#reanimation scheme

[cursed-nyxan]

heyy I finally played the new dlc so I may or may not have collected all the new ads. honestly, i'm not sure i found all of them so feel free to add any i may have missed

A date with Death ads here

let's start with those visual novels we've already saw. also sorry for putting two ads in one pic, but tumblr only lets me post 30 images per post

The Divine Speaker

The Sun and the Moon

Dreambound

The last rose

The Inn Between

Heart Agency

and also we have some newly featured visual novels ❤️

Amelie

A week to remember

Banishing You

Blush blush

Cage of Roses

Camera Anima

Canvas Menagerie

Cinderella Phenomenon

Drăculești

Emblems: Sunless Vow

Imperial Grace

Of Sense and Soul

Our Life: Now & Forever

Reanimation Scheme

Save the Villainess

Snow White Ashes

SPEAKEASY: Last Call

start;again

The Elevator Game with Catgirls

Threads of You: Beyond the Bay

[windchimesgames]

After almost 5 years of ups and downs, Reanimation Scheme is nearly ready to meet you all.

The full game will be released in Q3 this year, with limited beta access currently available on Patreon and to Kickstarter backers!

Reanimation Scheme is an otome / romance visual novel about necromancy, love, life and death. Step into the shoes of the necromancer, Raenelle. Meet a colorful cast of characters, fail to summon the spirits of the dead, unravel mysteries, and maybe — just maybe — fall in love.

Featuring:

A gentle nerdy childhood best friend 📚

A bubbly sweet gal pal 💖 (yes, there is a WLW route!)

One icy jerk of an earl ❄️

One playful prankster spirit 👻

A grumpy tsundere cat shapeshifter 🐈

Wishlist the game on Steam so you won't miss its release! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1520740/Reanimation_Scheme/

[overly-hubristic-mad-scientist]

It’s so funny that Herbert is always refereed to as small or tiny when in reality he’s like 5’7

[delawaredetroit]

This is funny no matter who made the decision to give Dabi a noumu.

If it's All for One: We're even for the medical malpractice and schemes to potentially noumify you if I let you borrow one of our scientific monstrosities, right?

If it's Shigaraki: Since we've now become comrades through a mutual homicide attempt, have this superpowered reanimated corpse as a token of our friendship.

[xreaderwrites]

Grey Areas

Summary: Cheating Death is so much harder when she claws her way out of the dirt.

Tags: scheming, complex feelings, pining, Teen is Billy Maximoff, to be continued

Words: 1k+ | AO3

A/N: a story is a-brewing but the story must marinate…gestate even

A hand bursts from the ground and you shove Billy between yourself and Agatha. He doesn’t protest, his eyes stuck  on the woman clawing her way out of the dirt as he yells about reanimation.

It’s worse. Instead of the spell going horribly wrong it’s gone horribly right, with the best Green Witch they could have possibly gotten. Death herself.

You swallow harshly and pull Teen back with you (and he is Teen now. No other name shall be uttered with Death so close). He’s in such a grey area that both sides can be made. He was never technically alive, not in the way the people Death take are, so him coming back doesn’t break any rules and yet it is his soul that is here on this plane, something she very much deals with. 

Both sides can be made but you are much weaker than she is. You won’t stand a chance.

Agatha screaming and clawing for Death sends your stomach plummeting. It’s good that they won’t be teaming up against you together, your chances of success in that situation are so infinitesimally small, but now you’re fighting on three fronts.

This isn’t the first time you’ve regretted Teen finding your work but this is the first time you’ve hated yourself for it. To have him die so young during his second chance of life…Wanda will never forgive you. In this life or the next.

Agatha storms off and it isn’t long before Rio skips after her.

Teen calling your name makes you realise how harshly you’re clinging to him.

“Are you okay?” he asks worriedly.

Your gaze stays firmly locked on the two witches ahead. Rio sends you a knowing smile mid-twirl. 

It makes you sick. Instead of bringing Wanda back, you’ll be protecting the boy she lost her mind trying to save.

“I’m fine,” you give his shoulder a reassuring squeeze and, ignoring the looks the other three are giving you, you follow Rio up the Witches Road.

Jen and Alice start up behind you and what would’ve been a fun conversation about liking scary women is made easy to ignore with Teen beside you.

“Do you know her?” he asks cautiously. 

