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omenousraven · 2 months

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Hermitclan Warriors- First Half!

I said I'd release them all at once, but there are a LOT of hermits, so take the first half of the Warriors!

Rotblaze (A.K.A Cleo)

Rotblaze is a strong and confident senior warrior with a bit of a temper. She has a specific moral code and has at times deemed it to guide her despite any conflicts with Warrior code. Kind of a loner, but still fiercely protective of her own as long as she herself can still feasibly get out of trouble. She dabbles with the scrap tinkering but primarily uses it to make strange art pieces rather than being a tinkerer.

Falsestrike (A.K.A False)

Fiercely protective, loyal and brave, Falsestrike is often on the front lines in battle. Known to be one of the best fighters in Hermitclan, a legacy she hopes to pass down to her apprentice, Deerpaw.

Impdapple (A.K.A Impulse)

Impdapple is a kind warrior who tends to play by the code, as well as being fairly easy going, he's close friends with Flametuft and often uses his contraptions to help train his apprentice, Flutterpaw.

Wrendog (A.K.A Ren, credit to @smoozie for the name!)

Strong, fierce and prideful, Wrendog often finds himself desiring places of power, to be in the front lines of battle and general fame. He's more traditional as far as his skill goes, however, focusing primarily on hunting or fighting rather than tinkering.

Mossfur (A.K.A Bdubs, @smoozie thought of the same name as me this time lol)

A small, fluffy tom who seems rather child-like at times, a sweet heart with sudden explosions of anger all said in a voice that makes others often laugh it off or quote it. Often he doesn't let this get to him though. He's mentor to Peacepaw, and surprisingly good at it.

Cubfur (A.K.A Cub)

A smart warrior who knows the ins and outs of the clan very well, usually very reliable.

Silverfox (A.K.A Etho)

A smart senior warrior who used to be a great fighter before his depth perception was thrown off because of injury. Now he's known as a tinkerer for Hermitclan, often lending a paw to Flametuft's bizarre contraptions or helping out where he can.

Sunfeather (A.K.A Grian)

Mischevious, and surprisingly smart in a way that is often seen as a double edged sword thanks to his pranks, Sunfeather is another more traditional warriors if only because he seems too often mess up tinkerers work if he tries. He has a rather good representation among his clan, with being trained by Voidstar and looking out for them all. Adopted older brother of Flutterpaw and mentor to Patchpaw.

Burstscar (A.K.A Doc)

One of the examples of an expert tinkerer, Burstscar can often be seen working on something, usually it's insane but it doesn't often help the clan in any active way. he achieves all his other duties though, so nobody can complain. Got his scars from an explosion while he was working.

Scarheart (A.K.A Scar)

A kind warrior who was born with lame hind legs, and thus got his training fairly late. At first he was training under Stressleaf to be a medicine cat but after the tinkers made him a mobility aid he exists in some weird in-between where he helps with both but isn't quite either. Surprisingly good at hunting and fighting despite the limitation.

#hermitcraft #mcyt warriors au #zombiecleo #falsesymmetry #impulsesv #rendog #bdubs #cubfan135 #ethoslab #grian #docm77 #goodtimeswithscar #warrior cats

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fleetstreetvicomte · 5 months

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I always thought that 3rd Life was the first time Martyn, Jimmy and BigB interacted with most of the Hermits…

But now YouTube has recommended me videos from about 4 months prior to 3rd Life of Martyn, Jimmy, BigB, Grian, Scar, Impulse, Tango, Etho, Bdubs, and Keralis playing Among Us!!!

#trafficblr #among us #hermitcraft #inthelittlewood #solidaritygaming #bigbst4tz2 #grian #goodtimeswithscar #impulsesv #tangotek #ethoslab #bdoubleo100 #keralis

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safetyrat · 8 months

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hello, my name is rovin, and I have immense blood on the clocktower themed autism! so i wanted to leave a ramble on my thoughts here on the hermit version of it, as somebody who has ~80 games under my belt

I have only watched impulse's episode until now, and there will be spoilers!

