. I fought back. I even made sure to give that jerk a black eye. The other one only got away with a few bruises on the side of his face.”

Both kids’ eyes went wide in terror as the cool, blue hero paused, his ear twitching in response, “You know something, Chris…” He remained smiling, a more crazed look crossing his face as he cracked a few knuckles threateningly, “I never liked bullies.”

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH WE’RESORRYWE’RESORRYWE’RESORRY…” The two of them bowed at the girl profusely while Sonic folded his arms with a satisfying huff. After a few moments of zany awkwardness and confusion between both parties, they ran off, promising to change their ways.

“And that takes care of that.” Sonic brushed his hands together as if to clear the dust from them.

“Eve!!”

“Oh my gosh!! Are you okay!!?”

“We were so worried!!”

Her new friends rushed her, Helen checking her over for any injuries while Danny and Francis sat down next to her for support.

Eve smiled, “I’m fine, everyone. Really.” She looked to her brother, “Thanks to Chris, that is.”

“Woah, Chris? Really?”

“Hmmm…I guess he’s alright now in my book. What do you think, Helen?”

The girl in question folded her arms, “...”

Eve smiled, her eyes sparkling expectantly.

Helen sighed, “Fine. If he’s really left those jerks behind, then I’ll accept him.”

“Yeah, good riddance to those-Wait, what am I getting accepted for?”

Eve hugged him excitedly, “To join our friend group, silly!”

“Welcome to the cool club, Chris!”

“One of us! One of us!”

While everyone was laughing and celebrating their new friend, Eve noticed Sonic had slipped away quietly from the scene, off on some other grand adventure to save the day. She smiled, her heart filled with warmth from the love and light he’d brought into her life in such a brief time. With her whole life ahead of her, she couldn’t even begin to imagine what other joys and changes he would bring into her world. All she knew was that she was happy, finally on her way to belonging in a world she’d never known.

Life never felt so free.

CHAPTER END

[questforgalas]

Who are your favorite clones and your top headcanons about them?

Oh my god. Is there a character limit on this? This is the topic I could give a 2 hour presentation on with 5 minutes to prep

Ok so if I had to be really honest with myself, there is really only one TCW clone who is my favorite (others I like, but none have latched on the way he has) and that's Rex (if you know my blog, this is probably the least surprising thing I've ever written). Fives, Wolffe, and Gregor are honorable mentions, but Rex had me since second 1 of his screen time in the TCW movie.

Then came along the Bad Batch, but again, if I'm being honest with myself, I like the batch as a whole, and they're definitely my comfort squad, but only one has truly been my favorite since he walked off the Marauder in their intro arc in TCW, and it's Crosshair (I know, another shocker here)

Thanks for the ask!! Flood my inbox with asks if you so please 💖💖

I'm putting my HCs for them under the cut because I have no control with these two and this will be long lol

Rex

First things first, Rex is the definition of "work hard, play hard". Not that he's out partying all the time - I don't see him as a 79s frequenter at all actually - but that when he's off duty or the 501st actually have some time to relax, he's laughing and joking with his brothers and COs. He's not a stick in the mud at all, and he gets involved in pranks just as often as Fives, he's just better at avoiding the paperwork.

Ahsoka is like a little sister to him, and those two are best friends. When she left, it was the first time the 501st ever saw Rex unable to speak after a debrief and have to walk away to find somewhere private to grieve. He took it just as hard as Anakin to watch his little sister walk away, but unlike Anakin, he understood her reasoning and as hurt as he was, he was proud of her for sticking to her honor and to herself

Cody is the commander he's closest to, but Wolffe is the one he looks up to the most. Wolffe's pack instinct and drive to rescue all in need resonates with Rex and how he leads the 501st.

He's one of the most socially awkward individuals to ever come off of Kamino. Put him in a strategy briefing or in the middle of battle, and he's as calm and collected as a Jedi. Elevator ride with a CO and needs to make small talk? Absolute disaster. Obi-Wan picks up on this and purposely seeks out to stick himself in small talk situations with Rex for pure entertainment

Rex's favorite missions are relief missions because he loves seeing his brothers get to interact with the locals. He's a huge softy for kids, especially ones in war torn areas, and as soon as he's done with his duties, he'll organize a pick up game of anything between the local kids and the 501st. It distracts the kids from their situation and lets his brothers let loose. He's easily goaded into joining, usually by Jesse or Echo (before the citadel)

Crosshair

In my opinion, he's the most misinterpreted clone in the Batch, possibly of all the clones, but I digress

