#especially since its apparently going to be like.... a full game

[riding-the-sunset-bird]

I was in a Baxter mood today so I went swimming in GB Patch's blog for all the Baxter facts:

General

His personality, at least defined by GB Patch, is that he's sheltered and out-of-touch without being elitist or self-centered. He's preppy/posh, quite sociable, and hates conflict, but likes to go against what's expected of him. He grows out of being such a rich kid trust fund baby by Step 4.

His parents are bigots. He's the unlucky one in a sea of characters with supportive parents.

He has a distant French origin.

His birthday is the day his DLC came out, meaning May 19th.

He's 5'11" (180cm) in Step 4 (this was apparently reconfirmed on the Our Life Discord as well).

His natural hair color - a dark dusty gray that he hates - is uncommon to be born with (as opposed to aged into) in the Our Life universe.

Childhood

His dream job as a child was to get into investments, having a strong portfolio with diverse assets (he does not fully know what that means at the time).

He's a late bloomer.

Baxter's crush on Qiu from Our Life 2 is at its peak when he's 12 and 13 (13 being his age in Our Life 2's Step 1), but he's moving on by 14 (when he can potentially meet the MC in Soiree).

He met Qiu at their local dance hall (as they both took lessons there, just in different forms of dance) and also met Ren/Renee (Darren in Our Life 2's Step 1) through Qiu, as the two had known each other since they were very young.

He wasn't thrown off by his crush on Qiu despite Qiu being a boy, as Qiu was popular and it seemed "unfair" to Baxter not to be able to like him. He puts more thought into it as he grows older and what it means, deciding that he'll feel however he'll feel and not worry about what's expected of him. In Soiree, the MC can notice this if they're male or non-binary, as Baxter isn't bothered by dancing with someone who isn't female.

Abilities (or Lack Thereof)

He's a weak swimmer. He can swim fine in pools but would probably struggle in the ocean.

He can sing.

He's experienced in multiple types of dance (though his favorite is the waltz).

Step 3 Baxter is a lazy, bad cook who doesn't even want to bother with cooking, but Step 4 Baxter takes an interest in trying more fancy/restaurant-style food and is able to do so.

Likes/Dislikes

He likes things being clean, but isn't always motivated enough to maintain that.

He liked video games when he was a kid, leaning towards action/adventure ones, though doesn't anymore in his late teens and beyond. He would play life-based games (such as the Sims series) with the MC if asked, however, either playing innocent like he didn't know what he was doing while messing around with the characters or being blatantly obvious about it.

He doesn't like dancing in clubs/discos. He would try it once because he enjoys trying different types of dance, but would only go regularly if he had a friend/partner who liked going to such places.

He would absolutely approve of an MC who chooses to only wear black and white.

Romantic Inclinations

Beyond his crush on Qiu (who he never confessed to), Baxter dates people, but never for long or seriously.

The reason he backs out of asking out the MC if they say that he's their first crush (unless the MC is referring to his Soiree self) is that he feels they have idealized feelings for him and he'd disappoint them. He essentially panics, not wanting to get the MC's hopes up and especially on their very first feelings of romance.

The best way to romance him is to Not Let Him Escape.

When it comes to what he's attracted to in another person, he likes seeing nail polish, false lashes/heavy mascara/naturally long eyelashes, and full suits (especially if they're expertly tailored).

His love language in terms of receiving is Quality Time, but in terms of giving, he will happily adapt to whatever the MC wants.

Clothing Choices

When it comes to Step 4 Baxter's personal dress code, he's always meeting/formal ready (even when not working) unless he's doing anything athletic, in which case the button-downs get a break.

- Likewise, his closet is basically all button-downs and fancy suits with a few exceptions including clothes suited for the cold.

Assorted

He immediately finds the MC and Cove appealing (not necessarily crushing on them) at the start of Step 3 as "beautiful beach strangers."

He'd be flattered to hear from an MC that they love his laugh/find it charming.

He says "hallelujah" because he's pretentious.

He doesn't know French, but does occasionally drop a French word he knows during Step 3 to "add to his formal flair." His Step 4 self considers it embarrassing in hindsight.

During the wedding in Baxter's Step 4, he will have Jude send along a vegan cupcake to the MC if they're vegan.

Semi-revealed during one of his mornings with the MC in Step 4, he has a multi-step daily skincare routine.

His Future

He has no preference over who he'd prefer to be the one to propose to the other in his relationship with the MC.

He would absolutely want to plan his own wedding (whether for or with the MC, depending on whether they want to be involved). He would not want another planner included.

He doesn't have a preference when it comes to last names during a wedding. He's just in awe that he's marrying someone at all.

He might consider having facial hair at some point in his life.

When it comes to having kids, he doesn't have any particular age he'd prefer to have them and is more of a "when it feels right" kind of guy. In terms of the number of kids, none is his default but he'd prefer to have two if the MC wants them, as he finds the relationship between the MC and Liz to be lovely and was personally lonely as an only child.

🍋 (below are asks that might be considered risqué - especially going to the posts themselves on some - but I wanted to include them for the sake of having all the information in one place; know that me and my prudish nature pushed through this for the people who want it and I hope you appreciate it! >:o) 🍋

This one definitely goes without saying due to being a love interest in a game where the MC can be she/they/he even down to being intersex, but Baxter is pansexual.

Baxter isn't good at being sexually active beyond being with an MC who wants that. He tries to bond with others but either fails to have his interest reciprocated due to being too forward or backtracks if he senses that someone is actually into him. His relationships are short/inconsistent for that reason.

He would never sleep with the MC during Step 3. He's already planning on leaving and wouldn't risk souring the relationship at any point even if the MC would want it. He wants company more than he wants sex and would not want to be remembered as the guy who slept with the MC and then just left without contacting them again.

Between chests and backsides, Baxter prefers the latter.

Baxter is a top (though is flexible on the matter), is into BDSM, and "kind of" has a sir kink.

#olba #our life #our life: beginnings & always #baxter ward

[linkspooky]

So I was genuinely surprised last week when we were finally shown Megumi's mental state inside Sukuna and he was predictably at his lowest point ever, and instead of sympathy from the fans most of the responses on twitter I saw were people mocking him.

Which I am going to assume comes from a misunderstanding as his character. You see Megumi doesn't fit into the role of the black haired supporting protagonist / rival well. He's not Sasuke, he's not Uryu Ishida, he's not Yuno but he's not meant to be a rival or even a typical shonen character who's progress is only measured by a series of power ups. Megumi is perhaps one of the most subtly written characters in the manga, and perhaps he's hard to sympathize with because he doesn't fit into easy to udnerstand shonen tropes. Which is why I will try to explain his arc below and why Jujutsu Kaisen does it like no other manga currently running.

1. Meet Potential Man

Let me introduce you to the worst meme on twitter.

Megumi's inability to live up to his potential to reach his full power as a sorcerer is probably his biggest flaw, one that is rightfully called out by the narrative again and again, but apparently an intentionally written character flaw is bad writing.

It's covered in Gojo's "Swing for the fences" speech.

Gojo notices Megumi bunt in the baseball game and decides to confront him about it later. He highlights that while bunting is alright in baseball, and it's good to sacrifice yourself so your teammates can advance in a team sport that being a sorcerer is a solo sport. No matter what Megumi is going to reach a point where he's forced to fight alone, and instead of trying to push himself to be as strong as he can be he intentionally limits himself to cooperate with the sorcerers around him.

Basically, the opposite of Gojo who literally cannot fight with other sorcerers because he won't be able to fight at full strength as they just get in the way.

It's not just that Megumi can't use the ten shadows to its full potential, something pointed out by Sukuna, and then later again by Gojo, it's also that he always prioritizes either the group or someone else above himself when trying to decide how to act. Megumi is a semi-decent strategist so this is not necessarily a bad thing, but because of Megumi's tendency to care more about trying to live up to other people's expectations towards him, and what other people need of him rather than his own needs he doesn't have the attitude necessary for sorcery, especially since the strongest sorcerers don't take others into account at all and act like living calamities.

Megumi doesn't look at himself, he looks at the people around him. He judges himself based on what the people around him want from him, not what he wants. This is going to be a continual theme in his arc.

Sukuna is a living calamity, the definition of the attitude a strong sorcerer has, Gojo Satoru wields sorcerery only for himself, and is a sorcerer because he finds exorcising curses and using his god given talents to be fun for him.

Megumi's reason for fighting, his self worth, are all much, much less than the strongest characters in this series which is why he continually fails to live up to his potential. It's not because Gege is not good at writing or Megumi is a disappointing character, but rather he's been written as someone with tremendous potential under the pressure to live up to that potential but who continually fails to do so. Megumi's low self-esteem, low self-worth, and lack of self-identity explains both his failure to progress as a sorcerer something that requires selfishness and self-identity to reach greater heights in, but also his tendency to pick the suicide option with Mahoraga because Megumi genuinely believes compared to the others even just his classmates his life is simply worth less.

So potential man, is an intentionally written character flaw already called out in canon. The more interesting question is why does Megumi fail to live up to his potential.

2. Meet The Original Potential Man

So, I said that Megumi is not like a lot of characters in Shonen Jump but that doesn't mean he's entirely unique. To help explain Megumi's inability to live up to his potential I thought it would be helpful to compare him to a character he's clearly inspired by.

Killua Zoldyck, is the deuteragonist of a manga called hunter x hunter. You may have heard of it, Gege certainly has. Killua is born into a family of assassins who all have supernatural powers. The assassins inflict incredibly harsh training on their children from birth in order to raise them into assassins because their potential as assassins is all that matters. They also start with a "Z".

Killua is apparently the most talented Zen'in... I mean Zoldyck of this generation, though he's still young so he's weaker than his father and brother he's expected to easily surpass them one. Which is why Killua's family has already decided for him that he's going to be the next one to take over the family, Killua's opinion doesn't matter. Illumi and Silva are both setting him up for success by forcing their "help" upon him. Several other members of the family even point out that Killua probably doesn't have the attitude to be the head of the family, but what does it matter when he's got such great talent?

Killua is a complicated victim. He's a victim of many things, familial abuse is the most obvious one because the Zoldyck have a nasty habit of torturing their children, but the less obvious one is grooming. Not in a sexual sense, but rather the adults in Killua's life have decided to use their authority over him to manipulate him into becoming what they want him to be - the next head of the family.

What's insidious about this is the Zoldyck's don't just torture or beat Killua into submission, they will use any tool in their arsenal, familial love, emotional blackmail, threats, all to undermine Killua's agency and choices in order to make him not only do what they want to do but make him think he has to grow into the person they want him to.

Grooming not in a sexual sense, but definitely in a psychological sense, an adult using their authority as an adult over a child and their maturity to manipulate that child into becoming what they want them to be instead of letting that child grow naturally. When it's used in a sexual sense it's when an adult establishes a connection with a minor, and then uses that connection in the long-term to manipulate them into having a relationship and lower the child's inhibition. Think of that, but without the sexual part - an adult using their relationship with a child often in a long-term manipulation to lower the child's inhibitions and make them more malleable and raise them to do what you want them to do.

Killua has not been sexually groomed, but he has been groomed by both his parents and his brother to make him more suggestible to becoming the family head which is something he explicitly does not want to do. Not only did Killua's family only raise him for the purpose of becoming an assassin and taking over the family one day (raising him as a child into an adult, his emotional maturity, his health and well being are all secondary priorities to what Killua can do for his family) they also manipulate him into thinking he has no choice other than being an assassin.

Killua is a kid put through extremely harsh training from a young age, to do a horrible job that is being an assassin that doesn't let him make normal friends or have a normal life. On top of the physical abuse he's already endured, whenever he expresses a desire to do something else in his life, his parents send Illumi to emotionally manipulate him into thinking that not only is he a natural born killer, and therefore a bad person who deserves all the abuse he's been put through, to further convince him that his only path forward is to be an assassin.

Killua is a character who has a lot of power, but little agency. Agency, in fiction is the ability a character has to take action and make decisions for themselves. Despite Killua starting as a more powerful and more savvy character than Gon, he has little agency and is often very passive. He doesn't act, he reacts. Even running away from his family is a reaction. We don't really see what he wants in life, we just know that he looked at his family and went "NOT THAT". However, his entire identity is still formed in response to his family's abuse. Even when he gets farther away from them, Killua doesn't really do what he wants, he does what Gon wants, and follows around Gon.

However, it's very understandable why Killua doesn't act with a lot of agency, when Killua does try to make decisions his family always shows up to undermine him and make another attempt to emotionally manipulate him into doing what they want. It's not always Illumi showing up to spook him. Silva pretends to be a loving dad for five minutes and has a heart to heart conversation with his son, and lets his son go adventuring with his friends but that too is a manipulation. He only did so to make sure Killua would eventually come back, by giving Killua more positive memories that would make it harder to make the decision to leave the family.

With the extent that Killua's family goes to sabotage any decision he makes, it's no wonder Killua is so passive and afraid to make his own decisions. It's almost like a character flaw he's gotta work on.

Now here's where I'm going to blow your minds. Megumi is an incredibly similar character to Killua, they are both the victims of longterm grooming however people don't like to acknowledge Megumi's victimhood. That's because in Killua's case, his abuser looks and acts like this.

Killua's abuser Illumi is a creepy guy who looks like the girl from the grudge, telling him he's not allowed to make friends and giving off such rancid vibes that he's obviously a bad guy. Whereas, Megumi's groomer this this guy.

Gojo Satoru who is one of the most popular characters in the series, and who also gives speeches about how he wants to let children be able to live out their youths, which is why it's hard for the fandom to see that he has taken advantage of Megumi and stolen his youth away from him pretty much the same way that Silva / Illumi has for Killua.

Megumi, like Killua has no choice in who he wants to be when he grows up, or what kind of person he wants to grow into. Megumi, like Killua has been groomed for a young age and forced into an incredibly dangerous and life threatening job that he does not want to do, that denies him the chance of a normal life, and that does not really allow him to make many friends. Megumi is railroaded onto this path, not by his choice, but by Toji's choice, and later Gojo's choice... because he has potential. Megumi like Killua cannot leave his family and stop being a sorcerer, otherwise his little sister who is the only family member he cares about will be hurt.

Gojo doesn't show up with an evil aura looking like the grudge girl and telling Megumi that he doesn't have the right to make friends, and that he's inherently evil and a puppet that only exists to kill people though so it's harder to tell that Megumi is a victim of the same kind of grooming that has hurt Killua so thoroughly.

This is what I mean when I say a lot of Megumi's characterization flies over your head because his victimization is written really subtly. Gojo does the same thing that Illumi / Silva does to Killua, he may seem like a stand up guy compared to those two but Megumi has about as much choice about what he can do with his life that Killua has.

Not all grooming is Illumi showing up with his spooky eyes to intimidate and coerce Killua into submission. Silva shows up to give Killua the first fatherly talk he had in his life, and lets him go from the mansion.... not because he realized he was wrong for restricting Killua's life choices and giving him no choice but to become heir.

No, it was a ploy to guilt trip him into coming back because he knew if he held Killua there by force he'd just run away the next chance he got. Fear and intimidation wasn't working at keeping Killua in line, so they switched to love instead.

Gojo can encourage Megumi to make friends, let him hang out and spend time with Itadori, even honor his wish to save Itadori and in the end still be manipulating him into becoming a sorcerer and not letting Megumi choose what he wants to do with his life. Gojo just prefers the carrot to the stick.

This is something the databooks confirm, that Gojo hunts prospects like Yuta, Yuji and Megumi not out of the goodness of his heart, but because they are talented students he can recruit to his cause with the added bonus that by appearing as their savior, they "owe" him.

Megumi is also a character lacking in agency, he is someone who's had no agency his entire life and what little agency he did have was stolen away from him by the adults in his life.

Let's analyze Megumi's situation for a second. As soon as Megumama dies, Toji gives up on the idea of fatherhood entirely, and decides to sell his son, literally, like in the sense of human trafficking to be raised by the highly abusive Zen'in Clan.

However, before the deal could be completed his father died in the middle of a mission. Megumi apparently saw his father so little that he didn't recognize him on coming face to face with him years alter, which says a lot about what kind of role Toji played in Megumi's life before he was outright abandoned.

