#hoping he at least survives til halloween

[webcxre]

lets see how many days it takes for him to rot

day 0

#the amazing digital circus #tadc jax #jack o lantern #pumpkin #jax o lantern #hoping he at least survives til halloween #maybe he will maybe he wont #it'll be funny either way

[frosted-night]

Do you have any headcanons for cast as humans? I mean as a human au. (If this is too big of an ask thats fine)

BOY DO I

Let me just get my tome out n read y'all the lore I've made for no reason.

Jack

Left home after graduating to join a caravan and traveled across the country. He came back home after his parent's sudden deaths. He didn't want to leave his brother to deal with the estate by himself.

He still has his van from his adventures and he wants to paint it again to symbolize his new phase in life. It still has living accomdations inside it and Jack has little desire to change it.

He has a few tattoos, such as a hurricane symbol on his neck and a snowflake above one of his ankles. Jack also has a few ear piercings he did himself and he's surprisingly good at it.

If Jack isn't driving he travels by longboard. He had a skater boy phase but it payed off since he can still do a few tricks here and there.

(Sometimes I see human Jack either as cis or trans. It depends on how im feeling. A trans Human Jack post will be seperate from this one)

He's a skilled forager and grower since he had to do that as his years as a nomad. Jack wouldn't claim he's as skilled as Aster but he can be a runner up behind him.

Jack never had a solid relationship on the road. It was very fleeting feelings but he didn't seem to mind. Settling back down at his hometown had reawakened some buried feelings though.

He's fairly well known in his hometown for being a mischievous bastard in his teen years and his past with playing on the local hockey team.

Jack would describe his aesthetic as a love child of punk and free spirited hippie lifestyle.

He has unmedicated adhd

He's 6 or 7 years older than his younger brother Manny and it can make their relationship a bit strained. These days they are trying to mend it while taking care of their parent's old home.

His hair was originally brown but he bleaches it and dyes it white these days.

Manny (Mim)

He's one of the youngest in his friend group, beating Tooth by a few months.

Manny is the 2nd shortest, Sandy being the shortest.

Jack leaving home wasn't easy for him and after a while Manny fell out of contact. He regrets it to this very day but never stopped thinking about his big brother.

He has Thalassophobia, a fear shared with Jack, and Pitch teases him endlessly about it.

He's a natural blonde and his mom used to tell him that he got it from his dad's side of the family. Manny has yet to meet any of his extended family for some reason.

Cleaning out his parents house of their things was one of the hardest parts for him and would have been impossible if his friends didn't help him. (Jack coming home really changed the game too.)

He was a fairly average kid but had a streak of being kind of mean in school. It lasted until high school but he still carries that silver tongue between his teeth.

Tooth jokes about how often Manny visits the local aquarium and he deflects any guesses she makes. North knows Manny is crushing hard on a employee there and has a code word for the guy, "Ocean Man". Aster hums the song whenever he feels like he can poke fun of Manny.

His occupation is working at a pre-school/daycare. He's shockingly amazing with children and has considered a teaching position there but he has yet to decide on it.

Manny has been called a "night owl" by all his friends since his productivity increases when the sun goes down. Thats usually the time he gets to work on all the cleaning he's missed.

He currently lives in his childhood home with his brother. Thankfully their home was paid off by their parents so they just split the bills, but they have considered getting a roomie to help with the expenses.

His dream is to have any kind of a pool in his backyard but he has to wait til the finances balance themselves out.

Pitch

Was the newest person in the group before Jack joined. He's also one of the oldest.

His occupation is a horror novel writer and lives off of coffee even when hes not crunching to meet deadlines.

Pitch fights with insomnia but Sandy convinced him to start taking medication to help him sleep. He got kind of sick hearing Pitch make quick meals at 3am and tripping over his cat.

He has a cat named Onyx and he has that backpack with a window on it that he can put Onyx in. Onyx likes it very much and if she knows hes leaving somewhere she sits by the backpack and stares at him.

Halloween is when he's at his strongest. If he feels like it, he competes with North on who has the best decorations. Jack gave Pitch the idea of using dry ice and its a feature he brings back every other year or so.

He's one of the tallest people in the group, only coming a few inches shorter than North. Contrary to people asking him, he was never into basket ball and was was in the military for a period of time.

Pitch was living a hermit life until he was adopted into the group. With his wife long deceased and freshly dumped, he softly considers it a saving grace that everyone accepted him.

Katherine

An aspiring writer, she currently works at the neighborhood library. She finds it really relaxing since its sat right by a river bed.

She tries not to bug Pitch too much but on occassion she asks him to beta read her works. His criticism and tips energize her to get her works out there ten fold. Kat really wants to write fantasy, a little romance and a lot of kid's books.

Her favorite task at work is reading to kids. Shes an animated storyteller and the kids eat her antics up.

She was great friends with Jack when they were growing up but she followed his antics on a few of his accounts online.

She listens to a lot of rock music and punk pop due to North's influence when she was growing up. He's taken to her to her first concert and she treasures the merch and memories.

She gets around by bike because she hasn't gotten her lisence yet but North gives her lessons on the weekends. Kat's become a local cryptid because everyone has seen her whiz past on her bike at least once though.

A child(Jamie) she read to got her into cryptids and now she eats up any lore she can. They like to infodump on each other when they have the time.

This is post is long enough golly gosh. If y'all are interested i can post the others but for now take these samples. (The Hockey player Jack hc n ex military Pitch hc were influenced by a lovely fic written by my friends over at @bunnimew. Their fic is Surviving On Twinkies And Hope and i highly reccomend it)

#rise of the guardians #guardians of childhood #rotgoc #jackson overland frost #jack frost #jack frost rotg #man in the moon #man in the moon rotg #mim #mim rotg #pitch black rotg #pitch black #katherine shalazar #katherine rotg #headcanons #human au #heehee the ocean man thing is an inside joke

[taglegend]

Tag Fact #3 -  I’ve come to realize I’ve always been a fan artist more than I thought. so here is a timeline of influences that shaped my childhood to now. from nostalgic times, to sad changes, to great loss, to strange rises to fame and phases, to stepping stones and finally a laughing place. all the things that make up your favorite fan artist Tag.

1. Rayman (bumped into this in the year of 1999) was actually the first fandom (with crossovers) I bumped into when I was 9. although the internet wasn’t available at the time it was still fun to dwell in home amusements. I remember the storylines and the OC’s I made but they’re kind of embarrassing and it’s probably a good thing there was no internet. I’ve done fanart and comic crossovers of Rayman with Calvin and Hobbs and Nights Into Dreams, spinoffs of Sonic the Hedgehog OC’s, Yoshi with Pikachu, and the Pokemon/Digimon craze with OC’s and other Nintendo comic shorts. but the drawings and comics are long gone and disappeared in the garage in a backpack due to suspecting my sister’s dad accidentally throwing them away. years later towards the year 2018 (now 28), we decided to move to North Carolina and it was my chance to find them again. unfortunately the backpack was gone just like I suspected (my main stuff), but for some reason I found my Pokemon/Digimon fanart, a good batch of Super Mario drawings (vaguely remember doing these), my sister’s drawings and some other neighborhood kids’ drawings in a dirty box. I was partially happy I found something at least but it was the backpack I wanted the most. sometimes I regret not looking for the backpack (’cause I was too busy being a kid) but it’s alright, noone needs to see that shit anyway, ha ha. anyways, I recall being a fan of Rayman from 1999 ‘til 2002.

2. Sonic Adventure 2 Battle (bumped into this in the year of 2003) my second fandom I bumped into when I was 12 going on 13. at the time, my sister and I both liked the Sonic The Hedgehog Franchise based on the Battle remake and ended up making our own secret fanart club that consisted of only us two members. she liked Sonic (and that was her boyfriend, ha ha) and I liked Knuckles (and he was my boyfriend, ha ha) and we were crazy in love about Shadow’s backstory. we listened to the game’s soundtracks as we drew fanart and comics after school and man, those were good times. however, as we grew older towards the year of 2005, we ended up having separate rooms and I believe it played a part in disconnecting on the same interest. then one day, I asked her why she wasn’t into Sonic anymore and she replied, “Because I grew up.” I was sad after that and slowly observed that she was influenced by the emo culture and the new friends she’s made. I was the only member of our little club for a little longer...but eventually I moved on too. I still have some surviving fanart we did together but it doesn’t mean shit anymore since she turned out to be an abusive mother from the last I’ve heard of her. 

3. Gorillaz (bumped into this in the year of 2006). as the Sonic years were at its end, I first heard the song “Feel Good Inc” on Music Choice and seeing the first image of them as displayed on this post (except the fan-made background doesn’t count since I can’t find the original artwork). this was my third fandom and later had proper access to the internet to the website I still currently use called DeviantArt. at first I liked 2D but eventually fell for Murdoc and developed a spiritual connection towards the character as obviously seen in my old fanart and rare photos of my devotion shrines on Valentine’s Day and his birthday every year. for the longest time since being a permanent fan from 2006-2017 (11 1/2 years) I had no knowledge that it was a political propaganda band and other realizations I don’t want to talk about. I only followed them because it was a cartoon and not the bullshit behind the musical project. the world I’ve built and support for them for all those 11 1/2 years shattered the fuck out of me and I just wanted to be left alone to find myself again, somehow. activity stopped on all my profiles, the flow of fanart stopped since I now cringe from the fan service and felt I was used for my talent. I didn’t want to be reminded of it all so I took down all my Gorillaz fanart and archived them for old followers’ nostalgia but also in the hopes they’ll be forgotten in my timeline. I ceased to exist in the fandom for huge personal reasons but it’s best to not say why. I know for sure that the fandom wonders what happened but it’s none of their business. THE END.

4. Waluigi (although I knew he’s been around since 2000 during childhood, I took deep interest once I revisited the character again in the year of December 2013). as silly as this sounds, when I revisited him again, the character was so bizarre that I ended up staying up 3 nights and 3 days in a row just looking all over the internet on everything about him and the questionable “hush-hush” absence of a backstory. despite there being no backstory he slowly gained a cult following and in many ways it’s a good thing. however, since the early 2010′s tension has been building up between Nintendo and its fans about him starring in a main game but everyone hasn’t fully gotten it in their heads that it’s not gonna happen. as long as Nintendo is in control of that, the fandom will not win, I’m sorry to say. on the other hand, if it’s going to be this way, then that’s what fanart and comic projects are for. as for me, I am doing my very best to get my comic project “Waluigi Land” going. again, I apologize if it’s taking very long to get Chapter 2 going if you’ve been keeping track but aha moments need to develop before I start permanent drawing (since concepts, character design and storyline needed improvement badly). as of right now I am still a Waluigi fan and I will not quit on him.

5. Turbo from Wreck-It-Ralph (although it debuted in 2012, I watched the movie two years later into the year 2014). for some bizarro reason, I had an unhealthy obsession with this character to the point where I dressed up as him for Halloween 2014. only 2 fanarts of him and the Turbo Twins exist on my profiles, mainly because my mind was more focused on just ‘thinking about him’ or ‘being him’ rather than drawing physical drawings. luckily, this supposed alleged fandom didn’t last long a little after Halloween so I chalk it up as a very short phase. to this day I don’t know what has gotten over me about him. the only thing I can think of now is that I think it’s because the character had yellow eyes and teeth but I don’t know. now that I think of it, that little fucker was ugly as hell and I STILL don’t know what had gotten over me. one day, my brother mentioned what that was about, and I said to him, “I don’t wanna talk about it.”

6. Undertale (although it debuted in 2015, I later took interest in it in 2016). It was all about Sans and Papyrus. I couldn’t get enough of the skeleton bros. eventually Toriel and Mettaton EX became my favorites but it took a long time to draw more of all 4 of them because I had other important things to do in my life plus I was still waiting for the next Gorillaz album to revive my imaginative juices (or so I thought). I really want to have this as one of my frequent fandoms but I just don’t have time for it anymore. it’s still in the back of my head to want to draw them but at this point I still have other better interests to be in. and besides, I’m lazy just like Sans.

