#Give the sword-summoning undead dads some love | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

canary3d-obsessed · 4 years

Text

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed Episode 09 first part

(Masterpost) (More Canary Funsies)

Warning: Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!

This episode features so many eternal minutes of zombie shambling that I thought I could fit everything into a single post. HA HA HA HA nope.

Zombie Temple

The trio do their best to fend off the not-zombies in the temple. Lan Wangji tells Wei Wuxian that he can’t go carving them up because they’re not actually dead, and drops a callback to their very first meeting at the gate of Cloud Recesses, when Wei Wuxian caught his attention with his pillowy lips comment on the not-dead cultivator.

Lan Wangji: You said it in that golden moment that will be seared into my memory for eternity, where I heard your voice and laid eyes on your angelic face and lost my heart forever, remember? Come on, babe, it was our very first zombie! How baked were you?

Wei Wuxian: I jerk off to the sword-fighting memory, not the zombie memory, you weirdo.

Nie Huaisang’s fear of the definitely not undead has apparently gotten him the rest of the way over his fear of Lan Wangji, because he’s now yelling “Lan-Xiong!” right along with “Wei-Xiong!” as he struggles. Note that although he later mentions that his fan is made of some fancy metal, we don’t see any evidence that he wants to fight with a fan any more than he does with a blade. I don’t hate anyone’s fan-fighting NHS headcanon, but my take is that he just isn’t a physical fighter, and that’s ok.

This is a good time to remember that our entire experience of the Nie clan so far in this story is 1. Clever but hopelessly combat-unready tiny artiste Nie Huaisang 2. Quietly helpful, absurdly pretty sidekick Meng Yao.

We don’t know yet that Nie Huasang’s gege and Meng Yao’s sugar daddy is literally the toughest motherfucker in the entire cultivation world. But his friends do! Which makes me love these dynamics even more, because not one of them criticizes Nie Huaisang for being the person he is.

(more after the cut!)

Never Let Me Go

This scene is where Wei Wuxian gives his tacit consent to being used as the eventual agent of Nie Huaisang’s vengeance....ok not really.

But he does make it clear what Nie Huaisang should do when he’s in a pickle. And NHS doesn’t forget things.

Priorities

Meanwhile, Lan Wangji isn’t nearly as patient as Wei Wuxian, and he drops a silence spell on Nie Huaisang basically out of annoyance. It’s not like they’re trying to be sneaky.

Lan Wangji: How about you have an exquisitely crafted ceramic cup of shut the fuck up?

Flute Girl

Wen Qing comes to the rescue by summoning all of the not-zombies, who happen to be her extended family, to come toast some marshmallows.

She’s another person who unwisely demonstrates, where Wei Wuxian can hear her, the power of flutes over zombies.

This move doesn’t seem to do anything important but it looks cool.

Brother Dynamic: Bad. Really Bad.

Jiang Cheng shows up in the temple and trolls everyone, because this is a great time for childish antics. Wei Wuxian is super happy to see him and runs over to hug him, which earns him a shoulder slam.

This is a regular part of their body language with each other. Wei Wuxian covers his hurt reaction very, very quickly, with a smile that doesn’t involve very much of his face.

Wei Wuxian is so good at pretending his feelings aren’t hurt, he probably convinces himself.

Then he gives a too-honest answer when Jiang Cheng accuses him of...daring to enjoy himself, basically.

That’s more truth than Jiang Cheng was looking for, and he raises a hand to Wei Wuxian, who hides behind Nie Huaisang. This move is interesting because on one level it’s just clowning; obviously Nie Huaisang can’t protect WWX from anything, and WWX doesn’t need protection from Jiang Cheng.

WWX can easily beat JC in a fight, as he’s let us know before. On another level, this retreat signals WWX’s harmlessness, his childlike-ness, in a semiotic dance that has been playing out for over a decade between the brothers. NHS is taking on Jiang Yanli’s role in the choreography, this time.

All of this troubling hostility doesn’t make Jiang Cheng a bad person. He’s young and he’s still under his parents’ control and subject to their abuse at home. It takes time to develop mindfulness about this stuff and learn to treat people beneath you differently than the way you are treated.

Jiang Cheng isn’t ready for that yet, any more than he is ready to say out loud that he cares about his brother.

Leave My Boyfriend Out of It

This interaction is noteworthy for Wei Wuxian defending Lan Wangji to his brother, before Jiang Cheng even has a chance to blame Lan Wangji.

Wei Wuxian says that following Lan Wangji was his own idea, and then gives LWJ the sweetest, warmest smile.

Lan Wangji also gets a pair of totally unearned, delighted smiles of thanks from his two besties when he lifts the silence spell on Nie Huaisang.

Being mildly dickish all the time works out fine, I guess, if you only make friends with people whose brothers are legendary grouches.

Grilling Wen Qing

Wei Wuxian finally decides he’s had enough of Wen Qing’s crap, and gets slightly aggressive in questioning her.

He’s not actually roughing her up but he is approaching her as a near-enemy for the first time, rather than as someone who wants to be her friend. Once Wen Qing tells him what’s up and agrees to a sort of temporary alliance, he goes back to being his normal slightly awkward self with her.

I don’t romance-ship WQ and WWX, except maybe as corpse-mountain era FWB, but I do like their chemistry. And their friendship is really refreshing and interesting, based on sharing goals and working together, not on emotional intimacy. It’s nice to see people with a lot of barriers around their hearts, building a strong, trusting bond without having to actually open up very much.

The idea of perfect sharing between people is a nice one, but it’s pretty alien to many of us who are recovering from trauma, or people who just aren’t wired that way, and it’s good to see other models of friendship and love.

Wei Wuxian, at Lan Wangji’s direction, parts the Red Sea drops a cage on the other 3 cultivators before going to hunt the dire birdy.

Jiang Chang is, predictably, pissed off about it, in spite of Wei Wuxian’s “you’re good at this” parting words, and says, according to the subtitles, “you bastard!”

“Bastard” is a pretty specific epithet, in English. In the current century, it’s generally used to mean “asshole,” more or less. But it still does carry the meaning “of illegitimate birth,” and since The Untamed is often concerned with legitimacy it seems pretty strong for JC to use with someone who is rumored to be his own Dad’s by-blow.

Let’s have a look and see what he really is calling him... 你混蛋 = Nǐ húndàn = “you bastard” per Google translate. Wow, Jiang Cheng, you really went there, huh.

Wen Granny

Wen Qing and the others in the golden cage watch as the not-zombies try half-heartedly to get to them. Wen Qing is super sad about it, as opposed to the two guys who are just annoyed (Jiang Cheng) or scared (Nie Huaisang).

The first time I saw this, it was just - oh, Wen Qing sympathizes with this poor random woman, she feels bad about what's happening, this is to show us she has a heart.

Now though -- that's HER granny. Maybe not her bio-grandma but clearly a granny of her clan, who she knows well, who later cares for A-Yuan when he's a child, so may very well have cared for A-Qing and A-Ning when they were small, too. Owie.

Dire Bird Hunting

Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian run off to hunt the smoke bird together. They are quickly trapped in cool-looking fog. Kudos to the Director of Photography.

