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writingwithcolor · 4 years

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Announcement: No Longer Answering Rubber Stamp Questions

Introduction

Here at Writing With Color, we’ve noticed a shift in the questions we are receiving. In the past, the majority of questions challenged the necessity of diversity in fiction or asked for assistance in making diversity seem more plausible in world-building. We also received many questions on how to describe and characterize people of color in respectful ways that didn’t demonize different races, ethnicities and religions.

By and large, we see that our followers understand why these concepts are important, and for that we congratulate you! This kind of progress takes real, long-term, internal work. Our team hopes that any advice or input you received from us over the years has helped you continue to develop as a writer. We hope you will continue to support us in the future and are especially pleased to hear from our non-white commenters who have let us know when our content has let them feel seen or heard.

However…

We have noticed a recent trend in asks that is discouraging. Many askers seem concerned with receiving our blanket approval of a particular concept or character. These asks often don’t provide us with the direction and context crucial to providing advice from a race or ethnicity-based perspective. Examples include:

“I’m writing a character from [insert background] who has [insert traits]. Is this ok?”

“I’m creating a world where I have made [insert concept] the basis of my world-building. Is this allowed?”

Hi, I’m a [insert identity]. Is it problematic to have [concept/ character] in my story?

“I’m creating a [Race A] character with [these] traits, a [Ethnicity 1] character with [those] traits, a [Race B] character with [some other traits] and a [sex/ gender minority] character with a [different set of traits]. Is this combination offensive?

We call these questions rubber stamp questions. If this describes your question, there’s no need to feel bad. We realize that there was never an explicit explanation of this concept. In addition, our team is mindful of the changing demographics of tumblr that might make it mean we are receiving questions from a younger user-base are not yet familiar with many of the principles we outline on this website. However, on that note…

What is Rubber Stamping?

Rubber stamping refers to the practice of seeking an endorsement without questioning or seeking to alter the status quo. The purpose of Writing With Color is to be a focal point for discussion about diversity in writing rather than simply prescribe a series of corrective measures. Without knowing the asker’s intent (Which we can’t, since we aren’t mind readers), our moderators are not in a position to provide you with carte blanche for your writing concept in the name of all other non-white people. Yes, we have a certain level of skill and expertise on many of these topics, but we are not here to take on the burden of all PoC to approve your writing choices. Nor would it be fair to other PoC if you took our response as a reason to dismiss the perspectives of other PoC (An unfortunately common phenomenon).

Bluntly, on the moderator end, these asks are also incredibly frustrating because they are vague and thus:

Time consuming

Labor intensive (mentally and emotionally)

The last example from the previous section (AKA “Laundry lists”) is particularly time consuming because multiple moderators must collaborate to produce an answer that boils down to each moderator saying, “I guess it depends??? *shrug*” but in slightly different ways.

Perhaps the biggest problem with rubber stamp asks is they feel (to us) like they are more about the asker’s desire for closure/ approval/ virtue signaling than a willingness to participate in the kind of education and discussion on diversity we are trying to foster on this blog.

To that effect: We will no longer be answering such questions.

(If you sent in such ask before this goes up on November 15th, 2020, a moderator may reach out to you individually to better address your inquiry as submitted.)

However: Don’t worry! We also are here to teach you how to makes these questions better!

Fixing Rubber Stamp questions:

1. Be specific.

Instead of Can I/ May I, try “How can I” or “When can I” or “What can I”?

Thus instead of: “I’m Christian. May I create a Jewish character seeking to become an actress in 1920s Hollywood?” —> “How do I, as a Christian, create a compelling Jewish character while being mindful of the interplay between my own intrinsic bias and historical accounts of prominent Jewish figures in early Hollywood?”Or, instead of: “I want to write a story about a modern day piracy in the East Indian Ocean, but with magic. Is this problematic? —> “Given the continuation of modern day piracy in the East Indian Ocean, what are some tropes I should avoid if I decide to go with a modern fantasy set in this region?”

2. Remember: The goal is improved understanding, not approval. Sometimes, you really just want to know *why* you can’t use a particular concept, and that curiosity is good! Questions that ask “Why?” in good faith are often how you can learn a lot about your own intrinsic biases and the limits of your own knowledge.

Thus, instead of: If I write about [controversial topic], am I a bad person? —> Why is it better for someone like me to not write about [controversial topic]?

This approach has the bonus effect of making us feel like you actually care about what we think.

3. Write your question as a draft: Edit your ask at least once or twice to provide as much information as possible while being concise. I’ve told this to college students before, but I can tell when a person wrote their assignment by the quality of the writing. Writing done late at night, when sleep deprived and without at least one edit contains extraneous information while not having a clear point.

Going through your question (Preferably a day after you wrote it) will help you narrow down what you really want to know.

Remember: You all have free will and can write whatever you please. We presume that you seek WWC’s input because you wish to write on issues pertaining to people of color with greater levels of awareness. On a practical note, we recognize that social media, trolling, call-outs, doxxing and other dimensions of cyberbullying make writers online hesitant to do anything unless they think they have the majority of the public on their side. There are times when it is obvious that the asker is asking more because they need approval to feel less anxious when they share their work with others.

However, if the above is your worry, either you aren’t ready to write on this topic or you need to rethink the boundaries you set with the online communities/ individuals you interact with as well as how you manage your internet presence. With respect to personal anxieties when it comes to writing, morality, your conscience and so forth, we recommend turning to your own support systems IRL. As relative strangers on the internet, we are not well-qualified to allay personal concerns.

Remember: Writing with diversity is like training for a marathon. Give yourself permission to expand your comfort zone at the pace your research capabilities and experience allow!

We appreciate that you all trust us to provide helpful, well-thought out feedback for your ideas, and we also thank you for respecting our perspectives even if you may disagree. In the same vein, we request that you put the level of thought into your questions you think appropriate given that another human being is going to spend, at a minimum, several hours coming up with their response. We look forward to hearing from you!

- The WWC Team

(A link to this article will be added to the pinned FAQ for everyone’s reference)

#WWC #Announcements #Housekeeping #FAQ article #Rubber Stamp #Question Guidelines #Updates #WWC Updates

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nanas-teatime · 3 years

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Is Yuu/MC really magicless?

Hello there, I came back after some good days of vacation which I needed so bad, with a theory I’ve been trying to write for almost one month. I was doing a small research because I love this things. This theory will be focused on Yuu/prefect/MC

Please bring a chair because I’ll take my time.

Just a little remainder: Yuu has not gender because this character is based on the player, so this theory is about YOU and your magical abilities.

I’ve been thinking way too much about Yuu and why they’re in NRC, why the magic mirror called them in the first place, what’s their connection with Grim and it’s really hard for me to think that Yuu has no magical abilities after the moment Crowley mention the beast tamer thing.

In the story we don’t have the chance to see if that’s true or not yet, but it doesn’t mean that Yuu has not abilities, what about if MC’s abilities are not something “physical” if it makes sense, like Leona and his “King’s Roar”, Kalim and his “Oasis maker” or Azul with his contracts but something internal, related to their mind, like Jamil and his “Snake whisper”?

Let me introduce this beautiful concept called “Oneiromancy”

Oneiromancy is a magical ability were the user can gain insight into a question or situation by way of dreams. Sounds familiar? The person that uses this ability can read/know the future, present or past intrerpreting what they’re dreaming, a variation of Divination which is a really useful and complex type of magic.

Inside the Oneiromancy we have different subdivisions and most of them fit perfectly with Yuu:

Retrognitive dreaming: The user can perceive events of the past while in a dreaming state.

We all know that Yuu has been dreaming with the events of the past, the story of each one of the Great Seven, It happens even if they’re not close to the mirror, for example chap. 2, in Leona’s room.

Precognitive dreaming: The user can perceive events that will take place in the future by dreaming and interpreting the meaning.

Every dream Yuu had so far guide us to another overblot, now if Yuu connects the dots and interperts the different meanings they could prevent all the overblots by acting since the very beginning, when the crisis is starting. Of course this is a very complex ability, we can’t blame Yuu.

SPOILER ALERT (!)

But I won’t stop here, because in chap.6 we see how Yuu had a vision of their dream minutes before Vil had his overblot and Yuu decides to chase after Vil because of that, they knew something was wrong.

Yuu might be able to apply Retrocognition and Precognition even if they’re not sleeping, maybe their abilities are getting stronger?

Precognition: The power to see future events before they happen.

Some users can see the events like a déjà vu, but not always it must be so direct, in Yuu’s case it’s more open to interpretations. Yuu had a vision with the exact moment where the witch poisons the red apple and what happened in the real world? Vil almost kills Neige in the same way. That was not a coincidence.

Retrocognition: The user can disern events from the past.

You can call it too past evocation or past vision, which is basically what Yuu does, don’t you think? If Yuu is not special and had not magic why they’re the only one student having those dreams and visions?

As I was telling, I think Yuu’s magic is not physical, Yuu’s magic is part of the Spiritual powers/magic. If my theory is correct and true IT WOULD BE SO COOL but we still have two and a half chapters to go. I like the idea of beast tamer too tho.

Please remember this theory was made only for fun, Yuu can be an ordinary human and that’s all. I just like when a little bit of spice is added to the food. Sorry for possible mistakes, I’m sleepy

What do you think?

#twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland mc #twst theory #twisted wonderland theory #twst yuu #twst x reader

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theblackrivergame · 2 years

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hi ^^

i found your game yesterday and have been playing the demo, im really liking it so far but i have a few questions.

ive been playing with all the hints and everything on and a few things caught my attention

(i haven't finished the demo yet so maybe some of the questions get answered in the part i haven't read yet. feel free to ignore if thats the case 😅)

1. when you first meet soillere and ask him questions, there's this option that gives +1 to his 'ascension' stat. what is the ascension stat? what does it mean/do?

2. is there a way to check your relationship with the characters? there have been several chances to increase or decrease the relationship and i like keeping check of how everyone feels about the MC, so i was wondering if that is already in the demo or will be added eventually? (or not)

3. what are all the different familiars you can get if you play as Lamerran?

thank you!

Hi, thank you for your message!

Some of these have some spoilers of various levels in their answers, so I'll give a brief explanation first and then go a bit more in-depth under a cut so that people can avoid spoilers if they prefer.

1. each of the characters has a secondary stat that helps govern their behaviour and some of their decision-making. These can be raised or lowered completely separately to their base approval stat, though in some cases things like being cruel to the character might lower a Trust stat as well as their approval, for example.

2. If you click on the link marked "Character" at the bottom of the UI, it will take you to a page where you can view various stats regarding your character; as you progress through the game, your pc will write down some thoughts regarding each of the characters you've encountered. It doesn't open up properly until partway through the chapter, though, so you might need to play a little longer to reach it. Currently this - a text-based summary - will be the only way to really check on your relationships with the characters (other than how they behave towards you in the game at least), as I don't plan to display a numerical measurement of peoples' relationships.

I know some games do that, and some players like it as a system, but I just personally don't feel that it fits very well with the game's mood and tone. Being able to use the hints to see which choices raise and lower certain things should at least give an idea of which direction you're heading in, hopefully.

3. This is an exciting question! I've been hoping someone would ask haha.

The non-spoilery answer is that your soul-familiar is determined at least in part by your faction (which god you choose to follow, or whichever one is randomly selected if you choose to have amnesia). Because lamerran soul-familiars often reflect aspects of their partner's personality, members of each of the four churches almost always have a familiar that reflects the symbolism of their gods.

Your soul-familiar will be determined outright in the next chapter when you select a class (there's a different one each for magic users, ranged fighters and melee fighters), if you don't have amnesia. (It's a Bit more complicated if you do.)

More spoilery answers below here!

Regarding the Ascension stat in specific, it's a stat that all four of the main ghost characters (Soillere, Barthelemy, Bettina and Gervaise) each have, that governs in general how each of them feels about moving on to their next lives to reincarnate. You can raise or lower this stat without any real correlation with approval in most cases (although again something like being cruel isn't likely to make them feel At Peace); it's more closely related to the PC's faith than whether or not they're good friends with the characters in question.

At the start of the game, Soillere, Barthelemy and Bettina's Ascension stats all begin quite low (functional 0), whereas Gervaise's is sort of... middling. Obviously if you're looking to pursue a relationship with any of the three ROs involved, you might want to consider which options you think are best, but the whole thing will obviously become more complex and nuanced as I write more of the game.

As for the soul-familiars, the full list is here:

The Hallowed Heart

magic user: turtle dove

ranged fighter: kangaroo

melee fighter: ram

The Spectral Court

magic user: owl

ranged fighter: wolverine

melee fighter: stag

The Judiciary

magic user: blue kingfisher

ranged fighter: giant river otter

melee fighter: tiger

The Gatherers

magic user: raven

ranged fighter: dog (a Romanian Raven Shepard Dog, to be exact)

melee fighter: black bear

Thank you again for your ask! I hope that all this helped to answer your questions!

#ask #anon #the black river if #black river spoilers #ro: soillere dujardin #ro: barthelemy l'olonnais #ro: gervaise suvillier #Lore #lamerran lore #long post.

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azazelsconfessional · 3 years

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((so i was gonna open up my askbox again but I got distracted doing this and watching streams i think idr what i did the past few hours, buuut there's something I need to cover first, especially since there are so many new people around! Hello! Especially since so many of you are playing OCs/MCs.

Don't worry, it's a tip to hopefully help you along! It may get a little long, especially as I try and provide examples. . .but hopefully it'll help.

I'm gonna talk a lot about OCs but this applies to canon characters too a bit. It certainly helps.

Tl;dr, you should have a character profile page.

(also remember that tumblr mobile doesn't really have direct access to Pages made with the Pages function on desktop, so you'll have to link them manually in your pinned or description or host them on another site(I used Google Docs in the apst) or in a regular post(this makes it very easy to lose as a forewarning) for maximum accessibility!)

(rules pages are also really really handy if you have alot of resteictions.)

So, in general, OCs have a bit of a lower reception rate in rp. Idk if that'll be the case here with MCs because they're, well, the main character. Housamo is also a series that lends itself well to OCs pretty well, especially non-human ones, but I figured I'd warn for that.

BUT. That doesn't mean you shouldn't play an OC! It just means there are things you need to keep in mind!

Think of all of the OCs you've seen--you all seem to be fun and wonderful people, and your characters are surely interesting. But. . .if you don't tell anybody about them, nobody will know what's going on or where to start, which makes asking questions a little hard, right? That's easier to work around with MC characters--we've played the game, we know the story, we know the characters, so we can figure out questions fairly easily based on that alone and go from there.