He knows how touchy you can be with your past. You have to push the guilt away to concentrate on the question. You’ve to be so careful with everything you say for so long one would think it would be easier by now.

“I know of her, yes,” you allow. “She’s extremely powerful. A good catch for the Road.”

“But?” Teen pushes.

“But…” how to put it, “Her connections to others can be weak, or at least slow to build. Not a quality you want when facing the trials.” Your eyes slide to Agatha, “But that isn’t exactly a new danger. We couldn’t trust Sharon to get us out of a bind, either.”

A frown creases Teen’s face.

“But she was so nice.”

You cast him a long look. Does he really not know she wasn’t a witch? It’s so hard to tell.

“She was incredibly weak, power-wise, and her knowledge was extremely limited. We couldn’t trust her to help us because she wouldn’t have been able to. It’s nothing against her.”

This seems to ease him as his body relaxes and his usual smile begins to poke through, dampened by seeing death so closely. 

It’s your turn to frown. You wish you had known him before the sigil. Then you’d be able to know how much of his naivety is real. He’s a sixteen year old witch and he broke his mother’s curse. That isn’t a small thing. He shouldn’t be this powerful and yet have so little knowledge of what the world is capable of.

You don’t even know what he’s looking for at the end of the Road.

Your frown deepens as you watch Rio shadow Agatha.

It’s no use telling Teen to keep his distance. He’s been glued to Agatha’s side and Rio seems intent on subtly doing the same. Not to mention being on the Road means distance from one another is deadly. This whole situation is frustrating to say the least. But what were you really expecting when traversing the Witches Road?

He gives you a look and you manage to nod your head without rolling your eyes. He scampers ahead to Agatha’s side.

Rio was a few step behind her but she allows a gap to grow as Teen passes her.

You sigh to yourself and catch up to Rio. Matching her pace, you allow the distance between you and Teen to grow before speaking. 

“Interested in a trade?” you ask her. 

Her sharp grin has the hair on your arms rising.

“Do you have anything interesting?”

No, that’s why you’re on the road. It’s too late to offer a life for a life and Wanda would never forgive you if you went to the lengths needed to bring her back whole. Lengths that have only ever been rumoured.

You ask the question anyway to get to the one you want to ask most.

“My life?”

“You know the rules.”

“Yes, but if something much more…powerful than myself attempted to bring her back, would you stop it?”

Her calculating gaze is more terrifying than her crazy grin.

“The Road gives you what you’re missing,” is her only response.

It’s not the straight answer you were hoping for but it’s also not a yes. Which means your plan isn’t completely fucked. 

“While I have you here,” you say before she flutters off back into Agatha’s orbit, “I would like to make it very clear that any delusions I had of revenge or…roadblocks regarding Agatha have been thoroughly discarded with your arrival.”

Rio flashes a smile that is pure threat. 

“Smart girl.”

It’s easy to ignore the effect she has on you when are currently so aware that the threat extends to Wanda too.

You also want to tell Death about Wanda not being a threat to Agatha but you can’t. It may be true now, but who knows what will happen to Teen between now and when you see her? Your best will mean nothing to the Road. Your life probably will too.

[babygurlaura]

KURO UZUMAKI

黒い女司祭

Kuroi on'nashisai

Who Is Kuro Uzumaki?

Kuro Uzumaki, most commonly known as The Black Priestess of the Uzumaki clan, was the youngest sister of the Uzumaki clan matriarch line–Mito’s great-grandmother’s sister–though she is rarely spoken of by name. She was seen as a commodity by many, but was respected due to her towering figure in both stature and intellect. Kuro often diverged from clan traditions, often ignoring her ceremonial duties. Instead, she secluded herself in her carriage, which the men of the clan carried, consumed by experimentation in sealing arts, spiritualism, and painting.

Kuro is also known as the first Uzumaki to bear the Sen Fūin seal on her forehead, which would later be passed onto her eldest sister and become a staple for the clan heads to bear. Kuro was known among her clan to be obsessed with understanding the boundaries between life and death, between flesh and spirit. Her work, while intriguing the elders, was at times dismissed as eccentric or cursed; this became the foundation for both yokai summoning techniques and early genetic research.

It is said that Kuro theorized that bloodlines could carry spiritual memory, that trauma, power, and jutsu could imprint not just on the human body but also imprints itself onto the soul across generations. These writings were preserved only in fragments, would later inspire Orochimaru’s human experimentation and fuel Tobirama’s reanimation theories.

