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gamequoteshowdown · 4 months

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Thank you everyone for making this happen! Now, without further ado, the match-ups for Round 1!!!

Round 1

"I've been waiting for this!" - Akihiko Sanada, Persona 3 / "You're just a corpse who doesn't know he's dead" - Valter, Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones

"Are you going to be our goddess of victory… or our angel of death? Doesn't sound too bad to bet my life on that." - Keiji Shinogi, Your Turn To Die: Death Game by Majority / "Don't fuck with a witch!" - Bayonetta, Bayonetta

"Teammates!? Friends!? To hell with that! Why am I inferior to you!? I was extremely particular about my life, my grades, my public image! So someone would want me around! I am an ace detective! A celebrity! But you… You're just some criminal trash living in an attic!? So how!? How does someone like you have things I don't!? How can such a worthless piece of trash be more special than me!?" - Goro Akechi, Persona 5 / "I was just gunna ask you to sell a gun to this child." - Starlo, Undertale Yellow

"I want you to live." - Charlotte Wiltshire, Hello Charlotte Series / "Your hair… sunset colored. I like it." - Queequeg, Limbus Company

"The hope to end pointless conflict… The hope to tell your daughter how much you care… It is our mission as apothecaries to ensure that everyone lives long enough for their hopes to become reality. Even if it costs us our own lives." - Castti Florenz, Octopath Traveler II / "Game is clear when 2 zombies hold hands!!" - "How to Play" Narrator, Loving Deads: The House of the Dead EX

"Thanks to you, I am saddled with unnecessary… feelings" - Miles Edgeworth, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney / "I am so fucking normal right now" - Harry du Bois, Disco Elysium

“SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL IS GOING TO HAPPEN” - Harry du Bois (in the form as a potential mural painting), Disco Elysium / "You pull out your cellphone and access your old Tumblr. You have ten, but you specifically access the Garfield one." - Narrator, Monster Prom

"… Nice meeting you again, you FUCKING WHALE!" - Ishmael, Limbus Company / "My guess is no one's ever loved you before" - Woody, Kingdom Hearts 3

"Take care, [player]. I was lucky to have known you. Though the parting hurts... the rest is in your hands!" - Grovyle, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky / "Far out, man." - Netzach, Limbus Company

"I'll be back once I eliminate that devil called poverty from the world!" - Partitio Yellowil, Octopath Traveler II / "Elder gods from the whole cosmos have awoken to taste your cookies." - Narrator, Cookie Clicker

"Hello! This is the part where I kill you!" - Wheatley, Portal 2 / "Now we come to the question : Do I kill you? Do I tear you apart to my heart's delight? The choices of the beautiful are unbearable. How's a girl to choose?" - Alice Angel, Bendy and the Ink Machine

"I am Ferdinand von Aegir" - Ferdinand von Aegir, Fire Emblem: Three Houses / "Her metabolic processes are of interest only to historians." - Miles Edgeworth, Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations

"It ain't a matter of guys or chicks... I'm just scared shitless of being rejected" - Kanji Tatsumi, Persona 4 / "...also Stanley is addicted to drugs and hookers" - Narrator, The Stanley Parable

“You’ve met with a terrible fate, haven’t you?” - Happy Mask Salesman, Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask / "I have no idea what to do with my life, but that's okay! Because I'm still working hard! Even if it's on nothing at all!" - Papyrus, Undertale

"Despite everything, its still you." - Narrator/Chara/Frisk???, Undertale / "In this world, it's kill or be killed." - Flowey, Undertale

“Heart. Lungs. Liver. Nerves. Heart. Lungs. Liver. Nerves…” - Voices of the Paranoid, Slay the Princess / "In the quiet glade, across old bark. In the ancient glade, it's always dark." - Gabbro, Outer Wilds

"You take away all their sins, and people aren't people anymore!" - Rokurou Rangetsu, Tales of Berseria / "Do you even get how it feels to have nightmares about doing tango with raw chickens? Eh?" - Heathcliff, Limbus Company

"Life is worth living, even if it hurts you, even if you hurt in it." - Solid Snake, Metal Gear Solid / "I often think about the god who blessed us with this cryptic puzzle... and wonder if we'll ever get the chance to kill him." - 2B, Nier: Automata

“Oh? Is that how it is? Yeah, okay, I like you too. Neat! Still going to kill you, but now we can both enjoy a mutual romantic subtext to the murder.” - The Razor, Slay the Princess / "Now it’s Reyn Time!" - Reyn, Xenoblade Chronicles

"You lost the coin toss. We both did." - Catherine Chun, SOMA / "I like to drink blood. . . and smoke the weed!" - Dracula, Space Funeral

"Pick a god and pray!" - Frederick, Fire Emblem: Awakening / "Can you believe it? Dragons! In your own homeland! What are you going to do?" - Florentia Candidius, Elder Scrolls Online

""Did you get the Broom Closet Ending?! The Broom Closet Ending was my favourite!" ...I hope your friends find this concerning." - Narrator, The Stanley Parable / "It’s dangerous to go alone, take this!" - Old Man, Legend of Zelda

“Close your eyes for a sec, will you Chigasaki?” “You mean physically? Or to the criminal acts I’m pretty sure you’re about to commit?” “Both.” - Chikage Utsuki & Itaru Chigasaki, A3! Act! Addict! Actors! / "You are all about to perish, do as you please. I'm sorry." - Meta Knight, Kirby Super Star

"Boy" - Kratos, God of War / "Take care of yourself, kid, cause someone really cares about you." - Sans, Undertale

"Almost Christmas means it wasn't Christmas!" - Phoenix Wright, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney / "Dios mío!” (Draw a cross.) “A LIBERAL!" - Harry du Bois, Disco Elysium

"That's it. I'm not paying one cent of my taxes!" - Ema Skye, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney / ""Trust your partner"... And I do. I can't forgive you, but I trust you." - Neku Sakuraba, The World Ends With You/Subarashiki Kono Sekai

"Hey, you. You’re finally awake. You were trying to cross the border, right? Walked right into that Imperial ambush, same as us, and that thief over there." - Ralof, Skyrim / *clap ... clap ... clap ... * "Oh good, my slow clap processor made it into this thing, so at least we have that" - GLaDOS, Portal 2

"hallOO. chikkEN. OKs?" - BOb, Slime Rancher / "Pretty good plan. You could say it was the greatest—" - Charles Calvin, The Henry Stickmin Collection

"Blood comes in four types: A, B, O, and AB. However! No blood test can determine whether a murder was committed… in cold blood!" - Phoenix Wright, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney / "You ain't my partner anymore, man. You're my friend! So trus' that, yo!" - Beat (Daisukenojo "Beat" Bito), The World Ends With You/Subarashiki Kono Sekai

"I always come back." - William Afton, FNaF Pizzeria Simulator / "So -- as you can see, I'm a *pretty okay* detective -- and an absolutely GIANT COMMUNIST." - Harry du Bois, Disco Elysium

"Ears have a nice mouth feel, very chewy!" - Briar, League of Legends / "This is like taking candy from a baby, which is fine by me." - Shadow the Hedgehog, Shadow the Hedgehog (2005)

"It's a beautiful day outside. Birds are singing, flowers are blooming... On days like this, kids like you... Should be burning in hell." - Sans, Undertale / "In the dark times, should the stars also go out?" - Steban, the Student Communist, Disco Elysium

“We are a path in the woods. We have no beginning, and we have no end, but something cold and unnatural sits watching us from just beyond our edge.” - The Wild, Slay the Princess / "Strong Pokémon. Weak Pokémon. That is only the selfish perception of people. Truly skilled Trainers should try to win with the Pokémon they love best." - Karen (Elite Four), Pokemon HeartGold / SoulSilver

#not polls #round 1 #tumblr tournament

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rescuehumans-runtotherescue · 7 months

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Close up Inspection Of Cody’s Belongings In The Pizza Pi Episode

There are some duplicates that make sense and others that don’t.

Downstairs:

1. Comic books

2. Binoculars

3. Teddy bear, possibly in a police shirt.

4. Dinosaur stuffy

5. Rubber Ducky #1

6. Action figure

7. Books with a picture of a fire on the front, probably lad pioneer books.

8. Books with the Griffin Rock emblem.

9. Water tank (?) #1 & #2

10. Just books in general.

11. Tuba

12. Lantern. I thought there was a duplicate in the upstairs scene, but there is not.

13. Duck tape

14. Big Dice

15. Phone (?)

16. A couple newspapers

17. Soccer ball #1

18. Magician hat #1 (call back to the Bots and Robbers episode when he was the villain in his school play).

19. Baseball bat #1

20. Trumpet

21. Boombox #1

22. Robot and Dinosaur toys

23. Life vest and possible water safety books with it.

24. Basketball #1

This is the zoom in, some stuff is moved around but the only things here that weren’t seeable in the wide shot are

25. Notebook #1?

26. What looks like an iPhone?

Upstairs:

27. Cardboard Optimus Head

28. Med kit #1

29. Jacks

30. Fire Extinguisher #1

31. Magician hat #2

32. Rubber ducky #2. I realize now it autocorrected to runny in this pic, but I’m not changing it now.

33. Teddy bear, possibly in a police shirt #2

34. Moose Hat

35. Cup

36. Various Stuffies

37. Notebook #2?

38. Baseball #1

39. Baseball bat #2

40. Rocket toy #1

41. Rocket toy #2

42. Board game

43. Basketball #2

44. More books

45. Clothes

46. Rubber ducky #3

47. Pringles can? Back side of water bottle?

48. Baseball #2

49. Plant

50. Soccer ball #2

51. Duffel Bag

52. Foam Finger

There was a zoom in shot with Graham on the ground but there was no new stuff so I’ve left it out.

53. Rackets

54. Cleats

55. More clothes. Clothes everywhere. He’s a teenage boy though, c’mon.

56. More books

57. CD?

58. Soccer ball #3

49. Boombox #2

50. Med kit #2

51. Fire extinguisher #2

52. Another book

53. Rubber ducky #4

Spitting thoughts out:

Lmao notice how there is stuff all over the downstairs and the upstairs hallways and staircases but he left the kitchen mostly clean? Same. Getting to food = important.

So it makes sense that they have multiple med kits and fire extinguishers because they’re a rescue family.

Cody seems to have a lot of dinosaur related little kid stuff so Dino kid confirmed.

He seems to be a big reader but Cody’s a smart kid so yeah we could’ve figured that. Also I bet Charlie has preached the need to get off the internet and do other things.

Makes sense that he has a lot of soccer balls because apparently it’s the family sport. Kade, Dani, and Graham have lots of soccer trophies. There was a whole episode about how Cody is bad at soccer.

Makes sense he has a lot of basket balls and baseballs. We see the family play basketball all the time and at the end of the soccer episode, Kade insists Cody try out for baseball.

You would think they’d have a shed or something to put all their sports stuff in??? Why have them inside????

Why the boomboxes?? I could see if one of them used to be Charlie’s and he gave it to Cody, but why two?

