#the henchperson adventures

[c0smiccom3t]

Rumble's Duo-ble Trouble

A mix between an Emperor's new groove reference AND something they'd definitely do.

RYONNA LEMURS FINALLY JOINS CRASH TEAM RUMBLE! /f

Oh yeah, also... Introducing Ryonna's current (superior) counterpart... The it's about time Ryonna!

Info: Ryonna is the professional bounty huntress who works for Cortex. Ever since they went in a wild time-travel/dimension-hopping adventure together... (including first meeting when he first got out of that temporal prison...) Cortex and Ryonna have grown pretty close. Like in a supervillain-and-sidekick kind of way! ...Except they actually have a lot in common in regards of energy and action. Of course, it took Ryonna a while to get into Rumble, after all, who was there for Cortex when he got hurt during a game? And who was there to help him get ready for those matches? But now that they are in... She and Cortex could cause even more trouble than ever before (Only if they're in a team together, though.)! Sure, Ryonna can be quite a powerhouse-sized klutz at times, but their surprising strenght and role as the scorer sure does wonders on the each team (especially if Cortex is in it)! Plus, looks like Cortex finally found a henchperson that is as evil and full of energy as he is, despite her supposed role to be a bounty huntress to hunt down and capture Crash and Coco. But oh well, they DO make a good duo!

Anyway, Ryonna can grab things with not just their arms... But also her ringtail!! and their favorite weapons are her two fists: "the Birdchirper" and "the Stargazer". And well... I think that's it. I'll draw and demonstrate her attacks another time.

Fun facts: - Ryonna is omnisexual and a trans woman!! appreciate the legend!! - Ryonna, during the events of Its about time, used to call Cortex "Boss" and "sir" but after the battle with the N. Tropies, they decided to call him "master" after realizing that they liked the sound of "Professional bounty huntress and sidekick"! - their hc voice actress is Kayleigh McKee (or any other trans voice actress) - In the italian version and/or any other version her alternate name is "Ryonessa" (The name's pretty catchy, too. dont get me wrong.)

Bonus drawing (No worries though, they HAVE feelings for Dingodile, as well. [If he ever sees that]):

[heylinhenchman]

Selective Low Activity Jack Spicer RP + Ask Blog

First and Forepost-- Rules and Introduction.

Rule 1. Asks are welcome! If I don’t like it, I won’t answer it! Personal blogs can sends asks, and even interact in a limited manner with Jack if they would like, but I won’t making any threads with non-character entities. Rule 2. Jack is canon divergent, which means part of the Xiaolin Showdown and Chronicles series have been reimagined or re-contextualized. Respect that Jack is not ‘cowardly, (physically) weak or ineffectual’. Jack is a wildcard, easily swayed by whims and increasingly disturbed by unfolding events in his life (and like, is a teenager, for a large part of XS). Just approach him like any other character, unless you are from his series, then we can chat character dynamics. Rule 3. I love shipping. But from every dynamic (platonic; romantic; mentorship--). Jack isn’t used to people liking him further than they can use him. He’s quick to excite but slow to embrace the responsibilities of commitment of any kind (scared of rejection from friends and significant others; scared of failure from mentors and friends; etc). Rule 4. I’m an adult, and sure Jack is an adult in all post-canon content... But there’s little interest for explicit threads. Asks, art, interactions can be steamy, but fade to black will be the default for amorous threads. Rule 5. Though on the note of threads at all... this blog is taking it easy. I would appreciate many asks and I will do my best to send plenty myself. But my main intention with this blog is reaching back out to friends blogs and generally having Fun with Jack. Fun including but not limited to: Oh Ships?; Henchperson Dynamics (him serving or leading); Jack Making Friends Trials n Tribulations; Exploring Jacks vast inventory of inventions & canon divergent settings. Maybe talk about AUs. Infodumping, the good stuff. Rule 6. I have ADHD and Autism, if you want to plot instead of sending a meme (you can send any meme, whenever you want, no introduction!), you need to come into my IMs with some substance, or you will not catch nor retain my attention. We are not business partners this is not a transaction, please come into my IMs with the brunt of your personality (whether you are chipper or blunt, just be yourself). No 'hi, hello, want to rp?'. I need: INTENTION ('I like this character / this show / how you write / I saw you rp with a friend and was interested / CAN I GETA GOTH GF?') Then hopefully you can follow it up with some CONTEXT INVESTMENT (can you tell me a lil about how your character and Jack would be able to connect? do you need information from me? are you interested in shipping, adventures, casual encounters, specific genres, just wanna send memes and go with the flow?). And of course, we both need to understand the potential of me not being interested (I prioritize fandoms I recognize (not necessarily invested in) and significantly fleshed out OCs). I know it's formulaic and you don't gotta send me a paragraph off the bat. Jump in to talk bout your rp style or how you feel bout this rule first, whatever works. 

Rule x. Uh Oh Ah I’ll Follow from Heylinfanclub if we gucci to RP.

Introductions

Mun

Murmur; They/He; 20+ y/o Pisces; 15 years o’ roleplay experience; Neurodivergent Nightmare.  Original blog: @jxckspxcer​  & the main blog @heylinfanclub​ Reason for Current Blog: Too tired to switch between blogs; too busy to commit as much time to Jack as I used to. BUT I MISS HIM. SO I’M HERE.

Muse

Jack Spicer; He/Him; 15-18 (XS) & 21-22 (Post Canon) Aries; Evil Genius. Main Verse: Post-XS (19) FC: Dylan Wang / Wang He Di Current Reason for Villainy: Spite

TAGS [TBA]

Jack Spicer - file. heylin genius Good Jack - file. sweet smarts Shadow Young - file. slim shady Chase Young - file. cold blooded Monks - file. Xiaolin Losers Tech - Projects. Aesthetics - Aes. Headcanons - hc.

XS verse  - v. prodigious villainy Post XS verse (main) - v. addicted to the wicked ( ^ includes immediately after XS up to XC-ish older years) Emperor Verse (post-TAT Dark Verse) - v. in the valley of the shadow of death Xiaolin Jack - v. ivory and steel Opts Out AU - v. capitalism is its own reward I WILL DEFAULT TO MAIN VERSE UNLESS SPECIFIED | REQUESTED. (main verse adjacent) Timeline / Universe Hopping .

This is my All-In-One Information Page. Cause this blog is supposed to be easy on me.

[potatoes83]

The obsession with race...

or The Race to the Bottom...

So, we've all heard of the Netflix thing, we've seen the memes, their obsession with fiddling around with race and/or gender when it comes to retelling time-honored stories. Mind you, Hollywood's doing the same thing, but Netflix has seriously doubled down...

