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nefoe-dd · 3 years

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SO SMT AU AM I RIGHT GAMERS

I mentioned this in the tags of another post and joked about it in Discord but my brain went brrrr during my last class of the day and now I lowkey have a full plot starting to form lol.

Keep in mind the only Shin Megami Tensei game I’ve played myself is the Nocturne remake, plus I only really remember bits of the plot of 4 and whatever we’ve been given so far of 5 so I’m not super well versed in the series.

Also I’ll add this to the tags too but DSMP Spoilers specifically for the contents of Techno’s Will exist in this post, because that is where the idea for this came from. A lot of other JRPGs have similar plotlines but I specifically thought of SMT because its kind of a meme specifically for that at this point how the plot always seems to have the same type ending bosses.

Also some spoilers for Shin Megami Tensei IV

ANYWAYS

Now Presenting: An AU where Techno’s Limbo is an SMT Game lol

(Under a ‘Read More’ because it got way ahead of me)

An Introduction to Relevant SMT terminology:

Demons: Makes up a large majority of the characters in the game. They are the enemies that you face in combat, and its possible to recruit them to your team through various means. Some demons exist in the overworld though, and can be talked to normally, they’re chill most of the time, unless you do something to tick them off. ‘Demon’ is not taken literally by the Christian definition, they are based off of various figures in folklore and religion around the world, some are even based on Gods and Angels.

Law vs Chaos: Many SMT games have multiple endings based on these two alignments, along with the neutral alignment. It is usually decided by some important decisions the player makes throughout the game. I’m most aware of the SMT 4 ending, in which the route you are on decides the final dungeon, the character you team with for the ending, and the final boss (its either Satan or the in-game version of God). It’s based off of the traditional interpretation of these two, where Law represents the importance of authority, and Chaos represents the importance of freedom.

Another note is that a lot of SMT games take place in a post-apocalyptic world of some kind, which, spoiler, is the case here.

General Plot Details and Worldbuilding:

- Techno dies in the prison. The stasis chamber fails and Quackity succeeds in killing him. Permanently.

- Despite dying, he wakes up again in the main prison cell, but things are different. The lava isn’t blocking the entrance anymore, (in fact there isn’t any lava at all), and he’s alone. Upon peering outside the main cell, he notices a bit of sky peeking through the prison ceiling, like it had been broken into.

- The drop down to the bottom floor is long, but he’s dead, so he just shrugs and jumps down so he can see what’s going on. Turns out there are several holes in this part of the prison, in fact there are multiple on the ground, likely where the lava had escaped from. (Obviously Minecraft lava specifically doesn’t work like that, I’m pretty sure in the DreamSMP the bottom is all source blocks, but just ignore that bit).

- He exits from the back wall of the prison, and everything there so far looks normal, except for the fact that there appears to be less trees than normal. Of the trees that are still there, many of them were cut down and never collected, and some appear to have fallen over due to some damage.

- Techno goes around the prison to the front, and that’s when he notices some things that are very wrong. Various parts of the prison, not just the main cell, are also sitting destroyed. Many cracks, scuff marks and full-on chunks are missing on the walls. The usual entrance which houses the nether portal is hardly still standing, and he can see straight into the main lobby where the portal would lead into once you were let through.

- The surrounding areas are not much better. Tommy’s outpost is toppled over in the distance, only the base and bottom floor are left standing. The tents near the beach are collapsed and destroyed, the only remnants of one of them is a small piece of fabric ripped from the main bit and laying on the ground. Skeppy and Badboyhalo’s mansion is crumbling where it stands, half of the back wall and ceiling are gone. And that’s only what’s visible from here.

- The rest of the server is also in various states of destruction, the spawn walls are hardly left standing, the main nether portal area is covered in potholes, none of the portals are active. The prime path is rotted and broken in most areas, the buildings along it are not faring much better than the ones he’d seen before. And the further he gets away from the prison, the more the plants themselves appear to be dead or dying.

- L’manburg’s crater looks much the same as it once did right after its destruction, albeit with more debris at the bottom which had fallen from the sides as they slowly eroded. The flag at the bottom is torn up and discoloured, honestly its hardly recognizable. The nature that had finally begun to reclaim the land has slowly been dying instead over time, and the bridge overtop has completely collapsed. The only thing still standing, is the ever present obsidian grid that looms over it in the sky. He supposes that whatever disaster had caused this wasn’t able to reach that high up, or that it was at least in part done by someone that liked the way it looked. Not that there seems to be a need for the reminder anymore.

- Something something, he finds out DreamXD is here, and that he might have had something to do with how this world looks. And as much as it shouldn’t matter in the afterlife, he did promise Phil he would be killing God sooooo he goes on a mission to do just that. He can do pretty much anything now that he really doesn’t have to worry about dying, so why not. He has no reason to care about some God, especially when they’re the only ones left.

- Some DSMP people hang around the world and are represented by certain demons, the mostly chill ones that kinda just hang around in the apocalyptic scenery. They don’t recognize him, it isn’t really the people he knows after all, but they are willing to talk to him since they can tell he isn’t human either. He learns little bits of what happened through them, and learns where DreamXD resides, that being one of the strongholds that’s a bit further out.

- Unfortunately, due to the portals being inactive, and his inability to break anything efficiently, or even at all, he has to travel using the overworld. Along the way he manages to speak to some others, this allows him to better locate where the God is, although it doesn’t seem to be hiding out. He even sees it sometimes flying around, which he uses to follow where its hiding.

- Some of the random demons he runs into recognize that he’s not supposed to be here (according to them at least), so he has to fight his way through them. Luckily, many of the friendly demons that he talks to end up tagging along in order to help, thus making up a team he can use to get through them instead.

- There’s probably a demon that seems to resemble Phil somewhere, living alone (alone for so so long) away from everyone in an arctic house perhaps. If I wanted to really up the angst, the demon takes a liking to Techno right away, which is partly how Techno is able to tell its him so quickly. The more they talk, the more Techno realizes how lonely the Phil he knows must be without him there, how upset he’d be once he reads the will and finds out what happened to him. Thus he’s more motivated to, you know, fight God, in an attempt to figure out what the hell happened. (DXD is the only entity existing here that also exists where he’s from, he can guess pretty easily that maybe, just maybe, they are one and the same). Thus, he is given a choice that he knows he will have to make in the future.

- Eventually he manages to find the stronghold and comes face to face with DreamXD himself. DreamXD is just kinda chillin there, they fight, through DreamXD doesn’t seem to be putting in too much effort, almost like it does not want to win.

- Techno wins (duh), and he is left with a choice, a choice to finish the job, or spare the god and allow it to go free. And, well, he feels that he doesn’t really have the right to decide whether it lives or dies, and while its possible that DreamXD caused whatever disaster created the current state of the world, but he doesn’t know that for sure. DreamXD has done nothing this whole time he’s been here, and its done nothing to him or his companions.

- He chooses to leave it alone, and DreamXD seems to know that it was always going to end that way.

- DreamXD disappears, and Techno wakes up in the cell again post-revival, the prison and the world around it is the same as he remembers

(I don’t remember the exact real-world to limbo time difference but I imagine that it felt like, a day, maybe half that, while irl it was only a few minutes to an hour.)

Some other notes/details:

- The other possible ending would have resulted in Techno killing DreamXD and being given ANOTHER choice to take its power over the world, or just leave and stay there forever. Basically DreamXD’s existence is vital to the power of the revival book, and it’s death would have resulted in Dream not being successful in his revival attempts. Obviously we have no idea how the powers actually work yet, but I just came up with an explanation because I thought it would be interesting. You can decide on your own which of these endings fall into Law, Chaos or Neutral because uh, its complicated given the scenario. You can also decide if letting DreamXD live even fits into his character! Idk! But its not like DreamXD’s being oppressive by any means, not that there’s anyone to oppress here anyways. That’s my logic anyways.

- I don’t know what demons would represent specific people, I’d like to use one of the Angels for Phil but the Demons based on Angels usually have an important role in the plot that is in line with the Law alignment and like, protecting god or whatever, so no. There are a couple bird ones but idk if they fit the vibe, idk it could work, I’d have to look at a list if I want to go into this further.

- I kinda want Eret to be an Inugami because it’s body does that thing that ferret’s do when they’re all stretched out :) The only reason I’m hesitant is because Inugami is a dog, and Goose deserves representation.

- The reason I imagined for why Techno can’t break anything is because the mining fatigue lasted throughout this because he died with it, it’d get in the way of fighting too but at least it isn’t weakness, and he’s not alone either.

Uhhhhh that’s it for now I think!

(will potentially add to this if I figure something else out in the future)

#Dreamsmp #Dreamsmp spoilers #DSMP #Technoblade #none of the schoolwork I've done so far is this long what the fuck did I do #this is almost 2k words btw

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bigskydreaming · 3 years

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Couldn't the thing with Jason thinking Dick is infallible from Truth and Justice story come from how he is compared to his brother from Bruce. Even when he was Robin with Dick and Bruce fighting, he was told that Dick was better by Bruce. Then he comes back and is a cautionary tale of what not to and how not to be while Dick and Bruce are now getting along.

I mean yeah, you could go with that take, but I’m always gonna argue that even that is more fanon based than anything else, at least before this issue. We’ve seen a lot of that take in the past already, but truth is, there really isn’t that much basis in older stories for Bruce comparing Jason to Dick. And like I’ve expanded on in the past, younger Jason looked UP to Dick, he certainly didn’t resent him.

With this being true even when he first came back - Dick was the only one he didn’t target at ALL during Under the Red Hood, and when he did finally meet up with Dick a year later, during the Brothers in Blood arc, it was more to fuck with him than any attempt to take things out on him. Like, that arc gets a lot of shit and deservedly so, but I really do wish more people would at least takeaway from it the fact that in it, JASON referenced still thinking of Dick as family. Which just doesn’t mesh up with all the ‘they barely knew each other/they resented each other’ takes.

Pretty much all the times I can think of when Jason was compared to Dick pre ADITF, it was actually not at all what its usually represented as by most fandom takes, such as the time Jason teamed up with the Titans. For pretty much Jason’s entire tenure as Robin up until the Felipe Garzonas arc, Jason was actually portrayed as perfectly secure in his position of Robin and wasn’t threatened by anyone else’s perception of him at all. Even the arc where he loses it on Two-Face has been kinda amplified to make more of it than it was, like.....Bruce was worried about the anger he expressed there, but that was more out of concern FOR Jason and it wasn’t the “Jason was on the verge of getting fired as Robin all along” kinda narrative we tend to see referenced.

Jason was only made out to be the angry Robin or the less competent Robin or whatever AFTER his death, which is all kinds of shitty, but like......there’s no real basis for any kind of extended history where Jason resentfully suffered under his big brother’s shadow while Robin. The angry/less competent Robin stuff was all DC retroactively railroading him after the fact to justify their choice to kill him off (which was still their choice no matter the existence of a poll), and its the narrative most people have run with because it amplifies Jason’s existence as the misunderstood and unfairly judged underdog of the family.

Now to be 100% clear, as I’ve said in the past.....there is absolutely no reason you CAN’T go with this take if you don’t want to. Nobody has to abide by canon, or a particular canon and I’ll never argue otherwise. My main point has always just been that the thing about fanfic is that its a transformative process, it enables fans to take canon and transform it into something else.....but here’s the thing....those transformations ALWAYS happen with INTENT. People are deliberate in how and in what ways they transform canon, even if they’re not always CONSCIOUS of that deliberation.....it still exists. None of these transformations just happen, they happen for a reason. Because fans want an end result that’s different from what we saw in canon.

So my thing is always just.....yes, transform canon as you like, for whatever reason. But don’t pretend that those reasons don’t exist, and understand that when people look at a canon to fanon transformation that really only results in one major difference.......they’re gonna assume that this difference, achieving this difference, was for whatever reason, the POINT of the transformation.

And here’s where I also want to express something else: my take has never been that most of fandom just hates Dick Grayson. That they’re consciously, deliberately out to smear him or make him look bad. I think there’s a lot of elements in play with how I perceive fandom’s interactions with him compared to other characters, but more often than not, I think one of the bigger issues with how his character is TRANSFORMED from canon to fanon, is just.......he’s collateral damage. I don’t think in most cases the point is even to make actual transformations of his character or characterization......its to apply these things to people he’s in scene WITH......and he just ends up transformed as well, by proximity.

Take a look at some examples:

1) Dick firing Tim

Except as we’ve gone over multiple times, Dick didn’t actually FIRE Tim. He didn’t neglect him, he didn’t turn his back on him, he could have handled that situation differently, sure, but he had none of the ill intent people assign to him when they typically ramp up how bad this period was for Tim. Dick actually called him his equal, begged him to stay, said he was too GOOD to be Dick’s junior partner........but this is not at all how this moment in canon is generally viewed by a lot of fandom. He comes off looking a TON worse, like he just chose Damian over Tim and discarded Tim first chance he got, he didn’t care how Tim was affected, he kicked Tim out of the manor and out of Gotham.

But the thing is.....I’d argue that none of this TRANSFORMATION from canon really had anything to do with Dick. I don’t actually think that tons of fans were just waiting in the wings for the perfect opportunity to make a villain out of Dick and just seized upon this moment as the perfect opportunity. I think it was just all about Tim. It was about accentuating his misery, his aloneness, heightening the whump factor of his character and amplifying the feelings of insecurity, rejection and alienation he was feeling and that people related to.

What happened to Dick’s character in most peoples’ eyes as a result of this transformation, was the symptom, not the point. It was the collateral damage, not the aim.

