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margotw10bis · 4 months

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Crashing On Crush.JJK 6 [m]

crush!Jungkook x reader / Hoseok x reader

Genre: smut; series; romance; angst

Words: 5.1k

Synopsis: What happens when your first encounter with your crush is Jungkook seeing your ass?

Warnings: angst; broken heart; mention of death; protected sex; oral sex (f. receiving)

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Graduation Day. Today, you finally graduate from college. It's officially the end of your long academic journey and the beginning of the 'real adult life'. You have dreamt about this day for years: being finally able to introduce yourself as a Master's Degreed Cultural Business professional. You've planned this day a hundred of times with Suzi. You should be happy, party with your friends, have fun. But your mood is miles away from that. The poor seven days after Jungkook's broken your heart weren't enough for you to heal.

Jongseob is by your side though, the exact same way you were for his high school graduation. He looks so happy for you that you don't want him to worry about you. So you put a fake smile on your face and act like everything's fine. His innocent eyes are shining with pride and affection and that puts some ointment on your ripped heart some what.

"How is it to be free from school?" He asks you with his imperfect yet so cute smile

"I guess you'll have to finish college to know" You answer while he winces.

Jongseob hasn't decide yet if he wants to go to college next year. You wish he would so he can have more choices in the future but you don't want him to be unhappy and force him to do something he doesn't like.

"You're no fun, Noona"

You stick out your tongue at him to tease. He hugs you tight and you feel good for the first time in days in his arms. You realize that the little boy you met years ago is becoming a strong man. His embrace is getting more and more powerful, just like he is turning into an adult. You're proud but also a little bit worried that maybe he won't need you anymore. But it's far from the truth: you will always have a special place in Jongseob's heart because you had been and will always be his family, even when he was alone.

"I love so much, Jongseob" You whisper emotionally, so thankful to him to lighten your mood while he has no clue of it

"I love you too, Noona"

————

"Please, Kookie!"

"No, it's not a good idea" Jungkook sighs

She has been yapping in his ears for fifteen minutes now and Jungkook's starting to have a headache.

"Come on! We haven't hung out for years! It's gonna be fun!" She is pouting, trying to coax him while he sighs for the thousandth time.

Jungkook sits on his couch, trying to not remember how it felt like when he has hold you in his arms at the very same spot a few days ago. It seems like years ago to him now. A harsh pinch in the heart makes him wince at the thought. He misses you so much.

The past week, he has tried everything to forget you: he has worked overtime to keep his mind busy, spent hours in malls with her talking about new fashion trends - as if he gives a fuck about it - and he has been working out a lot. Right now, he doesn't want to do anything. He just wants to stay home, alone, and try to fix his damaged heart. He has given up everything, given up you, for her and she was asking for more. How much could he handle until the breaking point?

"I swear, we gonna have fun, Kookie. We don't even have to drink so you could take your lovely fancy car"

Jungkook stares at her with narrow eyes, trying to figure out if it's a good idea. It's definitely not. Yet, he says:

"Okay, but no drinking" He is not sure he'll have the patience to deal with a drunk person tonight while he surely wants to get wasted to forget you a few seconds.

"Yes! Thanks, Kookie!" She brightly yells, throwing herself at Jungkook's neck and giving him a big kiss on the cheek.

————

"Can you tell me once again why we are here?"

You are grumpy. Even when Suzi has tried by all means to cheer you up, it didn't work. Tired from trying, your best friend ended up dragging you - against your consent - in a club.

"Because we have talked about it a thousand times and we agreed on celebrating our graduation months ago. Come on, it will be fun, I promise" Suzi softly says to you, kissing your cheek

You can't blame her, it's true. You, indeed, were supposed to party after the graduation ceremony and go to the club since Suzi loves it. You promised her. But when you did, you didn't know that a tattooed man with piercing would break your heart. However, you enter the club and the loud music is already hurting your ears. This is going to be a long night.

Everyone is so happy. Suzi, your friends from college and Taehyung are all dressed up and in the mood of partying. Not you. You didn't even put any efforts on your outfit: just a simple pair of jeans with a - oh, fancy! - lilac bardot top. You try, you really try to be in the mood, smile and joke with everyone but you can't. Every time your eyes close, you see him. His long, black and smooth hair. His beautiful dark doe eyes. His perfect lips. Those same lips that kissed you and then opened to say 'I love you' to another girl.