Not only does Megumi believe his father just left him to run away with his new wife (Megumi's stepmother and the mother of Tsumiki) but now he and Tsumiki had to live together in a household without supervision for an indeterminate amount of time and watch their money slowly run out.

When it looks like they're about to start starving, Gojo Satoru shows up to save the day.... or not.

Gojo seems like he's offering Megumi a choice, but it's a loaded one. There's no choice in this scenario where Megumi gets to be a normal kid. The option of calling social services so this orphaned child does not starve doesn't occur to him.

Megumi's options are a) go to the Zen'in Clan and be a sorcerer where Tsumiki will be abused, or b) be a sorcerer under me where Tsumiki will be safe. The unspoken part is that if Megumi rejects his offer not only will he just let the Zen'in Take him, he'll also probably just let Megumi starve. Megumi the uh six or so year old child at this point has to sign away the rest of his life as a sorcerer, and work in order to earn money to eat.

No adult is taking care of Megumi, no one is raising him, even the food and shelter Megumi is given comes with a price tag that he has to pay back by being a Jujutsu Sorcerer and attending Jujutsu High as a teenager. Gojo even kind of subtly uses Tsumiki as a hostage to get Megumi to join with his agenda, because his offer isn't really much better than the Zen'ins but he needs Megumi on his side because he needs to raise kids to be future allies to his political agenda.

At the tender age of six Megumi signed his life away to be a sorcerer and he hasn't looked back since. Considering his severe behavioral problems getting into fights constantly at school, I think it's safe to say Megumi is about as reluctant to be a sorcerer as Killua is an assassin.

Honestly, if Megumi had phrased it like this:

"I'm so tired of being a sorcerer, I just want to be a kid."

Megumi would have a lot more fans, and Gojo would have a lot of explaining to do, but I think the brilliance of Megumi's grooming is that it's not really as blatant as Killua's. Megumi doesn't talk out loud about how he wants to be a normal kid, he's just angry at the whole world, and prone to fits of violence because he's mentall unwell.

Another way in which he parallels Killua, by the way.

Megumi does not talk about his lost childhood out loud. Instead of knowing his thoughts on the matter, instead we are shown his behavior, the effects of having his childhood taken away from him and how unstable it makes him and left to ponder as the audience what Megumi himself thinks of this.

The same way that Illumi steals all of Killua's agency away, robbing him of the chance to be anything other than what the Zoldycks want him to be, so to does Gojo. It's just instead of Gojo using the stick, he uses the carrot. He is Megumi's benefactor, he's the savior, for whose help Megumi owes him, sort of like repaying a loan with interest.

Gojo tries to shape Megumi into Gojo Satoru 2.0. Or maybe a second Geto. That's more likely as it's Geto defection which inspires Gojo to go looking for him after neglecting to do anything about Megumi until a year after finding out about his existence. Gojo says that Megumi is going to have to work hard or else he'll be left behind, just days after Geto had left him behind. Megumi is helped by Gojo, he is protected from the clans by Gojo, he has been taken on missions alongside Gojo his entire life, Maki even refers to Megumi as a treasure that was raised carefully by him.

Gojo invests a lot of time and effort into Megumi and because of that Megumi is expected to "perform." However, he doesn't.

That's the thing, Megumi is supposed to be either Gojo or Geto 2.0 but he just can't be. THe reason why again is Agency. If Killua is limited because of his inability to decide for himself, then so to is Megumi b/c Nen and Cursed Technique Development both depend on things like imagination, ego and self-image to raise them up to their full potential.

However, Gojo has shot himself in the foot with regards to Megumi. Becoming a Jujutsu Sorcerer requires a strong identity, but Gojo by sabotaging Megumi's agency and ability to decide for himself every step of the way has robbed Megumi of the chance to form that strong identity.

Megumi, just like Killua has no sense of self and instead both judges himself according to others, how he meets their expectations, how he measures up to them - he also glorifies others while constantly putting himself down.

Megumi doesn't give speeches about how Yuji is like pure light, but he also refuses to let Yuji out of his sight post Shibuya, and even says it'd be better to be killed by Sukuna alongside Yuji if Sukuna does take over.

In the Chimera Ant Arc Killua defines all of his self-worth around being useful to Gon, and beats himself up for not being able to measure up to him - because Killua has no sense of self his selfhood has always been undermined by his family who wanted to make him more suggestible to what they wanted.

Megumi is flippant with his own life and very willing to lay down his life for another's sake, because Megumi has very little agency in his life and has been taught by both Gojo and his circumstances that he himself and what he wants does not matter. Megumi doesn't fight fate, and fight for what he wants because he's already been shot in the kneecaps by both Toji's abandonment, and Gojo Satoru, and he's having a difficult time just trying to stand with bullets in his knees.

Maybe, the reason Megumi is so willing to risk his life to summon Mahoraga and sacrifice himself if he thinks it will help his allies is because Megumi has been forced into a job where he's gonig to be expected to sacrifice his life for the greater good since the tender age of six years old and therefore everything in life has conspired to tell him his life is worth less than others.

Yuji isn't the first person in story to think of himself as a cog, that's Megumi. He doesn't even need Shibuya to beat him down to accept the cog mindset, Megumi is already there at the beginning of the story.

I think a lot of misunderstanding of Megumi's character comes from the fact that his grooming is more subtle and insidious, and not as blatant as Killua's, and also that it's done by a character well-liked by the fandom. However, if Megumi has all the same symptoms of Killua then it's logical to deduce that they share the same trauma

Even Megumi's summoning of Mahoraga has a tie to Killua.

There's a pattern of KIllua running away from stronger opponent that's established in HXH that's eventually revealed to be because of a needle that Illumi inserted directly into Killua's brain to mind control him to run if he faced someone that was too much of a threat.

Obviously, that's just continuing the metaphor of the fact that Killua isn't able to believe in himself to face people who are stronger, because Illumi has been constantly putting him down his entire life.

Isn't this essentially what Megumi does as well?

When Megumi is faced with an opponent that's too strong or a hopeless situation, instead of running like Killua he summons Mahoraga. He does this because he doesn't believe in his ability to surpass his limits and fight, because he doesn't believe in himself or his own potential.

When is actually able to think more freely and picture a version of himself who can surpass his limits and who can do these things - these are the moments he is shown to grow.

Megumi however, for the most part isn't free. He can't think of himself as free and he can't free himself, because not only does he still have no choice about what he wants to do with his life (even if he becomes the msot powerful sorcerer in the world Gojo won't let him quit, he's gotta pay off those student loans), but he's also internalized the idea that he's not free. Not only has Gojo raised him to be a cog, Megumi has also accepted the fact that he is a cog and what he wants does not matter - the most he can do is hope that his actions will protect the people he loves and give them a little bit of happiness.

Megumi doesn't need a needle in his brain to control him and make him run away from fights and more obedient, because Megumi has already done all of that to himself with the toxic and self-harming ideas he's internalized.

Megumi and Killua having given up on themselves, try to make others happy, the same people they put on pedestals in order to make themselves feel even worse in comparison.

However, from this point Megumi and Killuas arcs go in opposite directions. You see after the Chimera Ant Arc when Killua hits his lowest point and his codependent friendship with Gon is exposed for what it is, Killua returns home in order to try and rescue his sister Alluka who is probably the reason he ran away in the first place.

Alluka and Tsumiki are both at the start of the story taken away from Killua and Megumi respectively, and with them the only genuine familial affection they ever enjoyed in their lives is taken too.

However, Alluka and Tsumiki are inversions. Alluka finds her freedom and agency, and Killua is able to reform his connection with his sister by accepting both pats of her, Alluka and Nanika. Afterwards the two of them finally leave their family home together and go off on a journey together.

If Alluka finds her personhood, Tsumiki remains a plot device. She never awakens from her coma, she's possessed instead and then murdered.

Now, here is where I point out how unfair the audience is being to Megumi. If you're a hunter x hunter fan remember all the character development that Killua gained by reforging his relationship with Alluka, how much confidence it gave him to connect to the one person who's even unconditionally loved him as a family member.

Now imagine that Alluka is brutally butchered right in front of him, and Killua has a first person point of view, because somehow in this scenario Illumi used a needle to mind control him into killing Alluka.

Do you really think Killua would be able to stand after that?

Sukuna is really just the last in line of a long line of people who've stolen Megumi's agency away from him, in order to benefit themselves. Sukuna even saw the same "potential" in Megumi that Gojo did.

Sukuna physically posessing Megumi's body, is just what both the Zen'in Clan, and Gojo Satoru have been trying to do to him in the most literal way possible. Gojo wants to remake Megumi into Gojo Satoru 2.0 with no regards to who Megumi is as a person, what Megumi's wants and needs are. No he just wants to raise someone as strong as him and pass the burden of protecting society onto Megumi, this starving orphan Gojo decided to exploit.

People have always used Megumi as a puppet for their own agenda, Naobito wanted to make him the head of the Zen'in Clan because he had the technique, Gojo wanted him to become the next strongest sorcerer / Gojo Satoru and also to replace the elders with Gojo's political agenda. They all want Megumi's "potential" for themselves to use to their own ends. Sukuna just takes what Gojo did one step further by literally stealing Megumi's body away from him and using him as a literal puppet instead of a metaphorical one. Gojo took Megumi's childhood by making him work as a sorcerer, Sukuna kills the physical embodiment of Megumi's childhood innocence by murdering Tsumiki, the only thing Megumi had in his life besides being a sorcerer, his only family, the only person he grew up with in his childhood years, the only person who loved him for who he was.

Megumi coped with what Gojo did to him the same way Killua did, by building himself around his use to others, and by building his identity around protecting others but now that's all gone. Tsumiki is gone, Megumi is trying to kill his friends, and he's already butchered Gojo Satoru.

Yet the fans are surprised that Megumi doesn't immediately get back on his feet.

However, and this my slightly optimistic ending to the post. Perhaps, Megumi is going the complete opposite of Killua, because what Megumi needed to learn was not to grow strong and confident enough to protect his sister but to learn to fight for himself.

At this point Megumi has nothing else left. It's sink of swim. He either develops a strong enough identity to regain control of his body and push Sukuna out, or he loses and the anti-Sukuna team will just have to resort to killing Megumi along with Sukuna.

Even in that case.

Megumi not being saved by Yuji is a good thing.

Because a victim who gets rescued by a hero still has no agency.

Megumi told Yuji that he needs to start by "saving me."

However, it might just be the opposite. Before Megumi can save anyone else, before he can become a protector, he has to find his own power and save himself. He has to both accept thathe's someone worthy of salvation, and at the same time he can't just passively accept the hand that Yuji's offered to him he has to actively be the one to break free of Sukuna and save himself.

Megumi can't become the strongest sorcerer by becoming the next Gojo Satoru or being what Gojo or Sukuna wants him to be. THe only way Megumi can become the strongest, is by being himself.

#jjk meta #hxh meta #megumi fushiguro #killua zoldyck #gojo satoru #illumi zoldyck #ryomen sukuna #jjk spoilers #jujutsu kaisen spoilers

[aerynwrites]

If you would be open to it, I’d love to ask for your HCs on: (* * spoiler-ish ahead * *) what if reader/tav went with Halsin at the end of Act III to establish a sanctuary for the refugees/take care of the children? Little snippets of life sort of things for how you think it would be between the two of them without the pressures of saving the whole world. I love your perspectives and writing !! Definitely would be awesome to read your take on that sorta thing

I as going to have this up sooner but tumblr apparently hates me and deleted the post on two different occasions when I was working on it lmao. so sorry for the delay, but I hope you enjoy!

Halsin and Reader after The game

Okay so

I feel like a lot of their first few months would be focusing on rebuilding efforts.

bc personally - I know Halsin in game says that he is going back to Thaniel's realm. But I love the idea of him actually returning to Moonrise/the old shadow lands and rebuilding the area there to truly give the refugees a place to call home.

so lots of rebuilding, coordinating relief efforts, etc.

I also feel like you would convince Halsin rebuild the little house that you all found Oliver in for a house of your own away from the hustle and bustle of things.

and after just a few short months it seems like its done.

sure there will always be things to do and fix and rebuild, but everyone had a roof over their head and full bellies and safety!

something none of you have had in a while.

Halsin relishes in it. you thought he was a bright light in the darkness before, he's even more so now.

like a actual weight has been lifted from his shoulders.

for the first time in centuries he's able to truly take in what's in front of him, and he spends pretty much every moment of that new feeling with you.

one thing you love doing is looking at the stars, an activity Halsin also enjoys.

he loves pointing out the different constellations to you, or if he's in bear for you'll do the same for him as you lean into his furry side.

speaking of his bear form...

The refugee children fucking love that shit.

the children love Halsin in general, especially those who lost their parents and look to him as a father figure of sorts.

They practically hang off of him whenever you two venture into the more populated areas.

they always beg him to wild shape, something he hardly ever denies since he often prefers that form anyways.

And he's admitted to you on a few occasions that he loves to see them happy and laughing after all they've been through.

life would continue this way for a while, your only true responsibilities being protecting those around you.

Life is finally peaceful, quiet and you wouldn't change much.

after a few years I could see Halsin possibly bringing up the idea of children, but he would never push.

if you want children of your own biologically he would be More than happy to indulge that desire lol.

but if that's not something you envision for yourself he would be happy that way too: kids, no kids, adopting one of the children in need...Halsin is happy if you are happy.

and no matter what life throws at you, you both know you have each other from now on.

#halsin x reader #halsin x tav #bg3 x reader #halsin #bg3 #bg3 halsin

[steddieas-shegoes]

The top of your blog says you're still taking requests,no pressure though of course: Eddie lives through the events of s4 and heals in the hospital, his name is cleared, Eddie spends his time with his uncle and his friends, plays games. He notices that Steve sort of remains on the back burner, shows up to little gatherings but keeps himself at a distance, busies himself with small tasks. Keeps the focus on Eddie, and is content to sort of stare at everyone, and not join in. Eddie gets worried and asks Robin whats up with Steve, why does he keep just standing in the corner or the kitchen smiling instead of joining in, I think he's bumming the kids out, Robin. And she has to calmly, and frightfully, remind him that Steve died over spring break. What are you talking about he's right there! I'd love a Ghost Steve who doesn't want to move on, wants to stay with his family. Doesn't want to be alone. Eddie is the only one who can see him at first(?)

OKAY SO THIS WAS SAD AS SHIT AND I LOVE THIS PREMISE. I especially love it because I have read A LOT of ghost Eddie fics, some where he was actually dead and some where it was a weird Upside Down thing and he was alive. I'm a big believer in happy endings so I went full speed ahead with the latter option for Steve. But since you requested ghost Steve not wanting to move on, I had to switch it up a bit to where Eddie couldn't just let it go. Still plenty of sad, but I had to make it hopeful and happy at the end because I am me. - Mickala ❤️

----------------------------------------------

While Eddie was in the hospital, it felt like he was in a bubble. His uncle was the only one allowed to visit for the first week, and then the kids were able to come by when his name was cleared.

They weren’t themselves, a cloud of sadness around them, but that was to be expected with everything that had happened.

Dustin, especially, clung to him more than he expected.

He figured it would be rough, he did almost die, after all, but this was on another level.

Dustin was with him every day for hours, sometimes had to be dragged out by his mom who understood, but only in the way a person who doesn’t know about the Upside Down could.

Robin came by sometimes, a haunted look on her face, none of her usual energy anywhere to be seen.

He managed to get her to crack a small smile twice.

When he left the hospital, things somehow felt worse.

The government had provided him and Wayne a new trailer, nowhere near the trailer park, even managed to get Wayne a new truck since Eddie’s van had been destroyed and Wayne’s truck was on its last leg for the last year.

His name was cleared, but that didn’t mean people changed their mind about him.

He mostly stayed at home, didn’t even attempt to go to the store with Wayne or anywhere but Dustin’s house or the Byers’.

The kids started begging for normalcy in whatever ways they could: meeting up for movie night, bringing Hellfire back, dinner at the Byers’ house.

Eddie was on board with it, wanted to put everything in the past just as much as they did.

He went to movie night, at Robin’s house while her parents were out of town instead of at Steve’s.

