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flightyquinn · 27 days

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thinking about how cursed objects work in most fantasy RPGs.

typically, they wind up just kind of being a big middle finger from the game master - a kind of "whelp, you should have been more paranoid, so now you get hosed" sort of deal. which includes the somewhat game-y trope of objects that you can't get rid of. it's kind of an un-fun mechanic, when you think about it, which is why in most games I've been a part of cursed items often don't see much play, unless it's as a "punishment", or part of a story arc.

...which naturally leads me to think about how to do it better. in the past, I've tried using a curse as a kind of limiter. restrictions or drawbacks to a mostly functional item that is still worth using despite being "cursed". that's good, but it doesn't let you draw on truly nasty curses, because the item needs to be worth using, but also still needs to be balanced.

so, I'm drawing from a lot of sources here, like the cursed shield in Final Fantasy VI, and especially the comics by @foldingfittedsheets, where curses exist to (literally) teach the recipient a lesson

MEAT OF THE POST STARTS HERE:

what about cursed items that have a way to overcome their curse?

it's actually a fairly common trope in classical literature / fairy tales. every curse has a way to be broken. yet in D&D and Pathfinder, most often the only way to break a curse is to find someone with the specific curse-breaking spell.

so, give each cursed item a condition. perhaps a weapon that fuels a person's rage and causes them to fly into a blind rage in battle waits for them to sincerely forgive a hated enemy. perhaps boots that slow the wearer are actually making them heavy with the weight of past transgressions and a sufficient act of atonement will free them. maybe the perpetually bloody doll that gives its bearer horrible nightmares simply waits for someone to be motivated to action by them, either to right some past wrong, or generally bring a certain number of murderers to proper justice.

...maybe a Bag of Devouring. which is technically actually a creature, not a cursed item (but usually classified with them), can be befriended by figuring out a treat it likes, and will not only carry things for the player if fed and cared for, but even cough up a few things that previous bearers had stuffed inside.

the specifics aren't too important, but the idea is that any item with a curse on it has a reason for that curse, and a way to break it. the players can drop the item at any time, sell it off, give it to someone they hate, whatever, but if they put in the time and energy to actually breaking the curse, it becomes better than it was before, sometimes simply losing a drawback, or sometimes gaining new powers.

for an example, let's look at how that doll idea from earlier could work in D&D 5e;

while the party has the doll in their possession, they will all be afflicted by horrible nightmares, seeing themselves as children being attacked by a group of eight bandits with indistinct features. the details of the dreams change each night, and the players awaken before learning their ultimate fate, but the general gist is always that they are completely helpless, and subjected to harm.

after a long rest, have them roll a Wisdom or Charisma save (challenging DC, but not too difficult), or take a small amount of psychic damage.

if the players bring murderers to justice - meaning deliver them to the proper authorities and see them punished for their crimes - the content of the dreams starts to change. one bandit gets caught or killed by the end of the dream for each real world criminal successfully punished, possibly hinting to the players what they need to do. once eight murderers in total have had their sentences enacted, the next morning the doll will be in pristine condition with a serene expression, emitting a faint glow. thereafter, any player may attune to the doll to gain the ability to cast the Guidance cantrip without components (as thought the doll's ability to project what it wants the players to do into their mind was turned to their benefit.

#tabletop gaming #tabletop roleplaying #roleplaying games #dungeons & dragons #pathfinder #game master advice #homebrew #my ideas #curses #cursed items #long post

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notmoreflippingelves · 8 months

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Personally I feel Kristoph just regrets having killed Zak so suddenly on an impulse. Reminder that the locks appeared when asked why he killed Zak specifically. He hated him for turning him down and probably never saw himself capable of murder. Once he killed him he probably felt glad he got revenge and didn't get exposed, but then had that sudden clarity of "oh shit, I actually killed someone", which combined with his paranoia, stressed him out immensely. He tragically traumatized himself.

Zak's murder has always screamed unplanned, desperate "crime of passion" to me, given how dramatically different to the other murder we know Kristoph committed (and set in motion 7 years earlier). Criminology-wise, it's already very unusual for a criminal to change their modus operandi so dramatically without a good reason. And it becomes immediately more striking when we look at the weapons: blunt object in Zak's case vs. poison for the Mishams'.

Poison has long held the stereotype of being a "woman's weapon" rather than a man's. Which yeah, it is a pretty unnecessarily gendered and heteronormative way to look at it. But like what the stereotype is actually saying by this is that poison--regardless of the gender(s) of the person using it--is almost always the method preferred by people who would prefer not to use psychical forms of violence even once they have determined that they "need" to enact violent ends.

These sorts of killers may lack the physical strength or athletic skill to wield a gun/sword/bat/spear,/blunt instrument, they may not be able to summon the adequate aggression to do so, they may want to avoid a bigger "mess" w/ more pieces of evidence, or they may just lack the "sadistic urge" to directly use their hands to enact another's pain. All of the above seem that they could apply to Kristoph given what we know of him.

Even though he has determined that he's going to go through with the murder plot, Kristoph vastly prefers a more detached, less messy, and (in his mind) quicker and less cruel method. Because his heart may not really be in it in the long run. Like do you really think he'd want to get actual blood on his pretty little nails if he didn't have to? He's not killing for the fun of it like some of the other AA killers; he's killing because he's convinced himself he has to.

(Unlike a lot of other fans, I tend to hc that Zak and Drew were actually the *only* deaths that Kristoph was responsible for. Because I maintain that that there was something much more specific and important about the Gramarye case to Kris than simply "wah, I was fired from my first big case and now I'm gonna be petty af about it." No like, this case in particular--besides just "an important case that could make my career"-- was personal to Kris for reasons we may never know).

Even though he knew that this could very well come back to bite him in the derriere, Kristoph was probably secretly relieved that the poison didn't work right away for the Mishams--or that if it had worked, he wouldn't have to find out about it. Out of sight, out of mind and he wouldn't have to face his conscience. And in the worst case scenario, the murder plan was still in place should Kristoph need to enact it later. (Which he did by writing to Drew *during* (and not before) Kristoph's incarceration following Zak's murder.)

So with all that in mind, Kristoph's murder of Zak just seems more and more of a desperate, impulsive act. It's not his style at all, and yet he did it. He saw Zak, realized he was at risk, and panicked.

And yeah, I would imagine that even if we assume he had no regrets/second thoughts about Drew Misham's murder, Zak's murder would psychologically feel really really different to Kris. And I imagine that it could potentially prove even more psychologically damaging to him.

Because braining "Shadi Smith" with a grape juice bottle is an act that is sudden, violent, impulsive and totally out-of-character for Kristoph Gavin--coolest defense in the West ,whose intellect is his weapon of choice and who prefers to keep his pretty nails (if not his soul) clean.

#kristoph gavin #ace attorney #this ask has been in half-written and unanswered in my drafts for over a year #but given my sudden desire to word vomit re: omitb and elena of avalor earlier this week #i guess i'm in the right headspace for meta #shu takumi; show me the forbidden gavin backstory please and thank you #aa meta #ace attorney meta

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sonofcoulson · 11 months

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1945 Captain America: Super-Axis

Need a better title…

We open with the scene from Captain America: The First Avenger, where SS officers demand to see Schmidt as the Führer wants the tesseract weapons for regular soldiers, not just Hydra. In addition he is worried about the growing threat that Schmidt poses.

Here we see that he means to conquer the world, including Berlin. He kills the officers, shocking Arnim Zola.

This scene would be cut from CA:FA and put here instead as, up till now, he has had the support of the Nazi party.

He now needs to bring his plans forward before he loses the element of surprise. He goes to visit Lady Lotus.

She has Hydra goons waiting on her, hand and foot. Schmidt remarks that she seems to be making herself very comfortable (implying that she is mind controlling them (which she totally is)). She says if she's going to be stuck with Hydra she may as well make the most of it.

Schmidt asks her to enact the next phase of their plan as the murdered officers will be missed soon and the Nazis will investigate their "disappearance". They can't allow any disruption after all they have worked for. She reminds him that it is not her plan. He says her parents are not safe in the internment camp so she should do as she is told. She agrees through gritted teeth.

She has installed sleeper agents at the London SSR base and also in Talokan. They had been in Hydra's custody but were 'liberated' by the allies and Invaders in the previous movie.

She activates them by psychically reciting a series of seemingly unconnected words to them, similar to Captain America: The Winter Soldier. This means she doesn't have to control them all the time they just follow more general psychic instructions (e.g. you work for Hydra now).

The brainwashed Talokanil free the captured Meranno and Krang who lead them in an assault on Talokan. Namor, Namora and Attuma lead a resistance.

