#if his art has a direct link to him - Is him in a sense - why wouldn't that be the case for the others

[soraviie]

jealous over a friend.txt

━ type: bts x gn! reader  ━ navigation

━ about: angst, a teeny tiny bit of humour ━  pictures taken from Pinterest

━ a/n: Please, like, reblog and leave a comment, they inspire the writing to continue :)

━ linked to: "he's a friend of a friend" and "crushing on a friend"

NAMJOON: The smile is present but the eyes scream murder and once he puts a hand on your shoulder, you stiffen. Not because he makes you uncomfortable, well, perhaps just a little, after all the poisoned aura is streaming from him in pungent waves. Be that as it may, you stiffen more so because of the implications behind the seemingly minuscule gesture. Why do it at all? One time? Sure. But this was not a rare occurrence anymore. Still, you don't discuss it. Both of you observe this rather intricate though entirely mute ritual - he acts like your lover but isn't and neither of you ever dare to bring it up. At most, there are fifteen stifled minutes where both of you stand awkwardly in each other’s presence. Afterwards, it's discarded and you go back to being Namjoon and ______________. Whatever that means.

And frankly you're sick of it.

You shrug his hand off your shoulder and loudly proclaim that no, you're not ready to leave yet. Instantly his eyes narrow and if feasible there'd be smoke coming from his nostrils.

"We arrived together."

"Does that mean we leave together as well?"

The person you've scarcely flirted with has already long disappeared into the depths of yet another one of Namjoon's cement post-modern art exhibitions despite you both not noticing. This isn't about them. It's about Namjoon and _____________ and what does that mean.

Huffing a breath of barely contained ire, he continues, trying to sound softer.

"It's safer if we stick together."

It's late afternoon as you trail down an abandoned side street. The golden sun is slowly sinking below the horizon and though the air is warm it's unperturbed by conversation. You listened to him in the end. Why do you always listen to him?

Your depressed sigh doesn't go unnoticed. Namjoon’s head quirks in your direction, you can see so from the corner of the eye.

"They weren't the right one for you," he mutters, almost like an afterthought.

"Then who is? You never like anyone I do," you snap back. He opens his mouth as though ready to say the definitive answer but somewhere in the seconds before his gaze lifts off the cobbled ground to stare at your face only to return back to the ground, the reply is lost.

"I don't know," his fists come up to curl by his side. "Just...someone else."

YOONGI: The yearly get away among dearly beloved and wonderful friends, Sae's words not yours, was not going how you'd planned it. First of all, it was once again Yoongi, the Special Presidential Envoy Min Yoongi, who volunteered to drive your directionally insane ass to the storybook cabin deep in Gangwon province. As if sensing that the last two times meeting each other face to face was not enough of an embarrassing ordeal, he just had to be so chivalrous and offer to pick you up. And sure the last time wasn't...that bad but he was after all Min Yoongi. No matter how many times he'd inexplicably texted you over the course of this bizarre year, it didn't change the fundamental fact - he was Min Yoongi and you were you.

Maybe he'd realised that as well because as it stood he appeared on the very brink of hurling. Lips turned downward and gaze set numbly on the floor, he sits in the far edge of the patio and looks positively disgusted. The change of moods is so jarring, you can't hear a word what Drew is saying. You like Drew, perhaps once upon a time a bit too much, but currently you find yourself wishing they'd just shut it.

"He looks sick," they point out quietly, briefly making eyes at Yoongi. "Does he have a stomach flu?"

"I don't know," you honestly shrug. "We were talking some thirty minutes ago and everything was fine."

"Maybe you should go ask him?"

Your eyes widen and much like Edvard Munch painting you gape at Drew, jaw growing slack.

"Me?" you parrot, scandalised. "Why me?!"

"Because he talks to you the most?" Drew answers, equally befuddled.

You turn towards Yoongi, accidentally clutching the glass so tightly it makes an audible squeak and feeling the weight of your stare, he meets it head on. Then he swivels away.

"He probably hates me," you lament. "I get it. I went on a long ramble about hues of green colour on the way over here. Hatred is understandable."

"Hmm, does he?" Drew hums cryptically. "I rather think it's me he dislikes."

"You?" you query with a furrowed brow. "What have you done?"

"I'm talking to you, am I not?"

"I don't get it," you mutter after a moment of consideration.

Once Drew leaves for the night, to your surprise, Yoongi stops by and offers to drive you back, even to the airport once the vacation is over. And while technically you were supposed to hitch with Sae and the rest, your mouth is faster than the brain and you blur a breathy agreement.

Curiously, he doesn't appear disgusted in the slightest, in fact, Yoongi gives you a diffident smile, softly ghosting his fingers across your palm to tug you onto one of the many plush seats laying around on the patio. You're tired, says he, he'd noticed.

JIN: "What...was that?" you question curiously at Jin's retreating back. He blinks at you, feigning utter innocence but the displeased scrunch of his nose tells you a very different story. One might even say a polar opposite.

"What was what?" he mimics your confusion with frustrating level of acted ignorance. "Did you think anything weird was going on? 'Cause I didn't. All is cool."

Jin who previously had to get bubbled off a bottle of champagne to even say sorry to you had just guided you out of the room, hand around waist and all, after bidding a polite yet cutting to a faceless stranger: "thank you for the flattery, they're however taken. Try again never".

Yes, safe to say, it was a bit weird.

The longer the weight of your undivided stare settles upon his shoulders, the more he crumbles.

"He was making you uncomfortable, wasn't he?" he whines, affronted if the pout was any indication.

"Well, yeah, but I doubt you could see it across the mile long hallway," you smile at him, curiosity eating you whole. The action was...uncharacteristic for Jin. Though lately he'd been acting quite weird. Like he was holding some big and grave secret that he could hardly contain within himself.

"Well, I did," he scorns, kissing his teeth in annoyance. "Now buy me a drink."

"Buy you a drink?" you echo disbelievingly. "It's my birthday!"

"And we're celebrating the collective good," Jin throws you a wayward glare over his broad shoulder. "You and me. We need nothing more."

You're rather inclined to agree though you don't voice it out loud. Jin had this weird habit of going beetroot read whenever you said something too sweet.

HOSEOK: "You're hanging out with Hoseok? You?" the level of surprise in Nall's voice is almost insulting so you react to it as such. Giving her your driest glare, you flick a strand of hair away from the eyes.

"Yes, me. I don't see what you're fussing so much about."

"Oh come on!" she protests. "I had to swear in blood-"

"It was cranberry jam."

"-that I won't even bring him up in conversation and now you're friends?!"

"Yeah well," you retort off-handedly over the shoulder. "He accidentally met me on the street and we ate together and now we're...friendly. He's cool," the last part you keep largely to yourself. "Do you like this shirt?"

"The shirt is sick!" Was the first thing out of Hoseok's mouth, once you spot the tuft of his dyed hair from a distance. You bid a quiet thank you, forcing a stiff smile upon your lips. Okay, so perhaps you weren't as easy going with him as you projected to Naal but he really was cool. In the relatively span of time you actually talked to him in a friendly manner, you saw the invisible albeit sturdy wall between both of you thinning and although Hoseok noticed it as well he never pushed you to break it. You went at your own pace and he was glad to tag by.

The conversations flows easy, it's not particularly deep but it's fine for now. He relies on the advice he feels comfortable asking for and you divulge little worries that have piled along the way. It's all good for now.

"Any special plans for the weekend?" The festival is coming up," he remarks in between bites of crispy glazed chicken. It's good, he had shared a piece.

"Oh, I'm going on a date."

The movement of Hoseok's hand stops and you lift your head to see what caused the change.

"Really?" he inquires politely, somewhat disinterested. "With whom?"

"Don't know yet," you shrug. "Nall set me up with one of her dancing partners. What about the festival? You're going to that one."

Hoseok gifts a smile that feels a bit too stiff for your liking but you shrug it off. Not like you knew him all that well.

"No," he says suspiciously light. "Reconsidered."

JIMIN: "What am I only supposed to talk to you?!"

"Yes! No one else! Just me!"

You draw a shuddering sigh of tightly congealed wrath, glaring Jimin down with all the world's disdain.

"Fuck you."

Oh, how you wished that it would be the triumphant march of victory that you'd walk home with but, alas, it's more of a sad, tired shuffle where the only thing you see is the soulless city concrete and the only thing you feel is the ever surmounting mound of self-disgust.

Jimin's bright, you're dim, he's warm, you're cold. Different people worked out only in theory, in reality they walked their respective opposite ways. Had they not, would magnets not push each other away?

You don't think you're making sense anymore so you shake your head and numbly walk through the quiet doors of your home. With Jimin having spent all his free time here, seeing the dark shroud the hallway is almost disconcerting though once it was an all too familiar of a sight.

To recall that once upon a time he couldn't even properly glimpse at you. That he'd been nothing more than the yet antoher stranger Malia wanted to give the world to. The tone with which he'd spoken with you then had been reserved and polite. Where had that gone to? And why didn't you stop loving him no matter how hard you wanted to? Getting over Jimin in the unspoken suffocating empty space of your imagination was hard enough, why did he have to be so-!

A knock on the door.

Who else.

"You have a key," you open the door and grumble without a fail but he shrugs, hands deep in pockets and that guilty, though tad sharp expression mars his face.

"I wanted you to let me in."

"Are you going to say sorry?"

"No," his eyes darken, plush lips speaking words that drip down like honey but burn all the same. "I'm not sharing you with some sleazy asshole."

The thing about Jimin as you had learned was that there were great many parts of him, entangled and overlapping each other not unlike a twisted knot of wires. He could simultaneously be soft and fierce about the same thing like the way he is now - gazing at you determined from the other side of the open door.

"You're always so jealous," you roll your eyes, pretending that there isn't a part of you that giggles like a schoolchild over his hunger for your attention.

"Yes, I am," spitefully, he agrees, lifting one eyebrow. "What are you going to do about it?"

You stand mutely, slowly realizing that there couldn't be a march of victory to begin with as you never could have won. Like a spider made of well-meaning intentions and genuine care, he twists you around his ringed fingers. And you're so screwed.

"We're still friends, right?" he asks, prideful at first glance but you know how vulnerable his heart is underneath the glimmering, hardened armor of his that's neither a mask or a facade. His strength is not an illusion but a part of him. A part of him you love, though you'd rather die on the spot than let your mind wander on scenarios of possibilities.

At last, you give in, tired but sated in a way. You're still friends and he's here, you don't need anything else.

"Of course, we are," you sigh, stepping out the way and happily, Jimin slides in the slippers he'd lugged all the way from his house. "Though you infuriate me like fucking no one else."

You turn to glide into the kitchen, quickly finding that the greedy, beloved spider of yours has wrapped his hands around you, nosing pacifyingly at the back of your neck.

TAEHYUNG: "Just call him."

The sound of Jae's exasperated tone pulls you away from the dutiful task of staring numbly at the phone.

"Didn't you plead the fifth?" you snide. But this is Jae and he cannot be so easily offended.

"I did, I did," sagely, he nods along. "Being caught up in this emotionally constipated friends to lovers shtick between my two besties is bad for the skin."

"We're not-" heatedly, you begin but it is quickly interrupted by a stern:

"Don't fool yourself."

You leave the room, phone still in hand.

Taehyung's confession hadn't been at all surprising - you were not stupid, however it did not make it any easier to accept. He was after all Kim Taehyung and the evolution of your relationship with him from that awkward first car ride was boggling enough, to transform into lovers was just...too much.

"You don't know what you're saying."

"I'm an adult," he glared at you across the candle lit table. "Don't rob me of my agency. I know what I feel."

You wet your lips, struggling and failing to come up with something both pointed and profound.

"Listen," he began anew, softer, maybe even tired in a way. "I'm not forcing you to love me back. I'm not out here demanding your affection."

You lift an eyebrow at him and instantly he concedes.

"Well, maybe a little but you know what I mean," he admitted with the very corners of the lips curling into a dry smile. "I'm not going to dictate how you should feel but in return I ask that you don't either. I promise I won't bother your peace of mind, just let me love you and if you ever decide to reciprocate, I'll be here waiting."

Before the full weight of his confession had the time to make you utterly breathless, grimly, almost like an afterthought, he added:

"Though I won't pretend to be happy when you're with someone else. I'm sorry I just can't."

You have to give him that, he'd been up front about it hence why you can't really blame him. The unexpected re-emergence of your ex looking for a reconciliation had left Taehyung mute and sullen as he quickly hopped on a plane and left for overseas. Being a stubborn person yourself you dug your heels in, proclaiming that you won't entertain his tantrums but..

But you missed him.

When at last you broke down and called well into the night, he picked up immediately as though waiting all this time. You ignored the way your heart trembled at the thought of it.

Instead of a greeting there's a forlorn "I missed you" spoken in an absolute sync. You chuckle mirthlessly and so does he yet silence follows suit.

"You left," you accuse meekly. Vulnerable.

"I did," Taehyung hums, sounding tired of all things. "I couldn't stand seeing you get together with them again. I wish...I could be better for you."

"You're plenty of good," heatedly, you argue.

"Am I?" he echoes thoughtfully and you find yourself wishing you could gage what his expression was like. "I'm jealous and petty, and childish. You know that."

"So? No one's faultless."

I'm certainly not, you think to yourself. Had you been, you'd probably tell him that lately you've been liking him some different way than what you think friends should be. It's something, you don't know what it is.

"Are you going to get back together?" he asks tersely and, despite him not being able to see it, you shake your head.

"No," because of you.

And despite you not being able to see it, somewhere in the gilded hotel room that's as luxurious as it is lonely, Taehyung closes his eyes, pressing the phone to his ear, pining, yearning, wanting so much he wants to cry. Because of you. But he'll wait. Is it what he should do? Perhaps not but no one is after all faultless.

JUNGKOOK: "No."

"But-!"

"As your best friend-"

"You're not."

He casts a heavy glare over the rim of the glass.

"As your best friend," he reiterates strongly so there's no misinterpretation from your end. "You should just dump them."

"I cannot just do it over a text!"

"Sure, you can," Jungkook shrugs carelessly. "Undoubtedly it's an asshole move but the bitch deserves it."

"Jungkook!"

"What?!" he whines with the whole of his body, a familiar grimace of frown marring his features. Ever since you got together with your partner, he was nothing short of a storm cloud, glaring and raining on all the parade's happening around. "They stood you up - how many times? How many times you fought and they ignored you? How many times they threw a fuss about us going somewhere together?!" he scoffs harshly. "How possessive."

"Ever so self-aware, Koo," you roll your eyes, prompting him to examine you with earnest confusion.

"What do you mean? I happen to be extremely self-aware!"

"And jealous and possessive not to mention overly protect-"

"This is not shit on me day," he flicks your forehead, interrupting the long laundry list you've had simmering on the backburner for months now. The most annoying thing about Jungkook, and you don't tell him this, was that he managed to make those qualities a point of problem you closed your eyes upon.

"Well, of course, that's on Wednesday," rubbing the sore spot, you gruff, watching him down a sizeable chicken drumstick with no problem whatsoever. The already dour expression grows worse, forehead creasing into rows upon rows of deeply etched wrinkles. You smile to yourself. You knew he would like this place.

"Why did you never like them?" you question curiously after a moment of relative peace in which you'd been prodding disinterestedly at the chocolate mousse. "You're both quite alike actually."

"Yeah, but I actually lo-" he stops in midsentence, eyes stretching wide and for the lack of better term he does look like a deer caught in headlights - staring, absolutely frightened in front of him and not daring to move.

"Anyway, break up with them," he suddenly continues coolly as though nothing ever happened. "Write it in the sky if needed, I'll sponsor the event."

"You're so heinous," you mutter though he is right and the break up text clanging around your skull like a broken teleprompter has been nagging you enough. You'll break up. You want to do so.

"I don't share," he chews on the chicken, frowning full force. "What's mine is mine."

© soraviie, 2023

[tesseractrave]

The Happy Mask Salesman's design makes me wonderfully crazy, and I have to talk about the way my brain processes it because it's a big part of why I love him so much.

[Analysis is under the cut]

——————————————————————–——

The first detail I'd like to point out would be the color theory.