You give up hope on having a good night and walk straight to the bar. Alcohol will be your friend tonight. You directly order two shots of vodka, wishing that after that you won't have this handsome man in your mind.

Next to you, a woman appears.

"A diet Coke, please!"

You tense immediately. This voice. No. No, no, no. This can't be. Fate can't be this cruel to you. You don't hear well because of the shitty and loud music. But you can't help turning your head at her. It's her. The girl you saw in Jungkook's arms. She is gorgeous. Long dark, almost black, straight hair. Beautiful brown almond eyes. And a perfect smile with full lips. The smile you should have on your face tonight.

You just stare at her, speechless.

"Celebration night?" She asks you cheerfully while your heart squeezes in pain

"Yeah" You answer with a white voice

You just pray she is alone and he is not here. But who are you kidding? The odds have never been on your side. You are just unlucky. So, of course, he walks right at her, not even noticing you. And that fucking hurts.

"You said no alcohol" He talks in her ear

Seeing him this close to her, her back leaning on his buff chest is painful. This is everything you wanted and Jungkook has it, with another woman. Your heart burns and its beats echo in your ears. You feel your throat drying and your eyes watering.

"Relax, Kookie, it's just a Coke"

Then, Jungkook's eyes meet yours. The surprise is more than visible on his perfect face - the face you wish you didn't miss this much. You still remember how his lips felt on yours, how his long almost touching shoulders hair felt under your fingertips. It felt so good so why does it hurt so bad now? Why does he have to look so good in his black t-shirt and same color jeans when you look like trash? Didn't he feel any pain last week while you were crying every night in your bed? It looks like it...

"Y/N?" His deep voice becomes suddenly raspy and is almost a whisper

"Oh, you know each other?" The girl says and then smiles at you, even that hurts you "I'm Mina, Jungkook's girlfriend. Nice to meet you"

You feel like throwing up. Jungkook has a girlfriend and he cheated on her with you. And now you are facing her! How are you supposed to face her? You feel so guilty. You don't even look her in the eyes. It takes everything from you to give her a weak 'Nice to meet you too'.

You notice your two shots that the bartender has just put on the desk and drink them one shot. The vodka burns your throat and your stomach, which makes you wince, but it's nothing compared to your fucking torn apart heart.

You walk away, putting as much distance as you can with Jungkook and his girlfriend. Your vision is blurred by burning tears and you are struggling to breath. You bump into so many people on the crowd dance floor on your way to the exit. At some point, you run into Suzi. Her smile immediately fades away when she sees the panicked and hurt expression on your features.

"What's going on?"

"I-I can't stay here. I'm sorry. Jungkook, he-I'm sorry" You can't speak properly with your erratic breathe and messed up brain

You push Suzi's hands off of your body and run to the door, begging for air.

————

It was a bad idea. Jungkook knew it. He should have said no to Mina. The way you looked at him and then, the sorrow that twisted your pretty face... He couldn't take it. He swears he heard his heart break again when you left.

"Why would you do that?" He speaks harshly to Mina

"Do what?"

"Say you're my girlfriend"

"Because I always do that. I say I'm your girlfriend, you say you're my boyfriend. We always do that" Mina frowns

"We did. Don't do it anymore"

Jungkook clenches his jaw so tight that his teeth hurt. But he knows that it's not over when a furious Suzi walks straight to him. He has never seen his best friend's girlfriend like that. If eyes could kill, he would be dead for sure.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" Suzi shouts, pushing harshly Jungkook's chest with her two palms.

He winces more from the pain caused by her words than her gesture.

"Wooh, calm down. Who the hell are you?" Mina intervenes and it's a fucking bad idea

Suzi glances at the girl. Your best friend gets even angrier when she understands everything: the real reason why you were so heartbroken is this girl. Jungkook lied to you! He made a fool out of you! He played with your heart so easily and now he is having a good time with a girl? Suzi can't bare with it.

Suzi has known you for four years and you are one of the most important people in her life. You shared your room at the beginning of college, you were there when her stupid ex-boyfriend cheated on her the first year, you helped her moving with Taehyung. You love her and she loves you. During all the years you have been friends, Suzi has never seen you being mean to someone. You are always kind, you always try to please everyone even when that means you being uncomfortable. You are the best person she knows and fuck! you don't deserve any of this twisted situation. You deserve the kindest man and he would be the luckiest person on Earth to be loved by you.

"You piece of shit" Suzi hisses with disgust "How could you do that to her? Y/N is such a nice girl. Do you have any idea how much she's cried the past few days?"