The brainwashed SSR agents free the captured Warrior Woman and Master Man who lead them in an assault on the SSR base in London. Agent Carter, the Human Torch and Howard lead a resistance.

Meanwhile Captain America and the Howling Commandos have just gone radio silent as they hunt down Zola, who is still on the Hydra train. The train scene proceeds as per the movie. Bucky is lost.

After 3 films showing Bucky and Steve's friendship, the fall will have more emotional weight.

Not knowing who is friend or foe, Namor's Tri-Team are forced to flee Talokan. They head to London.

Steve and co arrive at the SSR base early on the second day of the siege, Namor's team in the evening and turn the tide of the battle. Members of Super-Axis escape.

Peggy and the team are forced to fight their friends, some of whom are killed. Those who survive activate their cyanide capsules and die. The London base and the surrounding area is badly damaged.

This gives more urgency to the Zola interrogation scene and more poignancy to the blast damaged pub scene between Steve and Peggy.

Zola gives up Schmidt's last stronghold. The whole team head out there to stop him using his tesseract powered weapons of mass destruction on the world.

Steve gets them in and they spread out, looking for a way to defeat Super-Axis and stop Red Skull. Peggy and Jim find Master Man and Warrior Woman and a battle ensues. Jim goes toe to toe with Master Man and his personal squad of Hydra lackeys. Julia plays a game of cat and mouse with Peggy. It gets perilous for Peggy at times, but she is canny and manages to wound her with her pistol. Willie is bested by Jim again. Both the super soldiers retreat.

Steve and the Howling commandos are mopping up Hydra minions and pursuing Red Skull.

Howard and the Tri-Team find Lady Lotus with her brainwashed Hydra goons. Attuma and Namora easily defeat the goons. A furious Namor tries to kill Lady Lotus (she cannot control him). She turns Attuma and Namora against him.

Howard calls for them all to stop and listen.

He manages to convince Namor that despite her actions she is also a victim of the Red Skull, that she's not really had a choice. That she told him at least part of the truth when they captured her before. That her parents really are interred in California and Schmidt has been using them as leverage.

Howard suggests releasing all the brainwashed Talokanil in return for her release. Namor cannot countenance this. Howard says if she removes her control, you can defeat Meranno without fear of harming your people. He tells him about the harrowing scenes at the SSR base and the cyanide capsules.

Namor says he cannot let her go after what she has done.

Howard says why would she release your people if you don't.

Namor thinks. He says if she betrays him he will find her and kill her.

She releases Namora, Attuma and all the others. We have a very brief scene of Meranno, about to have himself crowned king of Talokan, being turned on by dozens of formerly brainwashed subjects. He flees.

Lotus says what about my parents?

Namora says, why not get them yourself? There aren't many who could stop you.

She says what about Red Skull?

Howard says leave Red Skull to us.

Steve meets up with Peggy and Colonel Phillips in the hallway as per the movie and they get after Schmidt, Steve stowing away on the plane.

Meanwhile, Meranno has arrived and joined up with Super-Axis and the remaining Hydra soldiers. The SSR team converges on their position. We cut back and forth between their battle and Steve's infiltration of the plane.

The fight between Cap and Skull should be huge as this is the last time they will fight.

Peggy manages to finish what she started and caps Julia (not before kicking some SSR butt though). Willie tries to get to her and gets caught in the crossfire. As she dies, Julia calls him an idiot.

Willie appeals to Jim as they were friends. Jim is conflicted as he has the real Jim's memories, but ultimately decides that that isn't really him and leaves Master Man to die alone. Meranno and the other Hydra forces are holding their own, but then the pursuing Talokanil turn up and the base is overrun.

Red Skull acidentally makes himself disappear with the tesseract at the climax of the battle. Steve takes control of the plane.

Peggy joins him on coms. Crash. Downer.

Red Skull has now been an impressive antagonist 3 times in a row for Cap, much better.

1st Post credits:-

We see an older Japanese American couple playing Go while others internees mill about and chat etc.

We see the guard outside wandering off.

We zoom out and see ALL the guards wandering off.

We see the residents start to realise something is going on. They look out the windows. The older couple look up momentarily but then continue their game.

We see Lady Lotus enter and say (in Japanese), "Nothing ever interrupts your Go game, does it…"

They finally look up and see who it is, their daughter.

"Hasu chan!"

They embrace. Everybody else crowds around. She smiles and says (in Japanese), "Let's go"

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judasisgayriot · 3 years

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kxjfididhdisbs I'm not gonna lie, the more I learn about heroes via your blog, the more I wanna watch it

asdfjglljlkl like. Heroes is v much a 2000s trashy genre show with delusions of grandeur and can be Bad but also In Certain Ways ,,, it’s completely unhinged and makes me fuckin crazy. There are some things that are so well done about it. I love it... but I hate it... but I love it. And really it’s just a giant epic tragedy. And it’s also the home of my darling baby, Soft Sunshine Boy Peter Petrelli comin thru with that Literal Power of Love and Empathy. Idk if you Know you Know and I can’t explain what a deep grip on my soul this show has had for 14 years. adsgkiljghj like. Keysmash all I can say to anyone considering it is like Godspeed it’s a wild ride

#theuncannybalth #asks #heroes has been enacting psychic damage on me since 2006 so sorry if I sound completely incoherent and insane whenever I talk about it lol #no no season 1 of heroes is actually great and I’ll stand by that!!#heroes ramblings #also everyone seems to come out of heroes with wildly different opinions on everything lol #no one in the fandom agrees on anything but it’s still somehow chill

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grailfinders · 3 years

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Fate and Phantasms #198

Happy New Year! (If it is not new years, please disregard.) Today we're crossing into the 2020 servants; hopefully this build makes that clear.

Today we're building Katsushika Hokusai, the daughter/fatheroctopus painter duo, most famous for... waves? And also making a deal with Cthulhu. We're grabbing some levels in Creation Bard for the former, and Hexblade Warlock for the latter. Don't worry, it'll make sense as we go.

Check out their build breakdown below the cut, or their character sheet over here!

Next up:

Race and Background

Oui is a Human. Her dad's an octopus, which is weird, but we'll deal with that later. Also, we're making her a variant human for cool stuff. She gets +1 Wisdom and Charisma, as well as Animal Handling proficiency to get along with her parents and the Magic Initiate feat, which uses her Wisdom to cast druid spells. Since magical paintbrushes aren't an official weapon in D&D 5e, we'll call it a quarterstaff instead, which means you can use Shillelagh to make it fancy and magical for the duration. It also turns the damage die into a d8, deals magical damage, and uses your wisdom instead of strength to hit things and deal damage. You also get Frostbite to splash cold water on people, and Protection from Evil and Good. You can cast that last one once a day for free, and it'll protect you against aberrations (plus celestials, elementals, fey, fiends, and undead) for ten minutes with concentration. They'll have disadvantage to hit you, and they cant' charm, frighten, or possess you, and any existing effects of that ilk you can shake off with advantage. No spoilers, but that'll come in handy soon enough.

You also get the Guild Artisan background, because you paint for money. That gives you Insight and Persuasion proficiency.

Ability Scores

Make your Charisma as high as possible. You paint good, and you have the mental fortitude to keep an elder god from yeeting your soul from your body. Good job. Second highest is Dexterity, painting lifesized waves in the air around you doesn't actually need all the backflips, you just like to show off. Your Wisdom is also pretty good, it's hard to paint things you can't see well, and again that whole "mental fortitude" thing. Your Constitution is pretty good, you handle all-nighters pretty well. That means your Strength isn't great, but we're dumping Intelligence. You're kind of a hick, after all. Plus, really? Swordbeauties?

Class Levels

Bard 1: You weren't born with the squid powers, so we'll grab those up a bit later. Right now you're just a plucky young artist with a dream. As a bard, you get proficiency with Dexterity and Charisma saves, as well as three skills of your choice. Performance and Nature will help you paint nature, and Arcana will help you find the squid guy in the first place. You get Bardic Inspiration, Charisma Modifier d6s per long rest, and you can give one to your allies to boost one attack, check, or save by however much they roll. Nothing like some tasteful nudes to get the spirits up. You also get Spells that you can cast using your Charisma. Friends makes it easier to pass charisma checks against a creature for a minute, but they'll know you magicked them afterwards. Thankfully, getting paid doesn't take that long. Minor Illusion helps you bring your paintings to life, but just a little bit. It'll create a still object or sound that lasts for up to a minute. Creatures can tell it's an illusion with an investigation check, or by touching it. You also get Animal Friendship- your dad can be hard to get along with. Color Spray weaponizes your paints to blind creatures in the area, and Illusory Script lets you write one thing, but really write another. I'm sure you can argue this should count for paintings as well. Oh, you also get Dissonant Whispers. You're a Foreigner, you can be a little creepy if ya wanna.

