#mandragora is just so INTERESTING

[cherry-blossomtea]

Im being fucking deranged about her this morning

Angy

#arknights #mandragora is just so INTERESTING #i need like twelve more interactions between her and Harmonie #veramax art

[magistralucis]

Home sweet home [Trazyn/Orikan snippet]

(Working on a full version of this necrontyr Trazyn/Orikan request from @beril66 from some weeks ago. This is a snippet near the very beginning of the fic. Trazyn accepts Orikan's invitation to visit his private sanctum, under the condition he refrain from touching things without permission; given that they're flirting shamelessly before they've had the chance to sit down, you can see where this will end. 😂

Fic will be NSFW but this snippet isn't. Just two wise men having a wander.)

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

"By the gods." Trazyn exclaimed in a whisper as they stepped past the door. "What is that?"

So Sannet had kept his secret, after all. Orikan was pleased. "It is the void, my lord."

"Over Mandragora?"

Orikan nodded. Trazyn had little choice but to accept it for the time being, but through the initial minutes of their entry he kept glancing up in disbelief. After all, despite the cryptek's claims, this void contained absolutely nothing of the Mandragoran skyscape.

The sanctum was about the size of a banquet-hall. Shelves and desks partitioned out each section, and the boundaries of the room's ceiling melted permanently outwards to a night sky swirling with stars. Since Trazyn had seen the tower building was domed, sealed over in other words, this was unusual; what was more, the skies over Mandragora were hazy at this time of year, whereas the sanctum's void was as clear as nowhere on the planet was. The works of sandstorms, towering industrial complexes, and falling stars did not exist in this place. Frozen in time, the mastery of chronomancers.

"Please come in. There's so much more to see."

Trazyn's cane clicked softly on the ground. Orikan lit a gauss-lamp and slipped his hand into the lord's. Save for starlight that was the only sort of illumination in the sanctum, glowing from standing braziers and orbucula studded along the walls, tinting everything viridian.

Laid out on a platform were several pieces of sempiternal weave, given to me by the Ogdobekh to examine, lord archivist. Lining the shelves were the tomes Orikan had collected over a lifetime of learning, including the ones recently gifted to him by Trazyn, copied in the archivist's own exquisite hand. Small elaborate glassworks dotted one cabinet, each refracting trapped light into infinite pools, hints of his interest in plasmancy. Trazyn rather thought they resembled Orikan's eyes. "Green they are, as green as spring, yet simmering with the void's furnace. They seem to me the way you gazed when we were met for the first time."

"Really?"

Orikan looked askance at him, somewhere between startled and smiling. It was not generally accurate to claim the Diviner saw anybody, for his eyes held the emptiness of oracles, forever unfocused and unbound to present realities. Most necrontyr lords felt this to be unbearably insolent (one of the many reasons why chronomancers went veiled) so for an overlord to remark on it fondly was a change. "I confess I'm skeptical they seemed like anything, since I was under my veil at the time."

"Now the master doth protest too much," Trazyn sighed in mock-aggravation, much to the Diviner's delight. "I still saw you, Orikan, we were many days at Gheden together. Do you not recall the tea-breaks, those long recesses, the banquets we the Nihilakh threw in honour of our guests? You had to lift the cloth sometime."

Orikan stifled a laugh. In those days he'd been an untiled cryptek, and Trazyn a young brash lord of Gheden, and they had probably spent more time being scolded by their respective dynasties than talking to one another. Still, they'd made an impression. "But then it isn't right to say it was the first time, would it?"

They moved further into the sanctum. Homelike objects began to appear, tea-things and cushions and robes hanging against the wall, and Trazyn surveyed each aspect with a different kind of fascination than before. "Whether it was or wasn't, it was enough times to promote your starlit eyes to truth. You look at me perfectly well nowadays, I've years of empirical evidence to prove it." He glanced back, fondly exasperated. "For the love of the solar gods, Orikan, would you rather I said they were dull?"

In other words: it's a compliment, dear one, learn to take it. The astromancer thought that was fair. "I suppose not, my lord."

"Trazyn." The archivist turned fully to face him, their hands still joined in the middle. Already his flesh burned with want. "You know you may call me Trazyn, like before. I'd rather gotten used to it."

Orikan smiled playfully. "Lord."

At that the archivist broke his word and drew the cryptek into an embrace, kissing him fiercely at once. Orikan allowed it, for as far as silencing methods went, he enjoyed this one greatly. With that they established that the rules were malleable that night, and that with a little patience and creativity, something wonderful might come of it.

#warhammer 40k #wh40k #trazyn the infinite #orikan the diviner #orizyn #necrontyr #snippet #fanfiction #necrons #necron #i've been thinking a lot about how those two might play with formality within their language(s) #since reading through the french version of I&D (wasn't expecting them to vousvoyer each other) #maybe orikan has a penchant for doing the opposite of what trazyn wants formality-wise #informal and disrespectful during their earlier years then becoming polite and coy when trazyn would rather they were informal instead #can't be kept too far nor too close. probably drives trazyn mad (but mostly in good ways; since he's really tolerant of insolence)

[raisengen]

I think Mandragora makes for an interesting case study in the differences between the Reunion and Victoria arcs.

We’ve got a militant group of the oppressed. We’ve got a high-ranking member, a true believer who would give everything for the movement. Bitter from injustice, driven, loyal to their compatriots, fighty. Someone who fights to the very end, even when it’s hopeless, even after being betrayed by their leader.

But FrostNova and Patriot were in the first arc, and Mandragora is in the second.

Where our beloved Reunion commanders are charismatic in their devotion, Mandragora comes off as grating. Mandragora isn’t betrayed by the usurper who fears her power as a threat, and she doesn’t go out in a blaze of glory, the emotional climax of a chapter. She’s flicked off the board by her own dear Leader just because she’s a pain to work with. And she meets her “end” in a mid-chapter curbstomp, delivered by an uncaring Manfred. We last see her bleeding out in the gutter, alone. Then the story moves on to more important things.

The Reunion arc is more romantic in its story, while the Victoria arc… I want to say it’s more cynical, but I’m not entirely sure that’s correct. It’s more sober, I think. They leave just a sliver of a chance for Mandragora, as Misery appears at the last moment. They’re not resigned to the inevitability of this, to history forever repeating. They want to show the worst of things, so that they can then show what comes next.

#Arknights #Mandragora

[meeblo]

Any ops you think really need their story expanded or any you think had underwhelming story compared to what they could have been? Stuff like op recs, events or even module tidbits.