They spend some time being confused and also being peak Wangxian 1.0 as they help each other out.

Lost in the fog and unable to summon talismans, Wei Wuxian is mainly about checking on Lan Wangji, making sure he’s ok, making sure he’s near. He doesn’t spare any worry for himself.

(We get a rare instance of seeing an actually glowing sword here, instead of just having a character say “I saw the beams of swords!” to save money on VFX.)

Lan Wangji, meanwhile, understands the mental attack they are under, explains it to Wei Wuxian with only a little snark about Wei Wuxian’s overly busy mind, and teaches him how to handle it.

Lan Wangji is super disciplined in mind, body, and sword - his fight moves don’t change, really, throughout his life, but he gets better and better at execution. Wei Wuxian isn’t exactly undisciplined, but he’s super creative and busts out a new skill in nearly every encounter. Lan Wangji sees this and is learning to make use of it.

After Lan Wangji helps Wei Wuxian overcome the confusion that is blocking his talisman use, he tells him which talisman to use.

This isn’t a talisman that LWJ uses himself, it’s just that he’s paying very close attention to WWX’s battle moves, and has a great memory, so he knows which ones will work. In a pretty short timespan he’s moved from thinking like a solo swordsman to thinking as part of a team with a broad range of battle skills. Very soon, he’ll be starting to use Wei Wuxian’s talismans himself.

WWX takes a hit from the flying death chain, but uses it to his advantage, as in so many encounters. He’s not just self-sacrificing--he is definitely that--but he’s also a chess player, knowing how to use a sacrifice or an injury to his advantage. Cue Lan Wangji being worried for the entire rest of his life.

Part Two is here!

#fytheuntamed #the untamed #the untamed gifs #wangxian #chen qing ling #restless rewatch the untamed #canary3d-original #nie huaisang #wei wuxian #jiang cheng #lan wangji #wen qing

549 notes · View notes

tanoraqui · 4 years

Text

tanoraqui

Still thinking about an au in which for some reason WWX and the Wens are left to just live peacefully on the creepy death mountain - some detente wherein they don’t leave the mountain ever and in exchange no one tries to visit ever. Borders patrolled by corpses and sect disciples. So A-Yuan grows up raised kind of collectively but mostly by WWX and Wen Qing (the one most likely to tell WWX that he’s doing it wrong), and learns healing-focused spiritual cultivation AND demonic cultivation, and then at some point starts sneaking out to be the terrifying force of righteous kindness he was always going to be

tanoraqui

Righteous kindness but also, like, having picked up WWX’s cavalier confidence (or at least some of the ability to fake it) and Wen Qing’s general attitude of Do No Harm But Take No Shit

Like IMAGINE

tanoraqui

In this au, despite the strict border-by-mutual-agreement that’s the only reason somehow no ones tried to attack, LWJ sneaks in like one a year so he and WWX can make eyes at one another but not actually say anything ever, and Wen Qing and LXC are both EXHAUSTED bc both their dumb little brothers (WWX is a sibling by adoption now don’t @ me) mope for like a week after EVERY SINGLE TIME THIS HAPPENS, and it’s been /over ten years/.

tanoraqui

Meanwhile Jiang YanLi and JZX are FINE, and JYL somehow keeps up some sort of correspondence with WWX - or at least, he’s faithfully managed to send a birthday present for Jin Ling every single year, and every time, JYL makes her son write a thank-you note and bribes some series of people to get it smuggled back to Yiling

tanoraqui

...which means, honestly, that Jin Ling is probably wildly curious about his uncle the evil demonic cultivator kept trapped within the terrible ghost mountain by the forces of Good and Right, and WILL sneak out one day to try to visit. Optimally, obviously, at the same time Wen Yuan is sneaking out to see the non-mountain world

tanoraqui

The optimal plot is that Wen Yuan ropes Jin Ling into helping him set up WWX and LWJ, because he, too, is exasperated at this point, and Jin Ling ropes Wen Yuan into arranging like a parent trap reunion for the Jiang siblings, and obviously there are monsters and undead to complicate it all

tanoraqui

They kind of acquire Lan Jingyi somewhere, somehow. He’s having a blast

There is a 100% chance that the first Adult(TM) to find them is Wen Ning and they just kind of rope him into whatever the hell is going on at the time

...you know what, I think this is just a good au where JGY fucking died at some point

tanoraqui

Maybe someone threw him down the stairs again and he just broke his fucking neck. WWX is still vilified but between Jiang Cheng not really wanting to attack and Jiang (Jin?) Yanli being AGGRESSIVELY against it, and dragging JZX along with her, they’re left in peace.

tanoraqui

Oh man and Jin Ling has YOUNGER SIBLINGS in this...

Hey for u: Jiang Cheng/Wen Qing can accidentally happen while the Teens are trying to get everyone else to meet

Today at 8:42 AM

@professorsparklepants

I love this it's so goddamn wacky

tanoraqui

I just want teenager-based shenanigans ft. surprisingly competent teenagers and all the adults running around like chickens with their heads chopped off

professorsparklepants

Jingyi: why are you two more calm about this than the literal adults

Wen Yuan: have you met my dad?

tanoraqui

Also to be clear it is not at all hard to convince Wen Ning to join Team: Teenage Shenanigans, bc literally ANYONE in the Burial Mountain village would probably be down if you were like, “we’re engaged in a conspiracy to make Wei Wuxian fucking admit that he’s in love with that Lan guy who visits a couple times a year”

professorsparklepants

"This is my father, and this is his sugar daddy."

tanoraqui

I kinda wanna say he goes by “Wen Yuan” more often bc he’s 100% the baby of the entire remaining Wen clan there, but his adult name or w/e it’s called IS Wen Sizhui, because WWX asked LWJ if he had any suggestions and LWJ said this while maintaining eye contact

professorsparklepants

OH MY GOOOOOOD

tanoraqui

They meet LXC and he figures out what’s going on in like 4 minutes, despite the teens’ best attempts at obfuscation, and instead of calling anyone’s parents is like, “okay, I’m in”

professorsparklepants

#1 wingman...

tanoraqui

Jin Ling and Wen Yuan are definitely both traveling under false names, too? Wen Yuan obviously can’t admit to being a Wen and Jin Ling is making a privileged but slightly helicoptered teen’s rebellious bid for freedom

professorsparklepants

His dad is panicking at home and Yanli is like "boys need their freedom :)"

I saw a post forever ago about how Yanli would be the most hands off parent & Zixuan is an only child who would panic every time his kid fell down

tanoraqui

With a side order of “my mother is the only one who’ll say nice things about the Yiling Patriarch and she always looks sad when she does so I’m going to sneak into the Burial Mountain and either drag him out to see her or force my parents to come get me”

professorsparklepants

"I'm gonna beat up the Yiling Patriarch" "why" "he made my mom sad" "okay proceed"

tanoraqui

^ actual real conversation with WenYuan

professorsparklepants

A-Yuan then repeats the same thing to Wen Qing and she has the exact same answer, verbatim

tanoraqui

Side note: Wen Yuan has never been scared of the undead in his entire life, and probably this will lead to getting into severely life-threatening situations when he doesn’t have more backup than 2 other teenagers

professorsparklepants

Oh absolutely

professorsparklepants

He's so used to tuning out the sound of sentry corpses that one jumps on him and almost punches his lungs out

tanoraqui

Also what if he took WWX’s sword, so he looks like a proper normal cultivator - honestly, what if WWX gave him the sword when he turned 12, or whenever one customarily gives a child a sword in this world. He also has a flute stashed in his robe somewhere but he does know how to use both

tanoraqui

But also, while obviously it’s very important that this is the sword he inherited from his father, it’s never OCCURRED to him to, like, strongly associate it with WWX, in terms of “this would be a recognizable weapon”? Chenqing the flute, obviously, but WWX just left the sword on a shelf all the time

professorsparklepants

He's very good at fooling people into thinking he's a normal rogue cultivator until he busts out the flute