Jungkook's heart tighten, feeling your pain just like his. He swears he didn't want to hurt you but he didn't have a choice. Not when Mina was here and he had to take care of her. He wants to tell Suzi to stop talking because knowing how much you have suffered because of him is too much to handle. However, if your best friend thinks he is an asshole and tells you to stay away from him, then he would know there is no chance for him and he wouldn't be tempted to run after you and beg you for forgiveness.

"Stay away from her! Don't ever talk to her again! You don't deserve anything from her, not even a glance, not even a thought. And I don't want to ever see you again so don't step in my apartment again"

With that, Suzi leaves, her heart pounding with adrenaline, anger and sadness for you.

"Is everyone crazy in Seoul?" Mina jokes

Jungkook doesn't even talk back and walks through the crowd. He needs air. Everything around him is too heavy: the air in the club, the heat from sweaty people, and the huge pain of his heart. It's all crushing him.

The second he pushes the heavy exit door, the air slaps his face. He steps aside the small crowd near the entrance wanting to enter the club or smoking a cigaret. Everything is so fucked up in his life. He needs to think and to convince himself he can't be with you. But that's so hard when he sees you panting and crying in the middle of the street, just a few meters away from him. He doesn't want you to cry for him, he is not worth it. He wants you to be happy and that's the only reason why he's pushed you away. However, when he sees you like this, he wishes he could travel back time.

His body is moving instinctively and he doesn't notice he is hugging you until he feels your body tightly pressed against his.

Your eyes widen. For a moment, just a second, all the pain is gone. Jungkook's warm and strong arms around you make everything bad disappear. It's so easy for him to make you happy - or sad. A small part of you forgives him everything immediately and is willing to not ask any question as long as he keeps you in his arms. But the other part is too hurt and overwhelmed by how right it feels to be in his embrace.

You try to push him away but he is way stronger than you.

"Get off of me!" You exclaim, sounding more hurt than angry

He does distance himself from you but not too much. He still has his big palms on your bare shoulders, making you look at him in his pretty eyes. You swear you can see as much pain as you feel but it can't be true: he has a girlfriend, he doesn't love you and he lied to you. It's just your imagination because it's what you wish so much: him to love you.

"Y/N, I'm so sorry"

His voice is broken, his eyes get watery and you close yours in disbelief.

"I don't want to listen to you. You lied to me! You lied to her!"

Your eyes are red and big round tears are rolling on your cheeks. This is pathetic, crying in front of him. You try once again to get rid of his hands.

"Listen to me, Mina is not-"

"Don't touch her" A strong man's voice cuts Jungkook off while he is pushed by the stranger

You look up at your savior and you gasp. Hoseok, the sunshine in the darkness. How ironic is it to meet your first ever crush when your current one has broken your heart?

You are equally surprised to see him than to see how his features are tensed while he is sweetest guy in the world. You haven't seen him in years. Strangely enough, he was the reason why you wanted to move to South Korea for your studies.

Hoseok, while he is almost seven years older than you, was your neighbor abroad. He was born in Korea but his parents moved in the house next to yours when you were six. Your parents are friends and you can't count how many evenings you've spent together. As a teenager, you began to have your very first crush on your handsome neighbor. He was sweet, nice and always smiling. When you think about him, your heart is full of happy memories. Of course, due to the age gap, you never said anything about your feelings towards him and you know he saw you like a little sister. However, few time after his studies, Hoseok went back to Korea and that's when you decided you would go too and maybe, if it's fate, you would meet Hoseok again.

Your crush on Hoseok was the innocent one. The one you have when you're young and you're willing to love more than to be loved. Now, you have no romantic feelings for him but a huge affection. He has changed your life in so many ways, especially when it's thanks to him you started get interested in the Korean culture.

"Are you okay?" Hoseok asks you with a softer tone

"Hobi?" Is all you manage to say with a small and shaky voice and you are quite surprised how his surname came so naturally on your tongue. More than that, it feels sweet and safe.

On the other hand, Jungkook's knuckles whiten as he clenches his fists. He wonders who the fuck is that guy. Also, he is angry that this guy has stopped him while he was trying to explain himself to you. If he has to, Jungkook won't hesitate to punch him, especially when he sees his hand grabbing yours.