Her deal with the shinigami, an act which was at first disregarded as one of the Uzumaki clan’s darkest secrets, was struck in exchange for access to yokai spirits, which she used as summons. For each soul she provided the shinigami, hr allowed her claim to a yokai servant, sealed within painted scrolls. Her victims were often those who threatened the Uzumaki clan, centering her as a hidden protector within the clan.

Though her practice was considered taboo, it aided the Uzumaki clan in progressing. She wasn’t feared but rather revered for her intelligence. Many scholars within the clan looked up to her and studied her scrolls after her death. From her madness, she and advanced knowledge and strengthened the clan's sealing art further.

Her Appearance

Height: 6’8, the tallest recorded Uzumaki woman.

Hair: Long, brimming red hair, knee-length when inbound. Her hair was styled in a unique hybrid of the hime cut and a braid loop that resembles a noose or ring, a symbolic nod to eternal return or sealing.

Eyes: Narrowed slanted not by genetics, but linked due to constantly squinting. She spent most of her life in the dim painting chambers of her carriage and would only leave her carriage at night, which caused her vision to weaken over time.

Makeup: Embracing the Ohaguro tradition, her skin is naturally pale in comparison to the common tan skin of the Uzumaki. She wore pale foundation with red-shadowed eyes reminiscent of a geisha or funerary doll.

Clothing: Usually depicted in elegant, ink-stained robes with long sleeves that concealed her hands, often trailing behind her. Her color scheme contrasted with the Uzumaki, who adorn bright colors, while she adorned dark color schemes.

Her Ability

Kuro Uzumaki was a master in soul-binding, spiritual sealing, and living art.

Soul Paintings: She could trap people, memories, or yokai within her canvases. Some she created as prisons, others as shrines.

Yokai Summoning: Through a pact with the Shinigami, she could summon yokai in exchange for offering them their lives or sealing souls into art.

Shiki Fūjin (Death Reaper Seal): Kuro was the original creator of the Shiki Fūjin, a jutsu birthed out of desperation to contain a rampaging yokai that even she could not purify. In return for an uncleaned soul, she offered the Shinigami the body of the summoner—a binding contract that became legend.

Her Role

Kuro Uzumaki’s existence answers a fundamental mystery long glossed over: Why does the Shinigami answer to Uzumaki's hands? Why are Uzumaki bodies capable of such prolonged sealing, unnatural longevity, and survivability beyond human limits?

Kuro's sacrifice, intellect, and spiritual attunement forged the blood pact that made Shiki Fūjin even possible. Her work inspired Tobirama and Orochimaru’s own research.

Kuro is seen as the silent foundation of the Uzumaki clan's spiritual and sealing arts. Her work created forbidden jutsu libraries, later sealed away in her temple alongside her research.

The mask shrine within the Uzumaki compound derives from a relic based on Kuro’s original pact. The shrine mask was mottled after the first one she painted, said to be dipped in yokai blood. These masks were later embedded into Uzumkai ceremonial traditions.

[optimus-faked-his-own-death]

OK, so this is definitely gonna be like nonsensical due to the fact of the fact well that was bad dictating this through my iPhone at midnight

so OK so the starratchop is like there is the martyr Optimus prime, and that he continuously dies and tries and tries and tries and then Starscream, the immortal spark who cannot die physically and gets by only on the scrap metal of his neck, and then the Doctor who has to like both catch up to them both every single turn, and yet is only one who is mortal so he can die so there’s always a weird cycle of death that goes around where it’s like reanimation of forced immortality and so it just creates a really interesting dynamic,

especially since like I’m going with Starscream having defected over to the autobots or this is post waror whatever I’m not sure but nonetheless there is Optimus who is thought of as both the most compassionate hero figure (and he still is,, it’s also just weary to not rest for four million years after having responsibility being his shoulder to bear so he is burnt out and still in war time mode) and the bleeding heart but the heart has been mostly bled dry and so he struggles to keep up with the pain of recreating a life, especially when in truth he didn’t really have one before.

Ratchet has had to mask on a gruff and stoic face for the entirety of his career and so now when there is the chance to unmask and rifle through the eons of stress and fear and caring, he is almost unraveling as well.

Starscream has finally been released from needing to hide or scheme and plot and so having people being worried but also distrustful of him creates a guilt and shame over his existing considering a lot of his confidence is just bolstering even though he is capable.