Steve, who hadn’t visited him once while he was in the hospital, hadn’t made it to any hangouts with the kids, apparently was coping with everything by ignoring everyone.

Eddie would have to do something about it soon because the kids were clearly missing him.

Movie night was okay, but he decided to have the next one at his house.

He told Dustin to let everyone know, didn’t think he had to be specific about everyone.

Steve didn’t show up on time, which was unusual since he was usually Dustin and Lucas’ ride. They rode with Nancy and Mike.

Everyone settled in, Eddie started the movie and passed out popcorn, waved goodbye to Wayne on his way out the door to his night shift.

Everything felt okay, but without Steve, it didn’t feel right.

Eddie could admit to himself he had a crush on him. He had one on him in high school, but that was easy to ignore when he was an asshole.

Now, he knew Steve was a good guy, protected these kids and Robin and Nancy with his life and didn’t hesitate even when he should.

It wasn’t just a crush anymore, he realized that while he was in the hospital. It was full blown feelings. Love.

Eddie sat in Wayne’s recliner in the corner, keeping an eye on everyone through the movie. He glanced over to the kitchen and saw movement, but didn’t think anything of it.

They paused the movie halfway through for bathroom breaks and refills on snacks and drinks, and Eddie followed all the kids into the kitchen to get his own beer.

He was startled when he turned the corner and saw Steve smiling at him from the corner.

He didn’t want to say anything, figured the kids had already said hello and he was just letting them get their stuff first.

But it was kind of weird that he’d come in the backdoor of a trailer he’d never visited when he easily could have come in the front door. Eddie watched as Steve leaned against the wall of the kitchen, watching everyone move around without saying anything.

It was weird, especially because the smile seemed to transform from a genuine one to a sad one quickly.

He didn’t want to draw attention to it, didn’t know how much Steve let the kids see usually, so he turned to grab his own snack from the counter.

Robin was standing there, staring at him, eyebrows pinched together.

“What were you looking at?”

“Uh,” Eddie glanced back over and saw Steve frowning now. “Steve? Looking like a kicked puppy in the corner?”

Robin’s face went from confused to worried in a millisecond.

“What? What do you mean?”

“Steve.” Eddie gestured towards where Steve was still standing, but now he looked panicked, like he wanted to interrupt. “Please feel free to make me not look insane, Steve.”

Robin glanced over to the corner, then back at Eddie, tears in her eyes.

“Eddie,” she said, voice sad, like she was about to break the worst news in the world to him. Then, she did. “Steve died. Remember? We had to leave him.”

That can’t be right. He could’ve sworn Steve was there when he was being pushed through the gate, when he gained just enough consciousness to look around and take inventory of the people around him. Steve was there.

“When did he die? He was at the…with the bats…he was at the trailer…right?”

Eddie looked back in the corner and saw Steve looking down at the floor.

And then Robin was pulling him into a hug.

“Nobody told you. They were supposed to tell you. And we-” she let out a sob. “We just haven’t talked about it. It’s hard to. Last time we tried, Dustin had to be given anxiety meds. I’m sorry, Eddie. He’s gone.”

She was crying through the explanation, almost too much for him to understand what she was saying.

But he watched as Steve wiped at his eyes in the corner.

Like he was crying. Like he was there.

He knew Robin wasn’t lying, she would never lie about something like this, and it would explain a lot of the behavior of everyone and Steve’s absence up until this point.

“Robbie, I-” Eddie didn’t know if it would help or hurt her to know he could see Steve right now. He made a decision based on the way Steve was watching them now, his eyes wide and sad, like he would be crying if he could. “I can see him right now.”

Robin pulled away, looked at him, then over at the corner.

“Right now? He’s there right now?”

Eddie nodded.

“Can you hear him say anything?”

“No, he hasn’t said anything. I don’t think he can.”

Steve was still just staring at them, and Eddie knew he was stuck.

If he was truly dead, he wasn’t moving on the way people do. If he wasn’t dead, then something super weird was happening and he would have to get help from everyone.

But he didn’t want to involve the kids, not for this. Because if Steve was dead, like they thought, and they went through the trouble of trying to find him, they’d be hurting all over again.

But if he wasn’t.

“Robin, were you sure he was dead? No pulse or breathing, no movement?”

Robin’s eyes widened.

“I mean, I guess as sure as we could be with how rushed and emotional we were? Nancy couldn’t find a heartbeat and he wasn’t moving, and we waited as long as we could, but he didn’t wake up. Do you think he isn’t dead?”

Steve was watching them, his fingers tapping against his arms that were crossed over his chest.

“How long can someone survive down there?”

“Eddie, look. I already talked to Hopper about it. He said even if somehow Steve managed to survive his injuries, they were bad enough that he would have probably been found by something and attacked. And even if he survived that, he’s been down there without food and water and clean oxygen for a month. The fact that Will survived a week was a miracle.”

He didn’t push. He could hear it in Robin’s voice that she’d already thought of every possible outcome, probably even tried to plan a rescue mission at some point.

She couldn’t take the disappointment either.

Eddie dropped it for now, but he watched as Steve watched him.

He just had a feeling that this was more complicated than Steve being dead.

—-----------------------

He let himself mourn that night.

While he didn’t feel like Steve was dead, he knew that no matter what, Steve had been missing from all their lives for a month.

He cried for hours, he cried for Steve, for Dustin, for Robin, for Max, for everyone who Steve loved so much that he died for them.

Himself included.

Because that’s what it came down to: Steve died protecting them.

They all took a risk, but Steve paid the price.

It wasn’t fair. The guy who put everyone first was the first one gone.

Eddie finally fell asleep, but it was restless. He kept getting flashes of Steve in his dreams, his face bloody, his body bloody, his screams loud.

Which was weird for a lot of reasons, one of them being that he didn’t know what injuries Steve even had when he died. The ghost he saw in his kitchen earlier had just been Steve, not bloodied or broken or scared.

When he managed to get up, he went through the motions of his day: brush his teeth, shower, eat breakfast, do his stretches, play guitar, eat lunch, clean up, talk to Wayne.

But by dinner, he felt like he had to do something. He had to figure out why he felt this buzzing energy around him.

He waited until Wayne left to get their dinner at the diner and bring it home, then he called Robin.

“Robin, is there a gate open somewhere?”

“Seriously, Eddie.”

“I just need to know! Maybe you’re right, in fact, you probably are. But what if you aren’t? What if he’s stuck down there? What if he’s too hurt to find a way back here?”

Robin was silent, but Eddie didn’t let that deter him.

“I know you guys were pretty sure. And I know you wouldn’t have left if you didn’t believe he was dead. But you said yourself you were emotional and overwhelmed and feeling rushed because of everything happening. It’s not that far of a stretch to believe that he could be alive.”

“Eddie.”

Her voice was broken.

She didn’t want to believe him.

“Okay,” he sighed. “Okay.”

“I know it’s hard. It’ll get easier, I hope. His parents just sold the house, and his car, so. He’s gone. We have to accept that.”

“Okay.”

But it wasn’t okay.

He hung up with Robin, promised he would try to get some sleep, take care of himself. It was a lie.

He ate dinner with Wayne, pretended he was doing alright, pretended he didn’t still hear the echoes of Steve’s screams in his head.

Wayne left early for work, claimed he was picking up some overtime due to them being short staffed still after the quake. He said he wouldn’t be home until nine the next morning.

Eddie nodded and pretended to head to his room for the night.

He did a lot of pretending until he was alone.

Then, he got on the phone with El.

El had gotten attached to him while Max was in a coma, stopping by to talk to him after she’d spent an hour or so with Max. She saw him as a cool older brother, especially when she realized Hopper wasn’t his biggest fan.

“I need to know if there’s a gate open.”

“Eddie, I do not know if I can help with that,” El responded slowly, carefully.

“What if I say it’s for a really good reason?”

“I am sure it is, but I promised Dad I would not open one.”

“But what if there’s one already open?”

“There is not. I would feel it.”

Eddie sighed. He didn’t want to make El break a promise, but this was worth it.

He knew Hopper would forgive her and him if he was right.

“Has Will mentioned feeling anything weird?”

Sometimes Will felt things that even El couldn’t, usually things happening only in the Upside Down. Everyone’s running theory was that it was because of the time he spent down there.

“No, he just feels the usual.”

“What’s the usual?”

“It is just there. Sometimes it is more there than other times.”

“And right now? It isn’t more than other times?”

“I think it is just always more than other times since Vecna.”

Hm. That could be something.

“Why does it feel like more sometimes?”

“It is hard to say. Sometimes it is nothing, sometimes it is because something is moving and trying to get out.”

“Is it always a creature?”

“It always was before.”

“El, I think Steve’s alive.”

There, he said it. He said it to someone who could probably actually help him, who would would help him if she believed him.

“Why do you think that? They said he was not breathing.”

“I know, but, look. Robin even said that they were being rushed and were crying and could have missed something.”

“But it has been a month.”

“I saw him. In the kitchen.” He hated saying this to one of the kids. They all loved Steve so much and if he was wrong, he really didn’t want this to hurt her. “At movie night. He was there, but only I could see him. Robin said maybe it was a ghost, but it seemed too real.”

“It was Steve?”

“Even if he’s de-,” Eddie stopped. “Gone. If his body is where it was left, it should be put to rest here. And if it isn’t, and he’s alive, then we can save him.”

“But we will get caught.”

“Not if we do it tonight. Hopper works nights this week, right?”

“Yes.”

“So he won’t be home to know you’re gone. Will is over at Dustin’s. Jonathan is so high, he won’t notice you’re gone. Joyce will be asleep by ten. You can sneak out.”

“What if you get hurt? I cannot go down there.”

That was a valid concern.

They defeated Vecna, and the Mindflayer hadn’t been a problem since, but that didn’t mean the other creatures weren’t still prowling around down there.

Out of all of them, he had the least experience with them, and she had every right to be worried.

“I can handle it. I’ll bring Steve’s bat.”

—------------------------

He met El in the woods behind the cabin they were staying in. Hopper had redone it, adding two bedrooms and a bathroom so they could all fit more comfortably.

They silently hugged and kept walking further, away from any chance of being seen or heard.

El warned him that opening the gate was risky in other ways too. She had a lot of control over her powers, but sometimes using this much strength would leave her too tired to close it again, and they couldn’t leave a gate open for longer than it took for Eddie to get in, check for Steve, and get out.

They also ran the risk of her using a little too much power and making a gate that was too big for her to close at all.

But these were risks Eddie deemed worth it, and with some convincing, El did too.

They found a small clearing, big enough to make a gate that Eddie could fit through.

He didn’t let himself stop to think about the last time he was being pushed through a gate, how he was bleeding out and barely breathing. He only thought about how Steve was down there, dead or alive, and didn’t deserve to be.

“Are you ready?” El asked him, her hands digging into the earth below her.

“Ready.”

“Two hours. If you are not back in two hours, I call Hopper.”

That was the deal. That was the only way she agreed to do this.

He knew if it came down to him being gone for more than two hours, he’d probably be grateful to see Hopper.

“Got it.”

El nodded and closed her eyes.

The ground started shaking, Eddie held back the panic, and suddenly El was staring up at him, blood dripping from her nose, smiling.

The ground had opened between them, just big enough for Eddie to slip through, small enough for El to cover with sticks and leaves if someone came looking before their time was up.

“You will come back in two hours.”

“Sure thing, supergirl. With Steve, hopefully.”

“With Steve,” she added with a small smile.

Eddie didn’t think anymore.

He dropped himself down, ignoring the sinking feeling in his stomach when everything turned upside down on him.

He didn’t let himself hesitate, even though he wanted to.

He had a lot of ground to cover in a short amount of time, and if Steve was alive, he could be anywhere.

But he walked towards where Robin and Nancy had left him. It would at least confirm if he was dead, his body hopefully would still be there if so.

It was only two miles, but Eddie was never a very fast runner. The first mile went surprisingly well, much faster than he expected to be able to do it. But during mile two, he felt his legs shaking.

He was still technically healing, the physical therapy stretches he did every morning further proof that he still had a long way to go before he was completely recovered.

But he pushed through it, knowing that the way back would be worse and he couldn’t waste time now.

But when he got to the area between the Creel house and the trailer park, he saw no sign of Steve, or anything for that matter.

There weren’t even vines or dead creatures around.

He tried to remain calm.

Steve had been alive when they left him here.

He may not be now, but he had been.

That felt worse.

He pushed that aside and decided to run to the trailer park.

Steve wouldn’t have gone in the direction of the Creel house, and he wouldn’t have wandered aimlessly no matter how much blood he’d lost.

He would have gone to the place he knew they would be in hopes the gate was still open.

The trailer park had always been kind of eerie, even in broad daylight, so the Upside Down version was downright horrific.

Eddie ran directly to his old trailer, hoped that somehow Steve found shelter here.

It looked worse than what he remembered, blood on the floor from when they were half dragging, half carrying him after being a meal for the bats.

The door had been kicked in at some point, and he wasn’t sure how or when that could have happened after they left.

He almost didn’t want to know unless-

He could hear movement in the back bedroom. His bedroom.

It could be anything. Wind blowing through a broken window, a creature he wasn’t entirely prepared to kill, Steve.

God, he hoped it was Steve.

He slowly walked towards the bedroom, his hands shaking where they were holding on tight to the bat.

The door was open a few inches, and he could hear the movement more clearly.

It sounded like someone was in bed, shifting in the sheets.

Holy shit.

He pushed the door open.

Holy shit.

“Steve!”

Eddie dropped the bat and ran to the bed, only stopping himself from jumping onto it when he saw the blood.

There was a lot, though most of it looked old, like maybe Steve had crawled here and then couldn’t quite find his way back out.

Steve was pale. It was dark, and hard to make out a lot of details, but he could see that he was deathly pale.

“Steve?”

“Eddie?”

“Holy shit, Jesus Christ, Steve. Where are you bleeding from?”

“Um, I think my leg? And my stomach.”

His voice was raspy, sort of nasally like he was coming down with a cold. Could you catch a cold from being down here? Probably.

Eddie’s hands hovered over the sheets, ready to move them so he could try to help, when Steve suddenly turned on his side and threw up.

“Shit. Hold on, let me help you sit up.”

“Sorry. Sorry.”

Steve was crying, and Eddie didn’t know what to do.

He took a deep breath.

“You don’t have to apologize, Stevie. I’m sorry you’ve been stuck here. Can I check your heartbeat?”

Eddie needed to see if it was ridiculously fast or slow, needed to determine how quickly he had to move them out of here, if he could take a few extra minutes to try to patch him up or if he just had to put him on his back and run.

Steve held his wrist towards him and Eddie quickly found his pulse.

He counted like a kind nurse showed him while he was in the hospital, filed away for future emergencies so he could be useful.

“It’s a little fast, but I think that’s normal for the situation. Let’s get you up and we can go.”

“Go how?”

“You can hop on my back.”

“I-”

“Steve, it’s not up for debate. You’re coming back with me and I don’t care if it means I break my back.”

Steve nodded once, his eyes closing as if he was just too exhausted to fight.

Eddie was sure he was.

Even if he managed to sleep here, it couldn’t have been well. It’s hard to rest when you know scary monsters are just outside the door.

“Tired,” Steve said, almost like he could read Eddie’s mind.

Hell, maybe he could after spending so much time down here.

Something to test later.

He checked his clock. Still had almost an hour and a half to get back to the gate.

“Have you had anything to eat or drink lately?”

“Found some water four days ago I think? Maybe five. Managed to stretch it until yesterday. Food’s been gone for days.”

How was he not passed out?

“How much of this blood is yours?”

“All of it.”

Awesome.

Eddie felt his forehead. He had a fever.

Even more awesome.

He probably had infections, which can be treated if you get them taken care of quickly, but he could have had them for weeks by now.

Cool.

“Alright, on three, wrap your arms around my neck and your legs around my waist. I’m gonna lift, and I just need you to try to keep leaning forward while I get you on my back.”

“Mkay.”

“And you cannot close your eyes. You hear me, Steve?”

Steve didn’t answer.

“Sweetheart, I need you to talk to me.”

“Mhm. Eyes stay open.”

