#She was pretty sure that he actually killed her father and kept it a secret and she was able to just

[dragondemoness]

Kyoko kirigiri with a male reader that has the power to save and load and uses it during the killing game to save everyone.

This turned out way longer than I expected, but hope you like it 😆

Also, I wrote this a fat minute ago, but I forgot to post it while thinking that I did, so sorry about that 😅

Kyoko Kirigiri with a Male S/O who can Save and Load Progress Like a Video Game

Much like Kyoko, you didn't seem to have a labeled talent

You either didn't have an Ultimate Title, refused to talk about it, or simply forgot

Kyoko was interested in you for that reason, and even though she couldn't place it, she felt... Strangely connected to you

You progressed through the killing game together, and after some time, you and Kyoko grew even closer

Little did she know, you were actually completely aware of what you could do

You had the uncanny ability to rewind time to where you last marked it, reminiscent of saving progress in a game and resuming it

After the killing game was announced, you kept saving progress like a maniac

Every morning and every night, just in case

You were able to successfully prevent deaths, but of course, more victims and blackeneds kept appearing

It was quite disheartening to see, so you decided to continue saving, but not load it back until the killing game reaches the end

You were the only one who was conscious of every rewind, but Kyoko started to become suspicious

As secretive as she appeared to the others, you were somehow even more so

You were both singled out by Byakuya for not revealing your talents, but she noticed that you didn't insist that you forgot yours like she did

Something felt off to her, and she couldn't help but feel that you knew something she and the others didn't

And after uncovering more secrets and finally learning her Ultimate Talent, she was sure you had one too

She confronted you, and you finally admitted what you could do, and what you have done

Kyoko was flabbergasted, and naturally doubtful at first

Since you were the only one who remembered every event before rewinding, you explained in detail who the previous victims were, their killers, and even their weapons and clues they left behind

THEN you managed to convince Kyoko

It was a pretty intriguing talent, and she wondered how you managed to convince her father to let you into Hope's Peak, considering how bizarre it all sounded

Then she figured you could just rewind time if he refused you, though you couldn't remember regardless

Kyoko asked you not to rewind time unless it was absolutely necessary, since you were both close to uncovering the secret of the school, and she didn't want to lose that progress

You then proceeded to compare her to a gamer who forgot to save their progress, which earned an unamused stare from her, though you could see her trying to hide a smile

Fast forward to the Mukuro Ikusaba trial, where everything was going wrong and Kyoko was on her way to execution

You swore to rewind time so you could undo it, though watching your partner get crushed to death was no picnic

True to your word, you brought her back, and soon enough, your talent was finally brought to light

Everyone gave you shocked looks as Junko, who constantly teased you as Monokuma for being a nobody, was practically seething in rage

All her despair could have been undone, and she was grasping at straws to get you executed

But naturally, it wasn't possible whatsoever, and she was dragged to her execution screaming in rage

Your classmates asked if you could rewind to the day the Tragedy started, but the problem was since you couldn't remember that day at all, you weren't sure if you could do that

It was like deleting a save file, never to be recovered

You also worried about undoing your relationship with Kyoko, but she only gave you a kind smile as she took your hands and insisted that she was sure that wouldn't be a problem

With that in mind, you rewinded to the previous day, and went backwards to every single save point until everything suddenly turned white

You soon found yourself at classic Hope's Peak, and thankfully, you remembered everything about the killing game

You wasted no time in stopping Junko and halting her plans for world takeover

Everything was normal again, and all your friends and classmates were safe

And more than that, you didn't lose your relationship with Kyoko at all, instead just reverting back to its original stage

#danganronpa #danganronpa x reader #danganronpa trigger happy havoc #kyoko kirigiri x reader #male reader

[serialadoptersbracket]

Round 2, Match 25: Xie Lian vs. Takashi “Shiro” Shirogane

Submitted kids:

Xie Lian: Ban Yue, Pei Xiu, Lang Ying, Lian Quianqiu, Gu Zi, Lang Ying

Shiro: Pidge, Hunk, Keith, Lance

Propaganda under the cut!

Xie Lian:

1. “a several centuries old disgraced god who keeps somehow getting mixed up in things that have nothing to do with him and taking in random kids in the process. Got dragged into being a soldier in a war between kingdoms he's not even from? suddenly single dad to these two random kids caught up in between. dealing with a malicious ghost who has been killing brides? boom, now he has a ghost son whose previous guardian was killed by the malicious ghost. psychotic ghost cousin posses the body of a man with a young son and continues being a piece of shit? well i guess your taking care of that kid too now (i know guzi is technically qi rong's kid since he's the one possessing his actual dad but if it weren't for xie lian intervening when he did the kid would be dead so he kinda counts too)”

2. "Xie Lian saves a young LQQ from being kidnapped, returns him home and end up becoming the/his grand tutor(which was NOT his original plan at all). He literally teaches the boy everything for years, raising him to become the best ruler he could ever be. The XL ends up accused for killing his family (because of a lot of different things) what is important is that he was not the perpetrator but he did kill LQQ’s father in an act to save the boy from making a horrible decision/outcome and also dealt with the actual perpetrators but kept it a secret cause he knew it would break LQQ’s heart to learn his dear friend planned to kill him and his entire family. LQQ took this betrayal by XL so hard he buried him after staking him through the heart when he was still alive. 300 years later when XL returns/is revealed LQQ is still not over it to the point he wants a FAIR duel to settle the score. FAIR with the man he still thinks killed his entire family!

Banyue and Pei Su are connected. XL took BY under his wing while he was a soldier in the army. He did his best to protect her and get her fed as she had pretty much no one. He also talked with her about his younger selfs dreams for the future which was so inspiring to her that not only did she remember it over a century later when they meet again in very different circumstances but she also apologized for essentially not being able to live up to the ideals he had accidentally passed on to her. While he didn’t have as much direct contact with Pei Su, the boy was BY’s only friend and so while XL was around he did also interact with the boy. However this all came to an end when in an attempt to save BY (which succeeded) he through himself in between two armies and was trampled when they began to fight. When they meet again (as I previously mentioned) XL takes BY under his safety until he is not safe and then sends her off to a safe place where she reunites with PS, who for all XL doesn’t give the same amount of attention to, XL does actually approve of some of him (not all his actions) and seems to find it cute that PS is courting BY.

XL meets Lang Ying first when he helps the boy burry his proxy sister, LY ends up running off after XL reacted with shock to LY’s uncovered face, but XL keeps a constant search for him. XL next saves him from getting beat up by ghosts and ends up taking him to live with him in the shrine he lives in. He does his best to take care of both LY and Gu Zi at the shrine and keeps his good treatment up even knowing LY’s a ghost it only ends when (spoilers for non book people, feel free to look up if you want to know).

XL takes in GZ mostly as his ghost cousin (whom he arrested) has taken over the body of the boy’s father. While I’m not sure how much this one counts, especially since by the end his cousin ends up caring for GZ, but he still does the best he can to feed and care for the boy as his entire life changes."

No propaganda has been submitted for Shiro

#xie lian #heaven official's blessing #tgcf #tian guan ci fu #mxtx #voltron legendary defender #vld #takashi shirogane #shiro #vld shiro #serial adopters bracket #round 2 #tumblr polls #tumblr tournament #mod note: it wasn’t me honest

[hchollym]

I saw your post about asoiaf character headcanons https://www.tumblr.com/hchollym/656295257177276416/who-are-some-of-your-head-cannons-for-characters and I’m begging for more Willas Tyrell headcanons! Anything you have! What is he into? You said he makes nerdy jokes. Whats his personality like?

How does he feel about the whole “potentially engaged to Sansa thing” and how did he feel when she was forced to marry Tyrion? (I cant imagine he would have been in love w her immediately if they married, bc she is 13 (3 years younger than Margery) and he is at least in his 24-27ish in current book canon)

It's been a while since I got an asoiaf ask, so this was fun! 😃

I'm sorry it took so long to respond though. 🙁

More Willas Tyrell Headcanons:

-He has brown curly hair and hazel eyes.

-He's definitely an introvert. He's very kind and genuine, and some people are drawn to that (like Oberyn), but he's not naturally charming or assertive, so he finds social situations a little more difficult to navigate.

-He enjoys astronomy (since he likes looking at the stars) and drawing/painting (since he drew pictures for Margaery when she was little).

-He's not great at expressing his feelings. He knows how to - he's very self-aware - but he has a tendency to hide his insecurities/sadness and keep things inside, because he already feels physically vulnerable due to his leg, and he's afraid to be emotionally vulnerable too.

-He loves all animals (including cats and dogs), and he always names them after historical figures.

-He can never admit it out loud (because he's a Tyrell), but he gets tired of the smell/sight of roses (they have far too strong of a floral scent). Because of this, he grows his own little garden of Iris Blue Rhythms (but he has it fenced off because they're toxic to dogs). These flowers are a pretty blue and lemon-scented (which is actually his favorite scent, because he loves how fresh it smells).

Headcanons About Willas' Thoughts on Sansa:

-I'm not sure he even knew about the plan until after it was ruined. Mace didn't know, and Olenna may very well have kept that secret close to her chest until after she arrived in King's Landing.

-Once he found out, he was definitely concerned by her age. Even by Westeros' standards, Sansa was still young for marriage, and since she was three years younger than Margaery (his baby sister), he saw her as a child.

