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catapparently · 6 days

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Five Times Kaz Brekker Denied His Feelings and One Time He Didn't

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AO3 LINK

MASTERLIST

Request by anon!

Pairing: Kaz Brekker x female!Reader

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Kaz Brekker wasn’t known for being particularly emotional. If you asked anyone in the Barrel to describe his emotions, you’d be given the lack thereof as an answer. Though if someone’s ever seen the way the Bastard of the Barrel goes downright ballistic when his second-in-command gets hurt, the word to describe him would be angry. Furious- or more like a wild animal, protecting his own.

Nina had been the first to figure out that ruthless, cold Kaz had a penchant for his dear second-in-command. His heart usually had a steady beat, but when you would enter the room, his heart would skip a beat and set on an erratic pace, practically begging Nina’s Heart render abilities to calm him down.

It annoyed her just how stupid this man could be when it came to his own feelings, and if there was something you could say about Kaz, it would be that he’s probably one of the cleverest and most calculating people you would ever meet.. She was almost tempted to increase his heartbeat even more to the brink of a heart attack just for the sake of maybe making him realize just how in love he was with you.

The first time she’d noticed it was on a rainy evening. For the first time in forever, Kaz was in the Slat common room, sitting in front of the fireplace with the rest of their little team, planning another meeting at the Exchange. Nobody dared sit next to Kaz, even though there was another spot on the couch next to him. Inej was sitting on a windowsill as usual while Jesper and Wylan were squished together in the armchair. And Matthias was… well, Matthias. Ever the prude, debating whether he could publicly wrap his arms around her and hug her close or not.

Then you walked in, and Nina felt Kaz’s heartbeat spike. She’d initially been somewhat worried that he was having a stroke, not that she’d be fully devastated if he died. Then again, maybe even Matthias would miss the demjin.

You plopped down next to Kaz at a respectable distance, but to everyone else, you might as well be draped over him at this point. He didn’t say a thing. If anything, Nina swore she saw him take a bigger breath, as if he was lacking air.

“You’re late,” he stated, looking at you.

You scowled back at him. “Well, sorry, someone had me filing random papers and specifically told me to not leave the room until I was done.”

The Heartrender wanted to scream in frustration and tear Kaz’s terrible haircut off his scalp. Even Matthias hadn’t been this oblivious to his own feelings.

“You horrible, dense podge,” she muttered under her breath, secretly hoping Brekker had heard her.

~~~

Wylan sighed in frustration. This was the seventeenth time Kaz had made him redo a set of designs. He kept saying it wasn’t perfect enough, that the rings of the brass knuckles didn’t seem comfortable, that maybe they needed something softer around where the fingers would go; that maybe a fine plate of diamond over it would be more efficient… the list went on and on. Wylan was tempted to just dump the papers on his desk and tell him to design it himself.

“What do you even need these for?” the redhead asked. “Even if you steal all the materials necessary, commissioning a Fabrikator to make such sophisticated brass knuckles, a weapon you don’t even personally need, will cost you a fortune.”

Kaz scoffed. “You still speak like a spoiled merchant’s kid with a horde of tutors.”

The older man scrutinized the plans again, making sure nothing was missing. “It’s a gift for her. She needs them.”

He didn’t even need to mention her name for Wylan to know who he meant. There was only one person that the thought of could make his tone change like that and soften his gaze- even just a tiny bit.

Wylan cocked his head. “Why? Can’t you just get her a dagger or something? It’s much more efficient and a far bigger range.”

Kaz rolled the papers carefully and tucked them under his arm. “Her arms are strong and so are her hits. She has no technique though, so the deadliness of the brass knuckles should compensate for it. Besides, nobody can suddenly master knives. Knowing her, she’d knick herself instead of the opponent.”

If Wylan didn’t know any better, he’d swear that the smallest smile tugged at a corner of Kaz’s mouth, barely there.

“Does she matter that much to you, oh mighty Dirtyhands?” the younger boy lightly teased, hoping Kaz wouldn’t kill him for it.

“I can’t risk losing a very valuable asset.”

With that, Kaz turned around and walked out of Wylan’s little lab, leaving the sunshine of the Crows sighing at his denial.

Truth to be told, Kaz had freaked when he saw you bloodied, bruised and beaten on a simple mission. All you had to do was distract the guards while he broke into a vault. The guards had gotten suspicious and attacked. You hadn’t been able to keep up, instinct making you try to punch back aimlessly but without doing much damage. Kaz had heard the commotion and quickly stepped out of the vault.

He’d frozen. Kaz Brekker does NOT freeze. At that moment, he was Kaz Rietveld. Kaz Rietveld, watching his brother get beat up by a lowly thug. Every single cell inside of him screamed at him to do something, to risk something.

When the two of you finally made it out alive and got back to Slat, you expected him to scold you for not being good enough. For not being charismatic enough like Nina or Jesper or as stealthy as Inej.

Instead, Kaz locked himself in his office and spent all night finding a way to help her in fighting.

~~~

Jesper wasn’t sure what was going on. Kaz had given him a heavy bag of kruge and sent him down to the auction house.

“With how much you gamble, you’re excellent at randomly yelling out big sums of money,” he’d told him. “You’re walking out of that auction with that DeKappel oil painting of the beach. I don’t care how much it will cost.”

Jesper had felt absolutely insulted. Randomly yelling out big sums of money? Who did Kaz think he was? It wasn’t random. Jesper put utmost thought and precision into his choice of what sum to yell out when he was making a very risky gamble.

He had no choice but to go down to the auction house. He had to sit there for hours. The item he’d been tasked to bid on had yet to appear. So far, he’d seen some ancient lipstick that belonged to a star from many centuries ago and some queen’s rotten panties, which sold for more than Kaz could steal in a lifetime.

Why hadn’t the said man stolen the painting instead? It would surely cost a fortune. Since when does Kaz acquire stuff honestly, anyway?

Finally, after waiting and waiting and resisting to bid on a gorgeous set of diamond encrusted bullets, the infamous painting appeared on the auction stage. Jesper stared at it, dumbfounded. It was… just a painting. He was expecting something enchanted, something special. Not… a painting.

It was pretty, sure, but it was a basic depiction of the beach; turquoise waves crashing on the shore with a sun hanging low on the horizon.

But Jesper was a good boy, so he did exactly what he was told to and bid all of the money in the bag. Then he brought home the canvas, carrying straight up to Kaz’s office.

He looked at Jesper oddly as he entered. “What are you doing with it in my office?”

Jesper huffed in annoyance. “No ‘why, thank you, oh gorgeous and wonderful Jes’? I went through so much mental pain to get this painting for you. I even watched stale old grandma panties up on display for Saints know how long.”

Kaz shot him a cold glare. “It’s not for me.”

“Oh? Then for who is it?

“…”

“Aww, does the mighty, ruthless Dirtyhands have a little crush? A little, itsy-bitsy weakness? Is there something going on between the two of you? Is- OW!” The sharpshooter yelped in pain when Kaz’s lead-lined cane jammed into his side. If looks could kill, Jesper would be long since buried six feet under, underneath a pile of bricks that Kaz dumped on him brick by brick.

“There’s absolutely nothing going on. If you don’t want to die, then you can go up and help her place it on her wall.”

Jesper’s pain- both mental and physical- lifted in an instant. So the painting truly was for you. Adorable. He sauntered out of the office and down to your room, which was conveniently located right under the attic, closest to Kaz’s.

He didn’t even bother knocking, knowing he’d find you there, either lazily curled up in your bed or munching on sweets.

“Darlin’, look what good ol’ Kaz got you!” he exclaimed, waving the canvas in your face.

You stared at it, a soft smile gracing your features. “Kaz got it?”

“Well, to be fair, he sent me out to get it since he’s a lazy shit, but it’s still from him.”

You smiled and bounced out of your bed, taking it from him and placing it on a nearby hook on the wall where you used to hang a darts target before it broke because of overly angry dart throwing.

“So he really did remember.”

“Remember what?” he asked.

“Sometimes I tell him about my childhood and my travels. I once visited the beach in the Southern Colonies when I was a kid, and I still remember how magical it looked. I kinda miss it.” You stared fondly at the depiction of the beach.

Jesper was once again left standing there, dumfounded. Kaz had gotten her a painting of the ocean just because she missed the beach? Kaz? Kaz?!

And he dared say there was nothing going on between the two of you?

~~~

“Can’t you ask any nicer?”

Kaz scoffed. “Oh darling Inej, treasure of my heart, will you do me the honor of teaching my second-in-command how to fight?” he answered, a sarcastic tone taking over the usual cold one.

“Fine. But why is this so important to you?” the Suli girl asked.

“I can’t afford to lose such a valuable asset to the Dregs. I can’t always be there when she’s in trouble; she has to have a way to defend herself.”

A valuable asset? It was just as bad as back in the day when he’d call Inej a very important investment. He hadn’t changed a single bit.

Inej sat on the edge of the windowsill again, crossing one of her supple legs over the other. “I don’t suppose you gave her a weapon to work with, at least?”

“I commissioned a Fabrikator. Lead-lined brass knuckles with a fine diamond plating on the impacting area.”

A surprised look appeared on Inej’s face, along with a slight twinge of something in her heart. Kaz had gotten her a pair of brass knuckles at some point in time too, though they were plain.

She didn’t exactly have a right to feel jealous. After all, she was the one who’d pretty much rejected him. She wanted someone who she’d be able to touch, someone she could actually kiss and hold. It had hurt her at first, to definitely cross out Kaz in her heart, but she knew it was for the better. She deserved what she wanted, and she wouldn’t settle for anything else. Besides, why should she give up on her dreams of hunting slavers for a man?

She was genuinely happy for you. You were fine with Kaz’s touch aversion and his rather slow improvement. The both of you fit together well.

In her opinion, Kaz had been more in love with the idea of her than actually her.

“Okay. I’ll teach her.”

Kaz gave a slight nod. That was probably the closest to a thanks that she’d ever get from him.

“I heard that some people down in the Fifth Harbor are planning on selling some good ships,” he started. “Thought you might want to know.”

Her lips curved into a smile.

So long, Kaz Brekker.

~~~

Matthias thought he’d seen it all. He’d seen Grisha on parem, flying through the air and turning into water. He’d seen –and experienced- a gang of teenagers stealing a tank from the most safely guarded prison in the world and crashing it through a wall, then bombarding a bridge. He’d even see a girl, his girl, raise the dead and make them attack people.

Though, quite frankly, this, by far, took the cake to the point where Matthias had to bite down on his palm to make sure he wasn’t drugged and delirious and was back in Hellgate.

What in Djel’s name?!

The moment was so intimate that he felt the need to bleach his eyes and never be able to use them again in order to give the two of you a bit of privacy. Even though Matthias was still new to the language and local slang, he found himself muttering, “what the fuck?!” over and over again.

Kaz had recently come back wounded from Djel knows where. His excuse was that he’d snuck into some clinic to steal something, and instead of making himself fake wounds with makeup, he decided to cut himself up to make it look more real.

Matthias knew the story was fake. That little demjin was lying through his teeth.

Anyhow, with whatever had happened to him, Kaz couldn’t move around well, especially with his teeth. He also looked sore, wincing every time he moved, especially in the arms.

Maybe Matthias should have expected this. Maybe not. He was halfway down the wooden staircase that led down to the Slat common room. Most of the members were out and about, in the Crow Club or doing Djel knows what.

Kaz was seated at a smaller table in the far back corner of the dining room with you across from him. There was a plate of food in between you.

Matthias rubbed his eyes again to make sure he wasn’t seeing things.

You dug a fork into the food and lifted it up to Kaz’s mouth. Kaz, who obediently opened his mouth and took the bite.

What in the name of Djel?

His arms were stiffly bandaged up, and his posture was just as stiff.

