#timelines for himself to the point now he just exists within the place where rifts occur

[majormeilani]

i literally don't talk about it much but i do often think about the cut ahit character, tim the time ceo. he had a rather silly (yet somewhat relatable) backstory and concept for his character but it would have been neat if we could see more characters from where hat kid comes from.

also i really liked his design:

he seemed like such a lovely character

[galaxyhanart]

CABINET MAN AU Timeline Information

So I’ve talked about it a little bit but I want to go into more detail about the different timeline of the AU!

this is what i was thinking when i first started the AU and so far I’m sticking to it except for one change! Secrets of the Forbidden Spinjitsu is going to hapen AFTER Skybound now, simply because Skybound and Seabound are so close to each other and it seems cruel to put Jay through those seasons nearly back-to-back. Not gonna go into Crystalized yet cuz i still haven’t watched the rest of the season but I’m gonna lay out some key details for the rest of the seasons

In terms of the AU itself, the ones that are the most important are

- Prime Empire (of course) - Hands of Time - Skybound - The Island/Seabound

“But Leo, Hands of Time is not a Jay-centric season and the CMAU is a Jay-centric AU so why would that one be important?”

Hands of Time is the AU that happens after Prime Empire, so it’s kind of the catalyst for the timeline of the AU to get fucked up. In the AU, Hands of Time takes place around a year after Prime Empire! Within that year, Jay was readjusting to life outside of Prime Empire and beginning his ninja training. In that time, he became very close with Master Wu, Morro, and the rest of the ninja. Because of this, even though that season isn’t centered around Jay, that’s when Jay will be doing his first “official” ninja stuff

PILOT EPISODES - DAY OF THE DEPARTED

I’m not thinking too hard about the changes from the pilot eps through Day of the Departed. Because of the way the AU works there are obvious inherent plot holes - Jay is a key member of the team, not only as one of the Elements of Creation and protectors of the Green Ninja but also his inventing skills and such. So don’t. Think about it too hard lmao Nya picks up the slack in those seasons!

The most major change that involves that AU directly is that Morro ends up returning from the dead alongside Cole in Day of the Departed! Neither of them expected that to happen and everyone’s kind of shocked and confused, but Wu welcomes Morro back with open arms. It’s obviously... tense. At first. It takes a lot of getting used to but everyone makes their way around to Morro being a part of the family eventually.

Not gonna go in the specifics of timing for the AU but by the end of it, the ninja + morro are in their early 20s

PRIME EMPIRE

The obvious start to the AU! This takes place over the span of a few weeks, and the aftermath is where Jay reconnects with Ed and Edna, meets Morro (who was away doing some much needed self-discovery this whole season), and starts getting taught by Master Wu. During this time he also gets to know his team! He fills a void that the team hadn’t even realized was forming, and while Jay is beyond relieved that he finally has people around him, he’s worried about how to act to make sure they don’t abandon them like Unagami did.

Unagami goes home with Milton Dyer and the two reconnect like in canon! Jay visits every so often, but there’s an unspoken rift between then that they both have a lot of growing to do before it can be undone

HANDS OF TIME

This season is accurate to what happens in the show BUT Jay is like. A lot closer to Wu than in canon and Morro is also here!! So there’s a lot of stuff involving them - Jay’s episode with his parents still happens but like. Plop Morro down next to him those two are kind of joined at the hip at this point (although when not with Jay, Morro’s usually watching over Wu) also! Jay is trying EXTRA hard to prove that he’s a good ninja and deserves to be on the team (which was never in question to anyone but himself)

SONS OF GARMADON - MARCH OF THE ONI

SOG and Hunted are pretty much the same as canon, not much changes there except for Morro exists. However, since it’s my AU and I get to make the rules, March of the Oni happens. Very differently. Because honestly I find canon MotO to be the worst season of the show but it UNFORTUNATELY sets up key elements for Garmadon so like. I can’t just ignore it (if you like MotO i promise this isn’t like a slight against you i just think it’s poorly written ahhhh) but tbh it’s been a minute since i actually WATCHED the season so I’m not going into it here

SKYBOUND

EEHEHEHHEHE THIS IS MY I GET TO HAVE FUN SEASON :D

so i really don’t like a good chunk of Skybound and it’s writing so grabs Skybound and chucks most of it in the trash my turn with it

FIRST THINGS FIRST NADAKHAN IS NOT GOING TO BE CREEPY WITH NYA BC I HATE THAT

i haven’t decided if i’m gonna keep the forced marriage plot or not because I can’t think of a good replacement yet but at the VERY LEAST if it stays I’m pulling a Musical Beetlejuice where he’s doing it just for the powers and is like “YEAH IT’S A GREENCARD THING” because that’s the only way i can touch this season without being disgusted but anyways

This season keeps its “the public love the ninja as if they were celebrities” thing especially since Jay practically IS one. He’s stepped away from a ton of his idol pop star stuff since becoming a ninja but he still has lots of fans

His wishes are pretty much the same but they’re driven by his fear of abandonment rather than the canon “i’m not good enough for nya” stuff

Jay’s captured on Misfortune’s Keep for around three weeks (two weeks felt too short and anything longer than a month felt way too long). He gets. Kinda really fucked up lmao not only does Nadakhan get real frustrated he can’t get his wish out of Jay he’s like. EXTRA pissed about him trying to get the venom to stop him after he was able to avoid wishing himself into the blade in the first place and all that. so yknow. my excuse to make whump and angsty content heheehhehehe

ALSO THE BIGGEST CHANGE OF ALL: THE SEASON DOESN’T GET UNDONE BC I HATE THAT TOO

how does nadakhan get back in the teapot then? great question i’m unpacking that later BUT that means that the rest of the gang doesn’t completely FORGET all of Jay and Nya’s trauma. And they have. So much trauma.

also i’m redesigning nadakhan cuz i don’t like that he’s Orange okay i’m done rambling about skybound now

SECRETS OF THE FORBIDDEN SPINJITSU - MASTER OF THE MOUNTAIN

These seasons don’t have many changes either! Other than the placement of them of course. Also this is when the second image of Jay’s design comes into play!

THE ISLAND/SEABOUND

Oof the Pain Season

The Island is fun because it’s a bunch of people pampering Jay and he’s like OHOHOHO OF COURSE JUST LIKE THE LEAGUE OF JAYS I MISSED HAVING THIS LEVEL OF FANDOM and then his friends are separated from him and he’s having Less of a Great Time due to his abandonment issues but he’s fiiiiiine

Seabound is obviously,,,,, upsetting. I’ve posted a little about it before but I’ll go into more detail here. Nya and Jay are incredibly close, even if not implicitly romantic in the AU (although as i write this i miss the jaya dynamics so that might change tbh lmao but for now its platonic) so the entire season Jay is incredibly worried for Nya - AND Morro, who shows up at the monastery with his powers also going kinda fucky. Everything pretty much happens the same way, the battery scene kind of fucks Jay up for a while but it’s also a bit cathartic - he’s CHOOSING to use his powers as a battery to save his friends, even though it’s risky.

When Nya becomes the sea? Oh boy.

Jay gets so distraught - he’s tired of losing people, he’s tired of people leaving him, so he isolates himself by choice this time. If he keeps losing everyone around him, he’s going to get himself lost first. That’s how he ends up alone in the lighthouse. The only one who he sees in that entire period of time is Morro and Pixal, who check up on him from time to time. Everyone else is too wrapped up in their own grief.

[iamnightduchess]

Hey Queen, so I was rewatching season 2 of AOT, and obviously, I saw the amazing Reiner and Bertholdt betrayal scene. I couldn’t help but imagine how that scene would play out in the Twilight Blue universe. May I ask for your headcanons of the Twilight Blue universe? I’m also really curious if Mikasa and Reiner would get back together since they teamed up in the manga to defeat Eren. Thanks!

Hello my dear. Thank you so much for the wonderful Ask! Here’s hoping that your weekend has started out great so far. The S2E6 scene is legendary on its own through the nonchalant way Reiner revealed his & Bertolt’s true identity to the Islanders. In the Twilight Blue Universe, it would be a lot more impactful on both Mikasa & Reiner emotionally. The following (super long) headcanon would be what I envision had happened & also, the possibility of them getting back together again in current canon timeline of the manga.

Read on more for your reading pleasure!

ReiKasa Fic AU Headcanon #4

Universe: Twilight Blue (Note: for this headcanon, the epilogue never took place & the only person who is aware of ReiKasa’s secret relationship would be Bertolt. There's some BeruKasa moments too.) Rhythmic muse included in the links below!

Pre-Reveal

* After the end of Twilight Blue, Reiner & Mikasa had been seeing each other in secrecy. Bertolt would frequently and naturally be the one who provides an excuse for Reiner’s occasional disappearances and he’d also be the one who actually help to switch Reiner’s kitchen or laundry duties so they would coincide with Mikasa’s turn making it easier for the couple to sneak in more alone time together.

* Their relationship continues even when they both enlisted with the Survey Corps.