- first of, big props to the builds, the clocktower is so fun and i love it when everybody has their own little houses. plus, the podiums!!! biggest downside of playing this game in a non physical space is not having those, this is so fun to watch, just, visually

- Impulse is iconic

- everybody stumbling at the beginning not knowing how much information was appropriate to give was very funny to watch. generally, new groups are always sweet. its clear most of them are used to the format of werewolf or maybe among us - there was a far bigger focus on social reads, compared to information!

- iskall played incredibly well for what i assume was his first game? grasping the purpose of the soldier to pretend to be a stronger character and stop kills from the get-go isnt unimpressive

- impulse was on another level though! going undercover almost entirely was scary and he gave of such a good read, to me at least. sacrificing his minion when needed and convincing xisuma not to vote on him, absolutely deserved the win

- the way xisuma played is just. so me in games that drag on for three hours djkfhfj "what is going on, youre talking too much so you are suspicious" absolute mood

- props to cleo above all! she did an amazing job storytelling, with only one or two rulings that weren't exactly clean and I believe not a single mistake? which, thinking back on my own first time storytelling...

- having this little game arena built makes me excited for the prospect of having more games with different players - maybe joe as a full player rather than traveller!

overall this is great fun and i hoped it achieved some publicity for what i believe is the best social deduction game out there

#hermitcraft #mcyt #blood on the clocktower #zombiecleo #impulsesv #iskall85 #xisumavoid

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ty-bayonet-betteridge · 17 days

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heavenly hermits au update:

Grian is a Watcher who claimed the Hermitcraft server to keep other Watchers away from it, in order to protect Mumbo; he started lurking on it as the server cryptid in s6 and was officially welcomed in s7.

Mumbo was a normal human up until s7, when he started delving into dark magic. His s7 base held his heart and acted as a second life for him; in s8 he added the conjuring of end crystals to his repertoire and became a de facto Watcher after stealing Grian's soul.

Zedaph is the god of death, and facilitates the process of respawning in the server. He regularly forgets that he has a job to do because he's busy getting distracted by weird game mechanics, and other hermits have to message him to ask him to revive their friends.

Pearl thought she was a normal human until S9's crossover; after remembering the events of ESMP1, she also gains access to her divine power as Santa Perla.

Gem is her S9/ESMP2 character, a dimension-hopping celestial being with powerful nature magic who mostly uses her powers to LARP.

Doc gained the powers of a Developer after slaying one in PVP, and now holds dominion over code. He mostly uses this power to make his farms more efficient.

Tango is the Deepfrost Citadel, and has been growing in power since the first Decked Out in S7. He gets more powerful with every Hermit who plays his game.

BDubs is a living saint of the sun, and has some divine power as a result, which he has convinced himself makes him a god. The actual gods on the server, especially Gem (who gave him his sainthood), think this is very cute.

Joel is still his ESMP2 character, a god of lightning and thunder. He uses this power extensively and capriciously.

Scar and Cub are Vexes, and through their worship of Vex deities, have become functionally immortal via essentially having a permanent Totem of Undying effect.

Iskall was among the first Players ever to exist, and escaped the purge of the first group of players by fleeing to another universe. He has been dimension-hopping since the birth of the multiverse, picking up various magics and technologies along the way, until he was functionally indistinguishable from a god.

Xisuma is a completely normal guy. He didn't set out to cultivate a server of mostly gods. He doesn't know how this happened.

#hermitblr #hermitcraft #hermitcraft au #heavenly hermits au

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lovelynim · 9 months

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Old friends, old habits

Nu: Carnival - Kuya x Quincy

A/N: I procrastinated this for more than I’d like to admit (and I’m still not sure if I like how this one turned out…), but better “done than perfect”, right? Hahah… (help me)

Summary: After having his patience tested for a while, Quincy decides to do something to get rid of Kuya.