-He protested an immediate wedding and argued for a long betrothal, and he only backed down when Margaery told him about the abuse Sansa suffered at Joffrey's hands. At that point, he realized that marrying her quickly was the only way to protect her, and he agreed because it was the chivalrous thing to do.

-He was horrified when he found out that she was married to Tyrion, because 1. Her age was still a factor, and he assumed that Tyrion would consummate the marriage; 2. Tyrion was a part of the family that killed Sansa's father, and he knew that would be traumatizing for her, especially because it meant that she would be stuck around the Lannisters for the rest of her life; and 3. He knew Sansa imagined a much "better" husband than a dwarf (and by Westeros' tradition, it was honestly an insult to marry her to Tyrion).

-He was also disappointed because he knew that Sansa was the best political match he could ever make, and even if she never loved him, he thought that she would at least enjoy Highgarden & he would keep her safe.

Thanks for the ask! 😊

#ask me #callmekohaii #willas tyrell #sansa x willas #my headcanons #asoiaf #a song of ice and fire #my thoughts #my opinion

[bivicennial]

One of the little bits of worldbuilding lore I really appreciate in the NW is how both vampires and witches have very distinct cultures around raising children.

Like, Thea and Blaise lose their parents and are immediately taken in by an increasingly long list of relatives, because witches (especially Harman witches) do not let their children be abandoned. It's a very village-centric society. Everybody pitches in to make sure the kids are looked after and cared for, all 90s matriarchal commune style. Even when Blaise is actively causing like, mayhem and destruction, the Crone of All Witches decides to take her granddaughters on full time despite being ninety years old and running half the goddamn Night World.

Comparatively, the vampires have a very... aloof style of parenting. It's quite business-like, and focused mostly on monetary support rather than emotional care. Vampire kids are expected to teach themselves most of their survival skills basically on the streets. Darwinist, y'know? Because vampire children are given a lot of what humans (and witches, it seems) would consider very adult freedoms, and are treated as functional members of Night World society quite young. It seems to be expected that most vampire kids who aren't kept in an enclave will learn how to defend themselves or they'll get fucked up. And if they can't defend themselves, well. Weakness gets culled, and all that.

There's a lot of examples of it, too. Vampiric parenting is pretty consistent across the books. James's parents support him financially, but he lives in an apartment by himself at the age of, what, sixteen? Probably younger, considering he was living there for a while by the time Secret Vampire starts. And Ash doesn't seem to have any consistency in his life, but he does spend all his time partying in Las Vegas, while it's implied both his parents are living on the east coast in an enclave. He goes to fetch his sisters when his father tells him to, but he never gives the impression that he especially likes his father, and in fact suggests that if Quinn hadn't been around when his father called, he might have ignored him. There doesn't seem to be much love lost there. And we don't even have to get into Delos's relationship with his father, the guy who treats him like a living weapon at best.

Actually, the closest thing to a loving, functional parental vampire relationship seems to be Jez and Bracken, and they only have like one scene together. Even then, he let her run around San Francisco without supervision from the age of five onward, and that's never treated as being especially outside of the norm. He makes sure she has a place to stay and goes to school, but he doesn't seem to keep track of her daily activities at all, or he does and doesn't care what she gets into so long as he doesn't personally have to deal with it.

And unlike the witches, there doesn't seem to be as big of a push to take on extra kids. That's Morgead's whole thing, that he's got a bone to pick with all the elder vampires that just ignored him when he was abandoned by his mom. Even if they do take in the kids without parents (like Bracken does), vampire parents don't provide much attention anyway. With Thea, she sees a whole future surrounded by other witches and continuing her education under the tutelage of her family. She was eighteen and would have continued to be monitored and cared for for years. Whereas Ash got attacked at the age of twelve, killed a much bigger vampire, and every single person who could have watched out for him was like "yep he's good give him a credit card and let him go do whatever" and he just does.

Honestly, I could talk about each of the characters' childhoods in depth individually, but maybe I'll have to save that for later. Or fanfics or something.

#night world #night world series #meta #honestly I actually love deep diving into night world lore #because it's really good??? #I mean yeah sometimes you have to get through the retcons but for the most part #yeah it's really interesting and well done

[novemberthecatadmirer]

Although I do not go with it but the “Maeglin never got released back to Gondolin Sauron was impersonating him all the time” headcanon is actually pretty appealing

I WANT TO SEE ONE FROM SAURON’S POV it’s going to be so much fun

Consider it he could be offered this mission by Morgoth to make up for his utter failure at Luthien event (Got humiliated by one princess of twilight going to humiliate another prince of twilight. Morgoth had sense of humor.)

Numenor: Sauron became the king’s favorite and ruined the already problematic nation from within. Gondolin: Sauron became the king’s favorite and ruined the already problematic city from within. (Gondolin absolutely already had SO many issues going on.)

Sauron getting to see Gondolin forge and learn their secrets!!! It being such a good experience that he did it again to Eregion in Second Age.

Sauron, partying HARD in Gondolin. Eating nice food and drinking and dancing and being his charming self. At the same time plotting the various tragic deaths of everyone around.

Maeglin did not reveal Gondolin’s defense secrets Sauron gathered those secrets while impersonating him

Regular dream zoom-sessions with Morgoth to report information

Sauron being creepy to Idril and Earendil. Idril thought Maeglin finally throw off his cover. Earendil being a child realized something was extremely off it’s almost like his uncle came back WRONG. But he could not understand what was happening and did now have enough vocabulary to clearly convey what he felt.

Would Sauron like Idril in some way? I think the answer is “YES”

I headcanon Idril to be such a plotting cunning politician determined to make sure her people survive the Doom. It was a HUGE ambition. She heard the Doom at a young age then almost immediately had her mother dead and lost in cold water. She’s traumatized paranoid filled with anxiety always thinking and preparing for the worst. I also cannot believe she did not have bitter feelings about Turgon’s dumb grief-driven decisions, and share the anger against Feanorians. But she masked her feelings even better than Maeglin and people viewed her as the sun and hope of Gondolin. Except she was on the edge of losing it and yelling at her father and starting a coup so that she could start evacuation of the city.

Would Sauron find that mass of repressed anger & pain interesting? And the daring ambition to escape the Doom laughable? He would want to extinguish that fire and squish that hope. He would want to break the princess just like he broke the prince.

And yes, killing Earendil in front of Idril then dragging her away to be his toy would be NICE

Of course Sauron would be offed by the mortal man he was ignoring and looked down upon all the time. He’s Sauron he never learned that particular lesson

Ah and capturing Salgant to make him Morgoth’s little musician. For fun and as a punishment for Maeglin refusing telling the secrets of the city. “See, the city fell anyway, they believe you to be the traitor, your uncle is dead, your cousin and nephew hate you now, and I have your best friend as gift for my lord.”

Maeglin could laugh at Sauron for being offed by a mortal man but it hardly matter everything was still awful for him no one knew he was being kept in Angband all the time and being forced to work in their forge

(You know this actually makes more sense for the fire mechanical dragons. You cannot convince me Maeglin could make anything like that within short period of time)

(Morgoth could just, show him Sauron in Gondolin and said “well if you still do not cooperate maybe I am going to have my lieutenant doing something to you pretty cousin or your cute nephew or your arrogant uncle or your little fat friend.”)

(He still managed to design some fatal flaws into the metal dragons. And after learning Earendil & Idril escaped he refused to cooperate anymore. That’s why the dragons were not used in War of Wrath; they overheat and exploded.)

#tolkien #silmarillion #the silmarillion #silm #silmarillion headcanon #silm headcanon #sauron #mairon #maeglin #idril #salgant #fall of gondolin #gondolin #morgoth

[heraldofcrow]

*kicks in the door in an attempt to make a dramatic entrance but just ends up stubbing my toe really bad*

CROWWWW!

I demand you tell me all about your ocs so that ours can have a tea party together *shakes fist menacingly*

BIM ARE YOU OKAY??

Heccin hell. That looked bad! Here take some shiny pills from my crow-collection!

—

Ok, yes now back the question, ahem! So, I don’t have a whole lot of OCs outside of my super secret original works, because I’m pretty sure I poured all my energy into developing weird, nameless NPCS in Soulsborne games in particular xD

I dunno, it’s addicting! But anyway, I do have some in “Christened in Blood” that will become/already are relevant, and even though they are mostly lore tie-ins, I did confirm with Katy and Fantomette that they “counted” as OCs 😅

I’ll be sharing about them in that case, and fair warning, some of these peeps are genuinely awful, so Emori and Hollise and the girls should absolutely feel free to kick their asses 🖤 (Fantomette, your OCs as well, hehe).

Ok um…where to start? Maybe with the Cainhurst OCs??

(Gonna cut for space because it gets long! Sincerest apologies ;-;).

—

Lord Dominic, father of Lady Maria

Alright, Cainhurst OCs it is! Here’s Dominic!

You know him already of course, since he insisted on being terrible right from the start of my fic, but believe it or not, he leaves more of an impact on the story than some of the others, so I can’t leave him out!

Basically he was the captain of the royal guard during the reign of Annalise’s mother, and before that he had been an executioner for the royal family. He and the queen were a pair of scheming devils that wanted to remake Cainhurst in a new image, which was essentially the Vileblood revolution. They rebelled against the old ways of the kingdom which basically glorified the Pthumerian rituals and traditions that were thought to bring about godhood.

Dominic and the Queen were like; Let’s cut out the middle man and just straight up use the blood to become more Pthumerian-like right away. That’s what they did, and when the queen took her throne, she kept Dominic by her side for defense.