2) Bruce firing Dick

In contrast, we have more than one canon interpretation of Bruce firing Dick as Robin, with this leading directly into Dick leaving the manor at a fairly young age, keeping his distance from Bruce until he finds out about Jason, Bruce giving Robin to Jason without acknowledging or apologizing for the fact that he was giving away the identity that someone else had crafted and poured their heart and soul into, not him.......but this isn’t how a lot of fandom outside of Dick stans and people who are specifically predisposed towards Bad Dad Bruce like to treat that part of canon.

Here, the transformation is the reverse from what happened with Tim and Dick. Here, the feelings of rejection and alienation and insecurity Dick realistically would have felt during that time are overlooked and even outright invalidated by TRANSFORMING the canon so that actually, this period of extended estrangement is completely disconnected from any version of events where Bruce fired Dick, which he did not do here. And in fact, Dick gave up Robin, he and Bruce had a falling out, and this was mutual and two-sided and thus Dick’s refusal to come home earlier and reconcile with Bruce was not actually him standing up for himself and refusing to settle for being taken for granted and dismissed when convenient but rather just Dick being immature, stubborn and a little spoiled.

But again.....I don’t think that’s the aim so much as a byproduct of the intended end result. Once more, I think that had very little to do with Dick himself, wasn’t about making him look bad specifically....but rather, it was about making Bruce look better. It was transforming the thing he had done in canon which was so hard to defend, ie ignore all of Dick’s feelings on the matter much in the way people accuse Dick of ignoring Tim’s later, and passively rejecting him and refusing to be the first to reach out unlike Dick who actively sought after Tim when he left. Those moments in canon definitively make Bruce look pretty bad, and are hard to reconcile with Good Parent Bruce Wayne, so that is what people are trying to transform. Once again, the way it makes Dick look in contrast is just a symptom.

The further examples are honestly pretty endless.

The aftermath of Forever Evil and Spyral is ignored, transforming Dick into the true villain of that period not because people just want an excuse to hate him, but because they don’t want to or can’t reconcile what Bruce actually did in order to get Dick to act so out of character, or they want to justify Jason and Tim and others’ anger at Dick later rather than have them appear to be inconsiderate assholes just piling on a guy who just had the worst year of his life to date.

The instances of Bruce outright abusing Dick after Jason’s death and at other times like Night of the Owls are ignored, transforming Dick into an impetuous, overly aggressive asshole who isn’t reacting to Bruce’s initial aggression, but rather just popping off the handle because he isn’t being received or treated just the way he likes.

Dick reaching out to Jason and making an offer to be there for him as Robin and later times they interact in Titans as well as any actual bond they build, even if mostly just hinted at off the page....all ignored in favor of transforming Dick into this bitter, jealous jerk who can’t see past his own feelings long enough to realize he’s taking things out on an innocent kid who doesn’t deserve this, even though that’s exactly what he realized and motivated his actual actions towards Jason in canon. And again, its not so much about making Dick worse, its about overlooking the WHYS of Dick’s hurt, turning the focus from what was done to him that justifies him being upset in the first place, to some greater mistreatment he enacts on Jason and thus drowns out any sympathy that people might otherwise have for Dick.

Dick’s periods of brainwashing like under the Church of Blood being overwritten or ignored in order to transform his deliberately out of character attitudes towards his friends and teammates there into just normal outbursts that were part of his characterization rather than signs that something was abnormally wrong with him. Thus turning everyone else’s treatment of him during that time period into again just their part of a two-way street and nothing they had to feel bad about rather than acknowledge that he’d literally not been in full control of himself while they had no such excuse for their behavior.

To be clear.....this kind of thing is NOT limited to just Dick. It tends to happen any time people want to transform a canon event into something more one-sided, to accentuate a particular character’s position as the victim or the misunderstood or neglected party.....or to turn a one-way street into a mutual antagonism, to lessen a particular character’s culpability in some argument or feud. You can absolutely find examples of this same effect applying to every other character in the Batfam as well.

But the reason it happens so often with Dick, and thus every instance of it happening tends to be amplified by the sheer volume of similar situations......is because of convenience. Because ironically, the reason Dick so often looks so bad in fanon’s eyes when it comes to his treatment of his family....is BECAUSE of how Dick is so much more integrated into every one of his family’s lives (and his friends’) than pretty much any other character. He’s the collateral damage to other characters being deliberately transformed in some way purely because he’s the one who almost always is THERE to some degree. Because there’s no one else in the scene that’s being transformed.

And so to bring it all back to your question......I think you absolutely can go with that take. There’s an argument to be made for it, especially now given that this canon issue has actually established a precedent for Jason feeling that way rather than fanon just running with the idea because it makes Jason more maligned. Its still not something that’s ever going to interest me though, even if I can see the reasoning for it, because its not just the fact that this particular dynamic between Dick and Jason has played out thousands of times before in fic, as I said yesterday. Its also because like I laid out here......my bigger issue is that take has absolutely NOTHING to do with Dick himself, says nothing about his character, but his character is inevitably the one who will suffer fallout from that particular take. That dynamic, as you described it, makes sense.....but its entirely, 100% on Bruce or others for raising those comparisons, not because of anything Dick did to Jason himself.....and thus it makes Jason’s dynamic towards Dick MORE a product of other peoples’ reactions and attitudes towards him and his brother respectively.

And that dynamic IS perfectly understandable and valid. But even if its slightly different this time because of more of a canon basis, it still for me falls into the same pattern of Dick being collateral damage to something that’s largely focused on another character entirely, with him and how he’s impacted by extension being kinda an afterthought.

*Shrugs* And that’s just......a story I’ve read so many many times before, I’m just never gonna be all that engaged by it.

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starkeristheendgame · 4 years

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If you are okay with it, I was wondering if you could do a body switch soulmate au. When you first make eye contact with your soulmate you switch bodies. You stay in each other's bodies for 24 hours. I feel like this could cause some shenanigans on both sides. Tony hasn't had to be taught anything in awhile and Peter doesn't know how to run a company.

I was a little apprehensive about this idea at first but honestly? I adore it. I am afraid, however, I took this away from the ‘humor’ pathway and plopped it straight down into ‘light angst’. Please accept my apologies for that - And I’d be happy to write something more lighthearted if this doesn’t hit the spot. Keeping your own emotions and mindset out of what you write is hard sometimes.

Slight AU in that they meet differently to CW.

TW: Light angst | Slight hurt

He was going to lose his fucking mind. He could feel each one of his IQ points disintegrating as he stared at the board (an actual digital board, what fucking year were they in? 2015?) and tapped his pen restlessly on the desk. He hadn’t been to school since he was eighteen. The last time he’d been in a classroom was January, giving a motivational speech to Princeton graduates.

He felt too small and too stifled and if this woman pronounced Epinephrine wrong one more time, he was going to launch his desk at her and snap that stupid board in half.

Because he could do that, now. Displays of sheer power. Because Peter Parker had been bitten by a genetically modified spider and Tony was currently occupying Peter’s body.

Soulmates were so, so overrated.

“Hey, wonder kid. Tap that pen one more time” the girl to his left whispered, and Tony shot her a cool side-eye. MJ quirked a brow at him, equally unimpressed, and nodded to the board. Tony scowled but knew the effect was ruined by the soft, pretty baby-face he currently wore. Curse Peter and his lopsided brows and his huge eyes. Curse soulmates for existing.

MJ was thus far the only one who’d noticed The Switch. It was only sheer coincidence that Peter and Tony both had brown eyes of a similar enough shade that the telling switch of eye colour between soulmates hadn’t given them away. MJ, however, was astoundingly attuned into her best friend, and it had only taken three minutes in her presence for her scowl at him and ask who the fuck was wearing her friend’s meatsuit. Tony had to begrudgingly admit that he could see why her and Peter were good friends. She’d looked unimpressed at his claim until he’d pulled out his (Peter’s) phone to show the frantic texts from that morning, and then she’d huffed, rolled her eyes, and dragged him to first period.

He thought lunch would be a reprieve when it came, but instead he found himself staring with growing dismay at a tray of food that he’d refuse even if he was a prisoner, blanching in disgust when a sloppy excuse for a mac’n’cheese was dumped into one of the slots. “I’m going to die” he complained, ushered along by an unsympathetic MJ. “This is cruel. This is inhumane. Dogs don’t even get fed this”.

“Yeah, well. You’re a billionaire, so. Put up or shut up. I have no sympathy for capitalist elitists”. And, wow, rude. But understandable. He sank down onto one of the bench seats and tried to stop his stomach from rolling at the way the meal wobbled when it was set down. He’d been poking at it for several moments, largely ignored by MJ, when a shadow fell over his table. He looked up and stared with disinterest at the sneering figure above him, before he sighed.

“Which one are you, then? Neb? Flake?”

“Flash” the form above him frowned, and Tony waved a dismissive hand.

“Yeah, whatever. Class killed off half my IQ points and I’m not wasting the rest on you. Off you pop”. He turned back to his pitiful excuse of a meal, prodding the macaroni distrustfully with his fork. The boy besides him gaped, flustered, before turning on his heel and stomping off. When Tony glanced up, the girl was looking appraisingly over her book at him.

“Maybe you should leave your balls behind. Peter could do with them” she noted, before dropping her gaze again.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 　　 *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

“How much money does he actually have?”

“Sir’s total net worth including assets, liabilities and investments are currently estimated at just short of a trillion, Mr. Parker. In terms of ‘real time currently’ Sir has £515,268,385,012 as of the current hour”.

Peter was gonna pass out. He was wearing the body of a man with five-hundred billion in the bank. He’d known Tony Stark was rich, obscenely and un-necessarily so, but that was a whole other level. Vaguely unsteady, he sank down on the plush couch, feeling a little green. It had already been a few hours since waking, but he had yet to get used to the fact that he was, for all intents and purposes, Tony Stark.

“Does that bother you?” The artificial voice asked after a moment, sounding impossibly curious. Peter hadn’t thought AI of this level possible, but here he was, talking to a voice that was more realistic than some of the living people he knew.

“Its...A shock, I guess. I mean, it does bother me, I suppose. Nobody needs that much money. That much cold cash alone could eradicate homelessness in America. But...I don’t know. Its his money, he earns it. He saves the world and stuff. I don’t know how you could put a value on some of the things he’s done”.

The AI was quiet for a moment, pensive. “Sir’s ‘profession’ is high cost also, Mr. Parker. The worth of the Mark IVII alone is £6,000,500,000”. Peter thought about it for a moment, then gave in, humming softly. He supposed in that sense, having that much money kind of didn’t matter, then, when a huge chunk of it was consumed by saving the world. He’d seen how often that suit got dinged up, and had no doubt repairs and replacing parts was costly.

“Am I allowed to get something to eat?” He asked after a moment, stomach rumbling a little. He’d spent so much time this morning freaking out and being consoled by JARVIS that he’d missed breakfast and lunch had slipped him by.

“Of course, Mr. Parker. Several components of the kitchen are automated, but I am capable of guiding through any recipes or devices you are unfamiliar with”.

JARVIS had apparently activated something called ‘Romeo and Juliet Protocol’ when it had been revealed that Tony had been Switched, and a large majority of the Tower was closed off and protected. Peter couldn’t leave the penthouse and JARVIS had strict control of everything, even down to the doors. Peter was happy enough to just sit there and wait it out, though. As amazing as being here was, snooping was rude, especially when what he could find could potentially compromise the entire world.

He chose to make a simple, small sandwich which involved nothing more than a single knife and plate, marvelling at the giant fridge and the ridiculous amount of food within. Apparently Mr. Stark had a chef that stopped by once every other day with prepared meals, and was on-call for whenever he required a fresh meal without having to cook it. The produce was organic and far different to the sad, wilting lettuce that could be found at the local Cheap Fresh.

Technically, if it was plausible, when you Switched you were supposed to follow a specific protocol set up by the Government, but Mr. Stark had ultimately lost his entire mind at discovering his soulmate was fourteen and had immediately demanded Peter stay locked up like Rapunzel while he pretended to be him for the day to throw off suspicion. Peter couldn’t deny that had hurt a little, but he understood it. Soulmates or not it would be the scandal of the century - Tony would be called all sorts of things at best and investigated at worst, and the nature of their age difference meant a lifetime of interference and monitoring by the Government and protective services. He knew it was easier to pretend it hadn’t happened, to hide it from the world. Tony had suggested a private agreement, a ridiculous sum of money in exchange for Peter’s silence.

He realised he’d been staring morosely at his plate when JARVIS prompted him softly, and he sighed, taking a bite. There was no physical remote for the TV but JARVIS helped him to access a cache of movies and he settled on Inception, his weakness for Tom Hardy and Leonardo DiCaprio soothing the ache of his new reality.

“Am I allowed to ask what running a business is like?” He asked after a while, head balanced on his palm.

“In what regard, Mr. Parker?”

“Well, I don’t know. I mean, I’m fifteen. I don’t know how to run a company, let alone run a company and be a superhero. What kinda stuff does he do? Does he attend meetings? Does he fly around the world on company retreats like in the movies?”

JARVIS sounded lightly amused when he replied. “Sir has delegated much of the daily company operation amongst several trusted employees, but he is still the namesake, owner and CEO of Stark Industries. He does attend frequent meetings, but most of Sir’s ‘flying around the world’ is done for leisure or Iron Man related activity”.

“Sir spends most of his time in the lab, conducting important work for both his priorities. Sir also does a respectable amount of charity work, investment work and supportive work. I believe his latest venture is funding the entirety of MIT’s PhD graduate projects”.