His relationship with the batchers: Tech: I'm not fully onboard with the "Tech and Crosshair are tube twins HC", but I definitely see them as very close. Crosshair is able to give Tech something the others can't which is someone who can sit for an indefinite amount of time and just listen. I think especially when they were cadets, Tech was easily excitable about new discoveries or new tinkerings, and Crosshair - being literally trained to sit in a sniper's nest for lord knows how long - would happily plop down and listen so Tech could exert the energy. Sometimes he cleaned his rifle, sometimes he just sat and listened. This extended into later years, and even though Tech didn't need to talk so much, it became a comfort to have each other sitting next to the other Echo: They didn't have as much time to bond, but I think these two bonded very quickly after Echo joined up. Similar to how Crosshair and Tech bonded, since Echo hates being alone, Crosshair was able to ease that panic by just sitting with him. Not necessarily talking or anything, just sitting and being; however, the comfort of it often eased Echo into telling stories of his days from the 501st, especially of Fives, and when he did, Crosshair would put down whatever he was doing (let's be honest, probably cleaning his rifle) and listen intently. Crosshair was also the most observant and sympathetic to Echo during his recovery. It would be quiet actions, but he'd check in with Echo more frequently than the others and make sure his new bro was doing ok Wrecker: Ohhhhh baby do I love their dynamic. Crosshair is the emo kid who adores his family but never wants to show it while Wrecker doesn't know how to interact without showing emotion, and Crosshair's warning glares mean nothing to him. These two were Hunter's #1 headache cause as cadets because Crosshair would encourage Wrecker into whatever crazy idea he had Hunter: The closest. All of the OG batchers are very close, but Hunter and Crosshair are another level. 1. They bonded over their enhanced skills (enhanced senses and enhanced eye site require a special kind of understanding) 2. Crosshair challenged Hunter as a leader and strategist not to be snarky, but to make sure their family always got out. He'd grill Hunter on strategies and the holes in each of them until they were perfect 3. Their closeness was very evident to me during their TCW arc with how often Hunter and Crosshair silently communicated with each other. This bled over into TBB E1, but those interactions were obviously short lived. They seek out each other's gazes the most

He sleeps on his stomach. It's second nature to him as a sniper, and even if he falls asleep on his side, he will 100% of the time wake up on his stomach

He and Tech were the pranksters of the group. They were nightmares as cadets, and when Echo joined them, their pranking ways picked up again as he taught them a few new ones he and Fives deployed on the 501st a time or two

He will be the first to die for his family. Hunter would work to get everyone out, but Crosshair would be the first to sacrifice himself so Hunter's plan had more time. He would've jumped after Tech out of that cable car if he didn't already have him with his rifle attachment

His giving love language is acts of service, but his receiving love language is physical touch/words of affirmation. The guy just needs to be reassured ok??? Wrap him in every blanket imaginable, he'll purr like a cat

Thank you for the ask!!

[ecargmura]

Pokemon Horizons Episode 36 Review - Gender Confirmation: The Episode

The odd jobs saga continues as Liko and Roy are tasked to help out one of Nidothing’s viewers with her problem. The viewer, Yunorin, wants to join the Tag Battle Tournament held in Pigton Town, but her Oinkologne isn’t too thrilled about partnering up with another Pokemon. What could be the issue? That’s why Nidothing dispatches Liko and Roy to help her out. It’s nice that the kids are the main focus of the episode without adults interfering this time around.

If I were to describe this episode, it’d be ‘Gender Confirmation: The Episode’ as there were so many gender reveals alongside showing off gender differences between the two Oinkolognes. Liko’s Sprigatito and a few other swine Pokemon were revealed to be female as they were affected by Renta’s male Oinkologne, Prince’s aroma. Since Quaxly and Fuecoco were not enamored, they are confirmed male. I think this is nice as viewers don’t have to continue speculating their gender and the staff doesn’t have to keep dragging it out.

Although Dot wasn’t present in the town, her Quaxly was and he was the star of the episode. I love his little dance. Since he’s male, it made me think of mating dances that some male birds often do to attract females. This fits him because Quaxly is an avian Pokemon and a very flamboyant one at that. I think the downside is that Quaxly and Dot weren’t together in this episode. It’s a shame because I wanted to see them bond. I get that she has to fulfill her role as Nidothing for Yuno’s issue.

Yuno, who’s Yunorin, is the character of the day and she’s really cute. I really like her personality a lot; she’s bubbly and energetic. She loves her female Oinkologne, Twirls (Kuru-chan), a lot too. I’m glad that Liko, who wants to be a Trainer who understands Pokemon’s feelings, gave solid advice to her, which lead her to asking Twirls to talk about her worries to her. Yuno cares so much about Twirls, that she’s willing to ask her childhood friend Renta to partner up with her because Twirls likes Prince. There are also hints that Yuno has feelings for Renta. I’m glad that Twirls managed to stand up to Prince’s arrogant attitude and attacked him when he sprayed mud on Quaxly.