I’m not fully solid on the full characterizations that i have of them but just like having them all having different priorities of keeping everyone else alive in contrast to themself and vice versa and putting them in the context of having to deal with these identity issues seems to be really interesting when they interact with each other

[52px]

jo sawashiro is far from the most interesting yakuza character out there, but the way they’ve managed to expand on his role in infinite wealth has bewitched me body and soul. a lot of things in yakuza are, but sawashiro is genre-breaking to the next level. this shit belongs in asoiaf/game of thrones. sawashiro and arakawa, more like davos and stannis, anyone? sawashiro as the loyal knight falling on his sword to fulfill his lord and master’s dreams? except the universe won’t ever let this knight redeem his honor because of abandoning his son, all those long years ago? in karmic retribution, without even knowing, masato exploits him and spends his whole life treating sawashiro like a lackey and a fool. and sawashiro accepts this as penance. one of masato’s final acts in this world is framing his father for murder and leading to sawashiro’s arrest, which he also accepts. despite everything, sawashiro still loves him, the son he once sacrified.

masato truly haunts the narrative of infinite wealth for ichiban (i.e. eiji’s caricature and redemption), but also for sawashiro. once he’s freed from his life sentence, sawashiro is still imprisoned by ebinu’s schemes—in attempting to fulfill arakawa’s dreams, sawashiro instead manages to facilitate the reanimation of the bloated corpse of his son, as ebinu transforms the seiryu clan into bleach japan. sawashiro knows he can never atone for his sins, but why won’t the universe leave masato’s memory in peace, either? then, in what could’ve been sawashiro’s final moments, after ebinu’s beating, we see that he’s been propped up in a wheelchair.

congratulations sawashiro you ARE the father. and the bearer of the curse

[power-chords]

In a New York Times review of Crichton’s most famous book, “Jurassic Park,” the literary critic Christopher Lehmann-Haupt notes that at first its dinosaur plot “sounds like just another recycling of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein myth.” In “Frankenstein,” the eponymous scientist reanimates a corpse, which then escapes and runs amok. In “Jurassic Park,” scientists bring dinosaurs back to life; they too escape and run amok. But Crichton’s book, Lehmann-Haupt argues, has a unique feature that makes it a “superior specimen of the myth.”

Shelley seemed most interested in crafting a tragic human narrative. Dr. Frankenstein is isolated from society by his ambition; in a lonely mania, he makes a choice that ultimately sows destruction. Although the novel could be described as science fiction, the science isn’t meant to be recognizable. “With an anxiety that almost amounted to agony, I collected the instruments of life around me, that I might infuse a spark of being into the lifeless thing that lay at my feet,” her narrator recalls. A few moments later, the monster opens an eye. In time, after pursuing the monster that he has made to the Arctic, Dr. Frankenstein proclaims, “Seek happiness and tranquility, and avoid ambition.” He seems to be warning about the dangers of solitary scheming, not the dangers of technology.

“Jurassic Park,” in contrast, follows Gottlieb’s dictum to deëmphasize individual characters. “By telling his island adventure from many points of view,” Lehmann-Haupt writes, “he cleverly undermines the reader’s belief that the story has a hero.” The real protagonist is the technology of de-extinction; the reader is exhilarated by its possibilities and terrified of its consequences. Whereas Shelley obfuscates how Dr. Frankenstein re-creates life, Crichton cares about the scientific details; on a guided tour, we learn how DNA is isolated from preserved prehistoric mosquitoes, and even hear about the shortcomings of the Loy antibody-extraction technique. (“Most soluble protein is leached out during fossilization, but twenty percent of the proteins are still recoverable,” a helpfully expository scientist informs us.) Crichton goes on to re-create the display of a Cray X-MP supercomputer, which identifies a DNA error that will be repaired with restriction enzymes.

“Jurassic Park,” like many dramas about technology, features a rich man with strange ambitions: John Hammond, the wealthy founder of a Silicon Valley genetics company called InGen. Yet Hammond isn’t presented as an evil figure who casts a shadow over the book; he is a jovial grandfather obsessed with creating the ultimate spectacle. He is too naïve to see the risks inherent in toying with nature, but it is difficult to imagine him declaring, “Seek happiness in tranquility, and avoid ambition!” Although Crichton ultimately has him devoured by a pack of venomous procompsognathus, we don’t really care about his interiority. We’re too busy following the exterior reality of how his creations thwart the park’s security systems.