The magician hat and the trumpet are both call backs from previous episodes. I don’t remember exactly the trumpet one, but it was when he was trying new things for a lad pioneer badge or extra credit in school or something. Heatwave recommended martial arts but it didn’t go well???

The duplicate of the Teddy bear with the police shirt and the duplicate of the magician hat are clear accidents.

The moose hat is because the moose is the mascot of the team Kade was on.

Why the tuba? What’s with the water tanks? Cody has his own plant? When’d he make the Optimus head? That would’ve been cute to see!

Why the hell does he have so many rubber ducky’s?!?!?!???

//Don’t take this post too seriously. I know there’s going to be animation errors. I find it amusing.

Bonus:

54. Lucky soccer shorts from first grade

55. Mr. Macaroni from preschool

#I’m aware they probably just didn’t think anyone would look this in-depth about all this #or that they thought no one would care #I’m not mad about the duplicates or anything I just wanted to look closer at this to try to find out more about the codester #Cody burns #pizza pi #tfrb #transformers rescue bots #transformers rescue humans #tfrb Cody burns #trb Cody burns #Cody burns headcanons #rescue humans headcanons #long post

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suicide-with-dazai · 5 months

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"Kaeya Alberich, you have a gambling addiction." - NSFW

cw: modern au!kaeya x fem reader , gambling ofc , nsfw starts at the ❅ / i separate punctuation and stuff to make it easier for me to read :) and some other people maybe <3 this took me a week to write please enjoy !!! -NSFW STUFF:- unprotected sex , blowjob , bathing together , spitting wine , thigh-fucking , sort of a contract ?

plot: you meet kaeya at the tavern and decide to gamble against him , you end up in enormous debt and dont have the money to pay him back ... he gives you 4 days to prove yourself - 2.1k words

in the dimly lit backroom of the bustling tavern , the flickering candlelight cast shadows over the worn poker table where kaeya and yourself faced off in a high-stakes game . kaeya , with his characteristic charm and silver-tongued wit , leaned back in his chair , casually shuffling his deck of cards with a coy grin . across from him, you fidgeted nervously , your shy demeanor contrasting sharply with kaeyas confident aura . as the game intensified , the tension in the room grew palpable , amplified by the hefty stack of chips in the center , an emblem of your daring bets .

in a sudden display of impulsive confidence , you pushed a significant sum of chips into the center , money in which you didnt own , convinced that your hand was the one to beat . yet kaeya , ever composed , matched the bet effortlessly , his eyes glinting with a calculated determination . with the final reveal of the cards , a cascade of emotions surged through the room . a triumphant smile curved kaeyas lips as he revealed his winning hand , while your heart sank in disbelief as the weight of your impulsive decision settled heavily upon your shoulders .

with a heavy silence enveloping them , the reality of the debt you now owed hung like a shroud in the air , threatening to suffocate them . kaeyas suave composure remained unscathed , but his eyes betrayed a flicker of something akin to regret as he watched your crestfallen expression . as the taverns bustling ambiance continued unabated beyond the backroom's walls , the two players sat in the aftermath of their gamble , their fates irrevocably entwined by the merciless hand of chance .

you stare at the table in shock , utterly mortified .

kaeyas gaze softened as he observed your distress , recognizing the weight of the situation that had unfolded . he let out a sigh , his fingers lightly tapping on the table as he contemplated the predicament .

"seems like youve hit a rough patch , huh ? " he mused , his voice laced with an unexpected gentleness . you could only nod , unable to meet his cold and taunting gaze , consumed by a mixture of shame and despair .

you manage to muster up the courage to look him in the eyes , his gaze piercing as icicles and cold as the hounds that bite as your fingertips in the winter . youve never been one to gamble , so why now ? ugh-

you got carried away , you shouldve never sat at that table , or picked up the cards . or even gone to the tavern in the first place ! and now youre in debt by 3 million mora . with kaeyas luck , you were never going to win . you had a straight flush ( J 10 9 8 7 of spades ) and with kaeyas unbelievable and almost inhuman luck , he managed to recieve a hand so lucky , so cruelly fate-deciding for you ... a royal flush . ( A K Q J 10 of diamonds )

"b-but i dont have that much ! i...i cant pay you back !!!"

your blood began to boil . theres no way !! he MUST be cheating somehow !

"youre cheating !!!" you exclaim , truly helpless and enraged , "you manipulated it somehow !!!" your words are unsteady and broken by your desperate cries .

kaeyas expression remained composed , though a flicker of concern crossed his features at your accusation .

"i understand your frustration , but I assure you , there was no foul play involved ," he explained calmly , his voice unwavering . "sometimes luck favors one over the other , and tonight , lady luck happened to be on my side~"

your tears gave way to a surge of anger , fueled by the helplessness of the situation .

"how am I supposed to believe that ? you always seem to have everything under control , as if youre manipulating the world to bend to your will ," you retorted , your voice trembling with a potent mix of fury and resentment .

kaeya leaned back in his chair , his gaze unwavering as he absorbed the weight of your words .

"believe what you will but I am offering you a way out of this predicament , " he stated firmly , his tone laced with a resolute determination . "you can choose to dwell on misplaced accusations , or you can help me out with some more .... private matters . so , what do you say ? "

to this , you sit back down . wiping your tears on your sleeve .

"private matters....? what do you me-"

"oh dont act oblivious . you know what i mean ."

at this , you raised an eyebrow as he ran a hand through his hair and bit his lip as his gaze burnt through yours .

kaeya followed this up with a quick wink , " how about you put on something pretty and meet me back at my place at 7pm ?"

you didnt really have a choice . well , either live the rest of your life in millions and millions of debt or help kaeya with his ... 'private matters'... whatever that may be - you had an idea , but kaeya is a mysterious man , quite frankly . so 'private' could mean anything .

"ill give you 4 days , doll ... 4 days to repay me .. "

❅

day 1.

"a-ah you can do it ... ohh god you feel good- "

how did i get here , you think . legs spread , being fucked by the man whom you owed millions to . his hands either side of you , occasionally leaning down to kiss your lips hungrily , whispering , cursing as he slides his length in and out of your tightening cunt .

"kae- mhh~ my god-" you grip the bedsheets impossibly tighter , mouth agape as he stretches you out so wonderfully , his veiny shaft arousing your spongy walls with each thrust . your arousal evident by the sticky fluids slicking his cock so beautifully . to further your pleasure , kaeya rubs painfully teasing circles on your clit , the overstimulation beckoning you to squirt on his cock .

"come on , ah- dont h- dont hold back now darling- squirt for me- good girl...come on~"

at this , you cry out in pleasure as you reach your climax , and you squirt your arousal all over his tip and shaft as he pulls out , the sudden pressure of the fluids cause him to cum too , on your tits and stomach .

"gonna need to do a lot more to pay off those debts , love ." he whispers coldly , his lips brushing and tickling your ears , and your instincts just force you to take his cock back into your hand and position it back at your entrance . you wrap your shaking thighs around his waist in order to stabilize yourself .

"oh~ thats a good girl ... just what we like to see~"

kaeya suddenly thrusts back inside of you , sucking and moaning into your neck as he bottoms out .

"f-fuck... ah-" you cry out , your hand pulling his hair oh so erotically .

day 2.

today , youre positioned between his legs , your hands tied behind your back . his powerful gaze like a grey cloud above your head as he pumps his hardening length .

"archons ... youre so hot like this-"

kaeya shifts forward slightly in his seat , allowing you extra access to his pretty cock , already leaking with precum as he eyes your vulnerable position . on your knees , hands tied , staring up at him with those seductive eyes - he could cum from just looking at you .

you take his tip into your mouth - hollowing our your cheeks and licking his slit at an almost unbeareably pleasurable pace . as you slide your warm mouth up and down his length , kaeya hisses through clenched teeth - mouth agape and eyes rolling further back every time your hot tongue drags along his shaft .

"g- oh- hhhh~" unable to form comprehensible words , he strokes your hair unusually softly . youd expect him to be pushing your head closer so his cock could pump in and out of your throat , choking you with his sensitive length . but no , hes being so gentle with you today - with your hands tied behind your back as you moan onto his cock - he would praise you if he wasnt so lost in pleasure right now .

day 3.

it seemed that kaeya had these few days planned out all too well . today , he asked you to run a bath for the both of you while he prepared some glassses of wine downstairs .

each day youve been finding yourself knocking at his door at around 7pm , knowing that your fate is sealed .

"i-its ready !" you call downstairs , still weak from all of the... action ... these past two days .

soon , he was stripping you in the bathroom , kneeling before you and kissing and licking your skin as its exposed , just before he allows you to step into the bath , he places a wet kiss on your cunt- with an evident glimmer of mischief in his eyes .

you sigh , contentedly as you step into the hot water , feeling all of your muscles relax - but not for long~

kaeya takes off his robe and connects his lips with yours as he gets into the bath with you , its a rather spacious bath - more of a hot tub really . "gods- this is my best idea yet."

whispering under his breath , kaeya lifts you ontop of his body , the hot water surrounding you . oh , you thought he forgot about the wine ? never- hes soon to take a mouthful and spit it into your mouth as you drink it up like a good doll .

although you consented to all of this , it was incredibly tiring pleasing kaeya every day - however , it did feel good , and the debts simply needed to be paid off .

kaeya spit wine onto your tits as you lay back , just to lick it back off , taking your hard nipples in his mouth and biting at them slightly , moaning into your plush skin .

day 4.

"gonna let me fuck those pretty thighs today , hm ~?"

you nodded desperately , as youd never done this before , and your cunt was just pleading for some friction as his toned body hovers teasingly above you .

hes quick to position himself as you put your thighs together , laid back on his silky mattress , and with one stroke of his needy erection , he slides between the tight space - and god does it feel divine .

his mind goes hazy - the feeling of your slick-coated thighs either side of him , your needily dripping cunt below , and your cute little whines surround him , as he thrusts once more .

"o-oh- yes- yes yes yes...." he chants as you squeeze him tighter , hissing as he feels himself get closer . you position yourself so that you can see exactly what hes doing , a stifled moan escapes your throat as you see him so desperately slipping his cock between your soft legs , almost looking pathetic how he tosses his head back every time he passes your clit .

tonight , you made him cum 3 times with your thighs , occassionally he would lean down to sloppily kiss you , while gasping and hissing into your mouth -

later of after he had cleaned you up , kaeya sits on the sofa with you in his arms , "darling , i know ive pushed you a little these past few days and- "

' a little !? ' you think , tch , it did feel good though ...

"-just wanna say thanks to you love , 'made me feel so good , i think youve earned it , dont you ? "

kaeya leans closer to you , "youre no longer in debt anymore , pretty thing , and you can come over whenever you feel like~ hows that sound ? gods... ill miss that cute pussy of yours though~"

reposts welcome , infact i encourage it , id love for this post to get some attention , i worked hard ! i hope you enjoyed , took me so long ^^"

massive thanks to @cafekitsune for the pretty dividers and stuff , much appreciated !!! they have some beautiful resources , go check em out !!! (seriously , you have some amazing work :)

requests open <3

do not republish , steal or claim this work as your own .

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sleepyhead-poll · 29 days

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SUBMISSIONS FOR THE LOSER'S BRACKET ARE OPEN!