He has the bluer purple on both his tunic and trousers, or the whole piece if you consider it a jumpsuit (I personally don't draw it as a jumpsuit, but I do admit that it might be the most game-accurate interpretation), and it gives him a very direct foundation and center for the outfit's base.

The vest and shoes are a darker magenta, however, which adds hue variation while staying analogous with his tradmeark purple shades, and the light grey is a value used to balance the more saturated purples as an accent.

The golden accessories are a complimentary (opposite) color to purple, which Nintendo seems to be very adept at in general (cough, Splatoon, cough).

Of course, we can't forget his hair. Whichever specific shade you see it, it's always agreed that the color is at least somewhere along the ginger spectrum. The red, orange, auburn, etc. hues are analogous between the contrasting gold and purple, adding a transitional color to link them.

His skin serves the same purpose with the varied addition of having a lowered saturation and a lighter tone to aid the grey in balancing the depth of the color of his clothes and hair.

Though we unfortunately have no canon answer to what his eye color is, Ember Lab's creative decision to make them green may have been the best choice from a design standpoint because it balances out the purple in his clothing and makes his face stand out more.

The distribution of color in this design as a whole is pretty genius to me, as well.

His hair, being the only part of him that's that ginger color, directs the eyes upward to his face, while the main, deep purple is focused on the direct center.

The gold is arranged widthwise across the center, most heavily on the neck once again to direct the eyes upward while also distributing down to both of his wrists for balance on either side, almost like a scale.

The magenta and grey both run lengthwise down (and wrap around) the center and sit in mostly horizontal detailing at the bottom of his legs like the base of a pillar.

It's not something I added to the example image or spoke about before, but his white teeth in his smile are another aspect that is, of course, very eye-catching for his face and important for his design.

There's also the topic of the geometry.

I'm using my own art as an example because this is the way I interpret it, but the first image is just a breakup of how the edges of each section line up with one another in a way that fans out from the center, and the second image is the addition of marks measuring the estimated centers of each section.

Looking closely, you quickly realize how his gorget makes everything line up geometrically, and as a whole, the design is entirely symmetrical apart from the way his hair is parted, which adds all the asymmetry needed to make him feel natural, albeit incredibly well-groomed and organized.

The color of the inner edge of his vest and the the soles of his shoes is the same as the two rows of stitches running down the front of his torso, which gives the otherwise separately-coloured pieces of the outfit a common detail to link them as a set.

(At one point, I think I had an exact estimation for the number of stitches in each row, but I think I started ignoring it in my art to save my sanity. I know it's on my cosplay, though.)

His gorget and bracers also have a matching scallop pattern (though it seems to be debated on whether the scallops of the bracers face up or down), which adds an additional sense of uniformity.

The majority of details follow the lengthwise median, and everything suggests an overall polished feel and a balanced center of gravity. All in all, it's a fantastic design. I've seen so many wonderful takes and artistic adjustments on it, and I've even made my own, but the character designers at Nintendo really popped off with this one.

[mamasplat]

Why do I care so much about deciphering character ages in Pokemon?

Simply put, angst. Or in long terms-

The art of storytelling is not so cut and dry, anyone with basic media literacy knows this. There is so much subtext and unspoken information that rings loudly in the implications of a story, something as simple as the age of an MC will dictate how heavily their experiences will affect them. Using the Gen6 games as examples (XY and Omega Ruby specifically)

By figuring out where to place Calem Serena and Zinnia in age, the story they live through gains added context. They all share the same bracket of 18-19 meaning they are in they’re late late teens and budding into the incoming subconscious weight of young adulthood, the subconscious urge to be stronger and reckless to prove yourself as capable in the real world; while still being young and having so much to learn. They have further motive to get involved in the heavy actions they take and will fall and break down even harder when they fail. Such is the right of growing up.

And for more adult characters, the same still holds true.

Doing the same thing I did with the kalos protags age by calculating off of a canon characters official age (emma) and then taking into account mannerisms dialogue and design; Admin Tabitha from team magma is officially 27, stated by himself. So going off of the work place hierarchy, Leader Maxie with his experience and status should be in his late 40s to maybe early 50s, making him the prime age for an early onset midlife crisis, linking that to his past relationships with Archie and the reasoning for making his team, his clear strong sense of justice even if misplaced, you have a man who can quickly spiral into a rather pitiful sight if pushed too hard in the wrong direction. First he bares his teeth, then he whines. Like a scared dog trying to protect itself and the image he has made for himself.

Meanwhile Courtney who is evidently more experienced than Tabitha is confirmed to have been with the team longer than him, as his paperwork is still seated on her desk, seems to be in her early 20s, I originally assumed she was in her mid 20s but then she released in pokemon masters and I was able to study her behavior more closely, she has this uncanny glimpse of childlike wonder at times that makes me believe she’s maybe younger than Tabitha, that added to the fact Tabitha seems to look out for her with her social struggles, almost taking on a brotherly role it seems.

Her being in her early twenties adds more weight to her codependency on Maxie as well as her reckless devotion, she’s younger and somewhat impressionable, she’s not against violent action to protect her passions.

And because I was able to gather Courtney had more experience while being younger I can come to the conclusion that it’s very possible Courtney was a science prodigy of some sort, as she is known in her field. And seeing she’s been with team magma longer and has evident close bonds with Maxie, it’s even more possible they worked together when she was younger.

Originally that led me to the thought she might have worked in relation to the Devon corporation, but with the art of visual storytelling in Sea Mauville, it’s not insane to assume Archie and Maxie may have worked together with the Mauville Corporation and that’s what makes them so jaded in modern day, a bad work environment being a stepping stone to their fall from grace. By Sea Mauville’s writings alone I don’t see them being against overworking a young teen prodigy. It’s possible maybe leader Maxie knew Courtney from his time there and brought her onto his team when the company went under. (This also means I need to retcon tf out of my in character Courtney blog.)

This also can explain Courtney’s role playing more into a team disciplinary, her time in Sea Mauville so young could’ve taught her to be more aggressive in order to earn her respect and get better outcome from rookie labor, as it’s heavily shown grunts seem to fear Courtney in some respects.

And ALL of this is merely the writing on the wall I can read when I take into account the age of our cast

[zhaoly]

UGH I was trying to hold off on commenting further about my disappointment with Halsin until I finished the game but my damn itchy fingers can't stop themselves

Okay so like... I'm just mind-boggled so far about what direction they were even trying to go with him. Even ignoring the lack of character development, what we did get has just been so unsatisfying and strange. LONG thoughts ahead about my general dissatisfaction with his character and some gameplay elements.

(Spoilers ahead)

First of all, the impression I got when I initially met Halsin was this wise, sort of sagely archdruid with many, many years under his belt (and indeed it has been 350 years!) who's been through a LOT and witnessed a lot of terrible things. You know, like the whole Shadow Curse thing. But he hints at a lighter side to him through dialogue options, teasing the possibility of getting past that serious, wise exterior as you get to know him more. He's got the whole gentle giant thing going on and has a good heart but is obviously a powerful druid. I rescued him after I had already killed Kagha, but I saw a clip of how he reacts to her if she's still alive when you rescue him. And it's really cool! He basically shows off the authority and gravitas that I expect to see from the archdruid. He shows mercy but makes it clear what his stance on what she did is.

However--and this is relevant later--the game fails to explain why the shadow druids are "bad," exactly. My own experience was me just having to sort of infer from everyone's shocked attitudes that they are, well, "really bad." Why, exactly? I could only guess. They have "shadow" in the name, which means they must be unfathomably ~evil~, right? Maybe there was a book entry I missed, but considering you need to make a decision about the grove's fate and have the side tasks of dealing with Kagha, this type of information should be easier to access for the player.

Well, fine. Let's just make our own inferences about the baddy badness of the shadow druids and move on. Now Halsin needs our help battling against the Shadow Curse while we make our way to Moonrise. He repeatedly emphasizes that he wants to come. He chills in our camp while we finish up stuff in Act 1. But for some reason... doesn't actually come with us when we finally make our way to the Shadowlands?! This part is really strange to me from a gameplay standpoint. Why have the character say things like he'll accompany you there and talk about how terrible this whole Shadow Curse thing is and then not even have him recruitable at that point? Why is he just hanging out at camp while we're picking our way through the Shadowlands on our own? It makes no sense and is a missed opportunity for him to introduce us to the land and the history of it. It really does his character a big disfavor by having him tell us this whole spiel about the Shadowlands and Thaniel and then sitting at camp the whole time we're trekking through the area.

Well, fine. We find Art Cullagh. He mentions Thaniel. We go back to camp to tell Halsin. Halsin finally leaves camp!... to go sit at the inn, and for some inexplicable reason, we're once again left to our own devices to find a way to wake Art. HUH? Narratively, this whole thing makes no sense! Halsin should be in the party, not waiting for us to do all the work. Again. Is this not an issue near and dear to his heart? Is he not a powerful archdruid with a personal link to Thaniel? Then why the hell is he afk at the inn while we're risking our asses out there??? HELLO?

Fine! We find the lute to wake Art up. I can't remember exactly, but I think it's at this point that Halsin joins our party. Finally! I'm willing to let all that other narrative inconsistency slide for now.

We get some flirt dialogues, sure sure, can ask a few questions, cool. A decent start. I can't actually romance Halsin yet because he's focused on the Shadow Curse, okay, I get it. It's killing me to have such slow progress but I get it, I guess. Fast forward to me completing the Act 2 plot and boss battle and... that's it? There's no real payout regarding Halsin's character. The whole thing was sort of like, yeah let's get rid of the Shadow Curse, hooray we did it! I realized that there was really little more than that to him throughout the entire arc. Well, maybe now I can at least romance him, right? Wrong! "In due time," he says. Bro wtf it's been 100 hours, I cleared the Shadow Curse after doing your dirty work, ISN'T IT DUE TIME?

I'm mentally gritting my teeth as we make our way to Baldur's Gate. Surely any day now. I long rest. We get ambushed by githyanki and meet the Emperor. Okay, maybe next evening. I long rest. Another fucking Emperor dream. I long rest. Another Emperor dream or something, I can't even fucking remember at this point, or maybe it was the Mizora cutscene. Wait the Emperor is fucking flirting with me for some reason, what the hell? Just let me romance Halsin oh my GODASDFLKAS:DLGKasl;d'fasd;lfkas;'ld

We're going through the city. Halsin randomly drops some dialogue about how disillusioned he is with the way the city is handling refugees and says maybe the shadow druids were right. Wtf? That was some quick 180 after all the drama over them in Act 1! Also, why won't anyone tell me what's so horrible about the shadow druids and why this is apparently such a moral dilemma?! All Halsin really says is that they want to cut themselves off from civilization... which is like... is that supposed to be an extreme viewpoint coming from the naturey tree people? He laments about his inadequacies as a leader, and I'm privately thinking, this is REALLY late in the game to be realizing this, isn't it? This probably should have come way sooner, maybe like... when you left your role as archdruid all the way back in Act 1?!

At some point we meet the drow twins in the brothel. Out of left fucking field Halsin's like, "this reminds me of my youth!" and basically says he's interested in a foursome. ???? What??? Bitch you haven't even slept with my Tav yet but you're down for a foursome with her + the drow twins? HUH? The twins then turn Tav down because she doesn't have a lover yet to participate (even though Halsin literally said he would, yeah it makes no sense to me either)... AND I'M LIKE YEAH I KNOW RIGHT 'CAUSE THIS GUY ISN'T LETTING ME ROMANCE HIM YET. I'm thinking this scene is proooobably supposed to take place after you've already triggered Halsin's romance, but there are so many damn cutscenes during the long rests at the beginning of Act 3 that I just don't see how unless you deliberately avoid talking to the twins until then. OR, and this is probably more likely, I presume many people romanced other companions and apparently have the option for an orgy with the twins and Halsin, from what I gathered? But from a gameplay standpoint with a mono Halsin romance, this was just bizarre and extremely dissatisfying for a romance, especially considering how LONG you have to wait to even trigger it at all ARGHHHHH anyway and then from a characterization standpoint, this was... also just bizarre because it felt so utterly random coming from Halsin given that his character had really shown little proclivity for such things and had basically spent the ENTIRETY of the game up until this point turning down Tav (at least for the mono romance--from what I've gathered, the experience is way different in a poly one).

We long rest, goddamn it fuck I forgot to stop the press, okay NOW we long rest, Halsin laments again about the way the city treats refugees. Maybe this was actually the conversation where he brought up shadow druids and his inadequacies as a leader, I don't even fucking remember anymore. I'm getting whiplash from how fast his character's tone is switching. I also then see spoilers that after you actually sleep with the drow, he casually drops the bomb that he was KEPT AS A SEX SLAVE FOR THREE YEARS. BRO???

and is apparently quite cavalier about it. What?? Who is this person???? Why does this feel like a completely different character from the one in Acts 1 and 2, lacking in depth though he was? Why is his character switching tones from one issue to the next so quickly? I'm just so utterly mind-boggled right now. He already lacked the character growth granted to the origins companions, but come Act 3, what existed of his character seemed all over the fucking place.

They really had a missed opportunity with the shadow druids. They could've done something, anything with it. They could've given him a less than flattering past with them that no one in the grove knows about. You know, a big, dark secret that is a staple of every fantasy companion. Something. And it could've given him actual reason to have a moral dilemma or struggle about his role as the archdruid and the trust people put into him. Maybe he had to make a tough decision back then "for the greater good" in that first battle against Ketheric Thorm. Cliche? Yes. But I'll take cliche over the nonexistent depth we got and the way his characterization is getting pulled all over the fucking place in Act 3.

Shadowheart had a lovely arc that's still ongoing (I haven't found her parents yet, and her story has spanned meaningfully across all three acts). Her thing is this identity crisis and a lifelong dream/belief she's had getting flipped on its head. While I benched Wyll and Gale, they've got some storied pasts as well and clearly have some opportunity for change through the story. I kicked Astarion pretty early on (lol) but I've seen glimpses of spoilers of some tragic past he has, and I'm guessing his story is something along the lines of helping him get past that? Lae'zel obviously has the whole thing with her undying belief in Vlaakith and her peoples, and while I ended up killing her in this run, I think it's pretty obvious to see that her story could take a similar turn to SH's where you help her figure out an identity different from what she's known her entire life. In future runs I plan to go through all the remaining companions' stories thoroughly and test that theory out I guess.

I won't go into my issues with Jaheira and Minsc--imo you get them WAY too late in the game (I haven't even picked up Minsc yet) to be invested. I don't think I'll ever pick up Minthara, but I've seen some similar dissatisfaction with her character. It's quite clear that the origins characters had way more development (with the exception of Karlach).

I don't know if this whole thing is even coherent. I feel like as I kept typing I just started devolving into annoyed rambling but I JUST HAD TO GET THIS OFF MY CHEST ARGHHHHHH I'm so utterly fucking disappointed with what they did with Halsin! I was really, really expecting something more out of it. Karlach was my second favorite and her character story is "find some pieces of infernal iron." Whoohoo! I've seen some light spoilers saying that she doesn't have any good endings or something so that's fucking wonderful too.

[jpitha]

The Dreams of Hyacinth 17

First / Previous / Next

After Eastern had gotten up and had some coffee and gotten dressed, Nick signaled Yon through the cybernetic link. She told them to ride the elevator down to the twentieth floor and she'd meet them there.

When they exited onto the twentieth floor, Nick was shocked. It looked like a hospital. Bright, clean lights, white walls, tile floor and a bustle of activity. They stepped out into the lobby, looking confused when Nick noticed Yon striding towards them. "Nick! Eastern! Please, come with me." She lead them past a guard who nodded at them, and further into the building.

Yon lead them further into the building and past operating theaters that were a bustle of activity and into a small suite of recovery rooms. Nick was watching everyone as they went past. People who looked like doctors, people who looked like nurses, support staff and guards were all around. All were wearing scrubs or a uniform that was in the Houndstooth colors. As one turned to talk to another Nick saw a flash of silver. He tried to check the neck of the next person he saw, and yes, another flash of silver and 10 tiny ports.