LOL YES

tanoraqui

So the first time someone looks at him and is like, “That is WWX’s sword” he achieves, like, “Who’s Morales? [NOT THAT DUMB]” levels of blank-brained

professorsparklepants

It like, doesn't even occur to him that this stick named whatever will be recognizable to people until it actually happens

"this is the Yiling Patriarch's sword!" "... I've never heard of him"

tanoraqui

“What sword?”

professorsparklepants

KDJAKSNJS

tanoraqui

“Oh, THIS sword? I...found it. In a stream.”

tanoraqui

Also...at some point...once the teens have admitted their identities to one another...and possibly gotten into a couple other increasingly public shenanigans...they run into a bunch of concerned people searching from the Jin or even Jiang sect - JC being there would be PERFECT - and Jin Ling is like, “aaahh, no, I don’t want to be dragged home... kidnap me.”

WY: what?

JL: pull out the flute, summon a couple corpses, shout that you’re the dread son of the Yiling Patriarch, and pretend to kidnap me

WY: ...yeah okay

AND THEN THEY DO THAT

professorsparklepants

The dumbass energy...... off the CHARTS

tanoraqui

They’re 15 and neither of them has ever faced consequences but in...actually not too different ways

They’re 15 and neither of them as ever faced consequences nor most of the real world

Oh my god is Lan Jingyi the most sensible person here

They’re going to DIE

professorsparklepants

JXHAKAJAKKQHSJA

JC and Yanli immediately see through this probably

"dumbass kid just doesn't want to go home. I'll break his legs."

tanoraqui

I think Yanli does but I have minimal faith in JC’s ability to think logically at any time

He’s still angry at WWX for leaving

professorsparklepants

Stomps to Yiling to demand his nephew back & wwx's like "lol, A-Yuan left two months ago"

Okay my shift is starting later

tanoraqui

/snort

Though, bold of you to assume that WWX isn’t also running around anxiously somewhere like “oh god, oh no, my son is missing; I must find him”

professorsparklepants

Sizhui is a responsible boy, I don't think he would leave without telling at least ONE person where he was going

tanoraqui

Ok but it was Wen Qing who thinks it’s good for WWX’s health to stop brooding and go run around like a headless chicken instead, optimally if he runs into his totally-not-a-boyfriend-Hahahaha-why-would-you-say-that

Alternately it was, like, Granny, which, ditto

No one on this mountain is going to stop WWX from going out to cause trouble and hopefully get laid, is my point

tanoraqui

Also, the cultivation world has been basically at peace for 13 years and the reason is that this is an ideal AU where JGY is dead and whenever trouble starts to stir politically, NHS and JYL meet eyes across the room and mentally Rock Paper Scissors over who has to manipulate everyone into calming the fuck down

Neither of them actually wants this job; they’re just good at it and recognize both those aspects in each other

professorsparklepants

LOLOLOL

That is.... so goddamn in character

tanoraqui

concept: JYL and NHS are friends and no one else understands it, or attributes it to JYL just being that nice, bc NHS still generally acts useless

professorsparklepants

Nhs actively wants to be useless and life is conspiring to make sure he can't

tanoraqui

a little less dramatically useless, but why ruin a good thing when you're having fun and it's useful

professorsparklepants

Lol

tanoraqui

but JYL fucking identified him as Actually Competent one time when he couldn't hide it, so now sometimes they get tea together and bitch about politics and stupid people

professorsparklepants

He's the only person who can correctly identify when she's talking shit about people, because it's VERY subtle and her brothers & husband are too busy thinking she hung the moon to notice

tanoraqui

JYL striding into Nie sect HQ (whatever it's called) and tossing her coat over a chair. "You would not BELIEVE what my brothers are doing now."

NHS: *probably knows, because he's found that the minor investment of effort in maintaining a very good spy network pays major dividends in helping him avoid greater work* *immediately sits up and pours her a cup of very expensive tea* Oh, girl, dish.

professorsparklepants

Question: are they also friends with lwj...

tanoraqui

yes but he's obviously not invited to hte political gossip sessions

professorsparklepants

I'm trying to imagine lwj making eye contact with them at some meeting his brother dragged him to and both of them struggling not to break into hysterics

tanoraqui

but they both know that he sneaks into Yiling to visit WWX a few times a year, and every single time, JYL sits him down within a couple weeks and aggressively debriefs him as to her brother's condition

professorsparklepants

I'm sure she tried to get him to take treats in

tanoraqui

for sure

it's hopeless, though, bc there's no really predicting WHEN he'll go? It's basically just "every 4-6 months when LWJ's resolve breaks"

professorsparklepants

Too bad she's not a stress quilter instead of a stress baker

tanoraqui

she gets him to go at an actual arranged time, bearing pork soup, like once, for WWX's 30th birthday or something

professorsparklepants

tanoraqui

omg lit brain: LWJ of course is hte WORST for getting gossip, but JYL has pieced together a reasonable amount about the people her idiot baby brother (#2) is now living with. And she's mildly despairing as to idiot baby brother #1's ongoing refusal to get married and have an heir or three. So she, if not actively connives, then certainly siezes the first available opportunity to set Jiang Cheng up with Wen Qing

tanoraqui

basically, this au is PEAK romcom

tanoraqui

...also, for max happiness, i'd like to think that WWX made some strategic raids to rescue additional Wen refugees and bring them back, so there's a properly populated village and they didn't all just die

professorsparklepants

!!!

Good... Good thoughts

Good because 1. more people die and 2. The Yiling Patriarch will attack your village and steal your people away!

tanoraqui

(romcom being exclusively adults-focussed; the teens initiate it all but Jin Ling and Wen Yuan are both so delighted to have an Additional (But Cooler) Family Member that they comfortably cousinzone each other instantly)

professorsparklepants

*nice*

tanoraqui

...i feel like i keep characterizing Jin Ling as an only child, when really he ought to have a small horde of siblings

maybe they just...couldn't conceive more. shit happens. pregnancy is hard.

professorsparklepants

That happens sometimes

#mdzs #the untamed #ficlet #my fic #lan sizhui #jin ling #lan jingyi #(not actually here much; rip)#wen ning #wei wuxian #lan wangji #jiang yanli #nie huaisang #lan xichen #wen qing

2K notes · View notes

frostios · 3 years

Text

Last session notes of the elysium campaign for me! (combination of the previous session and this one) me and emmy are officially done with this campaign but i will still def be drawing and writing and talking about the gorzones for as long as i love them <3 (forever)

We interrogate the changelings and hear the name ‘F-Man’ for the first time, Kilgon drafting up a magical contract that has them keeping the group safe and leading us to Freedon’s captive fathers, and the punishment for not doing so is blindness, deafness, and the disabling of their changing. They sign it, and we follow them to a cornfield, Joemin messing with a few kids we pass. Cranberi notices there’s definitely something watching the group from further in. We get to a shitty wooden shed surrounded by people, and the changelings attempt to keep a fight from breaking out.