* Mikasa & Reiner have several secret rendezvous spot(s) : i) the library, right at the secluded area of the fitness books section, ii) the nearby forest for an early morning run, iii) the kitchen storage room. When they've been reassigned to the SC's old headquarters, they frequently snuck into an old attic up in one of the older towers.

* Mikasa can be seen staying longer whenever Eren & Armin hung out with Reiner & Bertolt. It never escaped Armin's perceptive observation that Mikasa seemed to be more sociable only around boys like Reiner & Bertolt.

* During one of their secret trysts, Reiner promised to Mikasa that he'd bring her back to his home in the future to introduce her to his family. He even mentioned this in secret to Bertolt, which the latter protested immediately, arguing that Mikasa would have a horrible future in Marley if they ever take her back with the Founder. She would become their POW or worst, a breeder for the military due to her Ackerman blood. Bertolt reminded him that there are no possible future for them together.

* Since they've been keeping their relationship a secret, Reiner still is flirtatious around the other girls, much to Mikasa's envy. But she wasn't openly expressive of her feelings, therefore only Bertolt was able to tell when Mikasa is bothered by Reiner's behavior around the other female cadets.

* Bertolt would be the one to remind Reiner that he's being overboard but when his best friend apparently 'forgotten' that he's dating the top cadet, Bertolt eventually became the person that offers Mikasa the voice of reasoning.

* Reiner's apparent crush on Krista wasn't taken well by Mikasa. Reiner told her that it was all an act so no one would find out about their relationship. But it didn't hurt Mikasa less everytime he tries to flirt with the petite, beautiful girl right in front of her. It also didn't help that all the other cadets had been gossiping about how Reiner & Krista make a perfect couple, much to Ymir's annoyance as well.

* Bertolt began to spend more time with Mikasa alone, where he also shared with her of his secret feelings for Annie. They both bonded over having to keep their true feelings to themselves. At this point, Mikasa had already see Bertolt as a brother figure, just like Eren and Armin. The other cadets, however, began to suspect the nature of Bertolt & Mikasa’s relationship.

* Connie was the one who suggested that Bertolt & Mikasa had been 'tumbling in the hay' during dinner, when they were running late that one time from cleaning the stables. The way they both blushed & kept quiet only stirred up more rumors, much to Jean & Reiner's annoyance. That same night, after their evening roll call, inside that tiny attic space, Reiner, once again, reminded her on why there would be no other men that could make Mikasa feels the way he does. Part of him was being possessive, part of him was jealous.

* One incident where Mikasa fell off a tree and twisted her ankle to help a stray cat, actually almost caused a rift between Reiner & Bertolt. Reiner only then realized that he had hurt Mikasa's feelings the instant he felt envious when he saw Bertolt carrying the injured Mikasa in his arms. Bertolt asked him, "Why would you care about her?", causing Reiner to recognize that he hasn't been fair towards Mikasa ever since they began dating.

* Bertolt had to remind Reiner that they were not supposed to be attached to anyone on that island but they both know that it was already a line they had crossed.

Reveal & RtS “Say Something”

* The day before the emergency discreet meeting with the top SC officers had also been the last time Reiner & Mikasa had been intimate with each other.

* The night Hange revealed the SC's suspicions of the duo's true identity, Mikasa found it difficult to accept & she had secretly been hoping that their suspicions were untrue.

* When their squad arrives in time to rescue Reiner, Bertolt & the others in Utgard Castle, Mikasa had been worried about Reiner's injury but the way Reiner & Bertolt had been avoiding her gaze somehow confirms her worst fear.

* On top of Wall Rose, Mikasa had been dreading the moment that they're waiting to apprehend the two of them but Reiner's sudden mental breakdown pushed them all to the point of no return. Her hands had been shaking & she hesitated. Their objective was to apprehend them both for questioning, partly because she desperately wanted to talk to Reiner & to get his explanation.

* To say that Mikasa was disappointed that their suspicions were proven true would be an understatement. She was beyond devastated.

* Mikasa actually only wanted to hold Bertolt down so they could apprehend him. But Reiner pushed her off the wall, and this is because Reiner knew that Bertolt & him had to shift and he didn't want her to be caught in the transformation blast.

* The moment Reiner's psyche reinstates back to his Warrior alter, he had temporarily compartmentalized his existing feelings for Mikasa but his heart wouldn't allow him to do so.

* When the SC were chasing after Reiner, Bertolt & Eren, Reiner's heart ultimately broke the moment he heard Mikasa called him a plague of humanity in vain. His heart bled when he'd heard a Titan grabbed Mikasa & he'd heard her screaming in pain but he had to pretend that he felt nothing when it happened.

* Their relationship was as good as dead at that point and the end of the road for both of them, which was a premature, unspoken decision on both sides.

* The whole time when the SC were present during Hange’s introduction & briefing of the Thunder Spears, Mikasa’s brain had been thinking about Reiner the whole time & her feelings were hurt even worst than before.

* She knew they had no choice but to kill them & it didn’t make it even easier for her. It still hurts her to have to use that last Thunder Spear on him. She was still angry at him the whole time Hange was threatening him to explain about the place he came from, their mission & that mysterious letter for Historia. Never she’d expected that it would be the last time she’d ever see his face.

Post-Reveal  “It’s Not Goodbye”

* During her imprisonment for insubordination, Mikasa became depressed not only for the fact she now knew that both Eren & Armin have limited years left of living due to the Curse of Ymir, but it was also because of her guilt towards having to watch Bertolt being eaten alive by Armin’s raw titan form and also for a fact that Reiner would also be dying before Eren does.

* When Eren & Armin went to Reiner & Bertolt’s old room to clear their remaining possessions, it was Armin who told Mikasa that he’d kept them in the old attic instead of throwing them away. Mikasa kept Reiner’s old shirt that still has his scent on it from the storage & actually hid it under her pillow. It helped her through her difficult nights.

Time-Skip (Current Canon Timeline) “Love Story”  | “Tainted”

* Within that four years, they both had never stopped thinking about the other. It hurts Reiner so badly that he couldn’t allow himself to reminisce all of the beautiful moments he had with Mikasa and could only subconsciously thought of the last moment he’d ever saw her face; her sending an explosive projectile down his Titan’s throat.

* Mikasa had not talked to anyone about Reiner or even once mention his name within that four years. No one knew why she would seclude herself in the attic of one of the headquarters towers every other Saturday.

* Only Sasha knew of Mikasa’s secret relationship years later by accident as during one night, she had overheard Mikasa tossed and turned around in her sleep, calling out for Reiner’s name, her asking why and how could you in her sleep. Mikasa would later wakes up from her nightmare & hides herself in their shared bathroom, crying in the shower.

* The first time she sees Reiner’s Armored Titan again in Liberio, she couldn’t hide the disappointment on her face. She couldn’t even look at Reiner’s direction at all & she realizes that seeing him again still hurts her.

* She was genuinely concerned of Reiner’s safety after the Rumbling was initiated by Eren. Later on, when they were reunited through the Marley-Paradis alliance, all those old memories came flooding back. They both had grown physically & mentally older but the love, it has always been there. The moment she saw his sleeping figure, by gods, she had never known how much she’s been missing him.

* It pained her so much when she saw him being pummeled by Jean because of Marco’s death. Not even once he retaliated or defended himself. She’d never stopped worrying for him the moment he saw him immobilized inside his Titan form at the docks in their confrontation with the Jeagerists. Yet, not even once had she spoken to him directly ever since they were reunited.

* The first time they’ve ever spoken to each other was on the Hizuru steamer en route to Odiha. While Connie was busy tending to the injured Armin in the Medical Bay inside the ship, she helped clean Annie & Reiner’s wounds. “I miss you so damn much.” Were the first words he’d ever spoken to her after four and a half years. She pretended that she didn’t hear him at all.

* She avoided him on the steamer and even when they’re all gathered in the communal area to strategize, she’d spoken to everyone directly, even Annie & Pieck except him. Reiner also saw her observing the conversation Armin was having with Annie on the decks from afar and pulled her into one of secluded hallways to talk & to break the cold silence between them.

* She pushed him away and locked herself inside one of the unoccupied rooms as Reiner knocked on the door from the other side, kneeling and begging for her forgiveness, begging her not to shut him out. Mikasa hated herself even more with every tears that she had shed for both Eren and Reiner.

* Later that night, once they’ve docked in Odiha, Reiner knocked on her door once again to tell her that if tonight is the last night he’d have alive, he just wanted to apologize to her & he just didn’t want to have anymore regrets. 

* He begged and he pleaded, “I just wanted to be able to look at you in your eyes and tell you how very sorry I am for all the hurt I’ve caused you and there hasn’t been a day that went by without you on my mind. A part of me died a little bit each day since the day I left Paradis.”

* It took several swings of her fist against his chest, a slap on his cheek and a whispered, “I hate you” from her lips before it met his in a reawakened hunger. Old feelings and sparks reignited between the two former lovers. Inside a tiny bunker room on the Hizuru steam ship, two separated hearts reunited as one once again, so as their bodies.

