I was going through old posts in the Wailing About Writing channel on the Discord chat and came across a discussion that Milieva thought would be useful to have posted here, so here it is (some edits made for clarity):

MokonaLord-12/01/2018
Also, I seem to have Ascot and Umi having a bit of a chat about elemental magic and would welcome other thoughts/ideas on the topic.

Down-12/01/2018
Ooh, what sort of conversation?
I have MANY THOUGHTS on magic in Cephiro and some are even coherent (most not XDD) and I have about five ways I write it, heh.

MokonaLord-12/01/2018
Basically it came up that Ascot's never been all that great with the elements, and Umi's remarking on how hers has always felt intuitive.

Down-12/01/2018
Mmm, because his magic is originally rooted in a different pathway?

His magic at the base as a summoner I normally take as being basically made of 'communication-and-creation' in equal parts, so try to have those be the types of magic that come easier to him.

So better at making chairs and tables and the kinds of communication-with-animals things than something intended at the heart to destroy.

The lightning magic seems to be Clef's default he ends up teaching the people who need something offensive but are rooted in non-elemental magic, because it's /his/ default and he knows it.

But also it's about creating the spark of the lightning and then just directing it, rather than gathering something that's there.

Which is how I have Ascot finding his way into it.

But SOMETIMES I go five-elements system and have the central one be 'spirit/void' and in that
instance, that's Ascot's element.

I think I did go with aether for it once.

But then it's fun if Cephiro is four (or five-with-aether) and then you have other people turn up with different belief systems who get Cephiran power and it expresses itself through THEIR elemental theory INSTEAD
and this is why Tarta is a metal element user.

Which she thinks is SO COOL and Clef - is slightly bewildered but ACTUALLY THAT'S REALLY COOL and then Umi shows up and is going 'what the - SERIOUSLY how is she allowed to MANIPULATE ALL HER WEAPONS NOW THAT'S NOT FAIR.

MokonaLord-12/01/2018
Huh. So much fun today. Yay!
Do you have thoughts on Umi's relationship with her own magic?

Milieva-12/01/2018
Besides thinking it awesome?

Down-12/01/2018
My thoughts on Umi tend to devolve into SHE IS THE OCEAN PERSONIFIED AND RAGE AND GRACE AND UNFORGIVING AND A GODDESS. snickers

MokonaLord-12/01/2018
... Yes, that would work well with the conversation.

Down-12/01/2018
MORE COHERENTLY I don't know, I tend to go with 'magic is pulled into someone through their connection with Cephiro and stored within them after being converted through that process into power that is ~theirs~ as in it resonates with their element.

And in Umi's case that turns into an intuitive kind of sensing of the water physically around her because it's aligned with the power that's in her.

(So it's stronger in Cephiro when the magic is being constantly fed/refreshed but there's still a slight sense there when she's back on earth.)

MokonaLord-12/01/2018
Like, "Ascot, you can't just cast a water spell! You've got to BE the water! BE the sea!"

Down-12/01/2018
So when she learns to do it, or when she's reaching for a spell, she's literally reaching to manipulate the water in the area - pulling it from the atmosphere to form it into a dragon.

And part of that manipulation is essentially (at least for Umi) inhabiting the element, so yes! being and channeling the water~

You have to FEEL it, have an understanding which goes beyond facts and into an emotional kind of sensing in your heart.

And that's what gives you strong intuitive mastery.

You can force it with just straight factual understanding but without the kind of emotional connection it's not as strong or flexible or responsive~

And the 'feeling', the connection, is tied into your underlying (and cultural) understanding of the element, so someone who say grew up knowing only little lakes and gentle rain would have a different notion of it than someone who has grown up with typhoons and tsunami.

Not necessarily STRONGER, because if the connection is solid you can ask the water to be whatever, ask it to take on your anger and rage to do the same as if you believe that the water has its own anger and rage
but it's DIFFERENT in the way the mage experiences it?

And Umi's expression and understanding is very 'RAGE AND GRACE AND UNFORGIVING AND THOSE MOMENTS OF SUDDEN PEACE'?

Whereas the other naturally-water-aligned character I have that I write more, HI MIURA, is a water-based healer, and for her water is more - support-of-life, and the force that will not be stopped, it is the slow wearing away of the stones and you can direct it but you cannot halt it.