Wow. That was...That would be a lot of money. And being supported by someone like Tony Stark was bound to be something to boast about, something that would fluff up your resume a little.

“Does he enjoy it?” Peter asked after a moment, fingertips raising absently to the arc reactor in his chest. It ached constantly, a low-level background pain that never quite faded out of touch, the odd sensation of a gaping maw in his chest something that had made him heave earlier that morning. Mr. Stark was tired, burnt out, but still going. It made Peter want to spend his twenty-four hours just sleeping, to try and soothe the man’s headache.

“Sir finds great gratification in his duties” JARVIS replied quietly, though he did not specify which. Peter gave a hum and succumbed to the desire to nap, curled up on the corner of the couch with Inception fading quietly into the background.

He ate again when he woke up, and blinked when he saw the time. Mr. Stark’s phone had been heavily locked down, but he could still access the message channel between this number and his own. The messages there were disheartening.

Told your hot Aunt I’m staying at that Nate kids house tonight. I’ll be coming to the Tower, but you won’t see me. I’ll stay on the level below.

Sorry, kid. Seeing someone else wearing me like a Givenchy suit is just too head-spinning.

JARVIS will keep you safe up there. We switch back at midnight, so try and get some sleep. You’ll wake up as yourself and I’ll get the plan in motion.

“JARVIS, when was the last time Mr. Stark cried?” He asked timidly, and the AI was silent for a moment.

“Four years ago, Mr. Parker”.

“Oh,” he breathed out, vision blurring. “I’m sorry. I’m afraid I’m about to ruin that” and he let the teardrops fall.

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atopearth · 4 years

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Piofiore: Fated Memories Part 2 - Dante Falzone Route

Hmm maybe Dante's route will answer why Lili seems to be so important to the Falzone and the church? Is she a descendant of the people who were tasked by "angels" to create this church and thus led to the creation of the Falzone or something? I wonder how Orlok is involved though~ Interesting to see Dante personally come to the church to protect and save Lili even though I doubt Orlok really meant any harm. Loll at Dante though, he seems like such a silly awkward boy that doesn't know how to properly communicate with others, he wants to keep her safe in the Falzone estate but doesn't even properly tell her that he intends to do that and just kinda assumes it by giving her a room and everything lol. Honestly though, I feel sorry for Lili, although she's being "protected", it's practically as if she's been kidnapped since she's not even allowed out of her room, and no one from the church or wherever is supposed to know that she's here, I would feel so uncomfortable if I was her. I guess at least she tried talking to Dante about it, too bad he refuses to say anything😪 I love how Leo is such a pure and earnest soul though, he is so kind and sweet to Lili, he tries so hard to help her too, it's nice that Leo is such an understanding and thoughtful bodyguard.

Lmaoo when Lili made a silk rope and tried to climb down the balcony to escape. To be fair, I would risk doing the same thing, Dante really isn't helping the situation by hiding everything from her. The CG of Dante catching her when she fell is so pretty though! I knew that Dante was hiding how the people were doing at the church because something happened to Sister Sofia but I didn't expect her to have died... Awww it was so cute how Leo thought Lili tried to run away because he was stuck to her 24/7 loll, he gives her so much space, there's no way he's overbearing! He's such a good boy🥺 especially now that she's not eating after finding out what happened to Sister Sofia, so he's trying to find a way to get her to eat. I love the suggestion of getting Nicola, Leo and Dante to eat with her to try and motivate her in a way. Too bad Dante didn't do it, but it's nice to see Nicola spending time naturally chatting with her and eating with her, I think eating together with someone really helps to make the food easier to take in. Omgg, Leo is such a cinnamon roll, he even took time out to buy her books and flowers since he felt bad that he didn't have permission to eat or do anything with her🥺 Ohh, Dante told him to get the gifts for her! Hahaha, omg, he's so cute🤣 It's actually kinda funny but so sweet how attentive and efficient Dante is. She just told him that she's a bit lonely since Leo has been busy and he tells Leo to get her a kitten the next day lmao. I'm actually impressed at how good he is at thinking of gifts to help her be more comfortable here. Dante's gentle expression patting the kitten was so comforting, I loved it. It was also nice to see Lili finally properly cry over Sister Sofia's death with Dante consoling her by rubbing her back🥺 Oh okay, I thought Sister Sofia dying was weird, but I didn't think that Dante would lie about such a thing to Lili especially knowing how important she was to her, I'm not surprised Lili felt betrayed. I'm glad Dante sincerely apologised for lying to her though.

HAHAHA, I loved how when Nicola was flirting with Lili and seemed to be coming on to her, she just shoved him away and ran off lolll! Although I'm happy that Leo is so considerate of Lili to bring her to the church whenever they have a chance to sneak out, it's obvious that something is going to happen now that she's out hahaha. As expected, the Lao-Shu are on the move for her, but I didn't expect Yang himself to be here for her. Omgggg I never expected to hear about Gau Lung Seng Caai aka Kowloon Walled City in here, I guess it would make sense for Yang to come from there since it was basically fully controlled by triads back in the day~ It's kinda worrying that Orlok can invade the Falzone estate and get to Dante so quickly loll, on the other hand, Orlok is a disciple of the church? Ugh, I wanna punch Nicola, like seriously, it's come to the point where they're running away to hide somewhere others don't know about and Nicola STILL insists that no, Lili shouldn't know anything because it's a secret and who knows if it's true since it's so long ago blah blah. Honestly dude, it's not important whether you think it's true or not, the truth is that people like Yang are going after her because they find value in her being the Key Maiden that can unlock the seal to the sacred relic (kinda the symbolic thing that gives the Church power in Burlone since back in the day). They obviously know that her life is in danger because of this, hid it from her all this time "because it's for her own good" when really, they're just treating her like a literal key they can drag from place to place to "protect" disregarding the fact that she's a human and has her own emotions and thoughts. And what? Nicola wants to blame her for sneaking out? Excuse you, yeah she's wrong, but don't make it sound like you guys are right for basically locking her up in the manor without telling her anything important. Like yeah, the Falzone are the guardians protecting the sacred relic and her so of course they know their mission and stuff but there's a huge difference when you know something and when you don't, being kept in the dark just makes everything worse. Honestly they could have just made up some lie to her instead.

Oh how interesting, they even have Disciples like Orlok to monitor the Falzone to see if they're properly fulfilling their roles as guardians?? That kinda seems...silly? Like, why don't you share protection of the relic instead? Also, how do you even know if they're properly doing their job or not? Like, you need the pure Falzone blood (and that's why they're so adamant on the importance of pure Falzone blood) to open the seal and get to the relic but you don't need it to protect it? But I guess there's more to this~ Anyway, Dante blushing on the sofa when he woke up with Lili nearly tripping down on him was cute haha. I'm not sure if I missed it though, wasn't Carlo the cat supposed to stay at the manor? Lmao at Dante being bad at household chores, at least he tried I guess. Yeah, Nicola likes to cause trouble huh? Now Lili thinks Dante is only nice to her because she's the Key Maiden, which is a legitimate worry, but it is pretty slack of her to avoid Dante when he's earnestly trying to approach her and understand what's wrong lol, I feel bad for him.

Like, I don't want to call the Falzone family weak since I feel like depending on the route and stuff, the story "makes" them weak when they want to so that the story can go whichever way they want but c'mon, laced wine that Nicola and Dante didn't notice? I'm surprised they fell for something like that. Nicola is definitely in on it, and Dante is careless lol. But then again, I feel like all our Mafia bosses here make questionable decisions too so I'll just roll with it lol. It was so heartwarming to see Dante so relieved to reunite with Lili and confirm that she's safe. Others can act as the Key Maiden??? So what's the point of Lili then...? Just more convenient? Anyway, the Falzone sure fell in reputation faaast from a newspaper report about corruption with police blah blah, like um, you knew they were Mafia so obviously not everything is going to be all colourful with rainbows, and it's so hilarious how the townspeople can just treat people like Giulia like shit now, excuse me, but I'm sure if Dante and them wanted to, they still have the numbers to oppress you guys, he's just too nice spoiling you all and you tread on him like that after he treated them so well over the years. Ungrateful people. Anyway, their confession was cute, but it sure took a long time for Lili to properly assess her feelings and be honest about her thoughts, but I think Dante being frank about his thoughts was the highlight. A bit like an explosion of all his feelings, his inadequacies, his worries and everything, it's nice that Lili was beside him, because I'm sure Nicola betraying him always hits him hard. On a whole though, sometimes I find it kinda funny how Yang is the only one Mafia-like in that he's actively trying to gain more power and territory, whereas Gil and Dante are pretty chill with the situation (as long as the power balance stays I guess) aside from the troublesome Yang guys lol.

Hahahaha okay, I thought I was vulgar for thinking that Dante and Lili needed to have sex for her "mark" as the Key Maiden to become prominent as needed for the seal (according to Emilio) but to think it really was that!! Okay, funnily, I didn't expect the sacred relic to actually be Jesus' dead body which apparently refutes all the church's teachings since Jesus would be seen as a "normal human" that died, which for me feels kinda silly? I'm not sure what the general consensus is and I never realised that Jesus' body was "stolen" or just cannot be found, but I guess I never really thought that when Jesus died, his body disappeared? I always assumed that Jesus "came down to Earth" and died for our sins in a mortal body, so obviously if he dies, the body will remain but the soul and the spirit or I guess the Holy Spirit leaves and kinda forms the Holy Trinity again? Anyway, I don't know my Bible stuff anymore so I'm not sure anymore, but for me, I feel like this "revelation" is pretty weak and honestly shouldn't be able to undermine the Church but that's just my opinion lol. Anyway, I love how after all that, Yang is just like I'm gonna kill you guys because he hates the Church anyway and he's lost most of his men so he's got nothing much to lose anymore so he might as well take them down with him, I feel like Yang is so random sometimes but I'll roll with it since it's much more amusing to watch him haha. Honestly, I feel so sad for Orlok dying to protect Lili when I feel like she never really saw him for how kind he was, and now he's being relentlessly stabbed by the crazed Yang that's probably on drugs. On the other hand, this might sound crazy but I like this ruthless Yang and I feel like I'm finally seeing a bit of the terror and bloodshed I expected from a game about the Mafia hahaha. Anyway, I'm glad Lili shot a bullet into the air distracting Yang and allowing Dante the opportunity to kill him, I think Yang would be satisfied with that since it seemed like he was just looking for an entertaining way to die. I'm glad that Nicola properly apologised to Lili for his crappy attitude towards her lol.

Well, the best ending was definitely more plot than romance, and I'm honestly not a fan of the plot here haha, it was more boring than I thought. Anyway, that made the romance part have less time so yeah..but seeing Dante propose to Lili was still cute haha. I actually prefer the good ending much more, it felt like it was straightforward, simple and sweet without the unnecessary plot haha, I also liked how she decided to stay at the church and didn't feel like she was ready to leave and stay in his manor with him yet, which is very understandable imo and I liked how they are spending more time properly bonding instead of living in those moments so focused on protecting her and everything. It felt much more natural. Honestly, Nicola dying by Dante's hands to protect Lili in the tragic ending was expected, and it was sad since Nicola always wanted the best for Dante and he's right that the Mafia will slowly become more and more redundant as time goes by, but I think Dante accidentally killing Gil and Lili going into a coma to protect Dante was really unnecessary. It just basically took away the impact and focus on Nicola's death that should torment Dante forever and tried to make it as "tragic" as possible but it just made me not care about it lol. Especially since Lili is in a coma, Dante will focus on that instead of the fact that he killed his best friend and his "brother" with his own hands and I think that's much more tragic than what happened to Gil and Lili.

Overall, I like Dante’s character more than Nicola, but I can't really say I cared for the story here either haha. It's nice that there were answers to the questions about the plot such as the Key Maiden etc, but the reveal and everything was more boring than I thought haha, so sadly that was disappointing. Otherwise, I think Dante and Lili were pretty cute. But I think I enjoyed the beginning of their relationship more, mainly because it was nice to see how they both worked hard to try and spend time with each other, get to know what the other likes to support them and other things like that, it felt really sweet. But once they moved into the hotel together, I don't feel like much happened and they just kinda got together because that's how it is? I don't know, guess the later parts didn't live up to the vanilla of the beginning haha, CGs were super pretty as usual though~ I do like Dante as a character though, like he can get a bit frustrating at times for being the moralistic Mafia boss but it suits him, and I guess it's nice to have someone like him who is seemingly cold but probably feels the most "feelings" out of the others haha. I think it's pretty cute how Dante has known about her since he was a child and always thought about her even though it was unnecessary lol. Anyway, tbh, I kinda prefer crazy Roberto than the actual plot lolll.

#piofiore fated memories #piofiore no banshou

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lokiondisneyplus · 4 years

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Today I left the house wearing a face mask for the first time.

I had woken up to the sound of heavy rain, which is always surreal in Los Angeles, and when I look out of the window to the hauntingly dehumanising sight of bandana-clad dog walkers, an eerie weight settles as I remember: this is our reality now.

I’m standing in the supermarket queue, a line dotted by crosses taped on the floor of the underground car park to signify our designated 6ft distance. Easily 50 people long and snaking around the perimeter of the building, I make my way to the last available X-marks-the-spot and join the other masked Bandits. I haven’t food shopped for over a week and am in need of supplies.

