Okay so, you may not like Boruto, (and honestly, I can’t disagree with you) but you have to admit that Himawari is pretty great. Such a cutie. A dangerous cutie

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Boruto is… I have yet to find his positive traits, is the best way I can put it. With nearly every other next gen character I can find some aspect of them that I like or understand or sympathize with at least a little bit, but Boruto is basically like… self-absorbed privileged upper class cishet white guy who feels entitled to everything but doesn’t understand responsibility or respect? 

Like… even at the end of his story arc he doesn’t really understand how much of a tool he was being? He CHEATED multiple times in an exam witnessed by foreign delegates and against someone who is supposed to be his best friend and yet we’re supposed to root for him? I’m just… wtf.

If he were presented as that douchebag character who learns how much of an asshat he’s been and eventually becomes a better person through ~friendship~ and such then, sure, that would have been great. Fantastic even. I love Jeffrey Winger’s character development in Community from manipulative scumbag to reluctant group leader. I understand, at the very least, why Shawn Spencer from Psych is the way he is and him lying about being a psychic is how he can help people and his character development is great, too.

But there’s none of that for Boruto as far as I can see, and that’s really what he needs, I think. Kishimoto just slapped a hero label on him without backing it up and there’s nothing at all that supports that. He’s just been presented poorly, is all–no surprise–and he’s still new enough to me that I haven’t been able to crack his code. But it’s running in the back of my mind so I can do more Walking Around installments with next gen Team Seven, so hopefully it will be sooner rather than later.

As for Himawari–I don’t know much about her either, but what I do know is that basically, yeah, she’s fantastic. 😀

Well, we all know that Shikako is uninterested in romance but I think it’s worth considering Surprisingly!Smooth!Shikamaru? After all, Shikaku stealth romanced Yoshino pretty fiercely, according to the sidestories, and Shikamaru was the only one of the rookies to actually be shown *dating* in canon. (As far as I remember, anyway.) Uh, so prompting for contrast!twins in which Shikako is totally oblivious and Shikamaru is the master of the (lazy) date.

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Hahahaha, I actually think Shikako comes off as a lot more charming/smooth to those who didn’t grow up with her (ie Team Ten and Sakura) but she doesn’t actually do it on purpose/know what to do with it. So Shikako accidentally-flirting-with-people-and-not-knowing/intending-to-follow-up is how I headcanon her properly in DoS, while Shikamaru is way suave in all aspects of dating in comparison.

It’s definitely a cool idea, but I’m not sure how I’d implement it. Like, does Shikako finally get asked out and she has no idea what to do so she turns to her brother for help and she’s over here planning it out like some kind of battle while he’s just like… no, Kako, that’s not how it works. Or is it Shikamaru’s POV of the trail of admirers his sister leaves behind–and possibly having to carefully screen through his own dates to make sure not to go out with someone who once had a crush on his sister because that would be weird?

But I’ll put it on the list, anon, and hopefully something will come to me. 🙂

In DOS, the night of the festival: Tenten: The stars look beautiful tonight. Shikamaru: Yeah. You know what else is beautiful? Tenten: *blushes* What? Shikamaru: Shikako. (When she’s in Konoha and NOT DYING AND NO GUYS ARE APPROACHING HER EVEN WHEN SHES IN THAT KIMONO. He’s done his job well)

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Oh, no! Did Shikamaru spend most of their date making sure Shikako wasn’t getting hit on (literally or figuratively)?

No, he’s not that ba–

… well…

TenTen knew what she was signing up for, surely?

Lark and Elm (2016-09-24)

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The thing that lands in front of them is large, intimidating, and entirely metal. Like a wyvern, maybe, if wyverns were made of iron and steel.

It doesn’t move, though, and Elm settles down on all fours.

“Hello?” Lark calls out, in the strange twisting tongue of dragons. Human languages are easier, obviously, but the Order teaches each of its prospective knights all the languages of the land.

It doesn’t answer.

“Hello?” she tries again, in the dark language of monsters.

Again, it doesn’t answer.

“What do we do?” Lark asks Elm who is shifting nervously around, perfectly ready to run if necessary. Knights of the Order are capable of taking on powerful creatures–skilled knights can even take on a dragon, if need be–but Lark is only no longer a squire out of technicality, and Elm is more than capable of figuring out their odds.

Before Elm can respond, a hiss comes out from the metal creature as what looks to be a large maw begins to open.

Lark summons her sword and her best attempt at a shield, the lavender glow a comforting contrast to the red light coming from the creature’s mouth. Lark is impervious to fire–but only normal fire, not magical fire–Elm has less than that.