* Now that Marley is in ruins & her mother is most probably dead, Reiner believes that he no longer has a home to return to. Mikasa disagrees & argues that he still has Gabi and he’d always have a home in her heart. Reiner realizes that if he ever survives their last stand against the Founder in Fort Salta the next day, he’d only wanted to spend the remaining time that he’d still had left alive with Mikasa, raising Gabi & Falco together.

* Right before they both dropped off from the plane to take down Eren’s Founding Titan, Reiner made one last promise to her: he’ll never leave her again & they will both return home together.

---------

I hope you’ve enjoyed the above & thanks again for sending in this fun Ask, @xrocketmanx! Take care & stay safe.

xoxo,

NightD

[the-hidden-writer]

An Odd Family Tree

A series of snippets from the lives of the FitzSimmons family, set post 7x13. Also, the series of events that lead up to the birth of their grandson.

Available to read on AO3 and FF.net.

Comments make my day!

Chapter 26: Ever After

“So please, just tell me once and for all… who did I name my son after?”

Jemma turned to Fitz for help, she truly didn’t know what to say, but her husband was still frozen in his place, his mouth moving but not quite managing to form words.

So it was up to her, then. She took a deep breath- if she was going to tell her daughter the truth, then she might as well tell her everything rather than insult her intelligence.

“Alya, d-darling, do you remember the mission we told you about? The one where we were sent to the future to save the world from getting torn apart?”

Alya was quiet for a few moments before she replied. “I remember.”

“Well,” Jemma continued, her voice sounding as heavy as her heart felt in the unusually tense kitchen, “do you remember how we got back to the present?”

“Something to do with Uncle Enoch, right?” Alya questioned skeptically. She only had very vague memories of Uncle Enoch, but there were plenty of pictures showing the pair together. What she definitely couldn’t remember was him being a robot. He’d always just felt like a part of the family.

“Y-Yeah.” Fitz affirmed. “It is. B-But in order to get us home, h-he-”

“He needed backup.” Jemma said, and Fitz shot her a grateful look. “And so an… um, ally we’d made in the future offered to help. We all thought it was a suicide mission, but we think he ended up getting sucked in by the tiny piece of the monolith that was near him. He came back to our time and timeline too.”

“You never mentioned bringing someone back from the future with you! That’s a huge change to history.”

“We know!” Fitz exclaimed.

“We didn’t mean to.” Said Jemma. “But he came back with us and tried to help us.”

“Tried?” Alya questioned.

“He got shot and had to have emergency surgery.”

Fitz gasped and snapped his attention towards Jemma. “He got shot?! You never told me- oh no…”

Alya looked between them, her face darkening with concern. “Who was he, Mum?”

Jemma continued to purposefully ignore her. “Even after he got shot, none of us really had time for him. We treated him so horribly. I always thought that I did better than the others, but just now I realised that it felt more like an act back then. Like I was obliged to be nice to him. B-But I shouldn’t have…”

She choked back a sob then, and Fitz quickly rushed to her side to comfort her.

Alya couldn’t find it in herself to find sympathy. She glared at them, the same question reflected in her expression.

“You know, he told me once about his family.” Fitz said whilst rubbing Jemma’s back. “He was a… a slave, I think. All humans were in that future. He told me that his mum had been murdered in front of him when he was just nine-” his voice cracked at his own words- “and his dad was sent to die.”

Alya opened her mouth to say something, but Fitz didn’t let her.

“B-But that’s how he learned to survive!” He said, but it sounded like he was trying to convince himself more than anyone else. “He came back, started a whole company and was super rich and- and we left him…”

He covered his face with his hands and Jemma gently pried them off his face to kiss his cheek.

“He chose to stay behind.” Jemma reassured. “Without him, we wouldn’t be here, and this timeline might not even exist.”

“What was his name?” Alya whispered again, her skin a sickly pale hue.

Jemma and Fitz shared a look of devastation, because there was no going back or even going forward without revealing the inevitable. The silence in that moment was thick and heavy. It felt like no words would ever be able to cut through it.

Luckily, no words were needed. From outside, Deke’s sudden loud burst of giggles could be heard over Owen’s playful shout of exasperation.

Jemma’s head turned towards the window, though her vision was too blurred with both age and tears for her to focus it properly.

She smiled a wobbly smile.

“His name was Deke.”

Both Fitz and Jemma’s hearts broke at Alya’s cry of anguish. They watched her fall to her knees as she covered her mouth in an attempt to hide her shock. They both had strong instincts to comfort her, she needed it more than they did after all, but neither of them could find it within themselves to do so.

They felt like they didn’t deserve it.

“I-I thought you might have looked into the future or something.” She sobbed. “Not- not this! Not from that future!”

In-sync as always, Fitz and Jemma’s parental instincts broke them out of their guilty stupors and they hurried to their daughter to help her back to her feet.

“He was a hero.” Jemma said as she brushed the dirt off her daughter. “And trust me, once we’d brought him back he was genuinely the sweetest man I’ve ever known.”

Fitz let out a small scoff… that turned into a broken laugh… that melted into a sob.

“You said you left him.” Alya said, wiping away her tears with her sleeve almost childishly. “Where? Why didn’t you go back for him?”

“Our final mission.” Fitz supplied, knowing that his wife’s memories of those final moments of that mission were hazy. “In order to get us back to our timeline from the screwed up one and take all those chronicoms back with us, someone needed to activate the quantum device from the other end.”

Alya gasped with sudden understanding.

“Deke volunteered.”

“That drawer.” Stated Alya. “That’s-”

“All we could find left of him on the Zephyr once it was all over.” Jemma answered. “That tape we used the walkman with is all him. He stole the songs, but that was his voice.”

“I… I don’t believe…”

Her parents didn’t need to be prompted into wrapping her into their arms. They did so, and Alya let them hold her as she shook and cried and mourned.

“Why are you sad?”

The trio turned their heads towards the owner of the little voice, who was standing in the doorway where Alya had caught them. He was fidgeting with his t-shirt again, his brown spiky hair was all tousled and full of mud, and his face was full of such genuine concern that made it look strange upon such a small child’s face.

“Oh, my little monkey.” Alya called, sniffling. “Come here.”

She immediately knelt down and opened her arms out for a confused Deke to run into. Her hands closed around him like a trap that wasn’t going to let go of its prey any time soon. And everyone was fine with that.

“I’m so, so proud of you.” Alya’s voice was muffled by the fact that her face was buried into Deke’s bony chest.

“We love you very much, sweetie.” Jemma said, planting a kiss on Deke’s free hand. “More than you can ever know.”

Fitz ruffled his already messy hair. “Seriously, you’re the best, Baby Deke.”

“I’m not a baby!” Deke stuck his tongue out at his grandad, satisfied that his family wasn’t sad anymore. “Stop saying baby!”

“You’re right.” Jemma said warmly.

Fitz smiled, linking hands with his wife. “You’re our big Deke now.”

The pair noticed that Alya squeezed their grandson tighter. They shared a knowing look.

Deke grinned widely, the gaps in his teeth becoming more clear. There was an air of innocence around him that neither Jemma nor Fitz had ever gotten the chance to see before.

“Thanks Bobo, thanks Nana. You’re the best too.”

~-.-~

Leo and Jemma Fitz-Simmons had thought that they’d gotten their happy ending the very second Alya was born. It had been the happiest day of their lives, despite the team being missing, because they were finally a family.

But since they’d completed the mission that they’d been preparing for years, it had felt like something was still missing. They’d lost Enoch. They’d lost Deke.

They didn’t really have time for mourning back then. They had to set up proper lives for themselves. Raise a daughter and actually live normal lives. Still, that void left by those losses felt like it could never be filled.

At least, that was the case until Fitz stumbled upon Owen Shaw.

Meeting Owen brought them hope. He brought the chance of healing the open wound, of mending something that was permanently broken. Or, in their case, permanently stuck in a disastrous reality that he never should have been in.

It had taken many, many years, but Deke Shaw was finally born and with him that void had started to close. Slowly but surely.

The couple had known since his birth that they would have to tell Alya the truth at some point, but time passed quickly and they didn’t know how to proceed. They grew older and older, but so did Deke.

Alya was angry at first, as any mother would be. But after a lot of explaining, she understood. They gave her the power of telling Owen if she wanted to, and she decided against it. For as much as the memory of Deke influenced her son, she wanted him to be his own person.

Or at least, that’s what she told her parents. But they knew her well enough to know that she was just trying to distance him from the orphaned slave as much as she could for the benefit of her own mental health.

Yet, perhaps for some unrelated reason, the rift that had formed between Owen and Deke began to close. Owen grew closer to his son and by some miracle began to treat him in such a kind way that would never be associated with the boisterous Owen Shaw.

Alya herself had grown almost inseparable with her son. She comfortably changed her job to a part-time position in order to be able to spend more time with him. This extra time allowed her to take him to a dietitian to help improve his physical health. Though his ribs were still visible, he was no longer underweight, and that in itself was a huge achievement to Alya.

She’d also grown a lot closer to her parents. Though for a while they’d been distant due to work demands, they ended up visiting a lot more often and having little adventures in the garden. She knew that they needed support, and she wouldn’t hesitate to give it to them. They were her everything. As was Deke.

