#these two leading the charge in the current arc

[frozen-snowflakesandsunflowers]

Jared Bush says Frozen 3 will surprise people | Latest Updates

In an interview during D23, last weekend in Brazil, Jared Bush, the recently appointed CCO, gave away some teases about Moana 2, Zootopia 2 and the future of Encanto, but he also mentions a bit about Frozen 3.

He says:

“Yeah, yeah, Frozen 3 is coming. And from what I've seen so far [of the film] I think people are going to be surprised. I can’t give away too many spoilers, other than to say that Jennifer Lee is leading the charge and that the story and the direction that she’s taking these characters, what they’re facing, what they’re going to go through, I think is going to surprise a lot of people but it's also going to deliver on everything that people love about Frozen.”

So surprised is the word he uses to describe how we'll react to Frozen 3. That's given because as Jen has said recently that the concept art that was shown during this year's first D23 is just a glimpse of what we could see in the movie. Apart from what we make from that concept we have no clue what Frozen 3 is about and tbh I have to give it to the team for not spilling a single detail about the movie. I know we want to know more but imo I think they're saving all that content for the end of 2026 and into 2027. Maybe a few teases or better insight of the story by the end of 2025, but who knows. Probably also because they're still working on it so whatever they would have told us about the film so far, could have changed and form opinions in our heads about it which they really don't need at this current stage of production. I don't think the cast have even got the script yet as the story is still developing!

Bush also mentions that Frozen 3 is going to deliver on everything that people love about Frozen. Now that's the only real piece of information given - the focal point being on what we want to see. That's what the questions on the first D23 event were about - what we would like to see, what we feel is left to tell. We love the characters, the story, the individual arcs of those characters, the dynamics, the settings, the potential, the mystery, and so much more and so I'll take this a positive sign. That's all of what I make of it.

I know nothing major was revealed in this interview, but I still thought I'd share for those who do take into consideration these little hints and teases. Since Frozen 3's date has been pushed back from 2026 to 2027, most of the content will be given the year of the release and some the year before base done the previous two films promotion (it could be different as this movie is a two parter). I know that's quite long to think about (😭) especially with the honest disappointment that Frozen Winter Festival was not a short film or an official short series but rather just a YouTube series (which is cute nonetheless and good to see they're feeding the younger fans of the franchise), but now moving into 2025 we have 2 and bit years left so we should get more teases in interviews and events here and there.

But regarding FWF, I don't blame them too much because all their focus is on the Frozen 3 and 4 as it is being made back to back, then I'm certain it'll be worth the wait. We can still hope for some kind of Frozen content soon as we do have a couple more years to go so let's see. 🤷���‍♀️

P.s I have some Frozen edits I'd love to share so I'll post those if you need something new regarding Frozen. ❄️

[thr0wnawayy]

Ah Shit, here we go again or: Rewriting the godawful "Your Next" Movie via the Antagonists and their Victims

Disclaimer: THIS MOVIE IS JUST A WORST VERSION OF THE OVERHAUL ARC

Yes and you're going to see that quite alot here. Every MHA movie is an MHA arc done considerably worse to some extent.

MHA Two Heroes is just AM vs AFO on steroids, all flash and no business

MHA: Rising is a bizarre mix of the Overhaul Arc and the MLA's components.

MHA: WHM is also just parts of the Overhaul Arc (Fanatical organization, Anti Quirk weaponry, a Mcguffin we're supposed to give a shit about)

Side Note: The movie's time of events has been changed, now occurring after the events of the Final War Arc.

Part 1: Stokercorp

The Gollini family predates the Era of quirks dating all the way back to the 1920's. The Gollini's weren't particularly large or powerful. Sticking to the shadows until she 100 or so years prior to the emergence of the first quirk users.

In the ensuing chaos and aftermath of the Quirk wars, the Gollini's profited off of protection money and smuggling. Until after the fire truly settled and they realized the European markets had a power vacuum from multiple companies collapsing.

Seizing the opportunity, the Gollini's founded multiple companies, cheif among these being Stokercorp, a packaging company.

They went semi-legit, procuring a gleaming image while still dealing underneath the table. By the time Valdo' father was born, Stokercorp had unofficially consumed it's sister fronts to become an empire. although the sub families that ran these companies remained in power

Valdo's father led Stokercorp into an era of science and tech, his greatest goal being to understand the power of quirks themselves, earning the companies secret motto "Power over All".

Valdo was born out of the need of a heir as was tradition and Valdo's father had already had multiple assassination attempts to his name. He knew his luck would run out eventually.

Growing up Valdo was raised to hone his Alechemy quirk*, he became obsessed with the idea of not just mastering but owning quirks themselves. Reading up on the rumors and tales of AFO's reign* only fueled him further. Leading him to preform the unthinkable... (but we'll get to that.)

(gotta love how this quirk is so OP, the wiki has to resort to bullshit to list a weakness)(It's such a major plot hole how nobody besides AM and some others know about AFO given how much of a threat and influence he was)

The Family

As I hinted at, the Gollini Family isn't one unit, it is made up of multiple smaller families all under the Gollini name. We'll be looking at them from a public perspective

Stokercorp is the biggest, owned by the original Gollini's (albiet the name is hidden), currently headed by Valdo. Research and Development company, dabbled in various sectors. Based in Italy, Rome

L'antre Du Lion. Europe's top fashion brand, designs everything from perfume to runway fashion. Headed by Deborah (Valdo's aunt). Has both as Italian and a French branch.

Bruno's Place. Renamed after Bruno took it from his father (and killed his siblings for it). Jewelery shop and Auxillery, charges exuberant prices for quality (often smuggled or bloodied) gemstones and diamonds.

Mad-Cap Games. A USA based Games and Comic store, a hot spot for nerds, geeks and cosplayers everywhere. Owned by Simon, a real stand up guy, if a tad competitive in DND. (Spawned from the Gollini Italian American branch, originally a board game company, now partners with Stokercorp)

Part 2: Wanda & Petrov (not really)

Let me preface this, unlike Alechemy, I had to rewrite both their quirks because they're either too fucking broken or plotholes (I.e Why didn't Guilino use his quirk in conjuction with Anna's in the first place!)

Personalities:

Anna (The Antithesis), 18

Anna hates her quirk just as much as she hates modern heroism. She believes that in order to save someone, you must truly know them and that "pro" heroes have bastardized the word [Saving] (by being glorified first responders with egos, celebrities and overall monsters (like w Enji)) as they merely rescue people from immediate danger.

Midoriya is like the match to her gasoline, she hates him and his classmates with a passion as burning as the fire that killed her parents. She's very vocal about her contempt for their inability to actually be heroic and their normalization of abuse (systematic and domestic). Anna did her research before coming to Japan and she's not happy.

She only cares for her brother and cares little for anyone beyond that (except maybe her parents and Valdo Sr.), she can be cold to others, often getting physical if they annoy her (arm twisting, choking) and only stopping if Giulio tells her too (takes a moment).

Might be an undiagnosed Sociopath with selective empathy for victims (I.E Rei Himura

Giulio (The Pacifist Knight), 20

Guilio blames himself for being useless, unless to save his parents and useless to save the adoptive father they loved so much. He is very soft spoken and empathetic (to those deserving), he distrusts heroes, especially Japan's. Only willing to work with them when he senses Stokercorp closing in.

He would walk through fire for Anna, he feels like a failure for not being able to protect her and tends to supress his emotions viewing them as unimportant in the face of danger. He's constantly putting himself at risk, subconsciously suicidal to an extent but he won't abandon his sister.

He lost his leg outspeeding a bounty hunter, using his quirk to numb the pain as it was amputated and replaced in a black market. He lost his pointer and middle fingers on his left hand to a bullet. All replaced with black market prosthetics

Quirks

Overmodify: (Similar to the movie concept except actually usable and not just Rewind but worse)

Overmodify is a ranged emitter quirk, when activated, a green aura will flow from Anna's palms, anything or anyone within a radius of 10-15 or so feet, will slowly begins to change, the closer to Anna, the more rapid and powerful the evolution.

As Anna continues to use her quirk, the color will shift to purple and the radius expands considerably (30 and climbing), however it is more chaotic, the changes more hectic and unstable. They can even destabilize whatever or whomever is effected.

When Anna has nothing left to give, her quirk turns inwards and stops, painful muscle spasms occur, leaving her sore and nauseous. Her hair and body dulls, eyes losing their light. This goes on for approximately 3 days as she recovers.

Nullify: Nullify is a contact based emitter quirk that temporarily numbs and weakens whatever Giulio touches. It is not true negation as it is simply suppressing the effects in a bid to outlast them.

(I.e. he could make a potential 3rd degree burn into 1st degree, if the burn isn't settled. If it blisters he can soothe the pain and potentially stop nerve damage but the skin would still scar)

His iris' glow blue when he does this. The toll is he gets hella migraines from using it in quick bursts (he can deal with long uses as that is the quirk's nature)

Origins:

Essentially after an "incident" involving a quirk enduced firestorm wiped out their village, Anna and Giulio were left to fend for themselves in the ashes of their war torn nation. (Anna was 12 and Guilio 14)

Due to the sheer trauma of losing their parents to the flames and their quirks being useless against them (Anna loathes hers, believing she amplified the flames). Both siblings supress and hide their quirks viewing the ailments of doing so as deserved (a sort of self punishment)

Eventually they were discovered and adopted by Valdo's father, who had no idea of their quirks until an assassination attempt was made.

This is where Valdo's obsession began, if these quirks could he honed and utilized, who knew what heights they (namely he) could reach.

Naturally the Siblings were hesitant and Valdo's father respected that wish, they were family after all. So Valdo devised a scheme to force Anna and Giulio to learn by force, he began dragging them into the underworld, putting them in situations where they had to use their quirk. Simultaneously using the victories won in these situation to consolidate power amongst the sub-famlies and gain loyalty.

(In one instance: Valdo used Giulio's caring nature against him by poisoning his own men and leaving for a "mission", Giulio was forced to use his quirks to ease their pain and stave off the effects. This was to test limits and take Data)

The Siblings were gaslit into believing this was for their benefit, framed under the guise of repaying the family for pulling them from the gutter.

Eventually, Valdo's father found out and arranged a private meeting with Valdo, Valdo used Alchemy to kill him discretely, giving his father a brain eating amoeba to ensure his silence and retirement. Bruno helps him cover it up by distracting with a well placed party

Valdo learns of All Might's retirement and begins looking into his history, learning of OFA'S stockpiling nature by putting 2 and 2 together (Valdo's childhood readings combined with Midoriya's sudden quirk manifestations). He begins looking for a way to replicate the storage of OFA

Shortly after, the Siblings learned of what Valdo had done and fled, stealing a motorcycle and escaping from Stokercorp tower. Valdo sends mercenaries to bring them back to him for his plans. The Siblings move frequently.

To PART 2 (W.I.P)

[bonefall]

Thoughts about Goldenflower? Specifically her alignment in terms of Tigerstar being a massive Thistle law supporter, and Goldie being left to raise their kits alone after he’s ousted from ThunderClan and caused thw death of their elder son (intentionally or not). Girl has been through sooo much I’m kinda glad she wasn’t around to see what her surviving son became.

Golfy BABY, Goldenflower is getting a sizeable kiss on the head.

She is the daughter of Speckletail, future bulldozer attacker. She is every bit as intense as this implies.

Goldenflower is the same size as her littermate Lionheart. She just braids her mane, making her look smaller. They are both fucking massive

The most personal and painful part of Tigerclaw's betrayal was the fact he KILLED HER BROTHER.

She is really close with Frostfur after Lion's death, because she's super overwhelmed with two litters so close together AND being head of the kitchen patrol.

Swiftpaw and Brightpaw were practically siblings with how close they were. It really wasn't a surprise that they ended up in trouble together.

Golden was planning to not even speak Tigerclaw's name to Bramblekit and Tawnykit. Her opinion on Tiger was an IMMEDIATE, FURIOUS 180.

Generally Goldenflower isn't a "soft" person. She's a lot like her mom, Lionheart was the more gregarious and diplomatic of the two.

Snowkit was also a very serious cat like them. This family is generally pretty focused and pious.

They also had a middle sibling who tragically died in the Plague-- Mistleclaw. That was before Fireheart joined ThunderClan.

I really love how in canon, Goldenflower is firm and pushes back on how unfair Fireheart is towards her kits. So that's where I'm building from and generally disregarding fanon's take on her as a gentle mom. Society has progressed past the need for gentle moms. Goldenflower is currently telling you to sit up straight and take all those dishes on your desk to the sink.