“And mouth keeps moving. Alright,” Eddie helped him out a bit by placing his arms around his neck. “One…two…three.”

He lifted, and huffed out a sharp breath when his ribs started aching almost immediately.

“Okay?” Steve whispered against his neck.

“I’m okay. You?”

“Okay.”

“Okay.” Eddie let himself take one calming breath, just enough to get himself back on track. “Talk to me.”

“Hurts.”

“I know, love, but I need to know you haven’t passed out,” Eddie said sympathetically.

“Wanna hold your hand.”

God, okay. He could handle that.

He could.

“Okay, one hand for a minute. I need them both to hold you up though.”

He moved one hand up to his chest, where Steve’s hands were sort of dangling. He let his thumb run along the side of Steve’s hands, then Steve grabbed it and squeezed, surprising strength behind it.

“Is Dustin okay?”

Jesus Christ, this guy was half dead and still asking if others were okay.

“Yeah, he’s doing okay. Misses you, though.”

“Miss him.”

“Max is gonna be mad you came back from the dead in a more impressive way than her.”

“She can win.”

Eddie let out a laugh and tugged his hand back to adjust Steve on his back.

They had barely made it out of the trailer park and Eddie’s legs were shaking. He could do it though, he had no choice.

“How long?” Steve asked.

“A month.”

“Robin?”

“She’s hurting. She thought I was crazy. Didn’t wanna come because she didn’t wanna see you like she left you.”

“Not dead though.”

“Nope, not unless dead people can talk down here.”

Steve’s breath was hot against his neck, tickling him and sending chills down his back.

“You?”

“What about me?”

“Hurt?”

Steve’s voice was getting more strained, like he was doing his best to still talk but it was causing a lot of pain for him to do so.

“I was really hurt, yeah.”

“Still?”

“Not as much. Just a little.”

“Love me?”

Eddie knew he was losing it. The pain, the dehydration and hunger, the deliriousness. Steve didn’t have a clue what he was saying.

“What?”

“You love me?”

“Um.”

Steve squeezed his legs around Eddie’s hips.

“Came back. Love me.”

When it was put like that, yeah, Eddie guessed it seemed kind of obvious.

“Just a little.”

He could sense the eyeroll Steve wanted to give, but didn’t quite have the energy.

“I saw you. In my kitchen. Were you there?”

“Dunno.”

“Did you dream about it?”

“Just you. Kids. Robin. Missed you.”

“We all missed you.”

Eddie was making more progress, his determination to get Steve medical attention far outweighing any weakness or pain he was feeling.

“Ow.”

“What hurts, sweetheart?”

“Stomach.”

“Bites?”

“Mhm.”

Eddie could feel where the blood was soaking through his shirt, but he knew it wasn’t so much that he couldn’t at least make it through the gate before bandaging it up. He’d made it this long with them out, another 30 minutes wouldn’t kill him.

Hopefully.

Steve was quiet again, but he was breathing against Eddie’s neck steadily, so he didn’t push.

“Man, you won’t believe the place they gave me and Wayne. It’s got two bedrooms. And we have a whole kitchen instead of just a small counter area with a stove and fridge. Maybe you can cook us dinner when you’re better, you know, as a thanks for rescuing you.”

“Not a good cook.”

“I don’t believe that. Robin said you made her chicken parmesan from scratch for her birthday.”

“Yeah.”

“Alright, so chicken parmesan, my kitchen, soon.”

“Soon.”

They were close, creeping into the edge of the woods, and Eddie was trying not to panic at Steve’s silence.

“Stevie, just a few more minutes. Tell me about the first thing you wanna do when you’re back.”

“Mmm.” Steve’s head rolled back and forth like he was trying to focus. “Kiss you.”

“That can be arranged. What else?”

“Hug Dustin. Love him.”

“Yeah, he could use that.”

“Hug Robin. Love her.”

“She could use that, too.”

“Hug you, love you.”

He wouldn’t hold Steve to this, he wouldn’t. But it would hurt so much when Steve forgot about this whole conversation.

He bit his lip and nodded.

“Yeah, I could use that.”

Steve’s lips were pressed against his neck, most likely accidental, but Eddie let himself pretend for a moment it was a kiss.

When he reached the gate, he whistled to get El’s attention.

“Oh! Eddie, is that…”

“He’s alive. Really hurt and needs water and food. I need to get him through.”

El was prepared with everything and it only took a couple of minutes for them to get through the gate, Steve whimpering slightly as they moved him around.

“You were right.”

El seemed surprised, like she had only done this to give Eddie closure. She hadn’t expected Steve to be alive.

“He loves me,” Steve said.

El looked at Eddie, then at Steve, then back to Eddie.

“You love him?”

“I do. And I’ll love him a lot more if he stays alive. We have to get him to the hospital.”

“I can call Hopper?”

“Tell him to meet us at the cabin with an ambulance.”

“Jus’ need sleep.”

Eddie looked at Steve, mouth open in disbelief.

“You’re going to the hospital.”

“Sleep.”

“I’m not arguing with you. You can barely form a sentence. You’re going to the hospital.”

“You come?”

“I won’t leave your side.”

Eddie put him on his back again so he could walk towards the cabin, hopeful that Hopper wouldn’t ask a lot of questions until they got Steve taken care of.

“He is on his way!” El yelled from the porch, Joyce coming up behind her, hair a mess from being asleep.

When she saw Steve, her eyes widened and she nearly tripped running down the stairs.

“Oh God, Steve! Honey, are you okay? Of course not, you can’t even walk. You’re bleeding!”

“Mrs. Byers, can you get him some water maybe please?”

“Yes! Oh my God!”

She was running back up the stairs, mumbling to herself the whole way.

El giggled as she watched.

Eddie loved her.

He could hear sirens in the distance, and he hoped he would be able to ride with Steve.

He shouldn’t have to be alone anymore.

Steve’s eyes were closed, but Eddie kept his fingers on his pulse, making sure he didn’t have any changes while the sirens got closer.

Hopper’s patrol car arrived first, barely in park before Hopper was jumping out and running to where Eddie was cradling Steve.

Joyce came out with the water and handed it to Eddie.

“Dammit, why would you go down there alone? You know the rules.”

Eddie ignored him, just focused on getting some water past Steve’s lips.

“C’mon, sweetheart. Just a few sips.”

Steve’s lips moved, then he swallowed some of the water.

“There ya go. Good job.”

Hopper was watching in silence now, Joyce with her arm around him.

Eddie knew they were wondering how the hell they would ever get over leaving Steve behind.

The ambulance pulled up next, EMTs rushing out and asking Eddie question after question.

He had to keep it simple: found him in the woods, must’ve been out there since the quake with the injuries and level of dehydration. They took him at his word.

When they loaded Steve up, they let Eddie in only because Hopper insisted.

“I’ll be right behind you.”

And he was.

Eddie kept his eyes on Steve the whole time, but he could see the lights of Hopper’s police car in the window next to him.

Steve’s eyes fluttered open a few times as they hooked him up to oxygen and an IV, kept checking his vitals.

Eddie smiled at him each time, made sure he knew he was there and he loved him.

—---------------------------

It was two days before Steve woke up again.

The wounds weren’t bad, but they were infected, which was why they kept randomly bleeding despite not being very deep.

The infection was actually the worst of it, but it had potential to be life threatening if they couldn’t get it under control.

They pumped him full of pain relievers and antibiotics, fluids and nutrients.

Eddie sat by his bed the whole time.

None of the kids were allowed in yet, doctor’s and Hopper’s orders, but he heard Dustin in the hall multiple times a day giving it his best shot.

Robin hadn’t come by yet. Eddie knew she felt guilty, immensely so. She left her best friend down there, suffering, and didn’t even think to double check when it was safe to do so.

Eddie didn’t blame her, and he knew Steve wouldn’t either, but Robin would.

But when Steve’s eyes finally opened, bloodshot and glassy from his IV concoction, he smiled at Eddie.

“Love me?”

“Just a little.”

He fell back asleep a few minutes later, holding Eddie’s hand like a lifeline.

—------------------------

It took another four days before the doctors said he could be around others. His infection symptoms had gotten better and they believed the worst was over.

Eddie called Robin and told her to bring Dustin, no arguing. Steve was asking for them.

It wasn’t a lie, but he may have exaggerated it slightly just to get them here.

And when they did show up, everyone cried.

Robin collapsed next to the bed while Dustin folded himself against Steve the moment he was given permission to.

Eddie just watched from his chair, took in the way Steve comforted them despite the fact he was still in the hospital after spending a month alone in the Upside Down.

That was just who Steve was.

It probably wasn’t healthy, but it���s why Eddie loved him. Just a little.

#steddie #steve harrington #eddie munson #stranger things #robin buckley #the party #temporary character death #ficlet #request #angst #happy ending

[dapperrokyuu]

Alright now that I’ve seen the end Slay the Princess, who’s your favorite princess?

Ill do you even better and give you my top 5/the ones Id love to get if I played the game, just to see their sequences in the end and how itd reflect on that version of the player (literally made a list for fun just before you sent this ask, hehe).

Admittedly, a lot of this is informed by aesthetic and then enjoyment of their routes because I came into (watching Manlybadasshero play) the game after some fandom osmosis–thus, understanding I wouldnt have all my thoughts together within one playthrough. So I cant say Ive devoted my satisfactory amount of attention to speak on the princesses’ narrative presence... But I did rewatch their routes and “Thoughts on this vessel?” sections a bit to formulate a stronger opinion. Here we go...! (Buckle in, fellas, haha ha h a…)

1. Adversary/Eye of the Needle

The Adversary and the Eye of the Needle are very hand in hand imo, and I love the progression into a dragon-like appearance for the latter, especially in combination with the cabin becoming akin to a dragon’s den. This (combination of) routes stands out the most to me (as far as Manly has played) because I personally feel its the one where the princess is the most active and engaged. Whether its being beaten to death or running for one’s life, the route was very exciting for me! And it was intriguing how the princess and player felt the most on equal ground because they are both intent on pursuing some objective. Its just that in this case–and this is how this princess exceeds and is an overwhelming presence compared to the player–the princess is set on a choice they dont care to deny and the player is a creature of the habit called “deliberation,” as narrator aside, in-universe reasons aside, the very structure of Slay the Princess has taught you to constantly pause and consider your choices.

It contributes to the tone of the routes so well! Even if you can sit forever in the Outside World, the game progresses like a split second decision and/or that any time given to you is at the princess’s turbulent discretion. In a game where your choices tend to matter most (which, frankly, they do, its kind of the whole point, but you may not know that your choices are what caused this situation yet, lol), the princess seeming to supercede you and the narrative and the concept of death is!!! Powerful and quite something, lol. And poignant, considering *gestures vaguely but particularly at the Narrator*.

Otherwise, I love how theres apparently many more and amusing divergences in this route (that Manly did not showcase) and the ending is pretty cathartic. And to keep this a bit short, yadda yadda, dragon dens is where they store and protect their treasure and in this case, the treasure is fighting you, yadda yadda, as the vessel of growth, the princess’s embracing of the cycle of violence between you two is her latching onto the only avenue of growth she can perceive (as opposed to escaping–since you didnt offer that option prior–and dying since thats tend to be the stop to the concept of growth), yadda yadda- 

2. Spectre

This princess’s voicework is probably my favorite! The whispering under the regular voice acting is just really neat, doing a great job setting a tone of something delicate, chilling, and unnerving. The princess’s design shifts between cute and scary very well too! Her personality is probably my fave overall; while her “thoughts on this vessel?” section highlights her embodying kindness and understanding, they only exist to an extent that is fair. Which is, well. Fair. And I think it extra emphasizes the understanding aspect, with how the princess is aware of her circumstances and the injustices that have occurred yet is willing to let bygones be bygones. Shes coy, sincere, and pragmatically deadly, which is a full spectrum of delight for me!

The moment that really gets me regarding her character is when you say youre gonna leave her. Other decisions lead you to working together or demonstrating you have no intention to with some form of violence–both resulting in the Spectre just responding fairly. But the “leave” option truly shows that the Spectre doesnt/never intends to act out in malice, since Spectre responds out of desperation to avoid perpetual loneliness, pain, and emptiness. Theres an aspect of “fairness” here too (youre abandoning and hurting her more after having murdered her), but the choice comes after a breakdown and deliberation as opposed to an immediate retaliation. Even then, Spectre laments that she didnt want things to be this way but youve made her worse. Other stand out moments are when Spectre goes, “Youre funny when youre confused. But I didnt give you permission to touch me,” and the player’s moment of patheticness, lol. 

This route really hints onto the meta aspects of Slay the Princess too, which is neat! The whole “want to end the world” convo, Spectre just wanting to go home, reality being what is in front of us vs. static truth/objectivity, whether destruction being one thing leading into another vs. the same thing reborn, glass on the floor, and the narrator being like Spectre as a memory of a person…I dont have much to say here currently–still need to ponder, itd be a whole other conversation, Im a bit tired, lol–but its tons of food for thought that I enjoy! Yay, Spectre!

3. Prisoner

Fun fact: this is a rewriting of the extreme word vomit that was me lamenting over how I was kind of confused about the Prisoner but chose her for the sake of a 5th (note the placing change) and then discovering the absolute genius she is!!! Basically, my only exposure to the Prisoner I had was Manly’s recent playthrough, which contained (what Ill call) the Chained Together variation and didnt even have her “thoughts on this vessel?” section due to the game going into the final sequence immediately after. The Prisoner’s section in that final sequence befuddled me because I couldnt connect much other than a theme of “inevitable change,” and even when I dug up the Prisoner’s “thoughts on this vessel?” elsewhere, I couldnt put it all together…until I watched (what Ill call) the Head Trophy variation in the middle of my initial writeup.

Regarding what I enjoyed prior to recognizing genius, I really enjoyed how the Prisoner conducted herself–her curtness and resignation was very unique. Her form was created as a result of the player cutting off her arm, instilling a matter of fact-ness to her that allows her to slit the player’s throat later (got this from the Wiki, Manly didnt show this part). Upon waking up once again chained and chained even more, I interpreted the cleverness aspect from the Prisoner’s “thoughts on this vessel?” section as being able to come to terms with her situation, play along, and bid her time in hopes that her patience (that she emphasizes) would eventually reward her. After all, the Prisoner was willing to pretend she and the player met for the first time until the player prompts otherwise, even saying they dropped “playing the game”--very meta of her! Thus, I interpreted the Prisoner as the princess completely embodying/accepting her role in the game; she couldnt leave when she defied her role last time, so she was fine continuing to wait this time. As a character who realized they were a character and systematically changed their behavior to attempt a new avenue of escape, I thought that was the extent of the Prisoner’s cleverness and was satisfied…enough.

AND I WAS WRONG. DELIGHTFULLY WRONG. I assumed the Prisoner was completely fine with her potentially only means of escape becoming not one, since she didnt seem upset or disappointed. Which was frankly incorrect, as her rude curtness is a result of her being miffed with you. Why? Because her cleverness actually alludes to the fact she had a plan for escape the entire time, and you utterly fucked it up! Which, tbf, she shouldve shown more reaction than curiosity to dissuade the player, but I digress- During the Head Trophy variation, you realize that the Prisoner had a plan this entire time to deceive the Narrator and she succeeds so well because she also got me and got the player. How often do I get got? It was amazing! From the stare as the Prisoner takes the knife away from the player, to the smile before That All Happens, to the wink as it occurs and after, it may speak to an underestimation thats set up due to the Prisoner’s appearance and behavior, but reflecting on all the signs that She Planned This dismantles that perception and reaffirms that the Prisoner is a person with depth beyond what you expect from her and those in her role. As I viewed the Prisoner as a caricature of the princess’s role in the first place (the whole point is that the Prisoner is exactly like the princess in appearance except the chained/locked up aspect is exaggerated), this route is so striking for me with its interrogation of victimhood, how victims are treated/viewed, and how that may be unintentionally stripped of their personhood and reduced (into a caricature of solely “a victim”). The Prisoner puts it quite nicely when the player attacks and she “suddenly” has a ton of fight in her, stating, “Im not a damsel to be helplessly murdered!” …Im not sure if I put it into words the best, but I hope this is understandable. To top off the topic of Prisoner’s cleverness, its a neat detail (I dont know if this is intentional) that the Prisoner does the opposite of what her prior princess form did: the player cut her arm to free her last time, she cut herself out this time and the player “died” the last time, she “died” this time. Beyond recognizing there was a Narrator beyond them she should fool, the Prisoner also reasoned that since having the player kill her is likely not favorable, dying by her own hand might just be fine! The Head Trophy variation is just more poignant when you note that her “thoughts on this vessel?” section talks about how the Prisoner protected herself when others could not but for her plan to work, she has to put complete faith in another.