There is an obnoxiously loud man two crosses ahead of me ranting into his phone with such a high energy, the surrounding Bandits have allowed an extended social distance of a cross on either side of him. I sigh, remembering I’ve left my headphones at home, so am unable to tune him out, I wait and exhale, wondering how I am going to get used to the claustrophobic sensation of hot air and fabric condensing on my face.

Loud Phone Man is not wearing a mask and it's clear we’ve passed the tipping point of mild judgement, at least here in LA, where Bandits exchange a raised eyebrow, (about the only non-verbal Bandit communication available) which somehow magnifies the annoyance of this shopper - not only loud, but breathing indiscriminately all over us in this confined space… what does he think this is? Last week??

It’s Monday on #Week4 of Covid-19 lockdown in La La Land and as I shuffle to the next X I reflect on the journey so far.

After a whirlwind press tour to promote the release of Misbehaviour in UK cinemas (sadly cinemas were shuttered just days after the film's theatrical release – but it's available to watch online at home from April 15th!) I returned to work in Atlanta for Loki, the Marvel limited series for Disney Plus I’ve been working on, so am on set when I get the news that we are going on hiatus as a precaution due to the accelerating coronavirus, initially for one week. Thinking it would be longer, but still unsure at that point, I book a flight to LA to sit things out there for the time being. The next day Trump imposes a travel ban on travelling in or out of the US for 30 days, and with my visa situation and the pace at which everything is moving, it feels risky to fly to the UK in case I cannot get back into the country when filming recommences, whenever that will be.

So, with my housemate and her dog for company, we embark on social distancing, self-isolation and Lady Macbeth-level hand-washing.

Managing a constant low-level anxiety about my parents and loved ones, and friends in New York, London, Johannesburg and all over the world, I become consumed by the news, glued to the BBC website and KCRW talk radio for the latest figures. Like families gathered around “the wireless” in wartime, everything is unfolding so rapidly and the news, never this dramatic in my lifetime, takes on disaster-movie proportions.

FaceTime and WhatsApp become my lifelines as the reality of the pandemic is tinged with a weird detachment… a numbness I later realise was a form of shock that lasts for nearly two weeks and puts me into a hyper-focused state as I race to keep up, stay informed and learn how to adapt to this new rhythm.

I am of course aware that I am so privileged to be safe and personally unaffected thus far, but grasping the truth from what is overblown, and fact from politics and propaganda, give everything an out-of-body zero gravity quality; a new normal we are all united in.

Things are kicking off in the food line as my attention is caught by an exasperated Valley Girl three Xs ahead who finally explodes at Loud Phone Man, “ OH MY GAAAAD, USE YOUR INSIDE VOICE, CANT YOU SEEEEE EVERYONE IS LOOKING AT YOU CAUSE YOU’RE TALKING SO LOUD… WE ALL HAVE TO STAND HERE, OHMYGAAAD!” As she stomps her Ugged feet to the next X the security guard and smiling store employee (no mask) approach and I can feel a repressed inside-voice-cheer emanate from the rest of the line in applause.

The Bandit Couple ahead of me raise another eyebrow in solidarity and Female Bandit begins to capture a video of Loud Phone Man on her iPhone. The air gets thin, the energy tightens, “Hey Man,” Smiling Store Employee intercepts, Security guard flanking, “You wanna keep it down a bit, people are stressed, y’know? Thanks Man.” Valley Girl scowls, Bandit couple exchange glances, while still filming, Loud Phone Man defends, “I WASN’T EVEN TALKING THAT LOUUUUUD!!!” (Collective Bandit eyeroll) “YESSSSS YOU WERE!!!” Hisses Valley Girl, “Yeah Man, sorry you were,” Store Employee placates. taking the referee stance. I notice Loud Phone Man is wearing flip-flops, on a rainy day. He continues his conversation into his device, phone held to his lips, like a dictaphone, barely any quieter. “We have to be prepared…”

I sigh and feel warm breath on my cheeks. Mouth drying I look at my phone for escape and see that Boris Johnson has been admitted into intensive care for persistent and worsening Covid-19 symptoms. I suddenly feel very far from home and very sad.

I remember the things I’ve been doing to keep grounded and my spirits up. One of the benefits of turning out old cupboards was rediscovering my long dormant art materials. Painting, such an absorbing and transporting activity for me in childhood, was once something I considered doing instead of acting, but found it a little socially isolating - so acting won because it felt more collaborative. Now, of course, painting in isolation is perfect and becomes the most comforting of pastimes and a creative channel as I make images of my family and feel like I am spending time with them.

Understanding how superfluous actors are in a crisis such as this, I come to terms with the fact that staying at home, as passive as it may seem, is my contribution for now. Having the luxury of not having to home-school any children and knowing my work is pretty much on pause until social distancing recedes, I try to reframe this time as a chance to rest and refill the creative well. I read novels for pleasure, something I rarely find time for beyond work-related reads. I take my first Zoom yoga class (alexdawsonyoga.com), I join a 21-day online meditation experience (chopracentermediation.com), I take local hikes for fresh air and make first ever batches of banana bread and chicken soup. I even buy a mini trampoline online which, after a mildly challenging self-assembly, I’ve been sweating it out on to streamed classes online (lekfit.com) with a friend in Toronto, followed by accountability FaceTime coffee dates to virtually high five!

By the end of week two, the adrenalin crash truly hits and I’m exhausted from the constant rhythm shifting, news consumption and uncertainty. I’m an eternal optimist and good at self-motivating, but even when you’re Keeping Calm and Carrying on, you need to crash at some point. I nearly cry when I get my mum an Ocado food delivery slot - nothing has been available for weeks - and the “what ifs” that I have been keeping at bay with all my other activities release with relief and gratitude.

That’s when I discover Brené Brown’s new podcast Unlocking Us and find such solace in her calm and thoroughly researched words and conversations. Since her TED talk fame as a charismatic shame and vulnerability researcher, I’ve read all of her books and there is always something practical and nourishing in her work, told with humour and in a deeply relatable way - which I’ve found comfort in while in the midst of folding laundry, cleaning the bath or chopping vegetables.

Back in the food line and things are moving; the tension of the Loud Phone Man Vs Valley Girl dispute still simmers but everyone relaxes as they get closer to the front-door finish line. Smiling Store Employee does his speech on the new system: no reusable bags allowed, sanitised trollies and a one-way system in the aisles inside marked by arrows on the floor, to minimise contact with other customers. It all feels so surreal and regimented, but the Bandits, already drained from the 30-minute wait, constant Loud Phone Man soundtrack, near car park fight and everything else they’re all adjusting to, nod wearily behind their moist makeshift masks. It’s a bizarre sight.

Still chatting, Loud Phone Man makes it in and there’s a collective “phew” eye-contact exchanged between Smiling Store Employee and the remaining Bandits. Then his smile drops and crinkles for a second. “Yeah, he’s been in every day this week. It’s kinda sad. There’s no one on the phone.” The Bandits' brows knot quizzically. “Yeah, I think he has mental health issues, he just talks but the phone’s not on and he has no ear pieces, he just talks into it… 'They’re coming, we have to be prepared.'… I don’t know what to do.”

The reality breaks my heart. It seems to highlight the collective insanity we’ve all been processing and in that moment I just feel so frustrated at the state of the world and how this pandemic has exposed so many cracks in our society - from mental health to healthcare to privilege and poverty, everything just feels so raw.

I try to look for the silver linings and, among all the fear and anxiety and loss, I’ve been so inspired by human resilience, adaptability and creativity. I’m hopeful this great pandemic leveller will bring a new era of authenticity. An opportunity to shift mentality from Me to We.

Week three in self-isolation felt almost normal, which feels weird to admit. I’m getting lots of sleep and take regular meditative baths, which I’ve renamed Home Spa. I’ve found ways to safely contribute in my local community. When the shelves were bare from panic buying, I chatted with the manager of our local grocery store, who seemed so overwhelmed, so my housemate and I volunteered to stack shelves after hours. Although not exactly the front lines, we have fun and it feels good to give something back in our small way.

We of course negotiated to be paid in baked beans and toilet paper.

#Gugu Mbatha-Raw #Loki #Disney+#coronavirus #Covid-19 #lockdown

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the-house-of-the-nine · 4 years

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In Mind of Misery: Manipulation, Part 11

[ And so the journey begins. Three Separate stories to tell here all happening Simultaneously. Attacking from three fronts, is this the beginning of the end for The Nine? Please Like, Share, and Follow us! We are hoping to get new people coming our way, and could use the love! Thank you everyone!!!!! ]

Cast:

[ L.K ] - Lazarius Kashebahl, Marseille, Raelyndia Duskhollow

[ P.K ] - Kretus Dark

[ V.D ] - Verzatea Duskflame, Pame Myl’Brin

[ J ] - Jursol, Jimba, Mawa

[ T ] - Talisin aka The Boy

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[ J ] Jursol was luckily focused on Lazarius after seeing him alive. Hearing his words she knew exactly what he planned to do, and moved to action fast. Making sure the golem was in the right place at the right time. Her eyes grew wide with a mix of excitement and fear for him as the golem launched him with force.

Her eyes followed him closely as she herself rushed towards him. Kicking blood up as she dashed. With a leap into air, her large clawed hand reaching to grab him. She pulled him close as she tucked him under her arm, as they landed a thud likely was heard. Jursol did whatever she could to protect him as they landed.

[ V . D ] Amid the chaos, having provided what aid she could to the others, Verzatea had put the majority of her focus on the young boy whom was surely dazed and terrified of the horrific setting he'd been forced into. Tea had made an effort to comfort him by hugging her free arm about the child, whispering kindly and reassuring words as she kept his head low to prevent him from getting hit, shield his smaller body with her own.

Though she watched. Observed as the epic moments of their lives played out before them. She'd quietly marvel the strength of their numbers, the protectiveness and desire to survive they each held... Awe inspiring, especially the blade brandished in a display of pure awesomeness.

Pame remained protecting the body of their wounded shaldorei, often swinging and slashing swords to ward off bodies that stumbled too close in the excitement of the golem's destructive path. She'd grit her teeth at the unmistakable sound of glass cracking under pressure and splintering.

Whilst copying Verzatea, both women tuck the faces of their charges into their shoulders before burying their faces into the person's shoulder, both bracing and protecting their faces from the wash of blood spilling from the tank. The sudden crash and thud of bodies landing would cause both women to snap to attention after a second of wading the spilling roar of rushing blood, and while

Pame visibly flinched as her sensitive ears endured the screeching roars of disdain overhead... Verzatea did not even blink. Instead she focused on the bodies of the elf and troll, her concern skyrocketing as she calls to them,

"Are you two alright?"

“The moment has come.”

[ L. K ] Raelyndias voice spread across the cavernous interior as she felt the blood leaving the vat. Her own motives now becoming realized to them as Lazarius sat up in Jursols arms. The troll had saved him again.

“Released from this capsule, you have done my bidding once more Serpent.”

The nickname caught the ears of the inquisitor as he snarled and rolled to his feet. His black pools seething as he glared toward the tank.

“You have no body! No vessel! You cannot inhabit one of our own; I have seen to that! Our talismans prevent possession after the fall of De’Mour!”

He was not lying, a secondary fail safe to prohibit such things like a Nathrezim attempting to inhabit one of them was now a countermeasure in the talisman.

“The magi; ah. . .yes, . . . you have condemned their offspring to an eternity of hell; as you have secured the fate of all who inhabit this place and my home....”

As the essence began to pour from the containment unit Lazarius pulled the eye he’d been saving and focused it toward the tank.

“And this?”

He screamed at the nothingness.

“Answer me! What was this? I have bested you again Raelyndia!”

Lazarius waited as the screeching was over and the blood contaminate poured into the already messy floor.

“That was the bait...my child.”

Those words suddenly caused Lazarius’ spine to stiffen. His eyelids widened as he peered around the room. His grip on the eye tightening while he grew more impatient.

“Bait for what!?”

He howled into the dark red light.

“To lure you here and reclaim what is rightfully mine...”.

Raelyndia spoke confidently as she cackled behind her words.

“The Bastille is defenseless. You....are defenseless.”

Lazarius had raced back to the tank and was screaming at the leeching fluid as it poured onto his boots.

“And you think I came here without my own intentions!”

The dark eyed mad man suddenly slammed the eye into the hole he had created in the tank.

His wild gaze would cause his eyes to ignite in the venomous fluid like state when he began to lose himself.

“How much energy did it take for you to manifest here Raelyndia? Planning is everything. You taught me that! So I planned! And I extracted and I tore through the depths of space and time. You may have the ability to resurrect this form but I have the sense to know exactly what it takes to stop you!”

He slammed his fist into the eye and it would suddenly widen inside the tank into a doorway that buzzed and tore through the room with a violent crackle of electricity and buzzing.

The view from their vantage would be that of a complete mind bending twisting nonsensical dream. Inside the gateway produced from the eye and the tank, they could see a massive NRaqi being destroyed, and the figure dismembering it was a blur of violent purple and mist.

Beside the killed old god minion was a man, a man they all knew very well. Lazarius was laying covered in his own blood on the ground, he was peering up at them.

And beside the portal was their Lazarius.

“Time to go...Pame get Marseille on his feet, Verzatea...the boy....Jursol, I want that golem breaking that door down by the time I get back...”

And with that the image faded and Lazarius stepped through the gateway, it turned into a pure black mist. He was gone and the sounds of Raelyndias cackles went deeper and deeper into the room as if she was growing in power.

[ J ] Jursol stood silent and confused as she watch what was going down. The loud sounds hitting her ears like nails on a chalkboard cause her, and the raptors, to snarl and growl. Only thing that snapped her back was the voice o Lazarius orders to take down the door. Jursol gave a bow of her head as she readied herself to destroy the door.