She's waiting.

You will not keep her waiting. Go.

Good. She's proud of you.

Back on that 189 though-- that was for almost everything. Frostfur, Dustpelt, Longtail, a LOT of cats have a much slower reckoning with the ingrained beliefs that they'd accepted from Tigerclaw.

But Goldenflower was motivated by some pretty hard spite. She wanted NOTHING left of him. She was finding things to hate about him, and ended up "leading the charge" on ThunderClan's reckoning here.

Not neccesarily because of deeper principles, but because she was willing to wrecking ball her way through any leftover associations with him.

Before this point though, she DID support Thistle Law, juuust over the edge past Hard Traditionalism. She would speak very critically of Queen’s Rights, openly call for war, protested against bringing back WindClan, etc.

after Tigerclaw's betrayal, she's still more of a centrist Traditionalist, but will listen to a convincing argument, and slides towards Fire alone over the years.

I actually want to write Fireheart and Goldenflower developing a strong friendship in this moment, too.

She doesn't advise like Whitestorm does, but she's good at shutting up bickering cats when Fireheart is a fresh deputy. I always wished he had some more allies in that moment.

Also generally a very reliable senior warrior. Will absolutely be one of Firestar's choices for his first deputy, though he ultimately picks Whitestorm.

After TPB, she has another big role as the new mentor of Squirrelpaw. Unfortunately, she has had to flunk the little fireball on her warrior assessment TWICE.

She actually talked to Firestar like, "I'm aware that this looks suspicious but I promise I'm not holding her back to spite you. She threw herself into the river."

"No no, Golfy, I'm aware she's wreckless. I never assumed you were being unfair to-- wait the river? The river with the WATER??"

"Yes. The river with the water."

She is also surviving well into OotS, as an elder. I don't like how tiny the den was for so many arcs! SO, that does mean she is going to get a pretty good look at her son's early leadership and all that entails.

Unfortunately though, she ended up taking his side in the Reveal. In her eyes, Bramblestar was LIED to. The Queen’s Rights are to protect kits-- but that doesn't mean you just get to lie to the mate who's going to raise them.

(This is also definitely colored a bit by personal bias, she would be more charitable if it was anyone else but her son)

So when he decides that the Three aren't his anymore... Goldenflower distances herself too. Lionblaze is especially painful-- she used to think he was in honor of her late brother. But now she finds out that it was all a lie.

From the elder's den, she has various opinions on the changes happening to ThunderClan under Bramblestar, like the crumble of the ShadowClan alliance. I feel like she wants to support her son, even when she thinks his choices are questionable... but at the same time, her pride prevents her from being TOO soft on him.

Just generally being a strong traditionalist in the Elder's Den, but on the softer side as opposed to Mousefur on the hard side.

I'm currently planning to axe her in the Great Battle, because there's no way she doesn't go down swinging... though I am also keeping her in mind for one of the greencough outbreaks, since I'm trying to make those into an actual threat in BB instead of "kill some randos" disease.

In any case though I want her alive into OotS to have opinions about Bramblestar, because I find that too interesting to pass up.

[lisupandowntown]

In his head

A/N: I originally set out to make this a big headache fic for Rory but the boy insisted on something softer - what can I say? We'll see more of his and Noa's reconciliation, but mostly as parts of other arcs - I think. Who knows? They're in charge here. No emeto here, but I have a prompt I'll be working on next.

It felt weird to be dating his girlfriend, but Rory wasn’t about to complain. Especially not when tonight’s activity involved ordering from their favorite Thai place and staying in - just the two of them.  It had been his therapist’s idea - and Miriam’s too - and yeah, Rory could sort of see the purpose behind it.  He and Noa needed to work some things out.   If they just let themselves fall back into their old pattern of assuming everything was fine, they’d never learn how to recognize when things weren’t. And if they didn’t know, they couldn’t fix it before things got too bad.  Before Noa had to leave.  

Part of him still couldn’t believe it.  Huge fights and someone moving out were for other couples, not them. It was inconceivable.  

Except it wasn’t, because it had happened.  Ben, Rory’s therapist, had lectured him about that - about how assuming he and Noa wouldn’t have problems was its own problem.  And a big one.  Rory hadn’t liked hearing that until Ben pointed out that Ben wasn’t the one currently not living with his girlfriend.  Ouch. 

And so Rory was going along with the idea of - not starting over - but, reconnecting.  Being mindful about each other and what they needed.  Recognizing that they needed work.  And that included making plans to see each other. 

Still, it was strange.  Noa had her key but she buzzed up anyway, and then knocked on the door like she was visiting and not a half-owner of the condo.  Normally when one of them got home they’d kiss in greeting, or Rory would wrap his arms around Noa from behind and nuzzle her neck, or she’d collapse next to him on the couch and snuggle close.  Now she held out the big paper bag from the restaurant.

“Can you take this? It’s heavy.”  Noa slid her work backpack off her shoulders and onto it’s normal spot on the bench by the front door.  “You ordered a lot.” 

Rory shrugged.  “So we’ll have leftovers.”  As soon as the words were out of his mouth he cringed, because Noa wouldn’t be here tomorrow to eat them.  “I’ll um, pack some up for you.  And Adam.”  He rubbed at his temples, trying to get rid of the stress of trying to do things right.  God he hated this.

“Thank you.”  Noa touched his arm, briefly.  Her eyes were sad. Rory didn’t know whether to be comforted that this was just as hard for her or angry that they had to go through this charade when clearly they both wanted to be together.    

This time rationality won out over anger. Just because they both wanted the same thing didn’t mean they were ready to take it.  That was Rory’s therapist Ben talking, in his head.  The guy had been in there a lot this week. Rory was even getting used to listening to him.

“What’s funny?” Noa looked at him curiously.  

Rory gave a sheepish shrug. “Ben. I hear him yelling at me when I’m not being mindful  About  us.” 

The look Noa gave him made every painful second of therapy feel worth it.  She tugged on his arm.  “Will you tell me? I mean, you don’t have to, but . . .”

“Yes, of course,” Rory interrupted immediately.  “Of course I’ll tell you.  Everything.”  He let Noa lead him over to the sofa.  Earlier he’d put out paper plates and utensils and cups with ice for their drinks.  And there was a little vase too, with flowers he’d picked up at the bodega on the corner. Noa hummed appreciatively.  “It’s perfect, Rory.”  

Her words made him feel oddly off-balance.  Paper plates and takeout was easy.  And Rory got Noa flowers all the time; dahlias and hydrangeas were her favorite. She shouldn’t have to compliment him about it.  

And then there was Ben talking in his brain again. Don’t make judgments; don’t overthink. Just let it happen.  His head thumped uncomfortably, trying to keep track of it all.  

“I’m glad we decided to stay in.”  That was true, and easy to admit.  Noa nodded in agreement.

“We needed this.”  She grinned suddenly.  “And I needed Pad Thai and chicken curry.”  

“And dumplings and satay.” Rory opened up containers.  “I didn’t get wine.  I thought maybe we shouldn’t drink.”  That had been another of Ben’s suggestions. 

“Good idea,” Noa agreed.  She turned sideways on the sofa so she could look at him.  “You had therapy today, right?  How was it?” 

“Hard.”  Rory put down his plate of food.  That was more honesty; it had been more difficult than he thought, talking to a therapist.  When Rory had first called Miriam, hungover and impulsive, he’d known immediately it was the right thing to do.  But in his mind, that would be the most difficult part. First you have to admit you have a problem and all that shit.

He’d met with the therapist three times so far, and every session had left him feeling raw.  Ben had a way of slowly peeling back the layers of Rory’s emotions and exposing the hard truths underneath. It was a lot more painful than he’d expected. 

“Apparently I’m not “engaging in healthy behavior” by worrying about you all the time.”  Rory made air-quotes with his hands.  When Noa looked like she was about to say something, he rushed on.  “I mean, I knew that, of course. Well, I know that. Now.”  He rubbed at his eyes.  Confession time.  “I uhh, I fought him on that at first.”

Noa nodded as if the news didn’t surprise her.  “Why do you think that is?”  

Rory gave a small smile.  “Are you asking me as my girlfriend or my therapist?” 

Noa smiled back.  “Your girlfriend who is a therapist,” she decided.  “And who is also going through her own therapy.”

“Because of me.”  That had been one of harder things for Rory to unpack.  “I knew you were upset, but I didn’t want to believe how much of it was caused by my actions.”  Rory played with the corner of the blanket folded neatly over the arm of the sofa.  On a lot of Friday nights, he and Noa would snuggle together under it.  “I thought it was mostly, you know.  Because you were trying to get past the attack.”  Rory stopped twisting the blanket around his fingers and looked openly at his girlfriend.  “My behavior made that harder.”    

Noa was quiet for a long moment.  Twice, she opened her mouth as if to speak and then closed it again.  Finally, she nodded.  “I almost denied that,” she admitted.  “My first instinct was to tell you that it wasn’t your fault.”  Her lips twisted.  “Every time I told myself that it was okay that you were so . . . that you were just ‘being overprotective Rory’ –” Now Noa made the air quotes - “I got a little bit more . . . frustrated.  I knew why you were doing it, and it had never bothered me before.  And I hated admitting that it bothered me now.  So I didn’t.” 

“Well to be fair, I was a lot worse this time.” “Rory went back to rubbing his temples.  He’d worked a full day before his session with Ben and then come straight home to get ready for Noa.  Therapy was supposed to be cathartic, he thought, but so far it always seemed to give him a headache.  “My entire job involves hunting down and containing criminals who do horrible things.  And I’m really good at it.” 

“You are. You’re the best.”  Noa pushed her leg against Rory’s knee until he looked up at her.  He shook his head.  

“Except . . . except I wasn’t.  Not that day.”  He pointed suddenly at the pillow Noa was leaning against.  “He was right here, in our house.  On our sofa.  On . . . you.”  Rory’s voice shook.  “And I couldn’t protect you from that.  And I should have.”  

“Rory, you couldn’t have . . .” Noa began.  Rory held up his hand to stop her.  It had taken almost the entire hour of therapy today to get him to start to see it.

“No, I know that.  Logically, I get it.  We knew the guy was a creep, but for Nicky to give him a key, and you to be home sick, and him to be totally wasted, and a million other things that made this perfect storm.  I understand all that.”  Rory closed his eyes against the images - both real and imagined - that had been plaguing him for months.  “But ever since I couldn’t protect you then, I’ve been . . . terrified that it would happen again.  And I wouldn’t be there.  Again.”  It had shocked him today, when he’d finally realized that.  Now he twisted sideways to match Noa’s position on the sofa.

“Ben made me tell him every single thing I’d tried to do to keep you ‘safe.’” The air quotes felt ironic this time.  “And then to go through all the worst case scenarios in my head and how realistic it was that they would happen to you”  Rory grimaced.  “Most of what I'm worried about is pretty unlikely.”

Noa smiled gently.  “Anxious thoughts aren’t known for being reasonable.”  She reached for him.  “You’ve got a headache, don’t you?”  

Rory shrugged.  “Kind of, maybe.”  He squeezed the bridge of his nose. “It feels heavy.  Too many thoughts.”  

“C’mere.”  Noa pulled his arm insistently.  “Lie down.”  

Rory had no idea if their new rules of dating allowed it, and he couldn’t have cared less.  As soon as Noa touched him he collapsed into her lap, head shoved into the place her thigh met her hip.  She rested her soft hands on his cheek and forehead and he couldn’t hold back a groan. 

Noa’s weight shifted for a minute.  “Here, you look cold.”  She flicked the sofa blanket over his middle.  “Close your eyes.”  

“Already did,” he mumbled.  Noa’s fingers tangled in his hair and pressed gently against the base of his skull.  “Keep doing that.”  He knew they weren’t done talking, but maybe they could be finished for tonight.  Right now, with the smell of Noa’s perfume in his nose and the soft rise and fall of her stomach where the side of his head met her middle, well, that was enough.  Her thumb brushed across his lips.  

“I love you,” she whispered softly.  

Rory snuggled more purposefully into her lap,  “I love you too.  So, so much.”  And yeah, it wasn’t enough, but it wasn’t nothing either. 