As 1000% better the Head Trophy variation is in the Prisoner’s route, I do have a soft spot for the Chained Together variation since, from both the Prisoner and the Narrator’s perspective, it must be a hilarious emotional rollercoaster. The Prisoner’s plan failed and shes now stuck with the loser who made it so…for potentially forever! The Narrator probably oscillates between an uneasy concession that while both gods are not dead, they are locked up forever and an utter dread that things may fall apart at any time and thus, the world is practically doomed with no way to change that. The Prisoner doesnt have to decapitate herself, which makes her freedom extra cathartic in the relief she likely felt and didnt expect…and also extra sad in how she found it was nothing but cold and is quickly taken away. Theres also something to be said about how the player joins the princess in her perspective by chaining himself up and that they both inform each other’s perspective, leading to their escape together: (1) since the princess isnt starving to death, the player also doesnt, which is a surprise to the Voices and (2) the player showing up again signaled that change is indeed possible to the princess, perhaps causing the ability for the world to erode around them. Maybe the latter is the Voices informing the player, causing the change…? But I like to think its the initial thought since the cabin could and shouldve have eroded prior to the player’s arrival, assuming the Prisoner understands the concept of erosion…which, I assume she does- Anyways, the route is as emotional as it is kind of wacky, which is up my alley!

4. Witch

This princess is the one I enjoy the most aesthetically. Im a sucker for both witches and cats, what can I say? The allusion to the fable The Scorpion and the Frog really tickles me, and ultimately, whatever decisions made in this chapter are some form of hilarious. Whether we’re both dying on the floor with broken backs or handing a blade to someone who immediately stabs you, its great. I do enjoy the progression into the Thorn chapter, especially with the immediate regret from the Witch and the following reconciliation in Thorn’s chapter, but Thorn is not as funny and aesthetically pleasing as Witch princess for me, which is why she is not here, haha.

Her “Thoughts on this vessel?” section adds a lot of depth to her, since the way the Witch presents herself is very superficial and guarded. Particularly the statement about the Witch making for a “righteous” heart, in combination with her ability to just slip out of her chains. She couldve freed herself at any time, but chose to stay and confront you. Which I feel speaks to the bitterness aspect, as the Witch feels its only “right” to pursue an answer to her pain–whether it be the player’s penance or punishment. The game’s thoughts on bitterness are made even more poignant when you realize the Witch’s ends are either death (hers and/or yours) or a transformation into another state.

5. Tower

This route is just incredibly cool in how she takes over the narrator and the little divergences of the narration’s phrasing to be in her perspective in the voiceover. The progression into that route was amusing for me to think about because I think the shift of perspective that transforms the princess boils down to either “the princess had the might of a god to have defeated you,” “your sudden stop during the fight was a blessing from god to the princess,” and/or “your sudden stop was because your recognized the value of the princess’s life as larger than your own (‘larger than life,’ referring to her bigger form as the Tower and godhood itself).” The Tower calling you disappointing is funny, but what also sticks out is how she said she wanted company before turning into the Tower. Even as the Tower with the ability to just free herself, she chose to wait for you because thats what she wanted, and I think that plays on the relational idea of “What is a god without a believer?” since she’s willing to have the player as a priest or pet, lol.

How this route differs from the Adversary route is interesting, as the Tower is indeed also an overwhelming presence whose decisions matter more than yours not because her single minded relentless pursuit of it but because of the power to overwrite yours. Its a twist on the player’s and princess’s roles until now, but instead of making them equal like in the Adversary, the roles were reversed on who decides and who is forcefully changed as a result of that decision. Of course, you cant take the ability to choose from us, as a player completely, but its about the best you can do, I imagine. And not to mention the “defiling” aspect when you slay the Tower, dragging her down from godhood to an equal (humanity?) or perhaps her original state of someone who responds to your decision as usual… I think this route connects deeply to the meta aspect of Slay the Princess, since this state is where the princess is closest to the “concept of change” and the concept of their true self as a god. It makes the “thoughts on this vessel?” section very poignant because change in itself is indeed a constantly dominant, terrifying, and arguably divine force in its inevitability.

Honorable Mention to...the Damsel!

I really like the deconstruction of her concept, but that also means I feel that liking her is completely counterintuitive to that very deconstruction, lol. Her route is very straightforward in what it does, but it kind of has to be. Meaning it does what it set out to do very well.

This took a bit and is so much more than you asked for, so thank you for your patience and acceptance. Im just bonkers and bananas, so if I have it partially done, I might as well go all the way instead of going in depth on only one, lol. It was a fun exercise in pondering deeper about the princesses and dipping my toes in the ~meta~, but I will also readily say that Im not at all nearly deep enough into Slay the Princess as a whole to be confident on my takes, so this may have just been a session of Talking Out Of My Booty. Nonetheless, I hope this was enjoyable and thank you for prompting me to think about it! The order of the princesses changed throughout this answer, and it may be fun to guess what order they were written in, lol. Id love to hear about your fave/faves if youre interested in sharing as well~! And please, have a lovely day too!!! c:

#a wild ask appeared! #thanks and also Im so sorry adnbladkj #but also maybe not and youre welcome??? I dunno boss #a showcase of how theres tons of thoughts up there theyre just in a dam constantly threatening to spill out and it either manages to stay #there forever or is a FLOODDDDD- anyways #slay the princess #I guess. in case anyone would find this an enjoyable read- gotta think on the game a ton more but bandwidth mayhaps Ill get there someday #*shrugs* I still gotta get into my cha*ns*w m*n thoughts... <- so I dont spam/mistag lol

[project-sekai-facts]

do u think there will ever be an event where they directly address haruka's eating disorder? obviously they do target heavier issues like in n25's story and i feel like it would be really good to show her getting help and addressing the dark side of the idol industry especially since proseka has a fanbase that has a lot of younger people (at least globally) who are easily influenced into following trends like dieting </3 or is it not feasible since its a jp game?

i know prsk is generally good at addressing serious topics but this is one that i've always wondered about. mainly because although it's very apparent, whenever it comes up it's played off as a joke. Like "oh no haruka's ordered the entire menu and minori can't manage it all". Other than that it's usually treated as an impressive thing that haruka's so dedicated to being an idol even after quitting asrun and how professional she is.

Now that she's doing idol work as a full-time thing again, I could see her dieting maybe getting more intense. If they were going to actually address her eating disorder seriously at any point, I think that's how it would happen. Although they might just throw a "Haruka's so dedicated and professional" comment in and call it a day again, I don't know.

#asks #mod talks

[beesmygod]

Bloodborne questions rattling in my head -

Why does the shaman bone blade have shaman in its name? That's such a specific, almost regional term. Just a translation quirk?

How seriously do you take cut content in studying lore? I just learned about the Great One Beast, and there's a hell of a lot going on in that name alone. A Great One that became a beast? A beast that became a great one? Maybe just a placeholder name since file names refer to it as a silverbeast? Or, as it never made it in, should it be essentially ignored entirely?

ok business as usual, pure speculation is in italics.

this first answer is going to suck so bad: i basically don't have a single clue. the japanese word they chose to translate as "shaman" (祭祀者) doesnt appear on jisho or literally anywhere else in the game. like i just did a ctrl-f on the re-translation text dumps and found nothing. they seem equally baffled but one of the two translators notes that it's used to describe people involved in ancestor worship. the full word is "祭祀者の骨の刃". so like literally "_____'s bone knife".

there's no surprise ambiguity in the description. it doesn't resemble anything else in the game. the green goo (not blood, notably) oozing from it is not seen elsewhere. that emerald green color is unique to the blade.

what the fuck! they are also extraordinarily rare: the only place you can find them are in the nightmare of mensis in the "nightmare apostles" (big spider) room, where you can pick up six from the corpse of a healing church doctor in front of a little vestibule containing nothing. the only remarkable thing about this room is that it once contained a cut version of the giant nightmare apostle with the head still on. this is interesting only because it suggests that they're not just giant spiders, they are giant HEADLESS spiders. the connection the player was supposed to draw, perhaps, is that the headless nightmare apostles seen throughout the game have already been harvested for their goods.

this is uninteresting because there's 7 headless spiders in the room, not 6. maybe one broke?

the only other places you can find them are in the pthumerian labyrinth root dungeons in, specifically, treasure coffins. only after obtaining the lower pthumeru chalice will the item be added to the insight shop, so whatever those shamans were doing, it was very secret and very ancient. they are a 5% drop from brainsuckers...except for the ones in the cathedral ward and the orphanage, which are 2%. hey i never noticed that before. so that's where those brainsuckers running around yharnam came from.

the creation of this item is apparently linked to augurs/phantasms.

the spider guys are their own. thing. i haven't even touched them yet because, segueing into your next question, so much surrounding them was cut. there's a bunch of stuff in the game, especially relating to byrgenwerth, about reflections and symmetry that kind of hangs in the air awkwardly unless you start poking around under the hood and start looking at how much spider-related shit there is. and like. isn't a spider an invertebrate. isn't "apostle" another word for "messenger". anyone else seeing this. aren't these things augurs?

not for nothing, but amygdala is referred to as the "lost apostle" in the alpha.

when it comes to cut content, i take a very liberal approach and inhale all of it into my brain where i can sort it and determine what bits are even useful. i think this kind of thing comes entirely down to personal taste; some people think the completed project in its retail form is what should be analyzed on the reasonable basis that it's the story we were intended to experience. i don't disagree with this approach; my approach is like if i wanted to read "pride and prejudice" and decided after reading it to analyze all of jane austen's letters and biographies. like it's absolutely not required to enjoy or understand the story and themes of bloodborne; it's just a good example of how much a reading of a text can differ depending on how you approach it.

i wish we knew why the great one beast was cut because it was basically finished outside the textures being low-res. people have hacked a working version into the game and it looks like a hell of a fight. and you're right, it raises a lot of questions about what the hell a great one is. prior to this it was assumed that beasts were the opposite of great ones. but...maybe beasts are ONLY intended be compared and contrasted with kin. and a kin is not a great one. very mysterious.

#bloodborne #long post #bloodborne lore

[flonbowe]

So I was thinking about Mettaton, and something hit me

Mettaton Neo has a very angelic design. I may be stretching it, but considering what a certain other angel looks like

The resemblance is very much there. Mettaton's Ex and Neo forms look far more human than anything or anyone in the underground, including Frisk themselves during the Genocide run. Mettaton Neo is specifically a form used in a last case scenario to stop you. Now depending on how you view the Neo form, this can probably mean a few things. My two cents is that its Mettaton trying to keep himself and you fooled. Mettaton first and foremost is a showman. He's a TV star, and even if he may no longer have an audience, there's no way he's going off air lying down.

Now why would this relate to his Neo form resembling the Angel? Well he's bluffing, whether intentionally or not he is bluffing. He can't beat you, and deep down I think he knows too. The best he can do is stall for time to get as many people out and evacuated as possible, to inspire hope. Its why he stays in the underground, and its what he's good at: inspiring. So he fights you and blocks your path, in the face of a demon he uses the visage of an Angel as the last line of defense for Monster kind. Undyne has fallen, the Asgore will fall too, but Mtt cannot let the monsters hopes die too. I know this isn't in game, but this kind of idea is even further expanded with this cover of Power of Neo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uI0CxTgpA6Q

It uses a bunch of leitmotifs, and one of which is Bergentrückung, the other theme of someone who tried to bring hope to the Monsters, and the theme of who will fall after Mtt. This is also apparent with how Power of Neo is a more techno Mtt themed version of BAATH to begin with. At every point in the Mettaton Neo fight, from design to music to personality: Mettaton is stalling and pulling an intimidation act as a last ditch effort, since he doesn't know Sans is waiting in his church to play ball with Frisk. https://www.tumblr.com/dn-838/738700806141952000/how-aborted-genocide-affects-the-mettaton-neo?source=share This post goes more in detail on other aspects and Is generally just really interesting. But what I want to point out is what this means for Spamton Neo. By this logic, Spamton ALSO uses the visage of an Angel. Just for funnies, lets compare sprites too!

I know im using fan made content again but after UTY, that really isn't too bad I think, especially for a more for fun exploration like this. Speaking of fan made content, lets see where that sprite came from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkDjXdp2Ayc&t=69s

Notice how it only uses the first part of the loop, it doesn't go on and doesn't continue Power of Neo fully. It doesn't have the full meaning of Mettaton's heroic sacrifice to help people, as instead of an Angel to save the Underground, Spamton is that Angel of Death in Undertale's prophecy (in the Snowgrave route anyway). Like Mettaton, Spamton also uses the visage of an Angel to achieve a goal, but no matter what route it is its a dark perversion of Mettaton's goals. Mettaton wanted to inspire the Underground and achieve his dreams, trying to stall and kill Frisk to either save them from Asgore, or save the survivors from You. Spamton wanted his freedom and attacks and tries to kill Kris for their soul so he can be free. He also assists in the Snowgrave route, being an accomplice to many many deaths for 15 minutes of fame. This idea is more properly conveyed in the last parts of Big Shot with the use of Power of Neo. Oh yeah this was a Mettaton analysis whoopsie Ok so I know this was a Mettaton Neo thing at the start but man I just wanted to gush and gush about Mettaton cuz man I really can't get enough of him. He's the only one of two characters in Undertale to directly have connections with the Angel prophecy when it isn't just the Delta Rune itself, he inadvertantly saved the Underground because he's what made Alphys get the Royal Scientist posi--OH WAIT YEAH THATS SOMETHING I CAN TALK ABOUT OK SO SIDE TANGENT METTATON UNINTENTIONALLY SAVED THE UNDERGROUND AND I FIND THAT REALLY REALLY COOL! Because Alphys used Mettaton as a project to show to Asgore to become the Royal Scientist, this let Alphys work on the amalgamates and also create Flowey. Without Flowey, the barrier wouldn't have broken and no one would have been freed. Yes I know this isn't all solid since Mettaton didn't somehow cause 6 random kids fall down but you get the idea. Mettaton transitioning saved the world totally I NEED MORE METTATON AUS GRHEYCGDHWUDYGHJWYDH IM GOING TO GO FERAL!!! HE'S NEEDS IT AHHHHHHH!! Ts!Underswap is honestly amazing for Mettaton. I mean Mettacrit. He doesn't get his JoJo body, but is that going to stop him? OF COURSE NOT!

HE'S METTACRIT! AIN'T NO ONE STOPPING HIS DREAMS! He's also a wonderful little gist of Mettaton's whole character, just get rid of Alphys (sadly). Someone who wants to achieve their dreams, wanting to share the love and kindness around, with of course the sassy show stealing charm he needs.

But what if that wasn't so easy

SURPRISE! UNDERFELL TOO! We got the whole holy trinity of Undertale au's, specificallyyyyy

I MAY BE READING TOO FAR INTO THIS BUT I LOVE METTATON GAMMA SO MUCHHHH Its still our same ol Mettaton, but now his dreams are falling on deaf ears. He's Spamton in nature instead of Fabulous. Everyone is violent and blood hungry, so a simple cooking show with a touch of murder won't be enough, or another beautiful rendition of Oh My Love~! Its clear (to me anyway) that Mettaton in this au is nowhere near as big a star as he is in the normal Undertale continuity. In his intro monologue he brags about the audience he brought in, and during the fight he's much more focused on what the Audience wants rather than the show HE wants. Something OUR Mettaton just wouldn't do. This is the same sexy rectangle who basically just broadcasts whatever he wants. I forgot the exact dialogue and screenshot but its just not something Undertale Mettaton really does. Underfell though? A different story. He's bound to his viewers in a bad way till Frisk comes along. He's even more bound to Alphys in this AU as her little science fair project. GOD I LOVE THIS GAME ITS WHAT I'D WANT FROM AN ACTUAL UNDERFELL GAME! Oh my god I haven't even talked about Deltarune Mettaton and Mike and how that works OK SO THIS IS ENTERING MY PERSONAL FANON BUT Y'know how Spamton and Mettaton have their parallels? Y'know how the internet has been down in Deltarune?