“Loa protect....”

She said to herself as she focused her energy into the golem. Ya massive body moved towards the target door as it began to slam into it. Over and over again. It was relentless in its assault.

“Mawa!!!”

Jursol yelled as she looked back at the raptor that was still near the boy.

“PROTECT DA BOY!!!”

Mawa growled and screeched as it followed orders. The other raptors moved to protect Jursol, one moved to Mars and Pame to help.

“THISTH IS DOCTOR WHISTHLETORQUE! Listen to me! I hope thisth isth working...Verzatea! Anyone who can hear thisth! Do not return to the Basthtille. Raelyndia isth here! She isn’t trying to rebirth her body she isth trying to take control of t———��

[ L. K ] The gnomes voice cut out as their talismans all began to glow with a horrible red energy. The force of power that was growing within it was resonating a massive field of dark energy. And in a few moments more; every talisman that was associated with The Nine burst into a cinder of ash. They were gone, destroyed by the power within.

[ V . D ] Gently Verzatea gathered the child's arms into her soft hands, helping him up rather than violently pulling him to his feet.

"Fret not dear,"

Tea assured the boy,

"We're nearing the end- Violent or peaceful, it will come-- Consider this your first lesson,"

She remarks, trying to rouse him back to reality by forcing their eyes to meet as she imparts a bit of wisdom,

"Never dawdle. Always keep moving when in a hostile situation. Fate can be changed with confidence."

Beside the sindorei woman and younger boy, the kaldorei was currently heaving the wounded shaldorei up and onto his feet. His good arm had been slung over her shoulder thus to carry the majority of his weight. Her second arm, besides the one clutching the shaldoreis hand to keep his arm pinned around her shoulders, hugged his waist and ensured he'd not topple over in case he couldn't keep his balance.

Even if she had to drag him out of there, she'd do so. But if he could stay on his feet she'd make certain he did to keep him active and awake. In this state he could have slipped into a coma with how damaged and worn his body had been by the assaults. Thus she carried most of the weight, as not to strain him to the point of total exhaustion that he'd faint and fall unconscious.

With the reassuring snarls and cries of her raptors, and the calming notion that they would have protection in these vulnerable states-- Until the frantic squeaks of the doctor entered the air... Verzatea's face paled with the creeping sense of fear for all who remained at the Bastille.

Pame would instantly start to rouse the Confessor from what dark thoughts crept into Teas mind, assuring that Siida remained and would protect everyone. Because that's the kinda woman Siida is. That’s who the Kashe'bahls were.

"Trust,"

Pame pressed, her confidence in their people stronger than her fear for the moment,

"We'll see victory soon enough."

Because even if they all died here and now, Pame trusted it wouldn't be in vain. But until then they'd fight as if death wasn't a possibility.

With deep and calming practiced breathes would Tea begin to focus on the situation at hand. Of course the well being of those left in the Bastille at the start of their journey was a great concern to Verza, and she vehemently scolded herself for not ensuring the Bastille was fully prepared and protected to withstand an assault from Rae.

But she couldn't focus too hard on the what ifs with everything at hand. She couldn't distract herself with the worry-- She'd indulge her concerned once they escaped this tomb.

[ J ] Jursol heard a voice over the chaos as she tried to listen in. She glanced to the others to see how they were doing as the golem kept at the door.

Her focus was still on getting the door down, and to see Lazarius return alive. No matter what was going on they had to get out. Her raptors did all they could as well to help at this time of need.

“The death of The Nine is now. This is the beginning. You shall witness our true purpose, blessed be... NZoth....”

[ L . K ] Just as the words rang through the chamber, the surge of energy that burst from Northrend had struck Verzatea directly in her heart. She knew just as Lazarius did; the Bastille hadnt crumbled, but was no longer itself.

As Confessor she felt the shift and dominant power of that last drop of blood coming from the tank, she felt Raelyndia leave this place. And she felt the change. Their home was gone.

The sounds from the outside world soon caused them to shift their attentions again. Worms and agents of the old god had been alerted to their position. They would be coming for them if they did not move as quick as possible.

Seconds later Lazarius had emerged from the dark portal as it closed behind him. He was unharmed and completely normal save for one very interesting fact. In his arms he was holding a beautiful crimson haired woman; she was covered in black blood and stained in the battle from earlier.

She was only clothed in her bra and underwear appearing to have been wrapped by Lazarius in a cloth of some sort to conceal her. She was not conscious and he glanced around just as Jursol had managed to get the door cracked open.

“We’ve got to move now...I suggest before everything in the nether knows we are here...”.

At that moment he felt the lose of the Bastille against his chest, he nearly dropped Ray. His eyes darting to Verza to understand what had happened. He was wrong...

[ V . D ] The emergence of Lazarius and the woman went unnoticed by Verzatea. She had felt the tightness in her chest which toom her breath away, levaing her in a state of paralyzing agony as what wards and sigils of protection she had set up slowly unraveled.

She could feel as an abyss filled the connection with the Bastille, what hold she had on its inner systems and fenses fading into nothing. The cackles in the distance only fueled the agony she felt, such a strange and empty feeling... It caused genuine tears of mourn to tumble down her pale cheeks, the hold she had on the boy loosening some as she sobbed quietly.

She did meet Lazarius's gaze after a pause, her fears swarming into her eyes before she could help it.

"Now,"

She whispers shakily in agreement, her eyes peering from the woman in Lazarius's arms to Marseille, then down to the boy before she'd smile through her tears. For now they certainly had plenty to live for in this tomb, and it was enough to keep Tea from plunging into the darkness of doubt and loathing.

"We leave now,"

Pame agrees firmly, her eyes moving to inspect Jursols well being whilst adjusting her hold on Mars. After all this she'd begin wading through the blood to tighten the ranks. Verzatea clutched the boy closer, whether he wanted her to touch him or not. But by the heavens, she refused to lose anyone else if she could help it. She was ready. Pame was ready. The time was nigh.

[ L. K ] He had one final push up to help drive him through this nightmare. He would wait for Jursol to break down the large door at the end of the hall as the group of them moved closer to her. Lazarius held tightly to the injured ginger hair girl, Verza clinging to the young boy and Pame aiding her fellow Shade.

[ J ] Jursol had been overly focused on downing the door, her energy grew low but she was not giving up. A nudge of her raptor gave her the will to press on. Her eyes ran back and forth from where Lazarius had gone, to the door they had to get down.

“Loa, I not be givin up!”

Her voice full of determination as she yelled like a crazed Amazon. Suddenly she heard Lazarius voice as she turned swiftly to see him holding a strange woman. Her concerns would have to wait. The sound of more enemies coming for them grew louder. Knowing now there was not likely a place to return, she wondered for a moment what they would do. However asking could wait till they were free.

BOOM!

She managed to get the door down with the golem just as they poured in. The group managed to get out just in time. With the massive head gone from where it was before, they had a perfect chance to run. Jursol and her raptors remained near the others as they all followed each other.

@siidaraykashebahl

@frompage112

@pyravari-kashebahl

@thebladeitself

@whatadarkbitch

@zandalaridruidofgonk

@miss-irascible

To be continued in “In Mind of Misery, Manipulation, Part 12.″

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gg-astrology · 5 years

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I am quite curious about this year 2019 for Seventeen. Recently, someone did the tarot readings for the boys. She said that the boys were exhausted both mentally and physically. I am quite worried indeed, since seventeen has been working really hard but the result was not as expected. Can the seventeen bomb can explode this year? If you have free time, please take a look at this *sob* Thank you so much :333>. Seventeen Debut day is 26 May 2015, at 6PM KST

Hey there!! 💕💕💕 Sorry you had to wait for so long ksdjnn but I hope I can do it for you now!! 💕💕

[Natal and Solar Return for Seventeen (2019/2020)]

Alrighty let’s start with natal:

Okay! Gemini sun babies with Scorpio Ascendant!!

Driven, hard-working, intense – physicality that’s known in Scorpio is prevalent, but on the DSC (Taurus) also talks about comforting side, homey, reassuring and nurturing that they also balance/align themselves with (planets in 7th).

The Sun/Mars/Mercury are all in Gemini (7th) all in opposition to Saturn rx in 1st – there’s a balance of maturity, trust/foundation building at the fore-front of the mind. But at the same time they do acknowledge the type of youthful, liveliness and certain restriction/maturity that Gemini brings as well.

This aspect to saturn (representing maturity or maybe even authority figures) can sometimes be a mindset of ‘what? we’re gonna talk about it/discuss it amongst ourselves’ and a kinda ?? hesitance, towards accepting things immediately if they haven’t thought it out/communicate and ‘be on the same page’ as well

Generally, even as they age (Saturn in 1st) or appear ‘older/mature’ than how they are before– there’s a strong part of them that would oppose and try to retain a youthfulness and that charming nature of Gemini in order to ‘not get jaded’ by things.

Or rather that’s what the chart would like to suggest, because there’s an energy/strong indications with those Gemini stelliums that certain things that ‘may’ seem good or logical can still be missed out if they were to sacrifice a ‘part’ of them that they may not take back (so to consider the possibilities of that as well)

Because of it’s mutable energy – they can sometimes ‘appear’ one way but also notice another. Think of it as ratios. ‘This’ much play ‘this’ much subdued. There’s genuine affection and effort in interactions, but also besides that is a vulnerability that needs to be acknowledged for as well (7th house)

There’s an association here to having fun, being able to communicate/speak freely within their mind and ‘staying true’ to who they are even if it comes across as a little bit more traditional sometimes (Taurus ruling the DC).

Besides this– they can also be active engagers in self-reflection and one-on-one evaluation of themselves. In the 7th house (in this context) they may value communication and reflecting/seeing where they can improve on alot.

Gemini as an air/mutable sign in the 7th house of reflection may often drive their strength and support from the stability of one-on-one interactions with fans (or rather, concerts or direct-communication with people without a third hand involved/barriers in that regard) the Mars (Gemini) Mercury (Gemini) and Sun (Gemini) aims for versatility, engagement and also interests from others that evoke responses from them.

It’s a playfulness to the nature but also a reliance on trust/foundation because Taurus rules the house these Gemini placements are placed in. So underneath all that teasing/playfulness, is also a deep rooted bond and loyalty that is seen/felt by both sides as well.

Alright, back to that Saturn in 1st. There’s a seriousness to their image, or what they want to construct/build it with it. The goal/idea is along the line of longevity and transformation. Scorpio rules the 1st house and thus the Saturn that falls into it may be going ‘okay so we don’t want to stay stagnant, we can only do this for so long (this concept/image) what else would we want to progress into in order to transform?’

Continuity from building on a foundation– they had a strong start, so the idea is to figure out how to continue the story line and go about it from there. Because Saturn is in retrograde (and Sagittarius) a part of the dilemma has to do with second-guessing choices/themselves but perhaps putting on a brave front in order to not let those vulnerabilities show. Another thing about it is also the idea of internationality, fame, foreign travels and engaging in different demographics (diversity) that can make them nervous.

The nervousness is amplified by that Gemini opposition– kinda like ‘can we engage with them?? will they like this?? is this too simple/not complex enough?? do we need to do more?’ – because Sagittarius is expanding on that idea of making a bigger vibration to their Gemini, and it’s also squaring their Neptune (Pisces) in 4th which also talks about ‘how will parents percieve us? family oriented? what about our families?’ things like that.

It could– come up, due to having foreign members in the team. Particularly because it may be an experienced the member might’ve shared with them which is why it’s on the mind/awareness of the issue and seeing it reflected as part of the self (they are a gemini group after all, and also placements in 7th – which can sometimes be looking at a problem and seeing if the self goes through the same situation as well/if it comes up what will you do)

This particular Pisces Neptune in 4th is also squaring the Gemini placements in 7th – dreams/hopes versus family/rootedness. Certain things have to be decided on– the youthful energy will have to be engaged in a way that talks about maturity/independence (Sagittarius Saturn in 1st) not wanting to grow up but also internal maturity and dreams/collecting goals (Gemini in 7th/Neptune in 4th) hopefully it can become a topic that they can put into their sounds– but for now, Gemini Mercury in 7th does talk about communicating in relationships, experience (finding new experience) and engaging in different interests independently as well (not about the member but about the group’s musical taste).

Let’s look at Venus– Cancer Venus in 9th opposition to Capricorn Pluto in 2nd. Travelling/going on tour or even vacation to other places can be jarring if not necessarily in order to make coins. There’s a building sense of self and self discovery from Pluto Capricorn in 2nd aspect to Virgo Moon in 10th– helping them edit, refine and work out part of their subconscious/motive/identity.

As well as it’s aspect to Neptune Pisces in 4th – inspiration, muses, feeling at home but also a tight-knit sense of ‘If I’m not with these people I wouldn’t want to be here at all’ and reclusivity in certain times (staying at the hotel) if the turbulence from Pluto (Capricorn) becomes too much (in order to regain internal balance/work shit out by themselves)

Whilst travelling definitely inspires their muse (Cancer Venus trine Pisces Neptune) there’s also intense awareness that unexpected things can happen and turbulence and appear at any time (square Capricorn Pluto/authority figures like the embassy and how Jun/Minghao couldn’t come on tour sometimes – also square Aries Uranus in 5th, performance having to adapt/erratic nature due to lack of control/wanting to do something but not being able to)

– there’s imbalance in certain external circumstances that takes ‘control’ out of their hands and can leave impressions on them (Cancer) but at the same time– they ARE a communicative and ‘what can we do about this now that we’re aware of it’ group and talk/communicate alot amongst themselves as well. So it’s kinda like a Crab?? who ducks out of it’s shell to scurry around/have fun and then it sees an incoming human and ducks back in/hides quickly in order to deal with things sometimes as well.

