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iliveforyouilongforyouvesuvia · 23 days

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Do you think you could do like a characterization of the Familers?

Everytime I try to think about their personalities and how they would interact with each other, or M6, or Mc I just feel like I don't get it right. Like I've got like the very basics but that's like it

Malak is a crazy

Chandra is spoiled

Faust is a wildcard

Ianna is protective

Pepi is energetic

Idk Lucio’s familars ( i cant spell one of their names) but they are kinda like wild dogs, they do whatever they want

EVEN THEN, I still feel like some of these are wrong or don't cover most of their character or I'm mischaracterizing them on accident.

Could you maybe do some more Familers mini headcannons?

Like what do the Familers do when M6 is sad?

What do they do when Mc is sad?

How do they interact with each other on a day to day bases?

( I think you might have done one of these actually )

But I have more

What do they do when M6 or/and MC gets hurt?

What do they typically do during the day and/or What do they do when they aren't with M6?

How would they respond if M6/Mc was in a dangerous situation/attacked | How are they when M6/Mc is ill?

Some of these are probably answers in their routes but it's hard to remember/recall. I do wish they were in their respective routes just a little bit more than they are so I could get a could grasp of their personalities.

What I really want is just like a written out basis of what they are like? I don't even need the Mini headcannons ( but I do like them) Their personalities is just what I have a hard time grasping because it not like right in front of me or I'm not constantly reminded of it like the Li’s that I just forget or mischaracterize them.

So if you ever have the time and or patience, I would love if you could just write about their personalities or just more about them in general. They are right hand to the Li’s and I love them so much and I tried using the wiki but I don't trust it because apparently some of the info is just flat-out wrong. I love reading you headcannons and mini headcannons because I feel like you do the Li’s justice and this account is keeping the Arcana fandom alive. I'm very sorry that this is a really long ask and my grammar my be wrong in some areas.

I'd like to thank you if you've read through everything. I hope you keep making Arcana content in the future as me and many others really do enjoy your content and takes on the characters.

-🃏

Hi friend!! I hope you're ready for the full scale essay under the cut XD

(also, you are more than welcome to request some mini-hcs with the M6's familiars - please feel free to submit them individually so I can sort and try to answer them ^.^)

The devs don't go hugely into detail about how familiars work, exactly, but here's what we know: First, how in-tune to magic you are does affect how involved your bond is, but people still have familiars whether or not they have a lot of magical ability. Second, the bond makes the most sense if you think of it as being similar to a "soulmates AU" setup. The person and animal involved have a natural connection with the potential for a full-fledged familiar bond, but how that manifests changes depending on the effort and type of bonding that happens.

There's also a consistent pattern when it comes to vibes and personality, with the familiars being very similar to their respective humans. I'll go familiar by familiar from here ^.^

Malak:

Julian and Malak are (unfortunately) not very in touch with each other. Julian doesn't speak of him much beyond referring to him as "the raven", and while it's clear that they're more in sync than the average human and animal would be, Julian tends to find it more uncanny than comforting. Malak, in turn, tends to get quickly annoyed by this when his genuine attempts to help and protect and connect get consistently thwarted. He shares Julian's values and habits, constantly keeping watch (anxiously or otherwise) over his person and the people important to him, and often flying beak-first into situations that seem out of control with little regard for his own well being. Malak and Julian have the capacity to cover each other's blind spots. Julian is quicker at analyzing and navigating social situations that sometimes send the bird into a frenzy, while Malak is aware of magical happenings that Julian is completely blind to.

The two of them share an anxiety about the world being a constantly dangerous place and noble mindset focused around doing the right thing and protecting the people they love. The big difference is that Malak doesn't doubt his own abilities - as generally anxious as he acts with all his ruffling feathers and screeches, the raven doesn't hold himself back because he thinks someone else could do better. If anything, he's often pushing Julian to get over the self-deprecation and join him already. Unfortunately, neither of them has figured out how to listen to each other yet, which means more often than not they just get on each other's nerves. Given MC's ability to help Julian navigate things of a magical nature, they could very easily become the communication bridge between the two.

Faust

It's pretty heavily implied (if not canon) that Faust is the child of Asra's parents' familiars, Chimes and Flamel. She was given to Asra as an egg and hatched on one of their birthdays, and the two have been inseparable ever since. They have an incredibly strong bond, enough for them to send memories to each other, have conversations, communicate across long distances, and even share emotions. Faust loves Asra, herself, and MC almost equally, and in Asra's route she happily becomes MC's companion when Asra isn't around to do so. She also appears to have her own capacity for magic, frequently blipping from one realm to another as she pleases.

The best way (in my head) of describing her vibes are that one honorary younger sibling who is also the instigator best friend. While she's borne witness to Asra's toughest moments, she's received such excellent care and attention that she doesn't seem to have nearly the same levels of trauma - or maturity. Reading about her feels a lot like what I imagine reading about a teenaged Asra with a much kinder life would feel like - whimsical, mischievous, creative, impulsive, unpredictable, and carefree to the point of recklessness. She's still learning what it means to have limits (re: going off on an unannounced adventure, only to be caught and held hostage by the Devil) but when push comes to shove she's suprisingly dependable (re: sabotaging the ritual, right under the Devil's nose).

Due to her being so accessible to MC's character, she has a level of plot influence and general content that comes closer to a main character than the other familiars. It gives fan work more content to work with, but also less space to take its own creative liberty.

Chandra

Chandra is always hovering, and yet rarely directly involved. We know that Nadia used to be able to speak with her similarly to how Asra speaks with Faust, but she doesn't remember how. There's a wall between the two of them that they both seem to want to breach, but given the circumstances, they just haven't found the time and resources to do it yet. However, it's clear that they know how important they are to each other - Chandra seems to live at Nadia's beck and call, despite seeming so distant, and Nadia dedicates much of her personal time and interests to caring for her. They rely heavily on each other as allies in uncertain times (re: Nadia trusting Chandra in multiple routes to be her eyes and ears and carry her most important messages).

Chandra certainly has Nadia's independence, initiative, and desire for companionship. She's often seen on alert on the fringes and ready to step in and help take control of chaotic situations. However, where Nadia responds to a desire for companionship by initiating connection, Chandra is more reserved. She's present, she's paying attention, but she's not actively connecting until she's invited. She, like Nadia, has become accustomed to living in a Palace filled with with intrigue and uncertain loyalties, and it plays out in her reticence. She's much more likely to communicate interest by watching intently from a distance than by approaching and interacting. Over time, if MC is able to help Nadia find the way to communicate with Chandra again, they'll likely become her confidante in her efforts to be a good familiar.

Inanna

The best way to describe her and Muriel is trauma bonded. (Which, given Muriel's past, is arguably the bond that lets him receive the support he needs from her best.) They're both loners, both uninterested in connection until it's proven to be worthwhile, and both deeply distrusting of other people's motives. Inanna is Muriel's breaking point twice. First, when he's expected to kill her in the Coliseum (how they met), and second, when she's horribly injured trying to protect the heart of the forest. Both of those moments with her push Muriel to recognize his priorities and actually act on them. As a result, they have a deep mutual respect for each other - and a stubborn emphasis on still being their own people (or wolf). Muriel refers to her as his friend more easily than as his familiar.

Inanna as a character, however, seems to hold onto some of the traits that Muriel has buried under his trauma. She's more adaptable than he is, quicker to accept change, and considerably more hopeful and optimistic. She's faster to act (often the one prompting Muriel to follow through, when he'd rather continue thinking), and she's nosier. Where Muriel analyzes and then quietly judges while respecting someone's decision, Inanna analyzes and then does her best to assist any kind of good change. Whether that's leading MC to Muriel when he's injured and would rather be left alone, or expressing the affection towards them that he's still trying to hide, she acts like a big sister. Independent, a bit of a bully, fiercely protective, and loyal beyond measurement. She doesn't need to bond with MC through Muriel, she can do that herself.

Pepi

Portia met Pepi on Mazelinka's ship, as she was on her way to hunt down her older brother and beat some sense into him. The two of them bonded instantly, and when the time came for Portia and Mazelinka to part ways, Pepi gave up the life of a ship cat to stay by Portia's side. Portia doesn't seem to be fully aware of Pepi being her familiar and sees her as more of an uncannily well-bonded pet. At least, until her own route, where Pepi learns how to speak. Up until that point Portia just seems to see Pepi more as an unusually intelligent cat that she likes to talk to. The two of them are each other's family, Pepi always ready to lend a helping paw with unruly birds, and Portia always happy to spoil her with snuggles and treats.

Pepi has Portia's optimism, love of mischief, and dauntless attitude. However, they differ somewhat in how they view themselves. While Portia struggles to see herself as the main character of her own story, often fading into the background in order to support someone else, Pepi is more than happy to take center stage. This cat can and will prioritize her own needs and preferences if she thinks nobody else is going to do it, and it often lands her in trouble (re: stealing your heartsong festival gift, seeking out nap places that give her access to forbidden fishies, etc). She's quick to make her own friendships, and when you and Portia start your new life together, she'll consider you one of her family as well. Thanks to her retained ability to speak (upright ending) you'll never have to go without a conversation partner again.

Mercedes & Melchior

Lucio, unfortunately, didn't realize these two were his familiars until after he'd met you. While a large part of his menagerie building was his search for a familiar, he failed to notice how those two in particular were so attached to them. Thankfully, they're never on their own given how closely they stick to each other. Their lack of a strongly developed magical connection with Lucio doesn't really stop them from being able to communicate. They vibe with him on a similar act-first-think-later wavelength, having such little interest in impulse control that it's impossible not to know what they want. All you know is that they're hellbent on accomplishing it and on getting out of whatever consequences they invite with a pair of large, shining puppy eyes.

Besides their impulsiveness and chaotic nature, Mercedes and Melchior share Lucio's tendency to live in the moment and focus on life's pleasures. However, they also have the emotional intelligence and undying loyalty all good dogs do. When Lucio was "dead" they spent three years guarding his wing and trying to find help for him, and when you join him in his search for answers, they'll remain with you and empathize with you regardless of the dangers involved (re: one of them going with Lucio to get help, the other staying next to you and whining when Valdemar has you strapped to a gurney). They instinctively track your emotional state and are often the reason Lucio notices how you're doing as quickly as he does. For all their bratty behavior, their doggy bodies are overflowing with love for the people they care about and nothing makes them happier than being with them. Don't mistake love for respect, though - they take orders from nobody.

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hellothereiplaygames · 6 months

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Some thoughts on Asra's route...

Replaying Asra's route after having played Muriel's really hits different...

In one of the other routes Asra and Muriel appear to start a romantic relationship, and in Asra's route it's very clear that Muriel cares very deeply for Asra and dislikes the Apprentice. He mentions in one of the paid? dream scenes that he's worried about Asra and the Apprentice fading into their own world and leaving everyone else behind (again, apparently), and that he's determined to stop this from happening. His concern for Asra and initial hostility toward the Apprentice may be rooted in jealousy, not only because his oldest (and only) friend was more or less taken from him, but perhaps with romantic connotations as well.

In Book XI: Justice, Asra and Julian stage a mock trial by combat against Muriel. Though he apparently agreed to participate and is implied to have returned to the Coliseum of his own volition, presumably out of concern for Asra, who has been accused of being Julian's accomplice... he is still more or less backed into a corner and forced to play along with Asra and Julian's plan to stage a fight.

Now, to be fair to Asra, he states after everything goes wrong that it wasn't supposed to end this way, and it appeared that he was attempting to not only exonerate himself and Julian from their charges but somehow help Muriel overcome his past (he does disintegrate Muriel's chains during the fight no matter what choices you make). There was a point during this that I thought I could guess what Asra's plan was regarding Muriel's past, but being refreshed on how it actually pans out, I can't remember it now. Something about making the people of Vesuvia realize how barbaric the Coliseum was under Lucio.

The thing that stands out to me throughout this whole ordeal is that Asra knows about Muriel's trauma. He knows he was enslaved to Lucio and forced to fight and execute people in the Coliseum. He knows that Muriel is terrified of hurting other people, especially those he cares about. In Asra's route, the only person Muriel cares about is Asra, so hurting him is triggering for him. He literally is in a stupor after the board he was using as a weapon splinters off and hits Asra in the mouth, making him bleed. This is clearly meant to make the reader worried about Asra, but Muriel reacts as well, and appears hypnotized by the blood. I remember the first time I read this I thought he was going to have some crazy berserker-Hulk sort of reaction, but having read his route, it's way more tragic.

Though Muriel did seem to return to the Coliseum of his own volition, it does seem that Asra took this as a sign that he was coming to terms with his trauma. He was willing to exploit Muriel's care for him in order to save his own skin so he can be with the Apprentice. Though I recognize Asra's other toxic traits to some degree, I also have similar ones myself so they don't really stand out to me. This, however, where he more or less disregards Muriel's feelings on the matter, is actually really crushing. In Muriel's route, his whole thing is that he DOES NOT want to fight, he DOES NOT want to even spar with the Apprentice with blunt sticks out of fear of hurting them, so why would he willingly go along with this unless he was more or less in the same position Lucio put him in? Fight in the arena, or something bad will happen to Asra.

Asra knows this, and puts him through it regardless. During the whole fight, Julian's actions are written so as to make it seem like he's the one messing things up--he takes the "finishing blow" that Muriel was going to deal to Asra and gets knocked unconscious. Asra spends most of the entire time doing flashy, dramatic magic tricks that get the crowd cheering for him. After he "wins", he and the Apprentice are carried out of the Coliseum like heroes. Though Asra will try to soothe Muriel if the Apprentice so chooses right before the end, and he does look for Muriel in the crowd, he seems otherwise unbothered or unaware of the impact this may be having on his oldest friend. Which is pretty shitty.

Of course, Asra, Julian, and Muriel are all playing characters during their fight--Asra is the flashy magician, Julian is the rogueish BDSM dagger guy, and Muriel is the Scourge. Asra obviously can't show his concern even if he wanted to because he's supposed to be fighting Muriel. But putting his bro into this situation in the first place says a lot about his character. Though Julian is the one whose route is based around self-loathing because he believes he hurts everyone around him, Asra is the only one who gets what he wants out of this ordeal, and he even says so right before the chapter ends. Muriel was forced to relive his trauma and didn't get the resolution that was intended, and Julian gets KOed by a punch that literally sent him flying across the arena (though he probably enjoyed it tbh, he's a nasty little man like that lmao).

I wonder if this dynamic between Asra and Muriel was intentionally written this way in order to further amplify his tunnel vision when it comes to the Apprentice. Is this is how he acted in the past, causing Muriel to hate the Apprentice as he does and remark that he won't allow it to happen again? Maybe (probably) I'm reading too much into it, but as a survivor of abuse and trauma it rubs me the wrong way much more than Asra's obsessive, clingy nature. Of all of the reversed ends, Asra's is the one that actually scared me and kind of haunted me, because it hits a little too close to home.

These are all just thoughts that I wanted to spill out because I thought it was interesting and I wasn't sure if anyone else has talked about it before.

#the arcana #asra alnazar #muriel the mountain man #muriel of the kokhuri #asra the arcana #asra the magician #muriel the arcana #my thoughts #i mean maybe they do talk about this later in the route and i just forgot but???#considering lucio's route and the way that was handled i don't expect it #i adore asra #he literally checks all my boxes for my favorite tropes #but like... this actually is kind of insane and i hope muriel was the one to be like “i can play scourge... i guess” but i doubt it #it also makes me wonder if asra projected onto julian and that's why ilya thinks everything is his fault #because i can't see mazelinka and the grandmas raising julian to think he's not worthy of love #asra however might have given him that impression during their time together?? which is just a big no from me ok #just some thoughts though lmao #this game has returned as my major hyperfixation so i apologize for the novel and all these tags

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lloydfrontera · 5 months

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hi. hello. can y'all spoiler me the 3d and 4th spoiler endings pretty please. i've started reading the novel like two days ago and i just lovelovelove spoilers especially sad ones :)

sure!

the third ending spoiler is pretty simple. lloyd sees himself opening a journal, a diary, written in his own handwriting. he thinks it must be a good sign, a consequence of a live so simple, so relaxed, he must have started to keep a journal to keep himself entertained and keep the boredom away.

that is until he starts coughing blood onto the pages and wiping it away with a tattered and ragged sleeve. with hands that have no wrinkles.

then his future self starts flipping through the pages of what his life has become. arcos had a riding accident. he broke his neck and couldn't feel anything from the neck down. he died the day after. marbella isn't talking anymore. she just works on her garden. emily screams when she finds her in the morning. the manor, so warm once, now just feels cold and empty. lloyd can't reach julian. he won't respond. sherazade does. she shouldn't have left the house that day. she shouldn't have left julian alone. he was stabbed in his own home.

alicia starts losing her arm. the two loan sharks are murdered.

lloyd keeps thinking of drinking

war breaks out. sherazade is killed in battle. the sultan falls to his death. arosh is paralyzed in a hunt. silurian is crushed by a carriage.

he shouldn't have started drinking. he can't stop. berkis wasn't lying about him having an extra life. he came back a few days ago and it doesn't matter. it doesn't fucking matter. he couldn't protect anyone. he just wants the pain to stop. he just wants to rest.

the last person he sees is javier, rushing to his side as he chokes on his own blood.

the fourth ending is different.

javier is at his side. he puts a coat over his shoulders. lloyd tells him he has to say something. it's a bit long. javier tells him it's okay. he's crying.

lloyd is not talking to javier.

alicia's arm was bothering her. it got worse, much faster than expected. it doesn't just go numb, it rotted away, until she was forced to cut it off. her personality changed, little by little, turning more and more paranoid, thinking she'd been poisoned by someone around her. so she executed all the servants and when it didn't help, she hung all the wizards, starting a civil war.

more than half the kingdom is destroyed. most of the noble families are exterminated. fields and villages burned everywhere.

lloyd stayed neutral during the war, until alicia used the trade route he built for her to invade the veneto kingdom, making it fall in less than ten days. the path he'd dug. the route he created. not to invade but to trade.

so he protested. and the title he'd relied on for so long disappeared. and as soon as the title that made alicia trust him implicitly went away, all her doubts came back with full force and he was immediately branded a traitor and public enemy to the royal family. they went to war.

and of course they won. there was never any other option. they'd known the frontera family was far more powerful than the royal family for a long time.

the castle was captured fifteen days ago. alicia committed suicide.

and just the day before, lloyd had to bury arcos and marbella. they were killed while he was away from home. they thought they were receiving an urgent letter from lloyd.

so. he made his choice.

he can send one message to his past self. he can save everyone. he just. has to die.

and he has a very reliable way to die sitting right beside him.

he tells javier it's time. they already talked about it.

javier raises his sword. his hand is trembling slightly. he's crying.

