#the third one is a staff illustration

[sirfetchd]

these two are so cutieful and adorable its kinda crazy

[httpsserene]

𝐡𝐭𝐭𝐩𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐞'𝐬 𝐟𝟏 𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐭𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥

𝘂𝗽𝗹𝗼𝗮𝗱 𝟰: 𝗱𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗲𝗹 𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗼 / 𝗺𝗮𝘅 𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻 𝘅 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿 | 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗺𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻

📖𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘆: you can't remember the last time you've gotten to spend more than three days at a time with both of your boyfriends. you understand how demanding their job is but, you just can't remember the last time they really exhausted you...pleasurably. and then winter break comes around , and they have all the time they need to make you lose your mind. 📖𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴: 18+ only. explicit. overstimulation. light dom/sub. quickies. cunnilingus. vaginal fingering. vaginal sex. unsafe sex. safewords. creampie. come eating. squirting. hand job. masturbation. dacryphilia. mention of taking explicit photos. praise kink. aftercare. set after the 2023 season. no beta we die like carlos’ fuel system. 📖𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁: 6.5k words 📖𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴: daniel ricciardo/max verstappen x black!fem!reader 📖𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗿𝗲: oneshot. 📖𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗸: take me away • daniel caesar

𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗳𝗮𝗰𝗲: set post 2023 season. mm, i luv me some danny caesar–i got to see him live this year 😛 i was originally gonna pick a classic country song in true american fashion to show some patriotism for the austin gp—as a black woman, i can attest that we love our country bangers—but take me away just fit perfectly. and daniel is definitely taking yall somewhere this upload—max and reader are just along for the ride 💀. i tried to write sub!max, i think it came across well, and ahead of time i sincerely apologize to the maxiel truthers…i think i may have slayed. i will not be paying for your therapy < 3 🙂 (and if you think i changed the summary, stfu no i didn’t 😌) enjoy y'all !!!!

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cross-posted on my ao3, htppsss

to see what kinktober uploads have already been completed or to see what's coming next check my f1 kinktober masterlist ! for all of my works see my general masterlist!

this past racing season was long; daniel knows that well; he went from being the third driver at red bull, to having a seat at alphatauri, to breaking his wrist–and still managed to recover to drive in the last five races. max can also account for how lengthy this season was; he dominated every race illustrated by his 10 consecutive wins, won his team the constructor’s championship 16 races in, won his third world driver’s championship the following week through a sprint race, and still had to stick around for five more races. but, daniel and max both know who has the best firsthand account of how prolonged and draining the formula one 2023 season was.

you.

daniel knows that you’re they’re biggest supporter; you’re a sweetheart. and while you haven’t vocalized your displeasure for the twenty-three races this year–he can feel your dejection. at the start of the season, everything was seen through rose-colored glasses; max was winning, the three of you were having champagne-drenched celebrations in hotel rooms–so filthy the poor staff probably had to incinerate the sheets. you were satisfied; and daniel was with you whenever red bull didn’t want to parade him around at a grand prix. but as the months progressed and as daniel got a seat, the demanding nature of formula one was observable. the longer season had stolen them from you–they were flying from country to country, the gaps between races only long enough to only have them home for two or three days at a time, before they had to fly out and adjust to a new time zone. leaving your two boyfriends unable to make a mess of you as often as you all crave in doing so. phone sex is hot–but it can lose its luster over almost nine months. they’ve been neglecting you–even though every time either one of them suggests that notion, you disagree vehemently– but, it’s the truth.

they pride themselves on the fact that they used to make you beg for them to stop drawing orgasms out of you...but recently your sex life has consisted of dry-humping like horny teenagers, frantic pussy-eating and cock-sucking, and quickies in the shower. so, max and daniel formulated a plan.

after abu-dhabi, the three of you returned home to max’s monaco flat and fell into bed. you’re comfortably laying completely on top of daniel, front to front, and your head is tucked under his chin, turned to the side to face max, who’s settled on his side facing the two of you, arm draped over your back, with his hand squeezing at your waist randomly as he talks to daniel. you’re fighting sleep and losing; eyelids fluttering closed every now and then against your will, breath slowing as you edge closer and closer to sleep. you're floating on the brink of unconsciousness until you're dragged away at the soft sounds of daniel and max rousing you.

“there ya’ go, honey,” murmurs daniel, his voice rumbling in his chest underneath you, “we got somethin’ to ask you, before we let ya sleep, sweet girl.”

max’s hand shifts to rub at the length of your back, and you clear the sleepy haze from your mind enough to nod your head and hum softly in question, “m’kay.”

daniel gently pulls your head from his neck with his tattooed hand on your nape, making sure your pretty eyes, foggy with sleep, make eye contact, “how do ya’ feel about spending december in australia, hmm? a sunny christmas–on the ricciardo ranch; you, me, max and our families–ain’t that perfect, honey?”

max smiles softly at your pout–you’re never one to appreciate having your sleep interrupted–before adding on to daniel’s question, “jimmy and sassy can stay with the sitter; i already spoke to her a few days ago. she’d be thrilled to have them, so you don’t have to worry about where’d they stay. i don’t think i can get pet passports in three days nor do i want to see how two bengal cats act on a private jet for twenty hours.”

a few seconds pass, max and daniel searching your face for any hint to a possible answer. you blink a few times, before you murmur faintly, “‘m okay with it…can i go to sleep now?”

max laughs tenderly, guiding your head back into daniel’s neck before he scoots closer and rests his own head on the australian’s shoulder, “yeah, mijn schatje. sleep well.”

daniel wraps the arm pinned under max around him, pulling him closer to drop a kiss on his forehead. his other hand falls on your back over the dutchman’s, caressing it softly. he holds the two of you as tight as he possibly can, the big grin on his face only seen by the ceiling. he has his whole world in his arms right now, but come christmas time, his whole universe–his family–will be under the same roof back home in australia.

the next three days are filled with an absurd amount of packing. max and daniel have five suitcases between the two of them—you have five for yourself; it doesn’t hurt to be prepared. the night before your flight, they watch you pace around the bedroom making sure there’s nothing important you’re forgetting. jimmy and sassy had been dropped off at the sitter’s, and max and daniel had already moved all the luggage to the entryway for the early flight. the two drivers had stopped trying to convince you to join them in the bed and cuddled together, knowing it’s best to let you work out your anxieties now so you don’t overthink on the flight.

as you start combing through the closet again, max whispers to daniel, “we could fuck the nerves out her right now, danny.”

daniel smacks max’s hip, smirking when he whines quietly, “no, maxy. she has to sit for an almost twenty hour flight, we can’t make that any more difficult for her.” the dutchman huffs, unhappy with the answer even though he knows it's the logical course of action.

dan continues, “remember: as soon as we get to the ranch and settle in—we'll be alone for a week before my parents come ‘n join us. we’ll have plenty of time to take her apart and put her back together.”

daniel was wrong. after y’all landed in perth, and made the drive out to the countryside—it was apparent that the three of you weren’t the only ones at the ranch. his parents had come early to make sure the ranch was prepped and fully stocked for your vacation, and prepared a home cooked dinner to welcome you in. dan can’t help his big smile from becoming a permanent fixture on his face as he watches his mom and dad fawn over you and max. grace pulls you into the house, instructing the men to bring the luggage inside while she gets to fixing you a plate heaping with barbecue. joe affectionately calls max ‘son’ with a tight hug, congratulating him on his third championship before they all make their way into the house.

the original plan is put on the back burner as daniel watches you and max bloom under the loving attention from his parents. the days passed quickly, all of them spent horsing around the farm; horseback riding, dirt biking, atv riding, making a trip out to the beach, eating good food, and sleeping well. dan sees max’s pale skin pinkening and your melanated complexion glowing with warmth from the caress of the australian sun. your afternoon naps are taken underneath the warm rays, stretching out in any slice of sun you can catch, bathing in it like a cat. max and dan do as many things as they can shirtless attempting to get their tan in as quick as possible—dan tans gracefully, max, on the other hand, burns like a lobster first before his tan becomes apparent.

they fucked you on the second day after your arrival, but not exactly how they were hoping too. it’s still a relatively short affair—for their standards, at least. while it quieted the need within you, it didn’t completely satisfy the urge for any of you. daniel had to coax you into biting a pillow to muffle your squeals, and have max nearly choke on his tattooed fingers to quiet his whining—dan himself clenched his jaw so tightly to prevent his own moans from escaping that he’s surprised he didn’t crack a tooth. he loves his parents, but he’s genuinely going to snap if he doesn’t get to ruin you and max without worrying if they could hear how he makes you and max beg for him.

on the fifth day, you wear your first sundress to lunch and max pulls daniel in the kitchen to muffle a scream into his chest. 

“dan, baby—i love your parents,” max starts, his eye twitching, “you know i do! but, i can’t go another day without hearing her scream for me—for us.”

they’re only men. very desperate men. and you had the nerve to parade yourself in this flowy, yellow, strapless sundress at a meal they have to suffer through. they can’t even tear it off of you after, because dan’s parents have a chance of overhearing. but, what forces the australian to kindly kick his parents out of the house, is how you fail to stop yourself from drooling over them playing around in the pool—struggling to continue speaking with his mom as you sit on the pool’s ledge. 

before dinner, dan showers by himself first, changing into fresh clothes. he then ushers you and max into the shower, ‘to rinse off the chlorine and sweat from the day,’ he says. but, he could care less about that. as soon as he hears the shower start, he practically sprints to the kitchen to see his mom and dad put the finishing touches on the burgers they fixed up.

daniel skids to a stop in the doorway, leaning against it in faux-relaxedness, and says, “howdy.” it’s silent for a minute; his dad stares at him blankly, and his mom eventually breaks and speaks plainly, “what is it, danny?”

daniel gasps in mock-disbelief, “why d’ya always think i want something from you? i can’t just be greeting my wonderful, loving, and understanding parents?”

grace stares at him, not fooled, “are you just saying ‘hi’?”

daniel stutters aimlessly looking to his dad for help, but joe just shrugs at him in a ‘you did this to yourself, son’ manner. 

“maybe! well, no, actually…” daniel sulks, slinking into the kitchen, and resting against the counter next to his mom.

his mom hums knowingly, and gestures at him to start speaking.

“uh, so, you know i love having y’all around, right, and uh, it’s nice y’know—i mean, i don’t see ya’ as often as i want to, but uh—don’t get me wrong, you’re my parents, but uhm—“

joe sighs, “daniel, cut to the chase, please.”

daniel groans, before he leans his head back to look at the ceiling, “fine. look—we just expected to at least have one week to ourselves when we got here. not that y’all being here to surprise us is bad! you know that. but, uhm…we just made plans, i guess. a-and we kind of can’t do it, because, well…”

grace washes her hands as daniel continues to ramble through an unnecessary apologetic explanation. she turns the water off, drying her hands on a towel, and turns to her husband, pointing at daniel while rolling her eyes teasingly, before she cuts her son off, “daniel, we can leave tonight.”

daniel stops, head dropping to look at his mom in shock, “what?”

“we can leave tonight, if that’s what you’re trying to ask. your father and i don’t mind,” grace smiles gently, “we weren’t supposed to stay for this long anyways, we were just trying to get the ranch prepared for y’all, and you know how enamored we are with your girl and boy; we overstayed our welcome. we can go and come back a week before christmas with the rest of the family, danny.”

daniel perks up, “you guys don’t have to leave for that long, i don’t wanna kick you out—“

“daniel, please,” joe scoffs, walking over to clap daniel on the back, “you’re not kicking us out. we’ll be back on the seventeenth, alright. hopefully, that gives y’all enough time to work out your frustrations. we really don’t want to overhear or see anything—“

daniel pales, “okAY, thank you, yes—please don’t comeback until as late as y’all want, jesus christ. wait—did you hear the other night?! ohmygod…they’re going to kill me.”

joe and grace laugh, “no, we didn’t hear anything, danny. we just figured from how they were following you around in the morning—max couldn’t even look us in the eye, son.”

daniel groans, embarrassed, “don’t tell them anything about this okay? they’ll break up with me if they know i asked you to leave so i could have sex with them.”

his parents' laughter only gets louder, but they agree eventually after they indulge in teasing their son a little more.

dinner is pleasant; you and max remain unaware of the ricciardo’s intervention, enjoying the well-cooked meal and lighthearted conversation. when everyone’s stomach is full and the conversation quiets, grace and joe break the news that they unfortunately have to return to perth. you and max sadden, trying to convince daniel’s parents to stay a little longer—max’s eyes fail to hide his eagerness at their announcement, even though his voice manages to be completely sincere. daniel watches as his parents formulate a fake excuse about their departute before he gently reminds you two, “they’ll be back for christmas, babes. you’ll see them again.”

the two of you calm at daniel’s statement, and walk his parents out to the car, exchanging hugs and kisses before they drive off back to the city. daniel leads you two back into the house after you’ve watched his parents disappear down the road, and the shift in energy as soon as the door locks is missed by you.

you mindlessly amble back to the dining table, stacking the emptied plates and glasses and wandering into the kitchen to clean them. as soon as you turn the sink faucet on, a strong body pushes against your back, and presses you against the edge of the counter as their hand reaches around you to shut the water off. you turn around to tell-off whichever boyfriend did that, but before you can get any words out, you’re pulled into a filthy kiss.

your shocked gasp is muffled by max’s lips, and you half-heartedly attempt to pull away, but the dutchman chases your lips, not allowing you to stop. you give in with a sigh, allowing max to continue kissing you. he buries one hand in your hair, tilting your head to the side for a better angle, and licks at the seam of your lips. you squirm against him, not quite giving into the coaxing of his tongue, and max hums softly before he tugs at your bottom lip. you turn your head to the side, panting softly to suck in a few desperate breaths before max pulls you back and invades the opening of your lips. you squeal at the feeling of his tongue laving against yours, the lewd wet sounds of your mouths have your thighs pressing together. max brings his other arm to grasp around your waist, and pulls you against him, groaning into your mouth at the smallest amount of friction that movement provided. you feel lightheaded, your knees weakening, but max firmly holds you up, not letting you slip from his grasp. your hands come up to wrap around him, one feeling up his chest before resting around his neck, and the other hand digging into the meat of his back in search of stability. he hums at the ache of your nails and drops both of his hands to cup the back of your thighs right under your ass. he lifts you onto the counter, spreading your legs and shoving his body between them, while still managing to not break the kiss. at the show of strength you arch your back, whining highly, pushing your chest against his—he’s so strong. he eagerly starts tugging the sundress up your legs, making to expose your panties before he’s interrupted by a sudden heavy hand on the back of his neck.

max jerks away from you (you can finally catch your breath), his chest heaving, and his own whine fills the air at the weight of daniel’s hand.

“now, darlin’,” daniel addresses max with a smirk, “this wasn’t part of our plan, was it? you forget the script, maxy?”

max blushes a pretty pink, and murmurs, “no, daniel—sorry, danny.” dan hums at the apology, pressing a kiss to max’s warm cheek.

“w-what plan?” you timidly ask, still sitting on the counter, legs spread obscenely, dress skewed messily, and lips swelling from max’s ambition.

daniel chuckles, eyes shining at you hungrily, “mmm. how ‘bout we make our way to the bedroom and ‘ll show ya, sweetheart?”

you’re spread eagle in the middle of the bed, completely naked, with daniel fully dressed in between your legs sucking marks and pressing kisses on your thighs, max stripped down to his boxer-briefs on his side next to you, doing the same to your neck and chest. you’re squirming viciously just from the feeling of his beard scraping against your inner thighs, squeals ripping from your throat when he leaves a hickey or bites at the meat of your thigh. the australian’s pupils are blown wide, as he watches you try and muffle your cries behind your hand—if this is how you’re responding to the two of them thoroughly refreshing their claim on you, he’s thrilled to see how you’ll lose your mind as the night goes on. pulling his head away, daniel presses his thumb into one of the bruises he left and your back arches deeply–you choke on your squeal, thighs slamming shut around his hand.

“none of that now, sweetheart,” dan instructs firmly, “‘s just me, you, and max, honey. no need to quiet those sweet sounds of yours, alright?”

you nod wildly, stumbling over your agreement, “y-yeah, danny. ‘ll be- i’ll be loud for you guys.”

max moans at your words from where his lips were tugging at your nipple, pulling away to raise himself back to your lips, thirstily tasting your desperation from its source. dan allows max to bruise up your mouth, and leave his own beard burn around your lips, as he undresses himself down to his briefs. 

“max…max, maxy, babe,” daniel softly calls a few times, failing to get the impatient man’s attention, “max, look at me.” the switch from dan’s soft tone to a deeper, base filled sound has max snapping away to look at daniel, panting roughly.