But with other OCs, especially those that don't represent charactera from mythology or fiction like many other characters in housamo do, there's like. Nowhere to start. We may see a face or some dialogue, but otherwise we don't have a frame of reference.

That's where a profile comes in!

Azazel-mun, I don't want to share all of the info about my character at once!

What if I don't know everything about my OC yet and want to figure it out along thw way?

The profile doesn't have to be super detailed! At most it shoule include things like the character's name and age and probably things like their location, profession, grade in school or place of work, etc., and anything you'd notice on the surface like their apperance. It's never a bad thing to include a description of their personality too, or a small section about their history/background. Little things that even you should probably know, too.

You can also section your profile off a bit into things like "surface info," "meta info," "things you could easily figure out about them," etc. That way, no one can spoil themself. Making lists like this can help you think these things through if you haven't already as well.

Let's use Azazel, a character that you probably know already, as an example here. I don't have a profile set

Name: Azazel

Species: Fallen Angel; Capra Therian - an anthropomorphic Goat (?)

Gender(pronouns): Male(he/him)

Age: difficult to calculate; several thousand years old?

Apperance age: hard to say, he's not human. Adult.

Origins: banished from his home world of Eden, has been in the human world for several thousand years

Profession: Priest of dubious denomination, most likely Catholic or Protestant; teacher at Daikanyama Academy; de facto head of the Missionaries Non-Profit charity Organization; supervisor of the Aoyama Missionaries

Role & Rule: Watcher; Revelation - allows him to see anything within the territory of the Aoyama Missionaries and anywhere the pages of his Artifact see

Apperance: Azazel is a 5'10"(180cm) tall, anthropomorphic goat of ambiguous breed, with fawn fur all over his body and lighter fur on his head and around his neck. He has brown, riged horns which curve out and back. Though his eyes are often closed, when opened they're red. He always carried around a leather bound bible with an eye on the cover, and is never seen without several chains on his person, although only the one(s) around his neck can be seen unless he's undressed.

He wears a black priest's cassock with a maroon sash and a capelet of the same color, with the same eye as on his bible on the shoulders of the cape, and brown dress shoes. The front of the robe is always open to expose his bare chest and the chains beneath.

Personality: Azazel is kind and doting, very fitting of both a teacher and priest, although his openly flirtatious, lustful, and secretive nature causes others to distrust him. He doesn't mind this at all. He has a strong adoration for humans, and values love in all of its forms more than anything. He's a bit of a passive person, often being unmotivated but working hard regardless, and seems to prefer to watch others and the world go by, although he won't decline most invitations to take part in it. He is always aware of anything that happens within the extensive territory of the Missionaries, and seems to know and see just about everything about anyone he meets, from their surface to their soul. . . .

If you know Azazel, or take note of some of the wording or question marks, you'll note I didn't explain everything(although I may have shared more than you want to.) This is just a bare bones exampe of how I do my profiles--but it can get even more bare!

I'll do two this time, a more vague version of Azazel's, and another that obscures information all together, using the same or a similar format to the above.

Name: Azazel

Species: anthropomorphic goat

Gender(pronouns): male (he/him)

Age: unquestionably an adult

Origins: Eden

Profession: Priest; teacher; head of a charity NPO; member of the Missionaries

Apperance: Horned goatman of slightly above average human height. Light brown fur, blond fur-hair, red eyes. Wears priest robes and a gold chain around his neck and chest. Carries around a bible with an eye on it?

Personality: Kind of eerie, but friendly and affectionate. A little flirtatious, especially towards humans. Seems to know everything about people for some reason?

Compare it to the one before--see how I've left even more things off or left things ambiguous while still sharing what's necessary or surface level? However, it's also not as engaging or as informative as the other one where I gave more information.

As someone who plays him, profiles like this aren't as helpful for me lol since he knows so much about everyone and everything, having a lot of details helps me play my character!

Now, as helpful as this is, this is also a character you probably know. So how about I do this with an OC? Normally I'm extremely detailed in my profiles and such, especially for OCs, sharing headcanons and ideas for relationships between characters. But, again, I'll try and show how you can show some info while leaving some up to people to ask about to later be filled in.

Name: Kezia

Faceclaim/Art Source: [this is where you would put where you get the art for any icons you use--if you draw it yourself, say so; if you use official art from a series, credit the name of the character and the series; if you use picrews, link the specific picrews. DO NOT USE ART YOU HAVE NOT BEEN PERMITTED TO USE. DO NOT STEAL ART. IF YOU CAN'T FIND THE CREDIT, ASK SOMEONE TO HELP YOU, DO NOT JUST SAY THAT IT ISN'T YOURS. DO NOT USE ART YOU HAVE NOT BEEN GIVEN PERMISSION TO USE OR THAT ISN'T FROM A SERIES OF SOME SORT.]

Species: Human

Gender(pronouns): Female (she/her)

Age: mid 20's~early 30's?

Apperance age: older than she looks?

Origins: Tokyo?

Profession: Professor; Witch

Apperance: A fidgety woman who looks older than she is. She looks anxious and confused as often as she looks curious and confident. Wavy light brown hair. Often carries around schoolbooks and is never alone, always with a Rattus Therian and often with a Nyarlathotep.

Personality: seemingly anxious, but curious and exploratative nonetheless. On the awkward side, but can still keep up with the Nyarls that accompany her. Gets into trouble when she gets ahead of herself in exploring and learning about the arcane, but her Rule allows her to disappear easily.

History: Has always been curious about magic and attempted to run through a Gate when they began to open up. Performed a summon and brought a certain transients to Tokyo and recieved her familiar and the magic to use her Rule as a result. Currently teaches at a college. She stumbled into a certain someone while attempting to explore time, and became a fan ever since.

That tells you a fair amount, doesn't it? Even for someone you don't know? It may even raise some questions that you could ask. At the same time, it doesn't tell you that much, and that can be as much of a hindrance for coming up with questions as saying too much can. It's really up to you what's too much and too little. Here's a more detailed version! Some things have been left vague or confusing in such a way that they could be filled in after being revealed through asks and play. That way, people are encouraged to/given ideas of what to ask--and you can still share things in the long run.

Name: Kezia

Faceclaim/Art Source: [N/A]

Species: Human

Gender(pronouns): Female (she/her)

Age: mid 20's~early 30's?

Apperance age: somewhere in her 30's, maybe even a little older

Origins: Tokyo, with some sort of connection to at least one other world

Profession: Professor of [?] at [?] Academy; Witch

Role & Rule: [?] & [?]

Artifact, Summon, Familiar?: Always accompanied by at least one Nyarlathotep and some sort of man-rat? She also carries around a book that's labeled as a Grimoire, but it's rare for someone to be both a summon-user and an Artifact-user. . . .

Apperance: A fidgety older woman wearing a labcoat and a witch's hat. She looks quite stressed and has trouble sitting still. Her ashy brown hair is thin and a little wavy, with some strands of gray. Although she often squints, she doesn't wear glasses. She carries around a lot of books relating to maths and sciences and one labeled 'Grimoire' decorated with arcane symbols from Gehenna and Old Ones. She's always accompanied by at least one Nyarlathotep and a very short, bearded man who can best be described as a brown rat therian with a human-like face. Sometimes there's a normal rat on her person or in her pockets.

Personality: Kezia is a fidgety and anxious magic practitioner. She's very curious about other worlds and has been since the Gates appeared in this Tokyo since she was a child, however she has been pursuing magic before then. She often appears somewhat confused about or fascenated by even her usual surroundings, but, at other times moves through the world with confidence even in unfamiliar territory. She also likes rats and other rodents, and as such will often avoid felines and birds of prey. She has a tendency to disappear, seeming to walk through walls despite assuredly being alive.

She's a little bit awkward with people, but somehow keeps up with Nyarlathoteps nonetheless. She's a good teacher, once she figures out how to explain things in ways others can understand easily, but can be a bit difficult to follow and flighty up until then. Aware of this, she's rather patient, if a little down on herself at times. However, she most often simply has her mind elsewhere. Despite this and the company she keeps, she's relatively sane. . .most of the time.

She shares a name with a witch from the world of Old Ones who made a pact with Nyarlathotep, believing him to be the Devil. . .and the ratman always at her side uses the same name as that witch's familiar as well. It's. . .probably just a coincidence. . .who would rightfully make a pact with Nyarlathotep?

History: Kezia is an adult human from this Tokyo before the apperance of the Gates and construction of the Walls. She's explored various witchcraft pursuits since she was a child, with what was originally a mere imaginative curiosity and fascination. After the arrival of the Gates when she was still young, she snuck over the fences built around one and attempted to go inside the massive pillar of light, which she attributes to the reason she often seems to struggle with her vision. Several years later, she performed a successful summon and she recieved her familiar, Brown Jenkin, transformed into a somewhat therian form from one of her pet rats, and was given some powers from Nyarlathotep. She has no discernable control over any of the chaotic creatures, however they seem to spend time around her regardless.

At present she's a professor of a subject that interests her at a certain college. She's had other dangerous run-ins due to her excitement over the arcane and "darker" arts, but doesn't seem to show any signs of stopping. However, after an incident in an attempt to explore time itself, she encountered a certain guardian of time and feels reluctant for once to explore it further. . .although she's become quite a big fan of his.

. . .i ran out of steam amd kinda lost track of where i was going. idk if that helped at all really. But maybe it did! I hope it did. You don't need to use any of those things exactly by any means, but that's the kind of thing you usually see in profile pages. Basics like someone's name and birthday and age and apperance and a little about their personality, maybe some history. Oftentimes things like powers and weapons and the like. Interests, hobbies, ways they could be intereacted with, etc. Just stuff that'd help you know the character.

I write everything in paragraph form, but everyone is more than welcome to use a more script format. I love making profiles, myself--it really helps to think about the character and details about them. Normally I make really, really detailed profiles, but maybe I'll try and be more simple about it this time around. depends on how i'm feeling.

I know this seems weirdly hypocritical given I don't have one but when I first made this blog there were like four of us including myself. I didn't see the need for a rules or profile page because I didn't anticipate that there'd be so many of us or, like, people from other fandoms or who aren't familiar with certain characters. I'll rectify that soon hopefully. But I figured I'd pass along this idea/knowledge to others.

. . .I'm gonna go reopen my askbox now. Feel free to send asks again, ask about this, etc! You can send me an IM too if you want. I'll properly close up the guest event tomorrow. I'm real tired rn lol so idk how much i'll get done, but i usually do things super late at night my time, so i have some time to pull my shit together haha))

#ooc #((anyway i'm gonna open the askbox and crawl into a hole))#((i got nothing done lol i was so engaged with something else all week))

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loosescrewslefty · 5 years

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Miraculous Ladybug- Fixing the Powers

I’ve been very much bothered by the way that the writing team for Miraculous Ladybug has been handling powers for a long time now. It might not be as frustrating or offensive as how they sometimes treat the characters and their relationships, but it BOTHERS me. Because it doesn’t make sense that Adults are more powerful than kids just by the grace of being an adult if the magic comes from a kwami and the jewelry and as such the age of the wearer shouldn’t matter as much. And objectively speaking, there as several ‘minor’ miraculouses that seem WAY more powerful than the two that are supposed to be the most coveted, the Ladybug and Chat Noir miraculouses. Also both the addition of the potions AND the distinctions given to some of the miraculouses/kwamis (Such as Pollen being the ‘Kwami of Subjugation’) are just... ODD. So a while back I sat down and charted out a way to ‘fix’ the powers in Miraculous Ladybug, much like I’ve seen others fix plots and characters.

More Clearly based on Yin/Yang, Wu Xing, and the Zodiacs

I can’t tell you how much it annoys me that Astruc clearly chose these Chinese motifs for the aesthetic, and didn’t bother researching or properly applying any of the theology attached to them to his show. Ladybug and Chat Noir SHOULD be equal, and balance one another out, but they’re not. Instead, Ladybug gets way more power and importance than Chat Noir does. And the Wu Xing Cycle is an important one too, because that’s nature holding itself in check.

The Wu Xing has four different cycles attached to it; the Creation Cycle, the Destruction Cycle, the Insult Cycle, and the Controlling Cycle. It could have been interesting to lean into this, so that pairing two miraculous heroes together can lead to new powers being unlocked, depending on the two in question, and that if a Hawkmoth happens, there are two heroes other than Ladybug and Chat who’d be able to step up and confront him.

New Stations/Distinctions for the Kwamis

It bothers me that the distinctions chosen for the Kwami feel extremely random, and don’t fit together at all. Nooroo is “Generosity”, Trixx is “Deception”, Pollen is “Subjugation”, Wayzz is “Protection”, and Duusuu is “Emotion.” Like, on their own these are fine. But none of them really relate to one another in a way that makes sense, which the Wu Xing SHOULD. As much as it annoys me, I can sorta understand why it would be a bad idea to attach the specific elements themselves to each Miraculous, because then people will expect the powers of that miraculous to relate to that element, which is very limiting. The Wu Xing is about much more than just nature and the elements. It’s also used to reference the passing of time, physical parts of the body, emotions, cardinal directions and so much more.

But I still feel that the Distinctions for each Kwami and their powers should be presented in a what where it makes sense to see them relating to one another. One way I’ve suggested for people to do this is to include Ladybug and Chat in the consideration and base each of the Kwamis off of one of the Seven Chakras. But another way I like much better is to consider the kwamis in relation to what area their abilities will affect. For Example; Fox- Mind (Wood) Bee- Energy (Fire) Turtle- Body (Earth) Peacock- Soul (Metal) Butterfly- Heart (Water)

These are things you can tell at a glance relate to one another, without limiting the kwamis too much to being one trick ponies. And speaking of limits...

Limits are based on internal balance, not age

In an effort to make the sage figure that is supposed to be Fu NOT look like he has sand for brains and decided it’d be a good idea to give his chosen heroes a massive handicap against the villain right out of the gate, we’re going to change up the limiter for the Miraculouses. Rather than being based on age, the thing that determines how well you use a miraculous is your affiliation with the element/distinction that the Miraculous represents. Let’s use Kim as an example here. He’s very energetic and driven, so he’d have a great time with either the Bee or the Turtle, but give him the Peacock, the Butterfly, or the Fox, and things will get a hell of a lot harder for him. On the exact flip side, Juleka would be great with the Peacock, Butterfly, or Fox, but would struggle with the Bee or the Turtle.

Having the powers draw off of being able to synchronize with that power/ability due to personality makes sense, and is more true to the concepts that Miraculous Ladybug is trying to present than claiming that it’s because of age. And the beauty of this is that people can grow and change at any point in their life, which means that they can learn and change and miraculouses that they once struggled with can become easier for them to use while ones they once used easily can slip from their grasp if they begin to neglect that aspect of themselves.