7. Cuphead (June 28th, 2017 was the official day I called quits on the British-based band Gorillaz due to the bullshit behind it. since that date I was lost, had no inspiration to look forward to and no cartoon guy to make me smile...but lo and behold of the same year, I took an interest in playing the game Cuphead and man...that shit was a frightening exaggerated metaphor for being on that one drug (forgot the name though) and having sex at the same time but man that was the best fun I’ve had in years. I mean, it’s like, enemies are just so happy to murder you and that scared the shit outta me. and the facial exaggeration?....I think I should stop, ha ha. anyways, the Moldenhauers saved my ass from spiraling down, they have no clue. anyways, eventually I became a permanent fan of their work so to ease the hurt and erase my past from the G-fandom I had to re-wire my brain into a different cartoon category that’s a rather more American, so anything Toon related like Roger Rabbit, Felix the Cat or another favorite that’s a western-based cartoon makes me feel better, especially my new man .......King Dice <3 <3<3<3. however, there was something about this new fandom category I still didn’t quite understand until the date March 14th, 2020. I finally understood what it was but I feel I shouldn’t bring it up. anyways, Cuphead and anything western or rubber hose is my last stop in inspiration for the remaining years of my life. many say never say never but I believe I’ve found my laughing place and that’s all that matters.

#tag facts #influences from cartoons #likes and dislikes #thoughts i have about characters #toons #rayman #sonic the hedgehog #gorillaz #waluigi #turbo #wreck it ralph #undertale #cuphead

[bluerosesburnblue]

Liz Liveblogs Bravely Second: Chapter 6, Part 1/2

Well, I said I’d shoot for Halloween, not that I’d make it. I legitimately wasn’t expecting the Yōkai sidequest to be so... dense. So, because of that, we’re splitting this chapter into two parts, too. I think the finale deserves an entry all on its own

We’re in the home stretch, folks. Get ready for Bravely Second Chapter 6, Bravely Second

Hey, welcome to my liveblog of Bravely Default. So Tiz, after the destruction of Norende wakes up... wait. Hmmm. Wrong brunet boy. How did we get to the Caldisla Inn?

Karl’s soothing voice is a welcome reprieve from... that scene

“Wait! Where’s Denys?” *noises of discomfort from Tiz, Edea, Magnolia, and me*

“We defeated Diamante...” No. We were denied the ability to defeat Diamante. Now it’s Denys’s burden, assuming someone can even survive at the end of time. The self-sacrificing idiot...

Magnolia is being called to return home, as the hero of her people... and the light of her communicator is clipping through her Black Mage hat. Whoops

Weird that Karl didn’t recognize Tiz until right now. What, was Yew the only one asleep? Was his hair so bad you couldn’t be sure until you heard his voice?

Even more insane that he recognizes Edea since I have her in her Ranger getup with a full face mask

“Me and Agnes and Edea and...?” “We always counted on him when we.. When we...” Tiz. Edea. Do you not remember Ringabel or the first game? I thought we just weren’t talking about him because it was a sore subject, but...

Tiz doesn’t even remember the king of his home nation. What happened to you kids?

Diamante’s bestiary states that when it fell, it destroyed a part of the Miasma Woods and split the continent in two. I assume that refers to the separation of landmasses between the Harena and Yulyana regions, since there’s... like... a crater there where I’m pretty sure there wasn’t last game. I never mentioned it, it’s just the spot where we keep boarding the Skyhold because Denys really liked parking over it?

Karl who are these two white-haired kids? Are they yours? They can’t be grandkids since Owen is...

Caldisla’s theme is still amazing. Feels like being home after a long journey. Love it when a game can do that to me.

Tiz really had forgotten his entire home and the start of last game. Edea couldn’t remember it either

Yew says he’s read about Caldisla, but he couldn’t remember what he’d read either

I am reminded of a plot point in the Korean webtoon Kubera: One Last God. In that, a person who uses time magic too much will “forfeit their existence” for a time. They disappear and don’t age, but as long as they’re vanished from existence, nobody can remember them. If someone tries to remember events surrounding them, they freeze up and then immediately think of something else, forgetting their original train of thought. I’m getting the same vibes here

I know that tinny tone, Alternis!

“I am the one who carried you out of the Skyhold and to safety.” But how did you get to the Skyhold in the first place? I can’t imagine it was still flying after we “defeated” its power source, so it must have crashed somewhere around the Yulyana/Florem area, in which case the party should be very, very dead. Dead beyond my ability to fix

“I would go to the very ends of the earth for you if you needed me, Edea.” Okay, Clearly-Ringabel, turn the charm down a notch and exposit for us

“That bloody witch... Yōko will pay!” So Yōko sealed everyone’s memories of Caldisla? How do you figure, Dim?

Ah, she gave him the cryptic message of “Go to Caldisla, the land of endings” and he had no idea what she was talking about but went anyway and his brain freaked out

He’s still wearing Edea’s bow! So at the very least it’s the same Alternis from the Geyser Grotto

You know, I’m just now realizing that it’s been two games and we still haven’t had party members from either the Yulyana region or the Eisen region. You know, one of the four main continents? Has a major magical artifact in the form of a capital-”C”-Crystal?

I mean, Tiz is from Caldis, Agnès from Harena, Ringabel from Florem, Edea and Yew from Eternia, and Magnolia from the Moon, which somehow got representation before Eisen did

...how dare they put a hidden item next to a child you can talk to. Do you know how difficult it was to get Yew to focus on the object and not the kid!? Yeesh

Hitboxes on hidden items are so finicky in this game I swear

And there was a Phoenix Down behind Owen’s grave. Thanks

Oh... oh no. Oh no I looked at Til’s grave. Oh god Tiz I’m so sorry

God he sounds like he’s gonna cry. “Til was a lot younger than me... Even younger than you.” I don’t think it ever occurred to Yew that while he was using Tiz to replace Denys... Tiz was doing the same thing back

And the Caldisla amnesia makes it worse oh no. Could you imagine? Walking through a town and slowly realizing that it’s your hometown. And then stopping in front of a grave and it’s your brother’s grave. And it only hits you while you’re looking at it that you even have a brother... had a brother

Til doesn’t get a big grave like Owen. His is one of the small, unassuming ones. The only person he meant anything to was Tiz

And Tiz is being lauded as the hero he deserves after his untimely coma after the defeat of Ouroboros. Can’t help but notice they aren’t celebrating Edea, who was also there, but eh. She’s got the entirety of Eternia to throw her a party. Let Tiz have his exotic cheeses

Heyyyyy, Egil! How’s my favorite kid who didn’t die in a mine!? Nice armor, buddy! Looking good!

Oooooooh a Junior Captain? Nice work!

A great beast at Lontano? It couldn’t be a Ba’al, could it? The only story-based one we’ve had so far is Urchin

That’s actually the one thing I think I prefer in Default over Second. The Norende Nemesis fights weren’t necessary for completion, which was good since I mostly played that game at college where my 3DS couldn’t connect to the internet thanks to how poorly set up the login information was. My 3DS just couldn’t handle it. I barely did them, and I really didn’t miss much because of it. Here, though, if I want to 100% complete the game I have to do the Fort-Lune Ba’al fights, and which ones I get are entirely up to chance. I have been doing them, though. Get a lot of Apparati (probably people sharing it because it’s the only one with a Catmancy skill), followed by Snowcap in terms of quantity. Heck, I only got my first Redshirt the night before writing this and the only Urchin I’ve seen has been the story one. Completing those Bestiary entries is probably the last thing I’ll be able to do just out of luck

“The Youth Brigade”? What, we doing child soldiers now or is this the Caldisla version of Boy Scouts?

“Tiz, would you care to introduce us?” “Of course! This is Egil. He’s like... um... a little brother to me.” Hey, Yew, meet your new favorite little brother. Egil’s family. Mostly because Tiz has chronic Big-Bro-itis, but still. He’s a good kid

Can Egil be a party member in Bravely Third, finally giving us our Eisen representation?

Tiz no. Don’t mention the Three Cavaliers. That’s still a sore subject!

Oh damn. “You must be, like, the best of the best! So why are you hanging out with someone like Tiz here?” Egil! Harsh! Tiz killed a World-Consuming snake demon, you know!

“Yew’s a good friend of ours. I guess you could say he’s like a slightly older younger brother.” These boys cannot stop taking in new brothers! It’s adorable! I love it! (See, Denys? This is what you miss when you needlessly throw yourself into a time vortex. You miss getting adopted by Tiz and having, like, 60 younger brothers.)

An earthquake? First reaction says it’s the “beast” but we are right near the Great Chasm. I hope it was just a rock slide, but it’s never that easy

It’s the Rubadub? Why the fuck did the Rubadub cause an earthquake!?

Damn, according to Sakura we’ve been out for over a week

Sakura is best team mom! She did the laundry while we were gone, fixed the damages from the Skyhold collapse, caught a ton of fish, and is already making dinner with it!

Oh... wait what? Wait. ...is that where Caldisla is? I... hrm.

So my poor geography sense ended up making the “Caldisla disappeared” plot point work because I misremembered where the whole continent was. I thought it was in the middle of the ocean between Eternia and Florem and just wasn’t on the map because the section it would be in would be cut-off and it wasn’t going to be relevant! I thought it was farther to the right! God, see, this is what happens when you change the orientation of the map on me. I can’t navigate for shit

So, hey, I read through my old Liveblogs to catch myself up for the finale just in case, and you know what I called out and had conveniently forgotten by the time I played the last chapter? Minette Napkatti is seventeen FUCKING years old. She’s OLDER than both Yew and Janne. I wrote everything last chapter under the assumption she was, like, 10! God, her being 17 is so much worse. Now it makes people treating her like a pet even creepier! How is Minette even worse than I gave her credit for! Stop enabling this girl and get her some serious mental rehabilitation!

Now, I should really look at that urgent Beast situation... buuuuuuuuut there’s a sidequest in Gathelatio!

Actually, Yew just brought up the Crypts in a Party Chat and now I’m curious. Where did the stairwell Denys was standing near... go? Does it just exit into the city somewhere?

Party Chat says Alfred said there was a secret passage between the Crypts and the Sanctum. I’m gonna go see if that’s what’s up with those stairs

“I’d rather we didn’t go blundering around the family crypts if we don’t have to” Sorry, Yew, I’m with Edea. It’ll be five minutes, max. Besides, it looks like the sidequest is in the Sanctum. I wanna sneak up on ‘em if I can

Uhhhhh... wh...

Denys? Denys did you leave this shadow-man ghost thing here? What the fuck is that?

Why is there a nondistinct shadow man near Foundar’s grave?

All it says is “Fear the Eye of Foundar... But I suppose it’s still too early for you to understand what that means. Heh.” Hey, don’t laugh! You aren’t the first person to give me awful, vague prophecies! Sylvie beat you to it by a whole timeline!

There are some bits of... probably hair dangling at the sides of Shadowman’s face. It looks kinda like Yew’s concept art hairstyle, honestly. Huh.

