#that chapter? with them? forming the ark?

[nimpnawakproduction]

The ultimate reference sheets for all of Vash's outfits in Trigun maximum (with commentaries)

IT IS DONE. I'M FREE. Now I can forget all about Trimax and draw Trigun stampede designs only hahaha (just kidding I have things for Trimax on the stove).

Trigun bookclub was an awesome initiative, I loved the manga with my all heart and wanted to honor Nightow's designs ;w; I also wanted to help my fellow artists with references for Vash's clothes because DEAR GOD it's difficult to understand how the hell he dresses himself in the morning. I have a lot of fun dressing and undressing him like a barbie doll. My hyperfixation is completely healthy.

I put a "read more" section to avoid spoilers :) !

The July coat

The very first coat in Trigun chronology and the one he wores during the destruction of July ! There is not a lot of panels to take references but I tried to stay as close as possible to the manga. I don't know what number of prosthesis he had before but let name this one Prosthesis 1.

Scars map

Next, nakey Vash ! There's A LOT of changes between one panel to another. Scars changes places and forms panel to panel and the design evolved from the first chapters of Trigun, the time we see him naked as Eriks and his undressed state while he was a prisoner on the Ark. I drew the scars that appeared more than once or were in clean view in a panel (but really you can do like Nightow and draw as many scars as you want without thinking about consistency, this boy has been in a meat grinder)

After July underclothes

Or the jumpsuit that gave me grey hair. His suit does not make ANY sense, I don't know how the hell he dresses himself in the morning with this. My solution is that it's very long gloves and chaps strapped to a belt. The position and shapes of the belts changes IN EVERY PANEL. Same for his knee guards, sometimes they're here, sometime they cover his shins, sometimes they are tiny..... I gave up in the end and draw them as we see them in the very last panel he wears this suit. But damn he looks good in it.

Also in all of the 13 volumes, there is not a single panel with a clear view of his holster (I checked...) so here is my interpretation.

This is prosthesis n°2, the design is a little different from the first one so I guess Prosthesis 1 got destroyed (this happens a lot).

After July coat

The very first Trigun coat he wears in the manga ! Very simple, very basic, it gives him impossibly wide shoulders but Vash deserves it. The first one is worn Post July until Vash's confrontation against Brilliant Dynamite Neon. The second one is the state of his coat after the sandsteamer incident. He loses his prothesis after his fight against Monev the gale. He meets Wolfwood with only one arm and stays that way while he fights Knives for the first time.

Eriks

I took liberties with colors because there's no colored panels with Vash as Eriks. Yes I drew him without suspenders because he has them for like 5 panels and then Nightow drew him without them for the rest of Eriks arc so I made choices ;w;

I love the fact that Vash choose to wear tight jeans even in his casual outfits, this boy will not let his skin breath. This is now Prosthesis 3 ! It's way less advanced than the ones he wore in the rest of the manga, the other ones seem to replicate skin.

After his years as Eriks

And now the first Maximum coat, he wears it until the famous Yuri hospital arc! Finally an undersuit that makes sense, I love it, too bad Nightow-san decided that I had to suffer and changed it again to add BELTS EVERYWHERE. We only see his legs in this part of the manga so I gave him the same top because I can.

The tubes he has on his waist are filled with bullets, he can connect them to his prosthesis to have a mini machine gun.

We are now at Prosthesis 4 !

Hospitalization on the Home ship

The famous Yuri hospital phase! Vash definitely shared his wardrobe with Wolfwood, you can't tell me otherwise.

The first outfit still shows Prothesis 4 but he keeps it for like 5 minutes and lost it again against Nine-lives. I don't really know if the prothesis comes with the integrated glove or if there's synthetic skin under it but why would he keep the glove on if it's not intergrated?

The second pictures is the different outfits he wears during his convalescence. I took liberties with the colors, I drew this in like 10 minutes, everything seems easy when you don't have to draw BELTS. We are now on Prothesis 5 ! Nightow drew it as a regular arm so I guess Vash wears gloves on top of it??????

Back on the road in pursuit of Knives

He wears this one after his stay at Home, throughout the Dragon's nest ark and until his 2nd fight against Knives.

I liked the design of his jumpsuit until I looked closer at the panels and saw that the design change ON EVERY ONE OF THEM. Knee guard on only one knee? No kneeguards? Two??? WHO KNOWS ??? I tried to make it work but really go wild with this one, even the author does not know how his pant looks.

Still prosthesis 5, BUT UNTIL WHEN?

Prisoner on the Ark

THEY MASSACRED MY BOY. Did they even feed him at least in 7 months? Those pictures are the definition of the drenched kitty cat left under the rain. Give this man a blanket and a therapist.

Bye bye Prothesis 5 ! And see what I mean when I say that his outfit does not make sense????? It comes out in parts????

After his imprisonment on the Ark

The last suit in the manga! He keeps this coat until the end of the story. From this point, only his hair changes (or the color of his coat).

I adore the little angel wing symbol on his left arm, such a cute addition. Too bad it appears in one of the most traumatic event of his life.

Speaking of his jumpsuit...The return of belts.... But at least this outfit stays relatively coherent except for his kneeguards who appear and disappear panel from panel but most of the time he doesn't have any, so no kneeguard it is. Prosthesis 6 hello !

Final battle and end of the story

It hurted to drew those outfits ;w; And working on the design of his coat when he fights Legato made me realize where Orange studio took inspiration to chose the colors for Vash's coat in the final episode of Stampede ! Great job ! I tried to color the same effects as one of the illustrations showing dark Vash but I'm not really good with colors..... He actually radiates energy but with some purple undertones, I took some liberties because those are my drawings I do what I want.

I'm not sure at 100% that he has a tuft of blond hair left when his outfit turns black but his hair is all black at the end of the fight. His prosthesis is destroyed at the end of the fight. He got another one in the final chapter. So 7 prosthesis throughout the story!

#play with vash like a barbie doll #I love reference sheets #took years to do but it helps so much when drawing comics #or writing fics #how the hell do you expect me to show him undress if I don't know how his clothes work #anyway enjoy #vash the stampede #vash #trigun #trigun maximum #a's art

[onomatopagu-et-cie]

HAPPY 19TH DGM ANNIVERSARY & some other notes on DGM!

I'm a little late but HAPPY 19TH DGM ANNIVERSARY!!!! Time flies fast and this series accompanied my thoughts and heart for almost two decades now!

This first preface will stay a long time in my thoughts. Thank you for letting us join in on your wonderful journey, Hoshino ⋆｡°✩

I recently listened again to Blue Moon sung by Ella Fitzgerald and ... it's giving me Mana, Allen and Neah (or the whole cast haha) feelings ;;

I had some other notes I wanted to share since the previous post, so here it goes!

(SPOILERS UP TO CH247!!!!)

▶ Innocence & Akuma and Timcampy Innocence is attracted by Akuma, as though they once formed a whole together:

(the imagery here haunts me, especially with a heart in the background and the cross in the middle!!)

-> the story insists on informing us Innocence and Akuma balance each other and hold equal power over each other -> at the Asian branch, Allen’s Innocence reactivates only once he saw an Akuma ; the 3rd generations arm and Allen’s Innocence activated on their own when they were close -> the Innocence takes the shape of a bust deprived of head, arms and legs, but it has wings (and the recent chapters mainly represent Innocence with wings eg. Mugen, Apocryphos and Allen) ; the Akuma egg is a head in itself -> the Innocence’s mark on the exorcists looks like a cross but also the stigma on the Noah’s forehead -> both evolve in the same fashion. However, Akuma seem to me visually more ‘complete’ than the Innocence (eg. in Phantom G ark, even the children, the Prioress and Emilia thought a Level 4 was an angel): some are seen with more defined human features, wings, halo, tail, horns altogether. It’s curious how Level 4 Akuma (and Alma also) are designed with a halo, which is generally a symbol of holiness in art.

-> Skull use what looks like ladybug to create their barriers (which can prevent anyone except Akuma from entering, nullify Allen’s left eye power and his ability to summon the Ark).

In some cultures and languages, ladybugs are often seen as a good-luck charm and are linked to heaven and God. For example, in french, we call them ‘bêtes à bon Dieu’ (something like God’s creature) since the Middle Age. Its name can even be associated with the Virgin Mary (ladybug/bird or in german, Marienkäfer means Mary’s beetle). In japanese, the word for ladybug is 天道虫, ‘tentou-mushi’ which literally means 'Heaven Path bug'. It can also be written with the kanji for 'red' and 'girl' respectively, 紅娘.

Now, this is a wild reach which might lead nowhere (surely like the others 8D), but the Crows are the only ones described by their red silhouettes (you would expect their costumes to be jet black, by their title) and the two red dots on their forehead. There are also many black ladybug species with two red spots on their wings eg. the twice-stabbed lady beetle.

-> Just another wild speculation but if the song heard when the Dark Boots crystallized itself around Lenalee was the lullaby (the only song mentioned in the story along with Lala’s and Maria’s), what to make of it?

While the Innocence only affected non-exorcists (supposedly because its will is overwhelming to them, according to Bookman), Level 4 Akuma seem to have the same head-crushing cry and it incapacitates exorcists, to the point that they struggle to synchronize.

Only the dead like Maria seems to remain unaffected. However, in ch147, Link was still able to move to save Allen from the collapse.

-> The only instances Akuma and Innocence use each other’s attributes are Akuma 4 (wings) and Fallen Ones’ (halo) designs.

-> The Earl is determined to keep the Akuma’s true nature hidden from the Heart, because there’s something in there it could use as an advantage. It suggests something could directly be done by the Heart if it knew that piece of information eg. control both Innocence and Akuma or turn Akuma into Innocence or vice versa? Idek anymore haha

-> Timcampy is the only character to have both the Innocence and the Akuma/Earl attributes, wings and horns. And we also had THIS cover (the second picture, I never saw it colored before I re-read DGM and idk if this was established it was Timcampy):

Not to mention Timcampy’s weird deus ex machina entrance to motivate Allen again in ch53 (when he was giving up on saving Suman)?

▶ The Chang, Akuma, Skulls and Link A detail I forgot to mention in the first post was that Link’s tattoo, as expected, share the same motif with the ones inked on the Chang to link them to Fō as it’s shown in volume 21. Similar tattoos were on Alma’s arms and belly since that magic was also used on him.

Level 4 Akuma and Skulls also share the same marks?????

Fô’s head ‘accessory’ looks like the Akuma egg’s design:

Skulls (the katakana highlighted in green on the screenshots), like the Chang family, are also sorcerers. The manga introduces them in japanese with the title 守化縷 (the kanji highlighted in yellow on the screenshots), which literally can be translated as ‘guard(ian) of the thread’.

Now what's a synonym of thread?

… It’s Link!!!! The coincidence goes even further with Link’s last name, Howard. According to wikipedia’s entry:

????????? I don’t know what to make of this, but this sure isn’t pure coincidence. This and the way Apocryphos and Lavi called Link ‘watchdog’ as well as Kanda ‘Luberrier’s dog’ insists on his role as a guard. But whose? Allen’s? Luberrier’s? Somebody/thing else?

-> According to his profile in volume 20, Edgar Chang Martin, part of a secondary Chang branch, was related to a great sorcerer involved with the Order. The sorcerer was german. Link is also german (like Kiredori, Tewaku, Goushi, Madarao and Tokusa), I don’t believe we have other german profiles in the story nor blondes like him, Bak’s father and Bak himself (oh, and I forgot ofc our girl Miranda!!). Link could be related to that great german sorcerer and thus be an heir of Atuuda, unbeknownst to Zuu (but I wonder how that would be groundbreaking for the story?)

-> the spells the Chang use could be related to/even originate from the Skull’s (given how the manga hints at how ancient Skull’s sorcery is). The operation to bestow the power to cast magic to the Crows could be similar to how the Skull tinkered with the scientists’ head in volume 15.

-> heck, dude could even be linked to Timcampy, they’re both gold (I’m half-joking at this point idek anymore 8D) and Timcampy uses the same sanskrit-inspired magic as the Skulls (eg. when Tim destroys the barrier to save Allen during his battle against Alma and Kanda). Hoshino also emphasizes the importance of the gold color in the manga (the Noah’s eyes, Timcampy, Allen getting hungry over this color, the Campbell mansion’s landscape, …) just as the silver/gray color, so there might be something? Also, Cornelia’s wood can destroy Timcampy. Cornelia derivates from the latin cornix, which means crow…………… Please e x p l a i n

Also, what is this ‘thread’ the Skulls have the duty to protect? Their main duty is to protect the Akuma egg?

Now three things will keep bothering me until we get answers in the manga:

1)

2) These pages following each other (and the last two are literally back to back, it’s more visible when you read the physical copy + it’s Link’s right hand and Allen’s left):

(Of course I know Atuuda acted up once Link subconsciously shook when he thought of Apocryphos and this is a smooth way to have a transition to Neah’s pov, but the panelling is still interesting here)

3) What Zuu really meant to say to Link before he was interrupted by Luberrier (and I don’t think it was the whole ’becoming the 14th’s ally’ because Luberrier was clear on that in front of Link only some pages later)?????

▶ Cross and his mask Hoshino hinted that both Lavi’s eyepatch and Cross’s mask are mysteries to be unveiled. The mark on his mask looks like the Innocence and the Noah’s stigma. It also looks like Mana’s Pierrot makeup, or even the Pillar mentioned in volume 27:

The shape of his mask looks like a coffin? (It could also be a visual recall of Grave of Maria, but who knows!)

It reminds me of the "La" + "Vi" cover and the 'box' protecting the egg also looks like a coffin:

▶ Road We now know Road was even able to manipulate Allen/Neah’s dreams without even interacting with them (unlike with Lavi). She even invited Cross’ dreamy-whatever-consciousness in it (because I’m sure Cross himself was conscious of it to some extent and was able to give some hints to Allen even though he was used by Road), which persuaded Allen to go to the Campbell mansion. Could it be that she also tampered with Lenalee and Allen’s nightmares after she met them (or at the very least Allen, since the manga shows how the dream strongly motivated him to reactivate his Innocence)?

I find it even more curious she’s named like that when one of Allen’s elements of crisis over his identity is following a road already traced by somebody else.

Road might have something to do with the Heart (that and also the fact her iconic door is heart-shaped, with a checked pattern and a crown on top?)?

▶ Apocryphos Ch247 finally established the link between the Cube’s prophecies and Apocryphos: the Cube is regarded by the Order as the official « text » on the Innocence and the three days of doom, the Heart is mentioned but there is no trace of Apocryphos in there. Just as the truth on the 3 days of doom the Noah claim to exist. Also just as the Heart is capable to create dupes to escape the Earl. Apocryphos is a literal reference to the apocrypha, texts deemed unauthentic by religious authorities. According to the Cambridge dictionary, « an apocryphal story is probably not true although it is often told and believed by some people to have happened. » The one the most tricked so far in the story seems to be the Order.

▶ Cross in volume 17

In volume 17, Cross asks Allen « What if I told you that when you become the 14th you will have to kill the people (or someone) you care about? ». To which Allen answers: « What do you mean I have to kill the people (or someone) I care about?! »

In the original version, Cross uses « daijina ningen (人間) » for ‘the people (or someone) you care about’ ; Allen uses « daijina hito (人) ».

Which is curious for Cross because hito (人) would generally be used here: both mean human, but while 人 refers to ‘human’ as a person, 人間 refers to ‘human’ as the species in a taxonomic classification. Is it to highlight the true nature of Neah as a Noah apart from the humans Allen came to care about along his way? Does Cross also set himself apart from the humanity as a 3rd party?

▶ Funny how Link and Mana can be associated in the manga: -> ch137, « Orphan and Clown », introduces Link to Allen when he’s still trying to figure out why the Ark’s partition uses the signs Mana taught him and is questioned by Link about it. It is later revealed in the manga Link was an orphan before joining the Crow. -> in ch183, Allen inadvertently voices his memories of Mana to Link -> in ch212, « Searching for A.W.: Calling You », as Allen loses consciousness, fighting Neah’s awakening, he calls out to Link but instead is greeted by a vision of a young Mana, calling out to Neah. This chapter also introduces the importance of Allen’s name to save him from Neah’s dreams. The original version for ‘Calling You’ is ‘’君を呼ぶ ‘ (kimi wo yobu). ‘Kimi’ is the pronoun both Mana and Link use in the manga ; past!Allen also seemed to use it with Neah. Johnny and Kanda both use omae for Allen.