Bard 2: Second level bards become a Jack of All Trades, adding half their proficiency to skill checks they aren't proficient in. You're an anime character, it's an unwritten rule you should be good at everything. You also get a Song of Rest, adding a d6 to healing your party does over a short rest. On top of that, your bardic inspiration becomes Magical Inspiration, letting your allies add it to the damage or healing of a spell. Finally, grab the spell Silent Image for moving images, so now you can paint birds and/or waves and have them look just like the real thing. Now, third level of bard is where things start getting funky, so before we can do that, let's make a deal.

Warlock 1: Bouncing over to warlock lets you become a Hexblade, which sounds kind of weird, but there's a reason for that. You don't do weird mind stuff like the GOOlocks, and you don't really use Tentacles like the Fathomlocks. What you do need though, is a fancy magic brush, and a fancy magic octopus. There isn't a familiar-based subclass yet, so we had to go with the weapon-based one, and we'll pick up your dad later. Anyways, starting off as a Hexblade lets you invoke a Hexblade's Curse as a bonus action, dealing your proficiency in extra damage to the cursed creature, crit on 19s, and heal yourself when the cursed creature dies. The curse lasts 1 minute, and you can use this once per short rest. Hokusai also become a Hex Warrior, turning one non-two-handed weapon into a special weapon at the end of a long rest. Now your brush uses your Charisma to attack, nice. Unfortunately, this doesn't include magical damage, but you can stack this with Shillelagh if you really need to. You also get another set of spells with your Pact Magic. These slots recharge on short rests, and it means your multiclassing doesn't mix slots like most spellcasting classes would. You can still use one kind of slot to cast the other kind of spells though. Speaking of spells, grab Eldritch Blast for some paint splashes, and Mage Hand for a pseudo-octopus that'll grab things for you. Cause Fear lets you paint a really creepy thing one target can see, forcing a wisdom save and scaring them if they fail. Arms of Hadar will give you a little bit of tentacles, as a treat. They'll force a strength save on creatures near you, dealing necrotic damage and making them too gooey to take reactions.

Warlock 2: Second level warlocks get Eldritch Invocations, mini-feats to help you cope with only having two spell slots. Grab Armor of Shadows for free Mage Armor on yourself at will. Your family is your armor, and I mean that literally. Stop wearing your dad, it's creepy. You also get a second one, but we're saving that for the next level. Don't not take one now though, I'm just saying it won't matter in the long run.

Bard 3: Now that your pact is sealed, we can get the real living paintings going. If you're thinking 'bout an inking feel free to shuffle levels around, I just want to hit Font of Inspiration quickly. As a Creation bard, Hokusai gets an Inkling of Potential, adding extra effects to her bardic inspiration. Ability checks let the user roll twice, attack rolls deal extra thunder damage, and saving throws add temporary HP to the user. She can also enact the Performance of Creation, creating a nonmagical item nearby. Currently it must cost less than 20 times your bard level, and it has to be medium or smaller. You can do this once per long rest, or by spending a 2nd level slot, but doing so destroys the first object if it still exists. Right now this only makes medium objects, but a 5' wave of water is nothing to sneeze at. You also get Expertise in two skills, doubling your proficiency them. Pick up Insight and Performance for the ultimate style-copying skills. Finally, you get second level spells. We can't focus too much on non-charisma abilities, but this'll give you a leg up on seeing the true nature of things. It gives you advantage on any one kind of ability check for up to a minute.

Bard 4: Use your first Ability Score Improvement to bump up your Charisma. Now you have more inspiration, better spells, and a bigger brush. Charisma's good, you'll like charisma. You can also paint Dancing Lights and a Phantasmal Force now. The former lights up an area, the latter creates a phantasmal creature or object that only one creature can see for up to a minute. It can break the illusion with an Investigation check, but until then it treats the thing as completely real, rationalizing away inconsistencies. It also can take a bit of psychic damage if the illusion would cause harm within 5' of itself.

Bard 5: Fifth level bards become a Font of Inspiration like we talked about earlier, giving you inspiration recharges on short rests instead of long ones. Your inspiration also jumps to d8s. Finally, grab Major Image for more major illusions than minor image. It creates an object up to 20' on each side, and includes effects like sound, smell, and temperature, as long as they wouldn't deal damage. You can also move the illusion using your action. Same rules apply to breaking it though- investigation check or just touching it.

Warlock 3: Finally back in warlock, you get your pact boon, and the Pact of the Chain gives you Find Familiar as a ritual, and you can skip your own attack to attack with your familiar. Wildly enough, Octopus is already a rules as written option for Find Familiar. Awkward point; octopi can only be out of water for 30 minutes. Good luck with that! On top of that, Mirror Image lets you paint duplicates of yourself, making it harder to hit you. Boom, evade skill achieved. You get three extra copies, and every time you get hit, there's only a 25% chance of actually hitting the real one. If an illusion gets hit, it's destroyed, so the odds go up to 33%, then 50%. You also put in the Investment of the Chain Master, giving your dad a flying speed, the ability to attack as a bonus action, magical weapons, your DC for saves, and you can react to give the little bugger resistance to one instance of damage. Literally everyone else's dad is dead already, try not to add one more to the pile. Except for Romani's, but that's sad in its own way.

Warlock 4: Another ASI, max out your Charisma. It's good, you use it for literally everything. For spells, Mind Sliver deals psychic damage an makes the target's next save a bit harder to make. You also get a Crown of Madness, which gives you control over a creature's attack action. Just because you're less spooky than Abby doesn't mean you're not spooky.

Warlock 5: Fifth level warlocks get a new invocation and third level spell. Summon Shadowspawn lets you paint one of three kinds of shadowspawn, creepy little things that can scare people by screaming at them. They'll obey your commands, and it'll last up to an hour, until they hit 0 HP, or you drop concentration. Your last invocation is the Gift of the Depths, letting you breathe underwater and swim as fast as you can walk. Now it's slightly less awkward to carry your dad around, yay. You can also cast Water Breathing for free once per long rest.

Bard 6: Finally back in bard now, sixth level creation bards can put on an Animating Performance, turning a large or smaller item into a Dancing Item with its own stats and everything. You have to use your bonus action to command it in battle, but you can inspire people at the same time. I'm not sure how well animating water would work, but it's something to look into. You also learn how to Countercharm, spending your action to give creatures near you advantage on saves against being charmed or frightened. For something better, grab Intellect Fortress. For up to an hour, you'll resist psychic damage, and you get advantage on all Int, Wis, and Chr saves.

Bard 7: Seventh level bards get fourth level spells, like Hallucinatory Terrain! Now you can paint a landscape- literally! It's only 150' in range, but that's still plenty of space to mess with people. It doesn't really change anything, but forcing people to look at non-euclidean geometry is its own reward.

Bard 8: Another ASI. Bump up your Dex now so you're less likely to get hit, then grab Phantasmal Killer to paint a scary creature that will follow the target around and beat them up. It's a shame only one creature gets to see it.

Bard 9: Ninth level bards get a better song of rest, but more importantly you get fifth level spells. Legend Lore will help you see the true meaning of things more easily, and the more you already know about something the more you'll learn. That's why your Arcana and Nature skills are so high. Oh, wait, sorry, one sec...

Bard 10: And that's why your Arcana and Nature skills are so high... starting now, with another round of Expertise. Your inspiration also jumps to d10s, and you learn Magical Secrets, two spells from any spell list you can cast. On top of that, you get Prestidigitation to paint up small objects. For your secrets, Conjure Animals lets you paint up some real animals that'll attack enemies for you. Alternatively, you can Control Water to make those waves we've been trying to do with way less fuss than a Song of Creation or Animating Performance. It does come with the limit of using existing water, though you can also Part Water, cause a Whirlpool, or Redirect Flow with this one.

Bard 11: Eleventh level bards get a sixth level spell, and True Seeing will help you see All Things in Nature, letting you see through illusions, invisibility and the like.

Bard 12: One last ASI; bump up your Constitution for better concentration and more HP.

Bard 13: Your Song of Rest is a d10 now, and you get a seventh level spell. Prismatic Spray is the return of Color Spray, but it's taken steroids. Now it deals plenty of damage of a random type to each creature in its area, or it has a chance to shove them into another dimension or petrify them.