Welcome to the Loser's Bracket submissions! If you don't know how it works, here's a rundown:

For about a week, I will have nominations open for the Loser's Bracket. Nominate as many characters as you want who were in the tournament but have lost, but do not nominate someone more than once or someone who wasn't in the main tournament. (All contestants who lost prior to the semifinals have a shot to be nominated.)

After the Loser's Bracket nominations have been recorded, I will take the top 16 most nominated characters and begin the Loser's Bracket, which will last 4 rounds. Each round will last only a day, unlike the main tournament, where each round lasted a week.

The winner of the Loser's Bracket will have an honorary place on the podium and be mentioned in the finals winners post.

All propaganda for the Loser's Bracket will be unique, so feel free to write more propaganda on why you think they deserve this second chance.

I will stop taking nominations the day that the semifinals poll is over, as I want to start the Loser's Bracket the day the finals go up.

I will take nominations through the ask box! Send the name of your character & any propaganda on why you think they should have won.

Under the cut is a list of ALL THE LOSERS thus far and WHICH ROUND THEY LOST IN. Feel free to scroll through it to refresh yourself on anyone you want to nominate. (I hope I spelled everyone's name right because that was a lot to type and I'm not doing that again lmao)

Lost During Round 1

Tanaka (Tanaka-kun is Always Listless)

Sanada Ryu (Kimi ni Todoke)

Yokune Ruko (UTAUloid)

Ritsu Sakuma (Ensemble Stars)

Tsukasa Hiiragi (Lucky Stars)

Chayanne (QSMP)

Koshiba Kiri (Beauty Pop)

Towa Motosu (World Dai Star)

Takenaka Hanbei (Samurai Warriors)

Budwin (Papa Louie)

Meguru Bachira (Blue Lock)

Judai Yuki (Yu-Gi-Oh! GX)

Sleepy Gary (Rick and Morty)

Viva Twilight (Master Detective Archives: Rain Code)

Garfield (Garfield)

Shari (Wayside School)

Takane Enomoto (Kagerou Project)

Howard Philips Lovecraft (Bungo Stray Dogs)

Belphegor (Obey Me! Shall we Date?)

En Yufuin (Cute High Earth Defense Club Love!)

Hyp (Touhou: Fantastic Danmaku Festival 2)

Meitenkun (King of the Fighters)

Mint (My Time at Portia)

Priscilla (Rune Factory 5)

Dreamer / Protagonist (Melatonin)

Clovis (Percy Jackson)

Towtow (Super Smash Bros.)

Link (Legend of Zelda)

Shota Aizawa / Eraser Head (My Hero Academia)

Shikamaru Nara (Naruto)

Vooshvazool's Bat (The Neverending Story)

Enrico Pollini (Rat Race)

Denjiro Kyoshiro (One Piece)

Sans (Undertale)

Midnight (Fairytale)

Ahito (Galactik Football)

Laffey (Azur Lane)

Noelle (NieR Reincarnation)

Nemu (Haibane Renmei)

Snoozing Carpenter (Sky: Children of the Light)

Aurora Sya Lis Goodreste (Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle)

Eve (Eaternal Nocturnal)

Elle (Crush Crush)

Hastings (One Upon a Time in Space)

Briar Beauty (Ever After)

Silver (Twisted Wonderland)

Ganyu (Genshin Impact)

Layla (Genshin Impact)

Totoro (My Neighbor Totor)

Slakoth & Slaking (Pokemon)

Musharna (Pokemon)

Dreaming Nemleria (Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG)

Noddy (Kirby)

Nemukko Nyago (Sanrio)

Citrus (Otherworldly Ravenous Beast)

Espinas (Monster Hunter)

Lazy Smurf (The Smurfs)

Paddi (Pleasant Goat and Big Bad Wolf)

Dozer (Cookie Run)

Forde (Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones)

Trec (Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade)

Mirabilis (Fire Emblem: Heroes)

Sothis (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)

Ladybird (King of the Hill)

Lost During Round 2

Ritsuka Uenoyama (Given)

Kanata Konoe (love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club)

Yoshihito Usaida (Gakuen Babysitters)

Yuuya Amane (Nukoduke!)

PJ Berri (Parappa the Rapper)

Nagi Seishiro (Blue Lock)

Sleepy Ernst (Destroy All Humans)

Peppermint Patty (Peanuts)

Saiko Yonebayashi (Tokyo Ghoul:re)

Kyoutarou Shuzenji (Cute Earth Defense Club HAPPY KISS!)

Hisoka Mikage (A3!)

Ryker (Rune Factory 5)

Madotsuki (Yume Nikki)

Talon (The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time)

Agares Picero (Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun)

Mister Zzz (Batman)

Roronoa Zoro (One Piece)

Dino (That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime)

Nemurin (Magical Girl Raising Project)

Siffrin (In Stars and Time)

Sakuma Fueko (The Feelings We All Must Endure)

Sleepy (Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs)

Sleeping Beauty (Shrek)

Sayu (Genshin Impact)

Slowpoke Evolution Line (Pokemon)

Caitlin (Pokemon)

Gudetama (Pokemon)

Number 6 Floof (Monster Hunter Stories)

Flower (Bambi)

Vampire Cookie (Cookie Run)

Mitama (Fire Emblem: Fates)

Durin (Arknights)

Lost During Round 3

Yumemi Nemu (Vocaloid)

Panda (Polar Bear Cafe)

Sonic the Hedgehog (Sonic the Hedgehog)

Chiaki Nanami (Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair)

Kuro / Sleepy Ash / Sloth (Servamp)

Clorica (Rune Factory 4)

Hypnos (Hades)

Unconscious Argentinean (Moulin Rouge)

Sloth (Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood)

Sunny (Omori)

Sleepytime Tea Bear (Celestial Sleepytime Tea)

Jing Beiyuan (Lord Seventh)

Komala (Pokemon)

Rainforest Dragon / RainWings (Wings of Fire)

Judd (Splatoon)

Haar (Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance)

Lost During Round 4

Ayumu "Osaka" Kasuga (Azumanga Daioh)

Jeff Wiggle (The Wiggles)

Nanaki Kazuaki (Hatoful Boyfriend)

Olruggio (Witch Hat Atelier)

Bedman (Guilty Gear)

Wonderland Sekai Megurine Luka (Project Sekai: Colorful Stage)

Snorlax (Pokemon)

Lindhardt von Hevring (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)

Lost During Round 5 (Quarterfinals)

Snoozer (Hamtaro)

Hotaru Yura (Magia Record)

Jade Harley (Homestuck)

Bedtime Bear (Care Bears)

#loser's bracket #loser's bracket submissions #loser's bracket nominations #poll submission #poll nominations #poll bracket #poll tournament #polls #character polls #sleepyhead poll

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claristhegirl · 6 months

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Finished Blazing Blade (FE7) Hector Hard Mode tonight!

Earlier this year, I decided on the long term goal of attempting to finish every mainline Fire Emblem game on the hardest difficulty. There's 8 of them I haven't even played yet (FE1-6 and the two DS games), and most of the games I have I've only finished on easier difficulties, so... there's a lot to do. When they released Blazing Blade on Nintendo Switch Online over the summer, that felt like a good place to start making serious effort towards this goal.

One unfortunate catch, though: I was starting from a new save file. And Hector Hard is unlocked by completing Hector Normal. And Hector is unlocked by completing Eliwood. And I decided I wanted to do Eliwood Hard as well. So in the end I did 4 different playthroughs of the game over the past several months. Suffice to say I've had enough of Blazing Blade for a very long time if not forever, lol. I am NOT going to miss the overly limited deployment slots.

Character and chapter info:

Farina (431 Battles / 271 Wins / 1 Loss)

Girl!

I planned on her being my main late-game carry since before the playthrough even began, and she performed far better than I even expected. She did get a good number of statboosters (Afa's Drops, Angelic Robe, 2 Goddess Icons, Talisman, Boots, Body Ring), but her four capped stats were (aside from Afa's Drops) all capped naturally. She had 18 Defense after promotion! She soloed a ton of late game without any trouble at all.

Florina (309 Battles / 184 Wins / 4 Losses)

Also Girl!

With the help of Lyn Mode statboosters she was my main carry until Farina came along, at which point she was still very useful but was outclassed by What The Hell Farina How Do You Have So Much Defense. Her absurd luck was incredibly helpful against all the Luna enemies.

Oswin (281 Battles / 138 Wins / 1 Loss)

Very lucky Oswin here, with almost every stat being above average. Turns out having an utterly absurd Defense stat is pretty good.

Hector (268 Battles / 116 Wins / 2 Losses)

...Very mediocre. 8 Skill before promotion... that he can't do until there's like 5 chapters left... ow ow ow. This game sure does have some baffling design choices.

Bartre (255 Battles / 149 Wins / 0 Losses)

Was required to use him for full recruitment, but then uhhh what the hell Bartre? What are these stats how are you 4 above average in both Skill and Speed oh my god.

Raven (221 Battles / 134 Wins / 2 Losses)

His level ups were largely not great, but he did get a LOT of Luck levels early on to shore up his main weakness and was otherwise carried by his absurd Hard Mode bases.

Fiora (203 Battles / 133 Wins / 1 Loss)

The least useful of the Pegasus Sisters this playthrough due to her lower strength, but still had a very nice niche with her Res. She got to be my main carry in Eliwood Hard at least!

Eliwood (156 Battles / 82 Wins / 0 Losses)

Pretty good Strength and Speed, though ultimately didn't get used too much.

Marcus (89 Battles / 52 Wins / 0 Losses)

Performed his Jagen role admirably.

Guy (78 Battles / 44 Wins / 0 Losses)

Being my first Hard Mode Bonuses character, I tried to use him, but then he failed to get a single point of Strength in 10 levels and was too weak to keep up.

Lyn (63 Battles / 34 Wins / 0 Losses)

Promoted at Level 17. I tried to use her early (especially thanks to aiming for Linus's Four-Fanged Offense) but her strength and defenses were just too awful to be worth using after that point.

Legault (26 Battles / 11 Wins / 2 Losses)

Yup he sure did steal things while having additional limited combat utility.

Serra (18 Battles / 5 Wins / 0 Losses)

My main staff user until Pent arrived, though she still stuck around whenever deployment slots actually allowed for it.

Pent (12 Battles / 6 Wins / 0 Losses)

Didn't get used much for combat, but he became my main staff user late-game.

Athos (6 Battles / 3 Wins / 0 Losses)

Yup he sure did a good job of "guaranteed final boss kill with Luna and some speed statboosters".

Ninian/Nils (3 Battles / 0 Wins / 0 Losses, combined)

I told myself this would be the playthrough I would actually use the rings more and then I still had barely used them by the time the game was over, oops. Oh well.

