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creativenicocorner · 6 months

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Seeing your opinions on writing dialogue in other languages in fic was really neat. It seems like you put a lot of thought into how you handle dialogue and it made me curious about how you approach this in A Funny Old World. When Moist meets everyone, is he speaking Japanese? Do you have Morporkian and Japanese as being the same language in this fic or is there something else?

♡___〆(��∀・) What a wonderful question @verdigrispatina !! Thank you for asking!!

It's a little tricky in A Funny Old World because it is a bit of everything. Two things are happening that are true:

Moist is from the Discworld (a world as we know strongly powered by belief. Believe something hard enough and it might just manifest in strange and interesting ways.)

Teruki is hinted at actively reading and dreaming about Discworld books ( I said in my fic notes, I'm working under the assumption Japan was very lucky to have all 41 books translated.)

So what happens when these two very true things happen at the same time? And I've sort of built it off of that.

Moist is able to communicate with Reigen and Teruki not only because his book was translated and Teruki was having strong emotions about the series, but also right from the get go Reigen mistakes Moist as Just Some Guy™ -why wouldn't this average looking guy in Japan not know how to speak Japanese? Even if he looks a little foreign, his face is hard to pin down.

In a future chapter when Reigen and Teruki start questioning this a bit more, especially when the three of them grab ramen together, the pair of them can see how strong their influence on Moist can be with their belief.

In the scene not only has them wondering how it is that Moist can communicate with them, but other small things like a seasoned pro (using chopsticks for example), the more Reigen and Teruki start to agree that, maybe it isn't very realistic that Moist would know how to use chopsticks, the more Moist starts gradually not being able to use them and gets increasingly frustrated because: 'I was managing perfectly before!'

This leads to Moist having his own version of the famous Taako Adventure Zone quote: I have emotions! It’s not all abraca-fuck-you and what have you. I have a beating heart! I’m multi-dimensional! I’m a fully-realized creation! FUCK!

That is to say Moist ends up working over time trying to continuously explain that He's a REAL PERSON!! He has a WIFE WAITING FOR HIM!!!! Cue Moist having to believe in his own existence - it gets very existential haha

And YET that too is the power of belief, if Reigen and Teruki don't believe then Moist has to work EVEN HARDER to believe in himself, and his existence. (There's this really silly, but hopefully powerful scene I want to get to, where Moist and Reigen are out on Reigen's balcony while Reigen smokes, and Moist has a rendition of "I miss my wife, Reigen. I miss her a lot." and the scene slowly becomes more and more sobering. Full of complex emotions, leading Reigen to accept that, yes he might be a character from a book, but Moist is also right in front of him with flesh and able to bleed and cry. What's more real than that?)

After all that number 1 detail that is still very true!! Moist IS REAL, REALLY from the Disc. Specifically a post canon Disc, and paired with that, well, I very much like to head canon Fedecks (the pseudo Hermes of the Disc) never really left Moist after what he did in Going Postal. Moist as a character embodies so naturally all the things that Fedecks (Hermes) represents: thieves, messenger of the gods-and messages in general, psychopomp, watcher of travelers and cross roads.

I have a lot of feelings about Moist and his similarities to Hermes, which I hope to explore further in detail in other works (A Runaway's Gamble is for sure one of those works)

That is to say, I like to think Fedecks borrows in Moist, just in there along for the ride in his fancy silly avatar- delightfully curious as to what he'd do next. And because of that, Moist is, unknowingly, a trans-dimensional trickster god. Very human, can still bleed etc, but certain things will work or not work by, essentially, Bugs Bunny Logic (whether it would be funny, or hilariously not funny) and ye olde narrative convention.

Something Moist unknowingly taps into while trying very hard to believe he is real.

The only character who gets close to figuring the whole piggybacking trickster god thing out is Dimple who tries to possess Moist (multiple times). Only to get jettisoned (or self ejects) out after a harrowing encounters with Fedecks.

All this to say, the answer is Yes!

Morporkian is Japanese, because the Discworld books were translated in Japanese. But also, Morporkian is still Morporkian and Moist has a piggybacking trickster god inside that thinks it'd be boring if Moist couldn't use his words.

I hope this made sense, and that I articulated it well!

♡⸜(*ˊᗜˋ*)⸝♡Thank you so much again for asking!!♡

Best wishes, Nico

#Nico Responds #verdigrispatina #Reigen Arataka 🤝 Moist von Lipwig #mp100 #Discworld #Reigen Arataka #Hanazawa Teruki #Moist von Lipwig #mob psycho 100

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felassan · 1 year

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assorted thoughts on DA: Absolution -

IMDB from a month ago was right

it looks good, I'm excited

stacked voice cast

diverse voice cast & characters

Cassandra my beloved

I hope there will be a Season 2

Qwydion 🥺 Vashoth?

the fact that it's been built in close collaboration with BioWare’s creative team (including head writers and lead creative directors), and that it was a big passion project for the show creator, who spent weeks immersed in DA lore to prepare and said they want to make something fans could be proud of.. 👌

"PS: if you’ve read this far, see you on Dragon Age Day. Or maybe sooner" hellooo what does THIS mean 👁️ you have the attention of each one of my many Pride demon eyeballs. another Absolution trailer, episode one or something of Absolution dropping early as a preview, or something like Absolution character profiles or behind-the-scenes/making of reels on or before DA Day? or something for DA:D?

Lords of Fortune once again prominent, again I'm guessing they have a role to play in DA:D

Evariste Lemarque is the latest minor character to ascend in DA's time-honored tradition of Ascended Extras. he was a neat side NPC, I'm looking forwards to seeing his expanded backstory/characterization etc, I love it when DA side characters get some spotlight & fleshing out tbh. he makes sense as a group leader given his history leading the Watcher's Reach refugees. given his appearance in the scene with Cass and Leli and the fact that he can be recruited in DAI as an Inquisition Agent, I guess he is the group's Inquisition contact and that the group are being sent on this quest on behalf of/at the behest of the Inquisition (or Inquisition remnants timeperiod depending). it reminds me a bit of Bull's Charger's, Sutherland's Company, Vaea and co, and the adventuring group questing on behalf of the Inquisition in Genetivi Dies in the End. like a show about an Inquisition War Table mission :) very cool!! the world feels more alive and dynamic when we have the sense that lots of things are happening in the background off-screen around the games

3 fighters, 2 mages and Miriam/a thief, sounds like the classic DA and RPG party with a team leader setup.

the Cass and Leli scene reads like the Inquisition briefing our group on their assigned quest

Miriam's childhood looks like what Fenris' must have been like :( I wonder if the other child in the flashback is her sibling. I wonder if something happened to the other child at the hands of the woman who enslaved Miriam or because of Rezaren, contributing to Miriam's trauma :(

I am once again wondering if, given the heist and thieves plotline, some ideas and aspects from Joplin (with its "spies and heists, secret heroes nobody knows about" vision) were rolled into Absolution. I am also once again thinking about the Magrallen. so our latest macguffin is an extremely dangerous likely Tevinter magical artifact fuelled by blood magic, while the Magrallen was a Tevinter magical device also powered by blood magic which dates back to ancient times, the time of the Dreamers. Titus was using the Magrallen to augment his power, with the intent of restoring Tevinter's greatness using his augmented Dreamer powers to do mind control and brainwashing. he talked about how the ancient Dreamers commanded the fade, "mages sculpting dreams. Dreams sculpting reality". Rezaren also seems to want to build some kind of new, better, grand future for Tevinter regardless of the cost, albeit one that's more righteous and better for everyone involved not just those in power (and the question posed then is: is it ok to fix Tevinter, and create a better future for everyone in it from all parts of the society, if the cost of that is mindcontrolling everyone or whatever else? reminds me a bit of the questions posed by the Control and Synthesis endings in ME). maybe the Circulum Infinitus is a small, mobile/portable version of the Magrallen? it presumably does something similar or adjacent at least. blood magic (and Rezaren appears to be a blood mage) already allows for mind control. With a portable macguffin that boosts blood magic powers, a blood mage could probably mind control many, many people, maybe even a nation or the whole magocracy (all those in power in Tevinter)

the hooded figure with many eyes is tied to the Pride Demon I'm sure

seen a few folks wonder if the horned silhouette is Iron Bull, I don't think this is the case, I think it's the dragon skull/dead dragon from 0:12 in the Absolution teaser trailer

maybe Rezaren and possibly also Tassia are the children of the woman who enslaved Miriam before? Rezaren and the woman's hairstyles and clothes look kind of similar, and that could explain why he's (if it's him) the man at the heart of Miriam's misery. and isn't the flaming sword symbol on Tassia's hammer a version of the Templar symbol? the Imperial Templar Order falls under the authority of the Magisters and the Tevinter Circle of Magi. so for Tassia, as she's dutiful and hardworking, as a dutiful Imperial Templar that could be why she's aiding Rezaren, and her character's personal conflict will be about how much she's willing to stand by and let happen for 'the good of Tevinter', and where exactly she draws the line. if they're siblings, she'd be a non-magic scion of a noble magic house (if Rezaren being born into privilege is anything to go by), and therefore perhaps feel duty-bound to contribute towards the greatness of her house and country in her own, non-magical way, in lieu of being a mage herself.

it threw me for a loop a bit that Matt Mercer isn't voicing the character that looks like Matt Mercer hh

with the way Rezaren sees himself, and the prideful notion he has that he should be the one to build a better Tevinter.. he sounds like precisely the kind of person who would be susceptible to a Pride demon. haha we in danger

what could Hira's secret be? maybe she is a blood mage, that learned the power in order to help her crusade? with her crusade against Tevinter, I wonder if she has crossed paths with Dorian, Mae and the Lucerni

the most powerful man in Tevinter: the Archon? the Black Divine? Rezaren? I wonder if our group are stealing the Circulum from Rezaren or if both they and Rezaren are opposing forces both trying to steal it at the same time from the most powerful man in Tevinter.

#dragon age #dragon age: absolution #bioware #video games #now that i've had a chance to sit down and write em up #cassandra pentaghast #my lady paladin #fenris #the fenaissance #dragon age: dreadwolf #dragon age 4 #the dread wolf rises #da4 #longpost #long post #mass effect

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coraniaid · 9 months

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The Dark Age follows up on the mystery of Giles’s connection to Ethan Rayne that was first revealed in Halloween. In that episode Ethan claimed – and this episode seems to confirm – that there’s more to Giles than his role as “the Watcher: sniveling, tweed-clad guardian of the Slayer.”.