EDIT: Allen also uses 'kimi' so the chapter's title works both ways (in French, the title was translated as "Écoute ma voix" which is "Listen to my voice", I like the way the calling works interchangeably!)!

-> in ch213, Link faces a mirror shirtless like Mana does later in volume 25:

-> in ch220, « Searching for A.W.: He Closes His Eyes Tighter in a Vortex », Neah recalls the Earl he’s Mana but remains in denial and Link admits being conflicted over Allen and Neah

Link, Neah and Cross share similar positions and the panelling adds to this parallel:

-> Link was given the order to aid Neah but hopes that Allen overcomes his fate as his host.

-> Neah awakens years later and faces the Earl, struggling with Mana’s memory ; he’s determined to destroy him even if he holds him dear.

-> Cross had to witness Mana's struggle against the Earl. Yet he still had to carry on his mission even when the Earl possessed Mana. Then he had to watch Allen being slowly taken over by Neah. Cross's message in ch173 hits even harder given his link with Mana and Neah: "You may not want to listen to someone like me who carries the will of the Fourteenth… But if you think either of us is forcing you to walk a certain path… I want you to know that’s not true. A path forms behind you as you walk. The earth you step on is compressed, leaving a print. You’re the only one who can make your path. So stop wearing Mana’s mask. Walk in your own if you haven’t given up." Perhaps he even said similar words to an anguished Mana (or he wished to have said them). He had to watch them go, one after the other, helplessly.

▶ The moon, D. and C.

Are the D and the C just stylized in Mana and Luberrier’s names? At least for Mana’s and Neah’s, the D. could hold some meaning since it even was ch218’s title. Hoshino dreamed to become an astronaut, loves the moon and the stars (they’re even part of her name and her own mascot) and used it a lot in her previous works.

In DGM, the moon is seen in its different phases at important moments. It mainly signals the passing of time (eg. how long has Allen been on the run) or gives atmospheric context to the scenes, but sometimes it holds a symbolic meaning:

-> The first Noah reunion shows the moon phases on each chair

-> It is part of the Musician's Score's lyrics (from the french official translation): « Tu étincelles, toi, l’enfant né sous une tremblante lune d’argent. » which could be « You shine, the child born underneath a trembling silver moon ».

-> It frames a romantic scene between Crowley and Eliade:

-> The moon and the stars are used in chapter titles eg. ch129, « Black and white, 0° » (a reference to the new moon) and ch144 « Black star, red star »

-> It’s foreboding in Lenalee & Allen’s nightmares and Allen’s prophecy as the Destroyer of time:

-> The full moon appears when two characters reunite: in astronomy, a syzygy is a « situation that occurs when the sun, the moon (or a planet), and the earth are in a straight line. This occurs when the moon (or planet) is at conjunction (new moon) or opposition (full moon) ». Syzygy comes from the ancient greek συζυγία which means junction, reunion.

Mana and Red’s first meeting, as Mana sings the lullaby:

Allen and the Earl’s ‘first’ meeting:

Allen and Link reunite:

As for the D and the C, when the moon waxes it is shaped like a D, and when wanes it appears as a C. Could this be a coincidence? The C in Luberrier could also be Campbell, but for now the mystery surrounding his family is far from being revealed.

▶ Timothy and Allen In ch183, « Wash your face and you’ll be alright », Timothy and the Prioress face the sunset the same way Mana and Red did as later revealed in ch238:

Have a nice week!

#dgm spoilers #dgm meta #d gray man #allen walker #road kamelot #cross marian #mana walker #link howard #neah campbell

[skulkingwriter]

Oh my god.

TLDR: I've just encountered a meme in the wild for the first time and now my toddler is looking at me like I've lost my mind

Long version: so my son has become obsessed with Donald and Daisy Duck. He has loved ducks since he was old enough to identify a duck, duck was basically his first word, he loves a duck. So it's not a big surprise that Donald and Daisy went down a storm when we met them in Fantasia 2000, where they have an epic and moving comedy of errors on Noah's Ark to the tune of Land of Hope And Glory. (They both think the other has drowned. They are utterly inconsolable until they find each other again, at which point I weep my own tears. This deeply dramatic attachment to each other may come into play later in this story.) 

This was only his second exposure to the classic Disney animals because the Sorcerer's Apprentice is in the original Fantasia and we watched it first. Then, two beloved friends gave him a Brio train with Donald and Daisy figures, associating them with a SECOND form of very beloved transport, and cementing them as a) very important friends who we love and b) inseparable from each other.  

Yesterday, he asked for Donald and Daisy on the telly, so we had that section of Fantasia 2000 again. And then he asked for MORE Donald and Daisy. And for a moment, life was made of WOE. Because I was certain, given we have the Disney channel, this could be achieved. But I was not raised on the Disney Friends (princesses and other movies yes, mickey no) so the best I could do was type in 'donald' and 'daisy' into the search. TRAGICALLY, we could not find a single program that had Donald AND Daisy in the thumbnail, though there were plenty of Donald only and a smattering of Daisy-only and a few misc Ducks, and if you remember the first chapter of this epic you will know that it is VITALLY IMPORTANT that Donald and Daisy not be separated! My son WEPT INCONSOLABLY at the idea of watching a Donald cartoon without Daisy in it.  

And then, AND THEN, I spotted that in the background of the thumbnails for something called Mickey's Clubhouse, there was a group of characters including both Donald and Daisy! SUCCESS. So now we watch Mickey's Clubhouse even though it's slightly annoying and they use thinks like 'hot diggity dog' and 'mouseketools', it's at least high budget nonsense and better than fucking Blippi, who thinks Pluto is a planet and seems to make new Youtube accounts faster than I can block them. 

It's a success! Donald and Daisy are both here! They are clearly secondary characters, but it's good enough! And there's a fun but deeply odd mechanic with these 'mouseketools' where we take along three weird objects and have a slot left for a mystery object that will assist during the latter stages of the plot. 

At which point I, a very online but not very Disney-literate 40 year old, laugh for like three minutes and my son thinks I have finally relinquished my tenuous grip on reality. 

Or to put it another way: 

#parenting #disney #not a good punchline but dammit it's the punchline I've got #I enjoy explaining Son Logic because fundamentally it always hinges on him being a fucking magical unicorn of kindness and joy #don't worry he also sometimes punches people in the face when they start singing and he wasn't expecting it #he is a real toddler I promise

[the-present-is-a-gift-au]

Chapter 9: In Which the Future Trio are Paid a Visit

Twig knocked on the front door of the Future Trio’s home with the world weighing on her shoulders. Celebi was the one to answer. “Twig, dear, it’s been too long! I couldn’t believe—”

She cut off abruptly when she caught sight of the shadowy figure looming over Twig’s shoulder. Curiously, her expression wasn’t one of terror or fury like Dusknoir and Grovyle wore when they peered through the doorway as well. She regarded Darkrai with a look of… disorientation, almost. Like she was suddenly seeing double and trying to discern what exactly she was staring at. It stirred up some old memory from meeting Celebi in the Dark Future after Team Venture’s brush with death, but she didn’t have time to dwell on the memory when Grovyle was readying an attack and Dusknoir was following shortly behind him.

She gestured to her plus-one. “This is Darkrai. Or Ark. Whichever name you want to use. I met him at Mount Travail. He lost his memories just like I did, so I've been helping him out since we met. Be nice to him. He's sensitive.”

Darkrai regarded her with a look of quiet curiosity, but said nothing. Grovyle and Dusknoir warily dismissed their forming attacks, and Celebi continued to squint at Twig and Darkrai.

"Darkrai, these are the guys I was telling you about— Celebi, and Grovyle, and Dusknoir." She indicated each one as she named them, then put on a strained smile. "Is dinner ready? I'm starved." 

The food was great, as it always was, but the meal itself was the most awkward thing Twig had ever gone through, and Grovyle staring at her worriedly the whole time didn't make it any easier. Darkrai made regular attempts at polite conversation, but Dusknoir and Grovyle only ever responded in the most minimalistic ways one could imagine. Celebi meanwhile, despite her insistence before now that if she ever saw Darkrai again she would kill him on sight, was enthusiastically chatting with the same person who had sent her entire timeline into ruin, and she was doing so with a cordialness Twig hadn’t foreseen. 

 When the moon was high overhead, Grovyle indicated a room for Darkrai to sleep in and a separate one for Twig. When it was Kip and her visiting, it was always one room that they stayed in together. She guessed Grovyle saw her exhaustion and decided to remedy it however he could. Bless him. Even with her distance from Darkrai, though, Twig’s nightmares persisted. She woke up countless times clutching her arm and whimpering in pain. She was a mess come morning.

Grovyle was up, being the fellow early riser that he was, and watching the sunrise in the grasses on the edge of the Future Trio’s property. Twig sat down heavily beside him and flopped onto her back in the grass. 

"What happened, Twig?" Asked Grovyle. 

"It's what I said. Found him while I was delving at Mount Travail. He was shocked that I knew who he was because he had amnesia, and I brought him home. He's been my roommate since then."

"You need to kick him out. At minimum."

"Why?"

"Do I need to say it? Look at you. You're worse off than I've ever seen you since we reunited, maybe even worse than when we first met. You're putting yourself in danger to be kind to this moralless, untrustworthy—"

"I'm not doing this to be kind to him. I'm doing this to make sure he stays in line. I can't risk taking my eyes off the guy and having him remember how much he enjoyed world domination, Grovyle. It's— It’s bread and circuses for the Legend who almost took over the world. Keep him distracted and complacent. That sort of thing, you know?"

Grovyle didn't look like he believed her. 

"Besides, who knows. Maybe some wacky shenanigans will happen and he and I will become best friends. It happened with you and Dusknoir, didn’t it?”

He bristled. “That isn’t the same, Twig,” he said lowly. “Dusknoir changed of his own volition. It wasn’t like this, where Darkrai is a disaster waiting to happen. Besides that— you’re not well.”

“I’m doing great,” she bit out.

“Have you looked in the mirror lately?” 

Twig didn’t grace that with a response.

“Twig, I’m worried. Just tell me the truth. Are you okay?”

She tossed an arm over her eyes and grumbled an indistinct answer, and didn’t react further to his nagging.

***

Hours after the rest of the household had started their days, Celebi finally rose from bed, with Darkrai following shortly. They chatted quietly in the kitchen, discussing interdimensional auras, temporal entropy, and other topics that made no sense to a non-Legend. Twig watched them for a moment before turning to Dusknoir as he read, seated on the floor of the main room, and steeled herself. 

He looked up when she approached, impassive expression flickering with worry. 

"I need to ask you something," she said. Then after a few nervous heartbeats quietly added, "Privately." 

He set his book aside and followed her out into the forest along the property's edge. Grovyle stood up from where he was knelt in the garden as they walked out. She waved off his look of concern with a dismissive motion. I'm fine. Don't worry about it. He was, yet again, visibly unconvinced, but didn't follow after them. 

Dusknoir folded his arms behind his back when Twig came to a stop, finally satisfied that no one would be in view or earshot of the conversation she was dreading having, and calmly asked her, "What is your question?" 

She opened and closed her mouth several times, put up a hand or started a gesture in order to begin only to falter halfway through the motion, and finally just sagged, shoulders drooping and head bowed, with a groan. "I guess it's less of a ‘question’ sort of thing and more of a ‘me running my mouth off and you telling me if I'm crazy’ sort of thing." 

"Alright." He settled onto the forest floor, and the effort to get closer to her eye level was appreciated, especially when he motioned to a branch on a nearby tree that was closer to his own. "Run your mouth off, then, so I can assess your craziness. Keep in mind that you're not going to be told you're totally sane, though. I know you enough to say a description like that would be madness in itself." 

The joke fell utterly flat in the face of her anxiety. But it was nice of him to try and ease the tension, at least. She clambered up and sat down on the branch, putting her face level with his brow, and wrung her hands. She had recited everything she wanted to say so many times in her head on the way here, and now all of it seemed inadequate and pointless. 

"Breathe. Then start at the beginning," Dusknoir lightly instructed, jolting her from her thoughts. "Rip the bandage off quick."

Alright. Inhale slowly, exhale slowly. Stop agonizing and start talking. “My aunt would hurt me when I was a human. Like, hit me and stuff. A lot.” She wasn't looking at his face when she said it, but she could see him go stiff and still in the corner of her vision. “It was something that she'd do because I back-talked or acted up, and if it was really bad, she'd get out a lighter and— uh— b-but I forgot about anything happening when I became a charmander. It came back a while after you— uh—” She swerved hard around what she was about to say, pivoting her choice of words. “— after Kip and I came to the Dark Future, in little bits and pieces over time. I didn't tell anybody for ages, because it's dumb and embarrassing, and I wasn't going to, but… Well, Darkrai can visit people's nightmares, right? So he figured it out. He didn't say anything, and it was…" She paused. "Okay, he did say some things, but only in ways I understood. Nobody else picked up on it. But it freaked me out, and— well— yeah. 

“That was before he lost his memories. But he figured it out again after that, and it's been messing with my head, even though he hasn't talked about it since he found out. Like, he hasn't mentioned anything. Not a peep. He's not exactly who he was before the whole amnesia thing, so he might not ever say anything, but I can't stop thinking about how he might. It's not a zero percent chance. It's just so stupid, because even if his memories did come back he probably wouldn't talk, but I'm stuck thinking about what if he does, and I… yeah."

Silence.

"So. Um. How crazy am I on a scale of one to ten?" She joked, turning to the man next to her and immediately regretting her attempt at humor.

Dusknoir had his eye behind a hand, arm crossed over his stomach, effectively hiding his face as he hunched in on himself. 

"… Sorry for unloading on you," she murmured. "It's dumb. I shouldn't have said anything." 

"Your… When you…" He tersely muttered a prayer and lowered his hand, looking up at her. "I— Thank you for telling me. I'm honored you trusted me enough to tell me. You did the right thing in telling me—"

"You can drop the script Magnezone gave you, man. I'm not a kid." 

"—And you didn't deserve any of the mistreatment you received."

Something in her bristled at that. "I did, actually. But it's in the past. Or Future, or whatever," she hissed under her breath. She crossed her arms, looking down and away. "Forget I said anything, it was messed up for me to bother you with this junk." 

"What did you say?"

"To forget about—"

"Before that."

"I said I deserved it and that it's done with, so whatever." She narrowed her eyes, glancing at him from the corners of her vision. He looked disgusted. "Yeah, look, I know it'd take some messed up stuff to deserve that sort of thing, but I was messed up. It's not on her. You don't have to worry about it." 

“How on earth could a child deserve to be treated so repulsively?”

“I did a lot of awful things on top of being a legendary brat most days. Don't worry about it.”

“Twig. Answer me. What could you have done to deserve… You mentioned a lighter, those devices humans used to start fires? Arceus, how could you deserve such a thing being used on you?” 

Her response came out small, timid. “I hurt a lot of people.”

“We all do. That doesn't mean any of us deserve to be abused by our kin.” 

“No, like— I physically hurt them. Humans lived in bunkers when I grew up, and I'm the only one left from mine. And that's because of me. It's because of me an entire bunker is dead. It's my fault that hundreds of people are dead and gone, because I was a crybaby who couldn't handle getting batted around a bit here and there.” She cast him a weary, angry glance. “I'm pretty sure killing an entire community of men, women, and children counts as something that would make me deserve that kind of thing.”

His brow furrowed. “How could you manage to—?”

“By leaving my bunker. There was a fire, and the doors locked themselves behind me. No one else could get out, and they all burned or suffocated to death. Not a pretty way to go, you can guess, so I definitely had some preemptive karma going on with my aunt.” 

There was a pause. “Preemptive,” Dusknoir echoed. “Am I right when I say, then, that you suffered for years before the supposed justification for your pain took place?”

Twig didn't respond. 

“How did this fire start?”