Turn counts and chapter info:

Pro. A Girl from the Plains (6 Turns) Ch1 Footsteps of Fate (6 Turns) Ch2 Sword of Spirits (7 Turns) Ch3 Band of Mercenaries (6 Turns) Ch4 In Occupation's Shadow (8 Turns) Ch5 Beyond the Borders (7 Turns) Ch6 Blood of Pride (7 Turns) Ch7 Siblings Abroad (10 Turns) Ch7x The Black Shadow (8 Turns) Ch8 Vortex of Strategy (9 Turns) Ch9 A Grim Reunion (11 Turns)

Ch10 The Distant Plains (23 Turns) Lyn Mode's Prologue through Chapter 9 were shared with my Eliwood Hard playthrough. Since you can't save between completing this chapter and choosing the character mode afterward, I had to redo this chapter. Had to wait at the end for Nils to reach Level 7 (why is that a thing...).

Ch11 Another Journey (18 Turns) Took a surprisingly annoying number of attempts, though I was probably being too reckless. Welcome to Hector Hard I guess.

Ch12 Birds of a Feather (7 Turns) Ch13 In Search of Truth (14 Turns) Ch13x The Peddler Merlinus (8 Turns) Ch14 False Friends (10 Turns) Ch15 Talons Alight (8 Turns) Ch16 Noble Lady of Caelin (15 Turns)

Ch17 Whereabouts Unknown (21 Turns) Had one of the soldiers die here because I wasn't expecting them to immediately rush to their death and get ORKO'd by the enemy right outside of the cell noooooooo

Ch17x The Port of Badon (17 Turns)

Ch18 Pirate Ship (12 Turns) Every other playthrough I ended the chapter early by defeating the boss, so it was interesting to actually play it out this time. Did still barely manage to steal the boss's item on the final turn, having to plan it out exactly several turns in advance.

Ch19 The Dread Isle (13 Turns)

Ch19x Imprisoner of Magic (44 Turns) Managed to defeat Kishuna first try, which I was really grateful for given how much time I spent grinding on his morphs beforehand lol.

Ch19x pt2 A Glimpse in Time (19 Turns) Ch20 Dragon's Gate (20 Turns) Ch21 New Resolve (15 Turns)

Ch22 Kinship's Bond (7 Turns) Lost an attempt annoyingly far in because of confusion with enemy ranges, and how it doesn't show that an enemy can attack from a space if another enemy is already standing there (even though said enemy can move or die...). Bleh.

Ch23 Living Legend (33 Turns) Was super worried about the HHM exclusive fog, but then I ended up having a significantly easier time than I did in EHM due to the altered boss locations and them not moving.

Ch23x Genesis (31 Turns) This had a terrifying first impression, but it became significantly easier once I remembered that the Barrier Staff exists.

Ch24 Four-Fanged Offense [Linus] (36 Turns)

Ch25 Crazed Beast (120 Turns) This is the start of massive turn count bloat due to going for supports (mainly Hector/Farina A, and later Eliwood/Lyn A just because). The GBA support system is such terrible nonsense. But anyway, first chapter with Farina, and I took advantage of all the monks that could do nothing to her to grind her to Level 2 promoted. She ended the chapter with 18 defense!!

Ch26 Unfulfilled Heart (12 Turns) Decided to go for the Armory on the final turn, which 18 Defense Farina + Nini's Grace was able to do while surviving Vaida easily.

Ch27 Pale Flower of Darkness [Jerme] (98 Turns). Aimed for Jerme's because I did Kenneth in my EHM playthrough, and Hard Mode bonuses favor the Jerme units regardless. Got Harken because I wanted to try him out with Hard Mode bonuses… and then never used him, but I did at least use his Brave Sword. Another bloated turn count due to supports.

Ch28 Battle Before Dawn (16 Turns) Farina rushed for Ursula and nearly soloed everything in the way, making this chapter easy once reinforcements were stopped.

Ch28x Night of Farewells (98 Turns) Another chapter with Farina rushing for the boss to stop reinforcements, killing Sonia on Turn 3. And then the rest was spent slowly cleaning things up while being terrified of the status staff enemies, and then spending forever to finally reach Hector/Farina A.

Ch29 Cog of Destiny (40 Turns) Florina got unexpectedly hit by a Berserk staff early on, which was terrifying but then none of the enemies around her managed to actually do anything to her.

Ch30 The Berserker (20 Turns) I gave it a decent amount of tries with Hector + Legault to try to steal the statboosters, but had way too much trouble and my strat required a lot of luck so I decided to not bother and cleared it super easily with Hector + Farina.

Ch31 Sands of Time (12 Turns) Warped to and killed the boss Turn 1, making the rest of the chapter mostly fairly simple (...mainly thanks to getting lucky dodges against the status staff enemies).

Ch31x Battle Preparations (6 Turns)

Ch32 Victory or Death (18 Turns) This chapter felt incredibly overwhelming. Farina could take on basically everyone by herself, but there being so many enemies meant she had to return to the main group to restock her weapons, and I also wanted to get every village. I thought the attempt was lost midway through, but I guess there's a 50 enemy limit, so a lot of the reinforcements I was worried about and expecting didn't show up.

Ch32x The Value of Life (33 Turns) Spent most of this chapter feeding kills to Hector because I felt like it, which is how he ended the game at Level 18.

Final Light (20 Turns) Finished off Nergal with an unnecessary Farina Triangle Attack, then killed the Dragon with the guaranteed Athos + Luna.

Total: 949 Turns

#fire emblem #fe7 #blazing blade #farina #hector hard mode #finished playthrough

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antimonyandthyme · 6 months

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Tagged by the lovely @badboy-george and @rosyjuly for the 20 questions for fic writers game, thank you! <33

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

62!

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

196,925

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Currently it's only F1, but I've written for a bunch of anime fandoms like Haikyuu! and Daiya no Ace (even in anime I can't escape sports) and Naruto of course. And some movie ones like Tenet. And some random others. Like the Epic 7 and Fire Emblem game.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

The Cloud That Settles (sewis), then If You Don't Play, You'll Never Win (lestappen), then Treading Softly in My Head (martian), then All the Miles We Have to Shed (martian), then Shutter Speed (martian). Special mention to the sixth in line But I Exist to Serve the Master, which I think was the first fic up on ao3 for The Gentlemen (2019) fandom kekekeke.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes, absolutely. I have a backlog at the moment which I feel a little guilty about because I want anyone who's commented to know their words and thoughts are so beloved to me, and sometimes when someone leaves a wonderfully thoughtful comment it takes me ages to respond because I want to respond in kind.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Spring Cleaning (maxiel) or this prosenna tumblr ficlet

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Hmm. Looking through my fics I realize they often end on a very happy, resolved, or hopeful note. It'd be tough for me to choose the happiest. Maybe Down in the Depths We Make Our Home (sebchal pacific rim au), just for how complete it felt at the end.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not in the traditional sense, like I hate your writing! kind of thing. I've had some odd comments that I genuinely think weren't meant to be mean but have made me question some aspects of my writing, and I've learned to take those in stride. I'm also very very lucky to be surrounded by beloved people who have everlasting patience for my huehuehues.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Kekekeke. Y E S. I love doing so. I'm not sure I can describe what kind, I'm into so many flavours. The really, really horny kind? *me scrolling through my ao3* Oh wow yes the really, really, really horny kind.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I have not! Only AUs at the moment. The craziest AU I've ever thought of was probably an F1 Chainsaw Man AU.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I don't believe so!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! I've had If You Don't Play, You'll Never Win and Melt Your Aches and Call This Home (a baseball anime fic) translated into Chinese. Reading them has been a delight and a lesson all in one!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No, but I am in talks with... some beloved people...

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

All time! Hmm. Hmm! Naruto/Sasuke my og pairing probably. But Martian and Sebmick are right up there too.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Huehuehue. I have a bunch languishing in my drafts at the moment. Rosquez, seb4seb, sebastidan wips are most in danger because my interest in them crests super hard one day and wanes the next. *sees a gif* *is inspired* *sees a gif of something else* *forgets*

16. What are your writing strengths?

Narrative voicing I think? A very clear, defining character arc. I've been told the porn's pretty good too, while being very emotional.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Long fic. Ah, geez. There are so many stories in my head that could only be done justice if I had the patience to take my time with it, put in the hours, put in the words, put in the work. But I'm very easily distracted by shiny things unfortunately. I also worry I write the characters the same across fics. Like my Sebs, I worry that he's getting a little too consistent and predictable even in vastly different works.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I probably wouldn't, I would worry too much about whether I got the nuances and grammar and structure and voicing right.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Probably Naruto?

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

This changes depends on the day you ask. At the moment it's actually my prosenna tumblr fics, which upon every reread I find myself liking more. (The real fave fave fic is something I chatficced with @rosyjuly that I hope will one day see the light of day)

No pressure tagging if you'd like to play! @sebrrari @effervescentdragon @ayceeofspades @loveisworry @wewentcarracing

#athy texts #fanfic #thank you this was very fun to do #and very lovely to think about

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immaturityofthomasastruc · 2 years

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IOTA Reviews: Miraculous World: Shanghai – The Legend of Ladydragon (Late 2000 Follower Special)

DISCLAIMER: I am not of Chinese ancestry, so I may not understand some of the content featured in this special. If anyone reading this is familiar with Chinese culture in any way, I strongly encourage you to speak up and either give your opinion on this special or point out anything I get wrong when discussing Chinese culture.

Back in 2021, I watched a video analyzing, of all things, Thomas the Tank Engine, specifically it's failed rebrand in a desperate attempt to salvage ratings, Thomas & Friends: Big World! Big Adventures!. The premise was that Thomas himself would go on adventures in other countries, meet foreign engines, and learn about other cultures as a way to appeal to international audiences. Sure, it had other problems relating to the writing and new format, but one of the more noticeable points made by the creator of the video, The Unlucky Tug, was that for a show trying to focus on representing different cultures, a lot of the international episodes felt very... stereotypical with how the culture was portrayed to the point where it bordered on being offensive. Yong Bao, the Chinese engine, was fascinated with tigers after encountering one taught him to be more courageous, to the point where his tender has an emblem of one on it. Lorenzo, the Italian engine, loved to sing opera, and would even do so while on the job with his coach. Nia, the Kenyan engine, had her paintjob styled after the African flag, has no real personality outside of mentioning she's from Kenya to remind the audience, and was a blatant marketing attempt to make the main cast more diverse.

Where exactly am I going with this? In general, the international episodes were poorly researched, and in response, The Unlucky Tug said “When you think of a middle-class, westernized, white person writing a story about India, this is basically that, absolutely surface-level”. If that isn't a good way to describe the representation of other cultures in Miraculous Ladybug, I don't know what is.

Look, I've gone about this ever since I started this blog, but the way this show chooses to portray different cultures isn't that good. I'm not familiar with a lot of them, but even I know about some of the stereotypes associated with cultures like the Japanese being unreasonably strict, African-Americans being in tough street gangs, or Chinese people being masters of Kung Fu. There's also the fact that whenever Astruc gets backlash from people of color regarding the portrayal of certain races in the show, he gets very defensive, and at one point, ended a close friendship as a result.

It's stuff like this that is why I was very hesitant to review this special. I don't really know a lot about Chinese culture, so I was worried I would either get something wrong, or misunderstand something in it. With the New York Special, it was more about American “culture”, as little as we saw of it by focusing on very obvious things associated with America, like hot dogs, the Statue of Liberty, and brushing off what we did to the Native Americans in the past, so it was easier to talk about.