More Clear and Understandable Power Pyramid

This is one of the things that bothers me MOST about how they’ve been handling the powers. We’re supposed to see Ladybug and Chat Noir’s miraculouses as the be all/end all, but many of the zodiac miraculouses seem much more powerful than them, and even the Peacock and Butterfly can create opponents that are more than a match for the Lucky Duo. Not to mention the fact that, as I said before, the Lucky Duo itself is imbalanced due to Ladybug getting all the power in their relationship. So the best way to fix that?

Power Pyramid.

By this, I mean that instead of all miraculouses just getting one power and calling it a day, it makes more sense to present the powers as an almost ‘trickle’ effect. To start off, Zodiacs get defined by a single element and whichever side of Yin/Yang they fall on, and get their power based on that. For example, the Dragon. That is a Yang/Earth (Body) Personality, who uses the elements in an aggressive way. Meanwhile, Snake is a Yin/Fire (Energy), so they require someone who comes across as passive, but is actually patient and knows to wait for the precise moment to strike.

Next level up from the Zodiac Miraculouses, we have the Wu Xing/Elemental Miraculouses. Rather than just one power, each Wu Xing Miraculous should get two, one based on it’s “Yin” Abilities, and one for it’s “Yang.” the way I broke it down when I was working this out for examples went like so;

Trixx

Fox Powers/Mind

Yang- Mirage

Creates an illusion of the user’s choosing.

Yin- Outfox

Gives the user the ability to convince the victim that anything they’re saying is true.

Pollen

Bee Powers/Energy

Yang- Nectar

Ability to heal injuries and cure illnesses (not as strong as Miraculous Cure)

Yin- Sting

Causes temporary paralysis

Wayzz

Turtle Powers/Body

Yang- Shell-ture

Creates an impenetrable shield

Yin- Withdraw

Teleportation ability that allows the user to put people and object of their desire in a pocket dimension of their own making for protection.

Duusu

Peacock Powers/Soul

Yang- Good Spirits

Creates a golem/familiar of sorts that is bonded to a certain person or object and protects them at all costs.

Yin- Soul Search

Allows the user to leave their body and enter another persons to take control of their actions and peer into their memories.

Nooroo

Butterfly Powers/Heart

Yang- Metamorphosis

Creates heroes to fight alongside the user

Yin- Butterfly Effect

Allows a brief glimpse into the future

And then after the Elements, at the top of the Pyramid we have Ladybug and Chat Noir, who get a whopping FIVE power each, but can only access those powers when they are in tune with that aspect of themselves, much like using the lesser miraculouses. For Example, Marinette’s Ladybug Can easily do the Mind, Energy, and Heart powers, but has a much, MUCH harder time with the Soul one, because she tends to read people at face value rather than trying to see beneath the surface. Adrien’s Chat Noir is excellent with the Body and Energy powers, but struggles much more with Mind (linked to one’s creativity) and Heart (Based on people’s abilities to connect with others, something Adrien struggles with after being home schooled his entire life) My idea for the Ladybug and Chat Noir powers look like this;

Tikki

Ladybug Powers:

Positive Heart- (Healing)

Miraculous Ladybug/Miraculous Cure

Heals all wounds, restores everything to its proper state

Positive Mind- (Inspiration)

Lucky Charm

Grants Ladybug an object to help her win

Positive Energy- (Creating)

Wish Come True

Allows Ladybug to will into existence something of her own choosing

Positive Body- (Protecting)

Elytron

Allows Ladybug to recreate both her own suit and the suits of her allies to help them fight (space suits, ice skating form, underwater suits, ect)

Positive Soul- (Life)

Red Thread

Ladybug has a limited ability to communicate with plants and animals, extending some of her power to them. Also works on humans, if the person trusts Ladybug enough to basically let her see into their very soul.

Plagg

Chat Noir Powers:

Negative Heart- (Toxicity)

Cat Scratch

Curses the victim with a lingering sickness that can only be healed by Ladybug.

Negative Mind- (Madness)

Cheshire Cat

Causes temporary insanity, which varies from victim to victim.

Negative Energy- (Destruction)

Cataclysm

Destroys anything the user touches.

Negative Body- (Weakness)

Catatonic

Puts the victim to sleep.

Negative Soul- (Death)

Catacomb

Allows the user to see, touch and summon spirits/ghosts

And that’s the basic breakdown of how I feel the powers of the ML universe SHOULD be handled instead. Feel free to comment with thoughts and inputs of your own and ask questions if any of this doesn’t make sense! ^^

#miraculous ladybug #marinette dupain-cheng #adrien agreste #gabriel agreste #master fu #hawkmoth #ml: ladybug #ml: chat noir #power fix #canon fix #yin/yang #wu xing #zodiacs

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dwellordream · 3 years

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A Six of Crows Review: Joost and Inej I

This marks the beginning of my review of Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. Before I go any further, I want to provide context for my experience/knowledge of the book and its fandom. Six of Crows was published in 2015 when I was 16. I picked it up in a bookstore and read the first few chapters idly while shopping, before putting it back down.

At the time, my dislike of what I’d read was probably primarily fueled by the realization that it was by the same author as Shadow and Bone, which I had tried to read a few years before and disliked, and because at the time I was aging out of the YA genre in general and had very little patience for many of its familiar tropes.

In recent years, Six of Crows and its companion and predecessor series, the Grisha Trilogy, have become one of the most popular YA series online. The avid fan response and promotion of it on social media no doubt led to the Netflix series being greenlit and it is obviously trending at present due to the success of the series. With all that in mind, I’ve decided to try Six of Crows again and see for myself what all the hype is about.

Some more caveats: I am 22 years old. I am aware Six of Crows is YA literature intended for a middle and high school audience. I will not be holding it to the standards I would hold an adult grade fantasy book, in terms of prose, themes, or content. I am aware that I am not necessarily the target audience for the book and these reviews are in no way intended to shame or disparage anyone who enjoys the book.

Criticism is a healthy part of any fandom and does not necessarily constitute hate. I will likely critique elements of the book in my write up. That does not mean I have a personal vendetta against the author, publishers, or the TV show. Please do not take this as a personal attack if you’ve enjoyed the book. This is just intended to promote discussion and to gather my own thoughts.

If you follow me, I am tagging this as ‘in review’ so you know what to block if you don’t want to see my posts on your dash. I will be going through 1-2 chapters per weekend. This weekend I will be looking at the prologue, aka Joost, and the first Inej chapter.

Jumping into things, here is Joost:

The prologue is our introduction to Ketterdam, the setting of Six of Crows. It’s been a very long time since I read Shadow and Bone and so all I really know is that Ketterdam is a city in an island known as Kerch, based off the map. The major countries or kingdoms of the mainland to the east appear to be Fjerda, Ravka, and Shu Han, though it is unclear how they differ from one another at this point.

Ketterdam through Joost’s eyes is a sinister and dreary place, a city under a grimy night sky and full of dangers. Joost works as a hired guard for a very wealthy man named Hoede, who keeps grishas, powerful magic users, as indentured servants. Joost is infatuated with one of them, Anya, a healer, though he knows she is not likely to return his affections and furthermore cannot wed without the permission of her owner. We also learn that grishas are at risk for being kidnapped and sold by slavers due to their value. However, the indentured servant system of Ketterdam thus far doesn’t seem to be much better than slavery, given how little freedom the grisha have.

Overall, the prologue is supposed to give us a sense for the setting of Ketterdam and interest us in the main hook of the novel, which seems to be a mysterious substance that grisha can ingest to heighten their powers for the benefit of their masters, though it has the risks of making them uncontrollable. How well is this done?

Through Joost’s perspective we can glean several things; Ketterdam is a dirty city with rampant income inequality, full of crime and corruption. Magic is an established system within Ketterdam, but the magic users do not seem to be at the type of the hierarchy despite their powers, which suggests they are a minority to the extent of which they can still be controlled by the elite class of non magic users, if they have enough money and power.

It is also very obvious through the references in the prologue that Ketterdam is heavily based off the Netherlands during the Golden Age, which was Amsterdam’s (Ketterdam… Amsterdam… not subtle) economic and cultural boom during the 17th century, aka the 1600s. Notably the world’s first stock exchange began in Amsterdam in 1602, and it was a major port and trading hub for the Dutch East and Dutch West India Companies.

It is not clear if Ketterdam is also intended to be a 1600s-esque society, timeline wise, but we know that rifles are common place and there is a thriving merchant class who rule as opposed to old aristocracy, which seems to indicate a Renaissance style setting, as well as the urban environment in general. (That said, from the advertisements for the Netflix show, they seem to have updated it to a more Victorian-era 1800s society, in terms of fashion and general aesthetics).

Overall, the prologue does its job. It gives us a vague idea of what Ketterdam is like, how the society is structured, and who holds the power. It also ends on a suspenseful cliffhanger, leaving Joost’s fate unclear. Where it falls flat is that I think a little more time could have been spent fleshing out Joost as a narrator, even if this is his only showing in the book.

His internal monologue comes across as a bit dry and mechanical, as if the author is aware he is just a means to an end to start the book off with a bang, and he quickly turns into a walking camera (just there to report events to the reader, with no internal input from him), for the second half of the prologue, as we switch to just watching Anya and Hoede through his eyes. That said, it’s not a major problem, as Joost is clearly not intended to be a main character, and his narration still effectively conveys what is happening and sets the dark tone of the novel.

What I would have liked to see from the prologue is perhaps the POV of Anya herself, or the small child she is being forced to experiment on, as that might have been a more compelling and immerse introduction to Ketterdam and its dangers rather than the fairly bland and neutral Joost, who doesn’t really feel like a character so much as a bland stand-in for the reader. If we were put in the shoes of Anya, suddenly called upon by her power hungry employer to participate in this unethical test, or in the shoes of the small boy caught up in the middle of this, it might have been both more thrilling to read and given a more gritty sense of what it’s like to be on the lowest rungs of Ketterdam’s society, at the mercy of the most powerful.

Moving onto Inej, we run into some similar problems. After Inej’s first chapter, I couldn’t tell you a single thing about her, other than that she was an acrobat as a child, that she is part of the street gang known as the Dregs, and that she intensely values loyalty. This isn’t a problem, per say, but while that’s all good to know, it doesn’t give me any sense of Inej’s actual personality, which doesn’t exactly bode well. Like Joost, she comes across more as a walking camera and occasional tourist guide as opposed to a human character with her own worries, hopes, and fears.

I think this may become a recurring problem with Bardugo’s writing - ie all tell, no show. Inej is good at telling things. She tells us where we are as we follow her to the location of a stand-off between rival gangs, she tells us that Kaz, their leader ‘doesn’t need a reason’, though she never exactly explains what that means other than that he is widely feared, she tells us that she is very fond of her knives.

But in terms of writing, we shouldn’t have to be force fed all this information via her internal monologue, which, again, entirely cuts out once the action picks up, just like Joost’s. While I don’t need her thoughts on every threat or gunshot, it would be nice to feel as if she hadn’t just vanished from the story completely as soon as the dialogue starts.

We also meet Kaz and Jesper, though I couldn’t tell you much about them utter than that Inej clearly admires, even venerates Kaz as an accomplished intimidator and chess master, and that Jesper is clearly the joker of the group.

It also feels incredibly weird that this parley between gangs in happening in front of the city’s stock exchange. Inej tells us this is because the Exchange is one of the few remaining neutral territories, but it’s also heavily guarded, which means every time a gang wants to parley, they have to pay out the cash to bribe all the guards to very pointedly ignore a meeting between rambunctious and trigger happy street gangsters on their literal doorstep.

I understand why Bardugo chose this location, wanting to contrast the violence of the gang members with the economic injustice that the Exchange and its merchant rulers represents, but it just seems a bit silly. They couldn’t meet at the docks? In an alley way? This is like picturing the American Mafia hosting a public meeting at the New York Stock Exchange with a bunch of cops twiddling their thumbs nearby.

The foreshadowing that Bollinger is the traitor (‘I’m not going to bet on my own death’) also seems very heavy handed and a little much, but I’ll let it slide.

It’s also not really clear while Inej is present at this meeting in the first place. Kaz commands her to keep watch from above, but he has also put a contingency plan in place that doesn’t even involve her, having bought out some of Geels’ men from under him. Why put Inej looking down from above if you’re not involving her in this plan? Her only role seems to be to watch, and she doesn’t even have a gun she could play sniper with. It just seems like a hamfisted way of getting Inej out of the danger zone so the author can have her as a passive spectator to the violence that follows.

This is my main problem with this chapter. It’s supposed to introduce us to Inej, but really, it’s introducing us to Kaz. Which is fine, but as he also has a POV in this book, it seems a bit lame that her own chapter is completely overtaken by showing off A. his smarts and B. how dangerous he is, despite being dismissed as a young ‘cripple’ by the likes of Geels.

Geels is also… not a greatly done villain. I get that he’s supposed to be small fry and is just a precursor to much more threatening opponents, but his every line of dialogue feels designed to show off how cool and Machiavellian Kaz is in comparison. He doesn’t seem like an actual hardened criminal who has underestimated his opponent, but a somewhat cheesy cartoon thug who unironically says things like “How are you going to wriggle your way out of this one?” with his full chest. The effect is comical, and not in a good way.

This chapter also shows off Kaz’s sadistic side in full display, which is probably one of the only interesting things about it, though it would be nice if we got any input at all from Inej on this… instead she completely vanishes from her own narration, to the point where she might as well not be present at all. Kaz has no qualms about tracking down his enemies’ weakness, such as lovers and family, and threatening them.

But the open horror and shock Geels reacts with seems incongruent, as if Kaz were the first up and coming gangster to actually consider threatening someone’s family or girlfriend. That seems pretty par for the course for violent criminals trying to claim territory and unnerve their rivals, yet Inej and Geels himself react as if no one had ever thought of sinking to the level of ‘do what I want or I’ll kill your loved ones’ until Kaz invented it. It just feels a bit silly and on the nose.

Really, my overarching issue with this chapter is that it’s not about Inej at all, it’s just an introduction to the Kaz Brekker fan club. I don’t automatically hate Kaz as a character, but his introduction is heavyhanded and comes at the cost of any establishing character moments for Inej. The most we get out of her is her brief pangs of sympathy for Bollinger despite his treachery, and her brief reference to her childhood. Maybe future Inej chapters will totally change this, but right now, it’s not a great sign of what’s to come.