[purple-on-black]

From my current Fallout 4 based WIP, (Name still pending):

The Children of Atom Saga

(Part of the Far Harbor Arc)

Part 1

(Part 2: Here )

(Part 3: Here )

(To get answers about Acadia, Kat and Nick have to go talk to the Children of Atom cult. But the Children of Atom won’t talk until Kat becomes a member—and to do that she has to go on a vision quest. ‘Drink from the spring’ they said, ‘and follow where it leads.’ Kat didn’t see many other options than to do what they said. Unfortunately that spring was more than she’d bargained for.)

***

The lock popped open and I pulled it out, the door swinging free. I stepped in. Sitting on the table was a crudely sculpted clay figurine. A female, wearing a dress with hands clasped over her skirt. I dropped my pack off my shoulders and quickly shoved the figure in. The wobbling world around me was finally starting to calm down, leaving me relieved, but simply exhausted. I heaved my pack up onto my back, but was too weak to give it enough ‘oomf’. It clung on to the edge of my shoulder, but I couldn’t be bothered to readjust it. I just had to get out of there.

As I was leaving the building, Nick finally caught up. “There, you are. What’s the big idea? I go to tighten up the nut in my wrist and the next thing I know I look up to see you already charging through the underbrush.”

“I was following the woman…she led me here…” I choked out, struggling to push my heavy backpack further up on my shoulder.

“Woman? What woman?” Nick asked, his brow furrowing. His eyes glowed piercingly from the shadow under his hat.

“Th-the woman…the shadowy woman in the fog, the Mother or whatever…” I mumbled, limply waving my hand in a sad attempt at a normal speaking gesture. It was getting harder to think.

“I don’t know what woman you’re talking about,” Nick replied with a deep level of concerned gravitas to his voice.

A sweat had broken out across my forehead. I reached up to wipe it with the back of my hand. “Ah, so it must have all been a hallucination from that spring water.”

“You actually drank that?” Nick exclaimed. “Christ’s sake, we’re supposed to be investigating the Children of Atom, not trying to be the guest of honor at their next glowing baptism!”

“They said it was the only way…” I panted. “I have to make it at least look convincing.”

Nick caught me as I stumbled off the small step. “Could have at least gathered some intel first, you didn’t have to dive straight in without a parachute,” he scolded. He laid his good hand over my forehead. He frowned, but as he moved his hand away it brushed against my hair, knocking a number of strands free. Nick frowned deeper as he watched them fall. “Rads. We’ve got to get you out of here before it gets worse.”

He pulled my backpack off from where it was struggling to cling onto my shoulder and carried it as he wrapped his other arm around me and led me away from the strange shack. After we had gotten a distance away Nick let me sit down. I leaned my head against the trunk of a dead tree, just trying to catch my breath while Nick shuffled through my med pouch. “Please tell me you at least have some Rad Away in here.

I shook my head limply. “Fresh out…couldn’t afford to stock up and used the last of it just trying to make it down here…”

“Damn…” Nick mumbled. He glanced over at me again. “We need to get you back to Far Harbor and to the Doctor, fast. As bad as it is already, you’re not going to last long in this fog.” He pulled out my half-bottle left of Rad-X and passed it over to me. “Take these. They should at least buy us a little time.”

I shook two of the bright pink and white pills into my hand and tossed them into my mouth, chasing them with a swig of water. After I’d had a couple minutes to catch my breath, Nick took the bottle of pills back from me. “Think you can get moving again?” He asked.

I nodded, “Yeah, I’m ready…” Nick reached out and helped pull me up. I stumbled for a moment under the head rush—Nick grabbed my shoulders. “I’m ok, I’m ok,” I assured, brushing his hands aside.

“My navigation system has been a bit on the fritz since we got to the island,” Nick admitted. “You’ll need to be in control of navigation, but we’ll go at your speed.”

I nodded, struggling to pull the heavy Pip-boy strapped to my arm up to my face. I messily fiddled with the nob and finally managed to place a tiny digital pin on the town of Far Harbor. Then I glanced up and gestured vaguely down the crumbling road. “This way…”

I took a step forward but as I did the world swooped again. Trees bent like rubber. It seemed the hallucinogenic effect of the water hadn’t completely worked its way out of my system after all. Nick caught my shoulders as I started to fall. “Easy, there, take it slow.”

We walked north, following the path of glowing fog condensers like streetlights. Walk is a generous term—Nick walked. I stumbled, tripping over almost every pebble and crack along the way. Had Nick’s arm not been around my shoulder holding me up I would have kissed the crumbling asphalt more than once.

The woods around me felt foreign. Alien. The island was a long trek from the Commonwealth, but it wasn’t that far; not enough to create this much of a landscape disconnect. Yet being here felt like I might as well have been on another planet. Strange noises came from within the woods, hoots and howls that felt too close for comfort, but far away at the same time. Then that damn laughter—who was doing that?

“Kat?”

I glanced up, meeting Nick’s gaze. Something about his glowing eyes in the dark cut right through me and the fog that seemed to be filling my head. “Huh, what?”

“You alright? You stopped moving,”

I glanced down at my feet, frozen in a half-step. I blinked and shook my head, slapping myself lightly on the cheek to try to wake up and keep focused. ��Yeah, sorry, I’m fine, I’m just—god where is that laughter coming from?!”

Nick looked up, glancing around at the dark woods. Then he turned back, his face drawn. “I don’t hear anything.”

“It’s right there…all over…everywhere, can’t you hear it?” I clamped my hands over my ears, but that only succeeded in making it louder. “Shut up, just shut up!”

Nick stepped in front of me taking both my arms and lowering them. The cold of his metal fingers made me jump as he lifted my chin up to the light of the nearest fog condenser and studied me for a second, his eyes scanning over my face. I watched his brow furrow as he laid his fingers against my cheek, then my temple. “Dammit…it’s getting worse,” he mumbled. I’m not sure if it was to me or to himself. He stood and glanced up the road, seeming to spot something in the distance. “I think there’s a building up ahead; you think you can make it there?”

My head ached, but I nodded sluggishly. Like my brain had to slosh through a mire to get any signal to the rest of my body. A metallic taste burned the back of my throat. I could hardly even feel my feet yet every time I took a step an electric spark would jump up my heel and slither up my spine.

A building emerged out of the fog, a small run down shack made out of wood. I would have thought it was a mirage, but Nick’s behavior seemed to indicate that it was really there. A rotting sign sat near the road, dangling sideways on a single rusted chainlink. “Ranger Outpost #14.”

Nick moved beside me, a hand at my back keeping me upright as I shuffled forward. “Almost there,” he murmured. “Just keep going, a little further.”

But I couldn’t.

My knees buckled just outside the doorframe. I collapsed against the wall, sliding down it and slumping over on my knees, resting my burning head against the old lacquered wood. It was damp from the rain, and cool. I leaned into it, wishing in a dazed and confusing thought that I could absorb myself into this feeling.

Nick set my backpack on the ground and knelt down beside me, taking gentle hold of my arms to help pull me up, “We’re not far, Doll, just a few more feet. Hang in there, alright?” Nick’s voice was soft, but there was something uncharacteristically brittle in it too. I think he was scared. I didn’t like that.

“Just a minute,” I mumbled, my words slurring together as they left my mouth. “Just need a minute.” My vision pulsed, each pounding beat of my heart causing it to fade black for a second. The fog laughed again, but this time it was a voice I recognized.

Nate’s.

Instinctively my head shot up, fervently glancing around, searching the fog. No one there. Of course not. But I swore I’d heard it. His laugh—not the boisterous one he used when his army buddies would come by to share a beer on the patio, but that little half-chuckle he’d make when I would tell him some inane gossip from the Nurse’s Station.

That warm, familiar little sound that almost no one got to hear but me. A mix of conflicting emotions rose up in my chest: excitement, then rage, hurt, sadness, then joy again. When I saw him I wasn’t sure if I was going to hug him or slap him.

“Kat,” Nick said again as he leaned in to try and put himself in my line of sight. “Come on, stay with me, alright?”

I blinked falteringly. It sounded like Nick in front of me but his face didn’t look right. It kept moving, pulsing—like I was looking at him through a kaleidoscope. I held my hand out against his chest to hold him still, though the movement was uncoordinated and my hand came down like a slap. “Stop it…” I mumbled. My mouth felt numb. My tongue too thick. “Stop moving…just be still for a second…”

“I’m not moving,” Nick reassured me, but there was an undercurrent to his tone and though I couldn’t quite make out his face, I could feel his expression: thin eyebrows pushed together, very slightly turned up in the middle accentuating the thin crease in the center of his forehead. Glowing yellow eyes that seemed to see into the soul. Thin ashen lips folded in on themselves and stretched into a nearly perfect flat line, the hinge of his mandible so tight you could swear it would strip the bolt.

The laughter continued. Nate’s voice got mixed in with a number of other voices: Nate’s, a friend’s from high school, that one cashier with the horse teeth at the Super Duper Mart. Sweat had started to form across my forehead and now it dripped down into my eyes, accompanied by a chill through my core. I shivered, pulling my arms in again holding them tight to my body trying to keep any heat I could.

Nick’s demeanor changed. He shifted on his feet, “Alright, Doll, no more room for negotiation,” he said in a tone that seemed more for himself than for me. He pulled me in, resting my quivering body against his dusty trench coat while he scooped his other hand under my folded knees. Then he stood, lifting me up with him. Startled, I instinctively grabbed onto his shoulders but he didn’t seem to notice, or if he did he didn’t seem to mind. His body was stiff, I could feel the hard plastic plates of his torso shifting under his buttoned shirt as he moved—the shape of the handle to his pipe revolver in his chest holster.

“Where are we going…?” I asked wearily. My own voice sounded foreign to my ears.

“Inside,” Nick answered. “We’ve got to bring that fever down.”

[sasster]

holds hands out, can I get a run down on Cylion and his deal, I like that guy.

Oh! He’s one of the new ones. He was made along with two other characters over on Roes blog as the prophet of a church that finds divinity in dreams.

He and his siblings were raised by their father (Favion, who is a whole other story) for specific roles within the church. So Cylion, as the prophet and head of the church, was tasked with running things. Making sure the people that Somnia was able to wrangle up would buy into their ideology and, y’know, become true followers of the Divine Dreamer (Nymira)

Our last arc, Dream Sequence, was basically Nymira learning her entire life was a lie and that she’s not actually a goddess and that Cylion is always lying to her and all that fun good stuff.  All of that leads directly into Apotheosis which is our current arc and . Fun!

Some things?

-He can enter and manipulate other people’s dreams, that’s his power! Yay. A drawback of the ability, though, is that he cannot have his own. Also if the person whose dream he is manipulating wakes up while he’s still in the process of doing that, he is stunned for a little bit in the waking world as his consciousness snaps back to him.

-Because he was raised to be an oneirocritic, he is very good at interpreting dreams. Getting to see them for himself is a huge plus, but  he could go based off of descriptions too.

-He is heavily mutated (Okay, maybe not heavily, but he does have a set of face wings and back wings, so he’s pretty mutated), as such his father did not treat him very kindly in his upbringing. Often making faces or even remarks about how he felt about the way Cylion looked — Cylion seems to be very vain about his wings, takes pride in them.. But he’s also pretty sensitive about them. He even goes so far as to get rid of them when he’s forcing himself into other peoples dreams. (Curious that he has made no attempt to cut them off in the real world, hm?)

-Cylion plays the violin, if you care.

-He struggles with relinquishing control. He spent his entire life being told what to do by his father but also he’s in charge but also, actually, Nymira’s supposed to be god. Even outside of the walls of his church is frustrating for him, he is a mutated yellow blood so he doesn’t have much social sway. He takes great issue with anyone forcing in and taking away what little power he Actually has. That shit pisses him off.

-Speaking of pissing him off. He. Has. A. Temper. He has trashed his kitchen, his bedroom, his dad’s face. He hates when things aren’t in his control, but what he hates most of all is that he isn’t even under his own control. He gets so mad so fast omg.

-He loves his siblings, he’s just so bad at showing it. Because of all of the abuse and neglect and stuff.

-He does not deserve your sympathy or empathy. He’s a bad guy. He knows this about himself.

Uhhh.. I think that’s a good intro to Cylion maybe..

[everybody-loves-purdy]

Part of the reason I would prefer to see frostpaw as leader rather than mothwing, icewing or duskfur, is that all the current leaders are pretty old, if one this cats ended up becoming leader we might end up with another mistystar type of situation. Instead making frostpaw leader would bring something new and would finally give us a young cat in position of leadership after firestar.

