aaa as soon as you mention it I can't remember anything that happened in early mahoyaku at all... I think my most anticipated scene is probably faust's dreams...? I want to see what they look like... alec's going to be in them, too (completely sure), and I want to see him. we probably won't get lucky enough to get a voice actor for him but I can dream, right? I'm also really excited to see oz heal him / brad lecture him while he's out cold... just faust things... I like faust a lot...................

but aside from that... maybe kizuowen eyedrops? lmao? the live2d does it best but I want to see how owen's mannerisms and body language change. I bet it's really drastic and I'm excited to see how they play it

no one has! no one's asked for any star rail characters, actually, so feel free to ask for more! ruan mei in particular is a bit tricky, because as you've presumably seen, she's not particularly attached to anything...? forming a bond with pokemon would be strange for her, I think... that said, assuming there's no magic/elemental power in this world, she'd need something to protect her in the event she goes to dangerous places. she can't continue to do research if she dies!

there are a few things here which I think make a guide for good pokemon for her: her element (ice), her love of sweets, her skill with the ruan (the instrument) and embroidery, her association with genetics/biology, her penchant for drugging people she's just met (lol), and her fondness for plum blossoms. so! here's my list:
- sawsbuck
- ninetales (alola)
- slurpuff
- frosmoth
- reuniclus
- shiinotic

I recently finished half gods by akil kumarasamy! beautiful book. highly recommend both of akil kumarasamy's works (the other one is meet us by the roaring sea) with every enthusiasm I can offer. I've been reading a lot of manga lately too...! everyone saw me livetweet yona but I read both of ryouko's (了子) manga, too! those are really interesting and if you like bunta's ability to imagine what it might be like to be a completely different person so fully, ryouko has a version of that that's really compelling! I prefer liar satsuki can see death but shi ni aruki (walk to death) is really interesting too... liked them both a lot. liar satsuki actually Just finished so you can read them both to the end~ please recommend me your weird yuri

I think all of them have something that could qualify as a form of art if I'm a little annoying about it so~

natsume (cooking and food presentation): fire, but with a more... 'liquid' consistency, like it's made of ink
ryou (physical prowess/martial arts): something surprisingly cute, maybe rabbit silhouettes that race around the sky
minato (dance, acting): maybe it's weird but... I feel like he should be able to manifest a pair of glass high heels like louis can grow wings, and maybe reflective glass shards otherwise. or cassette tape! lots of imagery with him, lots of options
haruki (drawing): something that looks like old film, I think... maybe he can show images on them?
keito (writing): an especially high amount of shiny, soapy bubbles... enchanting and a little oppressive
yumehisa (illusions, or for something more 'realistic,' stage trickery/sleight of hand): black feathers
arisugawa (writing): scales! like on dragons~
touma (conducting): something like a sparkling wind, akin to a blizzard
ni'igaki (physical presentation/poise, acting): ribbons which she has a surprisingly amount of control over; can be bound into shapes, spun through the air, woven together, etc.
samejima (physical combat, or sword arts maybe?): knives. or daggers. or bullets. something like that

stuck perpetually in the space between "man it would kinda go hard if they died" and "I really don't want them to die actually" and "but the prophecy has to do SOMETHING because it will feel immensely narratively unsatisfying if it is averted in a way that feels cheap or unearned" ... I don't really know the answer to those things

I DO think it would be really funny (and poetic, I guess, but figaro is difficult for me to care about so I'm not super in tune with that) if it turns out figaro is dying simply because he has lost the will to live and reigniting his reason for being alive resolves it. and it would parallel nicely with faust going through what everyone else readily admits to being the worst hell imaginable but still clinging to life unconsciously because he doesn't know how to do anything else. that's not really a prophecy I guess that's just my personal preference for how that particular event goes I suppose. though if someone has to die I hope it's him because it feels like wizards should be able to die of old age even though I'm not sure they can. figaro garcia specifically should be able to die of old age

I've thought about this before! a little bit... not very much. but let's see... faust as a human, and alec as a wizard...

if anything, alec's reckless personality is emboldened—he's a prodigy, always has been, and he really shouldn't be able to pick up magic just as easily, but he certainly does. he's flying from the moment he can lift himself off the ground. he's more than happy to experiment on himself to figure things out. the spirits love him; he is the kind of person who others are drawn to, who others have always wished to follow, and the central spirits are no different. they're excited for who he's going to become.

meanwhile, faust's father is still around, but it's nothing good. in our world, he may have left because faust was magical, but he was looking for a reason to walk out the door. after all, faust was dutiful. he hid his magic flawlessly. but now his father does not have a reason to leave, and he resents it. and faust can't help but wonder: if I was more powerful, if I had magic, would I be able to change things? for my family, and for those whose loved ones are sick and injured?