Bard 14: Your last goody from the college of creation is a Creative Crescendo, allowing you to paint up to your Charisma Modifier in items when you use a Performance of Creation. Only one can be a biggun, the rest have to be small or tiny. Also, your max size is Huge now, and a 15' cube of water will make a pretty big splash. You also get another round of Magical Secrets, grabbing you Conjure Elemental for a more symbolic approach to flooding people, and Wrath of Nature to paint a landscape that'll really fuck with someone. The grass turns land into difficult terrain, the trees will slash at enemies nearby, Roots and vines restrain enemies, and Rocks will throw themselves at enemies, knocking them prone on a failed strength save. It's not mind melting geometries, but it's still mess with people's heads.

Bard 15: Your ultimate level gives you a d12 inspiration die. You also get one last spell, of the eighth level. Feeblemind will handle all the mind melting the last level failed to live up to, forcing an intelligence save and dealing damage regardless. On a failed save, the creature's Intelligence and Charisma drop to 1, and it can't cast spells, use magic items, talk, or understand people. The only ways to fix this are with another Intelligence saving throw (every 30 days) or using Greater Restoration, Heal, or Wish.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

Like the regular Hokusai, this build has a great deal of flexibility, with pretty good AC, HP, and physical attack options to get up close and personal, as well as ways to buff allies and attack with spells at a distance.

Speaking of spells, they give you a lot of crowd control options. You can create extra allies with summoning spells and Animating Performance, blow them away with waves from Control Water or Performance of Creation, or keep them tied up with various illusions.

You're also really good at fighting other spellcasters. Spells like Protection from Evil and Good and Intellect Fortress will shore up most of your saves against fancier spells, and you can use Feeblemind to completely shut down anyone who isn't a wizard or artificer.

So piss off your patron and kick the ass of their flunkies, easy! Wait, there's still cons.

Cons:

Okay, so there are some problems with throwing waves all over the place: they're hard to control where exactly they end up. Also, your best wave requires real water, which won't always be available.

On a similar note, you specialize in summons and illusions, both of which tend to require Concentration saves. Yours aren't that great, and on top of that it means you can only have one up at a time. Unless you're cool with an elemental running around willy nilly, but that fits into Con #1.

Your Familiar can only stay on dry land for 30 minutes at a time. If you're going to play this in a landlocked campaign, switch the octopus and last invocation for something else, it'll be a pain otherwise.

Okay, she isn't perfect, just make sure you carry an aquarium with you, problem solved, right?

#fate grand order #fgo #D&D 5e #dnd #Katsushika Hokusai #Warlock #Bard

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whitehotharlots · 3 years

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No, actually, censorship isn’t good

Let’s play a game. I’m gonna rattle off a list of statements in regards to American history. Try to figure out what they have in common.

The CIA was almost certainly involved in the Kennedy assassination, although we’ll probably never know the full extent of their involvement.

Union Carbide was criminally negligent in regards to the Bhopal disaster, and the fact that no one was held accountable is an unspeakable injustice.

Clinton-era “welfare reform” was a fundamentally racist policy that caused untold harm to poor Americans.

The 2000 Bush campaign engineered astro-turfed protests to halt the vote recount in Florida, which may have resulted in a victory for Al Gore.

The Bush administration knowingly lied so as to exaggerate the danger Iraq posed to the United States, including stoking the objectively untrue belief that Iraq orchestrated the 9/11 attacks.

All available evidence suggests that Jeffrey Epstein did not kill himself.

Okay, what do these have in common?

For one, they’re all statements that a reasonably well-informed and skeptical person would agree with. Two, they’re all associated with contemporary liberalism--that is, an American liberal would be more inclined than a conservative to believe them, as they lend validation to the general liberal world view. And, finally, they all directly contradict the official narratives surrounding each issue. If you’re going solely by the opinions of the institutions that formally adjudicate fact vs. fiction, you would dismiss these all as conspiracy theories.

But most of us will agree that a statement is not rendered actually true or actually false based on the designations of the Gatekeepers of our Shared Truth. Nor would we believe that refusing to accept more obviously absurd or self-serving official narratives is the equivalent of believing, say, that Hillary Clinton is a lizard person or that Bush blew up the World Trade Center by pushing down one of those Wile E Coyote Acme-brand plungers.

Skepticism is normal. It is healthy. It is good. And in order to preserve it, we must value the free and open exchange of perspectives and ideas. We have to make sure that unofficial narratives can still be countenanced, that inconvenient evidence cannot be dismissed without consideration.

Or, at least that’s what a solid majority of liberal-leaning Americans would have believed up until a few years ago. Now, however, liberal orthodoxy agrees that speech is fundamentally dangerous, and if we wish to forestall social collapse we must begin policing speech that our esteemed overlords have deemed dangerously untrue.

I’m not going to delve into the pathologies, here. The election of Donald Trump caused such profound psychic damage to our liberal cultural institutions that they became reactionary hotbeds of illiberalism practically overnight. I just want to point out how fucking short-sighted this is, especially to a social movement that is supposedly concerned with enacting reforms and trying to make our world more just and decent.

This isn’t just reactionary. It’s suicidal.

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lochnessies · 2 years

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CFstans really will be like "c'mon guys all routes are valid so why can't we all just get along and hold hands and sing kumbaya anyways here's my essay on why CF is the only good route that enacts meaningful change actually & the BEagles are the only queer house so if you don't stan El & the Eagles are you really even lgbt???"

like...I see plenty of annoying my route is the only gud route takes from AM/VWstans alike (to the 10 other SS fans out there...love & light and all that) but nowhere near on the same scale imo

also call me a bad member of the lgbt community, but I'm not too gung-ho about the fact that the supposed queer house is the only house to default to siding with the main villain in 3H...plus out of the four main characters, Dimitri & Claude- two straight dudes- are undisputedly the good guys, while Edelgard(bisexual) is the main villain and Rhea(also bi) is at best morally grey. to be fair to Rhea she does redeem herself at the end but still...

to be clear, I didn't play 3H for the lgbt rep & I'm not saying it's all bad. I certainly don't mind seeing lgbt chars being villains or morally grey for reasons other than the fact that they're queer, but acting like the Imperial Conqueror Route is a win for the gays is certainly a take, yanno?

anyways sorry for the mini rant it just gets tiresome that there's this attitude that I'm not queer enough or whatever if I don't stan Edelgard/CF as if that has any actual bearing on my irl identity

imo people can enjoy whatever route they like with no problem. it’s when, like you said, people use it as cudgel to attack or question a stranger’s identity. like 1) it’s none of ur business and 2) why do u care

like...I see plenty of annoying my route is the only gud route takes from AM/VWstans alike (to the 10 other SS fans out there...love & light and all that) but nowhere near on the same scale imo

oof same here. idk i’ve always found the “gay house” trend rather cringe tbh. i remember an anon sent me an ask with a link to a post about edelgard and lgbt people (and sent a follow up that i’ve yet to touch bc that post does psychic damage to me so anon if ur reading thing i’m sorry i’ll get it out eventually i’m not ignoring u)

don’t worry anon i’m not going to banish u to the bad gay corner lol it’s a valid criticism. in games that have romance options i think it’s best to make everybody “playersexual” to avoid what you mentioned above.

exactly. having gay villains is fine, and 3h does have objectively good people be gay so it doesn’t come across as bashing of a sexuality. and honestly i like how sexuality has nothing to do with the characters stories. no internalized homophobia or hate crimes or whatever. just people vibing and being unaware of that kind of discrimination. wish that was me lol

anyways sorry for the mini rant it just gets tiresome that there's this attitude that I'm not queer enough or whatever if I don't stan Edelgard/CF as if that has any actual bearing on my irl identity

oh no anon no need to apologize! i agree it’s really fucking annoying when people take media too seriously and push a narrative that you’re less xyz if you don’t like a specific media. like… my bisexuality has fucking nothing to do with video games or what have you bc that’s not what being bi is.

#asks

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ohdeartheendsworlded · 3 years

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Some implications from Hunting Palismen (SPOILERS)

!SPOILERS!

So this last episode was kinda a lore dump so here’s some 3:30am reflections on it (i.e. I’m not going to double check the episode, this is from what I remember).

1. Unity Day is like the end of STVOE I guess?? (idk never seen it) So, essentially making it so the Titan (probably not a good guy) and the Boiling Isles’ realm fuse with the Earth realm. This being the Titan’s end goal probably means that uh.. Bill Cipher level apocalyptic event.