I can think of about a hundred things Inej could have done or said this chapter to develop or establish her personality at all, but all we got was her briefly holding a knife to someone, and her briefly saying a prayer for Bollinger. I think it would have worked much better had this plan to catch Geels with his pants down been Inej’s invention or at least worked out between her and Kaz, rather than her just there to play lookout and admire how cool Kaz is.

Or at the very least, we could have seen the scene referenced where she searches the crime scene of the assassination, instead of that getting two lines and an entire chapter being devoted to what boils down to a pissing contest over which gangs gets rights to a certain neighborhood.

Next week, we will look at Kaz I.

#in review #six of crows #ya lit #inej ghafa

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vaguely-concerned · 4 years

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The Mandalorian Chapter 13 reactions

Well, that was... well. in short I quite enjoyed some of what happened while din was there and I didn’t really care about what happened while he wasn’t there lol. I think it’s becoming increasingly clear that I just don’t care for the episodes dave filoni writes for this show, which is simply a matter of taste I guess.

(if you loved this episode wholeheartedly -- probably look away now, I’m going to be a bit of a downer about it and I don’t want to shit on your joy haha)

- let’s just get this out of the way first: there’s a lot of stuff around rosaria dawson and transphobia in real life and yeah, of course that affects how I watch the show. I don’t even want to talk that much about ahsoka in this because of it. she was not that good in the role, after seeing how it played out I don’t think the character needed to be in this show at all, and she should never have gotten the role in the first place and that’s about it for what I’ve got to say.

- dave filoni consistently does things with din’s characterization that feels off and weird to me, subtly out of place with what we see in other episodes (he’s... ruder? more short tempered/cocky/actively or aggressively interpersonal? more prone to express himself directly than he is usually? idk how to describe it but filoni!din always feels one step to the left of what he should be and I’m so hyper-attuned to this character that when something’s a bit iffy with him it throws everything else off haha. it feels like a shallower, more convenient read on him and I don’t like it)

I also think filoni is almost too familiar with and in love with the source material sometimes? “A Mandalorian and a Jedi? They’ll never see it coming” is undeniably a great line that echoes in decades of deep lore and so on, but dave my good man din had no real idea what a jedi even is until literally this morning. we, the audience, know about this long and storied history, but unless ahsoka spent the afternoon explaining it to him din still only knows the faint outlines of it, he has no personal experience of or attachment to it. it’s not bad, as such, it just rings false to the character based tone of the show for me personally

- positivity break: baby sitting perched on the dashboard to be close to papa while they’re in hyperspace........sd sdfskdjhfdsakjksdhfkasjd

also this is some full on madonna and child in the manger shit and I am LIVING for it (odds he’s crying quietly behind the helmet here? pretty damn good if you ask me). the mundanity of what’s essentially the shitty spartan bathroom of the razor crest on one side contrasted with the light and tenderness and love on the other? amazing, a perfect microcosm of what this show does with combining the grittier everyday down to earth stuff in the star wars universe with myth and wonder and magic and through it elevating both

- the idea of having an iconique samurai/sword duel standoff and a western standoff going on simultaneously is genuinely inspired, but in action it didn’t really work for me. (the sword duel stuff needs these moments of stillness with sudden outbursts of violence and then stillness again, the western standoff needs mounting tension until it’s nearly unbearable, and cutting between them the way they did you sort of didn’t get either to its full potential. again it’s a cool idea, though, I hope someone picks it up and does it better at some point)

- seeing a jedi and a mandalorian wander together through a burned out wasteland left desolate by greed and warfare should have hit me harder than it did but for some reason it didn’t, idk. thematically sound, though, I like it a lot on the metaphor level

- I LOVE that pure beskar makes a specific sound, and that it’s an almost ethereal noise like the high clear chime of a distant bell. also now din has something to fight light sabers with that isn’t the dark saber which makes me so happy because you guys I do not want him to be the mand’alor. keep that funky laser sword away from my dad, apart from killing him at the end that is literally the most boring way to end his arc pls do NOt

- wow they really went in hard on the samurai stuff in this one huh! there is a part of my mchanzo-loving heart that thrives on seeing a space cowboy and a space samurai team up, *wild otp-fuelled whisper* they’re twin genres inextricably entwined okay they belong together if you see this spreadsheet I’ve made over here --

- even knowing it was just a trick I felt such intense distress seeing the signet pauldron away from din. like the attachment I have to these pieces of metal because That Armour Means Dad... wild

- they really chose the dumbest name possible for the baby huh fsajdfhsaj I agree with din his name is ‘kid’ now (eh just give me a while to get used to it probably I’ll come around)

also... you know what I’ve said before about shrinking the big unknowable galaxy ‘the mandalorian’ has been setting up? wow did they do that big time in this one, and it makes me feel decidedly :/. why does the baby have to come from the jedi temple, is there truly no other tradition of force users in the entire galaxy he could be from? WHY do you have to pull thrawn into this when most people watching this show won’t even know why he’s such a big deal? is this a stealth tease for a rebels sequel? if so why spend an entire episode of this show that only gets eight precious episodes a season on it??

- on a more fun positive note: baby’s clothes are clean again, so it’s confirmed that din does wash them (and I guess that he does have some means of washing clothes aboard the razor crest!). I loved... most of the dad and baby stuff in this one, but then don’t I always I’m easy to please that way haha (the ‘playing catch’ sequence felt a bit off to me but I don’t know why. din being like ‘he’s so stubborn’ wasn’t... eh. didn’t land right. “that would be a first” was fun tho lol)

- having ahsoka state the baby’s feelings out loud like that felt... weird? and also kind of unnecessary in parts, like yeah he’s a baby who’s been passed along to different groups of strangers and experimented on by empire scientists, you don’t need to spell it out for me that he’s been scared and lonely, or at least spell it out more interestingly? it’s such blunt force storytelling where it didn’t need to be? there are more elegant ways to get the same things across, I am absolutely convinced

- ...wow while I was watching the episode I was mostly like ‘okay this is Fine I can go along with it’ but seeing what I’m thinking about in hindsight... yeah probably my least favourite episode of this show full stop haha, it took the spot from chapter 5 which was also a filoni ep

- I did 100% genuinely adore the whole part of din approaching the town and meeting the magistrate. consistently hiding the baby behind his cape and his arm? being deliberately, teeth-grindingly dispassionate with everyone, just giving them nothing? getting to see a bit of professional bounty hunter din again? wonderful in every way, I love this man

- lots of meaningful shots of baby in the middle with a mando on one side and a jedi on the other, it’s almost like they’re setting up some Themes here lol

- ...do you think din told ahsoka about either the rhino-levitating or the force choking. because girl I don’t think not training him is going to make this just go away haha, he just won’t know what he’s doing

- it makes me so sad that baby connects his force powers with being abused :( (also a heartbreaking sign of just how much he cared about din from the very beginning, since he used it on the mudhorn to save him anyway ;________; was that like. literally the first time he sensed kindness and affection in anyone in like twenty five years or... )

- I understand why ahsoka would feel this way because of her past and specific traumas, but tbh attachment in a baby? probably a good thing, he doesn’t really have the higher brain functions to cultivate non-attachment yet and needs a safe figure because again. he is a baby.

good on her for realizing it’s not a task she can take on both for the baby’s sake and her own, and also that din is that baby’s Dad though. the way she smiled at the end watching them leave seemed vaguely hopeful/had a little bit of wonder in it, like maybe she felt the potential for something good there, something she couldn’t conceptualize from her background but could sense the tentative outlines of anyway?

(also so much pressure on a lil bb to decide his path... his dilemmas should be limited to what colour socks he wants to wear today not the course of his entire life :( I know he’s a magic baby but.......)

- idk maybe I’ll find more affection of this episode through rewatches, you never know

#star wars #the mandalorian #the mandalorian spoilers #the mandalorian meta

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tuiyla · 4 years

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So I finally watched The Owl House

I wish I’d do this with every show I watch but it seems like only a lucky few get the She-Ra style rant of love treatment. Well, I finally watched The Owl House after my dash having been flooded for the past couple of weeks and I have some thoughts. Slight spoilers below.

First off, I love the whole vibe. I had a faint idea that this show would be about magic but I didn’t know much before watching - except for one thing, we’ll get back to that. The way it builds its world and deals with magic, though, is so refreshing. And I just have to mention here that I laughed out loud at all the Harry Potter jabs, they were hilarious. I expect we’ll learn much more about magic and its users as the show goes on but as far as the first season goes the introduction was really solid. It strikes the right balance between leaving things to the imagination but being more than “wave wand and magic happens”. It’s colourful, it’s creative, and I even like the ovens and school tracks, despite knowing that the story is about not conforming to those. It makes the Boiling Isles unique and make me want to learn more about the world even beyond the characters and the main plot.

TOH also presents a world that’s much more macabre than I was expecting from the Disney Channel, not that that’s a bad thing. I found myself thinking of Adventure Time at certain points and pondering, at scary moments, how kids would react. I think kids love this, though, and besides, nothing can be more scarring than Courage the Cowardly Dog was. It’s not that terrifying, of course, just daring enough to stand out. Overall the show has what I would classify as more of a Cartoon Network vibe than a Disney Channel one, but I admittedly haven’t really been following many Disney shows. In any case, I dig it. I dig the weird creatures and the beautiful backgrounds and I appreciate how alive the Boiling Isles feel. It doesn’t take long for TOH to immerse you in its world so I’m for one am hooked.

I make a big deal of loving the world itself because rarely does it happen that world-building stands out to me so soon in a series. I do love carefully constructed fantasy worlds but for the most part I’m more interested in the characters themselves. Here, I’d say it’s close to being a 50-50, which is something that even Avatar can’t say with its elemental masterclass in world-building (which is mostly because the character depth there is unrivaled but still). So yeah, kudos to The Owl House for achieving this. From Luz’s glyph magic to the covens and the titans, I’m excited to explore this world more.

Now, the characters. The real meat of any story. Starting with Luz, I have seen some criticism that she’s a generic hero so far, the “I’m a weirdo”, heart of gold, upbeat variety. I don’t think this makes her bland, though I do admit that being told over and over again that she’s weird makes me less engaged, even she’s also shown to be weird. I like the message of her arc and that the chosen one trope was deconstructed almost right away. I like that she’s relentlessly enthusiastic and kind to people and I like that she doesn’t have to get more bitter in order to get development. Instead, she learns from her mistakes but keeps being herself and brings her unique spirit to the Boiling Isles. We need protagonists like Luz, not just because she’s latina and bisexual but because her learning process doesn’t involve cynicism. Sure, there is a lot she needs to learn but her heart is presented as an asset and a sort of source of magic. I’m excited to see where her story goes, for sure.

I’m gonna write briefly about the other characters before I get to my favourite one. Eda is super cool and I quickly got over the fact that she’s not Beatrice Horseman, lol. She embodies such a youthful energy but the show also allows her to be a middle-aged woman comfortable in her own body - well, owl curse notwithstanding. Also, her relationship with Lilith is one of my favourite parts of the whole show. Eda subverts so many of the mentor’s traditional tropes and I’m here for it. I kinda thought she was the villain based on her design and when I didn’t know anything about the show but hey, happy she’s not.

I don’t think I’d even seen a picture of King before starting to watch the series and at first I thought I’d get tired of him real quick. He’s the type of character who can get really annoying instead of endearing really fast if he’s not given any depth or charm, both by way of writing and voice acting. Luckily, I ended up liking King and his antics. His design is indeed adorable and Alex Hirsch is a genius. The only time I felt like he went too far was, perhaps surprisingly, in the book writing episode, “Sense and Insensitivity”, but even there going too far was the point. So yeah, King’s also great, there’s much potential in his backstory and general character.

Alright so really quickly, other characters: Willow and Gus are generic best friend characters and though they already have other things going on, I expect more development as the series progresses. I like that Willow is actually super powerful, just not in the way people expected her to and Gus is clearly also talented despite being younger. I’d be happy to see more of the other kids, get more familiar with Hexside. Edric and Emira are fun characters but they were really shitty in their first episode so I was kind of surprised they weren’t more of a nuisance to Amity later on. I’m all for supportive siblings so I wouldn’t mind a good relationship between the three but I feel like it’s more complicated than that with the Blights.

Finally, I also have to mention that Hooty is... well, quite something, isn’t he. Much like with King, I thought he’d be much more annoying but somehow the show is self-aware enough that it makes Hooty tolerable. I’m almost always torn between feeling sorry for him and being thoroughly weirded out, and I think that’s the intention? It’s fitting that he’s the titular character as he embodies the tone of The Owl House well in my eyes. He’s there for the comedy but there’s just enough there to hint at something more. Very bizarre, strong CN vibes, here for it.

Now that I’ve written a paragraph more about Hooty than I expected to, let’s talk about Amity. Listen, no other character stood a chance to be my favourite as soon as I learned Mae Whitman voiced Amity. That woman gave me Katara so now I have a quasi Pavlovian response to her voice. I’d also say that I knew more about Amity going into the show than I did about any other aspect of TOH. I heard somewhere that she started out as an antagonist, I knew her parents were abusive, and the reason the show blew up on my dash and my general online bubble is the Grom episode. Lucikly I only saw stills of Lumity beneath the crescent moon but the pure Sapphic energy of that was enough to gay migrate me to this show. I’d like to note it here though that The Owl House is a good show in and of itself, the queer rep is just a nice extra. I’m gonna spend the next couple hundred words going on about Amity and her crush on Luz but I don’t value only that. The Gay Migration is great and rep is great but I’m also grateful to have a solid show behind it. That being said.

I’m a total dyke for Amity Blight. I was very biased before even being introduced to her character but I genuinely find her to be fascinating and she has great potential. She’s developing quite quickly, like much of The Owl House, but an arc not being stretched out for several seasons before getting a rushed conclusion is refreshing. The progress hits all the beats and the only note I have is that I want more. She starts out as a generic bully but the opportunity to be more is there from the beginning. We find out early on that she used to be friends with Willow, we see that she works hard and values honest work. When she becomes Luz’s rival, it doesn’t last long before Amity shows that she’s open to new perspectives. That’s not to defend or even justify her earlier and nastier moments, Amity was rude to both Luz and Willow. But through all that, she becomes a complex character who does bad things but isn’t a bad person and grows when she gets the space to. I think that’s neat.