But to actually separate Rupert Giles the man from his role as a Watcher, we have to ask: what does it even mean to be a Watcher?

And I think the show gives us two very different answers to that question.

In Season 1’s Never Kill A Boy On The First Date Giles shares a story about his childhood with Buffy:

“I was ten years old when my father told me I was destined to be a Watcher. He was one, and his mother before him, and I was to be next. [I wasn’t thrilled.] I had very definite plans about my future. [...] My father gave me a very tiresome speech about responsibility and sacrifice.”

Then in The Dark Age (not coincidentally, perhaps, an episode written by the same pair of writers as NKABOTFD) we find out a bit more about Giles’ backstory:

“I was twenty-one, studying history at Oxford. And, of course, the occult by night. I hated it. The tedious grind of study; the overwhelming pressure of my destiny.”

Since the Buffy writers are no friends of subtlety, the parallels this suggests with being called as a Slayer are made explicit in the text. In Never Kill A Boy On The First Date, Buffy instantly understands that Giles is sparing her his own tiresome speech about “responsibility and sacrifice”, as she accepts that she isn’t going to be able to combine being the Slayer with going on dates with boys like Owen Thurman. At the conclusion of The Dark Age, she tells Giles that she realizes now that “we do have something in common”.

Giles’s role as a Watcher – his “destiny” – is something that makes him a little bit like Buffy.

Of course, being a Watcher isn’t exactly the same thing as being a Slayer. Notably, teenage Giles never had to keep his calling hidden from his parents, nor did it have quite the same adverse impact on his education. And – pretending that we’ve not seen What’s My Line? yet, and we still think the show’s repeated description of Buffy as “one girl in all the world” is accurate – another big difference is that there can be more than one Watcher at once.

it’s apparent from Welcome To The Hellmouth on that Buffy has had a Watcher before – somebody had to have told her about being the Slayer – and we’ll even see him in a brief flashback later this season, though that episode won’t bother to give him a name (he’s named in the movie and some of the tie-in fiction of course). Next episode, we’ll hear about “Mr Zabuto”, somebody Giles seems at least vaguely aware of, and at the end of this episode Buffy even raises the possibility of Willow becoming a Watcher later in life (although Willow says she doesn’t think she “could handle the stress”).

But at the same time there’s a fundamental similarity between being a Slayer and being a Watcher that the show is quite clear on in these early episodes. As Buffy goes on to tell Willow, when she admits that she can’t understand “how Giles does it”: “I don’t think he has a choice”.

Skipping ahead a bit to Season 3, we’ll meet a lot more Watchers and be offered a quite different take on what being a Watcher means. Faith, Hope & Trick establishes that the Watchers are more organized than we’ve seen before: they have a governing body, they organize annual corporate retreats in the Cotswolds, and Giles has to request their approval to temporarily take on a new Slayer. Revelations further establishes that Watchers can be dismissed for improper behavior, and shows the first signs that the Council has a complex internal bureaucracy that causes its members problems (“they swear there was a memo”). Helpless doubles down hard on both those ideas, as Giles himself has a boss who shows little interest in the day to day business of training and caring for the Slayer and who can fire him with little or no warning.

Season 5’s Checkpoint will further establish that being a Watcher comes with a salary (a claim that is all-but-contradicted by something Giles will say next episode in What’s My Line? about having had to seek a “more gainful form of employment” alongside being a Watcher). Intentionally or not, this introduces another sharp distinction between being a Watcher and a Slayer, one that I don’t think was meant to be present in the first two seasons of the show.

What we have here are two very different ideas of what being a Watcher means (though, to give Ethan his due, wearing tweed does seem to feature heavily in both of them).

In the first two seasons, being a Watcher is a calling. A destiny. Something you do because you have to; because you don’t really have a choice. Being a Watcher is something that makes Giles a little bit like Buffy.

In the rest of the show, being a Watcher is a career. A job. Exactly the sort of thing that Buffy doesn’t have and cannot have while she remains the Slayer. It probably comes with a pension. It certainly doesn’t seem to require much in the way of “sacrifice”. Watchers come and go as the Council sees fit and their ‘destiny’ doesn’t ever seem to factor into it. Being a Watcher is now something that puts people into opposition with Buffy: it’s only after being fired by the Council that Giles is able to repair his relationship with her.

I’m not going to take a stance on which of these versions of canon is better – they’re both suited to telling different sorts of stories, which presumably is why the show uses both – but I do think it’s important to note that they are different. I don’t think what we’re told about being a Watcher in Season 3 can be spun as the audience simply “finding out more” about how being a Watcher works. This is a retcon, one of many the show has employed and will employ in future.

And this particular retcon has odd implications for what Giles says and does in these first two seasons. Did he really have a “destiny” as a child, or was his father just very keen on the idea of him joining the family trade? Why was Gwendolyn Post “kicked out by the Council” for “misuse of dark power” if Giles’ own dabbling with dark magic and demon-summoning wasn’t enough to stop him becoming a Watcher? And why didn’t Giles have “a choice” about being a Watcher if it’s so easy to be fired? Couldn’t twenty-one year old Rupert Giles have just said something tactless about Quentin Travers or his predecessor and saved everyone a lot of trouble down the line? And why doesn’t Buffy get paid (beyond the fact it would largely destroy the central metaphor of the show)?

#btvs #buffy rewatch 2023

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always--and--never · 1 year

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Devlog #8: The Watcher

I made a new game! It's a short point-and-click game about a knight trying to make up a story at the last minute (wink wink), and it was made for the 2023 4th Wall Broken Game Jam. You can play it here, at my itch.io page. It's currently available to play in desktop browsers (HTML5) and downloadable (Windows).

More about the game's development (including some spoilers) after the break!

This game jam had a more lenient time frame (2 months starting from January 1st), so I started with a more ambitious version of the same idea that ended up becoming The Watcher: I wanted a more action-focused game, also focused on a knight living in a kingdom with a king / god figure obsessed with storytelling. In that original vision you had a three-hit combo, a shield and a lock-on on enemies. I did this in part because I thought it would be cool, but in a bigger part because I've been feeling pressured to make more... gamey games, with more interaction other than moving around and reading text.

The control scheme was very much inspired by 3D Zelda games, and throughout January I was able to get a player controller that felt really solid and the animations flowed well between hits, shielding, running and jumping. However, then I would have to work on a couple basic enemies to fight against and all that doing so implies (enemy AI, attacking and reacting to attacks, patrol movement, a long etcetera); I was punching way above my weight and I had noticed but didn't immediately make any decisons about it (apart from thinking about dropping the whole thing and not submitting anything). Anyways, here's a quick look at the original prototype:

In early February my attention shifted towards another game jam (an in-person one that I attend yearly) and personal stuff: a professional setback that mad me feel pretty bad, I got sick, I went camping while sick and had lots of fun. By mid February The Watcher had not been developed any further, and despite being sure that there was no chance to make the action-adventure game I had originally envisioned, I didn't really have a plan yet.

I was getting bitter because of having used so much time working on a game only because I felt insecure about my style of work and not because I really wanted to, so I decided to just drop the whole thing and start (almost) from scratch: I kept the base concept, turned it into a point-and-click game with mostly fixed camera angles, and added a lot of story elements related to how I'd been feeling lately: disconformity with my work, the cost of being true to myself, negative thoughts about how some people evaluate stories, and my own future as a game developer. I was getting bitter and cynical and I really didn't want to feel like that, but as I worked on a game that I was actually liking and enjoying to work on, the feeling of hope started coming back. I worked really well considering how little time I had left, and even had time to learn some new tricks while doing so, like lightmapping and occlusion culling. I wrote a lot of new code for my ever growing collection of reusable scripts and prefabs that I'm using to save time in each project. Also, working with camera switching and specific camera angles let me set a mood for every room and space in the game which was really fun, and something I'd been wanting do to for while.

The Watcher is the most personal game I've made in quite some time, which is saying a lot considering how personal all the stuff I make usually is. This is probably the first time I've felt peace (and not just tired relief) after finishing a game, and with a bit more time I could have added more of the ideas I had for this new version and it would have been even better. I wouldn't say it's a masterpiece or anything similar, but I'm at peace with what it is and I'm glad with the reception it's been having so far! I always feel like a hack after releasing something so it's been nice to have positive feedback, especially concerning my writing which I also think is still pretty bad... but maybe it's getting better (?) :)

Anyways, here's the latest step in my gamedev journey and despite its simplicity and rushed development, I'm satisfied and also excitedly looking forward to the next step!

#devlog #gamedev #indiedev #indiegamedev #indie games #game jam #point and click

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stitchthesewords · 1 year

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I hope you know this new au is never leaving my head. Seriously. It's rotating so hard it may explode

-🍂

YOU AND ME BOTH SO,,,LET ME,,,GIVE YOU MORE THOUGHTS TO ROTATE

HotGuy: Skilled with Archery, I do think of him similarly to hawkeye though im honestly not familiar with him because the only MCU thing I've even seen beside the spiderman movies is The Avengers. So. Take that as you will. He has a bow and crossbow, along with gadgets that function similarly - a lot of wacky arrows like nets and smoke bombs and suction cups. He's got a small limp from an old battle that they counteract with his boots. Of the duo, he is definitely meant to be mostly Offensive when they fight, relying on CuteGuy for anything that isn't 'shoot the enemy in the face'

CuteGuy: Uses a gun, though the Lab SAYS its a pellet gun and not a 'real' one [a lie.] Mostly as a backup weapon, however, as his main area is support. His gun is, similar to HotGuy's arrows, equipped with the ability to take multiple kinds of bullets. He has to be very careful to be sure that he's shooting the right one - think sort of like how the supports in Overwatch work, since my main is Baptiste, so he has like - healing 'bullets' which obviously arent really bullets, and then real bullets that actually do damage. I think there are also things like sleeping bullets, maybe electrified ones. He carries most of the utilitarian gadgets for their team too.