The point I'm trying to make here is that I might screw up a little on this review, so if I do, please don't hesitate to correct me or explain something I missed, like a cultural touchstone of China the special gets wrong. Although, I'm probably going to make one or two bad jokes about Chinese culture either way.

With all that being said, let's finally get into Miraculous World: Shanghai – The Legend of Ladydragon

First off, let's talk about the continuity of this special. According to the Miraculous Ladybug wiki, the fact that Gabriel is only Hawkmoth in this special, and the fact that Ladybug's form doesn't change when she uses her Lucky Charm later on, this takes place between Seasons 2 and 3. Why exactly did they set it then when the previous special was set between Seasons 3 and 4? There isn't really anything done with setting it in this specific timeframe, and I'll get to how it could have been done later.

We open on the night of a magical eclipse in the past, where the guardian of a mystical cave, Wu Shifu, was growing desperate to protect something, as his Kung Fu students who speak perfect English weren't willing to stay and help him. Man, if only there was a team of superheroes he could get help from to deal with whatever he needs to defend this cave from.

???: What had become of the ancestral values? Courage? Honesty? Loyalty? A mysterious stranger was doing all he could to force the master to sell his school. Someone clearly wanted to take over the land upon which it was built.

Just imagine if that guy genuinely had no idea of what the school was hiding, and only wanted the land to build a parking lot or a McDonalds on it.

Just when it seemed like Wu had nobody to help him defend this sacred place, not even having a family to pass on this responsibility to, conveniently, a baby was left in front of his school. Seeing an obvious chance, Wu decides “Hey, I bet I can be even more immoral than the entire Order of the Guardians combined!”. Yes, the baby would be taken in and would be trained to become the next Guardian of this special's MacGuffin, but with how the scene was framed, it made it seem like Wu immediately saw this orphaned baby and wanted to raise her for the sole purpose of replacing him when he retires. Even Shifu waited a few years until he started training Tai Lung. By the way, how exactly did Tai Lung turn out when he was groomed to be a very important warrior by Shifu again?

Oh yeah...

Over the years, the girl, named Fei, would be trained by Wu in the ways of Kung Fu, and was eventually made his successor, being given a bracelet that was connected to the cave. Unfortunately, the same group of thugs that tried to buy out Wu's school killed him and left Fei an orphan once again. To make things worse, the bracelet was stolen from Fei in her sleep. I'm guessing Wu is regretting a lot of his choices watching this Heaven right now.

After Fei vows to protect the cave by herself during the next eclipse, which is tonight, we get another Miraculous World opening sequence, only instead of a more orchestral rendition of the show's theme song, generic Chinese music plays over the credits. Let's be honest, a more accurate way to open these specials would be something along the lines of this, because it's pretty much what the writers were going for.

youtube

After the credits, we learn that it's Summer Vacation in Paris, and that there were a lot of activities planned for Marinette to do with her friends, even a picnic with Adrien in attendance. But while she delivers a birthday present for her Uncle Wang to the post office for her mother on the day of said picnic, Marinette learns Adrien is somewhere else at the moment.

Marinette: Save me a seat next to you-know-who, please, I'll be there as fast as I can.

Alya: But don't you know? I thought you knew.

Marinette: What? What am I supposed to know?

Alya: Adrien's gone to Shanghai!

Marinette: Huh?! There must be some kind of mistake! I always know what's up with Adrien! His five first names and every corresponding name date, his yearly schedule, even his shoe size! If there were anything to know about him, I would know it!

Alya: Well, he didn't know either. He told Nino that the opening of his father's shop in Shanghai had been moved up at the last minute.

Marinette: Shanghai?

Ugh... here comes the cringe...

Okay, I'm sorry if this is beating a dead horse at this point, but it's really creepy that Marinette knows this much about Adrien. I get it, it's a cartoon, and they're trying to exaggerate a schoolgirl crush for comedy, but with how often Marinette says she knows this much about Adrien, it just makes me uncomfortable. How does she even know this much about Adrien anyway?

It turns out that the reason Adrien is even going to Shanghai in the first place is because Gabriel is after the very thing Fei is charged with protecting, the Prodigious. Supposedly it was a prototype that was abandoned in favor of the Miraculous, but other than a single line from Nooroo explaining that, we don't really get a lot of details on why this was created. It's just another magical artifact that could easily be replaced by another lost Miraculous, and doesn't even flesh out the idea of what a Miraculous is, despite them both being Chinese in origin.

Another thing that's kind of confusing is that Gabriel says that his plan to get the Prodigious has been going on for fifteen years, with a later scene confirming that he was the one who ordered for Wu's murder... when Emilie has only been in her coma for just under a year at this point. Why is Gabriel being tied into the backstory for Fei when he didn't have a reason to be evil while she was still a baby? Also, why is Adrien even coming along with Gabriel? The whole reason he was sent to New York in the last special was specifically to keep him away from Paris while he executed his plan, and now, he's risking his safety for this?

Back at Marinette's place, we get one of the more controversial parts of this special, Marinette lying to her parents about caring about her uncle's birthday in order to get an excuse to go to Shanghai to see Adrien. Okay, what exactly is her plan here? Is she just going to surprise Adrien like what Rebecca did for Josh in the pilot to Crazy Ex-Girlfriend? How does she even think Adrien will react to this? And what about Paris? When Marinette got ready to leave for New York in the last special, she made plans with Cat Noir about what to do while she was away. What is she going to do now? In fact, does she even know Cat Noir isn't in Paris right now?

But then things get even dumber when we learn that Marinette's parents, Tom and Sabine, had saved up money for a family trip on the off chance that Marinette wanted to go and connect with her culture more. This just raises so many questions. How long have they been saving up money for? Has Marinette never thought to ask about her culture? Why didn't Tom and Sabine bother to teach Marinette anything about Chinese culture before this moment?

This whole plotline really highlights the problem with the representation in this show. So many media outlets, and even Astruc himself make a big deal about the main character of Miraculous Ladybug being a biracial girl, but the writers rarely do anything with it. “Kung Food” already showed how clueless Marinette was about Chinese culture to the point where Adrien, someone who was learning Mandarin Chinese, had to explain things to her. Now we have this special where once again, Marinette is shown to be oblivious to her own heritage just so she can be in the wrong here. If the point of the special was to have Marinette come to terms with how little she knows about her own culture, and how it's okay to not know a lot about her Chinese heritage (sort of like Carlton in that one episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air), I'd be a little more understanding. Instead, this special shames Marinette for not caring about her heritage while doing nothing to actually educate her on it, because most of the special is focusing on the actual conflict that has nothing to do with this plotline.

And I'm not saying Marinette needs to be completely fluent in Mandarin or know everything there is to know about Chinese fashion. My family on my mother's side is Irish, and while I wouldn't say I know a whole lot about the culture, I at least know the basics because of what I learned from my grandfather, who was very proud of his heritage. If there are any followers of color or biracial followers reading this post, I encourage you to give your thoughts on this aspect of the special and Marinette's lineage through reblogs, replies, or asks, as I want to see how your experiences differ from Marinette's.

But the biggest problem I have is that of all the reasons Marinette could have gone to Shanghai, this was what the writers chose to go with. They didn't have Marinette go to a family reuinion with Sabine, they didn't have Marinette go to check out a fashion show there, and they didn't have Marinette's class go to Shanghai on a field trip for a made up “Chinese-French Friendship Week”. They seriously thought the best way Marinette could go to Shanghai was chasing after Adrien for no real reason other than because they can't think of any motivation for Marinette to do anything that doesn't involve Adrien.

Also, I should probably mention that when someone asked him about this part of the special, this is where we got Astruc's infamous “Marinette has to make a mistake in every episode” explanation.

Hey, Astruc? May I offer a word of advice? If Adrienette is the ship we're supposed to support, DON'T FRAME STUFF MARINETTE DOES TO GET CLOSER TO ADRIEN AS A MISTAKE. HOW HARD IS THAT?

In fact, not even halfway through rewatching this special, I thought of a different reason for how and why Marinette could go to Shanghai that not only takes advantage of the timeline, but also expands on the lore of the show: A few weeks after the events of “Heroes' Day”, Master Fu realizes that the battle with Hawkmoth is only going to get harder now that he has a new ally, so he suggests going to Shanghai with Marinette to see if there is anyone who can help decode the Grimoire to boost their chances, or find someone who is at least familiar with the Miraculous and the Order of the Guardians. The reason Master Fu brings Marinette is because he believes his story about the Miraculous will be more credible with an actual Miraculous wielder by his side. Cat Noir will still be made aware of this, but will stay back in Paris in case Hawkmoth and Mayura try anything, with the plan to contact Ladybug if things head south while Ladybug uses the Horse Miraculous to teleport over there.

Marinette and Master Fu look for Wu, but only find the ruins of his school Fei made her home in, realizing she's pretty much their only lead now. This is also a chance to have Fei bond with Master Fu, as the two come from similar backgrounds, since they're both the last remaining Guardian from their respective order. So while Master Fu would help Fei learn about the Prodigious, Fei would give Master Fu the notes her adoptive father had on the language the Grimoire is written in. If you ever wanted to follow up on this in Season 4 or a sequel, have an episode where Marinette takes the Horse Miraculous to Shanghai to talk to Fei about how to deal with all the stress when she's pretty much the Guardian now.

There. In just two paragraphs, I came up with a plot that expands upon the overall story, portrays the characters in a respectful way, and doesn't rely on Unfunny Marinette Slapstick or her simping over Adrien.

But instead, Marinette goes to China to visit her Uncle Wang, who is conveniently much more fluent in English than he was in “Kung Food”. Wang says it's so it's easier to communicate with his niece, but it's not clear if he practiced specifically for Marinette's visit, or if he was planning to do it the next time he saw Marinette at all.

The next scene is pretty much Wang telling Marinette a little about her mother's side of the family, and how Sabine was originally named Xia Bing before she moved to Paris. From what I've looked up, this is something Chinese people do when moving to another country, but the reason is unclear. While Wang starts preparing dinner, Marinette uses the excuse to look for a secret ingredient to look for Adrien. Because yeah, a teenage girl walking all by herself in a foreign country where she can't speak the local tongue is perfectly fine.

As for Gabriel, he goes to the ruins of Wu's school and discovers the location of the Prodigious cave behind a waterfall. Of course, it'll be twenty minutes before he actually gets to do anything, because of this special's second act.

Meanwhile, Adrien himself is walking around with his bodyguard and is asked for a picture with some local kids his age, giving him a chance to remind the audience of how fluent he is in Mandarin. Okay, again, I'm not expecting Marinette to be fluent in every form of the Chinese language, and I'm not saying Adrien is wrong for learning the language at all, but I still think the writers really should have thought things through instead of making Adrien more knowledgeable about Chinese culture than the girl with Chinese ancestry. Although I will give this special credit, as Adrien isn't the one to explain Chinese culture to Marinette, avoiding one of the biggest problems I had with “Kung Food”.