That’s one of my lines of thinking as well tbh. A lot of this mess happened because Mistystar dropped dead of old age before Curlfeather could enact her scheme. Not to mention that out of the rest of the four clans we have two leaders at retirement age and the other two are senior warriors at this point, not to mention they are all Vicky-era cats. I think it would be very cool for not just a younger cat to lead, but for a cat to lead who is entirely the creation of the new team. They’ve been in charge of the main arcs for about 11 years now yet all the current leaders are still Vicky characters.

I just think having Frostpaw as leader would be refreshing in a way the other options just can’t be.

[novankenn]

the Nephokinetic

(Users can utilize vapor in combat, whether it be releasing waves of mist to disorientate their opponents or conceal themselves in order to land sneak attacks, or using vapor to create weapons or having it accompany the user's own attacks.)

RPV was a man down. Jaune Arc their former leader having vanished one night, for no discernable reason, at least to them. So after missing the 40th Vytal Festival due to being a member short, the trio moved into their second year... proving their ability to cope and move forward, despite their disadvantage.

/==/

Pyrrha, Ren and Nora disembarked the bullhead. The small village they were sent to inspect, had no landing pad so the vehicle had to land in a nearby prepared area. Behind them Professor Peach stepped off. It was a second year supervised inspection mission.

The goal of the exercise was to teach the students how to see the strengths and weaknesses in a settlement or hamlet's defensive structures. To help them in those times they were dispatched to protect a settlement how to best utilize the resources at hand.

Their approved site was Fort Vale. A heavily fortified community was situated near the coast to the east of Vale proper, however for some reason while on route the destination was changed to their current location. A small unnamed village of maybe a dozen families or so, protected by a stout wooden palisade, and a few automated sentry turrets.

Peach knew at one glance the place was a death trap. Any serious Bandit or Grimm assault and the place would fold like a house of cards. Yet Peach was also aware of the side objective. There was someone of interest to Ozpin in the area... and she and her charges were the closet available team. Even if team RPV was a member short.

The trio of students lead by Professor Peach closed upon the sturdy-looking main gate. Showing her ID she and her charges were quickly allowed entry. Once past the gate Peach turned to face RPV.

"Now. I want you all to wander about. Take you time. We'll meet back at the gate in a hour." Peach let her eyes glid over the three young adults. "Pay close attention, and when we get back together I want to know from each of you what is good about these defenses... and what is bad. Any questions?"

Ren raised his hand.

"Mr Ren?"

"I thought we were supposed to be inspecting Fort Vale? Is there a reason for..." Ren didn't finish but looked around. The statement was however made.

"It was changed mid-route." Professor Peach informed the trio. "But the assignment is still the same and what you see and deduce here is applicable in other places. Any further questions?"

Pyrrha and Nora remained silent.

"Very well get to it. I'm going to have a chat with whomever is in charge of this place."

It took a little prodding and about twenty minutes but soon Peach found herself leaning against the counter of the General Store, speaking to the proprietor, who just happened to also be the woman in charge of the small settlement.

"So what brings Beacon out here?" the woman named Brittany Birch. "Should I be telling people to start packing?"

"No. It's an inspection exercise, and in fact I was going to ask you if there was a reason for us to actually be here instead of Fort Vale?"

"Well I can tell you we've not put in a call in for Huntsmen." Brittany replied, "No real need once the young fella showed up."

"Young fellow?"

"Yeah, young guy, was just wandering the road. Arrive about three weeks ago. Good thing too..."

"Why?"

"Had a small grimm incursion happen a couple days later." Brittany relayed, "Bad for us too. Pushed our defenses all most to the bring..."

"How big of a group?"

"One or two dozen." Brittany replied, "Nothing a larger settlement couldn't handle, but as you can see... we're still just scraping by."

"Well I assume you made it through... you're still here, obviously."

"Well it was because of the kid." Brittany informed Peach, "Without him we would have been over run."

"Was he that strong a fighter? Up to two dozen grimm is still a task to handle by one person." Peach commented, "Or did he have a strong semblance?"

"Well I'll say this... It was something else."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't really know how to explain it... but the kid used the grimm's own bodies against each other..."

"That makes no sense. Did he control a grimm and make it attack the others?"

"No... you know how a grimm evaporate after dying?"

"Yes."

"Somehow he manipulated that... used it against the pack. I mean it was seriously disturbing... the more grimm that went down, the more powerful and plentiful his attacks and defenses were..."

Peach stood there in silence, her lips pressed together. What the head-woman was speaking off... was impossible. Someone capable of using the essence of grimm as a weapon? There had to be more to it.

"Is this... individual still in the community?" Peach inquired. "I would like to speak with them... if I could."

"He should be. For all his help I put him up at my house. He's got a room in the attic. Private, warm and safe."

The incessant and rapid ringing of an bell sounded in the distance.

[your-favourite-plague]

Before Hunter X Hunter will return — my predictions about the Spiders deaths

From the furthest to the closest to their untimely demise

(that's loose musings, please don't treat it too seriously.)

Manga spoilers ahead

1. Kalluto – Togashi is known for unexpected story resolutions, but would he really kill one of the main character's siblings without ANY interaction between them? And with so little information revealed about Kalluto? Moreover, despite the brutality of some of hxh scenes, I can't recall any child killed on screen, and killing a Zoldyck off screen would be, in my opinion, too "anticlimactic" even for Togashi.

2. Chrollo — ok, this one I'm not so sure. I have two possible scenarios in my head. a) Chrollo sees all his friends dying or b) Troupe's reaction to his death. Both could be interesting, but I'm suspecting the first one a little bit more. In the second case his place would be much much lower, of course.

3. Nobunaga — His abilities are basically an enigma, yet he played a role in most of Troupe's moments. He already wanted to fight Hisoka in Yorknew City and I feel the build up to that confrontation may put him on the "more important Spiders" list. On the other hand, he was getting a worrying amount of screentime lately...

4. Feitan — he already had his "big scene" so maybe I'm lying to myself, but I think there's still something about his character to reveal. The hinting at his abilities, the focus he received... I don't know, I feel he still has some role to play.

5. Machi — I feel that her anger at Hisoka hints at a more complex character arc. But, unfortunately, anger is not very helpful for staying cool headed and not dying. I can't wait for the next time we'll see Machi, because something will definitely happen.

6. Phinks— he has a tendency to take a lead, which may not be the safest, in combination with his slowly charging ability... uh oh, I think he's in danger. Adding to this, he was often put in more comedic roles, I think his death would emphasize that things are serious, even more than they are now.

7. Bonolenov — he's never got much attention, so I think his death would have the "omg, the Spiders are dying" effect, without a need for scenes having great emotional impact. Still, his abilities are not fully explained, so he may have a great fight before that. Not necessarily with Hisoka.

8. Franklin — he's alone, maybe his tactic of waiting for Hisoka will pay off at first, but end tragically. Presumably, shooting from his fingers is his only/main ability; seemingly easy to counter by Hisoka's very versatile style.

9. Shizuku — her abilities are pretty straightforward, and not that useful on the Black Whale, so plot-wise there's not much to be done with her character. Also, she's currently in a team with Chrollo, and I'm thinking — killing Chrollo's companions (maybe fishing them out one by one) when they are sort of "under his care" would be a very cruel thing. Hisoka would do that.

🕸

I skipped Illumi because I don't trust him. Kalluto at least fought with Ants on the Troupe's side and should ditch Zoldycks anyway, but Illumi? It's obvious he doesn't care about the Phantom Troupe, but what is he really thinking? What is his real goal? He has to come clean before I'd even consider him a Spider.

[stillness-in-green]

On Heteromorphs & Heteromorphobia (Arcs XI - XIV, Shie Hassaikai to Joint Training)

Thanks again for all your great responses, everyone! This week I'll be covering, among other things, the early indicators gradually getting more overt, the way the Hero System in its current incarnation is set up to fail rural heteromorphs, the eye-rolling shallowness of thought that says heteromorphobia is fake because Hawks is the Number 2 Hero, and some spitballing about Watsonian reasons that the One For All's bearers are all baseline.

Hit the jump!

The Shie Hassaikai Arc (Chapters 122-162)

Chapter 122:

Gag sequence with Hound Dog, playing up the discomfort of the students when Hound Dog “forgets how to talk when he flips out.”  Also a very weird instance of an animal-type heteromorph wearing a costume accessory that would be seen as a method of control if an actual animal of his type were wearing it: a muzzle.  There will be another of these in a hundred chapters or so.

Chapter 123:

Nejire asks Shouji directly what’s up with his mask.  He looks legitimately shocked—as well he might, given that he’s been in this class for five months and none of his classmates appear to have asked about his scar yet!  He nonetheless starts to explain, but only gets as far as, “A long time ago, I—” before Nejire interrupts to ask Shouto about his scar.  This chapter was published five years and ten months before the chapter in which the reader finally gets the rest of this tragic, violent story.     The gag with Nejire goes on for another page, of her hopping from person to person, asking six of the students in all about some distinguishing feature of theirs.  With the sole exception of Shouto, all are in some way heteromorphic, though it’s obscured somewhat by Mineta not being one of the class’s really obvious heteromorphs, and Mina having an Emitter-type quirk.  It’s unclear whether Nejire's questions were leading to some point or if she just completely blanked on anything she’d been intending to say about work studies when her curiosity reared its head.  It definitely feels like her targets are all kind of taken aback to be asked about this so openly—even Mina has a small sweatdrop, while Mineta (being Mineta) excitedly charges her with sexual harassment.    

Very shortly after, we find Nejire toying with an extremely uncomfortable-looking Mina’s horns while Mina asks her to stop.

Chapter 126:

Quick shot of Kaminari playing with Ojiro’s tail in the classroom, but no accompanying shot of Ojiro’s face, so we don’t know how he’s feeling about it, but it and the bit above with Mina’s horns could speak to a certain amount of tendency to treat heteromorphic features as open property to play with or poke at regardless of the person in question’s feelings.  That’s a bit reachy even for this piece, but there will be one further example later on.  Three examples in 300+ chapters does not exactly make for a phenomenon, but then again, that kind of physical forwardness in Japan is probably pretty unusual as it is.  Could be a case that’s more common in countries that are more culturally comfortable with casual touch.[1]

Chapter 131:

It’s not clear heteromorphobia, per se, but this chapter has another one of those fights with “giant villains”—two fighting each other, in this case—where they just get carted away in the background and no one asks—nor does the narrative concern itself with—why they were fighting each other to begin with.  Indeed, Ryukyu and her interns just stand around in the foreground chitchatting about work while, in the background, the dust settles on the two villains Uravity and Froppy just buried under rubble.  Hope they don’t revert to normal size and then have to be rescued from under a collapsed building!       o The “heroes stand around and talk in the foreground while villains get carted off behind them” thing comes up so often, and in most cases, it’s totally absent of context, just a cut-in on some hero in the middle of a work day. Only very rarely does the audience get any context on what the villain's deal is, and it's striking that all of the examples coming to mind for me —Starservant, Ending, the gang mook dude coming up shortly—are non-heteromorphs.

Chapter 141:

Tabe, of Overhaul’s trash trio, is described by Hojo as having been tossed aside when he didn’t mesh with society.  This makes Tabe both the only heteromorph of the trio and the only one described as having been rejected by society at large, rather than victimized by a specific person as in Hojo and Setsuno’s cases.  That said, given that his appearance is—while a bit manic—not all that far from baseline, and that his character blurb says he’s always hungry, I suspect Tabe’s ostracization is rooted more in the kinds of difficulties faced by characters like Toga, whose quirk comes with a strong psychological component they have difficulty managing and were not given any outlets or coping mechanisms for.

Chapter 144:

The bullied kid who middle school Kirishima tries to help is a heteromorph.  The reason he’s getting bullied, however, is that the two kids bothering him want him to use his quirk to transform leaves into money; it’s a pure Emitter quirk.  Still, the kid is shorter than average and literally mousy, only marginally more humanoid than Nedzu.[2]

Chapter 159:

The other incidence of Tsuyu being addressed by frog onomatopoeia rather than name—Suneater calls her Miss Ribbit.

Chapter 160:

A moment that looks small at the time, but will look considerably different when My Villain Academia rolls around: Dabi addressing Spinner as “lizard” and Spinner angrily firing back that his name is not Lizard, it’s Spinner.     This makes Spinner the first heteromorph to protest being addressed as their associated animal.  In true microaggression fashion, I imagine a lot of heteromorphs in similar situations just run the mental arithmetic and decide they don’t feel like making a stink about it and getting into a debate or coming off as a killjoy.  This would be especially true in Japan, with its culture of meiwaku, not being a bother to others.  Spinner, being a villain, is already resolved to make lots of trouble for others, so he comes right out and complains.     Dabi, for his part, brushes Spinner’s anger off with, “You don’t need to flip out,” which I have to imagine is also pretty typical.  It was just a joke, I didn’t mean anything by it, why are you getting so angry?: all probably pretty common responses to actually trying to push back against that kind of name-calling.