"Y/N, please, let me talk to you" Jungkook tries to soften his voice when he talks to you but it's a hard thing to do when his whole body is so tensed

"Please, Hobi, let's leave"

Jungkook's heart squeezes and it's even more painful that you don't look at him at all.

Hoseok simply nods and leads you to his car.

It's an understatement to say he was surprised to see you. He wasn't even sure it was you: the last time he saw you, you were fifteen - that's to say just a kid for him. Now, you are a woman. A beautiful woman. He knew you were in Korea because his parents'd told him but he just didn't expect at all to meet you like this. However, when he heard this all-in-black guy calls your name, he didn't hesitate and pushed him away from you. Seeing you cry rekindled his protective instinct towards you.

"Are you okay? Did he hurt you?" Hoseok asks when you get in his car

"I don't want to talk about it" You answer honestly

Hoseok firmly grips the wheel, a hundred of scenarios in his head wondering how much this asshole hurt you. He swears to god, if he has touched you, he will kill him. Lost in his thoughts, he startles when you put a delicate hand on his taut one. His eyes soften forthwith and he manages to give you a weak smile.

"Thank you for helping me" You say

"You don't have to thank me, Y/N. Do you want me to bring you home?"

"Actually..." You blush hard "Can we go at yours instead? I don't want to be home alone"

Hoseok takes a moment to think, wondering if it's truly appropriate. But when he looks at you, he sees two things: how sad you are and that you are not the kid he knew in the past. You're a grown up woman and you are able to make your own decision. If you need his help, anyway is it, Hoseok will help you. However, he can't say he is not caught short of how beautiful you are. He has to shake his head to not think about you in another way than his sweet young neighbor.

"Sure" He eventually says with a dry throat, especially abashed when you give him a gorgeous smile.

Hoseok's apartment is way bigger than yours but it's homy. It feels just as warm and welcoming as Hobi's smile. You notice some pictures with his parents and family, and with his friends too. You are smiling while you are browsing the paper memories. But you suddenly gasp. One photo, way bigger than the other ones is a wedding. Hoseok's wedding! He is smiling like crazy in his beautiful white suit and he is holding the hand of the most beautiful woman you have ever seen. Her hair is delicately style in a fluffy bun and her wedding dress makes her look like a princess.

"You're married?!" You scream more than you ask, in a high pitch

"I, uhm, yes, kinda"

Hoseok's smile is so sad when he gets close to you to look at his wedding photo. He knows it by heart but he is always amazed by how gorgeous Sojung is.

"Where is she? I hope she doesn't bother me being here"

"She passed away two years ago"

There is so much pain in Hoseok's voice. You feel your heart breaks with his.

"Oh my god, Hobi, I'm so sorry, I didn't know" You squeeze gently his shoulder to confort him and he gives you a thanking smile

"She was sick even before the wedding. But we wanted to get married. You know, it's funny because there was no point of that, we knew she would die few weeks after the ceremony. But we did it anyway: getting married knowing it was useless... It was worth it though. Sojung was so happy, she laughed the whole day"

You can't hold your tears when you listen to him. You feel so bad for him. Hoseok is always so happy, so cheerful. He is a true sunshine. Knowing he's been through so much pain is heartbreaking. You would give everything for him to be with his wife right now.

"I'm so sorry, Hobi"

You hug him tightly while you are both crying. You don't know how long you stay like that but something changes in you. And you are sure that Hoseok feels the same thing. Sharing your pain with someone you've known for years but have no idea of your biggest pain is someway liberating and comforting. You share your pain and you heal each other's sore. You don't need to talk because yours and Hoseok's hearts are directly connected and understand each other's.

He cups your face in his big hands, looking straight in your watery eyes with his own. He is so beautiful: his perfect brows, his brown and soft eyes, his perfect nose and his heart-form lips. You are drowning in his eyes.

"Can you love me just for tonight?" Hoseok asks you in a whisper

"Only if you love me for tonight too" You murmur

It's exactly what you felt when you hugged: you both need to feel loved. Just for a night. Your two hearts are full of love but have no one to love. You both know that, as your lips meet, you are secretly willing to be with somebody else. But it doesn't matter, all you need now is each other.

Hoseok's lips are soft and warm. It's like a big hug around your entire body and you feel safe. The kiss is nothing like sultry but passionately sad. Yet, your heart beats faster as Hoseok presses his lips harder against your mouth. Your hands find their way to his hair while his hands are holding your waist tighter. Soft moans escape your lips glued to Hobi's. The kiss feels good. It exactly feels like what you need.