Deke, as all children do, grew up too fast. One day he was a mischievous five-year-old, the next he was a mischievous nine-year-old. He was considered a genius in his school and did end up moving up a class. Since he still struggled with making friends though, he fell to his grandparents. He never failed to make them laugh, and would boast to his classmates about how cool his Nana and Bobo were. That they used to be spies!

And FitzSimmons? Well, time passed for them too. Also too quickly. They renovated the Deke Drawer into the Deke Shelf. A shelf in a display cabinet filled with little trinkets in the living room, there for all to see.

They knew that, however much time they had left, they didn’t want to spend it keeping secrets or worrying over loose ends. They’d long since dismantled their lab and all prototypes and equipment within it. Their consciences were free. They were free.

Fitz grew his fabulous grey beard to a ridiculously long length. Jemma convinced him to trim it. This was the sort of adventure they liked now, the sort that involved only laughs and no danger or SHIELD or loss.

And they were happy. They’d had to wait half a century for it, but the universe had gifted them with uninterrupted happiness.

This was their true happy ending.

There will be 2 epilogue chapters following this. Thank you for reading!

[billreeseblog]

Anime I Am Enjoying - Upcoming NEET Design Schedule

Anime I am Enjoying

The summer 2019 season has some great series. From fire starters to family curses this anime season has many great stories. Here are a few of the anime I am watching:

Fire Force

Image from Wikipedia

They aren’t your average firemen fighting your average fire. In the Fire Force universe some building fires are caused by fire demons, and the best people to fight them is the Fire Force made up of specialty firefighter, Nuns (the religious kind), and pyrokineticist members who fight these demons. Fire Force follows Shinra Kusakabe and the other members of Special Fire Force Company 8 as they fight the demons and investigate the other Special Fire Force divisions for their illegal actions. Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia:

At an unspecified point in the future, world sea levels have risen and the world is in a shambles. The rising sea levels have been carving up continents and causing the disappearance of many countries. Japan is now much smaller with people gathered within the small Tokyo Empire where the Holy Sol Temple and Haijma Industries have developed the Amaterasu, perpetual thermal energy plant. In the year 198 of the Solar Era in Tokyo, special fire brigades called the Fire Force fight increasing incidents of spontaneous human combustion where humans beings are turned into living infernos called "Infernals" (焰ビト Homura Bito). While the Infernals are first generation cases of spontaneous human combustion, later generations possess pyrokinesis while retaining human form. The Fire Force was formed by combining people with these powers from the Holy Sol Temple, The Tokyo Armed Forces and the Fire Defense Agency, and is composed by eight independent companies.

Shinra Kusakabe is a third generation pyrokinetic youth who gained the nickname "Devil's Footprints" for his ability to ignite his feet at will. He joins the Special Fire Force Company 8, which features other flames users who have the task of both work to extinguish any Infernals they encounter and investigate companies 1 through 7. As a faction that is creating Infernals appears, Shinra begins to find out the cause of a mysterious fire that killed his family 12 years ago. -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_Force

Fairy Tail: The Final Series

Image from Wikipedia

Fairy Tail follows the adventures of Lucy Heartfilia, Natsu Dragniel, Gray Fullbuster, Erza Scarlet, Wendy Marvell, Happy and Carla, the rest of the Fairy Tail guild, and their friends as they fight for their lives, home, country, and their survival against the Alvarez empire, and their evil emperor Zeref. Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia:

The world of Earth-land is home to numerous guilds where wizards[4] apply their magic for paid job requests. Natsu Dragneel, a dragon slayer wizard from the Fairy Tail guild, explores the Kingdom of Fiore in search of his missing adoptive father, the dragon Igneel. During his journey, he befriends a young celestial wizard named Lucy Heartfilia and invites her to join Fairy Tail. Lucy forms a team with Natsu and his cat-like Exceed partner, Happy, which is joined by other guild members: Gray Fullbuster, an ice wizard; Erza Scarlet, a magical knight; and Wendy Marvell and Carla, another dragon slayer and Exceed duo. The team embark on numerous missions together, which include subduing criminals, illegal dark guilds, and ancient Etherious demons created by Zeref, an immortal dark wizard.

After several adventures, Natsu and his companions find Zeref living in isolation on Fairy Tail's sacred ground of Sirius Island.[8] A battle over Zeref ensues between Fairy Tail and the dark guild Grimoire Heart, which attracts the attention of the evil black dragon Acnologia. The Fairy Tail wizards survive Acnologia's assault when the spirit of their guild's founder and Zeref's estranged lover, Mavis Vermillion, casts the defensive Fairy Sphere spell that places them into seven years of suspended animation. After later participating in the Grand Magic Games tournament, Fairy Tail wages war against Tartaros, a dark guild of Etherious that aim to unseal a book believed to contain E.N.D., Zeref's ultimate demon. When Acnologia returns to annihilate both guilds, Igneel – revealed to have sealed himself within Natsu – emerges to battle Acnologia. However, Acnologia kills Igneel in front of a helpless Natsu, who departs on a training journey to avenge Igneel.

One year later, Natsu returns to discover that Fairy Tail's master, Makarov Dreyar, has been futilely trying to postpone an invasion by the Alvarez Empire, which Zeref governs. Zeref and his forces assault Fiore, intending to acquire Mavis' body preserved beneath Fairy Tail's guildhall, which houses a wellspring of infinite magic power called Fairy Heart. While battling Zeref, Natsu is informed of his own identity as both Zeref's younger brother and the true incarnation of E.N.D., whom Zeref resurrected as a demon with the intention of being killed by him. When Natsu fails to do so, Zeref absorbs Fairy Heart from Mavis in a bid to rewrite the present timeline with one where he might prevent the atrocities he and Acnologia have caused. After Natsu defeats Zeref to stop the drastic changes to history his actions would create, Mavis lifts her and Zeref's shared curse of immortality by reciprocating his love, which kills them both.

Meanwhile, Fairy Tail and their allies detain Acnologia within a space-time rift created by the use of Eclipse, Zeref's time travel gate. However, Acnologia escapes while his disembodied spirit traps all of the present dragon slayers within the rift to maintain his godlike power. Lucy and the other wizards across the continent immobilize Acnologia's body within Fairy Sphere, while Natsu accumulates the other dragon slayers' magic and destroys Acnologia's spirit, killing him and freeing the dragon slayers from captivity. The following year, Natsu and his team depart on a century-old guild mission,[9] continuing their adventures together. -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairy_Tail

Fruits Basket (Season 1)

Image from Wikipedia

Fruits Basket follows Tohru Honda, an orphaned highschool student, as she navigates her life living in the house of the famous author Shigure Soma and her housemates Yuki and Kyo Soma, as she learns of the Soma family curse. As the story continues she manages to help every member of the Soma family get over their social problems, anxieties, and the family’s internal strife defeating the Soma family curse. Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia: 

When high school student Tohru Honda's mother dies in a car crash, Tohru decides to live with her grandfather. Renovations on the house and unsupportive and unkind family members cause her to move out of her grandfather's house temporarily and, since she has nowhere else to go, Tohru begins living in a tent and supporting herself. That is, until she finds a home in the least likely of places, inhabited by her popular classmate Yuki Soma and his cousin Shigure. The first day Tohru moves into the Soma house, an orange haired teenager crashes through the roof of her new bedroom and starts attacking Yuki. This newcomer is Kyo, Yuki and Shigure's aggressively angry cousin. Tohru ties to stop the fight by holding him, causing him to transform into an orange cat in front of her.

The Somas live with a curse. Twelve members of the family (not including Kyo, who is the cat) are possessed by spirits of the Chinese zodiac and turn into their zodiac animal when they are weak, under stress, embarrassed, or when hugged by someone of the opposite sex.

When Tohru discovers the Somas' secret, she promises not to tell and is allowed to keep living with them. Although the Somas' curse is deeper and darker than Tohru realized, her presence and her acceptance of them soon becomes a large, positive influence on those possessed by the zodiac. She sets out to break the curse and, on the way, meets and discovers the Soma's vengeful zodiac spirits. Each has a different personality, just like the animals in the Chinese zodiac. One by one, Tohru's existence changes the Soma clan's lives forever. -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruits_Basket

Schedule Changes

In the first 2 weeks of September, NEET Designs will be closing so that I can facilitate systems upgrades and backups to files. That means no artwork for the first week of September. I will still try to post articles as usual. This scheduled closing may change as we are waiting on parts, and with my busiest season coming up everything is in flux.

[gregellner]

Cover by Bethesda Softworks and Arkane Studios.

Today I’ll be reviewing the third (and so far final) installment in Adam Christopher’s Dishonored novel trilogy, following Dishonored: The Corroded Man and Dishonored: The Return of Daud, in addition to following its relatively immediate predecessor Dishonored: Death of the Outsider in the games and tying into the comic bridging story Dishonored: The Wyrmwood Deceit. Chronologically, this story is the last in the Dishonored timeline thus far, for reasons that will be readily evident.