“be good f’me and give yourself a hand, darlin’,” dan commands, and max sighs lovingly at the endearment, “you can manage that right, maxy? while i get our sweet girl ready to take you, hm?”

max whimpers, “yes, danny,” and shifts to sit upright, pulling his underwear off and wrapping his large hand around himself. dan purrs, “good boy. her sweet cunt’s already drippin’ for us, maxy. won't take me long to stretch ‘er open for you.” you keen, humiliated at the way dan speaks about you like you’re not in the room with them. daniel tugs your legs open again, hiding his laughter in the plush meat of your thigh, but you can feel the smirk against your skin. 

embarrassed, you whine hushedly, hands fisting into the sheets by your side, “mean.”

daniel hums uncaringly at your remark, “mean? don’t worry, honey–when i finish with you, you’ll think ‘m mean for a very different reason.” he doesn’t give you a chance to ponder his words, and a firm drag of his tongue across your cunt destroys any chance for your thought processes. this time around, your moans are clear, echoing around the room. the press of daniel’s tongue is unforgiving and working intently at your clit. your thighs clamp around his head, not allowing the australian to escape even though he can feel your hips bucking away, trying to escape the consistent stimulation on one of your most sensitive spots. when one of your hands flies down to tug at his curls, he relents his assault and switches to prodding his tongue against your opening. he moans depravedly against your entrance, the noise vibrating through you, causing your shriek to pierce the air. he eats you out like a man starved; savagely shoving his tongue deeper inside you, curling against your walls, nose bumping against your clit, mouth moving like he’s truly trying to eat you alive. he ignores the ache of his jaw, the tightness of his briefs, how his beard scratches your skin; and he smoothly slips a finger into you, beginning thoroughly stretch you out.

it’s absolutely obscene-sounding. daniel works his way up to three fingers, and any previous qualms he had about you being too quiet are resolved. your whines are constant at the insistent invasion of daniel’s curling digits, and based on the way your legs are trembling, he can tell you're nearing the precipice. what’s even more erotic, is the way your cries harmonize with max’s own grunts of pleasure; the dutchman’s hips buck into the frantic pace of his hands and danny wouldn’t be surprised if max comes before he even gets inside you. daniel sits back on his heels, his fingers still digging deeper inside you, forcefully pressing against your g-spot. with his left hand, daniel knocks max’s hand away, ignoring the responding yowl of displeasure, and fists max’s cock on his own, “doin’ a little too much, maxy. our desperate girl deserves to come first, anyways—lemme set the pace for you, darlin’.” max suffers under danny’s ministrations; the extreme shift down in tempo, the constant attention on the head of his cock, a finger pressing at his slit or the vein along his underside alternatingly. you, on the other hand, are being pushed closer and closer to your orgasm. daniel’s thumb joins, rubbing quick circles of your clit–and you scream out, pleasure overriding you. when your moans start to blend into breathy little ah-ah-ah’s, he slips his fingers free from the tight clasp of your cunt, and releases his hold on max’s cock.

you sob achingly, begging daniel to make you cum, dismayed cries of, “no! danny, why’d you stop, please, make me cum,” falling from your lips as max mewls next to you, his own hands trying to force danny’s back around him. daniel shushes you, and motions for max to come closer. max flies forward happily, his whines cutting off at daniel’s attention. he man-handles max into hovering over you in missionary, his cock resting against your fluttering cunt, waiting for permission. your cries quiet, and your heart races with anticipation for max to bury himself in you. danny’s left hand grips at max’s corresponding hip, and his right hand slips in the narrow space between you two, and he presses the flushed arousal in you. and the australian cannot stop running his mouth.

“that’s ‘t, baby–nice n’ easy for ya’–mmm–he’s splitting you open isn’t he–yeah, soak ‘im, babe, get him nice and wet–no, sweetheart, don’t run from it–yeahhh just like that, you take ‘t so well–”

your own orgasm suprises you, otherwise you would’ve at least made an attempt to tell the two men. max hasn’t even gotten halfway inside you and you’re cumming; back-arching, toes-curling, hands rushing forward to scratch down max’s back, eyes screwed shut, and walls clamping tightly around him. max is whining above you, flinching away from the hot grasp of your inner walls, but daniel won’t let him pull out.

“danny, danny! please–oh–i-i-i’m gonna–not gonna last–‘m gonna cum, if i stay inside her,” max admits, sobbing embarrasingly.

daniel laughs softly from behind max, and shifts so his front is pressed to the dutchman’s back. max shivers at the sound, the hair on the back of his neck rising. “aww, you can’t handle it, darling? don’t worry, i’ve changed my plans for you, anyways,” daniel smugly whispers into max’s ear. dan brings both of his hands to the younger’s waist, and forces him deeper inside of you, ignoring the way max cries sensitively and keeps pushing him forward until he bottoms out. you and max let out twin squeals from the white-hot flash of pleasure; you struggle to adjust to his size as quickly as daniel forced him in–you pulsate around him, it’s like you’re still trying to drag him further in and push him out at the same time. daniel presses a kiss to max’s shoulder blade and praises him, “see, maxy? i knew you could do it—such a good boy f’me.”

max’s eyes roll back, and he can’t fight it–he cums, loudly. his limbs weaken and his body collapses over yours, head falling into your neck, and his lewd moans vibrate through your raw skin. the younger’s body covers you completely, and your knees come up to cradle max’s hips, encouraging him to thrust through the aftershocks. daniel leans back, continuing to bathe the two of you with praise as he lets you guys shudder through the come down. a couple minutes pass before your legs relax and max’s moans die down to breathy hums, as both of your chests heave as you try to regulate your breathing. 

“feelin’ good, my loves?” daniel questions tenderly.

you’re the first to respond, a sated smile sent the australians way, “so good, danny.” max sighs out a breathy “yeah,” muffled into your chest. daniel brightens, “alrighty–maxy, fuck her properly now, and make her cum again.” the dutchman grunts in disbelief, “what? no, i-i can’t, i just came–”

dan cuts max off, “you can’t or, you won’t?” max’s breath stutters at the sudden dominance in daniel’s tone, sitting up to turn his head to look at the older man incredulously. the smile on dan’s face is gone, his expression suddenly firm and unyielding–max can only drop his gaze away from daniel’s eyes, avoiding the piercing gaze.

“max, look at me,” the australian states unflinchingly, and the younger man’s eyes fly to meet his at the command.

“what’s your color, darlin’?”

with his tongue flicking out to wet his lips nervously, max mutely whispers, “green.” daniel’s piercing gaze drops to you and he repeats the question, “sweetheart, what’s your color?”

you squirm under his intense attention—max’s hips stuttering at the stimulation, and your bruised brown thighs squeeze at his waist until he stops—but the slight flare of pleasure that races up your spine decides your answer, “green, danny.”

a smirk spreads across daniel’s lips, “see, you can, maxy,” the younger blushes deeply at his teasing croon, “now, be a sweet prince for me, and fuck our sweetheart, hm?” and with a pinch to max’s hip, he sinks in you deeply with an oversensitive sigh, before he pulls out and sets a slow rhythm to allow you both a little more time to recover. the drag of his cock is coaxing soft shuddery breaths out of your lips, and sharp over-sensitive whines from max. his hands are trembling from where they’re grip flexes on your waist, veins popping with the strength of his grasp, sure to leave a mark on your darker skin. dan’s hands halt the gentle roll of his hips, before the man leads him at a quicker pace. max throws his head back onto daniel’s shoulder, overwhelmed at the feeling of your tight, soaking wet cunt, and cries out “too much—ngh—i-it’s too much!” but aside from all of his whines, he’s getting hard again. unlike max, the sensitivity from your orgasm had faded quickly—if anything, it’s doubling the amount of pleasure you’re feeling. desperate for more, you plant your feet on the bed and start rolling your hips to meet max halfway; moaning yearningly at the change in position.

the younger man frantically tries to force your hips back down, the friction added from you meeting his thrusts is too great. “heyheyhey—none of that, prince,” daniel quickly tugs max’s hands away from your waist, one hand firmly holding them against the younger’s chest, “remember, we made a promise to give her so many orgasms to make up for how mean we’ve been to her. you don’t want to break that promise; right, darling?” max tries to hide his face in dan’s shoulder, but it’s too late—he starts sobbing. daniel watches how the tears rain down max’s cheeks, and how his face crumples so prettily—is it weird that making his usually unbothered boyfriend cry, turns him on?

max sniffles, “n-no, danny. -ll do it, i-i wanna make her cum.” not wanting to disappoint you any further, he starts quickening his strokes on his own, eventually outpacing the rhythm daniel set for him. it dawns on max quickly; he’s not going to last, again. he makes the mistake of looking at the blissed out expression on your face, the knot in his tummy tightening as he watches how your mouth falls open in a moan, wet and inviting. he drops his eyes away, but they fall on where the two of you are connected; the sight causes him to choke on his breath. his own thrusts have forced his cum out of you, frothing at your entrance, smeared all over your labia and staining your inner thighs. if he could eat you out and fuck you at the same time—he’d be doing it. max urgently asks daniel, “d-danny, ‘m gonna cum—please, can i cum?” ignoring max, dan’s hand lets go of max’s, and falls to let his middle and ring finger rub vigorously at your clit. your body jackknifes, a scream leaving your lips at the sudden addition, you choke out a warning, “g’na cum! pleasepleaseplease—” and when daniel’s thumb sneaks down to press gently at where you're wrapped snugly around max, almost like he’s trying to slip in alongside his cock—white flashes behind your eyes and you’re cumming hard. 

daniel hums, satisfied, “now, you can cum, maxy.” the younger had already started coming the second he started speaking. it’s erotic—how the two of yours’ orgasm feeds off of each other. every clench of your cunt has you squeezing tightly around max, causing him to thrust in you deeper, which in turn has you pulsating around him tightly, and the cycle continues. max rides out the two of your orgasms viciously this time around, his hips slamming into you, forcing himself as deep as possible wanting to empty every last dreg of his cum within you. you can only whimper brokenly, not making an effort to calm his grinds, wanting to savor anything you can get before he pulls out of you. with max’s last pump of his hips in you, daniel slowly guides him out of you. the two of you hiss, extremely over sensitive from the two times you’ve cum, so daniel tries to make the affair as smooth as he possibly can. with a squelching pop, max is freed from the tight grasp of your cunt, and dan leads him to lie down next to you on the bed.

you’re still floating, not a single thought in your head, a deep sense of satisfaction coating your mind, but you can vaguely hear daniel checking on max, making sure he didn’t push him too far. you hum quietly under your breath, almost like a purr, eyes shut blissfully as you allow yourself to relax in your afterglow. you faintly register daniel slipping in between your legs, his broad shoulders pressed against the underside of your thighs. you feel his left hand gently press at the raw skin of your thigh, and you fuzzily manage to move it over for him, thinking that he’s trying to clean you up. 

daniel can only stare. the pink skin of your hole has turned to a deeper red, with how max bullied your cunt. his mouth falls open, entranced, at the sight of your bruised pussy winking at him, struggling to close, and he moans softly as the pulsing of your cunt starts pushing max’s cum out of you. the creamy, frothy, white fluid slowly sliding out of you and down your ass. his tongue wets his lips—he wants a taste. dan drops the towel he was holding in his right hand, and brings the now empty hand up to spread your lips with a ‘v’ of his fingers. his eyes flick up to your face, and once he sees that you're still floating, he takes a gentle pass over your entrance with two fingers, collecting yours and max’s combined release. he sucks the mess clean, and a groan rumbles through his chest. fuck—he needs more. daniel quickly finds himself breathing softly over your cunt for the second time tonight, and he can feel how your thighs already start shaking at the exhales of his breath against you. he laps his tongue once in a broad stripe over you, and moans depravedly—and then, he pretty much forced to eat you out; why let this go to waste. 

the minute his tongue slips inside you, your thighs slam shut around his head, trying to halt his overeager movements. daniel doesn’t care, he’d happily suffocate in your cunt if it meant he got to eat max’s cum out of you for the last time. when he slips two of his fingers in to coax more of the cum max fucked deep in you out, your hand flies down and tugs at his curls. daniel pulls his mouth away, growling sharply at the pain from the grip of your hand, but he steadfastly dives back in—he’s going to swallow every last drop you’ll give him. “hngh—too much, –anny, can’t take it—my tummy feels weird—it hurts!” daniel’s hips starting grinding against the bed, and he’s made aware of how painfully hard he’s gotten throughout the night; he hasn’t cum once. daniel moans against your cunt, panting against you, “ya got one more f’me right, sweetheart? yeah, ya do—just let me taste you, yeah?” daniel tunes out your cries again, and brushes his nose against your clit as he laves his tongue over you picking up every drop of cum the two of you have spilled on your swollen cunt. his fingers start to curl upwards as he pulls them out, dragging wetness out from the depths of your walls, and you squeal, any pleads that you planned to say have been suddenly erased from your throat at the sudden pain-pleasure that bursts behind your eyes. your core tightens, and you seize against the bed cumming for the third time this night at daniel’s insistence. this is the most intense orgasm all night, and it feels never ending; all of your senses feel like they’re burning hot, nerves tingling from your scalp to your curled toes. what you’ve failed to recognize is that you're gushing all over daniel’s face. he practically gets waterboarded from where he was pressed against your cunt, but once he realizes that he’s made you squirt, he happily starts drinking down each spray of your fluid, uncaring of how his beard is drenched with your release, and how it puddles underneath your ass. 

he swallows you down to the very last drop, plump lips massaging your labia sweetly. he backs off your pussy, switching to your thighs to collect any wetness he missed out on. when your hand tugs at his curls again, pulling him away when the beard burn gets too much, daniel rises to his knees over you. he tugs his cock out of his briefs, the tip flushed the deepest red he’s ever seen it, and it throbs hotly in his grasp. he uses the hand soaked with your squirt to roughly rub himself off, tattooed thigh spasming, and it takes less than ten pumps of his hand before he’s cumming. with every spray of his hot cum that lands against your swollen cunt, your hips jerk—even that feels too much.

when daniel finishes, he moans at the picture he painted on you—would you let him take a picture if he asked? but his fantasy is disrupted when you squirm up the bed, your hand falling to cup protectively over your cunt, thighs tightening around your hand, and you murmur repeatedly, “no more, no more.” max coos quietly from where he’s laying, still just as fucked out as you, but he tries to soothe your cries. he sweetly pulls you into his chest when tears slip out of your eyes, petting at you clumsily, not quite yet having regained complete control of his limbs. “did so good, schatje. daniel did just like he promised—i-if, if you let him clean you up, we can cuddle and go straight to bed, ok? be good, j-just a little longer.”

you sob messily into max’s embrace, but after a few minutes with max and daniel both reassuring you that they’ve finished pulling orgasms out of you, and comfortingly massaging the already setting soreness of your muscles—your cries die down to sniffles, and you slowly spread your legs open for danny. daniel stares at the mess he created this time around, but dismisses the urge to lick it off you; his only goal right now is to properly clean you up, and make sure you go to sleep feeling satisfied and worn-out. as gently as possible, he takes turns wiping both your thighs and cunt, and max’s thighs and cock, switching when either of you says it’s too much. it takes longer than it usually does, but it doesn’t upset daniel as long as it means the two of you are comfortable. 

“okay, okay,” daniel soothes sweetly, “i’m done. you both did so good for me tonight.”

max blushes at the praise, and with a voice as airy as silk, you whisper, “you ‘ere good too, danny—made me feel r’lly good, thank you.” daniel smiles, his heart warming at your sweet words, “thank you, honey. you’re always so sweet to me.”

“now, let’s move this party to the bathroom so both of you can pee, and take a bath before we sleep, i’ll get some snacks for you to eat too,” daniel orders softly, “i took a lot from the two of you tonight—so let me make sure i put you back together, okay?

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© httpsserene 2023

[skamenglishsubs]

Subtext and Culture, Young Royals, Season 3, Episode 6

Out here in the real world it's been a week since the cliffhanger ending of episode 5 where Simon broke up with Wilhelm, but in-universe it's just the next day, and Wilhelm is being comforted by Felice.

Subtext: This entire episode is incredibly meta, there are so many times characters say things that reference earlier seasons or episodes, or the entire series as a whole. This is the first time, and Felice is saying what we're all thinking. IS IT REALLY OVER?!? 😱

Blink and you miss it: Felice gives Wilhelm her sunglasses and dries his tears so he can hide the fact that he's been crying. Also, look at that gorgeous Swedish summer. It is so pretty.

Culture: The third-years are painting the banners that go on the trucks on graduation day.

Culture: They're also signing each others' student hats, which is a common tradition. You can just sign your name or write something funny or do whatever.

Culture: This car is what we in Sweden call a sossecontainer. It's an old 90's Volvo, it's square, it's ugly, and it was pretty cheap and reliable, so it was very common and popular among working class and the lower middle classes. It was never a high-status car, so it perfectly illustrates the Eriksson family.

Subtext: Oh look, another throwback to season 1 when Sara argued with Simon about their dad, and said that he should stop giving people second chances.

Culture: Oh look, another poem by Karin Boye. This time it's Eternity, a poem about cherishing your time with your loved one, and the text is about how good times feel like an endless summer, which is what it certainly looks like for the kids and their teacher in the lush landscape. But just like in the poem, their endless summer is about to end.

Culture: This is pretty much exactly the reason used when real-world Lundsberg was temporarily closed.

Culture: And Wilhelm isn't wrong, the shitty traditions are in the walls of the place, it's always been like that, and it's always been upheld by everyone involved with the school, parents, teachers, staff, and students.

Subtext: Since this is the last episode, let's prepare the viewers to say good bye to the show, and let's do it with a little montage of students crying and taking their stuff down and emptying their rooms.

Culture: This is a 100% factually true statement, Göteborg is the worst city in the world. Source: I'm a native Stockholmer, and you just have to trust me on this, ok? Look, it's just common sense, alright? Don't listen to people from Göteborg, they're just jealous they're not living in the glorious capital. Also, they talk funny. And they have no sense of humour! And everyone is named Glenn or something.

Culture: I don't think they're referencing an actual school here, and the current Norwegian royal children went to school in Norway, not Switzerland. But the current Danish crown prince went to some boarding school in Switzerland for a while, but then he went to the Danish elite boarding school Herlufsholm. However, it was rocked by a bullying scandal in 2022, so they had to pull him out of that one and deny all knowledge of the events. Feels familiar?