“It just did,” she said too fast for it to be the truth. Dusknoir saw through it and asked again. “Look, I don't want to talk about— ugh. My aunt started it. I blabbed about her hurting me worse than normal to one of my teachers, and she was going to be arrested because it was real bad apparently—” Dusknoir made a choked sound beside her, but she pointedly ignored it— “So she started a fire to try and use it as cover for her to get out of trouble with. Probably. I dunno. Never got to ask her. I ran when I heard she was being detained because she always said that if something like that happened… Well, I didn't want to see if she was bluffing with what she told me. I ran, I left my bunker, and because of that these big bolts that lock the exit doors activated and trapped everyone inside behind me. It's my fault they all died in there.”

Dusknoir was silent for a long time. “How old were you upon coming to the surface?" He asked with a heavily fettered anger to his words. 

"That doesn't matter. What happened is what happened, and it's done." 

"Humor me." 

She gritted her teeth. "I was six." 

He took in a sharp breath and let it out in a low hiss. "You were a child young enough to not have even lived through ten winters. You fled because you were intimidated and abused by a wretch of a woman, and the mechanisms of your home failed. You can't be expected to hold the blame for a tragedy in which so many passed in an unfortunate way—"

"You can just say I cooked them, man. It's fine. And believe me, I'm not some poor little survivor or whatever you're thinking of me as. I was the worst kid anyone ever met. People hated me.”

“And who told you that?”

Twig gritted her teeth, silent. 

"Even if you were an unpleasant child— which I honestly doubt— the blame for any escalation would not have been on your shoulders whatsoever. You were a child." 

That stung somewhere deep in the back of her mind. "Thanks for trying to reassure me, but you're wrong. I was awful and I deserved every lick of pain I got.”

Dusknoir glared at her. "Whether or not you deserved anything doesn't matter. No one should lay a hand on you, regardless of whatever they might think you've earned. Would you say Azurill or Marill would deserve the treatment you received, were they in your place?” Her stomach seized at just the thought, and he continued. “No. You wouldn't. Because you know, even if you deny it, that what was done to you was wrong. What you deserved was safety and care, not to be made the victim of such cruel, unfair retribution.” 

"Nice speech, still wrong. Bye." She hopped down from the branch and got three steps toward the house before Dusknoir caught her by the scruff and brought her level with his narrow glare. "Dude, what gives?!" She spat, clawing at his fingers. 

"What gives is you're refusing to accept your complete innocence and acknowledge the perpetrator's sole responsibility for what was done. You were an innocent bystander; a child."

"I don't count!"

"You do."

"No, I don't!"

"Why do you believe that?"

"I told you— I killed my entire bunker!"

"And did that matter?"

“Put me down, you lousy piece of—"

"Did that matter?"

She paused, claws stilling in their furious assault on the hand holding her aloft, brows furrowing as she held his unyielding, though not unkind, gaze— the question sinking in. "… What?"

"Did you really kill them?" Arceus, he sounded so tired. “Did you kill them, or did you survive them?”

Silence. 

“Anyone else could have been the first to flee. Anyone else could have gone through the exit before you. And then it would be them in your place, cursing themself for having lived where others died. You didn't will the mechanisms to fail, nor did you sabotage them. All you did was have the misfortune of surviving alone.”

She slowly lowered her claws from his fingers, curling her hands in to her chest. When she finally looked away from him without any rebuttal to spit, it felt like she'd been skinned alive— like her outer layers were all peeled away until there was nothing left but a dripping, bloody wound where she once stood. 

Silence. 

"… Put me down," she repeated. 

He did so, and settled onto the ground beside her. 

There was quiet for a long moment as they sat. Twig drew her knees up to her chest, hugged them close, and hunched her shoulders in as she stared at the ground by her feet. 

Dusknoir spoke in a steady tone— firm but understanding as he brought their conversation back to Twig's initial concern. "Don't blame yourself for what was done to you by your kin. Don't blame yourself for fearing the ability to tell someone yourself being removed from you. But most of all, do not blame yourself for surviving. You were spared. Others were not. You surely feel disoriented and disgusted by that fact. But there is nothing to be done about the past but to continue living." 

Those last words echoed in her skull. It hit her that he was speaking from experience, and a number of things clicked into place. 

(He had mentioned there being other servants of Primal Dialga. Yet by the time they had entered the Dark Future, only he and the sableye enjoyed such a rank. She'd seen scars on him that didn't fade, a hallmark of a wound dealt by a Legend.

(It wasn't the same as her upbringing. Nothing would be. But if she thought about it, “As you wish, my lord” sounded dangerously close to “I'll go get the lighter, Auntie.”)

“You were a child,” he repeated, and his words felt like antiseptic on an open wound. 

A few strangled tears slipped from her, and she managed to hold back most of her pitiful, weepy noises. But when she continued to sniffle and shake, Dusknoir set a kind hand over her shoulder— or over her entire upper arm, rather, with his size— and Twig, deciding that he could be a part of the Don't lose a hand when you touch Twig club, let all the years of swallowing back the need to scream and sob finally excise themselves.

***

To say she got worried looks upon returning to the house was an understatement. She knew it must have been clear in her face that she was crying, and Dusknoir’s clawed-up hand certainly didn’t help ease any concerns. Darkrai’s subtle worry was the most unnerving, though she knew Grovyle’s blatant fretting meant she was in for a discussion she didn’t want to have. Dusknoir set a hand on his shoulder as he made to approach when she started for the guest room— murmured something about allowing her time to collect herself— and Twig didn’t linger long enough to react to Grovyle’s heart-wrenching expression of concern. She locked the door and let herself collapse onto the bed, boneless and hollowed-out from her tears. 

It was as if something had been ripped out of her as she wept at Dusknoir’s side. She felt like she’d had a tangled, knotted mass extracted from deep within her ribs. It wasn’t a bad sort of feeling, but it was definitely different than the constant lump in her throat she was used to. It was strange. Certainly not unpleasant, but not exactly good either. 

She didn’t sleep that night, only stared at the wall in a numb daze. It wasn’t a bad night. But it wasn’t exactly a good one, either. 

Grovyle was up when she rose the next morning. She murmured a greeting and poured herself a cup of whatever was heating in a kettle on the stovetop. It was a lukewarm magost berry tea, and the lack of steeping made it distinctly unpalatable. She drank it regardless. 

He watched her drink for a moment. She avoided eye contact.

“Twig,” he finally said, “you’re being reckless.” 

She did not need another ‘Let’s unearth all of Twig’s shortcomings and bring them up for review’ session so soon. She took another swig of the tea and looked away from Grovyle entirely.

“What if Darkrai’s memories return? What do you do then? You’re living with him. Who’s to say that he won’t recall his past and decide to kill you in your sleep?”

“That won’t happen,” she muttered.

“How can you say that so confidently? It’s a possibility! You don’t know for certain that it won’t happen—”

“The Darkrai I knew isn’t ever coming back, Grovyle! He’s gone. So I'd better get used to it already. I don’t need you driving in the fears that things will change when they never will! Darkrai is gone, he’s dead. So I should start acting like it, and you should too!” With those last words, she rounded on him, teeth bared and the flame at the end of her tail bright in the dim room.

She had never seen Grovyle look so defeated.

“I…” She swallowed hard. Why was he staring at her like that? Why was he—

Oh. 

Darkrai wasn’t the only person who had lost their memories. He wasn’t the only one who had changed beyond recognition. He wasn’t the only one who people had to relearn how to act around when they used to know him well.

“I’m sorry,” she forced out. “I didn’t mean it like— I didn’t—” She gritted her teeth for a moment longer, then stormed out with another stammered apology. 

Arceus, she felt awful. And she knew Grovyle felt even worse.

Good job, idiot.

***

Twig didn’t say goodbye when she left the next morning. She’d already done enough damage— it’s not like she needed to rub into Grovyle’s face that she was too stupid to know how to fix the damage she’d done to him and what friendship had been recovered between them. Darkrai was up and about in the main room already when she got up to leave, long enough before sunrise that even Grovyle hadn't risen for the day. She didn’t tell him they were leaving. Darkrai understood without her saying so— just rose up silently and followed behind her as she locked the front door after them with the spare key she’d been gifted.

At some point on the homeward trek, Darkrai spoke. “I don’t mean to seem as though I doubt you, but I still find it necessary to clarify how exactly we knew each other before my memories were lost.”

Twig found herself picking up the pace out of an instinctual need to flee— she had to purposefully slow her strides. “I already said you were a do-gooder type, man. You traveled all around, and my exploration team partner and I traveled too. We were bound to bump into each other at some point, and we got to know you a bit whenever we did.”

A pause. “This doesn’t explain why you and your companions are all so wary of me.”

“What?”

“Surely you noticed how Grovyle and Dusknoir reacted upon witnessing my arrival? They were ready to strike me down— or at the very least give their greatest effort in doing so.”

She chewed at the inside of her cheek. “That’s just them— they’re weird and nervous about new people. I’m not scared of you, Darkrai. Trust me.”

He didn’t respond further. She could only hope that he didn’t notice the waver in her voice at her final words as they traveled through snowdrifts and frost to Verdant Village.

#the present is a gift au #pmd eos #pmd fanfic #pmd explorers #pmd fanfiction #pmd fic #pmd2 #pokemon mystery dungeon #pmd sky

[indieyuugure]

Hey! Love if the ROTP comic! Literally the best crossover comic ever made. Anyways, I am unsure whether this question would be spoilers or smt (for either yes or no) but I can’t help but ask whether you plan to bring back the Kraang possessions (with either Leo or Raph or both)? Like what Jei did in the end of the last episode of the Osagi and Kintaro Ark of 2012 season 5. If that makes sense..

Anyways, I hope you have a great day:)

Aw, thanks ^v^

Nah I totally get what you mean (probably) like if the boys feigned possession to get close.

I don’t think I would, 1 because I already had Leo get possessed by the Krang in the early chapters of ROTP so I’d like to avoid repetition (though I do see what your saying with the pretend possession). Though also 2, unlike Jei’s mind control which as long as the turtles turn on their white eyes and vaguely follow instructions, there’s basically no way to tell the difference, The Krang possession has a lot more physical tells.

Their eyes change in a way that they can’t mimic and the goo that covers their body is very much attached and kind of almost becomes part of them. Like how in the movie, Raph’s right arm is covered in Krang goo that forms a whip-like weapon that he seems to have full control over, similar to prehensile tail.

Definitely a very cool idea! I’m not sure if it would be quite compatible with the story, but I really love this!! ^v^

Good question! :]

#rise of the parallel #tmnt #q&a #ninja turtles #teenage mutant ninja turtles

[cannedbabs]

MAGIC ITEMS RECOMMENDATIONS NEEDED!

So im writing Bite the Hand that Feeds my Jack Horner x Reader fic!! And I severely need magic items (they are so ridiculously hard to find?? Or think of??) So!! If you can recommend any that’d be amazing ❤️❤️ I have a whole list of ones i already have + the ones in the movie so no copying!!

This doesn’t contain spoilers for the fic btw! Some may not even be mentioned in the upcoming chapter but id love more regardless for future reference! Heres the list of both canon and other contributions

The Phoenix

Gemini Stewart / The Ethical Bug

“Magic Nanny Bag”

Flying Umbrella

“Drink me” potion

“Eat me” Cookie

Fairy Godmother’s Wand

‘Pumpkin’

Excalibur

Poseidon’s Trident

The Magic Carpet

The Shrunken Ship of the Lilliputians

Baby Unicorn Horns

Crystal Ball

Midas’ Touch

Captain Hook’s Hook

Wizard Staff

Poison Apple(s)

Cinderella’s Glass Slipper

Sleeping Beauty’s Spindle / Spinning Wheel

Sorcerer’s Hat

Dancing Broom

Bastet Statue

Enchanted Flower / The Enchanted Rose

Unspecified Magic Potions

Three Musketeer’s Fencing Swords

Mjölnir

Pegasi Wings

Hedge of Thorns

Fountain of Youth

Rumpelstiltskin’s Gold Thread

Evil Queen’s Dagger + Heart Box

Magic Genie Lamp

Rapunzel’s Hair

Flora, Fauna, Merryweather (trapped)

The Singing Harp

The Singing Sword

Dorothy’s Silver / Ruby Slippers

Magic Mirror

The Golden Cap

Invulnerability Stones

The North Wind

An Alchemy Jug

A Golden Egg

Bag of Pixie Dust

Magic Beans

Pied Piper’s Flute

Ark of the Covenant (REALLY iffy on this one I think its HILARIOUS and my mom suggested it)

Mad Hatter’s Hat

He collects magic items from mythology too! Anything is accepted from specific statues to just stupid stuff! Like said anything helps!! Brownie points if he can use it in some shape/form! And like stated these aren’t spoilers unless I can find some use for them later 🤷‍♀️ but right now they’re just decor!!

#big jack horner #jack horner #puss in boots #puss in boots the last wish #big jack horner x reader #jack horner x reader #pib the last wish #puss in boots: the last wish #ao3 #big jack horner x oc #bite the hand that feeds #jack horner x oc

[bloodblanks]

solace [masky / hoodie x reader] — chapter ii.

Despite having Tim and Brian still on your mind, you prepare to pack your things and leave. However, moving to your new apartment doesn’t exactly go as planned.

author's note: this fanfiction will contain explicit content, including rape/non-con, kidnapping, stockholm syndrome, and similar themes.

please read at your own discretion.

<- previous chapter

It was still early in the day when you woke up. At least, it was early in your standards. It was already afternoon, and as you realized that, you let out a groan of frustration. Unfortunately, you had a hundred percent ruined your sleep schedule. But what else did you expect—you had spent the entire evening binging a show, continuing into the early morning hours. By the time you went to sleep, the sun had risen, marking the time of dawn. As it was summer break, it wouldn’t matter too much, but you’d need to fix it before the start of school.

Your hands swatted at the phone on your nightstand, snatching the device eventually to turn the alarm off. Perhaps it was a bad habit, but the first thing you did was open your social media applications, procrastinating your leave from bed. Your phone display showed that you had a few unanswered text messages, all from a group chat consisting of you and your friends. You could see that they were discussing a new game that had just come out, and they’d been waiting for you to join. You smiled; it was sweet that they didn’t start without you. However, you’d have to crush their hopes.

ark Y/N WAKE UP WE NEED TO PLAY

Zohlem Shes probably sleeping lol You saw her typing at 3am about some show

lilypop she always does that lol but she should be up anytime soon

Y/N stop typing like this

lilypop fuck

Y/N start without me, i need to prep for move srry

lilypop you

ark :kittysad:

You felt a pang of guilt for not spending time with them after they had waited for you, but it was true. You did plan to start packing your stuff, deciding what to bring and what not to. Still, it was bothering you. Even though they were online friends, they still meant quite a lot to you. After all, they were the closest that you had to real friends, considering how you were left alone after Tim and Brian’s disappearance. Before that, you never had any other friends. You never needed other friends. It was supposed to be the three of you, a close-knit trio of friends. It was supposed to be the three of you leaving for university together. It was supposed to be the three of you, forever and always.

But that wasn’t the way things went. And everyone in high school already had a friend group or some sort of clique formed in earlier years, making it awkward to befriend new people. Not that you particularly wanted to, either. At the time, you didn’t particularly want to do anything.

Sighing, you put your phone down and got out of bed. Undressing, you took off the clothes you slept in, grabbed a simple outfit for the day—not like you were going anywhere fancy—and headed downstairs.

“Good morning, Y/N.” your mom called out.

You glanced at her sheepishly, shrugging your shoulders and walking to the dining table. You pulled out one of the chairs there, sat down and prepared to explain yourself.

“It’s summer break. I’ll fix my sleep schedule when school starts again,” you mumbled the first thing that came to your mind in hopes that she wouldn’t continue the subject. Which she didn’t, something you were thankful for. Ever since you had turned eighteen, both your parents had become more relaxed with you, assuming you’d know how to be responsible. Bold assumption, you thought. But it was one that was in your favour.

“Have you decided what you’ll be bringing?” Your mother asked as she took the dishes, likely from today’s breakfast that you had unfortunately missed, sliding them into the dishwasher's racks.