Now, like so many, I had been bootlegging off my parents Netflix until such time as we couldn't do it anymore, so we went ahead and got our own. And much of the time, we're watching old shit, and generally not even made in this country. Kim's Convenience. The IT Crowd. Downton Abbey... Same deal with Amazon Prime. Suffice to say, I'm not exactly clamoring for original Netflix content. Home from work today, because Good Friday, and fasting, because Catholic, so I decided to go ahead and start into a series. It was a toss-up between The Crown and Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events. I've said before, I really try not to sit in front of the idiot box, but I needed some decompression time. Lemony Snicket won the coin-toss.

The series generally has so far been... pretty good. I have not read the books, assuming there are indeed books to be read, but I did see the original movie, which combined and moved around several storylines, as the story is presented in chapter format. I enjoyed the movie, because having no knowledge of the story, it was not what I was expecting, and I like that. I figured with the title, and the cast, that these kids were palling around with their uncle Lemony Snicket, on a series of whirlwind and magical adventures...

Yeah no.

I like being surprised. It's not easy to do, and I enjoy it immensely when I can honestly say "I didn't see that coming".

Trouble is, several of Netflix's casting choices and character tweaks are in fact detracting from the series. Like the credited "Henchperson of Indeterminate Gender"... umm no. That's clearly a dude. Being played by a dude. Curious that there is the necessity to make the character, I don't know, "gender-fluid", I think is the made-up nonsense term? And then double down in the credits, which again, no no, he's a dude.

Or Uncle Monty being played by someone of middle-eastern descent. Interesting. Because when I think of Montgomery Montgomery, an avuncular Scottish person as presented in the movie, I think of a skinny middle eastern guy.

Meryl Streep and I will probably never agree on ANYTHING as far as politics or sociology goes, but damn, was she a great aunt Josephine. She knocked it out of the park. So imagine my surprise to see the character being played by a sassy black woman.

And I will point out that these actors and actress do not do a *bad* job in their depictions of these characters... but again, you've already established a universe here. You don't have the same actors as the movie, fine, but it would be like casting a Star Trek, TNG movie, and replacing Patrick Stewart with Laurence Fishburne... People are gonna notice that shit!

If you want to tell tales of persons of indeterminate gender (no such thing, but hey, TV is already make-believe), or middle-eastern persons, or black persons, go nuts. Write those stories, and tell those stories. But when you're telling a story that's already written, descriptively cast, and with its own universe already created, stick to your lane. Because the problem is, when you so obviously shoehorn race in because reasons, it's quite obvious to the viewer. And it does indeed detract from the storyline. 🥔

[open-hearth-rpg]

Choose Death: Great RPG Mechanics #RPGMechanics: Week Eight

Some games care about your characters. They matter, they mean something in the grand scheme of the story and play. Some games don’t give a shit about your characters. They’re interchangeable. You die and you can stat up a new one, scratch out the name and say you're an identical cousin, or elevate a henchperson to front-line status. These later games are about the world– but often in a particular way. They’re about the challenge, puzzles, and often lethality of the game. 

I played those latter games a lot in the late 1970s, early 1980s: D&D, AD&D, Gamma World, Rolemaster. But then I started to play games where death and lethality weren’t really the focus: James Bond 007, Champions, GURPS. Sure– you could still die: the game mechanics kept lethality on the table. Some games made it harder than others– but they all kept the wink, wink, nudge, nudge of “oh watch out, your character might die…”

But they weren’t really going to. Not unless you pissed off the GM and the table, not unless you begged for death, not unless you were coming to a campaign conclusion. It was, as they say, kayfabe. There’s a lot of kayfabe in role-playing, as Michael Underwood said recently. 

On a side note, I only just now realized why Runequest’s Glorantha setting works the way it does. Glorantha makes resurrection for heroes well, not cheap, but readily available. Be a good follower of your god, have solid friends, have stashed away some money and you can come back. And this isn’t the level-draining, loss of stuff comeback. And the fact of that resurrection is built into the setting with Hero Quests and having to worry about your foes coming back. There’s a great adventure in the Strangers in Prax collection that turns on Lunar Agents trying to interfere with the locals bringing back a rebel leader that just got offed. 

I honestly think that Glorantha does this, in part, to deal with the cult of early rpg lethality and avoid some of the hand-waving done at the table. Yup, you can die and it will be significant, but your character matters and we’re not just tearing up their sheet.

Of course some games and gamers revel in the threat of death– and some systems encourage the GMs to pull that trigger, but, well, you know, that’s just like uh, your play style, man.

Some games have engaged with death as a thing in ways other than resurrection spells. Adventure!, one of the original Trinity rpgs, had a specific power for this. You could buy a special ability which allowed you to die dramatically in a scene. Then you would return in a later scene telling a story of how you narrowly escaped death. Pasión de las Pasiones has a similar choice as one of the suffer harm options. 

But some modern games have been a little more direct and honest about what death actually means. The choice for death and dying lies in the hands of the player. This is how Hearts of Wulin handles things. If you burn through your stress, health, wounds, whatever, you get to choose the form of your fall at the end. You can choose to be unconscious and bleeding, captured by the foe, or placed in a more perilous situation you’ll have to deal with when you recover. You’re still out– and the GM may have a say in what happens next, but your character lives. Or you can choose death. 

The real thing is this: death isn’t the worst option you can present to a PC. You may be sacrificing yourself as a martyr, you may be making a point, you may be going gloriously as a middle finger to your enemy who wants revenge. Other consequences can be worse than death to a hero and/or PC: humiliation, betrayal, loss of things they care about, death of valued loved ones. These are often the really painful results. 

But these results and forces only really work if the PC cares about the world. In games where the world doesn’t care about the characters, why should they? Here the only real threat is death, with a side serving of XP loss and loot vanishing. 

[fruitgoat]

Weird Flex But Okay.

I just added an odder entry to my bullet journal. On January 30th from 12pm-9pm I have “do Arty Maury’s bidding.”

[kineticallyanywhere]

How would you recommend starting TAZ? A lot of my friends love it but I don’t know where to begin.

TAZ has three major arcs, Balance, Amnesty, and Graduation (ongoing), aired in that order. None of them are sequels, so you can go into any of them blind and all you’ll miss out on is a joke reference or two. Choosing which one to go into first just kinda depends on what you’re looking for. You can start Balance and Graduation from “episode 1,” and Amnesty has a set-up episode pre-episode 1. 