I'd be able to help this cat if I had magic, wouldn't I?

you would, alec confirms. because he just did.

and the rest is history, for a little while. faust is still worrisome and nagging. alec is still brilliant and reckless. faust's worries don't seem to matter as much, because alec is all but indestructible, tumbling in and out of trees and accidental explosions with equal aplomb. but the conclusion they come to is the same: we can change the world.

but alec was always going to be the leader. the sword was always going to choose him. and in the hands of a wizard, caledfwlch is not a herald of glory, but a harbinger of doom. the army worked to the degree that it did because alec led them, and because alec was human, he was powerful in a way that people could understand and admire.

that's not how it is for the alec who's a wizard. humans could only ever come to fear him.

and without the sword in his own hands, there's nothing to level the playing field for faust: he's just a human. a beautiful, noble human who leads exceptionally well, who works tirelessly, who is loved by everyone. but he's no symbol. he's not the wizard with the sacred sword in his hands. he's either the man who holds the reins of the wizard with the sword (a terrifying prospect in itself, for how could a normal human ever hope to control alec?), or he's a hapless dog held as a pawn in alec's hands.

the truth, that he loves and is beloved in return, is a possibility that no one would even think to consider.

alec wins support from wizards far and wide. he's something of a miracle, as he always is. but his hope for equality and a fair new world mean absolutely nothing if he can't sell the humans on it...

and the humans want him, and his whole wizard army, fucking dead.

as soon as alec realizes that it won't work, he dissolves the army. this won't work. we need to try something else.

some of them (not many, but enough) are pretty mad about that. and they turn their anger outward. to the humans, it looks like all they've always feared (as they've been taught to fear, by the nobility and landowners quaking in their boots at his grin, knowing their days in power are numbered if he sticks around)—alec has turned his forces upon them. it doesn't matter that it isn't true. they won't stop until he's dead.

they'll keep hurting people until I'm dead.

he impales himself with his own sword. it was the sword's fault, really. it could have picked faust instead. but it just wouldn't.

it stays there, stuck in the stone of his corpse, as faust goes mad with grief and rage.

well I really think mahoyaku should stop being a coward and DO EVENT STORIES SET IN THE PAST. PLEASE. no method of flashback is going to be as effective as placing the reader directly into the world's flow. and it's not like this is restricted to the older wizards, either. we want to see cain's past in the knight academy! we want to see shino and heathcliff meeting for the first time! we want to see rutile's days with his mama! I WANT TO LEARN EVERYTHING. PUT ME ON THE GROUND RIGHT NOW. we can do 'indirect' pasts too! the pasts of folk heroes, the pasts of sacred objects (like caledfwlch!), the pasts of previous sages!!!!!! mahoyaku is a high-quality game and all but I think we all know the real value is in the LORE. WE WANT LORE!!!!!!!!!

man I don't know ,,, I'm too stressed thinking about what's going to happen in my gacha pulls tonight to even consider april fool's right now, lmao. I guess... well, cherry blossoms are always related, and akira has to be knocked out somehow to have their fever dream, so I could consult my character list and place my bets and how that's going to happen, I suppose? (spinning a wheel)

placing my bets for "how akira gets knocked unconscious" on... either caught mid-north fight when they weren't being particularly cautious, or chloe's temporary death!

placing my bets for "how cherry blossoms will be used this time" on... so, we've done a modern au, a futuristic au, a japanese fantasy, pirates... well, I have a feeling we're going to space for some reason, so maybe the cherry blossom is a mysterious signal received by a spacecraft? or, if we get an apocalypse (we haven't hit that one yet, that one's pretty popular), maybe there's a last remaining cherry blossom tree our heroes have to reach? Shrugging Loudly

I mean, how much of an arc can you even have when you're being possessed by the dark spirit of a northern wizard? I mean, from my point of view... it seems like lennox didn't really go through any complex internal change? rather than actually experiencing anything... pardon the pun, but revolutionary, I feel like what he experienced was rather an... assurance, or an affirmation, that faust does care about him

don't get me wrong, I think it is extremely funny that lennox was sadly watching faust have a good time with the eastern wizards from the bushes at the beginning, and anni4 is worth reading for that scene alone because of its sheer comedic value, I don't think you can call what lennox went through an "arc," necessarily. this experience doesn't change how faust and lennox relate to each other. it doesn't fundamentally shift either of their perspectives. despite the additional trauma, they remain how they've always been: really fucking stupid

now, the fact that it isn't really an "arc" doesn't make it narratively worthless or anything. I think lennox's time under possession is used rather effectively; there aren't many ways other than knocking a character out of commission to really get some good flashbacks in during a time of crisis. it keeps lennox present in the story and on everyone's mind too. AND WE FINALLY LEARNED ALEC'S PERSONAL PRONOUNS. YAY. THANKS LENO

...if you want my opinion, anni4 was about akira. it was about akira the whole time. the emotional core of the story is akira's friendship with the dragon (I'll google the name later), and everything else functions as a periphery to their struggle against losing someone precious. faust is trying not to lose someone precious. figaro is trying not to lose someone precious. lennox is also trying not to lose someone precious, in a more abstract way. the dragon, and balthazar, they've already lost someone, or something, precious...