And she works through sensing of her patients bodies through the water that's inherently part of them, so her healing is actually attached in to her elemental understanding.

MokonaLord-12/01/2018
That would also lend itself well to Umi fucking things up a little while later, just being so caught up in being the sea and the storm and the Goddess and forgetting her current surroundings. (Especially since she's been so frustrated with being stuck on scrollwork and being annoyed with Clef that that's kinda coming out too)

Down-12/01/2018
And they share a number of characteristics (both are stubborn as fuck and pretty much will not back down) but are very different too. (Umi is more confrontational and will act almost before there's a reason to, Miura doesn't get confrontational until there's an obstacle in her path - like an idiot Guru who won't take care of his own health and keeps scaring her healers - and then she'll Do Something About It.)

Umi is ALWAYS so quick-to-the-point-of-over-reacting and it's GREAT FUN because she's RIGHT so much of the time about the fact there's an issue but her reactions are so often slightly too much, or in the wrong direction, because she's still learning! and it all goes horribly wrong. XD

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah I love them all so much.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH UMI IS GREAT

I WANT TO GO SEE THE SEA WHILE IT'S STORMING.

My own understanding of the sea is rooted in the North Sea so I'm well aware I don't think of it the way
someone who lives in, idk, the Mediterranean would. XD

I have a running, um, terrible theme of lightning mages being attracted to water and often drowning as children if they get their magic too young.

Milieva-12/01/2018
Clef is very attracted to the sea.

MokonaLord-12/01/2018
snork

Down-12/01/2018
*hides under a cushion* IT IS A TERRIBLE THING AND I HAVE HEADCANONED IT it's one of the reasons there aren't many of them around and IT CAME OUT OF THE FACT IT IS A TERRIBLE PUN.

UM ANYWAY, that combined with the lack of natural storms in Cephiro most of the time explains why there aren't actually many mages with elemental lightning magic that is natural to them - of the kids who have the right understanding that that's how it expresses itself, not all of them survive (also because it's one of the more dangerous forms to use as your first)

But there's a fair number who end up knowing it as their second BECAUSE it's one that Clef finds easier to explain, AND, that lack of a strong connection makes it a pretty safe second power because they're not likely to develop such a strong sense of it that it becomes natural in the same way.

And one of the reasons I do actually think that Clef probably did come into his power young and in the middle of the fall of the Pillar of the time, he was at the right age and had the opportunity to form that feel for the stuff breaking the sky apart and it felt like the scream in his own head that he couldn't let out because everything is going wrong and people are VANISHING and no one will tell him anything but he's not THAT young he's old enough to help if they'd just TELL HIM WHAT'S HAPPENING.

(He's probably about seven. I remember being seven and thinking JUST TELL ME SO I CAN HELP I'M NOT A LITTLE KID LIKE MY BROTHER and looking back it's 'oh. Um. Yes, yes I was, I was seven.')

MokonaLord-12/01/2018
(And now I've also got a bit of Ascot admitting he's probably just as responsible as Umi for the whole magic fuck-up because he decided to try more of the 'feeling the magic' approach and it ended up working too well. "Wow, Ascot, I'm just a bad influence on you, aren't I?" "No, you're the BEST!")

Down-12/01/2018
Ascot I headcanon as having been ALONE and in trouble with a definite emphasis on the 'alone' which sometimes falls down to the idea that his village/family was just destroyed in some accident and he was on the margins and is now like five and lost in the woods and his magic expresses as communication-manifestation because he just wants someone to come find him and help so he's calling out
at which point his parents and his village might have been okay but his magic's in before anyone else finds him - and it may have been a while - and from that point on interactions with people Do Not Go Well.

MokonaLord-12/01/2018
Sounds like as good an Ascot headcanon as any.

More car names that have been sitting around my notebook for ages:

Autozamian vehicles
CRV
HRV
WRX

Other names
Almera
Altima
Bugatti
Citroen
Edge
Forte
Hoffmann (this is apparently an awful car, so might be appropriate for an awful character)
Impala
Kia
Kubelwagen
LaCross
Magentis
Maybach
Micra
Monterey
Navara
Peugeot
Rio
Veyron

Quote from: Toviyah on December 20, 2018, 10:46:03 PM
Hold up! Fic challenge with Badges?! When did that happen? What have I missed?