In all truth, yes. He was an absolute bastard. He married a lesser noble from the Cainhurst-Hemwick bloodline, and fathered Maria and Bloody Crow/Luther. He was cruel and abusive towards his wife and children, usually by way of controlling everything they did. He wanted his wife to avoid “weakening” his children, and wanted Maria, his eldest, to be his trophy child successor. They were like tools to him in a grander political game, and needless to say, they all hated and feared him.

Hell, most people in the kingdom hated and feared him because he still acted as the queen’s executioner that would snuff out entire families if they rebelled or even spoke of treason. He was a terrifying, ruthless warrior and he truly believed everything he was doing was right. The only one that adored him was the queen, and he happily served her out of twisted admiration and loyalty. They were just heartless and Machiavellian enough for each other.

But to the majority, Dominic was fiery, proud, cold, zealous, bad-tempered, and stubborn. He was eloquent and manipulative as well, often intimidating to others due to his unpredictable nature.

Now, I won’t spoil much, but while Maria spent much of her life trying to erase Dominic’s memory and influence, Crow/Luther actually discovered another side to the man that changed how he saw him. Yes, he was still always an asshole, but weirdly enough, he had a very specific purpose for it. I actually enjoyed adding another layer to this character past just the abusive father figure.

PLEASE DO NOT INVITE HIM TO A TEA PARTY HE WILL KILL MULTIPLE PEOPLE LMAO

—

Lady Clarice, mother of Lady Maria

Oh wow! It’s Maria’s mom! Hope nothing bad happens to h—*COUGH*

Lady Clarice was a noble scion of a smaller family of Cainhurst aristocrats, and was pressured to marry Dominic, a high-born directly related to the queen, by her family in order to elevate their house. While she had grown up in Hemwick during its better days, she would eventually up and leave to live in the snowy, mountain-top castle across the great lake. This new life made her miserable, and her marriage with Dominic was loveless. She never actually understood why he had decided to wed her, especially when it seemed clear that his affections were turned towards the queen.

She did, however, love her children. Particularly Luther. Sadly, while she did cherish Maria, she often looked to her daughter as more of a “savior” instead of a child in need of love and care. Clarice tended to put more pressure on Maria to watch over her brother and defend them both against Dominic, because…well…Maria was strong. Maria was bolder and more confidant than her paranoid mother, and though there was love between them, there was possibly also resentment.

Clarice was, after all, just another lost child that was sold away by her family and forced into a life she did not want. She missed Hemwick, and the farms, the mills, the people. She missed her simple life and the friends she had made there…and after sinking into heavy depression, she made some critical mistakes that led to her downfall. The mark she left on Maria was life-altering, but unfortunately for Luther, his memories of her were only so extensive.

In her life she was known to be a docile, quiet woman with a love of flowers, astronomy, and old folktales/stories. She was also an artist and carried books full of colorful, floral scribbles wherever she went. Despite her cold life, there were many who loved her. Also one random fact, she was known for wearing the scents of lavender and rosemary on her clothes, which were both considered to be crude plants in Cainhurst, as they were usually associated with wandering plague doctors. However, Clarice had been surrounded by the scents in Hemwick and harbored them out of bittersweet nostalgia.

She’d enjoy the chill vibe of a good ol’ tea session I think!

—

Queen Claudia, mother of Annalise

Look, I’m not saying Annalise was some wonderful and pure person or anything, but compared to her mother, she was a saint. Claudia may be one of the most devious characters I have ever come up with for a fic, and when you combine her and Dominic, you have a very bad combo.

Claudia was the younger daughter of Queen Zofia (the name I gave to Annalise’s grandmother), and sister to Lady Evelyn, who I’ll talk about later. There was something very devilish about Claudia from the start, because she was basically one of the first people to get her hands on forbidden blood before the whole thing with the scholar even happened. She straight up consumed that blood smoothie, and then gave birth to her first child, Annalise. Fun fact! Annalise was born immortal, and Claudia discovered this when she saw Anna immediately regenerate from a wound when she was a young child.

After that, Claudia basically usurped her elder sister’s throne by claiming that she had more of a right to it because she was the one with the immortal heir. Evelyn’s children were not “special” by any means. And after spreading her “we’re going to produce an immortal line of rulers and give this divine life to our people” propaganda, Claudia won the favor of the kingdom’s citizens and nearly incited a rebellion when the former queen resisted the claim.

In the end, through extreme manipulation and theatrics, Claudia won and inherited the throne. She took a consort, raised her daughter to be the public golden child, and encouraged a more Bacchanalian culture in Cainhurst. She wanted her people to revel, feast, lust, and drink, and to become drunk on blood. It’s how she controlled them. Yes, this also is what gave Cainhurst a bad reputation and image for the rest of the world. They became known as drunken, careless nobles that craved bloodSport. Claudia relished in this.

She was a callous, dangerous, cutthroat, and manipulative queen. She wore many faces depending on her audience, and was a narcissistic, arrogant, and cruel person overall. She used people like pawns, including her own children, and did whatever it took to keep her line on the throne. That included side-lining her own sister, encouraging abuse towards her sister’s children, and keeping Dominic by her side, who she trusted completely and could unleash on anyone that opposed her. I don’t even want to get into what she did to Annalise because the fic will cover that and it might be a little too much for a simple OC post lmao. (Fantomette can confirm).

There had never really been a queen like her before, since most were benevolent and decent, but Claudia was just genuinely evil-hearted.

So, fair warning, you do NOT want this lady at a tea party lol. She’s probably the only Cainhurst noble besides Dominic that actually earned the “Vileblood” name xD

—

Lady Evelyn, aunt of Queen Annalise, mentor to Lady Maria

If Claudia was the “bad” sister, then Evelyn was the “good” sister. Even though she looks scarier, hehe. Yes, I did come up with this character because of the gun, but it just made sense to me that they would name the weapon after the commander of the beast-hunting knight’s calvary. In my eyes, the previous armies were not as well equipped for beast hunting because the plague hadn’t been very prevalent then. When it got worse, and after Evelyn had been cast aside in favor of her sister’s rule, she founded a new league of knights.

Evelyn was calm, rational, and intelligent. She carefully analyzed Gehrman from afar and the way in which he modified weapons before proceeding to imitate him and garner extra knowledge from Eastern weapon-smiths. She modified and commissioned the Evelyn pistol, the Chikage, the Reiterpallasch, and even the Rakuyo upon Maria’s request. Sometimes she made the weapons herself, sometimes she simply told the weapon-smiths how to design them, but every time she would end up with something brilliant.

Her knights loved her, and she was their strict, formal commander and trainer. She also taught Lady Maria how to fight, and how to adapt to using standard weapons instead of blood-blades. Maria’s dualistic skills began with Evelyn and continued with Gehrman, both of whom she admired.

Evelyn found that her focus on beast-hunting and leading her knights was the best way to avoid Claudia and the strife within their shared home. She did her best to not provoke her sister and remained silent even after the usurpation, but inevitably there was a deep resentment brewing. In secret, Evelyn prepared her son (Leo) to one day reclaim the throne. This quiet treason was the foundation for much of the tension between the descendants of both sisters.

Regardless, Evelyn’s plans were understandable, and while she may have been quite bitter and aloof, she at least loved her children, her knights, and her remaining family, often holding back her own desires for their sakes. It was her graceful daughter that led the knights during the time of Logarius’s attack, and Leo, who was very similar to his mother if only a bit more volatile, loyally fought in his mother’s name for many years of his life.

Evelyn would be very stern and formal at a tea party, so maybe not the most exciting person to invite, but she would be able to tell some great stories, and at least she’d hold back from fighting anyone lol.

—

Lord Theodore, brother of Queen Annalise

(It’s funny using this portrait because Fantomette has a whole different OC based off of it who is so sweet, but now I gotta share my totally different one kjsjs).

I don’t have a whole lot to say about this pompous loser, but basically, he was Annalise younger brother and was usually pretty satisfied to just do whatever his sister asked if he was able to live a luxurious, unbothered life in return.

As a child, he was a spoiled brat and endlessly bullied his cousins (Evelyn’s children) because uhh…he thought it was funny? I guess? Basically he took after his mother, but without the cunning and frightening intelligence. He was a somewhat decent captain of the guard after Dominic, but his battle skills were really not too impressive or anything. He usually just sent out his underlings to do most of the dirty work when he could.

Needless to say, he wasn’t exactly popular among his own soldiers for that, but he was quite popular with the kingdom’s people. He looked like some dreamy, romantic hero, and so they all put him on a pedestal for it. He loved the attention and praise from them, because…well, it was what fueled him to keep doing his job. He was a spoiled, smug individual, and just wanted to eat, drink, be merry, and enjoy long life, which he received from his sister’s blood.

He did have some mild resentment towards Annalise because as adults, she treated him as somewhat of a pawn or a public trophy to win her people’s affections, but her compensation for his work was usually so lavish that he just ignored his issues with Annalise. He didn’t consider them worth losing his luxuries.

He’d be an overly-proud and selfish person to have at a tea party, but hey, he’d be kinda fun to bully because there’s no way this guy can take what he dishes out sjhskkskj. He’s rude as hell to people he doesn’t like, but you could probably get him to cry if you insulted his hair xD

—

Ok, finally I’m away from Cainhurst, thank Kos. I do have more background characters developed, but they aren’t active enough in the story to mention, and again, they’re usually just family/lore tie-ins.