That’s it that’s unsettling I’m out

And hey, that was the secret passage into the Sanctum! I hadn’t even noticed a door there in my past visits. Let’s... uh... let’s just talk to Braev and forget that unnerving shadow boy

What’s the matter, narrator? “By what strange trick of fate do your paths cross anew?” getting too much for you? Braev’s been in the story for a while, I don’t think he needed an introduction

Ah. Well, the sidequest is still Edea-focused like all the others, but at least this one I can get behind. It’s Braev testing whether Edea’s ready to succeed him

And there’s still a choice, hm? Should you desire the power to cut down all foes, the Grand Marshal’s sword is in Everlast Tower. Should you desire the power to protect your subjects, the Grand Marshal’s shield is in the Central Command basement

I don’t suppose we could do both? They say the two are opposites, but I hardly see why. A true ruler knows how to balance the two. Knows how to change their persona to match the situation. To cut down your foes is to protect your citizens. To protect your citizens is to spite your foes. There’s no reason to limit your capabilities

Regardless, if they do make us pick one, I find the sword is the better option. A shield can only hold out so long without the opposing forces thinning out

“It’s a travesty! Ketchup is for burgers and fries!” God, Yew is a boy after my own heart. I’ll try any food or food combo once, but putting ketchup on a good steak seems like sacrilege

And Tiz is also a boy after my own heart. Keep it simple with your eggs. Salt and pepper is all you really need. Though I’ve never had hollandaise, so I can’t really comment on Yew’s choice

Aw, Tiz puts soy sauce on his oysters because that’s how Agnès did it when he first had them. Cute!

And it was all a ruse to distract them from the fact that she botched dinner! Oh, Magnolia, sweetheart. I appreciate the creativity but I think bringing up favorite foods was the worst thing to do

Edea thinks getting the sword was too easy... so she wants to talk to Elder Sirius? If I go, is he just gonna tell me to grab the shield as was my plan to attempt from the start?

Braev’s location is marked... but so is the shield still. I want both

“It’s what Heinkel would’ve done.” I have no problems believing that Heinkel would use an heirloom shield to grill food. That checks out

Aaaaand that’s why you ask Yew before you use his stuff to cook with. Leave my nerd son and his collections alone!

A true leader directly defies orders and grabs both heirlooms regardless! We make our own win states in the House of Liz!

And seek shield counsel with Goodman. ...screw it, let’s talk to Sirius and Goodman. I’m curious if either of them have new dialogue

Seems like they do! Unmarked cutscenes. Sirius warns Edea to be careful of all power, as any could be used for evil. But it can also be used for good. The power is not the issue, but the intent of its wielder. To cast aside any means of defeating all who would endanger those you seek to protect is foolish

And Goodman espouses the benefits of a shield. Separate the soldiers from the civilians, and have the soldiers become an unbreakable wall to repel all threats. The shield has no chance of endangering others (KH Goofy would like to have a word, sir)

Edea mentioned Dominus Harena, so I thought I’d check him out and lo and behold! He also has a scene. Ancheim makes weapons, but uses none. They fight instead with their knowledge, using the scholars of Al-Khampis to outbuild and outsmart their foes. And they can absolutely use those weapons if they want. “Don’t brandish a big sword - but be sure to have one ready when you need it” is pretty close to my life motto

Meeting Braev at Vestment Cave is the first relevant event in the Yulyana region, huh?

Vestment Cave is the place you were blessed with a daughter? Edea was born in this cave when Sage took you in? Did I know that or is that just some trivia you felt like sharing, Braev? Because if so uhhhh...? I don’t think I can get that out of my head

Oh? “I see you have the grand marshal’s sword AND shield. ...And yet you have equipped neither.” I... have Edea as a Ranger? Equipping either of those would do nothing for her. I was not aware you wanted those equipped

...you know what? Yeah! Have the big sword (and shield) but don’t brandish it! That is our answer!

“Justice must be supported by might and authority - but when it is delivered at the point of a sword it is naught but coercion. [...] A stout shield is needed to protect the people in times of war. Yet the true goal should be a world with no need for shields. The noble course is to believe in the ideal.” This sidequest is awesome

“But you have one more trial to face - together with the friends who stand beside you!” And you know what? Those friends are the only weapon a good leader needs! They keep you from swinging the sword with abandon or allowing harm to come passively! They balance you, keep you in check! Edea Lee, go and claim the position you have earned!

(I just wish that Edea was in a different outfit in that scene. Loses a bit of impact when her face is covered with an animal mask)

Damn! He revives more times than Diamante! You fucking hear that, Denys!? Edea’s dad is a harder fight than DIAMANTE

And now Edea receives the Stave of the Grand Marshall. She is, unquestionably, the Grand Marshall of Eternia. I’m so proud of my girl!

Ah! And we’re visiting her parents at Sage Yulyana’s old place! Seems Braev and Mahzer are moving out here to retire. Good for them

‘sup Alternis? ...still mad about the Grandship escapade?

Braev is taking up needlework, huh?

Okay, I love the way John Eric Bentley said “a new tea cozy!” He’s a good replacement voice for Braev in my book

That sidequest was EXACTLY what I had hoped the others would be! It was such a good character focus to showcase Edea’s growth from the beginning of the first game, and the actual elements of it were so nuanced! There were so many permutations of events. Did you obtain the sword, shield, or both? Did you talk to Sirius, Dominus, Goodman? All of them? None? Some combination of two of them? Were the items equipped when you talked to Braev? Ultimately, the structure was simple, but the narrative you got out of it was all up to you. I’d be interested to see every permutation of the talk with Braev, but I am so happy with what I got. And I’m so proud of Edea. She’s come a long way from the self-righteous, black-and-white girl of Default’s events. Eternia is in good hands

I love that Tiz being the king of cooking with leftovers is canon

...so I can’t help but notice that there’s a Fort-Lune Ba’al icon just sort of... floating there above Lontano. That’s weird.

What on Earth was that noise it made?

“I-it’s exuding a level of power on par with... No, even exceeding Diamante’s!” YOU HEAR THAT, DENYS? You didn’t even take out the strongest Ba’al!

“We can’t let Denys’s sacrifice be in vain!” Yew, honey. You’re sweet, but it was in vain the second he made it. We’re about to prove how useless it really was

Oh, it’s just a Turtle Dove? Not even, like, a special one? Alright

Not too bad. Only got close at the end there because Yew went down and I had trouble getting him back up

Certainly harder than Diamante, at any rate

So it seems the only two mandatory Ba’al fights in the game are an Urchin and a Turtle Dove, and I’m certain those were the only two that made appearances in Default as Norende Nemesis fights. So that’s why those two were added to the BD international release

Aw, Egil doesn’t understand how pendant-call works either and thinks we shoved Agnès in the jewel

Where is she? I can’t say I recognize that room. Wooden doors with a crystal-thing in the back?

And yet another person who just couldn’t remember Caldisla

I guess she was on an Airship?

And on the Magnolia Cooks sideplot: She’s really good! Her quest for recipes has led to her becoming a master of Luxendarc cuisine

“A bath has to be sot hot you can barely stand it!” I know Edea’s opinion is meant to be an extreme... but that’s how I take my showers so...

I will say I don’t jump out and douse myself in cold water, though. That’s a little much

I guess hot-bath-cold-bath followed by freezing iced lattes is an Eternian thing? Yew’s into it, too

Alternis and Agnès are already here talking to the king? We’ve almost got the whole family in one spot! (This Alternis doesn’t have a bow, though. Guess we’ve still gotta hunt down Ringabel and Denys if we want that family meetup. Why is it always the blond ones who are a problem?)

According to the king, the people of Caldisla forgot the rest of the world in turn. That’s some nonsense that’s going on

Bow-Alternis is absolutely Ringabel. Alternis doesn’t know anything about his arm being hurt or Yōko

It’s an interesting way of doing the Alternis-Ringabel thing. Last game they made them seem like the same person, too, up until the reveal by having them get injured in similar places and never on-screen at the same time. This game we’re able to tell them apart despite Ringabel actually trying to impersonate Alternis because of their differing injuries

Where do Ba’als come from and what are they? It’s a question that’s been forced to the background thanks to the immediacy of the Kaiser’s plot, but now with that settled it and Anne’s plan are all we have left to solve

I like how Yew and Magnolia got cut off in that shot, leaving only Agnès, Alternis, Tiz, and Edea. A version of the first party

Oh, Magnolia. She’s beating herself up because she never thought to ask what the Ba’als were, but still dedicated her life to stopping them. But no one knows what they are. She would’ve been asking a question no one could answer

I appreciate Yew trying to commiserate by telling her he didn’t know anything about the Crystalguard or Denys but I don’t think those situations are really... comparable? Magnolia is talking about unknowable eldritch horrors. That’s a little bit bigger than the Crystalguard stuff

“There must be someone out there who can give us a clue!” “Do not judge a carrot by its leaves, nor a man by his words alone...” Leave it to Altair to announce his timely appearance in the most dramatically dorky way possible

“It’s a ghost!” ...I mean, yeah? Technically? But we know Altair. Edea, chill. Team dad tire-man of the vegetable proverbs is here to enlighten us

So the Ba’als are Vega’s emotions given life. Born of her memories with Altair, and I imagine the fight with Geist back in Sagitta is what tipped him off. Diamante probably only confirmed it. I can’t imagine anyone else whose memories Diamante’s background could have belonged to

Altair theorizes that something found Vega’s regrets upon being left behind and gave them form to be used as weapons

And that just leaves one place the Ba’als could be from. The last place anyone saw Vega alive: the Celestial Realm

“Let’s go to the Celestial Realm!” Yew, if travel between Luxendarc and the Celestial Realm were so easy Vega wouldn’t be trapped there, Ouroboros wouldn’t have had to create a chain of worlds just to break through, and I would travel to Luxendarc just to hug you. It’s just not that easy

And Altair agrees. It’s just not... simple. Maybe not possible

“Never say never until you’re dead!” Okay, but Altair is super dead, though? He has every right to say “never” at this point

At least he’s got a good sense of humor about it

...3DS did the going black thing again

“Of course I do not... accept it...” This game does some interesting things with the concepts of acceptance and denial. To not accept something is similar to, but not the same as, denying it. I like that they brought it up like that

He’s getting desperate. Begging the party to help Vega. Altair...

“You’re our friend, Altair.” “Your... friend? Oh, thank you, my dear children!” Altair, I nominated you for team dad. You’re not a friend now, you’re family. We live to make the impossible possible. We have (or most of us have) defeated Ouroboros. Let’s go get Vega.

So who could help? As Altair said, Anne. A fairy who can control the Ba’al and who spoke of a Master. She clearly knows something about them the rest of us don’t, and I’ve still got a bone to pick with her

I’d know that place anywhere. She’s at Norende’s Great Chasm

Norende has a path between the Celestial Realm and Luxendarc... right where the Dark Aurora was... I should’ve known Ouroboros would use the weakest point in the barrier to get through

So that’s your plan, you little shit? Use this path as an express lane to get Ba’als to Luxendarc without interference from the Moon people? And then maybe get your boss in? Not happening. Nope. I refuse. Yew, Tiz, and everyone else deserve better

Funny you’re monologuing, Anne, since I know you know I exist and can, presumably, hear you. What’s their secret if it’s not the hourglass that let them keep their memories? I think you already know

They are directly using the fact that we, the player, saw that scene and now know where to go next and the party doesn’t. Party’s got no idea. That scene was for our eyes only

And the last sidequest has opened up. Yōko Yōko Yōko Yōko Yōkaiiiiiiiii

Oh thank god the Vampire Castle’s unlocked. I would’ve cried if they made me do the dragon fights again

Why should only Magnolia dress warm, Edea? You’re wearing about as much as her!

I don’t like Alternis’s helmet sitting at the door like that. Ringabel, you’d better be okay! You were my favorite last game, don’t you die on me!

Oh! My encounter rate is locked at standard. Guess I have to fight, huh? That’s... it’s never done that before

There’s a painting no one ever noticed before. Yōko in both human and Yōkai form, with a blonde child

And there’s the girl of the hour! You gonna pull a DeRosso and give us your backstory while we climb the tower?