The Evoker: Think somewhat similar to Iron Man. It's a full body mech suit that Scar uses to walk around. It can fly, give him basic data about an area or someone, has weapons built into it, and later on Mumbo retrofits it with its own abilities like boosts to Scar's strength and speed. There's a voice synthisizer to hide Scar's identity, because he doesn't know WHY CuteGuy would stay with the Lab, but he can't trust him with any knowledge.

The Watcher - Blind. Literally. His powers partially compensate for this, but it's not like actually seeing with his eyes. And the transformation process to become the Watcher was INCREDIBLY painful for Grian, waking up in total darkness [which, to clarify, the blindness Grian experiences as the Watcher is not ACTUAL blindness. It is instead like they are blocking out his sight while still giving him...sight? I suppose? Like holding something in front of his vision, but they can take the blockage away at any time because he'll be more powerful. Like training with weights and then taking them off for a fight.] The Watcher's abilities let him 'see' things are outlines, or something simply sense they they are there. It's like having 360 vision but having no instincts of how to read it. He also can get flashes of the future, who allows him to do things like avoid bumping into people, or guess when Mumbo was trying to trap him with a net. But these future flashes are only correct some of the time, not all the time - the future can change in an instant after all. And it is NOT like having visions that go far into the future, more like a premonition of something happening seconds away. This allows Grian to live his life as though he could see but means that during his downtime, when he can't use his powers due to motion sickness and other illness, he has no idea how to navigate the world at all. He's been trying to get better, but the Lab doesn't like him NOT using his power, so it's incredibly difficult when he's being watched himself. Grian relies on his old methods of fighting, using a new gun and also, a sword, something he trained with before he became HotGuy's sidekick.

and as a bonus I wanna talk about the NHO guys bc,,,,, I love them.

Bdubs aka...I'm not really sure yet. We'll get there - He only had a brief stint as a powerless hero, most of his work was very lowkey in a team. He takes the experiment for powers because he wants to monetary boost - He's given plant powers [kind of like poison ivy?? I think] and they seal him in a sensory deprivation tank to get his powers to work. Did the Lab actually know that would work and wasn't just a form of torture? You decide!

Etho - not a Hero. He does, however, work for the lab as a spy. And hitman. Semi-military. Whatever they need him for really. He has his own redstone knowledge that he brought with him so he often messes with his own gadgets and helps their engineering teams out when he doesn't have a job. The Lab faked his death, because they needed him to be able to do his job without being tracked.

Beef aka The Butcher - He does not have powers, he instead in a melee-based fighting hero from around the same time that HotGuy and CuteGuy were active. He has a bulky full face mask he wears with a voice modulator built into it to conceal his identity.

Doc - Not a Hero. More like a hostage of the Lab - passive mob hybrids naturally exist in the world [Avians, sheep, etc.] but not neutral or aggressive mobs. Doc was part of the first round of experiments that were trying to make superpowers - and their first attempt was to fuse people with aggressive mobs [This is also where Tango comes from]. This plan failed - most people died, and those like Doc [and Tango] that didn't die were not what the lab needed. However, the evidence of what they'd done was far too obvious, and so the surviving hybrids are kept locked up deep within the Lab. Doc is an engineer who designed or improved most of the Lab's gadgets, which is how the NHO met - Doc is the one who makes all their gadgets.

#Asks #Anonymous #🍂 anon #Superhero AU #NHO #Mumscarian #Hermitshipping #<- not really in the post but it WILL be so

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perfectanguish · 2 years

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CRUSTY OLD MEME.

@pryceism asked: ❛ what are you going to do when someone you save kills someone else in the future? ❜

The future was unknown. Someone’s fate was unknown as well and that was something he had to accept early on. Whistler had told him that he was meant for more, that the world still needed a champion. And for the most part, he had done a decent job of saving those that needed help in the last couple of years. But among those wins, there were several losses that he has had to accept and use as a lesson so that he could learn form his mistakes.

“All I can do is hope that the person I save doesn’t turn around and go put someone else in a similar situation they’d been in,” Angel finally answered as he looked from the very interesting spot on his desk to the former watcher. “I wish I could keep being there to save them, to guide them away from that path...but I can’t. And that’s a very hard pill I’ve had to swallow.”

They both knew there was a prime example of his having saved someone in hopes of them never hurting another person; Faith. He had given her the tools necessary to better herself and get her on the right path to redemption, but that’s all he could do. It was up to her, as it would be anyone else he helped, to decide what her future would be.

#pryceism #( v; if nothing we do matters then everything we do matters | canon: seasons 1 to 5 )#( interactions )#( please ignore that i'm no here | queued post )

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nerdalmighty · 3 years

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You’ve heard of the Ghoul Boys...

From the series finale of Buzzfeed Unsolved True Crime: The Bizarre Death of Alfred Loewenstein

#god i'm gonna miss true crime #their takes are SO funny #i hope they do something similar on watcher in the future #:)#ryan bergara #ryan bergara gif #shane madej #shane madej gif #buzzfeed unsolved #buzzfeed unsolved gif #the bizarre death of alfred loewenstein #mine #my gifs #youtube #youtube gif #buzzfeed unsolved true crime #buzzfeed unsolved true crime gif

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thefroggod · 2 years

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My Laris/Tallinn theory.

So we know that something is up with Tallinn right, they wouldn't have put in the Romulan tablet or the swearing in Romulan unless they were going to give us some kind of answer right, especially with the fact that Picard also seems to have trouble differentiating between the two.

Now I don't know the episode assignment earth especially well, but I'm trying to logic out a theory with the little knowledge that I have.

So I think that Tallinn is actually future Laris.

So after the events of episode one, where Laris has laid her feelings bare to Picard and he clearly wants to keep a status quo "Nothing has to change" to her "It's already too late for that" and then he leaves without any consideration for her at all.

With all of that Laris decides it is time to cut ties with Picard and try life somewhere else, because of that decision she is approached by who ever organises the watchers/supervisors and she accepts as currently she has no close ties to anything and at least this would give her a purpose. I don't think the she knows that she will actually be looking over a Picard, but she may be aware that they will tamper with her memories, as a way of preventing her from being able to accidentally affect the past with too much future knowledge.

Now that she ends up looking after a Picard, in some ways she becomes too attached, maybe an echo of her love for Jean Luc, though she is meant to be detached and a 'ghost', she doesn't interact with Renee but I think it's clear that emotionally she is almost in love or at least in awe of Renee.

Now with Q going back to alter the past Tallinn actually wants to preserve Renee's life at all costs and so actually goes along with Q's changes, whereas if it had been any other watcher they would have done everything in they're power to stop Q.

Now some may be wondering how Laris has ended up in the past, but in my mind, a species that knows what parts of history to protect in order to have the desired outcome, must have some kind of time travel capabilities.

I hope there is some kind of connection, as the way that Guinan described the watcher kinda fits in with an outsiders view of Laris as she can be quite aggressive and brash. Which is another unneeded similarity if they don't make Tallinn and Laris connected.

I would find it interesting if the mistake that Picard made was to do with his feelings for Laris, and his lack of action on them, rather than any one decision he made on the stargazer.

However I'm fully aware that this is probably too convoluted to be the actually answer in the show, but I can dream right. Just give me more Orla Brady please.

#star trek picard #PIC #Laris #Tallinn #jean luc picard #theory #watchers #orla brady #patrick stewart #star trek #one can dream #give me snarky Romulan women in their 60's with a deep heart that can't express it without a backhanded compliment

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townofcrosshollow · 3 years

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A Reference Guide For Making Your MC

I assume (hope!) that now that the first few chapters have been released, people are going to be thinking about who their MCs are, and it might be helpful to put out a bit of info about divine culture so you have some things to think about when coming up with your characters! I intend to do full posts going into different aspects of the lore in detail the future, but this post will just go over the basic points to give you some ideas and inspiration.

Names

In their culture, names are a series of common words including professions, locations, imagery, and accomplishments that grow and change over time. People of higher status tend to have longer names. Of course, people don’t use the whole thing in everyday situations- depending on context they’ll use different shortened “nicknames” to refer to each other.

During your MC’s time on Earth, they may have taken to using shortened versions of their original name (such as “Watcher” or “Lightbringer”) or adopted new additions to match their new circumstances (such as “Wanderer”). They may have also adopted human names or the names of mythological figures or characters that resonated with them.

Bodies

The MC’s people are taller than humans with an elongated form, especially in the limbs and neck. Regardless of gender their bodies tend to be androgynous, and their body types can vary just like humans. Their skin tends to be gray and desaturated with an undertone randing from red to blue. Their eyes are humanlike and have similar tones in the red to blue range, thought more saturated. Their hair naturally ranges from black to white, though dyes are also available. Most wear their hair long and unstyled, but it may also be tied back or decorated with braids and ribbons.

Of course, your MC is no longer in their original body. They may choose to take on a different appearance- something more humanlike, or perhaps more mythical. Even in their original form, they may have used illusions to change up their appearance in various ways, so don't feel like you need to stick very closely to any of this!

Gender

In their culture, gender is assigned to young children based on their percieved traits. Originally this would have been marked by a large ritual ceremony, but over time that basically transitioned into a fancy birthday party.

There are three genders, none of which neatly translate to human genders. They are primarily associated with social roles, physical roles, and scholarly roles. I may post more about this in the future, but that's the gist of it!

By default, the MC is assumed to be part of the scholarly gender. However this is barely referenced outside of flavour text- your MC could be one of the other two and simply held a position that was uncommon for their gender.

Fashion

In the upper-class circles that The Watcher was in during their time as a court seer, fashion was often very out there and individualistic, with uniqueness being highly valued. It was common for people to have a signature kind of iconography, sort of like heraldry. In general, though, their fashion tends to be more flowy and less structured looking, featuring lots of insertion lace, transluscent fabrics, loose construction, and metallic materials.

For visual inspiration, check out my Pinterest board (which also has some notes about sillhoette and colour in the notes section!)

Of course, your MC might have taken inspiration from contemporary fashion, or from the fashion of a time period on Earth that they particularly liked living in. I'd definitely encourage you to do some research on fashion history and see what inspires you!

And.... I think that's it! Sorry it was a bit long, I can't condense my ideas for shit lol

If you have any questions, please feel free to send me an ask! And if you make any drawings, Picrews, edits, etc. of your MC, please tag me in them! I'd love to see what you come up with!

