Hi hi! I really adore Esther so much! I love the design and his lore. Does Esther like any certain foods? What colors do they like? Are they a certified monster lover?
hi anon! tysm for the ask and the fact you love Esther sm, and sorry for the late response ^^;
Does Esther like any certain foods?
TS!Esther doesn't have too much of a preference toward food, cause he has a bad habit of forgetting to eat lol. Esther isn't a fan of sweets, though. He has no trouble eating sweets, but he prefers savory dishes. Oh, and spicy things upset his stomach.
But he is an alcoholic, so he'd say alcohol is his favorite :D
What colors do they like?
He likes red because it's such a bold color, and he thinks it looks nice on him. :D
Fun fact: I've always incorporated red in every redesign of his. You'd have to pry red from his cold dead hands >:[
There's one thing that confuses me about Solomon being in a ship / poly with Barbatos (taking yours just for example & because I would like to understand! /genuinely) because as far I remember the lore, Barbatos was aware of Solomon's magical affinity from where he was still a child in his parents basement, to then being summoned after he caused a great cataclysm (probably uncontrollable magic / dipping into a forbidden art that backfired), with him on the verge of death.
As we know, that's where they make a pact, and it seems he asked to 'reverse' time to undo a damage. Afterwards, he's taken to the sacred spring and declared the wise sorcerer & its guardian while wounds being tend to.
Now, the reason I bring this up at all is because all these makes it seem that Barbatos knows Solomon since he was very young, kind of raised him, too, and seeing them being put in a ship together just?? really rubs me the wrong way. Obviously, he's aged a lot since then, but ykwim (especially with the whole 'his soul shining a lot lighter then to dimming' detail that's directly implied to be Barbatos' doing) gng...
I'd like to hear your thoughts on this if you'd be open to discussion, and perhaps how your own dynamic works with the two with Esther (as I don't entirely understand, still, but would like to!)
Hi Anon! I don't mind the ask at all!
But I would like to preface this long thread by saying: I do not ship Barbatos and Solomon romantically within my polyship — it's my one rule within the overall dynamic!
I'll continue my rambles about them below! ⬇️
To start, I'll mention that I have been an Obey Me! player since January 2020. In that time, a lot of things have evolved, from my own preferences to even how the writers/devs write aspects of the characters. I'm sure we all notice the shift when a character becomes infatuated with the MC; as if they were hit by a love potion. Season 1 Solomon, you asshole, you will be missed... 💔
I say all that because my polyship evolved a lot in that time as well.
Around late 2021, I finally settled on shipping my early drafts of Esther with Barbatos. As I adored the idea of the "MC" not being the main character of the story. This may or may not have been inspired by those... Replaced AUs (if ykyk). But there was none of the angst or anything; I simply liked the setting of an MC living away from the brothers and their shenanigans, and instead, they live somewhere in the castle :D
Then came early 2022, where I believe I fully got back into the story (due to circumstances at that time) and added Simeon to the pre-existing dynamic! It worked out in my mind story-wise; Barbatos and Simeon have this soft spot for Luke, with the butler teaching the young angel baking from time-to-time and Simeon being that kid's gentle guardian. I thought it was cute to imagine these two as a pair of dads slowly warming up to each other the more the kid visited either one. But also attached to Esther as well!
So! There they were. The initial "Three Realm Sandwich" was born, thriving, happy, and existing within their wholesome little family dynamic. Certainly nothing will happen to them!
.
.
.
Then came that bastard...
Ohh, that bastard sorcerer. I don't know when. I don't know how, but he just grew on me.
Like, one moment I was imagining him as... some antagonist from Esther's past (that's lore for another ask), but it was as if the world shifted and I began looking at Solomon through a softer lense? Like I said, he just grew on me! Not even like a wart or tumor, but like flowers growing on top of Esther's corpse the decomposed remains left of the previous Three Realm Sandwich dynamic!
Which is to say that even when the dynamic shifted, it blossomed into something different, maybe beautiful, or perhaps this was the end stage they were meant to end on.
Okay, okay, it shifted fully to include four people this time. Leading this Three Realm Sandwich to become rather... overstuffed with humans, if you asked me. But that was fine. Those four were all fine! Now, surely... they can all live in peace after the end of Obey Me's story (which, I will mention, season 4's conflict was absolute bullshitttttttt)
Finally, peace and love on planet Esther!
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.
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Hm? Mhm... What the fuck do you mean they made another fucking game?
And here we are post Nightbringer! Around April 2023 was when the new game was released, and we'll all say that none of us really expected it at that time? At least I didn't. With Nightbringer coming up, we can get into the crux of the Barbatos and Solomon shaped issue in the room.