I have never heard Vampire Castle called the Hall of Truth? Did I forget? It’s been a while. Hall of Exposition, more like

“Tiz! Do not think you can avoid the dangers that you encounter in this place.” AKA: no. You have to fight the encounters. Also, I forgot setting the encounters was a Tiz thing

“The powers of Luxendarc’s gods will not avail you.” So it’s a Celestial power Tiz was using. Assumed as much. And according to Yōko, this is Luxendarc. We play by Luxendarc rules this time (unfortunately)

So either Ringabel or Alternis can work the pendant call. He didn’t have the bow, but he talked like he knew what we were on about. Suspicious

So Yōko slept. And slept for quite a while. Twenty years ago an ambitious man came to wake her up, and with him came a girl with the Plague. The man in the painting is wearing Crystalguard clothes, and came to plunder the offerings at Yōko‘s shrine. The man was so determined to take those treasures home that he ignored the girl’s grandfather, who asked for her to be quarantined due to her sickness and pleaded with the church to let them sail. The church sent Geist. Once she was exorcised, the fleet could move. His ritual didn’t cure her at all, though. She doesn’t need to say it. I can already tell that the man was Yew’s father, Greide

Greide Geneolgia, whose greed sparked the Great Plague

She gave us his journals.

Foundar left behind texts for his descendants, texts that Greide managed to decode and use to locate Yōko’s shrine. The girl was the granddaughter of their patron from the church, sent to help them find the shrine that the Orthodoxy wanted so badly to find.

Greide used the girl to house Yōko’s soul, so she couldn’t stop them from raiding her shrine. It was there that they found the statue of Cú Chulainn that Bella would one day animate. The girl only fell sick with the Plague after the raid on the shrine. Griede’s writing comes across as paranoid. He thinks they’re being manipulated, and that his “enemies” are behind it

Judging by his outfit, the figure in this painting seems to be Geist

Hey uhhhh. Yōko? How long have you been staying here that you managed to replace a ton of DeRosso paintings?

Geist’s report went through, despite Greide’s attempts to stop it. The girl was put under quarantine and banned from travel. But another man and Greide decided to change tactics to get their plundered loot back. They asked to bring the girl to Eternia so that she could get the best medical treatment available to her. So they let her travel. And at every port they stopped at on the way back, they spread the Plague. To many continents. When the sailors began to freak out, Greide poisoned everyone aboard, including the girl. He was the only survivor, returning home with perhaps not all of the loot he wanted, but certainly enough. And one year later, Denys was born. Right on the heels of his dad murdering a whole crew of people for some sick loot

(I wonder if the timeline actually works out)

So Norzen and Braev were the ones opposing Greide the most, besides the elders. Greide looked into their pasts to see what he could use to... convince them to come over to his side

So if this happened in 2379... Denys was probably born in 2380-ish. Which seems about right? Definitely not 2384 like the Final Fantasy Wikia says. That would make him younger than Agnès and I’m very sure she isn’t over 23, which is Denys’s canon age as confirmed in the Bestiary (What are you guys doing, FFWikia?)

And this is just a painting of a huge area of gravestones with ravens.

The first deaths were in Eternia. “A sleepy border village.” And now we hear what we know from Default. Braev begged the church to help his home, and in return they sealed off all roads. Quarantined the smaller villages and left them to die. The incident that sparked Braev and the Anticrystalists’ revolt against the Orthodoxy. Braev gave Norzen full authority to investigate the Plague, where Minette’s mother would eventually discover a cure, but not before the first wave had killed more than could ever be counted

On the timeline: Greide’s 4/11, 2379 journal entry mentions a woman bringing her son and claiming he was Greide’s. Since he recognized her, he figured yeah, sure. Kid’s probably his and he can’t prove otherwise. So he took her and their son Denys in. So at the very least we can confirm that Denys was born before April 11, 2379. Unfortunately, I have no idea what year this game takes place in and can’t do math, so... I still have no idea if that date checks out?

And Denys’s mother... “left them” by 5/25 2380, and Greide became engaged to who I assume is Yew’s mother just over a year after that. And, like, jeez, Denys’s mom died when he was 1 or 2 years old? The way people talk about her it sounded like she was around for longer than that

Greide pretended to be loyal to Braev’s Duchy, but was appalled by how... businesslike they treated him. Like the idea of people not groveling at his feet because of his family name was repulsive

“There has been no warning from the Eye of Foundar...” God, is the Eye a prophecy machine? Why did a shadow man have to tell me about it in the Geneolgia corpse basement?

Hah. When Greide met with DeRosso and Sage Yulyana they called his ancestor a “sickly man” and a “monster,” respectively. And for the first time in his life, Greide felt true fear, but only at the potential loss of his status

Bestiary Tiz described DeRosso as “the pretend vampire with the baritone voice” which is really all you’d ever need to know about DeRosso

And here’s a painting of a burning Crystalguard banner. Greide disbanded the Crystalguard after Braev’s successful uprising, since the church was no longer in power and Greide wanted to keep himself and his allies out of the way of the rebellion. Houses Geneolgia and Camlann destroyed any who wanted to keep the Crystalguard together. Their biggest opponent: Janne’s father. His dying words were giving custody of his son to his squire, Angard. And Nikolai watched it all. After that, he tried to reinstate the Crystalguard and get himself and Janne a place in it. And just as Nikolai explained, the now unemployed soldiers went and looted the few villages left with survivors. And the Geneolgia and Camlann families formed private armies to save their own asses by taking down the bandits that they caused

Yew’s so shaken he collapsed. Hey, someone help my boy up? He’s having a rough day and I only see it getting worse

According to the Journals, Yew cried the whole night the attack on Jerome Balestra happened. Empathetic beyond belief, even as a baby

Seems Greide at least entertained the notion of choosing Denys as his heir. He says it himself: Denys had all the courage and skills he could want in an heir, but Yew had the superior bloodline despite his seemingly lesser talent as a kid

And he dies with some unspecified “promise” left unfulfilled

...I don’t even need to examine that painting to know who that is on the left. That’s Denys. I’d recognize him anywhere

Ah, a symbolic painting. On one side we have a young Yew grasping the Sword of the Brave, with Denys behind him. On the other side is Yōko and Danzaburō mirroring the Geneolgia brothers. It’s so obvious now that Danzaburō was just Denys in a hat and with two real arms. And I think with a different voice actor, maybe?

Yōko is a different kind of being. They called her a Yōkai, but that confuses her as she is the only one of her kind she knows. Her goal is simply to achieve true growth and lift the world into a higher plane of existence. True growth? It’s looking at yourself in the most open sense and accepting all that you are. By doing so, you become truly and fully realized, able to be the person fate wanted you to be

Girl, you didn’t have to switch forms on me

“Brave the dark depths within their heart”? Is that what you tried to do at the Geyser Grotto? Show everyone the parts of themselves that they deny to try and get them to accept those flaws and grow?

Yeah, I think that’s it. And she remembered that she never looked at Edea’s heart. Yōko... is absolutely right. Edea says she defected in the last game because she was appalled by their actions, and to an extent I’m sure it’s true, but it was also a ploy to get her dad’s attention. Selfless and selfish in equal measures. So often are actions both, and all it takes is a different angle to see it

And her other secret is exactly what I called out last liveblog: she misses Ringabel more than anything, and it kills her to see all of her friends and family and even enemies pair off while her love is probably in an alternate reality, loving an alternate her. Her love is a version of a man she should never have had the ability to meet if the worlds had stayed intact. The version of a man who wouldn’t have existed without that universal fabric being breached

“And what hurts most of all, is that he chose to leave you.” He did. He left the Edea he’d journeyed with to go try and save the Edea he’d failed. Just like Alternis is probably dismayed that she loves an alternate him, Edea probably can’t help but fear that Ringabel only saw her as a temporary replacement for her alternate self

Yoko’s being so mean since I am fairly certain she knows Ringabel is here. She called him interesting at Geyser Grotto. I know she knows who he is

OHHHHHH FUCK YEAH THAT’S LOVE’S VAGRANT

EDEA QUICK CHANGE OUT OF THE RANGER OUTFIT. GET SOME GOOD CLOTHES. UNLESS HE’S INTO RABBIT GIRLS? HE PROBABLY IS, ACTUALLY

That’s my last game fav! How’s it going, ‘Bel? Good to see I correctly identified his appearances, too. Geyser Grotto, then Florem, then Caldisla

Cute hug. CUTE HUG.

I don’t know why the revelation that it’s Ringabel means anything to Yew and Magnolia. I mean, it’s basically “You thought I was Alternis, but it’s actually me, his twin who you’ve never met!” but with the added bonus of “how did you dimension hop?”

A painting of Yōko fighting unidentified warriors. Ringabel calls them the Planeswardens, the group he’s taken up working for. They... warden planes. Which is to say they defend alternate realities. According to him, Yōko only wishes to create chaos, nothing more

“Growing as a human being is about more than drudging up old fears and traumas...” God, I missed ya, Bel

And the Planeswardens have classified Yōko as an S-rank Malevolent Spirit of Concern. So she’s dangerous, though I’m willing to listen to her spiel, at least. The most she’s done so far is emotionally traumatize us, right?

She’s over 4.6 billion years old? Because that’s just how long she’s been on Luxendarc, she’s actually older than that. Do... do you people know how time works??? (Evidently not because no one in the Glanz Empire did, but still) That’s a LONG TIME, GUYS!

No. NO. Do NOT cut to Ringabel, standing alone, going “No matter what the cost, I must defeat her!” I already had one unexpected favorite dumb blond boy sacrifice himself this game, I’m not letting you do it to the other one, too!

So Ringabel and Denys for Bravely Third party when?

And according to Greide’s journals, Foundar’s dying message was basically “If you have more than one son, have them duke it out. Winner gets his inheritance, loser is either his brother’s servant or dead. That applies to every generation after me. Have fun, losers!”

“Fear the Eye of Foundar.” What IS IT. What can it DO. Do I have to worry for my boys because I’m already worrying you don’t need to make it worse

To enter Yōko’s shrine, you have to decipher Foundar’s code using the symbols carved into the walls of the crypt. And you have to do it on your own. You cannot tell anyone how. Only then can you hope to know if you are even qualified

...Greide didn’t write “Fear the Eye of Foundar.” It simply appeared in his locked journal after he deciphered Foundar’s texts

YEEEEEEEEEW I think your family’s cursed. There’s some fucked up demon magic going on here and I DON’T LIKE IT. We gotta go get Denys. Like, now. I think you’re both doomed but he’s doomed and without Celestial guidance. And also trapped with a horse

Year AO 3. I think this is from Foundar. Proposed to by the pope’s daughter, then he spoke to Yōko at her shrine, describing her as “pitiful”

The “promise” was Foundar’s to Yōko. A task he needed someone with “the vast wealth needed to support a million souls, great military strength enough to strike down a thousand political foes, and technology advanced enough to grant a hundred men hundred-year lives” for. Greide suspects that those who failed Foundar’s request for his descendants gave up on the last part, with the Eye warning them of failure

Yōko was put to sleep to contain the first Plague. If you seal her inside the girl... the Plague returns because now the girl has it

Greide what... “Well, I didn’t get an ominous demonic message on the last page, so I should be good to go on the fulfilling Foundar’s promise thing!” N... no???

So first he wanted fame. Then he wanted the “power” Yōko bestowed on Foundar that caused his meteoric good fortune and rise through the ranks. Not a single shred of selflessness, as befitting a man named “greed”

Confirmation that Yōko had the Plague sealed within her and was put to rest in the shrine to keep it from infecting Luxendarc. I see we’ve got a morally grey fox demon here. For all she tries to help, it may do more harm than good sometimes

Greide was legitimately shocked that the Origin Plague spread as the Great Plague. His decision to poison those on their ships was due to a message from the Pope claiming he wouldn’t let any potential carriers dock

The Plague had one clear physical identifier on the effected: a star-shaped pattern on the pupil. He killed anyone he saw with that mark, and apologized to both the girl and Yōko sealed within her, who Foundar had wished to save and who he had failed

God, that star mark is just... ripe for a scene of someone turning around and having it in their eye as a dramatic reveal. If it doesn’t happen in this game I feel it’ll probably happen in a potential Bravely Third

“To my sons, and my son’s sons... I leave you this message: Blame me. Hate me. And then lead the church and this world on to a path which will ultimately eradicate the Plague that the fox girl so desperately wished to contain. To my sons... To all who come after me... Fear the Eye of Foundar. But do not fear failure.” And in the end... a moment of clarity. Who is right? Yōko or Greide, two tellers with biases that are different but no less strong?