Balance (69 episodes, DMed by Griffn) is the most popular arc, and is a fantasy adventure about 3 guys who take a job together and then find themselves major assets of a secret society trying to save the world. It’s got found family, whacky hijinks, and a really infectious optimism to it when the rubber hits the road. It’s got structured arcs, and most people will tell you that it takes a couple to really get into it. It was most of their first time playing D&D at all, and so they had to figure out what they were doing, but the McElroy’s are hilarious by default, so even when you’re not neck deep in the story any episode is a good time. 

Amnesty (36+1 episodes, GMed by Griffin) is the second arc that started as an experimental mini-arc and was then chosen to be season 2. It’s a monster-of-the-week style story played in a Powered by the Apocalypse game system about two guys and a young women in no-where West Virginia keeping abominations from revealing the fact that monsters and cryptids are real. And also aliens. The guys went all-in on designing their characters this time, so there’s a lot of fun character backstory and they jump into it right out of the gate. The world Griffin crafted blooms over and over as they tell the story. 

Graduation (27 episodes, ongoing, DMed by Travis) is the current arc, and Travis managed to (in a time saturated by Hero and Villain stories) create a unique setting structured around Heroism and Villainy... for economics. Three D&D boys enrolled as students in a university-style school which teaches how to be a Hero or Villain (or sidekick or henchperson) for hire and career. Graduation has a slow start, the opening episodes have a lot to take in, but careful you don’t take what you see at face value (especially not the players). Also, The Power of Friendship is strong with these college roommates. They nailed an excellent balance between pre-written character and meet-them-as-you-play-them that’s unique to D&D play podcasts. 

There’s also two other mini-arcs that they did after Balance, if you want to just dip a toe in to see how the McElroys play. Commitment (4 episodes GMed by Clint) is a superhero story in the fate system, and Dust (4 episodes, (I think) in a Powered by the Apocalypse system, GMed by Travis) is a supernatural/western/mystery. 

Personal Opinion: the best places to start are either Balance or Graduation. Balance has a solid, complete story that created the foundation of the McElroy’s play/story-style; and since Graduation is ongoing you can still catch up and join in on fan content before it ends. Balance has one of my favorite story worlds, and Graduation has my favorite TAZ PCs. I’m also loving themes and stories unfolding in Graduation right now, I’m just. So hooked. I love Amnesty (I’m relisting to it right now) it’s just not my favorite of all the other excellent stories. 

You’re also bound to see wank about Graduation, and if you’re willing to dive into any point in TAZ, I think it might be worth giving Graduation a shot first, to be able to say, unequivocally, that you formed your opinion over something other than comparing Griffin and Travis’s DM-style. 

I tried to summarize with minimal spoilers, but if you want me to start dumping tropes at you so you can find your favorites just let me know! 

[aseriesofunfortunatetexts]

adventures in screen capping yields wonderful Henchperson moments.

[wlwaerith]

ITHLINNE id like to go on sea adventures with ith and cheer on any of her evil doings

self insert henchperson agenda strikes again <3

if my ocs were in a dating sim, whose route would you pick?

[littlestr]

I CANNOT BELIEVE IT

Gray really does think Fitzroy is the most special boy and wants him on his team and are interested in his “righteous guns”! For context, in episode 7 when Fitzroy has a student teacher talk with Higglemas, Higglemas asks Fitzroy why “””his brother”” let Fitzroy change to the villain track, something which has never been done and it went like this

Higglemas “And here‘s the thing – I don't know if you know this, but in this school‘s 250 year history, no one has ever been moved from the sidekick and henchperson track to the villain and hero track. So what is it about you that my brother is so interested in?”

Fitzroy: “I mean… these guns? Pshew pshew. I mean, what do you —these— my— I'm a very good…´adventurer? I'll be a pretty, um…”

Higglemas: “Tell me what he said to you.”

Fitzroy: “He said something about my righteous guns! Pchoo pchoo pchoo! These. My arms. I'm pointing at my arms. Honestly, from the moment he said that I was going to move up to a larger suite with its own personal bathroom, uh, I sort of stopped… the rest was kind of static. Um, the rest was just sort of a faint buzzing. He said—he just said I was very special, and the most special boy at the school, were his exact words.” And now that’s confirmed with Gray admitting he was grooming Fitzroy into joining his team, perhaps not because of the exact reasons Fitzroy said (PROBABLY more that his magic comes from Chaos and that he’s Chaos most special boy) but still! Fitz was right! HE IS THE MOST SPECIAL BOY! 

[starkeaton]

the adventure zone: graduation character list

Well, i accidentally deleted the original graduation character list post, so here i am making another one. Oops. And as always, if anyone has important details i should add then feel free to suggest them!

Here are all the characters introduced in episodes 1-25. Named characters only!

Also i can’t hide spoilers! So, um..... I can’t put spoilers on this one. If you need the version with spoilers try this version of the post that i made on the adventure zone subreddit but youre not missing out on much.

# -EPISODE 1- (19 characters)

Hieronymous Wiggenstaff (he/him): Head of the Hero/Villain school. at least 400 years old. wears shining blue armor with gold accents. also an elf. according to Tomas, he led the charge at the "battle of blood valley", brought the Kingdoms of Rickart and Dawnbreak to a peace treaty, and founded the school. a little boastful, a little prideful, [SPOILERS OMITTED], and overall a pretty good dude.

Higglemas Wiggenstaff (he/him): Head of the Sidekick/Henchperson annex, cranky old elf. has a dog named hero who shows no signs of anything strange at all, ever. 

Gary (he/him): friendly room gargoyle. pseudo-hivemind.

Groundsy (he/him): the groundskeeper. a pretty nice fellow. don't go in his shed.

Hernandez (he/him): beautiful centaur professor of animal handling.

Jimson (he/him): human battlegrounds trainer for sidekicks/henchpeople, world famous featherweight champion, wields a staff. married to crushman.

Crushman (he/him): silver dragonborn with a sickle, and self-described beefy boy! heavyweight blood champion married to jimson. never lost a match for 8 years. full name Frostus Crushman.

Rolandus Fontaine (he/him): former prince, son of deposed king, kind of an asshole, maybe. wears a cape (important detail)

Zana (she/her): "terrifying" tiefling villain sorcerer, friend of rolandus. barkept the test tavern in ep2

Rhodes (she/her): hero ranger, friend of rolandus.

Buckminster Eden (he/him): hero guy. son of "The Iron Lord". their dad is stronger than rolandus's dad. his wiki page says rogue so i think hes a rogue? i never caught that and ive listened more times than i wish i did

Leon (he/him): softspoken buff, bald "fighter" (although i dont remember any clarification on how exactly he fights), sidekick of buckminster, around 28. anyone else keep forgetting he's bald? i keep forgetting it. >!gets sorta-drafted into becoming a falcon for higglemas and so far hasn't done much else.!<

Rainer Michelle (she/her): cheerful villainous necromancer with a floating chair. also, her name is pronounced "rainier" despite not being confirmed as such? travis ships her with fitzroy.