Luz’s decision to befriend her might be cartoon logic but as someone who subscribes to the “kill them with kindness” ideology, I can totally relate. Amity’s softer side doesn’t take long to show and “Lost in Language” is such a great episode to show how complex people can be. Again, I was already biased when it came to Amity but she’s consistently shown to be capable of self-reflection and growth when others give her the chance. I think her past and potential future friendship with Willow is a great way to explore many different topics and I’m trusting the show to do it justice. I also can’t wait to meet the rest of the Blights, if only to get me some angst and further develop Amity. I half expected Grom to take the form of her parents. Too dark for Disney? Well, we don’t know Amity’s dynamic with her parents, exactly, but there’s so much subtext and potential. I love what we’ve already seen from her but I’d also say that she has one of the greatest potentials in the show.

Another way in which this potential manifests is Lumity, of course. Again, they’re developing quite quickly but that doesn’t mean it’s rushed. I’d love to explore Amity’s crush more and what Luz means to her. The Grom episode surpassed all expectations, still and gifs don’t do the stunning dance sequence justice. The animation is so smooth, the colours are amazing, the music is on point and the Sapphic vibes complete the picture. Poetic cinema, truly. Molly Ostertag and Noelle Stevenson are really out there giving wlw animation fans everything we ever wanted, huh. It also warms my heart that the crush is made very clear, not just by Luz’s name being on the note but by the delightful gay disaster that is Amity in “Wing It Like Witches”. I never thought I’d ever see such a relatable useless lesbian in animation so kudos to Dana Terrace and the whole crew. Wow, how far we’ve come.

So yeah, Amity is a funky little lesbian and I’m a 100% here for her gay disaster moments, but I also love where Lumity is going thematically. They’re great as foils and I’m hoping that they won’t get together at the very end. Look, I love me some Bubbline, Korrasami and Catradora, but it’s time a wlw relationship had the chance to exist onscreen and not only in the last episode. The Owl House has a great chance to do that. I know the creators don’t want romance to be the main focus and I respect that, I think the world they created deserves to showcased and explored to its full potential. Lumity could be a great subplot though, as representation on the one hand and as a thematically interesting dynamic on the other. Plus, Luz and Amity are just cute and sometimes, it’s as simple as that. Oh, and also the whole Little Miss Perfect thing? One of the best fandom discoveries I’ve made in a long while. Not only is the song truly perfect for Amity, I love that Joriah Kwamé went on to write Ordinary as well. This right here is why fandom is beautiful.

I think that’s about it for season 1 initial thoughts. The moral can be a bit on the nose at times, especially in the early episodes but the show is ultimately for kids and I appreciate its message. Interesting world and magic system, good characters, great potential for later seasons, just a well put together show that I’m really glad I started watching. I’m kind of sorry I didn’t keep up with season 1 as it was coming out but I would not have been able to wait between episodes. The pacing is good overall, deffo moves fast but I wouldn’t call it rushed, and the “filler” episodes still add something to the story. I’m not sure if I would still feel like the show moves at a fast pace if I hadn’t binged it but in any case it isn’t rushed, the necessary beats are all there and have time to sit. I’m going to watch as it comes out from now on so hopefully season 2 will arrive early next year.

Oh, and: I’m very new to the fandom, barely just found out about Little Miss Perfect, so any and all tidbits, fun facts, and fic recommendations are welcome. Also if you just want to chat my inbox is always open!

#the owl house #toh #amity blight #lumity #luz noceda #my thoughts #down another rabbit hole i go

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shoichee · 4 years

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GoMs + Kagami as Persona Users

Headcanons on the Generation of Miracles (and Kagami) if they were to become a persona user in the world of the Persona series (Kuroko and Momoi included)

@akichan-th THIS IS FOR YOU

Warning: KNB series spoilers !!

Kuroko Tetsuya

since his presence is nonexistent in the real world, as a phantom thief, he’d probably desire to be a noticeable hero, you know? even in the 22.5 OVA, he told Kise that passing around wasn’t fun but he was going to do it for the sake of the team

his phantom thief outfit would be flashy in a sense of maybe eye-catching color schemes, or bold patterns

his attire could be baggy/oversized navy blue/black street clothing with TASTEFUL neon-colored accents and his mask would be a neon-colored huge sports shades/goggles situation (i was about to say some trendy sunglasses but sunglasses don’t stay on at all); he’s a skater boy ???? basically??

like, his PT attire could very well be a Persona 5 Dancing in Starlight DLC outfit 👀 it has those vibes

persona element is curse and let me explain why: he doesn’t have the gifted physique like the other GoMs and he’s cursed to rely on others for him to make a difference, and his motif has always been “shadow” ALSO he’s the PHANTOM sixth player YOU CAN’T CONVINCE ME OTHERWISE

he’s a front-line battler, but his skills are very support heavy: support skills that increase attack and defense for his teammates; i also wanna say he has spells that inflict dizziness ailments because in the anime, players are always losing their shit and whipping their heads around to find this tiny boy LMAO

he would definitely have a signature move that would direct all enemy attacks and status moves to himself for a set amount of turns to aid his teammates

his persona would have an extremely high Endurance and higher than average Luck stat but everything else is an all-time low

i’m going to say it, his shooting weapon is gonna be a paintball gun filled with neon paint just to fuck with the shadows and still make it HURT

code name would be “Umbra” (which means innermost part of a shadow) or “Ghost;” imagine some PT member shouting, “Oh no! Umbra’s knocked down!” and all the shadow sees is this brightass, neon kid on the floor

i would love his codename to be “Shadow” but there’s already the term shadow to describe the monsters in the metaverse

Kise Ryota

he views a “rebel” as your basic punk

since he’s a model, he knows japanese punk fashion very well

guess who’s gonna come into the metaverse being this hot ass punk boy? Kise motherfucking Ryota

black spike collar

lots of those tiny chains and harness/buckle action somewhere

ripped black leather pants that give Joker’s own leather pants a run for its money PLUS WITH SHINY BLACK BELT

lots of patchwork and stuff

THIS IS WHAT MORE OR LESS I’M TALKING ABOUT IF YOU WANT VISUAL REFERENCES

his mask would totally be a visor goggle to add further to the punk theme

part of me is biased that Kise is a blondie and “kise” is based off of “yellow” and Ryuji is blonde and so now i headcanon him as the electric element

okay, but since he’s an “all-rounder” he’ll probably be able to access mid-tier level attacks of all elements, including almighty to an extent

but if i was basing his element off of personality, he’d be ice for sure; he’s actually cold-hearted to people whom he doesn’t consider “worthy” and the anime only showed his friendly side because most of the time, he’s shown talking to his friends and people he respects

speaking of all-rounder, his stats would be all high all around, with his Magic stat peaking the highest

Midorima Shintarou

this boy is a bit tricky to figure out what his PT attire would be

he doesn’t have any time to think about “what he would be as a rebel” type of thing

however, if he were to desire to become something, i’d say he would want to be a supernatural being who can distribute good luck for himself every day

think of those JRPG wizard/mage/warlock outfit motifs (and they match up nicely with the idea of astrology and horoscopes); probably lots of brown/beige/hues of green scheme? or a black/various colors of purple for a FULL on witch vibe

it makes sense too because as someone who always shoots from afar and never dunks, mage classes always cast from afar and never attack up close to their opponent

and his frog puppets remind me of a witch’s animal familiars LMAO

there you have it

his mask would be a dark dark purple or a pure black domino mask that has little stars littered sparingly everywhere on said mask

his shooting weapon? my guy is stacked on staves ready to cast long-range spells

wind element for sure (because his basketball shots all catch air with lots of hang time | (• ◡•)|) with tons of gun skills

signature move would be a magic skill that never misses no matter what (his range is the entire metaverse)

his persona stats are also pretty well rounded but his highest stats would be Magic and Luck, with Endurance being a close runner up

Aomine Daiki

also hard to figure out a PT attire for this guy

according to KUROFES, his alternative career would be a police officer so i would think he despises criminals and the Phantom Thieves altogether ?

if anything, he’s more suited for the S.E.E.S. investigation team in Persona 3

Aomine doesn’t give a fuck, but he has a soft spot to protect others so like having a gun evoker definitely suits him more than a mask summon BRJWBDJW

i see him as a fire element, but his persona would have a lot more physical skills than anything else

bonus: since he used to be Kuroko’s “light,” he can have some mid-tier level bless skills

to make a reference his “formless” shots and forms, as well as his rapid changes of pace, his signature move would be a 5-hit physical skill that changes targets with every hit

statwise, his Agility stat is the highest out of everyone in the GoM, and his Strength and Endurance would be runner up stats; his Magic stat would be extremely dismal

Murasakibara Atsushi

this guy thinks about nothing but food and how he hates Teppei-species people basketball, so honestly he’s not interested in the Phantom Thieves business

like what? Murasakibara dressed in a getup? it’s a big “press X to doubt”

so i envision him to be more suitable for Persona 4, where he has to confront the other self that loves basketball and truly does care about people, and he had to be honest and accept that side for him to attain a persona

would he ever go back to the said “persona world” to go fight some shadows? unless there’s a good reason why he should or you bribed him with snacks, he won’t budge an inch

just give this man a Persona 4 school uniform and he’s ready to fight

his persona would primarily have physical skills, with lots of “wall” support skills, element “break” skills, and lots of passive skills (lots of nulls/resists) available for it to learn

highest stat for him would be Strength, then Endurance, and surprisingly have Agility as the runner up

he’s a huge tank of a persona user

Akashi Seijuro

i’ve talked about his PT outfit in this headcanon here, including his mask and why

hear me out, since this man is good at everything in school, and since there are archery clubs in Japanese schools, i wouldn’t be surprised if he was a Robin Hood with the scopes; what am i tryna say? his shooting weapon would be bow & arrows

i feel like people would automatically think he’s a bless/curse element like Akechi since “he has two sides,” but i feel like it’s not exactly right? if anything, i headcanon him to be more of a psychokinesis element

why? i want to attribute that to his emperor’s eye and his perfect passings, both each specialties from their respective “sides” of Akashi, and that requires extreme precision, almost to the level of “telepathy”

there’s also everyone thinking he can see the future too i mean

in the end, Akashi’s dual sides merged into one again, so having a whole bless/curse element wouldn’t even make sense anymore

but i will say, this man deserves to have a persona with almighty skills back to back

this guy isn’t the captain for no reason

so his persona would utilize psychokinesis and almighty skills, with special buff skills that increase critical rates for his allies (to refer to the fact that his passings enhance other players); his persona would also enjoy a large selection of passive skills to choose from to either be ultimate support or ultimate offensive sweeper

to also reiterate from the mentioned headcanon i linked, his code name would either be “Crimson” or “Scarlet”

his persona is a literal glass cannon, referring to the fact that Akashi is actually a mentally fragile basketball player; extremely high Strength, Magic, and Agility (but not as high as Aomine though) stats, average Luck stat, but extremely low Endurance stat

Momoi Satsuki

Momoi, i think, would envision herself in the metaverse as someone who’s never underestimated because of her usual demeanor or physical looks

even me, i got fooled thinking she was just only a fanservice girl and not this incredibly intelligent girl who was critical to her teams’ successes

so i would think she would imagine herself to be in a huge respectable position of power, like a lieutenant or general, who can command others and strategize to victory

her outfit would be similar to the attire from the Assassin’s Faith set from Love Nikki with the black Army Floppy Hat from the Army Major set on top (also from Love Nikki)

color scheming i can imagine a lot of black/white with gold trimmings/accents here and there

her mask is a Venetian eye mask i can literally see it; it’s so pretty with the gold plating !!

her role would definitely be a navigator + analyzer/tactician from the backlines, so while she isn’t in the battle most of the times, if worse comes to shove, she’ll be in the frontlines as a last resort

in other words, she’s a Futaba, but she isn’t a sitting duck and can fight if needed

she has an incredible Luck stat, higher than average Agility stat, but average stats for the rest (Magic, Strength, and Endurance)

ailment, healing, support, and buff skills are all at her disposal, along with some gun skills (which can definitely be broken when paired with her high Luck stat)

“Duchess” (a woman having a noble rank) would be a really cute codename for her

Kagami Taiga

why do i literally see him as a shinobi (ninja)

i have no idea why i do, but i think it’s just his name:

“While Kagami's name is associated with the ‘tiger’, Himuro's name means ‘dragon’. In Chinese mythology, the Azure Dragon of the East and the White Tiger of the West are eternal rivals. This rivalry is further expressed in their surnames: ‘Hi (氷)’ means ‘ice’ while ‘Ka (火)’ translates as ‘fire’.” - KNB wiki

so i literally see both Himuro and Kagami as rival clans duking it out

jokes aside, Kagami is a very honorable player, but he did at one point exhibited a “darker side” to himself, playing selfishly and being arrogant in the beginning

shinobis were considered to be “dishonorable” and “beneath the honor” of the samurai in their eras, so i feel that this could be a great image for what Kagami thinks is a “rebel”

being a ninja would make use of his jumping skills too

i imagine him in a fitted black halter neck top (so his abs are for us to see), with an iconic long red scarf wrapping his neck and hanging down to his waist at the back side

black forearm guards/wraps?

and then he has mahogany/dark red??/black???? loose cloth wrapped around his waist, like how you would tie a jacket over your waist ?? and then black nu-bakama pants and finally some dark boots for those pants to be tucked in

no one can convince me otherwise, but he’s gotta have a red full-face oni mask with black horns and some golden tiger stripes on the sides of the mask and around the eyes

HIS PERSONA ELEMENT IS BLESS BECAUSE HE IS KUROKO’S “LIGHT”

he would totally have some almighty skills and “Heat Riser,” a move that raises all of the user’s attack, defense, and accuracy/evasiveness (because the colors of the move’s animation remind me of Direct Drive Zone, something that was pretty much unlocked by Kagami for the team)

his persona is one of the OP/late game personas where all their stats are amazing across the board; even if his stats were high all around, his “lowest” would be his Luck stat

codename for him is “Tiger” no one cannot argue with me for this one NRNEIJFEO

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poundstonaira · 4 years

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Leopold x Reader - Stormy Nights

A/N- I’m bored and I wrote this in honor of his birthday.

Word Count: 1581

It was the middle of the night when Y/N heard the pounding thunder erupt from outside the window. When the thunder erupted, Y/N quickly woke up out of her sleep and heard the hectic rain and wind slam the window ruthlessly while thunder roared in the sky. At this, she checked the time on her clock and saw that the time was 2:39, she then stared back at the window and let out a tired sigh knowing that her boyfriend is an absolute pussy when it comes to thunderstorms and heavy rain, meaning that she would have to check on him or sleep with him until the storm stops.

