#particularly i wanna elaborate more on what the curse effects are for everyone *specifically* | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mango-dolphin · 2 years

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are the curses in the au permanent? considering how badly multiple curses change Ren and Motoyasu i figured it would be :0 Motoyasu literally grows two more limbs and a ton of feathers, and Ren just has Too Much Bone and a Tail, so the changes would likely be extremely painful!! to be shifting in and out every time they use their curse series sounds like agony, i guess it makes sense tho, since its like another price for whatever they want

it would be cool if the other two had some effects as well(physical changes, they already have personality ones: Nao loses a lot of empathy, and Itsuki becomes completely despondent and a "yes Man"). just a lot more mild since they only have one.

maybe Naofumi's eyes are bloodshot/red constantly, and he has resting angry face XD and Itsuki's vision gets worse, and looks a little clouded with gold.

idk its all up to you :0

AU TIME LET'S GO GAMERS HERE WE GO GAMERS. making up half of this as we go, other parts are just like. the premise i went in with for this AU. a lot of this is disorganized unfortunately as i am a sleepy little beepy

(also. dear lord. i need to come up with a name for this AU/canon divergence??? i think for now Worse Curse Series AU might work. a special little DLC for normal Rise of the Shield Hero gameplay. please rate my mod if you like it and share it with your friends)

nope! they're not supposed to be permanent... buuuuuut, relying too much on the Curse Series (or simply not fighting against the thrall—wherever that headspace was that Naofumi enters whenever he engages the Wrath Shield, i mean) will result in its repercussions persisting longer and longer. the repercussions also get exponentially worse (though can have short "cooldowns" if they're responsible) depending on the amount of Curse Series abilities they use in a close span of time.

a hero's curse form melds their psyche with their physical body, meant to in some ways provide further physical protection for them alongside the power boost. but it's a dangerous thing to do, especially as unlocking the Curse Series would usually entail having your psyche being broken first. the more curses you have active, the more opportunity your psyche has to shine through and leak out of your body, so you gotta be Careful!!

but also i'd imagine their psyche warps just a tad bit in order to embody what their weapon/body thinks it needs in order to survive. shifting into that post-Curse Ability state will expose yourself to the deepest agonies of your heart etc etc, and being repeatedly exposed to that is definitely gonna leave some scarring, if not leaving you a bit shaken. i'm. kind of rambling at this point honestly. essentially, a Curse at its worst will affect all parts of you, so you need to be careful how often you expose yourself to something that puts you in such a severe "survival mode."

(i'd like to keep it ambiguous as to whether or not utilizing the Curse Series improperly causes long-term psychological repercussions on its own—i DEFINITELY want to keep short-term ones (like naofumi's loss of empathy & itsuki's despondence/catatonic state) because i think the curses should be Curses. however as they're unlocked through psychological trauma, i want their trauma to affect the heroes separate to their curses. so you can usually tell if a hero has unlocked their Curse Series via their personality shift, but they could also just never touch their Curse Series Abilities and still have "effects—" it's not that the Curse is still affecting them, it's that they're traumatized and trying to come to terms with their pain.)

having a support system and/or proper coping mechanisms is a good way to stave off and lessen the effects a Curse can bring. meanwhile, entertaining and/or embracing the state of mind that brought you to using your Curse Abilities can worsen and/or lengthen those same effects. it's essentially "take care of yourself or become a monster through your own self-fulfillment" more or less, though wording it like that is kiiinda clumsy for a metaphor. y'all know what i mean it's not like. you'll look like a physical monster but you can still bounce back from it if you give yourself the opportunity to

moving onto the Characters Proper, FUN FACT! motoyasu actually grows two pairs of limbs! every time! he gets reckless with his Curse Series! (because he has two sets of wings.) not to mention his literal pre-existing anatomy and bones are severely altered each time as well.

IT IS VERY MUCH AN AGONIZING EXPERIENCE TO GO THROUGH BY THE WAY. not just physically but mentally. you're essentially bathing yourself in your Worst Self™ in order to maximize your power, and even entering that state is full of a lot of grief of all kinds i'd imagine. and with the "hero's curse form melds their psyche w/their physical body" thing, that pain (if permitted) will express itself in increasingly physical ways, to the point of potential distortion.

also i think the transformation would happen pretty fast, so. yeah. ouch. depending on how much your body changes, you might have lingering pain (and perhaps stat debuffs) from the transformation as well. the pain would be straight up disabling if using Curse Abilities didn't literally force you to keep going, but (as we've seen with Naofumi's Blood Sacrifice ability) right afterwards you will be FEELING the EFFECTS. BADLY.

so the process to getting your Curse form, i should outline, is:

engage Curse Series Weapon(s) > exhaust SP (i think, idr mechanics) > use major ability (e.g. Naofumi's Blood Sacrifice or whatever Megiddo Burst is; Ren's Gold Rebellion or Strong Decline; etc) > eat shit a few minutes later

mentioned before that Naofumi and Itsuki don't necessarily have Curse forms because they only have one Sin unlocked, but honestly i really like the physical afflictions you suggested for them. so perhaps it'd be a pseudo-form? w/naofumi, i'd like to aesthetically invoke the effects from when he uses his rage shield. maybe the veins/runes could be a lot more faded? like crackles underneath his skin or something. him having bloodshot eyes is really funny to me as well. he could also get some dragon scales in random spots, as a treat, but nothing too major.