Matthias groaned inwardly. He could already hear the “she’s a very important asset…” speech. He didn’t get paid enough for this. He whirled around and walked back up to his room and into Nina’s warm, sleeping embrace.

~~~

Kaz was feeling strange lately. His heart had been feeling lighter, and he could almost say he’d been in a good mood if it wasn’t for the headache he had. All of his thoughts kept circling back to you. You, you you and you.

It would have been annoying if he weren’t so fond of his best asset. On an evening, he’d stood in the open doorway to your room to make sure Jesper had brought you the painting. He had to force himself to not smile at the thought of you going to bed and staring at the depiction of the beach, thinking about all those memories you had. That’s what he’d wanted. He wanted you to go to sleep thinking of a happy, carefree life. A life he wanted to give you but that he knew was impossible in the Barrel, so he’d settle for this.

You always refused to leave. He didn’t understand. You could go anywhere in the world. There was nothing keeping you here. He’d even give you the money for the travel and expenses if you needed.

Yet every time he brought it up, you always said the same answer. “I’m not leaving home, Kaz.”

His heart had soared with delusion and lightness. Home? Was he your home? He knew that he was overthinking it, but he could only dream.

It brought him to his current dilemma. What was going on in his heart? He knew he’d come to care for you more than he’d want to admit, but he also cared for Wylan, Jesper, Inej, Nina… maybe even Matthias too, even though he still wasn’t a major fan of the infamous blonde tulip. Even the tulip comparison someone had brought up was wrong. The Fjerdan was more like an overgrown weed you kept trying to rip out, but it only grew stronger and more resilient to your desperate tugs.

His heart fluttered when he looked at you. His heart lurched at the thought of you being in danger. His heart felt content when going to bed with you on his mind. His heart felt sad when dreaming about you and then waking up without you at his side.

He found himself standing at the door to her room again. His mouth twitched at the sight of the familiar sign that spelled your name. You changed it regularly, not liking the way you engraved your name, always complaining that a specific letter wasn’t curvy enough or another was too tall in comparison to the others.

You had personality. Kaz loved it.

He froze just as he was about to knock at that thought. Love? Was this love?

He didn’t even bother knocking anymore; he just burst through the door.

You were, as usual, seated in your bed. You’d been so insistent on getting one huge, soft bed instead of a smaller bed and a miniature couch. Kaz couldn’t complain; on rare moments of weakness, he often came and lounged on your cushiony mattress while the two of you made plans about missions and other stuff.

What caught Kaz’s attention was the little black ball of fluff with ears in your lap.

He swallowed thickly. “There’s a very strict rule that says no pets at the Slat. Not even crows.”

You look up at him with a grin on your face as you pet the small kitten. “Too bad. I’m keeping it. Forever and ever.”

Kaz sat down on the edge of the bed, his mind swirling and his heart still racing from his earlier realization. “I guess I can’t argue with you then, hmm?”

He hesitated. Then he removed his leather gloves, ignoring the slight widening of your eyes, and reached out a palm to lay it on the fluffy feline’s head. He moved his hand in a petting motion. He was pleasantly surprised that the contact didn’t affect him. Then again, animals were a different case.

“It’s cute.”

You didn’t say anything about him removing his gloves. Kaz liked that about you. You let him move at his own pace. You didn’t prod him or push him for more.

“What are you going to name it?” he asked.

You moved your hand down to rub the kitten’s belly, very careful to not accidentally touch Kaz’s hand in the process.

“I dunno. Either I’ll name it after you, Kazzle Dazzle or something, or I’ll find some other fitting name.”

Kaz let a slight smile appear on his face. He suddenly didn’t feel like keeping all of his guards up around you anymore.

“Don’t name it after me. Name it a real name, like Orion or Onyx or Jordie or Shadow-.” He held his breath, hoping you wouldn’t notice his intentional slip-up. He wasn’t sure exactly why he’d suggested that specific name to you. Maybe now that Pekka was no more, he’d healed a bit. Maybe he didn’t mind the little healthy reminder, a small piece of his brother prancing around with mice in its jaw.

Or maybe he didn’t mind sharing himself, all of his thoughts and past and trauma, with you.

“Hmm. Jordie. I like that.” You smiled fondly at him.

His hand slipped and brushed against the side of yours.

It wasn’t an accident.

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jewelryhut · 8 months

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If your requests are open could I request some Chris McLean x reader fluff? Like, the reader just loves holding his hand, cuddling up to him, or even just resting their head against his shoulder?

Total Drama Island: Chris McLean x Reader

Hope this is what you wanted! Also, Chris might be a little bit ooc... heh. I might redo as a headcannon but we'll keep it like this for now.

"I really love your hands."

"You tell me that everyday."

You smiled. "I know." You grabbed his right hand and placed it in yours. "I'm just showing you my appreciation to them." Your hand gripped your boyfriend's own as you continued to admire it. "Your hands are so soft, too."

"Oh, yeah?" The older man grinned. "You can hold my hand whenever you want, darling."

You rested your head on your man's shoulder, eyes beginning to slowly shut as you took comfort in the atmosphere. "When you're done with work, can we please cuddle? I feel like we haven't been doing that in a while" You wrapped your other arm around Chris as you fixed yourself closer to his body. "And you know how much I love our cuddling."

"Work has been a little busy." The short head nodded his head in agreement to your statement. "After work, I'll give you all of my love and kisses. How does that sound."

You moved your head from his shoulder and looked him in the eye. Your lips then met his, soon pulling back as you gave the man your response. "You know what my answer would be, Chris."

I'm so sorry it's short. It was something I came with on the spot, but like I said, I'll probably make a headcannon version later on (if I remember).

#chris mclean x reader #chris mclean #total drama x reader #total drama #total drama island #total drama island x reader #tdi chris #tdi #tdi x reader #male x reader

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thankskenpenders · 6 months

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Sonic Superstars!

Superstars is out! And guess what? It's good! It's a worthy new entry in the series, and I mostly like it. Mostly. Except for the handful of parts I don't. As usual, allow me to share my thoughts.

(For the record, I got the PS5 version of Superstars. I can't speak for how it plays on older hardware like the Switch, or how the weird Steam version that seems to make you log in with Epic runs. But I encountered zero performance issues, personally.)

General thoughts

The thing is, aside from two notable flaws I'll discuss in greater detail below, I can sum up my feelings on most of Superstars quickly. You see, it's... a Sonic game. This will either be a blessing or a curse depending on who you ask. It's not a bold new take on the series that'll blow you away, but they also didn't fuck it up. There's no catch this time! There's something refreshing about that straightforwardness, given how rare it is to get a regular-ass New Sonic Game from Sega. It's just a new classic-style game where you can play as Amy, set on a new island with all new zones, and Fang is in it! This might be damning with faint praise, but that's what it says on the tin, and they did a good job overall.

(It also has co-op. That's nice. I didn't play it in co-op.)

It plays exactly how it should. At no point did anything feel Wrong. The graphics might not have the absolute highest fidelity, but I think the character models look really nice, and the levels look appropriately good with vibrant color palettes. A couple zones like Sky Temple gave me Klonoa vibes, which I like. One zone is an absolutely incredible homage that I won't spoil. The story here is minimal (as expected), but there are a few good moments of telling the story through the gameplay, particularly one very cute sequence with Trip. I did find a couple stage gimmicks moderately annoying (Speed Jungle 2 and Press Factory 2, looking at you), but like... I could say the same thing about Mania, and also damn near every other Sonic game ever made. There's always That One Level. Superstars may not raise the series to new heights, but it generally executes well on the standard beats of the series. It's an easy recommendation for all fans of 2D Sonic.

Really, aside from the two big flaws (we'll get to them), this game's greatest crimes are simply not being quite as good as Mania, and also coming out the same week as the more creative and polished Super Mario Bros. Wonder. If we hadn't gotten Mania, I would easily be calling this my favorite 2D Sonic game since... what, the Advance trilogy 20 years ago? I like the Rush games, but if you asked me to replay one or the other, I might have a better time with Superstars. And, yes, it beats the hell out of Sonic 4. It's not even close. Anyone who says this game is exactly like Sonic 4 is just being a hater.

...I guess I would say that $60 is a bit steep for this, but you know it'll be on sale for a more appropriate $30-$40 in a few months. This isn't a Nintendo game we're talking about here.

Nice little tweaks

Superstars also features a number of welcome quality-of-life updates over Mania, bringing it more in line with the design ethos of modern platformers.

You have infinite lives! No more getting a game over on the final boss and having to redo the whole final zone - or, god forbid, the entire game

Time overs are gone! It'll warn you before you go over ten minutes, but I have no idea why because it doesn't kill you anymore

The game features a hub from which you can easily replay previous levels, rather than needing to beat the game or put in a cheat code to unlock the level select

This means you can easily go back and hunt for any special stage rings you missed. However, as a tradeoff, it seems like you can only get one Emerald per zone now, rather than being able to get Super Sonic by the end of the first or second zone

You can swap characters between levels! No more having to start a whole 'nother save file to play as Tails

And those characters even have optional little movement tutorial rooms available from the hub, which is great for new players who may not know about things like the Drop Dash

And, finally, checkpoints now feature arrows pointing in the direction you were supposed to be going, in case you forget upon respawning

Of course, while you might not be getting game overs, Superstars certainly compensated with some bosses that kicked my ass.

Bosses

Here's what I would consider notable flaw #1.

I have mixed feelings on the bosses in Superstars. I don't think many of them are poorly designed - in fact, a lot of them are good, and offer fun moments of spectacle. But for a 2D Sonic game, they're REALLY long and drawn out, and by the late game this was starting to get draining.

Bosses tend to be the type where you have to dodge their attack patterns for a while until you get the chance to hit them exactly once, MAYBE twice. A few bosses seem to have quicker options if you abuse your post-hit invulnerability or play as a character with a double jump, but many will either be completely invincible or run away to the background for long periods of time, making it impossible to damage them outside of the allotted windows. And even if it seems like you'll be able to get in a second hit, many bosses turn invincible and skip ahead to the next attack pattern as soon as they take the first hit. Again, most of these fights aren't BAD, but because of this behavior they sometimes take almost as long to beat as the entire levels preceding them. This didn't bother me much early in the game, but against the more challenging bosses towards the end that kept killing me several minutes into a long fight, it got tiring. The final boss of Story Mode probably took me like an hour.

While this certainly isn't an uncommon style of boss design, part of me suspects they did this for the sake of co-op players. For one, playing in co-op means that you don't necessarily have to start the entire fight over if one person dies, so I assume the length is less of an issue. But in particular, true classic-style Sonic bosses that you can just hit repeatedly with good timing would go down in a few seconds against a team of four players. Likewise, the swarm of clones from the "Avatar" Emerald power would probably obliterate every Genesis era boss with one button press. So I get why every boss needs all these invulnerability periods, but still. I at least wish they'd made some of those attack patterns shorter and given you more frequent opportunities to deal damage.

Emeralds and their powers

Speaking of the new Chaos Emerald powers: they're neat, I guess? They're fine. I didn't use them much. Actually, I kept forgetting I even had them - although the game will play a noise and show an icon in the corner of the screen to remind you any time you reach a spot where a specific power is useful. Avatar, the first power you get, is at least good for getting a couple free hits in on the trickier bosses. Yellow's ability to slow time is obviously good, but, again, I always forgot I even had it and made it through just fine without it. I was also pleased to realize that the swimming power is useful for the water levels and not just for climbing up waterfalls.

Oh, and the new grappling-based special stages kind of suck, but they're not the worst, and I'll at least give them credit for trying something new. (Motion Sickness Zone from Sonic 1 does return as a bonus minigame, but I only did it once lmao.)

Battle Mode

I haven't played Battle Mode. Couldn't tell you if it's good or not. It did, however, give us official designs for Metal Tails and Metal Amy after all these years, and also it let me make this:

...Okay, enough beating around the bush. Let's talk about the thing that REALLY drags down the experience.

The soundtrack...

(This lengthy section on the music will feature some light spoilers for things like zone names and themes.)

Now, don't get me wrong. There are some bangers in here that I've been listening to on loop. But this is one of the most inconsistent soundtracks I've ever heard, and I'm not sure I've ever played another game where the music has such a sharp dip in quality in the back half.

As anyone following this blog knows, prior to release I was a little obsessed with trying to gauge what the soundtrack would be like. "Jun Senoue" and "new Classic Sonic game" naturally evokes the memory of Sonic 4, but from the start we knew Tee Lopes was involved as well, and almost all of the music previewed before released leans more towards the sound of Sonic Mania than anything else. I was hopeful! I was excited! Jun deserved another chance at doing another classic Sonic OST, and Tee is one of my favorite game composers of all time between his Sonic material and other works like the TMNT: Shredder's Revenge OST. I frequently thought back to this Sonic 4 remix medley by Jun and Tee as a reminder that these two could really be the dream team, bringing out the best in each other's work.