Tomas (he/him): human man with "kind eyes" and a good (psychic???) memory. guidance counselor.

Stewart LeBoeuf (he/him): brawny human man. serves food. there is no joke here, i promise

Mulligan (he/him): teaches potions. mentioned but doesn't appear yet. and we're like 25 episodes in. maybe we'll see him someday

Germaine, Victoria, Rattles (he/him,she/her,???/???): Skeleton crew. They live in the training room i guess, and as a result can never die, because "no one dies in the training room!" (note: someone now HAS to die in the training room). also their races are never explicitly stated but i guess they're probably human? in episode 3 travis brings up something about how many bones are in "the human body" and at this point i think i'm looking too deep into this so i'll just forget about it and you probably should too.

# -EPISODE 2- (9 characters)

Riveau (he/him): halfling, blame-taking teacher.

Mimi (they/them): gnome sidekick who builds cool robot prosthetics

Bartholemus (he/him): owl aarakocra accountant teacher, known for being the best accountant in the land and having a face some might describe as "smoochable". very pro capitalist :’( hope he gets better

Ramos (she/her): goliath teacher of shieldwork. *

Dip (she/her): sidekick, half-orc twin of pip

Pip (she/her): hero, half-orc twin of dip

Festo (they/them): fairy with "beautiful gossamer wings", independent study teacher of magic, loves to party

Snippers (he/him?): Let me tell you my story about Snippers the magic crab. When Travis gave the list of animals that Griffin could choose as Fitzroy's familiar's current form, he listed crab near the start, and this gave me excitement. Now i knew that crab was pretty unlikely but god i hoped that he would choose it. When the list went on- Bat, Cat, Crab, Frog, Hawk, Lizard, Owl, Poisonous Snake, Fish, Rat, Raven, Seahorse, Spider or Weasel- I nearly lost hope. I was hoping so hard that Griffin would choose the crab, but i was ready to accept a non-crab familiar. It was just buried in that list. It wasn't the most useful animal and it was an obscure pick. And as Travis informed him that it didn't have to keep the form for the whole campaign, Griffin said those five words i wanted to hear so, so badly. "Well then it's a crab." Folks, I do not often react physically when something happens in media. But in that moment, i remember very clearly, i fist-pumped and yelled, "YES!!!!!!"

so anyway, Fitzroy has a crab.

Jackle (he/him): kenku teacher of sneakery. creepy dude. apparently knows something about argo? also his name is not spelled "jackal" for some reason. Also in later episodes theyve started calling him "The Jackle" for some reason??? *

# -EPISODE 3- (1 character)

Dakota (they/them): tavern instructor, clad in black/red leather. no race stated? probably human. *

# -EPISODE 4- (6 characters)

Gerry & Tom (she/her, he/him): shopkeepers at barns and nobles who seem to have very bad names. also constantly competing for customers? these guys got dropped faster than the heathcliff quests, which is honestly just sad.

Barb (she/her): the bartender. runs Springs Eternal in Last Hope. has a sweet seeing-eye hawk familiar. 

Jaryd Reginald (he/him): owner of Reginald Ore. Wants the workers to be held responsible for the damage caused by the xorn. (fun fact: originally i wrote down "Jerrod" because i wanted it to sound like a fantasy name, then realized it was probably "Jared" because theyre named after listeners, but i was pleased to find it confirmed that it's actually "Jaryd")

Candice (she/her): A Miner. thought those werent allowed in bars but, i guess not. Wants the mine owner to be held responsible for the xorn's damage.

Jade Johnson Esq. (she/her): lawyer.

# -EPISODE 5- (1 character)

Xorn: a big hungry gem eating guy from the plane of earth Low-Down Deep with 3 arms and 3 legs. why did travis just say "multi-armed" instead of specifying it was 3? who knows! Anyway it leaves

# -EPISODE 6- (3 characters)

Osric (he/him): the man, the myth, the bursar. finally shows up after being mentioned in episodes 2 and 4. he's an elf. 

breeze through the willows (she/her): Pegasus attacked by demons, lost her parents. introduced in ep1 but gets a name here so fuck it. also in ep>!16!< we find out shes a "white arabian pegasus" and i dont think thats a spoiler bc we shouldve really known it from the beginning

Sabor (he/him): Librarian/research teacher. also a TORTLE. Really good at recalling stuff, i guess. kinda reminds me of Tomas's memory thing but i'm sure that's just a coincidence... *

# -EPISODE 7- (1 character)

Mosh (he/him): The goliath blacksmith who welcomes argo into the unbroken chain. Also, and this is specific to the tumblr version of this post, all the characters with an * at the end of their descriptions are also members of the unbroken chain. if someone knows how to do spoilers on tumblr please tell me

# -EPISODE 8-

:)

# -EPISODE 9- (2 characters)

Eeiïäá#æ&éñn (pronounced like "Ian") (he/him?): an imp but without a shitty voice. also happens to not be violent. what a coincidence?

Terence (he/him): a chain devil with a real demonic name. minor boss of the imps. very convincing and very threatening. has the frightening ability to make you zone out during his fight

# -EPISODE 10- (2 characters)

Althea Song (she/her): elf with autumn-orange hair. representative from heroic oversight guild. i'd like to personally thank travis for spelling her name out.

Crabtree (she/her): Artificing teacher. Long gray hair with a long grey beard. no mentioned race, one might guess dwarf but that would be an assumption i suppose. also unbroken chain member, presumably the dwarf argo didn't recognize in episode 7.

# -EPISODE 11- (3 characters)

Marie (she/her): Grey-haired elf woman. She's the school's physician, i guess. Member of the unbroken chain.

Dendra Maplecourt (she/her): Fitzroy's mom. Has hot mint gum, i guess. She was mentioned earlier but i wasn't convinced she was a real person until this episode

Cool Gary (he/him): AYY ITS ME GARYR

# -EPISODE 12-

no new characters again!

# -EPISODE 13- (7 characters hhhyyyuu)

Kale (???/???): Head of the Placement Department, in charge of real world assignments. First mentioned in Ep4 but i missed that the last few times bc it is so brief. Gives exposition about missions i guess????? is that the only reason this chara cter exists

satyr thief (unnamed) (he/him): tries to rob thundermen, dies instantly

Ogre (he/him): teamed up with the satyr. his name is ogre.

Moon (he/him): A Sidekick. small pale sullen guy. no mentioned race. Why is there another FUCKING sidekick WE HAD ENOUGH hhhyuuuuuu

Deanna (she/her): A bigoted centaur with an obnoxious voice. Malwin the Strong's second in command.