For me, the romance subplot in Pokemon can be a bit hit or miss. What about this episode? Honestly, I think this is fine. Kids are kids, so they can either be honest or dishonest about their feelings. I do like that the issues with Yuno and her hinted crush on Renta are resolved without much intervention from third parties. Kids resolve their issues in their own ways; I liked that aspect. They don’t have to gain ten levels in maturity to resolve romantic issues. Emotions are a fickle thing, after all. While Renta was a bit of a jerk, I’m glad that it didn’t escalate into something worse and that he did come around and accept her in the end.

Poor Dot; she got roped into being cupid now. Overall, I really liked this episode in that it gave the kids a lot of spotlight. I’d love to see another episode where it’s just the kids doing things without the need of adult intervention. How about you? Would you like to see another episode similar to this where it’s just Liko, Roy and Dot helping people and Pokemon?

[000marie198]

That Sonic and Leo ask from Anon is now living rent free in my head like all I can think of is the mischief these two would be. Especially with their loved ones like imagine-

Sonic and Leo bouncing different puns and catchphrases at each other making Tails, Knuckles, Donnie, Raph and Mikey all groan in affectionate annoyance.

Or them sassing enemies in their special, sarcastic smartass ways that they're known for.

Leo and Sonic talking about how amazing their brothers are and how they'd literally kill for them when in reality said brothers are the actual threats that enemies need to watch out for. Especially when said older brothers get hurt or worse. (God the possibilities there don't even get me started-).

Or how they could become friends, and possibly grow comfortable with one another to talk about the burdens they feel being the oldest brother as well as the leader of their groups and how stressful it actually really is.

Or them developing little habits from each other and using them in battle and whatnot.

Ohmigosh and the sacrificing thing. Just Sonic pushing Leo out of the way of danger, or Leo taking a nasty hit for Sonic.

Just bro. So many possibilities, so many things that could make them work out in the friendship department. Just......ohmigosh.

You, my friend, just unlocked the fangirl mode FYJGZSGJSSHSY

Sonic babysits Cream! He had attended tea parties, he would so join Leo to have tea parties with Chloe and being the hyperactive hedgie who gets adopted as honorary big bro of every child character in the franchise, has experience with keeping excited kids distracted. He'd be massive help when they gotta say goodbye to Chloe.

Leo tries to teach him stealth. It takes a whole lot of trials before he figures out that their method of stealth won't fit for Sonic. He's too impatient to sit still if he doesn't need to. Sonic makes an off-handed comment on how it was never a problem when he infiltrated Eggman's bases and the ninjas realize the method to teach stealth to the speedster was through his speed. He's swift enough to be invisible but not focused on stealth to be unrecognizable. Sonic and his friends were already formidable fighters but now they've learned forms and martial art techniques and stealth they're too powerful now.

The cons of this? Blue hedgehog is obsessed with scaring the living daylights out of anyone at any time and it's contagious enough to hit Leo and now they're both doing it. They almost gave Casey a heart attack twice in a span of 5 minutes.

......

Sonic starts feeling cooped up or heads out on a run and returns to find his little brother trying to placate four panicking ninjas and finds out this world isn't safe to be openly out and about in.

"But if the EPF finds out about you and your powers, they'll to capture you and dissect you-"

"Oh so this world's version of GUN then."

"What's GUN?"

"Military organization that pretends to be the protectors but they're just a bunch of single minded maniacs obsessed with firearms and experimenting on Mobians and making things worse"

"Ah, just like EPF. Got it."

..........

Sonic and Leo spar quite often with swords. What are you talking about, of course they aren't fan-boying at each other's skills, what do you mean Leo can deflect blows with his eyes closed, what do you mean Sonic literally wielded Excalibur shut up this is so awesome.

........

While on patrol with Raph and Donnie, some thug calls Tails a freak and, having heard this demeaning term and knowing the effect it can have on you through personal experience, the turtles freeze, white sliding over their eyes in silent rage as Raph lower the upset fox from his shoulders and hands him to Donnie before turning around and taking out his sais, street lights glinting off the metal blade.

"Take the kids home, I'll catch up in a few."

Donnie gives an understanding nod before stepping back, one hand moving to hold Sonic's as the other arm gently holds Tails, the purple clad turtle disappears into the shadows.

The terrified screams of the purple dragon echoed through the alley and tunnels as Donnie took the two mobians back home.

.....

Maybe letting Tails and Dee hang out without supervision wasn't the best idea. There's a molecular blaster in the lab and- are those blueprints of top secret EPF artillery?!

........

Leo and Sonic playing guitar together because they can and they have one.

........

Tails no. Tails you can't use Mikey to test your equipment when your brother is unavailable. TAILS WAIT NO HE'S TOO CHAOTIC-!