Without pulling your mouths apart, Hoseok guides you towards his bedroom. You don't have time to look around but it's like a safe place. You pull on his shirt to help him get rid of it. You are surprised to see how defined are his muscles. Hoseok has always been fit but it's the first time you see him shirtless. And it's quite a pleasant view. You can't deny the arousal slowly building up in your stomach, especially when Hobi's mouth starts working on your neck. The wetness of his lips and tongue against the burning, thin and sensitive skin of your throat feels so fucking good. Your head is completely in the clouds of horniness.

Hoseok leaves your skin just the time to take off your top and his eyes meet your perfect breast cloaked in your strapless skin color bra. He gently kisses the bare skin and smoothly undoes your bra. It's on the floor in no time. Your fingers run up and down against his strong and soft back, pulling him closer to you. Hoseok's mouth makes its way down until he kneels in front of you. He looks up at your face to silently ask you permission to slide down your last pieces of clothing, and you are all up for it. His delicate fingers unbuttons your jeans and drag them down your legs.

Your moan fills the air when Hoseok gently kisses you through your panties' fabric. You feel it soaked from your arousal. The last clothing barrier is getting rid off and two big palms are holding on your hips. The grip is firm and fucking good. However, not as good as Hoseok's lips on your clit. The position is so sinful when you're standing up, completely naked, a man's face in front of your wet pussy kissing your sensitive bud. His tongue is warm and powerful while it rolls around your clit at a delightful pace. Your hands grab Hoseok's hair to not fall down under the pleasure he is providing you. He takes your left leg and makes it rest on his large shoulder to have a better access to your dripping cunt.

"Oh fuck!" You moan

His tongue is devilishly expert. It licks the right place over and over again until you feel your body tense and lightly shake. You roll your head back, your groans getting louder and deeper. His hands squeeze your perfect ass and the fire in you explodes. You shout his name when you reach your high.

Hoseok gets up and you fall against his chest because of your post-orgasm shaky legs. You feel good in his arms, especially when he pats your hair. You catch your breathe and starting unbuckling his belt before undressing him. You gasp and blush hard when you see Hoseok's cock. You've never thought you would see it one day, and he has nothing to be ashamed of. Hoseok's member is not particularly thick but it's definitely long. The sight of his hard cock makes your mouth water at the same time it makes your pussy even wetter.

You press your lips on his, feeling his dick pressed on your belly, hard and warm. You gently push Hobi on the bed, his back resting on his headboard. You get on top of him, still kissing. You bite his lower lip when his hands firmly grab your ass. He places delicate pecks on your collarbone to your tits. You press his head deeper on your skin.

"Grab a condom in the night stand" He asks you with a raspy voice

It's at that moment that you realize he hasn't spoke until now. You stretch your body to open the drawer and pull off a metallic square packet. You open it and give the condom to Hoseok for him to cover his length. When he is done, he grabs your hips and push you down. Right before entering you, he looks you in the eyes. You nod, saying that you're okay and he slowly stretches your pussy. It feels so good and a long moan escapes your parted and swollen lips.

"You feel so good" Hoseok whispers against your neck with his eyes closed

You stay on his cock a few seconds to adapt. He is so long, you can feel him very deep inside you. You rest your forehead against his and start bouncing on him. Sinful sounds of skins slapping fill the air and make you more horny. You even have the feeling that Hoseok's cock is getting harder. Quickly, your skins are covered with a thin layer of sweat. You hold him close to you, your arms around his shoulders. Hoseok's fingers grab your boob and play with your nipple while the other is wrapped around your waist helping you to ride him.

"Oh my god, Hobi!" You scream when his cock hits your g-spot

"Keep going, it's so fucking good, Y/N" Hoseok cheers you before storming on your pretty lips "You are so gorgeous, do you know that?"

His compliment makes you clench around his long dick. Each slide against your walls is a pleasure that makes your tighter. You are beginning to feel tired, especially when your second orgasm is not far but Hoseok helps you by lifting his hips to meet yours harder and deeper. The slapping sounds made by your thighs is louder and it drives you and Hoseok crazy.

"I'm close" You groan, closing your eyes to concentrate on the feeling of his big cock buried in your cunt

You feel good in his arms, you feel so close to him. He is taking you like he loved you and you are taking him like you loved him. This is exactly what you both needed. The whole bedroom is filled with your moans and slapping skins. You feel your pussy getting tighter and tighter around him, warning Hoseok that you're going to cum soon. He pounds you a little faster to make you reach your climax right before him, moaning each other's names.