The metal creature continues to hiss, the mouth opening wider and wider. But instead of a view into the bellows of a magical fire-breathing creature, Lark and Elm are treated with the sight of… a person inside the metal creature… just sitting.

‘It’s not a creature,’ Elm says to her, though the bravado shines through, ‘It’s… giant magical armor?’

Well, neither she nor Elm are unfamiliar with the idea of magical armor, though their armor is to scale with their size.

“Howdy,” the person inside the giant armor says, lifting an odd looking hat in greeting. It’s no formal bow, but it’s also not a magical fireball to the face so Lark will take it.

“How dee?” Lark responds, in confusion.

“Come on now,” the person says, almost cajoling, “You can speak Standard. I heard you talking to your horse.”

Elm snorts, affronted. ‘I’m not your horse. If anything, you’re my knight.’

“I don’t know what standard is,” Lark says, instead of responding to Elm, “But I can understand what you’re saying.”

A mental nudge from Elm prompts her to add, “And so can Elm. And he doesn’t appreciate you calling him my horse. I’m his knight.”

The person hops out of his giant armor and walks over to them, slow and obvious and hands out placatingly.

“Alright,” he says, easy enough with a shrug. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen a horse, but that sounds about right.”

Elm lets the person pet him for a brief moment before snorting and pulling away, professional.

“I’m Tag,” the person says, “Short for Taggart, and that’s Duchess,” he adds with a wave over at the giant armor.

For a second, Lark and Elm share a flare of confusion–is it not giant armor after all?–before the person, Tag, continues.

“And if this is Elm, who are you?”

Lark hesitates, but he did help them with the hellhounds, and he’s not doing anything threatening. And besides,

“I’m Lark, a Knight of the Order of Dawn”

Knights are not afraid of anything.

~

A/N: Still working on my godson’s gift, but didn’t want to have two missed posts in a row.

Different person: I keep coming back to Sakako being called “The Conjurer,” since, to her enemies, it would seem like she’s conjuring vengeful spirits and letting them attack her foes.

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jacksgreysays:

I think I have a different understanding of what the word conjurer means because for me it means something more like conjuring as in creating things or like stage magic where they pull a rabbit out of a hat. Conjurer in Japanese is either Kijutsushi (奇術師) or Majutsushi (魔術師) which is kind of like conjurer as I understand it–magician/juggler/illusionist or mage in a high fantasy thing.

I think maybe “Summoner” is more what you’re going for–not the Kuchiyose of summoning animals in Naruto, but more like the summoning of spirits like in Final Fantasy. That is Shoukanshi (召喚士) or Shoukansha (召喚者) which maybe might work better in terms of accuracy? Also the shi (士) of Shoukanshi is warrior which is kinda cool.

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Ah, I don’t really watch many horror movies, so I only vaguely know that movie exists. No worries, anon! Conjurer does sound pretty damn badass, even if it’s not quite the thing we want. 🙂

Different person: I keep coming back to Sakako being called “The Conjurer,” since, to her enemies, it would seem like she’s conjuring vengeful spirits and letting them attack her foes.

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I think I have a different understanding of what the word conjurer means because for me it means something more like conjuring as in creating things or like stage magic where they pull a rabbit out of a hat. Conjurer in Japanese is either Kijutsushi (奇術師) or Majutsushi (魔術師) which is kind of like conjurer as I understand it–magician/juggler/illusionist or mage in a high fantasy thing.

I think maybe “Summoner” is more what you’re going for–not the Kuchiyose of summoning animals in Naruto, but more like the summoning of spirits like in Final Fantasy. That is Shoukanshi (召喚士) or Shoukansha (召喚者) which maybe might work better in terms of accuracy? Also the shi (士) of Shoukanshi is warrior which is kinda cool.

Hope I don’t throw you off your Sakako or DnD vibe or anything, but: Tokyo GhoulxDoS! In any way you want. I was specifically thinking of ghouls being actual lurkers in the DoS world That’d be an interesting mission, with a high chance of death.

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I don’t know if you’re the same anon, but I checked these asks at the same time and they kind of fused together into a cool idea so… here’s a brainstorm:

I don’t really know much about Tokyo Ghoul except for the basics and what I could glean of the wiki page, but I kind of feel like the mass Edo Tensei would have some repercussions that could very easily be ghouls/half-ghouls existing alongside living humans and eating them for power etc. etc.

If anything, this seems like a pretty good premise world for next generation to live in.

Because, if you think about it, Naruto’s generation basically created world peace amongst the Elemental Nations so… why do shinobi still exist? Like, sure, civilians still want them to assassinate their enemies/kill off bandits/protect them from wildlife/do their chores etc. etc. But, you know, a good amount of the reason behind the Hidden Villages is a sort of cold war/collect more power thing, so maybe now instead of other villages they’re raised to hunt down ghouls and other creepy undead creatures that are the fallout of the mass Edo Tensei.