#I FINALLY FINISHED IT #i've been working on this for like three days idk why it took so long #anyway #i can't tell if this will be helpful or boring but I hope it's at least somewhat interesting to read #so uh #yeah #crosshollow #ch-foundations #lore #interactive fiction

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saphirered · 3 years

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Hai I love your writing and I was wondering if you could do more verin x reader, like how would he react after finding out about essek, and he searched for him then he met the m9 and reader ?

Hope this turned out the way you wanted it! 😘

After the disappearance of his brother, Verin could simply not let it go. The Shadowhand disappeared from Exandria’s surface overnight without a word of warning. No traces left. No signs of a struggle that may indicate his enemies having gotten to him. Why would Essek leave everything behind willingly? Everything he gave his life for in service of the Bright Queen and the Kryn Dynasty? There had been suspicions about a traitor amidst the Bright Queen’s court but Verin simply refused to believe that to be Essek. His brother would never… Would he?

Verin, much like his brother is resourceful and shares a similar determination to reach a goal by any means necessary. That goal right now; finding Essek. Verin’s unsure what he will do once he finds his brother. There’s so many questions… But what if the rumours are true? No. He can’t think like that just yet. He will not tarnish that reputation through speculations. He needs answers first. He needs to find Essek.

Months of searching, following whatever traces he could find. Verin had to look to the past any ties before Essek’s disappearance. That lead to a group of strangers. A colourful bunch of chaotic individuals seemingly defying all odds when faced with them. Verin may not be able to track Essek but he could try and find these people… The Mighty Nein.

————

Heavy bag over one shoulder dressed in fine clothes you stroll through low-lit halls flanked by two guards. Radiating a sense of authority and sternness you stop in front the metal bars, on the other side a redhead leaning back against the wall looking up at you innocently without a single worry.

“Master Widogast, I’ve been told you’re here on suspicions of corrupting the minds of your students. Do you have anything to say for yourself?” You address your friend. This never ends. Caleb gets himself arrested because someone finds out what he’s allegedly been teaching at the Academy. He’s dragged off to a holding cell and your disturbed amidst your work day to get him out again. This time you’ve made him wait though. You had an important meeting you couldn’t get out.

“It’s all just a mistake. You’ll find my students can vouch for me and prove this misunderstanding to be nothing more than part of the curriculum of theoretical transmutation.” You dig through your bag, take out a scroll and hand it to one of the guards. The guards reads it over awaiting your command.

“Well, hurry up! Release this man before I have you written up for unlawfully keeping one of the Soltryce Academy’s most beloved teachers.” The guard quickly jumbles with the keys and the barred door is unlocked. Caleb gets up and you step aside to allow him to exit. The guards wait, not entirely sure what to do next. What did you expect of newbies…

“Are you really going to stand around loitering? Back to work.” The guards scurry off and you and Caleb walk next to each other exiting the building and into the streets. Once you’re both in the clear you drop your more rigid behaviour and punch the wizard in the shoulder.

“What was that for?” He exclaims rubbing his arm. That’s gonna bruise.

“The only reason I took this job is to get you and the others out of trouble when you inevitably got yourself in a mess again but between Beau’s bar fights and your borderline treason, I swear you’ll be the ones that will lose me my job.” You’re only half serious. You can’t count the times you’ve had to bail the Nein out for their antics and have definitely been abusing your newfound power to do so. The king might be an asshole but at least the pay is good and the benefits better.

Reaching your destination, wizard at your side discussing who might have spilled the beans on Caleb’s rather liberal teachings you open the low fence to the garden. In the garden you’re met with the familiar disguise of your friend Essek, sunhat to guard him from the harsh sunlight, gardening gloves on harvesting some vegetables. Upon seeing you he grabs the basket next to him and joins the two of you with a smile.

“While I’d hoped this wouldn’t become a habit, thank you, for getting Caleb out trouble, again. Your endless efforts are certainly appreciated. We are in your debt many times over.” The disguised drow sends the redhead a loving glance as he addresses you.

“And don’t you forget it. One day I might come and collect.” You grin at Essek with the pleasure of turning his own words against him. Of course you didn’t mean them. They’re your friends and you’ll never seriously ask for anything in return for anything they ask of you.

“Clever.” Essek speaks sarcastically smiling at your comment.

“But if you feel inclined to repay me for my hard work, you can make sure you’re both on time for dinner tonight. The gang’s getting back together and you’re expected.” Essek hands you the basket he’s carrying providing you with the resources of a home cooked meal for the gathering of the evening. It’s been a while since everyone’s been at the same place the same time.

“I’ll do what I can but I make no promises.”

“All, I can ask for.” You turn your attention to Caleb. “That reminds me.” A quick inconspicuous motion of your hands allows you to summon a small stack of papers. Another perk of your job; getting information the higher ups want to keep to themselves. Luckily a lot of them have assistants that are much easier to get that information from.

“Beau and you can get back to work. But not tonight! Tonight’s work free, for all of us.” Caleb quickly leafs through the ledgers you’ve handed him.

“You know, if you ever grow bored of the court life, you can always join me in teaching free thinking and magic at the Academy…” Caleb jokes as you pick up the basket ready to leave the wizards to the rest of their day.

“And who’s gone bail us both out then?” You laugh over your shoulder closing the fence behind you. Back to your home and prepare for the evening. You can’t help but feel like you’re being followed. You pay close attention to the shadows and for just a moment you’re sure you see something, or rather someone. Choosing not to pursue you continue on to your home. It’s not like your place of residence is a secret to anyone.

————

The house is noisy, happy chatting and laughter fills the dining room. How you’ve missed this. The table has been set, plates, cutlery and all, a multitude of decanters and bottles ready and filled, and plates and platers filled with food are added one by one. There’s something for everyone, everyone’s favourites.

“Yasha, can you take the cupcakes out of the oven for me?” You ask the barbarian wearing her floral embroidered apron stirring a pan on the stove as you plate the smoked pork. Yasha plates the baked goods by flavour and carries the tray to the dining room as you follow behind with your platter. Cheers erupt from the rest of the Nein as you and Yasha place the final dishes on the table. Everyone takes their seats and digs in pouring themselves drinks, taking whatever they desired, happily conversing about what everyone’s been up to in the past few months, talking about new plans for the future and the nostalgic adventures of the past together. You’ll have to get back to that some day. Maybe soon?

Despite the happiness of the whole event you still can’t get over this feeling you’re being watched. It’s not scrying, your home is protected from it and you feel safe to assume it’s not anyone from the Assembly or the king’s council. So who is it?

————

Verin watches the group as they enjoy their feast, his brother among them. He looks happy and content, as if the weight of the world has been lifted from his shoulders. Is this what he left Xhorhas for? He always wanted more, so how could Essek be content with a normal life? No matter the motives he’s loved, they’re his friends, something he never truly had before.

Then talks about the beacons came up. Mentions of the past missing ones and newfound ones. Aeor and its connection to Dunamis long before the Dynasty. The theoretics and potential of the beacons and the continued pursuit of studying them. Within the Dynasty this could be considered sacrilegious. And it made it look more and more Essek was guilt of the treason others suspected him of. His brother was a traitor and a disgrace in the eyes of the Dynasty and his family.

So why does Verin feel like none of that matters? He should be angry. He should dispose of his brother right here, right now in the name of the Bright Queen. But he can’t bring himself to it. His brother is happy, fought free from the expectations of others and the demanded unwavering loyalty to the Luxon and the Dynasty. Essek did exactly what he couldn’t.

————

You excuse yourself from the table making an excuse about checking on dessert and retreating to the kitchen alone. This feeling of being watched was getting on your nerves but tonight should be one without trouble and conflict. You’ll figure out if this watcher in the shadows poses a danger to you and your friends, if so you’ll dispose of them. If it can be postponed until tomorrow, then tomorrow you’ll deal with it but not tonight. Tonight is about peace, friends and family getting back together.

So when you reach the kitchen you open the window taking out the lattice work pies and cakes you’d made and left to rest and cool down before the Nein’s arrival. You get the batter you made and begin making some waffles. While you wait for them to be done you hum to yourself and sit in the open windowsill looking out over the city, inconspicuously looking around for your uninvited guest. The first batch is done and they haven’t showed up yet. Alright, you’ll make a second batch and some extra whipped cream while you’re at it.

Then you catch a glimpse of a shadow. You can’t make out all the details but the attire and a flash of pristine white hair leaves you to think it’s a drow. Thinking on your feet you cast hold person but the drow remains unaffected. Before you know it you’re pushed a few steps back into your kitchen. Supporting himself on the windowsill he holds a finely made blade to your throat. You lift your hands in surrender showing you have no ill intend…yet and are willing to talk and listen.

“My quarrel is not with you but one wrong move and I will not hesitate, mage.” The drow threatens you. You don’t doubt his words but this isn’t your first rodeo. If he tries anything he’s in for a fight. Getting a closer look you study the man’s features. There’s a sense of familiarity and you’re quick to conclude he must be related to Essek in some way. Broader build and longer hair but same features and eyes. He’s probably a fair bit taller too standing up straight instead of crouched in a windowsill.

“Perhaps not but it might be if you do not get out of my windowsill in the next few seconds.”

“Is that a threat?” He pushes the blade a little closer and you feel the cold steel against your skin, one move and it cuts.

“No. But take a look outside. You’ll see the torchlight of the guard patrol. Get inside.” A quick glance over his shoulder gives you the chance to take a step back from the drow and pick up your whipped cream and continue whisking before it loses its structure. He jumps inside and away from the window as you whisk completely indifferent to the fact a stranger just held a sword to your neck and entered your home even with your invitation.

“You must be Verin Thelyss.” You state putting the now finished whipped cream in the ice box. Verin stands there wary of you, expecting you to make a move and attack him at any second but you’re not and even from your demeanour he can gather you have no ill intent towards him. Not at all what he expected, but then again he didn’t expect to find his brother in the capital of the enemy nation of the Dynasty having dinner with a bunch of (previous) adventurers, some of which holding ranks within the Empire no less.

“You’re questioning my motives and calmness.” You lean against the counter crossing your arms. Verin lowers the blade but you’re unsure if it is because of defeat or he doesn’t see the purpose in holding you at sword point any longer.