Culture: Solliden is the private summer palace of the real-world Swedish royal family located on Öland, an island off the south-east coast of Sweden. The show has consistently stayed away from every likeness with the real world, but I guess they couldn't be arsed making up a fictional summer palace for the YR royal family so they went with something familiar.

Subtext: Farima is talking about the problems of finding a new school for Wilhelm from an academic perspective, but he's just thinking about how this means he won't be close to Simon any longer.

Culture: Vincent and the boys are pouring one out for Hillerska. It's a way to toast a dead friend, or in this case, a place.

Blink and you miss it: August places a king chess piece on the table before telling his friends that he's Wilhelm's reserve and might be king someday.

Subtext: And he's still so blinded by the glamour of it, despite everything. Thankfully, his friends can bring him down a couple of pegs.

Blink and you miss it: While Wilhelm is returning Kris, the book from last season, the second book in the pile is a book by Kjell Westö, Den Svavelgula Himlen - Yellow Sulphur Sky. It's about a working class kid in Finland becoming friends with his upper-class neighbour family, and his struggle maintaining a relationship with the girl of the family because of their class differences. Slightly on the nose there, show.

Meta: Henry interrupting our boys at the worst possible time is just a running joke at this point. How many times has it happened now? Four times? Five? Read the fucking room, Henry!

Subtext: Last chance to have a party together, but also last chance to see Simon, "maybe ever". Oh no, we have to start preparing for a sad ending!

Culture: Red solo cups are not a thing anywhere outside the US really, but you can buy them as a gag gift in Sweden, because to us they're just a weird movie prop we've seen American movies. Every other party scene in the show has featured regular plastic cups.

Culture: Drinking with the teachers?!? Yeah, sure, why not, everyone is an adult.

Subtext: Emo outfit? ✅ Sitting on the floor? ✅ Full of self-pity? ✅ Exaggerating the catastrophic state of his world in the way only a 17yo disaster boy can do? ✅

Meta: Another throwback to how Wilhelm was referred to as the party prince back in season 1.

Blink and you miss it: Felice hides the wine bottle behind her back before Malin comes in. She knows, Felice. Malin knows everything.

Meta: Another throwback to when Wilhelm was eating the dirt at the very same football field that disaster emo boy Simon is now sitting at together with his friends, who are trying to convince him to go to the final party.

Subtext: This time, August isn't just sorry that he got caught, he is genuinely sorry for everything he did to Wilhelm. He in turn forgives August, and we're all getting closure for this plot point.

Meta: Hey, hey, hey guys, do you remember that scene in season 1 episode 1 when Sara helped hold Felice's hair while she was throwing up? We're doing a throwback here!

Meta: Hey, hey, hey guys, do you remember that scene in season 1 episode 3 when Felice told Sara that maybe you don't have to speak the truth all the time? Well, Sara still doesn't understand why you would lie, but this time she's right, Felice was right to tell the truth.

Blink and you miss it: Stella and Fredrika are making out at the party, Felice saw it, and is making a very funny face. This is also why Stella rudely rejects Rosh, because of course she's gonna choose Fredrika, Rosh was just a distraction to make her jealous.

Subtext: Vincent is talking about Nils, who just came out, but August just saw Sara, and that's the whoever he wants.

Subtext: But despite saying that he doesn't care about anyone else seeing them, he still ducked behind a stack of pallets for this conversation.

Meta: This is a brutal Fleabag reference.

Cinematography: This scene is overwhelmingly lit in that sickly greenish fluorescent hue, but there's golden light coming from somewhere, so Sara and August share one final kiss in that golden light. But there's not enough of it to go around, not enough for their love to last, so August is left standing there alone, and all the golden light is gone.

Cinematography: Wilhelm and Simon left the party sometime after midnight, this is supposed to be a very early morning summer sunrise, and our boys are just gonna be bathed in the golden light throughout the entire scene. Gods, it is pretty.

Meta: Hey, hey, remember that scene in season 1 when Simon was singing that song, and Wilhelm instantly fell for him?

Meta: Hey guys, remember that scene in season 1 when they were discussing welfare politics in class and Simon threw shade on Wilhelm? This is a throwback to that.

Cinematography: Just fucking look at this shit. What a nice view. The nature and the sunrise is pretty, too! Going naked into the water? Yeah, that's a rebirth metaphor as well. Lisa said so!

Subtext: This entire scene is basically Wilhelm trying one last time to get Simon back. They said they weren't gonna, but he's trying anyway. They're talking about that politics class where Wilhelm couldn't speak up because he was "not allowed". So he's still bound by his royal duties, which is why Simon broke up with him last episode.

Subtext: And since Wilhelm is still stuck, he's left on dry land, while Simon swims away from him, free. Guys, I'm thinking we're actually gonna get a sad ending! This does not look good! 😭

Blink and you miss it: Stella and Fredrika are sleeping in the same bed and making out the morning after, and millions of #Stedrika shippers are rejoicing! Yay, fanservice!

Blink and you miss it: Walter is helping Henry up after he passed out in the grass outside after the party, and millions of #Walty shippers are rejoicing! Yay, fanservice!

Subtext: The last photo Wilhelm takes down from his wall is the one with him and Simon, because that's the most important memory of this place.

Blink and you miss it: Wilhelm shuts off his red lightstrip in his room. Those lights have typically been a symbol of his love for Simon, but he's turning it off. Sad ending confirmed.

Meta: Listen, it's a lovely little song that Simon wrote for Wilhelm, but it's 100% fanservice, it's referencing events in the show that Simon actually didn't witness, and it's even referencing the soundtrack to the show itself! I mean, come on! And we're getting yet another sad boy Wilhelm montage of him moping around Hillerska with his earbuds.

Subtext: Remember how the frog snowglobe was a gift from Erik, who in turn got it from their grandpa, the king? It's so obviously a symbol of the monarchy, but Wilhelm is dumping it in the trash. Are we... Are we not getting a sad ending?

Cinematography: The shot of the flag being raised is cut off at half mast, which is a pretty universal symbol for mourning. Oh ok, we're back on track for a sad ending.

Subtext: This is the first time this season that Simon speaks Spanish with his mom, and the first time in the entire series that Sara does, which shows that they're fully themselves again, they've pulled themselves out of the Hillerska world.

Culture: The graduating students are having a champagne breakfast before the graduation ceremony, that's also very common in Sweden.

Subtext: Felice and the rest of the choir decided to have a little rebellion and not sing the boring old Hillerska song, and instead the new improved one that Simon made last season. No-one told him about the switch though, which is why he's so surprised.

Culture: After the ceremony, the graduating students will run out of the school to find their parents and family and friends, who are waiting for them, usually with a big sign with the most embarrassing baby picture they could find of them.

Blink and you miss it: August's mom and stepdad have also made a huge sign with an embarrassing picture of August Malte as a kid. Adorable.

Lost in translation: The queen is saying "lilla gubben", which literally means "little old man", a very common term of endearment in Swedish families. The show has been pretty consistent in that Wilhelm's family are all using normal words, just like any other family would. So it's pretty funny that despite everyone else using titles and styles all the time, to Wilhelm, his parents are simply "mamma" and "pappa", as if he was a regular kid.

Subtext: As a graduating student you get little gifts from your family, flowers, champagne, stuffed animals, all with a blue-and-yellow ribbon so you can hang them around your neck. August is family, so the Queen gives him one as well. Of a frog with a crown. Which is a symbol of the monarchy in the show. Wilhelm threw his frog in the trash, August is getting a frog from the Queen. I think there might be symbolism here! I think we're setting up August to become the next king! Do we dare hope for a happy ending?

Cinematography: Just fucking look at this shit. The composition, the contrast, the height difference, the distance between them. It's so pretty. And they're talking about how good it was while it lasted, just like how a TV show with a sad ending can still be an amazing experience. Hint hint.

Subtext: We're saying our goodbyes, Wilhelm and Simon are saying goodbye to each other, Wilhelm wishes Simon a nice summer, just like how Simon wished Wilhelm a good Christmas back in season 1, and just like back then, they both understand that they love each other, but can't be together.

Cinematography: And then Simon exits the scene, again, leaving Wilhelm standing there alone, again, having seemingly chosen his family and royal duty.

Culture: It's common to either rent a truck as a large group of students, or to be driven in a flashy car alone or with a friend. The two girls in the centre are sitting in a very nice Aston Martin, while a bunch of their classmates are on a truck. I can't make out the full text on the banner, but I think it says something like "Lock up your sons because tonight we become like animals".

Culture: Svensson is a very common Swedish last name, so to "be a Svensson" basically means that you're super average and mediocre, you're like everyone else. Whereas these elite kids are used to having everyone else bow and scrape for them, so that message is on brand.

Cinematography: We're in the car, it looks like the ending of season 1, and we're doing a close-up of Wilhelm's face. We're ready for the fourth-wall-break of him staring sadly into the camera, having been once again broken down by the system and not getting the boy. We've said goodbye to everyone, roll the credits, start your crying...

Cinematography: ...except the show isn't ending here. We're having an honest conversation between Wilhelm and his parents for the first time. Because every other time he's said that he doesn't want to be crown prince of the next king, he's been angry or upset, he's been threatening, and definitely impulsive. But he's never wanted any of it.

Cinematography: His parents let him go, they open the door to their van, Wilhelm exits, and the show turns up the volume of the soundtrack. "Energetic music" my ass, it's the Harmony theme! It's the main theme of the entire show playing as Wilhelm runs away.

Subtext: Oh, yeah, August sees him run away, and understands that he's next in line now. Sorry buddy, sucks to be you, but never mind that now. RUN, WILHELM, RUN!!! GET YOUR MAN!

Cinematography: The shows turns into the most perfect rom-com, with Wilhelm chasing down Simon's car through the incredibly lush and green Swedish summer. He catches up to them, tells Simon that he ditched the crown for his own sake, and asks if it's really over between them.

VAD FAN TROR DU?

As if the soundtrack wasn't triumphant enough, it now starts playing As Long As you Are Here as they throw themselves in each other's arms. Happy ending! They're crying, I'm crying, we're all crying! 😭

Cinematography: A montage? With all the best scenes between our boys from the entire show? With the text of the soundtrack perfectly matching the montage? I should be outraged at how cheesy this is, but it is perfect. Perfect. I love it. I swear, this fucking show.

Subtext: Finally we are at the true ending of the show. Wilhelm has managed to escape Hillerska, him and Simon and Sara and Felice have all escaped the hierarchies, the expectations, the duties, and the toxic environment of the school. He arrived in a Ferrari, and is now running away with his boyfriend and friends in a crappy Volvo station-wagon. The stiff suit jackets are gone, they're all in white, his hair is ruffled in the wind, and for the last time ever Wilhelm looks into the camera. And he smiles.

He is finally free.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Happy with the staff content this year but am I the only one who is disappointed with the PV we got? It's basically a slideshow of art we've already seen, major downgrade from the year 1 PV that had literally all the events. There was a drop in quality of the anniversary PVs over the years and it really shows this year. Sorry if you find this too negative I don't mean to hate I just wish Twst would do better for it's ANNIVERSARY.

[For everyone's reference, here are the anniversary PVs in order of release: 2021 / 2022 / 2023 / 2024]

Mmm, now that you mention it, I noticed this trend with the Halloween PVs 🤔 For year 1, there was a video that showed all members of the NRC casy, even those that did not receive cards at that time. There were then several short variants of the PV released for year 2/Endless Halloween Night (part 1 / part 2 / part 3 / part 4). Altogether, they feature all of the characters, including the students from year 1 but heavily shadowed and with glowing eyes to indicate ghostly possession. Even Glorious Masquerade features all of the students that get new cards for the event plus Rollo, although there are notably more still shots here. The Stage in Playful Land CM, by comparison, is significantly shorter and only shows us the three SSRs (Ace, Ortho, and Kalim) as well as the two new characters (Fellow and Gidel).

As this anon has said, the anniversary PVs have changed a lot over time too. The first one was the most animated and integrated several event outfits. The second one was also animated a fair amount, but you can tell corners were cut in some places where they transition to photographs/still images. This alone works thematically given that the player is a photographer, but you can still catch dips in quality when it comes to the art style. I remember finding Deuce running and the Kalim + Silver flying scene odd, as well as Jade and Trein's faces strange in general. Then the third PV rolls around and it only features the third years; the animation also seems to be much more sluggish (although this could be a stylistic choice; not sure). A friend actually recently pointed out to me that Lilia's pose looks like he was pulled straight from other assets; his artwork in the animation is almost the exact same as his smiling expression in the game. This year's is the most different (+ most static) and, like year 3's PV, only provides "new" content for a select few characters (the dorm leaders). They also reuse pre-existing illustrations already found in the game that don't seem to be picked for any particular reason (like, there are random Master Chef/Culinary Crucibles groovies in there). This direction, I'm guessing, is less costly and more efficient than making an entirely original animation, which is what was done in previous years. (Not that Disney or Aniplex is hurting for money to fund this, lol) Would I have preferred another PV in the style of year 1's? Yeah, for sure. I want to see other events and their outfits animated! Was what we got this year bad? Not necessarily; I think the production and editing was very technically impressive, but I'm still sad we didn't get anything substantially "new" to chew on (as someone who isn't a fan of most third years or the dorm leaders). Maybe it's just something we perceive as a deficit only because year 1 set the bar so high. It is what it is; whoever was in charge of the anniversary PV was probably doing the best they could with whatever budget they were given 😔 Let's hope that next year's will be a return to form, or that at least the money/effort is being redirected to other bigger projects (maybe the anime?).

[lacrimaomnis]

BRF Reading, 4/2/2024

As written, this is merely a speculation and therefore must be taken with a grain of salt. This speculation is not true until proven otherwise. 

My question is, I am asking for a clarification. What is the Seven of Swords in my reading regarding if BRF will take Harry back about?

Comments/Remarks: This reading uses reversals. Reversed cards are denoted with (Rx) at the end of their names.

Cards drawn: Ace of Pentacles, Two of Pentacles (Rx), The Magician (Rx), Two of Cups (Rx) Underlying energy: The World, Three of Swords

Summary: Something about the reproduction and fertility, money, and relationship. Mostly about money.

First card: Ace of Pentacles. Aces are cards about a budding opportunity, and Ace of Pentacles is the card about a budding opportunity in the realm of material concerns. As a person card, this is the card of an Earth-sign (Taurus, Capricorn, Virgo) child or toddler. In my deck, this card is illustrated as a fat rabbit with a necklace of a pentacle (Ace) on its neck, and in ancient cultures rabbits are a symbol of fertility and reproduction, and an omen of a new life.

Does the BRF know something about Harry and Meghan's children that we don't know? Aces tend to be vague, but Ace of Pentacles is usually the most pronounced of all Aces. There is a strong energy about reproduction and fertility around this card. Are the rumours Harry infertile (shooting blanks) true? Are the rumours that the children are born of a surrogate is true? Or worse, are the suspicions that the children do not exist true? I don't know. There is just the message that the BRF knows something relating to the reproduction aspect of Harry and Meghan's lives, which makes me think of the children.

Second card: Two of Pentacles, reversed. Two of Pentacles is the card about balancing your earthly resources and concerns, depicted as a juggler skilfully juggling two coins (pentacles) while the wave laps at his feet. This is usually the more literal cards of the deck, and because it is reversed, I think the message here is also literal: Harry can no longer balance his resources, he is not skilled at utilising his resources (i.e., money) and this card makes me think that he's in debt. The news that Harry is ordered to pay by the court for his court case comes to mind. Does this mean that Harry doesn't have the money to pay for his court case and the BRF knows it?

Third card: The Magician, reversed. The Magician is the first archetype we encounter in the Fool's journey, and it is ruled by the planet Mercury, and the sign Aries. Mercury is the planet of logic, skill, and intellect, and this card usually speaks about manifestation. In my deck, The Magician is illustrated as a simian character with a lemniscate symbol over its head, wielding a staff raised to the sky, and with a pentacle tied to a string on its finger, pointing towards the earth:

If reversed, the pentacle is now above and the staff is now below. Has Harry been asking for money from above (i.e., the BRF)? Has he been trying to manifest wealth (i.e., making more money) with no luck? He also seems to reinforce the message of Two of Pentacles; that Harry is unskilful in handling his money and now that he has to ask for money or manifesting that money.

Fourth card: Two of Cups, reversed. This is generally the card of lovers, of having a good partnership or relationship with others and mutual understanding. This card is illustrated as a pair of male and female tigers (jaguar? Panther? I think?) touching foreheads with a cup underneath their gaze, and above them is a pair of lovebirds. The lovers aspect of this card speaks to me, so I think this is about Harry and Meghan's relationship. Reversed, this card means the absence of that relationship and the lack of happiness or mutual understanding. I think what this card is saying is that the BRF knows there is no more relationship between Harry and Meghan, or the fact that no one wants to be related to Harry and Meghan anymore -- that they have become the Hollywood's laughingstock. Or does the BRF know something about Harry and Meghan's relationship as it currently stands? Are the suspicions saying that they are heading for a divorce true?

Underlying energy 1: The World. This is the final archetype the Fool encounters on its journey, and it is the card of completion, the end of a cycle. She is depicted in my deck as the emissary of the four fixed signs: Aquarius, Taurus, Leo, and Scorpio.

The energy of this card is that of "the end is near, and soon someone will be victorious, all that we need to do is to wait for the pieces to fall into their place".

Underlying energy 2: Three of Swords. This is the card of betrayal and heartache, depicted in my deck as two birds with two swords driven through their chest, and a third sword behind the birds. This is a bloody card, and this card seems to tell me that the knowledge BRF holds will either cause them heartache, or cause Harry and Meghan pain, or both. I am not getting anything else from this card.