We go into the shed. The changelings open up an unfamiliar-colored portal (not to hell) and they invite us in. We don’t go, and can’t stop them from jumping through. However Freedon finds a loose floorboard and pries it up, finding a ladder underneath. The gang follows him down, finding multiple cells full of people, including the dads, surrounded by bandits. We get the dads out super easily and debate on freeing everyone else. We do, the bandits just sort of allowing it, and guide everyone back up.

The bandits outside stop us, one of them talking like Whisper 2.0, and Barnaby Dimension Doors the former prisoners away.

Initiative starts, Freedon getting in a good hit with his new sword, until Kilgon puts a charm on all the bandits that has them running after a gem he has. We free the prisoners – they might recognize Freedon, but we’re not sure – and we talk to the Dads.

They’re surprised to see Freedon and ask where he’s been. Freedon tells them – with all of us listening in – that the aasimar F-Man was his employer and he worked with them to kill the emperor. When they ask, Freedon tells them what’s been happening at their home with Alyyz visiting and the changelings taking over their lives. It’s a pretty emotional moment.

When Cran tells them the town is going to be attacked soon, they ask if it’s possible to defend it. Freedon says it’s not, and they ask about what he’s been through.

We walk into the house and are greeted by Alyyz, who goes to draw up a bath for the Dads. We think it might be a good idea to move the three of them away, and Alyyz says she’ll just move everyone to her home in Felu.

As a group we go to talk outside, and Freedon brings up trying to fight against F-Man’s plan. We agree to try. We wonder where Jonathan is, Ria saying she has no clue, and Joemin escapes the group to go find him. He finds footprints indicating he had walked away and probably summoned his bird to fly somewhere, and is likely not in town anymore.

Freedon helps cook, and we all end up gathering around Nami as she waits for Joemin to show back up. A long talk about everyone’s favorite foods and how Nami’s teeth are actually a mutation ensues. Eventually Kilgon calls Joemin, simultaneously teaching Cran how phones work.

Joemin comes running back shouting at Kilgon to turn off the phone, but when we try teaching him how it works he throws it at Kilgon and tries to run away. It doesn’t work. This brings up the various items we’ve gotten as gifts so far, specifically Cranberi’s Bag Of Teeth (one of which she gave to Bonemeal already) and both Joemin and Ria ask if they could have one. Cranberi refuses Ria, but give Joemin a ruby-veined red dragon fang that he uses as an offering to the Wild Mother and now keeps on his person.

Session ends.

We begin our defense of the town by splitting into two groups: Nami, Cranberi, and Ria on one side with Freedon, Barnaby, Kilgon, and Kisia on the other. Joemin keeps watch between the groups. The first attack comes as a scouting party on the girl’s side – Ria finally gets to fight! – and they take care of it pretty easily, getting intel from the last person standing (whose name is Ruby) about the maybe-forty people waiting to attack later on.

On the other side of town, the party is approached by F-Man himself. He talks at Freedon, asking him if they really expect to kill him, and Freedon agrees… honestly, no. But the fight starts anyway.

It goes on for a LONG while. The gang just keeps hitting him, even when they’ve summoned their Insect Plague and Undead, ultimately flickering out of existence. Before they do, they seem to… heal Freedon? For some ungodly reason? And while the healing goes on, Freedon gets a vision of Lial looking pretty upset on his dumb demon throne.

The fight is over. Freedon and Barnaby are… tired. They’re tired. So after this, it’s retirement.

Session ends.

#frosti talks dnd #elysium dnd #elysium session notes #shout out to anyone who's shown any interest in this little campaign yall are the real ones

8 notes · View notes

weirdmarioenemies · 4 years

Photo

Name: Gashadokuro

Debut: Takiyasha the Witch and the Skeleton Spectre

Skeletons! What would we do without them? Not only are they great for like, letting us not be blobs of flesh, but they make great monsters in nearly every situation! You need some kind of undead creature to fill in for you? Whether it's wielding a sword or doing a funny jig, skeletons will always have your back!

But the Japanese don’t do monsters like the rest of us. They’re not content with sticking to the status quo. They like to think outside the box! For example, once they said “what if a skeleton was like, really really big?” And everyone clapped.

Enter the Gashadokuro! It means rattling skull! I guess. As much as I like reading about yōkai, my info is limited to English sources... Wikipedia says it means “starving skeleton”, but I can’t find anything to back that up! Regardless, they are made up of the remains of people who died from starvation. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a giant creature that died to give birth to a giant skeleton, but you know what? I think this is cooler! Isn’t it fun learning about these crazy monsters from old legends?

Hold on, which old legends? There aren’t any! It might've fooled you and many others, the Gashadokuro is a very recent creation- as recent as the 1970s, actually! Born from late 20th century boys’ magazines and illustrated encyclopedias, the concept of A Really Big Skeleton soon captured the hearts of people all over Japan! With a little help from manga legend and yōkai dad Shigeru Mizuki (see: GeGeGe no Kitaro), they really consolidated themselves as a resident Funny Monster like they’d been here all along!

Wait... Have they been here all along? You might’ve noticed that Mizuki’s illustration seems nearly copied from this old woodblock print: Takiyasha the Witch and the Skeleton Spectre, by Utagawa Kuniyoshi! To put a long story short, it’s about the daughter of a rebellious samurai (he was decapitated and brought back to life, but thats another story) who stayed in her father’s manor after his death. Thanks to a pact with a demon/wizard/demon wizard (there's a few versions to the story), she was able to scare away the emperor’s officials by summoning a horde of demons! But our pal Kuniyoshi took some artistic liberty, making her summon a giant skeleton, instead!

So basically, even though the Gashadokuro is pretty recent, their most famous depiction predates the existence of the Gashadokuro in the first place! I’m sure there’s some real purists who don’t think these yōkai should count, but I say that makes it so much better! After all, the whole fun of it is being part of a living, breathing culture!

Speaking of living culture, another fun part about yōkai is spotting them in all your favorite cartoons and games! So under the cut, some cartoons and games.

Of course I gotta talk about Yo-kai Watch! Specifically, Gutsy Bones from Yo-kai Watch 2, and his trusted ‘Crank-a-Kai’ gashapon machine! Get it? Cause, the “gasha” in “gashadokuro” sounds like the “gasha” in “gashapon”? (Well, they do both use the onomatopoeia for rattling!) On that note, I’ve tried out some of those “gatcha games” that are all the rage these days, and none of them have any giant skeletons, so like, what gives?

As of Yo-kai Watch 3, Gutsy Bones is now one of the few befriendable boss Yo-kai. Hooray! They had to shrink him down a bit, but they let him have legs this time. He’s not very good at being a giant skeleton now, but a regular skeleton is just as good, right?