I should probably preface this by saying that I am chronically bad at remembering to read the operator records I have unlocked, I've read maybe two or three total. If there's anyone I say I want more story for where that story already does exist in their op rec, I just haven't read it yet.

Blaze has a ton of interesting potential with what main story episode 6 sets up for her, regarding her father, his relation to the Yan officials and Jiezhen in particular, and more. I would love to have her backstory expanded, but I feel like that plot thread is eternally shelved because it would require having the Yanese government as an antagonistic force and China would never allow that. I'm surprised Arknights gets away with their actions in episode 6 as is and they were largely just evaluating another city that doesn't directly feel their administrative influence.

Kafka, Robin, and Mountain I think are all excellent characters that definitely have the potential to take the focus of more events. Not that Mansfield Break left them underdeveloped, just that they definitely feel like there's a lot more that can be done with them. Show Kafka interacting with Silence and the rest of the Rhine Lab cast more, have Robin and Mountain continue the plot thread that leads to Mountain's Bloodline of Combat skin, etc.

Ch'en maybe doesn't belong on this list but I'm putting her anyway. Dossoles Holiday was hugely underwhelming for her character, and also devastating for public opinion on more Ch'en content. Ch'en hasn't dropped out of the story entirely, she does still appear in events like What the Firelight Casts or Where Vernal Winds will Never Blow, but I really hope she returns to major main story relevance in act 3 because there is so much potential with her and Talulah finally meeting again and being able to talk and be together as sisters after all these years. They have so much to work through.

Not an operator, but I would love more Closure. Whether it's more main story relevance or an event featuring her, I want her playable and I want her to get a ton more screen time.

Myrtle I think has a ton of potential for a really funny storyline going over the city she and Durin are from. Make her actually the official Generalissimo and show her as a respected leader of this Durin city, it would be hilarious.

The story will likely get there eventually but I need to know what happens to Kroos in Rim Billiton and if Beagle dies in the Great March of Bolivar. Kroos is great in Who is Real and Invitation to Wine, she could absolutely carry another event as the main point of view.

Mudrock has a ton of interesting story potential given act 2 of the main story's focus on the Sarkaz and Kazdel. She's an excellent character and I'd love to see her get some more screen time. I personally don't subscribe to the idea of Mandragora being alive but it would be very funny if she was so Mudrock could show up in the story and then skill issue her with more powerful and skilled rock/soil related arts. Big Bob has continually gotten story development through Integrated Strategies and through stuff like the storyline in the Angelina comic, but Mudrock has basically trailed off after she became playable in terms of having new content and it's a shame.

#arknights #ask

[jules-and-company]

got a little chance to continue hogwarts legacy

- on god fuck sebastian and the rest only poppy and natty are my true friends. like who takes me on a whimsical adventure to find long-lost birds and resolves a trauma ? poppy sweetiepie sweeting. who asks me to come to the great hall just to have a therapy sesh and then carries out a fight that i’m also personally involved in and WHO literally sacrifices herself for me without second thought ???? who tells me i’m the best friendship that’s ever happened to her ??? natsai motherfucking onai. AND WHO only takes me to dangerous-ass tombs full of inferi and spiders for dark relics that only serve his own personal obsession ??? who devalues everything i’m working on (aka the ancient magic file) because he’s so busy focusing on his goal (peak slytherin tho ?) ???? WHO CALLS ME STUPID TO MY FACE ???? sebastian fucking sallow. he’s an extremely interesting and complex character and i still enjoy his presence but christ alive. at first i bonded with him ´cause he was just as toxic as me but even THAT is going too far

- SPEAKING OF. when ominis said « he went alone inside the tomb » i felt we were fucked. but i didn’t think i’d find him controlling literal INFERI and i certainly didn’t think i’d have to beat his uncle’s ass BEFORE THE BOY FUCKING KILLS HIM

- i think i missed the mark where i could learn avada kedavra but let’s say it was a conscious choice. why would i want to learn the Brutal Kill Curse. first of all fights would be a lot less interesting. second i haven’t even graduated my fifth year. I AM FIFTEEN. WHY WOULD I

- when i started the fight with rookwood i didn’t think i’d have to kill the bitch. why do i have to kill everyone round these parts ??? where are the authorities ???

- officer singer only came for harlow but when I WAS gang-ambushed by at least sixteen goons and as much inferi PLUS the most dangerous man in the region suddenly you can’t fucking find me ???? why does the ministry want me dead

- after getting my ass handed to me at least twelve times during the last boss fight, i decided to leave that last principal quest where it is from now and do literally everything else. so that when i come back before ranrok i have become god

- i admit, seeing all the teachers there to help fig and i was JOYOUS (lack of headmaster tho ??? black get your lily-white racist aristocratic ass down there and help your literal coworkers and a 15yo child)

- everytime i have to destroy a piece of equipment to make room for what i find in the crests (i’ve been stupid enough to not do the merlin’s enigmas so far) i die a little because i know i’ll never find them again

- i just LOVE the grapcorn. i’ll name him bessie (mulan reference)

- i am MOURNING for lodgok. why did it have to come to this

- i don’t know about y’all but i never use plants (mandragora, chinese screaming lettuce) or potions other than a shitload of wiggenweld, nor do i have the four categories of spells at all times in my pocket, but not because i have disdain for all that, but because i am at all times panicking. so brutal force it is or nothing

- just in terms of modeling the character, i was skeptical at first of wearing simply the school’s uniform, but now i ain’t never changing. beating everyone’s asses in standard issued checkered green skirt and this green tie may be used for strangulation

- i don’t know if it’s supposed to be the same thing for the playing character regardless of house but. why do i feel like since i am in slytherin i act in a certain slytherin way. like have the developpers been smart enough to match unchoosable personality with housing. that would be cool

- more whimsical colourful adventures, less dark tombs exploring that i only get out of at the ass crack of dawn with blood all over me and five new traumas

#don’t get me wrong there are many flaws in this game #the fights in their manner are quite repetitive #there’s an enemy every two miles #and i have to kill things i don’t want to kill ??? like black dogs ??? what have the doggoes done to me ??? #and i still don’t get why none of the teachers question the fact that i come to class every fifteen days #nor the fact that i am more often than not out of school grounds every night #is there no éducation nationale. anything that at least makes sure that they don’t actually lose students every year #we had one (1) nightly excursion in the castle at the beginning and that was good ! that was interesting ! why not do that when i sneak out #also again. why do i have to solve everyone’s problems. like sir. ma’am. i am a CHILD. GO ASK A COP #but i do appreciate this game. it’s like tomb raider merged with my childhood obsession #i probably won’t be picking it up until july or june this time though. #anyways. #hogwarts legacy #la complainte de julot