Sure enough, the front half of the game is largely dominated by the Mania sound, whether it's a track by Tee himself or one by an in-house Sega artist that's compatible with his style. Pinball Carnival Act 1 by Rintaro Soma (an up-and-coming composer who wrote a bunch of the Cyber Space themes in Frontiers) takes obvious inspiration from Mania's Studiopolis Act 1, to the point that I was shocked when Sega posted the track and revealed it wasn't written by Tee. Act 2, however, forges more of its own sound by leaning into the act's spooky haunted carnival theme. And despite being the music lead, the only level theme that I know for sure was written by Senoue in the front half of the game (Bridge Island Act 1) was actually arranged by Tee Lopes to give it more of that Mania sound. Hell, the level clear jingle is literally just the one from Mania. A few level themes by other composers don't quite match that style, but they fit in well enough.

But there are early signs that this sound won't be consistent throughout the game. Our first warning of things to come is the boss music:

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When early copies started floating around and the soundtrack leaked, many, many people hoped that this was merely a placeholder, like the literal Sonic 4 Episode II music used in the earliest previews of Speed Jungle, and that it'd get replaced with a day one patch. Oh, those poor, innocent fools...

Even if you don't mind the poor production with the returning Sonic 4 faux-Genesis sound, this is a very simplistic thirteen second snippet of music that then plays a second time in a higher key before it loops. This wouldn't be the end of the world if the bosses were as short as the ones in the Genesis games, of course, but they're not! This theme is used for a ton of lengthy fights throughout the game, including an EXTREMELY long and tedious autoscroller boss at the end of Golden Capital Act 2. Maybe I would've enjoyed the bosses in this game more if they were paired with some earworms that'd get me hyped up and sell how cool and exciting the fights are supposed to be, but grating songs like this just made the minutes spent fighting those bosses feel like an eternity.

Still, boss music (and menu music) aside, all of the level themes in the front half of the game ranged from decent to great, with the peak easily being the phenomenal Lagoon City Act 2 by Tee Lopes. And then... I got to the back half of the game. And the Mania style completely disappeared, replaced largely with the dreaded Sonic 4 sound. That isn't the style for EVERY song in the back half, but even the ones that try something different tend to be weaker than the material from the first six zones, with less engaging melodies and less intricate arrangement. Many sound straight up unfinished, leaning on extremely basic synth patches with no personality. And there isn't a single track from Tee in the back half. He just disappears from the project altogether.

What this means is that we go from this absolute banger by Tee Lopes in zone 6, which elevates what's otherwise a bog standard desert level to a thrilling adventure:

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To... this, in zone 7:

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It's EXTREMELY jarring!

The thing is, this is actually one of the better tracks in this style. I have to assume this is by Senoue, because you can totally hear a good Adventure or Heroes era Senoue track in there once you get past the crude synth replication of the Genesis era Sonic sound. Senoue is still a great composer, as you can hear clear as day with Bridge Island, but he's working with a restrictive sound palette that doesn't play to his strengths at all. If only he'd bust out that damn guitar, or at least pick some better synths.

(And no matter what people will tell you, no, this is not an accurate recreation of what the Genesis's YM2612 chip really sounded like, nor is it representative of what it CAN sound like at its best. Go back to the Streets of Rage 2 or Ristar soundtracks if you need a reminder.)

While I can at least see what the Press Factory tracks were aiming for, some other faux-FM synth tracks are just really bland. They don't have anything interesting going on, and they also don't seem particularly tailor made for the levels they accompany. They're just attempts to mimic what Sonic 1-3 sounded like on a very literal level. Take, for instance, the Golden Capital Act 1 theme, AKA "we've got Sky Sanctuary at home." While the better level themes in this game enhance the mood or even completely carry the vibes of a level, the weaker tracks can really suck all the air out of the room and make a level feel like more of a slog.

What kills me is that there are, in fact, a couple examples of how to do throwbacks to classic Sega FM synth music well on this very soundtrack! They're just not the Sonic 4 type tracks. I love the Frozen Base Act 2 theme, presumably composed by legendary Sega composer Hiroshi "HIRO" Kawaguchi, who's responsible for all-time classic arcade soundtracks like Fantasy Zone, Out Run, Hang-On, After Burner, and more, as well as the hacking and pinball themes from Frontiers. Maybe to an untrained ear this doesn't sound all that different, but it has a catchier tune, better instruments, and stronger production overall. I'm also a fan of the track for Sky Temple, which isn't perfect, but it blends a few Genesis-esque instruments like the Sonic 1+2 snare with other instruments for a richer sound. If the whole soundtrack sounded more like these examples, I'd definitely be complaining less.

I really just have to wonder... how did this happen? How did this end up being so inconsistent? Many fans on social media are jumping to the conclusion that Senoue is just extremely stubborn and refuses to ditch the style from Sonic 4. I can't deny this possibility, but some things just don't add up. The almost complete lack of "retro" style music in the promotional material. The fact that the style just suddenly shifts halfway through the game, then disappears for the final zone, as if that's not the note they want to end on. The complete lack of any tracks by Tee Lopes in the back half. The focus on the Mania-style tracks in the bonus "mini soundtrack." And most perplexing of all, the fact that three of the first tracks you hear in the game were Senoue compositions that were given extra attention with arrangements from Tee Lopes.

This is pure speculation on my part, but it almost seems like they straight up ran out of time.

Perhaps Jun wanted more of his tracks to get full arrangements from Tee, or for Tee to contribute more songs, but things were down to the wire and they chose to leave in some of the raw Sonic 4 style demos. The soundtrack being crunched out in a matter of months at the end of development would certainly explain why Speed Jungle had to be demoed without its music a mere four months ago. It'd also explain why a game that's only a few hours long needs NINETEEN composers listed in the credits. And also the fact that multiple zones just have completely different, unrelated music by different artists across their acts. Did they need multiple artists working on different acts simultaneously, completely independent from each other with no time to cross reference each others' work, due to extreme time constraints? I'd buy it.

Ah well. It's not the end of the world. I've heard worse Sonic music. But I'll always think of what could have been...

At least the final battle with Eggman at the end of Story Mode has a pretty kickass boss theme, which ALMOST makes up for how bad most of the preceding boss music is (and the fact that that very difficult fight doesn't have a checkpoint between phases and took me like an hour to beat lmao). It even seems like it might be written by longtime Phantasy Star Online composer and recurring Sonic contributor Hideaki Kobayashi. That's the guy who wrote NONAGRESSION!!!!!!!

The postgame

Speaking of beating Eggman! It turns out Superstars has a good deal of postgame content, as merely beating the last zone with all the Chaos Emeralds doesn't take you to the true final boss. In order to do that, you'll need to do something else.

Before we hit the big spoiler warning, I'm going to give any future players who are still reading a warning. If you value your sanity... don't force yourself to do all the postgame stuff. Don't make the mistakes I did. It's not worth it, and it may very well knock your personal score for the game down a couple points.

----------------------------------------------------------------

SPOILERS FOR THE STORY, UNLOCKABLES, AND THE POSTGAME BELOW THIS POINT

YOU'VE BEEN WARNED

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The bonus scenario

Sonic Superstars has a big surprise in store for anyone who beats the main story. For the first time since... what, Silver? In 2006? We finally have a brand new playable character in a new Sonic platformer! (I wouldn't count the player avatar in Forces as a full-fledged New Character.) Yes, after the credits roll, you unlock Trip as the super-secret fifth playable character. I was really excited to see this. Trip is cute, even if her masked appearance from early in the game is perhaps a more unique design than a Sonic-ified lizard girl who can only vaguely look like a real sungazer lizard. She IS the first new Sonic character Ohshima has designed since the '90s, though, so she gets points for that - and she gets even more points for literally turning into a dragon when she goes Super. We love a girl who can turn into a dragon, don't we folks? And her playstyle is fun, too, with a double jump and the ability to roll along walls and ceilings.

But Trip isn't just playable. Like Knuckles before her, she gets an entire alternate story mode of her own, which somewhat remixes the level layouts, generally makes things more challenging, and swaps out Eggman for Egg Robo. I was so excited to see this! It really felt like the game had so much more in store for me than I'd anticipated.

...Then I spent probably around three hours attempting to beat the new final battle with Fang at the end of Trip's Story. And it made me regret doing Trip's Story at all.

Once you learn the patterns, a lot of them are actually piss easy. But the difficulty comes down to a few misguided factors:

The fight is LOOOONG. On a successful attempt the whole thing will probably take the average player about, like... seven or eight minutes? Maybe longer? This is where I really started to get pissed at the game for making me wait through these stupid attack patterns before I could attempt to hit the boss once.

The fight is divided between two phases, one with Fang in a vehicle and another with him in a giant robot, with no checkpoint between them. Dying to one of Fang's bullshit attacks on the second phase means having to redo the ~5 minute first phase all over again. And, worst of all...

Fang has multiple projectile attacks that are guaranteed instant kills, even if you have rings.

Also there's a stupid desperation headbutt attack that can really easily catch you off guard and kill you, but I only got that far in the fight once.

It's the instant kills that got me. If those fucking immobilizing net attacks just made you drop your rings, or you could at least wiggle out of them by mashing buttons (EDIT: apparently you CAN do this but you literally have to button mash so rapidly that it's a crapshoot whether or not you'll physically be able to do it), it would have been totally doable! Kinda fun, even! Slow, but pretty cool in terms of spectacle. But nope! Three hours! Three hours on this! This is, without a doubt, the hardest boss I have ever faced in any Sonic game, period, and one of the hardest bosses I've ever seen in ANY game. All because of one attack pattern where making a tiny mistake means starting over.

The glitches didn't help, either. Something about the way the circular boss arena was set up in both stories' final battles seems to make the floor intangible sometimes for non-player objects. Occasionally my dropped rings, enemies I was supposed to knock towards Fang, or one of Fang's insta-kill projectiles would just fall through the floor randomly. This definitely wasn't my main problem, but it helped drive home the idea that this fight just wasn't worth my time.

After three hours of attempts, I gave up. I just went and looked up the ending of Trip's story, as well as the contents of the Final Story, on YouTube. Turns out I made the right call, because boy, that true final boss looks like dogshit. It's just a very dull fight against a big generic cartoon dragon. Apparently this is the thing Eggman was looking for. It appears and is defeated with little fanfare. I think I liked it better when I assumed the scary dragon being foreshadowed was just Super Trip.

...Also, hey, what's up with The End being very conspicuously visible in the background of the last zone?? I know it's just a cheeky cameo, but, like... isn't it supposed to be sealed away in Cyber Space right now? Should I be taking this literally? Does this have lore implications? This is one hell of a way to remind people that the timeline's been reunified, I guess

Closing thoughts

I really hate to part ways with Superstars on a sour note like this, because like I said up top, I mostly enjoyed my time with it! It's really just a small handful of particularly frustrating bosses and the inconsistent soundtrack that drag it down. Other than that, it's solid as a rock. Maybe wait for sales if you're not dying to play it, but it's definitely worth playing for any Sonic fan. Just... skip the true ending. I would have stepped away MUCH happier with this game if I'd done that.

I wanna try to end this on a more positive note but I'm tired, so, uhhhh... look, you can unlock a Metal Nights skin for your Battle Mode bot!!

Anyway back to jamming to about half the soundtrack on loop while pretending the other half doesn't exist, and looking forward to the continued Fang Renaissance with his upcoming IDW miniseries

#tkp post #other media

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luverz-exe · 2 years

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Yandere Scp 049 × Female Reincarnated S/O

Thank you for over 100 followers! I'm honored to make a bunch of you happy with my writing, and I'm excited to show you all what else is to come! This is as you can guess, the first one shot in the whole blog! It didn't sit well with me to just leave it as a few headcanons, so here we go!

I took the security part of the request and went with it, I hope you don't mind! If you have any qualms about it, I can always redo it. And FYI for anyone else who wants to request a oneshot, it might take longer than what a headcanon might be, so if it doesn't come at the expected time then I'm sorry.

I am so sorry for the wait, a lot happened in my life, and I had to deal with it. But hey, I found out what I'll write for the surprise! And while I can't say what I have In mind now, I just hope you'll enjoy it in the (hopefully) near future.

"Are you sure? It's your first week on the job, don't you think escorting a Euclid class should be saved for.. later? You know, try and get some work experience beforehand?" Your cousin asked, trying to coax you out of what they thought was a death sentence. "I mean, think about it..."

You walked down the empty halls of the foundation, checking all of your gear making sure it was in proper condition as they tried to convince you to pick an easier job for today. It was supposed to be a 6 to 12, a quick shift, for foundation standards at least, but you took a bit extra to spend a little time with your cousin who worked the shift right after yours. Now you kind of wished you hadn't, with them nagging you about your decision, about your choice for the extra shift.