Malwin the Strong (she/her): Leader of the centaurs of the scarlet woods. Wants to appease the spirit of the scarlet woods so that thecentaurs of the scarlet woods will be protected in the scarlet woods. Had a relationship with Arturas in the past but their clashes are currently known to get pretty heated.

Arturas (he/him): Leader of the Centaurs of the Valley, i guess. Had a relationship with Malwin. Centaur. Did i mention centaur? i cant think of anything else about this character

# -EPISODE 14- (2 characters)

Calhain (he/him): Human wizard, Malwin's magical advisor. Kind of an amateur wizard in a job high above his skill level. Graduated Wigginstaff's as a hero.

Spirit of the Scarlet Woods: A spirit who requires sacrifice in order to keep Malwin's herd safe and prosperous. Not keen on dubiously canonical combos, i guess. i wouldnt be either. also apparently the sacrifice depends on personal value, not how much value it has to the spirit.

# -EPISODE 15- (2 characters)

Sylvia Nite (she/her): Fitzroy's magic theory teacher at knight night school, who he turned into a catfish by accident. oops!

Chaos (they/them, maybe more): Presumably a deity, gave Fitz his powers and wants him to give in to his chaotic desires. (physical desc: 9 foot tall, iridescent 'mother of pearl' skin, pure white eyes, fine burgundy cloak with gold/onyx lining. their physical form beyond that seems to change every time they show up.)

# -EPISODE 16-

none -w-

# -EPISODE 17-

some demins happened. the big dudes are called "Pit Fiends" and the armored demon ladies are called "Erinyes", by the way. that was incredibly hard for me to figure out the first time, especially without headphones, i thought travis was saying "pig feet" and i just could not discern what the other things were

# -EPISODE 18- (6 characters)

snow on the mountain: shire horse pegasus

storm at sea: peruvian paso pegasus, vehement defender of The Guardian. doesn't have a goofy voice.. but he could have....

thaw of the spring: a winged horse

night of no clouds: a winged hhorse

The Guardian: "An ancient and powerful being that guards the unknown forest." Has protected the flock from demons for many many years. apparently is the voice that was talking to our firbolg in episode 1?

Grey, the Demon Prince (he/him): wants to cause a war, originally wanted to kill hiero and higgs, forces the heroes to build an army to fight his. As "Fauxronimous", he has skin the *color and pattern of* (but not necessarily made of) slate splashed with liquid, pointed ears, sharp teeth, shining eyes, horns of unspecified shape. 12 fucking feet tall. wonder if the slate-looking skin is related to garys. plot twist detected? Also i recently looked at the episode descriptions and found out his name is spelled "Gray", but really does it truly matter?

# -EPISODE 19- (2 characters)

Shabree Keene (she/her): Argo's mom, killed on the Mariah, possibly by the Commodore. Long auburn hair, green eyes. Mentioned earlier but described here, so fuck it.

**Thomas** (he/him): Argo's first mate on the Mariah, as the Kraken, in his chaos-dream. may or may not actually exist.

# -EPISODE 20- (1 character)

The Commodore (he/him): Reknowned hero of the seas, military regalia, great naval hero, presumably responsible for the death of Shabree Keene. No mentioned race. Seriously, they never mention this guy's race. The only thing described about him is how he's dressed and his evil smile. Does that mean he's human? Elf? Dwarf??? Who knows! maybe it just doesnt matter. 

# -EPISODE 21-

none

# -EPISODE 22-

not any of them. not any.

# -EPISODE 23- (1 character)

Ozymondelius (sp???) (it/its): A warforged teacher who just so happens to like war or something? i guess its in the name. only mentioned in this episode, doesnt show up yet.

# -EPISODE 24-

they have a fight in the training room but nobody dies :\\ maybe next time. also no new characters. pog

# -EPISODE 25- (4 characters)

Gherkin (he/him): Tall lankier skeleton, has a scimitar and a merkin, which is a pubic wig... and he wears a jerkin? which i guess is a kind of coat? also i think hes mute 

Tibia (she/her?) : Shorter skeleton with gold teeth, and long canines. i think both of the skeletons are mute actually.

The Lich King aka Gordy (he/him): Rainer's dad. Commands armies of the undead. lives in The Crypt. described as a hooded, skull-faced man with intricate black lines on his face, but changes to a shaved-head man with dark skin and vetiligo. Abandoned as a babby, raised by traveling parents, had necromancy powers, took Rainier in. Not actually very scary at all i don't know why he did the creepy laugh. Kind of a warm fatherly figure actually. hm. also people are speculating Gordy might be short for Gordita and his parents are maybe supposed to be lup and barry but THAT S JUST A THEORY.

our firbolg's father (he/him): A firbolg who lived by the code and was there when our firbolg was banished. Came to respect our firbolg's interest in a new way of life, in his final moments.

TOTAL: 72 NPCS! (well, including 2 extra PCs, i guess.)

Average: 2.88 NPCs per episode.

i was gonna not include the bone-PCs and have it be 69 but our firbolg's dad was just too important to not respect with a spot on the list.

anyway as always make sure to smack me with a blunt object if i forgot any characters!!!!!

[semper-legens]

21. This Is How You Die, edited by Ryan North, Matthew Bennardo, and David Malki

Owned: Yes Page count: 475 My summary: The Machine of Death is very simple. Let it take a little bit of blood, and it will tell you how you will die. From simple predictions like CANCER or HOMICIDE to the stranger ones, like CHOKED ON POPCORN or SPACE. These are stories from worlds where this machine is real, and how our culture adapts to it. My rating: 4/5   My commentary:

This is technically a sequel! Yeah, I don’t have a physical copy of the first collection yet, but it’s still out there in ebook form, I think. Ryan North and his collaborators collected story submissions based on this premise and published the best ones in a collection. They all followed a basic version of the premise - this collection contains more out of the box stories around the idea of the Machine, building on the groundwork of the first collection. It also contains little comic strips by people like KC Green, and they are great! I loved the first one, so I wanted to see more stories in these worlds.

As ever with short story collections, I’m not going to be talking about the whole thing, just some that jumped out at me.

My favourite story here is In Battle, Alone And Soon Forgotten. (All of the stories are named after death predictions, fyi.) It’s a fantasy story in a typical D&D-style world, with orcs and elves and ghouls. The Machine of Death is a magical artefact in this setting, and the main character is an orc, all of whom get the same, titular death prediction because their world treats them as cannon fodder. This story is about our main character, Grun, building some agency for himself and rising above his world’s expectations of him as a mindless drone to carve out a name for himself in a world that doesn’t want to give him a name. It’s a well-told, excellently executed story and I absolutely love it.