“Why not just let me be caught by your guards? Why invite me inside your home?” Verin watches your every move, every twitch. You can see the same confusion and uncertainty and panic you’ve seen in Essek many times before so you offer a soft smile. Best you can do for him right now is stay calm, don’t make any uncertain moves and approach him with gentleness. You’re sure with how long you’ve been feeling like being watched today he’s been the one responsible and he’d have caught onto your conversations from the shadows.

“Call it a leap of faith. I trust Essek. He trusts you. You’ve done nothing to prove you have any ill will towards my friends so until you prove me otherwise you’ll be welcome.” You move slowly grabbing two knives. Putting one on the counter and sliding it over a little away from you until it touches one of the pie dishes.

“You’re good with a blade right? You can help me cut these pies and cakes and we can talk.” You gesture to the kitchen knife. Verin looks at you as if you’ve gone insane. Maybe you have but it’s more likely you’ve faced much worse than the likes of him. You move your own knife and he watches you as you begin dividing the cake in even slices.

“How do I know I can trust you?”

“You don’t.”

“Then why should I listen to you?”

“Because you’re still standing here in my kitchen.” You laugh plating the slices of cake on another silver platter neatly.

“Verin, if you came here to kill your brother you would have tried so this afternoon. That you haven’t only shows you’re not here for that. You have questions. You want answers. Now I’m not just going to let you walk into my dining room until I’m certain that the information you got and the questions I answer will not lead you to violence. So you help me get dessert ready. If you prove your intensions for your brother and my friends are honourable you can join us for dessert. If you prove a danger to them, I will allow you to leave this place tonight but should you ever return I will be the least of your worries.” Verin takes the knife and tests the grip as if it’s a dagger as he looks at the apple pie in front of him. He stabs the knife down carefully and cuts downward repeating evenly spaced out. You wait for him to talk not feeling like you should initiate conversation just yet.

“The one who stole the beacons and handed them over to the traitor mages of your Empire, it was my brother’s doing.” More of a statement than a question you nod. Diving straight into the deep end, aren’t we? No matter, better rip the bandage off quickly.

“It hit us hard as well. Though, I can’t say it was surprise.” You’re not sure how to place what you read from Verin. Pity? Disappointment? And a good bit of acceptance thrown in the mix.

There truly was a sense of acceptance because no matter how much he might want to deny it, just like you said, there had already been that underlying suspicion it was Essek given his aspirations. It’s one of those things that leaves you hoping something isn’t true and you wilfully suppress the possibility until there’s no other way around it and you’re faced with the truth. If what you said is true and what he gathers from your conversation with the Nein and you now, you found out in the moment. He’s only learning about this in the aftermath.

Essek lied to your faces, pretended to be your ally to cover for himself and yet you still found it within yourselves to forgive or at the very least accept everything he had done so maybe, just maybe he could try to do the same. Still he has many more questions but he’s unsure if you can answer all of them.

“I won’t ask you to forgive and I certainly won’t ask you to forget, but I will ask you to give your brother a chance. In his time with us he’s truly been trying to make up for his mistakes and repent for his sins and while they may not all be washed away in his lifetime, it’s a start. He’s just as much of a misguided tool, as most of us, promised an a glimpse of power by forces bigger than him and without a way out when he realised the gravity of his actions and the consequences.” You finish up the last pie and put the knife to the side. Verin hangs onto your every word.

“When we were about to walk into certain death gathering what we could, he told us that if something were to happen to him, we should come find you because despite everything, you were one of the only people he felt he could trust.”

“Then why didn’t he trust me with this? Why depart without a word?”

“Because burdening you with that information would put you in the same place he put himself in. He came here, to a place he knew you couldn’t follow. He left a place he would endanger everyone he cares about because he knows you, just like the rest of us would fight the entirety of the Dynasty just to keep him safe.” You’re right. Verin know you’re right because he would have stood with his brother in the end despite what crimes he had committed. Essek was not the master of this grand scheme but he played his part. He’d spend his life making up for it but at least he will work towards making this world a better place. Verin can only aspire to do that very thing; protect the people he cares about and make this world a better place.

“I still have many questions.” Verin breathes. It’s a lot to process and that’s okay. This is just the start but it is the most difficult part. You grab the plates and platters balancing them on your arms.

“Maybe you should ask him yourself. Why don’t you join us for dessert, Verin?” He doesn’t know how to respond. While you told him you’d let him join, he didn’t expect it to be now or with so little certainty on your end, but maybe you knew more than you let on. Without a verbal response Verin grabs the remaining dishes from the counter and waits for you to lead the way.

Entering the dining room Beau and Veth are in the middle of a drinking contest each with their own decanters of wine. Veth slams down the now empty decanter.

“Momma’s still got it children!” Veth exclaims cheering as Beau sits back disappointed, two more gulps and she’d have won. Yasha comes in telling her she’ll win next time. Fjord passes over a hand full of coins to Jester who calls him a loser poking his cheek giggling. Kingsley is on the verge of challenging Veth to a drinking contest of their own and Essek carefully manages to grab a bottle to refill his and Caleb’s glasses before this goes south. Caduceus is watching the chaos unfold deliberating wether or not he should get some hangover tea ready because they will need it if this keeps going.

When you enter, the cheers for dessert fall quiet quickly seeing the drow behind you carrying several pies. Essek freezes up and Caleb naturally takes a bit of a defensive position without breaking the dinner setting. Verin albeit awkwardly steps out next to you as you helping you put the plates on the table. With a wave of your hand you call over another chair to be put at the head of the table. You gesture for the man to sit and he does debating wether or not this was the right decision as all eyes fall on him. You take your own seat.

“Well, come on guys, dig in!” Not needing to be asked twice they do, some wary of Verin but you know they’ll ease up soon enough.

“So you’re Essek’s brother? He didn’t say you’re a hot boi too. Jeeze Essek, is everyone in your family pretty?” Jester asks stuffing her mouth with a piece of cake. Verin is taken aback by the blue tiefling’s comment and the identical faces he and Essek make are enough to send most of the table in a giggle fit. You cover your own response to this for your own sake.

“Eh-Thank you? I think? Though, if my company is undesired I can leave…” Verin suggests unsure how to further approach this doubting this is the right place for this.

“Nonsense. If our friend invited you to join, for whatever reason, you’re welcome.” Fjord assures. He knows you wouldn’t just allow this without a reason and just by the attitude of the guy, he gets a pretty good estimate there’s no malicious intent in Verin right now.

“Yeah and while you’re here you can tell us about all the embarrassing shit Essek did when he was a kid.” Beau punches Essek’s shoulder past Caleb who’s quick to get out of the monk’s way. Essek rubs the spot she hit teeth clenched but smiling nonetheless.

“So, Verin, what are your intentions here?” Caleb asks an open question hoping to get more insight in the drow’s motives. While he trusts your judgement one can never be too certain and he’d rather not be face to face with Essek’s brother on their way home should that scenario arise.

“I-“ Verin tries to find the words picking them carefully. “I thought I knew before but now I don’t know. I came to find my brother and I found him, among friends. I have many questions, some answered by your gracious friend but I think for now, I’d like to truly meet my brother’s friends because if this is the company he finds himself in, I can only ask to witness his happiness.”

It’s a strange feeling for Verin to come to that conclusion. When he left Xhorhas he considered he might be bringing back the corpse of his brother, by his hand or someone else’s depending on circumstances, or bring him back in chains for treason to be tried in front of the Bright Queen. What he didn’t expect is to be met by an alternative that would change his views on everything. He realises that with your stories and those of the Nein he was just as lost as all of you, but now he’s found a group of people that willingly accept whichever path he chooses for himself without expectations, rules or conditions.

Verin first hand gets to experience why Essek chose to leave everything behind and give it up for these people. They are his friends, his family and he’d never be alone again if they can help it. Perhaps Verin can experience that too one day. The Mighty Nein will make sure he does because as we know, once you get involved with them, your life changes forever.

#critical role x reader #critrole x reader #mighty nein x reader #mighty nein #verin thelyss #verin x reader #verin thelyss x reader #critical role

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palbabor-writes · 3 years

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I have, uh, thoughts...

M’kay, I know this has likely been harped on until nothing is left but little bits and pieces, but after reading this latest chapter, I realized what’s been bothering me about this current arc. It’s the imbalance of violence and aggression that is heaped onto Shigaraki.

I don’t know if this is Horikoshi’s intention, and I’m likely looking wayyy too into this, but I’d argue you don’t have your characters say things for no reason. So, if you’ve got a minute, let’s see if I can sort through these nagging emotions of mine.

warnings: manga spoilers 220 - 285, basically, no touch if you don’t want to see the current arc

Ok. Let’s roll the clock back and look at something Shigaraki told us at the USJ.

Now, while he has changed a lot from these early arcs, that core motivation he carries here is the same. He wants society to see just how fragile and how ridiculous their reliance on a hero state of justice really is. And, I would say that he’s absolutely right in this assessment.

The idea of heroes and villains needs a foundation of violence. They need that evil, almost as much as they need the concept of justice. It’s the age old right and wrong theory. It doesn’t leave space for grey, for nuance, for differences in ideology or upbringing.

However, heroes like to ignore what they can’t fix. Like anyone, they’re human and humans don’t often take pleasure in looking at the uncomfortable. I’d argue that’s why Gran Tourino doesn’t check back in on Kotaro. Yes, he made a vow, but those memories of that crying child being placed with a trusted friend, and not his mother, not Nana, have stuck with him. Nana wouldn’t be any wiser, or any less dead, if he checked in on her son. In chapter 281, we finally, FINALLY see Gran reflecting on that choice both he and Nana made

If he had checked in, Kotaro might have known a different memory of his mother, or he might have at least been able to see the threads of aggression and abuse that were riddling Tenko’s life. He might have seen AFO, manipulating and watching. Might, might, might. No matter how you shake it, everything changes when there’s some kind of monitoring, of looking out for your fellow man.

With that in mind, BNHA’s world state, which is based on hero work, would need a strong set of checks and balances to function properly, to catch those falling into the cracks & I’d argue we don’t see much push for that from the everyday populace.

Which is wild. Because society itself is practically Quirkless. Sure, 80% have a quirk, but in Japan you cannot use your quirk in public. If you do, you run the risk of arrest or classification as a villain.