"is this really the only way?"

"yes"

"..."

the blade falls.

his consciousness is fading quickly. he has one last second to tell his past self who's accelerating the restoration of fate.

the king of hell really wants him to work for him after all

#hey i got an ask #Anonymous #tged #the greatest estate developer #tged spoilers #lloyd frontera #javier asrahan

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themushroomgoesyeet · 3 months

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It's time ladies and gentlemen

Arcana characters as Disney's Hercules

I promise not all of these are gonna be Disney themed lol I'm just a Muriel simp (if you couldn't tell) and when I originally came up with the Disney princess idea Muriel as Hercules started rotting a hole through my brain so here we are! Also, we're gonna get some side character/familiar action here as well, yay!

Asra, Nadia, Julian, & Portia - the muses

Are there other characters that these four could fit? Probably

Am I going to fit them there? No

Someone needs to be the muses, and I choose these 4

From left to right (since none of the muses are named) Portia, Julian, Nadia, & the last two get subsumed into Asra

Idk I think they'd have fun jamming out & watching Muriel do his thing

Lucio - Hades

Oh god I can hear the Lucio simps screeching at me in the comments already

But consider: am I wrong tho

Let's face it bro is the villain in every route but his own and the cynical, "better than thou" personality that they both share just fits so well

Plus this version of Hades is a Satan analog who makes binding deals with others for his own benefit, and doesn't that sound like a certain devil we all know?

Not to mention both of them are trying to escape the realms they've been assigned & make themselves god king of everything

Two words: ✨anger issues✨

Morga - Phil

And now we get to the fun characters outside the M6

I will admit, Phil is a lot nicer than Morga, but jaded older mentor figure trying to make up for failed prodigies fits

Plus, Morga was Muriel's mentor in his route

I feel like both also fit into the role of proud parent figure by the end of their respective stories

And both are disapproving of their pupil's romances lol

Inanna - Pegasus

Admittedly Inanna is a bit more no-nonsense than Pegasus is, but she can still be goofy and fun when she wants to

Incredibly supportive of their human companions, important assets in battle, their appearance started the main character on a path for a better and more fulfilling life

Not much else to say here it just works

Vlastomil and Volta - Pain & Panic

Honestly idk if I can fit Vulgora and Valdemar into the Hercules narrative, but at least I could get these two in here

Vlastomil is Pain and Volta is Panic; I realize both could probably fit into Panic's role as they are the more timid and mild mannered courtiers, but I've chosen things this way because Volta is a little bit more flighty and afraid to commit crimes like Panic, where as Vlastomil is a bit more bold (when he's allowed to be) and better fits Pain

There's also the whole shape shifting deal they can all do

Khamgalai - Zeus

This one.....is a bit weird ngl, I'm still not quite sure about it

Honestly this is the ONLY time I will conflate someone so near & dear to my heart with Zeus

Mostly this all fits into the "detached/secret family member" archetype

And....I mean Zeus in this narrative at least is actually very kind & caring, as well as a proud dad which is similar enough to Khamgalai to work ok

Plus they both act as a guide for the main character when they're trying to find/drifting away from the plot a little bit

Merf (my MC) - Meg

I know what you're thinking

And I'm going to state once again that I am a huge Muriel simp

My MC is also a self insert, and for as long as I can remember I've always identified the most with Meg, more than any of the other Disney women

Anyone who has read my fic, seen the stuff I've posted about my character either on this blog or others, or even just talked to me on the arcana discord started by @iliveforyouilongforyouvesuvia can probably see that our personalities are very similar

Meg is very special to me as a character and I'm literally writing a post about mashing together my beloved and one of my favorite Disney movies, I'm not apologizing for conflating her with myself

#the arcana #the arcana game #arcana #muriel of the kokhuri #arcana mc #count lucio #portia devorak #julian devorak #asra alnazar #nadia satrinava #arcana as _

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caernua · 5 months

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PLEASE drop the Arcana opinions

WHY THANK YOU FOR INDULGING ME ANON i will drop some of my hot takes

under the cut bc i went a lil crazy and this is very long (sorry)

i don't really like how much they sanitized the game, i feel like they just made an effort to make everyone much much nicer and agreeable than they initially were especially in the prologue, which is okay (don't get me wrong we love positivity and growth), but at the same time there were moments where i felt like. it was a lil much and a little juvenile. like... it's okay for the main cast to have dislikes between eachother and i was kinda feeling like they eliminated that at one point? it was okay for asra and julian to be bitter, it was okay for nadia to be more hard-hearted and commanding. it was okay for lucio to be liked by his people and not the butt of every joke, it got to a point where he's not believable as a villain or a threat (but tbf muriel's route kinda fixed that) and i definitely think they did that bc of the backlash. a lot of people were saying asra is shady and toxic to julian and nadia is too commanding but ... so what? they looked sexie while doing it so what's the problem??? oh and come to think of it the magic system kinda played into that? i'm not a huge fan of the magic system in the arcana it's very wishy washy and oh everyone can do magic now actually it's within ✨all of us✨. i think it's just not well done

i actually think the earlier chapters and the prologue are overall much better than the last few ones for the main 3 and that includes the cgs. the first few cgs are so beautiful??? the later ones look so weird and uncanny to me?????? i know they had different artists on the team obviously and i think the earlier cgs i'm referring to were moreso done by dana rune and veronica liwski (who by the way deleted their artstation. wild. this is what i mean when i say this is a WASTELAND) and it's a shame how little that is out of the full no. of cgs. dana rune the way you draw asra aaaaaaaaa

i think the way they went about the endings is so, so CLEVER. the choices you have to make are quite subtle, i remember we were wracking our brains as the chapters were coming out to discover what exactly were the good/bad choices and what they could lead to. i like that some of those choices are so subtle that they're pretty much impossible to catch. (for instance. in lucio's first chapter when he tells you to hurry up with the spell you can reply with 'shush/be patient.' those answers are almost the same but they lead to two different endings!!! wild!!) and i think there's a very good balance between 'hard to catch' and 'pretty obvious' choices! and the fact that they went about creating bittersweet endings rather than 'bad' endings is wonderful. i think it's ten times more impactful to have an ending where yes, you are with you love interest and all is well, but not quite. that gnawing feeling of 'what did i do wrong?' sticks to you and urges you to analyze the main characters and it's such good characterization!! i just adore how they went about the endings, it's not too obvious, not too subtle, not too heartbreaking, not too drastic, it's just RIGHT!

i'm really gonna try not to make this next one a novel but asra's route is one of the most beautifully told, gut-wrenching, soul-crushing, utterly devastasting love stories i came across in any media ever. i'm moreso referring to the set-up itself so the prologue + the earlier chapters + everything that happened beforehand. i think his route is underrated just in the sense that. the prologue itself is comically superior when it comes to asra's route, and yea that's bc he's the only one the mc has a preestablished relationship with. but UGH! the fountain scene is probably my fave scene in the game, i love how they mirrored it later on with the roles reversed, it was PERFECTION. they said 'let's take idiots in love' but make it actually make sense and a tragedy. and let's make it the most devastating reason we can think of. it's amazing. the pining, the heartache, the suffering. the mystery being revealed to you little by little (because otherwise the mc goes catatonic, so asra has to be patient, patient, patient) and being flooded by the questions of what were they like before all this?? so interesting to think about. i think it's very important in games like these to stimulate the player into trying to think of a backstory and let their creative juices flow and asra's route does that so well! paradoxically it's also true that they take some of your freedom away as a player because you do find out that there's a bit of history there whatever route you are playing but. the fact that it hardly matters bc he loves mc so much that he would never take their freedom away is amazing. just realizing the amount of love he has for mc, the restraint he has had all those years and how painful it must have been, holy shit. GUT-WRENCHING!! this is why everytime i play another route the second asra shows up and says something even remotely tied to the past i gotta close that route and go back to him kfdhgkjfhdg. this quote in lucio's route is particularly making me scream shit vomit: 'he looked like my first memories of him. kind, but weary, and so very sad.' bitch what the FUUUUUCK

and just. the vibes and the writing of this route overall hoooo bitch. 'why must he go where i can't follow?' 'do i remember? how could i ever forget? i love him, i have to tell him, even if it kills me'. when they kiss for the first time and asra doesn't even dare move because he has held back for so long, and he's physically shaking (bitch me too the fuck). 'i feel it radiating off of him. i want you. i need you. i miss you so much' that insane orpheus and eurydice parallel in the early chapters which also serves as foreshadowing!!! 'i dug until my fingers bled'. 'i try to stay away from you but my heart keeps pulling me back' THE WHOLE DREAMS AS A VESSEL BETWEEN LOVERS TROPE (this shit kills me personally everytime) 'everyday my love for you grows brighter and brighter until it consumes me'. just. this idea of 'a thousand life-altering things happened to part us, but even when i have no idea who you are, i will sooner or later fall in love with you, simply because you are you and i am me and it's bound to be like this, you are my home and i am yours'. INJECT ITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT 💉💉💉 I PLAYED THIS GAME WHEN I WAS 19, NOW I'M ALMOST 25 AND I'M STILL READING HIS ROUTE CRYING SHITTING THROWING UP AND KICKING MY LEGS IN THE AIR. i'll be a senile 90 year old lady in the old folks' home playing this stupid mobile game on my home crying and thinking 'damn bitch i need to get myself a gemini like that what the fuck'

not that it's a hot take but dorian sucks ass

#the arcana #this is so deranged anon i am SO SORRY #much like lucio i exist to pet animals and be annoying and my roommate's cat is in the hallway rn so #anonymous #asks

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shrinkthisviolet · 1 month

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Gonna go the less expected route here: Julian Albert, Kamilla Hwang, and Joe West for the fictional character bingo.

Ooh I appreciate the variety!

Julian Albert:

He just kind of Exists to me 🤷‍♀️ I also didn’t like Caitlin/Julian (hence “canon’s not real if I don’t look at it”). I found him kinda off-putting tbh. The show’s no stranger to jerk characters (Harry, Ralph), but Julian doesn’t really have the charisma to endear him to me like Harry and (to a lesser extent) Ralph do.

Also, he was only really there a) for Caitlin’s plotline (and his inclusion in all of it fell flat for me) and b) for the Alchemy red herring (which, as with Savitar pre-reveal, was a waste of time imo)

Kamilla Hwang:

So admittedly I used to be a lot more neutral towards her, if only because I felt she and Cisco were kinda thrown together by the writing and not given a ton of development as a couple. I…still somewhat feel this way, but I also like the two of them together…and as far as Cisco ships go, Kamisco’s my favorite 💞 (Goldenvibe is second for me, and I’ve been warming up to that more lately too)

Also, since Kamilla is your favorite, I’ve become fonder of her and Kamisco through following you 🥰 Kamilla is sweet, driven, and when the show does allow them to spend time together onscreen, they seem to get each other in a very special way. It’s not my favorite ship, but I find it a sweet one regardless.

As for “the fandom’s so mean”…something I’ve noticed is how some Caitlin/Cisco shippers tend to write Kamisco (and Kamilla, by extension) as very boring/bland/not right for Cisco. Which…fine, people can have ship preferences, but I remember one fic in which a character told Cisco, “[Kamilla’s] nice, but you deserve better than nice”, and that irked me.

Like…I get that Kamisco isn’t as developed as Caitlin and Cisco’s friendship, and even I shipped Caitlin/Cisco for a time, but…it rubs me the wrong way to see a white woman prioritized over a WOC as Cisco’s love interest when canonically, he’s only ever romantically been interested in said WOC and not the white woman. I get the fondness for Caitlin/Cisco, but if you need to throw Kamilla, a WOC and Cisco’s canon love interest, under the bus to do it…I question how strong your ship really is.

(Fun fact, fics like this are part of the reason I don’t really ship Caitlin/Cisco anymore!)

Joe West:

So…I have mixed opinions. I love him in most of the show, especially his relationships with Barry, Iris, Cisco, and Wally. Even his dynamic with Harry in s2!

I don’t, however, like him in s1 with Iris, and even with Barry, mostly pre-reveal. When he’s shooting down Barry at every turn, making him feel stupid, not even entertaining the idea of the impossible, not even stopping when he sees Barry’s given up the fight…yeah, that was sucky of him. It shouldn’t have taken Iris’s intervening for him to back off.

And with Iris…the lying, the gaslighting, the coddling…listen, I get he’s overprotective, but he is way moreso of Iris than Barry. Keeping her out of the loop for so long and not even apologizing to her?? Joe, Barry made his choice, but you also asked him to do it! You lied to Iris for months and acted like she was crazy when she mentioned seeing the Streak! You even got mad at Barry for Iris’s choice to put her name on her blog!

And that stuff with Eddie…ugh, that’s infuriating. The way Joe acts so entitled to her love life in s1, the way he denies Eddie permission to propose for ages just because he thinks he knows better than Iris who she should marry?? And the show doesn’t win any points with me for treating him as being right for that.

Oh, and also Armageddon?? When he yells at Barry and Iris for wanting to let Thawne die?? Saying they’d be destroying their family by doing so?? JOE CAN YOU BFFR?? We’re talking about EOBARD THAWNE! Killed Nora Allen, framed Henry Allen, stalked your son-in-law, killed Cisco, killed Eddie, killed your granddaughter, changed time and almost married your daughter??

I do love him in the rest of the show though, I think he’s a great fountain of wisdom and his relationships with his kids shine (hence the square with all the hearts, because when those relationships are at the forefront outside of s1, it’s like magic). It’s just those instances when I dislike him.

send me a character (or multiple) and I’ll fill out the bingo!

#character ask game #character bingo #julian albert #kamilla hwang #joe west #the flash #anti snowbert #anti killervibe #(just as a precaution)

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thenightcallsme · 6 months

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The Arcana: Julian's Route | Chapter 1

!! THIS STORY IS A DETAILED RETELLING OF THE ARCANA, INCLUDING PAID SCENES IN BOTH PROLOGUE AND JULIAN ROUTE. ALL CHARACTERS EXCEPT THE MC ARE PROPERTY OF THE ARCANA FRANCHISE !!

A/N: This is a reupload from my AO3 cause I want to branch out. Enjoy!!

Summary: In a small shop in Vesuvia lives Vivian Caelum, a student of the magical arts who works as a shopkeeper for her tutor, Asra Alnazar. Her name is not known in the streets as her master's is, nor does she have full control over her magic yet. But one night, there's a knock at her door; Vivian is needed at the palace to help Countess Nadia upon her personal wishes. Soon, what she thinks is a small task is something she would never have expected her magic to be used for: Vivian must find Count Lucio's murderer. Will she be able to track down the infamous murderer and finally put the Countess's years of restlessness to ease? Or will the killer captivate her in ways she can't explain? Is she even running after the right man? Something deeper than she thought is happening within her beloved city, and she's about to understand the vastness of the magical realms.

Pairing: Julian Devorak x Fem!Magician Reader

This Chapter Contains: mentions of blood and the slightest instance of violence

Word Count: 5,791

find the rest of the chapters in my masterlist here :)

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A smile, a brief hug; an exchange so short that we may as well not speak at all. That's how this always goes. Every time I wish it was different. Of course, it's a wish for a reason, a hope that never manifests despite however hard I could train my intentions on it.

“I'll miss you.”

I never hear those words I return. You would think I had earned even a small acknowledgement after all these years.

It's the dead of a cold moonless night. Distant stars struggle against the thick blanket of clouds, choking in their mist, drowning in the promise of rain. Dew has already set on the cobble streets beyond the cozy and cluttered walls of our home. It’s the perfect night to relish in the familiarity and comfort of home. Even in restlessness, my company persists. Everything about tonight overcomes any calling to seek something new. According to Asra, the beginning of a long journey could not come at a better time. His intriguing mauve eyes are wide and aware with vigour even at this time of night. An ungodly hour. Nothing about him tells me he thinks otherwise, wishes that he could get at least a few more hours’ worth of sleep curled up in the bed we are forced to share.

The sentiment is felt by me nonetheless. I make sure it doesn’t go unnoticed, willing every ounce of annoyance and fatigue into my aura. I know he can feel it. Not a moment goes by where he’s not infiltrating my aura with his magic, waiting with bated breath to sense change. Just making sure you aren’t overworking yourself, he’ll tell me when the shop is busy. Liar. He can’t admit that being unable to sense someone’s mood unnerves him.

Unsurprisingly, Asra can only react to my mood in amusement, damn him. A faint chuckle sounds behind his full lips as I attempt to fix my hair again — my awful morning appearance does not ease any hilarity. My hair, which I pride myself in having perfect every waking moment, is in tangles, standing up where it should lay smoothly. My reflection in a passing hallway mirror was not exactly attractive.

“I have something for you," he says. They're not the words I want to hear, but my interest is piqued. “You can play around with them while I'm gone."