Your Choice was a really cool use of a different structure - it’s structured like a choose your own adventure story, and that ties into the idea of your death prediction. It’s not got a lot of branches so it’s a quick read, but it’s very well-done, and a nice use of a different format to break up the straightforward prose used by the rest of the collection.

Another one that plays with the format is Meat Eater, structured like a picture book for children. Because, in universe, it is! It’s a picture book meant to help parents explain the Machine to their kids before they get tested, but the whole thing has this creepy ultra-patriotic dystopian vibe. It’s very Fallout-esque and subtly unsettling with the behaviour the book seems to expect from children. It’s a neat idea.

Execution by Beheading was probably one of my least favourites - the premise is that death predictions are used as a collectable cards for children, who try and get rare predictions for their collections. The kids in the cast get it into their head that a middle eastern neighbour of theirs has Execution by Beheading and they hatch an elaborate plan to get some of his blood for a machine so they can get the card, and end up accidentally killing him. It’s a kind of nasty and pessimistic story about racist kids and honestly I just felt uncomfortable through the whole thing.

By contrast, Blunt Force Trauma Delivered By Spouse was a surprisingly uplifting story for that premise. It’s ultimately about a woman escaping her husband, who is a domestic abuser - it’s never graphic or gratuitous, and plays with the fact that Lara knows that this is how she will die, but it’s no reason to give up and go back to her husband. She makes a better life for herself despite the prediction.

Finally, by far the most fun for me was Lazarus Reactor Fission Sequence, an upbeat and over the top story from the point of view of a henchperson to a mad scientist who knows his creation will eventually kill him. It’s the henchperson’s job to kill the government agents they capture in ways that line up with their death card - so ‘cancer’ could mean killed by a person who is a cancer, and for ‘Victoria falls’ he just drops a tapir called Victoria on them. It’s dark, obviously, but in a campy and fun way, playing with the idea of ambiguous or ironic predictions for fun, and I really got a kick out of it.

That’s all for this one - join me next time for the halfway point of the Demonata!

[dork-empress]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: The Adventure Zone (Podcast) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Sir Fitzroy Maplecourt/Rainer Characters: Sir Fitzroy Maplecourt, Rainer (The Adventure Zone), Argo Keene, Bud (The Adventure Zone) Additional Tags: Canon Disabled Character, Miscommunication, Clueless Character, stuck together, Only One Bed, Minor Violence Summary:

Sir Fitzroy Maplecourt is assigned as Rainer's henchperson as she goes to explore possibilities for a lair. However, as an anti-magic field appears, the two are in more danger than they expected.

Beta'd by the lovely @gaydine-ross for wheelchair use.

[nora-not-the-explorer]

About the “Left Shoe Saga”

The following blogs are cannonly involved in the RP:

@not-agotham-villain

@totally-not-robin

@got-ham

@not-a-henchperson

@left-shoe-theif (me)

So if you have any questions or anything their OC’s have been responding to the RP.

This RP originated when I found @got-hams blog and sent in a literal ‘shit post’ that quickly spiraled into a scenario that turned into a RP.

Their OC William is an 18 year old got high schooler Gothamite (they/them pronouns) who’s also a part timer but has a gift for sewing and making clothing.

From Got-ham I found Totally-not-robin. Their OC is named Cassie Sionis a Vigilante studying under Red Hood- their well know in this universe and I believe they’re related to Red Hood also. They moved to Gotham from Blüdhaven and are tearing it up.

Not-agotham-villiain came to us and their OC is Jaguar (pronouns- she/her). She’s gotham's very own renowned hit-woman. {more info to come}

I highly encourage those following the RP story line to follow all the blogs listed to keep up to date on all sides.

Also keep in mind that (for Nora[this blog] and Mel[not-a-henchperson]) anything in their updates or adventure logs is there for a reason and important to the story line planned.

Keep in mind non of the OC’s don’t know any of the Batfams secret identities— if you have any questions about the RP or the Gotham universe timeline it’s in feel free to send in a message.

[juicemitio]

Alright I went to Louisville Galaxycon and saw Travis and Clint twice, for their worldbuilding workshop and their Q&A. Here's some interesting stuff I learned (I didn't include stuff they talked about that's pretty common knowledge or they talked about on the last ttazz)

Graduation 

Fitzroy was originally going to be a jock that was weak bc he no longer had a team, Travis told Griffin that that didn't really work for the world so they reframed it as him training to be a hero, was great academically and behaviorally, but had a problem no one had seen before and no one felt like dealing with. It specifically wasn't "barbarian fails bc he can't keep his rage in check," it was that no one was willing to deal with his magic so they shipped him off

Someone asked Travis to explain fitzroy's magic, so from the DM's mouth- he's a barbarian subtype with elemental magic which has a random effect while raging, which we haven't seen yet (path of the wild soul if you want to look it up and see what he can do) and he took a feat which gives him the ability to cast 3 cantrips of his choosing. What I thought was interesting was that Travis described Fitz's magic using the word "elemental" twice, even though that isn't specifically stated in the path of the wild soul entry

Travis knows Argo's secret and is very excited about it 

Clint has a pirate fiction book he reads every night before they record to get into the headspace to play Argo, he told us the name but I forgot it 

There is one small little concept that made the whole of graduation make sense to Travis and is what the arc will be about, and he only figured it out a few days before recording. Obviously he didn't tell us what it was

Originally it was going to start with everyone starting at age 11 and slowly killing the other kids off, but Justin didn't feel comfortable playing a game surrounded by kids dying 

The accounting scene is already one of Travis' all time favorite taz scenes

The pegasus scene informed Travis on exactly how he was going to treat the firbolg

Also Travis referred to Justin's character exclusively as "the firbolg," which means "master firbolg" is solely a thing going on with the npcs in the game which I find hilarious. They just all decided to give him a dope title bc he deserves it, meanwhile no one will call Fitzroy "sir"

To Fitzroy, social threats are an extremely real and serious thing, like the Biggest thing to him (we were talking about what characters found threatening in the workshop, for context)  

There's some big concept/idea that comes up in the next episode that travis almost let spill and had to quickly stop himself from saying it

Someone mentioned eating breakfast in their question in the workshop and Travis goofed on it for a second, then said "cereal world" suddenly, and Clint had to pick up the question bc Travis had to take a second to make a note of it in his phone 

Travis started brainstorming graduation in March and they recorded the first episode in October, and his main job in that time was working on graduation 

Before Buckminster was adapted for graduation he could not fight at all, if he got into a fight he would die, he poured everything into charisma and could talk his way out of any fight (even the big bad of the game he crit 20d his check and the big bad walked away from the fight) 