Castlevania Aria of Sorrow has a boss called the Creaking Skull, which is a rather literal translation of Gashadokuro. On that note, Castlevania has a lot of funny skeletons. A LOT of funny skeletons! I could write a very long post about them all, but Mod Hooligon has already subjected you guys to enough torture.

There’s a Gashadokuro in Okamiden, too! Quite a few of these are missing their lower bodies, huh? I guess it does look obscured in the woodblock print, after all.

Here’s the Gashadokuro from Nioh! Scary! I don’t exactly know much of anything about Nioh, but I do know it has lots of yōkai, so it gets a pass from me! Hooray for yōkai!

The Gashadokuro in Yu-Gi-Oh is looking pretty decked out, what with their armor and flames and all! Good for them! I don’t even know what a mayakashi is, but it’s probably cool right?

Here’s Shin Megami Tensei, hitting us up again with some demons! This one has a G on his forehead, presumably standing for Gashadokuro. Or Gario. I don’t know much about SMT either, but I’d probably like it for the monsters! Anything is better with some monsters.

I mentioned GeGeGe no Kitaro before, but did you know the Gashadokuro has appeared in nearly every Kitaro adaptation, plus the live-action movie and a handful of video-games? I suppose it’s only fitting, considering its connection to Shigeru Mizuki. Speaking of, there’s a Gashadokuro on Shigeru Mizuki Road, too!

Man, I’m totally rambling at this point, but I’d love to go to Shigeru Mizuki Road.

Whew! That’s a lot of skeletons! You certainly won’t be lacking in calcium after this post! Thanks for sticking with me this long! So to bid you farewell, I’d like to remind you to keep your skulls a-rattling... And all your other bones, too!

youtube

#yokai #gashadokuro #skeletons #mod f boy #april fools

168 notes · View notes

tigerkirby215 · 4 years

Text

5e Josuke Higashikata build (JoJo’s Bizzare Adventure Part 4: Diamond is Unbreakable)

(Artwork by David Productions. Image from the JoJo Fandom Wiki)

OI JOSUKE! Koichi showed me this cool board game called Dungeons and Dragons! I’m a Half Orc Barbarian; ain’t that wacky? But Koichi said that I can’t use 『ＺＡＨＡＮＤＯ』 to erase the enemies he puts down!

In my constant determination to beat Tulok at uploading JoJo builds here’s Josuke! Well, Part 4 Josuke. Diamond is Unbreakable is my favorite of the JoJo parts as I loved the small town setting. All the characters were lovable and memorable and the part had by far one of the best and most charismatic villains in any anime. But even though a David Bowie build would be fun (maybe someday!) I’m here to make a build for the JoJo of the part: Josuke Higashikata - Joestar by blood but not by name. (As Joseph is forever loyal to Susie and hates the Japanese; clearly.) Giorno had a more clear-cut ability to create life which translated into summons but Josuke just heals... with his fists. Man that would be hard...

What? Way of Mercy? Life Domain? I have no idea what you’re talking about.

GOALS

I feel utterly refreshed! - Josuke is the main character but is also the party medic. Good on Araki for recognizing the usefulness of the healer!

I'm gonna “fix” that spaghetti - Crazy Diamond can fix anything, not just wounds. Punching up temporary walls is a favorite tactic of Josuke... and yes: punching spaghetti too.

I won't be "bullying the weak" then, now will I? - When push comes to shove we’ll need to be able to DORARARARARARA our foes. Just be sure to heal them first so it’s a fair fight.

RACE

Josuke only has Joestar blood, not vampire blood, so that makes him human. High ho it’s Variant Human time! Variant Humans get an increase to two ability scores of their choice: increase your Dexterity and your Wisdom by 1. You also get a skill of your choice: take the Perception skill to notice when a few letters are missing from a sign. You also get a language so again pick whatever you want: Josuke probably knows English well enough to speak to his dad.

Of course the main trait of Variant Humans is that you can take your choice of a feat and how about a Crazy Noisy Bizarre Talent? The Wild Talent feat from the Psionics Unearthed Arcana will give us a boost to our skills that don’t necessarily have to be psionic. You get a Psionic Talent die that can be used for two different uses: Psi-Boosted Ability will let you roll the Psionic Talent die on an ability check to boost its ability, and Psi-Guided Strike will let you roll it on an attack roll instead. The Psi-Talent die has a bunch of unique features that I won’t go over here (you can read the UA yourself) but in short:

It grows in power as you level up.

If you roll a 1 the die size increases, if you roll the highest number it decreases.

You can reset the die to its original size with a bonus action.

The feat also increases one ability score of your choice so increase your Wisdom further.

If your DM doesn’t allow the Psionics UA take the Observant Feat instead.

ABILITY SCORES

15; DEXTERITY - Josuke is quick on his feet and quicker with his punches. Typical Joestar stand rush.

14; WISDOM - Josuke is quite the emphatic person. Only natural when you love your town so much you develop a spirit that heals people.

13; CHARISMA - Have you seen that hair? It’s GREAT!

12; CONSTITUTION - Damage is interesting in JoJo, but you need enough durability to get hit with a couple of explosions and survive.

10; INTELLIGENCE - Josuke’s a student but not necessarily a good one. Hard to study when you’re trying to find a serial killer.

8; STRENGTH - As the joke goes JoJos get less buff as they go later in parts, and we don’t need Strength much.

BACKGROUND

Unfortunately there isn’t a background that can give us both Intimidation for those who insult our hair and Investigation for... investigation, so make your own background. Call it the “punk detective”, since it hardly fits the “punk with a heart of gold” description.

(Artwork by David Productions)

THE BUILD

LEVEL 1 - MONK 1

Starting off with our stand at a young age, Monks get proficiency with two skills from the Monk list: Insight will let you tell if that weird injured blond guy is lying, and Athletics will help you CHASE YOOOOU! ANYWHERE I’LL CHASE YOOOU! You also get proficiency in a musical instrument or artisan’s tool of your choice so pick up the Lute to play the guitar in your theme... unless Barber’s Tools are available to keep that hair in check.

As a Monk you get Unarmored Defense equal to 10 plus your Dexterity and Wisdom modifier, which is good because a schoolboy’s outfit hardly counts as armor. You also get Martial Arts so Crazy Diamond can punch with your Dexterity, up to twice currently since you also get a punch with your bonus action. DORA!

LEVEL 2 - MONK 2

Level 2 Monks get Ki points for some crazy abilities from Crazy Diamond. Flurry of Blows lets you attack twice with your bonus action instead of once for three DORARARAs, Patient Defense lets you dodge the hand with a bonus action, and Step of the Wind lets you dash or disengage as a bonus action while also doubling your jump distance so you can CHASE YOOOU!

Speaking of Chase by batta you also get 10 feet of Unarmored Movement, letting you run 10 feet faster than the guy you’re trying to ＣＨＡＳＥ. By the way the jokes about Chase won’t stop it’s a good OP stop being mean.