“Kind of, yeah. I think I’m just gonna be bringing some of my clothes, uh, the PC setup, and... the box.” Stumbling over your words, you let your voice trail off at the mention of the box. It wasn’t often that you’d bring up anything Tim and Brian related to her. In fact, you didn’t think that you had done it for a very long time, likely not since your last therapy session. Your mom was one of the few people genuinely affected by their disappearance at the time. She had known the boys for just as long as you had and likely remembered more of them in their earlier years than you did, seeing how your childhood memories were relatively blurry. Your families had all known each other since virtually the beginning of time. They had all grown up in this small town, went to the same schools together, got married, and had kids here. Your parents hadn’t been close with the other’s parents, but since the three of you had become such close friends, your parents eventually befriended each other’s parents.

Likely, your mom thought of Tim and Brian almost as family to some extent, which is mildly weird if you factor in the fact that you very possibly could’ve been crushing on either one of them to some extent at some point in time.

“Right,” she said. “The box. I almost forgot about it.” She paused for a second before continuing. “What exactly is in that thing, anyway?”

You knew all the items in there by heart. It was only natural since you had taken each and every item individually, collected them over the years, handpicked them from their rooms, and held them in your arms while crying yourself to sleep for countless nights.

“There’s Tim’s hoodie. The black one that he was always wearing.”

Your mom laughed. “Right,” she said, “Tim was going through some sort of phase.”

“Mhm.” You nodded. “There’s also Brian’s notebook from school. All his notes are in there. It’s a shame it’s for previous classes. I can’t copy off of them anymore.” you joked, and your mom chuckled at that. “And… Tim’s sketchbook. You know, he was good at art. It’s filled with like, all kinds of drawings. I haven’t looked through all of them yet, but I think I did see a drawing of me.”

Your mom hummed as she finished the dishes, walking over to you and pulling out a chair for herself. Sitting down, she said, “I swear Tim had a crush on you.” which caused you to blush.

“No, really!” she insisted, disregarding the flush on your face. “He was always staring at you. Anyone could’ve noticed.”

You got up from your chair, face red as a tomato. “I’m going to sort out my stuff, see ya.”

She laughed again. You appreciated moments like these, the simple pleasures of life.

—

You had far too many clothes. You only realized that today after looking through your closet to figure out what to bring. Taking out one of the folded cardboard boxes from the stack in your room, you quickly pushed out the sides to make the box. You threw your favourite shirts in, the ones that would go with almost any outfit. T-shirts, check. Seeing as it wouldn’t be warm for too much longer, you figured it would also be wise to bring a few sweaters. Sweaters, check. When trying to fit in your jackets, you realized how much space they took up and concluded that you’d bring the rest of them next time. After a while of debating between which were your favourites and which would be most practical, you made your choice, finally sealing the box with some tape. You’d bring more clothes the next time you returned home. Check.

You thought of packing your toiletries, such as your hair wash, skincare and the other products you used on a day-to-day basis, but you decided against it. You’d want to use them up until the day of moving, so you’ll pack them right before the move.

Taking your phone out of your pocket, you checked the time. Shit, you cursed internally. It was already ten past five. How in the world did it take you so long to decide between a few pieces of clothing? Were you really that slow?

Whatever, you thought. At the very least, you had finished the task, which meant it was productive enough for your standards.

Finally receiving the break you’d wanted all day, you excitedly sat yourself down in your chair, turned on your PC and typed a quick message to your friends.

Y/N srry guys i’m here now

ark :kittypog: yay

lilypop come play fast

You found yourself grinning as you read their replies. You appreciated your online friends very much. After Tim and Brian had left, you ended up spending the majority of your time online. You played video games, browsed art, read, scrolled social media, and so on. Through those activities, you found yourself meeting new people, some of which you have continued talking to ever since. You didn’t want to go out, not that you had a reason to, anyway. The world outside had become empty and devoid of life without Tim and Brian. Your new friends gave you something to look forward to when you woke up, a reason to get out of bed, and ways to occupy yourself and your mind. Through them, you were able to feel something other than grief.

As much as you hated to admit it, you were very much dependent on Tim and Brian. It wasn’t necessarily the healthiest thing, but you had grown up with them. You had done everything with them. You went to school together, did assignments together, played games together, ate food together, and even celebrated Christmas together with each other’s family. When they vanished, so did a large portion of your life. Everything you did, everything you were planning to do, involved them. And there was no them anymore.

Lost in thought, your attention turned away from the game you were playing, your movements on autopilot. You only noticed it when you saw your screen flash. Startled, you directed your focus back to see what had happened.

lilypopxd killed you.

“What the fuck, Lily?! I was distracted,” you yelled, only to hear a high-pitched giggle in return.

“Mad?” she asked, continuing to laugh, but abruptly stopped when you saw on the top of your screen that Daniel ‘Zohlem’ had killed her.

“Daniel you fucking piece of shit I hate you!” she cried out, and it was your turn to laugh this time.

“Mad?” you asked.

—

Your dad was downstairs. And he’d likely been there for a while because your mom had come into your room and woken you up.

“Y/N, your dad’s downstairs, let’s go.”

Right, you thought. You were moving your stuff today. Getting out of bed, you walked towards the window, quickly glancing and checking the weather to pick an outfit accordingly. It tended to start getting cold near the end of August, but there were still many hot days between the cooler ones.

You turned towards your already packed cardboard boxes—you had packed your utilities and hygiene products last night—but they weren’t there. You looked around the room in confusion, wondering where in the world giant cardboard boxes could have disappeared, but they were nowhere to be seen.

You were dumbfounded; how does something like this happen? You weren’t usually one to panic, but unless someone broke in or Casper the fucking ghost decided to pull a prank on you, there was no way these boxes would’ve just gone missing. You were pacing around in your room, trying to figure out what happened, when your mom came back upstairs and knocked at your door.

“Y/N, what’s the wait? Come on, your dad and I already took your things while you were sleeping. Make sure you don’t forget anything else, and come downstairs.”

Thank God it was just that, you thought. Your PC had also already been carefully packed into the car, so you quickly ran downstairs, grabbing a granola bar from the pantry and hopping into the car. Your father was already in the driver’s seat, and your mom was riding shotgun. You’d have to go into the back.

“Morning, dad,” you said, and he smiled, shaking his head.

“Right, morning. What time did you go to bed?” he asked.

You thought about it for a second. You were up late last night playing the new video game with your friends, only having gone to sleep at sometime around four in the morning.

“Three?” you hesitatingly said.

“Do you think you can fix your schedule before school starts?”

“Yeah,” you responded. Your dad didn’t seem too convinced. “Okay, I can pull an all-nighter to fix it if I need to.”

Your dad sighed. You could feel a lecture incoming.

“Do you really think you’re going to be okay by yourself in university?” he seemed more concerned than usual. He wasn’t often at home since he was busy working, but he was always a welcome sight when you did see him. Your mom was usually the worrier, and your dad often would reassure her that everything was fine, so it was unusual to see your dad anxious. It made sense, however, seeing as you were leaving for university. You had always lived with your parents up until now, so it would be a stark change for everyone. They were sure to miss you after your departure, even though you tended to hide in your room more than interact with them. They were likely also hesitant about letting you attend school alone, in a different city, without anyone there to directly support you. Where you were going wasn’t a long distance from home, but given your track record of not attending school when unattended, it was sensible to worry.

You had been depressed for a long time, ever since the incident happened. Initially, you tried to pretend everything would be okay. Tim and Brian would return soon; they likely just got lost after wandering somewhere over some stupid idea they had come up with. It was typical of them to think up wild things to do. But then, why didn’t they take you with them?

The entire city was searching for them for a week. But after that, the trial grew cold, and your hopes paled. You stopped going to school; you found it hard to focus on your classes, anyway. You could hear your classmates, teachers, and everyone around you discussing your best friends, thinking you couldn’t hear them. No matter where you went, you were inevitably reminded of them. It was causing you to slowly lose your mind. It rendered you incapable of concentrating on anything besides them, and somewhere in between all of that, you had also found it difficult to wake up in time for classes. You had a hard time falling asleep. You stayed up all night, tossing, turning, and crying into your pillow as if it would bring them back. You began skipping classes and eventually just stopped attending altogether. Naturally, your grades began a steep plummet, one that you never fully recovered from. Your school staff would start calling your parents in for meetings to discuss your well-being, which prompted them to send you to a therapist.

None of it made a difference, though. Your life wouldn’t ever be the same again without your best friends, and no amount of trying or pretence could ever fix that.

You dwelled on the case each day and night. You often went to their parents’ homes, looking through their rooms, checking the same areas repeatedly in search of any possible clues. It was like beating a dead horse, and you could tell that’s what their parents thought as well, with the sorrow-filled, pitiful look they’d give you whenever you came by. Nevertheless, you didn’t give up. Not until a year had passed.

Eventually, you came to the conclusion that you had to give up on the search. You didn’t want to do so, but you had been forced to accept by then that it wasn’t getting anywhere. You showed up at Tim and Brian’s homes for the last time, asking if you could take some of their belongings with you as memorabilia. Both their parents agreed, allowing you inside and giving you a hug. The last one you’d ever got from them.

Tim’s mother was much thinner than before, and you knew it because she would often give you hugs throughout the year. Brian’s father cracked the weakest of smiles, and you felt a pang of heartache at sight; he was one of the liveliest adults you had known, always there to crack a joke and make everyone smile. But there was nothing you could do about it. As much as you wanted to, you couldn’t bring them back. They couldn’t either. And neither could the police. Nobody could. So you took your collection of items and left.

During your year indoors, you had spent much of your time online. You found catharsis in talking to your friends online about the situation; they were very empathetic and understanding. They always did their best to console you and never tired of you when even you were exhausted by how much of a broken record you sounded like, unable to stop yourself from constantly talking about your former friends. Nonetheless, they were proud of you when you took the box, and when you were ready, they encouraged you to slowly put your life back together at your own pace. And a few months after you took the box, you decided it was time to do so and went back to school. It was difficult catching up with all the work you had missed during the year and a half that you weren’t at school, but you did your best and pulled through. Enough to make it to university.

“Yeah, I’ll be okay. Don’t worry about it,” you said. “If something’s wrong, I can always come talk to you guys.”

Both of your parents seemed happy with that response. Putting in our earbuds, you plugged them into your phone to play music, settling for looking out the window for the rest of the car ride. The view was pleasant.

When you arrived at your new apartment, your parents found a parking spot just a block away. Exiting the car, your parents opened the trunk, taking out the boxes of your things to carry them to your soon-to-be home. You mirrored their actions, getting out of the car, closing the vehicle door and retrieving the last box—the box—from there.

Crossing the street, you and your family arrived at the front of the apartment. Setting your box down on the steps, you typed in the four-digit entry code of the building. The door opened with a soft buzz, and you opened it, holding it open for your parents to enter before picking up your box and following them. You entered the apartment lobby together, which surprisingly looked even nicer in person than in the already appealing pictures. Consisting of white marble with thin black streaks through it, it almost made you think of an igloo. When you walked further up and to the stairs, your mom pointed out a concern. “There’s no elevator here.”

“There’s only three floors though,” you replied, “and I’m on the first. It’s good exercise.”

Your mom nodded, understanding your point and likely glad that you’d do something besides sitting in front of your monitor all day. The three of you continued to carry on up the stairs. As you turned the corner to the second half of the stairs, you began to feel lightheaded. You took another step forward, not understanding fully that something was wrong. It was mere seconds before static had hazed over your vision and rang in your ears. Your sight was one of an old TV turned on a broken channel, causing you to stumble forwards. Your foot caught on something, you weren’t sure what, but it was likely a step, and you fell forwards, hands still gripping the box, unable to find a landing.

You felt pain shoot through the side of your head as it slammed into the corner of something hard.

Your parents were yelling something, but you were too disoriented to make out the words. You thought they wanted you to get up, but everything hurt too much. You didn’t want to move; you wanted to just continue to lie there on the floor until the pain vanished. Not that you could’ve done anything else, your eyes were shut with blinding static, and your head rang into the void. You allowed unconsciousness to take you, your mind fading away into oblivion. 

next chapter ->

#creepypasta x reader #creepypasta #hoodie x reader #marble hornets #marble hornets x reader #brian thomas x reader #creepypasta x you #hoodie x you #brian thomas x you #hoodie mh #marble hornets x you #creepypasta smut #creepypasta nsft #yandere creepypasta #yandere marble hornets #masky x you #masky x reader #masky mh #masky x y/n #hoodie x y/n #creepypasta x y/n #tim wright x reader #tim wright #brian thomas #brian thomas x y/n #tim wright x y/n #tim wright x you #reader insert #creepypasta reader insert #x reader

[chuthulhu-reads]

[ID: Two panels from Trigun Maximum. The first shows Knives, grinning against a background of stars and saying, "Do not rejoice! Not for this!" The second panel is a wide shot of the Ark, now only a small disintegrating chunk of hull surrounded by the massive, grotesque form of the fused plants, including two gigantic, segmented wings. Knives continues, "I will erase all your hopes right before your eyes! There will be no greater finale." Fittingly, the chapter text at the bottom is "02. Slapstick Days/End." End ID.]

You get really obsessed with destroying people's hopes in front of them, Knives. Could you perhaps be re-enacting the trauma of hoping for humans to love you only to have that hope destroyed by discovering Tessla? As if you're any better after what you do to Domina?

#Trigun #I am once again begging Millions Knives to develop an OUNCE of emotional intelligence

[shiningdesignersreflections]

Yexiao: Thousand Wishes

Designer’s Reflection: Thousand Wishes

Obtained: first Chinese New Year hell event

Rarity: UR

Attribute: Green/Fresh

Awakened Suit: Thousand Memories

Story - transcripts from Design’s Reflections

Chapter 1 - Blossoms Fall

Chapter 2 - Blooming Flowers

Chapter 3 - Winter Arrives

Chapter 4 - Spring Returns

Chapter 5 - Blooming Again

Story - summarized

Everyone ages, but not Yexiao. Ten years could pass by, and not a single part of her will change. She used to live with a family of three and spend time painting with the little girl. Unfortunately, the other villagers were scared of her unique trait and formed a mob to try to run her out of town,

The little girl rushed to defend Yexiao, leaving the child with a scar on her arm. Tearfully, the two of them said goodbye. So, Yexiao drifted from town to town, never staying longer than a few years at a time. And every time she left, her memories would fade. It was like starting over with the seasons, but it still hurt to let go of something so precious.

During one of her moves, she comes to Cloudcrest, to the home she currently stays in. An elderly lady lives there, too, and Yexiao finds contentment caring for her and painting the blossoms in the yard. Just as she is getting comfortable, a young man finds her and asks about her paintings. He mentions a legendary designer of old who would make similar paintings to Yexiao’s.

She worries that this man has figured out her secret. After he leaves, she packs her belongings and tries to leave. But the old lady falls ill, and while her last living child lives in town, she still needed attention. Yexiao decides to wait until the lady is better before leaving Cloudcrest.

Seasons change, but the old lady is still sick. When spring comes, the young man comes to call again. This time, he shows a painting that came from the same yard that Yexiao and the old lady live in. It’s not Yexiao’s painting, so that means it has to be the old lady’s.

But something in the painting is familiar. Memories resurface, and Yexiao asks to check the old lady’s arm. Sure enough, there is a scar there - the same scar the little girl had when she defended Yexiao from the angry mob.

This is that little girl! A hundred years have passed, and she is still here.

The young man knows, but he never had any attention of tattling on her. His name is Qin Yi, and he only wants her help in finding the Puzzle Solver. Otherwise, he leaves her alone.

Yexiao enjoys the rest of the season painting with the old lady in the yard.

Connections

-Qin Yi asks if Yexiao is the Puzzle Solver. In Vol. 1, you help Nikki find the Puzzle Solver to unlock the secret of Leonid’s Manuscript.

-This is not the first time Yexiao has had to deal with her immortality. In Mind Maze Ch. 5, she used to live in Banyan Town, which was a perfect village that lasted forever - until waters from the Ocean of Memories seeped through and slowly destroyed everything, except Yexiao.