REALLY like the idea of itsuki getting clouded vision as curse after-effects. it's. SO so fitting for the "justice is blind" metaphor. IT'S SO FITTING. but also hilariously enough i did have the idea of having itsuki's skin be somewhat gold-stained in places, so we both had a bit of a gold-themed idea, huh? same as naofumi: not enough of his skin is altered to really cause much of an effect aside from maybe be a bit uncomfortable/stiffening (latter more of an itsuki thing).

w/physical effects, i think they'd linger a bit longer than mental ones (so for instance, itsuki's despondence would clear up sooner than his partial blindness might)—at least, ordinarily. this would assume that the hero affected would have access to that support system/coping mechanism that i mentioned would be so important earlier. if they're not able to move out of a negative headspace but aren't necessarily digging themselves deeper, it's possible that their physical ailments / stat debuffs will fade before their psychological side-effects do.

not to torture motoyasu too much but considering my headcanons/theories on his mental health, i think he'd struggle the most with his Curse Series (particularly with 1.) trying to not let it control him; 2.) trying not to listen to its thrall; and 3.) getting out of the rock-bottom mindset using his two Series lands him in)... so his post-Curse form is a lot more extreme than the others, plus lasts longer than the others. he'd be trapped in this constant cycle of listening to his urges/inner demons (Lust) and criticizing/penalizing himself for being so weak as to listen to them, then getting infuriated over how he's suffering more than anyone else (Envy), then wanting to do something about it, then repeat that first step and go from there over and over until someone Finally intervenes in the cycle.

(w/the doujinshi i'm hypothesizing: the first time Naofumi's party stumbles across Curse Form Motoyasu, it takes Motoyasu the better part of a month before he finally starts reverting back to normal. it's a genuine worry that he might be stuck as a weird siren creature because of the amount of self-isolation he does once he's snapped out of his curse-induced rage state.)

this is in stark contrast to Ren, who's constantly trying to confront and battle his inner demons after getting humbled (in this AU) to mostly positive results. he backslides a lot, but it's a "two steps forward, one step back" kind of progress—he's constantly upset at himself for not being better sooner, feeling as though faltering back into his cursed form is apt punishment for relenting to his sins.

but he's also made a lot of friends, has started learning a lot more skills and hobbies (I THINK IT'S SO COOL THAT IN CANON HE STARTS LEARNING HOW TO BLACKSMITH. KING), and is becoming more and more cognizant about the world around him. maybe it's alright that he fucks up sometimes. he has people beside him now. he's always worried of burdening them with his selfishness, but joke's on him! they like to have him around! especially when he's being himself!!!

so whenever Ren slips into his curse form, it tends to stick around only for a few days—typically 2 to 5, depending on how hard he exerted himself and how hard he's taking it mentally. hilariously enough, he grows a higher tolerance to the transformation over time too!

i will have to reblog this post later w/additional information because i am sleepy and i think i rambled on long enough. but HEY would you guys like to see the context of pogging rishia. i'm sure you would

this was all propaganda for my magic of friendship agenda. everyone is going to recover together NOW

#mango japery #shield hero #headcanon #small-spark-of-light #my art #my writing #mango's art #mango's writing #worse curse series au #answer #naofumi iwatani #itsuki kawasumi #ren amaki #motoyasu kitamura #I HAVE A LOT MORE I CAN SAY ABOUT THIS STUFF HONESTLY i might've derailed your answer.#particularly i wanna elaborate more on what the curse effects are for everyone *specifically*#it will also explain why motoyasu is shirtless #(the ACTUAL answer is because one part of his Envy Curse prohibits him from wearing armor)#(surprisingly NOT the Lust curse. it is still a factor though but in a convoluted way)#(he can still wear shirts & pants and stuff motoyasu has just been hiding in the guest bedroom for a really long time #got so self-conscious about walking around half-naked like a wild man that he forgot to ask for something to wear)#I FEEL BAD FOR NOT TALKING TOO MUCH ABOUT REN because he's arguably the biggest part of the worse curse series au #naofumi essentially demonstrates to ren what it means to be vulnerable #and ren steps up to the plate to become the glue for the cardinal heroes where naofumi failed/refused #naofumi is still very much the best candidate for leader. but through helping ren naofumi gave him the agency + awareness to help others #something something older brother something something #I PROMISE OTHER CHARACTERS ARE RELEVANT IN THIS TOO. i haven't forgotten about raphtalia & filo at all #filo is still important for motoyasu's arc but i'm not doing all that weird father-in-law shit. for starters i ship motoyasu & naofumi so j #aside from eclair raphtalia is one of the first friends ren makes in luroluna #will probably still keep several LN beats like whatever the coliseum is. the therianthrope killer whale lady seems epic i like her

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