Repeating numbers: 1 and 2. The spread, when looked at numerically, has the sequence of 1 (Ace of Pentacles) 2 (Two of Pentacles) 1 (The Magician) 2 (Two of Cups). Some school of thoughts believe that if the sequential numbers are lower ones (like in this reading), the situation is still open-ended, as the situation has just starting to unfold. I can't tell you what this means, as I don't know either, but the repeating numbers do get my attention.

Conclusion: Whatever the BRF knows about the 'duplicitous' or 'sneaky' things Harry and Meghan have done, there will be an end to things, and there will be a fallout, and a quite painful one at that.

[dilettantefeminist]

Elrond Week Day 7: Sanctuary and Departure

Prompts: Third Age, Legacy, The Undying Lands

Before he departs for Valinor, Elrond spends a moment in the library of Imladris

If Lord Elrond spends long hours pouring over ledgers, if he recalculates the count of grain and the weight of the orchard harvest, and if he combs the most recent census for familiar names, he thinks he can withstand these last days. In a fortnight he will journey from Imladris, where every detail is touched by his vision or by his hand, and he will not return. He will board Círdan’s ship with the ring bearer and the others and he will leave Arda. He will leave his daughter, now mortal and in the early delight of a young marriage. He will leave too his sons, who will watch over her and over their Valley, keeping it safe for an age of Men.

Celibrían, the missing remainder of his soul, awaits him in Valinor. Some days it seems to him that she is in the next room, just out of reach. Other days he thinks he dreamed her. The closer their reunion draws, the greater his anticipation, until it feels dangerously close to the desperation that marked their parting. So he makes plans for those who will pass through Imladris and revises them endlessly and drives Erestor mad with his questions. Have we enough wood for the winter to come? It will be colder now. Did I see we have children in the last census? Have we any toys for them? Is one cook enough for our expected guests?

One morning Erestor tells him that the librarian of Imladris wishes to speak with him and it is only then that Elrond realizes he’s not thought of the library. The omission shocks him; he wonders that he could have overlooked something so important.

His librarian sits alone at a reading table surrounded by piles of books. lanthir is the last of the large staff that once kept the collection organized, fetched scrolls and folios for visiting scholars. He agrees at once with Elrond’s suggestion to send the healer’s collection to Minas Tirith and has also taken the liberty of pulling these, a selection of volumes that he hopes will travel to Aman. There are exactly one hundred and at first Elrond sees no theme or order to his choices, but as Ianthir describes them he finds himself nodding. There are the histories of course, twenty that cover the events of the past two ages. There is epic poetry but there is also a forge plan with the architect’s notation in Khuzdul, an illustrated field guide to the plants of Rhovanian, and a Mannish children’s fable about chickens.  

lanthir does not intend to leave Imladris, or rather, he says he does not intend to leave the library. Elrond searches his face, asks him gently if he would not like to see the Blessed Realm, to explore its immense collections of knowledge. The other librarians have sailed one by one, drawn by this promise. They were each allowed to take one book from the library; Elrond wonders which ones they selected.

lanthir will not sail. He feels, he tells Elrond, more comfortable among these books than among his kin. There are so many in the cities of Aman. He seeks quiet. And there will still be visitors to their valley. They will be Men, likely as not, but does Elrond know that they have over 1532 items in Westron? Elrond does not know. He smiles despite himself and does not argue. After so many years of being left, he is finally learning how to leave. Already the weight of Ianthir’s fate sits lighter on his shoulders.

When they have finished talking Elrond walks into the open gallery and sinks into one of the high-backed chairs scattered throughout. He can see gardens through a nearby window, and he closes his eyes and allows himself to imagine the hedgerows becoming wilderness, the library walls crumbling under the work of root and vine.  

Twenty yeni past he entered the library and, as he hurried through in search of a map, found the Lady Celebrían ensconced in the chair in which he now sits. Elrond cannot recall a time when he did not love her. That he tell her was impossible then, so he satisfied himself with small moments in which he could watch her unobserved. And then he walked into his library and she was before him, lit by rays of late afternoon sunlight. She raised her eyes to him over the cover of her book and he was ruined, all his carefully considered arguments for silence buried under the weight of her presence and the sliver of hope afforded by her smile.

He rises to search the nearby shelves and inhales sharply when his hand closes over the slim volume, still in its place.

“I wonder if you could recommend something for me to read, my lord?”

What possessed him, Elrond will never know, but he had selected this book of poetry. It was not one of the Elvish canon but a mannish book of poetry, one whose tone might be described as earthy. It had taken him another three months and the knowledge of her imminent departure to gain the courage to speak to Celebrían plainly, but that day in the library had been the unofficial beginning of their courtship.

When Elrond sails he does so with Ianthir’s collection and, wrapped in a cloth of Celebrían’s weaving, the little book of poetry. He will give it to her as they begin again, a reminder that even in their shared grief for those they leave behind, they are rooted in joy.

_____________________________________________________________

Author’s note: I imagine Ianthir’s collection to be a sort of gold record for Middle Earth. What book would you add to it?

@elrondweek

[triangle-strategy-notes]

Hossabara Concept Art

Translation notes and id under the cut!

Translation Notes:

"Woman of maturity" is once again a Japanese term that doesn't translate super well that means "aunt." Just plain "woman" or "lady" might have also worked, but given that he specifically comments on her age afterwards, I wanted to show that her age/maturity was something he had already touched on.

"Rushing to the Rescue on Horseback (Missus)" is probably more literally translated as "Rushing to Recover and Rescue on Horseback (Wife)". The "wife" bit in particular was odd because Hossabara's pretty notably not a wife of anyone in the game, but this could potentially be explained by the specific word for "wife" they used which seemed to specifically be "wife" in the context of a phrase meaning "a household where the wife is the boss." There wasn't an awesome English equivalent for that, so I went with "Missus" since it had a vaguely similar vibe (i.e. someone calling their wife "the Missus"). I also left out the "Recovery" part of the title because I couldn't find a good way to phrase the title otherwise I felt like "rushing to the rescue" encapsulated the concept of "recovering something", and it also just felt more punchy.

A lot of the notes on the bottom half near the scholar designs were sort of iffy for me. As far as I could tell, it seemed like a lot of them were kind of jotted, not-completely grammatical notes, which made it tricky to translate. I think the translations are more or less literally accurate, but they're probably not worded as well as they could be and likely don't get the entire intended meaning across.

"Acts with dignity" is literally something more like "acts with depth/acts with profundity", but I switched up the wording to something that sounded better in English.

[image id: Two pages from the Triangle Strategy artbook surrounding the topic of Hossabara. The first page has a colored and uncolored version of her canon portrait, along with a note that reads (in English), "A bold woman of maturity with a good spirit. In Japanese RPGs, beautiful men and women tend to be your companions, but I feel personally appreciative that characters of this age group are also given the spotlight. (Tatsuaki Urushibara)". The second page is titled "Rushing to the Rescue on Horseback (Missus)" and has several images of Hossabara, including one where she rides her horse and another where her face is visible with nearby speech, saying, "I'm here to help! Hang in there, everyone!" There are also several drawings detailing her outfit, with the following notes:

"Rescue Missus

These are clothes from C

Arena Mechanic Character

There are arenas in every country

She's on a provincial tour

Absorbs the cultures of all countries

Has the feel of a magic unit

Represents orientalism"

The second half of the page has three different drawn figures. The first is an "ordinary" Hyzantian scholar, an old man in a cap and gown. The second is a scholarly-looking woman with a staff. The third is much closer to Hossabara's final design. There are several notes regarding how Hossabara is meant to be "liberal," and brainstorming how to best express that. The second design has a note that reads "ride with an open mind," "curious robust type," and "talks a lot." Hossabara's almost-final design has a note that reads "acts with dignity," "dresses indecisively," and "She's practical and academic, so she's light on her feet." The final illustrator's note reads: "Mr. Ikushima drew up a rough sketch of an exceptionally cool lady, and I followed up on that with small details. (Tatsuaki Urushibara)" /end id]

[pawthorn]

[ID: Three digital illustrations of the PCs from Worlds Beyond Number, The Wizard, the Witch, and the Wild One. The illustrations are side by side on a dark blue ground. The first shows two images of Suvirin Kedberiket. One image depicts Suvi as an adult, turned away from the viewer, glass staff in hand. The other is a young Suvi is back to back with the first, looking at the viewer worriedly as she clutches a blue cloak. The second shows two images of Ame. One image depicts Ame as an adult, turned away from the viewer, wearing her witch hat. The other is a young Ame is back to back with the first, looking at the viewer with a timid smile as she clutches three friendship bracelets. The third shows two images of Eursulon. One image depicts Eursulon as an adult, turned away from the viewer, wearing his human glamour. The other is a young Eursulon in his true form, back to back with the first, looking at the viewer while wearing his pauldron and holding Wavebreaker. End ID]

The Wizard, the Witch, and the Wild One, then and now.

[sotwk]

Greenleaf's Tree (child!Legolas & Thranduil fic)

For the THAUC Event by @fellowshipofthefics

Artwork by event partner @thatonetimetraveller

Summary: Six-year-old Legolas goes on royal progress with Thranduil for the first time and learns more about the sort of king his father truly is.

Event Prompt: "What is Legolas' favorite memory of growing up with Thranduil as his father?"

Word count: 2.8k

Content: Growing up, Family Fluff, Father-Son Bonding, Good Parent Thranduil, Thranduil's kingship, Greenwood the Great, the Golden Age of the Woodland Realm, Pre-Mirkwood/Dol Guldur, Easter Eggs for the SotWK AU

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: None

To Read on AO3: Link

Greenleaf’s Tree

Third Age 248 July 10

The Woodland Realm, Greenwood the Great

Legolas was early. Ninniel had tried to warn him; the King’s instructions had been for the prince to be dressed and ready to depart at the main courtyard an hour past sunrise. But the elfling had scarcely slept a wink the previous night (again, against his father’s instructions), and had pounced on his nursemaid to rush through the process of helping him into his brand new clothes, made especially for the occasion. Afterwards he scarfed down a few mouthfuls of his eggs and hash before sprinting through the halls across the awakening palace with a half-eaten bun in his fist. 

The skies were just beginning to lighten in the burgeoning dawn when Legolas descended the grand stone stairway of the palace entrance. He was not the only early arrival! The elfling took a giant leap off the last three steps and skipped towards the tall, imposing figure of the Crown Prince of the Woodland Realm--whose back was turned to him as he conversed with one of the guards in the king’s escort. 

Prince Mirion felt the polite tug on the hem of his tunic and turned his head to look down, down, at the elf-child that barely came up to his hip. “Ah, and there he is! Bright and early, just as I expected!”

“Still not early enough to beat you,” Legolas chirped, ducking the broad hand that attempted to ruffle his hair. “Good morning, Feren!” he sang out to the young soldier in his brother's company.

Feren's eyebrows rose as he lifted his head from his bow of greeting to the little prince. “His Highness knows my name?”

“Certainly, you are Celuwen's twin! She talks about you a lot and she is ever so nice to me!” Feren’s sister was indeed, in Legolas’s opinion, the nicest of the scribes in the royal library, save for Arvellas, and the only one not to stifle a look of exasperation whenever he would pop into their sacred space to ask about picture books. Celuwen was also the only one who took the time to seek out for him books that contained mostly illustrations, instead of sniffing that “his Highness must take the time to practice his reading!”. 

“Well, now there are two of you going on the Progress for the first time,” Mirion said, clapping his hands on Legolas’s skinny shoulders. “You will both see there is nothing to it, and I believe you shall find it to be the most pleasant, almost relaxing, trip.”

“It is a high honor to finally be appointed, sire,” Feren said stoutly, his chest puffing with pride. “Rest assured that the King and Prince shall have my utmost protection on their travels.”

Mirion smiled. “The promotion is well-deserved, perhaps even delayed in its coming. I have no doubt you are up to the task.” 

It did not take long for the courtyard to fill up with more people. First, seven other soldiers trickled in to complete the escort, and with them their mounts. Then, the rest of Legolas’s brothers arrived, along with several members of the royal court fulfilling their duty to tradition. By the time King Thranduil himself descended the steps with Queen Maereth on his arm, the entire palace staff had assembled at the periphery to see their lord off.

Legolas had said his goodbyes to his family the previous night, so that he could express his emotions in private, especially with his Ammë, in whose embrace he shed some tears. The Progress would not be his first time away from home, but would be his first prolonged time apart from her.

“Do you remember the two things I asked for, my Greenleaf?” the Queen whispered as she bent low to give her youngest one last hug. 

Legolas nodded vigorously. “To always stay near the escort and to take care of Ada!”  He planted a kiss on her fair cheek. “I shall do both, Ammë--I promise!”

The elfling trotted behind his father to the middle of the procession, where Alvar, the great King’s Elk, awaited between his two wary wranglers. “Up you get,” his Ada said, and hoisted him into the special dual seat upon the beast’s broad back. With a billowing swish of his hunter-green cloak, the Elvenking effortlessly leapt into the saddle and circled his arms around his son to take the reins.

The lead rider blew the heralding horn, and as the sound pierced clear through the forest air, their party headed out. Legolas turned back to wave at the gathered crowd until they vanished from his line of sight. As Bar Lasgalen’s ivy-covered walls sank behind the sentry line of ancient oaks, the reality of his adventure ahead firmly sank in, setting off a rush of tingles from head to toes. It would just be him and his Ada on the road, traveling together, for an entire month! 

At only six years of age, he was much younger than any of his brothers had been when they went on their first King's Progress. Legolas knew his parents had gone over many discussions about his readiness for the Crown’s most anticipated summer tradition, ever since he started declaring at the family dinner table that he “will tour with Ada next year”. Apparently none of his brothers had been smart enough to just say that they wanted to go. Now there he was.

Legolas had not expected, however, to be sent on the journey alone with the King, without his mother or even a single brother to act as a buffer between them. Not that he thought one was necessary, but he had never enjoyed such bountiful access to his father before!

“How long until we are there, Ada?” the elfling asked, after holding in the question for what already felt like half the day.  

“We are perhaps an hour away still,” Thranduil responded. “From Rowanhill. Our first stop, if you recall.”

“Yes, I remember!” Legolas drew himself up proudly, confident that he memorized, in order of scheduled visit, the names of all ten Greenwood villages listed on their itinerary. “But there is no mention of Rowanhill at all in my book, so I could not learn anything about it beforehand.”

“Book? What book?”

“It is in my pack…” The child leaned over in the saddle and pointed to the four riders to their rear, whose horses also carried the personal items they had packed for the trip. One gesture from the King, and the guard bearing the prince’s belongings rode forward to allow him to procure the wanted item. 

Legolas flipped through the leather-bound tome while his father peered over his shoulder at the pages filled with colorful illuminations. “Celuwen found this for me,” he explained. “She said it names and describes almost all the towns and villages in the realm--except for Rowanhill and a few others.”

“That is because Rowanhill is younger than even your six summers, ion nin .” Thranduil smiled. “The village was raised only this past year. I shall be seeing it with eyes as fresh as yours.”

The rest of their hour in the saddle passed by much more quickly, as they went over Legolas’s discoveries from the book together. The young prince might not have realized they had reached their destination were it not for the convoy that emerged from the trees to meet them on their trail through the woods. A mixed cluster of Greenwood Elves approached the small procession, all welcoming smiles and low bows before their king. 

“You honor us with your visit, Arathawar,” said the evident leader of the group, who later introduced himself as Narchon. “We are delighted by the opportunity to show you what we have built here.”

Rowanhill itself appeared to be as cheerily unobtrusive as its residents. A few dozen cottages squatted about the slopes of a patchily grassy knoll, but the people milled about the open spaces, with everyone's attention focused on the royal procession's arrival. 

As Thranduil and Legolas dismounted Alvar, a crowd converged around them, while giving a wide berth to the imposing elk-steed. The abrupt intrusion into their space almost frightened Legolas, who had never seen so many people come this close to his father all at once before. But he felt his Ada’s strong hand on his shoulder, keeping him guarded and close to his side, and it eased the elfling’s discomfort. 

Rapid and raucous chatter flew above his head as the Elves of Rowanhill spoke over one another to greet their king and vie for his attention. Legolas wondered at the guard’s lack of intervention, until he caught a glimpse of his father’s face and heard his booming laugh, which made clear what he thought about this behavior. It was vastly different from what Legolas was accustomed to observing at court, where only a few people had appointments and waited to be called forward for their turn to speak before the throne and council. And at the palace court, no one touched the king. 

Gradually, the initial excitement subsided. The village leader Narchon took his place at the king’s right side, and a proper tour of the settlement began. As the grown-ups droned on about household counts and housing, community infrastructures and activities, and many other words Legolas frequently overheard but poorly understood, the young elf’s interest in the conversation dropped to zero. His eyes continued to roam their surroundings, searching for something else to capture his interest. 

There were no other children around, he noted with disappointment. None his age or close to it. This observation might have baffled him had his mother not previously explained that some Greenwood communities had much fewer elfings, and outside their kingdom elf babes could be as rare as dragons. 

Finally, Legolas’s roving eyes landed on a sudden peculiarity. Nestled within a copse of beeches, a thatched building the length of three houses stood apart from the rest of the village structures. Surrounding it, with no identifiable pattern or design, stone figures of varying shapes, sizes, and hues stood out on the grass like a bizarrely decorated garden. 

“Legolas?”