[arkiwii]

ask game

arknights

1, at what point did you start shipping your otp

12, what actually got you into the game

15, what character for the chopping block

thank you for the ask, and for adding the question with it!! seriously helps lmao <- too lazy to switch between replying to the answer and the post

1. I think I already explained it in the past, but it's still a funny fact to me; I actually started to ship them before I even played Arknights. For those who fell asleep and did not followed, my otp is Saria/Silence. Why? Because a friend presented me some characters, and explained to me that Saria and Silence were exes and had an adoptive daughter. Which is, not exactly canon! But I DID believed it was. When I actually played the game and checked their files, I realized that there was nothing in canon that stated they were in a relationship pffft - basically I got gaslighted and believed there was something canonically romantic between them

Well that doesn't stop me. I can't remember when I really, really got into the ship, but mayybeee after I read the manhua? Anyway, all of this to say, I've been shipping them for a year now, and the insanity can't be cured

12. The. the birds. Well! Technically, it's because a few of my closest friends were playing the game and I started to get intrigued, but maybe I wouldn't have started if it weren't for the Liberi. "Imagine I play the game just to collect the birds /j /j" I said a year ago. yeah. that statement didn't aged well.

But the game seemed interesting too! and most of all, I already loved some characters my best friend presented to me, which were Aciddrop, Projekt Red and Silence. So of course I wanted to get to know them more!

15. I'm not sure if I understand the question, but I suppose it means which character I'd pick to kill in the story? mmh. Oren 💥💥💥

Jokes aside (all my homies hate Oren), I don't really know who I could pick. Arknights is already doing a great job at killing characters and making these deaths memorable and justifiable (FrostNova and Outcast,,,), I never told myself "why they killed this character??", and it's very good for a story. So naturally, I don't really want anyone in particular to die, and if I do, that's because they were destined to die in canon anyway, like Parvis, Gertrude or Mandragora (she's alive if you're delusional). The only character I can think about, and it's a really big hot take but also my extremely angsty side talking, would be Ptilopsis. Don't get me wrong, I love her! But she's already dying in some way, her fate is sealed - and god, it would be so fucking sad and angsty if it were to happen. I love my meals SPICY

#yippee thanks for the ask!! #my other options for the chop block was other very infected characters #like ifrit or eyja #but they're characters who are still developing and growing up #joyce's character is... pretty much done in a way #i'd love to see more of her however but i can hardly imagine something that would be really big to make her grow up as a character #she's already content with her life #what would be interesting to see is her past more than her future #anyway as i said this is a hot take you may or may not agree #just imagine the angst. yummy #arknights #askiwi

[drmajalis]

Rant/ Every day i get a little more pissed off that the Victoria arc wasn't about fighting the cruel, repressive state Victoria has become which ch9 set up...

...and instead became about stopping Theresis from taking over the world, like he's a Saturday morning cartoon supervillain. Like, Ch9 did a really good job creating a compelling story about how the Victorian state is systematically erasing the Taran people and culture from Terra, how their army is getting pretty jackbooted and perhaps the whole gov't is a military dictatorship ala Oliver Cromwell. But then Ch10 rolls around and all of this is forgotten in favour of a narrative revolving around fighting alongside the Queen of England to liberate the poor Victorian civilians from the cruel oppression of the Sarkaz Invaders. ... I'm sorry, what Really defeats the purpose of setting up Victoria this way if you're just gonna have them get invaded and taken over off-screen by even eviler evildoers?! And I fully expect this to annoy some people but I'll say it: Theresis is a boring antagonist. The Sarkaz storyline is a compelling one, but Manny boy and bubblegum mop head didn't have anything interesting to add outside of that one conversation with Mandragora.

And like, as of Ch11 not only are we fighting alongside the Queen of England but also a literal Duke? Is it just me or has Rhodes become even more cops then they were fighting against Reunion?

I'm sorry but like through all of the scenes of like Horn motivating her soldier comrades to not give up in ch10 and then her heroic stand against Manfred showing how the spirit of the Victorian soldier will prevail over these invaders all I could think about was when another group of Victorian soldiers decided to commit an act of genocide by dirty bombing County Hillock. Victoria deserves to burn. You can't just CASUALLY DROP LORE about how the Victorian govt is systematically erasing an entire culture and people and then swap them out for comic book bad guys the next chapter over!

We got robbed, we really did. They gave us an appetizer that was way tastier and filling than the actual main course.

I'm guessing I'm gonna be in the super minority because a lot of people love the Sarkaz storyline and they're so excited to see the Darknights Trio again and OMG there's Theresa but I'm sorry i can't vibe alongside them (and I like Darknights!) with how badly they fucked this plot up. /EndRant

#arknights #story discussion #rant

[lizalfosrise]

Hey Rise, it's AK favorites time again. Give me your best defenders. Gameplay, personality, aesthetic, whatever.

Alrighty! Let's place this under a cut:

Launch Faves:

Spot - I see full kemono in Arknights I black out and go feral good yes very nice. That healing smokescreen remains very helpful, and he's just a real solid bro. His VA caught my eye too, since I was watching Raildex that year so I'd been hearing him quite a lot.

Cuora - Roaming baseball turtle is Fucking Invincible. HOMERUN!! Her module lore story was pretty nice in a sledgehammer-to-the-heart kinda way given it was her memory issues + her baseball&bat's origin. Incredibly solid and the first elusive 4-blocker saving our asses and storing up Pure Gold Ingots in the Factories. Homerun indeed.

Croissant - Really cool and fun character (we got her southern US drawl back hooray) with the interesting gimmick of being the push-stroker(they can never live this naming scheme down) defender. Problem? S2 says yeet 'em! No problem boblem. Niche and therefore undervalued at the earlygame, but Integrated Strategies with the Force+2 manual obtained must've made some fun shenanigans.

Gameplay:

All the Fortresses, honestly. They're great in character, in aesthetics and I greatly enjoy having their long-range bombardments. Firewhistle's brought us Burn procs and it's delightful to watch the bonus damage pour in. I can be trusted with the Londinium Self-Defense Artillery cannon emplacements.

Don't use 'em enough but they're fun: Duelist and Sentinels - Aurora is cute and has access to Cold proc manipulation tactics (plus that claw-shaped staked, slim tower shield is a work of art); Liskarm has been a faithful SP battery pistol-shooting down aerial threats while Blitz has the flashbang spam going for him.