Chapter 3's dark world is definitely TV themed, there's no way it can't. I know Tenna is the big TV related baddie now, but Im using Mike in this take. If Spamton is the more passive parallel to Mettaton, Mike in this chapter 3 take would be the darker direct parallel. Instead of the dreamer from humble beginnings who, even if he can be vain and self centered at times, still means well deep down like Mettaton is, Mike would be the cynical producer type who's fueling problems in the industry to make it big on top. A dark Mettaton if you will. Basically like this

https://www.tumblr.com/paintedhen/703948707502145536/determinators-determinators-mettaton-has?source=share

WHICH SIDE NOTE METTATON IN DELTARUNE IS DEPRESSING IM SO SORRY FOR HIM

https://www.tumblr.com/everysongineverykey/691083816166686720?source=share

I KNOW I KEEP LINKING OTHER POSTS BUT ITS NOT MY FAULT EVERYONE IS COOKING! GRAHHH Mettaton's such a character man. He makes me think lots of things and I wish I could gather my thoughts more clearly

#deltarune #undertale #utdr #mettaton #mettacrit #mettaton gamma #deltarune mettaton #mettaton neo #mettaton underfell #ts!underswap #underfell #underfell one hell of a show #My thoughts are so disorganized #This ain't even talking about Jevil or Fawful #Cuz god I could go on rants for hours

[cursedvibes]

I found this by one of my (ex) moots who have unfollow me, cause now they're anti -JJK :

"JJK really went from a loved manga to a mid-to-bad story with insufferable fans 🙏 may more of us hate it in the future. It snatches the spotlight from genuinely good shows and its another case of "general shonen fan will call any trash 'goat' if the fight is well animated".

I used to be a fan, until the start of the culling game. And after this controversial, inconsistent and inhumane adaptation of shibuya, im glad that I have no interest in both manga and show anymore"

Do you think Culling game is hard to understand, cause several of my (ex) moots also start dislike JJK after that arc?

I can't speak for everyone who dislikes jjk, but I think for most people who dislike the Culling Games, it's a sort of recency bias (except in the opposite way it's usually used). Many criticisms levied against the Culling Game were also said during the Shibuya arc as it was coming out and are showing up again, now that it has been animated. Things like "too many fights", "I don't care about these new characters", "the pacing is shit", "killing too many main characters makes deaths meaningless", "Yuuji isn't even the main character anymore" are often said for the Culling Game arcs, but also something I now see a lot from anime-onlys for the Shibuya arc. It's just how Gege writes and either you like it or you don't. A lot has also to do with binge-reading something and reading it weekly (especially if you don't reread chapters). The flow of action and payoffs are much more apparent when you binge something than when you have to wait for little titbits of the story to come out and stew for weeks over setups for later plot points. Any minor grievances you have are also easier forgotten when you read the full story. Problems like "I don't know what's going on or who these characters are and therefore I don't care" show up a lot when you aren't used to or don't like reading something weekly. There are people who complain that they don't know who Higuruma or Kashimo are, when it is very easy to remember that if you just keep the story in mind, reread past chapters or only read full arcs. They certainly don't lack characterization. Gege's writing definitely has flaws, especially recently, but we got to know plenty about Higuruma, Kashimo, Takaba etc.. Someone might not like them or isn't interested in their stories because of personal taste, but that's not Gege's fault. I for example like the Culling Game much more than Shibuya or Hidden Inventory and I think Shibuya can drag a lot at certain parts, but the highlights still make it a good arc. Perfect Preparation and Culling Game just has more to offer to me because it focuses on different characters and I like the new ones generally much more than say the Kyoto school group. Each of the new characters have tons more depth than any of the curse users that worked for Kenjaku previously and thereby liven things up a lot. Not to mention more lore. Thing is, if your favourite characters appear less and you don't like the new ones much, that will inevitably turn you off the story. That's valid, but personal taste is subjective, it's not what makes the story bad.

There are plenty criticisms to be made and you can clearly tell that Gege is rushing some parts of the story now, so I can understand if people stop reading because of that, but it's a matter of if the highs outweigh the lows. As whole arcs, I definitely don't think Culling Game is any worse than Shibuya. Or that Perfect Preparation is worse than Hidden Inventory (I think those are better to compare, since HI has a very different focus and is much shorter than Shibuya or CG). I'm a bit sceptical about the final fight against Sukuna in Shinjuku (excluding Kenjaku's part and Hakari vs Uraume from this for now, I liked those), but there's enough there to keep me invested and continue reading. I can understand though if that's not the case for others. Similar for the controversial timeskip and don't even get me started on Sukuna vs Gojo. Some criticism I don't agree with (sorry but Takaba vs Kenjaku was actually good), but there are other valid points to be made. For example, I recently saw a discussion on twt about how we are barely shown Gojo interacting with the students he supposedly cares about. I can totally understand that, especially when we are given more flashbacks to what happened during the timeskip and Gojo isn't in any of them and apparently not invested in what his students and friends are gonna do in case he dies. It does give the impression that he just doesn't give a shit about any of them anymore and it doesn't help his lack of characterization and character development post-unsealing.

Generally, I think it's best for these people who are "anti-jjk" to just drop the show if they can't enjoy anything about it at all. There are many more mangas, animes or other stories out there they could read/watch, instead of forcing themselves through something they don't like. I do that with plenty of stories as well. So if your ex moot decides to drop the manga and anime because they don't like it anymore, good. Find something else.

I think their criticism that jjk "snatches the spotlight from genuinely good shows" makes no sense though. That isn't even the case within the magazine Weekly Shonen Jump. If something is good, people will read it. Look at the boom for Kagurabachi, a series that just started and is already loved and continuously in the top 10 of the Jump App. People can read multiple stories at the same time, that's the whole reason these magazines don't just feature one manga. Sure, some really good stories out there are less popular, but that's not because of jjk. JJK being popular doesn't stop me from reading Houseki no Kuni or Monster, mangas that aren't as well known. One Piece or Pokemon aren't stealing anything from jjk, so why would that be the case for jjk and some lesser known manga. There are more complicated reasons for why something is getting less traction than just "series x has gained popularity". And I don't like powerscalers or your average blue checkmark anime fan on twt either, but then just ignore them. They are in every shonen fandom (and seinen and shoujo, although in case of shoujo it's a little different but not less obnoxious). Other fans having shit tastes isn't new or unique to jjk. That's just fandom.

Either way, glad this person moved on to another series, may they be happier there.

#asks #jujutsu kaisen

[beevean]

I think thats my problem with Frontiers, yes it's an improvement over the 2010s games writing and I'm happy we're finally away from whatever Forces tried to do. But it feels so cynical but to me the final straw was the constant references. It felt too unnatural. After over 10 years of abysmal writing its just ughh

Imma be real with you chief: I think Frontiers' story is worse than all the Pontaff games.

Oh, those have their issues too, but they're issues that honestly never bothered me beyond "eh, wish they did something more with it". Like, I wish they packed more cute meta references in Generations, since that one was actually meant to be a blast from the past. Or I wish Forces didn't miss outright chunks when it came to showing Eggman conquering the world. Or I wish Amy and Knuckles were more than the comic relief in Lost World. Or I wish that the majority of Colors' story wasn't Sonic talking to mute robots, and was more about him and Tails having a fun romp. Yeah, those games have a strong cheesy tone and were either rather fluffy or didn't elaborate much on their concepts, I don't deny it.

But I don't even know what to praise in Frontiers' story. I guess Sonic and Knuckles' homoerotic dynamic? That was funny lol. But the game is just so full of itself I can hardly see through its blatant arrogance. The story does so little and still pretends to fix everything that was wrong with Sonic in the '10s, when in some regards it regresses things.

It's still "Sonic does everything while his friends cheer on the side" which was a big complaint in the "Solo Sonica" era, but now I have to ooh and aah as Amy, Knuckles and Tails go through the same arcs they went through in 1998 which is what passes as "development". Yes, "development" is apparently Amy chewing Sonic out because he's more concerned about his friends' safety and wellbeing than making some random critters happy, or Tails moping around because he's "wildly inconsistent" - tell me how this is better than him actually doing shit in Forces to stop Eggman and his Death Egg, after the infamous "Sonic help me" scene?

Eggman sits on his ass for the majority of the game like in Sonic Heroes because we're back to the era where shitty gods without a personality steal the final boss role (at least Dark Gaia didn't talk :V), but I'm meant to aww because now he's human, now he's fleshed out, see he created a cute daughter for himself! He cares! He's sad for her death/he holds her hand like a cute papa! He's a better character now! Because being a papa was what he always needed! What do you mean that in the Pontaff games he was actually the sole, genuine threat? Something fans used to cheer for when Colors came out?

At least Zor and Infinite are endearing in their own tryhard way (and Infinite was voiced by my dear Liam O'Brien lmao), which is more I can say for The End and especially Sage, the laziest Rei Ayanami ripoff I've ever seen but without a smidge of her tragic personality.

But anyway, thank you for giving me another word to define Frontiers' story with: cynical. Yeah, in a way, it is cynical, in how it was only written to be considered better than the older stupid games, and better in the same way a fanfiction written by a disgruntled fan would be considered. That's what it tried to do, and I can't consider it better than what Forces tried to do, which was simply to appeal to multiple types of fans.

#sonic the hedgehog #should i tag this as anti frontiers #i don't know i don't care #i'm still bitter about this game #i don't even have beef with it in total #just the story

[ninja-knox-ur-sox-off]

Been wondering about Macaque in the burnt marshmallow au. Like did he see Wukong pre-super glamour? Or would he roll up, ready for a brawl, only to find this charred-ass gremlin? Nothing throws your battle game off quite as hard as the whiplash of learning the 'invulnerable' Monkey King isn't so invulnerable.

WELL FUNNY STORY ACTUALLYGBKAMWOE I haven't really thought about Macaque and Wukong's dynamic outside of interacting with friends AU's n stuff so I'm not sure what'd be like in this AU or how Macaque would react bKMASODFA

I have been wanting to give a shot at like, making a design for Macaque but honestly he just isn't as big of a character in my head as of right now aside from analyzing and making fun of him gbfdskfmowe

Anyway, regardless of dynamic, if he saw beforehand, I don't think he would really remember or care about swk's appearance

and if he saw it out of nowhere on a day he rolled up to fistfight the Monkey King, I'd say... surprised? Ur right about his battle game being thrown just a little, but after the initial whiplash he'd probably just go on as usual with the addition of making fun of his new appearance and stuff "Aww, did you get a haircut?"

If it was like, after a bit of redemption or whatever, he'd probably slow down a bit, extending the surprised period cause he ain't in a rush to fistfight, but like, again, right into insults and making fun of him for it because bruh that's a whole new arsenal to get under his skin and annoy him, especially if he was hiding it, and you bet Macaque's gonna tackle the heck out of that--GW;ELKFMAEW

I think the harshness of the insults would depend on where they were at in their redemption arc too. ranging from the haircut thing to full out "how's ur student feel about his oh so perfect mentor looking more like a monster than the actual demons?" and stuff like that.

anyway tho, since haven't figured out when this takes place in canon or what the backstory and dynamic is, its hard to say ghdjfjkl;asdfasjdf

One of these days I'll give Macaque's character more attention, but apparently today is still not that day bGKAWMEOF

Bonus: 

 the "charred-gremlin" bit of ur ask gave me an idea so you get a probably non-canon doodle

#knox rambles #Monkie Kid #LEGO Monkie Kid #Six Eared Macaque #Sun Wukong | Monkey King #Burnt Marshmallow!Monkey King AU #love macaque's character #i just need to like #give him a little arc of development in my head before i can do anything with him and i haven't done that yet #gestures at wukong wildly #THERE'S AN ENTIRE TRUAMA BALL OF A MONKEY RIGHT THERE I'M DEALING WITH I DON'T GOT TIME FOR THE EMO ONE /J /LH BGS;DLKJFMA;WOED #thinking now tho #about like #Monkey King doesn't seem to care that Macaque's there unless he's being annoying or trying to get buddy buddy with Mk #and maybe that's part of the reason mac goes straight to annoying him or trying to get under his skin because it's the one way swk will #acknowledge him #KNOX ART (me) #OH NOW MY BRAIN'S TRYING TO ANALYZE THE WHOLE 'WORST QUALITIES OF SWK' THING #cause hey unless it's therapy don't people tend to ignore their bad qualities unless they become a real problem to them or the people #around them? #EXCUSE ME WHILE I GO THINK ABOUT THAT FAREWELL #asks #anon #it's been so long since i've made a post i'm starting to forget how to tag bGKAWMOFE #WELP

[shihalyfie]

Am I the only one who thinks Digimon is in a better place now than Pokémon?

I do understand the sentiment considering the subjectivity of "better", but in terms of franchise longevity and chances of not dying, Digimon is in a far worse place in almost every way imaginable:

We still aren't sure if the anime will make it past Ghost Game or if we're going to get another franchise hiatus

In fact the entire franchise is barely surviving by the skin of its teeth mostly due to the card game, which is in a market that's infamously difficult to penetrate past the "big three" (of which Pokémon is one and has comfortably been in that spot for years)

Bandai's handling of its many simultaneous franchise branches is sloppy and things that should have been timed together are not (the flip side of Pokémon's often-criticized franchise stagnation is that because its quality control is incredibly strict, it rarely if ever falls out of sync to this degree)

Toei has near exclusive rights to Digimon anime production, but they have to juggle it with more profitable IPs like One Piece, and getting a station to agree to air Digimon on it is infamously difficult, especially overseas (OLM has also apparently been struggling with production as well, but their overall influence on the IP is much lower, and they can still justify making full-length theatrical movies for kids when Digimon absolutely cannot right now)

For that matter Digimon localization quality (game translation, official subtitles, and overall handling of localization "consistency" like terminology or Digimon names between works) is infamously awful, both in terms of the lack of releases and the actual translation quality usually ranging from messy to downright unreadable (Pokémon got this one right from day one)

This of course extends to kids' anime dubbing still being very difficult to pull off if at all, we only barely know a reboot dub is happening but we've heard little information about it or what network it's even airing on, and it's hard to predict because Digimon has turned such poor financial figures that most networks outside Japan refuse to entertain it

Digimon's game design quality and QoL is arguably not that much better than Pokémon's, and depending on the person it may be much worse, it's just that we expect more from Pokémon because it's better-funded and more famous (and this goes for other things like Bandai's sloppy localization and quality control; we take for granted that TPCi should get this right, but with Bandai we're used to it being an incomprehensible mess anyway, even when they outsource to studios bigger than Game Freak)

Pokémon can afford having actual physical store locations in Japan

The overwhelming majority of hardcore Digimon fans have been fans for over 16 years, meaning the "turnover rate" for gaining new fans is dangerously low and the franchise risks losing its fanbase if more and more adults lose interest

...and so on and so forth. In fact, as far as financial figures go, Digimon has never remotely held a candle to Pokémon for even a second, with the "rivalry" being mostly media engineered for sensationalism (the similar genre of "monster collecting" means they might be somewhat worth comparing in terms of fiction content, but definitely not at all in terms of overall franchise health or whatnot).

Of course, in terms of quality of content, that's subjective and even as a Pokémon fan myself I have concerns about its potential stagnation (if anything, Digimon is at least much better at risk-taking), but while Digimon's definitely at the highest point it's been since it nearly died the first time in 2003, it's still very much getting by on life support and could easily end up going back on hiatus or even dying completely if things don't pan out. Pokémon has a much more comfortable safety net in comparison.

#shiha's ask box #jaredthedecimator #digimon multi series talk

[ladyloveandjustice]

Fall 2022 Anime Overview- Gundam: The Witch from Mercury

It’s time to start reviewing the anime I watched in the fall season! There’s some anime I chose to save for later, like Bocchi the Rock! (which I’m watching now and enjoying) and Raven of the Inner Palace, though I’ve heard great things about it and it’s a rare shoujosei adaptation so definitely go check it out! I might do a review of that when I do get to watch it, since it’s been overlooked this season with so many heavy hitters.