While Marinette walks through the city, we get to see Fei again, as she gives a little monologue about some pseudo-philosophical stuff, because why wouldn't the Chinese girl try to be a young Confucius?

Fei: I'd like to see people as people, think of them as stories: their smallest pleasures, their greatest joys, their disappointments, their successes. That's how my adoptive father would have wanted me to see them.

While Fei is someone who wants to see the good in people, she's fallen on hard times, so she has to resort to stealing valuable objects from others in order to get the money she needs. Naturally, she decides to steal a small ring from the French tourist who has a tough bodyguard behind him. Unfortunately, Fei decides to steal Marinette's phone, Miraculous and the coin purse she uses to hide Tikki instead.

It turns out that Fei is actually stealing stuff for a local criminal named Cash in exchange for information on who killed Wu. Of course, Cash doesn't give Fei a lot of money for what she got, and goes on about how society has changed to focus more on financial needs, because I guess we're going for a “capitalism is bad” message now. Cash gives Fei the idea to bring Marinette to him so he can sell her stuff back to her, but not before shoving Tikki into the claw machine.

Okay, I like the idea of Marinette losing her Miraculous and needing to adapt, but this whole plotline just breaks a lot of the show's continuity. Earlier episodes have shown that if the Miraculous is taken off, the corresponding Kwami disappears from this physical plane (Origins, Feast), and while Marinette has lost Tikki before, it was only because she still had her Miraculous, and therefore, couldn't use it until she reunited with her (Princess Fragrance, Kwamibuster). And another thing, why can't Tikki just phase through the claw machine while nobody's looking and fly back to where Marinette was staying? This whole subplot is pretty much there to add to this special's runtime, because nothing is really added here.

While Marinette struggles to find her way back to her Uncle Wang's restaurant, she is chased by some of the guys Adrien was with earlier. One of them found Marinette's Kwagatama necklace, but in typical fashion for this show, she assumes they're thugs and runs away with Fei in tow. Meanwhile, Adrien goes out to look for Marinette as Cat Noir, as somehow, Marinette's disappearance has made the local news.

Marinette gets to know Fei a little more, not knowing she's the reason she's in this predicament in the first place, but her kindness does get Fei to feel more guilt about how far she's fallen. I actually like this, as unlike most instances of this trope, Fei isn't just a hardened criminal who was touched by Marinette. She genuinely has morals, and she hates the fact that she has to compromise them in order to survive. It's a nice take for this special.

Fei takes Marinette to the pawn shop, where Marinette finds her Miraculous, but Cash tells her to cough up ¥100,000 for it, which amounts to $15,000 for American viewers, and is just over €14,000 for European viewers. Of course, Fei does the smart thing and switches the earrings for a pair of lookalikes and bails with Marinette. Naturally, Marinette thanks Fei for helping her get her Miraculous back.

Marinette: You stole my earrings?

Fei: Weren't you the one who wanted them back?

Marinette: Yes, but not like that! Stealing is wrong. That seller paid a lot of money to buy my earrings from whoever sold them to him! If he can't sell them back, he'll have lost all his money!

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Wow, ungrateful much? Okay, I get it, stealing is wrong, but it's not like Fei stole the latest copy of Bonestorm for Marinette. Marinette had lost one of the most important magical artifacts in all of existence, and all she can think about is stealing being wrong? I think when the only thing capable of de-evilizing Akumas is on the line, stealing is okay, guilty conscious be damned.

Cash realizes the ruse and sends some of his goons after Marinette and Fei, but when the three guys from earlier arrive, Marinette and Fei take advantage of the distraction and run away. Meanwhile, Cat Noir decides to call Ladybug for help finding Marinette. And before you ask, no, it's never explained if Cat Noir told Ladybug where he was going, and vice versa.

The writers finally remember Gabriel exists, as he prepares to akumatize someone to take on the guardian of the Prodigious. He also sees Marinette and Fei, but never questions why this random girl would be in the sacred temple at all. Just when Fei is about to tell Marinette the truth, Cash shows up and tells Marinette instead, meaning we get the standard “liar revealed” cliche that nobody likes. In his frustration of being scammed, Gabriel transforms into Hawkmoth (because I guess nobody heard him shouting “Dark Wings, Rise!”), and akumatizes Cash into King Cash.

King Cash has a pretty decent design. The armor is detailed, and the golden skin is animated very well thanks to the higher budget for this special. His powers are pretty much a knockoff of Style Queen's, with his fan blades having the power to turn whatever they touch into a gold statue, though we never actually see it happen.

Marinette transforms into Ladybug and calls Cat Noir to let him know about the Akuma. Speaking of, Hawkmoth meets up with King Cash at the door to the Prodigious, while Fei tries to stop the two supervillains, which goes about as well as you'd expect. Fei gets thrown into a well for her troubles, and thankfully, Ladybug does the heroic thing and puts her personal feelings aside to save her.

As the eclipse grows closer, Hawkmoth goes into the cave and gets the Prodigious, with the guardian spirit, Mei Shi, attempting to test him. Hawkmoth, doing arguably the smartest thing in the entire special, orders King Cash to turn Mei Shi into a gold statue, but before he can do so and get away with the Prodigious, Ladybug and Fei intervene. During the skirmish, Fei grabs the Prodigious, causing it to activate, transforming her into Ladydragon.

I'm... honestly not sure where I stand on this suit. I think it has a decent color scheme, but not much is really done to evoke the dragon or animal motif. I'm also pretty sure the yellow patch in the middle could be a reference to the yellow and black jumpsuit people associate with Bruce Lee, but that's just a guess on my end. I don't know, I just thought since the Prodigious glowed a lot of colors, there would be more of a rainbow color to the suit, instead of just looking like a scrapped design for Ladybug herself. It's not bad, it's just... forgettable.

But let's also talk about the little controversy this suit stirred up initially. Originally, Ladydragon had golden blonde hair when transformed, judging from the trailers. This naturally attracted allegations of whitewashing, something that the show was no stranger to thanks to Rena Rouge and Pegasus.

Thankfully, the design was changed to give her a more vibrant red head of hair, though with how quickly the change was implimented, you have to wonder if Ladydragon was meant to have red hair from the start, and what we saw from the trailers wasn't even close to the final draft.

While Ladydragon struggles to adjust to her new powers, she soon realizes she has some new friends to deal with. These are the Renlings, magical beings who embody several virtues of humanity. Yeah, remember the two or three times this movie talked about virtues, and every time, the discussion amounted to “Don't be a dick to other people”? It was actually building up to this very moment.

But I'm sure you have other questions about this scene, like...

Where did the Renlings come from?

Why is the Prodigious more dangerous than the Miraculous?

How can Ladydragon talk to the Renlings while transformed?

Why are the Renlings all bound to the single Prodigious?

Who even created the Prodigious, and why?

How are the Renlings and Prodigious connected to the Miraculous in the first place?

Has there been anyone else who has used the Prodigious before?

Why exactly was Fei chosen by Lao Shi to wield the Prodigious?

Why was the Prodigious sealed away instead of being placed under the protection of the Order of the Guardians?

How is Lao Shi connected to the Prodigious?

WHERE THE HELL DID THE PRODIGIOUS EVEN COME FROM?

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This was honestly where the special lost me. With New York, I was more angry at the terrible attempts to tease the Love Square, but I had hopes for this special, as it takes place in the same country the Miraculous came from. You could have done more to establish the history of the Miraculous and Prodigious, but instead, this just came out of nowhere. We still know absolutely nothing about either, yet the show still wants us to act like the origins of these sacred magical artifacts the show is named after isn't important information.

Ladydragon has the ability to transform into various animals depending on the virtues they supposedly represent. Well, they say that, but she doesn't really struggle to transform into any of the other animals, with the exception of the dragon, which represents justice. Since she wants revenge on Cash for ruining her life, she can't access that form. So basically, this special ruined the idea of Hawkmoth getting the Prodigious, because now, we know he wouldn't be able to do a damn thing with it.

When Ladybug is cornered by Hawkmoth and King Cash, she notices Cat Noir hiding out. Using her already summoned Lucky Charm, a basketball, she deflects King Cash's fan so Cat Noir can Cataclysm it. Of course, since we have about ten minutes left, Ladybug doesn't immediately de-evilize the Akuma and takes the time to do a pose with Cat Noir for the trailer.

Hawkmoth then sends his Akuma towards Mei Shi, and even though he is supposedly an emotionless guardian, he somehow gets akumatized into Yan Luo Shi because Fei was focused on revenge... because even though she was already chosen by the Prodigious, that means it's perfectly okay to endanger innocent lives. I'm starting to see why the Guardians abandoned the Prodigious and their stupid guardian.

Yan Luo Shi has a pretty cool design. I like the way he's framed at this fearsome titan. Granted, his motivation to kill as many people as possible until Fei gives back the Prodigious kind of makes him look like a massive hypocrite.

Hawkmoth immediately realizes the problem with bringing Adrien along as he orders Yan Luo Shi to not destroy the city, only to get vaporized in the process. Maybe you should have left him in Paris, numbnuts. In fact, shouldn't this mean he would automatically be de-evilized if the Butterfly Miraculous was vaporized too?

After recharging offscreen, Ladybug, Cat Noir, and Ladydragon try to stop Yan Luo Shi, but Ladybug says that for some reason, only the dragon power of the Prodigious can reach the magic orb containing the Akuma inside him. Cat Noir tries to do what anyone else in his situation would do, use his Cataclysm to break open Yan Luo Shi, but because the plot wants to show off Ladydragon, he's vaporized too.

Ladydragon runs away and blames herself for what's happening, as if the crazy stone statue isn't the one to blame, detransforming to Fei so she can cry. Ladybug detransforms as well and talks to her as Marinette, but when the two are endangered, Fei manages to save Marinette using the power of the dragon... which is pretty much the same elemental powers the Dragon Miraculous has. Riveting.

Marinette transforms into Ladybug again and summons her Lucky Charm, a giant vase. She jumps in, and Ladydragon uses the dragon's elemental powers to shove the vase into Yan Luo Shi's mouth, so Ladybug can free the Akuma. Wait, you're telling me that evilized objects can be broken without using Cataclysm? I can't believe I forgot that.

Ladybug de-evilizes the Akuma, Mei Shi apologizes for his rampage, Ladybug uses Miraculous Ladybug to fix everything, Mei Shi says the Prodigious is in good hands with Ladydragon before disappearing, later reveals his true form resembles the Kwamis, Ladydragon takes Cash to the proper authorities, and Ladybug and Cat Noir pretend to fly back to Paris in their Cosmobug and Astro Cat forms.

Back at Uncle Wang's restaurant, Marinette, Adrien, and Fei are having dinner, while Fei reveals that she can play the accordion. Ah yes, one of the most important lessons in learning kung fu: playing the accordion. Wang offers to adopt Fei, and just when Marinette finally tries to learn more Mandarin, everyone in the room laughs at her for saying something wrong. Because isn't it funny that a girl who doesn't know how to speak Mandarin doesn't say something right in Mandarin? And so the special ends with Adrien offering to teach Marinette Mandarin back in Paris, but just like the fact that Gabriel canonically hired an assassin to kill someone, we're never going to follow up on any of that.