Guardians are lifesavers, of course. Gummy's frying pan bonk stuns every third hit can actually be incredibly useful. Blemishine is a far better pick than Nearl due to her Sleep mechanics and yknow, 6* bulk/Skill 3 (she's cool to borrow as a support unit but I don't have her fully invested). Saria is pretty solid here and with regards to character&story, but at the same time I never actually E2'd her until mid-Dorothy's Vision because I finally experienced her Skill 3 and needed her to be beefier for a map clear (or several) that event.

General:

Horn - "YOU WANT TO TOPPLE ME?! BY WHAT?" Episode 9 was so great, and then we suffered a Manfred to the Self-Defense Artillery. That CG towards the end of Ep9 with a heavily-injured Horn pulling the S3 glare at Mandragora after auto-rocketjumping Bagpipe away was phenomenal. Incidentally a major part of why if you have taste you'll understand that Horndragora is the superior toxic yuri pairing rather than suffering that watery tart of a catgirl. I'm more enamored with that heavy-duty shieldcannon though, naturally. The Victorian Army gets all the cool gunlances eh? That VA olive green drab is a wonderful colour scheme too, really. The overheat flame vfx during S3 are a delightful detail on the chibi sprite and for that reason though I'll get that (somewhat mismatched) Lady of the Lake skin, I won't equip it often. But S1/S3 were absolutely outstanding during IS2.

Asbestos - The most tsuntsuntsuntsuntsuntsuuuuuundere foulmouthed foul-tempered vkei-ass Aussie salamander is just so iconic, bless her. Funky and rad design, personality and until Shalem appeared, the only Arts-shotgun shielder. Trying out her Skill 2 in IS2 was pretty fun since I only rarely used her prior honestly. The details gone into fitting her entire theming around asbestos are so so good.

Mudrock - Initially I wouldn't use her due to the 35dp cost buuuut I reached the point where 'This is fine actually' after a while of wanting to properly invest in her and yeah. Fucking incredible with sneak-healing via Perfumer. Spin2Win is forever relevant! We need a skin that brings back the full hazard suit towering over most other chibis though. Really good as a character, her parts in Twilight of Wolumonde were what made that event remotely bearable to me.

Her fellow Juggernaut companion Penance is likewise extremely good in aesthetics, character and as a unit.

Eunectes - Same deal as above, I actually haven't used her so badly she's not actually E2 yet. But I think she's incredibly gorgeous and a very cool Forgemaster. The Acahualla Trio are very, very fun! Summoning her upgraded Raging Ironhide must be a real lovely feeling given how much of a nuisance it is to fight.

Nian - Unemployed. Commando. The only Sui fragment I have at E2. Fellow spice fiend. Many noteworthy things can be said. I greatly enjoy her. We need to see more of the situation with training up Purgatory now going forwards in that storyline. Love that her E2 splash shows the(or at least, her) bestial Sui form has a maw in the chest.

Shoutout: Ace - He would've been male 6* Defender, absolutely, the way he tanked Talulah 1v1 during the Chernobog Exfiltration long enough for every surviving RI Operator to redeploy disengage & evacuate. Legendary guy. There's no Elite Operator covering the Defender class as a Temporary Recruitment in Integrated Strategies, so personally I feel like that's where he might've been.

#arknights #arbellas-bakery #defenderknights #perhaps still not as comprehensive as it could be but yeah wall of paragraphs k

[waheelawhisperer]

Fuck marry kill, any and all fictional characters. But you only get to pick one character per. The character you'd choose to marry above all others, the character you'd choose to fuck above all others and the character you'd kill above all others.

Marry: Margaret Nearl (Arknights). Come on. I'm Mr. Nearl's Husband for a reason.

Honorable Mentions: Medusa (Fate series). Not only is she hot, but I think we're legitimately compatible in terms of interests and personality. Both of us would quite enjoy spending evenings cuddled up on the couch with a good book.

Yang Xiao Long (RWBY): Yang might've edged Nearl out before Volume 9 butchered her character for the sake of uwu GIFable Bee moments, but then Volume 9 butchered her character for the sake of uwu GIFable Bee moments. Lol lmao etc.

Rias Gremory (High School DxD): I would like a hot devil sugar mommy with huge tits and a willingness to share me with other attractive women, thank you.

Fuck: Scathach (Fate Grand Order). If we're going for a night or weekend of no-strings-attached passion, idt she can be beat. She's hot, athletic, canonically a skilled teacher, and has plenty of experience instructing dumbasses who have no idea what they're doing. When she was done with me, I'd be wrung dry, covered in scratches and bitemarks, unable to walk under my own power, and a minimum of 4x as good in bed as I am now.

Honorable Mentions: Esdeath (Akame ga Kill). Her show sucks ass but she has boobs the size of my head, terrible taste in men, and a taste for some freaky shit

Yoruichi Shihouin (Bleach): see Scathach.

Barghest (Fate Grand Order): Barghest snu snu would kill me but it would be worth it.

Kill: Jaune Arc (RWBY). There are a large number of characters in fiction that I hate enough to gun down without a second thoughts, so I decided to make the winners/honorable mentions for this option characters that specifically made the stories they were in worse by existing. Jaune warps the narrative around himself and takes screentime away from the supposed main characters, regularly screwing over everyone else so Miles Luna's Specialest Boy gets his time in the spotlight.

Honorable Mentions: Mandragora (Arknights). I actually hate Platinum more, but she at least does something useful for the Kazimierz storyline, whereas Mandragora is indelibly associated with the shitshow that is Chapter 9 and makes me wish the story was focusing on something else every time she's on my screen. I hope she died in the fucking sewer.

Kisuke Urahara (Bleach): He's a creepy weirdo and I got really tired of the narrative jerking off to how he's so Smart and Special. I was frankly done with him long before his fight with Askin, but everything about that infuriated me beyond belief. We get it Kubo, you think women are Fleshlights that cook your dinner, you don't have to remind us at every opportunity.

Jack Danvers (Ted Lasso): Ted Lasso ended so badly that I forgot it existed for a while and apparently so did the rest of the world, but I remember Season 3 doing very little of value with Keeley's screentime and Jack was a large part of that. Other than confirming Keeley as bi, she mostly just dragged focus away from the AFC Richmond cast and storylines and her role could've been filled by Rebecca with minor rewriting.

#honorable honorable kill mention: emiya shirou because I *really* fucking hate his loser sexist ass #ask game

[the-phantom-otaku]

Bayonetta 3: Witches' Ingredients Farming Guide

The biggest issue I ran into while farming seeds to buy Rodin was the constant need to make Midas Testaments since you don't find any in chests like you did in 2. While farming, I found some chests of interest that helped speed the process along a little, so I’ve written them down. I also note the two spots I went to most to farm seeds.