Phew, next is Virgo Moon square to the Sun/Mars/Mercury. Virgo Moon here is in the 10th– people know them for their detail-oriented, humbling, organized and stream-line persona. In a way the Moon here is focused on ‘team’ and ‘teamwork’ – as part of an organized micro-unit that makes up a bigger structure (Virgo – small parts that makes bigger things, focusing on the details, what they can do, what they can put their effort into, taking what is given at a bigger scope when they ‘deserve’ it)

It’s squared to their Gemini in 7th because the Virgo here may engage with the public a certain way, may be more subdued, a little more ‘see what my efforts are’ whilst Gemini in 7th wants to show itself to others around them as well– there’s a fear of disrupencies, kinda like ‘what if they misunderstood me? I have a this Gemini side to me too and i want to be open about that/be recognized for that but what if they think we’re a little– boring?’

Which is– y know, its anxiety/nervousness that comes with mutable signs but it can make things hard for the team themselves bc Virgo Moons ARE pretty hard on their effort/energy and what they’re obsessively doing/showing as well.

Whilst the hard-working Virgo Moon nature isn’t a bad thing to be seen as with the industry/community theyre in (locals) perhaps the intention isn’t aligned with what they had in mind or they may want to communicate more– communicate openly and on an interpersonal level (thank god they got instagram)

Their moon being in the 10th house (public/expression) with harsh aspects to the 4th and 7th house can often ‘sacrifice’ things (family/consistency/support, relationships/self) in order to bring this ‘forward’

Minor things to talk about: Aquarius Ceres in 3rd-- loves to communicate, contemplate, think about things. Sibling relationships (3rd house/sibling, neighbourhoods) nurturing comes from this sense of trust, progression, bond and individuality. It’s also where their pars fortunae is-- so what they are noticed for, why they seem ‘close’ and also how ‘boy next door’ (get it? cause its close to the 4th house) they seem to be

If I have to summarize this really quickly: things to look at are Gemini placements opposing that Saturn in 1st and a lot of a ‘;) we’re gonna do it anyways!’ attitude sometimes towards listening to people (in a good way, not in a bad way)

Now with the SR

Alrighty, now onto their solar return!

Moon is in 4th house in Pisces-- resting, period of recovery, self-analysis (aspect to Mercury and Sun in 8th and 7th) building back relationships and also at the apex of it all --- ‘home’

Isn’t that the song they came out with? Anyways Pisces Moon in 4th aspecting Cancer Mars in 8th -- a lot of growth coming from this period, doing a lot of relationship building, self-investigation, analysis of one’s self and balancing intuitive placements into something that can manifest/work for them in something more ‘grounded’ or ‘stable’

One thing to note is Leo MC and Pars Fortunae in 9th -- if they were to perform internationally (Pars fortunae in 9th) it could be very beneficial for them, particularly because Leo MC gives way to an impactful performance as well. Now is a fortunate time to do so, and their NN is in Cancer in 9th -- travelling could be potentially good for them if they’re looking for things to consider.

Neptune at the apex of a talent triangle between Taurus Venus (7th) and Capricorn Saturn/Pluto (3rd) points to a lot of foundation building (Taurus/Capricorn) nurture, healing, and maturity and carrying on those growth/dreams into performance, building up muses and conceptual ideas, working on regrouping and manifesting the things they want to do can be helpful in this aspect (Pisces Neptune in 5th).

Mostly it’s that Capricorn Saturn (domicile) and Pluto in 3rd -- relationships with siblings have grown to be more mature, changes are made, giving back to people and also just evaluation of long-term goals, established reputation, what they can do with that nature and how they can use it to help others as well.

Ceres in Sagittarius 2nd as well as Sagittarius Jupiter-- expansion, using resources to travel (perhaps) caring for others, listening for others. Again, this a period of recovery and absorption-- sometimes it’s kinda like, you’re kirby and you open your mouth really wide to absorb things in. But eventually you also have to release it and take care of yourself away from that as well. So it’s kinda that nature. A certain stability towards it-- mutable/water energy but that doesn’t mean they’ve lost the ‘drive’ they are well known for

In fact it’s more about working on the conceptual muse for the performance, regathering details and re-aligning what they want/need in their work. There’s certain hardships that comes with it (Chiron Aries in 5th) but also a lot of inspiration and dreams/focus towards it as well (Neptune in 5th)

If they draw inspiration from their childhood/youthfulness and combine that with their progression/how they’ve come-- seeing that manifest into a tangible piece of work can be rewarding this year considering their placements.

Uranus conjunct DC in Taurus -- considering Taurus Uranus and it’s nature, unexpected push/attraction to certain things that are less planned out or doesn’t utilize the full ‘work through’ can cut down on their effort. In another regard, if they stay ‘stagnant’ in this period for too long (earth/fixed) they may become frustrated and would have to learn how to get a co-ordinator (time management) to work with them in moving things along (stages to stages)

Aquarius IC -- movement, perhaps at the dorm. Maybe they’ve already moved, but it can talk about shifting base as well.

Oh and Taurus Uranus in 6th being in a talent triangle with Cancer Mars in 8th and Pisces Moon in 4th -- drawing from the analysis/relationships of Cancer Mars and balancing that with the intuitive/compassionate nature of Pisces Moon in 4th can help a lot with coming up with new innovative ideas, perhaps a darker or more homey concept (can u believe) but also environment/aligning their environment to be more conductive like that as well.

Not a lot to say because everything is turning out nicely for them? Compared to their natal -- their sr this year seems to be more harmonious than the usual, a lot of just chill-ness, regrouping, the only thing that should be addressed is Sagittarius Jupiter in 2nd square to Pisces Neptune in 5th -- whether or not they make it big this year (bigger than they are!) is up to them!

#seventeen natal #seventeen solar return #seventeen astrology #svt #seventeen #svt astrology #kpop astrology #lynrin99 #asks

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nanami314 · 7 years

Text

My thoughts on Fate/Zero

*Looks around* Bit quiet here, isn't it. After a whopping three posts, I managed to forget to write the fourth, kept telling myself I'd do it tomorrow, and then didn't do it. I'm writing this paragraph after everything else in this post, and as of this point, the rewatch I started watching Fate with is long since over. However, I thought I'd go back and write one final post on Fate/Zero, and one on Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works. Afterwards, I have plans for up to the end of December, and I'm gonna be a lot more invested in those, so hopefully there won't be any more points where I'm not writing. I do apologize for that, I am new to all of this, and I'm trying to get things sorted out. However, I have someone helping me with motivation, something I was lacking before, so hopefully that won't be a problem anymore. That being said, let's get to the actual post. So, this post is only going to be about all of Fate/Zero, and I'm gonna make another one that's about Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works. I've also been checking out Fate/Apocrypha, but I don't think I'll make a post on it right away. I might once it's finished, but that's still some time away, and I have other plans for after Fate. In any case, this post contains spoilers for Fate/Zero from this point forward.

The first thing I want to go over is the ending. Having never seen any Fate series before, the last episode left me confused as to what exactly happened. From what I understand, the insides of the grail have been corrupted, and when it was destroyed, a giant hole formed in the sky, spilling out the destructive contents of the grail, causing a massive fire in Fuyuki City, thus ending the 4th Holy Grail War. The only people left standing at the end, aside from Kiritsugu searching for survivors, are Kirei and Gilgamesh. In other words, the bad guys won. This was a series of ups and downs, tragedies left and right, and of course we don't get a happy ending. The anime ends with Kiritsugu having found a sinlge boy, being so grateful that he even found one person alive, along with Kirei becoming the official guardian of Rin Tohsaka after he killed Tokiomi earlier on. That's it. Everyone except them is dead. All of the Servants aside from Gil died in some way. Even Saber, who after using Excalibah to destroy the Grail, used up all of her mana, which causes a Servant to disappear. Throughout the entirety of Season 2, at least one person died each episode. Oh, and that's not all. The way they died was something else. Though, I'll talk about that while going over the individual characters. Speaking of which:

Masters Overall, all 7 Masters had something that I liked about them. Though, there were definitely some I liked more than others. So, seeing as how I like doing my lists, I'm ranking them from least favorite to favorite. Keep in mind these are just my personal opinions, and I'm also taking how good their character is into account as well, which is why a certain someone ends up a lot higher than they would've been.

7. Uryuu Ryuunosuke

Okay, this guy is just crazy. That's all there is to it. He's a crazy serial killer who didn't even know what the Holy Grail was, let alone the war on it. Not to mention he accidentally summoned his Servant: Caster. He seems very out of place in the Holy Grail War, seeing as how everyone else had some reason for being there, whether it be mage lineage, or something else. Ryuunosuke entered the grail war on accident, and even when he did, payed absolutely no attention to it whatsoever. However, he certainly was entertaining as a character, and I quite liked his relationship with Caster. For those who don't know, you need a catalyst when summoning a Servant. If you don't have one, like our serial killer friend here didn't, then the Servant it summons is random... kinda. The grail summons a Servant that best fits that Master's personality. This explains why he got Caster, who was just as crazy and intent on killing as he himself was, and in turn, they made a good team because of it. One of the better Master/Servant relationships, but as a Master, he's at the bottom. Even his death was lackluster. Though, I gotta admit it was kinda cool seeing Kiritsugu sniping him like that.

6. Tohsaka Tokiomi

Despite making several rather important appearances in the anime, including explaining the entire concept of the Grail War to Kirei back in Episode 1, to me it just seemed like he got the least amount of focus out of all the active Masters (that excludes ol' killer up there). I mean, even Archibald got quite a few scenes on his own, both before and after Kiritsugu blew up his place. Because of that, I never really got attached to Tokiomi as a character. Gil was right when he said that he had an uninteresting Master. However, out of all 7 Masters, Tokiomi might have been the most prepared for the war. Years before it started, he met with Kirei, made the alliance with him, and when the time came, he made sure he summoned literally the most powerful Servant he could've gotten. In this sense, he's the opposite of Ryuunosuke. He's not that interesting as a character, however he spent many, many years of his life preparing for the Holy Grail War. Then there's his death, which I saw coming a mile away. As soon as he got up, I knew that Kirei was gonna walk behind him and literally stab him in the back with the knife that Tokiomi literally just gave him. I feel bad for Rin and Aoi, but other than that, I don't really care all that much about his death. Though, that whole scene was kinda cool with the whole eeriness of it. You could tell something was gonna go down, and boy did it. One of the more memorable death scenes among the Masters.

5. Kayneth El-Melloi Archibald

To be honest, this guy isn't really that likable. His participation in the Holy Grail War was fairly limited as to what he himself did. Instead, he let his Servant, Lancer, do all the fighting. Or well, most of it. Even when Lancer was fighting for him, he never showed his face, and like Kiritsugu, did not care at all about the Knight's Chivalry that his Servant believed in. Not to mention yelling at him despite the fact he did everything he could. As a person, Archibald isn't likable. As a mage however, that's a different story. As far as pure magic ability goes, Archibald is one of, if not the, best in the anime, period. The most powerful of which is his mercury blobs, that can pretty much do anything. He can use them to attack, search for his enemies if they're hiding, automatically shield him if he himself is attacked. It was put to good use in the one fight Archibald was part of, and it was one of my favorite fights not including any Servant. Granted, that's mostly because of Kiritsugu, but also because it's the one fight that puts Archibald's amazing magical ability on display. I don't like him as a character, but my god he's a spectacular mage. Then there's the matter of his death. Despite what he had done up until that point, I actually felt bad for him because of the way he died. Kiritsugu really played dirty with this one, forcing him to command his Servant to commit suicide or his fiance dies. Not only that, the contract he made said he himself couldn't wouldn't be able to kill him, but come on. Using Maya to kill him instead is pretty much the same thing, right? The circumstances were unfair, and while some may say he deserved it, it certainly didn't feel right.

4. Kariya Matou

This guy. Oh, this guy. The only thing I can say about him is that I'm disappointed. I'm very disappointed in what this man has become. If you remember back in my episode 1 post, I said that Kariya was the one Master that I was rooting for most out of them all, simply because of his noble intentions for entering the war. Now, at the time, they were. His sole reason for entering the war was to save Sakura Matou, to set her free from the hands of the Matou family and Zouken's twisted teaching methods. However, by doing so, he had several worms planted in his body that were slowly killing him on the inisde. It also made him go crazy. By the time the War started, he was long gone. And throughout the war, all he could think about was getting revenge on Tokiomi, the husband of the woman he loves: Aoi. That was what drove him forward, and that's what's so disappointing. Kariya is a very tragic character, doomed from the very start. His death was even pathetic. The worms eventually caught up to him, and he expended all of his mana while Berserker was fighting Saber. Fitting end for a disappointing character.