2. Belos is in some way related to Philip Whittebane, and most likely is Philip Whittebane.

Note: Belos said “our” when discussing Unity Day with the coven heads, and since the coven heads would most directly correlate to the Boiling Isles, Belos would correlate to the human realm. (Also, it would be unlikely for a descendant of Belos to consider so strongly the human realm their home).

Ok. So two arguments we have to consider to the contrary.

a. If Belos is Philip Whittebane, how is he still alive after all this time?

and

b. If Belos is Philip Whittebane, why hasn’t he just done this whole unity thing already considering all signs point to him being the portal’s creator?

These two questions are pretty interlinked and I’ll answer them with my new patented: Belos Theory v. 01 (until it gets retconned by Dana)

Essentially, Philip ends up in the Boiling Isles, and tries to find his way back. Along the way, he hears of Titan’s blood and acquires some through some unknown means and boom hey you got a portal.

However, the Titan’s blood somehow exerts a psychic influence on Philip and the Titan starts to talk to him. The Titan, must’ve at one point, been some interdimensional being (given that it’s blood literally transcends dimensions), but it’s power has been lost (for some reason). Left to rot, but still conscious, on the Boiling Isles, this guy wants to get his mojo back. The Titan’s true motivations are unclear, but probably not good.

Philip completes his portal, but the Titan can’t do anything with it. It’s too weak. At this point, Philip probably starts to have some personal “there’s a demon in my head” moments and ditches the portal. Eventually, he returns with the Titan in full control.

With the Titan’s magic essentially being all spread around and “wild,” the Titan cannot concentrate it’s magic to do anything, so it somehow curses Philip- through what means, man idk, there’s a lot. My guess is that it really got into Philip’s head, and made him do something with the Palismen forest place.

This curse essentially elongates Philip’s life, and the Titan uses Belos to be it’s pawn, having Philip, known as Belos, convince the world (one that had forgotten the Titan’s intentions) that “wild” magic is the scourge of society, and that “concentrated” coven magic is the way to go.

That’s a big part of my theory here by the way: Wild magic isn’t bad, it’s just unfocused and diverse: coven magic is uniform and concentrated.

Anyway... ba da bing ba da boom, we got covens, and those who excel in the covens to a point of extreme virtuosity (i.e. have the most concentrated of that magic), become coven heads, who report to Belos.

He then seeks out the portal he ditched long ago, but someone has nabbed it: Eda, the Owl Lady. Her being a wild witch is enough cover to put up a bounty, and eventually as we know, petrification ceremony and hey, he’s got the portal (but damaged).

My guess to the plan here is simple:

Like a car, Belos will jumpstart the Titan. (After all the Titan’s heart is present in the castle.) By having the Coven heads focus their concentrated magic into the portal contraption, with the portal being activated, the Titan will have enough power to enact the unification of the two realms, and start whatever the Titan has planned.

Please note that I’m writing this at like 4am, but lemme know what you think of this.

(Also, has anyone seen Belos’s ears?)

3. The Golden Guard is related to Belos... somehow. It’s stated that Belos is his uncle, or at least that’s what he calls him. Whether this is a true title or not doesn’t matter really, hey why can’t mr. witch ears do magic???

GG is a half-witch. Half-human and half-witch. That’s why he has the appearance of a witch, but not the physical capabilities. Additionally, his ancestors have had similar issue with magic which leads us down three scenarios.

a) GG is a descendant of Belos, who apparently had some kids with another witch, and started a family lineage.

b) GG is a descendant of an unrelated lineage of half-witches, which means that Philip wasn’t the first, and that maybe at one point, humans and witches coexisted?? (A stretch, but it’s better than thinking hey maybe there was like one person who came into this realm and got busy).

c) I don’t like this one as much, but perhaps some genetic thing where magic was repressed by genetic mutation. Idk I gotta end this post.

TLDR; Unity day is STVOE, Belos is about to start a car, and Hunter is a human name if I ever heard it.

Peace.

#toh spoilers #hunting palismen #toh #philip whittebane #belos #titan #the owl house #dana terrace #toh season two #golden guard #hunter toh

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captainkurosolaire · 3 years

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Dumb-Founding

Captain gave confrontation to the root of evil, his composure realigning to quell the temper of his emotions to not allow them in ruling his thoughts. As Zieton forewarned, whatever made nestling bloom inside the Seeker’s half-soul now, would be dependent on what it was fed. A mindless all-consuming beast would once again resurface even worse than previously, enough to feast over every fiber of thing that stands humane at the grizzly Scoundrel. We are what is given and taken from life, each action creates energy. The Elezen forewarned very broadly. With humor and surveying in a chin. The Seeker pitched out, “Wait! I've got a way, I’ll take you out in one hit, you’re going to love this.” Captain said, preparing to take his stance for battle. “You sly cat… What have you concocted now.” The Noble questioned this nonsense but typically never amused, especially if… somehow Captain of all people came up with ideas. His intelligence was seemingly lackluster and left room to be desired, but his cunning trickery... “Tell me, Mr.Silv’a ye ever had a woman fake an orgasm of yours? Don’t answer, I’ll write that as a certainty.” “...How does that relate to anything…?” Was this individual, real? Before resuming and beginning already to draw a cast to silence this buffoon and recognize even retorting was wasted

“This technique is for you!” Solaire shouted. Centering himself into complete emptiness. He enacted an imaginary vial and began drinking it, throwing it against his hatch and swallowing. Combining his ‘instinct’ with the additionally reenacting everything made his senses and mind overflow, recreating a psychical ‘Retain’ of every vivid detail. Performing mind to matter. Every FORM of his cells were screaming it was real. Though trickery was a thief’s trade, even to his own core. Silv’a already launched a volley not ever allowing anyone to over prepare, only for Captain to hyper jump like a wilder beast, hurling directly into and punch through the ice, his body for a temporal quick-second, shifted into his nearly identical Hrothgar body, increasing his overall power, speed, and folds four time’s over. Unleashing a primal roar and delivering an actual connected hairy fist through the Keeper’s face, destroying his mask and breaking through with collateral damage to his bone structure from sheer might. Because of this uniquely new technique, Captain admittedly only thought of it recently. His degenerate, yet cunning mind was structured so... abnormally came to this even possibility. Bewildered stares blew throughout the battle-zone. Shiro erupted into laughter, so astoundingly rare for him to display, before quickly recognizing and covering his mouth to stop. The Seeker blew back and crashed into a cradle; his soft mass change allowed him to nullify the fall. “Welp, I’m tagged out, I’m out of clever ideas now.” He winced after his thud and achy body stressed out. Even if he sustained that somehow for longer period’s that strain continuously built up and made Captain often slip into an unworkable comatose. Which showcased also how his intelligence was flawed, if he unleashed even into a rampage and still Silv’a could regenerate and fix the damage, he’d be entirely useless and might as well be a dish served dead. No grander humiliation was written on the face however of the elder dark mage seemingly untouchable… And that slip-up was his first. He popped and quickly rearranged himself with such immeasurable ire. Captain and Lord both splayed out, before the Noble begrudgingly found the willpower to begin strumming back up for another beat down until something worked, however… The room was getting far violently a dark hazed cold. “Get up, Solaire.” He’d shout at him, not feeling so swell about this. As the rugged spoke his retort and followed suit, picking up his cherished tricorne, “Are we going t’ try the ol’ trusty tactic?”

Agitation came from the Keeper with a sigh as they took stances back-to-back, “If you mean, hit him together... Yes, moron.” (Previous) << (Voidal Relics) >> (Next)

#Silv'a #Tales of the Goldbrand #Dark Fantasy #OC write #Lord Shiro Elune #FFXIV #Final Fantasy XIV #Keeper of the Moon #Seeker of the Sun #The Immortal Age Saga #Come on and slam #Do the jam #creative writing

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honourablejester · 3 years

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Thoughts on Hexblade Warlocks (5e)

Of all the warlock pacts, this is the one my brain bounces off the most, because what are you making a pact with? The lore paragraph seems like the definition of teasing and false promises:

“You have made your pact with a mysterious entity from the Shadowfell—a force that manifests in sentient magic weapons carved from the stuff of shadow. The mighty sword Blackrazor is the most notable of these weapons, which have been spread across the multiverse over the ages. The shadowy force behind these weapons can offer power to warlocks who form pacts with it. Many hexblade warlocks create weapons that emulate those formed in the Shadowfell. Others forgo such arms, content to weave the dark magic of that plane into their spellcasting. Because the Raven Queen is known to have forged the first of these weapons, many sages speculate that she and the force are one and that the weapons, along with hexblade warlocks, are tools she uses to manipulate events on the Material Plane to her inscrutable ends.”