As Nick was lead around the hospital, his knees started feeling week and his sense of things was sliding away from him.

Everyone here had cybernetic implants.

Selkirk was in the first room on the left, sitting up and reading her pad. She had a large white bandage behind her head, but other than that seemed herself. "There you two are! I thought I was going to have to come and find you. She looked up at Yon, "You kept them in line? They didn't agree to anything stupid while I was under?"

Yon laughed. "No, they didn't agree to anything. We had a celebratory drink, I went to bed, and I assume they went to bed right after."

Nick nodded, distracted. "Yup, that's what we did." He turned away from the doorway and looked at Selkirk. "Sel, are you cleared to leave?"

Yon spoke up. "We're just waiting for the charge nurse to approve her leaving. Should be any time now. In fact, let me duck into the hall and I'll see if I can find her now. You three wait here." Yon stepped into the hall and started walking towards the lobby.

Nick sat down next to Selkirk and gestured for Eastern to do the same. She sat on the opposite side of the bed. "Eastern, Selkirk, did you notice anything odd about this place?"

Eastern sighed looked at Nick. "You mean other than the fact that it's a whole hospital off the books that seems to belong to Houndstooth?"

Selkirk flicked her ears in. "Or the fact that everyone here has cybernetic implants?"

"Yes! Everyone here has implants! What's up with that?" Nick was glancing back towards the door as they talked, seemingly worried that someone was going to walk in on them at any moment.

Selkirk shrugged. "Um'reli told me about it. Raaden is big on cybernetics. She thinks its a way to get Builder like abilities to everyone without the danger of the nanotechnology. She's trying to push the state of the art. Getting the implants for humans is no longer the risk that the AIs say it is. Very rarely do humans suffer rejection or get infections." Selkirk moved in the bed and winced at the motion. "K'laxi physiology is such though that the implants had to be different. Mine is the latest model according to Um'reli. I have to take some antibiotics for a week, but they say that should be it."

Nick looked up suddenly. "Wait, if everyone here has cybernetics, then is everyone talking to eachother through their implants?"

Eastern looked thoughtful. "Probably yes. Why don't you connect and see if there's a general channel Nick?"

Nick sat back in his chair and touched his implants with his mind. A direct connection was faster but he and - he assumed - everyone else had wireless implants installed so that they could interact with people and devices without having to be physically connected. Nick activated the radio and heard static. That was to be expected though, it made sense that the connections were encrypted. Raaden had given him keys when they shook hands, he applied her keys to the signal and tried again.

It was chaos.

It was a din of noise.

It was the loudest thing Nick had ever heard.

Everyone was talking at once. To each other, to themselves, to nobody. There was so much talking. It was too much! Nicks eyes rolled back and he fell off the chair.

"Nick! Nick!" Eastern was standing over him. Nick was on the floor. Blinking he sat up and waved Eastern off. "I'm all right now. I just... got overwhelmed."

"What happened Nick?" Selkirk looks over the edge of her bed worried.

"I connected to the cybernetic comms channel. It was... overwhelming. Everyone was talking at once, making noise. They were all talking over each other. I couldn't understand a thing."

Eastern frowned. "That doesn't make sense. Nobody would be able to communicate that way. People have to have their conversations in their own channels, or with their own encryption. There has to be a way to connect just to one or two other people." She looked at Nick and Selkirk. "Nick, what did you do?"

"When I connected, it was just static. I expected that after talking with Sunny, so I applied the encryption keys I received and-"

"Encryption keys?"

"Yeah, from Raaden. When we shook hands, she gave me her encryption keys. She didn't give them to you?"

"No Nick, I didn't get anything. She didn't mention it either. Are you sure you were given them?"

"Well I certainly don't know how to steal them, that's for sure. I imagine that the Empress would have some pretty serious firewalls. Regardless, she gave them to me and she knew we're together, so here." Nick tossed a copy of the keys to Eastern and Selkirk. They accepted the file and Eastern, after seeing Nick's reaction, connected to the audio channel, wincing. Her eyes widened and she looked at both of them. "Nick, these aren't just her encryption keys. They're everyone's encryption keys."

Nick rubbed the back of his neck where the access ports are and winced at the memory. "So, did Raaden make a mistake? Did she give me the wrong keys on purpose?"

Eastern frowned. "She doesn't seem like the type to make a mistake like that. I think she gave you these keys on purpose."

Selkirk's eyes flashed blue as she examined the keys. "Nick, is this a test? Did she give you the keys to the kingdom to see what you'd do?"

"How should I know Sel? She just shook my hand and I felt the tingle of keys being transmitted. I only knew what it was because Sunny gave me her keys and I remembered the feeling."

"So what should we do with them?"

Nick shrugged. "Use them. She gave them to us. Maybe it's for a reason. Come on, Queenie mentioned how we could isolate conversations into groups. Let's try and grouping the conversations to reduce noise and we can chat, and be able to chat with others."

Nick, Eastern and Selkirk spent maybe ten minutes creating a private group for them while also sorting the conversations they could find into separate groups so they wouldn't get overwhelmed when they tapped into the general channel.

Okay, can you hear me now?

Yes, I can hear you fine.

Yeah, no problems.

A new presence was felt in their heads as they spoke. Interesting. You did use the keys. And you were able to sort and set everyone else up into little groups so you weren't overwhelmed with the noise? Did you tell Yon about the keys or did you just take the initative?

Nick gasped out loud. Empress Raaden? Uh, no we didn't tell Yon. I just realized they were keys for everyone a little while ago. Why did you give me the encryption keys for everything?

Mostly to see what you'd do with them. You do come to us from a... let's say... less official background, though I do note you kept yourself to mild thievery, fencing, and smuggling. Nothing too bad in the grand scheme of things, but still Yon had some concerns. I'm pleased to see that you were able to use the keys to set up what you needed. There was a feeling of her looking around, examining the work they did. I must say, this is tidy work. Well done. We should take note of what you did here and show others as they come online. Everyone finds the general channel... a bit overwhelming when they first connect. Splitting it like this into groups could reduce that stress.

Nick noticed he was feeling proud from Raaden complimenting them. As soon as he noticed it, he mentally took a step back. Uh, Raaden? Should we delete the encryption keys?

No, I don't see any need for that. Keep them for now. I'll be interested to see what you do with them. There was a feeling of her smiling slyly at them, and her presence left.

Nick disconnected and looked around. Yon was back, waiting patiently. "Oh, Hi Yon. We were just talking with Sel over her new connection and said hi to Raaden."

Yon blinked. "She reached out to you directly?"

Nick nodded. "She wanted to see how we were getting on and making sure that everything was all set on our end." As he spoke, Nick marveled at how easily the lie came. A part of him wondered why he was keeping the fact that they had universal encryption keys from Yon. Luckily, Eastern and Selkirk picked up on what he was saying immediately.

"Everything went great Yon." Selkirk gestured to her bed. "Can I leave now?"

"Oh yes. I have your discharge paperwork. You're released and should take a day or two of rest. We'll go check out the simulator now. You don't have to connect if you don't feel up for it, but I think Nick and Eastern should get started."

Nick stood from his seat next to Selkirk's bed. "Come on then, let's go see what it's actually like to be a starship." He looked back at Selkirk as she slowly got out of bed. "You sure you're good to go Sel? We can take you back up to Raaden's penthouse and you can lounge in luxury another day or two."

Selkirk flicked her ears and swished her tail. "No. I'm sick of laying around. I'll be fine. Just give me a moment." She winced. "I'm all stiff."

They followed Yon through the hospital and back towards the elevator. As they walked through, Nick saw that yes, everyone at the hospital had cybernetics installed.

This time, Yon took them higher in Hyacinth One, to a few floors below Raaden's penthouse. They entered an anonymous office looking place with a small room of cubicles and a person at a desk outside the elevator. Yon glanced at her and her eyes flashed blue. The person at the desk's eyes also flashed blue, she nodded and they walked by her. Nick glanced at the back of her head as they passed, and she had implants as well.

Yon took them through the office, past a few rows of workers in the cubicles, and as Nick walked by, every one of them had implants. Some where working on physical pads and stations, while others just sat in their chair, leaning back with their eyes closed. Nick peeked into the general channel here and while it wasn't as chaotic as the hospital channel, there was a bustle of cybernetic activity.

As they left the cube farm, they passed through a large, metal door with a rubber seal and into a room with six large... domes was the only way Nick could describe it. Six domes with a rotating cover on them. Three were open and as they looked inside, Nick saw a chair very similar to Queenie's chair back in her shop, just newer looking.

Selkirk looked around for a place to sit. "I'm not feeling it today Yon, moving from the hospital to here knocked me out. Do you mind if I either sit while they try it out or head back up to the penthouse?"

"That fine of course!" Yon's eyes flashed and someone entered the room right away. "Please escort Selkirk back up to the penthouse so she can get some rest."

They nodded. "Of course Yon." They looked over at Selkirk. "You don't look so good. Do you want me to find you a wheelchair?"

Selkirk swished her tail. She looked irritated. "No, I'm fine. I just need to take it easy. Let's head up and I'll head to bed." Selkirk and the aide - slowly - made their way back to the elevator.

Nick watched them go. I'm worried about Selkirk.

Eastern flinched at the message but tried to not react otherwise. Why? You think she's got complications?

She seems to be having a harder recovery than we did.

Well, Raaden and Yon said there had only been like 6 K'laxi with the surgery.

Did you notice how every other human here has it though? I'd think they would have had an easier time.

Nick, it's not like K'laxi just have human brains inside their furry heads. Their physiology is completely different. I'm not surprised it's taking them a while. After this, we'll head up and check on her okay? We'll get some dinner and take it easy. Watch something on our pads and get an early night.

Nick pursed his lips. Okay. We'll check out the sim and head back up.

That's the spirit!

Nick spoke aloud. "Okay Yon, what do we do?"

Yon clicked a button on one of the domes, and it spun to face them and the entry appeared. "Just get into the chair, and lean back enough for it to sense your jacks. It will do the rest." She stepped back. "Go ahead, connect up."

Nick moved to get into the seat. He stopped and looked at Yon. "Yon, were you ever a Starship?"

Yon made a face. "That's a little rude to ask, Nick."

"I'm sorry, but I was wondering. You're with Raaden on this project to give everyone the ability to pilot - I had wondered if you had ever done it before."

Yon sighed. "No Nick. I never had. I've had some simulator time, but that's it. I never knew the right people to get a starship."

Nick raised an eyebrow but said nothing. He got into the chair. It was actually quite comfortable. The cushion soft and supportive. Clearly, it was designed to be sat in for long periods. He swung his legs into the supports and leaned back. As he did, he felt the chair mold to him and start to gently lower him. At the same time there was a light whine as the cables snaked out and sought the jacks on the back of his head. With a audible snap, they connected, he tasted blue for a moment and...

He was a starship. First / Previous / Next

Hey all! I know I've said this before and I'll probably say it again, but I'm going to have to slow down posting. I really like the cadence of 5 days a week, but it leaves no time to improve drafts and do the housekeeping of all the *gestures* other stuff of writing. I'll never polish anything or set up a Patreon or talk to editors or any of that if I'm scrambling to make 2500 word posts 5 days a week.

[rawliverandgoronspice]

You kno, I always (since I started playing LoZ 20+ years ago+additional ideas that came later) assumed Ganondorf is green bc of Koume and Kotake's influence. They're two powerful witches, and the occasional depiction of witches being green has probably also spread to Japan, so from that to show Ganon's ties to them, they were all three turned shades of green bc magic. It also sounded in-game like those two were a big reason for why Ganondorf went power mad and pushed war, even tho the other Gerudo didn't want him to go that extreme. Doesn't explain totk Ganondorf since there's literally no reason or backstory for him, but maybe it's like "tradition" by now. I also know there's a Chinese saying "putting on a green hat" which means the same as being green with envy, so I could imagine smth similar exists in Japanese, smth that could have worked with Oot's Ganondorf's envy of Hyrule's life giving lands. Since TP and WW, and HW Ganondorf are all the same guy, that kinda still works? I know it's really being viewed critical why he looks like he looks w the green skin, so thought I'd share a thing I basically came up with as a kid. (Except the green hat, only found out later, but the green with envy thought I did have back then.) Green hat works more for Link in the literal sense, so maybe Ganondorf has a figurative green hat. 😩

Hey! Yeah, I assumed the same for a very long time, and I'm pretty sure it's still the intent today.

I still think it's worth mentioning the trend has been really exacerbated with time; even back in OoT, his skin tone is not... that off the charts. Like yes, it does lean green, but after doing some color picking, it still stands reasonnably in the brown. It is a little sickly/olive, and there is a big gap between the concept arts and the model in-game already then (and in Smash, he's pretty much in the browns in his default model too), but it *could* be somebody's skin color. It's the same thing for WW Ganon btw, where his skin is definitively brown in the concept art and got much greener once modeled in the game. TP Ganon is the one where the difference between concept art and in-game skin is the least noticeable, but he also has the darkest shade by far so it doesn't read super green, even if it is quite there if you color pick. TotK Ganon is the color of a spinach smoothie in comparaison; even in the concept art itself, which might be even greener than the model in-game (a first!)

To be generous and fair to the whole thing, I think it used to be a case of what looked the most dramatic in-game, and a green hue does look less natural, colder, deader and scarier than a red-base one, especially in extremely intense lighting situations where Ganon often finds himself in, where it is easy to use that base color for contrast, especially with the red of his hair or the gold of his eyes and his little forehead jewel. This coupled with the influence of Twinrova and the association with envy probably pushed this direction even further every time.

But again, it is also hard to extract these choices from the history, in fantasy and sci-fi, of how to still dehumanize archetypes of PoCs without actually having them "being PoCs", or using excuses of inherent evilness to make their treatment by the narrative more acceptable. I am not mad at this choice inherently, but I am critical of it in the light of every other choice made in the year of our lady Hylia 2023 and the fact that I *so often* see this being used as protection against criticisms of both orientalism and a lack of care for what it implies about the worldbuilding of Hyrule. In OoT there was the connection to dark magic and the Twinrova; but in TotK, the Twinrova are easter eggs at best, not an active part of what shaped our antagonist and made him who he is. His evilness is made profusely clear the second he grabs the stone and becomes basically Satan with very cool hair, in a design that does lean super red and black anyway; one would think he'd rather try to hide his true nature before this?

(there is also history of PoC being turned green to avoid direct critique in fantasy/sci-fi worldbuilding, I think Star Trek is one of the big culprits but don't quote me on that)

Again, it's the package that is weird; and even more than the package, gradually changing PoC features over time in a way that, while not maybe being the only reason for the change, does allow the heroes to clearly identify the source of evil as Unlike Them while also distancing themselves from the more direct racist implications instead of... kind of allowing this to complicate the conflict, and accept that the conflict *is already complicated* no matter what is retconned or emphasized or changed. But the priority is simplicity and cleanness, and so Ganon and the gerudos do bear the blunt of these choices more often than not; the green skin being one of the more visible examples.

[mrcompass]

Why did Jack keep Evil Befall?

Unlike his teammate Zeo and Toby, who also endured the arrangement, Jack didn't change Beyblade despite changing philosophy. I wanted to dive deeper into why it makes sense for him to keep it.

"Well if we have to speak in terms like this, then i have indeed been, reborn my friends."

Jack (Beyblade Metal Fury: The New Stricker is Complete!-Episode 118).

Symbolism is very important in MFB and inexorably links bladers with their beys, and Jack is no exception. Befall is a peacock, which symbolizes beauty. Jack himself is obsessed with beauty and wants to find a suitable blader for his art, like Tsubasa. He has no desire to fight bladers whom he considers not artistic material. Jack is, in a way, quite superficial. Another, and more important, concept that the peacock represents is rebirth (life and death). In Metal Masters, Jack used the souls of others to bring his art to life (as seen with Klaus' state at the end of episode 89 or when he told Ryuga that his work only needed a soul to be over).

"-Now for the finishing touch we must add the soul. -The soul ? -An eye… An eye called L-Drago that is."

Jack and Ryuga (Beyblade Metal Masters: The Dragon Emperor Descends-Episode 93).