While I think this special improved in some areas, it's still very disappointing as a whole.

The smaller cast of Marinette, Fei, Cash, Adrien, and Hawkmoth lead to a lot more character focused scenes, mainly between Marinette and Fei. I like how more focus was given on the origin of Ladydragon, especially after how divorced Eagle's debut felt from the New York Special. The actual animation was still very stunning, and some of the best in the show's history. The city just feels so alive here, and the lighting is so creative. I also like how they didn't focus too much on the Love Square, and kept the plot centered around Fei and Marinette. Granted, it made Cat Noir seem like a bit of an afterthought, but they still gave him relevance in how they stopped King Cash.

Of course, the negatives sadly outweigh the positives. Despite the entire plot starting thanks to Marinette caring more about seeing Adrien than her own culture, there's never really any closure to that plot thread. Other than a single scene where Marinette learns a little about her mother, and the ending, Marinette never really learns more about her culture. Sure, part of the plot hinges on Marinette mistaking people for thugs thanks to not speaking their language, but not much is done to teach Marinette, and by extension, the audience about Chinese culture. Again, I'm not saying Marinette needs to be completely fluent in Mandarin, but for a special marketed as Marinette going to China, they don't really focus more on the culture of the special's setting. Of course, I'm still glad it focused on the main plot with Fei, but I just think they could have done more, like have a few more scenes talking about the virtues that would later become more important once Fei gets the Prodigious. And hey, at least the representation wasn't as offensive as earlier episodes.

The Prodigious itself just didn't get enough explanation to warrant an entire story around it. The writers could have very easily done more to explain the origins of the Miraculous and their connection to the Prodigious, but they settled on doing absolutely nothing instead. It's just a really powerful MacGuffin with no negative downsides other than the user struggling to use it for a few minutes. Seeing how anticlimactic the drawbacks are, what was even the point of it being built up as so dangerous when all that happens is that you can't use it in a certain state of mind? It takes away a lot of the stakes to Hawkmoth getting the Prodigious, because now, we know it would be completely useless in his hands thanks to all of his crimes. Why not show more consequences to Fei using the Prodigious? Maybe if she tries to transform using a certain virtue, it hurts her or knocks her out of her transformation? Maybe Mei Shi can turn into Yan Luo Shi as a result of Fei trying to use the Prodigious for revenge as a result of his connection to the Prodigious? Do something to explain just what makes this artifact so dangerous to use. Is the danger only from Mei Shi, given he freaked out after Fei gave into her emotions once?

Something that also bothered me was the way the writers kept Fei from learning Marinette's identity as Ladybug. I get why she couldn't find out at the beginning, but as they bonded as friends and as the special went on, it just got ridiculous. Ladybug can know who Fei is, but not vice versa? They seriously have Marinette detransform in the middle of a chaotic fight with Yan Luo Shi to talk to Fei, when it would make no sense for Marinette to get to that building in the first place, much less with the giant stone warrior destroying everything. Would it have really killed the writers to make an exception to the identity rule seeing how Fei is from another country, and therefore, someone who isn't at risk of being akumatized? Marinette at least has Cat Noir and Master Fu to support her at this point. Besides the Renlings, who does Fei have? Maybe having Marinette be more honest about how her first time as Ladybug went could have helped motivate Fei to try again. The point I'm trying to make is that while the drama with Cat Noir is understandable, Marinette and Fei's bond could have been handled a lot better without the identity shenanigans.

The climax just felt pretty tacked on got the most part. It was already pretty stupid of Ladybug to somehow forget to de-evilize a recently freed Akuma, but it felt like the writers wanted a giant monster attack to spice things up. Not only do we barely know anything about Mei Shi, his anger at Fei is barely hinted at given how stoic he is. Markov at least displayed enough sentience to show emotion, but Mei Shi didn't even seem that angry before being akumatized. Cat Noir also felt like a last-minute addition, given how little he really does before the climax, and even then, all he really does is help Ladybug defeat King Cash. It was bad enough that Adrien's presence drove the plot, but they didn't even have him do anything worthwhile to justify him being in China other than because Cat Noir needs to be everywhere.

Overall, this special is just disappointing in a lot of areas. While I was more frustrated with the New York Special, this special just underwhelmed me for the most part. I just don't see the point in putting so much effort into making these specials when nothing actually important happens in them. There's no character development, there's no major worldbuilding, and there's certainly no plot progression. These specials are the definition of filler, and I can't believe we have to deal with at least four more of these.

THE BIGGEST IDIOT OF THE SPECIAL IS... MARINETTE

Putting aside her motivation for going to Shanghai in the first place, she didn't even tell Cat Noir where she was going when that was a major plot point in the previous special. Yeah, she thought Cat Noir was still in Paris, but even Adrien had some semblance of a plan when he left Paris in the New York Special. Marinette also seriously thought it would be a good idea to walk on her own in a city where everyone spoke a language she couldn't understand, and later had the gall to shame someone for trying to steal her Miraculous right after she got them back, thinking the shady thrift shop owner would be bankrupt otherwise. And during the climax, she not only failed to de-evilize an Akuma for no reason and risked her life going into the crossfire of an Akuma just to give Fei a pep talk when all she had to do was talk to her as Ladybug. It's kind of sad that she did more reckless things in this special than Hawkmoth, who gets the silver medal for the sheer idea of bringing Adrien along to a place with a dangerous artifact instead of keeping him safe in Paris like he's done for his other plans.

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bridgyrose · 8 months

Note

Title of a Grimm AU is getting interesting. How about part 4?

Ruby pulled the hood of her cloak over her head to hide her face in the light of the sun, the icy cold winds beating against her even with a heavier shirt on. She looked out towards the ruined buildings, remembering how the grimm flooded the streets of Mantle all those months ago when Salem arrived. The city of Atlas hadnt fared any better, being lowered back into its crater by Watts and overrun by grimm. It had been a miracle that she and her team had managed to save anyone, lucky the staff had given them the time they needed to evacuate as many as they could to Vacuo. Still, being here only reminded Ruby of her failures, that things could’ve been different had they been able to keep Ironwood on their side and Penny from falling to Cinder.

Her eyes caught the sight of an airship as it flew overhead, circling around before landing in the empty streets, a small smile crossing her lips as she recognized the emblem on the side. Ruby slowly made her way over, making sure to keep herself in the shadows as she waited for Weiss.

“Of all the places you could’ve asked me to meet, why here?” Weiss asked as she stepped down the ramp, scroll in hand as she kept an eye on the temperature. “You know how I feel about this place.”

“I know, but you have to hear me out,” Ruby said as she took a few steps closer. “I think I finally understand why Salem wanted the relics and its not what we thought.”

Weiss put her scroll in her pocket and sighed as she looked around at the ruined buildings. “And this couldn’t have been a conversation at home? Or somewhere… warmer?”

“You said the cold never bothered you-”

“But Atlas does. Or did you forget how many lives were lost here?”

Ruby sighed and looked away, a bit of her pale skin showing from under the hood. “No, I remember.”

“Great, then can we please move this inside? You look like you’re about to catch a cold.”

Ruby slowly nodded and followed Weiss onto her airship, keeping her hood up to hide her skin. She relaxed a bit as she felt the heat of the air around her, sitting down across from Weiss. “Thank you for meeting me here. I know its a bit of an inconvenience, but… things arent as they seemed.”

Weiss sighed and used a fire glyph to heat a pot of water. “Then are you going to tell me what’s going on? You disappeared for weeks, asked me to come back to Atlas, and even being right in front of me, you’re still hiding-”

Ruby pulled her hood back, pale skin and black veins becoming visible. “Salem wasnt just cursed, her whole situation was.”

Weiss stumbled out of her seat, hand on her rapier as she put a gravity glyph under Ruby. “What did you do to Ruby?!”

Ruby collapsed to the ground as she felt herself pulled down, struggling to get up. “I *am* Ruby! Please Weiss, you have to listen-”

“Ruby doesnt look like Salem!”

“I can explain everything! Just… let me go!”

“And why should I trust you?”

“Because you told me that you’d be the best teammate ever and you havent let me down!” Ruby relaxed and dropped to the ground as she felt the gravity glyph disappear. “Thanks…”

Weiss kept her rapier pointed at Ruby. “Talk. Now.”

“Salem wasnt trying to end Remnant, she was trying to break her curse!” Ruby quickly took out the journal she had found and sat it down on the table. “Immortality isnt the curse, *being* Salem is. Salem is just a title, one that’s been passed down since Ozma’s Salem was cursed with immortality, but its more than just that! Whoever defeats Salem becomes Salem!”

Weiss lowered her rapier and glanced at the journal. “Then we need to tell Ozpin-”

“He already knows.” Ruby flipped through the pages of the journal, stopping at a page that detailed another fight between “Salem” and Ozpin. “Ozpin already knows but still wants the gods to come back to Remnant. But the last Salem, the one I defeated… she thought she had found another way to break this curse!”

“And… we need to gather the relics again… because a journal told you to?”

“Its not just the journal! Salem knows that bringing the relics together will allow for the gods to be called, but just having them together wont do it. There’s a key to it all that we dont need, but the relics can still reshape what the gods have created. Including her curse.”

“This… this is a lot to take in.”

“I know, but we need to find the relics-”

“No!” Weiss practically yelled in interruption. “We cant go on another adventure like this just to get the relics. I have my family name to rebuild, Blake and Yang are living their lives, doing what they couldnt because we spent years trying to defeat Salem. You’ll have to do this on your own.”

“Yeah, but we’re partners!”

“We are, but I need to relax. We need to relax. I’ll tell Ozpin something came up and you needed to get some answers, but you’re going to have to talk to him at some point. You cant keep dodging him.”

Ruby sighed, wanting to argue, but unable to find it in her to do so. Instead, she packed up the journal, tucking it away in her pouch. “Will you at least tell me where you hid the staff?”

“My… old home.” Weiss sighed and looked out the window of the airship, mourning the loss of her kingdom. “I hid it in the one place I never wanted to go back. Though, I wouldnt recommend going after it.”

“Why not?”

“Grimm have been swarming around the place and no one is sure when the valley Mantle was built in will flood. Atlas falling hasnt helped anything, cracking the ice. No one has come out here to try to rebuild until we know we can stop it.”

“I’ll take my chances.”

“Ruby-”

“I’ll be fine,” Ruby said with a smile. “As long as I’m “Salem”, I shouldnt have to worry about the grimm or anything else.”

“And do you know where the other relics are?”

Ruby paused. “Well… no… but I can find out.”

“Dont get yourself killed, okay? And do Blake and Yang know about… this?” she asked with a sigh, waving her hands at Ruby.

“I’ll tell them… eventually.” Ruby sighed. “Look, as long as everything goes as planned, they wont have to worry.”