Word count: 1598 words

Topper continued to move among the bushes, following the scent of wild berries as he did so. The little creature looked around, trying to find the source of the smell between the leaves and branches while taking advantage of his size to not get caught into anything. When he finally found it, Topper let out a happy squeal, using his little claws and teeth to break the small branch.

Carrying it back, the little companion let out another squeal when he found its partner, trying to get Quincy’s attention. The hermit looked down, giving his furry friend a small smile as he took the branch from his mouth, picking the berries and placing them into a basket. “Just a couple more and it should do it,” he stood back up, listening to Topper’s squeals. “Hmm… no, it’s too troublesome. Leave that for another day.”

The duo continued their little banter for a couple more moments before Topper dove back into the thick bushes, the sound of the leaves moving slowly going quieter and quieter until it could no longer be heard - at least, by someone not used to the woods.

Quincy, on the other hand, returned his attention to the taller trees. The two of them had been out for a while, picking up all kinds of fruits from the Wood territory for an upcoming meeting with Topper’s friends and, well, the Grand Sorcerer.

Despite the troublesome activities, the hermit didn’t mind paying a little effort in preparing a few things - after all, he and Topper were the hosts. As much as it may sound out of his character, Quincy felt somewhat at ease knowing he would be able to see Eiden again soon.

The search was going smoothly so far, no problems, monsters or hostile animals had crossed his or Topper’s way. Vines, berries, branches, flowers, some special leaves… the list was almost completed. It was easy… too easy, in fact.

“To think you’d be picking up this stuff for that fraud,” an uninterested voice came from above, the monotone of disappointment was clear. “He even dragged you to his schemes, how very dull of you, old friend.”

Quincy closed his eyes, taking a deep breath as he refused to look up to that fox. If the task itself wasn’t a burden, dealing with Kuya was. It should be the best course of action to not play into his games and simply ignore any comment, after all, he didn’t want to entice the old fox any further.

Nothing as his words were left without an answer, Kuya resumed with his comments, shifting his position on the branch he was sitting on. “Can you really amuse yourself with such things?”

Again, nothing but silence. The kitsune tilted his head, sighing in annoyance. Wandering his eyes across the scene, Kuya spotted the hermit trying to reach for a different branch, standing on the tip of his toes despite being tall himself. The fox smirked, twirling his finger in the air, using his magic to move the said branch a little higher, out of the blonde’s reach.

As he scoffed a chuckle, Quincy knew it wouldn’t be so easy to get rid of the other - simply ignoring him wouldn’t do it. “...what do you want?” He muttered, now finally acknowledging his presence.

“I’m simply worried about you, old friend. Losing yourself in that fraud’s schemes,” Kuya hummed, vanishing out into thin air and reappearing by Quincy’s side on the ground, all in a blink of an eye.

Already used to his elusive nature, the hermit’s expression remained unbothered, uninterested in what Kuya had to say. “It’s not like you to care about it,” Quincy muttered, stopping as he was about to take another step when Kuya was, now, standing in front of him.

“If the others want to play along with the fraud, it’s their problem. You should be happy I care for you so much, old friend.”

“You’re being troublesome,” the hermit continued, taking a step to the side before continuing to walk past Kuya. He knew how much trouble the fox could cause if he wanted, but he still didn’t get why he was so bothered by the idea of him and Eiden seeing each other. Did he not want the Grand Sorcerer in the Wood Territory? Hadn’t they settled those differences before?

…was it all just to pester him?

Troublesome.

Shaking off those thoughts, Quincy decided it was time to focus on his task again. After all, the faster he finished it, the sooner he would be able to end this interaction with Kuya. While the hermit resumed his search, the yokai eyed the basket he left behind, with all the things he and Topper had gathered in the past hour. A new idea popped up in his head, making him grin wickedly.