Anyway, let’s look at a couple more characters that actually influence the story in CIB.

—

Felix, The Hinterlands Scarecrow and predecessor to Eileen

Imagine Eileen but with a scarecrow cap, a creepy scarecrow mask, a blue-beaded bell charm, and slightly blue-splattered feathers with blue/gold thread subtly woven in. That was Felix, the Blue Crow, the Scarecrow, whatever you wanna call him. He came from the “Hinterlands” aka “totally-not-Tibet” where the first hunter-hunters came from.

In my canon, Eileen was born in “totally-not-Nepal” which is geographically, (and accurately so irl), right next to “totally-not-Tibet.” So, she and Felix crossed paths as youths and knew each other for years. Felix was the nephew to the first hunter of hunters, and had hoped to succeed her as the next to carry the mantle. However, his aunt skipped over him and chose another lad to carry the crow mantle for a few years. Yes, Felix was young at the time and therefore a bit immature. He was jealous of the successor, Brandon, for years, but wouldn’t ya know it, they finally met and Felix realized the bastard was actually pretty cool.

Fast forward a few years, Felix is Brandon’s soon-to-be successor, and the two are like…best friends. They were like Anakin and Obi-Wan in The Clone Wars fr. Absolute bros.

They even went to fight on the frontlines of a distant war together, and spent a lot of time hunting down crazed members of the League who were losing their minds. Obviously Brandon was the mercy-killer, but Felix learned how to become a dangerous warrior along the way.

Then BAM! Brandon goes whack in the head after some rough turns in the road and Felix has to be his mercy-killer in order to finally embrace his crow-mantle. What was once a young boy’s dream of glorious achievement was now a bitter and grim affair. Felix very reluctantly took down Brandon and became pretty withdrawn, cynical, and stoic afterwards. That’s when he found Eileen again and started training her.

Felix was a crow for a long time, and his reputation for having killed one of his own “kin” earned him the moniker of “The scarecrow among his own.” After all, what is a scarecrow if not the terror of even the ominous crows? Felix would kill one of his own if necessary. While he was highly emotive, wild, and strong-willed as a youth, older Felix was closed-off, disciplinarian, traditional, cold, and pessimistic. Only Eileen knew him for who he really was, and the two had an unspoken bond like a brother-sister pair. Felix discouraged any emotional ties, but yes, he did care for Eileen, and vice-versa.

Really, the only strife that arose between them was when Eileen’s apprentice became the Bloody Crow, because uhhh, you can imagine Felix’s PTSD with crow-hunters teetering on the edge of madness and all that. Heh.

Overall, Felix would be fine at a tea party, but he might be too strict or sharp-tongued, thereby killing the mood a bit. How dare anyone have fun and be relaxed in his presence 😒 (He’s actually a good guy tho, plz don’t judge him too hard </3)

—

Hugo, Logarius’s second-in-command.

I don’t know what it is with me and making awful characters, but I guess I need them for the plot lmao. Hugo is genuinely despicable, and honestly on the same level as Claudia/Dominic. At first, you might just think he’s a bully, but his undying loyalty to Logarius of all people suggests that he’s worse.

Hugo was originally the son of one of Gehrman’s hunting captains, and grew up in the hunter’s culture around Byrgenwerth. He was ambitious and aggressive as a hunter, usually overly-mutilating beasts, getting into fights with his peers, and causing trouble. Most suspected that he just had a violent home life, but nobody could really confirm what the problem was.

Nevertheless, Hugo hated humanity and found “the hunt” to be a way to unleash all his vicious loathing. He very loudly preached against the idea that beasts were human, and he didn’t believe that Pthumerians, Vilebloods, or any other humanoid type beings were human either. This is essentially what Logarius taught, and even though they all knew it was BS, they had to justify their actions somehow.

Hugo tortured and butchered countless people over the years when he followed Logarius into the Church and became an Executioner (Logarius’s right-hand man). Anyone with even the slightest signs of bestial infection were targets for Hugo, and there were rumors that he had cannibalistic tendencies when dispatching his victims because he “didn’t see their flesh as human flesh.” (Another lie to satisfy his lust for destruction of his fellow man of course). The other Executioners always helped cover up his crimes because they were scared of him too. Everyone knew that he was a perverse and disgusting individual.

So, yeah…do NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT INVITE THIS SADISTIC BASTARD TO YOUR TEA PARTY PLEASE OMG. If you don’t hate him now, you will when I post the next few chapters because uhhh…uhh…uhhh….ANYWAY!

—

Johann and Pavel, the Yharnam Clockmaker

Alright, this one is a bit complicated because I know it’s two names here, but it’s only one character, and not in a Dr. Jekyll type of way. Basically this old guy, Johann, was a clockmaker in Yharnam and was one of the people to help design the Astral Clocktower itself.

Johann lived alone in his old age, but had what was likely schizophrenia and constantly hallucinated the presence of his long lost son, Pavel. Pavel had died as a child, but to Johann, he was his small, tag-a-long apprentice in the old clock-shop. During the years when Bloody Crow/Luther was in Yharnam, he befriended the grizzled clockmaker and formed somewhat of an odd friendship with him.

Luther was always coming in to commission him for pocket watches or water clocks….because Luther had a specific interest in collecting and learning how to craft the ornaments. He employed their designs in things like little smoke and powder bombs as well, and Johann was the go-to “parts guy.”

So, Johann spent many hours chatting away with Luther as they worked on these little trinkets, and the latter got used to seeing the aged man call out and speak to his deceased son like it was nothing. Just another sad story of Yharnam madness, eh?

You could invite this fellow to a tea party for sure. He’s nice, and just a bit eccentric is all. Yes, he talks to someone you can’t see, but there’s nothing wrong with that! Bloke deserves some free cake tbh.

—

Ok! I’m pretty sure those are the main OCs for CIB, and even though I developed the hell out of Vileblood Drifter Leo (He’s Evelyn’s son in this story), those two Research Hall doctor-hunters (Gladys and Ursula), and the previous crow-hunters, those are all either non-original characters already or characters that are only mentioned by name in the fic. I do plan to make a big post for my headcanons on the previous crow-hunters sometime, but they’re mostly for background lore purposes. I’m not sure if I’ll ever actually write all their stories.

In the mean time, this is gonna be one hell of a tea party…are you ready Bim?? XD

#once again your girls can kick everyone’s ass if need be <3 #some of these freaks need it lol #FOOKIN TEA TIME INNIT YA GITS #LESS GO #this was actually fun fr #i didn’t expect that #i always forget about ocs being ocs #they can be like canon fodder to me sometimes but i guess i have put more thought into them than that #bloodborne ocs #bloodborne #christened in blood #bloodborne fanfiction #asks #mutuals

[siriannatan]

Heroes of Empires City part 2

Part 1

About other characters - Spoiler warning

Jimmy - local Sheriff, Lizzie's younger brother - has water-control powers but never uses them, when using them gets fins but with how rarely he uses them there are no signs of it - very good at his job - almost instantly figured Scott is Major only knowing him for one night and just having met Major - hates heroes because of a certain incident that landed Lizzie in a wheelchair - has two cats, likes them better than most people - hates that Scott is Major because Scott is pretty cute

Lizzie - mayoral candidate, very popular - wins the election later - actually, a retired hero from before the government legalised heroes - Ocean Queen - married to Joel (Stratos) and knows full well he's a hero, - supportive of the hero business -someone has to take care of the villains and magical monsters and other things that are beyond the police, - worried about Jimmy's safety all the time even if he can fully take care of himself

Katherine - President of the Empire City Hero Association - probably not paid enough to deal with her heroes antics - might think Shubble's cut but she's a professional so it had nothing to do with her being hired - even Stratos is a bit scared of her, even if she has no powers - cares and worries for her heroes excessively in a violent manner - especially when telling them off

Pearl - Katherine's new assistant - actually, Sausage's adoptive younger sister, has similar powers but they're a lot weaker than his so she didn't pass the entry exam - mostly the physical test - happy to help the heroes in any way she can, usually by making sure Katherine doesn't die from overworking herself and by cutting her caffeine intake - might like Amethyst a bit more than she probably should which results in flowers sprouting in her hair whenever she's nearby - a bit conflicted about liking this office worker from the tower - Gem (only Katherine really knows all heroes' civilian identities for safety reasons) she only sees her when she's leaving the tower, which is a shame

Pixl - works as a nurse at the biggest hospital in the City - dated Sausage before finding out he's a hero, was at all not offended Soos kept that a secret - did not mind it when Sausage adopted - often finds himself working alongside Sanctuary because of the limitations of his power

Xornoth - Scott's older twin brother, glad to be born with no powers, had a good time watching Scott figure his out, especially the flying part - freelance, programmer, and guitarist in an indie band - a bit worried about Scott's safety even if it was he that encouraged him, - doesn't leave their apartment much outside of band stuff - Oli's band - shocked Scott by getting a boyfriend first

Joey - Xor's boyfriend and the reason why Scott met Jimmy, not directly but still, - bartender at that one Bar Oli's band frequently plays at - Smithy - used to have a big crush on Katherine, and many of the heroes - most notably Sanctuary

Oli - frontman, leader and vocalist of the band Xor's in, changes the name of the band at least twice a month - the band would have flopped ages ago without Xornoth, - very obviously flirts with Eddie whenever he got a chance to

False - the owner of a steampunk-themed coffee shop Jimmy always gets his coffee at - one of the establishments with 'Hero seating' - Shubble's roommate and good friend