I raise a brow at him. "A gift? I have high hopes you know."

He chuckles, brushing a stray, stark white strand of hair from his tanned face. "It's just my tarot deck."

...His tarot deck?

The tarot deck now extended towards me is the prized possession of the most powerful magician to walk Vesuvia’s streets, the one who happens to be making the offer. The bond he’s fostered with those carefully crafted cards is unparalleled; a bond even I could’t obtain with him. Asra has taught me his craft over the years. Often have I sifted my fingers through the deck, seeking its guidance, relishing in the spiritual and physical comfort they seem to hold. But beyond the occasional practise, they’ve never remained in my possession. Tarot cards are like familiars; they serve only the one they choose, and Asra has been chosen.

He never parts with them, even on the simplest of errands. Tonight’s atmosphere tells me that he will not return for a while, and on these nights, I expect the cards to accompany him. And yet here he is, hand outstretched, waiting.

“You think I'm ready?” I say tentatively.

He smiles an adoring smile. "You know I can't answer that for you. You've made incredible progress, but you still won't let go of your doubt.”

I sense something in you, something worth harnessing, something worth subjecting to. …Something I have not felt in a long time. Those were the words Asra spoke two years ago on a night resembling this. Then, I had been his shopkeeper for almost a year after he saved me from a life on the streets. I did not believe him then, and even now, three years later, I am still doubtful. Of course, half of what he said was true. There was something in me, a pool of magic I had not yet bathed in.

Asra had known from the first moment he saw me dancing within a captivated crowd on a dirty market street. Only when he felt it begin to bubble and beg for release did he warn me. In many ways, Asra has brought me new beginnings to a life I once thought was meaningless. I’ve learnt myself and my abilities, and if someone asked me now how far I have waded into the pool, I’d tell them I’m consumed by it, dipping my head back to wet my hair and relishing the renewal. Asra, however, seems to think otherwise. I’ve only dipped my toes in, testing the waters like a kid on the beach at the first sign of summer. I trust Asra with my life, but I doubt this idea.

My distrust that keeps me at the water’s edge; my greatest flaw.

“Do you think you're ready?”

I pause, considering his words. “Well…why don't we ask the cards?"

"Excellent suggestion."

Asra leads me around the front counter and around the thick, purple curtains from the downstairs shop from the reading room. Around table sits in the middle of the room, worn wood draped beneath an embroidered lilac tablecloth. Besides the two wooden chairs on either side, the room is otherwise barren. Dim light from the street lamps shines from the grand window on the far wall. Spare shawls of dizzying patterns hanging from the walls, an attempt to bring life to the room. It works in all fairness.

I draw a chair opposite Asra and delicately sit down, sweeping the long skirts of my nightgown and robe to the side.

"It has been a good while since we've practised," Asra points out.

"Because I've already perfected it?" I ask as I shuffle the cards, letting my intuition tell me when the order is right.

“Have you now?” Though Asra plays along, there's a genuine question in his words. "I mean, you are one gifted individual. I shouldn't have expected any less."

I snort. "Then let's not wait any longer."

He's always going on about how 'powerful' and 'gifted' I am. He paints me like another deity whose carved figure is on display in our shop, or one of the tarot cards themselves. That's an absurd comparison, I know. Sometimes I can't tell if he's encouraging my self-confidence, if he genuinely means it, or if he's just playing with me.

Smooth, cold scale brushes against the bare skin of my ankles, followed by a familiar hiss, low and seductive. The contact shoes away my wandering thoughts and a small smile tugs at my lips. We’re not alone.

The serpentine body cooling around my leg belongs to Faust, Asra's familiar. Rich lavender scales intertwine with milky white patterns and her plush underbelly. She acknowledges me with her beady red eyes, wearing the ever-present smile on her snout. Though she likes Asra the most, she’s always happy to see me, and I her.

Faust retreats from me in search of her other half. She twists her way around Asra's colourful waistcoat and over his white button-up. She reaches his shoulders and nuzzles against the golden skin over his sharp collarbones with a hiss that almost sounds like a purr.

"If we're all here, then..." Asra strokes Faust lightly. "Let's begin."

Asra’s gaze follows my careful handiwork as I slip the cards through my fingers. Palpable energy hums beneath my skin, reverberating like a second heartbeat. Even Faust’s interest is piqued; her eyes follow the same path as Asra’s. Satisfied with the jumbled order, I tap the cards against the table and smooth their edges before I begin to draw.

Three cards lay face down on the tablecloth in a triangular formation. Facing the ceiling are circles of purple, pink and blue surrounding a heart. From the design sprouts golden stripes like rays from a childish drawing of the sun. Asra’s gaze flits between the three options as he determines what will benefit him. Slowly, his hand drifts to the second card, fingers gentle when flipping it over. The face of a cream-white owl staring back, its crimson eyes wide and feathered chest puffed.

"The High Priestess.”

"And what is she telling you?" Asra leans closer, expectant. "Is she speaking to you now?"

The meaning of the cards is never singular. While they follow a linear pattern, depending on the receiver, the message changes to suit them. Common readers rely on an inner catalogue of meanings and their intuition to decide which one. However, I am unlike a common reader found in street markets. My relationship with the cards is unique and unusual, similar to Asra’s. Each card whispers in my ear languages I cannot comprehend. The common human tongues are unfamiliar to them, their’s unfamiliar to I. And yet, the story could not be more clear.

In my head, the High Priestess speaks, her voice rough and sultry and with an elegance unattainable by most. I let my mind blank, receiving her advice in its entirety.

"You've forsaken here."

Almost unnoticeably, Asra’s mouth twitches. "I have?"

"She calls to you, but you won't listen. Typical." I snort, earning a look from Asra. Though... "It's...frequent. Diligent. Asra, if you don't listen to her…"

There’s something in Asra’s eyes that, to me, is as incomprehensible as the language of the cards. It’s almost rigid or unsurprised, maybe both, but he looks away before I can understand. I almost open my mouth to ask him the matter—a stupid instinct. It's times like these that I wish I was as gifted as him at directing others. If only he was as open and willing to talk as I've always been.

A sudden sharp knock startles the two of us, breaking the heavy silence. Faust hisses and untangles herself from Asra to slither towards the door. A customer, perhaps. At this hour, though?

Asra's worried look is replaced with a smile. "Did you forget to put out the lantern again?"

I fold my arms. “Why does it always have to be my fault?”

"Well, you are the one whose job is to close shop."

"And you know those fire salamanders have gotten loose through town again," I counter, raising a brow. "Those pesky little things like to make my life inconvenient."

"Well, at least that's a good distraction. I can't stay any longer."

Does he have to go so soon? Asra slings his brown leather satchel over his shoulder and we head towards the back door. With a snap of his fingers, a thick red scarf materialises thread by thread, knitting itself together by the hands of someone unseen — another one of Asra Alnazar’s many talents. Following the scarf is a black hat that nestles over his curly white hair.

“Take care of yourself and the shop,” he says as he fixes the brim.

"Of course I will," I say.

"Well...until we meet again."

"Which you will make sure this time is soon."

He chuckles but says nothing, though I know there are words begging to be voiced. He parts the black curtains soundly and swiftly, slipping out the back door. The departure feels rushed, as always, like he’s been yearning for escape. Do I bore him? It hurts to consider, but I know it’s only a silly worry; an insecurity to fill the gaps he leaves behind.

I sigh, heading for the front door. It's all for the best, I suppose.

Right now I could be snuggling back into bed, stealing a few more hours of sleep with ample space thanks to Asra’s abrupt departure. It’s always abrupt, always at a terrible hour. Remaining unsaid are all the reasons he shouldn’t go, but when I’m never allowed to know his destination, how can I come up with a reasonable excuse? Now my only friend has disappeared as usual. Whenever I try to understand why, I’m shut down with desirable words and empty promises.

It will be quick. You won't even notice I'm gone. I promise I'll be back within a week.

He has yet to keep those promises.

And, fine, he'll be away for just under a moon's cycle at best. But the fact that he can't tell me always burns a hole deep in my heart that I can never seem to heal. I would have thought that, after living with each other for years, equal trust would be established. He has all of mine, and I’m deceived to think I have any of his. I've only brushed the surface of who Asra really is.

There's another rap on the door, hurried and repetitive. Not just any customer, but an impatient one by the sound of it. I place my hands on the door and lean towards the peephole. This sort of hour does not motivate me to let just anyone in. Whoever stands at my door better be worth my time.

There's a mysterious figure standing beneath the glow of the lantern outside. The dim haze of orange light offers the unmistakable curves of a tall woman, features drowning beneath a dark purple robe and headscarf. Around her slim waist is a thick belt of gold and green designs. The gold shimmers proudly in the light. If she's from around this part of Vesuvius, it must be fake.

As her graceful hands twist together anxiously, I spot green and gold glints of rings on every finger. The jewellery, the finery of her robes and belt… The gold may be real. This is no ordinary customer. A wealthy one, at most. So I open the door, intrigued by the idea of her possible requests. Please let me buy new clothes this week, I plead silently.

The streets are solitary and cold behind the woman, glistening and slippery from early-morning dew. None of the shops are open yet, and none of their lamps are on. Of course, besides mine. Damn salamanders.

"Forgive me for the hour, but..." The woman steps into the warmth of my shop. Her voice is rich and velvety, yet powerful, like marble disguised in silk. Her accent rings bells of familiarity in my mind. "...I will not suffer another sleepless night."

The strange woman gently lifts her glittering fingers to tug at the ends of her purple headscarf. The elegant cloth slips away revealing the visitor's face. As it falls to her hands, my breathing stops, my heart leaping to my throat. No way. No damn way.

"Please read the cards for me," she begs. "It has to be you.”

I can’t believe that before me, begging in a desperate voice that otherwise knows no authority, is Nadia Satrinava, the Countess of Vesuvia.

Long locks fall graciously in a cascade of violet, brushing the countess’s straight shoulders and framing the sharp angles of her face. A small jewelled headdress of pearls and emeralds sits against the smooth brown skin of her forehead. The gown hugging her body is utter magnificence, crafted meticulously from expensive silks and lace, cinched at her waist by a thick golden belt.

Desperation swims in her crimson eyes, her full, red lips pressed into a thin line. I drink her in greedily like a starved dog; the straightness of her small nose, her high cheekbones and sharp jaw, the delicate makeup on her eyelids, her regal posture. She’s everything I could only dream of being. Her voice alone is enough to evoke envy, the jewels on her bony collar almost calling to every thief in town.

"I—wh—you've come to the right place." I stumble over my words inelegantly, almost cowering from the instant regret.

"So I'm told. Your reputation precedes you. Beggars and nobles alike..." She cocks her head as she takes me in, inspecting me like I'm the newest jewel in her collection. "The people of this city whisper your name in wonder like you're a deity."

I try to school my face into indifference, but I wonder if the way my eyes widen a fraction deceives me. My name? In wonder, like I'm a deity? But only Asra has treated me like such. I don't even think he’s serious.

"Though in my dreams you were different." She laughs. "No matter. I've come with a proposal."

"A proposal?" I repeat.

She searches me again, smiling. "Not very talkative, are you? Nervous, perhaps? You needn't be. I require very little of you."

I bow my head, my dark brown hair sweeping over my shoulder. Anything. Anything for the countess of Vesuvia. I say as much. "Anything, my lady."

"In that case, be my guest at the palace for a short while."

Breathe.

I've forgotten how to. Forgotten how to lift my chest to let air in. Forgotten how to even move. What use would I be to Countess Nadia? If anything, Asra should be the one. Asra should be...

Something hits me like a brick to the face. She saw me differently in a dream, hinted that my face was not the one she'd match to the card reader she sought out. She said the city spoke my name in wonder. Yet, she hasn't said my name. She only knows where to find her dream magician.

Asra is her dream magician. He has to be. My master is like a living, breathing spell book, his name carried through the wind of towns like he’s the holy one, not me. I should have asked. Why has this sudden selfishness gripped me so hard that I can't think? This could be my moment to finally be more than I am, finally live up to the powerful magician Asra depicts me as.

Besides, he isn't here.

I know I'm going to regret taking his place, but...

"You will be afforded every luxury, of course," the countess adds, as if afraid I wouldn't take the deal. Luxury; I've never lived in such an environment, never worn something to that standard. I suddenly feel very self-conscious of the old nightgown I wear and pull the flimsy robe closer. "I ask only that you bring your skill. And the Arcana."

The cards. Asra couldn’t have left them to me at a better time.

"I am at your service, Countess," I say with as little overexcitement as possible. "Whatever you need."

"You have chosen wisely, magician," she says. "I will alert the guards to expect you tomorrow. I want to see those talents of yours for myself."

"Tomorrow?" God, I hope what Asra has taught me is enough to keep up the expectations.

She nods. "Of course. What better than to start as soon as possible? Now shall we do that reading?"

Just like that, my heart drops once more. A reading, right now before the countess herself? I'm not trained enough for this, not trusting enough in my skills to get it one hundred percent right. The fear of making a mistake and giving her false expectations grows. What if I give her advice she shouldn't even take into consideration? Asra would kill me if he found out; in fact, I can already hear his words echoing in my mind.

You know better than this, Vivian.

I do know better than this. And yet my lips still betray any morality. "Certainly, my lady."

The countess strides past me, heels tapping against the wooden floor as she makes her way to the reading room. I reach into the pocket of my robe, the familiar, smooth edges of the cards greeting my fingertips.

The countess takes the seat beneath the window. The dim light shines in from behind her, projecting an eerie crown of light behind her silk hair. Her back is straight, face unwavering. I try and somehow succeed in sitting in my chair without a tremor in my hands.

Her gaze flickers around the room as I place the cards between us. What must she think of the place? I only know her public image, kind and generous and considerate, yet still removed and distant. Maybe the countess isn't all as she seems—maybe she feels detested and uncaring for the lesser portion of Vesuvia. Whatever thoughts the state of the shop bring forward are unreadable.

"Go on," she prompts.

I shuffle the deck as I did only minutes ago with Asra. The cards slip through my fingers, merging and separating easily as Countess Nadia's gaze presses on me. I set out three cards as my magic sings to me, telling me that they're in the right places. The countess hums to herself as her crimson eyes flicker over the face-down cards, weighing her options as her long, slim fingers drift close. I can almost see the third card's pull towards her as she flips it over.

Greeting her is a human-like, grey wolf with eyes of lavender. Asra’s eyes. A robe the colour of plums is draped over its shoulders, one of its black, clawed hands held out to lift the crudely carved wooden wands around its head with magic. Fire burns angrily in the foreground.

"The Magician," I explain. There the cards are, whispering intimately in my ears. "You have a plan. One that's long—years upon years—in the making. Now, you seek to set it in motion."

Even though I doubted myself, that flicker in her eyes couldn’t be a clearer sign. I know, I do, it seems to say. The Magician being the one to tell her is so tells me something else: she needs me—or Asra—to do so.

"And? Should I move?" Countess Nadia asks impatiently. She leans forward, eager and expectant.

I close my eyes, letting the darkness behind my eyelids beckon me forward. Those whispers... "Yes. The cards say you should move forward as everything is in place."

"Say no more." She sits back slightly, drawing in a deep breath having heard what she needed.

She has thrown the curtains back, striding purposely back to the shop before I'm even on my feet. The cards almost seemed to shout at me this time, desperate to get their message across. Possibly a warning. Maybe the lady of Vesuvia knows that already.

What is she planning?

I spring to my feet and hurry after her. How improper would it have been if I had just let the countess find her way out herself? I push the velvet curtains and enter the front shop where Countess Nadia brushes her hand across a cleanly kept Bonsai tree on the glass countertop. She retracts her hand like a recoiling snake as she hears my approach.

"Your fortunes are simple. Much the same as the others I've heard." Her look of dismay washes away to something else far away. The dismay travels to me; I'm not the first she's sorted out and not the first to tell her the same thing. ...She's going to decline my help. "And yet...you are the first to pique my interest."

I don't dare lose my breath of relief as the countess makes quick work of tying her headscarf. Either her intuition is strong or she's losing hope, but whatever I did differently, whatever I did right, it worked.

I meet and hold her sharp gaze as I plant my feet, unmoving as she reaches the door. Everything I've said in our encounter comes rushing back to me, and I realise how submissive I've been. Cowardly, quiet, yielding. That isn't who I am, and not who I want the countess of Vesuvia to think of me as. Never will I stutter, be quiet and shy. I will be brave, confident. My own person.

I will carve my name into Vesuvia's streets, houses, rivers.

So I do not move to open the door for her. I don't break her gaze. I don't speak first. To my surprise, the countess looks vaguely amused as she opens the door, bathing the floor in faint moonlight behind her tall silhouette.

"Until tomorrow, then. Rest well," she says, uninterested. “And try not to be too shocked by what I will ask of you."

With that, she disappears into the tranquil, abandoned streets of Vesuvia beneath the blanket of night. For a moment, I'm frozen in the doorway, my shoulder leaning against the frame as I watch her figure. Either to make sure she's safe or because I'm still a little bemused, I can't tell.

I eventually shut the door, clicking the lock closed. This will definitely have to be a night to remember. Though, I don't understand how she did mistake me for—

"Strange hours for a shop to keep."

Ice shoots through my veins, a stark opposition to the warm feeling of magic beneath my skin. The voice is deep, masculine, foreign. Magic curls in my fingertips, but though I've been trained to kill if I have to, it drains my power. One wrong move and I’m left stunlocked.

But someone has broken in. It might be unavoidable.

I spin around, a scowl on my face as I search the shadows, trying to chase a figure from the dark. I find nothing lurking against the curtains, behind displays, but I can feel the thrum of a human heartbeat in the room's atmosphere. Where, is the question.

"Show yourself," I demand with a snarl.

"...Behind you."