But you knew they meant well, they always did. And while you admired the fact they careed about you enough to tell you when they thought you were making a bad decision, you were a grown woman who could make decisions by herself. "I've gotten training for this, it's not like they send us in blind, I know what I'm doing. Besides, it's not like I'm doing it alone, there are other trained professionals working on it too. Don't worry about me."

You could hear them mumble something about you being too stubborn, unwilling to admit that you were right. "Besides, I've done my research, we will just be moving the Euclid SCP to a testing room, then back to its cell, easy." You sigh "Look, I'll be sure to contact you about it afterwards if it's such a concern of yours, if that makes you feel better."

The two of you walked down the hall, passing containment area after containment area, as they slowly start resting their hand on your armored shoulder. "But you haven't worked here as long as I have, I know what it's like. It's scary, your first few months. Hell, It's dangerous if you aren't 100% focused and on point, you-"

You interrupt "Then it seems I'll have to be 100% focused and on point then." You smirk, your cheeky grin causing a small smile to appear on their face. "Besides, I'm older than you, haven't you heard that wisdom comes with age?" You teased, now invoking a slight chuckle from them.

"Well, be sure not to die before the wedding, I'll surely be needing that old person wisdom of yours." They winked, patting you back before making a sharp turn to the left, making their way to prepare for their shift.

You look around the hall, making sure that no one is around before shouting "Lord knows you're gonna need it!" And as you continue walking down the hall, you can hear faint laughter from them, some footsteps fading even further away, and a door closing, ensuring that you are all alone with nothing but your thoughts. You slowly gain your composure back, making sure you can do your job without a grin. Had to make a good impression to your new co-workers after all.

You sigh wistfully, before getting out your key card and continuing to walk down the hall, swiping the key card to open the door in front of you. And as you slowly walk towards the future ahead of you, you could feel the slightest bit of pride in your new life. It was going good.

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Your movements sync with your team, and you follow each step of theirs to the single second. Left foot, your eyes stare down at the floor, making sure your movements are timed to perfection as the single file line continues on. Right foot, you don't dare to let your thoughts linger until the task at hand is finished, you have a job to do. There was one person behind you, two in front, you couldn't mess up your synchronization. Left foot, you know you are safe with these experienced members of the foundation by your side. Right foot, so why is your heart beating so rapidly?

...Left foot, you slowly move your gaze from the floor to the back of the person in front of you's helmet. You were now in sync, and with that a newfound sense of ease ran past you. Left, right, left, right, they did not speed up nor did they slow down, leading to perfect synchronization of your unit. How calming for a worrying mind, left foot. You slowly felt more at ease than ever before In your job. No need to think about the danger or the risk, all you needed to do was stay in perfect synchronization with your group.

Right foot, you no longer even had to keep track in your mind, you feel into the pattern naturally. Left foot, you walked passed corridor after corridor, one containment area right after the next, you could feel the pattern slipping away from your mind. It was now an instinct. As it should be.

Your group came to a halt, still standing at attention, single file line in front of a door. Your squad's leader got out of formation from the front of the line and slowly moved towards the end of the line, where a small clipboard was. He picked it up, and slowly started reading the information about the SCP. You heard him mumble "049."

He then put it down, scanning the group still standing single file. "All of you, fall in." Quickly, you now all stood horizontally in front of him. He then continued "Procedure states we must sedate him, now do any of you know how to do that, or did they not go over it in training?" He looked around your squad, seemingly looking for any sign of yes.

The others didn't say much, and if they were anything like you, there's sweat slowly falling down their face. Still standing at attention, you didn't move your head to look at the person that took a step forward towards the squad leader. "No sir." The voice spoke, lighter than expected "They did not go over sedation. Only transferring the SCP from one place to another. They said special cases like this would be taught later on the field."

He sighed at this, and you could swear you could vaguely see a frown under the shaded visor. The voice stepped back in formation, then he began to speak once more. "Well, luckily for you all, I'll teach you." He then went to the opposite side of the hall, opening the door with a keycard, and entering, leaving your group outside.

The soft voice that spoke to the squad leader, now spoke to you. "Hello." They raised their hand for you to shake "It's nice to meet you." You shook their hand, a smile now creeping up upon your face "My name is Jenny, what's yours?" You say your name, and how glad you are to meet them as well.

"That's Rocky, he doesn't talk much" they say, pointing at the final one in the line. "Absolutely a sweetheart though, me and him have been through thick and thin, his story has touched me in a way no one else can." Even from here and the black transparent visor, you could see a big grin coming up on Rocky. "And even after all these years, he's never told me his real name."

You could see Rocky roll his eyes, Jenny quips back without even looking at him "Don't you roll your eyes at me, mister. Some of us don't like that attitude. Every time I ask, you keep changing the name you give me!" As soon as they had finished talking, Rocky approached them, pulled up his visor to show his beautiful dark eyes, and then very dramatically rolls his eyes in front of them. "Rude." Jenny mumbled, still with a smile on their face.

Rocky slowly put his visor down, and got back in formation. He poked Jenny, and she did the same. So, you mimic their movements, making sure your heels were lined up with their own as if you were in the military. That's when you heard the footsteps of your leader, getting ever so close. "Rocky also has good hearing" Jenny whispered to you, as soon as they had stopped to get back in position, the door started to open.

Out came the squad leader, who now stood in front of you "Attention!" He called out, and you all made sure you were in position. You noticed he was holding both a needle and a collar of some kind. "This," he held up the collar, chains falling down as he held it up "is a Class 3 Humanoid Restriction harness. It has a lock, which I have the key to at the moment, and these," he pointed at the chains now hanging off of the harness "are the extension restraints."

"Now, this is what you need to focus on, this is what you sedate him with." He now held up the needle, handing it to you with one hand. "Be sure to get it in his neck," he then looked at Rocky and Jenny "And you two soon after better put that on him and lock him in." He hands Jenny the key, while Rocky gets the harness. "Not very hostile, but don't put your guard down." He said, and slowly got out another keycard.

"Never put your guard down." He whispered, more to himself, and swiped the card. Access granted, the key pad said, and you heard the door unlocking. It then opened, revealing a small cell. You couldn't see who was inside, everyone was crowding at the door, but you could hear a voice. A calm, metallic sounding voice, something resembling a humans speech.

"Ah, good evening. I hope that all has gone well for a fine day, yes?" The voice asked, but to no response. "I see, tough day. Well, let's move this along shall we. Everyone is waiting for what will happen, and we mustn't dawdle." You can hear the rumbling of footsteps, hard walking shoes against the cold hard floor. "Well, come along now, we haven't got all day."

You carefully scoot your way inside, making sure that not a single drop of the sedation would fall. "Ah, good evening, how's your day been thus far?" He asked of you as approached him, preparing to make the needle go inside his skin. You couldn't mess this up, you wouldn't mess this up.

"My day's been fine, how about yours?" You responded, adding leeway for the conversation to continue with the SCP.

"Ah, what a lovely voice, so good to have a chat. I take it's your first time sedating, now isn't it?" You heard laughter coming from it "Well not to worry," they moved a bit of his cloak to get a better view of where the mask ended and where the neck would be, but it was covered in cloth. They pointed to a spot, assumed to be where its neck is "just insert it here."

You saw as the needle approached, it slowly dropped its hand, now sure you'd put it in properly. As you pumped it into him, and brought out the needle, it asked "What is your name, I do not see a name tag of any kind on you."

"Name tags are always removed before entering a SCP's cell now, basic protocol. My name is (Name)." You couldn't tell if the drug was kicking in or it was shock, but you could see SCP 049 tense up. You slowly move out of the way as Jenny and Rocky put on the harness of his, with the squad leader telling them how to properly put it on it.

You couldn't focus on the conversation however, as there was a more pressing issue in your mind. Despite you ending the conversation then and there, the SCP still stared at you with the same shocked and tense expression, its eyes scanning yours for something unknown. "What was that?" Jenny asked the creature "You're mumbling, you know that right?"

049 looked at them and mumbled an apology, but as soon as possible they looked back to you. Eyes now locking with yours. "Alright, stand up" the squad leader asked 049, and they complied. "(Name), hold one of the harnesses, you two do the same." Great, now you'd have to get closer.

As you picked up one of the harnesses, 049 started to speak, but it sounded more like mumbling to himself "Is that really you, my dear? You look so different.." his eyes never left yours.

"That doesn't knock him out, but be sure to take anything he says with a grain of salt," he said to the group "now move out, we haven't got all day!" Slowly, your group started to move. Once out the door, your group's pace quickened.

"Do you remember me?" They asked "It was such a long time ago, it must feel like a faded memory, I bet you hardly remember it at all." He got a bit close to you "But I did. I remembered." You saw Rocky tug on the harness, trying to get them away from you, and they slowly moved back closer to the middle. "How could I forget?"

"Wow, he must be really loopy, huh? Guess that drug was more effective than thought." The leader said, "Just ignore his ramblings, once he gets back to normal he'll apologize."

While the drug limited how loud and fluently they could talk, the SCP spoke once more "They treat me like an animal (Name), only referring to me as a person when it's convenient, when I'm near. But not you, no, I'm a person to you, I always have been." It sounded drunk, almost as if the drug was nothing but alcohol.

Jenny giggled at the little speech it just gave, and it only gave them a side eye, then turning back to you. "You- You look... angelic. I- my goodness. A dove for an angel. That's the best way to describe us right now, correct? None of these dark, vile, crows could be a dove, yes?"

It sounded religious, like a prayer, an erratic saying of devotion. "I missed you, I missed you being near, and by my side. I miss-"

"My apologies," you interrupt "but we've never met before. Perhaps the name is similar to someone close, but sadly, I am not. Perhaps when this drug wears off, we can have a nice civil chat, I'm sure your interviewer might allow it." You try and be nice, but you don't want to say you don't see 'him' as a person. Not yet, it will have to earn the title.

"...Yes, we can talk." They said with a cheery attitude, almost ignoring most of what you had said. "Yes, you must hear of how lonely I was when you went, oh how the night before we had danced the night away. Hand in hand. Sleeping in the same bed, but the next morning, you were not there. And while we can no longer dance the night away, perhaps we can chat it away, my dear."

How dramatic, sounds like something straight out of a play. Testing room after testing room, after a few more minutes you had finally met your destination. "No, I am not ready to go. Not yet. My dear, no..." His mumblings and his rambles made all three of you uncomfortable, but the leader just stood with a poker face.

"Don't worry, Loverboy, (Name) will still be here when you finish. Now go on and get inside." He then yelled out to the interviewers and researchers "AND SOMEONE GET THIS DRUG OUTTA HIM.*

They looked confused, one even tilted their head. "But, with all due respect, what did you give him?"

It was now his turn to be confused "What do you mean? I gave him CO-491, the standard protocol sedation tool for 049! Did you all change it, cause now he's all loopy and talking about (Name) as if she's its lover!"

He pointed at you, and you could see all heads turn "What the sedation is, is a mix of lavender and a few more chemicals to calm him down. This has been done time and time again.*

"He's fully sentient and aware of what he's saying and doing." The researcher then looked at you "Would you mind telling us what happened?"

You saw one interviewer come out with a frown "He keeps asking for a (Name). Says he won't talk unless (Name's) there." All eyes turned to you "Well are you coming?"

"... Alright." You looked through the one way window, 049 looked calm, but you couldn't tell whether it was because he was alone or because he had asked for you. The interviewer brought out their key card and swiped it, opening the door.

"Here they are 049, as requested." The interviewer said. You walked through the door, and you could feel his cold gaze on yours.

"My darling (Y/N), please, have a seat. There is much we must discuss."

#scp x reader #yandere #yandere fanfiction #yandere x reader #yandere x you #yandere headcanons #yandere scp #yandere scp foundation #scp fanfiction #scp 049 #scp 049 x reader

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ask-obt · 3 months

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idk if its too early in the story to ask this but what elements or plot points did you want to into obt that never made the cut

// it is a bit hard to figure out everything that could be cut since there's still a lot of story left, but there are a few things that I'm certain of dropping! I don't necessarily wish I kept all of these, but some things were established in my head for so long it feels weird to drop them.

- Malachi having a crush on Rune (cut because I changed their ages from being a year apart to making Rune about 8-10 years older than him)

- Rune staying mute and learning sign language from Dielle (a cute idea still! But I wasn't experienced enough with art and storytelling to pull off drawing gestures or commit to learning a new language myself, and I preferred having Rune speak)

- Yohann is much less present in the current story than I originally planned :( this may change in the future still, but I originally wanted him to come on the expedition before he was swapped out with Eilwyn.