That is why we see moments like these

Izuku is likely one of the only people in this massive crowd who really has no quirk. There is a horde of people standing there and no one is lifting a finger. It’s kinda a “bread and circuses,” mentality. They look fucking entertained and no one is freaking out except for Izuku, who knows what it feels like inside that goop thing. Instead, they’re all waiting, watching for the next hero, or for All Might to show up. But wait, aren’t there heroes there? It’s a city and this is a massive attack, it’s brought foot traffic to a standstill, surely a hero will get there and save this boy who is literally dying.

Oh. They’re there. But they’re waiting too

They are all “managing,” the situation and hoping Bakugo will survive long enough for someone with the right quirk to come along. Not polling the masses of people to see if any of them could possibly assist in the meantime, no, all these civilians get to watch this miscarriage of “justice.” Don’t worry. If the kids strong enough, he’ll make it.

So far, Shigaraki’s underlying motivation calling for a more rigorous, critical, take on heroes doesn’t feel too far fetched. Looking at chapter 1 alone, the current way things are isn’t right and it’s not fair.

Now, Shigaraki isn’t going about asking for it the “right,” way, but I bet he’d see a similar response even if he wasn’t hurting and maiming people as he goes.

The latter would let him be swept aside just as easily as the former. We see this happen with Stain. The news isn’t talking about the Nomu, or the countless people who were terrorized and hurt. No, they’re talking about the Hero Killer, because just like in our real society, that’s what get the clicks, the likes and the attention. Again, people don’t like to look at things that make them uncomfortable.

Yet, even with this horrifying fact, that Stain could go down in history books as a villain, as someone who gleefully killed others, people, both good and bad, sat up and took notice. Many even identified with his ideals: That heroes are corrupt and they are only in the field for the fame and money. Only All Might was the perfect specimen to Stain. Because this is an idea that people can get behind, to me, that means that others know things are stacked against the underbelly, the downtrodden. But they can’t be bothered to call for change.

On the flip side, Shigaraki, who has a better grasp on the true ills and neglect of hero society is often told he has no “real,” ideology, no real conviction, and this is a theme that’s repeated over and over and over.

Like most things in BNHA, it begins with All Might

Then it’s carried to Stain, Dr. Ujiko, an ally and long time supporter of AFO, to Re-Destro, and, most recently, to Endeavor. They all can’t see what Shigaraki is wanting, what he’s calling for.

It’s easier to name him a monster, a freak, scum, then to listen or to absorb any of what he’s saying.

But, as he says, he’s got convictions. He’s got his father’s, he’s got AFO’s ideas on the ethics and morals of hero society, AFO’s drive to crush OFA, once and for all, and his own deep seeded resentment and neglect toward a broken hero society. Honestly, he’s got more motivation than almost any other character.

And how is he treated? How does Horikoshi show us the “heroes” response? He gives up a heaping of violence. From chapter 270 to 285, Tomura Shigaraki is hit, punched, burned and beat around a whopping 36 times. And, for most of this fight, he is effectively quirkless.

How many hits does he get in? A grand total of 6.

And his first reaction is never to maim, in these moments, instead it’s to talk, to rattle, and to question

He only goes for Endeavor after he’s been burned, likely, without his regeneration abilities, to the point of death. These heroes aren’t aiming to subdue, they’re going in for the kill. And yes, he has just decayed an entire hospital and the surrounding area, the heroes are warranted in their anger and their frustration. After all, they’re the ones who dropped the ball here. This was a “planned” raid and they should have been the only ones in any real danger. They’re heroes, so I’d argue that it’s their job, their life’s mission to save, no matter the cost.

Besides, if they can spare AFO, not once, but twice, they should be trying to spare Shigaraki just as hard.

This has been a long and drawn out arc, with many, many ups and downs, but the one thing I don’t wanna see is the heroes getting a pass. This society has pitfalls and it’s got big ones. People are treated as lesser if they don’t have quirks, or if they have the wrong ones, the ones that don’t make them look normal. People are pressed to the side when they don’t conform and a hero, the current number one, has gotten away with mentally, and physically, scarring his family for over 20 years.

Right now, there are no checks. There is no: who watches the watcher in this world and I’d argue society has suffered for it.

Yet how are we shown how to treat those who don’t agree with us? With anger, untapped rage and physical violence, of course. And this is true of BOTH sides.

At the end of the day, as he said back at the USJ: violence only breeds more violence and while I don’t like predicting future chapters or arcs, I’m hoping that thread won’t be dropped. It’s one of the things that drew me into BNHA and I hope we get to see more, not less, of that grey morality.

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votederpycausemufins · 3 years

Text

Another chapter of Surprisingly Familiar. Time to write for Grifter again!!!

hermit Tommy au is by @petrichormeraki and @helleborusangel gets tagged in my writing because I can.

Grian groaned as he woke up. It sounded like someone was up pretty early, and based on the fact that he seemed to be the only one in bed, he had a guess as to who it was. He was too tired to look at the time, but either way it was supposed to be the weekend and he wasn’t awake enough to be his normal wake up.

“What’re you doing?” Grian asked tiredly, wrapping himself in the covers more. “Come back to bed. ‘M feelin’ cold.”

Grian was glad to hear footsteps, but then realized they didn’t sound right. He turned in bed to face the source before opening his eyes and then finding himself face to face with the minimalist image of a face with a mustache.

Grian tried to jump back, but that was hard due to still being in bed. He still moved back some, and was able to see the image seemed to belong to a screen that was attached to a robot. “Dad! He’s awake now! I think I scawed him a wittwe!”

Grian didn’t pay attention to any answer as he looked around the room. He was in a large fancy king sized bed in a room that matched it. In other words, this was not his normal bedroom. Grian tried to get up out of the bed, but the robot pushed him back down, being much stronger than him despite being smaller.

As the robot’s hand kept him in bed, Grian started struggling, trying to find some way to escape. He wasn’t going to let himself be stuck in a place like this. If he just had something to use against the robot, maybe he could get out, but his punches and kicks did nothing except leave himself in pain.

“Stowp stwuggwing. You’we gonna huwt youwself awnd Dad’s nowt gonna wike thawt at aww.”

That just made Grian struggle harder. “Well I don’t care! I’d rather not be kidnapped and want to go home. If you want I could just scream bloody murder until someone shows up!”

“Thawt pwobabwy won’t work.”

“What, is that normal here?” Grian asked jokingly, but then was disappointed to see the robot nod. “Oh course it is.”

“If uwu don’t twy weaving, I’m gonna get my Dad. Awnd even if uwu twy, Seftew’s pwobabwy going tuwu stowp uwu.”

“Lovely.” Grian deadpanned, and then the robot left. Despite the warning, Grian still tried to leave, but found his escape blocked by another similar robot, though it was different enough that it couldn’t be the first one again. When it saw Grian, it stared him down until he reluctantly went back to the bed and sat there pouting.

He had to wait a bit while sitting there, lying back down at one point, but eventually the door opened again. Instead of the heavy metallic footsteps of the robot, they sounded much more like a human’s. They cleared their throat to get Grian’s attention, but he wasn’t really in a hurry to give them that. “So, mind telling me what you kidnapped me for?”

“You’re the one who was napping.” The person replied, and Grian’s eyes widened before he sat up. Standing there was himself, well, their face was definitely his. They seemed to be a few inches taller, red sweater replaced by a green tunic shirt, and black wings just barely visible folded up behind their back. “I was just trying to help.”

“What- but- why do you look like-” Grian fumbled out, mind trying to wrap around what he was seeing. “Dad?”

There was silence before the person held in some laughter, well, tried and failed. “No. No I’m definitely not dad. Absolutely not. I mean you’re close I guess, but he’s more blond than mousy brown.”

“But you look like him!” Grian argued. “I mean, he wore green a lot, and he’s got black wings. Wait are you related to him?”

“Yeah. Let’s see. I’ve got a dad and mum, one of which is literally death, I’m a triplet with two brothers, and then we’ve got a younger brother who was really little when I went missing from the rest of my family at the age of seven, living at a high school with a pair of friends, if you can call them that, and just trying to survive.”

“But that’s-” Grian started, before getting cut off.

“The same as you, right?” The person asked, sitting down on the bed. “And the answer of why should be obvious.”

“Are you…? Are you me? Like, me but older and from another dimension or something.”

“Or something. It’s a bit complicated with everything that happened.”

“Okay. And you’ve got robots. Why do they have mustaches?”

“To match their dad.” The person replied.

Grian’s eyes widened. “Wait, Taurtis has a mustache?!”

The other person’s eyes widened. “No. It’s not- I’m not with- Taurtis is…”

“What do you mean you’re not with Taurtis?” Grian asked, now very confused. “Did you break up or something? Or I guess did we break up… this is weird.”

“No. I didn’t break up with him. I… I didn’t want to… he was just…” the other person said, face falling. “When he stopped mo-“ and they cut themselves off. “Ignore that.”

“Were you- is… is Taurtis dead?”

“Uh, no. No he’s not dead. Just…”

“Oh my god…” Grian said, slumping down. “Taurtis…. Taurtis is… h-how did he…?” The person didn’t answer. “What happened to your Taurtis?”

“He and… and my Sam. Well we found something we shouldn’t have, and then I was the one to leave.”

Grian didn’t say anything else, just stayed silent. On one hand, this meant Sam was dead too, so he wouldn’t be causing any problems. But Taurtis. Taurtis was gone and he wasn’t coming back. Wouldn’t come back. Why had he even come to a future as horrible as this? But then he had a thought. “What happened to Taurtis?”

The other him was briefly taken aback by the suddenly serious tone. “I said. Essentially we messed with higher beings that shouldn’t be messed with.”

“Then what.”

“Well, they wanted one of us for something, but they didn’t tell us who or for what. Next thing I know, I’ve got blood on my hands and the other two are dead. I didn’t really get to do anything before I was dragged away.”

Grian nodded, completely quiet. The other Grian almost said something, but the look he was given stopped that. “That didn’t happen yet for me. If I get back, I can stop that, right?”

The other Grian blinked. “I mean, I’m not sure if it would work that way. I mean, I don’t remember getting pulled into the future when I was still in high school.”

“So it could work.”