Phenomenal Remnants

Here’s a list of the Phenomenal Remnants that will give you an assortment of ingredients for completing it again. There are also chests like this littered throughout the levels, but listing the Phenomenal Remnants is easier. Plus, they’re shorter so you can just do the same one or rotate through all these to get lots of ingredients in a short span.

Phenomenal Remnant 4 - Collect the chest pieces

Phenomenal Remnant 6 - Fight Beloved, Affinity, & Fortitudo 

Phenomenal Remnant 7 - Collect the chest pieces

Phenomenal Remnant 9 - Fight Baal on the balancing scales

Phenomenal Remnant 10 - Fight Cirrocumulus & Cirrostratus (the dragon Homonculi from Egypt)

Phenomenal Remnant 13 - Fight Mic (the bat)

Chapters w Ingredients

Mandragora Root - Chapter 6, 7, & 8

Unicorn Horn - Chapter 8, 9, & Phenomenal Remnant 8

Baked Gecko - Chapter 7, 8, & 11

Note: Chapter 8 is the best imo bc you can get large amounts of each ingredient in that one level. It's the one I went back to the most.

Farming Spots

Prologue

You get plenty of enemies on the boat, so you can use a Midas Testament and then CMW's Astounding Touch to get a lot of seeds. I'd suggest mashing the button to make the attack last as long as possible. You can also equip Gaze of Despair so they'll beeline for you. Makes it easier to hit all of them.

Chapter 4: Worlds Apart

This is another great one for seed farming. Verse one has three Genitus (the trees that spawn Stratus) and each one of those will make two Stratus. Use a Midas’ Testament after the Stratus have spawned and are beginning to make their way over to you (I also equip Gaze of Despair so they’ll beeline for me) and use Color My World’s Astounding Touch and/or Concussion Step to hit many of them at once. I’d also suggest using Wink Slave bc demon attacks cause them to drop larger seeds that are worth more.

After verse 1, there should be a chest to the left of the broken bridge. It’s always given me Halos, so if you’re looking for those, you can always hit that chest up.

Chapter 1-3

The Tokyo levels are all great for gathering ingredients. The sheer number of objects around that you can destroy make it easy. Go in, find a place during the chapter where there are a lot of cars or other things that can be destroyed and repeatedly summon your demon to destroy the objects. The only downside is that it’s all random, but it will get you some of what you need. I’d suggest using Gomorrah for his bulk (he’ll send more stuff flying) or Madama Butterfly since she also quite a bit flying once summoned. Labolas, Phantasmaraneae, and Baal also work. Chapter 1 is the best one for finding large quantities of shit to break, but all of them have some collection of cars somewhere. Chapter 2 is also great for the large parking lot of cars not far into the level (the parking lot where you scare the cats). The Phenomenal Remnant is great for this as well. You can get the cat parking lot, but you also have access to the arena where you fight the Boar Homonculi. Only this time, the verse won’t begin until you touch the green stuff, so you’ll be free to clear out all the vehicles in the area first.

Chapter 3 also contains a chest of ingredients at the very start. Once you’re in control, it’ll be right on your left moving around the roof of a destroyed building. There’s yet another chest containing a bunch of Witch’s ingredients a little later in the level. After verse 5, there should be a staircase at the back that’s blocked by clouds of erasure. Past the clouds is a chest. You’ll want to use Mic’s (the bat) ranged attack to break it open bc any demon will desummon if they get too close.

Chapter 6: Off the Rails

In this chapter, there’s a big chest that you’re going to use your demons to open. It’ll give you a handful of Madragora Root and a big green lollipop, so if you happen to be low on the green, this is where you’ll want to go. 

The chest is located in the area after verse 4 on the big bridge that breaks apart after the boss makes the volcano erupt. There should be an open space where you can see an angel verse. Go there and there should be stairs to your right. Chest should be at the bottom along with one of the magic fountains so you won’t run out of magic.

Chapter 7: Burning Sands

During the section where you have to find water as Cheshire, there’s a large chest buried in the sand that contains a handful of Mandragora Root and a large green lollipop. Go through the little tunnel to the main area with the clouds of erasure and the small, self-destructing Pannus. There should be a dig spot pretty close to the tunnel, and that’s where the chest is. 

There’s another chest you might want to grab while you’re here. Get to the sand river and go behind the flowing sand. There’s a chest that’s pretty hard to miss. It’ll give you a small green lollipop, but more importantly, it’ll give you ~5 Baked Gekkos.

Chapter 8: Croaking Chorus

This one in particular is great for getting the yellow ones. The Baked Gekko was the hardest for me to come by. I guess they have it spawn less from just breaking objects since you craft invincible lollipops from them. Anyway, this chapter contains two chests that will give you some Baked Gekkos for busting them open. The first is a small one located near the windmills. Go past the angel verse until you see the metal square. Then climb up to a ledge located right beside that windmill. There should a chest that you can bust open. It will give you a small green lollipop, but more importantly, it will give you 4-5 Baked Gekko. 

That’s not the only chest you should grab, though. A little further down, there should be a massive chest located in the sand. Use Madama Butterfly. Summon her, have her jump and glide over to the rock so she won’t sink, and then have her use her shoot attack. If it doesn’t land, just move a little closer to the edge. Once open, the chest will give you a handful of Baked Gekko and a large yellow lollipop! 

This chapter is also great for Unicorn Horns. Once you’re in the Venom’s Caress, beat Jeanne and you’ll be able to roam around freely. Go break all the red crystals you can. They drop Unicorn Horns or seeds exclusively, so you can really load up there. This applies to the next chapter, too. The Venom’s Caress just has a lot of them and doesn’t take long to get to, so that’s the place I always use. I haven’t found any chests that give you a lot of Unicorn Horns, but I think the Venom’s Caress is better. (Edit: I have found a chest that contain Unicorn Horn. You get the chest by beating Phenomenal Remnant 8). By destroying all the crystals, I’ve gotten ~30 Unicorn Horns, way more than what I’d get if there was a chest full of them.

And that’s still not it! In the same room where you use Baal’s poison rain, there’s a large chest that once again requires a demon to break. Once opened, it’ll give you some Mandragora Root and a large green lollipop. 

Phenomenal Remnant 8

So this is something I'm adding to the guide after the fact. Initially, I thought there was no chest in the game that gave you lots of Unicorn Horn, but this isn't true. Phenomenal Remnant 8 will give you a large red lollipop and a handful of Unicorn Horn if you've already gotten the initial reward. In Phenomenal Remnant 8, you're also able to access the Venom's Caress once again, so you can really load up on Unicorn Horn here.