By the time Quincy turned back, with some other plants in hand, the basket was already nowhere to be found. The fox, however, was standing in the same place, feigning ignorance about the whole scene, waiting to delight himself with the blonde’s reactions.

“Is something wrong, old friend?” Kuya mocked, hiding part of his devilish grin behind his fingers.

“...where is it?” Quincy turned his attention to the fox, dropping the items he was holding and slowly making his way towards the other.

“What do you mean? What is ‘it’ you are talking about?”

“Stop fooling around. Where is the basket, old fox?” Quincy frowned, standing right in front of Kuya, looking down into his eyes while the other slightly tilted his head up to face him, still smiling confidently.

Kuya tilted his head, not giving up the act. In fact, the yokai looked very much amused by the other’s frustration. “I have no idea, old frien- agh!”

Before he could finish his sentence, a sudden and surprised grunt broke through his lips as the hermit pressed and cornered him against a nearby tree. The yokai raised his eyebrow in amusement, finally managing to earn an actual reaction from the blonde.

“Oh, did I anger you, old friend?” Kuya mused, tilting his head as he continued with his act. Quincy, not expecting the hermit to be so attached to that human. “Are you going to fight me because of that fraud? ~ Now that would be amus- hnng!!”

Much to his disappointment, Quincy wasn’t exactly planning to throw hands with him. After all, he was well aware of how much of a pain Kuya could be as an opponent. But, thankfully, the hermit still remembered a less troublesome way to get the fox to behave - one he hasn’t resorted to in ages.

“Where is the basket?” He muttered, using one hand to keep Kuya’s wrists pinned, while the other squeezed and dug at the yokai’s ribs with ease.

“W-whahat do you t-thihinking- ahAHAh, s-stohohop that!” The fox laughed through his gritted teeth, twisting his torso as much as he could inside the hermit’s hold, but finding no room for a break from the assault.

Kuya couldn’t exactly be sure because of how hard he was pressing his eyes, but, if someone asked him, he would swear he saw a small smile form on his old friend’s face. “I’m tickling you,” Quincy continued in his usual uninterested monotone.

“How duhuhull o-of yohohou- ack! Quihit it already!” The other laughed, protesting as panicked started to kick in. Not only that dull hermit was stupidly resistant and skilled against his magic, but he couldn’t focus to make it work.

Memories of when Kuya was still a young yokai and Quincy just a kid came back from the bottom of his mind. How the two of them would fool around each other like this, tease and taunt each other into it. But now, as a grown up man and a century old yokai, this was just… despicable!

“D-dohon’t you thihink- ahAHah, w-we ahare tohohoo o-old fohor this?!” He insisted, but his words quickly fell on deaf ears. Quincy didn’t seem to be open to conversation - as hard headed as ever.

“If you don’t give me my basket back,” Quincy started, lowering his head a little to speak into Kuya’s ear, “I’ll tickle you until the magic you used on it vanishes, old fox.”

His words soon resulted in an adorable blush taking place in the yokai’s cheeks, totally in contrast with his threatening and intimidating usual nature. Despite his laughter bubbling freely, Kuya would swear he was upset, totally offended by such a thing.

“Still not giving in?” Quincy continued, chuckling quietly as his hands hovered lower, giving the other man’s hips a strong pinch, making an embarrassing squeal escape his lips. “Do you really want me to keep going? If I remember correctly, the spot is right h-”

“Enough!” Kuya cut through his words, gathering all the strength he had left to call for the other’s attention.

“So?” Quincy mused, surprised by how quickly he managed to further the yokai - and, especially, how easy it was to get him to submit. If the others heard about this… “where is it?”

“Behind you, you dull moron,” Kuya snapped, practically hissing as Quincy let go of him and calmly walked to the basket. As the hermit picked up his belongings, the yokai continued, “if you dare to spread the word about it, old friend, I’ll make sure to burn you into a pile of dust.”