Potential SPOILERS

Eddie - Sausage and Pearl's adoptive father - the owner of the Smithy - finds Oli's advances amusing but nothing more - outside his bar works for HA's Equipment Department - totally didn't cry when Sausage introduced Hermes to him - thinks Pix could do much better than Sausage

Hermes - Sausage's adopted son - his parents were killed by his psycho grandmother who could not accept their divorce - Jimmy kind of saved him from the woman and solved the whole case with Scott shadowing him - thinks Scott is Jimmy's guardian angel - Jimmy is the coolest, much to Joel's dismay - loves it when he's left with Pix or Eddie - always stares at Pear with wide eyes and never talks to her - once told Amethyst his auntie likes her - can read minds and no one believed him at first but when he told Amethyst his auntie likes him Pearl got convinced about it and convinced Sausage to get him tested for powers - likes sheriff more than the heroes

#HoEC #my stuff #fanfic notes #empires smp #empires smp s2 #empires s1 #empires hero au #empiresshipping #empires katherine #empires pearl #empires joey #empires oli #empires eddie #empires false #empires hermes #empires xornoth #empires jimmy #empires pixl #empires lizzie

[hedgiwithapen]

for @pink-lightsabre Prompt “Zuko and gaang+ “That was ONE Time.” (following last year's au HERE, but not directly) (really not as much Zuko as intended sorry) Being a prisoner of the Fire Nation was weird, Sokka had settled on.  Not that they were, officially, since it turned out the Prince was banished. Zuko didn't actually have much authority except on this particular boat, but he and his sister and the weird bald kid that they'd pulled out of the ice after said boat had crashed into a glacier were very much on the boat. So, as much as Katara and Aang--who was apparently the actual avatar, somehow Katara had known!-- were trying to pretend this was an adventure, Sokka did not let himself forget.  No matter how nice the old guy who kept making them tea was. Still, it was hard to be as terrified when General Iroh had kept promising him that no one was going to=separate them. It could all have been an act, though if it was, that didn't explain why no one had questioned him about Water Tribe locations or defenses. Not that they had any defenses, anymore. Sokka knew it was up to him, just like his dad had said. Get Katara out of this mess and back to the village. Protect her, and her secret.  The soldiers on board had followed the General's lead when it came to the three prisoners, which mostly meant leaving them alone and only really paying attention if it looked like they were trying to go somewhere like the captain's quarters, or the armory, or above deck, which still left a whole dining area, halls, and a couple of storage rooms. It meant that Sokka had managed to map pretty much the whole boat out in his head, and had gotten some real sailor gossip alongside.  They'd been 'invited' to eat the night meal with Prince Zuko and his uncle again. Well, Sokka was pretty sure they could have refused, but didn't want to push it until they'd figured out a solid escape plan, which was going poorly. Aang was convinced that the whole war could be ended just as soon as he had a Talk with the Firelord. Sokka was not eager to see that chat.  The food was good, steaming hot and spiced. Aang poked through his bowl of noodles as Sokka wolfed down the fish in his bowl. "I told the cook to make yours without fish," the General answered an unspoken question. "I should have known sooner that you wouldn't have enjoyed last night's supper. It was not very hospitable of me." "Oh," Aang said brightly. "Thank you." He nudged Katara, who was still wary of all this, even if she was more optimistic than Sokka was about how this was all going to end, eventually.  "See? The Fire nation can respect other beliefs." Sokka noticed how the General shifted a bit on his knees at that, lifting his cup of tea. He noticed how the Fire Prince scowled at his own plate. "Avatar Aang," Iroh said. "I think, perhaps you should guard your hopes. My brother does not listen to me." "You're his family," Aang said, frowning when the prince glared.  "The Firelord does not obey the whims of family. And the Fire Nation does not have to bow to --" he started, the candles shifting with his rising voice. "Easy, Nephew," Iroh said. "Now is perhaps a better time for discussions like this, but not the best."  "Then when?" Zuko asked. "I am bringing my father the Avatar. This isn't a Social visit for you." Sokka flinched. There went what little freedoms they'd had. In the corner of his eye, he saw Katara flick her fingers, back and forth, and saw the broth in the bowls move. Oh, no. He couldn't let her attempt at waterbending be noticed. They'd kill her, like his mother. "Maybe it should be," he said, bringing all the attention squarely on himself. "We could be allies." He did not want to ally himself with anyone on this boat, no matter how friendly the General seemed to be, but it was only fair to fight trickery with trickery. He lead with the only bit of gossip he'd heard that might have proved legitimately useful "I've heard, you spoke out against Fire Nation cruelty before."   "That was one time." Zuko spat, rising. His robes, shot through with gold, caught the candlight. "I will not make that mistake again. " Katara put her hand to her necklace. Aang stared up at Zuko from the eating mat, his gray eyes soft. He spoke quietly. "I don’t think standing up for your people is a mistake. I don't think you think so either.”

#Dammit Hedgi Day 2022 #Dammit Hedgi Day #Avatar the last Airbender

[ratcandy]

Since you already talked about den elder's lore what about zotes father? zotes dad seems interesting and i wonder why he protected zote in the first place. How did zotes mom met the dad? and was the soon to be dad afraid or nervous for being her mate? Also is zotes dad used to be weak like zote and that is why he helped zote because he knows what it feels to be weak?

Oh worm! Okay completely truthfully, backstory-wise both Dad and Mom have little to nothing going for them. I've thought out rationalization for Dad's actions but not quite what their respective deals were when both were younger, so I can't go super in-depth in that regard shdgkjdgh

but!!!! Essentially Dad was a Loser by Nosk standards, but it was a loserness he kept well-hidden. And by that I mean. He's a capable hunter and fighter and stands on his own just fine, but local idiot had the audacity to actually develop a sense of empathy (at least a little bit). Fortunately for him, though, he was pretty decent at keeping that a Secret.

To other nosks he's just a generally unremarkable guy who can provide for himself without issue. Kept to himself most of the time. That Guy who's Off in the Corner. Nobody suspected that underneath that cold exterior there was a little tiny shred of empathy for others going on that he was desperately repressing because we don't do that here.

But when it came to his own children that sort-of-empathy that he'd been doing so well to ignore came forth in a burst of "wait a second child murder is wrong!" because for a split second he experienced a Paternal Instinct. oops

So what ended up happening was a "No hang on wait no don't kill him I uhmmm uhhh ummm I can Fix Him. I can Make him Worthy. I Prommy" to mama, because the idiot who just outed himself for Maybe having emotion had to stomp out the idea of that immediately. Why did Mama choose him to begin with? I haven't the fainted idea i'll be real with u. Maybe she likes that Just Some Guy energy. idk

(also yes Dad was terrified of Mama the whole time because he knew he was in HOT WATER NOW!! He'd been able to keep himself out of harm's way so good so fine for so long but now he's literally one itty bitty mistake away from getting mauled because OF COURSE his mate is a superior like yeah that makes sense. sure. of course)

and then Dad went on to further regret his decision to keep Zote alive because Zote proved himself to be the worst possible example of a nosk to exist . and Dad is thinking to himself "I'm going to fucking die" because now he's gonna be the Guy notorious for having weak offspring, WEAK OFFSPRING THAT HE CHOSE TO KEEP ALIVE, and his mate is going to kill him, and this sucks

and well. then she kill ed him. despite his Efforts to prove himself (the secret Trainings with Zote + arranging the Den Elder's death) because if anything he was just digging himself into a deeper hole showing that he cares way too much about this one (1) offspring that he shouldn't be caring about to begin with and we can't have someone undermine superior authority for That long (it was a miracle he hadn't been killed off the moment he objected to zot's murder honestly)

#ask #sorry if this is all over the place I Suck at explaining dad's whole weird deal #because dad in general is just a Strange Little Man. #he made one (1) error in feeling empathy for child and that one (1) error ruined his life forever #cogr

[cf8wrk4u-us]

Grimm/ Transformers Prime Crossover Characters

Name: June Darby

Type: Wesen/Lowen

Summary: June didn't have the best background coming from a more "traditional" Lowen family. For the longest time she lived a pretty wild life, doing what she liked, taking what she liked, and pushing anyone who got in her way. But this stopped when she fell pregnant with Jack and she decided it was the best thing to separate herself from this type of lifestyle. She moved to the sleepy town of Jasper and took a nursing program there, which wasn't easy being pregnant or even when Jack arrived. But in a way she was almost thankful for the work and stress as it kept her on a strict routine that helped suppress her urges, usually. She wouldn't lie if there weren't people she met that made her wish she could sink her fangs into but that's not an option unfortunately....

She considers herself a Wieder Lowen. The term Wieder referring to a Wesen who has given up their old life (hunting and killing humans or other Wesen) to follow a more peaceful path. Usually with the help of a strict routine and diet, one that she had Jack adopt as well.

Things were pretty peaceful, just her and her son for the longest time. Though things did get tense when Jack first experienced his woge and revealed to take more after his father, splitting his pants in the process. Manticore and Lowen may be similar in appearance in behaviour but that venomous tail mixed with teenage mood swings would prove a challenge. June grew anxious that Jack would accidentally use his tail or fangs on someone if he got mad enough, so she stressed to him the importance of surpassing his anger and following there shared routine. But over time she learned to trust him better, even when he applied for a job.