3. Kotomine Kirei

Oh, here we go. I despise this man. I would say he's the only character in the series that I really hate, and he's the "exception" on this list. The reason he's this high up isn't because I like him, because I definitely don't. Instead, he's here because of one reason: He's one of the best characters of the entire anime, and was a spectacular antagonist. They made you hate him by the end of the series for the things he does, and that's what makes him such a good character. This is a favorite list, but to me that goes beyond just liking or disliking someone, and Kirei's placement here proves that. On to his actual character, just, wow. At the very start of the series, one of the first scenes we see is Tokiomi and Risei, Kirei's father, explain to him what the Holy Grail War is and that he's been chosen as a Master. From that point, and based on how we saw Kirei in the first few episodes, and even the first season, I never would've expected him to take on the main antagonist role at the end. Then, he starts talking to Archer. These talks are among the most interesting in Fate/Zero for me, because they explore just how empty Kirei is inside. He has no desire for the Grail, or at least doesn't know what he wants from it, and is now wanting to win the war just to find out what his wish is. Gilgamesh finds this amusing, and decides to help him, and show him the meaning of entertainment, as he puts it. Eventually, we come to find out Kirei's a freaking sadist. After witnessing Kariya almost dying at the hands of Tokiomi, Kirei, in secret, healed him, just so he could later mess with him. And mess with him he did, in a cruel way. But not before literally stabbing his own teacher in the back. Oh, and did I mention, HE GAVE RIN THE VERY SAME KNIFE HE USED TO KILL HER FATHER! This guy's just messed up. Unfortunately, he doesn't die, either. Or rather, he does, but he got brought back to life by the Grail. Well, it's corrupted, it makes sense. I wanted him dead so bad, and that's what I think makes a good antagonist. You're supposed to hate them. You're supposed to want them dead. And that's why Kirei is number 3, instead of the very bottom of where he would be out of only likeness.

2. Waver Velvet

By process of elimination, you now know who my favorite Master is, but before we get to him: Waver. I can safely say that Waver is the only Master I rooted for from beginning to end. Every single other Master, even my number 1, had some point where I rooted against them or wanted them to die because of whatever reason (I'm looking at you Kerry, you know what you did). Not the case with Waver. Aside from Ryuunosuke, who really shouldn't count to be honest, Waver is the least prepared for the War, and wasn't initially supposed to be in it. He "stole" a catalyst that was supposed to go to Archibald, his teacher at the Clock Tower (Mage School basically), and the Grail recognized him as a Master. As for his wish he wants? The only thing he wants is for others to recognize him and his ability. That's it. He just wants to be respected, and in his current state, that's not exactly likely. However, he never gave up. Throughout the entire series, no matter what got thrown at him, he refused to give up. And what made this all so much better is that he got the absolute best possible Servant he could've ever gotten: Rider. These two have BY FAR my favorite Servant/Master relationship in the entire series, period. I'm literally getting goosebumps as I'm writing this, I just love them so much. Throughout the course of the anime, Waver and Rider have several conversations, and despite their Servant/Master statuses, Rider acts as a mentor to his Master. Compared to the other relationships we see, this one is just so enjoyable to watch. By the end of the anime, these two have made a bond that I'm sure will never break. Waver even becomes part of Rider's army. Rider's identity is Alexander the Great: the King of Conquerors, and right before Rider goes to fight his last battle, he asks Waver to part of his army, him having used up all of this command spells so Rider could go off on his own without him, because he didn't feel like Rider needed him. But Rider refused to leave him behind. That's what I love about their relationship. These two are friends to the very end. I can safely say Rider's death is one of the saddest scenes in the series, and the way Waver stood his ground against Gilgamesh just proves how far Waver's come since the beginning. He knew he couldn't win against a Servant. He knew he'd die if he tried to fight him, and his King just told him to live on, so he couldn't go back on that and OH MY GOD I LOVE THESE PEOPLE. Easily one of the best relationships between two people, whether it's romantic or just friendship, of any anime I've ever seen. 10/10 would 100% watch a Slice of Life spin off with these two as Main Characters.

1, Emiya Kiritsugu

Oh man, where do I even begin with this one. Emiya Kiritsugu is my favorite Master in Fate/Zero. Despite that, he's the one who changed positions the most. There are points where he's near the top. There are points where I hated his guts. But, in the end, he's my favorite Master of them all, and very possibly my favorite character as well. In my opinion, he's one of the better characters of Fate/Zero. He can be difficult at times, especially with his relationship with Saber, but in the end, he has a noble reason for wanting the grail: To save the world. He wants to be a hero of justice, and that all relates to his backstory. But before I go over that, lemme set this up. The very first big fight in the anime was between Saber and Lancer back in Episode 4. These two are both knights, and thus, have a great sense of chivalry. Because of this, they want to have an honorable fight. To the point where when someone else attacked Saber, Lancer stepped in to defend her because he wanted to fight her himself. Their fights got interrupted, and finally, in Episode 16, they have their chance to fight unhindered. But, Kiritsugu happens. Because of the way he is, he doesn't care at all about their chivalry, and just wants to win no matter what. He's also known for his dirty tactics being a Mage Killer, using things like guns and other non magical methods. So, while those two are fighting, he takes Archibald's fiance hostage, and forces him to use a command seal to force Lancer to commit suicide, right in the middle of their fight. Oh, and Archibald signed a contract stating if he did this, Kiritsugu can't kill him. Except he has Maya kill him instead. Way to play dirty, Kiritsugu. I can imagine this episode made a lot of people hate Kiritsugu, myself included. But then, they spend not one, but two episodes going over his past. He lived on an island with his father who was essentially a magic scientist. He also had a crush on an older girl named Shirley who worked for his father, and was essentially his best friend. But one night, this girl decided to test his father's research... on Dead Apostles. Which are what the Fate series calls: Vampires. Because of this, she of course started to go crazy, and started eating chickens for their blood. Kiritsugu found her, and she begged him to kill her right there to stop this from spreading. Present day Kiritsugu would've done it without a second thought. But kid Kerry here, was hesitant, and he didn't do it. Within the night, the entire island turned into vampires, and two different groups of people came to the island to wipe them out, and also burn the entire village on the island. As you can imagine, this affected Kiritsugu a lot, especially him only being a kid. Though, there's one more thing. His father. The one whose research caused this. Why was he researching dead apostles? Was he going test it on the island people? And if he was this man was gonna escape. So, a person who found Kiritsugu and saved him, named Natalia, gave him a gun and told him to kill his father. And this time, he did it. He killed his own father. This changed him as a person. In the following years, he was raised by Natalia, who was essentially a mercenary. In other words, what Kiritsugu became. Years later, he was faced with a similar choice that he had before. Kill 300 dead apostles on an airplane along with Natalia, or risk them landing in a huge town and letting them kill thousands. This is a prime example of his kill the few to save the many viewpoint. He fired a rocket launcher at that plane, and took it down. And afterwards, he just broke down. He just killed the one person who's been like a mother to him for so long. A better parental figure than his father that's for sure. He's seen multiple people he cared about die, some to his own hands, and it broke him as a person. These two episodes are actually some of my favorites in both Zero and Stay Night because of this. Kiritsugu may have done some sketchy things in Zero, and while they're not really that justified, at the very least they're understandable. And all of this isn't even taking into account the ending, where he uncovers a boy alive in the rubble that is Fuyuki City after the grail was destroyed. Going against his nature, the man was incredibly happy to have just found even one person alive. The anime itself says it the best. By saving one person, he saved himself. One of the most complex stories of Fate/Zero, Emiya Kiritsugu is my favorite Master.

Servants Now to go over the Servants. Much like the Masters, each of the seven Servants had something that I liked about them, and unlike the Masters, there were none that I really hated or disliked (screw you Kirei). Though, there were definitely a few who stood out more than the others, and I had a hard time nailing down my Top 3.

7. Caster: Gille de Rais

Just like his Master, Caster is at the bottom of my Servant list. He's just a bit too crazy. While he makes a perfect fit for his Master, he's even more insane than him. Especially when dealing with Saber, whom he believes is Jeanne d'Arc, who he served under when Caster was still alive back in his age. Sorry Caster, you're gonna have to go to Fate/Apocrypha to see the real her. But, he goes crazy in his shenanigans trying to get his old Ruler back, and he just won't listen to reason when Saber tries explaining to him that he's wrong. That's a lot of what I don't like about Caster. He goes crazy trying to do something because of a misunderstanding, and won't listen when people try to correct him. The one thing I do like about Caster involves his relationship with his Master, which I already talked about. Also, while Caster himself isn't the reason, I also really enjoyed the 2 episode long fight with him and his monstrous creation to kick off the second season, which lead to Caster's death shortly after his Master's death. Yeah, these two didn't really care about the Grail, and did some terrible things together, so I'm not too upset about them dying.

6. Assassin: Hassan-i-Sabah

I'm sorry, who? Assassin? Who's he? I don't remember him. Seriously though, this guy, or should I say these guys, barely had any importance to anything ever. Sure, they helped Kirei and Tokiomi spy on everyone else, but that's really about it. We never really saw them fight. We never really saw their abilities aside from being multiple entities at once. They never really did anything. Even the way they went out was lame. Rider pretty much killed them all at once with his Reality Marble. However, they're still better than Caster for a number of reasons. One, Caster's too insane. Two, and the bigger reason, is that despite the fact they never do anything, Assassin's design was actually pretty cool. That, and he was technically the first Servant we see in the entire anime. I didn't even know he was a Servant at all back when I first saw him. Though, a cool design can only get you so far, and in this list, it's sixth place.

5. Berserker: Sir Lancelot

Now here we go. This is someone who actually had a purpose. Well, to an extent. He also had a really cool design, too, but that's beside the point. Berseker was the last of the seven Servants to be revealed, and is the only one where his name I would say is a spoiler. Berserker, or Sir Lancelot, did nothing more than just fight others in the entire series, namely Saber and Gil. However, unlike the other servants, Berserker's entire presence is a mystery, and that makes him far more interesting to me than an insane caster and a purposeless assassin. He first shows up in the first major fight, sent there to go after Gilgamesh because of Kariya's grudge against him because he's Tokiomi's Servant. However, as soon as he saw Saber, Berseker switched his target and went after her. Every fight that he was in, he'd always attack Saber, despite Kariya wanting him to attack Gil. Of course, the reason for that is because of his real identity. Now, I don't really know all that much about the story of King Arthur, but I definitely know some names, Lancelot being one of them. I like how they hinted at who he really was all throughout the series by him always going after Saber because of their past relationship. And the fight between him and Saber at the end was intense. He didn't do much except for fight, but even then, he was still made to be an interesting and deep character. Also, one last thing: His dogfight with Gil is one of my favorite fights in the entire series, period. Speaking of Gil...

4. Archer: Gilgamesh

This is one of the fan favorites in terms of Servants, and I can understand why. When I first saw him, I hated him. I just do not like people with his type of personality. I knew he was popular, so there must be some reason for that, but still. It wasn't until he started his conversations with Kirei that I started to actually not dislike him. When he's not acting like he's literally the best thing ever made, he's actually a very interesting character. That, and he's flat out the most powerful servant in the entire Fate universe. Bar none. Seriously, this guy is stupid powerful. His Noble Phantasm, which basically is like an ultimate attack, is the Gates of Babylon, which lets him summon a seemingly infinite number of golden portals that he can shoot weapon after weapon after weapon at his enemies. Not only that, but these weapons are the same ones that other Noble Phantasms are based off of. In other words, if another servant is weak to any specific weapon, they have no chance against Gil. This isn't even everything he can do either. He's just that powerful. He's also one of 4 total survivors out of all 14 Servants and Masters, the others being Kiritsugu, Kirei, and Waver. As far as Fate/Zero only is concerned, I wouldn't go so far as to say I like Gilgamesh, but I definitely don't hate or dislike him like I used to.

I'd like to take a minute to say something here before I continue on. Along with Kiritsugu, my Top 3 favorite servants make up 3 out of my Top 4 characters in Fate/Zero. As such, they are very close to one another, and honestly speaking, any one of them could take the top spot. Keeping that in mind, I'm still going to rank them, yet they're more like 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3 rather than 1, 2, and 3. All of that being said, let's continue.

3. Lancer: Diarmund Ua Duibhne

For the longest time, even up to and after his death, which was ridiculous by the way but I'll get to that later, Lancer, or Diarmund, was number two. It was only after a certain scene from the current number two that I brought him down to three. Even still, I love the guy. Ever since his first fight with Saber, I took a liking to him, and a lot of the reasoning for that is because of the whole knight chivalry thing he has going on with Saber. He's a knight through and through, and genuinely is a nice guy. In fact, after Archibald's fight with Kiritsugu, Diarmund came in to save his Master, and could've very easily taken the opportunity to kill Kiritsugu. He did not on the basis that he wanted a fair fight with Kiritsugu's Servant: Saber. If that's not being honorable, I don't know what is. He also has somewhat of a tragic backstory, involving how he accidentally made the wife of his lord fall in love with him through the spot below one of his eyes. As such, he was never able to serve his lord properly, as a real knight should. His one and only wish when he was summoned into the Holy Grail War was to finally be able to serve under some lord, the very thing he was never able to do in his life. Unfortunately, his Master was Archibald, who wasn't the ideal Master for him. Though, he did the best he could with what he had. He had an honorable fight with Saber which was interrupted, and he even went so far as to defend her when Berserker tried to attack her. He was part of the team that eventually took down Caster, and even broke one of his spears in half just to heal a wound it dealt to Saber that couldn't be healed, just so she could use Excalibur to destroy Caster. And then, later that night, the two of them planned to finish their fight uninterrupted. Unfortunately, Kiritsugu happened, and ruined everything. Diarmund was forced to commit suicide before his fight was finished. Even when he got a second chance, his one wish was stripped away from him. I absolutely hated Kiritsugu for what he did that episode, and is the reason why he might not be my favorite Fate character because other than that he's great. Watching Diarmund's death and his cursing words was not fun. And those eyes. I don't want to have to look at those eyes ever again, it was terrifying. Rest in peace, Diarumund. Rest in peace.