Quincy turned his head back, but the fox was already nowhere to be found, disappearing in thin air, just like when he showed up. The blonde smiled, letting out an amused chuckle, “...troublesome old fox.”

#nu carnival #nu carnival tickling #nu carnival kuya #nu carnival quincy #lee!kuya #ticklish!kuya #ler!quincy #tickle fic

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ajfoxships · 3 months

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so two new hermits have been confirmed for season ten. I have several hypothesis on who will join and I will make it everyone else’s problem.

in order from most to least likely to join. Followed by some random guesses

Martyn/inthelittlewood (has visited HC before, plays on traffic w/ HC members, that whole thing with ren)

Skizzleman (friends with tango, impulse, and zed. Actively plays games with hermits eg. Phasmo, among us, and traffic)

bigbstatz (plays on traffic w/ HC members, this whole thing w/ ren/grian)

bigbstatz (plays on traffic with HC members)

shubble, lizzy, and Kathryn (adjacent series to HC + there is a disproportionate amount of guys on HC compared to girls and this would help make it more even

other random guesses

grazzy. An impressive builder who is currently recreating Zelda:TotK in Minecraft

Trixyblox. Another builder, trixyblox and his partner Stephblox are behind the ‘ultimate survival world’ an highly impressive build that can’t be explained in a shitpost

Mogswamp. A dedicated survival superflat player. Currently working on his 11 year old Minecraft world, his current goal is digging a ungodly amount of dirt for a mega project

philzamincraft. Currently being traumatized on the Qsmp. Prolly needs a nap tbh. Cusses far to much for the hermits.

dantdm. Because life owes me one.

Mistertechnodad. Because please 🙏

notice!

if anyone in the random guesses ends up joining I will offer a public apology, draw myself in a clown costume, and offer a free drawing to the highest comment upon reblogging this post.

#og mcyt #mcyt #hermitcraft #trafficblr #hermitblr #empires smp #empires s1 #empires s2 #traffic life smp

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leelreallylikespersona · 1 month

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Decaying Godhood (Persona AU)

I've been rambling and throwing ideas for this AU for a good bit now, here's a much more cohesive post about it!

Shoutout to @the-squeege and @artekai for discussing ideas with me, it was super helpful o(*°▽°*)o

Spoiler warning for P3, P4, P5/P5R, P5S, and P5T!

So let’s meet the main characters and their arcana!

Nyx (Tower)

Ryoji (Death)

Izanami (Empress)

Izanagi (Emperor)

Yaldabaoth (Devil)

Satanael (Justice)

Emma (High Priestess)

Salmael (Lovers)

Azathoth (Hermit)

Adam (Strength)

I’m omitting Pandora, Nyarlathotep, Clockwork God, and Enlil since I haven’t played the games they’re from… I don’t know enough about them to include them properly.

I’m scrapping the usual typings and giving (almost) everyone new typings… mostly because I have no idea who I’d apply fire, wind, etc to, none of these guys scream any particular element. I’m still working out the typings but what I know for sure so far are the “typeless” ones:

Adam: Strictly physical attacks

Azathoth: He is strictly a healer in this, and has no offensive attacks

EMMA: Navigator, can occasionally use almighty attacks

I’m leaning toward making their typings relating to humans, somehow.

As for the plot, at least a quick summary of what I’m thinking so far… all of humanity has come to a standstill. As in, time has stopped progressing for them. However, effects of leaving a living thing out to the elements are still occurring. In other words, humans are kind of just rotting away. It’s a very slow, magic mixed with organic decay kind of process that’s going on here. The appearance of this rot becomes more and more obvious as our group of unlikely heroes progress.

The gods, with the exceptions of Nyx, Thanatos, and Izanagi are dead, so how does this work? For this AU, none of the final bosses really die… their physical forms are abolished and their concepts are left to wander a nothingness, endlessly reflecting on what they’ve done. For Adam’s case, he stuck with Maruki until he died, then he took on a human form and lived among people for many years. Now would be a good time to mention that this takes place years after the events of P5S, so any human characters are long gone.