Though she did notice that Jack had started to act strange, especially since getting that new motorcycle. She just chalked it up to teenage nerves. But after she was kidnapped and threatened by a giant spider robot any sense of peace from her current life was taken from her.

It took some adjusting when it came to meeting the Autobots, she's seen some pretty strange things as her life as a Wesen but nothing could compare to the knowledge that aliens are real and giant sentient robots are fighting a war on earth.

She was incredible upset to learn of her son's involvement in this secret war and that he was using his tail to fight, going all the dangers that could happen if he were to loose control. But to her surprise Jack actually stood up to her, telling his mom that as much as he knows she's trying to help the Autobots have done so much to protect him, taught him how to fight, and even coached him how to better work his tail. That for the longest time he's had to suppress his strength but now with the Autobots help he can better use it for the betterment of his planet and to help his new friends.

June is taken aback but can't help but be proud of her son, whose far more responsible and aware of the power he holds but decides to use it for good. Unlike herself at that age.

She soon becomes another good member of the team. Looking after Raf and Miko as sort of a maternal figure occasionally, though learning the teen girl was a Grimm did give her a mini heart attack. All the same she did her best to teach them more about the Wesen world, even some more unsavory parts.

Her and Fowler didn't get along at first, him being a experienced and cautious Grimm and her beging a Lowen with a shady past that if got out could have the agent pointing a blade at her. For the longest time she was defensive with Fowler making sure to contradict some Grimm lore and history pointing out the injustices done to Wesen at the hands of extremist Grimms. This did make her and the agent relationship even tender but in the end they learned to be amicable. June even helps with some of Fowlers cases and helps treat his wounds after an especially harrowing encounter with a violent Wesen.

All in all this new life is something see didn't see coming, but is happy.

Abilities: As a Lowen June is incredibly strong and much faster than a normal human. They are able to overpower and kill humans, and on at least one occasion, Lowen have been able to hold out in a fight with a Grimm. June has yet to test that theory though. But they can be overpowered when faced with a group of attackers.

Löwen are capable of lion-like jumps and able to move with incredible stealth, allowing them to sneak up on their victims, much like how actual lions hunt. They are also incredibly durable. Something that people are taken aback by when first encountering June.

Löwen have razor sharp claws and teeth. Like actual lions, they generally kill their victims by biting their necks or slashing their throats.

They also have a highly developed sense of smell, demonstrated through June incredible cooking skills.

#transformers #tfp #transformers prime #june darby #grimm nbc #löwen #grimm au

[crystalelemental]

With the end of Bravely Default 2, it's time for me to talk opinions about the game.

I'll be going for a while, so I'll break this into segments: story/characters, classes, gameplay.

STORY/CHARACTERS It's been years since I played BD1, but from just what I remember?  This is such a massive improvement it's almost comical.

I promise I won't be blasting BD1 for too long, but I feel you need to understand how bad it was to really appreciate this game's improvement.  The story of BD1 sucks.  It's terrible.  There's contrivance born of characters refusing to speak, and then there's whatever this was.  Everyone dies.  Despite how many are sympathetic or compelling, or caught up in this stuff solely due to unfortunate circumstance, everyone dies, and it's largely your party responsible for the killing.  It's completely unsatisfying, and happens entirely because of the big emperor guy, who is Edea's father, wanted to stop this secret evil thing happening for Very Good Reasons, except that his conquest of the planet involves putting the most horrible people in charge of locations and causing untold problems to solve for one (1) problem that is super unclear that he could've just explained to Edea at minimum to get her to understand, but refuses to do so because if he did we wouldn't have a plot.  It's an unsatisfying disaster of a game.

Thankfully, while BD2 is far from show-stopping with its story, it's a night and day improvement.  Your protagonists feel like actually decent people, instead of black-and-white morality lunatics given the mantle of "chosen hero."  Your antagonists maintain complexity, but a good chunk survive, with most that don't being killed either by other antagonists, or the consequences of their own actions.  Your heroes actually feel decently developed, with Elvis being The Man, and Gloria having some nice bits, like helping Rimedhal cover up the truth about the Archbishop to avoid panic while they're being invaded.  Historical revision isn't great, but she at least came up with a solution that kept the peace as needed, and felt like a response that a serious-minded royal would take.  Everyone felt pretty solid.  I mean except for Seth.  He's kinda just there.  I think it's in any Final Fantasy-esque JRPG that the male lead has to be the single most boring person in the cast for teenage male fantasy projection reasons.  I don't love it.

To go over each of the areas: Halcyonia is boring, nothing much happens aside from establishment stuff.  I did really wind up loving Selene and Dag, thanks to the sidequests that open up as a result of their survival.  It's super cute and I love them.  I want to like Lonsdale, but he's a Camus archetype.  "I am good guy, but oooh, too loyal to not aid in the complete genocide of Musa."  Okay buddy.  Sure you are.

Savalon is my favorite region.  Prince Castor was super interesting, and I love that a much latter quest has Pollux recognizing that Castor had a really good point about the obligations of a ruler, even if his methods were extreme.  Anihal is precious, and despite being a piece of shit, even Bernard had some really interesting complexity to him that made the place feel engaging.  And doubling back to this region in chapter 4, having the hidden politics still going on, and how the previous events here are leading to the conflicts in the present felt really organic.  They're just really strong.  You know.  Except Orpheus.  And what's her name.  The Gambler class lady.

Wiswald is...I like Wiswald a lot in spite of myself.  I think it has a really weak intro, being mostly a possession plot, where everyone is good just being controlled.  And the final twist is that every bad thing has been Folie's fault, and she's doing all this just because she's a psychotic child who gives literal life to art.  But I really like Roddy, Lily, and Galahad, and while she's boring as sin, I did kind of appreciate Folie for being a weirdo but in a way that checked out.  Like okay, a mostly rejected child seeking attention, finding something she's incredible at but still gaining nothing from others, and turning bitter and actively malicious toward others is neat.  Then there's the return phase with Vigintio.  The intro to that is great on its own, but the memory from Vigintio is what sold me on the guy.  He mastered turning into an undead, meaning that after he's killed by Emma he technically survives, and he actively stabs himself in would-be fatal ways just to prove he's unkillable and therefore won.  I just think he's a cool approach to that kind of character, seeing a form of immortality and wanting to be the best mage ever through any means possible.  Though also, special mention has to go to Elvis, whose crystal is the most interesting.  He's chosen by the Earth crystal, and despite being all over the place and inconsistent, he's selected as the unchanging foundation of the team because, despite his transient nature, his one constant is that he'd do literally anything for the people he cares about.  And that's a really cool approach for a character.

Rimedhal I wound up coming around on slightly, but still have as my least favorite.  I kinda had that vibe the instant we walked into "This is going to be about religious zealotry!"  That never goes well.  But it did grow on me.  Martha's probably my favorite.  I don't know why, I just appreciate the flirting being a fakeout for wanting to brawl, and she's got that very direct, not taking anyone's shit attitude, so she's great.  Dominic is slightly interesting, but only in the sense of his frustration at being passed over by the Fire Crystal as a chosen one, and specifically being passed over for the previous Fairy Queen potentially being the reason Fairies are the focus of the witch hunts.  Helio's boring as sin, and Gladys I have mixed feelings on.  On the one hand, I like the idea of a redemption arc where possible, and fully approve of her getting one in concept.  On the other, she doesn't get one, and I'm not upset.  Gladys is all about carrying out Helio's orders to have people jump to their deaths, in order to "weed out fairies," who she believes killed her parents.  As a result, she's incredibly hostile, and is pretty directly responsible for the presumed hundreds to thousands of people who are dead in a pit.  My problem is how she died.  One of the townsfolk stabs her, after she saved their life, because she was responsible for the death of his sister when you first arrived.  And it's like...okay, yeah, karmic justice in a sense, but by this point, she literally saved your life, dude.  And to be honest?  Every single person in that town is as guilty as Gladys.  Literally all of you.  We got to see everyone pressure the jumps, and actively falsify testimony to cast suspicion.  Even under slight duress, you all participated gleefully in this ritual murder shit, and it feels distinctly unfair to have only Gladys suffer consequences for that.  Either have Holograd burn the town to the ground or let her live, is what I'm saying.  Though the bonus quest focused on how some remember her positive traits and others remember her as a brute terrorizing the city is fairly poigniant.

Holograd is boring.  "We used to be poor, then we found the mines, now we're militarized."  Adam is the most stock standard antagonist, trying to end all war by subjugating everything under his heel, only the strong should rule, etc etc.  Edna's also boring as sin.  Like okay, she wants to awaken the Night's Nexus, but it's never really clear why, so she kinda sucks.

This leads into the finale.  Honestly?  I like how it's handled.  Your first ending is fighting Edna, destroying her, then having Gloria pray to seal the Night's Nexus again.  Naturally, she dies in the process, for reasons.  You get a sad ending and the credits roll, and when you boot the game...you see that scene play out from the book's memories.  And this is where it gets cool.  The book has only shown past events, through many characters' eyes, but now it shows the future somehow.  You enter chapter 6 with that mystery.