I have never felt the pull of a sequel hook so strong in my life

Oooooh hello! Tent event with Ringabel!

And after giving him coffee, Yew and Magnolia make a hasty retreat so the Default crew can get some reminiscing done

Yes. Call Agnès. Get the quartet together again

Oh fuck Alternis picked up ABORT. ABORT.

So Agnès had him take her calls while she was in the bath, and now The Dim Twins are arguing

So Ringabel saved Braev and Alternis after the Kaiser’s attack during the first timeline. Alternis, did you not recognize your own damn voice when he saved you?

“Did you say Agnès was in... the bath?” *Edea whips her head to look at Ringabel faster than I can blink* Boooooooy you’re in... hot water now

...never change, Bel. Never change.

Did Yōko eat the team’s breakfast? The monster. Now she’s done it!

I’m gonna kick her ass and become a fox demon myself!

Yōko, that’s an amazing sword. I super love it. God, the pale pink fire theme? So rad

OH HOLY SHIT. Ringabel jumps in at random points in the fight to do his special attack!? THAT’S AMAAAAAAAZING. Love’s Vagrant may as well just be the battle theme at this point and I looooooooove iiiiiiiiiit

So, hey. Game. I see you can do this? Have a guest party member during a fight? Why couldn’t you do this with Denys!? Especially during the Diamante fight! It’s like literally every boss in Chapter 6 is designed to remind you how stupid Denys’s sacrifice was!

And Yew and Yōko‘s conversation is really something. She accuses him of bearing the sins of his forefathers, and when he tries to assert that he is himself, not Foundar OR Greide, and therefore shouldn’t be held accountable for their actions, she accuses him of denying his family. And that he sounds just like all the rest of them. Full of sentiment and idealism... and ultimately just as flawed and helpless and self-serving

So, hey, first of all leave my boy alone? Yew’s doing his best and has been this whole game. He’s the sweetest kid. You are not allowed to speak to him like that. I’ll kick your ass

Second, it just really goes to show how both Yew and Denys have spent their whole lives trying to fix a problem that shouldn’t have been theirs to fix. And it goes to show what great foils they are to each other. Denys instantly took the weight of their sins on himself, accepted them as a problem he had to fix, and dedicated his life to doing so by actively denying any good that came out of their actions and trying to undo it all. Yew is the one denying that it should be his problem to fix, yet he’s the one who accepts that what happened happened and is trying to fix the problem by looking at what went wrong and what went right and trying to smooth out the rough edges. It’s an interesting dichotomy of the acceptance-denial theme present in the narrative, where you could say that Yew’s denial led to a form of acceptance, and that Denys’s initial acceptance led to a form of denial that later had to be worked back into acceptance, but a less extreme kind

I LOVE YOU RINGABEL

God, he’s going, like, every turn! He’s using every weapon in the book! THIS MAN IS UNSTOPPABLE

Man, and a boss that doesn’t revive? I love this quest

And changing jobs back, I see we’ve unlocked something I’ve known about for a while: Job Level 11, the hidden level. 9999 JP? That’s actually not an awful requirement

The final truth. The song of Altair is playing (and his bestiary entry has him mention that Yōko is familiar). One day, two people appeared on a glimmering ship, travelers from another world. Yōko aided them, as they looked for a way back to their own world. But a disease from their world that they had been studying in their ship’s lab escaped, and mixed with a disease from Luxendarc to create the Plague. Yōko feared for the people of this world that she loved, so she sealed the Plague inside herself and then sealed herself away, so that none could get sick again. People began to worship her as a god and built her a shrine, until eventually they, too, fell (I imagine this is Wa, the nation that sank beneath the sea eons ago, mentioned in various weapon notes, most notably katanas and other Japanese weaponry. It would explain the Japanese aesthetic of Yōko). 2400 years ago, the subject of our final painting (maybe? Nice mustache either way), Foundar, found her (..heh) and promised that while he didn’t have the means to help her, one day he would have one of his descendants free her from the Plague and her self-imposed imprisonment. Greide sealed her inside the girl to transport her to Gathelatio so that they could use their medical equipment to cure her... and we all know how that ended. It all destroyed any sense of goodness and love left within Greide, the would-be savior of a doomed spirit whose overconfidence led to a Plague that destroyed half of his world’s people

Hey, somebody hug my crying boy? Somebody hug Yew for me? Please? ...please?

Yōko is grateful to both Foundar and Greide. Foundar couldn’t save her, but could inform her that an old friend of hers was safe. Greide freed her, and even though he killed her host and left them beneath the sea, he did help end the Plague as she always wanted

Yew doesn’t even have anything to say. It’s his turn to shape the future? It is. But I know he’s gonna make it a better place

And Ringabel has to go. He wasn’t even supposed to let us know it was him; his superiors forbid it. But Yōko essentially turned this castle into a pocket-dimension that she regulates, so he figured he could reveal himself without his bosses knowing

“Edea, I never left you and I never will. Wherever... whenever you are in peril, there I will be!” ...Edea has died more than anyone else in my party, to the point where she’s a full half a level down from everyone else, even in the mid-70s. You’re sweet, but you’re doing a terrible job, pal

And to Magnolia, a job: with Yōko gone, there isn’t anyone to hold her Sins back, and they have been unleashed. (Dark summons!) No one knows fighting unearthly demons like Magnolia!

And his request to Tiz: tell Agnès he says hi. She’s the only friend he never got to see again (thanks, Alternis)

Wow, way to just warp out in a flash of light. Later, ass! You couldn’t just escort us to the door? (Trash fav)

WOW that was a dense quest. Goodness. And it’s still technically not done! I’ve got Sins to snag! But holy shit, why couldn’t the other sidequests in the game be like this? I mean, there was plot relevance! Character focus! Backstory! I’m so glad the Chapter 6 quests managed to be so good, it’s just a shame there weren’t more of them!

So the Adventurer’s fox opened a high level magic shop and... taaaaalks? This isn’t Persona 4, why is there an entrepreneurial fox here?

Hey, you shadowy DICK. What’s the Eye of Foundar!? I read the notes, fess up! Do I have to start worrying for my two favorite boys or what!?

And now he says nothing. Cool. Thanks. If anything happens to Yew or Denys I’m coming after you first

(So I think the reason my 3DS screen goes black when I put it down sometimes is because I’m putting it down on on my computer, where there’s magnets to keep it closed when I fold the screen down)

Ooooooooh looking for the Sins I found the hidden village of Chompshire in the Yulyana region. That’s what that owl guy meant during the Grandship quest

I mean it’s really pretty. Seems like an easily missable area unless you’re going for completion. Not bad, just not super important

So let’s get this show on the road and see what these sins are all about, huh?

The first sin is Asmodeus, the embodiment of lust. I mean it’s freaking sick looking? Like a floating cloak with a bunch of snake heads? There’s a blood moon rising in the background. And the battle theme rocks. I mean that literally, we have wailing guitars and some riff that sound like old-school Final Fantasy songs. Which, I mean, I guess that makes sense, since I think these guys are supposed to be cameos from Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light (I have a friend who played that game a lot). The Adventurer’s a cameo, too, since Bravely was originally envisioned as a spiritual sequel to that game. Neat trivia

Okay??? It can imprison people in the Infernal Realm??? Not my boy! Bring Yew back!

Hey, he did. Thanks, you demonic monstrosity!

Guys, you look winded. That fight wasn’t that bad. Bit worrying, I guess, what with the Infernal Realm nonsense, but not awful

Sin 2 is Beelzebub, the manifestation of gluttony. I honestly have no idea how Magnolia knows what these guys are and their names, but whatever. It’s a head wearing a crown with some squid tentacles. The sky is red. He’s classified as a bug? Do enough damage while it’s in Gluttony mode (all attacks heal instead of hurt) and it dies instantly. Which is what I did. Later, doofus!

Next up is Mammon, the being of avarice (aka greed for non-pretentious folks). It’s a chick with wings, fox-like ears, and four, clawed arms coming out of her back. Her Avarice attack lets her steal the whole party’s BP, so it’s a bit of a waiting game at times.

Died the first time after getting very close and then getting wiped, level grinded everything to max in between then and the second time. I don’t forsee any more combat deaths, I’ll tell you that much

Oh, it’s a “he” according to the Bestiary? Alright.

And now we have Belphegor, a creature of sloth. And... hey, I thought I recognized this guy when fighting Yōko! It’s a weird furry guy sitting in a wheelchair. I fought this guy as a Norende Nemesis last game! He was one of the few I did. How do you like us now, man?

Okay, scratch that “no combat problems” thing this asshole absorbs anything that isn’t magic of the specific element he’s weak to. Yew? Darling boy of mine? Think you can Spellcraft Summon him into oblivion?

Atta boy

Well kids, let’s go kill Satan, the manifestation of wrath. With all the ranting I do sometimes, you guys sure I’m not the manifestation of wrath? I will say, this is probably the coolest depiction of a wrath-based foe I’ve ever seen? I mean, it’s a buff guy with four arms each holding swords, a torn black cloak, and his head doubles as a helmet and a full blown furnace! No wonder we’re fighting him near the Eisen volcano, he fits right in!

I looooooooooove Meteor Raiiiiiiiiiiin

And on to Leviathan, the manifestation of envy. AKA a bunch of wiggly serpents that go offscreen. Joke’s on you, jackass. I have Yew Geneolgia, destroyer of all on my side. Boy’s a terrifying spellcaster now

See, this is what happens when you let Yew do what comes easily to him instead of trying to make him be a swordsman like his brother. He becomes THE MOST POWERFUL BOY

Guess he had a turtle shell head? I dunno, he died too fast

And for the last one, no one’s surprised by their appearances anymore. Heck, the team’s enjoying it! It’s Lucifer, the manifestation of pride. Guy took the “fallen angel” thing and ran with it. It’s a suit of armor with a double angel wing on one side and a feathery sword-wielding arm on the other. And a dog head on its belly that bites? A’ight, man, you do you

I love my powerful magic son

And it seems Yōko’s left Yew a note thanking him. Good! You’d better thank Yew, specifically, because he did all the work!

That was an interesting sidequest... related thing? I will say, the most interesting part of it is the Bestiary entries, which take the real-world stories of these demons and comes up with Luxendarc analogues for the stories. It paints a really interesting picture of their world, but other than the references to real-world religious figures I don’t have much to say about it

Okay, I know Agnès’s hint line of “Yew... where are you going!?” is supposed to be referencing the fact that he shouldn’t know where Anne is and the player does, but considering that since we left Caldisla we’ve:

Trekked down to Vampire Castle and hung out there for a long while for seemingly no reason to an outsider

Flown across the world, stopping at various points to fight high-ranking demons in no particular order

Walked around in circles in Florem Gardens for, like, 10 or 15 hours to level grind (and bounced around to various shops to blow off the excess cash)

And gone in for a few last-minute Bestiary entries that I knew the locations of

I mean... it’s a valid question. Like, from her perspective we probably look completely insane. Or, since it’s Agnès, like we’re just as directionally challenged as she is. I didn’t do anything here I didn’t do with you last game, Agnès, but I promise. Next time...

We’re gonna go save Vega.