I whirl around, letting light burst from my fingertips to find the owner of the mysterious voice. Light pours over the wooden floors, the collection of carpets, the array of products and spell ingredients and crystals to be sold. It drives the shadows from the deepest crevices of the shop. Sure enough, I see a figure looming against the grand oak door. I can tell by the amusement in his voice that this seems like a game.

The figure is extremely tall and lean, yet there is some undeniable muscle to him. All he wears are dark pants tucked into black boots, a shirt buttoned to his throat, gloves, and a black coat lined with red that is slung lazily over his shoulders. There is no hint of facial features, as all that stares back at me is a white plague mask with glazed red goggles. The only distinguishing feature visible is a head of wild auburn hair.

The intruder folds his arms lazily. "Now, sources say this is the witch's lair."

Witch… A loaded word. It’s somewhat of a slur in this end of the world. "What's it to you."

"Oh, that doesn't matter." The figure steps closer. "So who might you be?"

My heart quickens as he takes another step. "Who's asking?"

My back hits the shelf of glass bottles hard as I take a step back too fast. I don't falter, though, realising that it would be an opening if I were to let it startle or distract me. So I keep eye contact as a bottle tips off the shelf and shatters in an eruption of glass. The shards scatter before my bare feet and I wince, afraid to take another step.

The figure takes another step, then another, until the sound of boots crunching against glass fills my ears. I wish that they pierced the thick leather, wish it distracted him to—

Then an idea springs to mind as my finger brushes against the last standing bottles. The man leans down to level his masked face with mine. He tilts his head to the side curiously.

“I'm asking. I'd rather not do it agai—"

My fingers grasp the neck of the bottle hard and I swing. It meets its target true, hitting the side of the mask against the buckle that holds it tight. A rain of glass explodes from the impact.

"Why you—"

He stumbles back, gloved hands coming to clutch the side of his face as he turns away. The buckle of the plague mask unclasps, leather giving way as it joins the array of glass. Blood drops on the ground like liquid rubies, slipping through his gloved fingers as he clutches a wound.

The stranger whirls around, a maniacal grin on his face. "A feisty one. How intriguing."

His skin is so pale he must hardly see the sun. Light grey eyes hold mine with untamed wrath, dramatically dark circles beneath from a lack of sleep. No, only one eye looks back to me—the other is covered by his auburn hair and an eyepatch. Déjà vu hits me at the sight of his face.

"Well, I can tell by the look on your face..." he wipes away the blood that traces the outline of his sharp, high cheekbones. "Shock. Horror. You know who I am, don't you?"

I...I do know him, but I've never seen his face in person. His name is so far away, locked away somewhere deep in the maze of my mind. If only I could find it, grasp it—

"Doctor Jules," I breathe.

His eyes widen a second.

“‘Doctor Jules’? I haven't heard that one in a while." He recomposes his features into a scowl. "Now hurry up. Where is the witch?"

“Like hell I'd tell you!" I hiss. "You really think I’d sell him out?"

"And here I thought we could keep things civil." He towers over me, chilling the air around us. A drop of his blood hits my bare collarbone, his eyes following the glint of red to slither down my exposed chest. "Well, if you won't tell me where the witch is...won't you at least tell me my fortune?”

"Absolutely not. What interest do I have in reading your cards?"

A smile. A step closer. God, now his face is level with mine.

"I'm afraid you have no choice, darling."

He reaches up a hand to my face. Gloved fingers strike along my jaw, leaving a chill in their wake. It sparks a rage that courses through my veins. Disgusted, I grab his wrist. My anger manifests as a soft sizzle sounds from his glove. He flinches as my touch grows hot.

"If you want to walk out of here," I say with slowly, "with just that little gash and no city patrol alerted, keep them to yourself. I assume you don't want this to turn out messy."

His eyes flicker as he snatches his hand away. "Duly noted. Now do them on the counter. I don't want to have to waste my time chasing you down if you try to escape."

Heeding his words with much hesitance, I slip around him and approach the glass counter with fists clenched so tight I expect to find crescent moons in my palm. My magic thrums and coils tightly as I draw the cards from my pocket to shuffle them for the third time tonight. Don't let your hands shake, I tell myself softly. Don't let him see that you're afraid. Back straight, chin high, eyes unwavering.

So I keep my back straight, levelling the intruder with an iron-clad stare. The cards slipping and weaving through my fingers is therapeutic and comforting when my own home feels like a cage.

"Lovely decor," the doctor says all-to-cheerfully. I almost wince at the normality "Reminds me of the good old days."

I don't reply as I set the cards down. His cold, grey eye moves over them, stopping on the second pile. Curious, he flips it over.

The card shows a horses’ head looking sideways, a silky mane falling over its neck like a muddied waterfall. Though, there is no skin baring the horses. Instead, my eyes fall in the bare skull of the animal. There's a blackened hand reaching forward, holding a scythe. Death.

The Death card does not entail physical death. It symbolises paths coming to an end whether through failure or natural causes and encourages self-awareness. Upright, it is a common card for the awareness of endings. But reversed like it is now...I don't pull it often. Reversed, it means depressive emotions, resistance, unawareness, and illness. The voices whisper its meaning to the doctor in my ear, but I can't focus enough on them to understand. I don't think I want to. It's almost ironic to pull this card for the doctor, but I struggle to find humour in it.

“‘Death’?” he says, reading the cards’ title aloud. The doctor barks an uncontrollable laugh, as cold and harsh as biting on ice. "You've got to be joking."

I jolt as his fist slams on the counter, the glass thankfully holding firm. I look away, wanting to cave in on myself. A madman...I'm trapped in my own house with a madman. He laughs again as he stands up. The sound is cold and void and horrifying.

He says coldly, "Death cast her gaze on this wretch and turned away. She has no interest in an atrocity like me."

"That's not what it means," I counter. He completely ignores me.

"Well, you've been very hospitable," he starts, and I try not to gawk. Hospitable? When he broke into my home? "So I'll let you in on a little secret. Your witch friend has taught you his tricks, hasn't he? He isn't the type of person to share his secrets, so I could say he possibly cares for you. But when he returns..."

He bends down and picks up the plague mask from the floor. His eye fixes on the glassy crimson goggles with a faraway look.

"Seek me out. For your own sake. That creature is far more dangerous than you know."

I'm lost for words for a moment. "Seek you out? For my own sake as if I'm in danger? You broke into my house, threatened me, and insulted my master, and you expect me to go prancing around the streets of Vesuvia to find you of all people? All because you're trying to paint Asra as a threat? What do you even want!?"

He grins. "You just like a little deer lost in the woods, aren't you?"

"Wha—"

"I have my reasons," he says, cutting me off. "And they aren't of your concern if you aren't going to cooperate. And I suggest you keep our little encounter from your dear old master if you want to stay in his good graces."

I purse my lips into a thin line. "Get out."

Thankfully, the doctor doesn't need to be told twice. He fastens the mask over his head. "I suppose the hour is late and I've stayed longer than I wanted to. Don't let him fool you, girl."

"You know I have a—" The door slams behind him and the doctor disappears into the early morning mist. “—name.”

⋆⁺｡˚⋆˙‧₊☽ ◯ ☾₊‧˙⋆˚｡⁺⋆

#The Arcana #Julian Devorak #Asra Alnazar #Nadia Satrinava #lucio morgasson #portia devorak #julian devorak x mc #julian devorak x apprentice #The Arcana Julian Route

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ambrosia-and-ichor · 2 years

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Heyyy, this is coming from pretty much nowhere, but why doesn't the wider Arcana fandom recognize that the game and Nix Hydra is.... iffy? I get that the fandom has really died down over the last year or so but I don't feel like there's EVER been much discourse or recognition of stuff that NH actually did.

Some people hate Lucio because he's annoying, not because he's one of the few white LI, abused the rest of the main cast (half of them POC) and he's literally a conqueror.

There's the complete misunderstanding of the cultures that NH pulled from/based their world and character designs on (Aisha's head covering).

I think there's been racist tweet and some stuff on the discord but I haven't actually seen what was said, so someone feel free to point me in the right direction.

There were the game ads about Julian, if I'm remembering correctly (I swear I didn't dream them but I can't find them from a quick search). The ones where you had two choices that were something like "help him" or "slap him".

Abuse/mental health in general stereotypes Julian into the "bad boy" and Muriel into the "poor baby".

There's the odd handling of Asra's gender.

And, some of the plot lines are super unhealthy and toxic. Like not even the Reversed ends.

And less controversial but still disappointing is how much more content there is for the first three characters (Like 3 parts per book) versus the secondary characters (1 part per book). If could be the same amount of content, just less parts, so I could be wrong, however, the secondary routes were still rushed, and it shows. I remember being disappointed while the secondary routes were coming out because the quality just wasn't as good.

I haven't played the game in like two years and I'm missing a lot of context (from the tweets and the complexities of the situation around Aisha) so I could be wrong on some of these. I also haven't combed through insta or the subreddit. I'm tempted to do a deep dive or master post or something. And, finally, this is not meant to call out any fans, as I'm sure most of them have good intentions and there's still a good portion who called NH out about the tweets and discord situation.

#nix hydra #the arcana #the arcana game #mentions of abuse #mentions of mental health #problematic media #mentions of racism #racisim

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more-than-a-princess · 1 year

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@quickdeaths asked: [ cherry ] what is one thing you love about yourself? + [ canary ] do you have pets? if yes, how many and what? + [ olive ] what gives you the most inspiration for your muse(s)? + [ mauve ] give one random headcanon about your muse / one of your muses.

Colourful Interview (Munday meme) - Accepting!

[ cherry ] what is one thing you love about yourself?

These questions are never my favorite because it's awkward to brag about anything in my family unless it is professional/career success, but in contrast to a lot of my extended family, I'm very determined to succeed that way but on my own terms. A lot of my family rests on their laurels, so to speak, and feels they don't really have to work hard to be well-off and successful. But I've worked my way from the ground up at my job and while I'm not satisfied with where I'm at right now (and can do much better), I can still say I did it myself.

This is in contrast to extended family members being terribly puzzled why I simply can't 'summer in Tuscany' this year, or spend all of fall exploring wineries throughout France. No, I have a full-time job with health insurance, a 401k, and limited days off but I've earned them with my own hard work. And I'm proud of that (and used zero parental connections to get hired in the first place).

And in a slightly vain love: my fashion sense is on point and my friends know that if they want my opinion, I will not sugarcoat it for them. It's not easy to dress a plus-sized body with decent fabrics, cuts meant for my size, and not have it look like a fast fashion disaster or something a retiree might wear.

[ olive ] what gives you the most inspiration for your muse(s)?

Probably the best answer is what doesn't give me inspiration for my muses? Ha. And it's mostly things like fantasy literature/TV/movies (Game of Thrones would be the obvious example, but other things similar to that), video games, and most anime/manga interpretations of royalty. While they're fun to read, they don't really help cultivate the vibe I've always wanted to write for Sonia and her family, which has always been rooted in historical fiction, biographies, documentaries, contemporary fiction of royalty and upper classes in general, and news/current events. Not that there's anything wrong with the fantasy royal route: it's just not my thing.

But otherwise here's a few things:

Books: From classics written by Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Edith Wharton to more contemporary offerings from Dominick Dunne, Julian Fellowes, Tom Wolfe, and Kevin Kwan...I read. A lot. And beyond romance novels of all sorts, rich and/or royal problems are my particular literary interest. Ironically, the reading list that the character Corinna provides Kitty Pong Mrs. Bernard Tai in China Rich Girlfriend as part of her 'Appeal to old Hong Kong money crash course' is a good start. (Mild spoiler for book series that's been out for years, but still)

TV/Movies: Split between historical dramas (of comedic and less-comedic varieties), documentaries, and contemporary dramas most of the time. Considering how both quiet luxury and mocking the super rich are both trending right now (ahead of the likely recession), it's hard not to watch things like The Menu, The White Lotus, and Succession for some inspiration. Otherwise, everything from Downton Abbey, Bridgerton, The Gilded Age, and The Great to The Royals, Gossip Girl, Elite, and The Crown is up for fair game. I watch some Asian dramas too, but often more contemporary than historical for inspo. And plenty of royal documentaries (and I'll probably be watching King Charles III's coronation live, too).

Publications: Tatler (and I've mentioned it IC, too!), Town and Country, and Vanity Fair especially. But I look over gossip magazines as well for scandal inspiration.

Royal websites and social media: Yup. These too, for a variety of royals. Great for checking out social diaries, charity ideas, etc. For the fan questions Sonia and her family are asked? I follow royal confession and shitpost accounts for inspo. I had no idea there were so many people who diligently tracked when and where pieces of various crown jewel collections are worn, but they exist.

Real life: And finally, some of my ideas/plots/headcanons come from people and situations I know and/or experience personally.

[ mauve ] give one random headcanon about your muse / one of your muses.

Going to piggyback off the last question for this, but one of my headcanons for Sonia's younger cousin Sam (Prince Samuel of Novoselic. His father, Prince Arthur, is the King's younger brother. And a duke in his own right, alongside being a giant headache for a lot of people, Sam included) is that he learned how to fly a plane before he learned how to drive a car. This was an acceptable hobby growing up for him, as it would allow him to serve in the national air force for mandatory service required of all Novosonian royal men. But mostly, he wanted to learn because he could blissfully block out all of the family stress and squabbles thousands of kilometers in the air.

In the clouds, no one cares about the royal line of succession, net worth, who's who in the peerage, who went to which school and knows which person, who runs which charity, etc.

It's just him (and an instructor, and a bodyguard), the controls, and the sky.

This headcanon and the reasoning for it are based off of someone I know very well, and while they don't know I included this in one of my OCs for Sonia's family (hell, they don't even know I RP), I'm happy to honor them in this way.

Maybe after I eventually write the whole "Royal Residences" headcanon post I should work on a Sonia's family tree headcanon post

[ canary ] do you have pets? if yes, how many and what?

Ah yes, time to pay the pet tax!

Yes, I have one cat of my own. This is Molly, aka. Princess Molly, the true ruler of the house and my life.

She is a formerly feral buff tabby tuxedo girl, thus the notched ear. A rescue organization saved her from a cat colony when she was six months old, holding her own against a bunch of adult cats. I knew she was the cat for me at adoption day when she tucked herself into my arms and hissed at kittens and human children alike.

I like kittens, but I've got no interest in having human children of my own, so we really are kindred spirits.

Molly enjoys: sunny spots, windows, seafood feast, chicken feast (but only if the chunks are mushed up by me or my husband with a fork before presenting it to her. She doesn't like the pureed version: only the chunks but further pureed by hand), quiet, solitude, sitting on my belly while I read, watching the electric kettle come to a boil, my leather shoes and handbags (the higher the quality, the better to rub her face on), heated blankets, watching British dramas, grooming herself and her parents, sleep, ordering her mother and father around.

Molly dislikes: noise, anyone besides her mother and father entering the house, when her mother and/or father leave the house (they may not be coming back!), closing the bathroom door so she can't supervise shower and/or toilet time, stompy feet, salmon, turkey, coughing, sneezing, other cats, dogs, children of all sorts, people, cleaning her perch mats, when her catnip toys lose their flavor, and Amazon Alexa.

#more-than-a-princess answered #more-than-a-princess musings #quickdeaths #(Colourful Interview meme)#(Thank you for the questions! They took me a little while to answer but I hope they're ok)

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july-19th-club · 1 year

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WIP WORD SEARCH GAME

@silentstep tagged me in this game which we are both interpreting via our own sort of . internal sense of how it should go. vibes only here we go im just choosing the first instance of each word as i find it plus context

teeth | agitate | seldom | gold | agree

Teeth

On every archway, under each overhang, there are vendors, visitors, porters. Some even sit straddled along the thinner archways and catwalks overhead, and he can see dangling strings of food and sale goods, roped to the supports to keep them from taking up room on the floor. Julian recognizes some of the speech, but a far greater percentage of it is languages the universal translator has never heard before, which means there’ll be a bit of lag before it picks them out from each other, parses them, and makes them available to him. Given the sheer volume of talking going on, that lag could be anywhere between fifteen minutes to the better part of the hour.

JB whistles through his teeth. “Don’t think I’ve seen this many people in one place in…” he frowns, then says, “it’s been a while.”

2. Agitate

There were NO instances of agitate/agitated/agitates in this fic so I went with the first synonym I could think of: Distress

And then the hand and the knife both come away, suddenly, and the other Bashir shoves Garak out of his grip. He stumbles once, then makes it back across the room, hand at his throat. The other Bashir looks almost as if he’s about to laugh. “Right. Don’t touch the cardie. Got it.”

Julian ignores this and focuses on Garak, feels the chill of real distress when he takes him, one-handed, by the shoulder. With the other hand he tries to keep the phaser trained across the room. The warm hum of the device against his palm is somehow comforting. “Is it deep?” Garak shakes his head and lets Julian pull his hand away from the wound. He’s right, it might want a sturdier sealant, the kind med students still call stitches in a slangy way, but it’s fairly shallow after all. Unlike humans, Cardassians don’t experience a thinning of skin as they age so much as a loss of elasticity, which has its own challenges but nonetheless nets them comparatively tougher hides. It’s only the angle and the way the blood is routing around the ridges and irregularities of his skin that makes it look so frightening.

(I was tempted to cut this one down in an effort to avoid spoilers or whatever but I've been working on this thing for two years. You might as well read SOME of it.)

3. Seldom

No seldoms either - first synonym I thought of: Rarely

He does worry. Just not about those things. Only two years ago, Garak had terrified him half to death by suddenly experiencing a series of debilitating, throw-up-and-pass-out migraines that had turned out not to be, as he’d immediately thought, wire glitch or tumor but instead just symptoms of an unusually bad offworld flu. Before that it had rarely entered his head, what kind of a place they were coming to in their lives. Most of the time he still never thinks about it. Most of the time.