“If we can get you back to that time, yeah, probably. But that’s if it will even work. I mean, since then I’ve learned magic, but I’ve never been able to really go back in time like that.”

“Well, maybe I should stay with you a bit longer, at least so I could have a chance by knowing what’s supposed to happen.” Grian said, trying to cling onto some sort of hope.” And you wouldn’t lie about it to make me feel better, right?”

“Hey, would I lie to me?” The other Grian said, sounding as genuine as he could muster. “Telling you about it is nicer than actually going through it, so of course I’ll tell you.”

“Thanks. So uh, where are we by the way?” Grian asked, looking around the room.

“We’re sort of in my castle.” Grifter replied. “Welcome to the NSMP!”

Tommy was woken up by someone shaking him awake. He groaned a little, wishing he could stay in bed a bit more, but then he recognized the hands. “Grum? What’s up?”

“Dad’s been kidnapped.” Grum responded, panic in his voice. “I-It was Grifter. He was here and we didn’t know, and now he took Dad away. And then everyone started arguing and you weren’t around so I came looking for you.”

Tommy pulled himself out of bed the rest of the way. “Where’s Jrum? Why isn’t he here too?”

“He’s still with Daddy. He went to get Kokatori, which I think is good since I guess he’s warming up to them.” Grum explained, and Tommy nodded, pulling out his comm and looking at the messages in chat.

“Hey, why the fuck is Grian’s old name in there?” Tommy asked, making Grum shrug. “Well that’s not fucking good. Where’s everyone at?”

“Still over where the party was unless they’ve moved since then.” Grum answered.

“Alright, here, hold this.” Tommy said before putting Tubbee in Grum’s arms and then slinging the robot over his shoulder. “Let’s see if people will tell us shit about what’s going on. Can you message them that we’re on our way?”

Grum said yes and a few moments later Tommy felt his comm buzz, followed by Tubbee buzzing in response and Grum giggling at that. Good. With whatever was going on, it was a good idea to keep traumatized kids distracted. Tommy definitely didn’t know that from experience.

A quick trek through the nether got them back to Aque Town, where everyone was in a bit of a crowd. Tommy set Grum down on a bench nearby before pushing his way through the crowd, though most of the Hermits didn’t really need to pushed aside to let him through, doing it willingly. When he finally reached the center, he frowned upon seeing the group in the middle.

Xisuma and Mumbo were there of course since it involved Grian. Phil and Paul were also there, arguing a bit. Then, there was also someone Tommy didn’t recognize at all, who seemed to just be standing there awkwardly. “Hey, you in the bathrobe. What the fuck’s going on around here?”

Xisuma and Phil each tried to give some sort of explanation to Tommy, but he just stopped them. “Hey! I asked shower boy, not you shits. Obviously he’s important if he’s right here, but no one’s really dealing with him, so you go back to yelling while I give him something to do.”

“We weren’t fucking yelling-” Phil started to say, but then Tommy shushed him.

“Alright, what do you think happened?” Tommy asked the guy in the robe.

“Well, I was asked here by King Soares for some task. I met the local hedgewizard and we proceeded to have a magic duel. To make a long story short, I defended against an attack, the hedgewizard tried to stop my attack, and a Watcher intervened which seemed to cause some sort of issue with the Listener and now he’s gone.”

“Wait, you think Grian was a Listener?” Mumbo spoke up, making the robe man nod.

“Of course. The magic was coming from his direction and matched his magical signature well.”

“Alright, so this is all Grifter’s fault.” Tommy spoke up. “Grifter is like… an evil alternate version of Grian. Grian’s a Watcher while Grifter’s a Listener.”

The hooded man’s eyes widened and he nodded in understanding. To the side, Paul pushed away from Phil. “Wait, this whole time Grian was one of the Watchers here?”

Tommy nodded. “Yeah. His kids are too.” And that seemed to shock Paul more as he went to sit on the ground rather than stand, not trusting his legs.

Before anyone else in the group could say anything, Jrum ran in, holding Kokatori above his head. “The chicken doesn’t know anything which I think is weird!”

“Why the fuck would the chicken know anything?” Tommy asked, a bit confused.

“Because it’s not a chicken.” Phil was the one to speak up, Paul nodding to agree. “The question is how it even got here in the first place, because while it might not know what happened with Grian, any information it’s got could help.”

“You’re not seriously suggesting we interrogate a chicken, right?” Tommy asked, but the serious looks that Paul and Phil and even the magic guy’s faces told him otherwise. “How do you even do that?”

Paul stood back up and cracked his neck, which seemed to actually scare Kokatori. “I’ve got a couple options.” The chicken struggled a bit in Jrum’s arms before Paul grabbed its neck and pulled it out of the bot’s arms. “You want to do this the easy way or the hard way?”

The chicken struggled a bit more before hissing and then shooting something out of its beak. That caught a number of people off guard, but not Paul, even though what vaguely resembled a dart had stuck itself into his neck. “This isn’t gonna get any easier for you. It’s almost night and I think training some kids for their interrogation badges could be a good way to pass the time. Torture too if they don’t have them yet.”

“I’m sorry, do you mean badges as in…?” Tommy asked, trailing off.

“He means boy scouts, yeah.” Cleo was the one to answer, which surprised Tommy. “He’s sort of an honorary troop leader for them.”

“Yeah, the kids love me.” Paul chuckled, then looked around. “By the way, does anyone have any milk? I’m losing feeling in my legs.”

Hoodie went to Paul’s side a moment later and cast a spell, making everyone notice that he had gotten a bit pale after the chicken, or whatever it was, attacked him. “So, If I may ask, what exactly is this creature?” Xisuma spoke up, worried about whatever it was being on his server.

“Cockatrice.” Paul replied. “Belongs to someone I know.”

“I’m guessing that they’re not really a friend of yours, huh?” Tommy asked, earning a nod from the man.

“Yeah. Kokatori’s his main ‘chicken’, which makes it more odd that they’re all the way out here and not with him. How long have they been around Grian?”

“Maybe about two weeks.” Mumbo answered. “Everything was a bit of a mess around here recently. Grum and Jrum got stranded in another world and we had a number of issues getting them back. Somewhere near the end of all that, this chicken, or I guess, this cockatrice, showed up.”

“Good to know. Anyone got questions they want answered?”

“Well, I would say ‘where’s Grian’, but if Grifter is involved, he’s likely in Helscraft.” Mumbo responded. “It still would be nice to know why, though.”

Paul nodded and looked back to the mob. “Well, you heard him. What’s the answer?” And he glared at the cockatrice, which gave a feeble chirp of sorts. “Wrong answer, try again.”

“Wait, you understand it?” Tommy asked, making Paul nod. “How?”

“Deal with them as long as I have and you pick up some things. So, what’s the answer?” And again the cockatrice gave a feeble cluck, though this time with a hiss. “Last chance.” Another hiss, and then Paul sighed. “Alright, so somehow it doesn’t know. Koka was just ordered to keep an eye on this place, so they don’t know what’s going on with Grian.”

“What do you know then?” Tommy asked, getting closer to the mob. “Because I bet you’re not completely fucking clueless.”

Paul nodded. “Nice and to the point, I like it.” The cockatrice clucked and hissed a bit. “Alright, it noticed Grifter lurking around a little bit, but didn’t see him actually doing much because it was around, guess he doesn’t like chickens. Anyway, he was trying to get Grian for something, but for what they don’t know, just something.”

“Well, that’s better than nothing I guess.” Tommy said, and then there were more noises from the cockatrice. “What did that bitch say now?”

“Stuff about Punchwood.” Paul said, a dark look on his face.

“Who the fuck is Punchwood?”

Paul looked up. “You’ve been calling them hels versions? Well, I’m pretty sure he’s mine. I’ve known about him for a long time. He likes to send chickens to spy on me and others and I’ve had to make excuses about him showing up more than once. Technically people know me by either Paul Soares or Pablo Punchwood. That’s because he showed up and made a mess of things. Since then I’ve used the name Pablo Punchwood as a sort of alternate name, and so everyone assumes that the first Pablo to show up was me doing an editing gag as a promotional piece.”

“So your hels version is making a mess out of things?” Phil was the one to speak up this time. “Wait, I half met mine not too long ago and he was death instead of Kristen. Does that mean-” Paul nodded. “Well shit.”

“Well, if we end up dealing with him, we’re gonna need to get prepped.” Paul said, finally letting Kokatori go. It didn’t have freedom for too long though, as almost immediately Jrum grabbed it again. “Phil, Doc and Wels can lead a number of teams to get properly prepped. While I’m sure a number of you can prep well on your own, I don’t really trust you with a team.”

“Hey! That’s- You know that’s fair.” Bdubs was the one to speak up.

“Hoodie, while I’m sure your magic would be helpful, I know we’re going to need it to help Grian and it would also be good to keep this place safe. If anything happens, you have a way to contact us of course.”

“Then I will do what I can to assist those staying behind, sir.”

“Why the fuck do we need to prep?” Tommy spoke up, making people turn to him. “He’s in Helscraft. We know enough people there that are on our side, and more that while they’re not on our side, they hate Grifter more, and right now he’s the problem. Let’s just get over there first before we try figuring things out, especially since they could help us get gear.”

“Tommy, it’s not that simple.” Phil was the one to speak up, but was then cut off again.

“Why not? We just showed up there last time and we were fine.”

“Yeah, because we weren’t going in there alone and weren’t dealing with Grian’s Hels version. I think you saw what he did to the SMP.”

Tommy frowned. “Yeah, because we didn’t know he was gonna show up, but now we do. And sure, we still might need to prepare or whatever, but the more time we take to do that, the more time he has to do whatever the fuck he’s up to.”

“Tommy.” Xisuma was the one to speak up this time. “While I know the past few hours, Paul hasn’t seemed the most trustworthy, the other hermits seem to trust him and he does know what’s going on. None of us know exactly what’s going on here, so preparing in advance for anything is going to be our best bet.”

“I don’t want to waste any fucking time preparing for something that might not even happen!”

“Then let’s try and make it quicker.” Paul spoke up, looking up at the sky where the moon was rising. He put two fingers in his mouth and let out a large sharp whistle. At first, nothing happened, but then there was suddenly a crowd of baby zombies coming over to the group of hermits. A number of the hermits pulled out weapons, ready to fight, Phil also getting out a sword of his own, but Paul just stepped closer to the crowd of zombies and knelt down in front of the one at the front of the group. “Hey Bub.”