2. Rider: Iskander

Let me just put this simply. This guy has a nickname: Broskander. And it fits him perfectly. Rider is a bro through and through. He's the Servant of Waver, and again, these two make up my favorite Master/Servant relationship in the series. Rider himself is most of the reason for that. If I had to pick someone out of everyone in Fate/Zero to be my favorite character in terms of how they are as a person, Rider would take that top spot by a long shot. His relationship with Waver is almost reverse of what it's meant to be. He acts as a sort of mentor to Waver, guiding him along as they go through the War. He was part of the team that stood against Caster, much like Lancer was. I would also say he's one of the more powerful Servants in Zero. Not only is he huge, but he's got his chariot, along with his most powerful Noble Phantasm, a reality bubble, of which his armies from when he was alive are inside. He's so powerful in fact, that even Gilgamesh respected him in their fight. Speaking of, the fight between Archer and Rider, as short as it was, was by far one of the best moments of the entire Fate series that I've seen. It might very well be my favorite episode of Zero. The entire scene of Rider running toward Gil, getting sword after sword thrown at him and slashing him was so emotional. This scene alone is what put him barely above Lancer on this list. Rider refused to give up. He got hit with sword after sword, and he refused to give up. Against the most powerful Servant in the Fate universe. He. Refused. To. Give. Up. No matter what. That's what I love about Rider. He fought until the very end. The only thing stopping him from getting to Gilgamesh were the chains he used to stop Rider inches away from him. Not to mention the emotional scene with Waver right before he ran into the fight. One of the best scenes, one of the best episodes, one of the best characters. Rider is the best.

1. Saber: Arturia Pendragon

Who better to put at the top than the cover girl of Fate herself, Arturia "Saber" Pendragon. The other contender along with Kiritsugu for being my favorite character (at least in Zero). Of course, them both being on the same team and all, it's easy to see who I rooted for most. Unless of course, one of those two decided to use extremely dirty tactics which may have put the team down a bit. Saber is probably the most popular character, and rightfully so in my opinion. Her true identity is King Arthur, except as a girl, and is only 1 of 3 Servants that I'd actually heard of before. Like I said before, I don't know much about the King Arthur legend. I do know one thing though, and that's that Saber is one of the best characters in Fate. Much like Diarmund, she's a knight, and she will protect those around her at all costs. She basically served as Irisviel's bodyguard, and she did quite the good job at it. Being one of the main characters, she participated in several fights, including multiple against Lancer and multiple defending herself from Berserker attacking her. She also delivered the finishing blow to Caster using what I personally would consider the third most powerful Noble Phantasm after both of Gil's. Eksuuu... CALIBAH! Out of all the Servants, I probably loved watching Saber fight the most. There's just something about her style that I enjoyed watching, especially during her fights with Lancer. By far her most impactful fight though was her fight against Lancelot. She was shocked to discover Berserker's identity, and she started to break slowly over the fight as she didn't want to fight him knowing that. Not to mention the fact that this took place not long after Rider's King's Banquet that he held for all the Kings, who were himself, Saber, and Gil. During that, Rider told her that her way of being King wasn't good, especially after she told them of her wish to bring back England after it was destroyed under her rule. Having Rider talk to her the way he did that night was not good for her, and when she saw Lancelot and his madness, she started to realize what she must've been doing to people. Even Kiritsugu is stale compared to the complexity of Saber's character, and that right there is precisely why she's number one. Saber is a great Servant. She's a great character. She has flaws in her ideals, and even after they were pointed out to her, she kept going forward. Funny, reminds me of someone from the next series.

As a whole, I really enjoyed Fate/Zero. If there's one thing I can really compliment above all else, it's the amazing animation quality. The fights especially were so incredible to watch. This is one of the more action oriented anime I've seen, and boy they did a spectacular job in that department. This is just my personal opinion, but if I had to pick one fight out of all of Zero that I'd say is the best visual wise, it was the dogfight between Lancelot and Gil. It lasted for two episodes, and it was amazing to watch. Lancelot took control of one of the two fighter jets that were sent to scout out the fog that Caster cast over the entire river, and began attacking Gil, who was piloting what looked like an alien spaceship. I honestly had more fun watching that fight than I did watching the others fight Caster. Also, at this time, I wasn't very favorable of Gil, so it was incredibly satisfying when Lancelot took him out of the air with one final attack. That's one fight I would definitely watch again. That's far from the only good fight, though. The whole series is chock full of them. Multiple fights between Lancer and Saber. The game of hide an- I mean the fight between Kayneth and Kiritsugu. Kirei held his own against Iris and Maya quite well. Of course there's the big fight against Caster. But especially towards the end, the fights were beyond incredible. Rider vs Archer. Saber vs Berserker. Kirei vs Kiritsugu, the one fight that was hyped since the very first episode. And to top it all off, even though it's not a fight, the sequence with Kiritsugu entering the grail and seeing his wish come true in a way that he never wanted. Even though I knew they weren't real, it was rough seeing him kill Iris and Illya like that. I also wasn't expecting the grail to be corrupt, nor was I expecting the bad guys to win in the end. I don't believe it was the best anime I've ever seen, but the entire series was phenomenal from beginning to end.

If there's one last thing I can say, it's this: When they say Fate/Zero is a tragedy, they ain't kidding. Like I mentioned before, once the second season started, at least one person died every single episode. Caster, his Master, Lancer, Kayneth, Kariya, Tokiomi, Rider, Lancelot, Iris. Even Saber disappeared in the final episode due to running out of mana. There were 14 Masters and Servants when the series started, and only four of those 14 survived. That's tragic. Not to mention the numerous amount of tragic characters and deaths. Lancer's death was tragic. Iris slowly getting weaker as Servants die due to being the grail was sad to watch. Kariya was the very definition of a tragic character, and he was doomed from the start. Lancelot was a tragic character in his last fight, and when you consider his identity and what he's been doing, that goes for the whole series as well. And then there's Kiritsugu, who's seen numerous people he cares about die right in front of him. His Father, Shirley, Natalia, Iris, Maya. He completely broke apart when he brought down that plane Natalia was on, and was desperately searching for survivors when the fire broke out in the last episode, the scene where he finds that boy being one of my favorites for that reason. The entire series was tragic from beginning to end, and that to me is one of the things that make Fate/Zero as great as it is.

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destiny-smasher · 7 years

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So I did the “get to know me” meme on Twitter but because of how Twitter functions now it’s a hard to follow mess of a thread. Decided to post it all here -- and hey, if any of ya’ll are curious, feel free to read.

1) When I was 10 my abusive stepdad threw a spray at me. I ducked -- it scraped my head. Sent to school bleeding b/c he was too stoned to realize it'd get noticed and I'd get pulled out of that environment immediately. This moment changed my life, left a scar on head.

If I hadn't ducked, would've hit my stomach. No cut. Whole childhood would've been different. My first Butterfly Effect Moment.

2) I started writing fiction about Pokémon. First-person, from the Mons perspective. Rotating point of view each scene.

3) I moved on to crazy crossover fanfic where I constructed an entire war, personal and political motivations, so many ideas I still like?

4) Part of this involved detailed drawings of Mario-themed Keyblades I wish I still had.

5) Paper Mario 1&2 are some of my most influential inspirations. expanded such a simple world so much so fluidly. (Harder than it looks)

6) When I was a kid my sister would wake me st like 6am to watch dubbed Sailor Moon. Bothered me they all sounded like same person.

7) I can recognize voices very well and even specific sounds and songs. Couple years back my roommate ran a test - playlist of 100 NES tracks, he'd play the first NOTE, singular, and I could recognize exactly where it was from if I'd played the game.

8) My first computer was a PC I bought w/$ saved up during an entire summer of custodial work in HS. Had no Internet.

So I'd use the public library's very slow connection to download things to floppy disk and copy them over.

Eventually, I was able to graduate to a USB. Obtaining music was hellish so I treasured each song I could download -- most from OC Remix.

9) We had this tiny rabbit ears TV that could get WB and Fox sometimes if it was set up in a specific corner of my sister's room

And so I would desperately use it to try and stay up to date on Pokémon and Digimon, it was so bad

10) Teen Titans was arguably the most influential piece of media for my teenage mind. It formed the base of so much I care about re:stories

Fleshed out, varied protags who grew together and each had their times to step up and step down. Action w/character dev context.

Fantastic themes important for growing humans; awesome moments "between the panels" instead of all comic book melodrama and action.

Then everything changed when TT GO attacked and pissed on everything smart and thoughtful because MONEYYYYY

11) Cowboy Bebop was the first "good" anime I ever saw and blew my mind open about what animated stories could do -- i.e. Not just kid stuff

I don't like "anime" in general because most of its common tropes but the shit out of me even worse than most western toon tropes

And yet like 50-75% of my most favorite shows ARE anime because thoughtful animated storytelling has so much potential.

11) I predicted months before Last of Us came out that you'd play as Ellie but when it happened I had to stop, cry happy tears.

I predicted the second I saw the Left Behind trailer what was going on w/those two and again, still had to stop and cry happy tears.

(I seem to have pretty good gaydar now but I also don't like, ship everyone together all the time)

It just hits me so hard when actual canon queerness happens in mass media and is done well, but we're still so bad at following through.

12) Favorite m/m ship: Troy and Abed in the Morning. Favorite w/w ship: Max and Chloe BFF Pirates 2008.

ATLA ships: Tokka the most, also Katang, also Smellershot. ATLA makes me more open to shipping than any other series?

Like, Zutara makes me feel kinda gross and some of the crack ships like Sokka/Azula scare me but otherwise I'm pretty chill w/ATLA ships?

13) When I was a kid, and we'd role play, I always wanted to play the girl characters. I was surrounded by boys so they always were weirded.

It was weird to me, too, honestly.

Now it makes perfect goddamn sense.

14) Apparently I was kidnapped as a baby by some mobster or something but it's hard to tell with my mom what's real or not.

15) Smash Bros. Melee was the first game I ever got genuinely hype over before launch. I still remember being startled to discover it --

-- existed via E3 trailer on GameTrailers back on my goddamn dialup connection in 2001. I had to wait all fuckin' day for that thing to load

And when it did, it was GLORIOUS (and had FZero music, which at the time I did not recognize) and I was FLOORED.

The screenshots made the game look too good to be real, and I was instantly sold on the GameCube, the first time I NEEDED new hardware Day 1

I got SSBM as an Xmas gift before my grandpa's GCN present arrived, so for a week or two all I could do was stare at the box/manual/disc

That game kind of changed my life -- SSB64 was the first time I'd gotten so invested in a multiplayer game, and SSBM crushed it.

A fire was born in me -- competition, something I'd never been much interested in w/games before, not against actual humans.

Those months between E3 2001 and finally getting to play SSBM felt like forever. And thus did I post online fiction for the first time.

That's actually how I met @SDiDuro , my first 'Internet friend' and what I'd consider to be my first proper 'reader.'

16) After college, I ended up working at a call center because it was the only job I could find and I needed to support my disabled wife.

DURING college, I gave up on writing fiction and had focused on gaming editorial through a site where I'd engaged with an online community

But that empty space between phone calls eventually got filled in by writing fiction on a notepad, with a pen, inspired by Street Fighter 4.

Eventually, this evolved and radically changed into what is now (still in dev) DownRight Fierce.

Back then, I had no idea I'd be motivated to DO this, though -- write original fiction -- but the fire had been re-lit.

I wanted to write.

I was sickened by my "naive" adolescence crossover fics and wiped them from my http://FF.net profile and started anew.

Having just come off of ATLA 1st time, I knew I wanted to explore that world/characters more, so I wrote a story about Toph & puberty.

That serving as "practice," I then went on to write SRU, and...well, that...changed EVERYTHING.

17) My biological dad (who I have never met) has OCD, to the point where he apparently washed his skin raw trying to avoid germs?

So as soon as I showed enthusiasm in gaming, my parents FREAKED and worried I was exhibiting OCD and they brought the hammer down.

They made me feel BAD for writing about video games when I wasn't playing them, but they never READ anything I fucking wrote.

Even now, my mom tries to comment on what a good writer I supposedly am, yet when I ask for her thoughts, I ask what she's read?

Silence.

I wasn't writing fiction based on games because I was THAT addicted to games.

I did it because a storyteller was awakening within me --

-- and I told stories through the worlds and characters I was familiar with.

(And my first genuinely "serious" fic was Teen Titans, anyway)

But even now, it really hurts that my parents will sometimes try to guilt me over not calling or whatever the fuck, when they never READ

never supported, and actively DISCOURAGED my writing, my storytelling, refused to understanding why I loved games.

18) I never watched Avatar until after college (years after it had finished), and I watched it because of the live action movie.

I watched halfway through the season 1 of the cartoon to get "read up" on it. Then the movie. Which was horrible. Then the rest of season 1.

At that point, the movie utterly baffled me. My wife and I proceeded to marathon the rest of the series. And it became my fav story ever.

But I ironically owe it to that terrible live action movie. ^_^;;

19) My taste in music is really weird. I couldn't tell you what my favorite genres are, and even fav musicians is hard.

Like, every year my top three fav musicians "change" because I just add more to the pile and spend the year focused on their music.

But music inspires my storytelling more than any other medium, I'd say -- in terms of me actually planning and growing ideas.

I didn't just give Nishiko and Seiko last names of my two fav game composers as tongue-in-cheek. In fact, that's not why I did it at all.

I gave them those names because I wanted some element of their very design to express how Japanese composers inspired me in my teen years.

#get to know me #personal

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