- Some recruits were trimmed even though I really liked them! A Snubbull, Beautifly, and Girafarig were all recruits that I enjoyed using, but might not have room for in the comic outside of cameos. Maybe they'll still show up someday? A bit unlikely at this point though, the gang is pretty well established.

- Not a part of the main comic, but I sometimes wish Dielle's Wish could've been expanded on more! The way Mateo was written felt a bit on-the-nose, but digging deeper would require a lot more time to establish everything, which wouldn't be achievable in under 50 pages.

- Since Maelstrom doesn't have a physical body, I tend to... forget to write dialogue for her. This will work to my advantage soon though, for secret reasons.

- And not exactly cut content, but I'm still not the hugest fan of chapters 1-3, even with the rewrites. It was a bumpy path trying to figure out everything I needed to for the comic as I went, and these were the chapters that needed the most establishment in worldbuilding. Having a solid explanation for what a mystery dungeon is, the relationship between exploration teams and wild pokemon, or how aura works, I think could've helped streamline my writing later where I try picking up the slack. Live and learn though, I don't have any plans to redo the early comic again.

#on borrowed time comic #ask-obt #ooc

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akayralylegacy · 7 months

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֎- 𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝐿𝑜𝓇𝒶𝓍 𝑀𝑜𝓋𝒾𝑒 𝑅𝑒𝓌𝓇𝒾𝓉𝑒 -֎

I'M GONNA REDO THIS MOVIE REWRITE! MANY DETAILS WILL CHANGE!!

Oh hello again everyone! Second post on Tumblr! And as you can read in the tittle, it is going to be a rewrite of The Lorax (2012) movie!!

Dr. Seuss' The Lorax (2012) - Movie Rewrite by Akayraly's Legacy

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Just to clarify, this isn't an AU. This is a rewrite of the movie's plot, songs, and characters.

I might like The Lorax (especially for Onceler), but alas, it has its flaws, and the story is kinda incoherent at some points, and these tiny details annoy me a little bit. So, I've imagined the movie's plot a lot different, a little bit darker, and less family-friendly, so it could make more sense, and the story would be more intense and impactful.

•∆———————————<•>———————————∆•

▪︎ [Thneedville]: Thneedville, on my rewritten version, isn't a dystopia where everyone is satisfied with their lives and non-caring about the lack of nature.

– If anyone dares to escape the city, they will be punished violently or even killed. This makes people fear the mere idea of getting out of there, and with this, the government rules everyone by their fear. At the first time, those who try to escape are given a fair warning. If they try a second time, they get another warning and a small punishment. The third is a worse punishment. The fourth time, they are killed.

–O'Hare is the ruler of Thneedville, and his company produces giant machines that can refresh the polluted air of the city, but these machines use a lot of energy and the energy source that the company uses is petroleum. But once their energy runs out, the government recommends people from the city to use gas masks for them to breathe "properly."

– The population is still trying to adapt itself to the polluted air and the lack of nature. Most people in Thneedville are in a poor/medium money condition, and they aren't satisfied with these conditions they live in.

– The city's aesthetic is a grayscale dieselpunk. The year 2048. The city's condition is pretty bad. Many buildings are destroyed in the northeast part of the city, the place where Onceler's industry is abandoned.

– The northeast part of the city is prohibited from entering by O'Hare's laws. The last truffulla trees' seeds are hidden in there locked in the darkest corner of the abandoned Thneed industry. O'Hare keeps them hidden so he can keep making money for his machines and gas masks that refresh the air.

– There's no food and water resource near Thneedville. The government sends operations to get food and water from distant places. They have a specific building where they keep these important things. During the first day after the operation's return, the water and food are for free, after that, people need to pay a certain quantity to have those.

– The city contains large hospitals spread all over its area since the bad life conditions result in many people falling ill more often than it would normally be.

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▪︎ [Ted and Side Characters]: Ted's motivations to learn about the history of the trees are way different from my version and his family's condition as well.

– First of all, Audrey would instead be Ted's older sister. Yeah, I must admit I'm not pretty fond of the idea of Audrey being just his crush and Ted running out of the city just because she wanted a tree. So, in my version, they are siblings! She is pretty overprotective about Ted, and he is always there to take care of her when she isn't in the best health condition.

– Ted would want to know more about the trees for different reasons, those being:

Norma, his grandmother, was alive during the time that trees were still there.

She told Ted about her past about the wonderful nature and how the air was clean, fresh, and free for everyone to breathe. Ted, seeing him, his family, and others living in those poor conditions, dreamed about this paradise his grandma told him about, and he wished that their city's condition was better.

Audrey, at some point, fell ill from a very dangerous sickness that came from the polluted air. She was at the edge of her life, almost dying, and this was a trigger for Ted to finally begin his search for the reasons why there were no trees, and to learn more about their history.

– Ted's mother works on those operations to give the city food and water, but she unfortunately doesn't get that paid for her job. She just works with carrying the big bags of sources from the trucks into their respective places.

– Ted's family condition is pretty bad. They don't have that much money, but they try to have a comfortable life with what they have. They economize a lot, and they buy mostly what they need. They don't use their money on unimportant things.

•∆———————————<•>———————————∆•

▪︎ [O'Hare and his business]: In my version, O'Hare was slightly older than Onceler during the time that Thneed Inc. was still on top. He already had his company, but it was small, and at its start, he tried to make a product similar to the Thneed (trying to gain money over Onceler's idea), but of course, it didn't work. But, once Thneed Inc. ran out of work and was officially closed, O'Hare took the chance to start biggering, and as years went by he began to grow more and more as the air became polluted and the living conditions for the population began to be worse and worse.

– O'Hare's brilliant idea to gain more money was to create smaller versions of the machines that cleaned and refreshed the air, versions that people could have in their houses. But the quality of those smaller machines was worse compared to the giant ones around the city, so they would run out of work more quickly, forcing people to buy them more frequently.

•∆———————————<•>———————————∆•

▪︎ [Onceler's family]: I added some headcannons about his family and also made them a bit worse to add more impact to Onceler's story.

– Isabella was indeed a terrible mother. She said that his interests in using more accessories, knitting, and his overall "exaggerated" behavior were girly and "bullied" him for that. She always reminded him that his ideas would result in nothing but failure, and his self-esteem was kinda low because of that. He still tried to impress her, and it never worked. But he kept on trying, he didn't give up.

– Onceler's father died of an illness back when he and his brothers were almost pre-teens. He was very sweet to Oncie and the others. Onceler misses him a lot.

– Being a mother without the help of her husband, Isabella had a job to gain money for the family, and when she was busy, she would ask Grizzelda to take care of her children. But Grizzelda was not a good aunt. She didn't give a shit about what they were doing, but her treatment with Onceler was even worse than with Brett and Chet.

– Brett and Chett didn't have any hate or dislike for Onceler, and they had no critique on his likes and interests, but they were forced to be cruel to their brother sometimes. They also wanted to impress their mother, and she did like them more, but she despised their protecting over Onceler. Over time Isabella made such an influence on them that she could manipulate them to automatically act more "aggressively" to Oncie, but they still didn't hate him at all.

– Onceler's uncle is pretty similar to Grizzelda, the difference is that he's more stupid and less aggressive than her.

•∆———————————<•>———————————∆•

NOW, INTO THE MOST WANTED PART!

▪︎ [Onceler]: This part here is both a rewrite of the character (not fully, since I didn't change him entirely) but is also a list of headcannons that would be there in my version of the movie.

– Onceler's self-esteem is kinda low, but he still has some hope and confidence that he can someday impress his family, especially his mother. He has a sense of optimism that not even he knows exactly where it came from, but he always had it since childhood.

– His father was the one who taught Onceler to play guitar, and his first guitar is his father's one. He takes care of it very well. He loves it, and he would never throw it away. His love for marshmallows also came from his father.

– Even with all the problems he has with his family, he is a very sweet person. He's charismatic and charming, and he might be kinda flirty sometimes. He is pretty carefree and clumsy. But he is also pretty insecure, and he questions himself about his actions and interests too much sometimes. But he tries not to let these thoughts bring him down.

– He would never hurt anyone. He is very kind and caring. But he's a bit naive and easily manipulated, especially by his mother, since he has always had the desperation to be loved and accepted by her. He does almost everything that she tells him to do in an attempt to make her like him more.

– At first, Lorax and Oncie had a small rivalry, but after time passed, Onceler made his promise to Lorax, and he kept it firmly. They even became friends for a while. Onceler would call Lorax to his cottage, and they would talk and eat together. Oncie also took care of the animals when they were hurt, this made Lorax like and trust Onceler even more.

– Oncie and Norma have almost the same age and they met each other during their younger days. One day when Onceler was trying to get the material for the thneeds, he met her and they started to interact more and more.They kinda had a mutual crush on each other and they were lovers for a while (but a little while after Onceler started biggering his company they broke up). Since Oncie is kinda flirty, he tried flirting with her sometimes, and she was very shy and just laughed and giggled nervously whenever he did that. Sometimes she tried to kinda flirt with him, and she also liked to give him some tickles.

-> Just to note this, I am a shipper of Normaler, they are cute.

And also, no, Onceler is not Ted's grandfather here, like I said, Oncie and Norma broke up, so Norma had a relationship with someone else and then she had Helen (Ted's mom), but this other relationship didn't work as well and they also broke up.

– Once his mother came into action, saying that they should chop down the trees, he started to become very insecure and even denied cutting down the trees a lot of times. But she successfully manipulated him to do so.

•∆———————————<•>———————————∆•

Pre Greedler:

During his pre-Greedler era, he had a sudden change of behavior. The wish to be accepted took him to the brink, and he was manipulated harshly by his mother and other family members. Once he began to cut down the trees and his business grew more and more, the popularity, money, and respect from all those people created a new identity for him, an identity that he grabbed and let in, corrupting his sweet and good personality. Greed and pride made him forget about the promise he made to Lorax. Greed and pride made him arrogant and narcissistic. Greed and pride made him a cruel and careless person. He still showed a glimpse of who he once was, but mostly around his mother, since he tried very hard to receive her affection, but he became very cold with other people.

•∆———————————<•>———————————∆•

Greedler:

Ah, Greedler, when he was at the top of the chain. When his insanity started to consume him. The more power, money, and recognition he gained, the more cold and unstable his mind and heart became. The Onceler that people once knew was drowned in the abyss of his twisted thoughts, thoughts that talked to him like voices of darkness, calling him louder and louder. Something inside of him was trying to keep him sane and safe from his uncontrollable pride, but he locked himself in this insane identity. He began to despise being remembered as the man he was, anyone who tried to bring his old past self up in a conversation would receive a death stare from him, he could maybe even shout at this person if he was already upset. He's constantly frustrated and agitated because of the whole new bunch of responsibilities he has to deal with. He lets this frustration out by playing his guitar and singing, this helps him calm down a lot.

– First of all, there would be "Biggering" in my rewritten version (because it would be a crime of this song wasn't here). Since I made Greedler even more evil and intense here, it would be way better and make more sense to put Biggering as the villain song. Biggering shows how he acknowledges his actions but is so blind in biggering that he doesn't even care about the consequences at all (that is, until the last tree was cut down).

– As I mentioned, he became more and more insane and unstable as time passed. So, there was a point he didn't only chop down the trees…

Sometimes, the animals entered his company. They messed up the machinery by accident sometimes, messing with the furniture, and things like that. Lacking patience and getting angrier at the more difficulties that were messing with his business, he started to kill the animals that entered his terrains, and he collected their head as decoration in a hidden room where he kept some personal things (he also did this to scare Lorax away to not be bothered by him anymore).

– He began to give his mother the most expensive pieces of clothing and accessories, and she praised him for that, making him at least a bit happier even with the negative emotions that were almost ruling him.

– He threatened Lorax to have his head chopped off as well as the other animals if he kept trying to interrupt the production of the company. On this day, Lorax called him Beanpole, as he did in the past, but this just triggered Onceler's wrath, and he screamed at Lorax with his known death glare that could scare anyone. This was just a signal for Lorax to run away in fear if he didn't want to die as well.

– Onceler's employees fear him a lot. They say he is crazy (and they are not wrong at all). They try their best not to say anything that could enrage him, and they say bad things about him behind his back. One day, he caught them saying that his company shouldn't be that popular and that he was just a stupid maniac. This infuriated him, and he fired all of them out of burning rage when one of them said, "I doubt his mother really likes him anyways."