#rwby #ruby rose #rwby ruby rose #weiss schnee #drabbles #title of a grimm #title of a grimm au

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seadragon-sailing · 1 year

Note

Kyung:Hi, I'm here with questions

1. What is your favorite animal? 2. Let's be friends? 3. what is your favorite book 4. Have you seen a rainbow? Many say it's an amazing sight and it brings good luck. And I'm sorry without warning, but hugs don't need to be delayed * hugged you * and you are very, very very cute and cool! I want to learn something from you

Kyung:

1."Aīyaya! It's hard to choose a favorite when there are so many that I like... I suppose if I had to choose, it would be bats! They're a symbol of good luck and happiness to those of us in Great Qing, even the word for bat, 'fú' is pronounced the same way the word for 'good fortune'.~"

2. "I don't see why we can't be friends. I'd be glad to!"

3. "I have a few novels that were given to me by gung gung, but I never get tired of reading the collection, 'Cases of A Hundred Families Judged by Dragon-Design Bao'! ...It's possibly because the novel is made up of short chapters, but I find myself always going back to read chapter twenty-six, 'Lady Qin's Ghost Return to Exile Shimei'. It's a very tragic story of how a husband betrayed his wife by abandoning her and their children in favor of wealth and power, he even sent a soldier out to kill them as a way to cover up the mess!"

4. "I think father is the only one of us who sees rainbows as lucky. He almost got yelled at for pointing at one with his finger once by one of the local elders. Aside from father, marenn says rainbows are a symbol of the 'Rainbow Serpant', if I remember... I suppose that one is somewhat close to what we were raised to believe rainbows represented a long time ago. While some see rainbows as symbols of good luck, I was usually told that they represented unity of the Yin-Yang− An emblem of marriage, yet it is also believed to appear when adultery happens in a relationship when a husband or wife is more attractive than the other.

"I even heard that rainbows are signs of certain disasters, a warning from the heavens, like a mother–Who ought to not be one–is about to have a baby! It's quite strange, isn't it? For something so marvelous to also be considered insidious..."

“Well, I’m quite flattered to be given such praise! Many thanks, and I hope you did learn a few things, friend!~”

#return to treasure island #ostrov sokrovishch #treasure island 1988 #treasure island #treasure island oc #[Return To Treasure Island!AU]#[My Art]#oliis drawing #Sorry that this took a while and is mostly text heavy ^^;

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thekuraning · 3 months

Text

like 3 of y'all voted sure when i polled about uploading the fic chappie rejects it says 4 but one was me by accident oop so HERE'S THE FIRST ONE: Maelstrom Fic Chapter 2 reject

Originally it was going to be a scene where the heroes were all having a chat after they got back from the ch1 hero action and while it was pretty fun, it was getting too banter-heavy and... well... a little ham-fisted in some parts :') but i do have a deleted scene with subaru and thomas that i thought was kind of funny that i'd really like to salvage a few joke beats from huehuehue anyways the maelstrom ch 2 dump is! under the cut!

Barnaby Brooks Jr. had never been more tired in his life.

He wouldn't say anything was particularly out of the ordinary. He was still working the same shifts for Hero TV: three twelve-hour days, two twelve-hour nights, one twelve-hour PR day, and one day completely off. Ever since beginning his career as a hero, his schedule had remained largely the same. The hours sounded stressful, of course, but most of the time was spent on-call with a few hours each day set aside for exercise and training, so as long as he responded to his communicator, it wasn't like he didn't have time to eat or sleep.

Maybe it was burnout. He'd been working like this for years, now, and especially after the shitshow with the X riots, and the attacks by Fugan and Mugan before that, maybe he just needed a break or a vacation or something. That was what he tried to tell himself as he scanned his keycard at Justice Tower that afternoon, anyways.

He nodded politely to the security guard and rode the elevator to the top, a brown takeout bag clenched in his fist. He only paused briefly at the locker room to hang his lanyard and windbreaker, then wandered into the training room and plopped down at one of the tall bistro tables in the rest area when Karina waved him down. She was sitting with Ryan, Nathan, and Pao-Lin, who all greeted him warmly as he approached.

“Nice work today!” Karina said as he sat, “I really appreciate the assist.”

“Same here,” Ryan agreed, “you saved our asses, Junior.”

“Too bad I wasn't there sooner,” Barnaby replied, “are you and Fire Emblem okay?”

Ryan looked across to Nathan, who grinned and crossed their arms across their chest, drumming perfectly-manicured nails along their bicep.

“All the better for you showing up, handsome,” they teased, “but I could have done without Sky High on top of me, today.”

Ryan snorted and Pao-Lin broke into a little fit of giggles. Karina leveled Nathan with a pointed stare, but they only laughed along with the others.

“What?” they innocently batted their eyes.

“Kid?” Karina answered, motioning to Pao-Lin, who rolled her eyes.

“I'm seventeen!” she protested, “and my friends at school make way worse jokes!”

“No, no, Rose's right, I should behave,” Nathan chuckled, waving one hand. “But we did all get banged up pretty bad. Could have been worse I guess, but I'm going to be feeling those bruises for weeks.”

“I got chewed out for letting my suit get damaged,” Ryan piped up. “Robert was pissed. Said Apollon was going to bill us a small fortune for the repairs, but it's not like that's my fault.”

“Shouldn't have been in the way,” Karina teased him.

“You're just lucky Junior over here saved your ass,” he bit back. Barnaby smiled.

“I still think 'hero rescue' should get us extra points,” he chimed in. Karina made a show of acting scandalized (“Hey, I had that NEXT right where I wanted him!”) and the group laughed. Barnaby opened his take-out bag and rummaged inside for his food.

There were two orders inside. His face fell. Nathan, who was listening intently to Ryan's play-by-play account he was now giving to Pao-Lin, suddenly caught Barnaby's eyes, and they frowned.

“Hey, handsome,” he interrupted the conversation, “why the long face?”

“What?” Barnaby looked up. Karina, Nathan, Pao-Lin, and Ryan were all staring at him. Why was everyone on Hero TV so nosey? They always had to be up in everyone else's business, but as much as Barnaby wanted to feel irritated, that wasn't an emotion he was capable of stirring up at the moment. He knew they were worried and had been since.... always? Especially now that he was on his own. It was more endearing than anything, these days. He supposed this must have been what it felt like to have brothers and sisters.

“I picked up lunch after my debrief and physical,” he explained, and his mouth pulled into a dejected frown. “But I must not have been paying attention when I placed the order, because....” He tipped the two compostable clamshell food containers out of the bag and onto the table. The others were quiet for a moment, watching his every movement, staring hard at his take-out with blank expressions. Pao-Lin was the first to react. Her eyes grew large, her face fell, and she let slip a mournful “oh, no!” And that was what rang the bell for the others.

“Oh, Barnaby,” Karina sighed, “it was an accident, just don't think too much about it.”

“She's right,” Ryan agreed, “and you know, I'll bet he's done that a couple times, too.”

“Come on you all, Tiger retired, he's not dead,” Nathan pointed out. “Handsome, just text him and invite him up to visit. You know he never turns down a meal.”

Which was true. Kotetsu was a bit of a big eater, but also he had trouble turning down anything nice someone did for him, regardless of whether he wanted it or needed it. Barnaby couldn't count the number of times he'd tried to do something small for Kotetsu—bringing him a drink or a snack or a towel after a workout, something—only to discover he had tried to do the same thing and hid it once he'd found out Barnaby had, too. Even more, those were only the times Barnaby knew of. Maybe there were hundreds more. Thousands. Little things that Kotetsu did that made Barnaby feel relied on. Useful. Appreciated.

Valued, even.

And that was why he most definitely could not text Kotetsu and ask him to come visit, because he would bring those feelings back with him, but they wouldn't remain. He was retired, and he would have to leave. He would take those feelings with him. They had been pried from Barnaby's hands three times so far—he didn't think he could handle it again. He didn't want to get lost in the small, hopeful, deluded voice that he buried deep down inside of him that wondered if, maybe, Kotetsu would take one look at the heroes' workout room, sigh wistfully, and tell Barnaby the words he most wanted to hear at that moment.

Bunny, he hoped for, I've decided to come back to hero work. You didn't miss me too much, right?

And they would be Wild Tiger and Barnaby Brooks Jr., Kings of the Buddy Heroes. Just like they were supposed to be.

But just like all the nights spent wishing he would wake up and the bullets in his parents' skulls were nothing but a bad dream, no amount of hope would change anything about his situation. No more banter in the office, no more arguing about who ate who's sandwich or when to jump into the action during a broadcast, no more noise or takeout or patrols together. He was Wild Barnaby now, and he was alone. Of course, there was no way in hell he would say any of that to anyone ever, especially not a bunch of busybodies like his dear, dear friends.

“I don't want to bother him,” he sighed, which wasn't exactly a lie. “I think he's got interviews today.” Which was a lie, as far as he knew. None of them seemed to buy it. For a second it seemed like Pao-Lin was going to be particularly pushy about it, but Lady Justice was smiling upon him that day as Keith stepped out of the elevator.

He thanked Barnaby then thanked him again when he offered him the extra lunch.

- - - -

“Hey, don't you think it's been quiet around here without old man Tiger?”

Thomas was used to ignoring Subaru's chatter. He liked to talk a lot, which had been very annoying when they were first partnered together. It was still annoying a little—which was why Thomas usually tuned him out—but really only in the way white noise was annoying. He'd been annoying all day since they'd gotten to Justice Tower, pestering Thomas with the details of his activities on their day off (Thomas did not and would never care what score Subaru got on their local arcade's rhythm game) and other asinine, useless bits of trivia.

“Has it been?” Thomas answered him flatly, repeating his reps on the machine fly. “I hadn't noticed.”

“I mean,” Subaru continued, much to Thomas's chagrin, “not just like we don't hear Tiger anymore. Everyone else is a little more quiet, too.”

Thomas wrenched the fly bars back in front of him and pause there, his usual frown deepening. He turned his head to eye Subaru around the edge of his jacket's hood, straining to listen to the wide open workout room. Some of the others were over in the rest area eating lunch together. They were talking, but no one was getting rowdy. Ivan was all the way down doing target practice with his shuriken, and every now and then there would be the faint whup of them striking the training dummy. Antonio was doing bench presses a little closer to them, but his usual obnoxious grunts and groans had been reduced to pitiful huffs of air as he worked. Lara was on the treadmill with earbuds in.

“You're right,” Thomas found himself agreeing. “No wonder you've been more annoying than usual.” He relaxed his arms, took a pause to breathe, and pushed forward again.

“Hey!” Subaru protested. Thomas smirked. His partner came around in front of him so he couldn't hide behind his jacket, arms petulantly akimbo. He was so easy to rile up.

“What do you want me to do about it?” he asked. Subaru just pouted at him.

There really wasn't anything they could do. Thomas didn't make any decisions for Hero TV, he just worked here.

——————————————————————————————————

....And that's as far as that one got! I'd really like to use the heroes as a group a lot more but it's so easy to get carried away. :( And I'd particularly like to have more scenes with Pao-lin & Lara and Subaru & Thomas........ It really gives me an appreciation for scenes in the anime where all of the heroes are together, just due to how much personality each of the heroes exudes. (9òvó)9

#kuras trash pile #kcu:maelstrom #kurawrites #tnb #tiger & bunny #kuras tiger and bunny posting again

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