Let’s start from the beginning of the AU. It focuses on Nyx, Ryoji, and both P3 protagonists. These four are kind of just in a white void. Ryoji is able to move freely, he can see, he could leave too, but doesn’t want to leave Minato and Minako. They’re depicted as statue-ish figures, with a few features a deity would have. Their positions after the events of P3 caused them to go from humans to some sort of gods themselves. They are still mostly human though, this is important for the start of the plot.

Nyx’s sealing is visualized here as having been chained to these two. Until now, she couldn’t move, she was paralyzed along with having actual restraints. Therefore she couldn’t see, her eyes were forced shut. She couldn’t speak either. She could hear though, and the only thing she could do was listen to Ryoji speak to Minato and Minako. Some days, he’d talk to them as if they were still around. Other times, she could hear him mourn. Initially, she didn’t understand it at all. Sure, that’s her kid, and she cared about him somewhat, but she didn’t understand why he’d cry about them so much. There’d be times too, where Ryoji would talk to her, usually it would be him saying he wishes she could understand humans like he did, or sometimes he’d yell at her. Over the course of years and years, Nyx comes to understand Ryoji’s feelings… somewhat, anyway.

This brings me back to the chains she has. Now, all of the sudden, she can see and move again. And these chains, which were once really short, are now much longer, allowing Nyx to walk pretty far from them. This happening is meant to show Minato and Minako’s humanity being affected by the Rot, which is causing them to lose their grip on Nyx.

Upon hearing some movement, Ryoji is quick to become aggressive, but Nyx is still disoriented from suddenly being able to see and speak again, so she doesn’t return any hostility. You can imagine the arguing taking place as they try to figure out what’s happening. After a while, they realize they are able to see into the human realm. That’s when they notice the state of humanity.

Of course, they don’t notice the Rot yet. These two are the first to venture into the human realm to investigate what is going on. It’s mostly Ryoji that wants to figure things out, he takes Nyx with him to keep an eye on her.

This brings me to the motivations of each of the characters… Ryoji going out of his way to help humans makes sense. He did live as one, and made a lot of friends who he cared a lot for. For others, they hate humanity (cough Yaldabaoth), so why’re they here? Simply put, after humans rot away, the realm of gods is next. Also worth mentioning, everyone now has a humanoid form (if they didn’t have one already), so this is something of a second chance for these guys too.

I’ll go through each character:

Nyx: After spending years only listening to Ryoji talk to the twins and voice his affections for humanity, she gains a better understanding of them and obtains a sense of self (much like how Thanatos/Death became Ryoji during P3). She feels like she owes it to Ryoji to help him now.

Izanami and Izanagi: After the events of P4, these two really didn’t feel like doing anything else… Izanami was unable to do much anyway. They are later dragged out of the realm of nothingness they were hanging out in. Izanagi’s time with Yu makes him far more inclined to help out, Izanami is a little heartbroken that after the Investigation Team proved humanity’s worth, they fell into this state.

Satanael: He ditches the Phantom Thieves after Yaldabaoth is taken care of, and left to go cause minor bouts of chaos, nothing too drastic. He doesn’t outright try to end humanity, he just likes “poking fun”, so when everything comes to a standstill, he’s alarmed. Satanael is more neutral compared to everyone else, he does care about mankind, not to the extent that Ryoji and Azathoth do, though. He doesn’t hate them either, so he (probably) helps them for a selfless reason.

Yaldabaoth: For sure is only saving humanity so he also doesn’t rot away. Perhaps by the end, he’s changed a bit, but now that he’s given a physical form again, who knows what he’ll get up to.

EMMA: Upon being defeated, she spent her time watching over Sophia and Ichinose. She chooses to help humanity because of how well the PTs treated Sophia.