On Dreamwidth earlier this year, then ended up on unannounced hiatus.

I am: https://somariel.dreamwidth.org

Quote from: Milieva on September 21, 2018, 10:22:04 AM
See, I think Kuu couldn't be more than three years older than Fuu.

But I base this on the fact that if we take the birthdays as canon, the first series takes place in March, just after Umi's 14th birthday. (This is the only way they can all be four in second year of junior high.) My guess is this was the end of year field trip. (Not that we think CLAMP thought that through at all, because when do they ever?) So, if you add the vaguely estimated time for families to be worried about them, etcetera... It's probably been at least a month or three, so they would then be in third year of junior high, so if Kuu were four years older, she wouldn't still be in high school.

Yeah, no, that makes sense. I formed that headcanon before I knew anything about how the Japanese school year worked, so Kuu being four years older than Fuu seemed workable and hadn't really thought about it since. I think I'll probably just fudge it by giving Kuu a mid-April birthday, so she's roughly three and a half years older than Fuu.

Quote from: VKiera on October 03, 2018, 12:49:15 AM
I have yet to write a fic where I've worked any of the siblings into it in any meaningful way, so I've no set ages in mind.

Though the stuff at the start of season 2 is in the morning right? Fuu's about to head out and Umi is having breakfast. So I guess maybe Hikaru is just working out before changing to go to school? So idk what you'd make of her and Masaru not being in uniform. If I were to write her brother's I'd agree Kakeru's about two years older, I'd put Masaru only like 18 months older than him, like they're very close in age in my head. With Satoru in his early 20s?

I based my ages for Masaru and Satoru in large part on how old I think they look. Satoru looks like he's in his mid-to-late twenties at the beginning of the second arc, so that's why I put him as nine years older than Hikaru, especially since he doesn't really look different at the beginning of the epilogue.

As for Masaru, his appearance, at least to me, pretty clearly says that he's out of his teens, but he also looks at least a few years younger than Satoru, so that's why I put him as five years older than Hikaru (and therefore three years older than Kakeru). Plus, as far as I'm aware, Japanese colleges don't require uniforms, so I assumed that the reason he isn't in a uniform at the beginning of the second arc is because he's in college.

The first chapter of the newest fic, Under a Mackerel Sky, has been posted.

I headcanon Kakeru as being 2 years older than Hikaru, Masaru as 5 years older than Hikaru, and Satoru as 9 years older than Hikaru.

Also, I headcanon Kuu as being 4 years older than Fuu.

Quote from: VKiera on March 29, 2018, 12:29:22 AM

Quote from: Somariel on March 28, 2018, 02:07:27 PM
Other AUs that I either never got around to mentioning or that have developed since my last post:

• The Zagato-tells-the-girls-the-truth AU, where the truth about the Magic Knights' duty comes out during the fight with Zagato, the girls say "Hell no!" to the idea and talk Emeraude into changing things. MKR 2 still happens because the massive realignment Emeraude made in a single burst gave the external appearance of her having died. The girls were sent home during that massive burst and their return was caused by the combination of them wanting to make sure that things were working out okay and Emeraude wishing that she could talk to them again.
  
  
• The Better Plan AU, where instead of setting himself up as the villain, Zagato tells the public that Emeraude has secluded herself to pray and meditate on the current disturbances and gets Clef on board with the idea of telling the Magic Knights the truth about their duty as soon as they arrive. The girls end up stuck in Cephiro for several years while helping to work out the problems of reforming the Pillar system. This one was the result of Down pointing out how much of a better plan (hence the name) that would have been on the chat.


• The S2 Shadow Trio AU. During the anime rewatch last year, VKiera mentioned the idea of Umi and Fuu also having shadows like Nova. The idea latched onto me and refused to let go. It would also probably incorporate the idea Down mentioned during the rewatch of Sierra actually being Presea and pretending to be her own twin is her method of dealing with the trauma of having been buried alive.

I want to read all the things, yes please.

I've always liked the idea of the season 2 big bads being Nova plus a shadow of Umi and Fuu as well, and no Debonair. And if they had dropped the psycho lesbian trope they smothered Nova with. I'm not sure what they'd be up to without Deboniar around, so she might be necessary. It solves the issue for me of season two being a bit too Hikaru-centric for my tastes as well.