You are both panting, foreheads against each other's. Hobi's hands gently caress your arms and your back while you free his pretty face from his sticky hair.

"Thank you, Y/N, for loving me tonight" He says, softly kissing your lips

"Thank you for loving me tonight, Hobi" You whisper back

He invites you to take a shower, which you gladly accept. Someway, your heart feels less heavy. Not only you didn't think about Jungkook while you were with Hobi, but you also could release a little bit of your love to give it to someone who needed it. Hoseok feels the exact same. He didn't think he would ever, ever have sex with you and yet, it was a beautiful moment. You were so delicate in his arms and he has held you so sweetly, giving up a little bit of his sorrow. He just hopes you don't think he was using you, and he hopes that you could spend time together and try to be the old friends that you are.

————

Your day is a perfect example of the Ying Yang symbol. Everything started good, great even: Namjoon has just told you that the gallery wanted to keep working with you and offered you a permanent contract. You were so, so happy and you gave him a little demonstration of your 'happy dance' and he laughed a little bit too much to not upset you - not that you resent him because you ended up laughing harder when he started dancing too.

But then, everything went beyond wrong when Aecha, your colleague in charge of the communication, asked you to welcome the new graphic designer for a future exhibition in few months. In fact, in a city as big as Seoul, the odds of this graphic designer being the only person you don't want to see are low. But you are not lucky. Because while waiting for this new partner to arrive, your heart skips a beat when none other than Jeon Jungkook walks towards you.

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Taglist @hoseokteardrop @aerynorirene @jkoooooooookie @lacolegaming @busanbby-jjk @mysteriousstress65 @coralmusicblaze

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utilitycaster · 11 months

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Level 10!

You may or may not know the drill:

Corrections about actually wrong items or major omissions are welcome. "Um, actually"-ing because I did not list every single spell or feat available or speculate the exact same things you did is not.

Because the cast usually does a brief video shortly before the episode for level-ups now (as they did today!), rather than announcing it at the end of an episode, this includes speculation and a bit of editorializing on my thoughts for the next few levels. This isn't necessarily meant to be accurate to what the cast will do, so don't quote me on it - it's just my thoughts on what I think might make sense or will be interesting. Those thoughts may very well change significantly as the story continues.

Anyway, level 10: it's a subclass-centric level for most of the players.

Chetney: His rogue level means he's blood hunter 9, which means Grim Psychometry, the coolest ability, which grants advantage on knowledge checks surrounding tragic or dark histories, with the potential for the DM to grant visions. Looking forward: assuming Chet keeps moving forward with blood hunter, L10 is a big one for him, as his speed increases by 5 feet, he gets another blood curse, and he gains a +3 (INT modifier) to all physical saves.

Laudna: She took a level in sorcerer, so she gets another sorcery point and another spell, this time up to 4th level; I drafted this post a while back and forgot to check the spell list for sorcerer so you're invited go nuts on your spell thoughts in the notes! Looking forward: Look. I've covered my mechanical concerns about this multiclass. Personally, had I been playing a character with this build from level 3 in a party with another sorcerer, I'd have stopped at 3 sorcerer levels and leveled exclusively in warlock. However, she's now 7 levels into sorcerer and so stopping that to go warlock will probably hamstring her mechanically, especially since the 6th level Undead feature is not terribly impressive. I think one last warlock level might be good for the ASI and the known spell, since warlocks have a more interesting spell list, and it makes narrative sense at this point now that Delilah is reawakened, but then I'd probably continue to take the rest in sorcerer. I AM very interested in how Laudna will deal with Delilah since I don't see her getting another undead patron to replace her, but that's so speculative that I'll hold off until something changes.

FCG: FCG gets a new cantrip, a new 5th level spell slot, and the ability to roll for divine intervention, which promises to be a fucking trip (complimentary). Looking forward: 6th level cleric spells, which he'll get at level 11, have a lot of bangers, but I am personally most invested in FCG's Heroes' Feast.

Fearne: with a 9th level in druid she gets access to 5th level spells, and her circle spells are Mass Cure Wounds and Flame Strike, both of which are excellent. As always for druid levels, Little Mister's HP goes up by 5. Looking forward: I'm assuming Fearne's continuing with druid levels, and if so, the level 10 feature of Cauterizing Flames allows her to use the death of a creature (enemy, ally, or bystander) to create a spectral flame that can either heal or harm others who enter that space. This is amazing and I'm excited.