-While the Yexiao we know was “born” on the Ark (and therefore can’t age or die by natural causes), we time travel to the past in the Dunhuang hell event and see Yexiao working for Queen Joyeux. This may very well be Yexiao’s “original self,” who could still age and change.

Fun Facts

-During the hell event, when Nikki and Momo collect wishes in Luming’s place, they find Yexiao’s wish. All she wants is to live a content life, to enjoy her life, and that nothing changes again.

-In Chinese symbology, peaches are tied to immortality.

-The old lady has severe dementia, which not only impacts your memory but disrupts certain behavioral patterns or functions. It’s why she gets stuck on certain “loops” like asking for someone’s parents or insisting she go outside to find someone.

#yexiao #shining nikki #hell event #chinese new year #ur designer #green attribute #fresh #thousand wishes #hanfu #memories #dementia #forgetting #peach #peach tree #immortality #never changing #seasons #cloudcrest

[midnightshard06]

Flufftober Day 9

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/50489362/chapters/128125567

Summary: Sonic knew that there was something different about how he felt about Shadow from the first moment he saw the other hedgehog for the first time. Maybe it was time to finally tell him.

Pairing: Sonic the Hedgehog/Shadow the Hedgehog

Warnings: Super vague mention of death, only temporary

Word Count: ~1300 words

@flufftober

When Sonic saw Shadow for the first time there was a lot going on, so with everything that was going on Sonic didn’t have time to think about the odd fluttering in his chest at the sight of the other hedgehog. He did however have time to think about it as he spent time on Prison Island. It made him realize some things, particularly about himself. It made more sense why he never reciprocated Amy’s feelings now… Said hedgehog saving him interrupted his little session of self reflection, but that was fine. Sonic could think about that later, for now he had to get out of there.

As fate would have it he’d run into Shadow again on the island. The same feeling settled in Sonic’s chest as he locked eyes with Shadow but he did his best to ignore it for now. After a quick fight Sonic was forced to get off the island before it exploded, but he was sure he’d run into Shadow again.

Sonic doesn’t see Shadow for a while after that, but thankfully the hedgehog was kept pretty busy between Eggman blowing up half of the moon, having to locate and get into Eggman’s base so he and his friends can get into space to confront the doctor, and getting launched into space and somehow managing to use a fake emerald to chaos control.

He would run into Shadow again on his way to put the fake emerald in the eclipse cannon. The two fought and Sonic couldn’t help but flirt a little. Mostly not serious because he genuinely didn’t think the other hedgehog had any interest in him. He was surprised when Shadow seemed to be caught off guard somewhat by it. It had Sonic feeling… well he really didn’t have time to unpack those feelings right now. He had a cannon to stop.

With the cannon destroyed Sonic thought it was over, that wasn’t the case. Despite the world ending circumstances Sonic was glad he got to work with Shadow finally. He felt especially good as the two of them took on the Biolizard in their super forms outside of the ARK. After the two defeated the Biolizard and used chaos control together to put the ARK back into its proper place Sonic turned to Shadow with a wide smile on his face. That smile immediately dropped as he noticed Shadow’s super form fading and him starting to fall. For once Sonic wasn’t fast enough and all he could save were the rings Shadow wore around his wrists. He returned to the ARK with a heavy heart giving one of the rings to Rouge and keeping the other. As him and the others prepared to leave he looked out the window and down at the planet frowning. There were so many what ifs and things he wanted to say running through his head. He settled on simply saying goodbye to Shadow and leaving to catch up with his friends.

Sonic was relieved to see Shadow again later. Honestly he didn’t really care how the hedgehog had survived, all that mattered was that he was right there… but Sonic couldn’t try and figure out what was going on because he had more pressing matters to deal with at the time. Once him and his friends had separated from Shadow and his group he absentmindedly played with the ring he had hidden under his glove. Tails and Knuckles shot him concerned looks that he didn’t notice.

It would take a long time for things to calm down enough for Sonic to finally have some time to breathe and think about his own feelings. He was pretty sure at this point his close friends had noticed his… well crush was probably too weak of a word at this point, but crush on Shadow. They seemed supportive, at the very least they hadn’t said anything to dissuade him. 

Right now he was taking a break from a run, hanging out in one of the parks in Station Square. Honestly the last thing he was expecting was to run into Shadow here but… “Sonic?” Sonic flinched in surprise at the sound of Shadow’s voice.

Sonic quickly spun around and waved, trying to seem slightly less awkward than he was no doubt acting. With a deep breath he relaxed. “Hey Shads. Fancy running into you here.”

“Yes I was sent out to pick up some groceries. Rouge forced me to do the shopping this time.” Shadow was giving him a contemplative look.

“Well it’s good for you to get out for things beyond missions and stuff.” Sonic grinned, leaning against a tree.

“I suppose.” Shadow sighed.

Sonic felt his heart start beating faster. Maybe now would be the perfect time to finally say something. It had been getting harder and harder to ignore his feelings and he was starting to think that even if he might be rejected it would be better to just say it than keep it to himself forever. “Hey Shadow?” Sonic let his face fall into something more serious.

Shadow blinked as he took in Sonic’s sudden change of attitude. “Yes?”

Taking a deep breath Sonic decided to just get it over with. “I’ve liked you for a long time.” Sonic glanced at Shadow who seemed to be processing that, so Sonic decided to just keep talking. “Literally since the first time I saw you I’ve known. Ok well not known that took a bit of figuring out but I felt something. Even when you were framing me.” Sonic chuckled, a nervous tint to it. “When… when I lost you after the ARK I was devastated. Ask anyone who knew me then I was a mess.” Sonic started messing with the ring under his glove, he suddenly felt pretty self conscious. “When I saw you alive and ok again I was so relieved. I really wanted to just go up and hug you or something, but I couldn’t...” Sonic let himself trail off. Shadow still hadn’t said anything.

Sonic fidgeted nervously, continuing to mess with the ring until Shadow gently grabbed his hand. Without saying anything Shadow pulled the edge of Sonic’s glove down to reveal the ring underneath. Shadow’s face changed from fairly neutral to surprised. “You kept it?” He asked quietly.

“I did. This one and the one I gave to Rouge were all I could save of you back then.” Sonic’s ears drooped.

“Yet even after seeing me alive you kept it? And wear it?” Shadow frowned in confusion.

Sonic sighed deeply. “Yeah…” He rubbed the back of his head. “Like I said I really like you Shadow. I’m uh sorry if you think it’s weird I wear it but I guess I just like the reminder of you. Now I can look at it and know you’re ok.”  

Shadow finally looked away from the ring and locked eyes with Sonic. There was a slightly uncomfortable silence for a while, but finally Shadow broke it. “I think… that when I first saw you I felt something. I don’t think it’s the same way you felt but as we ran into each other more I just got more confused. During our last fight it was the worst. Your attempts at flirting I wanted to think were just you trying to distract me but…”

“Yeah that wasn’t really the case.” Sonic gave him a sheepish smile. “I had to try a little, even if the world was at stake you know?”

Shadow huffed but shook his head fondly. “Only you.” He looked down and realized he still had hold of Sonic’s wrist. He let go and Sonic kind of wished he hadn’t. “Anyway… would you perhaps want to join me on my grocery run? Maybe after we can… discuss this more.”

Sonic felt a wide grin spread across his face. That was better than a no and a no is what he’d been expecting. “I’d love to.”

#flufftober2023 #day 9 #sonic the hedgehog #sonic fandom #shadow the hedgehog #sonadow #ao3 link #midnightshard writing

[darkjanet2]

Sonic Adventure 2: Sonadow

Chapter 20: Shadow’s Sacrifice

Outside the space, Super Sonic and Super Shadow were facing Biolizard, now The Final Hazard. It was going to be an epic battle. The Ultimate Lifeform and his counterpart were ready to battle against the prototype for their final showdown.

A communicator buzzed in. “Sonic, Shadow, can you hear me?” It was Tails’ voice. "Everyone is here rooting for you. Good luck!"

Sonic and Shadow began to fight the monster together. They worked as a team, taking out Final Hazard from all angles. “Let’s see what this new form does,” Sonic said. He sent out a barrage of energy blasts at Final Hazard as it roared painfully. The monster opened its mouth to fire a laser at Sonic, but he dodged with ease.

“I don’t like this, but we need to end this quickly before the damage gets too critical," said Sonic.

The two hedgehogs attacked simultaneously, blasting Final Hazard into a massive blast of yellow light. A large explosion rocked the area, knocking them back, but the light eventually subsided.

"Sonic, Shadow, can you hear me? He's very weak without his life support system. Aim for the red swelling areas to damage him! You're our last hope!" said Eggman.

Sonic nodded, "Got it."

"Leave this to me," said Shadow as he dashed off to go after Final Hazard. He raised his hand to shoot another burst of energy at the creature. "Chaos Blast!!" He released a beam that exploded against Final Hazard. The monster roared in agony.

Shadow winced in pain. His energy blasts hadn't been much help on top of that, but he didn't let this show.

"You okay, Shadow?" asked Sonic.

"I'm fine. Just hit my limit, that's all. But this should be enough." said Shadow.

"Let's finish it up fast then," said Sonic. "It looks like he won't be able to survive that anymore. Finish it quickly and I'll take care of him."

"Okay," said Shadow.

"Sonic, Shadow!" It was Knuckles' voice in the communicator. "The colony is heading close to Earth in about 4 minutes! Hurry!"

"We haven't got much time left! You do the blast, and I'll do the homing attack," said Sonic.

Shadow nodded, and then they charged at the Final Hazard at full speed. Shadow shot his own blast toward the monster, aiming for a mass where a few tendrils had appeared. And Sonic curled himself into a ball and hit the red swellings on its back. He was able to cause some pain, Final Hazard roared painfully.

'Maria... watch me. I will fulfill your wish!' thought Shadow. "CHAOS SPEARS!!" he threw the yellow arrow-like spears at the monster’s back. They penetrated the monster and struck several organs, causing more suffering. Final Hazard roared painfully.

"That was great, Shadow!" cheered Sonic, giving him the thumbs up.

Shadow smiled and replied, "Thanks."

"You guys!" It was Rouge's voice as a communicator. "The colony is getting close to the planet in 1 minute! Please hurry!"

They flashed and appeared in front of the space colony and they held out their hands.

"No way that's getting through!" yelled Sonic.

A girl's voice was heard from Shadow's mind.

'Shadow... I beg of you.'

"Maria...?" whispered Shadow, confused. "Maria, is that you?"

‘Shadow... Give them a chance to be happy. Please take care of the village and protect everyone. Make sure that everyone survives…’ said Maria's voice.

Shadow closed his eyes and came back to the reality.

"Now, Shadow!!" yelled Sonic.

"CHAOS CONTROL!!" both yelled in unison.

The beam of white light engulfed Final Hazard, and it was completely destroyed. The colony ARK was above the Earth. Far, far above the Earth, and the planet was saved.

Inside the Space Colony, they were cheering and celebrating. They hugged each other and celebrated the victory, and they looked at all of the surviving residents. They were all so excited, and even though it had just happened, they felt like it was just yesterday. The moment they saw each other, they realized how much they missed one another.

“They did it!" exclaimed Tails.

*Outside the space*

Sonic laughed, "We did it, Shadow!"

No responded.

"Shadow?" He turned around to Shadow was exhausted and his breathing was shallow. Sonic flew to Shadow to check on him and placed his palm on Shadow's face, making him open his eyes. "Shadow, what's wrong? You okay?" he asked softly.

"Sonic..." Shadow murmured. His super form was depleted back to his original form, and he slipped unconscious from falling to the Earth.

"Shadow!!" Sonic cried, flying down after him. He was trying to catch Shadow, but he was a meter away from him.

"Shadow, wake up!! Wake up, dammit!!" Sonic cried.

He was unresponsive as Sonic used his full speed to fly toward him trying to catch him. But when Sonic was close enough, he managed to grab one of his hands from the gravity.

'C'mon! Just a little more!' thought Sonic, trying to reach him.

One of the Inhibitor Rings flew out of Shadow's wrist and Sonic grabbed it. Shadow was far away from him and it was too late to save him.

'Maria... Is this enough...?' Shadow asked in thought. 'This is what you wanted... right? This is my promise I made to you...' He spoke his final words as he fell down to the planet and disappeared with a flash.

Sonic stood there in outer space, hanging his head down, defeated. 'Why couldn't I save him?! Why am I such an awful friend..!?' he cried in thought, gripping his ring tightly in his hand.

Sonic screamed at the top of his lungs in despair, and then he cried uncontrollably. He was gone. His lover was gone, and now Sonic had to deal with being all alone. It was his first love since he met him in the city when the G.U.N. mistook Sonic for stealing Chaos Emerald from the museum. Now that Shadow was gone, Sonic was alone again. Sonic felt lonely, abandoned, hurt... And he hated it. He hated his fate and he hated everything about it. After a while, Sonic collected himself and flew back to the ARK.

#fanfiction #sonic adventure 2 #shadow the hedgehog #sonadow #sonic the hedgehog #enemies to lovers #yaoi bl

[canyouhearthelight]

The Miys, Ch. 223

This chapter is dedicated to the concept of “If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit”.

Them being the Eko-mari. Not the readers.

Also, if the reference to ‘pitch’ and Trinity College isn’t ringing any bells, I strongly encourage you to do a web search of ‘pitch drop experiment’. There are several, they are fascinating.  And I swear, I wrote this before the chapter @baelpenrose (my intrepid writing partner) posted recently for AI was written.

I swear. By a whole fifteen minutes.

“All Councilors, report to Corridor Three Four junction. Repeat, all Councilors, report to Corridor Three Four Junction.”

Grinding my teeth, I forced down the groan that was trying to erupt from my soul. Not even from my body - I was current in the Archives, somewhere between Corridor Forty-Seven and Forty-Nine, so it was roughly five miles to my destination. No, I was groaning from the part of my soul that longed for the smell of ancient fibers and glue, the part that could only be settled by the kind of stillness received from a labyrinth of three foot thick sections of pressed wood pulp, acid free ink, and strict climate control.

From the part of my soul that longed for a library.

Whispering a quick apology to the long-lost author of Keeper of the Isis Light, and waving a similar sentiment to everyone I bolted past, I took off to my destination.

“Councilor!” The current Archivist hissed urgently as I passed her. “Do I need to save your book?”

Tears filled my eyes, but I shook my head. “As much as I wish you could, I never know how long stuff like this takes. Shelve it, and let someone else read it.”

She nodded sincerely before gesturing for me to continue quickly.

Angrily, I ran for five levels, then tempered myself for the rest. Either way, I was going to be last to arrive, and nothing I could do would change that. But exercising my anger at a calm moment disrupted at least put me in a position to consider whatever I was being called for. That’s what I thought, at least.

Until I arrived to see my fellow Councilors, accompanied by five oil-black creatures whistling and hissing at another being, who angrily squealed back.

The five, I vaguely recognized: Eko-mari in bivouac suits. They were so up in arms that I could not tell them apart, since their forms were so similar.  The one they all squalled at, however - that one I don’t think I could ever forget.

Fuzzy. It was… fuzzy. Brown, black, and lime green, patterned in whorls. Six limbs, all equally distant from a small, lumpish head that was equipped with a fan of short, scooped structures that looked to be ears.  The fanned-out satellite of limbs forced all the noise they emitted forward, and - I imagined - funneled it directly into that wreath of ears.

As much as I wanted to reach out and pet it, I was stopped in my tracks by one singular feature - or possibly three: their noses. The being I was looking at had several orifices that looked like smaller, deeper ears, arranged on the front of their skull like petals on a Terran dahlia.

Gods above, below, and fictitious, I thought. No wonder they think we smell horrible.

“We are here,” it whistled familiarly, “because we suspect you have been working with terrorists.”

Tea-Kettle. This was… This was Tea-Kettle.

Pranav recovered the fastest. “We have, admittedly, worked with such in the past, but it was without the knowledge of anyone on this ship.”

They batted their limbs forward, slow gusts that seemed too deliberate to be meaningless. “You are telling the truth.”

“Baconists,” I sputtered. “We - I - we… there were sixteen terrorists who managed to get on the Ark, because they believed they were right, and that they were doing the best for us.” Grey reached for my arm and I shook them away. “No. This is the truth. We can’t stand on falsehoods here.”