The book was published by Titan Books of Titan Entertainment.

A lot has changed in the Empire of the Isles since the fall of the Outsider in 1852. His removal from his place at the Ritual Hold fundamentally altered the nature of magic, and the world itself is breaking down by degrees as the Void moves apart from the “real” world.

The fracturing of magic has driven the Abbey of the Everyman to the point of needing to be abolished by Empress Emily Kaldwin the Wise, with the men of the Overseers and the women of the Oracular Order driven against one another, resulting in the surviving Overseers being driven into poverty, and the Oracles driven off and/or killed in witch hunts, the latter of which are not under the control of the Empress at all.

Following the fall of Delilah Copperspoon’s usurping government, Alexandria Hypatia’s recall of her invention the Addermire Solution seems to have ultimately resulted in no form of the elixir being produced anywhere at all, presumably on account of the side effects of said drink when taken in high doses. Said side effects seem to include addiction, given the disposition of one former Overseer. As such, this explains why there is no restorative for mana in Death of the Outsider.

With the Outsider gone, there is little to keep the world stable. While Billie Lurk was able to see “hollows” in the fractures between worlds, things have gotten much worse since then, to the point of rips in the fabric of reality itself that Lurk calls “rifts.” Far more dangerous than the hollows, these tears can make travel impossible from one point to another, and in the case of Morley, were involved in the “Crisis,” better known as the “Three-Day War” between Queen Eithne and King Briam that ravaged the country and the city of Alba in particular.

What exactly happened to the Outsider is deliberately unclear, but some inferences can be made. The text avoids actually saying that the Outsider is dead or was killed, using terms like “fell” and “gone” instead. While this word choice on its own might just be an implication that anything is possible, there is one added piece of the puzzle. In Death of the Outsider, if Billie Lurk kills the Outsider instead of freeing him from the Void and giving him back his life and his name, she tells the ghost of Daud that “The world might change, but we won’t. Killers never change,” continuing on in the conclusion that “after all this, I’m still just a murderer.” That kind of fatalistic attitude is not present in the novel’s Billie, who seems to have done her best to move past her failures. To paraphrase a certain character from Brandon Sanderson’s Oathbringer, the world cannot have her pain, and her every movement forward indicates a refusal to allow her past to dictate her future. In all, her ability to move forward seems to indicate that the boy who was once the Outsider is still alive, but that Billie has told not a single soul what happened that day in the Ritual Hold between her, the god in human form, and Daud.

On another note, Martha Cottings finally has her arc paid off, one first set up with the original appearance of the post-prostheses Billie Lurk back in late 2016’s The Wyrmwood Deceit. It’s a small thing, but still good to know where that was going.

"The Outsider had fallen, and the Void had become unmoored from the world—but it was still connected to it. It still existed, but its relationship with the world was different. Somehow, that had changed the way magic worked. That change had driven the Overseers and the Sisterhood to moonstruck oblivion, and had affected Billie’s black-shard arm and the Sliver."

Predictably, removing the focal point from the magic system has resulted in a serious shift in the way in which magic actually works. Although this change was alluded to in The Return of Daud, having been implied in Death of the Outsider, this is the first time we see it in any sort of depth.

First and foremost, the most famous use of the Void, through the Outsider’s Mark. Given the Mark was a means to connect to the Outsider and share in his connection to the Void, those empowered in this way (in particular Emily Kaldwin and the possibly-alive-and-imprisoned Delilah Copperspoon) have lost their powers altogether, their connection to the supernatural power completely cut off. Whether or not the Mark itself has disappeared is unclear, but such a thing is largely irrelevant now given the revelation that it is the Outsider’s true name, especially with him gone.

"The world is broken around you, and you carry the scars. I wonder if you can live with that."

Important to the magic system is a new term that refers to what Billie has become: Void-touched. Individuals of this type are both a part of the Void and not, having an intricate, physical connection to both worlds that lasts beyond deposing the Outsider. Owing to that connection, magic still does flow to these persons, albeit in different ways that are more “standardized” than the specialization made possible by the connection to the Outsider himself. In the case of Billie, she can summon the Twin-bladed knife and can view through walls akin to Daud’s Void Gaze, in addition to seeing trails leading toward areas of high Void energy concentration, but her teleportation (Displace), mystical disguise (Semblance), power to strike with the power of the Void through her knife (Void Strike), and ability to see across vast distances (Foresight) are inaccessible.

Much like how Daud felt agony when he tried to empower himself with a rune in The Return of Daud, there are certain significant downsides to Billie’s abilities that last beyond the Outsider’s fall. Given that her powers still derive from the cognitive aspects of the Void, she has difficulty using said powers for the majority of the novel. Said difficulty comes from her insecurity with herself after the fall of the Outsider and the changes in the world, feeling she is too different to reconcile her own life’s experiences. Until she manages to accept that both she and the world are changing, but that change is just a part of life, she has a chance of not summoning her powers, but merely feeling agony. In essence, she has to realize that while the Void may be harder to grasp, given it is now further away, and given that this means that her powers will be weaker and slower to activate, she has to accept the world as it is and own her new identity for herself.

Certain runes, including those from Maximilian Norcross’s collection, have new characteristics, ones that can be replicated or otherwise utilized to act as a kind of “magical technology” bridge. The most overt use of these runes is the Leviathan Company’s teleportation to and from the Void Hollow, a location that has emerged in the space between the Void and the normal, “real” world and is more of a reflection of the real world with elements of the Void within, including the ambitious Leviathan Causeway. The runes allow one to transport through the aforementioned rifts, rather than just view them, and to teleport to any point within the Hollow as well. Other supernatural abilities are likely possible, but are not gone into depth about. Most notable is that these abilities can be used by anyone, including those without any connection to the Void before, so long as they have two of these runes in their possession and know how to use them.

The Void itself has had some major changes, as well as elements that existed before that are expanded upon. The most prominent is definitely the effects of the Void itself (including the Void Hollow) on unprotected individuals. Without proper protection akin to a mystical HAZMAT suit with certain specific runes, individuals will slowly find their flesh turn to stone, in an accelerated form of the transformation that the original members of the Cult of the Outsider underwent when becoming the “Envisioned.” To use a real life analogy, the Void seems to exude a kind of supernatural radiation that infects life from outside the Void itself, eventually turning victims into little more than shells of their former selves, incapable of interacting with others around them beyond fulfilling some relatively basic mystical commands such as grabbing someone or transporting them away.

Some of these cracks are in time itself, not unlike the fractured nature of time around Stilton Manor as seen in the Dishonored 2 mission “A Crack in the Slab.” As such, some entities like the Shadow (a mysterious Void presence tied to a particular conspiracy in Morley) and Billie Lurk herself can manipulate the rifts to travel to various points in time.

"I know more than most. I know that time is bleeding into itself around you. I know you have felt it, and you’re searching for the places where the world has broken against the Void."

Whereas many cannot make changes in time that will stick, others such as Billie can on account of having a physical presence in both the Void and the normal world. In a sense, Billie herself is a focal point around which time solidifies itself on account of her Outsider-given Void-connected prostheses, the cold black shard arm and the Sliver of the Eye of the Dead God, making her essentially the only person who can solve many of these problems.

On account of the increased use of the Void by mundane persons, there is an increased focus on certain physical elements present in the Void itself. One particular one that has been seen before but never thoroughly examined is the very Void stone that is common in locations of the Void, seemingly the same one that makes up the black shard arm: voidrite. On the mystical end, this material can be shaped into new artifacts, such as blades with mystical properties (such as one wielded by the aforementioned former Overseer Woodrow) capable of causing paralysis through some kind of self-harm ritual combined with a vocal incantation (“Eco, lazar, lapolay, yram.”) to paralyze a target until the spell is broken. On the mundane end, there are far more applications, including use as a volatile fuel source that can also negate gravity, allowing for the first air vehicles in the entire Dishonored franchise, along with giving some similarities to DC Comics’ Nth metal. One particular fact holds true for another use of voidrite: a weakness for Void-based entities. Much like how the Twin-bladed knife is lethal to Envisioned and even the Outsider himself, voidrite fuel can harm even monstrously enormous Void creatures when other sources cannot do a thing.

"I am here because you are different. The Void has found you through the cracks in your broken life. And when you cut me out of it, what will remain? What will you leave behind when you walk away?"

Technically speaking, Billie Lurk can be considered the most heroic and selfless character of the various Dishonored protagonists. Corvo Attano wanted to save his daughter and lover and in theory reclaim his good name. Emily Kaldwin wanted to save her father and reclaim her throne. Daud did perform a heroic act in The Knife of Dunwall and The Brigmore Witches, but only on the urging of the Outsider, and subsequently ignored any and all blame in any of his actions to the point of becoming a villain once more across The Return of Daud.