You seek out the fairies, who explain the Night's Nexus, and turn an otherwise boring eldritch evil into a fairly interesting character.  Night's Nexus is the remains of a human woman who entered the kingdom of fairies ages ago, and betrayed their trust by trying to consume the fountain of all knowledge.  Her goal was to subsume everything, and coalesce all information to a singular point, to obtain perfect understanding.  Past, present, and future are brought together to fully understand the deterministic universe, and that's...actually cool as hell.  But she's sealed away forever, because god forbid women do anything, and that's where we get the angry, bitter sense of hate for the world.  Sure, her lust for knowledge and control may have resulted in consuming everyone in addition to everything to create a perfect unchanging record, but sometimes you gotta do what it takes.  Chapter 6 ends with you attempting to confront the Night's Nexus, but realizing that it is, in fact, completely immortal.  You cannot kill it, and the fairies decide to seal off time within their realm, keeping it, and them, trapped in stasis for eternity.  Adelle stays behind and it's super sad but oh no another fakeout!

The book shows you the battle of the previous heroes, and an asterisk you missed.  You track it down, and you can finally read the book.  Turns out, the book has its own asterisk, for the Librarian class, which I would kill to play as, because it sounds like magic.  But it also turns out to be the soul jar for the Night's Nexus.  If the book is in tact, the body will revive.  This is...actually really interesting, and it checks out, because those visions of the future can only come from an entity with that potential foresight, and only the Night's Nexus has gained that level of ability.  So it's actually pretty well done.  Unfortunately, the climax is fairly sub-standard.  You go to a new dungeon, you face off against it, the fight isn't that scary and its true form is less interesting than the mummy thing with shadow hands, and then you get your standard ending. But it's satisfying.  Like, if nothing else, the story is satisfying, and I enjoyed experiencing it.  The characters have a few duds, but mostly wind up being pretty engaging.  I liked it a lot.

CLASSES The classes of this game are unbalanced as hell, but at least everything feels broadly useable.  Throughout main game, everything felt viable on normal mode, and many of the classes I didn't use wound up having use as a sub-class, or having utility I didn't pin down instantly.  Thief had Godspeed Strike, which is apparently the best midgame damage out there and a boss annihilator.  Beastmaster had tricks for every boss, apparently, if you have the right monster.  Salvemaker has a great combo with Phantom that, to my understanding, is infinite resources and sure-fire status application.  Oracle's Reflect spell can be the best source of magic damage if you cast it on your entire party.  There's a lot of stuff.

The only class I could not find any use for was Bastion.  Shieldbearer is just an overall better tank class for the team, with Sub-White Mage being an unkillable god for the story.  Though even post-game, with AoE stuff suggesting Bastion is an improvement, you often want that single-target coverage, and foes can just Brave past your one-use party shield and kill you anyway.  So Bastion felt really weak in my hands, despite being obscene on the enemy team.

If I had to pick an outright winner, it's probably Phantom.  The passives are insane.  50% chance to crit when hitting a vulnerability is tremendous, just about anything can make use of that.  And guarantees of probability-based skills at the cost of 40MP is unreal.  Status is guaranteed, it's the solution to Steal farming with the Thief's skill, and I'm pretty sure it counts Salvemaker's passive to regain used materials as well.  And that's just its general utility.  Offensively, Phantom/Ranger is unstoppable.  You can guarantee hitting a vulnerability with powerful skills, and Ranger's second passive means you regain a BP if you crit, which is most of the time.  You can toss out insane damage while maintaining max BP, it's insane.  And it's a pure upgrade on Godspeed Strike strats as well.  I imagine this is the best application for Hellblade too, since hitting a vulnerability with perfect elemental coverage is a great way to get constant crits.  It's just such a powerful class.

My other preferred classes were Spiritmaster, Shieldmaster, Red Mage, Ranger, and Oracle.  Shieldmaster was fantastic team defense with infinite healing as a sub-White Mage.  Red Mage got Double Cast, which was fantastic after Wiswald.  Prior, Black Mage bypassing immunities and absorb effects was better.  Ranger is the other half of Phantom, and I just like running bows.  Oracle had a lot of problems but I love it in spite of everything.  Spiritmaster is the hard one, because its second passive is legitimately insane for supportive effects, allowing constant regen of HP, MP, curing status, negating debuffs, reviving the party, and giving +1BP.  Its problem is it also clears buffs, and has horrific anti-synergy with classes like Bard and Oracle, which...kinda leads into my big problem with the classes.

Magic sucks post-game.  Prior, it's great, just hit an enemy weakness and you're dealing good damage.  But eventually, you reach end- and post-game, and your physical classes just dominate.  Red Mage doublecasting into an enemy weakness might deal around 6-10k, depending on how strong the magic is and your crit rate.  A single crit off that Phantom/Ranger build would deal 14-17k.  It's unreal how much stronger your physical classes get.  And this in spite of magic's built-in limitations.  No magic class combination affords you perfect elemental coverage.  You can get 5 at most with Black Mage and either Red Mage, Oracle, or Pictomancer.  The only class with perfect coverage is Hellblade, but frankly?  Hellblade's best utility is dying.  Use it as the sub-class, with the Red Mage skill HP/MP Conversion to cast magic from HP instead, and use Ultima Blade.  It uses all your MP (HP now) to deal damage, and with max HP, you deal 99,999 damage in one swing.  That's way stronger than anything magic can do!

The only exception I've seen is Reflect strats.  If you get your entire party with Reflect, and cast a party-wide spell that targets all your allies, it will reflect four times.  Meaning that a single cast now hits all enemies four times.  If you use all your brave points, that's now 16 casts in one round.  32 with Red Mage's doublecast.  If the foe even takes neutral damage, you're looking at a ton of damage in one move.  But the problems now should be obvious.  Multi-target boss battles have varied, non-overlapping weaknesses and resistances, so you're rarely getting that full effect.  But moreover, Reflect is removed by Spiritmaster.  And every one of the trial fights has "Counter any skill: BP +1," so casting healing magic is a bad idea.  Meaning you use healing items instead, and nothing else.  Your best healer isn't even a healer, it's a random support with "Healing Item Amp" throwing X-Potions around.  You basically give up everything heal-wise for a high-risk strategy to explode the foe in one round, focused on one caster and two Bards to boost magic and crit rate and get them a guaranteed action afterward.  Which is a lot worse off than the physical classes being so self-sufficient and dealing better numbers otherwise.

GAMEPLAY With that introduction to classes out of the way, the last factor is just the gameplay itself.  I'm going to say overall great with caveats.

The main game is fantastic.  It wasn't until Chapter 4 that I started to feel bogged down.  Everything prior is great.  Dungeons are reasonable length, have some interesting challenges, and boss fights were super engaging with a lot of unique strats.  Dragoon is probably the only time I felt like a specific class was necessary (Shieldbearer), but given that this game is direct about "You must always have a tank," it's not too unreasonable to expect it to be there.  Vanguard only does so much at that point.  Thief and Berserker are other close options, but Beastmaster prevents it from being a one-option affair.  Thief has Vanguard beating its ass with Earth damage, but Beastmaster can summon the big enemies just before that fight for the same, and doing four actions with all of them is apparently a one-round clear.  Berserker needs Bard to help with buffing defenses to avoid just dropping, but apparently the Fire Spirits that Beastmaster summons can inflict Stop.  So that's neat.  Basically, it's all great.

The only questionable system in a basic sense is weight.  I get the idea.  Anyone can equip anything for variety, but some classes are lightweight and can't handle much, while others are tanks that can pack all the heavy equipment.  You can get heavier stuff on lightweight allies by using accessories that reduce weight, but often those have limited other effects, so it's a tradeoff.  By and large, it's a fine system, but sometimes it feels needlessly limiting.  By the end of the game, I have all the really good armor and weapons for Shieldbearer.  I couldn't equip all of it because of equip load.  I am level 75, and the only solution is to add more levels to equip everything.  To me, that feels like a problem, and it's one that's easily solved by having equipment be specific to certain classes.  But that does lead to situations where it's like "Why can't Red Mage equip this particular heavy armor, they're supposed to be the all-around caster," so there's tradeoffs.

Starting at the last dungeon of Chapter 4, it starts to suffer from JRPG Syndrome, where it's just gone on far too long.  Dungeons are overstaying their welcome, fights are a bit more tedious than you'd like for having to do dozens of them, etc.  Nothing is new about it, it's just frustrating.  At least chapters 6 and 7 do away with that, by having incredibly short dungeons that just lead straight to a boss.  But not before Chapter 5 can give you the Crystal's Resting Place as the ultimate test of your patience.

The other issue I take is the trials.  Until now, there Brave/Default system had a particular give and take relationship between your actions and the enemy's.  You can do a thing, or you can not do a thing and stockpile actions.  If you do a thing, your opponent can respond, or they can gain advantage by not doing a thing.  If you don't do a thing, you may gain a bit of turn advantage, or your opponent gets to set up something of theirs that may be detrimental.  Maybe you're trying to stockpile turns for your mage to get casting, but oops, Oracle set Reflect, or Bastion set up Vallation.  Trying to build up to something now wasted your time.  The major problem was that Defaulting was, well, the default action.  Unless you knew your foe could punish a Default, there was no harm in it.  The solution was punishing taking multiple actions via counter skills.  The Ranger is the first good example I can think of, where attacking could result in her unleashing Quickfire Barrage, hitting your entire party multiple times, and potentially causing a party-wipe if you were over-zealous and unlucky.  While they're annoying, counterattacks felt like a sensible way to avoid making Default the obvious solution to everything.