The h/c haired girl then got out of her bed, tidied it, then put her red fluffy slippers on and went over to the door. Since it was early and she didn’t want to wake her squadmates up, she made sure that she slowly and surely unlocked the door, and quietly tiptoed through the hallways of the base the belonged to the Crimson Lion Kings brigade, trying to head towards her boyfriends room without making a single sound from the wooden floor creaking under the dark red carpet of the hallways because of her footsteps. Y/N turned the corner quality, seeing that some of the rooms in the hallway still had their lights on, probably meaning that her teammates were woken up by the furious storm or that they were still up, doing whatever they wanted.

She walked further down the hallway, the same amount of quietness and pace while she walked down. Y/N was right around the corner, she heard footsteps walking at a quick pace towards her direction, the h/c haired girl thought of no other choice but to check who it was. When she quickly checked the corner, she saw the familiar figure of her red-haired boyfriend; Leopold. Right when she saw him, she immediately walked up to him while keeping the quick and quiet pace that she was walking with before.

“Leo, are you okay? What’s wrong?” Y/N whispered as she used her left hand to check her boyfriend's temperature. Leopold's head felt strangely cold for a fire user. The green-eyed boy had a nervous but annoyed look on his face, Y/N stood back a bit and examined his expression, she had an understanding on why he had that face on but at the same time, she didn’t.

“I’m scared…” Leopold quietly whined to Y/N who only gave him a tired smile because of his astraphobia which was stupid to her. Y/N wasn’t really scared of anything at all, she enjoyed thunder and storms. To her, thunderstorms were her comfort weather when she was sad or wanted to sleep. The sound of rain slamming on the windows, the sound of the violent wind hastily twirling around, and the thunder that pounded was her favorite thing to hear. She only gets up when it's storming outside because of her boyfriend’s fear of them.

“Okay…do you need me to stay with you until sunrise?” The said girl then sighed with the same tired expression on her face, staring at her boyfriend who was shaking and sweating from the sound of the violent wind and rain hitting the large glass windows in the hallway.

“Come on, Y/N…! You know the answer to this…” Leopold quietly whined at his girlfriend before looking at the window again to see if another flash of lightning was going to strike out again.

“Alright… let's get going to your room before the lightning strikes again.” Y/N sighed and gently grabbed Leopold’s right hand before they quickly ran to his room, trying not to make a sound in the empty, dark hallways of the base.

The young couple were almost there when they saw multiple flashes of lightning from outside the windows of the hall, followed by thunderous thunder that made the two feel the base was shaking and that it was going to collapse. Of course Leopold was frightened, he was about to cry and faint from the sound of the thunder. Y/N stopped Leopold from running.

“Hey… calm down… When we get to your room, you can cuddle me all you want, okay?” Y/N whispered in her boyfriend’s ear gently, rubbing the back of his hand with her thumb.

“O-okay…” Leopold shakily sighed before clenching onto Y/N’s hand tighter before making himself and his girlfriend run towards his room again. They have finally made it to his room before sounds of violent wind and rain slammed the windows of the base again.

The little Vermillion opened the door quietly, making sure not to make a sound since his elder siblings were right across the hall. The young couple quietly entered the room, Leopold slowly closed the door before locking it. Since Leopold’s room is quite big, his windows are large; that might explain why he would be scared to hear the rain and thunder-- especially the lightning when it strikes since he has the perfect view of the sky at night.

“What are we waiting for? Let’s get to sleeping before the storm gets worse…” Y/N whispered to Leopold as he quickly ran to his king sized bed, fighting the covers to hide under them. Y/N yawned as she walked towards her boyfriend’s bed, joining him after she took her red slippers off.

“Do you know w-when the storm is g-going to end? It looks like it’s getting worse by the minutes…” Leopold quietly stuttered with a nervous look on his face, putting the duvet over his head, sitting up while looking at Y/N as she joined him in bed. Y/N and Leopold shifted around until they got into a comfortable position that would fit the both of them perfectly. Y/N had her head laid on the large pile of pillows while Leopold laid on Y/N’s plumed chest. Every time there was a storm, Leopold would lay on Y/N’s chest, the sound of her heartbeats soothed him and calmed him down. It would make the boy think that the storm was gone and that all that was there was Y/N and only Y/N.

“I don’t know… but I did hear on my mission today by a farmer that the storm was supposed to get stronger and more dangerous overnight and then there will be flash flooding by daytime… I think it’s getting worse as I speak…” The h/c-haired girl spoke gently while running her hands through her boyfriend’s hair. Leopold flinched at her words, he didn’t want the storm to go on, but Y/N wanted it to. She adored it every time she saw violent winds, heavy rain slamming onto the windows, and the lightning and thunder do it’s work. It made her happy because she hated seeing the sun.

Even though Leopold was scared and Y/N wasn’t, Y/N was there to comfort the red-haired boy because of his horrible case of his astrophobia. The way her fingers went through his soft, spiky hair made him want to melt and submit himself to her, the way her fingers glided across his back when he needed comfort when he felt restless made him embrace her with his callous hands, and the way her voice entranced him when she hummed a silvery tune made him want sleep in her hands forever, making sure the storm didn’t scare him at that moment.

“Oh my God… that's the worst thing ever… I hate storms…” Leopold groaned into his girlfriends chest as he pulled the covers over his and Y/N’s head, not wanting to hear nor see the rain at that moment. Y/N let out that same tired smile at her boyfriend because of his scaredy-cat antics. She took the covers off of her and put on top of Leopold only.

“I want to watch the storm, this type of weather is a personal favorite of mine.” Y/N giggled, ruffling her boyfriend's hair again.

“Hmm… whatever…” Leopold muttered, shifting a bit as he let out a yawn of sleepiness.

Y/N did nothing but watched and felt her boyfriend fall asleep on her chest. When she first met Leopold, she thought that he was a brave magic knight who wasn’t afraid of anything and would do anything to become the Wizard King. Y/N had no idea in her mind that a storm could scare this little lion cub into absolute fear. It’s not like a storm would instantly kill you- well yes-- it could but only if you are careless enough to stand outside where lighting could easily strike you.

You just have to be careful not to stand in the middle of its rage while it's raging.

Y/N looked up at the black sky, it’s rain droplets still slamming onto the windows, making its loud sound still, the wind making the branches from trees slaps and slamming the glass, and a multiple strikes of lightning popping out, flowing the trace before dying out which was soon followed by booming thunder making the winds and rain worse for Leopold but not worse for Y/N.

Y/N let out a yawn before feeling her eyes giving in to her need of sleep, she then laid down properly, holding her now sleeping boyfriend tighter into her embrace.

“Goodnight, Leopold. Don’t let the storms scare you next time.”

#black clover #black clover scenarios #black clover headcannons #leopold vermillion

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eryiss · 4 years

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Request: The Training Retreat

Summary: With the Grand Magic Games fast approaching, Freed suggested that he, Laxus, Lucy and Natsu train together for a week. In the isolation of a forest, the two couples get closer and unlikely friendships are made as their magic improves. [Fraxus and Nalu Oneshot]

This was based of a request by tumblr user @allnalufraxus, who asked for something with both Fraxus and Nalu. This took a lot longer than it should have, but I'm quite happy with the result. This is also the first time I've properly written Lucy and Natsu, so please forgive any OOC behaviour.

You can read this on FanFiction, Archive of our Own, or under the cut. Hope you enjoy it ^.^

The Training Retreat

If you were to ask Laxus what he expected his week to entail, it wouldn't be this.

He found himself standing at the kitchen of an old cabin in the middle of a forest, chopping carrots beside Lucy Heartfilia of all people. The two weren't exactly the most friendly of members in Fairy Tail with one another and their interactions had mainly been born more of politeness and obligation rather than out of actual fondness to each other. And yet there they were, cooking side by side in relative comfort.

They both looked out at the large window, to a small clearing in the forest. Bost Freed and Natsu were outside, engaged in a fight that seemed heated and vicious. The view was slightly distorted by Freed's runes, but it was clear that they were both giving it their all.

Laxus felt a small swell of pride run through him.

The entire thing had been Freed's idea. The Grand Magic Games were coming up fast, and there had been a rumour that all four of them would be participating. Training was an obvious necessity, and Freed had been the one to propose that the four of them have a short retreat where they would train intensively with one another. He had justified it by saying that being less familiar with each other's fighting style would help them deal with unforeseen foes, as well as bringing them closer which would help them if they were placed on a team together.

Freed had approached Natsu before he had Laxus, and the Fire mage had jumped at the chance. Almost everything had been organised before either Laxus or Lucy knew about it, no doubt so that neither could stop their plans with any objections they may have.

"I had no idea you could cook," Lucy commented as she took a pot of boiling water off the heat.

"Most people don't," Laxus shrugged. "I learned when I was travelling, needed something to do and eating out wasn't an option since I had no money. Got a cook book, started to do some recipes and found out I liked it."

"Well that cottage pie thing you made last night was amazing," Lucy grinned, carefully pouring the chopped vegetables into the pot. "D'you cook often?"

"When I can, I try to," Laxus placed the knife down, stepping back to allow Lucy access to a cutlery draw. "Freed's a pretty good chef as well, so we always eat well. He does most of it on the missions since he knows how to work with an open fire better than I do, so whenever we're at home I'm usually the one making food."

Lucy chuckled, and Laxus quirked an eyebrow at her un confusion.

"Sorry," She smiled. "It's just weird, you know, to think of you two being so domestic. I kinda think of you as actions heroes, funny to think of you scheduling meals."

"Well, if you wanna know a secret, we also do laundry," Laxus said with a small grin, and Lucy laughed. "We sometimes even polish our silverware."

Over the few days that they had been in the cabin, Lucy and Laxus had gravitated towards each other in a small way. There was something of a friendship forming between them, and Laxus found himself happy about it. He was still not comfortable with his new place in the guild – years of antisocial behaviour had left an impact on him – but had found he enjoyed having platonic relationships with people outside of the Raijinshuu.

"And you're one to talk," Laxus continued. "You dating Dragneel. There was a theory going around when he was younger that the only feelings he had were being hungry and being angry."

Again, Lucy laughed. "He's not that bad."

As if to disprove her point, Natsu screamed 'I'll kick your ass' as he charged at Freed with a raised fist.

"That's not helping my point," Lucy said after a moment, and Laxus smirked. "But he's actually a lot more emotionally intelligent than people give him credit for. He can actually be really sweet when he wants to be."

Laxus didn't doubt it, Natsu was definitely an emotional person, so it made sense. Still, it wasn't an easy task to envision the brat being romantic.

"Give me an example," Laxus challenged, slowly adding the chopped mutton to the pot of vegetable.

"Well, okay, a couple of weeks ago!" Lucy said, smiling. "I got home from a pretty bad mission with Erza late in the night, and I was exhausted and starving, and he was in my apartment waiting for me having cooked us both a curry and some rice. Then he ran a bath for me once I'd eaten and let me read to him until we fell asleep. It was a nice night, actually."

It did indeed sound like a nice night, and undoubtedly more thoughtful than Laxus would have expected from the other Dragon Slayer. But still, in some twisted way, he saw the younger man as something of a younger brother. And what is a pseudo-older brother for if not for teasing.

"How did he get into your apartment?" He smirked. "And if it's anything other than breaking in, I'll give you two thousand jewels right now."

Lucy was silent for a moment.

"I said he was more thoughtful than people give him credit for. I didn't say he was a completely different man."

Laxus laughed, placing the stew he was making back onto the heat. He reached up to the crockery cupboard and started to set the table. Lucy had pulled out the remainder of the cutlery and began placing it down beside the plates. It was a small thing, but Laxus was thankful. Even in such an inconsequential action, they were working well as a team. It was a lot better than what Laxus had expected when Freed informed him about their retreat.

Both of them quickly looked from the table and towards the open when a sudden rush of orange spurted up. It was clearly Natsu's fire, and Lucy frowned as she watched as the flames in the area cordoned off by Freed's runes died down.

"I thought they weren't using their magic?" She questioned, watching as Natsu's charged forward with his fists alight. Laxus walked beside Lucy to watch.

As he did, runes plastered themselves over Natsu and he fell to his knees. "It was. They're just fucking idiots, apparently."

The two mages watched their respective lovers through the windows for a little while longer. Natsu managed either to overcome Freed's runes, or just ignore them, and charged at Freed again. Freed used some quick walls of runes to protect himself from the attacks, before slamming the sole of his boot into Natsu's stomach. He piled another rune onto the man's chest, and the dragon slayer was shouting in pain again.

"Freed can be pretty vicious when he wants to be," Lucy commented. "More scrappy than I thought"

"Suppose you've only seen him when he's had time to plan out a fight, huh," Laxus frowned a little. "When he's on a mission and there's impromptu fights, he's always like this. He's just as good without his magic as he is with it."

Lucy looked up to the blonde with a teasing grin. "It's cute how proud you are of him."

Laxus didn't say anything, but his cheeks reddened. "Fuck off."

Lucy laughed again, leaning on the counter to better watch the fight happening between the two men. It was oddly mesmerising to watch; despite his desires to fight almost every member of the guild, Natsu rarely managed to actually have full on fights. Well, he did, but those fights were often in apocalyptic moments, and appreciating his fighting style wasn't an option when that was happening. It was fun to see him go all out on a foe who wasn't an actual danger, and Lucy was going to make the most of it.

Even visually, the fight was beautiful. The combination of Natsu's flickering flames and Freed's shimmering runes was oddly entrancing. Almost hypnotic. But, as they watched the two men get more and more heated, Lucy noticed something.

"Why doesn't Freed use his sword like a… sword?" She asked, frowning.

"He tries not to when he can avoid it," Laxus explained. "It's mainly used to channelling his runes, it makes his casting quicker and spells more detailed. Don't exactly know how, but he seems sure it helps. And if he can fight with his fists, he'd rather do that. Stabbing someone is pretty…"

"Permanent?" Lucy offered, and Laxus nodded.

"He used to use it more liberally but changed after the harvest festival. Something of an atonement I think," Laxus shrugged. "Speaking off, I haven't thanked you for using that spirit to grow out his hair. It was good of ya, after all we did."

"That's no problem," Lucy smiled, almost mischievously. "You like guys with long hair huh?"

Was she teasing him? That wasn't something he had expected to happen. But he could deal with that too.

"Yeah," He agreed. "Gives he something to hold onto when I fuck him."

Lucy's reaction was fucking hilarious. There was a moment of disbelief where she slowly turned towards him, an expression of shock, small amount of horror and a hint of respect on her face. Laxus cocked an eyebrow at her, silently challenging her to bite back, because he had more than enough ammunition to tease her right back. She decided not to say anything.