[acourtofthought]

I take it you saw that Bryce x Azriel theory too, and you’re not a fan? Lol

Was I that obvious? 😂

This is yet another theory where people are pushing too hard for something that logically makes no sense.

First off, Bryce and Az together would be AWFUL. What about their two personalities seems like a fit to people? She dislikes "alphaholes" which Az kind of is, was a party girl and social while Az likes his space. What do either of them have in common? They are literally from different worlds and don't have anything that connects them on a deeper level.

Also, SJM has confirmed that Bryce and Hunt's story is a trilogy, that if she were to move forward with additional CC books it would be from other characters POV of which there are many she wants to tell.

No that doesn't mean Bryce and Hunt's love story will be three books at which time they'll end their relationship and Bryce's journey will continue on where she'll end up having an entirely new POV in an entirely new storyline with an entirely new love interest. That's like saying Feysands trilogy ended with ACOWAR and Feyre was going to get a new POV with a new romantic interest after that. SJM might love Bryce but I highly doubt she's so special that she'll be the star of two different series, knocking the ACOTAR characters out of the way of the heroes and heroines of their own world.

SJM has said that these series, while crossing over in HOSAB / HOFAS will need to stand alone. Meaning ACOTAR only readers aren't going to have to know anything about the CC world in order for ACOTAR to still make sense. That means Bryce is not going to suddenly be living in Prythian, a land where she doesn't speak the language, falling in love with Az, becoming BFFs with Nesta, kicking it with the IC as her new found family, ruling over the people of Prythian who could give a shit over what blood runs through her veins considering she has not lived in their world and has not fought with them in the last however many centuries. It's all good and exciting that the power of Theia runs through her veins but there's a bit more to earning someone's loyalty than that. Can you really see the High Lords deferring to a newcomer who did nothing to save their people during Amarantha? Hybern? Not to mention it already looks like they've got another of Theia's descendants in their midst (Rhysand, through the unnamed daughter).

People are taking that sword and dagger prophecy way too literally. Just like the Suriel saying, "stay with the High Lord" didn't mean stay with Tamlin, it meant something else. Just like Ruhn's bloodline ending with him most likely does not mean he's going to die. "When sword and dagger are reunited, so too shall our people" could simply mean that because the dagger is probably what drew Bryce to Prythian, it's going to be the reason she learns about their history, how they're all connected and how she can use that information to save her world. It could mean they were the ones meant to lead her to a portal to Hel to get the help she needs. Or maybe SJM will eventually do one major battle scene down the road (Avengers Endgame style) where everyone joins in to defeat a major threat then they all return to their own worlds).

In the Discovery of Witches trilogy there's a prophecy that says something like, "the witch with the blood of the lion and the wolf will end the children of the night" and everyone figured it meant she'd end the vampire race but what actually happened was so far from that. Prophecy's in books are never what you think, the end result is always some twisted version but initially delivered in a way that gets you looking in one direction. With Bryce's prophecy, it doesn't mean that whoever holds the sword and dagger are destined to be lovers, causing them to completely forsake the rest of their lives to be together and it doesn't mean that SJM is going to take two completely different worlds in two different series and smash them together, turning Prythian into an unrecognizable place full of merpeople, seaotters, wolf shifters, angels, etc. who bring with them the knowledge of guns and drugs and cellphones and sneakers. It doesn't mean that Bryce is going to take over as the new star of the ACOTAR world and it doesn't mean they're going to take over as the new main characters of Midgard. Each series already has their FMCs and MMCs.

Bryce's loyalty is still going to be to her brother, to her friends on Midgard, to her parents, to her people there, to her chosen mate who is currently being tortured (meaning if she were to fall in love with someone else while Hunt's future is unknown it would come off as completely heartless). People need to respect that these are series that stand alone, no matter how SJM connected them, rather than trying to constantly combine them. Do you know how many Arrow and Flash crossovers / cameos there were? Yet they never merged and became "The Adventures of the Arrow and the Flash!" They remained as two different series with their own stories to tell.

It makes me LAUGH when people call Gwyn and Az a crackship yet go hard on Bryce and Az considering Bryce and Az can't even communicate, Bryce lives on an entirely different planet, is in love with someone else who she calls her mate, and Az felt something spark in his chest for Gwyn then Gwyn flirted with him.

Bryce / Az as mates is yet another example of someone showing off their knowledge of lore and mythology, pulling random excerpts from the book to support their ideas while ignoring the canon that discredits them rather than actually focusing on who SJM is as a writer.

[regarding-stories]

The Ever-Changing Story (Part 2a): Nobody can keep track of SAO anymore

This was too funny to pass over... So, I have a guilty pleasure. I love reading tvtropes.org because I love to see their take on what tropes are contained in media I consume, and while writing the previous article I started reading the character page for Asuna.