By contrast, Billie Lurk’s decision to look into the rifts is entirely on her own volition for the safety of the Isles and perhaps the entire world. Yes, she is the only one who can truly sense them and see what is wrong, but she had no outward obligation to do anything about them. By going out of her way to try to stop the madness, a problem she is well aware that she is responsible in part for causing in the first place, she proves she is better than Daud, something that his ghost admitted to her in his talk about her forgiving nature. From going to the Imperial Palace to try to solicit her friend Emily for help (a surprise, given it was unclear if they were even allies anymore, let alone friends), to going to the Academy of Natural Philosophy to use up Anton Sokolov’s remaining goodwill in a fruitless attempt to get the scientists to look into the rifts as anything but a meteorological phenomenon, to traveling to Morley on her own so as to help solve the problem of the rifts, everything involves her being the instigator. Even when she nominally is traveling to Morley to get evidence and support for Withnail Hugh Bruce Dribner’s experimentation with the Void rifts, she is the one in charge, considering she is the only one who could stop any of it on account of her borderline Schrödinger’s cat nature.

Her personality, as ever, leaves something to be desired in terms of her rudeness, but Adam Christopher manages to make her blunt, rude exterior and relationship with royalty absolutely hilarious, especially in how she deals with people trying to be overly polite with her in accordance with their protocols. Even her interactions with the borderline antisocial personality of the stoic Miles Severin are entirely reasonable, neither overly harsh (given circumstances) nor overly kind when dealing with his better sides. She is simply matter-of-fact and, to a point, highly manipulative, showing the darker sides of even the most heroic of people in the Isles owing to her upbringing.

“What will we do with the drunken whaler? What will we do with the drunken whaler? What will we do with the drunken whaler, early in the morning?”

Certain elements in the novel, on top of those in previous ones, give implications as to how this story may move forward into future games.

Voidrite is outright stated to be volatile, and able to expel an extraordinary amount of energy. Additionally, the substance is capable of sealing rifts, as it did with the one at the Leviathan Causeway, on top of being lethal to Void entities like the Shadow or Envisioned, but in powerful enough levels even able to face down fully realized Void gods like the Outsider himself. Said substance could be made into not only swords, but also projectile or placed weapons of untold power with a “poisoning” effect added on, primarily in the form of grenades or traps, but not excluding bolts nor bullets either.

Together, this could end up taking the balance of power shift away from the Void alone and more toward a more evenhanded use of power between magic and technology, a stance that had already begun under the creation of Jindosh’s clockwork soldiers and their ability to effortlessly take on the anti-witch Overseers. The fact that the anti-gravity properties of voidrite have made for the creation of flying machines within a year of the Outsider’s fall even further shows the rapid expansion of technological superiority without letting magic fall too far behind either. What other properties could this substance have? It appears that only the surface of its utility has been explored thus far.

In addition, the Voidrite infected seen at the Leviathan Causeway seem to be, in some ways, not dissimilar from the Weepers of Dishonored nor the Nest Keepers of Dishonored 2, with the “radiation” of the Void corrupting them by even faster degrees than the Envisioned. Adding to the ability to seal rifts, this set of facts sets up a possibility of a variation on the Gears of War “emergence hole” sealing mechanic for explosives to avoid incursions of the Void, or even to open them up in the first place to change the flow of battle.

The fact that the teleportation runes can be used to travel not only into the Void Hollow and out, but also across the other dimension to other locations in that parallel world, brings up the very real possibility of near-instantaneous intercontinental travel, allowing for incredibly fast invasions and, from a gameplay perspective, a reason for not only a fast-travel system in a series that is becoming increasingly open-world (especially in Death of the Outsider), but also for a far larger map including more of the Isles, and even a possibly more global conspiracy.

Adding to the possible globalization of the game, we have the other, rather familiar properties of the Void’s atmosphere, which bring to mind a host of hazardous materials with the use of a mystical HAZMAT suit. However, the sheer destructive power and heightened energy release bring particular focus on an analogy to nuclear power. Much like Edmund Roseburrow’s discovery of whale oil as a fuel source acted as an analogy to various power sources (in particular gasoline) for Dunwall’s industrial revolution, the discovery of the power of voidrite could act as an analogue to nuclear power. Couple that with the very real possibility that Morley could invade other nations with superior, air-based firepower made from the Void-based substance, along with the economic implications inherent to the trans-oceanic Leviathan Causeway, and the stability of the Isles could fall into ruin with the advent of voidrite national superpowers.

Rifts are seen to have erupted all across time, or be capable of being used to access different eras as far back as 1790 and likely earlier still. Without a Void-touched being who has a corporeal presence in the Void and reality (Billie Lurk being the only known example), these eras are not in much danger of having serious alterations in the timeline, but can still pull people from other eras through them. Could this mean that earlier villains could emerge once again, perhaps for some kind of alliance across the ages, brought forth by a magitechnology sorcerer with a mission?

On the magical end, do bonecharms still function? They are not used overtly in the novel, unlike runes, but they do seem to be disconnected from the Outsider’s Mark, especially in the hands of Zhukov (who used the fully powered Twin-bladed knife which might not have the same abilities), Paolo (who used Vera “Granny Rags” Moray’s Marked hand as a vector), and Breanna Ashworth (who had access to her powers through the Arcane Bond with Delilah). How would their functions have shifted, or even been removed altogether, with the changes in the Void? Do they connect with the Leviathans, if we will ever see their like again?

Many questions and possibilities to think on.

In all, Dishonored: The Veiled Terror serves as a great way to conclude at least this saga of the Dishonored franchise, tying together at least most, possibly all, of the remaining loose threads and making a knot through which further stories down the line might continue.

[perona77]

Pitioss Ruins: A New Challenger Appears

PITIOSS RUINS: A NEW CHALLENGER APPEARS

Original theory by husband & wife team, Perona77.

 SUMMARY: We want to thank everyone who previously read and enjoyed our Pitioss Ruins: Revelations theory. We are happy that it got a lot of people thinking and talking about this awesome game.  

With the release of the Episode Gladio Demo, juicy new lore details have emerged. We realized that we needed to revisit and rethink some of our initial thoughts about Pitioss. If you want our more in depth analysis of every aspect of Pitioss, please read our previous theory. https://www.reddit.com/r/FFXV/comments/5t367b/pitioss_ruins_revelations/

 PART 1: “Gilgamesh Takes the Stage”

So, in our original Pitioss theory we posit that Pitioss was telling the tale of Ifrit, heroically bringing Eos out from the Underworld. And it still is. But there is one other major player in the Pitioss tale that we all completely missed… GILGAMESH.

The very first room in Pitioss shows Ifrit stuck in a cage. To the left stands a statue of a man holding up a stone platform (representing the Disc of Cauthess) with one hand, and his left hand is holding a Solheim made door shut. This statue has a double meaning. Narratively, it is Titan holding up the Disc of Cauthess before Ifrit sends a Meteor crashing down on top of it. But it is also symbolically Gilgamesh, the foundation of Solheim, inventor of Solheim’s machinations, & the demi-god son of Eos. http://imgur.com/SeZihBw

This all sounds far-fetched, doesn’t it? But…we found an actual PICTURE of Gilgamesh in Pitioss Ruins, among other things! (Like his ARM).The Gilgamesh picture is on a giant mural within the spinning globe room of Pitioss. http://imgur.com/L9i6Ohf Do you see the Necromancer/Lich-looking character with a red cap & souls going into him?  “But Gilgamesh isn’t a Necromancer or a Lich, Perona77!” Hmm... let’s look at the mural from a slightly different perspective. http://imgur.com/F2P1MxS Holy crap. HOLY CRAP. Gilgamesh has been depicted in Pitioss Ruins this whole time and we all missed it! Also, look how his image is formed. You have to look between the two pictures to form the image of Gilgamesh. What is Gilgamesh’s whole deal within the Final Fantasy Universe? He is a dimensional traveler! Square Enix is literally forcing the player to read between the lines here to see Gilgamesh in this artwork.

The mural even depicts where these souls that are going into Gilgamesh are coming from. Follow the trail of souls…they lead to the Crystal, the Heart of Eos. http://imgur.com/jKhMyTq

To give a clearer idea of WHY Gilgamesh is being depicted in Pitioss, let’s take a step back & look at the real world mythology of the Sumerian King, Gilgamesh. “Gilgamesh is the main character in the Epic of Gilgamesh, an Akkadian poem that is considered the first great work of literature. In the Epic, Gilgamesh is a demigod of superhuman strength who builds the city walls of Uruk to defend his people.” In the Epic, his mother is the Sumerian Goddess Ninsun and his father is the former king Lugalbanda. A main theme in the Epic of Gilgamesh is his journey to search for a means of immortality. Now put this mythology into the Final Fantasy XV world. What would Gilgamesh’s ancient civilization be? Solheim. And what have we stated time & time again that Solheim was trying to achieve? Immortality & Time Travel.  Gilgamesh may very well have been an ancient Solheim King who helped build the machinations of the once great country. Costlemark, Steyliff, Pitioss…Gilgamesh is behind all of this. Even now, Gilgamesh is still tied to Solheim Ruins, deep underground, as seen in Episode Gladio. Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy confirms that the Gilgamesh seen throughout the whole series is actually the same person, traveling between worlds via portals in the Rift. He is an inter-dimensional traveler. Wouldn’t it be amazing if FFXV’s lore tells the tale of how Gilgamesh came to be an interdimensional time traveler, through his ties with Solheim? FFXV is the origin story of Gilgamesh!