"It was a nice attempt, but there's something you don't know," Laxus continued, smiling. "I've been a dick longer than you've been breathing."

"No arguing there," Lucy replied, seemingly having recovered. Laxus let her have it. "Should we stop them?"

At Lucy's question, they both looked out of the window. Natsu no longer had any runes on him and had punched Freed with enough force to send him flying into the back of his own runic walls. The resounding thud of Freed hitting his magic, a clearly painful act, made Lucy wince, but Laxus didn't seem bothered by it.

"They can handle themselves," He went back to dressing the table. "You wanna put some salt in the stew?"

Lucy watched as Freed stood up, wearing a determined grin not unlike Natsu's. "Sure."

~~~

When Natsu awoke the next morning, his limbs were tangled up with Lucy's. The cabin had only king-sized beds, but the lovers had somehow managed to curl up against one another in the centre, with their covers thrown to the floor. This always happened when they shared a bed; Natsu was warm naturally and apparently hugging him was like hugging a heater, so Lucy had stated. It apparently made summer unbearable.

The dragon slayer carefully removed himself from his girlfriend, holding a snort when Lucy let out an undignified snore. That was something he would have to bring up later; hopefully in front of Freed and Laxus, just to make it more embarrassing.

He grinned at the thought and left the bed.

After going through his usual routine of stretching, cracking his back and lighting his hands for a quick second, Natsu threw on his clothes from the day prior and left the bedroom. The hallway of the cabin was still dark – which made sense as it must have been about six in the morning – but he managed to make his way to the kitchen without bumping into anything.

He got himself a glass of water and leant on the back of the counter. He had always woken up early, there was probably a reason for it but Natsu didn't care enough to figure it out. He liked the mornings, it was relaxing. People assumed he didn't like the quiet, but he did. Just in moderation.

As he drank the water, he frowned. Every few seconds there was a sound of something being hit. A dull, repetitive sound.

Alarmed, he turned to the window and readied his magic, but calmed when he saw the source of the sounds. It was Freed, standing outside of the cabin with a large axe in his hand, which he slammed down into a chunk of wood. The dragon slayer frowned a little, he hadnt expected anyone else to be awake this early in the morning, let alone doing something so physical. He placed the empty glass on the counter and walked to the kitchen door, not caring for his coat.

"Morning Freed," He greeted, voice chipper but still tainted by sleep. Freed snapped his head around and replied with a polite smile.

"Natsu," He greeted. "I didn't wake you up, did I?"

"Nah," Natsu assured him, walking to Freed as he raised the axe again. He placed his hands behind his neck, watching as another log was cut. "I always wake up this time, didn't expect to see anyone else. You normally cut wood this early?"

"No. After our fight yesterday I crashed early," Freed confessed, moving the cut logs into a basket. It was half full. "As such, I woke up early and thought that I might as well do something productive. Laxus said that it seemed as though storms would be hitting us soon, so we'll probably want fire wood, so this made sense."

Natsu nodded, sitting on the grass and looking up at the sky. Clouds were forming, so it probably would start raining pretty soon, so getting firewood was a good idea. Not that Natsu was worried about being cold.

"Y'know, I sometimes forget, but you're a badass," Natsu commented with a grin, and Freed glanced towards him. "I guess I always forget because when I wanna fight someone in your team, I default to Laxus, but you're really fucking strong. Haven't had an actual stalemate for a while."

"I'm glad I could be a challenge to you," Freed smiled, bringing the axe down on the wood again. "And I agree, it was nice to spar with someone I'm not familiar with."

"We should do it again some time," Natsu suggested, grinning. "Then I can learn how to kick your ass faster."

"You're implying that you won," Freed looked back at him, posture almost challenging. "The only reason you lasted so long was because I showed mercy. I could have crushed you by increasing the influence of gravity with a literal click of my fingers."

"And I could have burned off your nuts, try fighting after that," Natsu grinned, unaffected by the threat.

"Well, if that's the case we should fight again some time, but with less restrictions than we had before," Freed offered. "Make it a real challenge."

Natsu grinned wide and made a note to remember the offer; he was never going to turn down an opportunity to spar with someone when he didn't need to wear down their will. Honestly, he shouldn't have to bother people that much to train with them. They were in a damn guild; they should want to improve how they fought and increase their magical skills. How was Natsu the only one who saw it like that?

The dragon-slayer leant back on the cold grass, looking up to the still visible stars. He knew some of the constellations now, thanks to Lucy teaching them to him. It was nice to look up at the stars while he could, it made him feel close to his girlfriend, weirdly.

With Lucy in his mind, Natsu clicked his fingers.

"Hey Freed, you like to read right?" He asked, and he heard Freed's movement stop.

"I do," Freed nodded. "Why?"

"Well, I don't know if you know this or not, but Lucy really likes to write. And she's been writing this novel for like, years and she's finished the draft. And she wanted me to read it, so I did and it's really good, and I told her that but she's still putting off sending it to a publisher," Natsu explained, hands moving around as he did.

"That's understandable, it can be a nerve-wracking experience."

"Yeah, I get that, but it is really good. So I was thinking that maybe you could read it," Natsu sat up again, grinning enthusiastically at his idea. "Then you'd see how great it is and you could tell her. She knows you've got good taste and you won't just say it because you have to. Maybe it'll give her a confidence boost."

"I'll certainly offer when we get back to Magnolia," Freed assured him, and Natsu brightened further.

The dragon slayer grinned and leant back against the grass again, letting the wind slowly cool him as the sun started to rise. After all the fighting of the day prior, it was nice to have a moment to calm down and look at the sky. And Freed was a pretty calming presence, when he wasn't making everyone fight each other through the town. Maybe they could be friends; someone who could calm him and nearly beat the shit out of him was something Natsu was always looking for.

Although, despite knowing each other for years, he didn't know much about Freed as an actual person. In the past, he had been standoffish to the point where even Natsu had given up trying to be friends with him. But now he was more open, and this was a good enough time to try and get to know him.

"How did you and Laxus get together?" He asked. Better to dive right in. If Freed didn't want to say, he wouldn't.

"We just sort of… did," Freed replied, looking deep in thought. "We have always been close, and after Laxus returned from his exile, we got closer. One night we kissed, we talked, and the next day we had our first date. And now we're here. How about you and Lucy?"

"I realised I liked her, then I asked her out and she said yes," Natsu shrugged. "Why make it complicated."

"That's an admirable attitude to have," Freed smiled a little. "It turns out Laxus and I had feelings for each other long before we kissed, so perhaps if either of us had that attitude then we would have gotten together quicker."

"Maybe, but I sometimes think I rush into things, y'know," Natsu shrugged. "I charge in, don't think things through. Wanna change that, be a better boyfriend."

"Well, your 'charge in and to hell with the consequences' attitude has saved a lot of people a lot of times," Freed said, placing the axe down and sitting on the log he had been chopping wood on. "And I wouldn't worry about your relationship. You're very open about who you are as a person, and Lucy is a smart woman. She would have known what she was getting into, and I expect she rather likes it."

Natsu tilted his head in thought but smiled. "Thanks Freed. Oh, and Laxus just woke up."

"You can tell?" Freed asked, placing the chopped firewood into the basket.

"Well, heard a thud and then a load of cussing. So either he stubbed his toe and it hurt, or he just moves around in bed and tells side-dressers to fuck off in his sleep," Natsu grinned, jumping up with too much energy for the time of day that it was.

"I wouldn't put it past him," Freed laughed. "But if he is awake, I expect he'll still be tired enough that we can convince him to make us breakfast without him putting up a fuss."

"You're devious, Justine. I like it," Natsu laughed, putting his hands behind his neck again as he walked to the cabin.

"I'm glad," Freed smirked. "Because you'll see just how devious I can be when I pound your ass into the ground next time we fight."

Natsu grinned. "Looking forward to it!"

~~~

"We should do this again some time," Lucy smiled.

The four mages were standing outside of Magnolia train station, having just returned from their training retreat. Natsu was leaning across her shoulders, partly to be closer to her and partly because the motion-sickness still was leaving him queasy. Laxus also seemed affected by the journey, though to a lesser extent. He was refusing to maintain eye contact with anyone and kept wincing when he moved his head too fast.

"We should," Freed smiled, raising his bandaged broken arm. "Though hopefully with better results."

"Sorry about him," Lucy laughed. "He goes all out."

"I knew what I was getting myself into," Freed laughed, smiling good naturedly. "And I like to think I gave as good as I got, even if all his bones remain intact."

"You did," Natsu groaned, looking up to reveal the bruise on his jaw. "You've got a good right hook, anyone ever told you that."

"It has come up, hasn't it Laxus?" Freed smirked, looking to his boyfriend with a glint in his eye.

"Once or twice," Laxus muttered, having been on the receiving end of Freed's punches whenever they sparred together. "But yeah, this was good. Nice to spar with someone I'm not used to. Especially you, Blondie. That whips a pain in the ass, you could beat half the assholes we'll be fighting without your spirits."

"Thanks. I doubt they'd want that, but that's a good compliment coming from you," Lucy smiled, before looking to Freed. "I can bring the manuscript over to the guild tomorrow, if you still want to read it."

"I'd love to," Freed nodded. "From what I've heard, its rather good."

"He's biased," Lucy laughed off the compliment, but Natsu frowned.

"Doesn't mean I'm not right," Natsu shouted, but covered his mouth a moment later as vomit threatened to leave him. He continued to speak through his hands, which muffled his words. "You'll see. It's great."

"Well, you can make up your own mind," Lucy said, pushing Natsu away. "We should get home before he pukes. I don't think Aquarius will appreciate being summoned to clean it off the sidewalk. Again."

"Of course," Freed nodded a little. "I look forward to reading your manuscript, and to doing something like this again if we ever get the time."

"Me too," Lucy smiled. "See you both soon."

"We shall," Freed agreed, and Laxus made a small noise in place of a goodbye.

The two men watched as the younger couple began to walk towards Lucy's apartment, Natsu swaying slightly as he tried to walk without Lucy's assistance. Freed didn't say anything, knowing Laxus was just as bad as the other dragon-slayer was – albeit hiding it better – and would need some time to recover.

After a few moments, they began to walk to their shared house in silence. It was a nice moment, the two of them appreciated silence between each other, and Freed allowed a small smile to grace his features. It had been a nice week, actually.

"So," Laxus said after a while. "You and Natsu have some weird rivalry going now. Didn't expect that to happen."

"Me neither, but he is good to train with," Freed laughed.

"Say that again when he's beating down your door in the middle of the night because he wants to fight," Laxus chuckled, and Freed smiled.

"I'll set up runes to stop me from hearing it," Freed grinned. "And as you find it so funny, I'll make sure the runes don't affect you. Just so you have something to laugh at when you wake up."

Laxus chuckled, wrapping an arm around Freed's shoulders.

"And speaking of things that I didn't expect to happen, you and Lucy have something of a friendship forming," Freed continued, and Laxus shrugged. "It's nice you're starting to make friends with other kids your age."

"Fuck off," Laxus laughed, nudging Freed with a grin.

"And such language. Maybe she's a bad influence," Freed smirked.

"You know that sounding like my grandfather ain't exactly a turn on," Laxus deadpanned.

Freed didn't reply, instead laughed and leaned further into his boyfriend. Laxus grinned, tightened his grip on Freed, and continued to walk with a smile on his face. This had been a good week.

#fraxus #nalu #freed justine #Laxus Dreyar #natsu dragneel #lucy heartifilla #fairy tail #request #fanfic #writing

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bogariel-frogariel · 4 years

Text

Taking A Breather

Adaine ducks out of a party to get a breather. She’s not the only one that needed a break from everyone.

Introducing my OC.

Find it here on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25262344

Tell me if you want more.

----

Adaine was getting bored.

She hadn't even wanted to go to this party.

However, when your sister helps cause a revolution and a complete restructure of a government's systems, inadvertently landing herself as one of the four newly elected Queens of Fallinel, you kind of need to attend a few formal social events.

That, combined with the fact that ever since she'd turned seventeen, she had been receiving many more inquiries and requests from various governments and magical institutions throughout Spyre, asking for her to act in her role as the Oracle meant that Adaine's calendar was much more full than she'd ever anticipated it being two years ago before she started high school.

Her face was starting to hurt from the polite smile she'd needed to wear for what was dawning on two hours now as she talked to politicians and important religious and magical figures from High Court, Solace and Fallinel at the banquette formally celebrating the renewed alliance between the three nations.

She knew she couldn't retreat to the library, even though she had been itching to explore it all day. The old elven castle the party was in was thousands of years old, perhaps millennia. However, Aelwyn had asked her to (told her to, really) not go into the library during the party. Adaine knew this was important to her sister, and they had both been trying really hard to be better sisters over the past year, so she'd agreed.

Besides, she could join Ayda (and by extension Fig) in the library tomorrow.

But she just really needed to escape right now.

Riz wasn't here, off at work, Gorgug and Zelda had (surprisingly) snuck off somewhere an hour ago, Fig and Ayda were (as previously stated) in the library, Rag was flirting with an elf (Adaine recognised as Queen Amara's twin brother), Fabian was sticking close to her sister, who was surrounded by a crowd of admirers, and Kristen had (unsurprisingly) slipped away from the party with Tracker an hour ago. They had barely left each other alone since they'd reunited four weeks ago after months apart, since the werewolf had also been instrumental in the revolution, and was now toting the title of High Priestess of Galicaea.

She just needed a few minutes to recharge, away from people.

So, Adaine ducked into the first narrow, shadowy corridor that she found.

For a moment, she allowed herself to sag in relief at finally, finally being alone. However, she turned a little more and froze, suddenly glimpsing someone sitting on the floor, poking their out from a blanket, which they'd thrown over their head.

The person stood up and both of them stood, staring at each other for a few seconds.

The first thing that Adaine registered was the fact that the girl (or so Adaine thought, but living with Kristen had meant that she'd learnt to make sure she got confirmation anyway) had not, in fact, been wearing a blanket, but had curled her wings in front of her. Her brilliantly black wings. As Adaine stared at her, she saw little white dotes flicker to life across the wings, quickly joined by some dark purple swirls, making them look like a picture from space.

"Umm…" she girl said and Adaine tore her eyes away from her wings and looked at her face properly.

The girl had dark skin, fine pointed ears that spoke of elven ancestry, and wavy, brilliantly white-silver hair that contrasted against her dark purple eyes that were rimmed with a sparkling gold. Adaine's heart hammered against her chest.

She was snapped out of her reverie when the girl tucked a book into the folds of her midnight blue gown.

She stuck her hand out to the girl.