   

The Remedial Course Arc (Chapters 163-168)

Chapter 164: 

Gang Orca compares the students under his charge unfavorably to plankton.  I suppose if you get to the animal comments before they get to you…?  That or he’s leaning into it.    

The children’s teacher calls Gang Orca “Mr. Whale” rather than addressing him by his hero alias or any generic titles.  It stands out a bit more than Suneater doing the same to Tsuyu, in that there’s little reason to assume the teacher shouldn’t know what Gang Orca goes by, given his exceptionally high rank (on both leaderboards we know he’s on) and the fact that she would have had to agree to this whole exercise on behalf of her class.

   

The U.A. School Festival Arc (Chapters 169-183)

Chapter 169: 

When Jirou is getting angsty over her music hobby not supporting her hero work and snaps at Kaminari about it, there’s a shot of Koda watching her with concern.  They were, of course, paired up for their final exams, but it stands out to me as being the first time Koda’s had a relationship beat with a student that isn’t as blatantly heteromorphic as he is?  Jirou still is a heteromorph, but she doesn’t have the animal features or Weird Head that the students Koda’s mostly been associated with previously do.     He joins Kaminari in encouraging her later in the chapter, which is, again, about the most concrete character beat I think he has with another student in the entire series up until the hospital material.[3]

Chapter 173:

In the panel showing the totally spectacular original fantasy screenplay from Class B, I can’t help but notice that of the eleven students shown, all eight of the baseline/near-baseline types are in standard fantasy gear, while two of the three heteromorphs—Shishida and Pony—seem to have been decked out in wings and are playing at being quadrupeds.  Mounts?  Wild animals?  Sure, the giant eagles in Lord of the Rings (which is namedropped in the play’s title) are sapient, but it does stand out that the animal-associated heteromorphs in the shot are playing animals, not humans.           o Incidentally, the third, Bondo, is a bit less clear.  Only his head is visible atop a swatch of black cloak, so he could be some kind of wacky flying monster, but given his position up by the dark castle, I would assume he’s playing the main villain.  In the play itself, however, later on in Chapter 183, he seems to have been downed prior to Tetsutetsu’s character, and is at least collapsed amidst the heroes’ number.  Perhaps he’s a minion who joined the good guys or something?    

Whatever in hell is going on in this exchange between Midnight and Midoriya:

   I’m assuming what’s happening here is that Midnight, being Midnight, is flavoring her facetiousness with a kinky metaphor.[4]  But like, wow.

Chapter 175:

Hound Dog—this being the arc in which he gets the most screentime—shows up to run the students out of the gym.  He’s still wearing the muzzle and has spittle flying comically from his mouth.  Gets a “Yikes!” response out of the kids, comedic fear.

Chapter 183:

Hound Dog finally gets a good moment.  The bit starts off much as his scenes usually do, with Midoriya standing rigid and on-edge as Hound Dog leans in too close, panting heavily and shout-scolding.  The tension bleeds out of Midoriya, however, as Hound Dog segues into the stern reminder that teachers are there to protect students, and they should and can be relied on if fights break out.  It’s a nice scene, though it transitions back to cartoon violence immediately after as Hound Dog turns on All Might.  Ectoplasm gives us a reminder that Hound Dog forgets how to talk when he gets mad.    

The billboard showing the beauty pageant entrants is exceptionally loosely drawn, but from what we can see, it contains only people who are at least close enough to baseline to have normal hair and facial features.  One girl has ears that look enough like fins that the anime went ahead and made her a reptilian heteromorph, with a face somewhere between Tsuyu’s and dragon-form Ryukyu, but that’s pure extrapolation.  Regardless, even if you count her, she’s the only full heteromorph in the six entrants.  (And it’s not like the contest is even about traditional beauty, because reigning champ Kenranzaki Bibimi is a joke.)    

First appearance of Gori, the gorilla heteromorph police officer.  Between him, Tsuragamae and Sansa, an extremely sizeable portion of the named police officers are animal-type heteromorphs, though certainly police in crowd scenes run baseline enough.  It makes a certain amount of sense: if your animal quirk doesn’t give you enough badass superpowers to become a cool hero, joining the force is probably the next best thing.  It’s a slightly odd choice to make given what will later be implied about heteromorphs and their rate of villain designation, but perhaps, as with Shouji and Shinsou, there’s a degree there of wanting to prove oneself as well-intentioned and worthwhile against persistent dehumanization and discrimination.           o Gori and Sansa are both played pretty straight—no stray animal sounds or mannerisms from them.  Honestly, looking at how completely reserved they and numerous other animal-type heteromorphs are compared to Hound Dog’s tendency to meltdowns, I begin to think one could make a pretty decent argument that people with animal-trait quirks experience the same spectrum of psychological compulsion other quirk users do: on one end are people who are so completely in control of their quirks that their quirks seem almost incidental to who they are as people (ex. Momo, Sansa), while on the other end are people who are so deeply impacted by their quirk that it gives them significant issues with self-control (ex. Toga, Hound Dog).

   

The Pro Hero Arc (Chapters 184-193)

Chapter 184:

The Hero Billboard Chart chapter, in which the criteria that determine a hero’s rank are listed are incident resolution rate, contributions to society, and public approval rating.  I’ll ask the reader to consider how these metrics might combine to keep many heteromorphic heroes squarely in the mid-ranks, while also indirectly contributing to rural heteromorphobia.     Public approval is the most obvious place where they’re going to run into difficulty.  In a society where heteromorphobia is openly espoused in certain parts of the country, and, as we will find, simmering below the surface even in less regressive areas, heteromorphs are obviously disadvantaged.  I don’t know how the public approval rating is calculated, but if there’s any way for bigots to register their disapproval, that’s going to be a significant hit to a heteromorphic hero’s popularity.  Likewise, there’s plenty of room for unconscious bias to be present, in the, “I’m not biased against heteromorphs; it’s a complete coincidence that I think all these other, non-heteromorphic heroes are more worthy of my approval!” mode.     Poor public approval in rural communities is an excellent motivator for heteromorphic would-be heroes to come to cities—you can hardly have a good approval rate if the only people who’ve ever heard of you hate your guts!     Societal contributions would seem to require at least some amount of demand that heteromorphs can’t control.  Public appearances, charitable activities, maybe all the commercials and modelling gigs if contributing to the economy counts as contributing to society—how much of that can a heteromorph do if they aren’t being requested by other parts of society?     For example, we know Gang Orca is in high demand to make appearances at aquariums, but he's also the Director of an internationally popular aquarium, and clearly does extensive charitable work in that field.  How much demand is someone who hasn’t made that much of a niche for themselves going to be in?  What about someone whose power and personality aren’t as strong as Gang Orca’s?  If they can’t make much headway in other metrics of the ranking, how can they stand out from the rest of the pack enough to get those opportunities?     This also feeds into the pressure for heroes to move to cities—a small-town hero can work themselves to the bone for their small community, but that’s just one small town in the whole country.  It hardly compares to someone who can make contributions on the national level!     Finally, incident resolution requires a power that’s good at quickly, efficiently stopping villains and saving people, and, at least in terms of raw power, I think this doesn’t immediately disadvantage heteromorphs.  Heteromorph Mirko has a brutally simple power set and she makes it work like gangbusters.  Transformation-type Crust’s power is dead basic, yet he places just fine.  There are plenty of weak emitters and wildly OP heteromorphs, so in terms of who’s best suited to stopping trouble on a dime, that feels like a relatively even playing ground.     However, this one is the real killer in terms of keeping heroes out of rural areas.  After all, having a high incident resolution rate requires working in a place with a high number of incidents happening!  That means coming to cities, where the higher population means higher amounts of villain activity. It's not like bigotry is even illegal, after all, nor does it require the illegal use of quirks.     I’ll be coming back to this topic again later, after the series gives us more context for how ugly rural heteromorphobia can get, but this chapter gives us the pieces we need to understand how absolutely ill-equipped the Hero System is to address heteromorphobia in the places where it most needs to be addressed.    

We find that the Top Ten is comprised of a whole array of baseline or near-baseline types, with the ones who’re farthest from human appearance either wearing a mask (Kamui Woods) or being cartoon appliances (Wash, who could just as easily be a normal dude wearing a costume and doing a bit).     One of the frequent bits of sophistry I see about heteromorphobia is that it can’t be that bad because Hawks and Mirko are in the Top 10, but you only have to look at those two's cover-ready, conventionally attractive faces and tertiary animal characteristics to know that they’re hardly comparable to someone like Spinner.  Kamui Woods makes the better argument, and he is, again, masked.     However, I don’t want to harp on this too much, because the fact of the matter is that Gang Orca is noted to have been in the prior Top Ten, so certainly a scary demeanor isn’t necessarily that huge a deterrent.  (Though Gang Orca does a lot of public appearances at aquariums and the like, so his societal contribution score is probably crazy good.  Very powerful quirk, too.)

Chapter 186:

This chapter has the other incidence of the “non-heteromorph puts their hands all over a heteromorph’s divergent feature without any sign of asking for permission first” thing I discussed back in Chapter 123.  And while it is technically only one incident, it’s notable that it’s rather more than one case.

Not pictured: any of these grabby little assholes asking permission.

Hawks has the line, “The son of the Number Two would’ve been a nice feather in my cap,” which I would normally count as an animal-themed quip and talk about, but there’s no bird metaphor in the Japanese line.  I’m not going to comb the entirety of his dialogue in Japanese to see how regular bird puns are—maybe Caleb was fitting one in here in place of one he couldn’t work in elsewhere, or maybe he was just localizing colorfully without much thought for how it reflected on Everything Else About All Heteromorphs.[5]  Hawks will present another opportunity later.

Chapter 187:

This reads like absolutely nothing in the moment, but it’s noticeable in hindsight that, when Fuyumi brings up the possibility of Natsuo having gotten a girlfriend in college, Natsuo blushes and frantically deflects without confirming or denying.  We will later find out that he has gotten a girlfriend—she’s mentioned in his character profile page following Chapter 189, and we will later see a picture of her on the cover page of 259.  That cover page will establish that she’s a heteromorph, which, together with the knowledge of later reveals about the Himura family being blatantly heteromorphobic, adds some less-cute context to Natsuo backflipping out of talking about her in Himura Rei’s room at the psychiatric hospital.

   

The Joint Training Arc (Chapters 194-217)

Chapter 195: 

First real insight on Shishida Jurota, whose quirk is technically a transformation type, but whose appearance is plenty bestial even in his resting state.  Another interesting case of someone whose animalistic powers do have an effect on his personality, though it only comes out in his transformation; he’s otherwise pretty collected.

Chapter 197: 

Shishida protests Shiozaki calling him “Apocalypse beast,” but I’d say it’s just as possible that he’s objecting to her using the wrong mythological critter, seeing as his hero alias is a reference to a mythologized historical man-eating beast, so he’s clearly not above claiming monster cred himself.    

Rin echoes the nickname literally a single panel after Shishida complains about it.  It’s not a great look, honestly.

Chapter 199: 

Hawks has that “’Cuz we’re birds of a feather!”[6] line to Tokoyami, who asks him, in what looks to be an extremely unamused fashion, “Is that meant to be funny…?”  So, Hawks feels comfortable making bird jokes about himself, but Hawks literally does modeling work and is on magazine covers; he has extremely cool bird wings that he doesn’t even have to fly with normally, because he can control them with his mind, meaning they can carry a lot of weight—including his own—that physics would not normally allow.  Tokoyami, meanwhile, is of a body type (specifically, a head type) that we will later find had a hate group specifically dedicated to it.  It’s easy to imagine Hawks having a more flippant view!  (This might even be exacerbated by him being raised first in an abusive home and second by government agents.  One doubts he’s exactly learning wonderful lessons about body positivity and self-love.)    

Tokoyami has one line that’s a bird reference, while the other is another bird pun inserted by the localization.  Relevant to my point is that the bird-themed one is the “dumb carrier pigeon” bit—in the Japanese, it’s “not a dumb messenger bird.”  It’s coming out of frustration and annoyance that Hawks seemingly recruited him for no reason but to grill him about the stuff going on at his school.  He’s being derisive towards the thing he thinks Hawks is using him as.           o The other bird allusion is, “He took me under his wing again.”  In the Japanese, it’s just, “He accepted me again.”    