Eyes are a window to the soul after all, and the motifs on a peacock's tail are reminiscent of eyes. Jack himself covers half of his face with a mask. In a way, he hides the person he was before, and at the same time, it shows the missing part of himself, of his soul that he sold to Ziggurat for power.

In Metal Fury, Jack removed the mask; he even said that he was reborn. Which is true: he combined who he was before and during the arrangement while tossing away his insanity and craziness (the result of him having lost his mind/soul).

Comparing this evolution to Toby and Zeo's shows that they could no longer keep Tempo and Byxis. @sky-of-dusk established that Tempo and Byxis were objects they figuratively needed: Toby, who was dying, needed more time, and Zeo, who was lost, needed direction. However, after the destruction of Hades Inc., they no longer required those. I would add that Tempo and Byxis are objects and tools that anybody can use in their everyday life. Yet, Toby and Zeo are not tools anymore; they were freed from Ziggurat. Toby's Lyra is reminiscent of Orpheus, but it is also an instrument. Learning how to play an instrument can be long and time-consuming; similarly, Lyra is not an easy Bey that anyone can master, as stated by Masamune. An instrument isn't a commodity; it is an activity that is fulfilling for the mind and spirit: it symbolizes that Toby recovered his mind that Ziggurat tried to steal, but his body, his style, scarred, as seen with his white hair (and the MF tip that Lyra shares with Ziggurat's Capricorn). Zeo replaces his compass with a fox Beyblade. Foxes are wild animals, part of the canidae like the dog; Zeo is not a dog; he is free. Yet, unlike Toby, his mind is still impacted more than his body. The face-bolt of Spiral Fox emulates the kitsune, a fox-like creature that deceives humans and hides its true nature. The energy ring is blue like Spiral Capricorn, highlighting a more symbolic link between Fox and Ziggurat's Bey. Zeo hides his trauma because, more than Toby, he remembers everything starting with the pain. In the end both were greatly impacted by the Spiral Force event as demonstrated by their use of the spiral fusion wheel.

The point I am trying to make is that Toby and Zeo were scarred and traumatized, while Jack didn't go through the same path. He enjoyed the arrangement, and he liked the person he became because of this, which is in direct contradiction to Toby and Zeo's experiences. As a result, he has less reason to change Bey since he will not associate Befall with bad events.

Finally, I would conclude by saying that Benkei had a similar experience: He was given Dark Bull by Doji but kept it. He even told Shinobu in Zero G that it doesn't matter who gives you your Bey; what matters is what you do with it. Also, the way Jack got Befall is similar to how Benkei got Bull: They were given by a member of the Hades cult, trying to use them as pawns for their greater ambition. In the scene, they also reference their constellation and instantly take a liking to their new Bey, "which specialize in upper attacks". Also, Jack is the only member in Star Breaker to directly get his Bey with Ziggurat present. Furthermore, Bull and Befall share some similarities: the colors are close (red and pink), their Fusion Wheels are named after something negative (Dark and Evil/Killer), their Spin Track is their most iconic/important part and emulates a part of their BeyBeast (horns for Bull and wings for Befall). Finally, the EWD tip is considered an "evolution" of SD (Dark Bull's tip), since Nightmare Rex another beyblade goes from the SW145SD combo to UW145EWD. The most important thing is that Jack truly bonded with Befall, as seen in the Destroyer Dome, like Benkei bonded with Bull.

So Jack kept Befall because it works symbolically and for his character.

[kishigunpla]

Let's Read: A Requiem for Char: The Red Comet of My Youth - Chapter 3

by Shūichi Ikeda

This post will be an overview of the third chapter, A Man Called Char Aznable. Below are links to the previous chapters.

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2

Ikeda begins this chapter by talking about his experiences with Yoshikazu Yasuhiko. As discussed last time, it was Yas’s art that inspired Ikeda to try out for the role of Char in the first place. Whenever he plays Char, he keeps that original inspiration in mind.

The two first met in person backstage at an award ceremony in 1980. Ikeda was struck by what a kind gentleman Yas was, and to paraphrase, was shocked that such an ordinary person could draw such amazing pictures.

Ikeda briefly mentions that he enjoys Yas’s Gundam: The Origin manga, especially the scenes from Char’s backstory. Looking at the scenes from the military academy and where Char meets Lalah for the first time, Ikeda comments, “If I were a little younger, I'd like to try these lines.” (we now know he got that wish!)

Next, Ikeda discusses how Char disappears from episode 12 - 26 of the anime, and the possibility that Director Tomino considered killing the character off around that time, a rumor he apparently heard from a staff member.

The issue was Tomino trying to figure out what Char’s motivation would be going forward, beyond just his personal goal of revenge against the Zabi family.

When Char reappears in episode 26, he admits that the Gundam is an opponent he wants to defeat with his own hands and that such a thing is childish. Of course, we later learn there's more to it than that.

According to Ikeda, in order to bring Char back to the center of the story, Director Tomino invented the concept of "Newtype". This would act as a new motivation for him to go into battle that had not previously been apparent to him.

It is with the emergence of Newtypes such as Lalah and Amuro that Char senses the arrival of a new era, and tries to remove Amuro as an obstacle, who is simply being used as a tool of war. 

In Ikeda’s words, Char's actions in the latter half of the story are symbolized by this phrase, "overthrowing the Zabi family is an afterthought."

Of course this wasn't an easy task to pull off, but by this point Char had grown to be an indispensable presence in the narrative and drama Director Tomino had been crafting.

Due to the show's early cancellation, Tomino narrowed down the focus of the story to Amuro and Char, and Lalah and Sayla. Ikeda commends him for being able to wrap up the story in such a dramatic and satisfying way despite the circumstances.

Ikeda goes on to talk a little more about Tomino. One aspect he draws attention to is Tomino's unique dialogue (as he calls it, "Tomino-bushi" [富野節]) and innovative camera work. He mentions Gackt likens it to song, with a musical touch.

As mentioned previously, Ikeda has the impression that Tomino allowed him some freedom in the direction he took Char, but believes that they both decided around episode 10.

Ikeda: This is also my imagination, but I think that in the episodes leading up to this point, Director Tomino was trying to figure out who he should project himself onto in his "Gundam" works.

Ikeda: At the moment Char indirectly killed Garma, I think Director Tomino thought, "I've decided on this guy." It seems that the appearance of Director Tomino himself is strongly reflected in Char Aznable.

Another interesting point Ikeda brings up is how while Amuro and Kamille are the main face of First and Zeta, they are often at the mercy of reacting to the situations they are thrown into. By contrast, Char often plays the role of the story's "trigger", the character who creates the situations by having an active attitude towards the world.

Now my personal favorite section of this chapter, why Ikeda thinks Char is so cool. To Ikeda, Char's coolness comes from the fact that he is always "fighting with himself". He's fighting Amuro, the Federation Forces, and the Zabi family, but the most formidable enemy is himself.

Char is a half-hearted existence, both as a new type and as an old type. In other words, like an intermediate existence between “a person who can think digitally and a person who can only think analogously.”

Ikeda: Everyone has their own war of independence within themselves. Beyond the battle with Amuro and the Zabi family, Char sees the battle with himself. A man who casually takes on a lot of things and challenges his own battles, that's why Char is cool.

Compared to a character like Amuro, who is designed to be relatable to the audience, Ikeda believes Char should be higher up, "someone out of reach".

He uses the line "Because he was a spoiled kid" from episode 12 as an example.

Ikeda: If I had been a seasoned voice actor, I would have been too shy to say the famous line. I guess I was able to do it because it was my first time as a regular in an anime, surrounded by people I didn't know, and in a tense atmosphere where no one said, "That's a smug line."

Even so, there is a moment where Char’s demeanor begins to change in the final episode, when he asks Lalah what he should do. It’s a pivotal moment where the viewer sees this human side of him for the first time.

Char has questioned himself before this moment, but he has never asked a specific person such a thing.

Ikeda: So, at the very end, Char's weakness and frustration as he prayed to Lalah in order to win against Amuro became the key to a deeper understanding of Char for me as an actor.

Finally, Ikeda addresses the question, “do you have any tips for playing Char?”

Ikeda: I answer, "There is no such thing." If I had to say it, it would be "do nothing".

Ikeda: I have already played him for 30 years, so I have "Char Aznable" in my back pocket for sure. So I always feel Char's presence, and although it may be annoying to him, I believe that he and I are one and the same. Hence, I must always be at 100% or more when playing him.

"Come on, you can do better than that, can't you? Why don't you ask to try one more time?"

Ikeda: I feel as if he is telling me to do it. Playing Char has always been a big hurdle for me. Even so, when I play Char, I always feel at ease. It feels like you are having a drink with an old friend, and you feel very relaxed.

Ikeda: For me, Char was both my partner and my teacher as a voice actor.

~

That's all for my summary of chapter 3. Thank you for reading!

[omegasmileyface]

Of All the People - Ch. 12

yippeee!! here's the beginning note straight from the ao3 upload: It's done! This is our longest chapter by far at about 7k, so if it's late at night, I'd recommend going to bed before reading this. It's not quite long enough to put a reminder to take a break in it, so make sure you're keeping track of your needs! Alright, carry on, and I hope you enjoy! the end note will also be pasted at the end of this upload.

this concludes the Invisobang fic @attackradish and @ectolemonades and I have been working on this year! Thanks again ti @toasty-ghosti for the art in chapter 1!

whole fic summary: After a stupid dare puts Dash Baxter in the lab at Fentonworks during the middle of a ghost fight, he finds himself a little more spectral than usual. Apparently Danny Fenton’s gone through the same thing (someone has got to call OSHA on these guys eventually), and who could better help Dash than his hero? His lame, stubborn hero?

warnings: Penelope Spectra.

words: 7313

AO3 link

first chapter

previous chapter

===

It was a blessing of a November day. The skies had cleared, the sun warmed the back of Dash’s jacket despite the chilly air, and Danny was right next to him. They were just walking to Fenton Works for some regular training, but something about the weather made it feel almost magical. 

It was only the two of them. Sam and Tucker had disappeared with his friends again, not that he minded. He couldn’t have planned a better day for a walk if he tried. Amity's prized maples hadn’t lost their candy-red leaves yet, the breeze was playing with Danny’s hair, and the air smelled like wood and sugar. He almost didn’t notice when they took a different turn than usual. Probably just taking a scenic route, the long way ‘round in the last good weather of the year. Hey, maybe he'd even caught on to what Dash was thinking and was taking him somewhere a little more romantic.

“So…” Dash fiddled with the bottom of his jacket. “Why are we going this way?”

“Hm?”

“Not that I mind or anything, I’m just… wondering. I mean, Fenton Works is that way.”

“Well,“ said Danny, gliding into a bricked-off alley, “you’ve been getting better at flying, and I think some agility training is in order.” He slung his backpack off his shoulder and dropped it in a corner. 

“Agility training? Here?” He looked around at his surroundings. Some loose trash, a dumpster, a rusty fire escape. Dandelion corpses. 

“Yeah! I mean, you’re gonna be chasing ghosts around someday, and God knows this is where you’ll be chasing them. Might as well get some practice in.” Danny smiled, and then transformed just as easily. 

“Prac… Wait, am I gonna be chasing a real ghost? Is that what you mean?” Dash's chest buzzed with nervous excitement. He’d been looking forward to being officially ready to fight ghosts, but that didn’t stop him from being anxious. 

Danny flashed a devilish grin. “I’m a ghost. Chase me.” With that, he rocketed into the air. Oh of course. That made way more sense. Dash wrestled his backpack off as he went ghost and tried to take off after Danny. His weightlessness wavered for a moment, but with a short burst of concentration he was able to stabilize himself and shoot over the building. 

At a glance, the skies looked empty. A few clouds drifted lazily by, the sea of buildings was stone-still, there weren’t even any pigeons.

There! A flash of movement caught his eye, an inky streak disappearing behind a water tower. Before long, Phantom’s head peeked out the other side. When their eyes locked, Danny stuck his tongue out and rocketed away. The chase was on. 

Needles of chilly air stung Dash's face, and the wind tugged at his jacket in a way that made him feel more alive than ever. He could gain some ground on Danny, but before Dash could tag him, he’d dart away in a completely different direction, leaving Dash careening to follow. The way Danny twisted was almost liquid. It was mesmerizing. So mesmerizing that he nearly flew face first into a plate-glass window. 

Intangibility saved him not a moment too soon. Dash Baxter was interested in being many things, and a pancake was not one of them. 

“Y’know, this would be a lot easier if you used your tail,” Danny teased through the glass.

“Shut up.” He’d only used his tail once and he hated it. It made him feel ghostly, and not in a cool way. In a dead, shouldn’t-be-here kind of way. 

“Suit yourself.” Danny shrugged and flew away with a little loop-de-loop. Dash narrowed his eyes. He had to prove Danny wrong, and he knew exactly how he was going to do it. 

He was able to spot Danny fairly quickly, soaring casually just below roof level. Dash gave chase, and Danny sped up once he noticed. Good. He caught Danny shooting glances back, probably calculating the exact moment to slip away and bother Dash the most. The next time Danny glanced, Dash swerved behind a building the moment his eyes were averted again. He started accelerating, hoping to overtake him before he looked back again and knew something was up. As soon as there was space to turn again, he whipped around as tightly as he could, swinging right in front of Danny. Before his target had time to react, they’d slammed into each other. 

The impact knocked the air right out of him. Dazed, flying was the last thing on his mind as he struggled to catch his breath. He didn’t realize he’d begun falling until he felt Danny’s arms around him. He let himself be guided to the nearest rooftop, where he sank into a sitting position against a wall. 

“Dash? Are you okay?”

Dash grinned victoriously. “Tag,” he wheezed.

“Dash, you’re hurt! Is that…” He sighed, but a smile slipped through. “Of course you’d do something like this. You won! Got me fair and square.” 

“And I… didn’t even have to use my stupid… tail.” 

“Gotta say, I’m really impressed. You’re going to have to use it eventually though.” 

Dash scoffed. He’d see about that. “I don’t know, I think I’ll just keep getting better at this. Invent a new style of flying that’ll keep all the ghosts on their toes.” 

Danny sat down next to him. “If you say so.”

“Y’know, earlier when I thought I’d be chasing Boxy or somethin’, it got me thinking. About finally getting to start ghost fighting officially.”

“Hm?”

“And I didn’t feel totally ready for that, even though I’m really looking forward to it, but that’s not my point. Now, I’ll need a hero name when we start fighting together, right?” 

Danny chuckled. “I guess. What do you have in mind?” 

“Well, you’re Danny Phantom, and—“

“You can’t be Dash Phantom.”  

“What? No! I might be your biggest fan but I’m not that clueless. I was thinking what kind of ghosts sound like Baxter, and maybe Dash Banshee?” 

Danny nodded thoughtfully, but then his face twisted into a smirk. “Nah, I think you should be Inviso-Bill.”

“No! Absolutely not.” 

“I had to deal with that for how long, nine months? I think it’s only fair!” Danny crossed his arms. 

“Hero names? For you?” said a chillingly familiar voice. “I love the ambition, Dash, but let’s be realistic.” Standing there in three-inch heels, a crimson pencil skirt, a blazer to match, and unmistakable hair was Penelope Spectra. 

Danny was at his feet. “What the hell do you want, Spectra?"

“I heard you have a boyfriend now. This him? Hm. I think you could do better.” 

“What? No I don’t.”

There goes that fantasy. 

“Oh, excellent news. I was worried there for a sec! There were some rumors, and I just had to come see who’d won over the Phantom’s heart. And when I saw him…” she paused to look Dash in the eye for the first time, grimacing. “Let’s just say he’s not the one.” 

“Excuse me?“ Dash demanded. His blood burned with anger. 

She turned back to Danny. “Sure, he does rock that varsity jacket skinny jeans combo, but I remember counseling this kid. He’s just some football-star wannabe with a future in minimum wage.”

“Shut up and get around to stealing my DNA or whatever stupid thing you have planned. We don’t have time for this.” 

“No plans! It would just be such a shame to see a hero like you throw away his future for some mediocre parasite.” 

“I said, shut up!” he barked, and Dash felt the sound in his bones. 