The problem with the trials is that counters aren't attacks all the time anymore.  Instead, you get "Counter any action: BP +1."  Which is bullshit.  It completely removes the give and take process, and instead makes it so your opponent is effectively always operating at max BP, because they'll counter everything you do.  It absolutely annihilated healers, who just give the opponent BP and trap them in healing loops, leading the aforementioned statement that the best healer is "Healing Item Amp."  And if you go on the offensive, now you not only need to worry about counterattacks, but giving them max BP again.  It's like they realized the game's system was solved at this point, and a well-crafted team didn't necessarily need to change what it was doing, and said "Absolutely not" and decided the enemies should all cheat to maintain the illusion that this is difficult rather than just frustrating.  And it is just frustration, because the same strategy I always used worked, I just didn't have enough levels to survive the constant attacks or to deal the necessary damage to offset their shit.  It's just a badly designed cheat skill.

This comes to a head with the Bravebearer trial, which is just blatant in its cheating.  Until now, foes use skills based on what's actually available through the class they inhabit.  Sure, there are some upgrades, like Thief countering your Default with the BP steal skill, but by and large anything they do you can too.  But not this fight.  Lonsdale gets to set DOUBLE Rampart, which does nothing but waste your actions against a foe who can already shred your BP values. Of course, they all have the +1 BP counterskill, and the Bravebearer can one-shot literally anyone for damage cap for free whenever he wants, leading to situations where he can one-round your entire party for free.  But that's not the peak bullshit.  No, the peak bullshit is that, if you KO Bravebearer, and one of the others is still up?  For absolutely no reason, through no skill other than "Fuck you I win," he gets back up two turns later with like 40% HP.  And he will do this infinitely.  So the carefully planned solution to take out the mage, then take down Bravebearer, leaving on the tank to whittle down through his double damage negation cheat skills, doesn't work, for literally no reason.  This is the kind of boss fight design that I feel should be punishable by death.

This leads to the other big issue: I feel like status is kinda just something to bother the player.  Very rarely did status ever seem to work, and most enemies seemed immune to anything that mattered.  Every mage is immune to Silence, no one was ever hit by Stop or Slow, I think I got Blind on a foe exactly one time ever.  The worst part is, it's not supposed to be this way.  The story battle against Bravebearer, which is an incredibly tough fight, is weak to Paralysis.  You can lock him down infinitely with Paralysis...if you knew it was going to work.  Which, based on past experience, you wouldn't.  That's really the issue.  Prior experience dictates what's going to be viewed as worth trying, and status consistently doesn't work, until the one random fight where it's a solution you're just supposed to pick up on.  I think the better solution is just making status a more viable approach throughout.  "But we made like five different status effects that just completely shut the opponent down, we can't let you do that to everything."  Then maybe your status effects were poorly balanced.  But it's Final Fantasy style, so we knew that already.

FINAL THOUGHTS I really enjoyed the game.  I wasn't sure I would, but I took a chance, and I'm happy with it.  I will admit to intense frustration around the Bravebearer trial, but even that can be seen as me making my own life harder for no reason, as I still had 24 level ups to go before this became unsalvageable.  Though given the structure of the fight, I'm certain it would've been anyway.

Basically, it's solid, but I think it suffers from the same curse that many JRPGs I've played have if I seriously considered them: fantastic, well-designed experience through the main story, that absolute falls to shit the instant you step into post-game challenge content.

#bravely default 2

[ducknotinarow]

[Foot Casey and Karai]

As soon as he had a second, he geared up; Casey had a plan, one that would definitely get him killed, but he'd do it if it meant even one of the Turtles found freedom. He just had to talk to someone before he started doing, whatever plan he ends up coming up with.

Heading to Karai's room, he doesn't bother knocking, throwing open the door. Hockey stick in hand, mask on as he looks at her, he breathes heavily, that known rage burning,

"I won our bet Rai," He gets straight to the point, "An' I know what I wan' - yer gonna help me break the Turtles outta 'ere."

| Muse Interaction [part 1][part 2]

There was a lot of buzz going around the foot right now. From mere amazement over Casey's success to actually succeeding in his mission success. To talk about how they have the turtles captured and stored away in cells. Karai could hear all sorts of whispering working around the place as she made her way through the building she had been there as well when the turtles were captured. Clearly unable to get free, when the truth finally came out and Casey reveled the whole plan to them. How he never was on their side, how it was nothing more but a trick all for Shredder's plan.

And how he spoke to Raphael.

Why did that land such an unsettling feeling to her shoulders. Karai knew the plan, hell she was pissed Casey got trusted with this over herself. Karai made sure Casey kept on track with this whole plan after as well because she wasn't going let him screw the whole scheme up for their father. Who was she trying to kid sure some of that was true but Karai didn't do it as if she was babysitting her brother. Sure they fought, sure he got under her skin, sure he was a menace, sure he was nothing but a pain in her neck. Casey was her brother however, someone she would sneak out to see hockey games. Someone she and Angel would rope into doing whatever they wanted. Karai even loved watching him and Shin fight a bit because he had to make sure Shin wasn't getting Karai into any trouble. Casey would sit and let Angel 'make him pretty' even too. Those rare moment they hung out the two of them and he didn't annoy her. Secrets kept between them never needing to be ask to be. Then seeing him back there, looking down at the turtles talking as he was. That wasn't Casey.

She knows it was for their father's sake, because she knew Casey's secret he loved Raphael, hell she banked her most prized weapon that he grew attached to the whole Hamato clan even. They were raised to believe they were the enemy that Hamato Yoshi was this evil demon and if he raised those turtles they had to be as well. Karai already was wavering on this fact herself, on if what the foot stood was was even right to began with. Things she had to think about because it was hers to inherit one day. And at one time sure she had no issue with how they ran things, she didn't care about her fathers vendetta at best she found it annoying how fixated he was on the whole thing. Listening to Casey though, thats how they are all meant to be isn't it? That's how they were already?

Karai had finally reached her room in what felt like years it took, from when she snaked her way into the holding area where they had all the turtles. Seemed she wasn't the only one Angel needing to make threats towards the red banded turtle of the group. Listening to what he had to say how he claimed to hate Casey now. Part of of her felt a twinge at that. Sympathy. Was it towards the turtle or her her brother though? Karai just wasn't sure. This just wasn't right and she knew it wasn't right. She knew how Casey acted wasn't right, it wasn't him! Karai often got after him for needing to be serious and whatever but seeing Casey like that? Seeing him being so cruel.

Walking towards her vanity, she let herself slump into her seat. Head falling into her hands as she was just trying to sort through all the thoughts going through her head right now. Karai was basically raised to be the next Shredder. She had always fallen in line. She knew the way of the clan she had to keep them be a prime example. So why was her mind so filled with memories? They won! she should be proud of what Casey seemed able to pull off in the end, and yet? Eye shifted to the green and pupils into slits she went to shake her head, trying to clear her thoughts. If she let herself lose her grip from overworked emotions.

Head snapping to the sound of her door slamming to the wall, and her eyes stuck to their more snake apperence. So much for that.

"Casey what the hell!-" she let's her words die in the air as she takes a look at her brother. All geared up with the hockey pads and stick even and skull painted mask pulled over his face. Didn't stop her from being able to hear the sound of his breath, bounce off the plastic of the mask he wore. Face falling a bit as she took over his whole stance right now. Casey looked ready to start a war from hiw he was gripping the hockey stick in his hands. It been a good time since she seen him this mad. "Cae?" She offer moving to stand up from her seat.

"I won our bet Rai,"

"Bet?" She questioned back slow to recall when this all began, that’s right she made a bet with him hadn't she? Okay so what did that have todo with his current state? Recalling hiw he was back with father slightly made a seed of worry plant in the back if her head, narrowing her eyes a moment as she stood tall now. "Yeah and what is it you want then?"

"An' I know what I wan' - yer gonna help me break the Turtles outta 'ere."

Nothing but slience filled her room as she started blankly at her brother, he eyes slowly to blink and return to the more human. Lifting a arm slowly possibly git for any number of weapon she stash on herself. Her Wakizashi, shurikins maybe even but instead her hand moves to cover her mouth when she's started to laugh. The motion made to moffle out the sound as she fall back down on her chair. Near falling right off the thing as she threw her bath hands over her mouth to keep from brusting into the laugh that was rocking through her form. Tears pickling at the corners of her eyes.

She wasn't laughing at Casey, though in all truth, this sudden decision might be something to laugh over. Or at in general considering the risks. No, it was relief. Casey was still Casey at the end. He wasn't going to let their father suddenly change him into the curel person he pretended to be before. He saw someone in trouble that he cared for and was crazy enough to do something about it. Once she worked her laugh out from her she wiped at an eye and looked at him, smiling a little softer than she wanted to be in that very moment.

"You really are in love that turtle aren't you nut case?" She turns her head to the side a moment as she lower fingers to tap at her chin a moment. "It's not going to be easy you knkw father is going to make sure they are surcure I got in there just fine but sneaking four turtles out? Getting out at all isn't going to be easy." She moved to stand and walled over to him.

"Look if we're doing this we have to do it now and we have to do it fast. Thar means no arguing no questioning my orders got it? " Grabbing at his arm and already pulling him so theu could get out "I'll cover you, so you can get in but once your all out...just keep going no matter what got it!"

She demands then offers a smirk his way "what I did say no questions asked righ?"

#muse| karai #aflockoffeathers #madamkezzie #[ your annoying and weird but your still my brother aflockoffeathers] #[foot!casey au] #muse interactions #ic reply #stayed qeued #((i always enjoyed Karais struggle of morality when it comes to her upbringing uwu Casey and angel just give her personal reason for this ) #((also i reliezed by this point she would have gone through her mutation already uwu))