#bravely default #bravely second #liz liveblogs bravely second #denys may be gone from the narrative but he lives on in a dozen admonishments in the liveblog

[ficdirectory]

The Crossing (Disuphere series #3) Chapter 8

Scene II: Topsy Turvey

The rest of Monday and all of Tuesday had been so busy, between meetings, work, talking to her parents and the arrival of her costume room table (at her door the minute she got back from work) that she hadn’t been able to spare a thought for Jesus.

She spends part of Tuesday afternoon erecting her costume room table (easy enough that it only took a few minutes.)  When it’s all set, she proudly takes a pic and sends it to Family Chat for Dad mostly, to see that her table arrived safe.

He sends a thumbs up but not much else.  Must still be at work.

It doesn’t take Dominique long to start getting lonely here.  Now that she’s gotten successfully through her first day, do her parents have total confidence that she’s fine and doesn’t need them?  Because it’s not like that at all.

She needs them.  Loves them.  Misses them.  More than she ever thought she would.  She was so set on moving out, she hadn’t thought of what a big change it would be.  She gets out her costuming stuff to work on Hermione some more, but seeing the wand Mom made makes Dominique feel more alone than ever.

“Roberta?” Dominique calls.  “Did Dudley eat you?”

From the living room, Dominique can hear the cat’s perturbed response at her insinuation.  Dominique peeks around the doorframe into the living room. Roberta’s yellow eyes glow Halloween-creepy in the dark.

“What are you doing out here alone?  Come in here with me.”

Roberta stays put on the giant green couch.

“Please?” she asks.  “I’ll sing you a song…” she bribes.

Roberta considers this.  

“When I think of home, I think of a place where there’s love overflowing.  I wish I was home.  I wish I was back there with the things I been knowing….”

Roberta’s up and walking toward her just like that.  The Wiz.  Works like a charm.

“Oh, and if you’re listening, God, please don’t make it hard for me to know if we should believe in the things that we see.  Should we run away, or should we try and stay, or would it be better just to let things be?”

Back in the office in “Mom’s” chair, Dominique pats her lap and Roberta jumps into it, purring, to be cuddled.  Dominique wraps a blanket around herself.  Keeps singing:

“Living here, in this brand new world, might be a fantasy. But it taught me to love, so it’s real, real to me.  And I’ve learned that we must look inside our hearts to find a world full of love.  Like yours, like mine.  Like home.”

Roberta nuzzles against Dominique’s hand.  

“I miss them, too,” she says.

She goes to bed early, even though the next day is her day off.  Lena will be here at 10 AM - their agreed upon time - to check in.  

But that night she dreams of awful things.  Pain.  Digital clocks with red numbers marking the long minutes before it was over.

Dominique wakes up sweating.  Swearing.  Screaming.  Even with her noise machine and the bathroom fan on, she’s worried that she might wake up Jesus or any of her other neighbors.  (Someone lives below her.  Someone else next door.)

She half expects someone to come knocking, but no one does.

Dominique gets on her phone.  On Facebook, to see if her survivors group accepted her yet.  They haven’t. But a Google search brings her to a message board with various topics listed.  Dominique clicks ‘Nightmares’ and reads.

It doesn’t take long to realize that reading about other people’s horrors will do nothing to help her sleep.

She stays up late, watching a Harry Potter marathon on TV.  The volume’s on low.  It helps pass the time and the hours drag til daylight.  Then, Dominique can legitimately shower.  Dress.  Be sort of presentable when Lena arrives.

--

Wednesday was lost in a blur of naps, and an irritable as hell mood.  It doesn’t make sense to her at all.  That night brings more nightmares.  Until Thursday morning dawns, and she looks at her phone.  Sees the date: August 27th.

Well, no wonder.

She walks to the elevator like a zombie, hoping for enough time to stop by Starbucks for a grande iced white mocha.  She’d get a trenta, but she doesn’t have a death wish.  Not even today.  If nothing else, today means she lived.

The elevator doors slide open, and Jesus is inside with Dudley.

“Seriously?” she  asks under her breath.

At the same time, Jesus reprimands Dudley, who smells Roberta all over her: “Dudley, seriously?  No.”

“You have Lena, right?  As your person?” he asks as the elevator takes them down.

“Why?” Dominique asks, suspicious.

Jesus shrugs.  (It’s so like her version of Imaginary Jesus that Dominique shivers.)  “Nothing.  Just...my mom’s name is Lena, too.”

“And mine’s name is Jaimie.  What’s your point?” she asks.

“She’s nice.  That’s all,” Jesus says.  “Hey.  Are you okay?”

“Yes, I am okay.  No, I haven’t always looked like this.  Ten years ago today, I was in a car accident.  Satisfied?”  She rushes off the elevator, mortified.  

Her saving grace is that working ‘til 4:30 means that she’ll have at least eight and a half hours to not think about Jesus, and how he left her hanging on Twitter, but now seems just as morbidly curious and rude as everybody else.

--

As much as Dominique had thought that a shift at the hospital would help her forget her trauma, it does the opposite.  Just being there on this day is enough to have her tense and watchful the whole time.  She hopes she doesn’t see Bev or any of the other nurses she knows.  She doesn’t want anybody connecting the dots about what day it is.

Doesn’t want anybody trying to say the right thing and ending up putting their foot in their mouth wishing her a “happy anniversary” on a day that is so mixed, at best.

She survived, and that’s great, and she is happy for that, but this is also a day that represents a Before and an After all its own.  A day when Dominique’s body was totally, irrevocably changed.  Her arms, her neck, part of her face, her legs.  All different now.  All scarred.  And not in a way she can hide, unless she decides to put serious work in, which she does.  She wears long sleeves under her scrub top.  Wears makeup and a wig each day.  But she’s still beyond self-conscious that someone might see something - say something - about scars she can’t cover.  By her ear, or on her hands.

It’s what made her react badly to Jesus this morning.  His question about her well-being was often used by perfect strangers as an opening to ask more invasive questions.  Dominique is used to that.  Used to the violation that exists when people she doesn’t know ask her questions.  She just can’t deal with any today.

--

She arrives home by 5 PM, exhausted and ready for bed.  She unlocks the door and lets herself in.  Her phone pings with a text:

Mom:

Dad wants to bring you a cake.

She texts back:

Can you tell him the anniversary is tomorrow?

Mom:

I can tell him you’ll feel more like cake tomorrow.  Lemon?

Dominique:

The bundt cake?  No frosting?

Mom:

You got it.  You okay today?

Dominique:

Not really.  Snapped at some guy in the elevator this AM.

Mom:

Giving you a hard time?

Dominique:

Not sure.

She’s still standing in the entryway, just inside her front door.  It’s closed at her back, but she can definitely hear someone leave something outside for her.

Dominique watches the time - waits a full minute - before daring the stick her head out the door and investigate.  

She sees what was left instantly and brings it inside.  An unbelievably soft gray blanket, and a Tupperware container full of chocolate cookies with marshmallows in them.  Belatedly, she spies the note, taped to the lid of the container:

Anniversary dates are hard.  Hot chocolate cookies and a blanket always help me.  Hope you feel better.  Jesus and Dudley (306)

Dominique:

Just got more cookies than I could ever eat.  You and Dad like hot chocolate ones?

Mom:

From who???

Dominique:

Elevator Guy and his dog.

She turns off her phone before she gets the third degree about Jesus and whether he is cute or not.  Dominique’s not interested.  Not romantically. Now she could use a friend - but definitely not one who would ignore her and then drop stuff off at her door without even knocking.  Doesn’t even wanna give her something to her face.

Roberta’s walked over and is sniffing at the cookies in the container, investigating.  They look like they smell amazing, but Dominique is seriously thinking about dropping everything back off outside his door without knocking.

She’s about to do just that, but when Dominique goes to pick up the container of cookies with the blanket folded on top, she finds Roberta there, on top of both like a queen.

“Oh, you think that’s yours now?”

Roberta purrs.

“We’re not keeping it…” she warns.

Roberta’s tail flicks back and forth.  She’s so happy.  Dominique hates her a little.

“Traitor,” she mutters and seriously thinks about tipping Roberta off her throne to have a cookie, but thinks better of it and sits on the couch, launching into the last verse of No Good Deed from Wicked.

“No good deed goes unpunished.  All helpful urges should be circumvented.  No good deed goes unpunished.  Sure, I meant well, but look at what well-meant did…”

Dominique isn’t sure if she’s singing to Jesus, or to herself.

(It’s easier to be annoyed, easier to sing, than to admit that Jesus and his niceness is scaring the crap out of her.)

#fic: the crossing

[rkcheri]

#interview: halloween edition ! ° [ + ] lee, jihyun —————— ✦ ˟   › ! royal survival &. episode five: interview   ┄ ·˚₊

the last time she had an interview of this magnitude had been during dream high. a panel of the cast and crew, stacked side by side; each with their own questions to answer -- their own smiles placed right before the camera. at the time, she wasn’t alone. if she messed up, she had daehyun or hongbin -- someone else to tide the question in their direction, garner a laugh out of the press and that’d be it. it’d be a mishap of nerves and end on an abnormally good note.

but this, these were the types of interviews she had always dreaded. where lee jihyun had no one else to rely on but herself; and she knew deep down, she didn’t have the patience nor courage to find that type of self-empowerment. two weeks couldn’t help instill it, either. with these types of interviews, it was more dog-eat-dog than pansies and daisies. 

the ones that drilled question after question, ones far worse than the first. with people who seemed to know every lie even before it was said. she tells herself she knows better than to give too much away. tells herself not to get carried away with the questions that burn holes into her psyche. it’s borderline frightening knowing just one slip-up could land her on a one-way ticket back into the depths of royal’s basement. it brings shivers down her spine just thinking about it. fingers flutter over gold filigree, a brief stand-in for her usual crescent that lays by her collar. it keeps her at ease, only for a moment. it’s a brief summoning, a wishing away of nerves.

the calm before the storm, that is, until one of the producers emerges from the shadows, in tow are the dispatch reporter and the camera operator. at least this time, it’s not under the guise of flashing lights and the scrutiny of more than a dozen pairs of eyes.

two pairs will do.

jihyun emerges from her seat, bent at the waist as she greets them; hand already out, taken by the reporter within a moment’s notice.

       ❛ hello,  ❜  comes the rosy tones, soft and light -- breezy.                                             ❛ i’m lee jihyun.  ❜

their eyes meet and jihyun feels the loss of words; a slack of jaw from the immediate contact. a ringing in her ears; a little spew of dizziness that catches her, their own intensity blinding her momentarily. hands slip from grasps; seats are taken. her smile resonates, catching up to the slew of stolen grace that had consumed her seconds earlier. from the nonchalant chatter to get the interview off it’s feet to the more long-winded roles of family, allows the conversation to occur without spontaneous pausing. it keeps her at ease, talking about something that genuinely makes her happy. it was no secret how close jihyun was to her family, if any indication of having them plastered all over her social media had any say on it. despite the enormous distance laid between them, she tried to stay connected.

                        ❛ so, you said you were born in busan --                                but we’ve found that your family                                currently resides in new york ? ❜

there’s a laugh wedged in there somewhere, properly placed; hidden behind her smile as she recounts fond memories, not so nice times and the more lighter half of her childhood. “i was born in busan but when i was eight, my family and i moved to the states. we ended up staying in new york, or well -- they ended up staying in new york while i came back.” it’s a white lie -- a deviance of the actual tales that laid between the time she left home and the time she actually came. but she knows, that’s the least of the public’s worries. none of that really needed to be known, anyways.