Spectra sighed. “If you insist. Before I go, there’s a special guest who’d like to see you.” 

“Hey, Fenwipe. Miss me?” sneered a voice that made Dash’s throat seize. 

Dash- no, something that looked like him appeared behind Danny. When he turned around, not-Dash socked him square in the face. 

“Man, I wish there were lockers up here. Then it would be just like old times!” 

Danny glanced back and searched out Dash's eyes until they met. He didn't see the kidney punch until it sent him curling into himself. A pang of guilt twisted Dash’s stomach. This was because he was here. 

Dash hurried to his feet, and Spectra was standing beside him. “You must think you’re really something. Playing in the big leagues, cooking with gas, Mr. MVP. After all, your boyfriend is a superhero! At that, one who loves you so much he’s willing to take a beating just for the sake of your feelings.” She paused, her patronizing smile widening into a grinchlike sneer. “But deep down you know you don’t really deserve it.”

Dash was sweating. “Can it! I know what you are. You’re just some ghost who lies to people and feeds on their misery.” 

“You’re a ghost too, in case you’ve forgotten. What do you feed on? Attention? Love? Approval?" She stepped forward, and the space between them wasn't enough to breathe in. "What sort of lies have you been telling to get them?”

“None, actually. Because I’m better than you!” That’ll shut her up. He stepped back to reclaim the space, but she took another forward. 

“You can’t really believe that. You’re too smart to fall into such a simple delusion. Unless… you haven’t changed at all.” 

He bit back a reply. She’d just twist his words back at him again. She kept coming. 

“You’re the same bully who sentenced Danny to a locker every morning for the crime of being a loser. Deep down you don’t feel guilty— you just had the wrong target, that’s all. It’s fine as long as the person’s actually uncool, right?” 

It was like the skin on his chest had been pulled back and his insides were left in clear view— but they weren’t his. Everyone was looking at the horrible things he used to be like a clot of hair from a shower drain and it made him feel disgusting. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the ghost wearing his face slam Danny’s head against the edge of the roof. Is that all people saw in him?

“Struck a chord there, didn’t I? Your silence is admirable. Most people would lower themselves to grasping at straws, but not you. You know when you’ve been caught.” 

He grit his teeth. I’m not taking the bait. It doesn’t matter what Spectra thinks, Spectra sucks. 

She left him a moment of quiet, a moment to think about responding. His thoughts got antsy, but they never left his mouth.

She smiled wider, and continued on as if she hadn't stopped. “You’re nothing but a lying brute trying to worm your way into any hearts you can get your hands on. Like that time at the museum. You looked so earnest and interested! You really had Danny tricked. Oscar-worthy performance. And when you’re not lying, you’re hiding the truth. Like when you didn’t tell Danny that your friends found out his secret. Or what you’ve been doing to your poor mother.”

That caught him off guard. My mom? What did he do to his mom? Confusion must have crept onto his face, because Spectra gave him a look that could be confused for a pity smile by anyone who hadn't been her victim.

“You haven’t told her yet, have you? That her son died? That Dash Baxter, the light of her life, met a grisly end in the basement of Fenton Works, and you took his place? I’m sure you only want to protect her from the grief, but isn’t it just a little selfish? You know what’s going to happen if she finds out what you really are. After all, how could she love a life-stealing nobody like you?” 

“Shut the fuck up! And don’t ever let me catch you talking shit about my mom again. She’s the most loving person you’ll ever meet, and she’d never do that to me!” Dash roared. 

“Then why do you keep it secret? Forcing her to sleep in the same house as her son’s corpse every night? You’re worse than I thought, you sadistic freak.” 

Enough was enough. Dash didn’t care that his last ghost fight ended in disaster, or that Spectra could probably deck him. All that mattered was the boiling rage that threatened to burst every vessel in his body, and the searing energy that exploded through his arm and out his fist. 

Spectra stumbled backwards in shock, clutching her stomach. Her shock curdled into fury, and obsidian flames enveloped her body. “You’re going to regret that,” she snarled.

===

“Hey Fenwipe, miss me?” 

Danny turned around, a fist eclipsing his vision before his skull filled with pain. 

It took him a second to process what he was seeing through the stars in his vision. It looked like Dash. Intense blue eyes, apple-red letterman jacket, and a cocky, sadistic smirk that he hadn’t seen since the accident. But behind the face there wasn’t a whiff of human emotion. Bertrand, had to be. 

“Man, I wish there were lockers up here. Then it would be just like old times.” 

Assuming fighting stance, Danny was about to strike when he remembered Dash. What if he takes it the wrong way, like Valerie did when I destroyed her empty suit? He looked over his shoulder, Dash’s expression of slack-jawed horror significantly less enlightening than he’d—

FUCK! His body folded in on itself. Right in the kidneys. That was a terrible idea. 

“Hey! I’m over here, Fengeek.” Sneered the impostor. “Didn’t last time teach you not to care about that deadweight?” 

Bertrand swung again. Danny felt the displaced air graze his suit just after his frantic dodge. 

“C’mon, aren’t you going to fight back? Don’t tell me you care about a guy who treated you like this, huh?” 

Dash probably won’t mind. It’s not like he’s gonna think I thought it was him. Fuck it, we ball. He saw an opening, and jabbed Bertrand right in the solar plexus. 

“There we go. Now we’re getting somewhere!” Bertrand threw another punch, barely missing him. Danny grabbed his wrist, and swiftly twisted it behind his back. Dash’s voice yelped in pain. 

“Bet you’ve been waiting a long time for this,” he said, an octave higher. “Giving that jerk a taste of his own medicine, paying him back for everything he’s done…” Bertrand’s joints popped, then his body went jellylike as it contorted into a new position. They were face to face now. “And best of all, there aren’t any consequences.” 

Bertrand’s free hand grabbed his face, cracking his head against a brick corner. 

“Doesn’t this face just scream 'punch me'?” He flashed a mocking, nearly playful grin. His hair wasn’t even messed up. Danny’s fist was itching. He almost had a point.

The punch landed with a satisfying thwack, and guilt coiled in his stomach for how much he enjoyed it. 

“See? You don’t really want to redeem him. You want to beat the stuffing out of him. No amount of warm fuzzies from seeing him become a decent person will beat the feeling of bones under flesh, and that taste of terror and regret dancing across your tongue.” 

He clenched his fists tighter, holding back an ectoblast that would certainly fry Bertrand’s fl… wait, Bertrand doesn’t have human flesh. He’s a ghost. In a flash of green, Bertrand was sent stumbling back. He seemed stunned, and before he could resist Danny whipped out his thermos and sucked him in. 

Ancients, dealing with him was exhausting. He took a couple deep breaths, and rubbed the back of his head. His hair was matting, and a little sticky.

Crap, he’d left Dash alone with Spectra. Dash was a couple rooftops over, like he’d been trying to get away. Spectra was still talking, her full attention on Dash. Maybe if he caught her off guard, he could thermos her without having to fight. He quietly lifted his feet off the roof and slowly floated towards her. 

Rage choked the air. He tried to make out what Spectra was saying. 

“…every night? You’re worse than I thought, you sadistic freak.” 

There was a flash of gold, and the scream of an ectoblast. Spectra stumbled back. She stood still, clutching her stomach, apprehension stretching the seconds taut. A plume of pitch-black flame roared up her body, and her true form hovered threateningly over Dash. 

Her tail lashed back and forth. She growled. “You’re going to regret that.” She unleashed a volley of ectoblasts, sending Dash scrambling.

“Hey Spectra! Forget about someone?” Danny shouted, lobbing an ectoblast of his own. She dodged and carried through the turn to face him. 

“I see you took care of Bertrand. He couldn’t convince you, it seems. I still can’t wrap my head around how you care so much for this heap of garbage.” 

A shot from Dash grazed her shoulder. She whipped around, and he ducked back behind the AC unit he was using as cover. 

“You little…” she hissed, diving after him. There was a loud thud, and an intangible Dash surfaced next to Danny. 

“Got her with the old ‘hide in the floor’ trick,” he grinned. 

“You okay?” 

Dash looked stunned. “Yeah, sure. Sticks and stones and whatever.” 

Danny doubted him, but now wasn’t the time to pry. Spectra was taking too long to reappear. There’s no way she hit the roof hard enough to knock herself out. He was trying to think where she might have gone when a shadow grew next to his. In an instant, his whole back felt like it was on fire. 

“Two can play at that game,” said Spectra's voice from behind him. Danny spun around. As he fired an ectoblast, Spectra grabbed Dash like a shield. 

The shot hit. 

Dash cried out. 

Danny’s core seized. 

He was supposed to Protect Dash, not… the wound was all he could look at. Singed fabric, the puckered skin of a fresh ecto-burn, the curving lines of an odd scar. Nothing major, but Dash had curled in on himself. It wasn’t until the rings appeared that it clicked.

He’d hit his death mark. 

Spectra returned to her human guise, dropping Dash like a sack of wet garbage. 

“That’s a very interesting scar, I heard it’s your father’s work.” Spectra paused, watching for his reaction. “Is that why you’re doing this? To make up for his mistakes? So noble of you, caring so gently for someone who mistreated you for so long, and with no reward. You’ll never undo what he’s done, scrub his blood from your veins, or even be anything more than the son of a monster.”

She didn't even get it. She didn't seem to understand what he had just done. Danny hadn't even thought of his dad during all this. He'd heard that train of thought from Vlad too many times for it to strike any interest anymore. 

But Spectra being on the wrong thread was a good sign. If he could get her to think she was sending him down some dark path, maybe he could get to his real focus. He might even get the chance to look over Dash and make sure he was alright. Get him somewhere safe, maybe. Somewhere Danny couldn't hurt him anymore.

“You’re right, it’s all I can think about,” Danny said, as defeated and crestfallen as he could muster.

It wasn't hard, with the way Dash was struggling to breathe.

Spectra’s nose wrinkled. “No, that’s not it. There’s something else going on.” She leaned closer to Danny, and her eyes went wide. 

“Ohohoho, you sneaky devil! I can’t believe it. It was you!” Spectra clapped with giddiness. She glanced back at Dash, who hadn’t moved. 

“You did it on purpose,” she whispered. “At first I was wondering why you’d pick him, but he’s perfect. You turned him into a freak, and used that to draw him closer. He feels safe, understood, and he knows that you’re the only person who’ll love him now. He’s yours forever! I’m so proud of you, Phantom. You’re finally becoming a real ghost.” She pulled a handkerchief out of her breast pocket, and dabbed fake tears from her eyes. 

A pang of guilt crept into his chest. What if Dash did feel that way, because of some offhanded remark or something he said while explaining the importance of staying hidden? Is Dash going to have life-long self worth issues because of this? 

Snap out of it, Danny. Spectra was just messing with him. If it felt true to Dash, he could deal with that later. Right now he had a job to do. 

“Alright. You’ve had your fun, now get in.” He raised his thermos. Spectra snatched it. 

“No, I don’t think I will. You may be the apple of my eye, but I’m not going down that easily.”

“Hey! Give that back!” Danny grabbed it, but Spectra held it tight. 

“Why? I’m just going to set Bertrand free, and we’ll be on our merry way.” She tugged, and his fingers slipped to the base of the thermos. 

“That’s not how this works.” 

“I don’t think that’s up to you right now.” She tugged again, and the thermos came free. 

Danny grabbed at it, but Spectra held it out of his reach. Her thumb neared the release button. He wouldn’t get it in time. His outstretched hand glowed. Praying this would work, he shot the thermos. 

It landed with a clang far behind Spectra. Bolting after it, Danny outpaced Spectra by a hair. Clutching the thermos as tightly as he could, he held it close to his chest to keep her from grabbing it. Spectra’s nails tore his suit, and her knee dug into his kidney as she tried to get leverage. 

“Danny! Pass it here!”

Danny’s heart leapt. Dash was okay! He peeked around Spectra’s head. He was standing, at least. Still human, and his face looked ragged. He was waving his hand frantically. 

Passing wasn’t his forte, but it wasn’t like he had any better options. He bucked Spectra off, wound up, and lobbed it as hard as he could. Dash jumped to catch it, and took off running. 

“Dash! What are you doing? Get Spectra!” 

“What?”

Spectra pounced on him, wresting the thermos from his hands. 

“Thank you, Mr. Baxter. I liked you better when you weren’t moving so much.” She aimed a glowing hand at Dash’s chest. Dash shot first, and she fumbled the thermos. Danny snagged it, flying out of reach. Spectra slipped intangibly out of Dash’s attempts to hold her down. 

Damn, she was fast. Before he could even aim at her, she was right up in his face. He soared higher, trying to keep her out of grabbing distance. It wasn’t easy. He didn’t even have enough room to fire an ectoblast without giving her a handhold. It didn’t look like he was going to outrun her anytime soon. 

But maybe he didn’t have to. Dash was still on the ground. Throwing the thermos past Spectra wasn’t going to work, but something else might. 

Danny plunged downwards. Slamming into Spectra, his arms and tail wrapped around her before she could react. By the time she reached her arms behind her he’d already dropped the thermos. It was out of range of her telekinesis before she thought to use it. 

He watched it fall towards Dash as he restrained Spectra as best he could. She burst out of his grip moments before Dash caught it. The base of the thermos glinted silver when Dash pointed it at her. A scream rose up in Danny’s throat. At the last second, he flipped it around and Spectra disappeared into the blue vortex.

Danny came down and met the ground just as Dash fell to his knees. He waited for him to catch his breath.

“We got her. It’s over.”

“You got her. You officially caught your first ghost! I didn’t bring any party poppers, but—”

Dash burst into laughter, which slowly trailed into a cough. 

“Shit! You’re shot, I completely spaced.” 

“Spaced. Ha,” he mumbled. 

“Pull up your shirt, I need to check how bad it is.” Danny crouched down to Dash’s level. 

“NO!” Dash blurted. “I mean, not now. Please. I can’t handle someone looking at that scar. My core or whatever is acting all weird and there’s no way I can handle both.” He took a shaky breath. “I just want an ice pack for my leg, a couch to lie down on, and maybe some painkillers.” 

“It’s okay, I’m not going to do anything you don’t want me to do. You’re in control.” He held his hands up placatingly. 

“Okay.”

“I think I can do something about that ice pack. Okay if I touch your leg?” 

Dash nodded. Danny cooled his hands, and laid them on Dash’s thigh. He saw his shoulders relax slightly. 

“That feels better. Thanks. I must’ve strained it when Spectra first shot at me.”

They sat in silence for a while. Dash’s eyes wandered onto Danny’s hand, up the scratches on his arm, and into the eye that had started to swell. 

“What am I doing? Dude, you’re worse off than I am. I should be the one helping you,” Dash said. “Lemme see your back, I know Spectra shot it, and then there’s what Bertrand did…” Danny didn’t protest as Dash shuffled on his knees to get a better look. 

“How’s it look back there?” 

“I mean, um, it could be worse? I’m not saying it’s not bad, but if I straight-up said ‘it’s bad’ you’d get the wrong idea. Like in those cheesy medical dramas, y’know?” 

He gave a slight nod. 

“Head wounds bleed more than normal ones, right? That’s real, not just something I heard someone say?”

“What?”

“It just looks like a lot of blood, is all, and I can’t tell how bad the cut is ‘cause it’s all red. And green. There’s green too.”

“It’s probably fine.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, just tell me what else is going on.”

“Well there’s the burn. It’s pink with jagged edges. Pretty big too, like if a sheet of printer paper could go splat.” 

He chuckled at the mental image. 

“I wish I had a power I could use to help, like your ice thing, or at least a first aid kit,” Dash murmured dejectedly. 

“You are helping. It’s not like I have eyes on the back of my head.” 

“But that’s not helping helping. I’m always promising something I want to do and then not delivering.”

“You delivered today.” 

“I barely managed to catch Spectra in a thermos! And before that I was all like ‘pass it here’ and then instead of doing anything useful I just started running like I’d forgotten I wiped out of football.” 

“Dash. It’s okay. Nobody got hurt. This is only your second ghost fight, and I haven’t even finished training you. You did great.” 

“I guess that’s true, but it doesn’t make up for going back on a promise. Maybe Spectra was right.” Dash hung his head. 