But onto what I did watch! And this one has so much to chew on it gets a whole post to itself.

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury

A top contender for anime of the year for me. It’s not over yet though, so I pray it sticks the landing with the next season(s).

The anime follows Suletta Mercury, a girl who arrives at a new school (and new planet!) with her giant robot Aerial. Quickly she discovers a girl named Miorine, who’s desperate to escape to Earth because her bigwig father has decreed that people can duel with their giant robots for Miorine’s hand in marriage. Mio is not at all on board with this, especially because her current fiance is an abusive jerk. Suletta confronts the jerk fiance, challenges him to a duel and...well, you can probably guess what happens, especially if you’ve seen Revolutionary Girl Utena.

(And if you haven’t, go watch it! Though look up content warnings if you’ve got specific triggers or don’t often deal with darker media. I’ve got an episode breakdown here!)

Anyway, Gundam said Gay Space Rights.

Meanwhille, Suletta’s mother, Prospera (yes, it’s a codename AND a reference to The Tempest) has a thirst for revenge after a horrible wrong was done to her by the terrible corporation Mio’s dad heads, and has secret plan brewing behind the scenes. There’s alson conflict between Earthlings and the space-faring people who are exploiting them. Meanwhile all poor Suletta wanted to do is make some friends and enjoy a couple of dates!

This anime is so good so far, and was specifically targeted for me in so many ways it’s not funny. A fun cast of characters? Well written queer girls? Shadowy parental manipulation? A protagonist who’s sweet and shy yet supremely dangerous? Good action that’s driven by good character dynamics? Lots of cool women kicking ass? Tangled relationships and tons or well written relationship drama?

I’ve definitely enjoyed a few mecha shows (like Planet With),but I tend to bounce off them, in part because I have a hard time telling what’s happening when robots are fighting and the technobabble starts flowing. That still is occasionally an issue in this show, but because the fights are so driven by character conflict and there’s clear stakes I can follow along with (like the fact using a Gundam for too long is supposed to kill you), it’s not as much as an issue as it usually is. And Gundam knew exactly how to lure me in. The second I heard the whole first episode was a Utena reference, it pulled me in and I’ve enjoyed every second since.

The whole first episode echoing Utena does show the show’s pedigree (the series composer actually wrote the Utena light novels) and offers a little reassurance for audiences hoping it delivers on its queer storylines But the show is no rip-off, and it it very much does its own thing from that point on. Suletta isn’t Utena, and Miorine isn’t Anthy and this is apparent from the first episode. Suletta is achingly insecure, Miorine isn’t resigned to being a bride and has a short temper and abrasive attitude. The show isn’t about gender or compulsory heterosexuality (so far), it just has a lot of complex female characters in a wide variety of roles and has a developing romance between two women as the central relationship.

But like Utena, abuse is a huge theme, but very specifically parental abuse. Both Miorine and Suletta are being used as tools by their parents in a complex political game- Miorine is aware of this (though not the full scope of it, probably) while poor Suletta is very much in the dark. The way the parents use their children is chilling, but not without complexity- there are reasons to sympathize with Prospera, even if her treatment of her daughter is unforgiveable. She feels like a person, even thought we don’t know her full story.

The show also isn’t subtle about it’s political themes!

That particular conflict has been bubbling in the background, but handled well so far (there are some great, more subtle moments, like the news showing the ‘weapons’ from the protest above, which included ‘molotov cocktails’ clearly put there by the police, and...an umbrella.) But even if works have themes I like or agree with, what really matters to me is the characters and if they’re executed well. Fortunately, the show has a loveable cast whose journeys I look forward to with both excitement and trepidation.

Whether it’s the wonderfully angry Chuchu and her legendary [redacted] in episode 4, or the unpredictable arc of what started out as the show’s biggest (teenage) jerk, or seeing the funny romantic rivalries Lilique unwittingly gets entangled in, the show makes you care about these kids.

It’s also, as a side note, the best treatment of fat people I’ve seen in anime. There are a ton of plus-sized people in different roles, and they’re never made fun of (except for one mild comment in a later episode that is quickly shut down, and the person apologizes). Lilique is a chubby girl who’s allowed to just be the cute romantic one of the group and is canonically popular with the boys. Considering how anime is usually the opposite of body-positive, it’s really nice to see.

The central relationship of the show is, of course, Suletta and Miorine. And it’s a really fun relationship to follow. Even with the Utena reference and casual acceptance of gay marriage, I was a little worried about being baited by the show. But I’m happy to say I’m really satisfied with the development of the relationship so far. Both Suletta and Miorine are layered characters, and it’s great to watch the girls’ feelings grow as they miscommunicate and struggle and learn more about each other. We watch what starts as an engagement of convenience grow into a real bond, and root for these girls every step of the way. And yes, they’re bringing the gay.

But the relationship, and the show, is not without its shocking twists, and the very last minute of the last episode of this show left me a puddle on the floor and begging for more.This show can grab your heart and rip it out and you’ll thank them for it.

All I’ll say is fans of fascinating, screwed up women will be happy. I’m certainly happy! For now, at least. I like this show a lot, so I hope it doesn’t screw up it’s second season. It’s built up a lot of trust for me, but I’ve had that trust betrayed before. Such is the curse of being an anime fan, and a fan in general.

But for now, I whole heartedly recommend it, and encourage everyone to check it out! It’s got all the good things and there’s a ton to speculate on. Come freak out and theorize over that post credits scene where [redacted] with me.

#gundam witch from mercury #gundam the witch from mercury #mobile suit gundam #gundam #mobile suit gundam the witch from mercury #revolutionary girl utena #anime overview #fall 2022 anime #my reviews #recs

[kloppool]

analysis of liverpool's szn at the halfway point

i think the most apparent reason for our resurgence this szn is our midfield rebuild. i won't go too in-depth about our issues last year (cause we all literally lived it) but our midfield was old, injury-prone and just could not do its job. the thing that makes liverpool different is that our attacking facilitators are our fullbacks, so the midfield is expected to do more defensively. that was not happening last season, which left our defense exposed. this year, our brand-new midfield has looked amazing. despite a rough few games, domi has been one of the best signings, covers an incredible amount of ground a game, and can score some absolute bangers. macca has been played out of position so far, but has still been great. however, i think endo has been the best of the bunch, which might be a little controversial, but considering what the expectations of many were vs what he has delieved, i think the thing i love the most about endo is his attitude. even if he makes a mistake, he puts in double the effort to make up for it.

similar to our midfield, our defense is very much having a comeback season. as i touched on in the previous paragraph, the midfield left our defense very exposed last season. this was especially an issue at the fullback position because while taa and robbo are crazy talented, they sometimes leave a lot to be desired in the defensive area. our center back situation was also not great.

while the midfield being loads better certainly helps our defense, i also think that every single one of them is miles better then last year. virg is having a proper renaissance and looks back to his best. joel was phenomenal, ibou is hitting his stride and jarell is our best academy player since trent.

trent's position switch has maybe been the most interesting thing taticallly so far imo. by allowing him to play as an inverted fullback, trent gets to make full use of one some of his best skills- his passing and vision. he's directly gotten us 4 points this season through goals and his defending has improved

to put in perspective how good our defense has been our goals conceded per match is 0.84 so far

the funny thing about our attack this year is that normally it's the area we have the least concern with. for years, liverpool was defined by it's incredible attacking football and lack of defense soundness, which lead to (what felt like) constant 4-3s.....just look at 2017/2018.

so far liverpool have scored 39 goals, only behind city (43) and aston villa (40)

however, the problem is that liverpool are wasteful and not finishing enough chances. mo salah has 12 goals and 7 assists in having played 19 matches

the issue (so far) is that there is no other consistent goalscorer. while darwin has certainly been much better this season, he still misses a lot. if he can improve his finishing, i gen believe he could be fernando torres-esque. if not, we need to a. find someone to consistently score goals and b. allow him the freedom to do what he does best: which rn, is to cause chaos. i can see darwin taking up a bobby type role here and being a facilitator for mo and another strike partner

diogo is, after mo, our best attacker. he is so clinical it's not even funny. cody's movement and energy are fantastic, but his finishing needs to improve. luis diaz has been great at times, but has struggled lately and i think a little time off to reset after everything he's been through this season would be great

summary: our midfield and defense have improved massively thanks to new signings and players rediscovering their best selves. our attack creates great chances, but overall struggles to finish consistently. but, overall, i'm impressed. we've lost a lot of crucial players over the past 2 years, mainly in the midfield and attack (literally all of our midfielders left) and to be in a title race this season is truly impressive.

have not spoken of klopp yet, but he is as animated as ever and his ability to reinvent this team and reenergize them is truly special. i know he's "the normal one" but what he does is the exact opposite.

if you read this whole thing thank you so much.....also you might be a little crazy

#lfc #liverpool fc #liverpool #carrie speaks tactics

[blorbologist]

An enrichment question for YOU: do you think Whitestone would have a specific local breed of cat (separate from regular moggies) and if yes, what do you think it'd be like, both appearance and temperament wise? Norwegian Forest Cat, Russian Blue, something like the wild tree-climbing cats that apparently exist in the Parchwood (mentioned in the Briarwood Arc, when they're trying to find the tunnel into the castle) or something else entirely?

Additionally, how do you think magic might affect both cats and cat breeding, especially the latent divine magic in the Alabaster Sierras due to the godsblood in the whitestone. Do you think you'd end up with divinely magical cats due to magic seeping into the groundwater, plants, and thus up through the trophic levels?

Finally getting to this one!

I’ll first poke at your thing about magic: unfortunately, if the cats are impacted by the magic, the people would be as well. People eat their livestock and game from the forest which would likewise be exposed to any magical effects of the whitestone. We talked about that a bit, but if we’re just going off canon then I don’t think the latent magic of the land would impact the cats much. Its main influence would be on the existence of feral populations at all: with so many monsters in the area, the cats would either have to be decently dependent on humans to survive, or hardy and capable of getting out of reach of their predators. 

Now to the meat of things: there are two answers to this!

The first one is the boring, likely one: see, cat breeds are a relatively new thing. Compared to dogs, which have had populations bred for specific tasks since over 2300 years, cats are mostly left to do their own thing. While the idea that cats domesticated themselves is an oversimplification, it’s hard to make a cat better at its job - hunting vermin and being cute. Dogs and livestock and pigeons (people forget so often that pigeons were a big deal and are domestic, but that’s a rant for another day) were all selectively bred for different uses: herding and ratting are different skillsets, as is herding cattle versus herding sheep, and you might not need as much wool in a warm climate and might prefer faster growth or more meat, for instance. 

So Whitestone likely has a landrace breed of cats - these are cats which were just selected for by isolation and the requirements of their habitat (and some preference for their look by their people). Notable examples of such cats are many big longhair breeds - Norwegian forest cats and Siberians for instance - and some recognized by a quirk of coloration - like the high-white Turkish Angora and Van or the pointed Siamese. Given Whitestone’s climate, they’d likely have cats similar to the original Norwegian forest cats (henceforth NFCs): big bodied, huge paws, a thick double coat, smaller tufted ears. Just your basic big fluffy cat adapted for the cold. Due to the abundant forests, black tabbies would likely be most common - this is the default that tends to get selected for in wooded areas where inbreeding isn’t too bad. 

To be honest, you could probably just transpose NFCs and dub them Parchwood forest cats and call it a day. Longhair black mackerel/classic tabbies with some white, with smatterings of other colors from rare travelers who brought their pets with them. They even have a fitting backstory, having likely been ship cats for Vikings and acclaimed for their climbing ability.

(Photo credit: Lynn M. Stone)

But why stop there? 

[more under the cut]

Matt specifies that these tree-climbing cats are ocelot-like, which should mean a wild species that may or may not be able to hybridize with the domestic cats. This is where things get interesting - ocelots are good climbers, sure, but given how the Parchwood is chock full of shit worse than anaconda or jaguar I’d lean more towards the margay:

(Photo credit: Ondrej Prosicky)

Margay are arguably the most arboreal cat, with extremely flexible joints, mottled spots for camouflage in the canopy, long tails and big ol eyes. Furthermore, they can hybridize with domestic cats [1] (though with fertility issues - but these aren’t exactly margays, so we can potentially do away with that). The original margay hybrid breed died out, however margay hybrids were absorbed into the Bengal - which is already a hybrid with Asian leopard cats. Fun (sarcasm). 

(I do not endorse the breeding of further gen 1 hybrid cats - these animals and even offspring a gen or two down are far beyond the care of most potential owners. Bengals and their ilk are beautiful animals, but no more wild content should be added when populations of said wild cats are under threat. You don’t need a hybrid cat to be cool when you hardly play with a normal moggy. Rant over.)

The problem is that margays are really small - 4kg is a decently large male (for reference, my moggy runt Miss Thing weighs that much!), whereas NFC are 3 1/2 to 9kg. That’s… not going to go well - thankfully, cold climates tend to select for larger animals (better retention of body heat), so we could say these sorta-margays are larger than their IRL tropical counterparts and could hybridize with the local Parchwood cats. 

This is unlikely to occur naturally, because cats do try to stick to breeding with individuals who will produce fertile offspring with them and the ‘living near the humans’ PFCs and ‘staying the fuck away from monsters by hiding in trees’ margay-ish cats will have little territorial overlap… however! We do have an IRL example of natural hybrids occurring often - this is the sad case of the decline of European wildcats [2]. Due to habitat loss and the abundance of domestic cats, they’re crossbreeding with these available mates, reducing the pure wildcat genetic content in surviving populations. Potentially something could have happened at some point in the past of these margay-cats; perhaps the expansion into the Parchwood that resulted in the Grey Hunt being established? 

So now instead of ‘NFCs with the trademark filed off’, we have huge, fluffy, long-tailed, flexible-joined domestic cats with a fair amount of wild margay-ish content, adept both up in the trees and in homes - nice! Them filling the niche of an extremely rare margay-type cat is… a mixed bag for me as a biologist, but I’d hope the ecological damage would be minimal given the abundance of predators in the Parchwood as well as the fact they’re just doing what the local predator was. The decline/hybridization of the margay-cats would suck, though :c 

I would guess they’d have fairly small litter sizes and longer growth periods, finishing growth around age two, though reaching sexual maturity fairly young as cats are wont to do. Between their hardy ability to survive the cold and likely brown-to-gold color, with stunning rosettes, I could see them being associated with Pelor - little suns on their fur, and let’s say they tend towards gold eyes too. Likely fairly independent, extremely high prey drive. These will be our Parchwood forest cats, fancier name pending. They might look something like a Cashmere Bengal, except huge and even fluffier:

(Photo credit: Sirocco Cashmere Bengals)

That was the first option! What’s behind door number two?

Now, this is considerably less likely, given how small and isolated Whitestone is before Percy and Cassandra reclaim it and connect it to the broader world. There weren’t too many nobility in Whitestone at a given time (hence the original Wolfe de Rolo marrying his cousin Melanie, who murdered him). So the odds of there being a specific, fancy breed specifically kept by the upper class would be slim.

If there was, though, I love the idea of it being something like a German Rex:

(Photo credit: Natalia Fedosova)

I can’t find a link to the origin story that isn’t dead, but apparently the first cat was named Munk and bred liberally with the local females. They’re a short-haired breed, but more importantly their fur is wavy, and Munk was apparently an excellent fisherman (I loathe that I can’t include an English source - the Wikipedia article on the breed gives a decent summary to my understanding. Here’s a link for any German readers: [3]). 

Given their German origins (and the fact Frumpkin takes the form of a shorthaired cat for Caleb, mimicking his childhood cat), we can guess that most cats in Wildemount are perfectly happy as shorthairs - potentially, these high-status cats in Whitestone could be descendants not of ship mousers but the beloved pets of the upper-class travelers. Or ones imported after Whitestone's founding, from family still in Wildemount.