– Since that day, he had this phrase haunting him, and he started to wonder if his mother indeed was proud of him and loved him or if all of that affection was false. And it was…this broke him even more. None of that was real. This took him to the edge. He had thoughts of self-destruction constantly, but he tried his best to ignore them. But these thoughts made him even more unstable.

– His mental condition worsened, and he became more and more distant. During interviews, he would put on fake smiles and try his best to seem charismatic and eager to answer all the questions that were asked to him, but deep down he was almost pure darkness and he tried hard to hold his urge to yell angrily at his fans and the others.

– He has a collection of guitars within an specific room. The first one he ever had is hidden at the darkest corner of this room, and he doesn't like to look at it too much, because it reminds him of his past self.

– He was a millionaire, creator, and ruler of Thneedville, so even after committing those crimes (unsustainable biggering, pollution, desforestation, illegal logging, animal cruelty, etc.), he never got punished for that, he was the richest man and ruler of the city, and he was allowed to do what he wanted (that is, on his view), so he never actually got punished for everything.

– Sometimes he tries knitting a thneed all by himsel like he used to do, but he never brang himself into knitting them as good as he was able to. He feels kinda ashamed of this, and tries to keep it a secret.

– He mostly uses his glasses to hide the dark circles under his eyes. He passes nights wide awake very often, and he doesn't like to show how tired looks, so he uses his glasses to hide it. But he also uses them to hide his unerving glare, his eletric blue eyes have an air of death and destruction on them and he shows a lot of his twisted personality mostly through his eyes. So also uses the glasses to not scare any of his fans or interviewers. (And, the glasses are blue as some sort of honor to his mother, but once he knew she wasn't that proud of him at all, he quit using them).

– He was non-caring about nature at all. The idea of planting more seeds didn't even pass through his mind. He thought that there were sufficient trees to keep his business ongoing for longer than it was in fact able to. He was an irresponsible entrepreneur that was not into listening ideas that weren't his, and the more the time passed, the more his decisions worsened, until the company finally colapsed.

– Once the last tree was cut down and his business went out of the works, O'Hare immediately took over Thneedville, and he said that Onceler was prohibited from returning to the city ever again. Oncie, being completely shattered and having nothing else to do, just accepted and went away, never coming back. He didn't even want to look back at all the mess he made. He never saw his family again either, once they drove away.

– For a while, Norma visited Onceler weekly, so he wouldn't feel so alone. But, at some point, when O'Hare prohibited anyone from leaving Thneedville, she had to stop visiting him.

•∆———————————<•>———————————∆•

Old/Current Onceler:

– He lives isolated at his small house, and no one comes there to visit him. He only has corvids as "friends" now. He talks to them whenever they are around his house. He talks to himself a lot as well, and also he draws and scribbles random things to put his emotions out into the paper, this kinda helps him calm down whenever he's feeling agitated.

– Those operations that give food and water to Thneedville sometimes drive to Oncie's house and give him gas masks and air cleaning machines as well as part of the food and water.

– He keeps himself locked in his house for most of the time, but he sometimes get on the outside to walk a little on the surroundings.

•∆———————————<•>———————————∆•

▪︎ [Thneed Inc. Company]: I didn't add much, just changed some few details about Oncie's company

– The Thneed Inc. didn't only produce thneeds, it also produced machinery and mechanical items, and it also selled them.

– One of Oncie's innovative ideas was creating a city with more futuristic enviorments, and that's what he did. Since his company also produced machinery and mechanics it also created more modern/futuristic buildings, that's why Thneedville is more of dieselpunk/sci-fi/futuristic aesthetic city in my version.

– Because of the company's success and popularity, many rivals came in the way, trying to copy Onceler's ideas or trying harder on merchandizing to bigger themselves. And as pointed before, one of these companies is O'Hare's, and he was a huge rival to Onceler for a long time.

– Maybe it is just a little irrelevant mistake but somethings that kinda annoys me is the fact that all thneeds are showed to be pinkish red in the movie, but in my version they can be from other colors as well, since the trees also had other colors instead of just pinkish red.

•∆———————————<•>———————————∆•

▪︎ [Onceler and Ted's interaction]: Just some few details for funsies

– At first Onceler was very reluctant about telling his past to Ted, since he didn't like even remembering it, but he noticed that the boy was really interested and really wanted to know about the trees, so he began to tell the tale.

– "Wait…you met my grandmother?!"

"Oh of course! She was a dear person to me! I remember, we met at a Sunday afternoon when I was trying to grab the material for my thneeds, it was a bit more difficult without cutting the tree down, but I was willing to keep my promise. So I made a tower of random items, I stayed on top of it and then began my work. Buuuut I fell, and guess what? SHE was walking around! I almost fell on her, gladly she didn't get hurt. And that's the first time we talked. I still remember her pretty face very well…"

"Uhm…wait…are you…my grandfather?!?"

"WHAT?!? Oh no no no no no! I just dated her for a while but nothing more! How could I be your grandfather!? I never had any children at all!"

"Oh… O-O"

– The more and more Onceler and Ted interected, they became kinda close, and they built a friendship overtime.

•∆———————————<•>———————————∆•

AND NOW, FINALLY

▪︎ [The Ending]: and now finally, the last part of the rewrite, the ending. The ending in my version would be way more epic.

– Like it was mentioned before, people are prohibited to leave Thneedville, and they are given 3 chances before being killed if they try to escape. Ted obviously had to leave the city to meet Onceler, and he had to do it a few times to hear all the story. For the first two times he wasn't spoted leaving, but at the third time O'Hare noticed it, and he gave Ted a fair warning but the boy didn't listen to it and left again. And for this other disobedient act of leaving, O'Hare threatened to shut down the system of the hospital's room where Audrey was (if y'all remember, I mentioned earlier that Audrey fell ill and it was a life-threatening sickness, so if the system was shut down, she would die).

– Ted began to fear a lot for the death of his sister, but he still wanted to free all the city and to plant trees again. But now, he had to be way more careful, and he created a plan with his family to start a revolution in the city.

– The plan was:

1 - making more and more people join Ted and his family

2 - Helen (who worked on those operations of bringing food and water to the city) would try to secretly get Onceler to enter the Thneedville.

3 – invade the northeast part of the city to grab the last truffulla seeds that were hidden in Onceler's factory

4 – take O'Hare off of the command and making someone else as the leader of the population to lead everyone to a better life (this leader that would take charge is O'Hare's vice-governor, who was against his boss's ideas)

– Some people died in the (small) battle that happened. But most of the population actually got to live and witness the good changes that were yet to come.

–O'Hare eventually died from falling a huge height of Onceler's factory building.

– Audrey survived the sickness and was cured.

– Onceler and Norma got to meet again and be together < 3

– After a while, the trees began to grow more and more. The nature was returning bit by bit and then Lorax came back. Onceler got to apologize for everything he has done to the nature and to Lorax, and our orange lil guy forgave him.

– Now, Onceler was technically part of Ted's family since he got to be with Norma again, and they lived a happy life ever since.

[THE END]

YAAAAY!!! FINALLY!

I must admit I enjoyed writing all of this out, it was a fun experience and I really hope that I made the movie some justice fixing its mistakes and making it darker.

And yes, this is HUGE, it's literally SO long ;-;

If you've read it all til here, congratulatuions! You should receive an award for that lmao

Anyways, that's it! Bye bye! : D

#the onceler fandom #the lorax fandom #the onceler #lorax #lorax fandom #the lorax #lorax 2012 #greedler #onceler fandom

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toomuchracket · 1 year

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i was out for lunch with my friend today and this cute little baby was waving at me and when i waved back he started babbling and smiling 🥹 so now I’m thinking about having that interaction in front of matty and him being like in awe of you and then that sparks the conversations of you trying for a baby

STOP i ALSO saw a cute baby when i was out for lunch today (but it was like a 2 week old and he was crying softly and everyone in the cafe was like 😢 when we heard him)!! but let's say you and matty are out having a cute little date day, it's a friday in london in springtime and the sun is shining and the schools are in session so it's not as busy as it could be. and you've spent the past three hours in bookshops and record stores (a proper haul) and you're planning to do some shopping for new housey bits and trinkets because you're redecorating, but matty's like "come on, we'll go and get lunch, my treat" (he literally has not let you pay for anything the whole day. nightmare of a man. but so cute), and you end up in this cool little independent cafe down a side street. and you've ordered your toasties and you're having a little iced coffee each, enjoying sitting near the window to see the sun, just chatting and being all cute, when this family are seated at the table next to you - a couple who don't look too much older than you and matty, and their little boy, who must be around 1. and the way the tables are, any time you turn towards the window, you're looking directly at this little baby in his highchair, and he's SO CUTE - just all happy and smiley, not too loud, and he waves at you when you turn around. and you giggle and wave back, interrupting matty talking; he turns around to see the baby and smiles and waves at him too. and the baby just smiles even wider and starts babbling at you both, and i think it would be matty who speaks to him first like "oh, someone's chatty today! what are you saying to it then, mate?" and doing that thing where you pretend they're speaking perfectly and intellectually (which is very good for their brain development!), while you're laughing with the parents. and the mum is like "oh he really likes you guys, he's not normally so talkative! sorry!" and you're like "don't be daft, he's lovely? how old is he?" and then you have a little chat about the baby with her and her husband before you start talking to the kid too - and this little boy is just totally mesmerised by you, for whatever reason, just giggly and chatty and smiley. adorable vibes! anyway, the family go once they've had their coffees, and once you've bid them farewell with "bye, darlin'!" to the baby and a "take care" to the parents, matty just turns to you and smiles sweetly but conspiratorially. you're like "what?" and he's like "you were so good with that baby. like it was genuinely so cute. and asking all those questions about him and babies in general - you seemed really interested", and you go a bit sheepish like "oh, no, i was just being polite". and matty's like "hey, look at me, sweetheart - if you ARE interested in babies, it's not a bad thing. quite the opposite, actually", and you're like "... really?" and matty nods and says "well, yeah, i think about us having kids sometimes. might be nice, you know, having a little family". and you're a bit gobsmacked because it's never really come up before, but you're like "i think about it too, to be honest - kid with your hair and my... something, running around", and matty laughs and he's like "don't know if i'd wish this mop on anyone, babe, but i think a tiny combination of the two of us sounds nice. i'd be up for it, at some point", and you kiss his hand and you're like " maybe not right now, what with us redoing the house, but in the future absolutely". and matty smiles and kisses your hand back, and the convo moves on, but it lingers in the back of your minds - the seed of a decision to start trying for a baby is definitely planted <3

#mads answers asks #mads muses #matty asks #fluff asks #dad!matty

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scarletsaphire · 7 months

Text

Paulina has been feeling rather under the weather since after the school dance, but its nothing that some rest, relaxation, and an expensive trip to the chiropractor can't fix. Right?

---

For Phantasy Phest day 3 Wings/Scales @phantasycentral

The first few days after the school dance, Paulina was... dazed. That was the best way to put it. It felt like she was watching herself go through the motions of the day. It wasn't like possession; her body still do what she wanted it to do, still acted and spoke like she did. If she had been fully in control of herself, she probably wouldn't have done much different. Maybe a few extra comments about Manson's absolutely hideous "new" necklace (it already looked rusty and bent weird, so there was no way in hell it was actually new) but overall, nothing would really change.

Paulina came back to herself sometime on the third day after the dance. It would have been disorienting, to go from so distant and weird back to normal suddenly, but with the ache in her back, it was even worse. It started relatively minor; somewhere just below the normal aches and pains of period cramps, just between her shoulders. With just a few seconds of batting her eyelashes, her daddy had booked a private appointment with a chiropractor, and had called the school to let them know she was sick.

She could have gotten through the school day just fine, but she wasn't one to look a free day off school in the mouth, or whatever that saying was. It would have been a nice day; the chiropractor appointment wasn't until later in the day, so she was planning on going back to sleep until noon, redoing her nail polish, and doing a nice extensive skin care routine. She'd barely been able to sleep an extra thirty minutes before the pain between her shoulders woke her back up. By that point, the pain had progressed from the dull, annoying ache to a near stabbing pain. Much more annoying, much more painful, but still manageable. Paulina busted out the heating pad and herbal tea, and settled in for an uncomfortable day.

By the time her chiropractor appointment rolled around, Paulina was only keeping tears of pain from falling through sheer power of will and determination to not ruin her mascara. She couldn't get herself to sit up straight on the car ride there, the bumping of the car seat against her burning shoulder blades so painful she'd nearly bit clean through her tongue. The chauffer had shot her a few worried glances through the back mirror, but one angry glare reminded him of his place.

Paulina left the chiropractor's wishing she had never come. The man's first, gentle touch had her yelping in pain and him humming in confusion and consideration. "You have some nasty knots in your back," he had said, probing at the sorest spot even as Paulina flinched at the contact. "I normally only see this type of thing in older people with very stressful jobs. Has anything happened lately that might have caused this? Any stress at school?"