Danny had a small heart attack just then. “I don’t know what Spectra said to you, but I know she’s full of shit.”

“But what if she got lucky this time? I didn’t believe her at first, but fuck, man, it’s getting harder not to. Maybe I am just a fraud who’ll say anything for people to think I’m worth having around.”

“Dash. If you were a fraud you’d know for sure. It’s one of those things you have to do on purpose. You’re overenthusiastic and don’t always think things through, but that doesn’t make you a liar.”

“So maybe I’m not a fraud. Yet. But there’s something scary about how crazy I get over feeling… needed. Necessary, helpful, recognized. When I do get it I’m on cloud nine, but when I don’t… When I don’t it’s like my insides are falling apart. What if I’m an evil ghost like her? And it’s only a matter of time before I lose control?”

Ah. “Dash, that’s normal.”

“No, you don’t get it! This isn’t normal at all! There’s nothing normal about these feelings, I never felt anything like this when I was still…” Dash’s voice cracked, and he looked at Danny pleadingly.

Danny tried to make his voice soft. “Hey, it’s okay.” He put his hand across Dash's shoulder, and he flinched from the cold. Whoops. “It sounds like it’s your Obsession. Every ghost has one, it’s what keeps their core together.“

“Obsessed. That’s the word. I’m just like one of those freaks with the newspaper clippings and the red string and the crazy look in their eyes. But for, like, getting people to think a certain way about me. You said it’s a ghost thing, right? So I just have to learn how to be more human there and I’m all set?”

Danny frowned. "I mean, there are parts of you that are fundamental to keeping you running. If your heart stopped beating, your humanness would stop being human, right?"

Dash gave a clipped nod, like he wasn't sure but was willing to go with it.

"Well, if you stopped having an Obsession, your ghostness would stop being a ghost."

"Wouldn't that be easier, then? I'm used to being human!" Dash turned away and started picking at his shirt. "Maybe that would be half of me gone, but maybe it'd be simpler just to be half a human and no halves anything else."

Danny scoffed. "Sorry, but if you're anything like me, and I think you are, you're just one whole. The ghost parts are the only things keeping the human parts from just being straight-up dead. You're one system, in homeostasis."

"So, what? Why does that mean I have to be all obsessive over being something I'm not?

Danny laid down on his back, using his hands to cushion his wounded head from the ground. It was still tacky, but nothing felt newly wet. That was good. "Ghosts only occur when ectoplasm gets stuck together from emotion. It's a very chaotic substance, so it takes a lot to make particles of it work together." The sun wasn't near setting, but it was casting long shadows from the sparse clouds. Days must be getting shorter. "Ectoplasm reacts to emotions. I'm not super sure how yet, but you didn't come here for an ecology lesson. Point is, a core forms when the human emotions in some connected ectoplasm line up to wanting something that it couldn't have without having some power and solid form."

Danny rolled his head back over to see Dash was looking at him. He didn't look enraptured or anything, but Danny was just glad he was willing to hear him out before having a breakdown. "Blobs are made up of connected ectoplasm with the same human emotion holding it together, but they don't have cores, and they just sort of drift around. When they have desires, they only have desires made out of ghost emotions, and they're temporary. But since they don't have cores, they don't have much control over their form, or a sense of self, or any ability to charge their ectoplasm.

"Ghosts with cores want something. The core represents that want. It's the one human emotion a full ghost expresses, the desire that imprinted on their core. Ghosts exist because the emotions that let them form in the first place all said something like 'I need to…' uh… 'walk my dog, even though I'm dead, so I need to have a body and powers to do that.' A ghost that only exists because they need to walk their dog won't be able to get rid of that nag in the back of their head, and if they're kept from walking their dog, they're being denied their entire reason for existing. That's their Obsession."

Dash was quiet. Danny figured he'd been rambling, and let him think.

"So… what happens if they don't want it anymore? Like, if the dog dies and doesn't need to be walked?"

"Well, I guess they'd dissipate. Their core would succumb to entropy and stop holding them together." Dash paled. Shit, he did say that kind of clinically. "I mean, that's pretty rare. Most Obsessions are way more general than that, and there's always something to activate them. It's hard to get a ghost to stop caring about something." He smiled and scooched closer to where Dash was still sitting. "We're creatures of spite!"

"So I just have to keep trying to make people think they need me because some part of me will die if I stop wanting it? I'm not gonna keep fuckin' manipulating people's thoughts to make me healthy, that's dumb. Why can't we both be happy?"

"Hey, having an Obsession doesn't mean everything you do has to fulfill it. Sure, the feeling of fulfilling your purpose is incredible, and it sucks to not fulfill it, but you still make choices as long as you can acknowledge that you want it. You're a jock, have you ever been on a diet? What's it feel like when there's something you really want to eat but it doesn't fit the diet?"

Dash looked thoughtful.

"Exactly! It sucks, but you push through it because you know that desire isn't the only thing at play. I wanted to keep you out of harm's way because of my own Obsession, but you were so set on helping that I weighed my options and decided to risk denying it. If you find yourself supposedly 'manipulating' people to feel like they need you, step back and ask if that's really what you want to do, and if feeling needed is worth feeling guilty and ruining a relationship." 

Danny sat up to better look Dash in the eye. "And hey, that's something you have to do on purpose, just so you know. Wanting to feel known, wanting to feel useful, and then trying to make yourself that way, isn't the same as deciding to lie to someone. We all make mistakes, and we all act in dumb ways because we want people to like us. That's not the same as going 'hey, how about I act dishonestly about myself to trick somebody into thinking I'm somebody I'm not?' Everybody puts on a little of an act all the time. It's high school. Fuck, it's life. And death, I guess."

Dash was quiet for a bit. Danny joined in and watched the clouds get thicker as the air cooled with the low sun.

“Don't let Spectra get in your head. If you keep trying, you can be important to someone without hurting anybody. She can just make crap up and I still fall for it sometimes. Like what she said about—“

“Pfft, you don’t have to do that.” 

Danny paused. “Do what?”

“That thing you do when you’re Fenton. Pretending to be scared and insecure, rubbing your arm, even though you’re the most confident guy around.”

Danny blinked a couple times, like that would somehow change what he’d just heard. “You think I’m just confident and fearless 24/7?”

“I mean yeah, you’re Phantom! You always know what to do, you’re the coolest guy alive, not to mention strong enough to beat every ghost that’s shown its face here. Of course you’re confident and fearless 24/7.”

He struggled to find words. He’s talked to Dash how many times, and he still doesn’t think he has feelings? He’s been helping this guy through his problems, listening to him, getting to know him, even getting a little bit of a crush. Maybe a lot of a crush. And Dash just saw him as little more than a pull-string action figure?

“Am I… human to you? Was I just talking to a brick wall this whole time?”

“No! I mean… yes? Gah! I mean of course you’re human. You nerd out about space and don’t like toast and feel awful when you see people get hurt. But I saw how different you acted after I found out your secret. I know the shy frightened Danny Fenton thing is an act, and faking it to make me feel better feels condescending. 

“It’s not all an act. Sure I crank it up to eleven at school, but that doesn’t mean I don’t get scared or lose confidence in myself!”

Dash looked at him with wide eyes. Like he was processing the implications of this new information, and also waiting for him to say psych. 

“Oh. Shit. I’ve been treating you like garbage. The fight at the football field, when my friends found out your secret, heck, when I died in front of you! I thought you were just mad, but… sorry dude. Do you still need to talk about Spectra?” 

“Maybe in a bit. I’m still wound up from the whole…” he waved his hand vaguely. 

“Yeah,” Dash sighed. 

Traffic was picking up down below. Probably nearing rush hour. His parents might be worrying where he was, if they paid attention to anything other than their research. Which might make him sad if he was up too late and couldn’t sleep, but it was really convenient right now. 

Dash was fiddling with his jacket again. There wasn’t a dark spot on his shirt, so that was promising. 

"You know, you didn't really use any powers in that fight. I mean, other than the basic stuff. And ectoblasts."

Hmm? "Oh, I… guess I didn't. It's easiest just to resort to fisticuffs unless I have to get creative."

"I bet it would have been a quicker fight if you had used a couple other powers at some points."

"I kinda forget about them sometimes. Hey, maybe you can help me out with that! Pros of having a football strategist on your side."

Dash blushed and looked over the edge of the roof to the sidewalks below.

Danny looked around to see if he'd gotten multicolor blood on any surfaces. Nothing noticeable.

“Dash, have I ever made you feel like I was the only person who’d have feelings for you?” 

“What?”

“Like, because you’re a halfa. That nobody else…”

“I mean, like. Why would I be thinking about if you had feelings for me? Who said anything about that?”

Danny could have phrased that better. Just because Dash had a crush didn’t mean he was aware of it. 

“Have I been blushing or something? My doctor said I might do that randomly because of the lung… thing,” Dash stammered. 

Nope. He was aware of it. Letting him off the hook and letting him confess when he was ready was probably the right thing to do, but part of Danny wanted to see how deep a hole Dash could dig himself. Dash seemed unnerved by his silence. Then some kind of realization crossed his face. 

“Who told you?” 

“Told me what?”

“You know what I’m talking about. Was it Star? Lina? Please tell me it wasn’t Kwan.”

“No I don’t. What is it?”

“That I have a crush on you!” he shouted. His face crinkled in a way Danny didn’t expect. This isn’t the face of someone who’s been playfully drawn out of his shell. This is the face of a man betrayed. Well, shit. 

“Hey. It’s okay. Nobody told me.”

“Shut up.” 

“No, I promise. Sorry, I shouldn’t have pushed like that.” 

“Then why were you asking about…” Dash waved his hand dismissively. “The thing. Me, thinking about you. Romantically.” 

“Spectra said something along the lines of ‘you only tolerate Dash because he’s a halfa and you can manipulate him into thinking you’re the only person who’ll ever love him because of that’ and I was worried I’d done it by accident, somehow.”

“I mean, you’re straight, so it’s not like you loving me was much more than a dream. Getting from there all the way to ‘you’re the only person who’ll ever love me’ is a pretty big stretch,” Dash sighed. “So you didn’t know? This was all just hypotheticals?”

“Well… I knew you had a crush. I just didn’t know if you thought of it as one.”

“Oh… What gave me away?”

Danny grimaced. “So, you know how Spectra feeds on misery?”

”I mean yeah? I thought your Obsession was fucking… Protection, not people having crushes on you?” 

“Misery isn’t her Obsession, it’s just her favorite flavor of emotion. Ghosts can… metabolize different human emotions, and they taste different.”

“So Tucker wasn’t joking when he asked if I could taste him being dishonest?”

“He was joking a little. Dishonesty isn’t really an emotion.”

“Ah. Well, um, at least it wasn’t painfully obvious to anyone who wasn’t a ghost. Or Kwan.” 

“Yep. I know this is kinda a weird time to say this, but I forced out your secret, and I think it’s only fair that I tell you one of mine. I’m gay too, and I kinda like you back.” 

===

What? Dash couldn’t believe his ears. The whiplash alone rendered him nearly incapable of thinking, and instead of butterflies in his stomach it felt like a flock of angry geese beating their wings in every inch of his body. 

“For real?” 

“Yeah.”

“Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy fucking shit.” 

Dash needed a breather. Danny liked him. Danny Phantom, the ghost he’d had a crush on for years was gay too and liked him back. The guy who only half-accidentally tricked him into revealing his most mortifying secret a few moments ago also just fulfilled his wildest dreams. He was conflicted, his head was spinning, what the hell was he supposed to do? There was so much he should do, could do, now. Spend more time with him, learn all of the little things that make him tick, be there for him, hold his hand, romantically brush his hair out of his face, take him on dates–

“Dash?”

“…We need to buy some milkshakes.”

“What?” 

“We need to go to the Nasty Burger and get milkshakes. It’s like, the classic first date,” Dash explained. If he was in a romance movie the next move was obviously a milkshake date. So that’s what he was going to do. 

“Dude, I haven’t checked your chest yet.”

Oh right. That thing. 

“Okay. Fine. I think my core’s done freaking out, so I should be able to handle it.” Dash lifted his shirt and averted his eyes. Maybe if he didn’t see Danny looking, it would be easier. 

He heard Danny shuffling closer. Dash‘s core started to constrict, but it was bearable.

“Fortunately, you were ghost at the time. This isn’t nearly as bad as it could be. You’re pretty durable.” Danny's breath fluttered across his skin. God, he was close. 

“So it's not dangerous?”

“Not really. It’s not a cut, so it’s unlikely that your ghost healing will seal anything under your skin. I can get you some burn cream for the pain and to prevent infection, but if you want we can do the milkshakes first.”

Dash let his shirt drop. Looking down, seeing Danny so close to him and processing their revelations of mutual feelings, Dash had to make a move.

“Danny?”

“Yeah?” 

“Um, my jaw is kinda sore. From when Spectra dropped me on it. Could you maybe…” Dash tentatively reached for Danny’s wrist, who got the message and placed his icy hand on Dash’s cheek.

They locked eyes. It didn’t take long for Danny to realize what he was thinking. He let out a small laugh and leaned in with a kiss. Dash could have sworn he felt sparks between them, but maybe that was just leftover adrenaline from everything they’d just been through.

Dash pulled back, breathless again, but now in a good way. “So. Milkshakes?” 

“Milkshakes.” Danny kissed him again on the cheek and they took to the air, hand in hand, for some hard-earned fast food.

===

End note:

And that finishes off our Invisobang 2022 piece, just as the year's ending! Thanks for coming with us on this journey. Thanks to Ghostie for the art in chapter 1, they were great to work with!

I wanted to touch on something a lot of commenters have brought up, that Dash's healing in his leg and chest might just be restricted because he believes it to be. That's great thinking, with the way ghost bodies work, but when we were writing it we intended those wounds to naturally never heal, since they were a part of his death. Sometimes when things happen, like accidents with weaponry, parts of the body are permanently kept from functioning like they did before, and you have to give up activities like normal football. And that's okay! It sucks and makes things harder, for sure, but it happens, and you can live a fulfilling life despite it 😌 thus the "being half ghost is a disability" tag on this fic! I think if somebody dies, that's a big deal, and even if they come out of it mostly fine and a little different, there's probably gotta be some long-term consequences. They wouldn't be like their human peers anymore, due to being a different species and whatnot, but they also wouldn't come out of something so traumatic unscathed. So nice thinking, everyone who commented along those lines, I like how you're looking at ghost health, but this is something Dash is going to learn to live with and work around, and love himself with his injuries included <3

Any one of us might revisit this universe to write a "sequel" sometime, so I'm going to give a briefing on what each of us usually writes in case you're interested in any of our styles and want to subscribe to our accounts, where you might someday see a continuation on this (no promises):

AttackRadish is currently working on a longform angst story which will be published once it's done. He tends toward Fenton Family angst and dissec in his writing, but not without variety.

OmegaSmileyface has a non-angst Ghost Hunger series at the forefront right now. They tend to work Ghost King!Danny and detailed fictional science into most of their writing.

ectolemonades tends to write fics focusing on interpersonal relationships, in all kinds of emotional flavors. Especially Grey Ghost and Teddy Ghost at the moment.

Hope everyone enjoyed!

[ofbeautsandbeasts]

Okay, I want to know how the transition of the phantoms deformity happened? How did we start from Leroux full face corpse while being skeleton like thin to ALW half faced deformity and "normal" body?

Hi, thanks for asking me a question! (my inbox is barren these days, except for the occasional tumbleweed...or should I say tumblrweed?) 😂

Well, I think Leroux chose a very corpse-like Phantom because an "opera ghost" should look macabre and close to death...just based on the name/concept. I do believe he was a fan of Bram Stoker's Dracula because Erik and Dracula have a lot of things in common. For example, Erik sleeps in a coffin, he has no mirrors in his house, he lives in a secluded and mysterious house, he doesn’t eat when Christine dines, he gives her Tokay wine at her first meal, he keeps her as his prisoner for a time, his eyes blaze, etc. I'm not sure if Leroux was trying to make his readers suspect Erik's a vampire all along or if he was paying homage to one of his fave novels or if he simply thought it would be cool to give Erik these traits. Gothic novels of that time just tended to have supernatural villains and Erik is no exception. It makes sense that a truly horrifying phantom would essentially look like a zombie...because what's scarier than something that really shouldn't be alive and is missing a nose??