That said, while Tokoyami may not think the bird jokes are cute, Hawks does make the biggest impression on him by taking him flying and encouraging him to find a way to fly freely for himself.

Chapter 200: 

The proper introduction of Fukidashi Manga, a character who makes a complete mockery of quirk classifications.  His head alone marks him as heteromorphic as all get-out, and indeed the wiki classes his quirk as heteromorphic.  But given that he can both make sound effects appear on his face and then transmute them to real manifestations (a transformation effect) as well as use the regular old voice he somehow has to manifest his sound effects by yelling them (an emitter effect), his categorization seems deeply arbitrary.

Chapter 203: 

Proper introduction of Tsunotori Pony.  Not the most obvious heteromorph to ever walk the planet, but the tail and the satyr-esque structure of her legs and feet are a giveaway that her horns wouldn’t be on their own.  Like Hound Dog, she's making some very weird choices about her hero costume: stirrup accessories on her boots and a hairpiece clearly designed to resemble a bridle.  Pony’s a bit of a mishmash, really.  Her tail and horns say goat heteromorph, but her name and costume say horse-type.

Chapter 204:

In a flashback, Iida’s older brother Tensei mentions that their grandfather, the founder of their hero family, passed down the tidbit about how the Iidas can rip out their pipes to regenerate stronger ones.  I really have to wonder how in God’s name anyone would ever just happen to figure that out, and some of the possible answers are wildly grim. The most probable answer is simply that he found out after taking a bad injury in his hero career—having one engine torn out or damaged so badly it had to be removed—only to unexpectedly recover later on.  But if it wasn’t that, and assuming he didn’t just intuit that his pipes would grow back stronger if violently dismembered, that really only leaves removing them because he wanted to get rid of them permanently, only to find that they’d just grow back, or having them removed against his will.     The former, removing them himself, seems unlikely—even if he’s, say, a decade or two older than All Might, that’s still well after the period in which metahumans would have been such a persecuted minority that I can see one self-mutilating to hide it—though he might have been told the story by an ancestor of his own.  The latter, them being removed against his will, would also have been more believable some generations prior, but given the existence of the CRC, remains ominously plausible even in the modern day.

Chapter 205: 

An extremely rare case of an animal-type heteromorph using dehumanizing language towards another animal-type heteromorph: Pony tells Shouji that she wants to wrap a clash with him up quickly because she can’t stand octopus.  It has a similar tenor of Dabi calling Spinner a lizard, and Hawks calling himself and Tokoyami birds, 1:1 equating heteromorphs with their associated animal.  I believe Hawks is the only other animal-associated heteromorph[7] who does this, at least up until the hospital attack.    

Shouji responds, “I’m no stranger to being feared,” another explicit canonical nod towards his still-unknown backstory.

Chapter 207:

A good look at Class B’s Kamakiri Togaru, unusually open about his bloodthirst for a heteromorph, much less a heroic one.    

Bakugou calls Jirou “Lobes,” another in his pattern of referring to heteromorphs by their defining feature.    

Tokage Setsuna is a somewhat interesting case of having a bunch of animal signifiers—her name, the name of her quirk, her hero alias, her costume—but not actually resembling an animal to any degree at all, barring her pointy teeth.  Also, remember when I raised the point that animal heterormorphs can seem to get stuck with very plain quirk names that don’t distinguish them at all from other heteromorphs associated with the same animal, regardless of how many sub-abilities come as part of the total package?  And compared that to people with other quirk types, who get wildly varied quirk names despite having relatively similar abilities?  Here we see that with Tokage—she’s a transformation-type, and her quirk name is Lizard Tail Splitter.    

Bondo Kojirou, Class B’s other really bonkers heteromorph.  Seriously, what is life even like for this guy?  How do your senses function when you have a glue lid for a head?

Chapter 208: 

Bakugou calls Kamakiri a bug, saying, “I guess bugs do have quick reflexes!”  He follows up with a muttered, “Quick at scampering away, too,” that is likely aimed at Kamakiri’s bug-ness as well.    

Conversely, Tokage (in flashback) merely refers to Bondo as “big-boned,” which is true: Bondo has one of the largest frames of any of the first years.

Chapter 213:

Introduces the SIX QUIRKS!!1 element of the story.  This has nothing to do with heteromorphobia per se, but I do think it’s somewhat interesting/telling that neither AFO nor OFA seem to much like heteromorphic quirks.  Despite All Might implying rather strongly in Chapter 257 that OFA is a completely random assortment of weak-ish quirks,[8] accumulated from those who just happened to be there to help one another, every single quirk within it is an emitter-type.  Likewise, all of AFO’s quirks are either emitter or transformation-types, with the only known exception being Ujiko’s Life Force—a heteromorphic quirk by sheer technicality, and one that does nothing whatsoever to shift the bearer’s needle away from baseline.     Now, I can’t rightly accuse OFA of being heteromorphobic—again, it’s allegedly pure luck of the draw—but it is still worth comparing OFA’s train of 100% baseline prior bearers with the demographics of heroes, villains, and society in general.  To wit, if heteromorphs—especially strongly divergent ones—trend more towards villainy compared to the population at large, perhaps there’s a reason there haven’t been any heteromorphs willing to reach out a hand to someone in need?     There are other things I’ve posited about where heteromorphs tend towards gravitating in Hero Society that could be reflected in OFA’s composition, but it’s hard to theorize in greater depth without knowing more about the context of the OFA “passes.”           o Did the bearers know their successors in advance, as seems to have been the case with almost all of them?  Then it’s probably down to social groups, and we will see that heteromorphs often band together in times of social upheaval, which was the case for most of One For All’s span of existence.  Perhaps the prior bearers simply weren’t close with any heteromorphs because heteromorphs were distrustful of baseline-types back then.           (The bearers having pre-existing relationships would seem to conflict with All Might’s noble sentiments in 257 about the bearers not being chosen ones, but rather just people writhing in hell whose only capabilities were to receive OFA and to entrust it to another.  This writer will humbly ask you to take that up with the man who decided to portray every single bearer barring Shinomori and Nana as having some indication of a relationship with their predecessor prior to the latter’s death.)              o How visibly disruptive were the prior battles with AFO compared to the ones he has with Nana and All Might?[9]  If they were very dangerous, that could explain there not being a lot of mid-rank, so-so power-wise heteromorphic heroes at the grounds zero of those battles.  On the other hand, if they were very hidden, we’re back to the only people knowing and being present for a given bearer’s final battle being their own allies and possibly a random selection of cliquishness-prone bystanders.     Of course, the most likely explanation is pure Doylist: Horikoshi didn’t want anything that would radically alter the design of his main character.  Still, how hard would it have been to give even one of the bearers some kind of minor heteromorphic body trait like Koda’s weird head that wouldn’t have been a function of their quirk, and thus wouldn’t necessarily reflect itself on Deku’s body?     (I can and will accuse AFO of being heteromorphobic as all get-out, however.)

Chapter 217:

A largely facetious note, this, but All Might has a small comment during his, Deku and Bakugou’s conversation wherein he tells Bakugou not to call Deku a dweeb.  It’s the first and only time I can remember any teacher pushing back on Bakugou’s habit of assigning classmates derisive nicknames.  I believe there are instances of both All Might and Aizawa telling Bakugou to calm down or ratchet back on his temper, but nothing more specific than that.  As with Mineta’s sexual harassment, Bakugou’s heteromorphobic microaggressions go completely unrebuked, with All Might only protesting the nicknames when Bakugou insults All Might’s successor.   

--------

Have you been enjoying these lengthy rambles? Do you want even more? Then come back next time for a special installment devoted to one arc and one arc only, the arc of my heart, my one true arc love: My Villain Academia.

------------------- FOOTNOTES -------------------

[1] C-C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER.

[2] For Kirishima’s efforts here, he’s told by his friends that he should stop butting his nose in where it doesn’t belong.  Which is a hell of a thing to say to a guy trying to intervene with school bullying, but apparently that’s “old-fashioned.”  This probably speaks less to heteromorph discrimination than it does to the civilian attitude towards helping others when one is not a hero, a point that would be more relevant to e.g. the essay defending Shigaraki’s philosophical points, rather than this one.

[3] Which is a Problem, given how much emotional load the series is going to try and saddle him with regarding Shouji, a character with whom he has zero established dynamic.  But we'll get there, though this will probably still be off-topic even then.

[4] Not that, “Let Hound Dog off the chain,” would be any better in this circumstance.

[5] Insert, “RIP to him, but I’m different,” meme of choice.

[6] In the Japanese, tori nakama, lit. bird buddies/comrades.

[7] I keep specifying “animal-type” because of the incident early on with Sero and Mineta referring to Shouji as an octopus.  All three heteromorphs, but only one with that extra distancing factor of having an animalistic quirk rather than a simply fantastical one.

[8] Because AFO “went around crushing the strong,” also per 257.

[9] I’m perennially vexed by the question of how serious AFO was being in those fights.  The image of OFA being passed from bloodstained hand to hand is striking and all, but why would AFO be so freely trying to murder these people if he wanted OFA for himself?  I have theories about this, but they’re getting pretty off-topic for this series of posts!

[kae-karo]

Do you think Rin and Sae will be playing on the same team in the future? Would they be able to resolve their conflict and work together?

HI DEAR GREAT QUESTION i have a theory currently about sae joining the u20 japan team for the world cup (x) primarily because i think his character arc isn't finished yet, but what that necessitates is rin and sae working together again (for isagi's benefit/continued skill development)

that said, i think the established problem with rin and sae has a super clear path for resolution: sae said what he said to rin during night snow because rin was using sae as his reason for soccer. sae had, via (s)pain, established that lukewarm motivations (presumably his own - which is...what? that it's the only thing he's any good at? a theory discussion for another time lmao) will not lead to success on the world stage

in fact, throughout the u20 match, he proves this - rin's endeavors to match or meet sae are shown to fail, while his indulgence in his own instinct/ego is rewarded (to a degree, though not without isagi in the mix)

then we jump forward to the NEL, where he's furthering that cognition by actively rejecting the shadow of sae over his shoulder and allowing his rivalry with isagi to fuel him - so i think the reconciliation will rely on two things:

does sae see 'destroying isagi' as a worthy motivation to bring out the best in rin?

how entrenched is rin in his emotions about night snow?

first of all, i think the first part is going to be the primary key - if sae is of the opinion that any external motivation will be insufficient, then that might cause for a legitimate challenge in reconciling them. not that knsr can't give rin any further development with regards to his motivation, but i feel like we're entering endgame mode with the world cup, and pivoting motivations completely out of rin's pretty well-entrenched motivation scheme (dying taking down the hero) might be a narrative challenge

that said, it's extremely plausible that sae never viewed rin's motivations inherently as insufficient, but rather the focus of those motivations - playing to be beside sae, playing to destroy sae, playing to impress sae, etc. i wholeheartedly believe that sae doesn't see himself as a sufficient motivation, and that anything rin does with him as a key part of his motivation would be doomed to failure not because of rin but because of sae's inadequacy. if that's the case, i think this change in his motivation has a much higher chance of meeting sae's requirement to change his attitude toward rin

which is key, because if he can't do that, rin won't ever perceive their fight as 'over' and be open to reconciliation. sae, according to knsr (i'm sorry there's a source out there but i don't know where it is atm, it's from an interview) doesn't actually think he and rin are fighting right now. i wouldn't be shocked if, in his eyes, what he said was completely reasonable and just a practical comment on skill, while rin took it as a functional brotherly breakup

anyway - if this all goes to plan and sae can make really any comment to rin about actually finding proper motivation for his soccer, then i think it's up to rin to accept that (probably in a very rin way, of course). which based solely on his shift at the end of the pxg game to viewing isagi as his motivator rather than sae, might actually be reasonable to anticipate. also like. let's be honest u know he's going 'niichan niichan niichan' in his head the next time he sees sae lmao he WANTS to forgive sae so badly. he wants sae to acknowledge him. i think if that happens, it's a ball rolling downhill lmao

can they work together, though? that's gonna be an interesting question - i think any reconciliation almost necessitates them working together, not to prove that they've reconciled but to prove that rin, specifically, has changed. it's not just waiting for niichan's perfect passes anymore, it's taking charge of the field and bulldozing his opposition, demanding that his midfielders keep up. so i think that, narratively, it would be a crime not to show them working together as a path to show the way rin's evolved

i also just narratively think we have a lot more to learn about sae, his motivations, and his history in spain, and i don't think we get that without him getting deeply involved in the story again, and i think that rin is such a key part of all of that (whether he knows it or not) that there's no way they don't use them being on a team together as a vector to explore that in more detail

THANK U SO MUCH FOR THE ASK DEAR!!! <3

[katgametable]

TAZ Balance Episode 18: Petals to the Metal Chapter 1

Written 16 Apr 2025, shortly after relistening, having listened to the entire Balance arc some time ago.