Imogen: At level 10, she gains another cantrip and another metamagic option. I personally think subtle spell is the best one (and given the Vanguard's tendency to collar mages they dislike, could be huge if they come into conflict), but quickened, which Laudna has, can also be clutch. Looking forward: Chain Lightning does seem like an apt spell for her to take, but personally I'd love True Seeing as more interesting and higher utility while still thematic.

Orym: At level 10, he learns two more maneuvers, and his superiority dice become d10s. There are a ton of maneuvers and I will freely admit I don't know them all, but I do like the idea of Commander's Strike (let Ashton and Chet do more damage), Distracting Strike, or Maneuvering attack. Looking forward: Level 11 grants Orym three attacks per turn, which is really the most fun fighter feature.

Ashton: Level 10 is a path feature level, and we don't know the details of their subclass, so it's up in the air! I'm excited to see what it is. Looking forward: level 11 grants relentless rage; if he drops to 0 HP while raging (for the record Ashton has only gone out 3 times; two were during the Otohan fight and one in the Ratanish fight) he can make a con save to remain conscious.

#bells hells #critical role

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nugsanart09-works · 1 year

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SAGAU that is just that: Self-Aware AU

just what it says in the tin. no cults, no yandere, just plain old ddlc minus the damned romance aspect. (Monika, i love you but i have had enough of the romantic shit)

warning: i am basing this on my character roster and shenanigans. you can play around with the idea but yeah, my content is based on my account if anything. also, novaverse lore because screw it imma inject my own spin in this thing

there are hierarchies on this thing:

GALAXIES = other media

NEXUS = Genshin Impact/Hoyoverse

NEBULAE = leakers/content creators/playthrough folks

(SUPER)NOVA = the player (me and you); referencing the big bang even though it means that I fucked up the symbolism tier for this lol; can be the SI-OC/Reader/"Creator"

AURORAE = the Creator's mouthpiece/interactive HUD; kinda like Paimon in-game and not lorewise

SUNSHINE = the ones in the nova's character roster a.k.a. the ones that came home

EARTHSHINE = the characters who have the potential to "become aware" a.k.a. stubborn fucks who refuses to come home smh; if the sunshines try to tell the earthshines about the situation, the earthshines would not hear them or understand it one bit

*note that op is not the smartest when it comes to cosmology but pls ignore that for the sake of

✨ fancy titles ✨

the first ones to gain awareness are Traveler and Paimon.

they were the first ones you gain as playable characters so they deserve that much, esp if they have to deal with your shenanigans as their nova

the next one to realize smth is up would be Amber

the sagau that i know of tends to start off with Kaeya a lot but i fully believe my girl Amber should be the first teyvatan aware for the amount of times her baron bunny saved my ass

when you, her nova, gained control over her, she gained access to some perks such as:

conditional immortality — when left alone by the nova/not in the current party, she can now just. not die. permanently that is. unless the nexus decides that she will be out of the narrative, she just cannot die and will constantly respawn. if the nova is logged in and she didn’t heal herself, her hp will be in the red zone lmao

disabled friendly fire — a sunshine attacks another person whether they are a fellow sunshine or not, the attacks will just go through them without harm. enemy mobs, specific plant life and the likes are the only ones capable of getting damaged

access to the inventory – anything the nova has attained, they can take and use. good luck with your hoarding because your food are definitely gonna decrease by a LOT once you log back in

private chatroom — just so they don't go insane, sunshines can gossip and pass news to one another on how things are going on their end. they speak of how far the nova (not traveler) is with their journey, and maybe just be a support group since i subjected them through a lot of bs

time loop — ...yeah. so long as you (the player) haven't progress in the given storyline in-game, you essentially trap them in an localized time loop. characters will end up "blinking" back to where they are initially if [1] the nova logged in, or [2] traveler, piloted guided by the nova, is in the area and the playable character is included in the quest the nova stumbled upon

spectators to the music — whatever bgm you have whether you have the in-game music on or are using a custom playlist, the ones in your current party (along with the parties beside the current one if you're toggling and choosing between the groups) will hear it. jean and tighnari are definitely disappointed in me for playing unholy while yaoyao is in my active team that one time w h o o p s

gained written and verbal language — whatever language you have downloaded in the game is now something the sunshines are proficient with.