These days, when confronting new tools that concern us, we seem to be taking our cues more from Shelley than Crichton. News coverage of Musk often focuses on his provocative statements and chaotic personality. The technology journalist Kara Swisher recently wrote on Threads, Meta’s competitor to X, that Zuckerberg is “a small little creature with a shrivelled soul.” Crichton, if he were alive, might focus more on the personality of the platforms themselves. Twitter was once conceived as a digital town square—a place where people from around the world could share a common conversation, free from media gatekeeping and government censorship. But uniting hundreds of millions of users into a limited number of common conversations required a computationally intensive curation to surface the most relevant and attention-grabbing interactions. As I’ve reported, this technical challenge is inevitably biased toward generating rancor, strife, and misinformation; these are the properties that will always thrive in an environment of algorithmic amplification. The problems with Twitter, and now X, are not just about how its weird owner runs the place. They’re intrinsic to the underlying technology.

Sometimes a Shelleyesque approach leads us to blame entire classes of individuals for the harms caused by a tool. Consider the case of e-mail, which has evolved over the past two decades to become a source of stressful distraction and overload. An obvious response is to blame faceless managers for exploiting the productive potential of employees. If only we had better bosses, the argument goes, capitalism would be more humane and we’d have better work-life balance. (This argument isn’t always wrong, of course.) Such complaints naturally lead to regulations that constrain individual behavior, as when French legislators attempted to stop managers from sending e-mails outside work hours. As I learned while researching a book about e-mail, however, many of the medium’s consequences are fundamental to its easy-to-use design. The simple act of introducing an ultra-low-friction form of messaging disrupted the fragile ecosystems of modern office work. When you make it easier to communicate, people automatically begin communicating a lot more.

—Cal Newport, “What Michael Crichton Reveals About Big Tech and A.I.,” The New Yorker, January 29, 2025, and screencaps of Spielberg's Jurassic Park as selected by yours truly.

[nightasobu]

Fearbonding is part of

the Storyteller's Festival on Steam!

The Storyteller's Festival is a Steam festival celebrating the best of storytelling in video games, with a large focus on visual novels.

Here's a collection of some of the visual novels featured in the festival, namely ones about Whodunits & Thrillers! They're made and developed by fellow vn devs, so please go ahead and check them out!

Visual novels shown here (left to right, top then bottom):

Fearbonding by yours truly :3

Reanimation Scheme by @windchimesgames

Crimson Waves on the Emerald Sea: Amaranthine Moon by @arimiadev

Lock and Key: A Magical Girl Mystery by @vnstudioelan

And here's another collection of some of the visual novels featured in the festival, namely ones about love & heartbreak!

Visual novels shown here (left to right, top then bottom):

Of Sense and Soul by @forsythiaproductions

Asphodelium (by me!)

A Tithe in Blood by @vnstudioelan

Emberfate by @windchimesgames

Summer at the Edge of the Universe by @vnstudioelan

Reanimation Scheme by @windchimesgames

Imperial Grace by @synstoria

See the entire festival:

[peterkothe]

INKtober 2024-Fight 👊💀

GOLDEN BAT vs. FRANKENSTEIN!!

The ultimate old-school monster throw-down!! The evil Dr. Nazo revives the legendary Frankenstein Monster; giving him the promise of the reanimation of his beloved bride, if in return, he serves Nazo as his minion and destroy the scientist’s sworn enemy: Golden Bat!! Can the legendary super-mummy defeat Frankenstein and save the wayward monster and his bride from becoming pawns in Dr. Nazo’s devious schemes!?…

(I know I’m not the first to have thought of this but, this is my version!)

[windchimesgames]

It's been a long time since we've introduced the characters. So here is a re-introduction for the folks new to my otome visual novel!

Meet Aldrias, the gentle nerdy childhood best friend! He's smart as hell, but maybe a little scatterbrained and naive. Will your lifelong friendship finally blossom into something more romantic after all these years? 👀

Full character bio:

[pyroanime2k16]

Transformers Energon/Super Link fix-it idea + some Cybertron/Galaxy Force stuff

So, a lot of people hate this show. And unfortunately, it IS a very poorly made show. However, I decided to do this as I feel like it can work well, if written competently.