The three are having a friendly practice fight in the twenty-sided fighting ring, when they're summoned to the Director's office. She is sending them to the city of Goldcliff, the financial capital of the world. They have tracked down the Gaia Sash, which grants the wielder control over plants. It’s currently in the possession of a criminal known as the Raven, who has holed up in the city. They also have an ally in the city, the captain of the militia, Captain Captain Bane. So the director sends them off. They head down to the glass spheres and Avi sees them off. 

As they approach the city from above, they see it is surrounded by desert, but in the desert, circling the city, there are fast moving wagons going around and between large black pylons - possibly some sort of race. In the city, there are many tall buildings, but one towers above the others - twenty stories high, with a great golden statue holding aloft a wreath, with a sign saying “Goldcliff Trust”. But the building seems to have vines coming up from the ground to wrap around it. 

They land near the Trust building. Magnus considers using his Lense of Straight Creeping to find the Raven’s trail, but they don’t know if the Raven has been there, so they decide to find Captain Captain Bane instead. 

They head for the building, and the militia are surrounding it from a distance, because the vines have climbed up the whole building and are starting to spread outwards. The man in charge is giving orders, so they approach, ask if he’s Captain Captain Bane, and mention the Voidfish. Captain confirms their identities by checking their bracers, and concludes he can trust them. He tells them the Raven is in the building, probably stealing all the gold, and the militia evacuated the civilians, but they couldn’t get back in to get her out  Magnus volunteers the three to go in and get the Raven, and Captain, having heard of their exploits, happily agrees. 

Magnus charges in and starts hacking at the vibes, but they regrow as fast as he can cut them down. Merle uses a Channel Divinity to Charm the vibes and, I wish I could say he sweet-talks them, but no, he dirty-talks them. They bloom fit him and let the three through the door into the building. They enter a lobby, with a number of booths at the far end and doors leading deeper into the building. There’s a large tree in the fountain, clearly a new arrival, vines starting to break in, and an alarm sounding unanswered. Magnus uses his Lense and sees footsteps that stop and start across the room, around the tree, out one of the doors deeper into the building. But they decide to investigate the booths first. 

As they pass the tree, it proves to instead be a Treant, and it whacks at their backs, knocking into Magnus and Taako. Taako casts Blink, flicking into another plane, where he sees several ghostly figures with white eyes watching them, just for a moment, before they vanish. In the physical world, Merle casts Prayer of Healing on Magnus, over-healing him, and Magnus uses Railsplitter’s special ability to cut the Treant in two - but this is a magical tree creature, so it still lives, and prepares to attack.

This is a good episode. A few moments of too much playing around, and I could have done without Clint dirty-talking plants - but so could his sons, and their reactions were class. I like the fact they’re seeding new Bureau members about the world, helping build them up as wide ranging, which works with the premise and helps the mission assignment thing feel more organic. I’m gonna compare it to Abnimals, because that’s the currently-releasing series. In both Balance and Abnimals, the PCs have gone from non-entities to major players in the fate of the world/city within only a few in-game days - in Balance, they end up handling the Grand Relics; in Abnimals, they link up with the most influential heroes the Greenback Guardians. But where Abnimals has everything happen really quickly (I think it’s been less than a week in-game and they’re on episode…27, I think), in Balance it’s built up a lot more. It’s clear there’s extended downtime between missions, and there’s a clear reason why the PCs are sent on these most important missions - because there’s other people better suited to finding the relics doing that bit for them. I think that gives it much better pacing, even though the actual content of the sessions is similar.

(To be clear, Travis is still a good GM, and I do still heartily recommend Abnimals, but this is what I’m observing. In the interests of fairness, I think Ethersea, Steeplechase and TAZ vs Dracula are more similar to Abnimals in terms of pacing, but I don’t recall them cleanly enough to be sure.)

I have to wonder how much of this arc was designed after Clint switched Merle to worshipping Pan and the Nature Domain, it fits him so well. It’s good to see his divine skills shine. But Taako’s bringing some interesting skills too. It’s looking like a good arc.

[whatdyk]

Chapter 2 - Into The Darkness.

1.4k

Scarlet coloured lightning lanced across the sky, illuminating the silhouettes of twisted trees far below. Anti-air fire arced upward in angry streaks, rocking the gunship as the pilot shouted over the comms.

"Approaching LZ—hot zone, repeat, hot zone!"

Inside, the clones tightened grips on weapons and steadied themselves against the jostling. Blasterfire lit the clouds beneath them in brief, brutal flashes.

Zhara stood near the hatch, robes fluttering with each jolt of the ship. Her fingers curled lightly around a handhold as she scanned the chaos below—already, she could feel the press of war in the Force. Frantic. Claustrophobic. Familiar.

Captain Rex leaned in beside her. "Most of the 501st are already dirtside. General Skywalker's pinned near the ridge—we're the second wave."

Zhara nodded once, her voice cool. "Understood."

The dropship banked hard, descending through the haze. As they broke into the clearing, the world exploded around them—dirt and shrapnel thrown skyward as Umbaran tanks fired into clone lines. Bright bolts of plasma streaked through the gloom, the clash of blasterfire almost deafening.

Anakin's voice crackled over the comm. "Second wave, mark coordinates—bring it down now!"

Shooting past, a squadron of Republic bombers screamed through the sky, dropping a blanket of seismic charges over the battlefield. The shockwave hit seconds later, shaking the earth with a bone-deep roar, and for a moment, there was silence—just the hiss of steam rising from blackened craters.

The dropship touched down in a cleared zone, landing struts sinking into the smoking soil. The ramp dropped with a clang.

"Go, go, go!" Rex barked, leading the squad out at a run.

Zhara followed at the rear, boots landing lightly on the ashen ground. The moment she stepped off the ramp, the heavy pressure of Umbara pressed around her—thick, choking air, the stench of ionized metal, and the electric hum of something...wrong.

Near a makeshift command point, Anakin Skywalker stood with a small circle of officers. His robe was torn at the shoulder, lightsaber clipped but streaked with carbon scoring. When he turned and saw Rex, a fleeting expression crossed his face—relief tinged with something heavier.

"Rex, Voss" he said, nodding once. "Glad you could make it."

"Sir," Rex replied, glancing at the smoke still curling from the treeline. "We're ready to reinforce. What's the plan?"

Anakin's jaw tightened. He didn't answer right away.

A trooper jogged up and handed him a datapad. He scanned it, exhaled slowly through his nose, then passed it off again. "There's been a... change in command."

Zhara's brow arched. Rex's face didn't shift—but his voice sharpened.

"What kind of change?"

Anakin looked at him, and for a brief second, dropped the mask. "I'm being recalled to Coruscant. The Chancellor's orders."

"That doesn't make sense," Rex said, stepping closer. "We're in the middle of an active campaign. You've been leading us since day one."

"I don't like it either," Anakin said, voice low. "But this came from above the Council. I'm not being given a choice."

Zhara watched the exchange quietly, arms crossed, but she could feel the tension rising like a current. Rex wasn't just surprised—he was unsettled.

"Who's replacing you?" Rex asked.

Anakin hesitated, just long enough for the answer to carry weight.

"General Krell."

Rex went still. "Krell?"

"You'll follow his command," Anakin said. "Do what he says. No questions."

"I know his record, sir," Rex said carefully. "It's not the kind that works well with troopers like mine."

Anakin's expression softened. "I don't like it either. But Krell's not here to be liked. He's here to win the battle."

The two men stared at each other—shared history simmering between them, unspoken but felt.

Zhara broke the silence. "And I assume I'll be answering to Krell, too?"

Anakin nodded. "For now. But I want you with Rex's team in the field. Keep the 501st steady."

He turned toward his rapidly arriving transport. "May the Force be with you."

He didn't look back.

Rex stood there a moment longer, eyes on the soon-to-be departing gunship. "He wouldn't leave unless he had to," He muttered.

Zhara didn't answer immediately. Then: "No. He wouldn't."

They both turned back toward the smoldering treeline—toward the encroaching battlefield.

"Come on," Rex said, heading towards a more sheltered ridge, "we need to link in with the other battalions."

The air buzzed with static as a holoprojector flickered to life, casting a blue glow over the Captains plastoid armour. A familiar figure resolved in the light—General Kenobi, with clear lines of tension carved into his face.

"General Kenobi," Rex greeted with a nod. Zhara remained beside him, arms folded, lightsabers resting at her hips.

"Captain. Knight Voss," Obi-Wan acknowledged, nodding. "Glad to see you've arrived safely. I trust the landing wasn't too rough?"

"Just a welcoming party of orbital fire and a few stray missiles," Zhara replied with a faint smile.

Obi-Wan managed to mirror the expression, just. "Sounds like Umbara."

He tapped a control offscreen and a map of the region appeared beside him—a jagged sprawl of canyons and ridges, with the capital city marked in red.

"Our forces are advancing on the capital, but the approach is heavily fortified. We will be leading the main push, but the 501st's job is to clear the central supply route—cut through the Umbaran artillery lines here," he said, gesturing to a winding gorge choked with enemy positions. "You'll need to eliminate several key outposts to prevent them from coordinating reinforcements."

Rex studied the map, expression grim. "We've only just landed. No chance to set up forward command, scout the terrain... We're going in blind."

"I know," Obi-Wan said, his voice tight. "But time isn't on our side. The longer we delay, the more entrenched the enemy becomes."

Zhara tilted her head. "And Krell agrees with this strategy?"

Obi-Wan sighed, "I know it's not ideal that Anakin has been called away, but Krell is confident in the plan. From his experience, he believes a swift, overwhelming force is the only way through."

"Of course," Rex muttered.

There was a brief pause and then Obi-Wan nodded, "Good luck. And May the force be with you."

The transmission blinked out and Rex and Zhara were alone together once more. She spoke first.

"So. Our commanding officer is gone. Our soon-to-be replacement is an egotist with a kill count. And we're about to charge into a fortified canyon."

Rex muttered, "Welcome to the 501st."

He opened his mouth to continue, but the sound of boots crunching caused each of them to turn swiftly.

"Captain," Fives said, offering a crisp nod. "Heard we've got marching orders."

Rex nodded toward Zhara. "Before we get into that—this is Knight Zhara Voss. She'll be leading the assault alongside us."

The small group of clones straightened instinctively, forming a rough line in front of her.

Zhara stepped forward, hands clasped behind her back, voice calm but carrying. "CT-5555," she began, eyes on Fives. "Jesse, Kix, Hardcase. I've reviewed your files. You've all been commended for your skill, your loyalty... and your habit of bending protocol." She lifted her brow.

There was a pause, almost awkward—until Hardcase scratched the back of his neck and muttered, "We prefer 'creative improvisation,' ma'am."

That earned the ghost of a smile from her. "Then let's channel that creativity toward surviving this mission."

Fives tilted his helmet slightly under one arm. "We're not used to Jedi learning our names before we even meet them."

"I'm not most Jedi," Zhara replied smoothly. "If I'm expected to lead you, I need to know who I'm leading."

Jesse gave Rex a sidelong glance. "She's thorough.”

Kix, more cautious, stepped forward. "We've lost a few good men lately. Just want to know what kind of leader you are, Sir."

Zhara met his gaze evenly. "I don't believe in wasting lives for the sake of glory. I believe in completing the mission. Efficiently. Together." She continued, "I also appreciate your honesty."

Rex crossed his arms, watching their reactions. The tension eased, just a little.

Fives offered a slight grin. "Sounds good to me."

"Then let's get moving," Rex said, his voice back to steel. "We've got a mission to coordinate and we're running out of time."

The troopers gave a unified nod and turned to leave. Zhara lingered for just a moment, watching them go.

"They're good soldiers," she said quietly to Rex.

"They're more than that," he replied. "You'll see."