                        ❛ that must’ve been hard -- leaving korea at such                            a young age and beginning again, elsewhere.                            was new york not what you expected, is that                            why you came back to south korea ?  ❜

she keeps her eyes softer than usual, placed in contact at all times -- attention give wholeheartedly to the reporter. not staring but not gazing, either. it’s a battle of wills to keep them from slipping, from fingertips tapping and legs shaking. fingers are crossed between the other, laid in her lap; one ankle over the other. oh, how her mother would be so proud! all those years of etiquette and it seemed today of all days did they finally pay off.

“it was hard, at the time.” she nods, a slow drawl of her words; reciting them once before reiterating them again silently. it’s a slow rush of emotions, a reel of memories that begin at once.  “i was young, i’ve never really been anywhere else but we went for my mom. it was a great opportunity for her; and i had my family, and at the time, it was all i needed.” she consumes too much of nonchalant comments, answers unsaid questions where they’re otherwise not needed. it’s too much going on and she has to pause to actually think of what the reporter was asking of her, what he had actually wanted to know. “but new york was my mom’s big break, as i got older, i realized i wanted my own. i wanted to find my own place where i knew i could shine. and i left knowing that new york wasn’t it.”

                        ❛ your mother ? you mean, lee miyeon or, georgiana,                           as broadway knows her.                            she’s rather famous in america, isn’t she ?                           do you think her success has helped you ?                           perhaps, paved the way to where you are today ? ❜

only a few questions in and already jihyun feels the nip of frost; the closing of one chapter and the entrance of another -- training wheels loosened and the wolves were eager with hunger. the only sheep she can find was the one stacked right before her own wolf; recorder split between them. the producer at the side the least bit of help as the questions slowly begin to escalate. she shifts in her seat, uncrosses her ankles to cross them another way. breathes in twice, blinks a few more times than necessary. 

“i-,” a precursor lies between her words; picks up time where there isn’t any to be found. “i wouldn’t say so.” it’s denial at it’s finest. the first string to the many she’s upped her arsenal in. she knows to be prepared but how much is an understatement as she’s currently understanding.

“my mom is my idol, the very first role model i’ve ever had -- she chased her dreams and got to where she was because she never stopped believing in her own.” she tries to fill in the gaps the best she can; finding words that test the questions in a different way. drives them further from negativity and spins them where they can only be sought as positively. “i can’t say her success hasn’t impacted me, because personally -- her success incited a determination in me like hers. it taught me to not give up so easily, no matter the obstacle. i can say, from the bottom of my heart, that i wouldn’t be here without her or my family. they have supported my dreams since the beginning, like we’ve supported hers, and i think that it has helped me the most.”

she breathes, calms her nerves -- an overactive high that diminishes the moment she sees the reporter nod. a sliver of a smile. jihyun isn’t sure how to take the reaction but easily deduces it with a grain of salt. she’s survived the first string of bullets drawn her way, would the rest be avoided just as easily?

                        ❛ it seems you’re set on being an idol --                            if you had the chance, no -- if you were born again,                            would you want to be an idol ?  ❜

she counts the significance of this question on a single hand -- the amount of times it’s been heard is laughable to a fault. as a child of few expectations and a little too much indecisiveness, her parents had constantly prompted her on trivial questions. from the very first time to the last second before she left new york, each time was more different than the last. to hear it again, after years of having her heart set on consistency, brings her back. jihyun’s smile is a little more fonder, kept in that easy grace unlike the last question had -- as if she’s taken back eons to a better time.

“i think, in another life -- i wouldn’t want to be an idol. i think the purpose of having a different life is to do something new, try to become someone your other life was unable to be -- become. i’m not sure who i’d be but i don’t think i’d want to become an idol, it’s as if i’m putting this life to shame by trying to redo it again.” was she making any sense, it’s a twist on words -- a real tongue-twister to try to put things in a more theoretical aspect. but it’s all jihyun can do to make it a little more her, revealing enough -- but not too much -- of what and how she thinks.

“i’d like to think that when i’m gone from this life, i lived it to the fullest it could be -- with no regrets, whatsoever. as idealistic as it may be, that’s how i want to live my life.”

                        ❛ i see. it seems like you’ve already got your life planned                            ‘til the very minute detail. do you know where                             you’d be in five years, where you see this life headed ?  ❜

the way the reporter weaves to and fro between the questions varies upon intensity; it’s a whirlwind ride trying to react accordingly to what they’re trying to provoke from her. she wants to stay passive but it’s unlike her to let the conversation escape from her grasp without some kind of emotion leaving her. not yet the industry robot, not too far set in her ways, does she let slip the thinnest hum from her lips.

“it seems like i do, right? i don’t, actually. if i did -- i probably wouldn’t be trying my luck on this show if i already knew where my life was headed. i guess, that’s the thing with life; it’s full of surprises. as for me, i’m always ready for what it has in store for me that i stopped trying to predict what will happen next. if i get my hopes up too high for it to,” she bites her tongue; a small reminder that what she’s saying hits a little too close to home ( wasn’t it just a month ago she was almost on the out ? ); “... fall, that wouldn’t be living my life to the fullest, would it?”

                        ❛ you’re rather optimistic, lee jihyun-sshi.                            that optimism must have helped during the last                            three years. was it worth it -- being a trainee this                            long when most of the girls on the show are younger,                            have been training less than you have;                        are on the same level as you, someone who has                            trained longer, is older than they are ?                            do you feel at a disadvantage ? ❜

an avoidance of ums and uhs are hard to come by when one is put on the spot, especially when they’re taken off guard. thinking the worse had already come had been a premature, rookie-esque mistake. it seemed the dispatch reporter had more in store for her than she thought. her eyes stray from their piercing gaze, the first time despite the lengthy interview, that she does. a moment’s notice delayed as she tries to come up with her best options, none of which require her to faint, run out of the room, or embark on a vicious tantrum because suddenly she’s left speechless. none of them are things she’d really do, but it was worth a shot if it meant avoiding answering such a question. one of which -- had always seemed to come back and bite her in the ass.

“i admire my peers, they’re so young and have so much potential ahead of them but it’d be far too unrealistic for me to think i’m at a disadvantage.” it’s the best way she can say her deepest desires without stepping on too many toes. it’s also the only way she’d be able to answer the question with the least bit of spite she knows she’s harboring. because it is true, the others were younger, they had less time on their hands unlike she, out of the royal trainees who were showcased on the show, had the longest rapport with their company. it was unfair, but was life. you didn’t always get what you wanted, something she’s known for much longer than she liked to admit. “i know where my strengths are and i know i can do that better than anyone else can.”

she knows it sounds cocky, but jihyun did know where her potential, her own worth lied within the company. whether she would debut this term or not, she couldn’t decide that but that didn’t mean she wasn’t worth it. jihyun knew she was talented, nothing was going to change that.

( at least, that was what she was going to keep telling herself )

                       ❛ optimistic and confident. but of course, that’s in your ...                           talent. what about your looks ? you’re not getting any                           younger, have you ever thought about going under                           the knife or have you done so, already? ❜

the interview seems to keep fishing, a long reel of words that come up are suddenly up for repetition; trying in earnest to find what made her tick. they all are meant to provoke and so do they; it causes discomfort where usually there would be none. but it’s hard to deflect when all your shields are diverted like a leaf in the wind; blown away by the big, bad wolf. 

“i’ve thought about it, sure -- who hasn’t. and if they say they haven’t, they’re lying.” it buys the least bit of time and will probably be the worst part of her commentary for the time-being for such a touchy subject but it’s what’s done and there’s no way she can take it back especially when she’s already feeling the after effects, the exhaustion that comes from sitting and allowing such questions to be said. “i guess, if you think i’ve done something i guess it really says something about my genetics. which, i have my mom to thank for -- i guess i’m pretty as i am because of her.” though, she’s sure -- among the contestants, she was far from the prettiest but it does say something about being thought to have gone under the knife. did she look fake or was she just that pretty?

                        ❛ don’t worry, lee jihyun-sshi, we’re about done.                            the last question, i promise it’s an easy one.                            what’s it like being on stage ? is there something                            you’d rather have in exchange ? ❜

"there’s a dozen of things that come to mind that i wish could be exchanged for the feeling i get from being on stage but it’s not the same. the feeling i get from being on stage is different than anything else i’ve experienced and it’s weird to think about. because i’m young -- well, not that young but i consider myself young enough to not have experienced enough, yet. i’ve still got a whole life to live but for now, i don’t think there’s anything that i would want to exchange for the feeling i get when i’m on stage. it’s a euphoria of some kind, different than adrenaline or any other joy that comes to mind. i’m just happier, when i’m on stage. i feel like i can do anything, conquer the world, maybe? or -- like i’m on top of the world, for that matter.” fingers push her fringe from her eyes, heartfelt as her smiles becomes one with the warmth bearing from deep brown and hazel. “i’m just better when i’m on stage.”

                       ❛ and that’s a wrap !                          thank you for your time, lee jihyun-sshi. ❜

it’s the end in the ongoing torment she feels has yet to cease but a good in between nonetheless. a breather, if there ever was one, was necessary and the tiny gap they had given her allows her smile to form. she nods, happy for the small ease; a breakaway from the tension that had filled her shoulders from the last question.

                         finally, it was over.

the niceties come in and out, as quick as their faces come and go. jihyun pays her respects and bends at the waist, falls in line with the way they disappear without a moment’s notice before taking her seat once more. a final breath appears from thin air and she’s left exhausted by their long interrogation of this and that. now that it was finally over, she felt relieved. as if a weight, among the many that have left her this season, had been lifted. 

but eerily, it feels too good to be true. she rises from her seat, left to mingle by her lonesome. it’s the first in the hour she’s been in the room, that she’s actually had the time to venture throughout it. going through the beautifully and intricately designed costumes to pass the time, who knows when they’ll be back. she’s hesitant at first, reaching out for a moment only to pull back, doubting her actions as she moves away from the mannequins that held the pieces. 

jihyun turns away from them, ready to take her seat once more only to hear a slight buzz. was it the halloween spirit or were her ears playing tricks on her? her neck cranes, turning slight to spy her mannequins from behind. they didn’t look like they had moved but one couldn’t be too sure, now? especially with the season of tricks and treats upon them, who really knew what the producers had up their sleeves. 

or perhaps, she was overthinking it. maybe nothing was going on -- maybe it was all in her head. that was the way to go, jihyun thinks. there was no way that mannequin had moved. no way. 

at least -- until it decided to crumble right before her eyes, body parts flung about to lay by her feet; tearing an atrociously sized rip in one of the dresses. 

if her blood-curling scream wasn’t enough, her scampering away from the scene should have been a feast for the eyes that caught her red-handed. heeled soles kicking away the pieces of mannequin that lay demolished by her side. her expression a picture-perfect scene of fright. 

“i-i-” the stutters begin, as fingers try to push away tresses from her eyes; the color having yet to return to her face.

the designer, she presumes is the one that flies right past her to the dress; picking up the pieces with disgusted fingertips. her own screams of disbelief outdoing her own that have finally ceased. all she can hear is the heavy beating of her frantic heart in her ears and the newly-unveiled place of blame that has hounded her heavy shoulders.

“WHAT DID YOU DO ?!” she hollers and jihyun feels herself shrink further; shame reveling in every pore and frame. she’s actually trembling, hands unable to shake the quivers that unnerve her from seeing the mannequin actually break before her eyes. was it work of a ghost? was the studio actually haunted?

the accusations come flying; like bullets, far more severe than the questions she had just answered. they hit every bone and fragment that laid her as an easy target. she’s unable to defend herself except for the vowels that seem to compromise her very being. “i-i didn’t mean to, well -- i didn’t. i mean -- it,” her fingers rattle, shamefully pointing at the disembodied mannequin. 

“are you blaming the mannequin?” the producer asks in disbelief, one that mirrors her own. was she really blaming an inanimate object right now? but who else could she rely on than her own two eyes -- she had seen what had happened, but could they really be able to verify what she said was true? even jihyun was a little freaked from the words that were coming from her own lips. 