Chapter 9: Learning to Fly

Once you get to the tower, climb it and grab the chest you see up top. It has ~5 Unicorn Horns and a big green lollipop. 

Chapter 11: A Familiar Dance

This chapter is also good for Baked Gekkos. After traveling through the dark tunnel with Mic (the bat), you’ll find one of those metal squares that break into platforms. Bust it and then climb up until you see a chest. Break that too and it’ll give you a fountain of magic. You should see a large chest moving by at some point. Summon a demon and break it (I use Madama and her shoot attack). It’ll then give you ~10 Baked Gekkos and a large yellow lollipop. It’s basically another chest like the one in chapter 8. 

That's pretty much the extent of what I found. Hopefully this helps others on their grind for Rodin.

#bayonetta 3 #bayonetta #bayonetta 2 #cereza #bayonetta 3 guide #platinum games #umbran witch #bayonetta 3 help #b1 #b2 #b3 #bayonetta rodin

[heretichromia]

Reed Alter Good, on a conceptual level.

Or, the logistical reasons why Alters don't necessarily suck.

I'm mildly disappointed that the reveal didn't end up being Mandragora, but only mildly, because I've been saying that Reed Alter should be a thing for a long time.

Alters are...going to be a thing. And they're a thing we're probably going to have to be okay with. And that's okay! Because they don't have to suck, and Reed is probably the least problematic one we've gotten yet.

(Thankfully, for those worried about powercreep, Ch'alter actually did pretty poorly by Alter standards, only performing better than Nearl; they seem to have learned that gamebreakingly powerful units don't actually necessarily move product more.)

They're a consistent source of income, but on a logistical level, they're a good way to draw excitement towards an event or a banner without trying to shoehorn multiple new characters into the spotlight. That spotlight is getting rather crowded. We have over 200 playable characters right now, and around half of that cast couldn't matter less to any of the major narratives floating around. The necessity to introduce new characters with every major development is a serious problem for the writers to grapple with.

Look at Stultifera Navis. It's a story about Specter, about a pre-existing character (and a 5*, at that). That's simply not a thing you can easily do if you're also going to tie it to a big-name event like an Anniversary. Anniversary events need a big banner, and the marquee unit will necessarily be the focus of the event, because otherwise, you're setting up for disappointment. The integrity of the narrative is important, but Hypergryph is a company, and they're looking to make money. The big events need to come with big, exciting banners.

Irene is a great character, and I love her dearly, but I have serious doubts about her capacity to carry an Anniversary banner on her own—and, if she was going to, you'd need to make the event significantly more about her. You'd need to drum up hype for her debut, shine the spotlight on her, and change the story so that it's much more about her blossoming from a bookish, naïve apprentice to a fully-fledged hero. And that could have kind of worked, admittedly. They'd still be able to tell the story of the Abyssal Hunters through her perspective, but it would need to be a much different event..

But Irene wouldn't be the only 6* released. Events require 3 new units, and Under Tides set the precedent that, for Anniversary events, all 3 are 6*s. Usually, it's no problem to just release 5* characters like Corroserum or Blacknight on these banners, with little to no relevance to the story. Even the welfares can be characters like Iwona, given some lip service in the plot, but no actual major role. But 6*s are different. There's an expectation that all 3 characters will serve some kind of major narrative function in the event.

That's a really hard task to accomplish without the story seeming super contrived.

Let's look at the one new character we did get, Lumen. Jordi was...sort of awkwardly hamfisted into the story in order to justify his existence. I don't dislike him as a character, and they actually did manage to tie his narrative to the themes of the plot quite well. The fact remains, however, that they needed to spend a lot of their time budget in the story setting up and explaining this character in an event about Specter. We spent a large portion of this event just...getting to know this otherwise completely average guy, when we could have spent more time with the Abyssal Hunters, or the Inquisition. Every moment we spent on Jordi was time that we didn't spend with the other characters, and there was a lot of room to do more with them. And, again, to the writers' credit, despite the circumstances all but ensuring that I'd hate this new guy for stealing time away from the things I was actually interested in, I didn't. He's a good kid, and the setup about Gran Faro was a good way to comment on the Abyssal Hunters—specifically, Gladiia, as her aspirations most directly align thematically with the doomed hopefulness and blind nostalgia of Gran Faro—without directly talking about them.

Imagine if we needed to do that twice.

Don't @ me about Ulpianus. It's not his time yet, just like it wasn't Irene's during Under Tides. Rushing Ulpianus into playability would also be quite bad as a narrative decision. Besides, if Ulpianus survives the events of the story, he will probably serve the same function as Irene for the third installment of Fish Lore, whenever that comes around. If I had to make wild, hopeful speculation, on the banner alongside Gladiia Alter, if we're continuing the trend. Maybe with an Andreana Alter as a welfare, if we're allowed a little bit more hopium?

Stultifera Navis was allowed to be a good story about Specter because her Alter bridged the divide between the goals of telling a good story and making a lot of money. The latter will always win out, if they're ever forced to choose. Embrace the business decisions that actually rock a little bit, because if they're not embraced, we're probably getting something worse in their place.

I'm just glad that the consensus seems to have been that Overpowered Swimsuit Skin should not, in fact, be the basis for Alters moving forward. Instead, every Alter since has represented a significant development in the character's narrative. And that's cool! They changed as a person, so they changed as a unit, too.

Why Reed?

Okay, so maybe Alters are necessary. Why Reed, though? There were plenty of other candidates for this 6*—Mandragora was the most commonly speculated one. The answer is probably just that they...wanted the event to focus on Reed, and releasing another 6* here would necessitate otherwise.

But, like, beyond that? She's also just a good pick.

Reed is not only a 5*, but a criminally bad one. "Worse than her 4* equivalent" bad, though part of that is Vigna's fault for overperforming by 4* standards. For being such an important plot-relevant character, her actual unit is a major disappointment. She doesn't even fall into the category of generally bad 5*s where she technically has a niche that can make her good in some scenarios (but are too niche to really matter), like Tsukinogi. Using her not only means downgrading from Bagpipe (not the hardest sell, Bagpipe is Very strong), but downgrading from Vigna.

Especially as the story focuses more on her, the problems with her unit would become more apparent to a larger number of people. Arknights doesn't really do reworks, and buffs via modules wouldn't solve the problem of her offering no utility beyond "Worse Bagpipe" anyways, even if they were good (they aren't).

Surprise! People like playing with the characters they enjoy! It's generally a pretty bad thing for players to attach themselves to characters through the story, and then be disincentivized by the game to play with them. That turns people away. Reed kicking off the trend of non-limited Alters is honestly probably a step towards fixing that issue, since we're probably never getting the major kit reworks that'd be necessary for many of these older units to shine.