Salmael: Toshiro’s anxiousness rubbed off on him a bit… As the god of stagnation, this halt in humanity seems like it’s his doing, but it isn’t. He ventures out thinking that he somehow accidentally did it, and is horrified by the Rot..

Azathoth and Adam: These two genuinely care for humanity, their motivations are completely selfless. While Azathoth can suspend his emotions, Adam spent more time with Maruki, living as a human for years, so he’s much more emotional over the whole situation.

None of these guys are able to have Personas, but are able to “summon” their deity forms as an extension of themselves (so there’s a split-consciousness situation happening). Awakenings are still required for them to be able to do this, though, similar to Persona awakenings.

This ability requires one to first of all realize that their status and power as a god is due to humanity’s perception of them, but then they also must accept that. Only then they can “break free” of their restricted humanoid forms to use their more powerful forms. These forms look similar to their in-game designs, but there’ll be some differences, as I want to give them fun new(ish) designs…

Acquiring this ability is much easier for some than others… Ryoji and Adam as an example, are really quick to accept this once they understand the idea initially, but then a few others refuse to accept that humans are responsible for their power.

As for enemies, Shadows are present due to humans being unable to pass properly. For major bosses, the Rot left some human bodies as empty husks that became aggressive. These husks are attracted to the power the gods have.

Some side characters I also want to include… Jose and Sophia run the shop that provides weapons and other equipment! There’s also the Velvet Room that has specifics I’m trying to figure out… I might make Yu and Ren the attendants.

I think that’s all I have for now! I’d still like to figure out the order in which each god joins the team… It starts with Ryoji and Nyx, Salmael probably second since he’s already out investigating (he can be the navigator before Emma joins), then it’s either Adam since he’s also around, or Emma. This is still a wip! So if anyone has any comments or anything, feel free to send an ask! I'm already doing some doodles for this so hopefully I'll have some art for it soon (❁´◡`❁)

#Persona 3 #Persona 4 #Persona 5 #Persona 5 Royal #Persona AU #P3 AU #P4 AU #P5R AU #I honestly would love to see the final bosses come back somehow...#But that'll never happen so I'll just have this AU to keep me entertained (●'◡'●)#P3 spoilers #P4 spoilers #P5 spoilers #P5R spoilers #P5S spoilers #P5T spoilers

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electronickingdomfox · 5 months

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"Devil World" review

Novel from 1979, by Gordon Eklund (same author of previous TOS novel "The Starless World"). It's a very short novel, and could have been an episode of the series. Well-written, and the central mystery is interesting enough, but the story isn't anything special as a whole. In fact, at core is a very similar story to that of the previous novel. Kirk's characterization is also off, specially at the end.

But at least Chekov tells a funny bullshit story about why there are no Russian bears in Russian zoos. In the other novel from Eklund, it was McCoy who told a story to Spock, so it seems to be a thing with this author.

Spoilers under the cut:

Kirk, Spock and McCoy are watching a magician's show while in shore-leave. Spock is like "this is crap". And I don't know why Kirk and McCoy (who regularly get disintegrated in a transporter) are so excited about that old trick where a woman is apparently sawed in half, but they are (maybe they drank too much). Then, the magician starts conjuring some devil creatures that seem all too real. And the beautiful, beautiful woman who was sitting in the table next to them, starts screaming suddenly, accusing the devils of taking her father away. Then she faints.

It turns out, the woman is the famous artist Gilla Dupree, whose father (Jacob Kell) is missing. As Kell is a suspected traitor to the Federation, and presumably hiding in a quarantined planet named Heartland, (and as Gilla is so pretty), Kirk is authorized to use the Enterprise as a taxi for Gilla to reunite with her father. Gilla is a Jain, though I don't know enough about that religion to judge whether her depiction is accurate or not. She can only eat a few vegetables, since all life is sacred for her, and blames malnourishment for her frequent faints. An insipid romance develops then between Kirk and her, and it takes too many pages of an already short book. I mean, there's nothing essentially bad about Gilla as a character; she's just so... boring? The romance is also a clear indication that Gilla's doomed by the narrative.