Energon/Super Link

So, the basic idea is that the Autobots are trying to prevent the revival of Unicron after Armada (Energon's preceding show), while the Decepticons are attemptign to revive and control the dark god. The basics are the same, but the execution is different.

At the end of Armada, Optimus...effectively proved Unicron right; that Optimus enjoys battling just as much as the Decepticons. This haunts Optimus for a majority of the story here...and is one of the main reasons why he stopped taking up supreme command.

Unicron is calling the shots here. He is still alive, though in a limbo-like state. This allows him to seamlessly manipulate everyone's actions into helping restore him, though Primus is well aware of his brother's schemes.

Optimus and Megatron also become aware, though Optimus is haunted by this, giving him another reason to not take up command. Megatron meanwhile demonstrates extreme willpower, constantly freeing himself of Unicron's influence and plotting to make himself immune to it.

The Autobot side of the story has to deal with them coming to accept their demons and overcome them, while the Decepticon side is meant to demonstrate that, even though a dark god is trying to influence you, you CAN free yourself from corruption and oppression.

The Mini-cons, to Unicron, are a lost cause, so he leaves them be (this bites him in the ass later). He also leaves the humans be, as to him, they’re too insignificant in the grand scheme of things (also bites him in the ass as the human allies help save Optimus from himself and his fears regarding Unicron).

At this point, Optimus takes up supreme command once more and permanently merges with Omega Supreme after a near-death experience. Omega’s spark is transferred to Omega’s personal headmaster.

His mini-cons Sparkplug and Over-Run (who became a full-sized transformer) also combine with him, with Over-Run becoming a set of wings and thrusters on Optimus’s back and feet. Sparkplug once again attaches to his right shoulder.

Primus, meanwhile, has some...issues. He's angry (because his brother is once again manipulating his children of metal), sad (because he knows he can't do much in his current state), and vengeful (because he's taking all of the destruction and loss very personally).

Eventually, Unicron is restored and butchers the entire Transformer race and all of Cybertron's colonies (save for Earth). With everyone as one in the Allspark, Primus finally gives in to his rage, taking all of his resources with him and using Optimus Supreme as a host body.

The brothers duel and Primus wins...but the universe is lost. Dead. With no choice left, Primus resurrects/reboots the universe, knowing that some people will forget so much that they might essentially be different people.

He's willing to take the risk though. This explains why the Autobots and Decepticons forgot a lot of shit in the succeeding show: Cybertron. It also explains some characters' different origins and histories.

Cybertron/Galaxy Force

The restoration of their memories (and by extension, the reunion of past characters) is a major side story in this new version of Cybertron, along with Optimus being able to change from his standard Armada form, his Cybertron form (which includes the Super Mode), and Optimus Supreme at will.

The closing of the Unicron Singularity results in Megatron actively CHOOSING to discard any and all parts of him that make him Megatron, effectively making himself the new Unicron. His hate for Optimus is that great that he is willing to throw away his entire identity just to kill his arch-enemy.

THAT…or Megatron is actually dead and Unicron merely reanimated his corpse to serve his ambition. The latter idea probably works better, as Armada and Energon Megs both had SOME form of respect towards their followers, while Cybertron Megs had NONE.

Primus also dies in the new version of Cybertron, with Optimus taking his place by essentially piloting Cybertron as a Protector God titled Optimus Deus; the one god who is able to truly destroy Unicron.

This results in the torso and head looking identical to Cybertron Prime, a giant Matrix for the chest, and a monochromatic metallic color scheme. The Ark cannon would become a giant sword for this form.

[now-you-sound-like-a-jedi]

So I'm listening to Paris Paloma's last woman on earth and thinking (as usual) about Star Wars women

"Cremate me, deliver me to safety, so that when it's spent maybe it will be my own" / "I'll take the flame over desecration" / "Screaming the words 'it will never be yours!'"

Thinking about Vader breaking into Padmé’s tomb and all of her handmaidens who were willing to die to prevent that from happening because they couldn't bear the thought of their once-queen and always-friend's body being desecrated.

Thinking about how we don't know what happened to Satine’s body after The Lawless - did someone (Bo-Katan? Korkie?) manage to recover it, or was she left in the hands of Maul and Almec? Did she have a grave or was she scattered to the winds of Mandalore where, finally, none of the violence could touch her?