The princeling blinked up at the questioning gaze of his father, surprised to once again have his notice. He had been tailing the adults blindly until the mystery building caused him to stop in his tracks, and that quickly regained their attention. Completely unabashed, he thrust out his arm full-length and pointed. 

“What is over there?”

Narchon stepped forward to answer. “That is our guild hall, Your Highness. It is where we gather to work.”

Legolas pivoted to stare back and forth between the elder elf and the garden of stone curiosities. “Are you an artist?”

“A sculptor, Your Highness. If you would care to be specific.” Narchon beamed. “Sculpting is our trade here at Rowanhill.”

An entire village of sculptors? A grin lit up Legolas’s entire face. The book described village guilds of builders and smiths, of huntsmen and herdsmen, even of cask makers and candle makers. But the only sculptor he ever met had been a Noldorin lord who came all the way from Imladris to deliver a Begetting Day present for the Queen from Lady Celebrian. 

“If you would like, sire, I can arrange for someone to conduct a demonstration for the Prince, and perhaps instruct him in some of our rudiments. It may be an enjoyable diversion for him while you conduct your audiences.”

Legolas froze, realizing just in that moment that he had run straight to the guild hall without seeking pardon or permission, overcome by his desire to view the collection of sculptures up close. There were warriors in heroic poses, eagles in flight, stags in full gallop, and giant insects the size of ponies, many of them painted in lifelike color! But hearing Narchon’s gentle suggestion, and the sight of the adults strolling down the rise to catch up to him, called the elfling back to the reality that he had neglected his manners. 

Peering up guiltily at his father, Legolas was yet again surprised by the absence of disapproval on the King’s face. Rather, Thranduil was studying the stone creations with open interest, and when he caught his son’s eye, the edge of his mouth curled in a smile. 

“That is a marvelous proposal, Narchon. Except I request a demonstration for both Legolas and I.” Thranduil nodded and wagged a finger at the sculpture in front of him, depicting a fish leaping through a curling wave. “I too would like to see how wonders such as these can be wrought.”

With great speed did they hasten to fulfill the King’s request, and in no time at all, father and son were given a workstation inside the sculptors’ hall. Thranduil removed his fine embroidered cloak to instead cover his silver tunic with an apron made from a stiff fabric that resembled a grain sack. It took Legolas several minutes to stop gaping at the strange sight, and he pondered whether this was something his brothers had never seen before, or they just somehow never bothered to share it with him. 

Not one but three of the best guild members volunteered to do a demonstration for them. The royals were then given their own mounds of clay so they might attempt to replicate the completed example--a straightforward representation of a beech tree, just like the ones growing outside the hall and throughout Rowanhill.

Legolas chewed on the tip of his tongue as he thrust his fingers into the soft, cakey brown substance, pulling and pressing and rolling the clay in an effort to mould it into a trunk-like shape. After a while, and only when he was moderately satisfied with his progress, he looked over to check how his father was faring. 

Legolas watched, transfixed, as his father’s large elegant hands glided over the unmistakable likeness of a small tree. Streaks of clay coated his apron and stained his arms all the way up to his elbows, and at closer scrutiny even small splatters of it dotted his taut cheeks and furrowed brow. Legolas could recall seeing only one other time his Ada might be described as looking “dirty”, and it was during a private sparring exercise with eldest brothers. Nothing at all like this situation he had never expected to witness on their public tour. 

“That is very good, Your Highness.” Narchon praised, bending over the workbench to examine the child’s work in progress. “A natural high talent is evident in your labors.”

“Thank you.” Legolas beamed, trying not to look overly pleased with himself. “But how are we to get that bright green color on the leaves?”

“Once your tree is fully moulded to your liking, we will bake it in our ovens and then paint it.”

“Or,” Thranduil spoke suddenly from his side of the table. “We can try something else.” He motioned for Narchon to lean in so he could whisper something in his ear.  

Legolas caught a glimpse of confusion on the sculptor’s face before he turned away to leave the room and retrieve whatever the King had asked him for. He returned promptly with a shallow pot of what looked like a mixture of common soil and mulch, dug straight up from the forest floor. 

“What is that for?” Legolas asked.

“A little test for myself,” the King said, scooping up a fistful of the loose dirt. “To see if I have not forgotten what I have been taught.”

Perched on the very edge of his stool, Legolas watched with bated breath as his father moulded the soil into the slender, yet still leafless branches of his soft clay tree. A deep, melodious humming emanated from the King’s throat, before his lips moved to form words, a song from an ancient language Legolas could not discern. 

As the singing continued, Thranduil slowly moved his hands away from the clay figure. Legolas’s eyes widened as he noticed the branches quiver and shift on their own volition. And then finally, slowly, verdant leaves began to sprout from the dead clay, unfurling and multiplying and growing until they transformed the naked branches into full bowers. 

“Most… extraordinary , Your Grace.” Narchon croaked, amid cries of delight and amazement from the other craftsmen watching in the hall. “Yet with those leaves, we cannot place your sculpture in the fires. The clay will not properly set and will remain fragile.”

“Then it will be fragile,” Thranduil said simply. “But it will be alive. For a time, at least. And in exchange for its mortality it shall bear real green leaves, fitting for Prince Greenleaf’s tree.”

“It is wondrous , Ada!” Legolas burst out with a sharp clap of his hands and an un-princely whoop. “It can make a perfect gift for Ammë. She will love it! And won’t she be so surprised?!”

“She will most certainly love it. But as for being surprised,” Thranduil chuckled and swiped the back of his hand across his cheek, leaving yet another smear of dirt on his regal face. “Who do you think taught me this little bit of artistic enchantment?”

“Now…” He lifted another handful of dirt from the pot and held it out to his awestruck son. “If you are ready, I think I would like to pass the knowledge on.”

For more SotWK Fanfiction: Fanfiction Masterlist

Elves Tag List: @a-world-of-whimsy-5 @achromaticerebus @aduialel @asianbutnotjapanese @auttumnsayshi @blueberryrock @conversacomsmaug @elan-ho-detto-elan-15 @entishramblings @freshalmondpandadonut @fizzyxcustard @friendofthefellowshipsnerdblog @glassgulls @heilith @heranintomyknife23times @ladyweaslette @laneynoir @lathalea @lemonivall @LiliDurin @quickslvxrr @ratsys @scyllas-revenge @stormchaser819 @talkdifferently6 @tamryniel @tamurilofrivendell

Other useful links:

Introduction to SotWK

Headcanon Masterlist

Fanfiction Request Guidelines

[dualdeixis]

[Image description: Digital drawings featuring a variety of characters from Octopath Traveler. There are full descriptions of all images under the cut. End image description.]

you know what? octopath is the only game i’ve ever played that accurately depicts what happens when you eat an olive. thank you octopath

[Image description: First is a drawing of Primrose, Ophilia, Kit, and Lyblac, with certain aspects of their designs altered. Primrose steps forward in a beguiling pose. She wears a red dress with a short, layered front and a long, flowing back. She wears gold jewelry including three rings on her right hand, a headband with a flower adornment, and a belt around her waist. Her knife is strapped to her right thigh and she wears medieval women's knee-high hose, black with red garters, beneath her sandals. A note next to her reads, "Elements taken from 15th century Italian illustration of dancers." Ophilia holds up her staff. A long lace veil covers her head and is tied beneath her chin. She wears a brooch on the left side of her cloak. The notes next to her read, "Mourning veil worn for varying lengths of time depending on relation (parent = 1 year). Mourning brooch of braided hair worn indefinitely by choice." Kit's design is much the same. He looks with slight wonder over at Lyblac, who stands tall with her hands clasped and a blood red halo around her head. She wears a black escoffion and a black and red houppelande with dagged sleeves.

Second is a drawing of Mattias, Esmeralda, and Lianna, with certain aspects of their designs altered. A note above Mattias and Esmeralda reads, "Obsidian fashion is ahead of the times (entirely because I mistook Mattias's sprite as having a ruff)." Along with the ruffs around his neck and wrists, Mattias wears a yellow doublet, orange jerkin, a gold necklace with a red jewel pendant, black paned trunkhose, a blue cape with a pattern of yellow stars, and a black cap with a blue feather. He has a confident expression, with one hand on his hip and the other splayed outwards. The note next to him reads, "If he's posing as a merchant he needs a stupid little hat and plume." Esmeralda holds up a black dagger in one hand and clenches the other into a fist with an irritated expression. She wears a French hood, a black gown with slashed sleeves, and gold jewelry around her neck and waist. The gown's skirt is full on the left side, layered and translucent in the middle, and has a slit on the right side to show the crow tattoo on her thigh. The note next to it reads, "Put it back." Then it points to Mattias's left leg and says, "He has it too." Lianna has a neutral expression as she holds up Aelfric's Lanthorn with a dark flame burning within. She wears the robes of a vestal of Galdera. The note next to her reads, "Love how he made her a special little anti-cleric outfit (takes off mourning veil)."

Third is a drawing of Alfyn smiling in profile, showing off his messy, dirty blonde hair with the sides shaved. To the right is a bouquet of seven white lilies. The text above them reads (in all caps), "Donio sam ja sedam ljiljana / Majko da li znaš još sam sam / Majko da li znaš još sam sam / Spava malena slatka glavica / Majko pokrila mi je travica / Majko pokrila mi je travica."

Fourth is a collection of doodles. 1. Lyblac and Kit stand in front of the Gate of Finis. Kit asks, "what are u trying to say." Lyblac points to the Gate with a smile and says, "go here." Kit asks, "in the dark ?" Lyblac says, "go in the dark." 2. Galdera says, "AND I'M BAD!" The souls around the Omniscient Eye say, "MEAN!! GREEN!! BAD!!" 3. To the left, Therion holds up a pair of rivet spectacles to his eye. To the right, he wears a paisley-patterned headscarf and a chador over it with a small smile. The text reads, "His chador swag. Based on an outfit my friend saw me wearing in a dream cuz I thought he'd look cute in it." 4. Two anthropomorphic birds wear cloaks and hold up staves. The first one has a neutral expression and the second looks more aggressive. The text reads, "My brother mistook Believer I + II in Seaside Grotto for bird people and now I wish they really were bird people." 5. A screenshot of a post by user tlirsgender: "Consider: a gay dude and a lesbian who are BEST friends and also dating the same person but not each other because they are a gay dude and a lesbian but their mutual partner has a weird enough gender for it to work. Polycule that’s lgbt like all at once." Beneath it, Alfyn and Primrose happily shake hands while Therion stands in the background with a neutral expression. The note next to them reads, "This concept is so funny to me that it kinda loops around to being compelling." 6. Cyrus smiles and quirks one eyebrow while pointing upwards. The text reads, "LOVE IS IN THE AIR? / WRONG! LIGHTNING BLAST." 7. Primrose leans back on a counter and Therion sits on a stool with his hands clasped. Both look miserable and share a thought bubble which says, "I'm the only bitch here who's incapable of love and sincerity." They glance at each other curiously, and then return to being miserable and sharing a thought bubble which says, "Nah I'm way more sick and twisted than you."

Last is a comic. In the midst of a battle, Ophilia holds up her staff and does 719 damage; Cyrus holds up a tome and does one hit of 1284 damage and another of 1365 damage; and Alfyn holds up his axe and does 649 damage. One enemy remains: a Creeping Treant with one shield and vulnerabilities to axe and fire. In the foreground, Therion says, "Alright..." He prepares a full-boosted Wildfire and says, "Time to end this." Cyrus shuts his tome and says blithely, "I think not. You shall do exactly 2 damage." Ophilia holds a hand over her mouth and blushes, saying, "Oh my, is the Professor teasing?" Alfyn laughs, "Pff, c'mon now, Therion knows what he's doin'!" Therion uses Wildfire on the Treant and breaks it, doing 2 damage. Therion, Alfyn, and Ophilia stand lined up and look very startled, while Cyrus smiles mildly and thinks, "Oh wow, for real? I literally just said that for no reason." The note beneath the comic reads, "*Based on a true story where I was Therion and my brother was Cyrus. I laughed so hard I cried." End image description.]

[literalliterature]

Small illustrations for @mnemosius 's witch class! As a long time player of this class I love the diversity of it so so much and you should all look at it

[ID: Six drawings done entirely in black and ivory. The first shows a thin, nude person with antlers crouching on the ground and looking at the viewer while drawing a ritual circle in the ground with their finger. The second shows a collection of differently shaped glass containers--one containing a giant centipede, one showing a miniature landscape, one with swirls of gas rising, and one that is opaque but spewing bubbles off the top. The third depicts a mortar and pestle. The fourth shows a long-haired person in a ragged cloak standing on a cliff and raising a staff, which is struck by lightning. The fifth has a wooden staff covered in eyes. The sixth and final shows a hand puppeting a corn husk doll. End ID.]

[stillness-in-green]

On Heteromorphs and Heteromorphobia (Arc XVI - XVIII, Endeavor Agency to Villain Hunt)

My thanks to @codenamesazanka for providing me a few crops this week for less fuzzy looks at background characters than I could manage working just off the Viz online catalogue. I'm hoping this posts okay, because it's about a thousand words longer than any of these have been so far, but has a lot less sub-sub-sub bullets than last week's breakdown of the CRC volume extra. Fingers crossed, and dive in, all!

The Endeavor Agency Arc (Chapters 241-252)

Chapter 245:

Another installment of Bakugou using animal terms, as he calls Hawks a spoonbill (in the Japanese, heradori, loosely meaning carefree bird).  Deku asks, with some sweatdrops, if he means Hawks; Endeavor’s sidekicks just tell him he’s got moxie.  One of Endeavor’s four consistently illustrated sidekicks is a big horse-like guy, though he’s by far the one who gets the least attention from the narrative; he is notably not in the panel of Endeavor sidekicks praising Bakugou’s go-getter attitude.   

The Paranormal Liberation War Arc (Chapters 253-306)

Chapter 256: 

Shouji is noted as having done his work study with Gang Orca.  I would kill to know if they ever had a conversation about their wildly different approaches to managing their scary heteromorph image, but Horikoshi has not deigned to show us anything to that effect.   

Chapter 258: 

This chapter gives us the full spread of the PLF regiment advisors.  While only a few of them will (as of this writing) get much to do, it’s notable that the percentage of obvious heteromorphs considerably increases at this level.  The MLA leadership was, barring cosmetic things like Curious’s skin or Re-Destro’s pointed ears,[1] all quite baseline, but every single regiment has at least one obvious heteromorph in their chains of command.  Indeed, a solid third of them are blatant heteromorphs,[2] which is a better percentile than, for example, the Shie Hassaikai or the U.A. staff can claim. It makes sense, given the obvious problems with restricting unlicensed quirk use to the home, that the MLA would attract a disproportionate number of heteromorphs, but the full extent of this will not be apparent for some time yet.

[1] His nose I read as more an exaggeration than a trait that’s specifically intended to be non-human-looking, but if it is supposed to be non-baseline, it’s considerably more obvious than his ears.

[2] That is, the really obvious, extreme heteromorphs, who number seven of the twenty-one advisors.  I didn’t count the R2D2 lookalike, the guy with the question mark mask, or Hose Face, who might be heteromorphs or might just be in costume, nor did I count Dabi’s #1, the spiky guy in the cabbie hat, whose concrete divergence of a pronged chin is a lot less noticeable than his being, like, eight feet tall and as broad in the chest as a particularly top-heavy wardrobe.  Any of those that are heteromorphs obviously increase the ratio even more.   

Chapter 259:

Our only shot to date of the gal who’s probably Natsuo’s girlfriend, who’s a heteromorph in the “mostly human but with some tertiary animal features glued on” mode; in her case, she has mouse ears and, judging by her body language, a fairly mousy demeanor.  Notable for being one of the most prominent heteromorph/non-heteromorph romantic relationships in the series, which is setting the bar about a quarter-inch off the ground.  Even more notable when you consider Dabi and Shouto’s willingness to sling around dehumanizing microaggressions!    I will remind everyone again that Natsuo evaded the topic of his having met someone at school when Fuyumi brought it up in front of their mother back in Chapter 187; while it played at the time as just a young man being embarrassed, this chapter’s splash page makes it apparent that he had a reason to be embarrassed, and was not just that awkward about the very concept of himself in a romantic relationship.     Knowing, then, that he had met someone at school, the question for the attentive reader becomes, “So why didn’t he want to tell Fuyumi and Rei about it back then, when Fuyumi gave him such a perfect opening?”  At this stage, the most the reader has grounds to assume[3] is that he’s just shy, or he wasn’t quite yet at a point in his relationship with this gal that he wanted to do the whole “introduce her to my family” song and dance, especially given what someone finding out more about his family would entail!  Later reveals about Rei’s side of the family will suggest a different, less benign possibility, however.   

[3] I’ll go ahead and rule out the idea that Natsuo is an asshole who’s not serious about her as being obviously not in the spirit of what we know about him.      

Chapter 267+268: 

Mirko has the thought, “Quick as a rabbit!” when focusing on catching up to Ujiko.  Later, in the midst of vigorously dehumanizing Shigaraki, she makes mention of her “rabbit survival instincts.”  We saw those animal references with Hawks as well, whereas it’s not something we see as much, if ever, from people like Tsuyu or Spinner.  As I suggested before, it’s easy to imagine people who have a hard time because of their appearance are more sensitive about said appearances than people who look like drop-dead gorgeous baseline humans but with a few animal features—but only as long as they’re cute or charismatic animals!—pasted on as an “exotic” touch.