(And this one I did cut down. No need to go crazy.)

4. Gold

The pilot turns around in their chair, which makes a creaking sort of swivel that makes the pilot visibly wince. The light is blocked for a moment by the back of the chair, and when it adjusts he sees a — well, a kid. Maybe not a teenager. Early twenties, at most, a woman at first glance, with a long sheet of dyed silver-gold hair that hangs down behind the nape of her greenish neck and a telltale inverted teardrop at the center of her brow. She looks as surprised as he feels, and reflexively clenches the control stick of the ship until it rocks enough for her to notice and let go.

5. Agree

“No problem. Works for me,” says the vendor, “thank you for your confirmation and business,” and the connection goes dead a moment later. That’s at least a little bit of extra problem-solving room to manoeuvre in. He rather feels proud of himself for managing to be so smooth about it, too.

In the quiet, ship-humming minute after the call, he walks the room a good twice more. He still feels unsettled, too wired to relax and too wobbly to focus at the same time. He should go back to medbay. He goes to enter their new arrival agreement into the PADD and mistypes it about four times. He needs to take a deep breath. He needs to go back to medbay is what he needs to do. He needs to take several deep breaths, and maybe do some Klingon yoga, and maybe also get the replicator to spit out something other than synthetic alcohol, and maybe when he gets back to medbay he’ll just grab that little transporter thing and use it to put himself on the other side of the hull so he won’t have to deal with this anymore.

(I had some more exciting stuff for 'agree' but technically they're not part of the text yet so I didn't want to count them - I already cheated on that self-imposed rule with 'gold.)

Can't think of anyone to tag right now because I can't remember which of my other mutuals are currently writing something SO whoever wants to do this do it - words are:

wind | empty | drape | simple | argument

#writing tag #tag games #baby's first trek fic

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dreamtydraw · 1 year

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good morning!! <3

I am awake again and before I have to go to work (funfact: I work at a daycare), I wanna answer to what you wrote!

First of all, I would have never guessed you would like Lucio, especially not with Asra also being one of your favorite, but with your explanation, it makes total sense! I honestly think Lucio is an incredibly interesting character, and I also enjoyed his story/route a lot! And just like you, have a soft spot for pathetic characters (*´-`). Asra is honestly very obvious now that you said it and you and I have very similar thoughts on asra! Portia is an absolute treasure but I can't play her route because (thanks to Julian's route) I just see her as like, a bestie and I also wouldn't want to steal her away from Nadia (´～｀)

My favorites are Julian and Asra!

Funny thing is, I didn't like Asra at first because I felt like he was being too mean to Julian and the fact he made him partially responsible for what happened to MC didn't (and still doesn't) sit right with me. However, after a while, I made myself play Asras route and I absolutely fell in love with them! I love the soulmate trope so much! Asra really grew on me, I love their color palette and he just feels so soft. I also like him because, similar to you, they helped me understand my gender identity more. I knew I was probably nonbinary by the time I got into arcana but I was so unsure if I was allowed to call myself that since I still really like presenting "feminine" and somehow, seeing asra just do what they want and dress how they like helped me realize that there is not one way to "look nonbinary" ( don't know if that makes sense T^T ).

Julian is very very dear to me and he's actually the reason why I started playing arcana! I love his character design and color palette and I have a weak spot for doctor characters (*´-`). I really like his route and his journey to self-acceptance is really lovely to read! I love that he's a bit (much) of a risk taker and how he would do anything to protect the ones he loves most. I also have to say, I relate sooo much to him, I'm a bit worried (◎-◎;)

anyway, this is already so long, I'm sorry!!

to give a quick answer to the other ask I send, I really like undertale too and I quite enjoy puzzle games and cozy indie games! And please recommend me some otome games!! (*^-^)

~🌿

Well hello there, that quite a tchat. I hope your day goes well at daycare !

Yeaaaaah liking Asra AND Lucio is like... Liking both end of a spectrum that respectfully hate each other yeaaaaaah.....but it's fun :D

And we have a similar experience regarding asra then ! This boi being a nb awakening for many i see ♡⁺◟(●˙▾˙●)◞⁺♡

Puzzle game are fun ! For games i gonna recomand you the classics that are a bit popular in indie game space : our life, blooming panic, error143, butterfly soup and Cinderella phenomenom

Since you liked the arcana i can more than recomand you Last legacy ( even if the route will never have an ending i truly recommand it because i adore this game with a burning passion )

I also recomand Royal alchemist.

#Otome ask #Plant anon #Anon ask #dreamty’s ramble

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peachypizzicato · 1 year

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Hi!! Sory to bother you but this letter to dorian is very interesting! Im new to fandom but you mention many things which are annoying me too already. Its so harf to find smth nice to read 😖☹️😑 Sadly Im not much of a artist so i cant "be the change you wanna see" 😅😭 do you write/draw? Im so curios what a story/fanart would look like if done RIGHT for once. Thanks!!

hey anon! don’t worry, you’re not bothering me at all! thank you so much, i’m glad you enjoyed reading my impromptu essay-thingy! i was really hoping it would resonate with people in the fandom, so your message makes me very happy :)

i totally understand the feeling! sometimes you can kinda get lost in the shuffle and it can feel like there’s nothing good- but there’s good things and good creators out there! i honestly can’t really give super specific suggestions on that front, but id say just keep an eye out for anything showing or talking about characters in an unsavory manner (for example, if a majority of the art of ESPECIALLY the brown skinned characters is sexual or suggestive in nature, or if grown adults- julian and muriel most usually- are infantilized or otherwise treated as incapable on their own)

as for doing the story itself right, i actually feel uniquely qualified to speak on exactly that! i had actually started on my own retelling of sorts– before i realized that i had not done NEARLY enough planning and jumping in both feet first had stressed me to the point of burnout such that i had to shelve that whole thing. but i digress! in the meantime, i’ve actually done a bit of that planning stuff retroactively in the form of light analysis. nothing super crazy, mostly reading accounts from other marginalized groups affected by the messaging of the game and taking into account my own knowledge to jot down specific issues with the original and how they could be fixed (its kind of fun actually if you’re into that sort of thing)

without overloading this answer with a wall of literary analysis, many of the most visible problems end up coming down to a choice between specific traits or a specific background, as keeping both causes said problems (for example, will rewritten muriel stay the stoic woodsy wild man or will he keep his indigenous coding? will rewritten julian keep all of his imagery or will he be a recognized jewish character?) many of the routes also face deeper issues that would need a case-by-case handling, but for anyone looking to rewrite them my advice would just be to look at things with a very careful and purposeful eye: why is this event happening to this character? does it play into a harmful stereotype or trope? what can be done instead to add to their character and their arc?

thats just my two cents, anyway! i hope this makes sense and is helpful, thanks again for reading :)

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leoalvarez-clowncarcommittee · 2 years

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Late Night Ramblings:

I definitely would like to see/write an Echo story where the characters are in more traditional horror settings. We've psychoanalyzed their minds let's just throw em into a wood chipper.

Aspects I really enjoyed from the VN that I would like to see in traditional horror stories would be the group walking around the town, trying to move quietly and stay out of sight while things are going to shit. Almost like a "Stand By Me" feel of just near aimless wandering and bonding.

Dealing with injuries and having to avoid the stuff happening. It really only comes up in Carl's route with Carl carrying chase. Despite getting sewn together and being concussed, Leo and Chase can walk a fair amount afterwards pretty fine. Like the trope of the Jock character being injured so he can't just fight off the murderer but not just out right killing them (really important for Leo, William, and Nik in that kind of setting)

I'd be interested in some like hold out situation. Boarding up Carl's mansion or the school and just trying to ride it out. Being bunkered down with people can always lead to good character moments. Maybe some more action in general. Carl and Leo can throwdown, and Flynn and Leo can use a gun with decent proficiency but we never get a chance to see those kinds of moments fully developed.

I feel like most of these can probably fit into a Zombie-AU fic but that almost seems like to much to throw the characters into? As if it's to detached from the "realism" of Echo. Maybe a slasher fic where they're all stuck in Carl's house on Wednesday from Duke/Brian meddling.

Maybe a more AU setting where they're teens on a camping trip (where they DONT have on screen physical relationships) or maybe same-ish ages as VN and they're counselors that are at a campground early like in AHS 1985. Maybe an AU set outside of the town could lean itself towards zombies more?

Maybe I want to do zombies because Leo and/or William unloading guns into mooks is hot

Just some ideas I wanted to share/throw into the world if anyone wants to run with them. Things I want to develop but I'm just doing so extremely slowly so maybe this would kick a fire under my seat. I think I'm interested in seeing these characters in more diverse stressful situations. Get their characterization in circumstances that aren't a cosmic dread /cursed fate / tragedy setting.

Like we're already sad because Carl broke up with Chase or because Chase and Leo won't work out without both of them putting in a herculean effort/therapy and a lot of people have delved deeper into those things. So maybe we can be sad/shocked/in suspense because a soaking wet buff otter dude fell out of the TV and yeeted Julian's head off his body at a party at Carl's house at midnight or something.

#echo vn #ramblings #yes julian must die first before he does anything #in all these kinds of stories #bc it would be really funny

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motherofqups · 2 years

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Opinion bingo asra please?

No bingo - am I doing this right?

Like most of the canonical chars in the Arcana, I think Asra suffers from a lack of his traumas truly being addressed in his route. Out of all the LIs, I think his is the CLOSEST to the mark - his breakdown in the Death chapters, his Strength chapter, his Moon chapter - and his upright Judgment chapter are some of the strongest writing that NH has, imo. He was the route I referenced the most in writing the Oracle, and in a lot of ways, Iris was formed to work against the ways in which Asra sought desperately to gain control his life.

And yet!!

Where Asra gets really muddled (imo) is his interpretations in the fandom. A true Gemini, Asra has many moods and many modes, and he transitions between them so smoothly and so sweetly you’d miss it if you weren’t looking for it. Asra can be bubbly, can be silly, can be dark af, can be incredibly intense. I think the downfall of his characterization is when that fluidity is what’s ignored for more what I’ll call “tangible” traits - Asra is soft, Asra is controlling, Asra is childlike. Asra lives many lives in this fandom, and many of them can feel like half-truths to me. Especially those who are quick to judge the actions of incredibly broken people, or don’t dip in past that surface playfulness and sexuality (yes, like Julian, I think an unhealed Asra uses sexuality as a means of control and release).

When writing the Oracle, Asra was a straight up enigma to me. Julian was very easy for me to write, even as he changes on the path of the fool’s journey - but he doesn’t share the same flexible characterization as Asra. It took him a long, long time to open up - the same way it took me a long, long time to realize what I was writing about. In a lot of ways, my growth in the oracle mirrors Asra’s. For that reason, he is incredibly precious to me.

Also, he’s so pretty it hurts my heart.

#epoch-smog #ask moc #asra alnazar #the iris oracle #oracle fun

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staircasttext · 2 years

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Ep 28 Transcript: Adam Sandler as Darkstripe

Episode 28

[intro music]

PAZ: Hi everyone, welcome back to Stairway to StarClan, a Warriors cat reread pawdcast. I'm Paz.

JULIAN: I'm Julian.

LIZ: And I'm also Paz.

PAZ: You can't be– you [splutters].

JULIAN: You got to impersonate me sometime.

PAZ: Yeah, why am I the only one being impersonated?

JULIAN: Switch it up.

LIZ: Shorter name to spell in the Discord nickname bubble.

JULIAN: I see.

PAZ: Stop impersonating me.

LIZ: Fine, fine.

PAZ: You can be Graystripe British or American.

JULIAN: For those of you who are not in our Discord and can't see this–

PAZ: Which is everyone.

JULIAN: Which is everyone, Liz just changed her name to Julian.

LIZ: Who's that? Anyway, back to our podcast.

PAZ: Yeah, our Warriors podcast. We read Rising Storm, chapters four to six. They're pretty short. Not a lot happened, but we will discuss them. That was my bad in picking chapters, but it's fine.

LIZ: We need some time for segments. Quite some time.

JULIAN: Maybe we'll have some animal googling or something.

PAZ: Oh, we do love to do that.

LIZ: Oh my god, a mosquito just landed right outside the window. You're not getting in. Okay, sorry. Let's go.

PAZ: Okay, I'll go into the summaries. So chapter four. Fireheart dreams about Spottedleaf. Instead of speaking to him, she just keeps walking away from him as other ThunderClan cats try to get his attention, most notably Bluestar, Cloudpaw, and Whitestorm. Whitestorm wakes him up, telling him the patrol is waiting and that Bluestar wants to see him. Meanwhile, Fireheart wonders if Spottedleaf has abandoned him.

In her den, Bluestar tells Fireheart that StarClan has summoned her to the Moonstone and that Fireheart is the only one she trusts enough to take with her, despite Fireheart's protests. Whitestorm takes over patrol organizing and looking after the camp per Bluestar's orders.

In Yellowfang's den, she gives Fireheart and Bluestar Yellowfang– she gives Fireheart and Bluestar traveling herbs. She also chides Cinderpelt for forgetting parts of her medicine cat training, knowing that she still feels guilty about Silverstream's death. Before Fireheart and Bluestar leave, Fireheart argues with Cloudpaw about not respecting the warrior code and the rest of the clan, ordering him to stay behind and hunt with Runningwind.

Chapter five. Fireheart is concerned about the circuitous route Bluestar is taking to the Moonstone and potentially meeting hostile cats from other clans. Bluestar takes them deeper into RiverClan, and Fireheart hopes he can catch a glimpse of Graystripe despite himself, and realizes that Bluestar must wish to see Mistyfoot and Stonefur too. They narrowly avoid the RiverClan deputy Leopardfur.

Bluestar reminisces about training Fireheart, saying that she's proud of him and how trustworthy he is. But she becomes bitter when Fireheart protests that the other ThunderClan warriors are trustworthy too. Fireheart realizes how much lasting damage Tigerclaw's betrayal has done to her. Bluestar says Graystripe also sucks for not warning her like Fireheart did. True.

They make it to WindClan territory, and Fireheart worries about how tired Bluestar looks. Three WindClan cats find them and refuse to let them pass because ThunderClan previously gave Brokentail shelter. Bluestar is insistent that StarClan gives them the right to travel to the Moonstone and seems ready to fight.

Chapter six. Fireheart convinces Bluestar to return home, saying they can't fight three cats at once. The WindClan cats escort them as far as Fourtrees, but Fireheart swears that they won't be stopped next time. On the way back, Bluestar says StarClan must be angry and not want to share dreams with her. It reminds Fireheart of what the elders said about his own naming as deputy, and he wonders if StarClan is truly angry with ThunderClan.

Everyone is shocked at Bluestar and Fireheart's early return. No leader has ever been turned back from their journey to the Moonstone. Fireheart then finds out Cloudpaw left to hunt without Runningwind. When Cloudpaw does return with freshkill, Fireheart suspects he ate while he was out and criticizes Cloudpaw again for not respecting the warrior code. Fireheart punishes Cloudpaw by saying he won't be going to the gathering with the other apprentices. He fears Cloudpaw will not become a true warrior. And that's the end of our readings this week.

Bluestar...

LIZ: The vibes are troubling.

PAZ: Yeah, Bluestar's vibes are troubling.

LIZ: You okay, queen?

PAZ: Pick your head up, queen.

JULIAN: Very worried about her.

LIZ: You okay?

PAZ: Yeah, she's very paranoid. Very, like, I don't know. Just worried about things that don't seem to be a problem.

JULIAN: Right, and not worried about things that are actively very concerning.

PAZ: Yeah, and the chapters really go out of their way to point out physically she is not doing well either. She's like, very old and frail all of a sudden.

JULIAN: Yeah, like when they're climbing– we'll get into it, I think– but like when they're in Windclan territory, and like climbing up some rocks, it's like specifically mentioned that she's very, very slow.

PAZ: Yeah, like she's out of breath and almost not landing her jumps. She's not doing good.

LIZ: Yeah, it's sad.

PAZ: Yeah, it is sad.

LIZ: I did like the bit of not retconning, but there's a part where she's like, remember all the times I trained you or something? Like it was more than one paragraph.

PAZ: I think the text is convinced it was more than one paragraph. But I've read the books. I know it was one paragraph.

JULIAN: All the days they spent together or something.

PAZ: I feel like the book is convinced Bluestar's been like on screen more than she actually has been. Like I mean, she's been on screen, but not as much as you would think.

LIZ: No. I don't mind it. I'll take this rag spinning.

PAZ: Yeah, it's fine.

JULIAN: Yeah. I definitely am surprised reading these at how little she's actually on screen, because I remember her being a lot more on screen. And I think that's because of the narrative.

PAZ: Yeah, I feel like she'll be a lot more on screen this book. So that's something. But like previous books, she kinda only showed up in and out of scenes to like, do some leader stuff. And that was like it really. Definitely on screen less than Tigerclaw I feel like.

JULIAN: Yeah, Tigerclaw is on scene constantly.

LIZ: Tigerclaw stole the fucking show.

PAZ: Bring him back.

LIZ: No, he already wants– he's gonna come back. You don't have to bring him.

JULIAN: Yeah, I was gonna say, I don't know that we have to do any bringing. I think he'll make an appearance.

PAZ: Well, tick tock. Where is he?

JULIAN: Can we talk about the Spottedleaf dream?

PAZ: Yeah, let's go back right to the beginning.

LIZ: Ugh.

PAZ: Spottedleaf, she was too busy walking away to be sexy this time. It's very concerning to Fireheart.

LIZ: It's very serious.

JULIAN: "Fireheart waited eagerly for her gentle greeting." But she didn't press her nose to his cheek.

PAZ: How could this be?

LIZ: She's mad at him.