(sorry, I couldn't resist adding some of my & @fantomexnoir's art 😆)

As for ALW's half-deformity, @textsfromthefifthbasement has it right about Michael Crawford rehearsing with a full face mask and it being difficult to sing/emote well, so they switched to a half-mask. Regarding why it's not just a skeletal deformity, I think that would be underwhelming to modern audiences because we've collectively consumed so many horror movies since they were first made that we need something more contrasting and unnatural like this:

Trust me, the first time I ever saw this deformity, I was completely BOGGLED! Like...his head has a HOLE??? That somehow doesn't get infected or bleed out????? Don't even get me started on the version that has exposed brain 🤦:

As for the "normal" body, it would be difficult/problematic to only cast underweight actors for the Phantom...but I'd so love to see someone like Matthew Patrick Davis do a performance as ALW Erik! He's the 6'6" man who dressed up as Jack Skellington and performed as him for a youtube video (link here). Just imagine him doing Stranger Than You Dreamt It and the Final Lair with the same creepy/spidery physicality!

Alas...I don't know when we'll ever get a super accurate Leroux adaptation. Maybe one day Guillermo Del Toro will get around to directing one...and then we can all die happy 👻

[yanderefairyangel]

Hi @runictablet if you don't mind I will answer here because I think my answer will be a little long.

So honestly I find the idea to name eahc character after one common theme very well thought.

Because it's giving Engage a strong worldbuilding identity and it's also relying on a simple and yet effective art direction.

That's not high far fecthed reference sure, but that works just as well, simple and efficient.

@emblematicemblazer made some post regarding this topic as well and I got a very clever anon pointing to how Firene's branding name was linked to how it's canonically the Kingdom of wealth and I did hope to be able to make a full post centered about the meaning of the game but I am just going to focus on Brodia for this one ok ?

So in the case of Brodia I think the name being around gemstone is pretty clever.

Brodia from what we know is a meritocracy based on physcial strengh and gemstones can be classified in a hierachical way because of the carat. Gemstones with little carat have little value and in Frech, you can use that expression in general to speak of things that are of high quality. And combined that way, it helps showing the Brodian meritocracy and tie to the economy as we know it highly relies on mine.

And then it connects as well to how our Brodian cast all suffer from different sort of impostor syndrome and are pressured by society to be "perfect" "strong" etc, like the most shining and high valued gemstone.

To take two examples of character whose name I think works perfectly I would choose Lapis and Diamant.

While Lapis name seems to come from the lapis lazuli, in reality it's the just the word lapis meaning stone in latin. And seeing how Lapis is a commoner, it all makes sense. Symbolically, her name being that makes her insecurity and inferiority complex due to her rank emphasized. Lapis is a commoner however we know that in Brodia strengh is valued and this include the hierachal rank that nobles have superiority towards commoner. This makes Lapis feel highly insecure : she is a stone in a kingdom of gems, symbolically. That's what her name represent. Lapis herself in chapter 7 state that she is aware that the weak in Brodia will get robbed off, she know she cannot shows that her position is weaker. But at the same time, the ambiguity makes sense within universe as Lapis tries to hide her real origins by making as if she might be from a higher family but she never outright lies since she is that honest. So when you think of lapis-lazuli the gem when hearing her name, it's part of this "imposture" that isn't really one, just a misunderstanding due to her name so she is at the same time Lapis (the stone) but not Lapis (the gemstone) like she is in truth a commoner (a stone) but not a noble (gemstone) and her name also refers to her strengh to some extent with stone not breaking as easily as some gemstones.

And for Diamant now. His name is the french word for Diamond. Diamond are precious gemstone reputed to be unbreakable and to be a symbol of perfection. Some people view it as the tears of God. Diamant is a character seen as perfect and flawless by those around him, strong and unbreakable. However we do learn in his suppor it's not true. He has flaws, he has weakness and there is something he fears = Fire magic. In fact, in his design, part of his hair is lighter then the rest probably to signify that he is indeed someone with flaws but he tries to hide them. In greek, the word ἀδάμας that gave the word diamant in french meant unbreakable to refer to the fact this gemstone would not break. However, it also refers to the indominable state of the mind and more then his physical strengh, that is what Diamant demonstrate notably in chapter 10 of the main story and yes, that why in contrast his Alter ego have no strong will, which Diamant will call him out on would he fight him. And finally diamond are symbol of purity. Diamant is a man of pure intentions. In FE, the common them about nobility and monarchy is that nobles are not above the people, but at their services. They must not make the people innocent civilians suffer from greater ideals or for their greed or treat them as if they were inferior, the nobility and the governement/ruler have the responsability to protect their people, to ensure their security, their well being their happiness, like a retainer would do with their liege. Diamant by his pure wish for prosperity based on peace and opposing a greedy nobility illustrate that. He also got support where he gets to laugh and being a bit goofy. And most importantly, something that is also shown in the most recent chapter for the manga, is sought for strengh isn't based on the same motives then the nobility but on a pure wish to protect others : he pushed himself as a child to be able to protect his brother, to protect his people and all he does is in that mindest. That's what is droving him to perfectionate himself not matter what hardship he face which makes his association to the diamond and to Roy whose incantations means standing up very relevant as in reality Diamant is more of a perfection of the mind over the body.

I hope this answer your question ! So yeah I find them very interesting to analyze

[wishingicouldfly]

Harry Styles is a Mermaid

Disclaimer: I am sure I’m not the first to report and share these links and images. I thought people would find this interesting, so I’m sharing my foray down this rabbit hole. I’d welcome any additional links or thoughts related to Mermaids and the LGBTQ community.

If you know anyone that should be credited for pictures here, let me know. None of them belong to me.

***

In November 2014, Harry Styles had the image of a mermaid tattooed on his left forearm. The bare-chested siren joined multitudes of other nautical themed tattoos that litter his body. 

A few days after the new tat appeared, he responded to a question at a meet and greet. 

“I am a Mermaid,” he said. 

I started the research on this post when I saw the gif with his quote about being a mermaid. Rest below the cut.

Harry Styles’ Mermaid Tattoo — The Real Reason Behind His New Ink – Hollywood Life 

I’m not going to tell you why he said he’s a mermaid. I don’t know what it means to him. I have no idea. Maybe he simply likes mermaids. Maybe he feels like it matches the themes of his and Louis’ other nautical tattoos. I can't pretend to know.

“Mermaid” as a theme, though, has a decades long association with the LGBTQ community. And I think that’s interesting in light of the imagery that Harry himself has shared and seems to connect to.

Like, that time he wore a shirt with a famous line from The Little Mermaid.

Or in 2019, when he dressed as Ariel for a Saturday Night Live photoshoot.

Did Harry Styles REALLY say 'I am a mermaid'? Truth behind viral photo and his Ariel look for 'SNL' | MEAWW 

Or his his whole video for Music for a Sushi Restaurant: 

I’ve seen the Little Mermaid probably dozens of times. My child and I watched it a lot when she was growing up. And while I always knew it was an allegory for being different, I didn’t think about the deeper meaning as it relates to the LGBTQ community until more recently.

According to this article from the Smithsonian, 

The central story of The Little Mermaid is, of course, 16-year-old Ariel’s identity crisis. She feels constrained by her patriarchal mer-society and senses she doesn’t belong. She yearns for another world, apart from her own, where she can be free from the limits of her rigid culture and conservative family. Her body is under the water, but her heart and mind are on land with people. She leads a double life. She is, essentially, “in the closet” (as symbolized by her “cavern”—or closet—of human artifacts, where the character-building song “Part of Your World” takes place).

Source: 'The Little Mermaid' Was Way More Subversive Than You Realized | Arts & Culture| Smithsonian Magazine  https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/little-mermaid-was-way-more-subversive-you-realized-180973464/

The Disney version was written by writer-producer-lyricist Howard Ashman and composer Alan Menken. 

The character of Ursula, though, is the real LGBTQ icon. “Conceived by Ashman, Ursula is based on the famous cross-dressing performer Divine, who was associated with the openly gay filmmaker John Waters. As scholar Laura Sells explained in a 1995 anthology of essays, Ursula’s “Poor Unfortunate Souls” song is essentially a drag show instructing the naive mermaid on how to attract Prince Eric (who is conspicuously uninterested in Ariel and most content at sea with his all-male crew and manservant Grimsby). “In Ursula’s drag scene,” Sells wrote, “Ariel learns that gender is performance; Ursula doesn’t simply symbolize woman, she performs woman.” (same source as above).

A gay man in 1980s America, Ashman had personal experience with the culture wars over “family values” and gay rights. The “Reagan Revolution” marked the arrival of the long-brewing marriage of the Republican Party with conservative Christians and included a platform that was unfriendly to gay rights, to say the least. President Reagan ignored the AIDS epidemic that swept the nation (refusing to appropriate any federal funds for research or treatment), and Republicans in general claimed the “gay plague” was God’s punishment for homosexuality. Ashman saw the film as an opportunity to advance a social message through the medium of “family entertainment.” The last thing Americans would expect from Disney was a critique of patriarchy, but sure enough, Ashman’s The Little Mermaid is a gutsy film about gender and identity—a far cry from the staid Disney catalog. (same source).

Anyone who was around in 2015 knows about RBB/SBB. But if you didn’t, the Rainbow Bears (RBB/SBB, largely assumed to be created and curated by Harry and Louis) mentioned Divine on December 1, 2015. Just after they posted about her, Harry tweeted a lyric that alluded to Divine. See below. 

Credit to @SkepticalLarrie

There’s a whole other rabbit hole you can go down about John Waters (openly gay film director) and Divine and Pink Flamingos (Pink Flamingos: A Queer Beginner’s Guide to Family, Style and Not Giving a Sh*t | by Joe Corr | Medium. https://mandysweats.medium.com/pink-flamingos-a-queer-beginners-guide-to-family-style-and-not-giving-a-sh-t-fa9aa3e6c96f

Here’s another article that talks about The Little Mermaid being important to the LGBT community.

How The Little Mermaid Found A Place In The Hearts Of LGBTQ Fans | HuffPost UK Entertainment (huffingtonpost.co.uk) 

There was a lot of speculation about Harry being potentially cast as Prince Eric in a live action version of the Little Mermaid. I’m not sure how serious those rumors were, but I can imagine based on all of this research, that he might have found the Prince wasn’t the character he related to most.

Harry Styles fans upset over 'Little Mermaid' reports | CNN https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/14/entertainment/harry-styles-little-mermaid-trnd/index.html

To go even further down the rabbit hole, go all the way back to the original story. The Hans Christian Anderson version has a tragic ending, that doesn’t end with the mermaid happily ever with the prince. There is some speculation that the story was an allegory for an unrequited love that Anderson had toward a straight acquaintance.

The Little Mermaid Is Really About Unrequited Gay Love | by Tamara Mitrofanova | Lessons from History | Medium 

I also want to point out that Mermaids is a UK based charity organization, that “supports transgender, nonbinary and gender-diverse children and young people until their 20th birthday, as well as their families and professionals involved in their care.” About Mermaids - Mermaids (mermaidsuk.org.uk) https://mermaidsuk.org.uk/about-us/

All of this could be coincident to the true purpose behind what Harry’s tattoo means to him. We will likely never know its exact meaning to him. 

But as time passes, and we see Harry waving various LGBTQ flags and hinting at being in the community himself, I think it might bear remembering that he said he WAS a mermaid. And I think that’s beautiful, Harry.

[maiji]

I'll request a reading if you're still doing them! why not. for my little guy Hana. what is he afraid of with regards to... his own history? 🤔 numbers.. 11 and 23. and if you're not still doing readings.. i hope you have a great day regardless!

I am absolutely delighted to do a reading for Hana from the webcomic Kings of Sorts! Hana seems like such a sweetie but from his very first appearance it's clear there's so much more to him than meets the eye. I'm nowhere near caught up on webcomic so this will be interesting, to see whether any patterns/interpretations we pull out manage to touch on anything that readers can already experience, or whether it just veers off into another direction of far-off general speculation. So if there somehow manage to be spoilers in this reading, I'm sorry, I had no idea either. lol

#11 was The Whip (which, by the way, is actually the eleventh card in Lenormand as well, interestingly enough), and #23 was The House. This combination actually made me gasp in light of the question. Kind of an "oh! / ohhh??" gasp. I think there's a lot of potential in terms of delving deeply into creative writing inspiration or character analysis!

The Whip is a card associated with many things that can cause pain: conflict, violence, shame, anger. And The House has already come up before, so we know it's used to represent a lot of things that seem like the exact opposite of The Whip - warmth, stability, things that make you feel cozy and happy and comfortable. But it's also associated with private matters. In other words, the exterior facade presented to the world may be brightness and cheer but there may be something much darker happening behind closed doors. I am reminded of when we first meet Hana in his home, and the scene where he talks about wanting to be able to help the people in his community in some way, any way...

In short, looking for a connection between the two cards that could be a cause for fear in Hana's history seems like we have a plethora of options. If we're being super dark - was there past punishment and suffering that separated him from things he considered home or family? Did they hurt, or were they caused by, people he would consider family? And whips are also things used to control - there's a lot of symbolism for a whip as not only a weapon and instrument of torture, but also a stereotype of a tool used to manage things seen as dangerous, wild and/or "other", like some kind of beast tamer. It has a lot of cruelty associated with it.

We don't have to go down the path of only super dark places, by the way. The Whip doesn't have to be interpreted in an extreme fashion - though I suppose with creative writing/inspiration we can often feel like that's an obvious or exciting and dramatic route to go down. It can also represent an argument, a physical activity (an injury?), something much less overtly traumatic but still play a major role in a core memory/event. Also, this Whip has flags added to it for greater control and sound effects - there's a sense that it can be for show, engineered as part of a performance.

I hope this was helpful! Thank you for the opportunity to read for Hana. Please don't be too mean to him!

---

Thanks for requesting a limited time free reading to celebrate the new edition of the Fortune Lenormand oracle/art deck!

Want to dive deeper?

Fortune Lenormand oracle/art deck - there's a free downloadable overview of card meanings!

humangray.com/lenormand - more info and resources/links!

(Note: these readings are being done with my old card deck from the original printing. There's not much difference with the new edition available in the link above - the biggest one is that the new edition has a custom box ooh ahh!)

[accidentalmistress]

A bunch of you liked my prompt of the demon who's literally allergic to silver being summoned to serve a snzfucker, so I've decided to create some OCs around it!

I'll apologize in advance because I'm not the best artist, so please forgive the use of picrew to make the character art 😅

(Now updated to include picrew links)

First up is the demon summoner:

Picrew link

Noelle is a witch, and she's fairly well convinced that she's not a very good one. A bit clumsy, she lacks confidence in her abilities and largely in herself overall. Although she's been practicing magic for years, she still considers herself a student of the arcane arts, as there is always something new to learn and study. She is a bookish and shy introvert who prefers spending her time alone in her tower, studying and practicing her magic.

She has the kink, but there's not much that makes her sneeze, much to her frustration. She has no allergies to speak of, and the usual inducing methods produce poor results. The last time she tried using magic to induce, she only succeeded in losing her sense of smell for a week, so she's avoided that ever since. When she does sneeze, she usually has a short build-up followed by a cute single or double sneeze: heh... heh-ESHOO!

She's fairly short and petit, and prefers loose clothes and big scarves that she hides her face in when she's embarrassed (and might sneeze into). Her brown hair is about shoulder length and messy with a gentle curl. She has large, brown eyes behind round glasses, and a smattering of freckles across her face.

She feels like she's hit a wall with her abilities, and that she's just not seeing any improvement in her magical talents, so she decides to summon a helper. A bond with a magical servant would increase the raw power at her disposal and give her another pair of hands to control complex workings. She expects some sort of small spirit or lesser demon. An imp, perhaps, or an elemental sprite of some sort. Imagine her surprise when the one sitting in the middle of her summoning circle is...