Thinking about how Luminara's body was used after her death, how she became part of a scheme to entrap her own people and could do nothing to stop it. In death, she had no control over her body and it became a tool to serve a purpose that was the antithesis of everything she stood for in life.

But also thinking about how the Nightsisters trust one another with the means to reanimate their bodies after death to defend themselves because they know that power won't be abused and they can conceive of no greater purpose for their corpses than to protect their living sisters.

[docgold13]

Heroes & Villains The DC Animated Universe - Paper Cut-Out Portraits and Profiles

Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker

Released in December 2000,  Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker was a direct-to-video animated feature.  The story centered on the characters of Batman Beyond while tying up loose plot threads from Batman: the Animated Series and the New Batman Adventures.  

The fiendish Joker had perished in his last confrontation with Batman, yet not before planting a sophisticated nanotech chip onto an abducted Tim Drake.  This chip remained dormant for many years until finally activating and causing the now adult Tim to transform into a genetic copy of The Joker.  Having returned, The Joker hatched a scheme to destroy Gotham, leaving a confused Bruce Wayne frightened that his new protégé was unprepared to take on his most dangerous of foes.  

Investigating the villain’s mysterious return forced Bruce to revisit the darkest chapter of his career.  The Joker had kidnapped Tim Drake who was then operating as Robin.  Mercilessly torturing the youth, the Joker attempted to brainwash Tim and make him into his own sidekick, the twisted son he had never had.  Yet Tim was ultimately able to resist the Joker and, in a last ditch effort to break from the mind control, he killed the villain.  

Tim would eventually recover from the ordeal, yet the trauma of it all had long lasting effects.  Tim was forbidden from resuming his role as Robin, Batman left the Justice League, broke off his partnership with Batgirl and pushed everyone close to him away.  He retired some years later and remained entirely secluded until he was happened upon by Terry McGinnis.  Terry had helped Bruce return to the world yet now the Joker was once more threatening to tear it all down.   

Terry and Bruce persevered and Batman was able to defeat the Joker.  The microchip was destroyed, returning Tim to his normal self and ridding the world once and for all of the Clown Prince of Crime.

Production of the feature was stymied by editorial mandates to make the movie less mature, requiring multiple scenes to be cut, reanimated and re-dubbed.  The original, uncut version was released in 2002.  

Directed by Curt Geda with a screenplay and story by Paul Dini, Glen Murakami and Bruce Tim; the movie featured the voice cast of Kevin Conroy, Will Freddie, Angie Harmon, Melissa Joan Hart and Mark Hamill.

[sapphic-book-tournament]

Gideon The Ninth by Tamsyn Muir-

“The Ninth Necromancer needs a swordswoman.

Gideon has a sword, some dirty magazines, and no more time for undead bullshit.

Brought up by unfriendly, ossifying nuns, ancient retainers, and countless skeletons, Gideon is ready to abandon a life of servitude and an afterlife as a reanimated corpse. She packs up her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and prepares to launch her daring escape. But her childhood nemesis won't set her free without a service.

Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House and bone witch extraordinaire, has been summoned into action. The Emperor has invited the heirs to each of his loyal Houses to a deadly trial of wits and skill. If Harrowhark succeeds she will become an immortal, all-powerful servant of the Resurrection, but no necromancer can ascend without their cavalier. Without Gideon's sword, Harrow will fail, and the Ninth House will die.”

The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson-

“Tomorrow, on the beach, Baru Cormorant will look up from the sand of her home and see red sails on the horizon.

The Empire of Masks is coming, armed with coin and ink, doctrine and compass, soap and lies. They'll conquer Baru’s island, rewrite her culture, criminalize her customs, and dispose of one of her fathers. But Baru is patient. She'll swallow her hate, prove her talent, and join the Masquerade. She will learn the secrets of empire. She’ll be exactly what they need. And she'll claw her way high enough up the rungs of power to set her people free.

In a final test of her loyalty, the Masquerade will send Baru to bring order to distant Aurdwynn, a snakepit of rebels, informants, and seditious dukes. Aurdwynn kills everyone who tries to rule it. To survive, Baru will need to untangle this land’s intricate web of treachery - and conceal her attraction to the dangerously fascinating Duchess Tain Hu.

But Baru is a savant in games of power, as ruthless in her tactics as she is fixated on her goals. In the calculus of her schemes, all ledgers must be balanced, and the price of liberation paid in full.”