My own alternate season 2 has been nudging at me recently, where Emeraude dies and the spell to send the Knights home fails. Hikaru is left in Cephrio to watch it crumble and spends a rather large part of it  having a BSOD moment. Umi somehow ended up in Autozam with a bunch of Autozam's equivalent of child ravengers/scavengers. And I've decided Fuu is going to have to find her way back to Cephrio by country hopping and infiltrating into the royal court of either Farhen or Chizeta.

Oh and Autozam, while also prepping to invade Cephiro is also close to going to war with it's primary trade partner that is attempting to start a coup and reinstate the royal family there again. I'm terrible at writing politics though...

Hahah, oh man, I really will have to plan this one better than I did Ice and Snow or I'll never finish it. But it's on back burner for now anyways.

Yeah, the S2 Shadow Trio AU, as I envision it, very explicitly does not include Debonair. I'm not entirely sure what they'd be up to without her, either, but I'm sort of leaning towards them not really being solid enough to do much of anything before the girls return to Cephiro.

Regarding your alternate Season 2, I really love the idea of Fuu infiltrating the Chizetan royal court. Fuu and Tatra are just so similarly scary smart, ruthless, and manipulative, I think it would be really interesting to see the two of them working both with and against each other, maybe even at the same time.

And Hikaru is stuck in Cephiro? Oh, man, that's going to suck, not just for her, but for Clef, Presea, Ferio, Lafarga, and even Lantis, once they find out about her still being there. I mean, I'm sure that a large part of the reason that both the girls and the Cephirans handled the girls' return so well was that they'd had time to work through their feelings about things on their own.

Also, it's worth mentioning that the Innouva-as-the-S2-villain fic is going to be using the manga's concept of Pillar selection.

Quote from: Milieva on January 13, 2018, 08:29:32 PM
Ascot
Very likely named for Honda Ascot.

Related Cars:

• Clio
• Primo
• Innouva (again, make of that what you will....)
• Torneo

Well, I now know what I'm going to be naming Ascot's parents and his younger sibling in the magictech-and-political-intrigue AU.

I think I'm going to be adopting the calendar and most of the birthdays wholesale. (I say most of them because I've already established for my own headcanon when Eagle, Geo, and Zazu's birthdays are relative to each other and I don't want to change it.)

Also, you seem to have either included an extra bullet point or left out a character for the fifth month.

Other AUs that I either never got around to mentioning or that have developed since my last post:

• A historical AU, where Hikaru has spent the last 8 or 10 years pretending to be a boy. This one spun out of a couple of full-front, head-and-shoulders shots of Hikaru in Episode 29 that made her look like a boy and caused me to want to write a fic where she disguised herself as a boy.


• The Zagato-tells-the-girls-the-truth AU, where the truth about the Magic Knights' duty comes out during the fight with Zagato, the girls say "Hell no!" to the idea and talk Emeraude into changing things. MKR 2 still happens because the massive realignment Emeraude made in a single burst gave the external appearance of her having died. The girls were sent home during that massive burst and their return was caused by the combination of them wanting to make sure that things were working out okay and Emeraude wishing that she could talk to them again.
  Also, Zagato's massive sense of guilt and Emeraude's initial refusal to even consider letting him face any sort of punishment for his actions accidentally leads to BDSM.


• The Better Plan AU, where instead of setting himself up as the villain, Zagato tells the public that Emeraude has secluded herself to pray and meditate on the current disturbances and gets Clef on board with the idea of telling the Magic Knights the truth about their duty as soon as they arrive. The girls end up stuck in Cephiro for several years while helping to work out the problems of reforming the Pillar system. This one was the result of Down pointing out how much of a better plan (hence the name) that would have been on the chat.


• Innouva-as-the-S2-villain. The idea originated with MokonaLord, but I have my own ideas for it. It would also end up incorporating a long-standing anime "What If" idea of mine: What would have happened if Nova hadn't stolen Hikaru from the NSX at the end of Episode 29?


• The S2 Shadow Trio AU. During the anime rewatch last year, VKiera mentioned the idea of Umi and Fuu also having shadows like Nova. The idea latched onto me and refused to let go. It would also probably incorporate the idea Down mentioned during the rewatch of Sierra actually being Presea and pretending to be her own twin is her method of dealing with the trauma of having been buried alive.