A big point we made in our original Pitioss Theory was that at the naval of the Goddess’ statue within Pitioss you find the Genji Gloves accessory. We took Genji Gloves to mean “two beginnings”… that Eos had given birth to twins after being with a mortal man. However the simpler explanation here is more likely the correct one.  In typical Final Fantasy lore Genji Gloves are traditionally dropped by or stolen from none other than Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh is Eos’ child. There are currently no other hints or indications of any other person this could logically be, besides Gilgamesh.

Also, it’s likely that Gilgamesh’s descendants are still playing an important role in the current timeline of FFXV. Namely, the people of Galahd and the Auburnbrie family. If you want more details on what we think is going on with those characters, then check out our other compilation of theories here: https://www.reddit.com/r/FFXV/comments/5w8ws8/eos_revelations/

 PART 2: ““The White Messenger Comes Bearing a Gift”

Now, let’s switch back to addressing the first room in Pitioss. Ifrit is caged. He is either unable to free himself, or does not have the means to act. To progress into the dungeon itself, the player must first hit a series of white switches. http://imgur.com/ReLlHBZ This is important here…WHITE switches. Ifrit received some assistance from an unexpected friend…Pryna.  

We are just going to come out and say this now: we believe that Odin has a place in the story of FFXV. Just like the Goddess Eos, his name has been written out of history, nowhere to be seen. But there he is in the Big Bang art http://imgur.com/R1HSZyr Even though Odin never makes an appearance in the story, his existence can be felt within FFXV in the form of his Messengers. These Messengers are his actual Messengers from Norse mythology.  Odin classically has two wolves Geri and Frekki (Umbra & Pryna), two ravens Huginn and Muninn (Kenny & Kelly Crow), and his six-legged horse Sleipnir (The Regalia).  The presence of Odin’s powered up form, Raiden, from FFVI in the Big Bang art has another very interesting connotation…  If Square is using Odin from FFVI as inspiration for his character in FFXV then there is a major detail that must be mentioned here.  In FFVI the Esper form of Odin teaches the METEOR Spell. We never see Ifrit use Meteor in the fight at the Citadel. He only uses Hellfire. Each Astral has one or two special moves…& METEOR is not one of Ifrit’s normal abilities.

Perhaps Odin was sympathetic to Ifrit’s cause, and sent Pryna to Ifrit, bearing a gift…a Magic Flask containing the Meteor Spell. Bear in mind that Odin must have been killed at some point after the events of Ifrit’s betrayal, as he is nowhere to be seen in present day. This means Pryna, as a Messenger, is free to serve whom she wishes, which in the future turns out to be Luna.  

Using this gift of Meteor spells, Ifrit was able to defeat Titan at Cauthess, defeat Gilgamesh at Gralea, & create an opening for himself to enter the Underworld at Lestallum/Taelpar Crag. Pitioss visually lays out all the imagery to tell this story. The second room in Pitioss geographically pinpoints where the 3 Meteors hit on the Globe of Eos. http://imgur.com/oUMUayG

So it is white switches that lift the cage on Ifrit. And it’s a white switch that throws the first Meteor in front of Ifrit, literally right behind the treasure chest in front of Ifrit. http://imgur.com/OD78BK7 The Meteor spell is literally & symbolically being given to Ifrit through Pryna. Look closer at the treasure chest… http://imgur.com/EMZUatI  the treasure chest has 4 dog feet! And its main color is blue…Odin’s color.

In the world of FFXV a base spell has three uses. Ifrit was now able to use Meteor three times, and he used it to wreak his retribution upon Solheim.

1: The first Meteor is thrown at the statue of Titan/Gilgamesh, depicting the destruction of the Disc of Cauthess with the falling of the platform held by the statue.

2:  The second Meteor is thrown at what is now known as Gralea. http://imgur.com/fwXI33a Look at the gigantic crater Gralea is in! Only a giant Meteor could do this. We know that Gralea was a desert area until the Shiva incident. It would make sense that Niflheim, the country trying to emulate Solheim, would build their capitol over the ruins of Solheim’s capitol.

3: The third Meteor is thrown at the place that becomes Ifrit’s entrance point into the first areas of his journey deep underground. It is after this Meteor lands in Pitioss that the player finds a Magic Flask on the ground, signifying that Ifrit had used up all of the Meteor spells.

 PART 3: “Paying the Price for Grand Hubris”

So Gilgamesh is defeated… and only his head & left arm remain! But the door into Pitioss is still shut. The player has to climb up the left arm to finally open the door, while simultaneously the 2nd Meteor spell is thrown. http://imgur.com/tUFRT5N Think about this for a moment…WHY would Ifrit need to use Gilgamesh’s arm in any way? Oh, but we have seen this before! In Zegnautus the only way forward for the Bros is when Prompto admits he is partially Magitech made and uses a chip within his hand to open the door. Niflheim/Ardyn used many Solheim methods to gain power, but Magitech Soldiers having chips to gain access to areas is something that never matched up to Solheim technology…until now.

We think that Ifrit went to Gralea, defeated Gilgamesh, ripped his left arm off, and destroyed the city with his 2nd Meteor. http://imgur.com/pRRYVip Ifrit needed Gilgamesh’s arm to gain access to areas deep underground that Solheim had sealed using their twisted powers. http://imgur.com/otoLXca Look what the finger of Gilgamesh is doing. It’s touching a part of the Solheim door, and it’s worn out in that spot. After the globe room, we can see Ifrit (shrouded in RED!) http://imgur.com/VdsOsBx using Gilgamesh’s arm again & again to open Solheim doors in order to progress further. The switches in this long hall like room are spots where Ifrit had to use the arm of Gilgamesh to unlock doors.

It would make sense that Solheim was digging deep Underground in order to make a network of tunnels between all of their main hubs, The Disc, Steyliff, Costlemark, Etc. However, they had dug perhaps a little too deep, and encountered Doom Train. http://imgur.com/oUMUayG It really looks like a blasted out or dug up hole was made here, leading in to this chamber. Perhaps Solheim was experimenting on Doomtrain, as well. Here’s some food for thought…look at this imagery from the Omen trailer: http://imgur.com/4u0beGu

It is in this room that Gilgamesh’s arm makes its final appearance. http://imgur.com/J9EChEw Gilgamesh’s arm has been bound to this area.

As punishment for Gilgamesh’s crimes against the natural order of life and death, Ifrit decided to bind Gilgamesh to Doom Train with his arm. Being bound to Doom Train, Gilgamesh is forced to act as a conductor of sorts helping with the ferrying of souls into the afterlife.  Perhaps overtime, he learned how to share these souls with people who came seeking power. After a few millennia of reflection on his past actions Gilgamesh could now see the consequences of the evils he had brought into the world and his trials and “gifts” are his way of atoning for his sins. He doesn’t impart these powers to just any fool who wanders in to his realm. In the Episode Gladio demo, Cor states he was punished by Gilgamesh for trying to go above his station. Not much unlike Gilgamesh’s fate…

After this, Gilgamesh’s part in Ifrit’s tale is over.  He is not referenced again anywhere else in Pitioss, and the tale largely continues on as we had stated it before.  Ifrit continued on his journey, retrieved Eos, escaped with her out of the Underworld, burst out of Taelpar Crag, and began burning Eos’ corpse on the pyre.

It was confirmed in the episode Gladio preview that Ifrit did indeed die at the Rock of Ravatogh, just not in the exact manner that we thought he had. http://imgur.com/SBsSaCu Honestly, however, Ifrit fighting with the other Astrals here makes a lot more sense than him just laying down and dying next to Eos.  A funeral pyre has to burn extremely hot and for a very long time to completely cremate a body, and Eos wasn’t exactly tiny.  Ifrit was doing his best to fight back the other Astrals as he kept his pyre burning long enough to purify Eos’ soul in order to save her and the world from eternal darkness.

 CONCLUSION:

It is just too coincidental that Gilgamesh has his left arm cut right above the elbow, and in Pitioss we have TWO references to disembodied left arms cut off above the elbow. Not to mention the depiction of Gilgamesh in the mosaic art!  Now, we definitely could be wrong on details throughout our theory. What really matters though, is the overarching narrative that Pitioss is trying to tell: the tale of not only Ifrit and Eos but of Gilgamesh as well.

We personally think that Pitioss Ruins was the developer’s way to sneak in the lore, the backstory, and the history of FFXV… just in case they never got the greenlight to continue on with developing FFXV. Remember…they weren’t even sure if they were going to get the green light to continue the series at all. As it stands now, it’s likely that DLC will reveal a lot more of the lore. Pitioss still stands as a haven, a cryptic library of visual knowledge for anyone willing to take the time to go look for it.

We thank you for reading & hope you enjoyed it!  

 TL; DR: Can you guess where Gilgamesh’s missing arm is? It’s been in front of our eyes this whole time… in Pitioss Ruins.