Once in Heartland, the crew plus Gilla meet a hermit man who's been living alone for forty years. He's the last of the human colonists, who was left behind when they evacuated and quarantined the planet years ago. The other colonists had all gone mad, but not this one. He doesn't want to get any close to the native aliens of Heartland, the Danons, but says that Kell lives among them. The Danon village has a compelling eerie atmosphere, and there's something Lovecraftian about the great stone tower in the middle of the central square. Kirk and the others find themselves suddenly surrounded by all the Danons of the village, and Kell is among them. The Danons look exactly like naked Christian devils, so the crew is really xenophobic towards them (haven't they seen stranger creatures in the galaxy? oh well). Kell is very unfriendly, and orders them to leave Heartland at once. Nonetheless, the Danons allow the crew to spend the night in their village. And one of them even plays poker with the redshirts (Spock doesn't want to play poker since he's too good at it, because Vulcans have the perfect "poker face", yeah). But the next morning, the redshirt who got too close to the Danon during poker is missing. They find him naked and completely mad, his mind as if it was wiped clean. They leave McCoy with crazy, naked dude, but he can't do anything for him.

Then Kirk and Gilla run to Kell, to demand answers from him, and at last he explains what's happening. It turns out the Danons are all part of a single mental entity, which can claim people as part of the whole. But only the strongest ones can become assimilated; those that aren't ready, simply lose their minds. Kell was a deeply broken man ever since he spent a month alone in space, drifting with just his spacesuit after an accident. He couldn't live with people anymore, nor did he find help among the Klingons (the reason why he was branded as a traitor by the Federation). Only in Heartland, after uniting with the mental presence, he found some relief. And I don't know why, at this point, they can't just leave this poor old man alone. But Kirk still insists on taking Kell to the Enterprise. Only that now, they discover that the entity just won't let them leave the planet. Spock does his Spock thing, and tries to mind-meld with the mental presence. And then we get crazy Spock (but he's no redshirt, so McCoy says he'll recover in time).

In the end, the hermit reveals the whole truth. The entity is actually a super-computer that fills the whole core of the planet, and the entrance is located under the mysterious tower of the village. The Danons built the machine as a planetary defense long ago. But their species is dying now, so the computer wants to assimilate humans to have some company, once the Danons disappear. The hermit convinced the other colonists to try and fuse with the machine, but he was too cowardly to follow them. Gilla disappears, and soon Kirk suspects what she's doing. She has exchanged herself for her father, and Kirk finds her, too late, connected to the computer.

Back in the ship, Kirk is totally depressed and neglects his duties after losing Gilla. And this is quite out-of-character for him, since duty always comes before love for Kirk (save in the case of Spock in the third movie). McCoy comforts him, revealing that Gilla was actually dying from a tumor, so she had nothing to lose anyway (and maybe, McCoy, you should have told this to Kirk before, since he was so emotionally involved and all...). I was left wondering what was the deal with that magician at the beginning and his devils, and why Gilla knew about them. But that's never addressed (an abandoned plot line?).

Spirk Meter: 1/10*. It's almost nothing, but at one point Kirk reflects about how comfortable he is in Spock's presence. So comfortable than they can both be in silence without it being awkward.

Also, this author seems to have something for Kirk/Scotty, as it happened in the other novel. Kirk compares him to an angel, says that he's looking forward to see Scotty's smiling face again... And Scotty gets super-protective of Kirk when he wants to beam up the last, even though there's no immediate danger in the planet. ????

Apart from this, Kirk gets crushed by a horde of naked (mostly male) devils, that tear his clothes as usual.

*A 10 in this scale is the most obvious spirk moments in TOS. Think of the back massage, "You make me believe in miracles", or "Amok Time" for example.

#star trek tos #star trek novels #novel review #spirk #k/s

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