Travis is really into psychology and how if you assign a label to someone they're going to act more like it (ie you tell a kid they're amazing and smart and talented and they become more like that, you tell a kid they're annoying and dumb and a problem they become more like that), and how that was a major contributor to play into hero/villain/sidekick/henchperson dynamics, you get assigned this arbitrary title of good/evil/subservient and you become like that to fit the role, and then the inevitable pushing against that mold

Travis is fully aware of his story being compared to harry potter and he doesn't care bc it's apt (people in a school arbitrarily divided into four groups and one of them is the Bad One), also he knows people describe it as "sky high meets Harry Potter meets my hero academia" and he actually finds that really flattering bc he thinks that sounds cool and like something he'd want to watch 

On that note, Travis is a self-identified Slytherin and he's always upheld that the reason Slytherin is depicted in a bad light is bc Rowling decided she didn't like them, and he's always sympathized with the idea of a first year Slytherin working their ass off following the rules and doing their work and getting points, and Dumbledore rewards three idiots for breaking like every rule and pulls the trophy away from you. This was a big inspiration for graduation, of one group getting a bad rep and being portrayed as evil for literally no reason 

Amnesty

Clint & Travis's favorite scene they've ever done together was Ned & Aubrey's final scene together 

Aubrey and Dani do move in with each other at the end of amnesty

Balance

Travis' main emotion around taz is pride and he's most proud of the scene in stolen century with the spirits in the robots, bc they had to record it a second time bc it got way too dark and ended in a really grim way and about 20 min after they finished they all decided that they weren't happy with it, that it didn't fit the tone, he's really proud they didn't just leave it be and they took the second pass at it to make it right

I'm pretty sure he's talked about wanting to kill Magnus off at the beginning before but he mentioned that it was only at the end of petals to the metal he actually realized he wanted Magnus to live, bc Hurley had to sacrifice herself to save Magnus bc Magnus had been so reckless, that hit Travis really hard. Travis realized that Magnus' recklessness was getting people hurt and so Magnus did too, so Magnus become a bit more cautious and took up rogue training to try not to get anyone killed again 

Dust

Dust wasn't designed to be anything more than a one off and the workload was completely unsustainable, the document of notes for dust was about 100 pages and only about 10% of it got used

The reason Travis loved it so much was bc it was a mystery and he found it really fun

Commitment

Clint would love to revisit commitment, but probably not in podcast form bc he didn't find himself really being in the moment as much bc of all the different things he had to keep track of, he'd like to see a comic adaptation/continuation if possible

It was based of a comic he wrote that never got published bc the company producing it failed (he still cashed his paycheck) so he reused it bc he still liked it a lot, it was about how America was founded as a monarchy instead of a democracy and what that changed in the usa's (united sovereignty of america's) history, and how people now were fighting to establish a democracy. Also there were cowboys and spaceships and other cool stuff he put in there bc he liked it

General adventure zone

The reason why they're are able to do romantic relationships w/o being weirded out by it (they joke about it but they don't actually care) is bc it's never done in an explicit or sexual way and since it's the decision the characters would make to pursue the relationship then that's the decision they make. He reframed it as it wouldn't be weird if a family were writing a script together and there was a romance and one person wrote lines for one character and the other wrote lines for the other. He did mention that two siblings playing characters in a relationship as actors on screen wouldn't be cool though

They sometimes get comments that some of the stuff they do is "fanservice," but they feel that they owe their success to their fans and they owe some to them 

They are both aware of and proud that Justin is the best at character creation, Clint specifically really was talking about how Justin's strong suit is definitely character creation and characterization

General mcelroy stuff

They walked pretty close to me when they entered the stage room for the q&a and like… they're short, like shorter than you think

Travis referred to his unborn child as "baby dod" (I'm not 100% certain but I'm pretty sure) which I looked up and is a nickname for George, and given with their older kid being named Barbera and nicknamed BeBe and Travis talking before about how he and his wife like classic names with cool nicknames it makes sense

Travis had an earing in his right ear, I didn't get to see his left ear and I couldn't tell if it was an actual piercing or a fake, it looked really good though. Also his tinted glasses look a lot cooler irl than they do in pictures

Clint told the teenage mutant Ninja turtle story with the signatures that griffin told on mbmbam, but Clint remembered it as happening at King's Island, not Disney. This story was prompted by the question of the biggest lie he ever told his kids, and he only came clean about this a few months ago

Travis told a story about how he finished a videogame when he was younger and was so excited that he picked up a plastic knife, yelled "throwing knife!" threw it directly at Griffin who dodged it and it hit and shattered a window

[mistergaslow]

Evil Genius 2: World Domination is coming out soon. Hopefully, we’ll see a return of the old secret agents.  

-Mariana Mamba’s defeat in Evil Genius always felt a bit… anticlimactic? Yes, she “lost” her exotic looks, but she was a saboteur and thief. While she was the weakest of the Secret Agents, she could still go toe-to-toe with any Henchman.

-Jet Chan could easily come back as a Fist of the North Star/ JoJo’s Bazaar adventure’s type martial artist whose punching ability can spark panic in his enemies. And cause them to explode.

I would also like to see a return for Katerina Frostonova, Dirk Masters, or John Steele. However Frostonova and Dirk seem like they’d more likely be villains/henchpersons, and Steele would be played by a different actor.

[merryfortune]

Day 5: Snowfall, Snowmelt

Compendium Game Route 2019 for @vrainsrarepairweeks

Ship: Kiku/Miyu

Rating: T

Word Count: 1,546

Tags: Alternate Universe – PreCure Inspired

  Ash fell around them like snow. It was grey and granular; flecked with flames and embers. It all fell, almost prettily, over the park but beneath the darker coloured clouds which swirled and rumbled, threatening to rain but there was this heat. This heat. It was deathly and agonising. To think, moments early, it had been so pleasantly cold. It sent a shiver down Miyu’s spine as she held onto her precious trinket, the Crystal Heart, in her hand and began to walk towards the epicentre of it all. An inferno burned before their eyes; where their friend once stood.

  “Aqua, Aoi... This is my responsibility. I... I’ll deal with this.” Miyu said.

  Aoi and Aqua both simpered behind her but Aoi accepted it. Miyu had grown up somewhat from when she was child, she realised. That’s why she was the leader. Unofficially appointed, anyway.

  Miyu strode forth and in a burst of colour, so different to the grey and black and red around them, pure and shining and bright, Miyu transformed. Ribbons unfurled around her, only to tightly wrap her up in swimming suit like lyrcra and a tutu and mismatched socks and high heeled boots. All that eye cloyingly bright cyan and she was protected by it all, as scantily clad as it may seem.