Also, the AU I mentioned in the post above this has since been dubbed the magictech-and-political-intrigue AU.

Extremely belated, but the last two chapters of Let the Games Begin were posted around the end of January.

Among Hikaru, Lantis, and Eagle, Lantis is always Person C, but I think that Eagle and Hikaru are equally likely to be Person A or Person B.

Finally getting around to writing up my extended thoughts on these episodes, although I'm sure I'll be coming back to this post after rewatching the episodes again.

Episode 37
As amusing as it would have been to see Umi and Aska butting heads, the overall plot definitely works better with Fuu being the one captured by Fahren, since Umi never would have managed to get through to Aska about the limitations and unfairness of the Pillar system the way Fuu does. As a matter of fact, I rather doubt that Umi and Aska would have ever gotten to the point of having the conversation about why Aska wants to be the Pillar.

Ferio narrates the "Coming Next" segment on this episode. The funniest line is "Will I have a bigger role? I've gotten less airtime lately."


Episode 38
There is so much Hikaru/Presea subtext during the scene in Not!Presea's bedroom, especially with the song that's playing. I have to admit that it was probably this scene that made Hikaru/Presea my secondary Hikaru 'ship, 'cause even though I recognized the 'shippy undertones in the manga, they were nowhere near as strong as the ones in this scene.

I really have to agree with MokonaLord that the scene with Umi and Caldina in Ascot's room would have been a great scene for Ascot's confession.

Honest to God, I just cannot with the way Hikaru get swarmed by the birds as soon as Lantis gives his seal of approval.

I will never not be amused by how Eagle kills the moment that Hikaru and Lantis are having. It really seems like he has a sixth sense or something where the two of them are concerned. I mean, this is, what, the third or fourth time his arrival has interrupted a conversation between the two of them?

Caldina narrates the "Coming Next" segment on this episode. The funniest line is "How far has my relationship with Lafarga gone?" *giggle giggle giggle*


Episode 39
Eagle being willing to Umi as a shield against Hikaru at the end of the previous episode and the beginning of this one is a large part of why I feel that one aspect of my "What if Nova didn't kidnap Hikaru from the NSX at the end of Episode 29" AU is fully in character for him. (I say one aspect because it's not just what he is (or isn't) doing, it's also some assumptions Lantis is making based on how well he knows (or doesn't know) Eagle.)

It's a really good thing that the GTO isn't a Mashin, because if it was, Geo would have lost his right leg from the knee down when Hikaru attacked.

The music in the last... third? quarter? Not quite sure... of this episode keeps faking me out into thinking that the episode is almost over because it's too dramatic for the middle of an episode and keeps hitting the highest drama notes on good cliffhanger moments.

I really love the anime's conservation of character at the very beginning of the fight in the residential area, what with reusing not just Mira and her mother, but also the woman that Lantis saved back in Episode 23.

As much as the miscoloring of Lantis' sword amuses me, I honestly have to wonder how the hell that slipped past the entire animation team to make it into the episode.

The end of this episode and the beginning of the next one seriously need a seizure warning for the flashing light.

Ascot narrates the "Coming Next" segment on this episode. There aren't any funny lines, just stupid shipping stuff.


Episode 40
I swear to fucking God, I absolutely HATE the way this episode opens. We already fucking SAW this scene, the animation team didn't have to give Hikaru post-cognition! And they go and fucking compound things by having Zagato flat out TELL Lantis that he's in love with Emeraude and giving Lantis a butchered version of CLEF'S lines from the manga!

Hikaru, you are such an adorable cinnamon roll, but seriously, you sweet, sweet summer child, what on earth makes you think that the pendant Lantis gave you is a WREATH?! Did you not even notice the actual wreath of lilies hanging on the wall in your room?

Ugh! Just... so much ugh! Why did anyone ever think that the entire business with Umi's skirt was worth including?

Honest to God, I really love the (relatively) subtle foreshadowing of who the Pillar candidates are going to be that occurs in this episode.