“Your heartbeat is accelerated,” Tea-Kettle squalled at me.

“I am afraid,” I confessed, putting every thought of killing the Eko-mari, of Arantxa, of the End, all into it. “We have done so many things wrong, failed even ourselves so many times. And even with living truthsayers, we deceived ourselves so well that sixteen ended up on the Ark.” I could hear Xiomara, Grey, even Huynh, hissing at me quietly.

Good. I needed their emotions to muddle this. Without that, it might pay off…. With help, it only made it more likely.

“Deceived yourselves, you say?”

“May I send you a file?” I asked, using my work-tone, the one cultivated from years of reporting to people with delusions of grandeur.

“You may.”

Ka-Ching! Still got it.

I flicked over a recording of myself, Tyche, and Arantxa, from our first Winter Holiday on the Ark. The conversation was intimate, my sister and I encouraging our friend on how to court a love interest - granted, one that was now my partner, but I was hoping and praying that the fact would show how much I trusted Arantxa at the time.

Sure enough. “This… human…” they spat. “They are now your partner?”

“Yes.” I tilted my chin as high as I could without seeming haughty. “Because they are a good partner. A worthy one.”

“You did not take him out of pity?”

“I would do no such thing.” I resisted the urge to spit, but the emotion seemed to carry through, as Tea-Kettle drifted back a couple feet.

“Sophia…” Xiomara started, gesturing to me rather than stepping forward. “She argued against execution. She tried to defend mercy. We have the files.

Xio, I thought, Shut the FUCK up.

The fuzzy satellite fluttered for a moment. “There is no need. We find her integrity… sufficient, for a mammal.”

Fuck you, too, I thought briefly before fighting it back. Part of me was reasonably certain that the flush of anger was something they were familiar with, if not expecting.

Sure enough. “We will question this one,” Tea-Kettle continued. “As to the nature of the recent development.”

“What development?” I asked, stupidly.

“The sap!” they hissed shrilly. “The iron sap! We have detected usage of it on this vessel, despite humans having no samples. There are clearly pirates providing them!”

“No?” I disputed dubiously. “We haven’t had any foreign samples brought onto this ship, at least at Terran request, since the sensors needed repairs…”

“You want us to believe that humans recreated this substance from nothing!?”

I shook my head. “No, we can’t even do that… if we could, we would have healed our planet.” I paused, putting all my mind into the skepticism I felt in that moment. I hated to realize that it wasn’t even difficult to do. “But the Galactic Database mentioned a substance, so we looked at all the examples of sap from our world - there’s a ton, mostly flammable, but still a lot - and tried to see what would make any of those behave like that.” I focused my brain on pitch and just tried to remember the last time the sample dripped at Trinity College, at least as far as I had heard. Pitch was from sap… sap is crazy. Amber, pitch… Petrified wood…

“Your trees convert into stone on your world!?” Tea-Kettle screeched, leaping away.

I backed away, as well, hands held in clear view and splayed to show them empty. “Yes? They… we had an entire forest that had been petrified? It was at least common enough that my sister inherited a door stop from - “

“ENOUGH!” It took everything in me to resist the urge to cover my ears when they shrieked. “These… Hell-world things… they cannot conspire with higher beings. They create things that should not exist, because they come from a planet that should not exist…”

Huynh, apparently, was sick and tired of the perpetually rude… things. “Don’t forget! We strapped rockets to our asses to go into space, and didn’t even worry about if we could survive!”

A low pitch hit my ear, too low for the translator but in the range that used to annoy the crap out of me on Earth. “Leave these stupid beings,” it buzzed. “They will kill themselves without our help.”

“They are violent,” another argued, one that I thought of as Foghorn. “They should not be allowed sanctuary.”

“They are being quarantined,” Tea-kettle corrected, making a harsh gesture with the top half of its limbs. “We have greater concerns.”

Foghorn tried again. “Should they be allowed - “

“SILENCE!” Tea-kettle shrieked, forcing me to cover my ears as my head spun. “Such matters are not to be discussed here. You open us up to discipline.”

There was no reply to that, and without any further explanation, they turned as a group and vanished, leaving behind the overwhelming scent of jasmine.

Slowly, I lowered myself to the floor to avoid falling from the remaining vertigo. When I looked at my hands, there were traces of blood from the un-filtered noise that we’d been exposed to, light smears on the deck where I had braced my palms. “Lovely,” I muttered. My voice sounded like was coming from under water.

“We all need a trip to a medbay.” Pranav’s voice sounded so far away, even though I could see him moving his lips. “Once we’ve recovered enough to at least walk.”

Grey was already tapping on their datapad. “The nearest one is only thirty meters away.” The message was sent to each of us in a sort of closed captioning, which I was grateful for.

Groaning, I tried to stand up and almost immediately tipped over onto my face. I flopped over onto my butt and waved them off. “I’ll just sit here for a bit longer.”

Rolling his eyes, Huynh carefully made his way over and grabbed my hand. “We’re about the same height,” he barked. “We can lean on each other. Better than you bleeding in the middle of the floor.”

“I’ll just die, but thank you.”

“Stop being a wimp.” He pulled me to my feet and steadied me when I fell against him. “And don’t puke on me.”

“Noted.” I tried to nod, but my stomach and eyes quickly told me to knock that shit off. “And don’t nod, apparently.”

“Dumbass.”

“Sometimes,” I admitted. “But it tends to work out.”

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#the miys #found family #humans are weird #humans are space orcs #apocalypse #post apocalypse #post post apocalypse #aliens #humans are space fae #hfy #haw #earth is space australia #original science fiction #original fiction #original sci fi #my writing

[onomatopagu-et-cie]

Some other theories and observations, part 3

First impressions after re-reading DGM Some theories and observations, part 2 Notes on Link, part 1 & part 2

Again have a nice week!!

(SPOILERS UP TO CH248!!!!)

▶ Allen's curse

Will the manga elaborate more on Allen’s curse? The pentacle reappeared on volume 28’s cover again and D is an integral part of the title. (Btw, I can’t wait to read the copy I got of volume 28 as it’s now out in France! The cover is so beautiful, Hoshino outdoes herself every time with the new format, the back cover is pretty!!!)

This is the only piece of information we’ve got on it, apart from its evolving abilities. How can Komui be 100% sure a curse can only be inflicted on humans? Given how the majority of the Order didn’t know about the Noah and Apocryphos, I wouldn’t be surprised this could be false too.

▶ Allen/Neah’s (?) hidden ability

(thisoneislongsorryyyy)

Note: I wrote this BEFORE ch248 came out in July: it revealed the Allen we know was entirely remade by Apocryphos, and this could finally explain Neah, Road and Wisely’s confusion over Allen’s strange powers ; however, this doesn’t explain Apocryphos’s own confusion over Allen when he first encountered him nor exactly to what extent Allen was 'remade', so I kept these notes as is since we still don’t know more!

At the beginning of the volume 25, Wisely addresses Road as his brethren, probably because of the similarities of their powers. Wisely worries over Neah’s powers because he can’t read his mind somehow. At the end of the volume, after saying « Allen » is dangerous to Neah and them, Road states that she can’t connect her dream realm to his at will for some reason.

The two scenes mentioned sort of answer each other: both take place in Wisely/Road’s realm, one is at the beginning and the other at the end of the volume. And while Wisely thinks it’s Neah that outweighs his power, Road believes « Allen » (edit after reading ch248: Allen as he's remade by Apocryphos) the true danger instead.

Road’s inability to do as she wants might then involve a power we have not been officially introduced to when it comes to (past?)Allen besides his Innocence. And I don’t believe it’s about Neah at all, since she deems Allen dangerous (and also other people/things she refers to as ‘they’), and wants to warn Neah. If it was about Neah’s ability, this scene wouldn’t even happen and Road wouldn’t have questioned it since she knows him fairly well (while the other Noahs don’t because of the memory gap Neah caused).

In this chapter, Road also says « they’re using us », suggesting they could be the reason Allen is that threatening. She uses 奴ら (yatsura, plural) to refer to ‘them’: 奴 (yatsu, singular) is a derogatory/familiar pronoun.

EDIT: It's actually Cross, not Road, who says this specific part ('Allen is dangerous', 'They're using us.')!!!! She only speaks in the next page in her mini form, about her dream realm! This also means Cross and Road might've been communicating (and it's not only Road one-sidedly using him like I thought initially eg. manipulating him to lead Allen to the mansion), working together because they share some common goal (eg. protecting Mana and Neah)!

The only subjects triggering that pronoun and hatred from the Noahs (essentially, their memory crying out ‘I won’t forgive/I hate’) so far were:

→ Innocence (eg. Skinn Boric’s awakening as a Noah) → the exorcists (eg. the Earl when the Ark was saved by Allen) → Neah (eg. Wisely as he talks to Road) → the Pillar (eg. as Cross mentions it to Road)

Maybe Allen’s power is something close to what both Wisely and Road have since that sort of power can equal theirs to the point that both can’t stay omnipotent against that, just as they usually are eg. Wisely with supposedly all the Noahs (and also when he forced Alma’s memories with Allen and Kanda) or Road with Lavi.

And we have already seen (but without any real explanation yet) that Allen experiences « visions » (夢, yume, which we usually associate with Road, the Noah of dreams, can also mean vision):

→ Lenalee and Allen's respective apocalyptic dreams

→ Allen sensing Lenalee is drowning while facing the akuma Eshi

→ having a kind of out of body experience and seeing Krory and the ghost after being KO’ed in the Destruction of the Black Order Arc

→ his second dream in which what we now know as the Pillar talks to him ; Mana calls out to him in the original version by « ••• » (which is weird in itself since Neah is supposed to have no Noah memory??? Since Mana and Neah were two « halves » of the Earl, and we don’t know exactly what each half covers, could there have been some sort of mix-up between the two along the way?)

→ a glimpse of Kanda’s past when Marie talked about it

→ witnessing Cross’s ‘death’ through Apocryphos

→ whatever was happening when Allen and the Earl shared the same vision of Road protecting Mana in volume 24 was never explained (I put it here but it simply could be because Mana and Neah were revealed as the two halves of the Earl in the next volume)

→ seeing Johnny reaching out to him in the inn when we know it was Neah who sleep-talked after having a dream about the Campbells and woke up (idk if I should count this in bc it could just be Allen’s semi-consciousness fighting Neah)

But when Allen saw Cross’s ‘death’ through Apocryphos, he called that a consequence of the « parasitic » influence over « Allen ». According to him, it went on for many years. He then proceeded to merge with Allen in order to « erase that influence and suppress the 14th’s memory »: this might suggest that Apocryphos deemed Neah as the parasite of the exorcist Allen.

If he’s really talking about Neah, what Apocryphos says could contradict Road’s assumption that this power comes from Allen, not Neah. So, between Apocryphos and Road, who is right? ????????

Let’s consider for a moment that whatever is going on is due to Allen’s ‘long’ experience with a ‘parasitic’ Innocence and that Apocryphos never meant Neah when he talked about a parasite. But we know from Cross that Red’s arm didn’t show any sign of activating at all. Moreover, Neah wouldn’t have been shocked by the Innocence’s influence over past!Allen’s arm after awakening 35 years later if the latter synchronized with it when they knew each other, it wouldn’t make sense. So where does this long influence fit in? Are we talking about the parasitic-type Innocence or is Apocryphos referring to something entirely different?

It doesn’t help that the type of Innocence Allen has is called a ‘parasite-type’ in the original version and the English localization.

It helps even less that Apocryphos uses the same terminology as Komui when he first introduced the parasite-type: 寄生型. Except for Komui the furigana reads 型 as the loanword ‘type’ (kisei-taipu) and for Apocryphos it reads ‘kata’ (kiseigata) as the kanji should be pronounced.

Note: in French they chose to call this type of Innocence a ‘symbiotic-type’: it emphasizes the close association between the accommodator and the Innocence more and suggests the bond is mutually beneficial, but we know after all these chapters that it’s a totally one-sided control led by the Innocence over the accommodator’s body. It’s anything but mutual in retrospect. Parasite suits the Innocence more!

Interestingly, the word used for Allen’s role as a host is 宿主 (shukushu). I didn’t know the word ‘host’ could refer to the organism affected by a parasite!

Both Neah and the Innocence are parasites hosted by Allen. The imagery is also carried by the Fallen Ones’s design. When Allen witnesses Suman’s suffering, he uses the verb 蝕む, ‘mushibamu’:

What looks like giant worms pierce his body and tinier worms gnaw at his heart:

And also, I never considered it but 寄生, kisei, ‘parasite’ almost sounds like 犠牲, gisei, ‘sacrifice’ with just one letter difference: if intentional, these paronyms ironically bring out Allen’s sacrificial role even more. Ch240’s cover illustrates this dimension even more:

I might be missing something or this doesn’t really add up.

It’s also interesting to note that ch222 is titled « Hypokrisis ». Cross calls out Allen’s selflessness once again:

The noun ὑπόκρισις (hypokrisis) meant 1) answer & 2) role (on the theater scene, the masked actor was called an ὑποκριτής, hypokritès, separate from the chorus) in ancient greek. But its meaning became morally (and religiously) loaded, now suggesting a duplicity in someone’s behavior (their personality, qualities, principles, opinions, …).

This chapter shows Allen in a dream staged by Road that leads him to the Campbell mansion. Facing Cross offering him to stop his search for the truth, he gives his definite answer to once again fulfill his vow to Mana and « keep walking » even at the cost of his own existence and the bond to his home. It’s also a call back to « Mana’s mask » during the Phantom Thief G arc.

Behind the scene, Road now understands she made a mistake she should have realized sooner: she’s being manipulated herself (along with Neah and perhaps the other Noahs) by someone else and Allen is dangerous, a reality that was concealed to her eyes until now.

The phrasing also parallels Cross’s late realization:

Were they making the same mistake on Allen’s true nature? After Red’s flashback, at least we know one mistake Cross made: Red didn’t say he was « Allen » (thinking Cross asked about the dog) ➾ even though he didn’t want the Innocence close to Mana (as it could 1) destroy him, being a Noah and 2) call forth the Earl, I guess), Cross didn’t monitor Red enough to see the influence of Apocryphos ➾ Red synchronized with an Innocence and the Earl was called back.

So far, Road (and the other Noah) benefits from these consequences: she wanted the Earl’s awakening to destroy the present world in order to take revenge of the Pillar. So either Cross and Road talk about two different things or there’s more to it than that to the point that even Road considers this a mistake despite the advantages at first glance.

At least, I guess it’s (kinda?) safe to assume Allen’s body = past!Allen as Neah knew him. Allen wouldn’t have been able to move the Ark otherwise:

Another lead to whoever past!Allen was might be linked to THIS in volume 27:

????? Who was this? And also what kind of situation were they in? It looks like the mystery person held past!Allen right before parting (before he lost his memory maybe?)/dying. They look as though they’re stuck in a tricky situation: their clothes look torn to shreds, and particles in the air look the same whenever there’s action in the manga? OH. Perhaps the transfer of Neah’s memory into past!Allen would be successful if and only if the memory of his past self was erased? Because two memories maybe can’t safely coexist in one body: we know even the Noahs, described as « superhumans », struggle with their memory and it threatens their sanity if they don’t suppress it. So this could be worse should a human unrelated to the Noah experiment the same thing.

But could one erase their memory in the universe of DGM? It doesn’t seem that far-fetched since:

Neah’s memory was successfully transferred in Allen,

magic is a thing in this universe,

Skulls can ‘reprogram’ a human’s brain to transform them and Apocryphos can easily rewrite memories,

in ch209, when Johnny was searching for Allen, Crows (who use sorcery) coerced him into drinking a drug that would supposedly erase his memories of the Order??? (now I know it could be a lie and it was poison instead since the Central and the Crows’ methods are rather radical):

Heck, past!Allen could even be from another timeline/from the previous/future world destroyed by the Pillar! Which could explain Allen’s recent dream of the Pillar? It could even be linked to « ••• » in this dream eg. his ‘real’ name or role (since the syllables don’t even match Neah’s even though it triggered Neah’s awakening once he woke up)??