“Heya Mister!” The zombie spoke, which caught a few of the hermits off guard. “What’s going on?”

“Well first of all, I heard you got a new member related to Cleo here.” Paul said, gesturing to the zombified hermit.

“Oh yes! He’s already doing a lot! We’re even scheduled to go on a week-long trip to a scout camp to earn plenty of badges and he’s signed up for seven badges!”

Paul chuckled. “Good for him. Say, I’m sure plenty of you guys have your badges already, but I’m dealing with Punchwood again and I’ve got some friends that need to properly gear up.” He said, gesturing to the hermits.

The baby zombie nodded. “Say no more Mister Soares sir! As long as you sign our blue cards, we’re happy to help!”

“Alright.” Paul said, standing back up. “Let’s get to work.”

Perfect Sense looked back and forth between Grifter and the shorter, more angry looking copy of him that was standing to the side. “What. The hell. Is this? I though-!”

Before Sense could say more, Grifter started pulling him into another room. “If you want to shout, let’s go to another room before you accidentally scare someone!”

Sense sputtered at the accusation. “Accidentally scare someone? I wouldn’t do that!” He got out before the door shut behind him and viridian magic appeared around it. “It’s always on purpose!”

Grifter grabbed Sense’s tie and pulled him down into a kiss. “Oh I know, but Grian doesn’t know that.”

Sense looked back to the door. “So that was him. Why is he here and not locked up like he was supposed to be, hmm? You’re just letting him stand there, completely conscious, nothing stopping him from using magic.”

Grifter rocked on his feet. “Well, he actually can’t use magic because he doesn’t know he has any.”

“What.”

Grifter stopped rocking to look Sense in the eye. “Okay, so I know the plan was to kidnap and trap him, and we still might do that. But stuff happened.”

“And by stuff… you mean?”

“Okay so I get there and they’re having a party for their Grifect because it’s his birthday or something. I think it’s perfect to kidnap him from because the chaos will hide his disappearance. And then I run into a chicken.”

Sense facepalmed. “Oh dear lord, tell me you didn’t.”

“I didn’t! I just hid, no screaming. And that definitely wasn’t a normal chicken. Those eyes weren’t right. But anyway, then I moved and then I saw Punch!” Grifter said, shouting a bit. Sense also was surprised, but before he could comment, Grifter continued. “Apparently it was actually his wels counterpart, which is so much better, and then he messed with things so I couldn’t get Grian because then the chicken was watching him. And that thing scaled a fucking building, it’s not a normal chicken. I mean it’s worse than a blucker.”

“A-alright.” Sense said, just a little bit confused, then he looked back at the door. “But what about Grian?”

“Shit, right. Anyway, follow Tommy because he leaves alone. I try to figure out if he knows anything, but doesn’t look like it. I go back, and then there’s another new guy! He’s got magic shit and I’m pretty sure he’s working with not-Punch and then Grian’s nearby. I’m worried he’s going to do something to Grian so I just try a little spell to maaaaybe leave him unconscious for a day or two or something. But then he reacts and attacks back before I can get the spell out, and then their Scar is doing magic, and then Grian interferes and now poof! He’s a kid! So I dragged him here before anyone could notice and he woke up, saw me, and assumed he’s in the future since I’m also here.”

“So, he doesn’t know who you are?” Sense asked with a slight tilt of his head.

“No! So as far as he knows I’m future him and I know what’s going to happen. I just try to remember what’s different between here and wels based on what he says and it works fine. He has no clue he’s still got Watcher magic because that won’t fucking go away, but I can work with that! If he remembers, we shove him in the Anesi box and take it from there. But for now…”

“What do you need?”

“I need to go threaten some people so they don’t ruin some things. I want you to stay with Grian and get his trust. He’s already influenced into thinking he’ll love you since I do, but still play it a little safe. And if necessary, say that I don’t like to talk about my past too much.”

Sense nodded and the magic was lifted from the door. Grifter opened the door again and grabbed the redstoner’s hand to pull him out. “Feeling calmer now?”

“I… yes. I apologize if I scared you at all.” Sense said before getting an elbow in the ribs for him to be less formal.

“It’s okay.” Grian said, though he didn’t look like he was, still glaring a bit. “So, you’re Sense?”

“Perfect Sense, at your service Grian.” And Sense took Grian’s hand and kissed the back of it.

“Seesee, you’re going to make me jealous of myself.” Grifter said with a little giggle. “And don’t make him uncomfortable with that.”

“N-no. It’s fine.” Grian said, taken aback by what just happened. “Um, should I just go by Xelqua so you can tell us apart?”

“Well, Gri had a nickname some people use. A bit of an inside joke. Of course, people still might call him Grian, so you using Xelqua should be fine.”

“What do they use?” Grian asked, worried about what it might be.

“Grifter. And he’s completely fine with it.”

Grian nodded. “Okay. I just thought it might be something else.”

“It’s not.” Grifter said, teeth gritting slightly. “No one’s used that name in years.”

“Gri, are you-” Sense started, but then Grifter was off. “Well, I suppose he does still have things to do. Why don’t I show you around then?”

Grian looked to where Grifter stormed off before back to Sense. “That sounds good. I’m sure he’ll want some time to himself.”

“I suppose you would know that, wouldn’t you?” Sense said with a smile. “Well then, let me show you around the castle. I’m sure you’ll love it here. By the way, Gri didn’t say, how old are you at this point?”

“Eighteen. I’m legally an adult so you don’t need to baby me. I just got pushed back a few years, I’ve still got more high school to deal with, but I’m hoping I can find a way to graduate early.”

Sense nodded, making sure he was behind Grian so he couldn’t see his smile. “Well, I suppose you’re out of there now. Now I can’t remember if we have any guest rooms available, but if not, we can always add a bed in our own room. It’s large enough for that.”

“That sounds good. I was in there earlier and it did look pretty big.” Grian nodded, oblivious to what exactly he was getting into.

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masterhandss · 3 years

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Hi im just starting with the ln of hamefura (manga/anime watcher) which so far so very good. A lot of additional characterization and world building. But a question: does katarina, mother doesnt like her? She seems to be completely obsessed with her husband and the reason she ( so far) treats keith well is because she reminds her of him. For katarina she seems more as an afterthought and a point of embarrassment. Do we get her pov in future novels or more kind relationship with katarina later ? She is kind of a nonentity in the manga.

Miri gets a few POV chapters in Volume 5 as extras, but aside from that we don't really get to see much of her. I understand if people don't really feel the love between mother and daughter, since most of time we see Miri she's just angry or exhausted of Katarina's behavior. Miri and Katarina's relationship is mostly played for laughs so we only get Miri POV scenes when she's surrounded by other noblewomen or scenes with Luigi where he feels glee about how similar the two actually are.

Though I wouldn't go as saying that Miri doesn't love her daughter, she's just strict because of the societal expectations place on Katarina (that she doesn't feel lmao). She's hard on her, yes, but that's because she loves her daughter and doesn't want her to humiliate herself or their family. Miri very much appreciates the joy that Katarina has brought to her and the entire Claes estate by being her happy, energetic and rambunctious self.

Miri wants Katarina to be a proper lady, but that doesn't mean she wants her daughter to change and stop being herself. I like to think that while Miri definitely disapproves of Katarina's farming hobby, she somewhat allows it because that's what makes her daughter happy (realistically it's probably Luigi or Keith who convinced her to allow it but I think a small part of Miri who agrees for those reasons). She doesn't like seeing Katarina embarrass herself (or at least when she thinks Katarina is embarrassing herself) because what kind of mother would want to see or hear her daughter being gossiped about or scorned in public? Of course Miri doesn't know that Katarina is loved by everyone regardless of how she acts, because she can't believe/comprehend that anyone outside of Katarina's circle of people would find her unlady-like antics to be amusing or endearing (also because that's the running gag of the series).

Sadly, even Katarina doesn't believe her mother loves her, which can be either really funny or really sad depending on how you take it. Katarina (and I guess the audience too) takes her mother's scolding and disapproval or her behavior as rejection, but to Miri it's strict parenting and maybe-kinda-extreme concern.

If the series decides to actually address the consequences of the running gag to Miri and Katarina's relationship, there is lots of potential for growth with both characters.

I don't know about Miri being obsessed with Luigi though, since it's kinda the opposite haha (Luigi is the one who madly in love with Miri hehe). You did mention that you're just starting the novels, so sorry if you consider the prior statement as a spoiler, but hey that's something to look forward to while you're reading the books :DD Of course Miri shows extra appreciation for Keith, he's growing up to be a fine gentleman and noblewoman and is helping her keep Katarina in check. Plus yeah like you said, Keith looks like Luigi so she finds him extra endearing. Miri will constantly encourage Keith's behavior as a noble and sense of responsibility in order to reward Keith for his growth over the years, and to maybe encourage Katarina to follow suit.

I wouldn't deny that there's visibly some favoritism when it comes to Keith and Katarina though, but I kind of really like it because it really helps emphasize the irony of the relationships in hamefura (y'know, how FL!Miri is very proud of FL!Katarina and hates Keith, but now Miri is very proud of Keith while is strict but still loving towards Katarina). I don't know, I just really like thinking about it sometimes.

While this may not be official material, I do love it when fanfics dwell into the relationship between the mother and daughter and delves deep into Miri's appreciation for Katarina's personality post-head injury. There's a lot of fics that cover this, but right now I can only think of "A Parent's Worst Nightmare" (and Catarina Claes Must Die by extension) and "Zuchini Flowers". One of my favorite things they do in fanfiction is address the fact that Katarina believes that Miri doesn't love her because she didn't turn out to be a proud and poised noblewoman (like FL!Katarina was supposed to be), only to find out that Miri loves her just way the she is. It's so nice and I would be willing to read the same character development in 62375427th different ways via fanfiction!!

I feel like there's so much more to say about their relationship that I haven't elaborated well enough, but I hope this answer is good enough for now. I'll add more things if I can think of more to say :''DD

Thank you for the ask :DD

#mh ask #hamefura #my next life as a villainess #miridiana claes #millidiana claes #katarina claes #bakarina #otome game hametsu flag

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