JULIAN: Yeah, I love that his assumption is that StarClan has sent him this dream. But it's like, yeah, StarClan sent you an anxiety dream about not being a good deputy.

PAZ: I guess he just hasn't had normal dreams for a hot second.

LIZ: I mean, does he just have anxiety dreams all the time, maybe, and he just thinks every single one is also like a vision?

PAZ: Oh, no.

JULIAN: That sounds hellish.

LIZ: I think he has. Like what good dreams does he really have?

PAZ: Well, maybe he dreams a lot about like little mice and we just don't hear about it.

LIZ: Yeah, but like, he's constantly on the verge of starvation. For the last three books, something's tried to kill him, and that was his gym teacher. He's worried about his mother figure dying like all the time now. Lost his best friend. Has just the rowdiest nephew. Is a feral cat, just like in a cult. I don't know

PAZ: Yeah, he gets so worried over this, mostly over Spottedleaf not being close to him with her sweet scent anymore. It does make the point, which I found extremely funny, that it just like pointed out that "Spottedleaf had always been closer to him in dreams than she had ever been in life." And it's like yeah, cause she died literally halfway through the first book. He knew her for maybe like two months.

JULIAN: There's one line here about like "the pain of the medicine cat's death so many moons ago was as raw as ever." And it's like was it? Because you forget about her constantly.

PAZ: Yeah, I forget about her constantly.

LIZ: Spottedleaf who?

PAZ: Sometimes I can still hear her voice.

LIZ: Spottedleaf is in a real like Dishonored heart of the empress situation.

PAZ: Yeah, can some other StarClan cats step in here and give her a break? Why's she gotta be the one to do all this? Not like– this is not a StarClan dream. But you know.

LIZ: She's the sexiest cat. You've got to give the fucking visions to whoever's the next chosen one or whatever.

PAZ: Damn. You're right.

JULIAN: Whitestorm is carrying the whole clan on his shoulders.

PAZ: Oh my god. I know. And he's so chill about it, too. He's never like, Fireheart, what are you doing? Or why do I have to do all this work? He's just like, let me help, buddy.

LIZ: It's like, it's so helpful. It's almost like a bit too convenient for me, but I'm just relieved. Like, God, thank God. Not too convenient like suspicious, but you know, just convenient like narratively. but I'm fine with it. I'm happy for this.

PAZ: Well, we know he's very normal and competent and that he was like– I think we knew from the first book, we knew that people thought he would be deputy when Tigerclaw was made deputy, so.

LIZ: He's just like a stand up guy.

PAZ: He's just so normal.

JULIAN: Real logistics guy.

LIZ: He knows how to use Excel.

PAZ: Absolutely.

LIZ: He bought the subscription for the clan.

JULIAN: God, Chickpea's scratching at the door. I think it's fine.

PAZ: Sorry, what?

JULIAN: Oh, Chickpea's scratching at the door.

PAZ: No, Chickpea.

JULIAN: Han has class tonight, so she's blocked from both rooms, which means–

PAZ: Oh no.

LIZ: No. You've got to get her the toy we got for Kip.

PAZ: It's great.

LIZ: She'll destroy it probably. But it'll be worth it.

JULIAN: She has really enjoyed– thank you for turning me on to worms on strings, because she loves the worm on a string that I got her.

PAZ: Oh hell yeah.

LIZ: Who doesn't?

PAZ: I feel that, Chickpea. Oh, also want to point out that we did get some queens going back to being warriors, which I think is a first on screen.

LIZ: That's good.

JULIAN: Oh, I missed that.

PAZ: Yeah, they can still advance their career after childbirth.

JULIAN: Which queen was that?

PAZ: It was two of them. Brindleface and Frostfur are now both back like being warriors.

JULIAN: Hell yes.

LIZ: Maybe a new workplace romance?

PAZ: Oooh.

LIZ: It's like oh, we came back at the same time. Hey! Wow, your cubicle's right next to mine? Oh, we brought in freshkill at the same time. Oh, this is so awkward.

PAZ: Yeah, I mean, we're still in the period of Warriors when it's like, I don't know who the dad is, unless it's Bramblekit, in which case we do know, cause he's evil and looks exactly like Tigerclaw.

JULIAN: Right, assigned evil at birth.

PAZ: Yeah, so this is a period of Warriors where I'm like, I feel like these cats are all just polyamorous. It's not clearly defined yet.

JULIAN: Oh Bluestar, this is such a bad idea.

PAZ: Yeah, then we move to Bluestar being like, I need to go talk to StarClan pronto. It's just me and you. They need to invent cell phones to StarClan.

JULIAN: Everyone else in the clan is like, are you sure? This seems like a bad idea. Longtail does it racistly, but you know, some of the other warriors are like, uhhh, is that wise? No, it's not wise.

PAZ: Yeah. But when Fireheart tries to convince her, she just loses it, so.

JULIAN: Oiiii. You would think she would have learned that listening to Fireheart is a good idea, but I don't think she's...

PAZ: No, that has not quite sunk in.

LIZ: It's the whole point of like, why she trusts him. But like... and yet....

PAZ: And yet.

LIZ: Ugh. It's like, you're my favorite child. Fuck all my other children. I won't listen to you anymore, though.

PAZ: Her paranoia trumps over her trusting Fireheart because she distrusts everyone else so much that like, only him.

JULIAN: She trusts Fireheart except for when he says that she should trust other people.

LIZ: It's very frustrating to read, but in a way that is good. It's like, this is very painful.

PAZ: Yeah, I also got the sense that she was going because she hadn't heard from StarClan, which is like, that's also pretty sad. Like, desperation move.

JULIAN: Oh, StarClan hasn't showed up in my dreams. So I'm gonna go knock on their door, basically.

LIZ: Is that what happens when like, you fuck up as a leader is like, you just–

PAZ: Ghosted.

LIZ: You don't– it is like ghosted. But it's like, oh, do I not have my divine thing anymore? Is it just gone? My divine authority?

PAZ: Well, didn't we read at some point that leaders can't lose their lives unless they give it up willingly? So we know that, which is very funny.

LIZ: God.

PAZ: But I guess StarClan can just ghost you at the very least if they're not happy with you.

JULIAN: It's also like– I don't know. Reading this like through Fireheart's POV is, like you were saying, Liz, very painful. Because we're seeing this person that he really looked up to, who's still reminiscing, oh, remember when I was your mentor? She's reminiscing one moment and then the next moment kind of irrationally paranoid.

PAZ: Yeah, it's very much periods of more and less lucid.

LIZ: And yeah, specifically about that scene you talked about, Julian. It's so like– I joked about how abruptly they mentioned all the training sessions, because it was one paragraph. But I think the narrative really does sell it, because Fireheart is so sad. And seeing her be slightly confident for a second makes him so happy. And then he's so happy too when she says she's proud of him, because he's definitely not getting that right now from other people. And then it just switches immediately into suspicion and bitterness.

JULIAN: Yeah. I mean, I think it really– this is very clearly kind of– like the real life implication here is that she's starting to have dementia or something. That there's some sort of something going on. And like, it is written very realistically for how that works with people.

PAZ: Yeah, it's sad. It's sad on a personal level, but now also Fireheart is kind of in charge but with no warning, so it's very stressful too for him.

JULIAN: Oh, there is, before they leave, the moment where Yellowfang is like sneaking chamomile in there.

LIZ: Oh god, it's so sad.

PAZ: Yeah, Yellowfang I think has an idea what's happening.

LIZ: It's an interesting reaction too because I think it's really consistent with her character that she's not going to talk about this. She's just gonna slip you extra herbs that she won't tell you about.

JULIAN: Right? We're not gonna have a conversation about this. I'm just gonna slip you like anti-anxiety herbs.

LIZ: And it's just like chamomile, but like, nope, I won't tell you at all.

PAZ: They're cats, though. That's hard stuff. I don't actually know. I don't have the fucking herb guide.

JULIAN: I mean, that's what it does for humans. I don't like– or has a mild effect that way for humans. I don't know what–

PAZ: I gotta google it on Warriors wiki. I need to know the exact effects.

JULIAN: "Eating too much of it can cause diarrhea, vomiting and a lack of appetite. But a small amount can be okay."

PAZ: What the fuck is herb called blazing star?

LIZ: That's my Warriors OC obviously. It's a cat that fell to earth.

PAZ: Oh.

JULIAN: Ooh.

PAZ: Okay, the Warriors wiki says the effect is "strengthens the heart and soothes the mind. Also given to traveling cats for strength."

JULIAN: I'm unclear whether they mean heart like, metaphorically or physically.

PAZ: I think metaphorically, because it also soothes the mind.

LIZ: I think that's just the tea effect, right? There's no extra cat effect being written in, maybe.

PAZ: I guess not.

JULIAN: Yeah.

PAZ: Yeah. I don't know how much it helped her.

LIZ: No.

JULIAN: Yeah, it doesn't seem to have done a lot. God, does she mistrust Yellowfang too?

LIZ: No!

PAZ: I don't know.

LIZ: Nothing that registers so far. This is just taking your cool doctor wife for granted now.

PAZ: But the Yellowfang scene also includes more of Cinderpelt being anxious over her doctor performance and like, messing up a bit. And at this point, Yellowfang is getting kind of annoyed with it. I'm like, she needs more positive reinforcement, Yellowfang.

LIZ: Like again, there's only so much you can do with slipping people chamomile and like being affectionately like acerbic instead of talking about stuff at all. I think Fireheart is also like, just tries to make eye contact or something with Cinderpelt and just doesn't have a chance, and it sucks. These three chapters are short, but they're very tense.

PAZ: Yeah, I mean, this whole book has been very tense so far. The vibes are pretty bad in ThunderClan camp I would say. And then Cloudpaw also comes back after that scene–

LIZ: Oh my god.

JULIAN: Oh my god.

PAZ: –to be a little nasty teen.

JULIAN: Cloudpaw, fucking read the room.

PAZ: Truly.

LIZ: Cloudpaw going to shelve some Bibles in the fiction section.

PAZ: God.

LIZ: But also, like Fireheart's internal thoughts about him are so mean. Just–

PAZ: He's so mean.

LIZ: So mean.

JULIAN: I get that Fireheart is under a lot of stress. However, he does not handle Cloudpaw at all well.

PAZ: No, no. I think just being mean towards him is not gonna solve the problem because that's what you've already been doing, and he is not listening to you. So maybe try a different approach.

LIZ: This is like your fucking precious nephew from your beloved sister that you risked your whole thing for to bring him here. It was like a book ago that you were like worrying about, like, oh, is he gonna fit in? I hope he does well. What if the other kids make fun of him? Stuff like that. What happened to that?

PAZ: I think a lot of it is like Fireheart doesn't want to be embarrassed by Cloudpaw being rowdy because now he's deputy and it's like– and he's already feeling very insecure about his position. Because I think later in the last chapter, he gets really stressed out about having to publicly scold Cloudpaw for not following his orders.

LIZ: Yeah, absolutely.

JULIAN: Yeah, I think it's very much more about Fireheart than it is about Cloudpaw.

PAZ: I think Kip wants to leave. I'm gonna go let him out in case he needs to go to the bathroom.

LIZ: Okay. I can't wait to see him. I can just see Paz talking.

KIP: [tiny mew]

LIZ: Hey. Hi Kippy. Pss pss pss. Wait, is he turning around? Sitting in front of the litterbox. Look at the window. Thinking. I think he just came out here to take the air.

PAZ: Okay, hi.

JULIAN: Taking a turn of the room.

LIZ: He does that a lot, and I always think about the fucking like, Pride and Prejudice scene, you know, where they gotta walk around the stuffy horrible living room?

PAZ: Yeah.

LIZ: Oh no. Kip is just like sitting outside of the room now looking at the door.

PAZ: Well, he shouldn't have stood at the door like he wanted to go out. Well, he has to sit out there.

LIZ: Sooo sad.

PAZ: He has to live with his decision.

LIZ: So sad. Just staring at the door. Okay, let's podcast. Oh no, he's lying down.

PAZ: It's fine. Then they go. They start their journey. Bluestar decides we gotta go real close to RiverClan. So close.

LIZ: Into it, actually.

PAZ: I don't know. They don't go deep into it. I think it's like she kind of crosses the border like, very briefly a few times. Fireheart, desperate to see Graystripe.

JULIAN: Oh, God.

LIZ: [sighs] What are you gonna do if you see him?

PAZ: Not worth it. Yeah, what are you gonna do?

LIZ: It's gonna be so sad. He's with all those other gray cats where he belongs. There's only like, three of them in your clan.

JULIAN: We do find out that Leopardfur is a tortie, I think.

PAZ: Aw.

JULIAN: She's described as like, speckled in a way that makes me think, like speckled brown, that makes me think tortie. Although maybe I'm wrong.

PAZ: I like that idea.

LIZ: That's really cute. We'll get more Leopard...fur. Forgot her name immediately after you said it.

PAZ: She has a great name. Why does she get the other cool, great cat name besides Tigerclaw?

JULIAN: Right?

LIZ: She's got her own thing going on.

JULIAN: There was Lion whatever the fuck, who died. Who got murdered.

PAZ: Yeah, whoever the fuck. Who cares?

LIZ: Lion... heart? Lionblaze, I know you don't like that guy.

PAZ: Lionsnooze.

LIZ: All right.

JULIAN: I think it is Lionheart. Yeah, it was Lionheart.

LIZ: That's very cliche actually. I take it back.

JULIAN: Oh my god. Sorry. The picture of him is so busted-looking.

LIZ: Oh no.

JULIAN: Look at the way they drew him.

LIZ: Why does he have the–

PAZ: He looks like patches of grass.

LIZ: It looks like the lineart is underlaid with like, just like a very, very low res JPEG of like some macaroni and cheese.

PAZ: Yeah, it's beautiful.

JULIAN: Yeah, it's the wiki sprite. And because he has "thick fur like a lion's mane," they've drawn it as like, tufts.

PAZ: It looks like how you draw grass as a child.

JULIAN: Yep. It's incredible. He's also got this ruff that makes it look like he's wearing a fancy coat.

LIZ: Grandma, it's me.

PAZ: Rest in peace.

JULIAN: Lionblaze walking through the Upper East Side on his way to get a bagel.

PAZ: Why didn't he come back to be the sexy StarClan cat? They died at like the same time. Missed opportunities.

JULIAN: Damn.

LIZ: Fireheart didn't meet him, though. Did he?

PAZ: I assume he met him as much as he met Spottedleaf.

LIZ: Fair enough.

PAZ: He was alive when Fireheart showed up.

JULIAN: Oh, he's Cinderpelt's dad.

PAZ: What?

JULIAN: He's Cinderpelt's dad.

LIZ: What?!

JULIAN: Yeah.

LIZ: That sucks.

PAZ: It's fucking lawless what they decide who's what's father in the early series.

JULIAN: I know. They just sort of assign dads at random.

PAZ: Like I said, all the cats were like polyamorous back then. And also the don't kiss don't tell policy.

JULIAN: God, the RiverClan stuff is rough. It's also a little bit– Fireheart spends like a good page or two being like, why does Bluestar want to go to RiverClan so bad? And then remembers her kits.

PAZ: I know. They needed a, it's a new book, we need to do the exposition again segment.

JULIAN: I think it's just funny that he forgot about them.

PAZ: He has a lot going on, you know? They do almost get caught, and Bluestar's very like, like dismissive of it. Bluestar, you are weak and sickly.

LIZ: She's so old.

JULIAN: She's very dismissive of the fact that anything bad could happen to them this whole journey.

PAZ: Yeah, she's also very dismissive of Graystripe, which was extremely funny. The exchange is like, Bluestar is like, I can't trust anyone.I can only trust you. You're the only one who told me about Tigerclaw. And Fireheart's like, I'm the only one who knew. And then she's just like, Graystripe knew and he didn't tell me. And Fireheart cannot respond, because she's right. It's so fucking funny.

JULIAN: It's so funny.

LIZ: Yeah, like the very objective summaries say, Graystripe also sucks.

PAZ: It's so funny the narrative pointed it out because yeah, he did also know and literally washed his little hands of it

LIZ: Just like, not my business. Not looking. I'm looking in the other direction.

PAZ: You know, Bluestar may be losing some of her reasoning skills, but she's spot on with that.

LIZ: It is very funny that Fireheart for like a hot second is like thinking, why does Bluestar also want to go to RiverClan? Does she also want to see Graystripe?

PAZ: No, Fireheart, you're the only one who wants to see Graystripe. The only one in the whole forest.

JULIAN: We don't even want to see Graystripe.

PAZ: No, I don't think RiverClan wants to see Graystripe.

JULIAN: Oh god. How do you think he's doing?

LIZ: Bad.

PAZ: Probably bad. I was like, Fireheart, I don't think he's gonna be on patrol. He's probably on house arrest.

LIZ: Babysitting. I mean, not babysitting, because he's a dad. He's just looking after his own children, I hope.

PAZ: I hope so.

LIZ: Maybe if they're like his own children, he won't just fuck off.

JULIAN: I think he will. It sounds like he is very invested in taking care of the kids. So I think he will be good about that part.

PAZ: His one saving grace.

LIZ: Yeah. I think the narrative is like, definitely positioning him to go on the up from the very, very, very, very, very low that he was before.

PAZ: Yeah, yeah, for sure.

LIZ: Oh, there's also like, another cute little cat saying from when Fireheart does realize that Bluestar does not want to see Graystripe. It's "then it hit him like a fledgling dropping into his paws."

JULIAN: Aw.

PAZ: I love the cat sayings.

JULIAN: They're so good.

PAZ: Kitties.

JULIAN: I did do– we hadn't done a said count for this book yet.

PAZ: Oh, how could we forget?

JULIAN: So I did do a quick search. And we have 29.

LIZ: Oh!