▶ Road and Apocryphos

It’s more apparent in the original version but Apocryphos wavered, looking almost surprised/bothered to face Road as it’s accentuated with the ツ. Compared to his confidence in taking down Tyki, calling himself their Reaper and so on, this looks like Road could be a bigger threat than the other Noahs. (Perhaps it’s only random but Road stabbed Apocryphos in the left eye, just as she did to Allen in the rewinding city!)

It’s also interesting to note he recognized Road as the 9th Noah only once Tyki shouted her name. It could mean:

Road took another appearance we don’t know of 7000 years ago, and it’s confirmed in the manga: she’s stayed like this for 35+ years. We know that since Wisely awakened as a Noah and met them.

Either Apocryphos didn’t meet her since she took on this appearance (so in this 35+ year span)

Or he did meet her but didn’t recognize her as the 9th Noah

If he only recognized her after his punch, how could it have badly hurt Road? I thought you had to know her true ‘identity’ to harm her, which was why Allen couldn’t hit her with his sword.

Allen could harm Tyki but not Road, and only Apocryphos could???? Since he was present 7000 years ago and most likely was responsible in whatever happened then, it’s safe to say he should know about the Noah and the world they lived in enough to be able to harm Road.

▶ Chapter 219: Butterflies, the souls and the Earl

(thisoneisevenlongersorryyyyy)

When the Earl vanished before Katerina and split into Mana and Neah in ch219, two butterflies are seen flying above them.

My best guess would be they’re respectively male and female white cabbage butterflies (pieris rapae, or the great white butterfly, pieris brassicae, a close relative to this species), pretty common butterflies:

I also found that pieridae caterpillars often PARASITE cruciferous plants (they often eat cabbages, broccoli, kale, mustard) ie. plants with flowers that have CROSS-arranged petals (yes, it’s a detail that’s probably irrelevant but it was fun to find that randomly, I live in overthinking and reach-land haha).

In Japan, butterflies often symbolize the souls of the living and the dead. It’s also a symbol of spirituality (the cycle of life, birth, death, metamorphosis, reincarnation, immortality), as the cycle of a butterfly embodies it in its four stages (egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, butterfly).

As the later part of the manga focuses on helix magic and its principles (the body, the soul and the spiral of life), the ‘death’ of the Earl makes way for Neah and Mana, a ‘rebirth’ of some sort. Which makes me believe that what we saw as the Earl against Allen in volumes 24-25 (and perhaps even the rest of his appearances in the manga with the suit) was actually his ‘body’, which takes the shape of his suit (we even see the costume ripping in half with what looks like a zipper). According to past!Allen, a body is merely a vessel that needs a soul for life to exist. The costume of the Earl might be in desperate search of its lost soul (Mana + Neah), which is why it endlessly devours human souls (through perhaps the making of akuma?): Hoshino said there’s a reason why she draws the Earl plump, it’s just a theory for posterity haha! Is this the same mechanism that turns Timcampy this big?

Note (see the end of this point for more on golems and DGM!): I read on Twitter that at the exhibition held in honor of DGM, it was explained that Adam was the name of the ’skin of the Millenium Earl’ and Adam was the first golem (just like in the Bible, Adam was made of the dust of the earth and was animated by God’s breath)! (With their poison, Akuma turn humans to dust………… Timcampy also turned to dust once touched by Cornelia’s bark…………. Innocence also turns to dust, just like Mugen when Kanda left with Alma or just like Allen’s did at the Asian branch…………)

This is pure speculation, but perhaps the Earl decided to forsake his tragic millenium role once he finally witnessed the beauty of this world (be it his meeting with Katerina and/or something else). After all, according to Neah’s words: « Seven thousand years of life… yet the Earl’s heart is stuck in that scenery. » Maybe he realized the Three days of Darkness were meaningless, that they would feed an endless cycle of atonement, hatred and vengeance? It could also be why he gave life to Neah and Mana. Neah holds the power to destroy the Noah while Mana seems to be able to devour the Noah: perhaps the Earl intended Mana to first devour all the Noah in order for Neah to finally destroy them all and put an end to this all?

However, something ruined this project: the Noahs probably disagreed, determined to see their vengeance through (by sacrificing the Earl, summoning the Earl and destroying ‘this world’ they created). It could also be the Heart, or both the Noahs and the Heart working with each other. In one way or another, they managed to persuade/compel Mana to devour Neah (perhaps that’s where Joyd played a significant role in all this?).

On the subject of the souls, since Neah describes Atuuda’s power as the opposite of Mana devouring him (and we now know the Earl feeds on human souls), it certainly works as the partial transfer of the owner’s soul to another to ‘heal’ them (or is it something like ‘rewinding’ their state to before they got injured? Does this have something to do with whatever rejuvenated past!Allen and aged up Mana’s appearance??). Before Link healed Neah in ch221, Allen’s jacket was pierced ; Atuuda mended his injury and the hole in the jacket was also gone.

Zuu only described it as Atuuda exhausting his own ‘life-force’ to transfer it to someone else, he was not specific in his explanation so it’s only guesses here.

Design-wise (and reachland-wise haha), the six spots on the female white butterfly could be a recurring motif related to the soul, like the six dots on Link’s tattoo 8D

(Also noticing just now but dude Link must have a lot of gloves in stock, he came back with a glove when he saved Neah haha)

I can’t decipher what Zuu wrote to summon Atuuda but they’re replacing the dots here. Atuuda also has three spheres on each mustache-thingy!

I found a retelling of a Japanese legend of a white butterfly (in Myths & Legends of Japan, by Frederick Hadland Davis). I found it narrated on Japanese Folktales: The Butterfly Soul – Under the influence! if you want to check it out! A white butterfly visits an old man at his deathbed. It was the soul of his beloved that died when they were young, the old man never left her alone and would keep tending to her grave. The butterfly didn't leave until his soul left with her.

The butterfly in ancient greek was ψυχή (psyche), which holds several meanings: the wind blow or breath and by extension life force or breath, life, soul, butterfly and Psyche (essentially known from the myth of her love with Eros/Cupid and its trials). Interestingly, « psyché » in French also refers to a piece of furniture with a window-frame in which a great mirror was mounted. It was a great Art Deco symbol and was a motif depicted in paintings. It reflected its owner from head to foot, just as the mirror reflected Mana, Neah and the Earl’s souls in volume 25.

It’s also a symbol of (tragic) love sometimes eg. the chinese legend of the butterfly lovers.

Final note on golems: the word ‘golem’ was used once in the Book of Psalms to refer to Adam when he was what was translated as a shapeless mass, an embryo out of clay lacking a soul. The Talmud sometimes calls Adam a ‘golem’ when referring to the first twelve hours of his life: it was still only an inanimate body without God’s breath of life.

Golems also have a mystical origin, created by magic spells. The methods of creation and destruction vary from a tale to another eg. dancing and chanting the hebrew alphabet in different combinations ; using a pure mass of dust, water, sand, earth or flour ; prayers, fasts, purifications ; engraving ‘emet’ (truth, God’s seal) on its forehead and erasing the first letter alef to call its death (met means death).

In ashkenazi hassidic traditions in the 15th century, the golem became a real creature, serving its masters and fulfilling the tasks it was given. This tradition became really popular in the 17th century, and was linked to the ancient belief in the possibility to resurrect the dead by putting in their mouth (or on their arm) a piece of parchment marked with the tetragram. Following this belief, it could turn into an evil being that had to be destroyed to prevent terror and death from spreading.

The golems embody both the figure of a protector/servant but also of a creature of destruction:

→ Golem | Jewish Museum Berlin « A golem is a creature formed out of a lifeless substance such as dust or earth that is brought to life by ritual incantations and sequences of Hebrew letters. The golem, brought into being by a human creator, becomes a helper, a companion, or a rescuer of an imperiled Jewish community. In many golem stories, the creature runs amok and the golem itself becomes a threat to its creator. (…) Originally, creating a golem was a way for medieval Jewish mystics to come closer to God. »

I don’t know why, but these two pages of ch231 comes to my mind when I read the last sentence:

I wanted to know more about golems in general, and I came across this conference of Ada Ackerman, an art history specialist that dedicated a great part of her works on the golem and its representations through time (religion, myths, books, cinema): YouTube

She quoted a yiddish play excerpt and it was really reminiscent of the creation of Akuma. The golem in the play pleads with a voice (which is unusual, since it is mainly represented without a voice and genderless) its creator to not create them. It is already conscious of its potential for destruction, and asks to remain into nothingness:

I tried to translate it very roughly: « I have a voice that is not yet a voice. I have a heart that is not yet a heart. (…) I will say it again and I warn you, please do not create me! See those stars dying! And so will the light of every eye laying on me. My footprint will only leave desolation, and from what my hand touches only ashes and dust will be left. »

Interestingly, גּוֹלֶם in modern hebrew designates both the pupa and the golem, as well as a dummy, a mould or a fool.

▶ Chapter 219: Poppies, puppets and myths

Flowers also grow at the foot of the tree Cornelia. When the Earl disappeared, Katerina was plucking those flowers. It could be poppies, that often bloom in wheat fields. These flowers are also on the chapter’s cover.

In hanakotoba, poppies can symbolize peace of mind, sympathy, presentiment of love, sorrow of parting, comfort or consolation, rest or relief. This is pure speculation, but like I said above, this could fit with Katerina and the Earl meeting and whatever he found in the mansion, making the latter realize his war against the world is meaningless.

Poppies in Japanese are 芥子, keshi. I remember seeing on her ig account that Hoshino wanted to emphasize the meaning of flowers in her story. For example, the lotus held a heartbreaking significance to Kanda and Alma’s arc. She also focuses a LOT on the puppet/staging/dramatic imagery in DGM (Lala, the exorcists controlled by the Innocence and Apocryphos and the Noahs by their memories, Crown Clown, the circus, …)

And funnily enough, poppies can be phonetically associated to a kind of japanese traditional wooden dolls, こけし, kokeshi. Kokeshi doesn’t have a kanji writing people generally agreed on: I read that before an exhibition in the 20th century, dolls were referred to by many names. Artisans and collectors agreed on ‘kokeshi’ in hiragana only.

Therefore, you could have various combinations to write kokeshi:

→ the ‘ko’ in kokeshi could refer to ‘child’, ‘small’ or ‘wood’ (then deriving from 'ki') → the ‘keshi’ in kokeshi could refer to the verb ‘chisel’ (削る, kezuru: kokeshi are wooden pieces chiseled on a lathe). It could also correspond to ‘poppy’. But most interestingly in DGM’s story, it could be linked to another verb, ‘erase’ (消す, kesu eg. an eraser is a 消しゴム, keshigomu): Neah said the Earl disappeared only once off the face of this earth, Mana ‘devoured’ Neah, and Allen is now facing the risk of disappearing himself.

Kokeshi can be made with cherry wood, japanese maple, but also dogwood. Dogwood’s variety is also known as cornus in latin, that Cornelia’s name could also originate from aside from cornix (raven).

One of the kokeshi features is sometimes the lack of limbs, just like the Innocence and the Fallen Ones.

Note: Poppies and crops (just like the Campbell mansion landscape) are also symbols of Demeter, the greek goddess of the harvest, the fertility of the earth. These flowers are also associated to Nyx, the goddess of the Night, Hypnos, the god of dreams and sleep, and Thanatos, a minor god of death, who are her sons. The abduction of Demeter’s daughter, Persephone, by Hades also involves poppies. In some tales, as the poppy was cultivated for the sleep-inducing and anesthetic properties from its sap, it is said that Hypnos gifted Demeter the flower to find sleep as she grew desperate at her daughter’s disappearance and left the earth barren. Other tales explain that poppies would grow to announce Persephone’s return to Earth, symbolizing the nature and Demeter’s rejoice.

▶ Mana or the Earl’s destruction?

I’ve been wondering about this since Allen’s escape from Apocryphos & Cross’s involvement with the plot: what real difference does it make whether Mana/the Earl is destroyed by Neah or the Heart?

Ch237 introduces these two paths clearly as opposites in Cross’s pov: « Right now, Mana has forgotten that he is the Millenium Earl. For the Innocence… The Heart, this is an opportunity like no other to destroy the Millenium Earl. Neah must be the one to destroy Mana. I have wandered this world for decades for that very reason. Searching for Neah’s host. Anything else that draws near Mana, I eliminate. And by that, I mean anything. Anything at all. »

Dude was hellbent on this mission to the point of 1) killing a kid should he come too close to Mana & 2) making a deal with Luberrier to ‘protect’ Neah (and eventually use him as a weapon)??? And THIS makes me wonder (when I read the trivia on his wikia character page):

What was his relationship with Neah? He was dragged in this mission by him. Which is interesting since Cross was introduced in the story as Neah’s supporter by outsiders ; we now get to see a more nuanced relationship. I wonder what differs from his relationship with Mana.

So, in addition to what it carries emotionally (to have Neah destroy Mana to save him from his misery), the consequences must be different depending on who (Neah or the Heart) kills who (Mana or the Earl) somehow. It must be the same consequences for Allen as overcoming Neah’s memories by himself and letting Apocryphos fuse with Allen to get rid of Neah. In ch236, Apocryphos witnesses Mana and Red embracing each other, saying Red will destroy the Earl so that the Heart will be reborn????? (First of all, it is a loophole in the Heart’s description by the Order: it is an Innocence that presumably holds an absolute power over the others, its destruction by the Noah would be fatal to the Order. Since it will be reborn, how come the rest of the Innocence still exist, eg. Cross’s Judgement and Maria were both seen, idem for the exorcists experimented on for the 2nd gen. project before that alleged rebirth?)

What if (see my theory in the previous points): → the Heart destroys the Earl (after destroying Neah) ➾ perpetuation of the cycle, the Pillar is again summoned since the end of the world is also « God’s » will: the Earl must forever be God’s sacrifice in atonement of his past sins. The manga suggests → Neah destroys Mana ➾ the end of the Noahs, set free from their vengeance and the Pillar

At this point I’m even starting to believe the Heart is a Noah haha (I was thinking about Road but what if it was Joyd 8D? He was perhaps not yet ‘reborn’ when Apocryphos changed Mana and Red’s fate because Neah killed him, and he was the only Noah seen destroying Innocence in the manga when he destroyed Allen’s)

In volume 25, we learn through Neah the Earl disappeared only once, dividing into Mana and Neah (so prior to the Heart’s rebirth). After Apocryphos mingled with Red and Mana’s fate, we see one of its direct consequences is the Earl’s awakening. And in ch202, we learn the Earl (or a piece of Mana’s consciousness) asked the Noah to protect Neah from the Heart even at the cost of their lives?????

The first time we learn of the Heart’s existence is from the Order’s point of view. With the search for the Heart from the Order's perspective, we take it for granted that the Heart is a single human being synchronizing with this special Innocence. Since the story revolves around the possibility it might be told by an unreliable narrator (the existence of Apocryphos and its ability to rewrite entire pans of memories, Innocence — a false ‘God’ the Order is fighting for, Noah’s hidden truth, the other side of the war …), who is to say the Heart comes in a shape no one expects?

In ch111, Lavi states the Heart should only be one. But should it, really? The original version of this panel puts accent on ‘one’:

For example, the Heart could be two halves forming a whole, just like … Mana and Neah form the Earl … Mana and Red were also needed for Apocryphos’s plan to succeed … I don’t believe the Heart is the Earl, at least not alone (why would it first want the awakening of the Earl and then his destruction?), there must be more to it than that.

▶ Joyd

I never paid attention to this bit in ch226:

I get the feeling that whatever made Mana ‘eat’ Neah was also urged by Joyd. Especially because Joyd appeared grinning as soon as Tyki set out on destroying Neah’s bond with the Earl, the obvious bad blood between Neah and Joyd (+ the fact he reincarnated with an uncanny resemblance to Neah, and his peculiar existence apart from other Noahs was hinted at by Road since ch93) and these panels:

Mana sounds helpless here, overwhelmed by whatever made him do this.