Which is … lovely and vague and completely non-specific. And curiously non-blade-like for a thing titled after blades. The first entity it mentions by name is a sentient weapon, Blackrazor, but as near as I can tell you are NOT actually making a pact with a sentient weapon. As in, you do not get a sentient weapon to make a pact with as part of the subclass. Not as written, anyway.

(Which makes sense so as not to be giving a character a powerful magic weapon from the word ‘go’, but leads to a certain amount of oddity about the whole concept)

What you are instead making a pact with is a shadowy force that wishes to manifest through whatever weapon you happen to have to hand. And not particularly strongly, either, since most of the actual abilities of the class are focused around the ‘hex’ part of ‘hexblade’, on cursing people to take more damage from you, or raising the souls of people you’ve slain as servants for a day. About the only thing the subclass does on its own to your weapon abilities is a) give you martial weapons, b) let you using your casting stat instead of a physical one for them, and c) give you a bunch of paladin spells on your spell list to augment weapon damage specifically, like smites and elemental weapon.

Which is not to say it isn’t a cool idea. It’s just very vaguely put and seems to promise things it doesn’t actually deliver on. It opens with sentient weapons, but you don’t actually get a sentient weapon. You don’t get to do anything permanent to your normal weapons to make them sentient either. You’re a hexblade in that you have a blade (presumably, if you bought one) and you cast hexes, and that’s about it. You get a bit more out of it if you add it to Pact of the Blade later, but not really much that Pact of the Blade didn’t do on its own, at least in terms of permanent effects on/with weapons.

And it still leaves the problem of what you’re making a pact with. When you talk to your patron, what are you talking with? The lore mentions the Raven Queen as a ‘maybe’, but that’s about it in terms of concrete named entities (and that sits a little oddly with the ‘Accursed Spectre’ ability – I thought the Raven Queen didn’t like making undead?)

What it does imply through the class abilities is that the patron is a force that wishes to channel itself through you into mostly damage, either through a physical weapon you wield or the augmented damage you do through hex/magic. Whatever it is, it likes to manifest in magic weapons, and the goal of the pact seems to be to turn the warlock into, essentially, a magic weapon for it to enact damage through.

It’s also a Shadowfell force, hence the focus on curses and spectres, and it or something like it has, in the past, made and manifested itself through various named sentient weapons like Blackrazor. This part I can see being edited on campaign-specific basis, though, because that’s a sweeping statement about world lore in general that might not fit all the time. (Does that mean that all sentient weapons are not their own individual things, but all manifestations of a single entity, for example?)

So. Going purely by that first paragraph. It’s a force that wants to (or only knows how to) manifest itself into damage, instinctively through weapons, and that has made a pact with the warlock to manifest itself in the world. With that in mind, some Hexblade patron ideas:

it is a sentient weapon, but one that has lain dormant or entombed for a very long time, and is psychically reaching out to anyone it can reach in an effort to fulfil its purpose or free itself or find a worthy bearer (so you might get a sentient weapon eventually if your DM didn’t want to give you one from the get-go)

the ghost of a destroyed sentient weapon, who has made a pact with you so it can ‘live again’ by possessing your weapon, and is constantly urging you to get better ones so it can have a ‘body’ worthy of the one it used to have

a curious eldritch (or just insane) weaponsmith who has made sentient weapons in the past, and wishes to try making one of flesh and bone, rather than metal and magic, this time

a lich or demilich who is secretly using you to harvest souls – this works great with the Accursed Spectre ability where you raise someone you’ve slain to serve you as a spectre for a day – anyone you kill using the abilities your patron grants you becomes fodder for the phylactery

leaning into the Shadowfell angle, it’s the Shadowfell itself, seeking to expand itself into other planes by spreading entropy and decay through your actions

a spirit of murder who seeks to slowly entice you into becoming like it by making it easier for you to kill up close and personal

on a less dark note, the soul of a lost warrior who still has a quest to fulfil, and offers you their companionship and martial prowess if you will accept the burden of their quest in their stead

(maybe the lost warrior is so ancient and long dead that they only have the loosest memory of what that quest was, but they know it was vital, and they’re desperate for someone to help them remember and fulfil it)

on a similar theme, the souls of a lost and damned mercenary company, who were sent where mortals should never be sent (the Shadowfell, the Hells, etc), who seek to return to the mortal world the only way they can, and who offer you the only thing they know how to: their skills and rage against your foes, if you will only let them share your warmth and vitality

(I like that one a lot – combine with an archaeologist, maybe, or sage, who found fragments of a legend of the lost company, maybe an artefact, and abruptly had the rage and despair of a whole company broadcast into their head, offering anything they had for someone to remember them)

So. There are options, and nice meaty ones too. Hexblade just … took me some parsing, and my brain bounced off it lore-wise for a long time. You’re not making a pact with a sentient weapon, or any named concrete entity, at least not as directly stated in the subclass, you’re just … getting possessed by the spirit of weaponness? It’s an odd one.

#5e #d&d #dnd #warlocks #hexblade #it's one of those concepts that doesn't make a lot of sense to me #lore-wise #i struggle a bit here

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bigskydreaming · 4 years

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With the meta gen thing in the young justice season 3, i started to wonder, which power would each batfam member have?

Okay, so Dick’s is a bit of a cliche, perhaps, and I’m not the first person to think of this for him, its just….its necessary, lol, as nothing else even comes close to being as good a match. So for him, gravity powers….able to make himself lighter than air and thus massively boost the height and distance of his leaps or just float in the air, reorient himself so he can walk straight up walls or upside down on ceilings, multiply his own mass so his punches or kicks do ten times the damage, toss out out gravity grenades or pulses that wipe out the gravity in an area and make everything weightless, unanchored and floating, unable to find any kind of footing anywhere, or perhaps the opposite, tossing out gravity pulses that intensify the gravity in an area, weigh everything down until its impossible to move.

Jason’s power would be something he calls blowback, or maybe a ‘damage bounce.’ Basically an extremely localized reality warp which causes the actual harm or damage caused by someone that’s fighting him or fighting someone nearby him, to be shifted back onto the instigator. So shoot him…you end up the one shot. Beat up someone in his field of view, and all the damage you would otherwise be inflicting on that person ends up displaced onto you. Etc, etc.

Tim’s power is to make leaps forward and back along his own individual timeline. Its not true time travel, he can’t change events that have happened or anything like that, its more like he can at any given moment swap himself out with another version of himself that exists at a different moment in time. So he can kind of shapeshift in a limited, unexpected way…by swapping his current self out with an older version of him from much further along his personal timeline…..with most people unlikely to recognize him with an extra ten to twenty years added to the age and appearance they expect him to have. Or he can heal quickly in a combat situation…by changing places with an uninjured version of himself. And so on and so on.

Cassandra’s power is to piggy-back on the senses of anyone she’s close enough to, effectively letting her see and hear anything they do. She’s not really a telepath despite it involving a psychic component… essentially her power lets her overlay her own mind and senses on top of someone else’s, so from her POV she’s basically seeing through their eyes….but its purely about increasing or adding vantage points for her….she can’t read the thoughts of whomever’s senses she’s sharing, nor can she influence them………..though she can still read body language via someone else’s borrowed senses, just as easily as with her own. She’s begun experimenting with the possibility of reversing the feedback loop….letting someone see through her eyes instead, as a kind of destabilization technique, rendering an opponent temporarily wtf-y, or like, to loop her siblings in on the same intel page, etc.

Damian’s power is switch teleportation. Like castling in a game of chess…he can effectively teleport anywhere within his field of vision….but only by exchanging places with something or someone at the end point he’s aiming for. Used strategically though, this power is as much a tactical advantage as it is a means of transportation or a quick getaway. It affords him a variety of ways to end up inside a location he’s trying to infiltrate even while simultaneously leaving the guard locked out on the wrong side of the door he’s meant to be guarding….he can sow enormous confusion with this in combat, randomly switching his way through a crowd of enemies all trying to cut him down and just ending up doing more damage to their own allies instead….and by combining it with his grappling hook and the right timing, he can launch himself off rooftops and halfway down, just lock eyes with someone like Bane, standing at the roof’s edge far above him….and now the one falling in his place, moments later, instead,.

Stephanie’s power is something she calls her spoiler punch (haymaker, uppercut, anything else along those lines). She’s not a precog herself, capable of seeing her own future, but via skin to skin contact, she can deliver a vision of anyone’s future to them. She has no control over what they see, and only gets the vaguest glimpse of it herself, via a kind of psychic echo - and its not always set in stone. Some of the visions end up coming true, some are averted, some accidentally end up fulfilled by attempting to avert it. However, the visions are always intense, a shock to the person’s system, so as a Hail Mary measure, just slipping off a glove and punching an opponent bare fist to bare cheek can give her all the distraction and advantage she needs, at the very least….and in some cases, such a punch isn’t merely distracting to them, but downright demoralizing.