And today I found this gem:

"First Girl Wins: Asuna is the first of the many girls in Kirito's (virtual) life, and the only one to win his affections. While Sachi was possibly Kirito's first love, he actually met Asuna first." (from tvtropes.org)

If you know Sword Art Online (SAO) only from the anime series, this is true. If you accept Sword Art Online Progressive (SAOP) as taking place in the same continuity as the previous books, this is also true - at least if Progressive overrides things that were actually written before it. This is the magic of retcontinuity. A character's context is shifted but the character remains, changing the role they play in another character's life.

In Sword Art Online 1 - Aincrad the following things happen:

Kirito joins the guild Moonlit Black Cats, meets Sachi, then the guild gets wiped out, all including Sachi die. This is on floor 27 which at that time is close to the frontline.

If we take Asuna's word for it, she first noticed Kirito when she met him (on Floor 59), taking a nap. This starts her infatuation with him - it grows over the following weeks and months.

(There's a parallel between the two girls since both experience Kirito's presence as something that helps them sleep.)

If Sword Art Online 8 - Early and Late is your guide, Kirito was at least aware of who Asuna was, but then again supposedly anyone in Aincrad was at some point in time. But even then Asuna's rise to stardom must have been gradual and knowing "of someone" is not the same as "meeting them first."

But the makers of the anime felt that the gaps in the continuity of Aincrad were a bit too big, and so Kawahara gave them access to what became Aria of a Starless Night, the first part of Sword Art Online Progressive 1. Even SAO 8 predates SAOP 1 by full year.

So the "book chronology" is:

SAO 1

SAO 2

SAO 8

SAOP 1

All the later books shoehorn events into the timeline of Aincrad as a retcon:

SAO 2 adds Liz/Rika and Silica/Keiko as characters and adds a story of Kirito's dark days when he can't get over his guilt regarding the death of Sachi. Includes Sachi "sending" him a letter to the future.

SAO 8 adds the Safe Haven Incident, beefing up the early phase of Asuna and Kirito's history together with a joint murder investigation. Another story introduces us to events on the first day in Aincrad that almost got Kirito killed by another player.

SAOP 1 one pulls the meeting between Kirito and Asuna forward to within a month after the start of the game.

To add further to the confusion, only Aria of the Starless Night is included in the anime, but not The Reason for the Whiskers nor Rondo for a Fragile Blade (both contained in SAOP 1), so for viewers of the anime Kirito and Asuna teamed up for the first boss battle then went separate ways. (And Kirito left Asuna behind. Surely the actual, official end of Aria was written after the anime was already made. But in SAOP 1 Asuna turns around and leaves Kirito. He doesn't just wander off and leave her.)

But then for readers of SAOP 1 this lasts only for a few days of in-game continuity - covered in the interlude The Reason for the Whiskers. Then, in Rondo for a Fragile Blade Asuna pulls Kirito into her party again and never lets go. The series has now progressed into eight light novels and that hasn't changed.

What has changed in regards to Sachi is the order of events. It has been turned on its head.

The Off-Screen Girl

There is a character whose existence practically all happens off-screen - or when she's on-screen, she calls from the dead. Sachi.

If Sachi is Kirito's first love (which the anime heavily implies), then this has not been established in SAO 1 where we first hear of her. Kirito doesn't mention it. I have to admit, I have not finished the story in SAO 2 yet, so in this case I had to look it up. The events from the anime indeed seem to be taken from SAO 2 (according to a summary on the interwebs).

But that is already a story told from memory of another person, Kirito. Sachi reappears in SAO 22 when her emotional residue on the old Aincrad server calls for Asuna. Theosophists would be proud of that one - Sachi's emotional residue attracts Asuna's soul into a scene through a sort of out-of-body experience where she can convey a final message to Kirito, expanding on her first message from beyond the grave.

Sachi is a character of echoes, of reverberations. Her death makes waves. She goes on in a sort of half-digital, half-unexplained afterlife. She reaches out. Her love for Kirito finds a way to reach his soul.

We don't know if Sachi was Kirito's first love. But he loved her, and her death broke his heart. We also know that Sachi loved Kirito, and loved him enough to leave an emotional residue so strong, it creates an undeniable attraction in the digital world towards the spirit most suited for transmitting her message. Asuna loves Kirito, and so she becomes the conduit for Sachi's love to speak through her.

Sachi is one of the characters that unsettles me deeply. Her death in Aincrad is a hard thing for me to confront. Aincrad loves its drama, but it hides the cruelty of what actually happens behind the imagery of exploding into blue polygons. But with Sachi I can't help think back that this is a person that Akihiko Kayaba kills. An innocent, scared girl in the middle of her teenage years, lying in a hospital bed somewhere, having her brain fried by a burst of microwave radiation. She stands for all the Aincrad players that are slain, and if you look at it visually, slain in their sleep and utterly helpless.