[newmedia-janesun]

Virtual Reality History & Interview with Ken Perlin, founder of the NYU Future Reality Lab

this post was originally created for my New Media Research Studio course taken Spring 2016 under the guidance of Professor Carlin Wing.

"Imagine 10 years ago trying to envision the way we use cellphones today. It’s impossible. That’s the promise VR has today. VR at its best shouldn’t replace real life, just modify it, giving us access to so much just out of reach physically, economically. If you can dream it, VR can make it." (Drummond et al.)

Such is the optimistic viewpoint of The Verge on the effect of virtual reality on our daily lives. Virtual reality is defined as the immersive, artificial environment that is created with software, experienced through sensory stimuli, primarily sight and sound, and allows users to determine outcomes using interaction (source: Merriam-Webster Online). We most commonly think of helmet-like headsets, popularized by Oculus Rift (left) and Sony's Playstation VR (formerly known as Morpheus) (right)

But VR technology has been decades in the making, with a long and storied history that has allowed us to experience the innovations being created and consumed today.

A Brief Timeline of the History of VR:

Late 1950s to early 1960s: Douglas Engelbart, US Naval radar technician, posits that computers can be used for digital display. As computers merged with graphics technology and the fears of nuclear attack mounted, many different sources worked on bridging the gap between computation and visual representation. Tom Furness works on the VR technology within the U.S. air force, later to become flight simulators. Radar defense system, data modeling, etc.

1962: Ivan Sutherland invented the “light pen” & Sketchpad software, creating a marketable software for computer graphics. This leads to the possibility of coding immersive visual environments.

1968: Sutherland creates a very basic “head-mounted display” (video below), famously known as "The Sword of Damocles;" the same year, Engelbart releases the first pointing device, or a mouse as we now call it at the Fall Joint Computer Conference in his presentation, known as "The Mother of All Demos." [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtwZXGprxag&w=420&h=315]

1970s: Flight simulators become common practice in the U.S. military; Evans & Sutherland establish themselves at University of Utah to research computer graphics, animation & interactivity. The release of Star Wars IV: A New Hope in 1977 causes people to start noticing the potential of computer-generated graphics. The NASA Ames "Dataglove"

1980s: NASA Ames research group, under Scott Fisher, creates the dataglove, able to track motion of your fingers in a glove and link it to a music synthesizer. Nintendo becomes the biggest buyer of the dataglove technology to create Powerglove, which allowed interactive video gameplay.

1985: Jaron Lanier founds VPL Research, Inc. – one of the first pioneers for a native visual-programming language and commercial sales of VR goggles & gloves. Lanier is credited for popularizing the term “virtual reality.” Eventually, his company goes on to collaborate with NASA's Ames group, linking VPL's head-mounted goggles with the technology of the dataglove.

Limitations of the 1980s: Computer hardware at the time, simply did not have enough processing power necessary to create high-quality graphics at any speed. Since we’ve now entered an era where processing power has virtually zero limits, VR has taken off in the 21st century.

1990s: 1991-93: Virtuality Group created a line of VR-equipped arcade game machines with stereoscopic 3D visuals; head-mounted display visor had two displays (capable of 276×372 resolution) Cost of deployment is prohibitively high for regular consumers to adopt VR technology (not the case anymore!) causing the bubble to burst in the late 90’s to early 2000s. Most famously, Nintendo's epic flop attempt in 1995 at commercializing virtual-reality gameplay using a console called "Virtual Boy," convinced video game companies that virtual reality was a dead end. Boy, were they wrong...

2007-present: A critical turning point was the introduction of the smartphone; with the rollout of the first iPhone in 2007, VR suddenly had a new display medium that people used on the daily. This allowed for rapid prototyping of head-mounted displays such as Samsung's GearVR (developed in conjunction with Oculus) and easy consumer testing, since everyone already knew the operating systems of smartphones. At the moment, multiple companies are specializing in immersive virtual-reality-gaming experiences, with the frontrunners being Sony and Oculus (mentioned/pictured at top) and HTC's Valve Vive system (pictured below). These companies also make joysticks with motion-sensing technology to allow the user to use their limbs in the immersive environment--in the future, I suspect that they will use technologies like the Xbox Kinect or Playstation Move to allow user autonomy while still tracking motion. The largest hurdle is still the sheer processing burden of VR visual rendering on gaming consoles; adding motion-track to the mix will prove to be a challenge that will be solved in the near future.

Update 2/29: Sony just filed a patent on VR gloves indicating their heavy research into tactile experience; in particular, their patent states that the glove can sense "a flex of at least one finger portion...as well as contact sensors" allowing a user to have more articulate control.

In 2016, Oculus has already begun personal consumer preorders for the Oculus Rift gaming system, after its wild Kickstarter success in 2012. While many tech news outlets report hiccups and delays in the preorder release, Oculus' popularity from Palmer Luckey's basement pet project and ever-increasing pool of supporters and funders (such as Facebook's acquisition in 2014) are a very promising sign that virtual reality is the future.

Implications & Questions Arising from VR: I interviewed Ken Perlin on 2/18/16 with some questions about his involvement and research in virtual reality at Courant at NYU. 

Perlin has been hesitant to dive into virtual reality, with a background in computer graphics & animation, until he felt that display & computer graphics to get fast enough & small enough for the platform to reach multitudes (approx. September 2014)--now that we have an amazing graphics machine in every pocket via smartphones, we can start making VR/AR widespread. In the future, people will spend a lot of time in a "resynthesized" reality meshing what physically exists (chairs, tables) with things that can be modified by VR/AR (the color of the walls, the objects and people in the room). He also pitches the idea that we could all have VR contact lenses or eye implants, something that would be ubiquitous in a couple decades (Facebook is already exploring these avenues). I asked him if he felt that idea dystopian; he explains: "technology" is what comes after we were born, but what comes before us is normalized--we don't consider speaking to "John" on the phone as unusual, we just think/say "I spoke to John," even though we were really speaking to some electrical signals and not John himself. So this idea can be extended to a conversation with visual virtual reality representation of "John" in our room and we aren't speaking to "a representation of John," we are just "having a chat with John." Once our society normalizes this idea, we no longer worry about the dystopian aspect of it (like smartphones). He focuses his research & development on "shared social reality:" in his words, he says that "I'm interested in life, and life is other people." That last statement really impacted me. His games & VR environments often involve two people wearing restrictive helmets/headsets who cannot see each other, interacting in a virtual environment. How can our interactions with others be enriched by virtual reality? By breaking the geographic boundaries and allowing us to be "in the same room" with those we love? What about when a roomful of people are all experiencing something in VR but not interacting with each other in the moment? (See this creepy photo here)... What do we gain & lose when we promote, as Ken does, the idea that VR and AR are "bringing people together?" The notion that such a seemingly restrictive experience, where you are often in a helmet that limits your sight, can be considered a 'shared social experience' is still troublesome for me: the old traditions of interpersonal social interaction being something that takes place in person has been worn down for the past few decades since the advent of the telephone, but the changes in our social fabric and our ability to interact with each other seems to be deteriorating as we become more and more reliant on devices to keep us connected to those we care about while blocking out those we do not. My thoughts on imaging art & creation in the VR & 360 environments are better found on the 360 Collaborative Travelogue so I've focused more on the social implications in my reflection. I think VR is going to be a hot new "media trend" in the coming decade. Just the fact that Facebook has poured energy into Oculus, the rise of Unity gaming graphics & Steam has allowed more accessibility to VR games for those who own headsets, and Google created Cardboard as a low-cost entry into VR viewing have shown that the tech industry is very optimistic about the future of virtual reality. I think it's important to remember why we use these technologies, whether it is to stay connected with one another or stay engaged and participatory in the world at large or escape from the world into a fantasy game for a little bit. I'm looking forward to see what is coming, but I don't want to evangelize about it as a "game-changer" because we've had new technologies coming out constantly. VR is only at the infancy of its development and adoption, and I'm curious to see how it influences our lives as it matures.

Citations: Burke, Steve. "The History of Virtual Reality & The Future: Rift, Omni, STEM, CastAR | Gamers Nexus - Gaming PC Builds & Hardware Benchmarks."GamersNexus. GamersNexus, LLC, 28 Oct. 2013. Web. 28 Feb. 2016. Link.

 Drummond, Katie, Ellis Hamburger, Thomas Houston, Ted Irvine, Uy Tieu, Rebecca Lai, Dylan Lathrop, Christian Mazza, Casey Newton, Adi Robertson, Matthew Schnipper, Melissa Smith, Sam Thonis, and Michael Zelenko. "The Rise and Fall and Rise of Virtual Reality."The Verge. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2016. Link.

"Keynote Remixed: What Happened to Virtual Reality." MxR Keynote Remixed What Happened to Virtual Reality Comments. USC Institute for Creative Technologies, n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2016.

Perlin, Ken. Personal interview. 26 Feb. 2016.

"VIRTUAL REALITY - History." VIRTUAL REALITY - History. University of Illinois NCSA & EVL, 1995. Web. 28 Feb. 2016. Link.