Duke’s power is essentially just one aspect of his canon power….just pushed further. Instead of his ghost vision, here his power is just the amplifying aura he manifests, that boosts the powers of other metas nearby. Except in this version of it, that amplifying aura isn’t just limited to boosting meta powers….he can focus and channel it to amplify any energy source near him at all. Amping up the ambient light in the atmosphere to create blinding flashes as a diversion…..amping sound waves so a carefully and deliberately boosted snap of the fingers can rattle walls and shatter windows. Boosting temperatures so the heat generated by friction in just the right time and place ends up sparking an actual fire, or just boosting the electrical impulses firing off in a person’s nervous system as just part of its regular synaptic activity….now amped up enough to cause a surge those synapses weren’t prepared for and overloading a person’s nervous system, just enough to knock them out.

And last but not least, since I’m still stumped on something for Bruce….Barbara’s power would be a kind of telekinetic programming. Broad spectrum telekinesis that can perform any number of feats….but that rather than exercise it consciously, like Jean Grey or other telekinetic superheroes are most known for doing….Babs’ telekinesis is run by her subconscious, even as her conscious mind focuses on her hacking and information gathering as Oracle. Essentially, Babs writes ‘code’ for her telekinesis….programming various activities, feats and routines for her telekinesis to accomplish….while her telekinetic programs are being run and enacted by just her own subconscious mind.

This way, Barbara is able to devote her conscious attention to her duties and routines as Oracle, the same as she typically does at various points in canon…..while at the exact same time, in the background of the Clocktower, her telekinesis is going through the motions of conducting various investigations all at the same time and without any requiring her conscious oversight. Her ‘pre-programmed’ directives and the code she’d written for her own psychic powers to use as its operating system, are more than capable of handling various minutiae and the physical activity portion of sorting through the piles of evidence and categorizing it properly, etc.

And thus even while busy as Oracle, Babs can have all of that happening behind her, with her subconscious and her telekinetic powers basically acting in concert as though her Clocktower is a fully staffed and busy precinct, as active as any actual precinct might appear….with just the difference that this particular ‘precinct’s hustle and bustle was the work not of actual manpower, but rather, more like an army of invisible, intangible robots dutifully fulfilling her objectives…..orchestrated by nothing other than the machinery of her subconscious mind, and the psychic powers she’d programmed to need nothing more than that in order to accomplish whatever tasks she set for them to accomplish.

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satonthelotuspier · 4 years

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I’m not contributing to today’s wangxian week, and I’m doing a double day for spring fest with today and tomorrow’s prompts. Instead, today I offer you my “penance” for the wangxian week day 1 cliffhanger.

“Wei Wuxian, are you OK?” Jiang Cheng asked through the door, and he considered ignoring him like he had when the other had knocked an hour ago. “Wei Wuxian, shall I get A-jie?”

He stopped considering it immediately.

“It’s open, I’m sleeping” he groused, really, using A-jie as a threat to get him to respond was below the belt.

Jiang Cheng opened the bedroom door and walked into his room.

He snorted at Wei Wuxian lying, still fully clothed, dressed exactly as he had been when he’d walked into the house two hours ago, minus only his shoes.

He sat at the foot of Wei Wuxian’s bed and crossed his legs, meaning he was settling in for the long haul, and if Wei Wuxian tried to kick him out he’d just go telling Jiang Yanli on him.

The little snitch.

“So…” Jiang Cheng prompted.

“So what?”

“How did the date go?”

“Don’t you have something else to be doing Jiang Cheng? Seriously? Elsewhere?” he asked in irritation, couldn’t Jiang Cheng just let him lie here and torture himself in peace?

“Nope, I’m good” was of course the answer. Then he turned serious. “I’ll go if you really want Wei Wuxian, but was it really that bad? Did you start arguing again? Did you have a falling out and punch him?”

“I wish” Wei Wuxian exclaimed, but of course he didn’t mean that. He considered for a few seconds actually telling Jiang Cheng to leave, but really, people were going to hear about this sooner or later, better to get it out of the way and limit the damage by telling the story himself.

“It was going fine. I mean, it wasn’t flowing, Lan Zhan is a nightmare in one on one situations because he feels no need to keep his end of the conversation up, but we were muddling through”

“Alright, that sounds as expected” Jiang Cheng acknowledged.

“And then I...I asked him why he hadn’t given the tickets away considering he’s hated me forever” he pushed himself upright, leaning back on his hands.

“Fair question”

“He said he didn’t hate me. He said he’d liked me since we were teenagers. Said that he was in love with me”

Jiang Cheng was speechless, they stared at each other for fully thirty seconds, before he said, “Oh” then; “but that’s good, isn’t it? Surprising, because you always said he hated you, but its good. You like each other. So why are you lying here like someone told you that your fly was unzipped all the way through a court appearance?”

That earned a half-laugh half-grimace.

“Wei Wuxian, tell me you didn’t! You didn’t flash Lan Wangji?”

“What!? No!”

“Then what? What about this usually very good news has you acting like you spilled milk over his prized poodle”

“As if Lan Zhan would own a poodle”

“Rabbit then. It’s beside the point, get to it, Wei Wuxian”

He sucked in a deep breath and let it out on a long sigh.

“I was shocked, Jiang Cheng, really shocked. I’m not lying when I said I thought he’d hated me since we were five years old. So I...kind of said, Oh”

“Well you were shocked” Jiang Cheng soothed, “Then what did you say?”

“I didn’t. I didn’t say anything else. I sort of got up, and knocked the table. So the drinks tipped over and splashed onto him”

Jiang Cheng opened his mouth. Then closed it again.

“OK, that’s rough” he said eventually. “So you were a little embarrassed, but you’ll look back at this and laugh in a few years. Lan Wangji isn’t going to care about a little accident like that is he? You said he loves you”

“Jiang Cheng, I got up to run out. I left him there. I left him there with the fucking bill. And the clean up. And his feelings. Please, just kill me now” he felt the mad plummet of shame and embarrassment again and sat forward to drop his face into his hands.

It took Jiang Cheng a few minutes again, but then he got up, “OK, I think that’s for the best, how do you want me to do it?”

“Honestly there’s no need, I’ll expire soon from remembering what a clown I looked. I tripped over on the way out, to top it all off. I fell over someone else’s chair. I went face first, full sprawl, no disguising it. And he called my name, he sounded worried. Please can I just go back in time to nine months before my birth and tell my parents to use protection, and save the world from inflicting me on it?”

“That was pretty disastrous. But you panicked, right? You do actually like Lan Wangji still? We can rescue this, just talk to him Wei Wuxian”

“Really? Talk to him? Are you insane? Are you listening to the crap coming out of your mouth right now? How can I ever face him again? My only two options are a Face Off operation or just moving to Europe and becoming a painter, I’ll change my name to Jean-Claude and no one will ever find me again”

“Or you could stop being a dramatic bitch and just apologise to him”

“Oh really? And if it was reversed, and it was you who enacted such a blindingly good showing on a first date would you be all, Oh well, never mind I’ll just ring them and apologise”

“Fuck no, I’d have walked out into the rain and died”

“And I’m the dramatic bitch?” Wei Wuxian demanded.

“I was trying to be supportive, but yeah, you fucked up big time. I’m just so thankful I’m not you right now”

“Yes, I’m wishing you were, oddly” they paused as there was soft buzzing from the paper bin near the door.

“Is that your phone?”

“Yes, I haven’t had chance to smash the SIM to pieces yet to enable my escape to the banks of the Seine under my assumed identity”

“You threw your phone in the bin? You’re definitely the dramatic one” he moved over and fished the mobile out of the paper basket.

He looked at it, “Honestly, you’ve been laid there for two hours moping and you didn’t even need to” he tossed the phone across to Wei Wuxian, who caught it reflexively. Jiang Cheng walked to the door and paused briefly to toss over his shoulder, “Don’t screw it up this time. You are such a clown” before leaving him to it. He pulled his tongue out at Jiang Cheng’s retreating back. It helped a little.

Wei Wuxian looked down at the screen of his phone.

Seven missed calls on the quarters of the hour, and two texts.

Wei Ying, are you alright? and Please answer my calls, Wei Ying.

As if the other was psychically aware of the phone being in Wei Wuxian’s hands it began to buzz again.