In this sense Sword Art Online is more cruel than most any survival story to me. Some are more fair, more less. But whether it's Squid Game or Alice in Borderland, whether it seems a bit fair or an utter screw job, somehow these people fought with all they had against their fate. But SAO's villain kills teenagers, and in this case what feels to me like children. Sachi is the fearful child in all of us. Kirito wants to protect her also because we all would.

And any of the characters in SAO could have had the same fate, characters that we learn to love over the course of the series, like Silica/Keiko. People of a certain innocence and with lots of potential. That makes Sachi's story very hard to read for me. Sachi's power is that she doesn't make it. (Just like Yuuki Konno's story in Mother's Rosario is powerful because she dies.)

I love Asuna as a character, I love the whole Progressive series and want more books of it. But pulling her forward steals something from Sachi and detracts from her story. It creates a deeper rift than other aspects of this retcon.

Yes, Sachi's story will always be strong on its own merit. But by placing SAO Progressive in the same continuity as main series SAO, it takes away Sachi's role as the first girl to touch Kirito's heart. Now she is relegated to be a low point between two Asuna bookends.

Not particularly hopeful

The Hopeful Chant side story released before Ordinal Scale movie seals this. It's written as a top-down mid point between Progressive and the main series continuity. Mainly this story exists to "patch" Yuuna and Nautilus into the Aincrad continuity, but Kawahara used the opportunity to shine a quick light on Asuna and Kirito's relationship at the time the 40th floor was tackled.

According to this story, Asuna broke the party with Kirito at floor 25 to join the newly formed Knights of Blood, creating a continuity between the Progressive Asuna and the Asuna of the main series. But by floor 40 she is terribly conflicted and guilt-ridden about having abandoned Kirito (like she sees it). Even though this is pretty much in tune with what Kirito would hope she would do in the first place, it happens after four months of adventuring together in the early period of beating the game, thereby (top-down) establishing a timeline for as-of-yet unwritten Progressive volumes. (SAOP 8 has progressed as far as the 7th floor, so this leaves an 18 floor gap to the events supposedly ending the partnership between the two - and also that event is again only alluded to. It's unwritten as well.)

This changes the core of both Asuna and Sachi. Now Sachi becomes a filler in a gap Asuna left. There may be barely a month between dissolving the party and meeting the Moonlit Black Cats. But even worse for Asuna! Her inner life gets ripped out and rewritten.

Yes, patching in the 40th floor encounter between Kirito and Asuna seems to establish a mid point between "We were together all the time, then I left" and "I start chasing Kirito" for Asuna. But it changes all the inner stuff behind it. Originally Asuna came to Kirito only with her own baggage. She fell in love with him and decided gradually to act on her feelings, then basically "caught her man." But her inner motivations were simply those of an infatuated teenager. She was impressed with Kirito, and she realized that she was lacking love in her life, she learned to step out of her compulsive sense of duty to beat the game. She learned to love life. And nothing prevented her from acting on that impulse.

The Asuna Progressive leaves us with already has done all of that. And then she leaves. She makes a painful personal decision that might have hurt both of them, and thus puts her duty above her feelings for Kirito. Then she buries her feelings for Kirito under her guilt over her actions (the events of Hopeful Chant in regards to both of them). But then there is nothing connecting that Asuna with the Asuna that starts chasing Kirito. How does the Asuna of Hopeful Chant overcome her powerful guilt? How does she realize that she loves Kirito enough for other things to become secondary? How does she go back on her previous decisions? How does she decide to act?

The truth is that that Asuna would also need to be written. Hopeful Chant inserts an Asuna into the timeline that fits the retcontinuity of what happened before her but she does not connect to what comes after her. Instead of the thread flapping loose at floor 25 or at floor 7, it now hangs loose at floor 40. The story is still disjointed, the puzzle pieces do not match, but now the waters of character continuity have been muddled further.

Because it's "easy" (in relative terms only, of course) to break something up and to saddle a character with guilt and pain, but it's hard to get them out of that hole - especially if that character (Asuna) has a powerful sense of having done wrong by another person and no right to approach that person anymore.

And to make things perfect, that is another pulling forward of her character arc. That is the Asuna, internally, of the moment when Kirito kills Kuradeel. That Asuna of that moment wanted to leave Kirito alone because she felt she was incapable of protecting him, she was in her mind also endangering him. So she was about to give him a speech, out of her sense of duty, out of the pain she felt over almost losing him, that she will leave him alone. The Asuna of Hopeful Chant does that! She's an alternate reality Asuna that runs away from Kirito by failing to run after him. And Kirito is no shape to remedy that, either.