"I didn't realize my father was paying you to ask me about my day," Paulina grumbled. "Are you going to fix my back or not?"

"Of course," he'd said. "I just thought that-"

"You aren't getting paid to think," she snapped. "Just make it stop hurting!"

He hadn't spoken the rest of the appointment, instead trying to massage Paulina's back in a way that didn't make her vision cloud with pain. He failed. Paulina ended up walking back to the car hunched over and her hair covering her face. She'd ran out of willpower somewhere during the appointment, and her mascara had run, just like she knew it would.

As soon as she got back home, Paulina headed straight to her room. She placed the heating pad, the only thing that had offered any kind of relief all day, on her back, and laid face down into her mattress. It helped, at least a little bit.

Paulina passed the weekend in almost the same position, only moving to eat, use the bathroom, or turn up the heat on the heating pad. She'd passed the temperature she normally had it at the first night, and had maxed it early on Sunday morning. Despite the fact that it was burning hot, the pain was far much worse when it was lower.

Paulina was frankly exhausted by the time Monday rolled back around, but she couldn't miss school today. Not only would it be bad for her image if people thought she could get like, properly sick, and besides all that, there was cheer practice that evening. She couldn't just miss that if she wanted to be a flyer this year. Her back still hurt like hell by the time she was getting in the car to go to school, but it was manageable. Frankly, it was nothing compared to what it had been over the weekend. So Paulina grit her teeth, applied some pink sparkly lip gloss, and made her way into Casper High with a beaming smile on her face.

She'd managed to make it to third period, flying on the concerned wishes of her friends and followers, all saying that they were so happy she was back and cursing whatever illness befell her on Friday. She might've been able to make it longer, if the school hadn't shook with what the student body was beginning to recognize as the tell tale signs of a ghost attack. In their mad rush to evacuate the school, someone had bumped Paulina right in the shoulder blades, right between where the pain was most severe, and she'd collapsed to her knees.

"Polly? Come on Polly we need to go!" Star had called the moment she saw Paulina fall, but she was rushed away in the stampeding crowd. Paulina couldn't straighten, couldn't even move. All she could do was curl further in on herself and squeeze her eyes against the searing hot pain throbbing through her back. Every beat of footsteps sent another pulse of pain through her. She grabbed at her hair, pulling on it, trying to shift her focus to a smaller pain. All her tugging did is end up with handfuls of her hair in her fists, and a stinging sensation to accompany the rest of her pain.

Paulina didn't notice when the crowd dispersed; the pulses of pain continued, only getting worse and worse in severity. She also didn't notice the person saying her name until she felt the hand on her shoulder, causing her to shudder in pain. "Paulina!" A voice accompanied the hand. Paulina cracked her eye open, but everything was blurry. She could vaguely make out black and purple, but it wasn't clear. "Paulina now is not the time to be a drama queen. You need to move."

The hand wrapped around Paulina's arm and tugged on her, pulling her out of the fetal position. Whoever it was must have torn her shirt; a loud ripping noise echoed through the hallway. Paulina would have been angry, if the cool air hitting or skin wasn't so refreshing. It didn't get rid of the pain entirely, but it did get rid of at least some of it. "Oh shit. Ok. Didn't expect that," the voice said. "Ok, um. Cool, I can handle this. I'm just gonna..." The hand left her arm, before wrapping around her waist. "One, two, and lift!"

With a soft grunt, Paulina was lifted off of the ground. It definitely wasn't the cleanest job; Paulina could hear her (Paulina's head was clear enough to tell that whoever it was was a girl. Maybe Star came back for her?) labored breathing, and Paulina's...something was dragging along the floor. It wasn't her feet; she'd wrapped those around this person's waist not long after being lifted. It wouldn't make sense for it to be her hands, with how she was being carried. It was an odd feeling; she couldn't remember ever experiencing anything like this. It was nice, whatever it was, and every brush against the cold linoleum sent pleasant chills into her spine that helped lessen the pain more and more.

Paulina was dumped on the floor, and the whatever it was that had been dragging was pinched beneath her. She yelped, and shifted the appendage out from under her.

"Ok, so those are definitely yours and not just like. Glued to you or whatever. Good to know." Now that the pain in her back was fading, Paulina's brain was able to work at least a little bit more. Whoever this was definitely wasn't Star; Star could lift her, of course, she needed to for cheer, but Star didn't talk like this person. "Can you hear me, or have the clouds you're always walking in blocking your ears?"

Paulina sent a quiet prayer that she had heard that wrong. Anyone but her. Anyone but her. Anyone but... Paulina opened her eyes. Sam was crouched next to her, the standard look of disdain mixed with something that Paulina might have thought was concern, if it wasn't Sam. Paulina closed her eyes, groaned, and leaned her head against the wall.

"I feel like I should be mad about that," Sam said. "But if the roles were reversed, I'd probably do the same thing."

"Just go away, goth freak," Paulina said.

"Nope. Not gonna happen," Sam said. "Not with whatever all this is going on."

"Why, you trying to get blackmail or something Manson?" Paulina sneered. "Newsflash, but no one is going to believe you over me."

"I think you're the one who needs a newsflash."

"And what does Miss Small, Dark, and Gloomy have to tell the gossip queen of Casper High?"

"You have wings." Sam delivered the line without a hint of a joke in her voice, which would have been concerning, if Sam wasn't always so monotone all the time.

"Oh ha ha," Paulina replied, opening her eyes just to glare at Sam. "You really think I'm going to believe a lie as obvious as that one? Puh-lease."

Sam didn't answer. Instead she grabbed next to Paulina, hand brushing against sensitive not quiet skin, and pulling the appendage up into Paulina's line of sight. It was, in fact a wing; a thin membrane stretched across a boney frame. It was a soft, warm pink color, almost a peach; and it shimmered in the fluorescent lights of the room. It looked fake. Paulina wanted to believe it was fake. But she could feel Sam's hand against it, could feel how it stretched from how Sam was pulling it.

Paulina opened her mouth, trying to figure out some kind of retort, or at least some kind of reply, but coming up short. "I guess Miss Small Dark and Gloomy can tell you something you don't know." Paulina tore her eyes from her wing to look Sam in the eye. She was smirking.

"Of course you're enjoying this," Paulina said. She went to grab the wing away, but before her hand could reach it, it had pulled itself away, responding to her thought. "My life is over!" She couldn't keep the hysterics out of her voice. Why should she? She was a freak now. Even more of a freak than Manson and her weirdo friends. Paulina thought she could have a little hysterics. As a treat.

"Oh come on, its not that big of a deal. You're still alive, which is more than some of my friends can say."

Paulina burst into tears. "I don't want to be one of you weirdos!"

"Whoever said that you'd be welcome with us?" Sam asked, crossing her arms. Paulina cried harder. Sam uncrossed her arms, to hover them around Paulina. She didn't seem certain of what to do. That was fair. Paulina also didn't know what to do.

"It's ok, I'm sure we can fix this!" Sam settled on eventually.

"Who is this we?" Paulina said.

"You know what that's a very good question!" Sam said. "It's uh-"

Whatever she was going to say was lost under the sound of someone else's echoing voice coming from the wall. "Hope you're in here Sam, because I got hit something nasty. I think I can see the sandwich I had for lunch."

"Um, we're busy!" Sam called, but she was too late. The ghost boy had turned around the corner.

"I thought we agreed this was my bleed out bathroom!" he said. He was proving his point; the cut across his stomach was bleeding a concerning amount, and there was a pool of bright green ectoplasm pooling under his feet.

"Where else was I supposed to take her? She grew wings, Danny! Wings!" Sam grabbed Paulina's wing to prove her point.

"Hey!" Paulina shouted. "Don't just grab me like that!" She tore the wing back out of Sam's hands.

"You do make a fair point," ghost boy said. "But can you stitch me up first, and then we can deal with the wings?" He offered Paulina a far too familiar, sheepish grin. "Sorry, but I'm starting to see stars, and not in the good way."

"Fine, sit down." Sam reached into her backpack and pulled out a (medkit?). Ghost boy sat down on the tile floors of the bathroom, leaning backwards for Sam to get easier access to his wound.

Paulina narrowed her eyes at the two, wheels turning in her head. The two were comfortable with each other, which was weird enough, but especially since it wasn't just the comfort of necessity. They had talked like friends. And hadn't the ghost boy come in looking for Sam? She even knew his name! Danny.

The alarm bells went off, and she nearly hit herself in the head. She didn't blame herself for not seeing it earlier; she did try very hard to look at the losers as little as possible, but it was clear as day. Sure, their hair color and eye color were different, but everything else? It would be impossible to miss. Danny Fenton, Sam Manson's best friend since 4th grade, was bleeding ectoplasm on the bathroom floor.

She should say something. Paulina knew that she should. She didn't. If Fenton was the ghost boy, then this "we" Sam was talking about was the two of them, and maybe the techy nerd too. Maybe they could help her get rid of these things; she wasn't about to risk it by revealing that she knew.

#danny phantom #danny phantom fanfiction #danny fenton #sam manson #paulina sanchez #phantasy phest 2023

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soraka-in-warhammer40k · 10 months

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Who's up next for a refresh?

Now that the Nids got their ancient kits modernized, I decided to check on all the factions over at the Lexicanum that had no relevant releases over the last years.

Of course 99% of Space Marines disqualifies by default. Their minis might be the aesthetical equivalent of drywall, but that doesn't change the fact that they at least got something. Unlike, ya know, Grey Knights, who since 2011 have gotten TWO CHARACTERS and that's it. If anyone would be due for a makeover on the imperial side it would be them, but given how for over a decade GW has tried their best to pretend the faction does not exist I doubt they will get anything. So onwards to the other factions:

Adeptas Sororitas: Got re-released as a faction in 8th, and got a whole bunch of stuff in 9th. Not likely to get a refresh anywhere.

Adeptus Custodes: Also released in 8th with an miniscule model range. How these guys qualify as an army faction and not a variant of Agents is beyond me. Might get some stuff, but no refreshes.

Astra Militarum: Literally just got an update towards the end of 9th, but there's probably a lot of older stuff that need redoing. Likely to get a bone when their codex drops but nothing massive.

Heretic Astartes: Got a whole bunch in 8th and 9th, also not very likely to get a massive refresh.

Death Guard: Became a faction in their own right models-wise in 8th, and got some more in 9th. Too new to get some refreshes.

Thousand Sons: Released with Magnus in 7th, got a bit of stuff during 8th, and only a single token character in 9th. Nothing up there needed a refresh but rather new stuff really.

World Eaters: Released literally last year - we might get a new Kharn tho.

Chaos Demons: shares the range with AoS so no shortage of new releases on big characters and monsters, but a lot of their rank-and-file units are getting somewhat dated. Wouldn't be surprised if we got an upgrade to 2008's Bloodletters and Daemonettes.

Craftworld Eldar: Got a bit of a refesh in 9th, but I wouldn't be surprised if we also get some upgrades to their 6th edition stuff. Despite all memes not a very high priority from what I can see.

Dark Eldar: These guys are NOT having a good time. Most of their stuff is from 5th edition, and since then we have gotten a bunch of characters, two units, and a flyer - all over the course of 4 whole-ass editions. In dire need of a refresh.

Harlequins: lol. lmao even.

Genestealer Cults: fairly new, given how they only got a single character in 9th they will most likely get new stuff, but no refreshes

Leagues of Votann: Literally came out last year, same situation as World Eaters, currently waiting for their second wave.

Necrons: Got a refresh in 9th, most likely getting their 2012 and earlier characters redone this edition (Trayzin, Stormlord, Orrikan) when their codex comes out, although Camoptek-stuff and the Ghost Ark sure be showing their age.

Orks: gigantic model range. Despite solid releases every edition there's always stuff that needs to be updated.

T'au Empire: Got a bunch of stuff 8 years ago, and not much since then. 2 Killteam boxes and 3 named characters sounds like something, but when armies field models from 2001 that definetly does not help.

Overall in that list there's only three that stand out: Demons, Dark Eldar and T'au. If we look at the severety of outdated stuff, the DE should be totally up next, but my guess is that GW will tie their refresh to when the story focus jumps back to where Arks of Omen left off in the Webway. If that happens still this year, they get it first, otherwise T'au gets their Codex early 2024 which is the most likely time they will get anything.

#warhammer 40k #wh40k

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erinhime83 · 8 months

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Edit: lol, I thought I had posted these designs before, but couldn’t find them…until now. >.<

With the realization that we had a twenty year collab anniversary coming up (hold up, hold up, twenty years? Shiittt) and deciding to use the current designs for the characters rather than use the actual characters due to some…dislike of the story they came from, I discovered that I had recently redesigned all these characters, although I had forgotten how recent that had been. From what I recall, I had seen a twitter/tumblr post about Viking dresses, and saw one that just blew my mind so much that I had to design Buttercups’ dress around it. Just wish I had kept the link to the post, lol.

But as I looked at the designs, I realized I really really like them, but I have a new template for designs, and the older ones, although very nice, didn’t ‘look’ right anymore. So I made it my mission for the past couple of days to redo all the designs using the new template. (It wasn’t as challenging as you might thing, since I basically reused a lot of my lines. It was a lot of copying and pasting and fixing lines.) So I figured I’d make a stupidly long post and show off all the designs I did.