Picrew link

Oraion. A greater demon, and an incubus at that. He's honestly as confused as Noelle as to why he, of all beings, answered her summons. One moment he was lounging comfortably at his manor in the Demon Realm, and the next thing he knew he was sitting on a stone floor in some kind of dreary tower with a rather mousy witch staring at him. Indeed, his first impression of her was that she looked very much like a small rodent that just came face to face with a cat.

The collar around his neck is the symbol of their contract as Master and Servant, and it prevents him from harming his master or disobeying a direct order. He doesn't fancy calling a woman "Master", though, and insists on calling Noelle "Mistress" instead. (He doesn't really fancy calling anyone Master and is of the opinion that he should have servants, not be a servant.) He is capricious, mercurial, and rather lazy, being used to the life of what equates to a noble in the Demon Realm. He can also be blunt and doesn't always have a filter in conversation. However, although he may not often show it, he is 100% supportive of Noelle's efforts, and sees in her the potential that she has convinced herself does not exist.

Sneezing is a rather novel experience for Oraion, as demons in this setting do not usually have such a reaction, being more spiritual than physical beings. He is rather fascinated by the whole thing, and enjoys experimenting to find what he is more and less sensitive to, where his most ticklish spots are, what gets him immediately sneezing vs what gets him itchy and hitchy, and other ways to effectively tease and wind up his Mistress.

Touching silver triggers an immediate allergic reaction that gets worse the longer he is in contact with the metal. Holy water has a similar effect, especially if inhaled in vapor form. His nose is generally sensitive, and he is able to induce/be induced with any number of methods (feathers, a tickly piece of grass, sniffing pepper, dust, etc.). If he is already having an allergic reaction he gets even more sensitive, and at that point all it takes is a gentle rubbing of his nose with a finger to set him off.

He is adamant that he, as a demon, cannot get sick, but the veracity of this claim has yet to be confirmed.

Due to the nature of their bond, Oraion's sneezes have been tailored to suit his Mistress's tastes, and so he often has gloriously hitchy, desperate fits, especially when his allergies are triggered.

M-Mistress I- hih... hih... I-I need to s-sn- hihh! hiihhHH! HIHHTCHOO! hih- hihTCHU! hih-HIHSHOO! Ngh, I c-can't s- hih! s-stop- hih- hih-hIIHH! ... HIIIHSHIEW!

Being an incubus, Oraion can sense when Noelle is sexually aroused. She tried to hide her kink at first, but Oraion connected the dots pretty easily the first time he had a full-on sneezing fit.

Also due to his nature, Oraion is a very pretty boy. He's tall (height difference!) with a slim, toned build, and his skin is so pale as to be nearly white, though he has darker gray stripes along his back and limbs like the markings of a tiger shark. He has crimson hair and eyes, curling horns like a ram's, and pointed ears. He also has a long, thin tail with a feathery tuft of red hair at the end (like a kirin), and batlike wings that can vanish when not in use.

I've started writing a fic about them. I don't know when it will be finished, but I'll post it with my OC tags when it's done: #noelle the awkward witch / #oraion the allergic incubus

Anyway, here's Wonderwall. I mean, some bonus Noelle and Oraion sneezy faces!

And some more Oraion! This is honestly closer to how I actually picture him (and the sneezy expression is way better imo), but this picrew didn't have any horns T^T

Picrew link

[sagemoderocklee]

What tips do you have for writers that want to write a gaalee fic, like tips and tricks to avoid making the dynamic ooc

oof it's been a long time since i've had a question like this so this may take me a minute to collect my thoughts. first i'll direct you to a few different things i've answered over the years that might help. these are older posts of mine but i think they still hold up well:

i think you've seen this post already but i might as well share it again since it's specifically about ooc things.

here's my old tiger/dragon imagery write up

here's one on gaara and empathy

here's one on rock lee's mental health (tw for discussions of self-harm, suicidal ideation) I do think with this particular write up, I wish I'd focused more on the issue of anger more. I think one thing that gets overlooked with Lee is anger and resentment, which i think are feelings he works hard to keep bottled up--and then they come out when he's drunk. but as someone who was ostracized and bullied, i think lee has like deep, deep repressed wells of anger and resentment that he doesn't want to acknowledge or deal with.

so, all those links aside, i think this is a really, really broad question. if you have any like more specific questions after this please feel free to ask. im probably just gonna ramble because im extremely tired because of my health, but i don't wanna leave this sitting in my inbox for a million years.

there are certain things that make these characters who they are, of course, but i think there's also context--like i had an ask... god i don't even know how many years ago about this sort of thing. forget exactly what it was but i rambled about gaara being the kazekage, and like generally speaking i think it would be out of character for gaara to like give that up... but contextually i could see him doing that. like stepping down when he's old is a different thing than like outright abdicating, and like i have ideas for fics following that but it's... definitely a very difficult thing to execute. like if you were to be like yeah gaara's gonna give up being kazekage to be with lee i would probably not read that fic. maybe you could write it well, but i don't really buy gaara doing something like that. if he were to give up being kazekage for like political reasons, that i could dig. but he's not giving it up for rock lee.

but again, speaking in absolutes is difficult because i think sometimes you can bend the rules and make it work. it just really depends on the story you're writing and how you execute it.

my biggest thing with writing any pairing centered fic--regardless of the pairing--is making sure that you don't get lost in the pairing. i want the two individuals involved to still be recognizable and to have enough driving force on the plot. like they need to be more than just a couple. and i think when you get down to it, if you don't want their interactions/relationship to be OOC then you have to know the characters individually.

how does gaara respond to people in general? how does he respond to his family vs his friends? how does he respond to lee vs anyone else? and why does he respond that way?

and the answer to these questions may change from fic to fic, depending on the context of the fic. For Absolution, Gaara and Lee are not friends so much as (once) friendly acquaintances--like they respect each other, but they were not truly friends prior to the events of Absolution. That was a necessary thing for the story. But in The Art of Love, they've been friends for years and years, because that was necessary for the plot.

So how Gaara responds to Lee changes between these two fics. But the important thing is it's still Rock Lee that he's responding to. i dunno if that makes sense, but it's like whether or not he's close to Lee prior to the events of the story you write, he is responding to Lee not a stranger--who is Rock Lee in Gaara's mind? Because that informs how he reacts to Lee.

if i were to like pick a few ooc things i'd say:

inequality/power imbalance in their relationship. There already exists an imbalance of power within their professional dynamic--Gaara is a Kage, Lee is a Chuunin/Jounin (depending). This is something that exists, whether they want it or not, so when it comes to the romantic aspect of their relationship, they need to be on equal footing. And Lee especially needs to feel he's equal to Gaara, if not by position in skill/strength. He needs to feel acknowledged and respected as a shinobi.

never acknowledging their past. the relationship simply cannot be all sunshine and roses. blood has been spilled between them, gaara sought to kill lee. sometimes things have to be hard, complicated, and even a lil ugly. maybe a lil mean. it's not healthy to never talk about difficult topics, and it would be OOC imo if gaara didn't express guilt and remorse for the pain he caused Lee. im not saying it has to be a big part of your fic, im not saying it even has to occur on screen within the fic, but it needs to have happened at some point in time. (this obviously applies mostly to canon, unless you're like transposing some aspect of the gaalee fight into an AU)

gaara and lee are both opposites attract, and two halves of a whole. in the above link where i talk about the tiger/dragon imagery, it's important to look at how that functions as a yin/yang dynamic and what that means. i think at the end of the day, their differences are more often than not superficial and products of their upbringing. Lee is loud, Gaara is quiet--but the are both kind and warm, for instance. they value the same things, even if they express themselves differently. they are more balancing than opposing forces. a lot of ppl use sun/moon for ship dynamics, which i think is great, but i don't think that suits lee and gaara, so much. sun/earth; wind/fire--those are definitely good elemental comparisons for them. but i think it's just really important to grasp that while Lee and Gaara are two very different people, they are at their cores very similar in a lot of ways too, and they ultimately create balance within each other.

anyways, i babbled a lot and i hope that all makes sense and helps. again im happy to answer more questions always!

and like i do think whenever you approach writing fanfiction, you wanna start with what you know about the characters and their relationship as its established in canon. you have to have your building blocks. once you have those building blocks then you can add onto the characters, and then you can build their relationship. play around with it and don't be afraid to make mistakes.

[canmom]

Animation Night 116: Milan Blažeković

Dobra večer, prijatelji! Vrijeme je za Večer animacije.

Good evening, friends! It’s time for Animation Night. Tonight we’re heading over to Croatia, to look at the films directed by Milan Blažeković, namely Čudesna šuma (The Elm-chanted Forest, 1986) and its sequel Čarobnjakov šešir (The Magician’s Hat, 1990).

Why? Well, my dear @mogsk​ has been working on translating a Ukrainian fansub of the latter film into English, which to our knowledge does not have an extant English sub. So, I don’t want to boast that this film has never been seen with English subtitles because I have no way of verifying that, but at the very least right now you won’t be able to get it anywhere else~

So, who’s this guy, what are his films like? I’ll admit, I was unfamiliar, so let me bring in a scholar who knows a thing or two, Midhat Ajanović Ajan, who writes the following in introduction to his biography of Blažeković:

If it did not sound like a cliche, slightly shabby from overuse, I would have called this article, and the entire book for that matter, A Croatian Disney. There is not a single animated filmmaker in Croatian, or the entire region, who is generally betternsuited than Milan Blažeković to be compared with the giant of animation and film. Blažeković's life and work are inseparably linked with the famous American, who remains the synonym for the art of the animated image. Blažeković made three animated feature films in the classic cel animation technique, which placed him in the select company that has fewer than a dozen European members and brought him as near as possible to his great idol. He made the films despite the fact that he was creating in an enviroment which had made a global impact by moving away from Disney's canons and by opposing the domination of his esthetic model.

I can’t find any copy of said biography on libgen, so the actual contents will have to remain a mystery. The way Mogs describes it to me, however, it fits into a broader tradition of frenetic, creative Eastern European animation, similar to such films as the wonderful Bulgarian Treasure Planet we watched back on Animation Night 7. (Sadly, like many early Animation Nights, I did not write this one up in the depth I would have liked. One day I hope to revisit a lot of these earlier issues!) There is less concern with the weighty realistic motion prized by Disney or the realist school in Japan, and more concern with ‘life’ of a different kind: unexpected, weird, surprising motion.

Such animation was the result of an explicit philosophy at the Zagreb School of Animtation, described in this article by Sanja Bahun...

“Life is warmth. Warmth is movement. Movement is life. Animation can be lukewarm or boiling. Cold animation isn‟t animation; it is like a stillborn child. To make animated cartoons means to rub tree trunks against each other until there is a spark perhaps or just a little bit of smoke. Take a kilogram of ideas (if possible not too confused), fifty kilograms of talent, and a few thousands of drawings. Stir it well and then with a bit of luck you won't get the right answer to your question.” (quoted in Petzke 1996: 53)

For the Zagreb School of Animation, one of the arguably most significant phenomena in both Croatian and Yugoslav cinematography, to animate never meant to imitate reality, but rather to give it a design, or, better still, an “interpretation” (Vukotić 1978: 15).

School here is in the sense of ‘school of thought’, like the ‘realist school’, not a literal building - but the Zagreb School was associated with a studio, Zagreb Film, and a long-running animation festival, Animafest (the second animation festival in Europe after Annecy). In Bahun’s account, its origins come in the 50s, at which point Yugsolavia had but recently split from the Soviet union under Tito, creating the context for an anti-Soviet animated film The Great Rally directed by Fadil Hadžić, the editor of a satirical magazine.

From this was born Duga Film, a short-lived production company which launched the careers of a lot of animators; this gave way to Zagreb Film, the centre of the ‘Zagreb School’. Although very stylistically varied, their films tended to focus on the struggles of a ‘small man’ defying, often unsuccessfully, a larger world; this later gave way to...

a loosely testimonial narrative structure, where the subject‟s interior landscape interacts with the objective world in a string of visually or auditorily commanding phantasmagorias (Dragić‟s Diary [Dnevnik, 1974] and Gašparović‟s Satiemania)

and then by the 80s, a turn to horror. The main thing unifying them all was a commitment to limited animation techniques: loops, reusing cels, and multiplane effects - though, in a sense more like the oldschool Fleischers than TV anime.

But! We’re not really here to talk about the Zagreb school, but what came next. So, The Elm-Chanted Forest: this was the first feature-length Croatian animation, an American collaboration which came at a point when Zagreb Film was in decline, but nevertheless carrying a lot of its spirit. It tells the story of a painter transported into a fantasy world, in which he encounters a series of oddities. Their US collaborators were New York-based Fantasy Forest Films, although I can find out almost nothing about them on a quick search, with databases like imdb listing no credits beyond this one film. Mysteries upon mysteries!

In any case, the work largely seems to be Croatian, although the story was adapted for screen by Fred P. Sharkey. The film was produced by someone called Doro Vlado Hreljanovic, who has a very weird career: grindhouse films in the 70s and early 80s, this one upbeat animated fantasy film, and then made two volumes of the news-footage snuff/shock series Faces of Death in the 90s. A fascinating rabbit hole given I had not even known this series existed, but otherwise unrelated...

So... let’s at last talk about the director, Milan Blažeković! He had previous directed short films such as Largo and episodes of the popular TV series Professor Balthazar.

Here’s an episode of Professor Balthazar narrated in English:

Further short films include The Fish, Ikarus, Vergl and Gorilla Dance (1968) and The Man Who Had To Sing (1971), and animation for Vladimir Petek’s experimental film Zaklon (1967). He also contributed animation to longer projects, such as the Croatian-Canadian animated environmental film Man: The Polluter - I suppose Yugoslavia’s position as a ‘non-aligned’ country made it possible to collaborate with NATO countries like Canada? I would like to expand more on these, but unfortunately it is unclear where to find most of them. Here’s The Man Who Had to Sing, at least, a dark little story about a child who won’t stop singing and gets rejected by just about all of society.

So. Elm-chanted was released in 1986, as far as I can tell simultaneously in Croation in Croatia and English in the US. The Croats loved it, but the Americans largely didn’t get it, which in Bahun’s account is likely because it’s an odd hybrid of the Disney school and the Zagreb school, with very flat staging. Nevertheless, a copy managed to make its way to the house of @mogsk​, where it became a cherished childhood memory which would decades later inspire her to go looking for it... and that brings us to the second film, The Magician’s Hat:

Although more elaborate in its animation, this sequel was no longer an international collaboration, and released only in Croatian. Which means it’s almost unknown outside of Croatia, but we can thank the efforts of the Ukrainian fansubber Magmator, founder of RG Gliger (gliger.at.ua), a fansubbing site specialising in pokémon but also other animated films. Thanks to them, a Ukrainian-language .srt file was available which Mogs could machine translate, cleanup, and re-time. (Of course, if a Croatian speaker could help, we could make a better fansub~)

So what’s this one about? It centres on one Thistle the Magician, the redeemed antagonist of the first film, now battling against a certain Car Mrazomor (Emperor Frostbite), leader of the Frost Witches.

Following this film, the Soviet Union would complete its fall, and Yugoslavia would collapse in an extremely bloody war. Blažeković survived, and in 1997, two years after Croatia became an independent country, he would release his third feature, Lapitch, The Little Shoemaker (Čudnovate zgode šegrta Hlapića), adapting a children’s story in a similar model as his previous films. Returning to Bahun, she says...

To an audience made up of children who grew up exposed to gory television footage, curfews, and air raid sirens, and adults exhausted by the seemingly perpetual cycles of violence, Lapitch, The Little Shoemaker was a welcome escape: it soon became the highest-grossing Croatian animated film ever.

It received a much wider international release, and hopefully we’ll get a chance to see it down the line.

That’s about everything I can find out about these two movies... so now, for the first time (maybe) in English, let’s go and enjoy two truly obscure gems of traditional animation from Croatia! And thank you so much again mogs, who did basically all the work for this one, not just creating an entire fansub but also finding the sources to write about it <3

So... Animation Night 116 will be going live now over at picarto.tv/canmom and films will be rolling in about 30 minutes - hope to see you there!