Chapter 3

[doctorstrangereview]

0130: Defenders #18

Cover Date: December 1974 On-Sale Date: September 17, 1974

We're in the middle installment of the Defenders vs. the Wrecking Crew arc and battles abound as our diminished Defenders line-up is joined by Luke Cage a.k.a. the here-for-hire, Power Man. Valkyrie's identity crisis continues in a cameo appearance. And Hulk, who melodramatically left last issue makes a surprise appearance at the end of the issue. Let's watch people beat each other up!

The Defenders, who currently consist of Doc and Nighthawk, along with Power Man are facing off against the musclebound and muscle-headed, Asgardian magic charged Wrecking Crew. Standing amidst the ruins of the just destroyed building, the police approach.

The Wrecking Crew divert their attention from our heroes to the fast approaching boys in blue. Thunderball lobs his wrecking ball at the speeding vehicles and Doc attempts to stop it. The ball actually goes around Doc's shield. It seems the ball is smarter than Thunderball!

Sadly, Doc's shield fails and one of the vehicles is destroyed. The Crew start towards the oncoming cars and the Defenders attempt to get in their way. The Wrecked breaks a water main which sweeps the heroes away. The Crew make short work of the police and attempt to vamoose, but an invisible shield causes a bump on Piledriver's head.

I really don't know why Thunderball thinks the invisible barrier is absurd. They're all magically empowered. But the Crew aren't exactly the sharpest tacks in the box. As the Crew turn back toward the Defenders, we turn our attention to Valkyrie, exploring her identity in the fortunately fictional Cobbler's Roost, Vermont. As Val exits her limo, she recalls what she was told about Barbara Norris with some nice flashback panels. She continues walking, and by an amazing coincidence, someone recognizes her.

Yes, this is a set-up for a future tale. This seems to be a trademark of the Defenders. There are set-ups that take YEARS to pan out! That's it for Val in this issue.

Turning back to the Defenders and the Wrecking Crew, the two groups spend about five pages in back and forth where the two teams are roughly equal. Doc asks them why the think they will prevail. This, of course, leads to a flashback to the Crew's origin.

In a nutshell, Wrecker uses some fellow inmates to break out of prison to find his magic crowbar. The four of them hold the bar while it's struck with lightning and thus the Wrecking Crew was born. The lightning wrecks (pun intended) their clothes and we get what is probably the closest thing to a Wrecking Crew thirst trap pic.

The crew are like "nyah, nyah, we're magic!" and Doc is like "wait a minute, I'm magic too. Heck, I'm supreme magic! It says so in my title!" Doc casts a spell which begins to drain the Crew of their magic power. Suddenly Doc gets a really big headache. Guess what? The Hulk has arrived and is pummeling Doc's invisible barrier. Feedback is a painful thing.

Before Nighthawk and Cage and tell the jolly green giant to calm down, he bursts through the barrier and Doc is out cold. Sadly, this returns the Crew's powers. The Hulk and the conscious Defenders mix it up with the Crew. The Crew realize the barrier is gone and reveal why they're doing this. There's some gizmo of Thunderball's they're trying to retrieve. Of Course the collapsing the building and fighting the heroes has managed to unearth the gizmo. Thunderball opens the case and... it's empty! What next?

So this issue was a secret quest and next issue is an obvious quest for whatever is in Thunderball's metal egg thing. There's lots of exciting fights and battles here. The cutaway to Val is a nice set-up for a future story. When it come's down to it, there's not an awful lot here. The battles take to long and the origin flashback takes too long. More than half the book is people punching or Doc zapping and some snappy back and forth. It's like there was a two-and-a-half issue story and this is what got padded to make it three.

The plot doesn't advance until the last page and everyone is here just to punch and receive punches. The only character moments are Val's as she continues to discover her body's history and Hulk, who has thought things over and want's to be friends with his buddies after all. Doc does show his protective instincts by attempted to keep the Crew from trouncing the police and that's a plus. But, all-in-all, this isn't Len's best work. Let's see what the conclusion has in store.

[rpgsocialservices]

Major Themes in 'The Forest of Drizzling Rain'

Disclaimer: I haven't played the original Forest of Drizzling Rain, so this only applies to the 2022 remake.

First, lets lay out the themes we'll be talking about. This game has a lot of them. Generational trauma and the cycle of violence; community; and the duties we owe to the past and the future. There are more, such as modernism vs traditionalism, but lets stick with these for now.

Generational Trauma/The Cycle of Violence

This one is perhaps the most obvious. The Taking Spirit was egregiously hurt and continued to perpetrate that same pain for literal generations. Shiori and Koutarou are both victims of the Taking Spirit even if they weren't actually taken, and they had to make the choice to break this cycle or perpetuate it. It is notable that they exorcise the spirit by closing the wound with the help of her child, rather than with violence or force. The later would have been a perpetuation of the cycle while the former takes a stand to end it, and that decision makes this theme of a game explicitly about the nature of generational trauma and the way it needs to be addressed rather than about a simple 'violence begets violence' theme. The other point that makes this theme more poignant is that Shiori and Koutarou have both had their entire lives affected and shaped by this cycle of trauma. They are victims of it and it very clearly left its marks on them. The fact that they are so directly affected by this generational trauma and the cycle of violence makes their decision to break it all the more impactful, because it was a deliberate and difficult choice that required them to face their own personal past traumas directly.

That said, the actual in-game portrayal of this is less cohesive than the on paper summary. The game tries to tell a story of two characters who are reckoning with the very real effects of generational trauma on their present lives. There is a spirit who tried to take them as children (and is still trying to take children in the village), and it is currently actively out to kill them. A pretty straightforward supernatural plot. Conversely, the spirit's story largely centers themes of gender violence. Now, I'm not saying it doesn't work, or that stories haven't done it well before. However, rather than theme of cyclical violence carrying through and connecting the two story-lines in a smooth way, the spirit's story overtakes Shiori's in a way that comes across as a disjointed struggle for screen time, rather than a connected narrative.

Community

Community is a theme that runs through every aspect of this game, from the main plot to each characters individual arcs. Its a manifesto on the importance of a community that supports each member by illustrating what happens when that fails. The Spirit's community betrayed her entirely. The village being overly closed off and internally reliant leads directly to two children almost dying, and the lack of acceptance given to Shiori means that she almost doesn't save them in time. On the flip side, although Koutarou is almost entirely failed by his community, Shiori's grandfather steps up and, by providing that care, saves his life. The failures of a overly insular community to address the problems that plague it instead of burying them also highlights the ability of a healthy and connected community to save itself and its members. None of the victories in this game could be accomplished without the community that supports Shiori and Koutarou.

Duties We Owe to the Past and Future

This one is, I think, the most interesting and narratively important theme that this game has. The overarching plot of the game is that Shiori needs to uncover the secrets of the Taking Spirit and then help her pass on. Shiori's family has been in charge of defending against the Spirit for generations, and she and Koutarou both made promises to the Spirit in order to protect the other. On a direct level, they have a duty to fulfill their promise. On a more broad scale level, they (and the rest of the village) have a duty to put the past to rest and to rights. In the game, failure to do so results in violent ghost haunting; but this is only a distilled and easy to digest representation of the consequences of failing to do so in the real world.

At the same time, there is consistent theme of the pressing need to attend to the future. Shiori is going to college, young children are growing up, and Koutarou can't stay in a dilapidated museum forever. Things need to change, and the future is fast approaching, but it can only settle in rightly when the past has been addressed. We owe a duty to our future selves to make the world more livable just as much as we owe a duty to the past we come from to address the reality of how they lived. The young generations will live in this world, and whether or not its a world poisoned by unhealed sickness is up to the people who are living in the world now.

[linkspooky]

TITANS, ISSUE #2 THOUGHTS.

This is way late but welcome back to my continual coverage of the new Titans series currently being released by DC Comics. Goodbye anime it's time to return to my real passion cheesey super hero comics. This is the first series since the N52 and Rebirth reboots to feature the classic New Teen Titans lineup so as a fan of the old comics I'm interested to see where they're taking these characters. Especially since this is the first time in like three reboots the focus is on letting these characters grow up.

This is also running simultaneously with World's Finest! Teen Titans which is bringing back the silver age lineup + Bumble Bee and making them canon again. As a fan of the silver age comics I'll be covering that series eventually too. Anyway, issue number two under the cut.

MEET THE NEW BOSS

We open with a much younger version of the Teen Titans about to ambush Brother Blood only to find the Justice League has already taken care of them. As far as I know something like this never really happened in the old continuity. Robin always acted separate from Batman that was sort of the point, and the only time they really clashed was the crossover with Batman and the Outsiders. It culminated in a story arc where Dick Grayson realizing he'd been emulating batman a little too much realized he didn't actually want to lead people the same way that Bruce did.

Then much, much later in the JLA and Titans crossover Technis Imperative. So yeah, The Justice League never really sniped one of the Titans targets. It was more of a silver age Teen Titans thing that they were just considered the Jr. Justice League and the Justice League / Their mentors were more active in interfering with them. By the time of New Teen TItans, they were just the Titans their own independent group.

Wally's not dead (obviously), but an alternate timeline version of him does give us the interesting premise that Dick is tasked with solving a murder before it even happens. It gives Dick a chance to show off his detective training here presenting a unique challenge to his skill set.

Cyborg's question of whether or not Dick has contingencies in place is a reference to the Tower of Babel storyline where Batman prepared weapons to use against the Justice League with the knowledge of all their weaknesses, only for those same weapons to get stolen by Ra'as al Ghul who put them into place and crippled the league while at the same time sending Batman on a wild goose chase by robbing his parent's grave an forcing him to track down where Ra's moved the bodies in order to distract them. It was a pretty big deal in the pre-reboot continuity.

Dick having those same contingencies shows his control-freak Bruce foiling, but at least he's open about it I guess. I'd say that Nightwing having all of those weapons and contingency plans though does put a little too much power in his hands over the others. The whole point of Tower of Babel is it's not so much about Batman always needing to carry krytponite around in case Superman goes evil, as it is that Bruce needs to feel in control and in order to achieve that he disrespects all of his comrades agency by devising methods to control them.

THough later on Dick does have a point that it's Wally's tendency to rush off immediately without thinking because he is a speedster and therefore stretch himself too thin. IT's the right call to keep Wally close when Dick knows that he's going to get murdered soon, but it's kind of wrong to hold "I can keep you here if I want because I know your weaknesses" over his head to get him to stay.

Dick makes another controversial decision by putting Donna in charge instead of Starfire. This is probably to give Donna a character conflict.

It's funny that Dick chose Donna over Starfire considering their track record with leadership. One of the biggest fights Donna and Dick ever had is when Dick trusted Donna with leading the team in his absence and Donna let the whole team fall apart. Basically while Dick was gone Cyborg and Beast Boy ran off, Raven was kidnapped by Brother Blood and missing for months and Donna basically sat on her hands and did nothing about it. All because Donna's greatest character flaw is being unable to live up to the perfect image that everyone else has on her.

It sparked one of the biggest fights Dick and Donna ever had in the comics, they literally got into a fist fight over this. Anyway, in summary Donna does not have the best leadership skills. On the other hand Starfire led the Titans pretty succesfully when they were mentoring Young Justice in the 2003 comics and Dick walked away from the team.

Dick probably just made the call because it's his tendency to trust Donna with everything, due to their close friendship.

At least it doesn't get in the way of Donna and Starfire's friendship. There's a funny little nod here to the New Teen Titans which had pretty constant inner-group conflict, to the point Cyborg would make fun of it by calling their lives a soap opera. The Titans are pretty famously a dysfunctional found family. We'll see if they keep that element in or not.

Two more things set up for future issues, number one it's Garth's turn to be brainwashed by Brother Blood this week. Garth seems like the natural choice to get brainwashed, despite being a member of the original four he's kind of been more of an outsider to the group. In the original silver age titans he felt so insecure about his place in the group he literally developed an illness and had to quit.

The second is that it's mentioned that the explosion that started the fire is Tamaranean in origin. Considering Starfire's Tales of the Titan comic deals with her encountering a pair of sisters with a healthy relationship, and featured an off-hand mentioned of Blackfire.

This could be foreshadowing the return of Blackfire, which I'm excited but also nervous for. Blackfire is one of my favorite villains in all of comics, but her relationship with Starfire is often reduced to "Starfire is the good one, and Blackfire is the bad one" when in the New Teen Titans it became much more complicated than that and became a pretty nuanced analysis of the conflict between a golden child and a scapegoat.

However, my hot take about Blackfire and Starfire's relationship is a rat for another post, so I'll just end things here.