Forgive the ramble here, I'm still rather confused about the timeline of events happening in their lore. How did Solomon escape his parent's basement? Was he still a child when he fought the entirety of the Devildom, or was this after Barbatos picked him up? Was he near death upon Barbatos' discovery because he summoned him in that basement? It's these points that really drive me crazy because it's so vague.
However, I can agree with the interpretation of Solomon being a child when he encountered Barbatos — although I like to HC him as being a bit older because the above timeline's a bit ??? for me still. Though I'm not subscribed to the "Barbatos being a father figure toward Solomon" interpretation, I had my reasons, but I would need to brush up on lore to give a proper write out.
It's by Nightbringer where a lot of dynamics shifted and SoloBarb was officially found dead in a ditch for me (it gave me Haikyuu SakuKomo* flashbacks. I was there when that all happened!). But I wouldn't exchange the current dynamic they have for the old because I find Barbatos hating Solomon's guts absolutely hilarious.
Post-Nightbringer, I'd explain everyone's dynamics like this:
Within the polyship, they can be split further into two romantic trios: Solomon/Esther/Simeon and Barbatos/Esther/Simeon — Esther and Simeon being constant between all ships
The reasons I give for the above split are always something like: "Oh, Barbatos/Solomon might be busy elsewhere", whilst Esther and Simeon are the unemployed partners in the relationship (/hj)
Esther is romantically involved with everyone (in this poly relationship)
Simeon is romantically involved with everyone
Solomon is only romantically involved with Esther and Simeon (separated from Barbatos)
Barbatos is only romantically involved with Esther and Simeon (separated from Solomon)
So, yeah, you can see I've drawn strict lines between any romantic entanglements between the two; they're purely platonic with a dash of Barbatos' one-sided enemies-to-major-pain-in-my-ass dynamic.
As of now, I think it's still a fun dynamic; Barbatos can always be annoyed by Esther giving too much attention to Solomon; and the sorcerer can feel the same about the butler hogging all of Esther's time too. At the end of the day, if Esther or Simeon weren't there, Solomon would have had his soul taken the moment Barbatos found out he began dating Esther. It's a sort of... respect for your partner thing? "I may not tolerate that sorcerer, but Esther will be really, really sad if he were gone," sort of thing.
Anywhoozies, I hope that answers your question, Anon! It's a bit long winded, but I thought my perspective as an old player made sense to tack onto the wider discussion
I love that Esther is a fellow monster fucker!! Does he have specific monsters he likes more than others in the touchstarved universe? And also, *bats eyelsahses* how does he feel about forbidden books?
Esther doesn't really have a preference with monsters. As long as they're kind, a little pathetic, cool looking, he says — whatever that means...
"Forbidden knowledge is just knowledge greedy people keep to themselves."
"It's my duty as a mage to know, well, a lot of things! Duh, that's the fun of learning."
If you tell this man that a text is forbidden, or he's not allowed to touch this cursed object, or that he can't eat monster flesh, do not be surprised when that man will go out of his way to obtain that information, or harass a Soulless for its meat.
It's his nature to be curious, and he can't help it! The world holds a lot of unknowns; maybe some are beyond his comprehension, or even dangerous to know (or try), he'll still take that chance.
would you happen to still have those two templates you made for your esther TS version? :0
Hello and thank you for the ask!
I do still have the templates, I just had to take the time to edit them as they were a bit, uh, scuffed, but the new and improved templates should be easy to understand. I also added a little hidden layer that denotes each font too :0
I tried to download but it doesn't work :( any ideas?
You're good, anon! I'm not sure why it wouldn't let you download the templates, actually 😭
You can try this new drive I created: [link]
Or if that doesn't work, I recommend trying other browsers or incognito, and also checking your browser's cookie settings. Refer to this support page as well: [google support]
At this time, they're closed still as I'm going through work stuff :((
But I'll be sure to update everyone on here and Twitter about my availability and open slots (slots will be limited). You can also check my Strawpage commission page as well from time to time as it will also be updated if I'm open for inquiry. [strawpage]
Hiii quick question, for your Bingo templates, how did you get a PNG of the touchstarved Logo?! I’ve been searching all over (same with the sprites), but I‘m just too silly to get it apparently 😔
Pls let me in on your secrets, wise magician 🙏🏼
Hello and thank you for the ask :D
The Touchstarved logo can actually be found here if you click on the link to their press kit! It contains all their logo variants and HQ PNGs of five LIs
As for sprites, I only know that they're accessed through ripping them directly from the game itself...
But you're in luck cause I somehow had enough brainpower to figure out how to do that, so here's a link to some PSDs of the LIs lol
[it's just a drive link, not a virus, I swear, prommie 🥺]
Though, I will say it is harder to get the full body sprites (as the sprites themselves are cutoff to what needs to be seen on screen), but for funzies (and since you sent such a polite ask) I also edited together a proper height chart with a bit of scuff around certain people's parts