LEVEL 3 - MONK 3

At level 3 Monks get their Monastic Tradition and the Way of Mercy is perfect for those with a diamond heart. You get Implements of Mercy which give you proficiency in either Medicine or Insight... but you already have Insight proficiency so just Medicine then! You also gain proficiency with the herbalism kit and the poisoner’s kit, which isn’t too in-flavor but it could be useful.

Of course the main strength of Crazy Diamond is its Hands of Healing. As an action, you can spend 1 ki point to touch a creature and restore a number of hit points equal to a roll of your Martial Arts die + your Wisdom modifier. You can also replace one of the unarmed strikes you make with Flurry of Blows with a use of this feature without spending its ki cost, so instead of going DORARARA you can go DORARA and also heal Jotaro!

But if you end up healing your allies you also have Hands of Harm to punch extra hard. When you hit a creature with an unarmed strike, you can spend 1 ki point to deal extra necrotic damage equal to one roll of your Martial Arts die. Don’t use it to pick on the weak, however, because if the creature is incapacitated or poisoned, the creature takes necrotic damage equal to three rolls of your Martial Arts die instead. You can only make a Hands of Harm punch once per turn, so make that DORA count!

And you also get Deflect Missiles as a monk, letting you use your reaction to reduce the damage of a ranged weapon attack by a d10 plus your Dexterity modifier and your monk level. You can even throw it back if you reduce the damage to zero, so punch away those arrows and CHASE YOU! I told you the references to Chase wouldn’t stop.

LEVEL 4 - MONK 4

Level 4 Monks get an Ability Score Improvement and I’m actually going to suggest increasing Wisdom over Dexterity so we can heal more than we harm. (Don’t worry though we can still do plenty of harm.) On the bright side Crazy Diamond can now help us Slow Fall, reducing any falling damage you take by an amount equal to five times your monk level.

LEVEL 5 - MONK 5

5th level Monks see their Martial Arts die increase to a d6, and get an Extra Attack for up to 3 attacks total and up to 4 with Flurry of Blows, so you can DORARARARA! And you can punch an opponent particularly hard with Stunning Strike, forcing them to make a Constitution save or be stunned as you prepare for a beatdown. (Pro tip: being stunned counts as being incapacitated for Hands of Harm!)

Oh and you know that Feat I told you to take at level 1? Your Psionic Talent Die increases to a d8.

(Artwork from the Diamond is Unbreakable Manga)

LEVEL 6 - CLERIC 1

“Ha ha well this was expected!” I hear you say. “Bet Josuke’s going to be a Life Cleric so he can heal more, right?”

Nope! Forge Domain! Along with proficiency in Heavy Armor (which you can’t wear as a Monk) and Smith’s Tools you get Blessings of the Forge. After a Long Rest you can have Crazy Diamond reforge a weapon or piece of armor to be sharper and sturdier, turning it into a +1 weapon.

As a Cleric you get access to Spellcasting. You get three cantrips from the Cleric list: Mending is an obvious pick (though the repairs aren’t as fast as I’d like) along with Spare the Dying to... spare the dying, and Sacred Flame will let you direct a piece of radiant glass that ignores cover.

A Forge Cleric can Identify spaghetti whenever they want, or cast Searing Smite which you... can’t, because you don’t have a weapon. Well Monks can still use weapons, even if it isn’t in flavor. But of course the majority of our spell slots are going to be used for healing! Cure Wounds for more touch-range heals, and Healing Word for long ranged heals. And while they probably aren’t too useful all the time Detect Poison and Disease along with Purify Food and Drink will let you make sure there’s nothing wrong with that previously mentioned spaghetti. Or the water.

LEVEL 7 - CLERIC 2

Second level Clerics get access to their Channel Divinity: all Clerics can Turn Undead, which perhaps isn’t too in-flavor but hey gotta have a backup if you mess up with healing someone.

Forge Clerics however gain Channel Divinity: Artisan's Blessing. You can spend an hour to turn up to 100 gold worth of materials into something. Technically it has to have some metal in it but that’s a small restriction. You lay out the materials to create the object, and after the hour is done the created object appears at your feet. Unfortunately you can’t use this to deconstruct something, but technically you could turn a sword into a different sword or other similar things.

And you can also prepare another spell: Shield of Faith will let you preemptively prepare a shield for an ally if they get attacked... or yourself!

LEVEL 8 - CLERIC 3

Third level Clerics can prepare second level spells. Forge Clerics have Heat Metal and Magic Weapon innately prepared: sharpen a sword or punch it until its a Red Hot Chili Pepper!

For your prepared spell Locate Object will let you send an object back to its source so you can find who it belongs to. Is this thematically accurate? Yes. Is this spell highly situational? Yes. Should you prepare another spell instead? Yes.

LEVEL 9 - CLERIC 4

Fourth level Clerics get another Ability Score Improvement and since we increased our healing last time we’ll increase our damage this time with a Dexterity increase.

You can also prepare another spell and another cantrip at this level. I’m going to hold off on the spell until next level but for your cantrip Guidance will help you motivate the idiots in your party to win the fight! But be gentle: he’s not that smart.

LEVEL 10 - CLERIC 5

5th level Clerics can Destroy Undead of CR 1/2 or lower with their Channel Divinity. Again not really in-flavor, but your great grandfather knew a lot about that.

But you also get access to third level spells! As a Forge Cleric you have Elemental Weapon always prepared, as well as Protection from Energy. Producing elemental effects out of nowhere is more of Koichi‘s thing but you can certainly block some electric attacks!

For your prepared spells Mass Healing Word is obvious, and Beacon of Hope will let those heals have the maximum value. There’s a lot of good stuff at third level so if not for the spell slots I’d say prepare more stuff from third level!

LEVEL 11 - CLERIC 6

6th level Clerics get another use of their Channel Divinity, which doesn’t impact you much since your Channel Divinity is more for utility. Speaking of things that don’t impact you Soul of the Forge only works if you have heavy armor! Well at least you’re resistant to Fire damage: should help if you’re ever hit with an explosion, not that that’s going to happen anytime soon...

And you can also prepare another spell: Remove Curse can let you remove any negative stand affects hurting your party. Frequent crying? Skin loss? Sounds like a curse! Or just good cooking.

And your Psionic Die increases.

LEVEL 12 - CLERIC 7

Level 7 Clerics can prepare 4th level spells, which is why we went into Forge Cleric: you know the Fabricate spell innately, which will let you reconstruct raw material into something useful! Fabricate has a ton of uses as long as you have the materials, so use your imagination to make something useful with the environment thanks to that stand of yours. You also get Wall of Fire; perhaps not in flavor but perhaps you’re punching open a lose gas pipe?

You can also prepare 4th level spells, but since none of them really work for our character I’d suggest the Unearthed Arcana spell Spirit Shroud, which will make your punches do more damage and keep enemies close to you. DORA!

LEVEL 13 - CLERIC 8

The 8th level of Cleric gives you another Ability Score Improvement, and I’m actually going to suggest an increase to Dexterity again for the hardest punches. Speaking of hard punches you also get Divine Strikes to do an extra d8 fire damage on hit. Technically it says weapon damage but it’s been confirmed that your fists are weapons as a Monk, and you can still use a weapon for your first two attacks if your DM’s really stingy about it.