In other words, the events that happen later in original SAO continuity get pulled forward, the inner workings of the character are similar, but they lead to another outcome. Every time such a powerful retcon of the inner workings of a character happens, it just creates more character "plot holes" further down the line.

The reality is that SAO needs rewriting ever since SAO Progressive was introduced. By not making it an outright reboot, the timeline keeps fracturing under the paradoxa of retcontinuity. The makers of the Re:Aincrad manga seems to understand that almost better than Kawahara - the naming is telling in terms of what they think Progressive is. SAOP is not the telling of how SAO was beaten, floor by floor. It's a retelling of how Aincrad was beaten. And as long as it is not considered its own parallel timeline, it will keep pulling characters apart and forward in its wake.

[tosxah]

𝐀𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐝

Continued from X | @nagareboshiko

With the offer of her hand, Childe came to a stand. The look in her eye caught him off guard somehow and that was a pretty uncommon occurance. The stage lights reflecting in her golden eyes made them look like they were glowing and he could only wonder what she was thinking. Something akin to longing perhaps? There was always a bit of that in her colour but the shade apared different in this light...

"Peace to all and joy to the world?" He made light of her whimsy as he released her hand. Childe peered over briefly to where the children should be sitting. That's exactly why he was a Harbinger. He believed that truly the Tsarista saw a world of harmony, but peace came with a price. One that Childe was born to pay. He was happy too, for a better world for those he cherished most.

He smiled at her statements, rather enjoying the idea of having her strength by his side and working in tandem. Somehow right now it felt different than the rehearsals. Perhaps it was the adrenaline, it's always different when there was an actual crowd. He put it down to that.

He laughed at the notion and replied, "Let's do it, your majesty." as he returned the gesture. The final act of love and peace between nations. Just as what the children wanted.

The final act commenced. The Knight of Pierogiland was nursed back to health by the dutiful towns people. And through the valiant efforts of all, the war was won- not with a sword but with their stomachs. Those on both sides won over both the knight and Prince and their respective peoples by showing the importance of both sweet and savoury dishes and how in some cases the two could come together to create something even better. Which essentially just meant the actors on stage were eating cold meals and drinking fake wine with looks of pretend glee.

"So, your highness," The knight began as they stood centre stage, the party continuing behind them as the characters from both sides came together to rejoice the end of their long battle in fat merriment. "I know now you can appreciate the greatness of a good pierogi-" At which point Childe was meant to continue in a little speech about the wonders of togetherness, but Tuecer had another idea. The children had felt the ending too easy and not whimsical enough... and Childe must say he was pleased and honoured to know that those two felt they could trust him with this task- with all but one actor being clued in on this substituted ending "-but sire, did you ever truly enjoy the brilliance of a sweet treat?" And from behind his back, he produced a plate of sweet almond tofu which he promptly planted into the King's pretty face. The plate fell to the floor followed by drips of the substance from her features. Childe was failing to hold in a laugh.

Which was Teucer and Klee's queue to shout "food fight!!"

Before they knew it, the stage once again became a battle field, but instead of blades flying past their heads, it was cold plates of food, savoury and sweet hitting the actors indiscriminately. Even some of the audience decided to join into the fray, though the front row may not have had a choice in that...

[dennydraws]

Finally finished ...

Whew, what a ride :D (Spoilers ahead!)

I started in early December but managed to finish just now, after dropping and picking the game a couple of times.

Apparently I was on Chaos route the whole time and got the Princess ending! I played mostly blind except for recruiting Catiua cause for the life of me, I couldn't tell which option would make her happy and I was way too tired to redo the battle if I chose wrong.

Not gonna lie, Catiua's sudden attitude change felt so out of the blue in my route cause Denam literally saved her just a fight ago and next she was like "He will leave me!!" :/ girl, pls... I'm trying here with everyone and their dog after my arse for things I didn't do!!

The level cap was absolutely annoying at first and the reason I put the game down several times. I understand why it was placed but there were points in the story where it feels like fight after fight you get zero rewards and no upgrades. I need the rewards, dang it XD

I had a lot more fun in chapter 4 when I started doing side content and lurk into Palace of the Dead. I loved dipping my toes in and looking for treasures. I didn't go far though but I did leave it with like 6 undead dragons, about 5 undead humans and 2 necromancers :D Which reminds me, I kept recruiting people from the story fights whenever I could, lol maybe that's why I took so long :D;;

I see how this game inspired FFT and I can see so many story points that were taken and amplified a lot in FFT. I don't want to compare the two games - they may be similar but they do have very different tone to me.

I really enjoyed the characters, everyone just felt so ...human? But also that made fighting everyone a whole more difficult. Canopus definitely gets my fave character badge. Such a fun fella and he joins so early. He never left my party :D Our momma hen! With how Hamilton ended it really makes me want to push to finish CODA and get him... but that means clearing PotD twice? Argh xD I do enjoy PotD, I enjoy getting goodies and I don't mind the fights but I'm a bit tired and hunger for a different game.