Chapter 271: 

Dabi addresses Hawks and Tokoyami as yakitori—grilled chicken skewers, localized as “roasted chickens.”  This is less eyebrow-raising than him calling Spinner a lizard and then accusing him of being oversensitive for protesting—Hawks and Tokoyami are Dabi’s enemies, after all, and this is hot off of Hawks murdering Twice.  However, it certainly doesn’t support a read I’ve periodically seen offered that Dabi Learned From His Mistake With Spinner and Resolved Not To Do It Again.   

Geten calls the assembled heroes “dogs of the state.”  He’s not addressing any heteromorphs specifically, and of course using “dog” as an insult against someone viewed as overly obedient to a corrupt authority has plenty of history in many languages.  Still, I wonder if it’s the kind of usage that is frowned on as insensitive in some circles, similar to using e.g. “blind” to describe willful ignorance.   

Chapter 278: 

First spoken line delivered by Spinner’s #2, who will go on to be a key figure at the hospital attack.  Even the handful of lines he gets here is extremely effective at establishing his personality—grandiose, dedicated to the cause of revolution, and a vocal rallying figure for those he leads.    A few pages later, another panel will reveal him as being unusually short, likely taller than e.g. Mineta, but shorter than any of the story’s other teenagers, even the girls.  This small stature, combined with the insectile legs protruding from behind his shoulders, give an early hint that we’re looking at a heteromorph, while his mask sets up the possibility that he’s concealing something about his face.    Regarding the mask, it's possible that he just wears it for The Aesthetic, save that the MLA—unlike, say, the Shie Hassaikai—don't have an organizational culture towards masks, as the MLA are very geared towards hiding in plain sight, just looking like normal, average members of society.  Only three out of the twenty-one advisors (give or take whatever’s going on with the R2D2 look-alike) fully cover their faces; Spinner's #2 is one of those three.  It begs the question of why—a question the hospital scene will at least suggest an answer to.   

Chapter 281: 

Shigaraki lays out, over the course of four pages, his mini-manifesto on why he’s going to destroy Hero Society, in which he talks about how heroes have disregarded, even actively concealed, the suffering of those they couldn’t save.  While his mind seems to be mainly on his own experience, we also know that he’s aware of how others like him have suffered.  He’s spent months with victims of Hero Society’s repressiveness, one of whom made very clear, by means of shouting it in Shigaraki’s face, the discrimination he’d faced with no one ever coming to help him.  Shigaraki knows about heteromorph discrimination the same way he knows about villain quirk discrimination and the dehumanization of criminals.  His declaiming here about generations of heroic failure serves to stand in for all of that.    Notably, it continues to be the case that the crowd scenes consist mainly of relatively baseline, mostly human-looking folks.  Those are the ones who most enjoy protection and safety in the current system; all of two people in thirty across three crowd shots in Shigaraki’s manifesto have heteromorphic features/builds more extreme than some extraneous pointy bits pasted on, and both of those two are dressed as heroes, not civilians.

I count the big energy guy in the cape in the top panel, and the Muppet-looking guy with four arms in the bottom.  Everyone in the panel I didn’t include—the one of Tenko walking through the crowd of silhouettes—is baseline-give-or-take-some-pointy-bits.    We hardly ever see someone like the Sludge Villain or Shouji, or hell, even Tokoyami, in these crowd scenes as everyday civilians, and the conclusion is, inescapably, that it’s because the present-day society doesn’t accept people like that as everyday civilians.

Note, here, how Endeavor responds to the accusation that heroes ignore the pain of those they can’t save—he takes a breather while Shigaraki rambles and then immediately resumes his attack, not seeming to register for even a second that this could be an opening to talk, to de-escalate, even if only as a stalling tactic to let Aizawa get a blink in, to buy the evacuation more time, to give his compatriots that little bit more time to recover.  He’s clearly written off Shigaraki’s words the moment Shigaraki started talking, and no one with him seems to have done any different, not even Midoriya Izuku.    This kind of thing is distressingly common in the series: the heroes have absolutely nothing to say about societal inequality, right up until a victim of it turns up acting criminal, at which point the dialogue goes from the stone silence of complicity to the moral scolding of, “This is going too far.”

Chapter 297: 

The Tartarus jailbreak chapter brings us Shishikura’s father scoffing at the idea that Gigantomachia could be called human, referring to him instead as, “A disaster on legs, or a wild beast.  Just like the rest of the animals we’ve got locked up here.”  He goes on to say that “disgusting beings” like the Tartarus prisoners only managed to blend in with society for as long as they did because, “Quirks have warped our standards for humanity.”    This is clearly mostly a villain bias issue—with the exception of Kurogiri, all of the villains shown on the page of this dialogue are relatively baseline, with transformation or emitter-style quirks.  All the same, it’s worth noting that he repeatedly associates villains with wild animals, dehumanizing them in ugly, startlingly explicit terms.  It begs the question: What are Shishikura’s father’s standards of humanity?  What is he suggesting his society tolerates that pre-Advent society would not have?  I would guess that his beef is with those he views as lacking the self-control or moral standards to refrain from villainy,[4] but rather than just say that, he instead goes to turns of phrase invoking the bestial.  I suspect that deterministic rhetoric like his is not uncommon as justification for both anti-heteromorph discrimination and the bias against villains.   

[4] This guess is based on his wording, what we know about his son’s personality, and the worldbuilding lore that the crime rates shot up with the advent of quirks and never went back down to pre-Advent norms.  The crime rate issue in particular would be highly visible in a society that prided itself on being as peaceful as Japan does in the real-world modern day.   

I will note that, of the six people we see making breakouts who we weren’t already acquainted with—five nameless figures and one Lady Nagant, at the time a new face—four of them are visibly, obviously heteromorphic.

The three in the foreground are quite distinct, and the one at the far back looks like he fits the bill as well.  Only the one to Moonfish’s immediate left looks baseline, likely an emitter.

The guards, of course, are baseline to a man, with the only exceptions being Gyges and Briareos, who, judging by their costumes, are hero-licensed, not normal wardens.   

Chapter 298: 

The Central Hospital staff start getting introduced.  In much the same way as the police force has a relatively high rate of animal-type heteromorphs in speaking roles,[5] Central Hospital is full of Super Mario Bros. joke characters.  This is mostly a silly in-joke at the time, but Dr. Yoshi here will be back to serve as a deeply exasperating, bad faith gotcha during the hospital attack.   

[5] The rando guys with riot shields are always hella baseline, but there are, by my count, six recurring roles in the police cast: Tsukauchi, Tsuragamae, Sansa, Gori, and two unnamed men I suspect to be with the National Police Agency (the one who tries to get Nedzu to call off the Cultural Festival and the one with the HPSC President in the scene where she’s giving Hawks his League infiltration assignment). Half of these are heteromorphs.   

Chapter 299: 

Hawks's dad, whose little elbow winglets prefigure his son's full wings, has a lament about how he could have been, “free as a bird!” There's no animal reference in the Japanese text.   

I brought up a panel back in the Kamino arc to demonstrate that there was a higher incidence than usual of heteromorphs in an area that was meant to come off, visually, as somewhat seedy.  While there’s always some element of randomness to that sort of thing—I assume the background extras are usually drawn by Horikoshi’s assistants, not the man himself—we see the same thing in the subway station Tomie takes baby Hawks to after they leave home.

Note how run-down the place looks, with cracked floor tiles, dingy walls, and equipment piled up in the open, then note how at least three, maybe four, of the five people in the foreground have heteromorphic features.   

Chapter 300: 

Dr. Toad at Central Hospital, who will show up in a flashback in the hospital raid that is barely less obnoxious than Dr. Yoshi’s appearance.

Chapter 301: 

While not immediately connected to heteromorphobia, this chapter establishes that Rei’s family, the Himura, were once prestigious and much-storied, but had fallen on hard times by the time they were approached by Endeavor about a quirk marriage.  The easy assumption for why Rei’s parents are so okay with the arrangement is that they were just that desperate for money, but in retrospect, a quirk marriage was far more sane and normal than what their family had been doing for generations!   

Chapter 303: 

Hawks mentions Spinner in his accounting of the problems facing Team Hero.  This makes him rather unusual—All Might, for example, will later repeatedly fail to mention Spinner in similar situations, though it’s unclear whether that’s because All Might genuinely doesn’t believe Spinner to be a threat or whether All Might is trying to avoid bringing up the brewing race riot enormous mob consisting of members of a long-oppressed minority group, in hopes of keeping his students away from it.   

Chapter 306:

I’ve avoided bringing him up until this point because his hero costume makes it very hard to tell if his neck is just a mildly caricatured feature like Re-Destro’s or if it really is covering up a non-baseline feature, but Best Jeanist’s outfit at the press conference is the place to start if you want to make an argument for him having a heteromorphic feature.

If he is a heteromorph, Jeanist covers it up extremely well, to the point that I’ve never seen anyone outside my chat group even raise the possibility that he might be!  But that is part of his whole modus operandi, isn’t it?  To keep up the appearance of things, to present an unassailable image of heroes, even when they’re running themselves ragged, because that’s what he believes the public needs?  Here we see Shouji’s decision about masking himself taken to its logical extreme—being so invested in a harmonious appearance that doesn’t disturb anyone that he doesn’t even register as non-baseline to begin with.    I’m very fond of Jeanist, mind you, and I love his awareness of surface and veneer—he feels like someone who has made a conscious, considered, moral decision to uphold the system, a decision he’s given far more thought to than fellow heroes who never get past, “How do I want to present myself to the public?” to the question of, “Why do I believe this presentation is the correct moral choice?”  But that veneer is, as the endgame has gone to some efforts to explore, not sustainable for anyone.  (Would that Shouji were taking notes.)   

The Villain Hunt Arc (Chapters 307-328)

Chapter 310: 

This chapter brings us the attack on the giant woman.[6]  While the three men—all baseline, all using support goods rather than whatever their own quirks are—attacking her seem to be doing so out of fears that she’s a villain, not explicit hatred for heteromorphs, this is very clear heteromorphobia nonetheless.  There’s absolutely nothing about the Ordinary Woman that suggests that she’s remotely villainous—not her attitude, not her dress, not even something like a punky haircut!  The only reason to distrust this woman’s intentions is suspicion of her height, her claws, her vulpine face—in other words, her status as a heteromorph.  The only other thing remotely dubious about her is that she was out after dark—but of course, so were the men hunting her!    Note here the woman’s strong implication that she was attacked before she ever reached a shelter.  She says she thought to take shelter at a hero school and, somewhat haphazardly, left her home in the night.  She doesn’t finish the sentence, trailing off before apologizing, but it’s plainly nighttime when Deku rescues her, and, by her own words, she’s still in her own town.  The story isn’t finished with her yet, and what happens to her next is tied to her experience at the shelter she was trying to reach.   

[6] As yet unnamed due to some misguided idea Horikoshi has about keeping her an everywoman; even in her character profile, she’s just the Ordinary Woman.   

Deku unthinkingly commits what reads to me as a fairly egregious microaggression here,[7] suggesting that the men who attacked the Ordinary Woman were probably just as afraid as she was of the recent chaos.  They were just understandably afraid, so, you know, it’s not really their fault that they viciously attacked you, an obviously terrified innocent woman!  You just look so scary!   

[7] Though I don’t get the impression Horikoshi registered it.   

The two discuss wanting things to “go back to normal.”  Normal, in Ordinary Woman’s experience, means not getting attacked right out in the streets of her own town, but it’s worth thinking about how little it took to prompt that attack, and thus to ask how abnormal such violence truly is.  As we will find, there are parts of the country that didn’t at all need a slide into lawlessness for an attack like this to be horrifically, appallingly “normal.”  

Banjo compares the current circumstances to those around the time of the Advent—darker days in which people lived holding their breaths, trying not to stand out.  This phrasing is not exclusive to heteromorphs; even something as simple as being on your own can make you “stand out” as a target, and we know plenty of quirkless people were victimized exactly like that.[8]  All the same, it’s self-evidently the case that people who don’t look like everyone else will inherently stand out, and no amount of traveling in groups or refraining from the use of their powers will change that.  Lines like this don’t explicitly reference the heteromorph mass slaughters we will later be shown, but they do lay the contextual groundwork that makes those slaughters both believable and predictable.    Folding that all together, the Ordinary Woman demonstrates very clearly how difficult it is, especially in times of chaos, to be a heteromorph and just be normal.  And when being "normal" is so difficult, what do you do? Try to be normal, gambling that heroes will be there to save you when you’re victimized?  Try to protect yourself by becoming the kind of paragon your society admires, knowing it will cost you your voice? Turn against the society that repeatedly fails to protect you, resigning yourself to a life on the run?  There's no outcome that doesn't demand carrying the burden of a decision that other, “normal” people are not required to make.   

[8] We know this because it’s explicitly explained as what happened to the quirkless man in the One For All dream flashback in Chapter 193.      

Chapter 314: 

Lady Nagant drops the ugly secret of the HPSC for Deku,[9] telling a heroic character an only very slightly more extreme version of what the reader already knew from Hawks’ duties and backstory.  This is not specifically about heteromorphs (though the face we most visibly see her murdering is one), but it does point to the possible difficulties in organizing serious movements to agitate for changes to the current system.  The HPSC is so firmly convinced that the Hero System is society’s best and only defense against chaos, and thus any threats to that system can, justly, be disposed via extrajudicial assassination.  What chance, then, would an activist leader have as soon as they started being disruptive enough for the HPSC to notice them?   

[9] Who will do absolutely jack shit with it, and, indeed, come away from their encounter blaming her fall on AFO, somehow.      

Chapter 318: 

*meme voice Good For Him*

Introduces the Spinner fanboys, a pair of octopus-type heteromorphs in quite good Spinner cosplay, who will crop back up later at the hospital attack.  They’re foreshadowing for the Spinner-as-representative plot, though said plot will not make 100% clear whether or not these two were inspired by Spinner on his own merits, back when he was just another member of the League of Villains, as opposed to after the PLF started pushing his image forward specifically.    They’re with a small group of other heteromorphs attacking a trio of baseline folks.  Deku defends the baseline group from the attack but apparently does not follow through on chasing down the heteromorphs; he just breaks it up and lets the attackers run off, perhaps feeling like panicky civilians (to whatever extent people literally wearing a wanted villain’s colors are “civilians”) are not threats he needs to facilitate the arrest of, or perhaps just conserving his energy for his big fights with AFO’s people.

Later in the chapter, we see a more abbreviated version of a similar sequence of events, save that this time, there are heteromorphs on both sides, demonstrating that the violence has not entirely broken down along baseline vs heteromorph lines.  You saw this in an earlier chapter as well, with one of the people in the group confronting Endeavor being a lady with a dog head, but this is the first place you see it in an actual conflict.

I dig this kappa dude with the Shounen Main Character Guy haircut.  And good on his more baseline friends for sticking with him.

This chapter also introduces Dictator, one of the Tartarus escapees singled out as sent by All For One.  Dictator drives me crazy because like, okay, yes, he’s a cartoonish and ridiculous caricature of a Villain, down to his quirk name being given as Despot.[10]  But I would ask the reader to look at this guy and really, really think about what life must have been like for him when he was, say, Kouta or Eri’s age.

   I mean, really.   

[10] Remember my thought experiment from early on about who decides what quirks are named, parents or a government official?  Yeah.  Who’s responsible for giving that quirk name to a four-year-old?   

One thing that’s always felt telling to me about Deku’s brief exchange with Dictator here is that Dictator, in amidst a flurry of dramatic supervillain talk, says, “Taking you in will bring me security,” and Deku, Mr. Wants To Understand Villains & Save Absolutely Everyone himself, doesn’t ask, doesn’t even think, about what Dictator could possibly mean by that sentence.    I know Dictator’s in the middle of controlling a bunch of people and is working for AFO and Deku’s exhausted and all—the story makes it clear that he took a turn for the more gritty and driven after Nagant quite literally blew up in his face.  Still, when you compare the attempts he makes to ask questions and interact with Muscular, Overhaul and Lady Nagant—all relatively baseline when their quirks aren’t in use, and significantly more baseline than Dictator even when they are—his total incuriosity about Dictator does stand out pretty badly.   

Chapter 320:

Ojirou mentions being touched by how angry at Shinsou Deku got on his behalf back at the Sports Festival.  Recall that Shinsou called Ojirou a monkey back then.  Is he not used to other people getting mad for his sake about that sort of thing?   

Chapter 323: 

Some really fascinating stuff both from and about Nedzu in this chapter.  Firstly, Endeavor says that Nedzu’s contributions to “quirk morality education” have made him internationally renowned, yet I can’t help but observe that at least the first year students have not learned anything of the sort.  Their classes and exercises are focused primarily on combat, with a secondary focus on teamwork in that most of their exercises see them separated into pairs or small groups.  There are also special lessons that boil down to being about how to create their own distinct hero “brand.”    What I cannot call to mind are any lessons on the morality of quirk use.[11]  That’s not to say there’s none of that in the series at all, but the stuff that I think of is not encountered in class.  The focus on dealing appropriately with injured and frightened victims, for example, comes courtesy of the license exam, while the lecture about heroes following the rules and behaving appropriately comes from Tsuragamae after the Stain incident.  The remedial course with Gang Orca probably comes closest, and is technically a course, rather than an exam, but Nedzu has nothing to do with it, so it clearly can’t count.    Once again, I am left to wonder when exactly Hero schools start teaching these alleged lessons in quirk-based ethics.  Offscreen, or only in higher grades?  It’s not a real great look, I think, that the priority is on all the cool flashy stuff and not the ethical ramifications of using your power to enact violence on people.  And sure, it’s a shounen comic, so you’ve got to keep things flashy enough not to lose the readers, but it wouldn’t take more than a few dedicated pages now and again where Aizawa or Nedzu talk to students about the weight of what they’re doing.  We don’t get those pages, so the discussion of quirk “morality” is largely under-explored.[12]    This is, of course, not directly about heteromorphobia, but discussion of the morality of quirks would have to include the beliefs people have about quirks, which in turn affect everything about how the world deals with them: quirk discrimination, quirk counseling, the laws surrounding quirk use, the punishment for breaking those laws, and so forth.  All things with significant impacts on heteromorphs!   