"Hello, my name is Adaine Abernant, my pronouns are she/her."

Kristen would be so proud. A month ago, she'd spent a week making them practice the greetings whenever they entered a room she was in.

The girl blinked at Adaine for a second, her eyes widening. Adaine cringed internally. She didn't know how she would take more gushing or ass kissing.

However, after a second, the girl took her hand.

"I'm Rhaezella Starkterian, my pronouns are also she/her. Pleasure to meet you."

Adaine immediately recognised the name. "You're Queen Amara's sister."

She winced when Rhaezella pursed her lips. "Sorry."

The girl waved her off. "That's fine. You'll forgive me for acknowledging that you're the Oracle then, Princess."

Adaine couldn't stop her scowl at the second title and Rhaezella smirked.

"Yes. It's kind of ridiculous that we get those titles just because of our sister."

Adaine rolled her eyes. "And we have to keep them for the rest of our lives, even after they get voted out in fifty years."

Rhaezella snorted. "I think they were trying to prank us."

Adaine shared a grin with the girl. "So, you're looking for a refuge as well?"

Rhaezella sighed. "Sick of people trying to earn my favour."

Adaine nodded, her brain finally starting to work properly as she realised she remembered the name from more than just the queen.

"You're about to be tested for Archmage, right?"

Similar to the Oracle title, the Archmage was a life-long title given to a prominent and powerful magic user, who would work as a sort of anchor for magic to redistribute throughout Spyre. Whilst the Oracle looked to the future, the Archmage took care of the present, helping stabilise the magic in the planet's core, which was liable to become unstable without a living being to ground it. However, instead of automatically passing on automatically, the title was passed on when a suitable candidate came into contact with a jewel at the base of the Mountains of Chaos.

Fig had been asked to try for the position a few months ago, but the giant amethyst hadn't reacted to her touch.

Adaine supposed, with travel between nations becoming easier than it was a millennia ago, when Archmage candidates had to quest to find the previously unmapped location, the jewel could afford to be picky.

Rhaezella grimaced. "Yes. Being one of the few still living demigods has its perks I guess."

Adaine nodded awkwardly. She'd heard the story of the elfling who had one day sprouted wings and then been snatched into the Outer Planes by the gods moments later, only to then be imprisoned by the Elven government when she finally escaped her captivity by the gods years later.

Demigods were usually either taken by the gods (who had all seemed to dislike other gods having progeny on the mortal plane) or taken advantage of by governments seeking their power.

Being Archmage was really the safest position for her.

Personally, Adaine found it ironic that devils were nicer to their children than the gods.

"Umm… I like your dress… and your hair," the girl stuttered, breaking the uncomfortable silence that had fallen between them.

Adaine felt her cheeks heat up and her heart stuttered. She tucked her hair behind her ear self-consciously. She had allowed it to grow out over the last year, not bothering to cut it anymore like her parents had always made her. She knew it was very stereotypical of her, to have almost waste length hair; and that having such long hair had fallen out of style centuries ago, but it felt like rebellion against her mother, and Aelwyn had encouraged her when she'd voiced the idea.

She'd probably have to cut it soon though. It could be terribly annoying on adventures. Although, it did feel rather nice when she let others braid it.

She bunched her other hand up in her silky dress that was rather tight to her to her thighs fanning out from there. Aelwyn and Fig had pulled it out of the store because they had never seen her wear something like that before. She'd agreed to it for its colour; which was a blue so pale it was almost silver.

"Thank you," she muttered, before stammering, "Umm… I like your -" everything, everything looked pretty, "hair as well. The waves are really pretty."

"And your snake," she added with some shock as a black serpent appeared over the girl's shoulder. Adaine hadn't noticed it coiled around her waist.

Rhaezella pet the snake absentmindedly. "Her name is Cerridwen. They were a gift from my mother. My godly one. She's a shape shifter - nothing my mum makes is really… one thing. It comes with being the goddess of chaos and magic with no church. There are too many magic users and people so they are always… changing. But I love my familiar. She… helps when it gets too much."

Adaine grinned, pulling Boggy out of the purse that was slunk over her shoulder.

"I have a familiar as well. His name is Bogariel Frogariel. Or, Boggy the Froggy."

Rhaezella laughed and Adaine hugged Boggy close.

"I used a spell to summon him, so he can also change forms. He helps me with my anxiety."

Adaine had a moment of panic after she said that. She'd gotten too personal too soon.

However, Rhaezella just nodded in understanding. "I got Cerridwen before I was formally diagnosed, but my therapist says they help me."

Rhaezella she grimaced, flicking her hair behind her shoulder. "My sister just messaged me."

Adaine winced sympathetically.

Rhaezella sighed, smoothing out her skirt. Suddenly, Adaine didn't really want to be alone anymore.

"Why don't we go out there together?"

The girl glanced up, furrowing her eyebrows. "You don’t want to escape the party? I won't tell on you."

Adaine smiled. "Nah. It's alright. I'd rather have someone I like to talk to, even if I have to deal with everyone else."

Rhaezella beamed at her. "I would like that too."

The demigod gestured down the corridor. "Shall we then?"

Adaine nodded and started walking.

As they emerged into the light, she glanced to her side. It would be better if they were talking. It would discourage at least some of the vultures.

"What book were you reading."

Rhaezella blushed. "I'll only tell you if you promise not to tell any of the queens. I was meant to stay out of the library."

"So I brought some of it with you," Adaine said with a grin. "And deal."

She made a note to wear a dress with a large skirt and pockets at the next one of these functions.

However, as she launched into an animated discussion with Rhaezella that lasted almost the whole night, resuming whenever they were left alone, she thought she might not need to.

#dimension 20: fantasy high #dimension 20 #adaine fantasy high #fantasy high #fantasy high fanfic #dimension 20 fanfiction #adaine abernant #my oc

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theanimeview · 4 years

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Theory: Anz is the 8th Guardian Witch of the Wind!

By: Peggy Sue Wood | @peggyseditorial

OKAY... It’s Halloween, the spookiest day of the year, so I decided to write about one of my current favorite manhwa series that features witches while also remaining not-scary. This is also a series I highly recommend and if Halloween is my vessel to serve you this manhwa, then so be it! Coincidentally, it’s also Saturday, the day ANZ (the favorite I’m alluding to) usually releases, Chapter 55 is probably going to drop on Toomics.com any minute (Link) if it hasn’t already and I am HYPED.

ANZ is a series I started reading right when it came out on Toomics, and ever since then I’ve had this thought... Anz (our aptly named, blue haired protagonist shown above) is the next Witch of the Wind. He, our title-character, is the one who will succeed Cecile, the former Witch of the Wind. Though, there are a bunch of characters in the series saying he’s not the heir--particularly because Iliya, a girl about the same age as Anz, is claiming to be the heir--I am 99.99% sure that Anz is the true heir.

The odds that I’m right might not look so great, but hear me out anyway, because I think there is a compelling argument for Anz to be our Witch. SPOILERS, by the way (if that wasn’t clear before)...

At the start of the story, we learn that there are a select group of special witches called Guardian Witches who are all deeply connected through their magic even if they are not emotionally close. We learn this through the prologue chapter of the series as three of the guardian witches begin to cry over Cecile’s death, despite some of them having never met her or having no understanding as to what is going on. For example, Mule Grace, the youngest of the established Guardian Witches seen thus far, begins crying and asks why she’s doing so despite nothing going on presently to make her do so. Opera, one of the other Guardian Witches shown to be crying, tells one of the people around her that she and, by extension, the other Guardian Witches are crying not out of sadness or personal grief over Cecile’s death but because their bond as Guardians Witches transcends their individual feelings. She can’t help it and neither can any of the others.

Cecile’s death, the death of a Guardian Witch, is thereby marked by the other Guardian witches crying. Despite a handful of other characters appearing beyond the witches, only one other person seen crying during this time, apart from the Guardian Witches, is our title character, Anz (seen below).

Of course he would be crying. After all, Cecile was like an adoptive mother to him in addition to being his mentor, guardian, and caretaker. She trained him in combat, made sure to help him work through moments when he lost control of his blood-based power that wrecks his mind, as well as provide him with important life lessons and social skills. All of which allows us to make the assumption that their relationship was similar to an apprenticeship and found family as the series progresses. This could explain his crying, but then why are we only shown him and three other Guardian Witches crying? Cecile had other people she was close with--friends and members of her knights that were also like found-family. So, again, why are we only shown Anz in this chapter where we learn of Cecile’s death?

By featuring Anz as the only other person crying in the opening chapter that depicts the death of a Guardian Witch and by placing so much focus on it through their introduction of the three other Guardian Witches with no one else, we are given our first hint to Anz being Cecile’s heir.

Next, we have his apprentice-like relationship to Cecile. It would make sense for him to be the heir to her power as Mule Grace comments that each of the Guardian Witches normally takes on an apprentice when they are preparing for death. They slowly pass their powers over to their heir over time and that helps make the chosen heir the next Guardian Witch.

In the prologue, Riz Abramelin, the Second Witch of Frost and the Guardian Witch of Kelren, speculates that Cecile may not have had a chance to choose an heir. Cecile was the Seventh Witch of the Wind and has apparently died young for a Guardian Witch. However, I find it unlikely that Cecile left this world without choosing an heir--and not just because Iliya claims to have been chosen by her. It would make sense that Cecile had chosen an heir to her role and that the heir would be Anz given their close relationship. (Side note, from what I can tell, a Guardian Witch’s number is their literal number in the role’s line, hence Riz is the second witch of frost, Mule Grace is the fourth witch of strength, Cecile was the seventh Witch of the Wind, etc...). (Another side note, if a Witch does not choose an heir, than a new heir rises naturally over time.)

The only known rival to Anz being the heir is Iliya, the “supposed” inheritor of Cecile’s guardian role. However, Iliya isn’t introduced until several chapters later and, in our meeting of her, we do not learn of her ever crying in the same moment as the other witches despite the bond being established as transcendent between both chosen heirs and the current Guardian Witches (we know that heirs are included because Mule Grace, an heir, cries too).

One may argue that Iliya isn’t seen crying because she had yet to undergo her “Second Awakening,” which is when the status as a Guardian Witch is made clear through the awakening of their true powers, but if that was the case then Mule Grace wouldn’t have cried either since her second awakening happens much later in the work. One could also argue that we don’t see her crying because she had yet to be introduced as a character, but this event transpired during the prologue that too would not make sense.

With this in mind, what standing does Iliya have to claim herself as the eighth Witch of the Wind?

In argument of Iliya being the heir, Well, one of Cecile’s Knights (people chosen by the witches as aides and gifted some of the guardian’s mana), Eddie, says that Iliya must be Cecile’s inheritor since he could feel Cecile’s power coming from Iliya. And lending to this idea Anz comments that Iliya’s wind magic feels the same as Cecile’s magic. However this feeling that both Eddie and Anz have about Iliya’s magic can easily be explained by the very thing that defines Eddie as a Guardian Witch’s Knight—mana. Specifically, Cecile’s mana. Remember that each of the Knights of each Guardian Witch are given a fraction of their respective Guardian Witch’s mana when they become knights, making them feel like the Witch they’re a knight too. A perfect example of this is how Anz comments that he can feel Cecile’s mana coming from Eddie (seen in the image below), much the same way Eddie claims to feel Cecile’s mana coming from Iliya.

Heirs are also gifted the Witch’s mana but in a larger degree on top of what magic they already posses.

What is more likely than is that Cecile may have made Iliya a knight by giving some of her mana to the girl when she helped Iliya escape the corruption/corrosion—a place Cecile seemed to have found and saved many people during her time as the Seventh Witch of the Wind as well as a place she found Anz in and kind of raised him in. Cecile making Iliya a Knight would explain why Iliya’s wind feeling like Cecile’s and probably acts like a magical blessing that would allow Iliya to pass or think of herself as a potential heir to the Guardian of Wind’s role.

Anz being able to sense Cecile’s Knights and how the Knights respond to Anz’s approach when he comes to the Winfred Academy of Magic, thereby leads me to believe that Anz is more likely to be the heir than Iliya who can’t sense the other Knights well, if at all. Meanwhile, almost instantly all of the Knights can sense Anz coming close in the same way he can sense them.

What maybe the biggest factor against Anz being Cecile’s heir is his blood-based power, but within the context of the story that doesn’t seem to be a problem because we know that a person can have more than one type of magical blessing (these blessings are essentially the same as saying you can have more than one type of power—a fire user may also be able to use earth, for example). These blessings have no known relation to the heir’s role as the next Guardian Witch.

When it is unclear like this, what defines the Guardian Witch is their awakening, but those awakenings seem to happen only when the Guardian Witches needs and desperately wants to protect other people.

Anz will certainly struggle with this since has been cut off from people most of his life and has never been, as far as we’ve seen, in a position where he needed to protect others. Rather, his experience has largely been needing to be protected from himself, from other people, or even protecting other people from his blood-based powers by someone else.

It isn’t until Anz fights the Alpha monster (and a few lesser monsters) that appeared during what was supposed to be the Academy’s semi-safe training session off-campus that we see him really desperate fight to protect others for the first time. It’s then that we see Anz fighting to protect others for the first time and it is also the first chance we see for him to have a second awakening. However, due to his blood-based power, which he is familiar with and will protect him at pretty much any cost, Anz turns to the “easy” answer of using his blood powers rather than searching inward for the guardian power I believe is present within him.

His blood powers are essentially a crutch that he turns to during desperate times, something another guardian witch heir like Mule Grace who achieves her second awakening during this arc does not have and thereby cannot lean on to avoid reaching her true power as a Guardian Witch.

There are, of course, other hints too, such as Anz’s ability to use many of Cecile’s moves and attacks which other characters attribute to Cecile having raised and trained him prior to her death:

There is also Anz’s “visions” of Cecile, such as in Chapter 50 when he dreams of Cecile and begs her to take him with her, which she rejects by bonking his head and telling him to live his life prior to him waking up in the hospital. As with most comics, dreams give us foresight or define a unique/special connection.

All of this leads me to believe that Anz is the next Witch of the Wind. Though, I suspect that it will take some time before he can fully awaken due to his use and reliance upon his blood-based power.

So, what do you all think? Could Anz be the 8th Guardian Witch of the Wind? or do you have a more compelling argument in Iliya’s favor as heir to the role? I’d be happy to know!

With that, I wish you all a Happy Halloween, and I’ll see you next Saturday with another post!

#Witch of Wind #witch wind #wind witch #안즈 #The Memory of Wind #Anz #manhwa #Charcoal #theory #analysis

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antillonbukhari90 · 4 years

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