Which, I mean, Sakako’s ability to see ghosts would be helpful somehow? Like she can see un-enhanced ghosts easily, and while ghouls look like normal humans to other people they look a little off to Sakako. Like… they’re double layered or glowing weirdly or something that she can immediately spot if a person is a ghoul or a human.

It definitely ups the stakes for shinobi since ghouls are canonically faster/stronger/etc than humans so even the chakra-enhanced shinobi are maybe about on equal footing as ghouls (unless they’re like Lee in which case, no, he’s definitely faster than a ghoul). And maybe ghouls do prefer to eat shinobi–maybe chakra gives them more power/sustains them longer or something?

As for the title thing… I’m not very keen on Sakako inheriting her mother’s title as opposed to making one for herself, but when I tried to find a badass name for Sakako that was as punny as Shikabane for Shikako the only thing even slightly cool I could find was Sakarau (逆らう) which means to go against/oppose/defy and that’s not as on the nose as Shikabane-hime.

The “big bads” in next gen appear to be ~aliens~ via the Otsutsuki clan which… okay… and Shin Uchiha. Which is very next gen Team Seven problems considering the Otsutsuki clan seam to have a strong connection to the Hyuuga clan and Shin Uchiha was one of Orochimaru’s experiments with the Sharingan and that accounts for all three members of the next gen Team Seven.

But, again, that’s all inherited big bads from their parents which… I dunno, I kinda want them to have their own enemies/obstacles to defeat? So maybe there’s also a big bad who is gathering up ghouls or somehow responsible for producing more or SOMETHING so that this generation can have something to fight that isn’t just “sins of the father” because I do not support the parental complexes all of canon next gen seem to have, apparently.

Anon(s?) those are pretty cool ideas and I think I’ll incorporate it as a DoS next gen headcanon so I’ll make a Walking Around ‘verse note to myself to write something about how becoming an expert ghoul hunter gives Sakako a badass name? Or makes people have awful flashbacks to the carnage that her mother inflicted against zombies during the Fourth World War?

Something cool, hopefully. 😀

Team Medic, DnD Fantasy Edition Picture (2016-09-21)

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kuipernebula:

jacksgreysays:

A/N: Playing around on Rinmaru’s Ascension Doll Maker (as per usual) while watching High Rollers and somehow a DnD Fantasy Team Medic shook out. @kuipernebula, you might be interested?

Pics under the cut.

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Okay but now I need to go through and figure this out in terms of classes. Which means most of them I’m going to stick to single classes because multiclassing bothers me on principle, at least as far as AU’s and identity of characters goes.

Masumi is like, 100% an Alchemist. The problem is that this isn’t a default class in any DnD books, but there’s enough homebrew and cultural ideas to it that I’m keeping it. (Alternatively: An Artificer whose really into potions and medicine.

Sakura might work best as a Monk or a Cleric? As a Monk, we’d have to find a way to hack the class to be a healer. But a Cleric of the Slug goddess or whatever would dovetail pretty well into her overall character arc. (Is Tsunade the current slug goddess or just the current high priest? Who knows. She could also lead the slug sect of healing-based Monkhood which would be cool.)

Youbirin is probably a Runepriest, a lesser-known 4e class, mostly because of his specialty in seals? Which translate well enough to runes.

Jiro is most likely a Shaman, Druid, or Favored Soul. The former two if you can find a way to focus him on lightning, and the lattermost otherwise because his focus is more on intuition than study like the other two.

Oooh, cool! I know basically the logistics of DnD but not so much the world (just started playing so still a newbie here), so those sound super cool.

I didn’t really know about Alchemists/Artificers and Runepriest but both of those sound excellent for Masumi and Youbirin. I guess since Masumi only happens to be medic nin because she wants to work with medicine and not so much that she wants to actually heal people. I was thinking Druid for Youbirin because his training montage with Takama and the Cranes, but Runepriest is fantastic.

I feel like as a fighter, Sakura is more Monk-like, but as a healer would be Cleric (of the Slug Goddess, yes perf). Unless there are Clerics that just specialize in unarmed combat (I know in High Rollers, Cam the Cleric is a very Rogue-like Cleric because his Goddess is all about luck and fortune and tricksters)?

I think probably not Druid for Jiro since he’s the only one out of the three that doesn’t have a summon animal… I considered Bard mostly because I headcanoned him as the most charming out of the three of them and since his whole thing is genjutsu-lightning-nervous system it kind of jives with a more human-based thing instead of a god-based source. But Shaman and Favored Soul is good, too.