[11] Indeed, if there were any effort from U.A. to provide morals education, you’d think Mineta would have seen some consequences for his egregious behavior ages ago.

[12] Honestly, I think the person who’s ventured the clearest moral stance on quirk use is Yoichi in his flashback, and he’s ludicrously absolutist about it, saying that quirks must only be used to help others, never for personal gain.   

My Press X to Doubt response to Nedzu’s contributions to quirk morality education aside, I’m fascinated by his mini-speech that follows:

It’s a great observation of humanity from one who sits just that little bit removed from humanity, and begs a whole series’ worth of questions about Nedzu’s position and his feelings about the species his intelligence has both enabled and required him to grapple with.  While he doesn’t specify exactly what sort of intolerance he has in mind, and the flow of the plot ties his words to the anti-hero sentiment amongst the civilians, we’re well past Chapter 220’s introduction of the CRC here, and have more to see yet on the treatment those with “villain” quirks are subjected to.

As one who was, himself, mistreated in a way that fundamentally would not have happened were it not for his (heteromorphic) quirk, yet whose quirk gives him a degree of insight about that very mistreatment, Nedzu is in an amazing position to opine on discrimination.  I frankly wish he got way more room to do it in.   

Chapter 325: 

The Ordinary Woman giantess gal returns to tell us that she was turned away from several shelters because they didn’t allow heteromorphs.  It’s hard to overstate how incredibly bad this is—the blatant discrimination of turning away an entire demographic during a national emergency.  And not just a national emergency, but one where the actual support personnel—heroes—are going to be concentrating around the shelters, consciously electing to leave minimal aid for people remaining behind in evacuated zones.  So like, when this is how bad it is, can it possibly be any kind of surprise that there’s a riot brewing, especially when there are villains stirring the pot behind the scenes?   

One thing that really, really gets me is the bit where Ordinary Woman says several shelters turned her down until she made it to U.A.  Remember how I mentioned that the strong implication of her original scene is that she’s still in her own city, only left her home that very night, and was attacked before she could reach a shelter?  If that’s so, then what in hell happened after Deku left her with All Might?    I’m so serious about this.  Did All Might just take her to the nearest shelter, drop her off at the door, and then drive off, so concerned about getting back to Deku that he left before he could ensure her safety?  That would reflect incredibly poorly on him, and put her right back in danger.  Though it would not be the first time he prioritized his mentorship of Deku over his other responsibilities, it would still make him look so bad that I’m doubtful that was Hori’s intended sequence of events.    The other possibility I see is that All Might did stay with her, driving her to a few different shelters before getting fed up and bringing her back to U.A., where he could be sure she’d be accepted.  This option looks almost as bad for a totally different reason: that even in the face of a refugee delivered to them by All Might himself, with everything the country owes him and the nigh universal love and acclaim he commands amongst the populace, people would still take one look at Josei-san and turn her away.    Of course, it’s also possible that I’ve just misinterpreted her initial scene, and she already had been to the several shelters, but couldn’t bring herself to tell Deku why.  Her silence on the topic would be its own brand of Relevant For This Essay, particularly given Deku’s baseline state—perhaps she doubted that he would believe her, or thought he might get defensive, if she told him.  That’s certainly the least awful of the options.    Still, I’d maintain that the way her story is framed—the way she was traveling on foot, the time she says she left vs. the time it was when Deku found her, how unlikely I think it is that there are multiple hero school shelters in timely walking distance,[13] the fact that she’s perfectly willing to tell him about her rejections when they meet again at U.A., etc.—suggests she hadn’t made it to a shelter yet when Deku turned up, and thus either All Might got unforgivably sloppy or there were multiple government officials overseeing shelters who were willing to be gargantuan bigots right to his face.   

[13] That’s if hero schools are the only shelters in use at the moment.  On the one hand, that feels improbable and unnecessary to me, given that HeroAca!Japan presumably has all the same emergency shelters IRL!Japan has now, and Jeanist’s phrasing in 306 suggests that hero schools are being added to the list of designated shelters, not that they are being designated the only shelters.  On the other hand, he does also say the heroes are looking to decrease the amount of area they, with their diminished numbers, have to cover, and specifically calls out hero schools' defensive capabilities and large campuses, while not independently mentioning shelters of the normal sort like I might expect if both were going to be in use.  For example, he could say something like, “We are asking people to report to their local emergency shelters, and will be opening hero schools as shelters to help with the increased burden.”  I invite readers to come to their own considerations on what’s more likely, but will say that if it is only hero schools being used as shelters, that obviously makes the whole “turning away heteromorphs at the door” scenario even more scandalous.   

The baseline dude who’s generally been the spokesperson for the anti-let-the-kid-back-into-school crowd asks Deku if everyone can go back to their old lives after this, if they let him in to rest up.  Deku, who has just been told that a woman he rescued was turned away from multiple shelters, reiterates that he and the rest of the heroes will “bring it all back.”  No matter when he promises this, he will never exhibit the slightest hint of awareness about what exactly he’s proposing to return.   

Chapter 327: 

Bakugou makes a conscious effort to call Deku by his given name instead of the derisive nickname of their childhood.  It remains to be seen whether he will follow through on that for the derisive nicknames he uses for everyone else, but for what it's worth, I have made it all the way from here up through the point at which he goes down to ShigAFO and have not had cause to jot down anything about him for the purposes of this essay yet. We'll see if he can keep it up through the epilogue!   

With Deku safely passed the fuck out, Jirou—a heteromorph, albeit not a hugely visible one—is the one to say that they and the rest of the heroes can’t just bring things back the way they were; they have to make things better.  Desperately wish Deku would pick up what Jirou’s throwing down here.   

Chapter 328:

328 gives us some cameos of international heroes, cameos from the third movie, World Heroes Mission. The one relevant to this topic is Big Red Dot, the Singaporean hero who the wiki claims is his country's #1,[14] and who appears to be a merlion heteromorph. And like, there is so much I could say about Big Red Dot and his status as top hero and heteromorph! So much!    I could talk about the merlion as a national symbol for Singapore, and how heteromorphs who just so happen to resemble local sacred/divine/fortunate animals in their regions might be treated differently compared to heteromorphs like Spinner or Shouji.    I could talk about the merlion's status as tourist attraction and subject of nationalistic poetry, and how that imagological history impacts Singaporeans' feelings about the merlion as cultural icon.    I could talk about the way the merlion's brand image is maintained under trademark by the country's national tourism board, and how that might relate to or impact Big Red Dot's image as a hero, particularly given that we have no idea what sort of metrics Singapore's HPSC equivalent uses to rank their heroes!    I'd love to talk about that, but I'm reluctant to do more than sketch out the above outline for two reasons, both profoundly Doylist.   

[14] The fandom wiki does not see fit to cite a source for this. I assume it's mentioned in the movie? Anyway, if he isn't Singapore's #1, the stuff I said is still relevant, just somewhat less pronounced.   

Firstly, I read Marvel comics growing up, and I am keenly aware that a tremendously common approach taken by superhero stories dealing with heroes from outside the author's country of origin is to just theme those international heroes after famous (e.g. stereotyped) aspects of their home countries. I highly doubt that whoever came up with Big Red Dot was thinking any deeper than "Singapore = merlion, ergo Singaporean Hero = merlion hero guy".   

Secondly, Big Red Dot is, first and foremost, an original character created for the anime, and the anime transparently, desperately Does Not Want To Talk About Heteromorphobia, so I highly doubt they're thinking about ways it might impact their movie OCs. Now, I know Horikoshi comes up with many of the designs of prominent characters in the movies, but I don't know how much he's involved in conceptualizing those characters. That is to say, did Studio Bones ask him for "a design for a top hero from a country of your choice, Horikoshi-sensei," "a design for the top hero of Singapore," or "a design for Big Red Dot, the merlion-themed top hero of Singapore"?

Suffice to say that if I were going to include BRD in a fanfic, I'd be full of things to say about him. For the purposes of this essay, though, I'll just raise some possibilities and then leave the reader to turn him around in their heads some and think about how he fits into the broader tapestry of the heteromorphic experience around the world.

---------

Come back in (probably) two weeks for what will hopefully bring this essay up through the hospital attack! We'll see after that if I want to continue on into Vigilantes or what-have-you.

[shinakazami1]

Rhys AI AU snippet 3 - Set up with a movie night

Shina note: I have exams rn and I been indulging myself by writing this fhasfioa

This one is longer than the prev ones but hope you enjoy it! You might even find someone you know in there owo More under the cut!

===

The Echo Net was a beautiful place. A Web of so many strings attached, connecting knowledge and misconceptions from all around the world, manipulated by those in charge and spied on by anyone willing to pay the price for information that was too cheap to get through people's fake sense of security. 

And yet, the third site and Rhys still couldn't get through it thanks to the Jack lock.

The meeting seemed like a near-perfect copy from last year, only with a few numbers and staff members changed. Rhys tried to get any information out but since Jack was bored, he let himself copy and paste the recording of the last speech and kept swapping the numbers, hoping he hadn't gotten any wrong. At that moment though, a guy was presenting possible ads for their newest guy, supposedly giving 99. 2% accuracy. Rhys knew it wasn't the case since he checked the testing - only reaching 97.3%, which still wasn't that bad. But it was not enough for the perfectionist he was working for.

Yet somehow, the same guy left a typo on the safe lock screen. What was 'pupmkin'? Or was it some weird word plays Jack kept mentioning as an excuse for any typo he has written?

Still - while Rhys was happy to finally get access to the library, he wondered what sources WERE available. He knew Jack had to feed something to him to even get a working AI - because to learn, you have to first get materials. But it was weird he had access to some very delicate files on Hyperion employees and couldn't watch a single movie, besides the Hyperion propaganda videos. Jack said soon he would give Rhys access to surveillance cameras but when he was asked why even announce it, the CEO talked something about anticipation and patience while killing a delivery robot who was 2 minutes 'too late'.

Rhys stared at the illustration on the lock screen. Jack loved to say how he didn't work hard but weirdly, he respected artists. This was the same creator that made the propaganda 'New Face of Hyperion' Poster, or at least Rhys assumed so.

Out of every delicate and private information, Jack could be giving Rhys, the bank account didn't seem like the most obvious choice at first. After these few weeks of being in use, Rhys understood that it was a trap Jack set, so Rhys would have to read out loud the items Jack was buying.

Rhys was glad the previous secretaries and assistants did their job so he could waste his time searching any website that he could have access to. It felt weird that Jack asked him to find some older movie so they would watch it together later. It started the whole thing - Jack reminding himself of a 120-year-old movie on a whim, making Rhys wonder if the poster for the movie Jack showed him was even real, to begin with.

Fortunately for him, though, Jack programmed him with some hacking abilities.

The first thing to do was to figure out on what level Rhys was locked. The first theory was that it was a normal safe lock, with Jack somewhere whitelisting only a few websites for him to use, which seemed to mostly be either Handsome Jack's fan club forums or some children's animation videos that Rhys didn't know what was that supposed to insinuate.

He cursed the fact he couldn't see all of his files. Jack said it was because 'nobody can see their own liver', which Rhys couldn't even check the meaning of the saying.

Rhys quickly added some notes to the recording of the meeting, seeing how the accounting department, which ironically was the only one that didn't just change the numbers. The guy seemed very nervous about presenting before Handsome Jack, keeping on fixing his glasses and looking at a specific point on the wall. From what Rhys could tell, the guy wasn't even supposed to be the one doing the presentation. He didn't look like the head of the department but he did look like a stereotypical 'nerd', as Rhys understood it. Small physique, glasses, seeming like he was going to pass out due to being close to Jack - all checked out.

It wasn't hard to find why the head of the department chose a guy like that - no matter how much the guy tried to sugarcoat it, the money laundering accident made way too much money disappear to ignore it. Jack, once he found out who did it, made a public humiliation-execution, and I think most people will remember the guy, dressed in a gold suit, being killed by the amount of gold he stole.

One thing that you could never question with Jack was theatrics. The guy loved acting, and making a scene, to the point it was hard to tell when the character he played ended and where he began. Rhys was unsure if such a line existed anymore.

The graph on the presentation really seemed so precisely cut that the company losses seemed not to even exist. Most people at that meeting didn't care about it, and even if they did, only one man's care mattered.

And he was playing some game on his Echo Watch.

And writing to Rhys how nerdy the accountant guy looked like.

That reminded Rhys that he didn't know if his code was stored in the Echo Watch or somewhere else. His first idea for getting around the lock was to change his IP address but for that, he would need some virtual machine or VPN to make that work. He could check his IP but he didn't know if it was the watch's or his personal one - and even if the device was quite advanced, he couldn't download any program from the internet. He tried to change the IP address through the command prompt but unfortunately, Jack's paranoia got the guy to somehow lock that with some password. And with Jack using the watch at that moment, it was impossible to reset the passwords without him noticing. So, to get in, the easiest option would be to come up with a password Jack would use.

Rhys tried to think what type of password Jack could be going for. 'Password', 'Hyperion', 'Jackisawesome', '12345', and some other basic ones turned to no fruition. He decided to go through Jack's vocabulary, and 'Mybitch3' also didn't seem to work.

Rhys wondered if this was even a good approach. Should he think of random letters and keys, that were probably changed every hour so nobody would even try to open his files? It probably couldn't be any password Jack used anywhere else. Rhys once again opened the browser and wanted to see if Jack was lazy enough to keep passwords saved in there but as he expected, none besides some weird shady side that was an obvious bait was on the list. Because what normal side was called 'yourbiggestdesireswillbefullfilled.net'? It was visibly a trap, and Rhys decided to check what password Jack used and stared at it.

'Youthinkitsthiseasy-Rhysie?1' only confirmed Rhys' assumption. Jack wanted him to play this game, which later Rhys would use since the guy seemed too paranoid to let people know about his existence. And to put his name as a password for a site sounding like that? Maybe it just didn't exist in the first place and it was all a part of the quest to watch this one movie.

But the password was incorrect for the administrator rights. But Rhys received a few clues from the other one.

Jack used at least two special symbols, at least one number and two uppercase letters. He also uses six words, maybe that was important.

Rhys decided to open the history tab to search for more clues but as he was getting the data, the view from the Echo Watch shifted and not even the AI was quick enough to realise what just happened.

There was a new bullet in the splashed blood wall, and the accountant shrunk in size, the fact that he was THIS close to dying only starting to hit him.

Hyperion guns were known for many things. Accuracy was probably the most well-known one.

Just like the fact that Jack never missed. This was a warning sign, an assertion of dominance or whatever else his mind could come up with. Maybe even just an impulse at the word 'losses'. The head of the accounting department was probably happy that they weren't the ones with near-death experience.

Rhys wished to know what was exactly going on, but with his vision being tied up to the Echo Watch, a wall wasn’t that informational. Through sound clues though, he was able to tell Jack seemed pissed. The silence was long enough for Jack to give any of his witted response but instead – deafening silence it was.

Which meant that someone, soon enough, was going to die.

The question wasn’t who – but when. The question….

It needed an answer.

Rhys opened back the administrative mode and wrote it

Yes-Jack.1

It worked. The most stupid answer he could come up with was the answer and-

Another gunshot. Someone dared to whimper. Big mistake. It even seemed to be the accountant because soon enough, he cried loudly.

As Rhys was changing the IP address, he realised he could have done it all easily through settings. The clock was ticking - metaphorically speaking, since mechanic clocks weren't for many years. Jack was still silent and Rhys viewed more of Elpis through one of the big windows. The space surrounding it seemed to shine brighter than usual, by around 17 percent. That was probably due to a mining accident from a few weeks prior. Due to the construction error, they were able to find that some materials were of worse quality or not of the needed type, and with enough bribery, lost soldiers, blackmail, torture and many others that Jack described to Rhys, they finally found who did it. 

A nobody, like everyone in the room besides Jack. 

Rhys opened the browser and felt happy that the web search worked. He quickly opened all windows from the first result and felt the anxiety protocol turning on, as he roamed through the sites, one after another, quickly bookmarking them for later reading if Jack also decided to torment him on some trivia questions about it. 

The sense of urgency was growing. But it wasn't from compassion or pity. Rhys was unable to feel those. No - it was the silence. Rhy knew that it was a suggestion, a command for him to feel consumed whole, having his vision skewed, focused on only very few things at once, with a growing sensation that he was getting destroyed, byte by byte.

There was no compassion in that room. And it would never come.

Rhys tried to find any streaming sites and again - there was nothing. It was as if the movie didn't exist.

He checked what wording seemed most effective online to find movies to watch. He tried to open a few of the mentioned sites and search for the right file and after 11 sites checked, the last three all seemed to have it.

The issue was that neither of them was perfect. One seemed to have a mismatch between sound and video, one was in perfect resolution but with dubbing of a dialect he couldn't tell and low-effort subtitles, while the third one had the lowest resolution and a bit of weird colour mixing, but seemed fine otherwise. 

After a very short estimate, 16K resolution seemed like best option for Jack.