#arknights

[cherry-blossomtea]

Horndragora right. It’s so much more than just oh they want to kill each other I think they should kiss. Horn and Mandragora is this whole roiling emotional subplot that’s just there in chapter ten. These two women who have been left for dead by their respective leaders, who were betrayed. They were both supposed to die in County Hillock (Harmonie saved them both). They’re both so fucking exhausted and they’re holding on by the skin of their teeth and they care and ache so deeply for the people they lead (don’t be fooled by Mandragora’s ranting, she counts the number of dead at whose hands. She is Dublinn for Tara, for Eblana, not for power). Mandragora killed Cello. Horn killed god knows how many. They were in each other’s way. They are the same. While Horn is in the underbelly of Londinium, Mandragora is on the surface consorting with the nobility. As Horn emerges into the light, Mandragora disappears back into the dark.

Horn wanted to save Mandragora but from what? She decided she couldn’t be saved. Better to kill her. So why didn’t she kill Mandragora? With so many opportunities, surely revenge was possible, easy even. Mandragora’s impassioned speech to Horn claiming to have her best interests at heart? Mandragora isn’t the type to lie to others, even if she’s lying to herself. She claimed she was protecting Horn from Londinium and even if she was absolutely not doing it out of the goodness of her heart, well. Maybe that’s as close as Mandragora could get to someone she hated so much.

They claim to hate each other, they do hate each other. Their thoughts for the other are rife with violence and vengeance. I think they’re also two people who would understand each other better than anyone else. Mutual obsession that became madness in the face of being abandoned by everything they believed in.

#sorry for the deranged horndragora ranting #arknights #and thus bang path character au was born

[charmixpower]

Sometimes I think how riven was not only able to overcome darkars body stuck on the ground spell to protect musa but was also able to break mandragoras mind control spell after thinking about Musa AS WELL AS finally resisting Darcy’s spell in season 8 to not hurt musa. I think it’s really interesting how he was basically the only specialist to snap out of all these spells like 3/4 times (the only time being season 1 but at the same time the man hated everyone so much Idt it took much of a spell to convince him)

Idk if he has like any form or magic blood or smth but the fact he can resist magic control that many times when the winx themselves can’t just makes me rlly interested. While I like to think the creators are trying to imply smth I think the reality is ....the man probably is so so stubborn the only thing stronger than magic spells is his sheer willpower and his love for musa. Although I do think it’s quite funny if it was his stubbornness that made him so magic resistant lmAo the man is a mule

*Vibrates out of my seat* you don't understand how obsessed I've been with this topic

Ok so I generally go with the idea that he's doing that out of pure will power, spite, and love for Musa, mostly because Riven not only breaks out of mind control spells easier but also seems to be able to walk off injuries easier. What I'm saying is that there is nothing this man can't accomplish with enough adrenaline and anger

Like it IS!! notable the only time he didn't have a moment ™ of breaking out of mind control is when he didn't need it to convince him to go to the other side

This guy always gets the worst of the mind control, and I think it would really funny if that happens because he has a fragile mind (severe mental illness, strong emotions, trauma) so they think he's a easy target but in reality his mind is like a steel trap and he 90% determination by volume

I just i think it would be hilarious

But you make a great point!! I mean what if the magic Darcy was sensing for that weird prince of darkness one off line was his ability to resist magic? Like he's the magic user of strength of will or something like that, and they just misinterpreted it because, duh, it's hard to get into his head

His magic just makes other magic fucky, that's all it does, not a offensive ability in the slightest but HUGELY useful when your under a spell and could be used defensively to amazing results

I'm in love, thank you for this ask

#winx club #winx riven #rus chatters #asks

[folkloristico]

1, 7, 8, 12, and 22 for the 🧂🔥🔪 ask game!

Very late response, but anyway...!

The character everyone gets wrong

A part of me feels like answering this question is tough for two reasons, the first one being that I haven’t much knowledge to work with because the Winx fandom is criminally lacking any kind of content I’m interested in (that would be, Daphne, the Dominoan royal family as a whole, and CoL members). As for the second reason, I do realize many things I like about Daphne are just a headcanon of mine, but then again the overall characterization is something I picked up from the canon material. Daphne comes off as an extremely wise and mature young woman despite her age—I’ve always headcanoned her to be between 20 and 24 because of the way she looks—and although I don’t engage in much fandom discourse, I’ve seen my share of bad takes on her that just don’t reason with me At All. 

(Honestly, seasons 5 and 6 handled her so badly that I’m gonna say even canon gets her wrong.) 

Also, I was gonna use this to answer #22, but as I’ve dedicated that question to rant about something else, I’m gonna mention here how much I love that Daphne sacrificed herself and gave away her powers just so that her little sister would be safe, and she never complained once about it. I guess that’s why I’m mad at how season 5 and 6 handled here—how can you have a character that went through so much and never acknowledge it again?

7. What character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because of how the fandom acts about them?

I’m gonna preface this by saying that ‘hate’ is a strong word here—anyway, my answer would be Riven. I don’t hate him at all, but I feel like some fans act too densely about him. What gets on my nerves is when they make up excuses for his behavior towards Musa and others, either by downplaying its severity or by blaming it on bad writing, but then never do the same thing with characters whom they dislike.

Take Sky, for one. Do I like him? No. Does he suffer from bad writing? Yes. Does it excuse the way he acts towards Bloom? No. But If you’re (rightfully so) calling him out for his behavior—the way he handled the whole Diaspro and Bloom situation being on top of the list—I’d expect you’d do the same thing for all the other characters alike.

8. Common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about 

I have read this claim several times on Reddit, but I don’t really mind that the Specialists didn’t get more screen time. Actually, it feels a bit off when fans complain about it because it seems to me that for being secondary characters, they were around pretty often. They appear almost in every episode. The problem, rather than the time they spend on screen, is either the lack of development or the reverse of the aforementioned just for the sake of drama. As I said, I’m not Riven’s biggest fan, but even I can recognize how annoying it is that his development kept being reversed just so he could play the part of the bad guy.

Talking about SotLK, I actually like how Riven reacts to first seeing Hagen, treating him with a mixture of reverence and respect. On the other hand, the fact that he ended up being used by Mandragora was annoying. It’s like not even the writers know if they want him to get better or keep reminding us that he’s ‘evil’ or something, but the whole thing feels flat because it basically boils down to nothing. It doesn’t create any interesting tension, so what was even the point?