He hesitated, really did consider leaving it ringing, but really it was grossly unfair to Lan Wangji, who he had already been grossly unfair to tonight.

He swiped the answer button, and pressed it to his ear.

“Lan Zhan?”

“Wei Ying? Are you alright?” he sounded concerned, and Wei Wuxian winced in guilt.

“Nothing but bruised pride, Lan Zhan” he bit his lip briefly, then; “are you in bed? Can you meet me?”

“Yes, please. Lets meet”

“Alright”

****

They had agreed on a meeting in a park located somewhere between their houses. Wei Wuxian found a bench next to the playground. It was eerily deserted being after midnight, and the moon, almost full, bathed the park in it’s soft, white light.

Jiang Cheng was right, he had to not screw this one up, this was his last chance.

He would tell Lan Wangji how he felt about him, and ask if he’d ever considering dating Wei Wuxian again.

What if he says no?

Well, that was possible, but considering what he’d been thinking for the past few hours what did it matter if he did? He’d imagined the other being disgusted at him since he ran out of the restaurant, so it didn’t matter.

“Wei Ying” Lan Wangji’s soft voice and softer tread drew his attention. He looked a little ethereal bathed in the moonlight.

Wei Wuxian stood up to meet the other, then took his hand and drew Lan Wangji to sit next to him on the bench.

“Wei Ying, are you alright?” he asked again, and Wei Wuxian nodded, feeling another twinge of guilt.

“I am, Lan Zhan. I am so, so sorry about how I acted tonight. I have absolutely no excuse, or any idea what came over me. I was supposed to be taking you on a date, and I ran out and left you with the bill and all the embarrassment”

“That doesn’t matter” Lan Wangji dismissed, “I’m sorry if I overstepped the boundary tonight, Wei Ying. I shouldn’t have said anything about how I felt, considering our past relationship, It was selfish of me”

Wei Wuxian was almost shocked speechless. He found his voice quickly though, “What?! No!” he shook his head and squeezed the hand in his, which seemed to surprise Lan Wangji, as if he’d forgotten they were still holding hands. “It wasn’t selfish at all, like you say, what were you meant to do if I never gave you chance to speak to me before? I really wish I had, though, Lan Zhan, because I’ve been in love with you for a long time. We’d have saved a lot of pining if I had let you talk”

That seemed to startle Lan Wangji even more, and he reeled back a little, “But...you said…”

“Yes, apparently it was always about trying to get your attention. Don’t you know that?”

“So why did you run tonight?”

“Shock? Stupidity? Panic? I genuinely did think you hated me, I wasn’t lying about that”

“I’m sorry”

“What for? If I didn’t give you the chance to say any different how can it be your fault Lan Zhan? I asked you here to ask for your forgiveness for tonight, not to guilt you about what happened years ago, so lets not worry about that OK?” Lan Wangji gave a single, affirmative nod.

“Wei Ying, do you really like me?” he asked eventually, and Wei Wuxian nodded too.

“Yes, I do. If I asked you seriously, would you consider giving me another chance to take you on a first date? I promise not to show you up again, if you do. Well, no more than usual in my company anyway. We can wait until you’re ready if you want…”

Lan Wangji suddenly cupped Wei Wuxian’s face with both of his hands, they were large and warm in the chill of the night air, “I’m free later” he said simply, then; “may I kiss you, Wei Ying?”

In answer Wei Wuxian leaned forward and initiated the kiss. It took Lan Wangji a little by surprise, but he relaxed almost immediately and allowed Wei Wuxian to lead, letting go of his face and resting his hands on Wei Wuxian’s shoulders as they tasted each other.

Wei Wuxian pulled back eventually, and Lan Wangji looked at him from under lowered lids, lips slightly parted and gleaming damply in the moonlight.

“Again?” Wei Wuxian asked, and Lan Wangji nodded.

“Again, Wei Ying” he agreed, and their lips met and clung a second time.

#wangxian #lan wangji #wei wuxian #jiang cheng #modern au #first kiss #embarassment #mo dao zu shi #mo dao zu shi fanfic #the untamed #the untamed fanfic #mdzs #mdzs fanfic #grandmaster of demonic cultivation #Shay's stuff

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christinedaaeunofficial · 3 years

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Honestly I read that as "art dream" & I was like, yeah that adds up, but then I realized it was a Real Experience and like??? Wh???

YEAH EXACTLY-- i feel so vindicated dskjdfjkdg i needed a reality check from close friend who was watching the stream to make sure that it did indeed happen and i wasnt just like. hallucinating from exhaustion but No It Was Real and is still enacting psychic damage on my already weak brain dkhfjdjf

#ask spooky

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beingawizardisfunandeasy · 4 years

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Maelstrom Keeper

Power is a terrible burden that too often finds itself in the hands and minds of innocents who deserve better.

[ | ] Psychic Maelstrom – You are bonded to a powerful force of psychic power that rides you and feeds on your emotions. Anyone standing close enough to you can feel the power in the air. While your emotions are relatively calm, it is becalmed. When you become excited, it becomes wild. While the Maelstrom is becalmed, it will touch, pick up, and move nearby objects, usually gently and almost always without any appearance of purpose. If it perceives something within 5 feet of you as a threat, it will first push it away, and then lash out at it, dealing d6 force damage, if it persists. While the Maelstrom is wild, it lashes out at everything nearby, randomly striking targets it perceives as potential threats within 10 feet, dealing d6 force damage. If there are no obvious targets, the Maelstrom will simply attack whatever is within range, up to an including buildings and the ground if it has nothing else to destroy.

[ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] Unleash Maelstrom – While your Maelstrom is wild, you can let it loose, allowing it unrestricted access to psychic power to enact its madness. For each level of Unleash Maelstrom, you may choose two options from the list below:

Increase the range of your Maelstrom's attacks by 10 feet

Increase the force damage of your Maelstrom's attacks by d6

Increase the number of attacks your Maelstrom can make in a round by 1

For each two options you grant to your Maelstrom at a time, rolls to calm it and yourself suffer a d6 penalty.

[ | ] Eye of the Storm – With concentrated effort, you can focus the attacks of your Maelstrom on a single target. While you maintain this focus, your Maelstrom will not lash out at random as long as the chosen target is within range of its attacks and in your perception. Whenever the target leaves your Maelstrom's range, leaves your perception, is reduced to 0 health, or goes a full minute without being damaged by your Maelstrom, immediately choose an option from Unleash Maelstrom and grant it to your Maelstrom, affecting penalties to calm it in the same way.

[ ][ | ][ | ] Calming Rites – For each level of Calming Rites, gain one of the following boons:

You possess a trinket that grants you inner peace and calms your mind. While you carry your trinket, you gain a d6 bonus to rolls to calm yourself and your Maelstrom.

You have taught yourself a simple personal ritual, a habit of dexterity or a repeated mantra that helps you focus on calming down. While you are able to perform it, you gain a d6 bonus to rolls to calm yourself and your Maelstrom.

Those closest to you are capable of learning to help you down from your emotional peaks. For each person who is close to you who devotes their attention to helping you, gain a d6 bonus to rolls to calm yourself and your Maelstrom.

[ ][ | ] Dormant Storm – By performing an hour-long ritual of spiritual calm, you can quiet the Maelstrom. When you complete the ritual, choose a duration up to six hours in length. For the entire duration, your Maelstrom will be entirely inactive, not even performing the benign activities it does while becalmed. At second level, you do not need to entirely sever your connection to the Maelstrom to render it dormant – you can still awaken it prematurely with extremely strong emotions. Unless you are awakening it intentionally, circumstances would need to be truly exceptional to awaken your dormant Maelstrom.

[ ][ ][ ][ | ][ | ] Ride the Roil – The power of your Maelstrom can be harnessed to a limited degree, allowing you to anticipate its motions and ask its help as your connection to it grows stronger. While your Maelstrom is becalmed, you gain a +1 bonus per level of Ride the Roil to all rolls to accomplish physical feats that might be helped with a push in the right direction or a boost to your strength or dexterity. While your Maelstrom is wild, this becomes a d6 bonus per level instead.

[ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] Fortunate Flotsam – Your Maelstrom has developed a knack for finding useful things. Whenever you are actively searching something, roll a d6. If the result is less than or equal to your level of Fortunate Flotsam, and the item you are searching for passes within range, then your Maelstrom will pick it up, push it, or pull it in front of you. If it is wild, it may throw the item with some force into your line of sight. Additionally, when you pass by something useful, or things are thrown around by you that you wish to grab, your Maelstrom may pick them up and carry them until you can devote your attention to taking them.

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