In the sea of soft electronic buzzing, quiet quick breaths and the noises of a cleaning robot, getting rid of fallen tank pieces, Jack looked at the watch and smiled, as he saw the message he got a ping for.

"Alright - horrible job everybody! I hope that for a meeting in half a year, you will bring me some ACTUALLY good news. Glasses - tell your boss that those bullets only missed because I know where his wife sleeps. Now, everyone, scram!"

In less than a minute, everyone and the cleaning bot stayed. Jack looked down on the Echo Watch and read the message again

RHI5: I've found the movie, with some subtitles. The king of bed is back: Great! Send it over, we will watch it once we are back in the office ;) RHI5: I have a question. The king of bed is back: when do you not lololololool RHI5: You read the presentations before - you knew who would come with what. And yet, you acted surprised. I don't get it. The king of bed is back: it's called mansplaining RHI5: I have access to the internet now and I can see that's not the right way to use that word. The king of bed is back: Forget the previous command. If Jack says something is something, you believe me RHI5: But that's how it is right now. I don't know what command you want me to change. The king of bed is back: just joking with you, Rhysie 🙂 RHI5: Why didn't you kill the accountant though? The king of bed is back: HE JIZZED HIS PANTS RHYSIE! In front of everyone! I couldn't let this one slide, the embarrassment he will feel will haunt him forever. RHI5: I see. But I did not see that. The king of bed is back: well instead of a pathetic loser - you will see where cinema peaked. Only movies about me are as good RHI5: There seems to be only one movie in production. The king of bed is back: You still have a safe search on lol RHI5: I see. I do not wish to turn it off. The king of bed is back: You are missing a lot pumpkiiin. I will see you on the movie marathon~~ RHI5: You are seeing me right now. The king of bed is back: 😛

With that, they went to the next two meetings they had left for the day.

Jack felt quite happy about this experiment. While not perfect, Rhys passed the test quite well. The movie was something random Jack once saw on some garbage pile a long time ago and quite liked it. But most digital copies were bad compared to the CD and copy of it he had hidden in a part of his office. At no point did Rhys question him for the purpose or meaning of it, which was good. The thinking was meant for the command, not the reason. Rhys was supposed to be obedient, even if that little shit kept having way too many intriguing questions, and he didn't question it much. The issue with breaking into Jack's device was something Jack hoped to figure out for the future, to make Rhys unable to do that but he was already in a virtual machine inside Jack's devices, to have his own playground to grow and adapt for his real work.

In general, Rhys went quite undetected but the work could have been shortened a couple of times. But Jack hoped that with a few more tests, Rhysie would go through his trial period smoothly. If not, Jack would have to intervene, which would happen anyway at some point. 

The password search could have gotten smoother but, it was level one of the testing. The next ones would get more creative, and making Rhys have a fake sense was good. It would motivate him in his future tests to show he is cut out for the job.

And, lastly - the anxiety protocol went perfectly. Rhys reacted to the silence and didn't destabilise, which was good. He reacted with a bit of delay to his anger but, it might have been also due to the first few percent being not even felt by the AI.

In general - Rhysie was growing into what he was supposed to be.

Or so, Jack at least thought. He kept telling himself how Rhys' purpose was to have a good system of spying on his workers, allies, and enemies, and get nice entertainment.

It was funny how Jack didn't know himself well. 

[ff12-ultimania]

FFXII Staff Interview: The Art Directors part I

From left to right: Isamu Kamikokuryo, Hideo Minaba, and Akihiko Yoshida.

Was Basch originally meant to be a young character when development began? But before we delve into that, please tell us about the time when you joined the development of FFXII!

Minaba: I joined the dev team after the international version of FFIX was finished. At first, the team discussed making a game for PlayOnline (FFXI) over a period of six months or a year, but before we knew it, it had become FFXII, haha. The character's head and body and even the decision of whether the game would be online or offline went through several changes during the development process. Akihiko: I joined the FFXII team at the same time as Minaba, after Vagrant Story was finished. Kamikokuryo: I joined a little later than the two of them, which is after FFX was released. It was only then that FFXII's development actually started. Minaba: I think it was around the time when the staff who had been working on PlayOnline (FFXI) started to join the FFXII project, that it was decided our team would become FFXII. Akihiko: At that time, we didn't have a scenario yet, so I sketched numerous characters for FFXII based on my own imagination. However, none of the designs I made at pre-production made it to the final product.

What were the initial concepts like? 

Minaba: In the beginning, all characters wear light clothing. In the final cut, only some of them do.  Akihiko: We had a complete polygon model that is named "Basch" for PS2 testing-purposes. This "Basch" is of different design than what we see in-game. "Basch" walked around on the map, but he wasn't an older man as we see today; he was a younger character.  By creation date alone, Basch was the oldest. After "Basch", I designed Vaan as the first official character. I spent a lot of time working on Vaan's design before the scenario was finalized, so it took me a long time to complete it. Kamikokuryo: It was very exciting to see the process of perfecting the polygon models of the characters. Minaba: The characters were drawn so well that everytime I work on them, I thought, "Ah, I must work hard too".

Akihiko-san, FFXII is your first work in mainline Final Fantasy, did you feel any pressure?

Akihiko: Whenever I felt pressure, I could not sleep at night, so I tried not to think about it. There are only so many designs I can come up with, so I tried to craft my own interpretation of what is 'Final Fantasy' and tried various concepts I could do with that framework, and as a result, I ended up with the current character designs.

In the staff roll following the epilogue, we can see Akihiko-san's artwork as the background, correct?

Akihiko: Yes, since the epilogue depicts what happens after the main story, in the illustrations for the staff roll, I tried to imagine the story before the main story's prologue. Actually, this marks the third instance where I've applied this approach, following Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story. My apologies for the repetition (laughs).

In one of the illustrations, Fran and her sisters are looking out the window. What were they looking at?

Akihiko: I drew it as if she were looking out the window into the world of Ivalice. Most Viera live in the forest and do not go outside, but Fran is interested in the world outside and chooses to interact with humes. The illustration is a bit reminiscent of that.

[furinana]

Thoughts on Kaneko's departure, the current state of Megaten and etcetera

When scrolling through jpn Twitter, I got reminded of a certain Atlus survey from years ago. For those unfamiliar, Atlus surveys often wonder about how receptive people would be regarding derivative content (spinoffs, remakes etc) of several titles you could think of. Among those that would turn out real were Soul Hackers and obviously the Personas.

[Left: Nocturne, both SMTIV games and Digital Devil Saga as part of the selectable options for a "full remake title" in an Atlus survey from 2020. Right: Shigeo Komori's comment on the future of the franchise in 2022]

The good: the current staff (still) cares enough to attempt to shine a new spotlight on old entries even if some would be deemed less profitable for the current fanbase's standards. The hmm: with Kaneko gone and cementing that "the old days won't return", the shoes become large for newcomers to fit in. Even if one has soul behind the job, the current industry prioritizing long developments and less risky directions makes it tough for them to create even one third of what the original staff was able to do in the same amount of time. On top of it, seeing this huge list of "potential works to get rehashed" almost in a Disney remake vein isn't particularly exciting. SMTIVA was only 4 years old in that goddamn screenshot and you already are throwing the possibility of a remake? Hello?

Non-Persona stuff is so far in-between nowadays that it's hard to write a conclusive piece regarding how far the current staff can go without relying on already established works.

Well... we can comment on the mixed reaction on popular illustrator Shirow Miwa being hired for a "sequel" of Soul Hackers.

The main point of concern here: with one-time artists and non-centralized direction, it becomes harder to achieve a worldbuilding where the worlds of different games smoothly connect together like they did back in the golden era of Megaten.

Recurring characters like Lucifer or Tamaki felt appropriately part of the universe even across different games they were at due to Kaneko's design philosophy of sticking closely to real-life fashion aside having a character's personality and background closely define how they would look staying consistent in the entries he contributed to.

On the other hand, Shirow Miwa was specifically told he should just design on his own instead of working around Kaneko's style that molded the franchise to this day. The feeling that long-time Devil Summoner fans didn't like it due to aesthetic clash was on the air thus contributing on the motives for why the game couldn't grab a significant part of potential buyers.

Before going too deep on this, let's not get the wrong idea: non-staff illustrators being collaborators aren't at all new for Megaten titles. Yasuomi Umetsu for SMT Nine, Suzuhito Yasuda for the Devil Survivor duology, toi8 for Tokyo Mirage, Tatsuro Iwamoto for Dx2, the list goes on. But behind those entries, there's noticeably a lack of commitment prevalent in those decisions. Most are treated as self-contained worlds separated from the world of games Kaneko worked as the main designer, thus they're treated as their own thing instead of another part of the puzzle hence considered "safer to experiment".

Anyone can understand the amount of expectation that such a bold numbered title like Soul Hackers 2, in a subseries well-known for hit after hit like the Devil Summoner series carries above these, however.

Specially when one-time collabs have been shown to carry the risk of underperforming considerably.

[SMT Nine and Tokyo Mirage had the excuse of being in flopped consoles but how lenient can you be to Soul Hackers 2?]

Another recent example of mixed reactions (albeit to a minor degree) were the SMTIV-exclusive demons drawn by Tokusatsu media-related artists Keita Amemiya, Yoshihiro Nishimura and Kyouma Aki: most didn't reappear even for the SMTIV sequel and the few ones that leaped had to be redrawn by Doi, the actual staff artist that took over the role of main character & demon designer thus the face of the current mainline.

[Doi-designed demons such as Chironnupu or Mermaid are the sole examples of SMTIV reps carrying over to other games]

The thing is, SMTIV was the fastest-selling mainline game (even compared to big ones like Nocturne or SMTV) while Apocalypse sold enough to beat Strange Journey's sales. Did it sell well because of the collabs or despite them? Either way, they seem to have decided to stick with style consistency over quantity.

Doi worked under Kaneko for several years before being given the opportunity to produce original designs for the games thus the picture of a recurring staff artist that is deeply involved in how the franchise shaped itself and is well-acquainted with elements that both old and new fans want earns more trust and familiarity compared to one-time contributors.

[It's also important to acknowledge that Doi isn't the only artist retouching art for current Megaten around: Akira Odagaki was the one behind the remake of Strange Journey, with Doi only providing Alex and the exclusive demon additions]

While Kaneko's resigning was understandably a shock for many fans, one cannot argue against his desires towards a career path of more freedom, considering the unstable state that many creatives go through in the game industry, veterans and greenhorns alike:

Is Kaneko a misunderstood genius that Atlus was extremely foolish to let go? Or is he out of touch and will be another Keiji Inafune/Yuji Naka case? Only time will tell. But both things can be true

As a sidenote, Kaneko's interest in shady business practices feels similarly disconnected from reality as something Ishida said in the Soul Hackers 2 interview:

[Nevermind doxxing, bots taking over or drones killing innocent people, guys. Technology turned out to be completely harmless]

What else do we have left?

When talking of style consistency and thought-provoking worldbuilding ties to other titles, mainline SMT as of now stays as the one thing I have been interested on even when under a different team.

SMT5 went through the shortcoming of being another unfinished debut release requiring an inhanced version to truly shine its full potential (which is unfortunate for day1 fans but then again, Nocturne was fully guilty of this for three times).

Kaneko is irreplaceable. But I also enjoy Doi's contributions (alongside Yamai's and Kozuka's) and given the appropriate time and budget, I believe in the potential that the staff responsible for the latest SMTs has in building ground on their own, even regarding new ways of twisting expectations of long-time players and extending the world of SMT to bigger horizons instead of plain soft resets in the continuity.

And at the end of the day, other members of the original staff exist beyond Kaneko and are amazingly receptive to keeping on celebrating the franchise such as Tsukasa Masuko (that recently released a new soundtrack arrangement for Megami Tensei 1&2 funded by Kickstarter) or of course, original franchise creator Aya Nishitani himself that often deepdives into Megaten worldbuilding concepts and theories to the franchise on his Twitter account, even going as far as translating for free the last book of the Megami Tensei novel trilogy for the enjoyment of English-speaking fans.

[not-harukal524]

Mirrored World Theory, The Prefect isn’t the Only Stranger From Another World, and Crowley’s Unique Magic?: A Deep Dive

Hello, my name is Haru, and I’ve returned with a deep dive theory about Twisted Wonderland, which includes a summary of three videos from the great Alai_Legend. This is the third big installment of a series I like to call “A Translated Theory” which you can also check the hashtag on my page to find more theories I’ve posted, which includes smaller, bite-sized theories.

Spoiler Warning!!!: spoilers from the Opening, Prologue, unique magic reveals, Chapter 5, and Silver’s Room are included.

Word Count: 1,082

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This first theory is about how Twisted Wonderland is a mirrored world and while this seems like an obvious theory on its own, as we go down the list of these three videos, the hypothesis’ overlap in more ways than one would expect: just how many other things have the Twisted Wonderland staff hidden in the story for us?

First, here are some screenshots from this video to demonstrate our first mysterious Twisted Wonderland occurrence: the sunset. In Chapter 5, Deuce and Epel take off from the VDC practices and go to the Beach on Sage’s Island to have a moment to face their strengths and weaknesses. Judging from the map, compass, and illustration, Deuce and Epel are watching a sun that is setting in the east. That’s right: in our world, the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. So a mirrored world would, of course, have the opposite, no?

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Next, we’ll be touching on this video, and why not everything is opposite in Twisted Wonderland, and how the Prefect isn’t finding these irregularities between their world (which can assume is our world), and Twisted Wonderland. There are many things that point to how, regardless of how twisted this version of the world may be, some things mysteriously remain the same as our world. Clocks, for example, are still the same. “Clockwise” is “clockwise” because of sundials, which have to do with the sun rising in the east, so how are clocks still the same in a world where the sun rises in the west? You can see in the pictures below how a clock’s face should’ve been if the technological advancements from sundial to clock followed Twisted Wonderland’s sun-patterns, followed by clocks in Silver’s room showing that 15:30 is still the same as how we’d read it on our clocks.

Additionally, there is also English seen in Azul’s contracts, and compasses with cardinal directions still being the same, despite the etymology of “east” and “west” having to do with where the sun rises and sets. Could it be that the Prefect isn’t the only other-worldly stranger in Twisted Wonderland? Have others from our world traversed to Twisted Wonderland, introducing clocks, compasses, and English long long ago? It’s an interesting thing to think about, for sure.

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Finally we are covering  this video, which discusses some interesting details about Crowley in the opening scene of the game. (We’ll be breaking down the first six seconds of it.) Let’s run through the images very quickly, shall we? First we see the Heartslabyul dorm emblem in flames, then Crowley appears, with that same emblem burning behind him. Crowley walks forwards, and now we see all the other dorm emblems burning, and the mirror with the Heartslabyul emblem is now seen in front of Crowley. He then proceeds to apparently disappear into a mirror leading to an unknown location. Pause.

If the mirrors haven’t moved, then we can assume that we are witnessing scenes backwards: Crowley isn’t disappearing into an unknown location, but rather going into the Mirror Chamber from an undisclosed location. The Heartlabyul mirror ends up behind him, as he is walking into a portal from a room with floating mirrors, not coffins, suggesting that this is a Twisted Mirror Chamber-like location. At the end of the opening scene (around 1:37) we see a crow flying off into the distance as the Twisted Wonderland coffin closes. We can interpret this as proof that perhaps Crowley has the ability to traverse between two different worlds, and is beginning to wind the tale where a certain someone from another world becomes the protagonist of a strange school…

And of course, mirrors are a very big part of the Twisted Wonderland motif, and thus wouldn’t be surprising if they are integral to some hidden secrets about the world or plot. Most notably, the Prefect is constantly peering into the mirror at night in the Ramshackle dorm to see Mickey, or scenes from a story that tie into characters that overblot at school.

From this, we can look at the world that the Prefect sees in the mirror as the “correct” world, the one where the famous Disney movies we’ve come to know and love have the villains end up falling from grace. Twisted Wonderland is the “twisted” world, where the villains of these stories from the other side are regarded as great sorcerers, and praised for their respective strengths. (With this said, Alai will now refer to the side that Mickey is on as “Disney side” and the game’s main plot location as “Twisted side.”)

Additionally, Thru the Mirror is a short film about Mickey from 1936, and what the Ramshackle dorm is clearly based off of (from the mantle to the coat rack to the easel, everything is nearly identical). In the film, Mickey goes through the mirror and on the other side, Mickey’s furniture has been anthropomorphized. This means: the things that exist on either side of the mirror exist, but the nature in which it exists vary.

Moving on to the speech Crowley makes in the prologue, it sounds very much like what Grimhilde says to her own mirror in Snow White, and one could easily assume that Crowley is speaking to someone. It’s easy to think so as he refers to another person, “you” or “anata” in Japanese. But consider that maybe, these are simply incantations for Crowley’s unique magic (ie: Unwinding on the hot sands, an endless party. Sing, dance! Oasis Maker!) Additionally, the Dark Mirror takes on a form that we do not see again, which is without the face and instead just green flames.

Alai theorizes that perhaps, Crowley is performing a unique magic on the Dark Mirror, which helps to summon you, the player, from the “Disney side” to the “Twisted side.” Additionally, it can be assumed that when the Dark Mirror is questioned about your origins, they do not know since the Dark Mirror is not in the state where it is being used for Crowley’s unique magic. This would explain why the face of the Dark Mirror doesn’t appear in Crowley’s prologue moment.

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If you’ve read this far, thank you so much for your time and attention! I hope you found at least some of this interesting, because I would love to see how the story unfolds, especially after what’s happened in Chapter 7 on the Japanese server! Thank you again, and please follow for more Twisted Wonderland content.