JULIAN: One of which is a dialogue tag.

PAZ: [gasps] Is this is our first?

LIZ: Who is this one?

JULIAN: It's our second, because Mistyfoot got to say "said" last book.

PAZ: Did she? I thought it was just like– I thought it was like not as dialogue. Wow.

JULIAN: No, it was an actual dialogue tag last time.

PAZ: That's two "said" as dialogue tags across four books, everyone.

JULIAN: Do you want to know who gets to say "said"?

PAZ: Yes.

JULIAN: It is... let's see. It's Fireheart.

LIZ: [gasps] Protagonist.

JULIAN: Yeah, it's his protagonist privilege. He gets to say "said."

LIZ: Fireheart and Mistyfoot.

PAZ: Mistyfoot got to do it because she's old.

LIZ: That's true.

JULIAN: She's not old.

LIZ: No.

PAZ: Oh, wait, I'm thinking of Graypool. God, fucking all the RiverClan cats with their stupid mermaid names.

JULIAN: Mermaid names?

LIZ: You heard it here, folks. Okay, now that you've mentioned the "said" thing I'm looking at all of Bluestar's dialogue tags like in the scene, and she goes through a lot of them.

PAZ: She gets a "panted" as a dialogue tag.

JULIAN: Warned.

LIZ: She gets warned, snapped, remarked, went on.

PAZ: Demanded. She's going through a lot of emotions.

LIZ: Murmur. They're really mixing it up. It was pretty seamless to me, someone who's been reading I think four of these, right? So I may not even notice anymore.

JULIAN: Yeah, yeah. At this point. I don't notice anymore.

PAZ: Yeah, it's just that–

LIZ: It's just "said" now.

PAZ: -that beautiful house style. Then we get to WindClan. Didn't go too well.

LIZ: Mm-mm.

JULIAN: Yeah, went pretty badly I would say.

PAZ: I was hoping they'd meet Onewhisker but no such luck. It was just three randos.

LIZ: One of them was– the apprentice was like, the baby that Fireheart helped.

PAZ: Was it?

LIZ: Yeah, I think it mentioned that like the baby that Fireherat helped, like carry across.

PAZ: They mentioned the baby, but I don't think it was the apprentice. I think he was just reminiscing about the baby.

LIZ: Wow, Fireheart. That means you're old now.

PAZ: Yeah, they're still pretty pissed about Brokentail, which is fair.

JULIAN: Yeah, it's like it's understandable. It's also like, I get that you're pissed about Brokentail, but you shouldn't block off people's spiritual practices.

PAZ: Yeah, they are violating international law. So maybe don't do that.

JULIAN: Like, again, very understandable to be angry.

PAZ: Yeah, you can't just break the important like, land right spiritual role, though, just because you're angry.

LIZ: Such a stressful situation. Just imagine being Fireheart.

JULIAN: Oh my god. Reading this, I was like, just like imagining like, just him trying so hard to deescalate the situation that Bluestar has no interest in deescalating.

LIZ: She was ready to throw down.

PAZ: Yeah. She was like, if I die here, I die here. Let's go.

LIZ: Bluestar to the warriors, meet me in the snake hell pit. No, meet me in the rat pit, which is canonical.

JULIAN: God. She can't go back in the rat pit. That's what got her last time.

LIZ: She doesn't care.

PAZ: Yeah, she really doesn't at this point. He does manage to deescalate, though, by saying, we're just gonna leave. Good call, Fireheart. Yeah, but like I was saying earlier, I think Bluestar's desperation here to like the point of her not caring about her own safety does suggest to me she's like, being ghosted by StarClan. Because she just keeps repeating like no, like, StarClan, I have to speak with them.

LIZ: It's really sad. Oh, there is a part at the end of that, where Fireheart does just say like Brokentail died, and it doesn't really make a difference, because WindClan is just like, but you didn't kill him, did you? And Bluestar's like, of course not. And they're like, fucking knew it.

JULIAN: Oh my God, yeah.

PAZ: You should have lied.

LIZ: You could have.

PAZ: You should have been like, yeah, we all fucking executed him publicly.

JULIAN: I mean, they still probably would have been mad about that because they like weren't allowed to participate.

LIZ: Yeah. I guess technically they did. If Yellowfang you know hadn't done it in secret and stuff.

PAZ: Yeah, only Fireheart knows that it was actually a murder. Like, for real.

JULIAN: Right?

PAZ: About that, Bluestar, I think ThunderClan are murderers. They get back to camp. Everyone's racist to Fireheart again.

LIZ: Ugh.

PAZ: Fucking Dustpelt and Darkstripe show up and be like [whiny racist baby voice] why didn't you do anything, Fireheart?

JULIAN: Hate them.

LIZ: He didn't want the President to die.

PAZ: Yeah, right.

LIZ: He didn't want his old lady mom to die.

PAZ: Yeah, I think it's also only him and Yellowfang that know that Bluestar only has one life left, though. I'm pretty sure.

JULIAN: Yeah.

PAZ: But still, you don't want your leader to just lose a life without needing to.

LIZ: For like a really stupid reason like, oh, we couldn't fucking just make the trip.

JULIAN: Right? Some real toxic masculinity coming out of Dustpelt and Longtail.

PAZ: For real. Oh my god. There's also a part where Darkstripe comes back with his apprentice, Fernpaw. And she's described as looking really tired. And it says like her fur is clumped and dusty. I'm just like, why did you give this poor sweet child this awful racist teacher?

JULIAN: Right. And she was like, she was the one who looked really nervous about having him as a mentor, too. Baby.

PAZ: Poor baby.

LIZ: What's he even teaching her?

PAZ: How to be mean.

LIZ: How to be mean and also racist

JULIAN: Dustpaw's racism lessons.

PAZ: It's Darkstripe, although I'm sure Dustpelt's also giving some racism lessons.

JULIAN: I get the D names so mixed up.

PAZ: I know. And they're both, like, shitty. It's like, not enough differentiation.

LIZ: I think we should have some like fuckin like, not like beautiful fancy cats also be like, evil. Instead of just like, very–

PAZ: Yeah, like fucking Dirttail.

LIZ: Yeah. Let's have all the dark cats be evil. This will be fine.

JULIAN: Yeah. Yeah.

LIZ: Where's my evil orange cat?

PAZ: I guess Warriors really prescribes to evil names makes you evil, because that's just all ShadowClan.

LIZ: I'm assuming like, it gets a little mixed up later.

PAZ: Yeah, I think so. I mean, we know they just get more and more with the names later.

LIZ: So looking forward to that.

JULIAN: Right, there's no color assigned to Appledusk.

LIZ: Appledusk just sounds like some sort of fun cider.

PAZ: Yeah, it's like Halloween drink.

JULIAN: I would drink that like craft mead or whatever.

PAZ: Runningwind also shows up to be mean, but not racistly, more just like your student sucks.

LIZ: Does Runningwind have an apprentice?

PAZ: Yeah, Brightpaw.

LIZ: Oh, I think I've already asked this. Sorry. But that's understandable. It's like, I'm busy.

PAZ: Yeah, then Cloudpaw has to get scolded for being a rowdy teen. Cloudpaw says something like– Fireheart's like, oh, why didn't you go hunting with Runningwind, and Cloudpaw's like, I prefer hunting alone. I'm like, you know what, I would also prefer hunting alone in this shitty clan where everyone wanted me to die exposed on a hill as a child.

JULIAN: Right. Do you think he knows or remembers about that?

PAZ: Well, I feel like some people still are pretty shitty towards him.

JULIAN: Oh, yeah. People are definitely shitty towards him. I just, I don't know, does he know the extent of it?

PAZ: No, I think he was too young. I don't even know if his eyes were open when he was brought.

JULIAN: Aw.

LIZ: Aw.

JULIAN: That's too little.

LIZ: I'm envisioning it. He's just like a little, like, white bean.

PAZ: That's right.

LIZ: Like you put in chili. Do you put white beans in chili?

JULIAN: You can.

PAZ: You can. Fireheart's threat is Ashpaw and Fernpaw will become warriors before you if you don't step up your game.

LIZ: The ultimate like, teen threat, I think.

PAZ: Yeah, that'd be so embarrassing. You don't want to be a super senior, Cloudpaw.

LIZ: Fireheart should tell him about the time he was like, demoted from being a warrior to becoming like an apprentice again.

PAZ: But I think Cloudpaw was around for that.

LIZ: He was probably too young.

JULIAN: Yeah. Cloudpaw was like a kit at that point.

LIZ: He needs to remind him about it, like hey, buddy.

PAZ: What if Fireheart demoted Cloudpaw to Cloudkit? He has the power.

LIZ: Demotes you to baby.

PAZ: That would teach him a lesson. That's kind of the end of all that reading.

LIZ: Yeah, they're slow chapters. They're just real tense.

PAZ: Yeah. A lot of emotional stuff happening, but not a lot of actual stuff happening.

JULIAN: Yeah.

[meow]

JULIAN: What do we segment?

PAZ: I was saying we should read some of those casting lists, given the timeliness of Chris Pratt announced to be Mario. Beautiful casting choice, of course. No problems to be had. Exactly who I wanted to be Mario.

LIZ: Ugh.

PAZ: But haven't you always wondered, well, what live action actors should be cast as a Warrior Cat? People online have answered this question for us.

LIZ: Extensively, actually. Where do we begin to start?

PAZ: Well, you were the one looking at them, Liz. Which one do you think we should check out?

LIZ: Apparently this is a thing you can do on IMBD, and I found a few of them. I don't want to spend too much time on this first one, because at the bottom is like just a summary that says, "I made this list to prove that literally anyone can make an IMBD list."

JULIAN: Oh, I see.

LIZ: "Don't believe everything you read on the Internet, people."

PAZ: Well, this is a beautiful– this list is very funny. On the topic of Chris Pratt, I do wanna point out that–

LIZ: Yes?

PAZ: [laughing] They have cast Chris Pratt as Darkstripe, and I think actually that is correct.

LIZ: Yeah. God.

JULIAN: Logan Paul is Fireheart.

PAZ: This picture of Logan Paul, he's doing the I had to do it to 'em. Okay, you got to read the one below that too, of course.

JULIAN: Right, and then of course, Logan Paul as Fireheart, the counterpart for Graystripe would be Jake Paul.

LIZ: The way you said sounded a little like Jakepaw.

PAZ: Oh my god.

JULIAN: Of course for the MILF herself, for our beloved elderly cat, we have Ariana Grande.

PAZ: As Bluestar. That's right.

JULIAN: For our villain, you know, the actor you think of when you think of a villain, Drake Bell for Tigerclaw.

PAZ: I'm gonna be 100% real. I don't know who the fuck this guy is. Oh, Drake and Josh.

JULIAN: Yeah.

PAZ: Wow, he looks different. He looks–

LIZ: Cause he's old.

PAZ: It's... oh, the years have gotten to him.

JULIAN: He was born in 1986. So like, he's up there.

LIZ: Oh my god.

PAZ: Looking a little haggard.

LIZ: Um, we can go on. This one hurts a little.

PAZ: Yeah.

JULIAN: For our sweet gay baby boy Ravenpaw, we have Tom Holland.

LIZ: Ugh.

PAZ: That's a microaggression.

LIZ: Someone wants that.

JULIAN: For Sandpaw, we have Billie Eilish.

PAZ: Was Billie Eilish in a movie? Sure, I guess.

JULIAN: Apparently she was in X-Men: Apocalypse.

PAZ: Speaking of Lionheart, who we revisited today, Lionheart is Dwayne– sorry. Dwayne The Rock Johnson as Lionheart.

JULIAN: You know, they do say he's pretty big.

PAZ: Yeah. They do say that. See, that's what I'm saying about Lionheart should have been the sexy StarClan cat.

JULIAN: I can't stop laughing about their casting choice for the actual sexy StarClan cat. For the queen of sweet scents herself, Spottedleaf, we have Taylor Swift.

PAZ: Oh god. I definitely don't know who this next person is.

JULIAN: I've never heard of this person. Noah Monk as Smudge? He's from The Goldbergs, apparently.

PAZ: Hope someone gets a kick out of that.

JULIAN: Nic Cage is Longtail.

PAZ: I actually think their casting for Longtail, Darkstripe, and–

JULIAN: I don't think they actually gave Chris Pratt a role.

PAZ: Oh, Chris– I guess maybe Chris Pratt's just there.

JULIAN: I think Chris Pratt is "I made this list to prove that literally anyone can make a list."

PAZ: Okay, we're sorry. Darkstripe is actually Adam Sandler.

LIZ: Yes.

JULIAN: Also very good.

PAZ: I'm choosing to believe Chris Pratt is Dustpelt then.

LIZ: Ugh.

JULIAN: Oh, there we go.

PAZ: Oh, yeah. Incredible list. I don't know. I don't even know.

LIZ: If this was like 2000, let's say like, 15, and Warrior Cats was a bit more mainstream, this would have just been like a Buzzfeed listicle. I mean, it's a very successful book series, but it's not like, you know, bleep out Harry Potter here. But I think that's what it would have been.

JULIAN: I'm scrolling down through the other IMDb one that you linked. And it's actually not bad, I would say.

PAZ: There are some funny ones here.

JULIAN: Like, I think Sigourney Weaver would make a great Bluestar.

PAZ: She would, it's just very funny to imagine.

LIZ: She came up multiple times when I searched for Warrior Cats movie fancasts for Bluestar.

PAZ: Is this a different Andrew Garfield as Graystripe? Oh my god.

LIZ: Yes.

PAZ: This is what the people want, apparently.

JULIAN: Um, I don't know a lot of these actors. Aaron Paul is Stormfur. That's so funny.

PAZ: We got to shout out Tallstar's actor.

LIZ: Liam Neeson.

PAZ: That's right.

JULIAN: Are they just imagining Tallstar having like a very strong Irish accent?

LIZ: I don't see why not.

PAZ: Good for him.

JULIAN: I think that could be fun. I think Ian McShane as Brokenstar is an incredible casting.

LIZ: A lot of these are just like voice actors that would probably make sense.

PAZ: Yeah, yeah.

JULIAN: You know, it's nice to see a fan cast that actually shouts out some voice actors.

PAZ: Yeah, like Laura Bailey is Princess.

LIZ: I'm sorry, I can only think of– that's the Critical Role lady, right?

PAZ: Yeah, yeah.

JULIAN: Well, if we scroll a little further down, we do have Matt Mercer as Mudclaw?

PAZ: That's the WindClan cat.

LIZ: Oh, right.

PAZ: Who was mean in these chapters.

LIZ: All right, then we're fine.

PAZ: [laughter] Oh my God. They have cast Darkstripe as Tom Hardy.

LIZ: Why?

PAZ: Gonna do his fucking Bane voice or whatever that Batman villain was.

JULIAN: Um.

PAZ: Yes?

JULIAN: Vic Mignogna as Onewhisker. How could they do this to us?

LIZ: Hate crime. This is a hate crime.

PAZ: That is homophobic. You can't. Also why is the picture of Vic Mignon– how do you say his last name? I don't know.

LIZ: You don't have to.

JULIAN: Mignogna.

PAZ: That guy. Why is the picture of him a Star Trek picture?

JULIAN: I think he was– it looks like he was in Star Trek.

LIZ: Double hate crime.

JULIAN: Bryce Papenbrook, who apparently is a voice actor in Attack on Titan, is Cloudpaw, which is awful to me.

LIZ: Ugh.

PAZ: No, don't do that to our little atheist.

LIZ: Ugh.

JULIAN: [yelps]

PAZ: People are really going hard for these Lionheart castings.

LIZ: Is Lionheart the one who died in this series?

JULIAN: Yes.

PAZ: Yeah, no, no, no, the first book.

LIZ: Yeah.

PAZ: Yeah.

LIZ: Hello?

PAZ: This person has decided Lionheart should be Viggo Mortensen.

JULIAN: Right above that we have Diane Keaton as Yellowfang.

LIZ: What the fuck? Diane Keaton opposite Sigourney Weaver as cats.

JULIAN: Honestly, incredible.

PAZ: That's right.

JULIAN: Emilia Clarke is of course Spottedleaf. She's even wearing leopard print in this picture of her that they've chosen.

PAZ: Perfect.

LIZ: They worked so hard for this.

JULIAN: Oh my god, the um– oh well. Nevermind, that's spoilers.

LIZ: All right.

JULIAN: Sorry.

LIZ: It's the channel I can't get into.

PAZ: There's some powerful pulls in this one, I would say.

JULIAN: I'll just say that the dad from Supernatural does make an appearance. And it's not who you think it should be.

PAZ: Our listeners can guess who that is.

JULIAN: Shall we go through the Wattpad?

PAZ: What is the Wattpad one? Hold on.

JULIAN: The Wattpad Warrior Cats Dream Cast.

LIZ: You have to click on every name to see the fan cast.

PAZ: Oh my god. Wattpad is an evil website. What is this?

LIZ: I don't have any idea how it works.

JULIAN: It's so that you have to load more ads because there's more pages. It's like listicles.

PAZ: [snorts]

JULIAN: Yet another Sigourney Weaver as Bluestar.

LIZ: Again, yep.

PAZ: Wow, these Fireheart castings. Let me just run through them. So this person has suggested Tom Holland as Fireheart. "(American accent or British. Either one is fine.)" But they have some other suggestions. "A happy middle could be Jake Gyllenhaal. For a more mature version, Ewan McGregor, Scottish or American accent.)

LIZ: [laughter] Fireheart?

PAZ: That's right, yeah.

LIZ: Okay.

JULIAN: Obviously for Sandstorm. I say obviously. It's Emily Browning.

LIZ: She's shown up a lot, too.

PAZ: I'm so bad at actors. I'm not really sure who that is.