  She was no longer just Sugisaki Miyu, silly schoolgirl and sports extraordinaire; she was Cure Raindrop, the energetic and refreshing Cure of Water, one of the Emissaries of the Elements.

  And she was the only person who could put out this fire because she had started it.

  With a flick of her wrist, Miyu generated a barrier of water which protected her as she fazed through the inferno which burned and all the smoke and ash and embers which it produced. Her demeanour was calm but determined as she found her dear friend in the middle of it all; on her knees, clutching her head, bawling.

  “Kiku.” Miyu called out.

  “Leave me alone.” Kiku spat.

  “D’aw, you know me, I can’t do that.” Miyu murmured.

  She knelt in front of this girl. And a girl that she didn’t know.

  She saw half of Kiku, her friend. White schoolgirl blouse, blue-black hair in a plait which wound around her neck, but she also saw someone else; her foe. Her hands had turned to claws, her arms now looked as though they were clad with lava and her eyes, once a cooled amber were now molten, colouring the whole of her eye, not just her pupil. She didn’t look human, but she still looked like Miyu.

  “Get away from me, Raindrop.” Kiku snapped. “I was sent here to kill you. To kill you and Cure Maiden, to kill the Fairy, Aqua, and to rob humanity of ever knowing a peaceful nature ever again.”

  “But is such destruction what you want?” Miyu asked.

  Kiku looked up at her. For a moment, the golden colour of her eyes turned to white. Tears dribbled down her cheeks, only to turn to steam because her body was so hot. Miyu smiled an almost despairing smile.

  “Well? Is it?” she prompted Kiku.

  “I am p-proud to be a henchperson of the all glorious Fire.” Kiku spat out a reply but it was obvious that she was lying.

  “Were you... No, are you proud to be my friend?” Miyu asked.

  Kiku whimpered. She looked up slightly, to meet Miyu’s eyes briefly, only to evade not only Miyu’s kind gaze, but her own feelings as well.

  “I was never your friend.” Kiku murmured. “I was sent here on behalf of the Empire of Fire to gain your trust... to betray you...”

  Miyu shook her head. She didn’t see it that way. She didn’t feel it that way. Miyu had always been the friendly sort of girl, playing with as many children as she could in parks as a child and even now, a decade on, she was the number one peacekeeper in her high school class. She had earned the title of Class President because of her cheerful and friendly demeanour over someone more practical or book smart. Kiku was not exempt from this warmth that Miyu felt unto those around her.

  She had been confused at first, yes, by this girl who had suddenly appeared before her. No information to her aside from her name on the whiteboard behind her and who politely refused to wear the same uniform as every other student in the class and ergo, the whole school. Miyu had been even more confused when this girl began to tail her and found a place to stay with her.

  But Miyu had welcomed Kiku into her heart. She had taken her on many adventures, to the mall and to the park and to many more, sometimes skirting secret identities and whatnot because that was just the life of a magical girl. They had spent so many nights together studying or watching movies. There were a few different extremes in their relationship, but it had become a friendship, nonetheless. A very dear and important friendship to Miyu’s heart.

  Even Kiku was who she said she was: Kuki of the Fire Empire. The very Kuki who had driven back the combined forces of Cure Raindrop and Cure Maiden to the brink, only to fumble at the last minute and then, mysteriously, disappear whilst her brethren from the Empire continued to wage their war against humanity, as defended by the Pretty Cure duo of Miyu and Aoi.

  Although, Miyu was quite certain that her and Aoi’s duo was about to change.

  It wasn’t about to become a solo act afforded by Aqua, no, it was going to become a trio. Miyu still had that spare Crystal Heart. The very one that Aqua had been afraid to give her. Miyu’s Crystal Heart was the one which represented Water and it transformed her into Cure Raindrop. Aoi’s Crystal Heart was the one of Wind and transformed her into Cure Maiden. And now, Miyu was certain, that the third Crystal Heart would be accepted by Kiku.

  She felt it beyond her heart and beyond her soul, she could feel how right this decision was in the heat around her and in the ground beneath her, in the tears that Kiku cried, and in the gusts which dangled around them in this hidden, ashy place.

  Miyu was certain. Her lips tingled. Just like that time when she and Kiku had slept next to one another on different futons but had inched together in the course of night, only to wake and find each other so perfectly irresistible in the dark and in the post dream haze of exhaustions. They hadn’t kissed but Miyu’s heart had pounded so hard and she felt a sensation in her lips which made her wish that they had, rather than breathe so quietly, awkwardly exchanging glances.

  “I really like you, Kiku, you’re my friend and I know you think of me as one also. So please, accept me into your heart.” Miyu said and she then drew forth the third Crystal Heart. “Accept this.”

  “Oh, Miyu...” Kiku warbled. “I couldn’t. I can’t.”

  “You can. I know you can.” Miyu said.

  Kiku wiped her eyes and the flames on her skin simpered. She regained control of the illusion which was her body. Save for her ears, now pointed and elfin. Miyu smiled. Kiku took a big breath and hesitantly accepted the Crystal Heart from Miyu.

  “You’re like... a living truth detector. I can’t lie to you.” Kiku mumbled. “I like you too. I want, no, I am your friend and I would much rather see the world in peace than in flames.”

  “Thank you, Kiku.” Miyu said.

  On their knees, both girls hugged. Hugged tight. Miyu all but didn’t want to let go as her very aura cooled Kiku who singed the ground beneath her. But their arms did slip away eventually and Miyu helped Kiku to her feet.

  “You can do it. You can use it.” Miyu told her, as self-assured as telling someone that the sun would rise the next morning.

  Kiku held tightly onto the Crystal Heart. She felt its power flow through her as she accepted it and all of Miyu’s love in tow. With a breath, she found her own power inside of her. She transformed. Not into a human, not into an Efreeti, nor an abomination of them both but something else.

  Ribbons and frills trailed around her, she smiled brilliantly, and she became the person that she had always wanted to be. All in gloves and socks and a lovely dress with a kindly, fiery motif woven through it all.

  “I now dub you... Cure Blaze.” Miyu decided as she took Kiku’s hands.

  Kiku tugged on Miyu’s hands and then brought her into a dear and tight embrace. Nuzzling into the crook of Miyu’s neck, thinking about how they had all the time in the world, unlike before, these surprisingly cherished past six months or so which were crooked and borrowed due to being a pretence for a failed betrayal. Kiku decided that wanted to not only see the spring and summer with this precious person of hers, but the other seasons too, autumn and winter.

  “Thank you.” Kiku mumbled.