The biggest difference in this version is that I have designed to age up the characters. Sure, their story really doesn’t need it, but eh, I sort of like writing not-teen characters now. Besides, it makes the whole thing with people worrying about Buttercup not being engaged/not have any prospects a little more understandable, since she’s older. Rereading it, it was weird how everyone was so worried although she was seventeen.

Buttercup Angelia: Age 20. Buttercup is one of the voice characters, and she’s the daughter of a blacksmith. She helps her father with his job since she’s a Fire Mage. She’s one of the very few Fire Mages what wasn’t brought to the Temple when she was younger, since her parents decided they wanted to raise her. She is the second oldest of nine, and people consider her a bit odd because, well, technically she is. Her father educated her and she has a weird obsession with the written word, she doesn’t think the Lumentians are as evil as everyone makes them out to be, and she helps out at a forge. It’s really no wonder that none of the guys in the village have shown little interest in her, but she doesn’t really care. She’s a skilled archer, since every Alterian is required to know how to fight. She chose archery because she doesn’t like being up close and personal, and she’s really good at it.

I really love her dress, and how it’s sort of a call back to her first dress a bit. She really looks like a Viking!

Raito Akira: Age 22. Ratio is the other voice character, and he’s the second prince of Lumentis. His people don’t think too much about him, mostly because, well, he’s the second prince, not the heir. He’s more of a scholar than anything else, preferring to hide away in the library reading than attending his lessons. He’s a skeptic when it comes to religion, which hasn’t endeared him to the capitals’ priests at all, and they basically go around slandering him whenever they can. Raito is bothered by it because he does want to help his people out, but most of the people who live in the capital think he’s worthless. He goes on the journey to find out what happened to the Angelus Dei partially to prove himself and mostly because he was tricked by his older brother.

His outfit isn’t really anything new or original. Its sort of like his 2013 outfit, tweeked a little, but damn, making his sash longer worked wonders. I also redid his hair (ignore the fact that it’s Connor’s hair), and...wow. He looks awesome!

Clover Gunvald: Age 23. Clover is Raito’s bodyguard and best friend. Clover’s parents are royal guards as well, so she grew up in the palace and around Raito since they were close in age. Despite the fact that they were basically polar opposites, the two of them got along very well as they got older, such that Clover declared that she was going to protect Raito no matter what. She is a very skilled warrior, although she herself is an Earth Elf. She tags along with Raito on his journey because she knows he wouldn’t be able to survive on his own, and because, you know, she’s his bodyguard. And while Raito is annoyed that a girl knows how to fight better than he does, he doesn’t hold it against Clover because, well, she’s an elf. She’s a little distrustful of Buttercup at first, since she’s from Altere and a Fire Mage, but she warms up to her quickly once she realizes Raito’s interest in her.

Her outfit is ridiculously simple, but also awesome. It suits her very well, even if she lost her awesome jacket in the process. This looks better on her, in my opinion. Makes her look like a medieval badass.

Odessa Wilson: Age 21. Odessa is a Dragon Tamer that the group comes upon when they visit with a traveling merchant troupe. She’s from Tara Nora, being the only child of a poor farmer. She started traveling with the troupe about three years ago because she was always longer for adventure, and the advantage of the troupe is that they stop in her hometown several times a year, so she still gets to see her family. She Bonded with her dragon Regalis by accident when she was about ten, although it was more of his part than hers since he took an interest in her. (She didn’t find him as an egg, but rather when he was fully grown. He’s a good thousand years old or so). She ends up joining the group just for the hell of it and not at all because she develops a crush on Clover.

Odessa was always the hardest one for me to come up with a design for, for whatever reason. I wanted her to be tomboyish, but not overly so, and honestly, what I landed on here is perfect. I love her dark skin and light hair, and I love her outfit and I love everything about her. It just all works so well together.

Ruby Starleaf: Age 24. Ruby is pretty much the only one I don’t have much on, mostly because I keep forgetting that she exists, whoops. But Ruby is/was the sacred fairy before the Angelus Dei disappeared. The old one recently passed and she had just gained the position a few years ago, so she’s never really been in contact with the Angelus Dei. But thanks to that connection, she’s the only fairy who isn’t effected by her disappearance. She sort of randomly stumbles across the group and decides to join them, which Buttercup casting a communication spell on her so they could hear her like they would any normal person.

I can’t really say much about her outfit. It’s cute, obviously, and I love the wings. Another benefit of being the Sacred Fairy is that she gets an actual dress rather than the leaves and the like normal fairies wear, lol.

Ignatius: Age ???. He’s the Diabolus Dei, at least according to the Five Kingdom’s religion. His real title is the Younger God of Fire, and he’s considered the evil one of the four gods, which annoys him to no end. He’s the only one of them who actually interacts in the world and the people and he’s not quite sure why no one but the Alterians dislike him so much. He’s the one everyone is blaming for his sister’s disappearance, which he doesn’t understand. Why would he kidnap his sister? He ends up being summoned by Raito, mostly because he is confounded by the fact that a Lumentian prince is trying to summon him. He and the rest of his family started pulling away from the world about a thousand years ago, with his final appearance being about five hundred years ago, which is why there are skeptics like Raito out there.

I like how I ended up designing him. I’ve been trying to add a ‘flair’ to the gods’ outfits for a while, but doing something simple like this works very well as well. He’s the only one whose continued to pay attention, which is why he’s up on the current fashion.

The next group is the villain characters.

Selene Deangelo: Age 21. Selene is the second princess of Silverstine and Raito’s betrothed….sort of. (I actually forgot about this detail until I was rereading the story.) Basically, should Raito not be married by the time he turns twenty-five, he’ll be married to Selene. She is absolutely obsessed with this idea, despite the fact that Raito clearly doesn’t like her very much. He’s probably be fine with it if she wasn’t obsessed and annoying. She basically just recently moved herself into the palace right before the story starts, which annoys Raito to no end. Obviously, she views Buttercup as the enemy since Raito picked her over Selene. She doesn’t have much of a role in the first book beyond being an annoyance, but she’d be more of a villain in the later stories.

Her design…I really like it. I like the dress I came up with. It’s elegant and pretty and suits her extremely well. She’s pretty.

Dante Eld: Age ???. I really don’t have much on Dante, at least nothing that’s not spoilery. I remember I included him the first go around because he was a randomass character I had created, and I felt like I needed to use him, but he had no real purpose, and that’s sort of true now, at least for the first book. He’s supposed to show up and have no point, and then he shows up in later books as a villain and people’ll be like…oh, hey, I remember him! But anyway, Dante is a Dark Elf, and I switched him back to his original appearance (he was a traditional Dark Elf for a while) mostly because I already have a dark skinned elf. Plus, I always thought it was fun to have a Dark Elf that wasn’t a traditional Dark Elf, you know?

And eh, I didn’t change much about his outfit. It works, it’s dark, and it looks better in my current version, so I like it. I like how he turned out.

Aria: Age ???. Aria is the titular Angelus Dei whose disappearance at the beginning of the book sparks the adventure. What no one knows is that she chose to severe herself off from the world because she had been corrupted, and that she ends up being the main antagonist of the first book.

One thing I like about designing Aria is the idea that the other gods are not paying attention to the world around them after they start disassociating with the world, so their clothes are outdated. Way outdated, which is why she’s wearing a Roman inspired dress. Also, with Aria, I liked the idea of her looking like a storm cloud while she’s corrupted, since she’s the Younger God of Air. Which is why she’s in all greys there. She actually turned out looking pretty damn cute!

The next set is the ‘extra’ ones I did, and sort of what I consider the Lumentian designs, I guess. I mean, the first two designs are what the main three wear in Lumentis – Buttercup in the dress she’s given when she arrives at the palace (her ‘princess dress’, if you would), Raito in his prince attire, and then Clover in her royal guard uniform. I was going to give Raito the extra sleeve things I had given him in his previous prince design, but I sort of liked how this looked without them, so kept them off. Also, Buttercup sort of tries to de-Alterian herself so the Lumenian people might accept her more, but, uh, girl. You a Fire Mage. Can’t work yourself out of that, but that’s why she doesn’t have the braids around her face, or the eyeliner.

The other three, though, are Raito and Clover’s siblings.

Yukino Akira: Age 18. Yuki is Raito’s little sister, the only princess of Lumentis, and both her bothers are overly protective of her. She and Raito are closer, though, and she’s always sneaking off to hang out with him. She’s the first in the palace to accept Buttercup, since Raito trusts her. Raito hates the fact that she’s technically an adult now, and guys are starting to court her.

Her design is really cute, and her dress is something different but still medieval looking.

Fern Gunvald: Age 23. Fern is Clover’s twin brother and polar opposite. Where she’s a warrior, he’s a scholar, and was actually the first one to meet Raito when they met in the library when they were younger. He is Raito’s other best friend, although Raito and Clover are closer. Despite the fact that they are so opposite, the twins are extremely close and supportive of one another.

I love hos nerdy he looks, lol. He did have spiky hair, but that didn’t suit him (or look right), so standard boy hair it is, and it works perfectly for him.

Kazuto Akira: Age 24. Kazuto is Raito’s older brother and Crown Prince of Lumentis. He is, in a word, a womanizer, and has been seducing any girl who has shown any sort of interest in Raito for as long as he’s been able to. Not like Raito has really cared about any of those girls, of course. Naturally, he attempts to sway Buttercup as well, much to Raito’s annoyance. The brother do not get along at all, with Kazuto constantly having to prove that he’s better than Raito at everything.

His design isn’t anything exciting, but I like how I managed to make him look like a playboy prince somehow.

The next set, I suppose is the Alterian design, which are Buttercup’s friends as well as two of her siblings. Her friends aren’t featured that much, but I had wanted to design out their dresses, so…here we are. Buttercup had more friends in the original, but I whittled it down to three.

Lilac: Age 21. Lilac is the brunt one of the group, as well as being the oldest. She’s not engaged because all the guys their age are terrified of her, but no one’s really worried about her, despite her age, because she does have a guy she’s talking with. Also, she’s very independent. She’s trained in melee fighting.

Rosemary: Age 20: Rosemary is technically Buttercup’s best friend who also happens to have just recently become engaged to her older brother. She is sweet and gentle and perfect, and pretty much beloved throughout the village. (Given that she has the more complicated dress, I think you can tell which of the three is my favorite, lol). She’s trained in sword fighting.

Lavender: Age 20. Lavender is sort of shy and withdrawn, although not to the point where she’s soft spoken. She’s the one closest to actually getting married thanks to an arrangement her parents made with another family, although neither party minds since they’d been close since childhood. Thanks to her glasses, she’s trained in using a staff so she doesn’t have to get close to her enemies.

Seth Angelia: Age 22. Seth is Buttercup’s older brother and he’s highly protective of her thanks to being the only one older than her. He’s also the only Angelia son who’s training to following in his father’s footsteps – the others work on the family farm which is run by their father’s cousin. He and Buttercup are close and he’s unsure what to think about Raito’s interest in her. He was a little unsure about asking Rosemary to marry him, seeing as she had a lot of other options, but considering all the time she spent with him growing up, it was really no completion. He’s a trained swordsman.

It was hard to come up with a male Viking design, especially after seeing how plain they tended to be, but I think I did really good! I mean, he is really plain, and then you have Rosemary looking all gorgeous over there, and it’s sort of funny knowing they’re a pair. But I like how he turned out! He’s just as adorable as everyone else.

Lily Angelia: Age 12. Lily is Buttercup’s younger sister, and the second Angelia daughter. (With everyone aged up, I decided to give the Angelia’s two more children, and the last one is another daughter.) She is pretty much the opposite of Buttercup, believing herself above her own status and that she’s somehow going to catch the eye of some nobleman in the future, despite there being none in her life. As such, she’s a bit lazy since she doesn’t see the point in learning homemaking, although she’s forced to learn. She is obsessed with Lumentian culture, which irks everyone due to the fact that, well, Alterians hate Lumentians for the most part. Buttercup loves her little sister and all, but the two do not get along.

Lily ends up looking simple as well, but I amused myself with the idea that she’s wearing a Lumentian inspired dress that turned out extremely pretty! I wasn’t going to give her a braid at first, because at some point, she absolutely refuses to participate in any of the Alterian cultural attire, but figured she'd find a way to make it work where she was still pretty. I also like the soft pink on her.

I know the three girls look similar, but that’s because I found a design I love and wanted to run with it. I liked the idea that, since their village is a border village, their clothes would have some Lumentian elements to it anyway, and I just…I don’t know. I really like how everyone turned out.

I think my biggest problem with this story is realizing that I wrote the original ten years ago, thus making it a prospective story to write for NaNo, *dies* I mean, I still want to do Division, and it’s still, you know, two months away, so anything can happen, and knowing me, I’ll probably lose interest in this once it goes out, but there you go. I had to do these because my muse was bugging me, and I figured I’d write out this long ass description for my future self, lol. And because I wanted to put these designs out into the world.

#my art #designs #angelus dei

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