#dgm spoilers #dgm meta #d gray man #allen walker #mana walker #neah campbell #road kamelot #tyki mikk #link howard

[hungrydolphin91]

BIG update this time for Xillia 2 Sister Addition, we've had several long sessions I wasn't writing down but I'll try to share what I can remember 😅

My sister pointed out the symbolism in the Frere apartment naming and I had a :o moment because I keep forgetting that French is a language 😅

Gaius joined in the second half of the chapter and I've been playing as him a bit, he's fun but a little tricky. It's amusing that his partner skill is to defend you, imagine having the king of Rieze Maxia as your bodyguard 😅

We explored the Mon Highlands and those icy caves nearby and for some reason they're chock full of French toast??

And also Hazardous Liquid. Sis: "That's the secret ingredient to their French toast."

We got the knock off Bunnykins in Elize's chapter and both agreed it seems like the kind of thing a shady merchant like Alvin would sell 😂

There's a bit of a gap here because I actually let my sister play without me while I was... otherwise occupied (*coughplayingpersona 4cough*) so I missed another one of Alvin's chapters (Sis: "Him and Yurgen broke up"), and she also started chapter 9:

Me: "So what'd I miss?" Sis: "We're in the square dimension and there's a voice." Took me a couple second to process that one 😂 but I actually like this chapter quite a bit, the stuff with the Arc is fascinating even though it never gets mentioned again 😅

The battle music changed to be Milla's and it's a bop, probably a nod to Fractured Milla before she goes away 😔

A cat found us shamisens while we were in the Ark and my sister equipped them to the whole party. Me: "The rest of the party is going to wonder what the heck happened in this fractured dimension that made us form a band 😂"

The music in the Ark is so soothing, and it has those fun statues that play music from other Tales games so I got to flex my knowledge there a bit 😌

The sentient guardian Waymarker thing wants to turn everyone into digital data. I spent the whole battle trying to come up with a pun based on file types and the name "Elle" but all I came up with was "HTM-Elle," someone let me know if you have a better one 😅

I've been sprinkling in some reminders of the overall lore, like the fact that Julius took Ludger's pocket watch for a while and that Elle's father apparently had one and that the ability to travel between dimensions is a Kresnik thing. She speculated if maybe Ludger was Elle's dad in another dimension... 🤫

My sister loves to play dress up every half hour, here's a screenshot of Ludger so you can know my pain:

Whenever I play Milla, Jude just stands there and shouts "I've got your back!" without doing anything. When I switched to Jude though, Milla jumped right in front of him while I was trying to hit an enemy. Sis: "See, you've got her back, literally!"

I didnt realize there was a skill that pets Milla cast in midair but that's incredibly fun to abuse, I feel like Muzet casting death spells from above 😂

We keep laughing at how Fractured Milla shouts "HEY!" every time she levels up. Sis: "She sounds like she's trying to keep kids off her lawn."

Since I'm not playing Ludger I've been able to enjoy some link artes I never saw, including one where Rowen and Gaius ride a paper airplane together 😂

And since my sister IS playing Ludger I get to get startled everytime she uses Hammer Toss in my vicinity. Me: "Would you stop throwing malatov cocktails around?!"

Both of us were wondering what the others see whenever Ludger uses the Chromatus. It seems like he's kinda freezing time, so he and the enemy would suddenly appear somewhere else whenever time resumes, or just be gone if he beat them all. Imagine blinking and a giant monster is suddenly dead 😅

I forgot how so much important lore is shoved into confusing and not fully explained side quests, like everything with Marvin and Claudia 😓 I wasn't sure how to explain all that to my sister without spoilers but at some point I'll try to fill her in based on my own fuzzy knowledge

Speaking of which theres a sidequest with a guy named Aaron who apparently has beef with Ludger and was all "Don't expect me to forgive you for this," and we were all "??? Who are you again???"

After seeing the skit where Nova complains about Vera's shyness, my sister wanted to ship her with Ludger simply to watch them both squirm in silence 😂

That's the gist of the most recent stuff, though I'm probably forgetting some things. We're in Fenmont currently starting Muzet's chapter but after that is the final waymarker, that's gonna be fun to see 😏

Masterpost link here

#dolphin plays x2 #tales of xillia 2 #sorry if these are weirdly worded or boring it's hard to convey our jokes and reactions well through text format #my sister really enjoys it though mostly for collecting shiny things and paying back the debt #ive told her before the reward for paying it all of sucks real bad but she wants to do it anyway #that's fine but im leaving the room when the teepo vore comes on. the tethering skit was bad enough 😖

[the-present-is-a-gift-au]

Chapter 7: In Which Twig Fixes Some Shutters

Autumn gave its final gasp and winter rushed in to fill the space it left. The village Darkrai's hostess called home lived up to its name even in the cooling months, with a group of floette keeping the deciduous trees in Verdant Village full of green leaves and bountiful flowers, though perpetuating berry production seemed too difficult to achieve. He was impressed regardless. It seemed Twig was as well. 

He would often find her pausing on the road back to her home from the market, staring up at the archway of trees that formed a vibrant emerald corridor for a long stretch of the journey. Snow weighed heavily on the branches, creating a blanketed atmosphere that muffled every sound as stray flakes drifted down from overhead. It was an awe-inspiring sight, beautiful beyond words, and he was grateful for the frequent stops whenever they passed through that area. He couldn't say he knew what went through her head whenever she stopped mid-stride to gaze overhead with wide eyes and a near reverent aura, but he felt like he was of a similar mind. 

Since he had unintentionally learned things she clearly hoped to keep unsaid, Twig had closed herself off even more than before. Darkrai was surprised by how thoroughly she managed to clam up despite baring her soul to him just a few nights ago. She had explained a wild tale of time travel, self-sacrifice, and a bond between her and her partner that moved Legends to divine intervention— all of this in a blatant effort to distract from a more mundane story of a child preyed upon by their caretaker— and now she barely spoke a word to him most days. She spent most of her time chopping firewood with a chipped, dull axe and staring at the same page in a journal that's spine was warped with how many papers had been torn out from it. He caught glimpses of the page on several occasions, despite his efforts to uphold her privacy, and found it filled with symbols he didn't recognize. Perhaps that odd language she spoke in during that nightmarish memory? Whatever it was, she clearly didn't want him to pry, and he would respect her wishes. 

Her neighbors were surprisingly warm in their welcome of him. He had come to expect dispassionate greetings and harsh rejections in his wanderings, but the gallade, gardevoir, and little ralts living next door were ceaselessly kind. They constantly strove to incorporate Twig into their lives despite the woman's efforts to keep them at arm's length, and had begun involving Darkrai in their attempts at fostering companionship as well. Gardevoir in particular was particularly persistent, and Ralts was a clumsy echo of her mother's earnestness as well. 

It was taking him some time to get used to responding to the name Ark. He was improving, but it felt like a clumsy sort of progress— like the name didn't quite fit, or wasn't exactly his. There was also his hesitancy to offer his given name in conversation. Perhaps there was some memory he had lost in which he came to be familiar enough with others to flaunt his given name, but it was hard to believe. Even Ralts eventually brazenly introducing herself as Lyra ruffled him, though it was easier to stomach than hearing his name come from one so young. Even Twig referred to him by his species— which should have made the least sense when she insisted everyone referred to him as Ark before his memory loss— and this made the contrast in name usage more blatant. 

Twig hadn't spoken to him whatsoever that morning, insistently avoiding eye contact and sequestering herself away in the kitchen for much of the early hours. It was past noon when she broke the silence. "I'm going to do some work on the house's exterior. There's a couple shutters that keep squeaking when they open, and the roof needs some work before it snows for real." 

That sounded enough like an invitation for his tastes. He set aside his tambour and joined her outside as she did her work, the flame at the end of her tail flickering a frosty lavender when he rose to follow. 

It was painfully obvious as he watched her work that Twig had no idea how to perform home repairs— but Darkrai wasn’t exactly skilled in the area either, and could offer no assistance with any amount of confidence. He remained handy, so that if she needed someone to fetch a tool he would be around to do it. He could provide that help at the very least, and it was pleasant to repay the kindness he’d been so generously provided— even if it was only to a pitiful degree, it was a start, and he eagerly took the opportunity to begin paying back his steep debt to the charmeleon.

He wondered how she withstood the cold weather. He wasn’t one who often found himself bothered by the chill of winter, even in the coldest months, but he suspected that the ability was afforded to him by his status as a Legend. Twig was mortal, and suspect to the elements. Admittedly, fire-types were better prepared for chilly weather than someone of grass-type or bug-type descent, but she seemed to struggle to keep herself warm enough with her inherent gift with heat. She shivered at almost all times, with the tremors almost seeming to intensify when indoors. It was remarkably ironic for one of her typing to be so easy to send shuddering at what seemed phantom breezes that even he, for all his sensitivity to the world around them, couldn’t detect.

That ralts girl made her way down the side of the road, struggling through a drift that came up to her knees as she dragged a small sled behind her. She waved excitedly at the two of them, and Darkrai followed suit when Twig returned to the gesture. The girl then wandered off to enjoy the gentle slopes that her hillside home provided alongside the snow. He knew some time must have passed since his last recollection of a calendar date, but it was jarring to see a child so enthusiastic in how she greeted her seniors. Perhaps it was a matter of location, and that was simply how children were raised in Verdant Village? The idea seemed unlikely, as he had encountered other youth who held similar attitudes. Times must have changed. That was the most sensible theory he could produce. 

Ah. Speaking of children, Lyra was hastening over to where he stood below Twig as she worked on the roof.

“Hey! Ark, my sled got stuck in a ginormous bush. I can’t get it out. Can you help me?”

Again, it was unsettling to be spoken to in such a way by a child. Not unpleasant, but definitely jarring. He agreed, noting the way Twig tensed overhead. Lyra led him out a ways over to a small thicket that certainly must seem insurmountable to one so small. She then threw little fists out in glee when he retrieved the sled. It was never comfortable to hover more than a few feet above a surface, but it was bearable when he knew it would be only for a moment, and Lyra’s joyous enthusiasm at her sled’s return certainly didn’t serve to sour the sensation further. She rushed off to resume her self-imposed challenge to sled faster than her personal best (which she insisted was less than a second to go from a large hill off in the distance to the roadside— he found that hard to believe, but didn’t voice his misgivings) and he made his way back to his post beneath where Twig worked.

He came within range of hearing and found her muttering to herself.

It was a panicked whisper— more a series of gasps than anything close to controlled speech— and she kept her eyes fixed on where Lyra must have vanished from view as she recited a terrified mantra. “It’s okay, it’s okay— this isn’t an Azurill kind of thing, it’s fine— stop freaking out, breathe, it’s fine…” Her recitation trailed off as he closed a certain distance, and it occurred to him that she hadn’t thought he could hear her before he reached the range in which a mortal could typically discern speech. Unfortunate. He wasn’t sure he wanted to inform her of this misunderstanding when she was so clearly perturbed by something unknown.

“Are you well?” He asked.

“Peachy!” she gritted out in a saccharine tone.

“You do not seem to feel so.”

“I’m fine. Mind handing me those nails?”

He did so. She didn’t speak another word all evening.

***

Seeing Darkrai disappear from view with Lyra earlier had set some sort of alarm system off in Twig’s head, and she was struggling to come down from the spiking panic that gripped her in that moment. Memories of duking it out with Drowzee after a terrified and sobbing Azurill ran off and hid stung anew. She had made sure to check on the ralts as soon as an opportunity arose that she was sure wouldn’t clue Darkrai in to her nervousness, and Lyra was just as chipper as ever— and made sure to show off how fast she could sled to Twig before she left. Lyra was fine. Azurill was fine. Twig was fine. So if her heart could stop pounding like everyone she knew was in mortal danger, she’d really appreciate it.

The worsening weather meant that Twig was stuck inside most days. She didn’t have the excuse of going to the market daily when most stalls only opened up once a week, and they all did so in unison. She also didn’t want to go out on expeditions with Darkrai, because there was no way in heck that she was going to be able to work safely with a distraction like that trailing behind her at all times… also, judging by how she’d found him in Mount Travail, he wouldn’t exactly be an asset in a fight. So she was stuck at home, alone with Darkrai, who was making greater efforts to converse than ever before. He asked her about the one book she had in her entire home— a dense tome on memory and amnesia— and asked if she had ever made progress recovering memories beyond what she had told him. And what he had seen himself, she lamented inwardly, before insisting that nope, absolutely nothing had ever come back to her, and she honestly thinks she remembered that stuff from the get go, why did he ask? 

She needed someone to talk to— really talk to— about everything. About her roommate situation, about the return of her memories, about how tired and overwhelmed she was by literally everything in her life at the moment. She couldn’t bear to reveal to Kip what she’d been up to, the thought of opening up to Grovyle or Celebi left her shaking at how selfish she would certainly be to burden them with her baggage, and she wasn’t exactly raring to explain to Gallade or Gardevoir how she would be erased from all of existence right now if it weren’t for Dialga bringing her back as an “oops, my bad” apology gift for Kip so that she could get into the current mess of her life. She didn’t have anyone who she could open up to. She didn’t have anyone she could spill her thoughts to. She had no one who she could stand to taint their opinion of her with burdensome rambling. She sniffled as silently as she could as she traced the letters of Kip’s signature on his most recent letter with a claw. She had no one who she could burden with her lamentations.

No one, except maybe…

Oh.

She scrubbed her eyes, wiping away any hint of silently shed tears, and stood up from the breakfast nook in the kitchen. “Hey, Darkrai, we’re gonna head out on a trip for a few days.”

#pmd2 #pmd eos #pmd sky #pmd explorers #pokemon mystery dungeon #pmd fanfic #pmd fanfiction #pmd fic #the present is a gift au

[knightly-bastard]

The Dark Heart Of Knighton EXPLAINED

Btw, there might be some blood in some of the doodles, be warned. Ok, since i’m literally almost done with this chapter (just a few more revisions) its about time I rant about this au I’ve created. Sorry for making some of you wait long…But first things first thank you guys so much, I freaken LOVE the artists in this community ya’ll are so sweet and amazing!!

Anyway…I’m gonna finally tell the lore for this au so ya’ll have context to wtf is happening with most of my drawings kjhbkl. This au takes place after season 4 and centers around Lance Richmond. The main premise of this au is that the entire Richmond dynasty is a l i e. Basically many many years ago, a Richmond ended up being manipulated into selling his bloodlines soul for fame and fortune…now every Richmond at a certain age ends up losing their own mind until they are controlled by actual dark magic.

The being who made the deal was a literal piece of powerful dark magic that used to go to kingdom to kingdom, wrapping everything in darkness till everything is destroyed. But it was fortunately trapped in a pit by the wizard's council at the time when trying to take over Knighton.

Every night of the lunar eclipse it's able to seep a little bit of its own dark magic out, which is how it was able to influence that Richmond…Now the Richmonds basically made their own cult around this being and try their best to free it. Unfortunately…the barrier has been weakening ever since it was created, so they just needed to sacrifice a single wizard in order for this being to obtain freedom. This wizard being Clay, as he is technically the last wizard alive at this point. (When Merlock was alive, the cult did NOT want to mess with him. They tried a long time ago) Lance is right now the only Richmond to not be affected by the curse due to the use of Nexo powers (which in this au at least is confirmed to be a form of light magic), so he doesn't have a clue about the truth of the Richmond family. That is until his father tricked him into consuming a piece of dark magic…as at this point he is supposed to be one of them. 

This leads into Lance luring Clay into a trap, directly to the location of the Dark magics prison. 

Here is a doodle of corrupted Lance, doesn’t really last that long.

This is where a fight commences…Lance was able to regain control of himself, but Clay was unfortunately possessed in the end. Clay then threw Lance down the pit in which he ends up in a whole different realm. 

How he got his scar will be explained in another post

How Jestro gets into that shadow realm with Lance? How are the other knights dealing with Clay being evil (again) and lance being missing? That is to be answered either through my drawings or when I get to the specific chapter. This is only the first ark of the Au too…Lots of more shit happens. Btw, none of this is intended to be ship material. It's gonna mainly focus on pure trauma and bonding. Just to get that out of the way. 

And oh yeah- 

This thing is an important character/monster in the story. You can call them Lurker (no it isn’t Clay)

#Nexo knights #nexo knights au #clay moorington #lance richmond #dark heart of knighton #knightly-bastard art