LIZ: I don't know. I've heard her name a lot. All I know from–

JULIAN: She's in–

LIZ: Yes?

JULIAN: She's in Devil Wears Prada. She's like the other assistant.

LIZ: Oh, okay.

JULIAN: I mean, I'm sure she's made other stuff also, but um.

LIZ: I said oh like I've seen– I've never seen the movie in my life.

PAZ: Oh my god. This casting for Tigerclaw.

LIZ: Yes?

PAZ: It's Clancy Brown. I'm choosing to believe that this is not like– we're not like VAing cats. They're just dressed up like in Cats the musical.

JULIAN: Yeah, this is Cats the musical CGI.

PAZ: Yeah, that's right.

JULIAN: James Earl Jones's face will be on screen as Lionheart.

LIZ: We're skipping the one that brought us here, though.

JULIAN: Right, of course.

PAZ: Of course, go ahead.

LIZ: Graystripe... is... Andrew Garfield British or American.

PAZ: God.

LIZ: That's his whole name. Andrew Garfield British or American.

PAZ: Oh my god. That's his full name. I always love to see who people cast as Darkstripe. Darkstripe, according to this person, should be Hugh Jackman.

JULIAN: Um, Cloris Leachman, who I don't know, is Yellowfang. But she looks like a real–

PAZ: She looks old.

JULIAN: A real grande dame. I think she would be good.

PAZ: Yeah.

JULIAN: I don't know this Spottedleaf. Bryce Dallas Howard? Who is she? Oh, she was the lady from Jurassic World.

PAZ: I'm sorry. I know this is jumping into the next series, but I had to see who they were casting for Ashfur.

LIZ: Yes?

PAZ: It's Dylan O'Brien from Teen Wolf.

LIZ: The vibes of this.

JULIAN: No!

PAZ: Oh man. Oh, that took it out of me.

LIZ: That's some Wattpad vibes.

PAZ: Wait, what?

JULIAN: They've cast Chris Pratt as Cloudpaw!

LIZ: What?!

PAZ: No!

LIZ: What?!

PAZ: Oh no.

LIZ: This wasn't the day for this. This is too close. I don't like it.

JULIAN: For my little boy?

LIZ: Evil.

PAZ: Don't you dare.

LIZ: Evil casting. Chrispaw.

PAZ: Chrispaw, no. Well, wow.

JULIAN: Wow.

LIZ: I can't go on.

PAZ: The fact that Chris Pratt showed up on a joke list but also then a legitimate list really, really gets you.

JULIAN: Horrifying.

PAZ: What was the other thing you linked?

LIZ: Okay, it's like this thing called Ideas Fandom Wiki, which I think is just like, you make wiki pages for things that are your ideas, so it's just like fanon but in the style of a wiki page. And this is a wiki page that is at least six years old, because one of the comments is from 2015. And it's for a Warrior Cats film by Disney, to be released in 2026. If we're all here, can we just have a look at the mock up of the cover? Like poster?

PAZ: Very Disney cats.

JULIAN: Extremely Disney. Um, I mean they said on their logo that it's Disney's Warriors, based off the series. Fireheart looks very determined. Bluestar has eyeshadow.

LIZ: And eyebrows. She's real sexy for some reason.

JULIAN: Well, so is Sandstorm. Look at her down in the bottom right.

PAZ: Yeah, she has more intense eye shadow.

JULIAN: She has very intense eye shadow. She has eyelashes, and she has the sexy head tilt.

LIZ: She's got like, she has the thing too that artists who do the Disney style on DeviantArt do with like, animals and stuff, where like it's not boobs. It's just fur. But it is boobs.

JULIAN: Right. Graystripe looks incredibly dumb.

PAZ: Good.

LIZ: Accurate.

JULIAN: He's got his little mouth open, and he's just very perky. He's here to help.

LIZ: Best friend.

JULIAN: He's your protagonist assistant JRPG best friend. Tigerstripe– Tiger–

LIZ: Yes?

JULIAN: We're four books in. I know the villain's name.

LIZ: It's really hard.

JULIAN: He's got a real growl going. He's growling.

PAZ: Looking a little evil.

JULIAN: Real eye glint red eyes situation. I hate that the whites of their eyes are tinted the color of their regular eyes.

PAZ: Not on Graystripe.

JULIAN: No, his are tinted a little yellow. It's just harder to tell because it's yellow.

LIZ: But it does make him look like he has more human eyes, which I hate.

PAZ: This is just written in like, this is a real wiki article style. Completely made up facts. It's fascinating.

JULIAN: They've cast KJ Apa as Fireheart.

LIZ: Can we fuckin read the supporting roles?

PAZ: Please.

LIZ: Ansel Elgort, Estelle, Hugh Jackman again, Michelle Fairley, Gina Rodriguez, Giancarlo Esposito, and a bunch of other people who I don't know because I don't watch movies.

PAZ: Okay, who do you think– they don't attribute any characters to–

JULIAN: Oh, they do.

PAZ: Oh they do?

LIZ: All right. Oh boy.

JULIAN: Scroll down and click on Cast.

PAZ: Oh boy. Oh my god.

LIZ: Liz, there's spoilers.

PAZ: Oh my god, this is so long. Holy shit.

JULIAN: There's spoilers, so.

LIZ: Basically every single person, right?

JULIAN: Yeah, don't look at it, Liz.

LIZ: I know, I'm rattling the bars of my no spoilers jail.

JULIAN: I'm sorry. Oh, this is a different cast.

PAZ: What?

LIZ: Yeah, this is a wiki page that anyone can edit. So it has been edited since at least 2015. Last edited 17 days ago.

JULIAN: They've cast Mila Kunis as Sandstorm, Jeff Bridges as Jake, and Hugh Jackman as Tigerclaw.

PAZ: Hugh Jackman as Tigerclaw, you know, I could see it.

JULIAN: Who the fuck is Ryan Malgarini? Best known for his role as Harry Coleman in Freaky Friday?

PAZ: What?

LIZ: What?

JULIAN: That's who they've cast as Fireheart.

PAZ: What?

JULIAN: Don't worry though, Paul Rudd is Graystripe.

PAZ: That's right. Oh my god, I'm sorry. I think somebody invented a villain. Invented a villain for this film. "Jim Cummings as Borzen, the blood hybrid of various clans that attacks the clans and Fireheart's archnemesis."

LIZ: Excuse me, what?

PAZ: "The film's hidden true main antagonist."

JULIAN: Yeah, they've also invented somebody called Embit. "A super dangerous tom and often nicknamed the forest assassin and also Graystripe's archnemesis."

LIZ: Graystripe's archnemesis?

JULIAN: "The film's true secondary antagonist."

PAZ: I'm losing it.

LIZ: I'm still– I can't get over how their made up antagonist is someone who's a blood hybrid? Excuse me? You can't do that.

PAZ: I know some 12 year old has written this like fic or this RP with their friend, and they realized they could edit this to make their dreams come true. And they did with Borzen and Embit.

JULIAN: "The film also shared some similarities to Far Cry 3."

LIZ: Excuse me?

JULIAN: Ah yeah, there's a bunch of characterization things that they've apparently pulled from characters in Far Cry 3. I don't know anything about Far Cry 3. This seems like bad mental illness takes.

LIZ: Can we read the ones for Borzen though?

JULIAN: Yeah. "Some true facts of Borzen are: he is often nicknamed Fraglans which one of the Latin translations of monstrous."

LIZ: You know, cats love Latin.

JULIAN: "There were myths, and legends focusing on Borzen." [shrieking]

LIZ: What is it?

JULIAN: I'm crying. [increasingly hysterical]

LIZ: Anyone?

PAZ: Go ahead, Julian.

JULIAN: [just absolutely losing it]

LIZ: Go on, Julian. You can do it.

JULIAN: I'm crying. Okay. I got it. Okay. [laughing] "His abilities are based off the Indominous Rex (another hybrid but from Jurassic World.)"

PAZ: What is this hybrid lore?

Oh my god.

JULIAN: And then the last, the fourth one, in case we didn't already know, "Borzen is a blood hybrid."

PAZ: That's right.

LIZ: Don't call someone that. Also realistically for cats, that's fucking everyone in Warriors.

PAZ: Hold on, I got to do a Google search. I gotta see if Borzen appears anywhere else. Gonna search Borzen blood hybrid.

LIZ: There's three comments.

JULIAN: Also, fraglans does not mean monstrous. It means, well, I mean, mostly it means like burning, like passionate. Scorching. You can use monstrous but that's for like a crime, like an outrageous crime. It's not like monster.

PAZ: I only got one hit for that search and it was this wiki article.

JULIAN: Oh my God.

LIZ: This is the only place.

PAZ: Wait, holy shit. Disney Fanon Wiki, Borzen. "Borzen is the true main antagonist of Disney's 2021 animated film Warriors."

LIZ: Wow.

JULIAN: I have to–

PAZ: Holy shit. Holy shit.

JULIAN: Hold up. I got to go into the edit summaries. And I need to find out who added Borzen.

PAZ: Can I please read Borzen's little bio on the Disney Fanon?

JULIAN: Yes please.

PAZ: Okay, "background information. Inspiration: Scar. Character information. Goal: to attack the clans (failed). Enemies: Fireheart, Graystripe. Paraphernalia: his teeth and claws."

LIZ: Wait a minute. Hey, that's taken. Tigerclaw.

PAZ: "Fate: gets killed by Fireheart." No, his paraphernalia. You know, his outfit. His teeth and claws.

LIZ: The Lion King song that Scar has, that's in it, isn't it?

PAZ: Is that what he says?

LIZ: I don't know.

PAZ: Oh my god, this is killing me.

JULIAN: Borzen is not here as of 2015.

PAZ: I feel like I'm assembling like a conspiracy board. Paper trails of Borzen. Oh my God, why won't this website load?

LIZ: You have to accept it for what it is. Borzen was a flash in the pan, a shooting star. Just for this, just for us? Isn't the appeal like also the mystery?

PAZ: I just got to know more about Borzen.

JULIAN: The mystery of Borzen.

PAZ: I think that's the end of Borzen, is those two wiki articles. Wow.

JULIAN: Oh my god. This one has songs.

PAZ: What?

JULIAN: Muppetlover16 I think is the person who has added Borzen.

LIZ: Nothing but support, except for the fact that you shouldn't call someone a blood hybrid.

PAZ: I don't understand, because–

LIZ: Yes?

PAZ: Who's the blood– the fucking another hybrid from Jurassic World? What is this intricate, like cross universe reality that Muppetlover has created?

JULIAN: Oh no, I'm sorry. It was not Muppetlover. This is xxDinoflamerxx.

PAZ: Oh my God.

JULIAN: The creator of the original page.

LIZ: Wow.

PAZ: Oh my god.

LIZ: Did Borzen just get like– is Borzen like a sabertooth tiger, and then they like–

PAZ: Fuck yeah.

LIZ: Inserted his DNA into like a little kitty.

PAZ: Oh my god, you might be right. If it's from Jurassic World. Holy shit.

LIZ: But I think he's still like the size of a regular cat. He just looks like one of those sabertooth tiger thingies. Because I think if he was a regular size sabertooth tiger, just all the cats would get eaten.

PAZ: Yeah, he wouldn't have failed in attacking ThunderClan.

LIZ: No. Maybe the enormous size of his teeth is like weighing him down when he's such a little guy.

PAZ: Yeah.

LIZ: That's definitely not the opposite of how it works, right?

PAZ: I need to also read the development and production section. "The film's development and production started when director Rob Minkoff talked to Max Charles on his Twitter video chat. He stated, 'hey, I remember that you were in Mr. Peabody and Sherman. Apparently, I am planning to make this film based off this book series. Care to join in?' And with Max accepting, the crew was assembled and the film was in active development." That is definitely how films are made.

JULIAN: Uh-huh.

LIZ: Yep.

PAZ: Uh-huh.

LIZ: Yeah, I don't see any problem with that.

JULIAN: Borzen appears on 18th January 2016 by Attackofthecatpeople69. Borzen gets the musical number "Why Me?" a song that was originally featured in Aladdin but later cut from the film.

PAZ: Oh my god.

LIZ: Wow. Wait, Attackofthecatpeople69.

PAZ: Nice.

LIZ: This person is one of the three comments on this article. And what they comment is, "Disney wouldn't make the Warriors movie because Warriors is a ripoff of The Lion King (even though I like Warriors.)"

PAZ: What?

JULIAN: Well, what do you mean– you have to believe in this project.

LIZ: Hello?

JULIAN: You invented Borzen.

PAZ: How?

JULIAN: They really wanted the release date to be July 23rd, 2021.

LIZ: Aw.

JULIAN: When they first added Borzen in 2016.

LIZ: Aw.

PAZ: Hasn't happened yet.

LIZ: You know, keep hope alive. Just don't give up.

JULIAN: Oh, they do have Michael Jackson's "Bad" as part of the soundtrack when Tigerclaw appears.

PAZ: I'll have you know, this film was nominated for several Academy Awards.

LIZ: Fucking makes sense to me. Right? Obviously.

PAZ: Obviously.

LIZ: Obviously.

PAZ: You know, "it generally received positive reviews from critics, though it also received criticism for its vague plot, cumbersome amount of characters, and efforts to combine several storylines into the film."

JULIAN: Oh my god.

PAZ: Wow.

LIZ: Okay, I can't– this is– you can leave this in if it's not true. But if it's true, there's this part in like the big wiki summary thing that says "Barley, a former member of BloodClan."

PAZ: Why are you reading that, Liz? We said don't read that.

LIZ: Is BloodClan real?

PAZ: Liz! We told you not to read it.

LIZ: Fucking Borzen's in here. How do I know what's real or not?

PAZ: We told you! It's on recording, and you said, okay, I won't read.

LIZ: Listen, I don't know shit. I can't tell Tigerclaw from anyone else.

PAZ: Anyway, I think what you read is fanon. But still, why did you read it?

LIZ: I like to read.

PAZ: I'm gonna come in there and take your computer away. Well, Liz can't contain herself, so I think we need to end it.

LIZ: This was a mistake.

JULIAN: I have one final casting choice here.

PAZ: Okay, please.

JULIAN: Keegan Michael Key is Dustpelt.

LIZ: [muffled] I'm covering my face. Today, you can't do this today. Why did we do this today?

JULIAN: Because of the psychic damage dealt to us by the Mario casting?

LIZ: I'm crying.

PAZ: Oh god.

JULIAN: We were in a weakened state.

PAZ: We need to stop recording. It's spiraling out of control. This is all Borzen's fault.

LIZ: We had such energy last recording. I'm like turning into dust.

JULIAN: I'm sorry also at how much I must have blown my audio out when I was faced with the fact that Borzen was based off of Indominous Rex, which I'm still like literal tears in my eyes about.

LIZ: Did you guys ever like– obviously not on wiki, because I think– I don't know. Are we all too old to do that? But was there a point in your little child life where you're like, what if this book was made better by putting a different person in here from this other thing I like?

PAZ: Probably, I don't know. I don't remember.

JULIAN: Oh, yeah.

LIZ: Who would you want to put in Warrior Cats?

PAZ: I have no memory.

JULIAN: Um, I've suddenly forgotten every character I've ever known.

PAZ: Fero. No.

LIZ: No, I think he fits in perfectly.

JULIAN: No, he does. He's a real rowdy boy. I think he'd really shake up the clans.

LIZ: He's definitely a rogue, and everyone is like, who's this guy?

PAZ: Um.

JULIAN: Um.

LIZ: I know what I'm gonna put in, but.

PAZ: [confidently] Winston from Overwatch.

JULIAN: Is that the gorilla?

PAZ: Yes.

JULIAN: I'm not a gamer. I would put in Christopher Robin from Winnie the Pooh. I want him to wander into the forest and be confronted by the cats.

PAZ: They would kill him.

JULIAN: I think it would be a learning experience for him.

LIZ: Fucking battle-hardened Christopher Robin.

PAZ: Who would you put in, Liz?

LIZ: One owl from Guardians of Ga'hoole.

PAZ: Which one?

LIZ: Any one, but don't tell them it's gonna happen. Just have it happen like in their sleep.

PAZ: You mean, like the owl when they get transported?

LIZ: Yeah, just drop them in the middle of like ThunderClan or something.

PAZ: They'd just kill all the cats.

LIZ: They're not going to sleep with all their like, owl gauntlets on, maybe.

PAZ: We just read the beginning of Rising Storm about how owls eat all the kits.

LIZ: Bluestar voice, why is this owl fucking talking to me?

PAZ: We have to end this. Mistakes were made.

LIZ: I'm too weakened to go on.

JULIAN: You're the one who ends things, Paz. Pull the trigger, Piglet.

PAZ: You can find the show @staircast on Twitter. You can support the show on Patreon at patreon.com/staircast. You can send us emails to [email protected]. That's it. Bye, everyone. May StarClan light your path. Bye.

LIZ: Is it lighting ours?

JULIAN: No.

PAZ: No.

JULIAN: We've been abandoned. Bye, everyone.

[outro music]

PAZ: Liz, you betrayed our direct orders.

LIZ: Fuck the warrior code.

PAZ: You'll never become a warrior.

LIZ: I'm not gonna remember shit in like three episodes. Don't worry. Paz, I asked you last night what did we have for breakfast like two nights ago and I didn't know?

PAZ: That's different.

LIZ: Is it?

JULIAN: Fucking Chris Pratt as Cloudpaw over here. I'm sorry, Liz.

LIZ: That made me feel all icky.

PAZ: We didn't even check what date that was like posted.

LIZ: I think the Chris Pratt one was from at least two years ago.

PAZ: That's different from Chris Pratt being cast as Mario in 2021.

LIZ: It got so dark while we recorded.

PAZ: I know. Let's clap.

#ep 28 #transcript #adam sandler as darkstripe #rising storm ep

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