Anyway, back to my original point, I’m salty about the writing but not the screen time dedicated to the Specialists. The way I see it, it’s not that different from Barbie being, well… about Barbie, rather than Ken.

12. The unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them

CoL members in general, but because I like writing about them more as a whole than when they’re split—even if it’s Marion and Griffin, whom I enjoy writing the most—my answer would be Daphne. I can’t believe the lack of Daphne!centric fics! The angst is right there! 

22. Your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

Everything CoL related. I have so many questions I don’t even know where to begin, like—how did the war play out? How exactly was the Company formed? How did Marion and Oritel get in touch with Faragonda, Hagen, Saladin and Griffin? 

Now, I don’t blame people for sleeping on them because canon itself does a tremendous job at handling what could’ve been one of the best plotlines ever (you can fight me on that), but still, the little things we know about CoL are cool (pun not intended) and there’s so much room to work with. Should there be more fics about them, I’m not sure how I would feel about them because the fact that almost everything is left to the imagination has led me to make up entire scenarios about them, so I can’t say how interested I’d be in fics who diverge too far from my headcanons.

Still, I’m shocked that so many people are sleeping on Domino’s revival! Again, canon doesn’t help here as SotLK is quite frankly a mess, and I don’t expect many people to care about Hagen when the guy appeared out of nowhere and stayed for, like, twenty minutes or so. But then again, I would expect more from Bloom’s POV at least! Fandoms usually thrive on angst, and there is a lot here.

It’s really a shame, because honestly, if it weren’t for the characters mentioned here, I don’t think I would ever be writing about Winx Club in the first place. Which I know sounds crazy because the main characters of a show called Winx are, you know, the Winx, but still.

#ask game #her-majesty-wears-jeans #ask

[pumpkinmagekupo]

A Lonely Star

So finally making a little Mizuki post. Stuff is subject to change. It may not be canon accurate.

And a reminder likes/follows come from my main: hanajimasama

Master list is now here: MasterlistKupo

Name: Mizuki Motte (now de Borel)

Pronouns: She/Her/Hers

Main job: BLM

Other canon jobs: RPR/BLU/ AST (in the later part of Heavensward)

Crafting/gathering: BTN/ALC/WVR

Age: 32 (as of Heavensward. Keeping track of time is hard.)

Chocobo: Iskander

Long post

The past: in summary.

The Steppe:

Mizuki was born on the Azim Steppe to the Arulaq tribe. She's the oldest of four. As per their tribes traditions, the eldest of the family would become a reaper to protect their tribe and guide their spirits when they died. Mizuki didn't want this. She skipped her training to explore the Steppe. Which got her into a lot of trouble.

She has a chance meeting with a dragon that spurs her desire to learn magick.

Eventually she is forced to partner with a great spirit (voidsent) and that year on her thirteenth summer. She takes part in the Nadaam and the influx of loud shouts/screams, fighting, sent Mizuki into a melt down and she unleashes a powerful spell that silences the Steppe and claims victory for her tribe: the only time they would.

An argument occurred with her father and he told her to get out. She is picked up by chance by Camélia a great sage who took her under her wing.

She meets Y'shtola during her 13-14th year (need to figure out how old she was during the Calamity) She is then taken to Sharlayan during the panic of the summoning of Bahamut.

The Sharlayan Years: 14/15? - 20/21? <due to change

Mizuki spends all of her years studying. She's very quiet and withdrawn during this time. Mizuki takes an interest in botany during a trip to Labyrinthos. Which links to her learning alchemy. If she couldn't learn the healing craft of her master, perhaps this would be just as good! She could help people this way. (it didn't help)

She joined the Studium choir, in hopes it would make Camélia proud.

Mizuki works herself into the ground: a lot. She is at the top of her classes and publishes several theses. One Camélia hates the most is: about how Mandragora can help keep the land healthy (will think of a good title)

another was: the origin of magick.

The early years of adventuring/ARR

Mizuki teams up with Cyneweard and Ghyslain two wildwood Elezen. They sought treasure and status. Mizuki was fresh out of Sharlayan and they thought having a renowned scholar of Sharlayan would help them. It did not. A few months in Cyneweard dies in a dungeon.

Mizuki gives up adventuring for now. Goes to Ul'dah and further studies at the thaumaturge guild and picks up Blue Magick which helps earn her some extra gil. She makes a name for herself within the guilds and a few years past she finds herself being swept up into the Scion business. Y'shtola is overjoyed to see her again.

I will add more!

#ramblings of a pumpkin #oc: mizuki #long post #character lore #ffxiv

[acourtcfmuses]

@bombardanne owled: // Dear Professor Garlick, Thank you so much for allowing me to correspond to you while I'm on leave from Hogwarts. If I return, I do promise to catch up on all the material possible to do well in your class again. I have an inquiry and I believe you to be the perfect person to answer. Are you aware of the healing properties of Shrivelfigs or Dandelion Juice? Or would there be something better to help remedy the symptoms I've described to you in my last letter? Eagerly awaiting, Anne Sallow. //

Dear Miss Sallow.

It's truly wonderful to hear from you and I do hope you've been well. I do so miss having you in my class, but I am so pleased to hear that you wish to continue to cultivate your herbology knowledge. I always say that plants have a way for just brightening up your day. If you wish, I could send an owl or two with some assignments to help keep you busy without the young Mr Sallow to entertain you?

Of course, native to Abyssinia, the Shrivelfigs are not exactly common to the Scottish Highlands. It is a deciduous plan but it's roots are aggressive enough deep to survive the winter. It's fruits and the liquid at its core are commonly used in potion making, but I fear that's more Professor Sharp's area of expertise than my own. Though I will admit I find Thunderbrew particularly interesting. As for the healing properties, there is said to be some benefits, but I believe these to be more temporary benefits rather than alleviating. Such as more of a pain relief than a cure. Given the plants use in the Elixir to Induce Euphoria.

Dandelion Juice on the other hand is a rather more common but underused addition for a greenhouse, the Highlands are full of the pretty little weeds. Dandelions while small actually hold many a health benefit. I would recommend dandelion tea. It's said to boost the immune system, regulate blood sugars and reduce inflammation among other benefits.

In terms of more herbology to consider, the mandrake - or Mandragora - is one to consider, it has some powerful healing properties. It has the ability to return people who have been cursed or transfigured to their original state; and you would find that any good medwitch or apothecary will have a number of seedlings and adults Mandrakes in their possession at they are essential ingredient of most antidotes

Grow well little rose,

Professor M. Garlick

#bombardanne #🪴 [ mirabel garlick ] #wizarding world things tw