Whitestone is cold as shit: to keep a cat with a coat like this comfortable year-round, you would need the resources to keep your home warm and comfortable, as well as providing food for it (whereas the local cats could hunt to supplement their diet). Moreover, the gene responsible for the wavy coat is recessive and likely rare in the population, so outbreedings with strays would be unlikely to produce kittens with the look. Less fur to shed might make them more appropriate a companion in the household, too - less likely to leave your lap in the winter, and not as much fur on all your expensive clothes. 

Given that these would be kept by nobility, their coat colors would be heavily influenced by what their owners found pretty and worth breeding. I could see pale coats being desirable - unlike the PFC they do not need to worry about white fur giving away hunts in the summer, and white or gold fur could again bring to mind the gods. So potentially white, high-white bicolors and Siamese pointed dilute coats sounds about right. I could see them being very snuggly, social cats, given they're bred for companionship + would loathe the cold and want to stay warm by cuddling. Let’s call these the Alabaster rex. Named both for the mountains (the wavy fur even looks like hillsides! Cute!) and their pale color.

(Photo credit: Waldek Dąbrowski)

Keeping a cat, or cats, like this would be one hell of a status symbol in Whitestone due to all of the above. Sadly, given that coat, I’d suspect that most would have died out during the Briarwoods’ reign unless some community members were exceptionally devoted to keeping the cats alive. Some of these recessive wavy genes might exist among the PFCs, but reviving the breed would be exceptionally difficult. Especially given the original population would likely be ridiculously inbred to begin with (again, not many people could keep these cats).

SO, tldr; we have one big, fluffy landrace breed, our Parchwood forest cats, which have hybridized with local tree-climbing cats. And, potentially, some dainty, wavy-furred Alabaster rex in pale coats kept by the nobility (which, if they existed at all, might be extinct). 

TBH, I can’t see Percy, Cass or Vex having much interest in keeping cats who rely so heavily on them, so though they might aid in reviving the breed (I bet they’d be popular in the Cloudtop district lmao), most of the cats in the castle and Grey Hunt manor would likely be of the PFC variety. 

I’m not doing full proper citations for a funny post fuck that. BUT! Some further reading:

1. Hartwell, S. (1993) DOMESTIC X ASIAN LEOPARD CAT AND MARGAY HYBRIDS. Messybeast.

2. Matias, G. et al. (2022) Genetic integrity of European wildcats: Variation across biomes mandates geographically tailored conservation strategies. Biological Conservation

3. Jaenicke, I. (2007). Die Geschichte der German Rex.

#critical role #campaign 1 #whitestone #cr 1 #percival de rolo #worldbuilding #idk what the fuck to tag this KJNHTKNHRTN #cats

[grailfinders]

Grailfinders Viewers' Choice #21: Deviljho

today on Grailfinders, we’re making more a grail eater. that’s right, it’s the Deviljho! one of these suckers can eat an entire ecosystem, so hopefully the grail can keep him full long enough to finish this build. he’s a Rune Knight Fighter to get to proper Deviljho size, as well as a Barbarian to put some extra power into his attacks. we have to make this guy able to beat a motherfucker with another motherfucker, so advantage on his strength checks really helps there.

check out his build breakdown below the cut, or his character sheet over here!

Ancestry & Background

in order to pick a race for our big lizard, we first have to ask ourselves; what the fuck is “dragon” elemental damage? in Monster Hunter, this appears as a cloud of nasty looking black energy that hangs around the Deviljho and weakens your offensive power, which would likely be either necrotic or poison damage in D&D. this means that depending on your view, either the spell Spirit Shroud or the invocation Cloak of Flies would be the perfect addition to a Deviljho, but unfortunately the rest of the build only leaves us with two levels free, and both of those options require five to work. thankfully, there is a second-best option we can pick up as easily as a feat, so we’ll be calling dragon energy Necrotic in this build.

Now that that’s settled, there’s two options for the race. a gem dragonborn is nice, especially if you want a really impressive breath weapon, but wotc’s already provided us with a lizard that bites its enemies, eats them, and even uses them as weaponry, and I’d be a fool not to go with the Lizardfolk with all they have going for them. specifically we’re going with the Volo’s Guide to Monster’s version since that’s the only one with Cunning Artisan, which allows you to turn a dead beast, contruct, dragon, monstrosity, or plant creature into one of various kinds of weapons.

you also gain a Swim Speed and the ability to Hold Breath for fifteen minutes at a time. you ended up in the New World somehow, right?

and of course, the reason we’re all here, your Bite attack. instead of the normal 1 damage per hit, you deal 1d6 piercing damage. on top of that, once per short rest you can use your Hungry Jaws to tear into somebody as a bonus action, dealing regular biting damage on a hit and giving yourself temporary HP equal to your constitution modifier.

you also have Hunter’s Lore, giving you proficiency with Nature and Stealth because a) you are natural, and b) you have that kaiju-tier stealth- nobody notices you until you’re already eating them.

and you have Natural Armor giving you a minimum of 13+your dex and you can use a shield if you want- that fat bastard the great jagras can really take hits for you.

my god is the lizardfolk statblock a doorstopper. don’t worry, this is all balanced out by the levels themselves going by super quick, not using spells saves so much time.

finally, your background. like all monsters you are an Outlander, mostly because you literally could not fit into society if you tried. also people keep killing you for parts, which makes holidays awkward.

that means you have proficiency with Athletics and Survival, the latter because you’re a giant monster, the former because you’re a giant monster that throws other giant monsters around like ragdolls.

Ability Scores

we’re going with point buy on this build. sorry, but if you want to play a mindless boss monster you have to be willing to minmax a bit. set Strength to 15, I feel I’ve made why apparent by now, but it’s how you bite stuff and how you lift up your enemies to break their friends backs like a socialist Bane. Dexterity and Constitution are set to 14 apiece- you’ve got the bulk of a mid- to end-game boss and despite that bulk you can move pretty damn fast. sure, you fall into pit traps and get poisoned frequently, but it’s usually never more than once a fight. Wisdom is down at 12. I’m sure a literal animal is well attuned to nature- especially once all that nature is digesting- but you’re also kind of just rampaging all over the place. and all that means we’re dumping Intelligence and Charisma down at 8. once again, you are literally an animal. if we could knock intelligence below three I’d do it in a heartbeat. also, not a conversationalist. wild, I know.

Class Levels

1. Fighter 1: as a first level fighter you have proficiency with Strength and Constitution saves, as well as Animal Handling (in the style of Nero) and Intimidation.

you also get a Fighting Style, and strange as it sounds, we’re picking up the Throwing style so you can pick up a lot more crap. with this, you can draw and throw a weapon at the same time, dealing extra damage in the process. I’m not entirely sure if picking up a cool rock you found qualifies as “drawing”, but it’s close enough to make an argument. if your DM isn’t cool with it, the unarmed style is a good option for tail attacks, and sorry you can’t throw people at people.

you also get a Second Wind to eat your own tail as a bonus action to restore health. it doesn’t make the tail grow back though, as funny as that would be.

2. Fighter 2: second level fighters can make an Action Surge once a day for an extra action to do as they please. mostly biting people. it’s almost definitely going to be used to bite people more, Deviljho are a menace.

3. Fighter 3: by level three all Deviljho have become so scarred they’re now Rune Knights, making them Rune Carvers of their own bodys. flavor-wise. mechanically you still need actual objects to put runes in. each rune comes with two powers- one is always active as long as you are wearing or holding the object; while the other requires you to choose to activate it, usually as a reaction, once per short rest. to start off, you can carve a Frost Rune, which passively gives you advantage on animal handling and intimidation checks, and actively gives you ten minutes of +2s to all strength and constitution checks and saves. meanwhile, the Stone Rune gives you darkvision and advantage on insight checks, and you can react to charm a creature that ends its turn near you for one minute if they fail a wisdom save. have you ever gotten trapped in a stun animation in Monster Hunter? those things take forever to finish.

you also gain some Giant Might, letting you spend a bonus action to grow large, gain advantage on strength checks and saves, and you deal extra damage with your attacks once a turn. you can grow this way proficiency times a day, and each use lasts a minute. you can now reach ten feet in length, while even the smallest Deviljho you can hunt is… 60’. we’re working on it, don’t worry.

4. Fighter 4: use your first ASI for more Strength. bite harder. this is my final message.

5. Fighter 5: fifth level fighters get an Extra Attack each attack action to combo your enemies into the ground. or more likely into a little cart driven by a bunch of cats. the cats are unionized though, you can’t eat them.

6. Fighter 6: sixth level fighters get another ASI, but this time we’re going to get funky with it. grab the Strike of the Giants feat- now, once per turn, proficiency times a day, you can turn any attack you make into a Hill Strike, adding an extra d6 of damage and forcing what you hit to make a strength save or fall prone. basically every attack you make can knock a hunter on their ass, this is just the tip of the iceberg.  hillberg. whatever.

7. Fighter 7: speaking of hill giants, at level seven you can make a Hill Rune, giving you advantage on saves against being poisoned and resistance to poison damage. you can also invoke the run to gain resistance to physical damage for one minute. Deviljhos aren’t actually that thick-skinned, this is more just a way to make your HP total look even bigger than it is.

8. Fighter 8: some people (especially those on the wrong end of an angry pickle) would probably call a Deviljho proof of a vengeful god, and I’d believe them. that’s why we’re using this ASI to make this Deviljho Divinely Favored. now you can cast Thaumaturgy as a cantrip to make your screams so loud people need HG earplugs to drown them out, and you can cast Augury and Hex once a day each.

augury’s whatever, but Hex is our breath weapon for this build. I know it’s not an Aoe attack, but it lets you deal extra damage over time like a rage mode, and besides that I usually play MH singleplayer anyway. don’t lie to me, we all know most MHs have weird online setups. that aside, when you Hex someone, they take extra necrotic damage every time you hit them, and they have disadvantage on one kind of check for up to an hour. on top of that, if you drop them to 0 HP you can move the hex over to another creature. that means you can also more easily pin and grapple someone while enraged, and once they’re carted away you can turn on their friends!

9. Fighter 9: ninth level fighters are Indomitable, letting you re-roll a failed save once per short rest. I’d make sure your concentration saves go well, you’re pretty good at them already, and dropping your one spell of the day would really suck. maybe that’s why they fall into pit traps so often, they’re just saving their rerolls for their rages…

10. Fighter 10: tenth level rune knights have a Great Stature, which makes you a little taller even while “normal” sized, and lets you deal even more damage with Giant’s Might. you can also carve a Storm Rune now, so you can’t be surprised and have advantage on arcana checks passively. Yes, Deviljho are quite practiced occultists. you’d know if you sat one down and asked it. and survived. you can also activate the run to enter a special state for one minute, allowing you to react to any check, attack, or save made nearby, giving it advantage or disadvantage. dragonblight weakens your offensive power in MH, and now you can do that in D&D too.

11. Barbarian 1: now that we have most of the deviljho kit down, let’s get a little wild. as a barbarian you can Rage whenever you’re not wearing heavy armor. you technically can as a fighter, but you’re supposed to be a giant lizard, so you shouldn’t be wearing any. while raging, you have advantage on strength checks and saves, deal bonus damage with strength-based melee attacks, and have resistance to physical damage. this lasts for a minute or until you stop fighting stuff, and you can’t concentrate on spells for the duration either. your runes only work once a short rest, so having a few rages to burn through each day can help keep your playstyle more consistent.

you also gain Unarmored Defense, which scales with constitution. right now, it’s the same as your usual lizardy skin, but that will change as we go. it’s a shame they changed your natural defense from the original flavor, a flat +3 on top of this would’ve been amazing for a Deviljho.

12. Barbarian 2: second level barbarians can make Reckless Attacks, gaining advantage on your melee attacks at the cost of giving your enemies advantage to hit you as well.

you also have a Danger Sense, giving you advantage on dexterity saves from things you can see. yes, you’ll still fall into pit traps, but when you’re angry enough you just kind of pop back out.

13. Fighter 11: another Extra Attack! the wombo combo is real. that’s three attacks per action, up to six with Action Surge, and possibly even a seventh with Hungry Jaws. with a turn like that, you could chew through anything.

14. Fighter 12: use this ASI to bump up your Constitution for more health and a better AC at long last.

15. Fighter 13: thirteenth level fighters are Indomitable again, so now you can re-roll two failed saves! it’s not complicated, but neither is a Deviljho.

16. Fighter 14: we’ve got enough flat buffs under our belt, let’s get real funky. nobody really knows where Deviljho come from, so technically making you a Scion of the Outer Planes isn’t the most out-there option for a wyvern we’ve seen so far. thanks to your connection to Chaos, you have resistance to Necrotic damage and access to the spell Minor Illusion. admittedly the spell isn’t that in-character, but you can use it to make your loud roars while raging or any other cool effects you want. this is mostly a stepping stone to our real goal. honestly, even the resistance to necrotic isn’t in character- you’re supposed to be weak to dragon elemental damage, and now you resist it. I guess this makes up for this build capping out at ¼ the size of even the smallest true Deviljho.

17. Fighter 15: at level fifteen you’re scarred enough to become a Master of Runes, letting you invoke your runes twice per short rest instead of once. you also get one last rune, and we’re running out of good ones. Cloud is the least egregious, you get advantage on sleight of hand and deception checks, and you can force another creature to take a hit you were supposed to as a reaction. longswords- not even once.

18. Fighter 16: with our final ASI, we get our true reason for the last feat- as a Cohort of Chaos you can finally even out your Strength score, and every time you roll a 1 or 20 on an attack or save you fire up a Chaotic Flare, which lasts until the end of your next turn. it’s like wild magic, but good! there’s four possibilities for a flare- either your Dragon Aura flares up and everyone within 10’ of you takes force damage when they move or start their turn in it, you can give a battle fury to a creature for advantage on their attack rolls and disadvantage on their checks, you can leap unbound to travel to any space within 30’ of you, or you can roar, giving all creatures within 60’ of you disadvantage on all wisdom saves for a round. you can even use this feature without waiting for luck proficiency times a day as a bonus action!

19. Fighter 17: the seventeenth level of fighter is simple, but powerful- an additional use of both Action Surge and Indomitable. being a Deviljho really is about the fundamentals. and also screaming so loud everyone goes deaf.

20. Fighter 18: at level 18 we get the reason we couldn’t dip into anything else- the final ability of your subclass, the Runic Juggernaut. now when you use Giant’s Might you deal 1d10 extra damage, and your size is bumped up to huge, and your reach increases by 5’! again, we’re still at 15’ to the real Deviljho’s 60’, but this is a good enough size to pick up the larger animals in a Monster Hunter world and start chucking them like footballs, even while they’re alive.

Pros & Cons:

Pros:

you can do a lot of damage in a short amount of time thanks to your multitude of bite attacks mixed with both the once per turn boosts of the Hill Strike/Giant Might, as well as consistent damage from either Hex or Rage. all in all, you can deal 1d10+8d6+28 piercing damage, plus 7d6 necrotic damage in a single turn for an average of around 86 damage, or even a little more depending on how big the creatures you fling around are.

you also take a lot of damage to bring down, with multiple forms of resistance to attack, a good health pool, and even ways to gain health by eating your own foes, all adds up to you being one tough pickle to crack.

your runes and chaos effects both give you access to magic-like effects that you can use even while raging, circumventing one of the biggest weaknesses barbarians have- restricted access to magical nonsense. with these you can teleport, stun people, and force disadvantage on their attacks, all without having to give up the damage and protection of rages.

Cons:

as far as damage goes, you mostly only have nonmagical sources. sure, you have Hex, but that only works once a day- if you have a second fight or drop concentration, you’re completely out of options, unless your DM rules hitting people with magic items counts for something. maybe that’s why you don’t qualify as an elder dragon.

Cohort of Chaos gives your build some much-needed variety, but it’s. y’know. chaotic. keeping the enemy from knowing your next move is a grand idea, but it would help if you knew what your next move was. still, at least you can use it yourself, unlike wild mages.

your wisdom saves aren’t great, and they aren’t helped by one of your own chaos effects making them weaker. that means it’s really easy for a smart enemy to trick you into attacking someone who’s on your side. hey, we fit turf battles in here!

#dnd 5e #D&D #Monster hunter #Deviljho #Fighter #Barbarian #ironic that you can make the monster hunters the monster hunted w this build