Lastly, I saw a reviewer who played TO for a first time complain the final dungeon was too hard (?) ... did we play the same game :D;; Or was I over prepared cause I poked side content and felt relatively geared? Dragons and Gryphons? You can petrify them, you can charm them! You can fall? That's the enemy's problem cause I am exploiting this in every corner. >u>;; The final boss was spooky but not too hard, I felt like the battle vs Oz and Ozma was way, way harder and I barely made it ;;;;

Speaking of... What's with people opening locked doors to the abyss to get power? Sir... it was locked for a reason. What do you expect to get from there? A pat on the back from El Diablo released from it's infernal prison and a cool toy to rule the world? You, my good sir, are getting one shot by the thing locked there and it'll go destroy the world making it our problem now... 😩

And lastly ... time travel is canon? As in it get acknowledged in the records and mentioned and I'm just imagining Denam picks the world card at the end and think "Had I taken another choice... another path then Vyce..." I still want to punch him but I've seen The Butterfly Effect enough times to know anyone can change with different circumstances >u>;

WELL that's gonna be it~ Glad I played and finished this classic :D Next on my list is "Romancing SaGa Minstrel Song remaster" and I expect it to take another 6+ months from my time to complete lol;;;

[teefa85]

So, my thoughts about the Octopath II demo now that I’ve played it.  Note I’ve only played with Ochette and Castti, since I wanted to really complete exploration and stuff in the area rather than push to start a third character.

Cut for length and minor spoilers...

Can we just all gush about how the fact that not only did Yasunori Nishiki continue to write character pre-boss themes that seamlessly blend into the boss fights, but he made it so if you change Day to Night the theme seamlessly changes for that, too?  It helps with immersion since the music shifts aren’t so jarring between these moments.

Atmosphere is one of the things I love about the original Octopath Traveler.  HD 2D is such a wonderful style, allowing for the beauty of pixel graphics I loved in my childhood games but with modern touches to give it more depth.  Just the details in its environments...lush jungles, crumbling ruins, sandy beaches, haunting caves.  And while I only experienced two of the eight characters’ prologues, I have seen people’s videos and the official trailers to know there are more great environments to come (Thronè’s slums look fittingly dark and dreary, while I adore the snowy winds Osvald’s introductory area shows).

The battles are definitely even better than before.  Having Latent Powers linked to Breaking and taking damage (two things that’ll happen easily) is amazing.  Special attacks like Ochette or Hikari (from what I’ve seen).  Agnea and Osvald’s look to be based on the Divine Skills of their OG Counterparts, both very useful (I mean Sealticge’s Sedation saved my ASS in Ophilia’s final boss).  And while Castti’s use of Concoct ingredients without using them up seems like little, it’s definitely a good time to pull out some big attack or to get the party back on their feet.  So a variety of different things with great effects.

Adding to this, some skills are different between games, though that is easy to see if you noticed two of the Latent Powers are based on Divine Skills.  Ochette doesn’t have Rain of Arrows or Arrow Storm.  I didn’t see Last Stand in Castti’s skillset.  I mean, the locked skills might be missing things from the first, but still, it lets the jobs you know and love play slightly differently while keeping their themes.  I’ve also already seen a video on getting an inventor based class that can be accessed from Thronè’s starting area, so there will be new ways to play as well.

Do enjoy some of the QoL changes to the jobs I’ve played with.  Like having Castti’s ingredients each have an affect but you use two at a time (I healed both HP and SP while fighting her boss, for example).  Or Ochette having a chance to autocatch a defeated monster and turn captured ones into food (that can be used with her Befriend Path Action at night, Trade with her town since they don’t use money, and possibly other things down the line such as Quests...but we don’t know that for sure).

Additional Path Actions...nuff said!  More ways to knock out rent-a-guards to get to loot or blocked areas.  Another method of getting extra NPCs in the party.  More ways to filch items, something I did A LOT of if anyone remembers my Octopath liveblogs from 2018.  Even when you change up party comp to do other chapters, or level people up for said other chapters, you have more options at your disposal.

From what I’ve also seen, some characters in their intro areas have NPCs in the party that they can control.  Nice!  There were definitely moments in the original I wished characters could have come with me and helped but the plot wouldn’t let me take them even if they were helping (like Earhardt in Olberic’s final chapter).  Dunno if NPCs joining and helping for a chapter will continue on later, but it does give some depth to the early chapter of some characters before they set out on their own.  Of course, neither Ochette or Castti had a companion as I spent all my meat on new armor so I couldn’t Befriend outside of the scared kid and Malaya was busy treating the town...