“i can’t believe this.” 

neither can i -- almost comes jihyun’s own remarks but she’s far too frazzled by the mess to even be spited from the other’s hostility towards her. 

“y-yes, i mean-- no! it is my fault, i wasn’t looking where i was going and i must have bumped into the mannequin and caused it to fall.” in the end, there’s no knowing what had happened -- even jihyun, who had seen what happened, didn’t really believe it. a mannequin moving on its own accord, what was this -- a horror flick? “i didn’t mean for this to happen --”

“i really am sorry,” here comes the excessive pleading, the apologizing that comes when someone is caught red-handed with their dirty hands in the cookie jar. though, right now it is sans the dirt nor the jar; but she feels burdened enough by shouldering the blame. there was no real way to prove it wasn’t her, so why should she continue spouting nonsense when it’d get her no where?

fingers run through her hair, eyes darting back and forth to the crazed designer and the frustrated producer; her own expression probably one of downright dismay with a sprinkle of fear mixed into the mess. “i’ll try to pay for it in whatever way i can -- i don’t have a lot but i can work for it. it looks like it cost a fortune, i’ll do everything in my power to fix this. i’m really sorry for this.” she knows it sounds like excuse after excuse but there’s no way she can avoid it -- not when she’s already knee deep between the two. could this get any worse? “it won’t happen again, i’m so sorry.”

leave it to good o’ halloween to be up to his dirty tricks.

#royalsurvival4 #oh h god hopefully the pacing of the questions is smooth bc dear god this took forever to right #a k a jihyun just doesnt know whent o s h u t up #( * ✦ ∙ —— royal survival . ) #( * ✦ ∙ —— royal forever . ) #tw: plastic surgery #i wanted ot answer the dating questions but this was getting / too / long and i did / not / want to have to divide this into two solos #or how long this took me to write ... bc ... / l o n g / #solo

[crashingmeteorz]

when witches go riding

a little autumnal story i wrote about two people i really, really wanted to get along.

word count: 1.6k.

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I never wanted to be a mother.

I tried, desperately, to tell my own mother this before she brought him home, but she just shrugged me off. He was an obnoxious, mewling thing, that I'd been bestowed.

It didn't help that he was a complete idiot. I did not work well with fools.

At first, I did not come home in protest. If my mother wanted a baby boy so badly then she could rear him herself. Certainly the winter snow was unforgivable, and there were creatures far harsher than I was out in the vast expanse of our woods, but I was perfectly capable of taking care of myself. I'd learned to hunt at a younger age than most, and even had my own makeshift shelter beneath the trees. I could last out there 'til spring if I needed to.

Until that little wretch was out of the house and on the streets again.

My mental resolve, however, was not quite as strong as my physical. On the third night of my disappearance, I watched my house from the woods. My mother, that devious woman, stood on the porch calling my name. Upon listening closely, it became painfully clear she was crying. I was no monster; to know she suffered because of my absence was enough to draw me towards her.

I waited until she looked about ready to give up, and then tip-toed up the porch steps. We locked eyes for a moment and my mother gasped. We did not need to speak, for we never had need to speak. I slipped in the door, and she followed joyfully behind me.

Of course, as I sat at the kitchen table, as my mother began to prepare my favorite dinner, the baby appeared in the kitchen as well. His hair was as patchy as I'd remembered, black as night and falling everywhere about him. He stumbled as he walked, and cried loudly to no one in particular.

He was, I thought, very ugly.

"You wouldn't have lasted an hour out there," I hissed at him contemptuously, for this fat, dim-witted babe would have died as soon as he stepped foot in the snow. He quieted at my insult, but lumbered towards me still, bold as anything. Sitting on the floor at the foot of my chair, he looked up at me, and let out a single curious cry.

God, he was pathetic.

"Fine, fine," I snapped. "What is your name, then?"

"Jamie," the baby told me.

There were certainly worse names in the world.

"Jamie," I said, "leave me be. I must regain my strength. Come spring, we will begin."

"Begin what?" he asked, and for the first time I noticed how green his big, baby eyes were.

"What did I just say?" I snarled. "Leave me be, child.”

Amazingly, he did.

Winter turned to spring, and, keeping my word, we began. I showed him where to hunt, how to sneak up on prey without startling them. He took to it slowly, far too slowly, and I'd often give up and stalk away while he played in the flowers.

His size was his downfall, as he was fatter than I'd ever been, than I'd ever be. He'd have to work twice as hard to keep quiet on a hunt. I'd tell him so, and he'd just laugh.

I taught him the paths in our woods, which, admittedly, he picked up with ease. I was shocked that he could fit so much information in what I had assumed was a pea-brain, but somehow Jamie was an expert navigator.

"I just like exploring, Mama!" he'd tell me by way of explanation as we traversed the little creek beyond the hills.

"Don't call me that," I snapped at him. "And this isn't exploring, it's memorizing. This is survival, Jaimie."

"Okay, Mama," he replied, grinning ear-to-ear and following too-close behind me.

I never wanted to be a mother.

By summer, he was "exploring" without me. I still had to drag him by the scruff of his neck to get even a semblance of a hunt out of him, but he'd learned to lighten his steps at least.

He cried incessantly and loudly, still. It got my mother's attention, so he kept at it, hoping for a treat or toy, but I was not so easily moved. My mother often tried to help me with him, and though she had good intentions, Jamie was bumbling enough without her soft voice and tender touch. He needed to toughen up, and the fact of the matter was this: I could handle the boy myself.

When autumn made its muted debut, leaves crunching underfoot, Jamie had come into his own. His dark hair, once so wild and course, was now soft and neatly-combed. He still lumbered, in my opinion, but he was faster, smarter. His cries, though never entirely gone, had lessened considerably. He still followed too close, talked too much, remained too big, but he was not so intolerable as he was when we first met.

"Jamie," I said to him one cool morning as we sat some distance apart on the porch, surveying the property and the beyond. "You must be careful. All Hallow's Eve is a dangerous time for you."

"I'll be fine, Mama," Jamie replied easily, stretching as he said so. "Besides, I want to see the costumes."

"You'll do no such thing," I hissed furiously at him. "You'll stay inside, where it's safe."

The boy seemed surprised at my outburst - it had been some time since I had snapped at him. But he relaxed quickly and smiled at me.

"Of course, Mama," he reassured me, hoping to quell my fears. I did not trust his promise, or his easy grin.

The neighborhood children were few and far between, one of the pleasures of living far from the rest of the world. Mother still wore costumes despite being grown, and I thought them quite silly, but at least she had never forced me into one. Instead, she let me roam freely as she handed candy out to the little monsters.

I stalked the perimeter, watching for any malicious visitors. I had left Jamie inside, sleeping soundly by the window, but I still was not certain that he would be safe on this wicked night. He was far too trusting, and he had the kind of appearance that attracted heinous activity.

It was nearly midnight, and I felt it safe to retire at last when the drunken witches arrived. They were about mother's age, but far sloppier and stupider than she. The witches stumbled up the drive toward me, and before they could even approach the hair on the back of my neck stood up.

I would not let anyone use my boy in some sick ritual. I would not let them get to Jamie.

They called out to me, hoping, I imagine, for some kind of positive interaction. Their leader, the loudest one, reached out to me. I smacked her square on the cheek, leaving a nasty red mark on her awful face.

The witches shrieked and lashed out at me, but I was much too quick for them. I ran, fast as lightning, behind the house and into my hideout. I heard the wicked women shouting from afar, but they had lost me to the night.

Once their stumbling steps had withdrawn, I crawled out from my hole, breathing a sigh of relief. Certain my job was done, I made my way back to the house.

"Jamie!" I called. "Boy, where have you gone?" He was not by the window, nor anywhere else downstairs.

"Jamie!" I called again, climbing the stairs and peeking into every room. "Boy, come out now!”

I cried his name again and again, turning this way and that. I ran back down the stairs, calling for him still. My mind began turning with the horrible possibilites. I imagined him cut up and made into some witches' brew, his soft body cold and lifeless as they cackled around him. I imagined his long black hair made into mittens. In spite of myself, I let out a wail.

"What's gotten into you?" Mother asked, head tilted curiously.

"Jamie!" I screamed at her, desperately begging her to understand. "My son is missing!"

The room turned about me, and as I stepped one way, my body went entirely another. I screamed and screamed and screamed, and all went black as night.

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-

"Mama?" said a soft, sweet voice I knew well.

"Jamie?" I murmured, opening my eyes to find big green ones staring back at me. "Jamie!"

I rose to my feet, embracing him tightly.

"I'm sorry, Mama. I didn't mean to scare you," he told me sheepishly. "I was sleeping in the closet again."

So he'd been safe all along, while I made a fool of myself! But I could not be angry at him - I had never been so happy in my life.

"My boy, my beautiful boy," I whispered, nuzzling my cheek against his as he hummed delightedly, and it was the most beautiful sound I'd ever heard.

"Would you look at that?" my mother commented smugly as she watched our reunion, no doubt drawn by the volume of our purring. "I told you a little kitty would be good for you, Leila. You needed a friend of your own kind."

Perhaps, in the end, she was right.

fin.

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when my sister moved back in with my family, she brought with her her cat and dog. my dog was very excited to have new friends, my cat...not so much. my cat is very antisocial and grumpy, while the new kitten was sweet as can be and very friendly. literally the nicest cat i’ve ever met. you could pick him up and throw him over your shoulder and he’d just purr. he even made friends with all the persnickety neighborhood cats.

i wrote this story as a hopeful piece that maybe the two felines would get along one day (re.: my cat would stop being dramatic and just get to know him. she actually did run away in the middle of winter when he first came, and i was worried sick for days). to my delight, they finally became friends, nuzzling each other and hanging out together. horribly, my sister’s cat went missing a year later and we never found him. it was well after halloween, but this story made me sad because i felt like i had unknowingly predicted his fate. however when i went back and reread the story, i realized maybe he deserved this happy ending.

so james, wherever you are, in this life or the next, i hope there’s a begrudging mama cat taking care of you. thank you for reading.

(below are two pictures: the first is of my sister’s cat james, and the second is of my cat.)

#happy halloween! #my writing #my stuff

[rkgray]

// zombie apocalypse

those who wanted to join the zombie apocalypse for the night would have to take a side: either be of the last remains of mankind and survive til dawn or turn into a man-eating zombie and become allies with those who hunted visitors down. if he hadn't already chosen out a costume for halloween, gray would have definitely let himself undergo a zombie transformation, as he sometimes wondered how his undead version looked. but then again, he was roaming around with friends and had called themselves zombie slayers as the male was confidently walking around without fear. the zombie staff had avoided him so far, even if he had hoped to experience an attack or at least an attempt to snatch away one of his life bands.

gray had joined forces with other visitors for the escape room games, it had been quite fun to look for a way out of the room, and he was surprised to hold his grounds in solving the riddles. of course he had blanked out, but somehow had still managed to get to the solution with the help of the other participants. with the friends he had met up for a spooky night, he had taken a look at the photobooths and in the end had gotten their picture done in order to remember those little moments of friendship together. he liked fooling around with his buddies, especially in a cool conceptual event like this, wearing a random video game costume that matched with one of his friends.

compared to them however he was on a rather quiet side, which was why he needed a break admist everything, so he wandered around alone to check up on the fooding stalls to fill up his growling stomache. as he appeared to be a easy victim to two staff members, they launched themselves at him, aiming at his life bands on his right wrist. gray reacted fast, and blocked them by turning his back on them, holding his arm in front of him. but since he wasn't too sure if he was allowed to fight back (and an actual zombie would have bitten him by now), the male swirled around, leaving the zombies startled for a moment, as he disappeared into the night of the zombie apocalypse.

#rkzombienight #gray: solo #t: zombie apocalypse #wc: 381