You can also prepare another spell and... I dunno. Prayer of Healing from second level? You honestly have all the spells we need for roleplay so prepare the spells you need, because that’s the point of Cleric.

(Artwork by XenonVincentLegend on DeviantArt)

LEVEL 14 - MONK 6

Getting into tougher stand fights? Well now your punches can finally bypass magical resistance with Ki-Empowered Strikes. But more importantly you get some 5 foot range stand power with Noxious Aura: As a bonus action you can spend 1 ki point to create an aura with Crazy Diamond. The aura surrounds you for a minute unless you’re incapacitated or you end it early.

While the aura is active ranged attacks have disadvantage against as Crazy Diamond strikes them away. Any other creature that starts its turn within 5 feet of you must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or become poisoned until the end of your next turn, taking poison damage equal to your Wisdom modifier. Consider it your desire for justice pushing you forward!

And your Unarmored Movement also increases for more CHASE.

LEVEL 15 - MONK 7

7th level Monks get Evasion to dodge things like... explosions, taking half damage on a failed save or no damage on a successful one. You also get Stillness of Mind, allowing you to use your action to end an effect of being charmed or frightened. Consider this you being too angry to look at some dumb manga; that guy just insulted your hair!

LEVEL 16 - MONK 8

8th level Monks get an Ability Score Improvement so it’s about time to cap that Wisdom score to cap off Crazy Diamond’s power!

LEVEL 17 - MONK 9

Level 9 Monks get an Unarmored Movement Improvement to run across water and walls as long as you end your turn on solid ground. I’d flavor this as you reshaping the terrain around you so you can move.

And your Psionic Talent Die gets its final size increase.

LEVEL 18 - MONK 10

10th level Monks are immune to Poison and Disease thanks to Purity of Body. You got over the stand fever as a kid, after all. Your Unarmored Movement also increases to 20 feet for 50 feet total of running.

LEVEL 19 - MONK 11

At 11th level Way of Mercy Monks get Healing Technique, letting them remove an effect of being blinded, deafened, paralyzed, or poisoned when they heal an ally with Hands of Healing. You can heal people’s wounds: fixing their eyes and ears is the next logical step. Your Martial Arts die also increases to a d8, letting you heal on-par with Cure Wounds with your own hands!

LEVEL 20 - MONK 12

Our final level is the 12th level of Monk for another Ability Score Improvement but instead I’m actually going to suggest a late feat for the final fight. If you want to mimic someone’s dad on the phone take the Actor feat for +1 to Charisma along with advantage to mimic someone and the ability to mimic someone’s voice. Is it a little late for this feat? Yeah probably.

FINAL BUILD

PROS

Pearl Jam - You have a lot of healing. Like, a lot of healing. 12 Ki points to spend on essentially Cure Wounds, spell slots for a variety of healing spells and Beacon of Hope to maximize those heals.

Highway Star - You also have a very wide effective range with 50 feet of movement to run in to heal or harm, and that mobility is further increased by the tricks you can do as Monk.

Echoes - You have a lot of utility outside of just healing. You can keep enemies at bay and buff your allies’ weapons and armor, and have tons of out-of-combat utility with Fabricate to make whatever you need and your skill checks all being above average with Wild Talent boosting them further.

CONS

The Lock - Your powers have limitations just like your stand. Your Channel Divinity only works on metal, and Fabricate is an expensive spell slot that also needs materials. What’s more is that a lot of your powers take a lot of time to use, so no instant builds like in the anime.

Boy II Man - Cleric levels are cool and all, but in order to get Fabricate we skipped a lot of the Monk’s stronger abilities like Tongue of the Sun and Moon and Diamond Soul, which is practically named after our stand!

Enigma - There’s such a thing as too much of a good thing, and this build possibly has too much healing in it. What’s more is that Forge Cleric really doesn’t benefit this build much since you can’t wear Heavy Armor.

But you aren’t fighting alone; you have a whole town to back you up! Your job is to keep the shining resolve of the people alive while also being ready to give a beatdown to any punk who threatens the people. Or if they insult your hair; it can be tough to keep your cool.

(Artwork by DGraySpartan on DeviantArt)

#DnD 5e #dnd monk #dnd #dnd build #dnd cleric #diamond is unbreakable #Josuke Higashikata #jojo's bizarre adventure #jojo's bizarre adventure diamond is unbreakable

5 notes · View notes

electronicdelusionstarlight · 4 years

Text

Anyway, finally the game is stable, and I’ve finally gotten my core followers, time to flesh out what will be hopefully be my Dragonborn for the foreseeable future.

Ayerin the Perplexing.

She’s a Altmer Mage, or at least that’s what she claims to be, Goth-Coded, and I’m gona write her on the Autistic spectrum cause I’m on the spectrum so that’s basically half the work done, and the second she learns she’s a dragonborn she’ll start experimenting on her dragon blood, discovering a way to taint it, strengthen it and her soul so that she’d be able to do the impossible, bear both Molag Bal’s and Hircine’s curses at the same time. The way to do so, however, is still long and distant, and necessitates of a third curse, to balance the two, and allow her to survive both Vampiric and Werewolf transformations, by rendering her mortal if long lived mortal shell, immortal and undead first, before even ascending as a vampire.

She’s a Seeker of the Arcane Arts and a Mage. Her dad is a follower of the old Altmer pantheon, specifically Syrabane, the God of Magic, an Aldmer ancestor who ascended to divinity through his own efforts, and has transmitted to his daughter the same devotion to the so called Apprentice God, whose favor is obtained by the constant and tireless research of magical knowledge. He used to be a lecturer for the Arcane University, but after the war the faculty decided they didn’t exactly need his services anymore. They moved to Bravil, where he became a lowly illusion tutor in the local chapter of the mages guild, his career effectively put to a halt.

Her papa, on the other hand, doesn’t care much for gods. He’s a soldier, a legate for the Imperial Legion, stationed in Cyrodil, or at least he was. He lost a arm during the great war, as he attempted to stop the atrocities the Aldmeri Dominion, their own people, were committing in the Cyrodilian Countryside, missing the siege of the imperial city as a result. He’s bitter and angry, but he’s glad he and his loved ones are still alive as a result, even if they are being ostracized for being different, as if they didn’t just fight a war against people who were ostracizing others for being different from them.

Ayerin grows interested in magic as a result of her dad’s influence. Under the supervision of her dad, she tried to gain access to the Arcane University, but was found too curios, too interested in... forbidden lore and knowledge, even expressing some perplexity over the banning of necromancy, a now time honored tradition of the mage’s guild.

That’s when she gets her moniker. The Perplexing. Or maybe, more fittingly, the Perplexed. Always searching for knowledge she ought not to search, for powers that better be left alone, in all 5 schools of magic, baffling and perplexing her peers as much as their “irrational” reactions baffle and perplex her.

The local politics also confuse her, perplexed over why should wizard start squabbling over petty court politics. She never really understood politics in general really, she took from her Papa that way, everything had always been very straightforward for them, always a black and white issue, no matter how much people tried to paint it otherwise, and she didn’t understand why other people couldn’t see it that way.

It was only logical after all.