Lantis narrates the "Coming Next" segment on this episode. The entire segment is hilarious:

Lantis: I am Lantis.
*dead silence*
Primera: Lantis, what are you doing? If you don't say anything, the preview will be over!
*dead silence*
Lantis: *announces the title of the next episode* Watch it.
Primera: Who made Lantis do this?!

Finally getting around to writing up my extended thoughts on these episodes, although I'm sure I'll be coming back to this post after rewatching the episodes again.

Episode 33
Ascot just about breaks my heart at the beginning of this episode with how frank he is with Caldina about how he feels about both Umi and his past actions. And then there's his desire to not regret anything anymore that he shares with the Magic Knights.

I really, really, REALLY FUCKING HATE the "Presea's sister" subplot in this season. It's just SO FUCKING STUPID! Nobody possibly could've known that the Magic Knights would return, so that shouldn't have even been a consideration in putting on the masquerade, and I find it incredibly hard to believe that Sierra would, at least at first, care enough about the person who killed Presea to want to ease his guilt over having done so.

Down suggested an AU where Sierra actually is Presea, who got mentally fucked up by being buried alive and pretending to be her own twin is how she copes with it, back during the rewatch chat for Episode 31 and the one exchange in this episode of "What is your real name?" "My name is Presea" really, really makes me want to write it, since it sounds so much like Sierra KNOWS, deep down inside, that she is Presea and is unwilling to make up a name to answer Clef's question.

And of course, the anime then had to go and compound the stupidity of the "Presea's sister" subplot by having both of them be in love with Clef.

I swear, pretty much the entire Nova and Debonair plotline only works because someone surgically attached the Idiot Ball to Hikaru. The case in point for this episode being that in the manga, Hikaru at least understood that the reason they didn't know why Zagato was doing what he did was because Clef didn't tell them. Hell, Clef outright acknowledges this when they return, both in the manga and in the anime.


Episode 34
The entire "reviving her sword" subplot for Hikaru is just so incredibly frustrating. It's not like she needed to be put through a forced willpower boost to be a viable Pillar candidate, given that she does just fine without one in the manga.

I really love how everyone wants to have no regrets this time around. It's just so understandable and one of the handful of things I actually like about this season is how it makes that explicit on the part of so many people.

Honest to God, the conversations in this episode between Umi and Selece and Fuu and Windam just leave me a WAFF-y puddle of goo on the floor. )The same is also true of the similar one between Hikaru and Rayearth in Episode 29, but to a much smaller extent.) I just cannot with how our girls address their Mashin as friends they'd like to get to know better.


Episode 34
Seriously?! Fucking SERIOUSLY?! It's the Umi episode and they couldn't be bothered to give us some Umi before focusing on Hikaru?!!

Honest to God, every time I watch this episode, I just about die laughing from all the snark.

I mentioned this in the rewatch chat, but I'd never actually really thought about the reason for Chizeta not being able to expand into the cone shaped areas on either side before Amboato raised the question during her liveblog of this episode on Tumblr. And it is so much more satisfying to have an actual reason instead of simply being like "Eh, whatever."

Aska is just so utterly ridiculous that it is adorable.


Episode 36
I LOVE how Fuu manipulates Aska into accepting the archery match here simply by being her usual polite and humble self. Like, we all know that she's really, really good at archery, but she's not one to brag about her skill, so she understates it and that makes Aska accept the proposed match. I really have to agree with MokonaLord that Fuu has amazing villain potential.

I will never not love Ascot's epic arrival as the cavalry for Umi and how Umi decks one of the djinn right after Ascot's arrival. I also love how much more careful of his friends Ascot is this time around.

Aska's choice of targets for the archery match is utterly glorious, although they probably did have a small role in her losing the match.

Aska getting jealous over Sang Yung crushing on Fuu is just so adorable.

Fuu's degree of understatement in declaring her win will never cease to amuse me. I mean, honestly, given the actual amounts, saying "It seems I got a few more than you" is rather like saying "I'm bleeding a little bit" when one of your arteries has been cut open.

It is so in-character for Aska to fail to honor the deal she made with Fuu even though Fuu won.

I am completely convinced that it's Fuu's wind magic that lets her shoot in such a way that she's able to tear the clothing without injuring the person wearing it.

Not!Presea narrates the "Coming Next" segment on this episode. The funniest line is "We've gotten a lot of questions about my name. Watch the show 'til the end and you'll find out."