Her dreams are weird, black voids with white smoke, filled with still images of people, monsters, beings, objects, a weird voice, probably belonging to a old man, giving her advice, some times good, some times just weird, talking about events before her life, as if he was there, as if he knew who was there, mentioning the gods, and talking about the divines and the daedric princes as if they were old chums... or bitter enemies some times.

It’s weird, but strangely illuminating if she managed to decipher his rants, a constant companion of her nights, and she assumes it must be a Daedra working for Vaermina, or maybe one of her demiprinces, especially given how... weirdly fond he seemed to be of the nightmare mistress when he talked about her, but still, she wasn’t that worried about this, it wasn’t like a major daedric prince had decided to set up camp in her dreams after all, she could handle some minor heckling mixed in with some genuine good advice or history lessons about the history of Cyrodil, surprisingly well done and serious in tone, as if they were 2 completely different persons.

At 25 years of age, abandoning her attempts to join the Mages Guild, she decides to move north, to Skyrim. She has heard of a long forgotten cult, attempting to create a true lich for themselves, and also that the college of Winterhold seemed more open to the prospect of its members researching forbidden lores and crafts, no matter how blasphemous they might seem, and she’s all for that, finally, a place where her genius will be recognized!

So, with her blessing of her Dad and her Papa, sad to see her go but glad she’ll be able to leave the nest and follow her dreams, with enough magical research to allow her to cast at least 2 spells for every school of magic, if still really novice ones, she crosses the border into Skyrim...

And gets captured in an Imperial Ambush.

It’s almost mechanical what happens next, going with the flow as if it has happened countless of times already. She’s almost executed, but a Dragon saves her (Usually, it’s the knight that saves the princess from a dragon, not the other way around).

She flees the fort with the awkward soldier who tried to be nice to her, and failed miserably at doing so. She might have hold against him mistaking her for a Thalmor spy (And she spits on the ground at the thought, startling her new companions as they watch her give her daily prayers to Syrabane), but she always considered herself as a excellent judge of character, and of the two men that offered to help her flee, one was simply running for his life, the other had almost given his life to save a young child from the drgaon’s breath, as most other imperial soldiers were doing at the moment.

Which meant only one of them was noble enough or dumb enough to position himself between her assailants and her sparks, and that was the dumbass thought sending her corpse to a country she had never set foot in would have comforted her in her final moments.

At least he was easy on the eyes.

They leave the fort, she finds some junk, a rusty old ceremonial sword among them, and contemplates just how competent those Stormcloaks actually are if their armor and weaponry consists in some strings of leather and scraps of metal barely held together with spit and hope, she even manages to find some spiffy new robes for her, still no boots tho, forced to wander the place just with some wrappings at her feet. It hurts like hell, but she’d rather wear that than... ugh... light armor, uncomfortable and itchy as it always made her feel.

They flee the fort and he offers her to give her shelter to the near Riverwood, Hadvar’s, that’s the hot dumbass’ name, home town. It’s pretty close, and along the way they find the so called guardian stones, old pendants hidden in the hole within them. She was born under the sign of the mage, so she activates the according stone, but Hadvar mentions that unlike her birthsign, the stones do not bind her to just one sign, much to her befuddlement. She doesn’t press him, noticing his barely veiled... judgement at her choice of stone, and notices a door down the slope the Stones are perched on, embed in the mountain as she leaves, wondering what it must have been.

What follows is a whirlwind, she meets Alvor, Hadvar’s uncle, and finds herself almost stealing all the food he had offered her, starving as she found herself, eating chicken eggs raw and stockpiling potatoes for the incoming trip. She’s supposed to got to Whiterun, warn the local Jarl of the dragon attacks...

Gennarino tells her to go to Falkreath instead. It’s as close as Whiterun, and she needs to find someone there.

Gennarino is her oldest and most devoted friend. A traditional Direnni name according to her Papa when she mentioned him, it also happened to be the name of the assistant of a great Aldmer sorceress, during the war against the Sloads, obsessed with gold, who ended her days living in a remote island, at the foot of a slumbering volcano, her name lost to time.

Gennarino also happened to be a Raven. Her Raven. Who oh so happened to be invisible to anyone but her.

Or, well, almost anyone but her. She was pretty sure other animals could see him just fine, as could some of the kids she used to play with, before she was considered too “weird” to be played with, as well as one (1) drunk Argonian in the Imperial City, green and sad and screaming against the heavens in the rain, complaining about friends dying or disappearing after becoming gods and leaving him behind with all the golds and riches that he’ll never be able to share with them, while also complaining about the loud crow giving him a headache.

Still, invisible Raven, followed her all her life, his advice has always been followed by her, how would she not, he’d always been right, even more so than her, and she might be stubborn and curious but she also know the old stories, the old fairy tales about strange little creatures following strange advice to be followed to the letter, a clear, easy way for the player and the author to justify her sudden detour in the middle of such a important situation.

Anyway, she leaves for Falkreath before long, apologizing to Hadvar and the others, who take it better than she expected, before trying to buy some more spell tomes from the local trader, delighting herself in the sudden new variety in the new land (”Uh, death hound, never heard of that conjuration summon, and what is this? “Lamb of Mara”? Is this a religious spell?”). On the way, she visits the door she spotted, finding alarge, sprawling room, filled with altars to anything but her god.

She pledges herself to be a follower of her own mind, something Syrabane would probable appreciate, before inspecting the other altars. The Hermanus Mora one (Already whispering sweet knowledge to her starved mind, as she resists to its pull... for now) has a variety of books as offerings, among them a spell she had never seen before.

She prays for her god there, and leaves for Falkreath. She finds no trabel along the way, only corpses and a traveling bard, with whom she concludes her journey to Falkreath.

There, she finds Lucien, an Imperial, so easily flustered, so eager to follow her to their death, a fellow seeker of knowledge, as they say. He asks her to become his bodyguard, she who can’t even defend herself, and she accepts, both for the money he’s offering, and for the prospect of her research to gain something from their sudden collaboration...

Also because despite everything she really needed a meat shield. And something tells her that if her crow has told her to go for that one, inexperienced and incompetent as he might seem, there seemed to be a reason for that.

She’s not eager to test this concept, and decides to leave for Whiterun this time, as Lucien also suggests, to warn the Jarl of his impending doom...

Except then Gennarino grabs at her Map, a gift from her dads, that she managed not to lose in the ambush, and tells her to go to Riften instead, where another valuable assets lies. Its very insisting, more so than when he told her to go to Falkreath, so she leaves, resigned, Lucien puzzled at her sudden change of destination midway, and there, finally, meeting Inigo.

Now, they are here, a Mage who has just started her journey into the mysteries of the unknown, a Half Naked Khajiit that mistook her for someone else, a inexperienced “Milk drinker” donning imperial armor in a rebel stronghold filled to the brim with bloodthirsty Stormcloaks (Why, she just witnessed their lot violently suppress a small Imperial assault, barely 4-5 soldier, that’s where she got one of the armors before the city guard stopped her from looting the other corpses by tossing them in the river), her talking, maybe there maybe not crow, cawing at her that now, yes, she can go to Whiterun, finally...

And who knows what their future holds for them?

#Skyrim #Skyrim SE #skyrim mod #inigo the brave #lucien flavius #dragonborn

5 notes · View notes