for example: i have both english and korean voice packs downloaded so therefore they can speak both now. i only have english for my text. if i end up doing the typical isekai bs in the sagau community with my kr voice pack activated, the only way i can communicate with them is through writing back and forth in english lmao. if they manage to communicate with me in the self-aware Monika way then once they start speaking i am screwed since i don't speak korean :') – i don't see them speaking in textbox since [1] my speed reading sucks ass and [2] do you want your screen to be filled with text? do you?

depending on who you obtain next, they're the ones next in line with the madness. good thing they have the sunshine trio to help them out with this now. hallelujah Amber 🙏

that's it for now since this is enough of an info dump alr + this is the basic stuff you need to know for now. the rest of these will be just me and the shenanigans i subjected my playable characters through. that or someone's requests idk. hope you enjoyed this thing

#nugsanfiction #nugsandrabbles #nugsanbabbles #novaverse #genshin impact #genshin sagau #this is for you my fellow platonic content lovers #genshin traveler #genshin lumine #genshin aether #genshin paimon #genshin amber #genshin au #self-aware au #self aware au #mentioned ddlc monika

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cityandking · 1 year

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1, 7, 10, 13 for minah, vesper & lira!

ty!!! // some da oc questions

1) What techniques or spells do they tend to use a lot?

MINAH — I honestly have no idea what her fighting style is gonna settle as but right now that steady aim/sneak attack is killer (pun intended). I'm also really excited for those BA 'use an object' options.

VESPER — pull of the abyss, fade step, stonefist. also that one (1) singular heal mages get. tfw you gotta pinch heal your party all the time.

LIRA — I designed her as a dual wield rogue but honestly I spent a lot of time playing her as a stealth archer. I think I'd do way better with her build if I went back and played origins again but I honestly don't think my old laptop would turn on.

7) Do they like to play it safe or be extremely aggressive in a fight?

MINAH — generally speaking, she'd rather play it safe. that said, she's a scrappy little fucker who can hold her own in close quarters. she'd just really rather not have to—she's a big fan of easy openings and getting out fast.

VESPER — is honestly pretty aggressive. she doesn't love a fight but she prefers a fight that's over quickly, generally speaking, and she'll do whatever she has to do to make that happen.

LIRA — evolved to a super aggressive fighting style after the whole highever massacre. she's got a duty so it's not like she has a death wish, but she's got some anger issues to work out and a fight is as good a place as any.

10) Are they worried about hurting their allies by accident during combat or is it up to their allies’ responsibility to look after themselves?

MINAH — she generally tries to keep people out of the line of fire, but in the thick of things it's every man for herself

VESPER — she worries, but she also trusts her people to look out for themselves. her inner circle can hold their own—honestly they're better than she is, so she trusts them to play it smart

LIRA — she's never in much of a position to hit anyone else, but on the occasion that she is, she prefers not to shoot her own people in the back. she has few enough allies as it is; she can't afford to be wasting them like that.

13) A battle tactic they love?

MINAH — generally prefers not to get in a fight! like honestly she'd simply prefer not to! and if she must be in a fight she'd rather stay out of the worst of it. however, she's really good in a corner—lots of time burglaring means getting in and out without a lot of space to maneuver and she's handy with a bow at close quarters

VESPER — pull of the abyss to get everyone together, fade step to freeze them and then chain lightning or stonefist to deal extra combo damage (she's mostly about corralling enemies into one spot and then blasting them back to the maker)

LIRA — siccing Sten on them

#yfip: me #starts and ask meme and forgets about the ask meme #whoops #ty tabby!!#vesper #lira #minah

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captains-simp · 3 years

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Hi, I was wondering if you could do the angst prompts 9 and 10 for Wanda with a happy ending?

I sure can :) and I'm gonna combine this with @geek-2 request if that's alright with you lovely people

"Do I mean that little to you?"

"Was it all a lie?"

"Please don't go."

"I can't do this without you."

"I thought you wanted me to move on."

Warnings: lying, injury, me still not being too sure about the how healing works, breakup and Reader and Wanda being useless lesbians

5.7k words

[ masterlist ]

Buy me a coffee ☕

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

You knew when you started dating Wanda that there would be times she couldn't tell you the truth. For the sake of her missions, her own safety, that of her teams and even yours, there were just some things she had to keep secret.

You thought it would be small things like where exactly she was when she went on a mission and who was involved. But after seeing how quickly you grew concerned for your girlfriend, Wanda would start to tell white lies about other things.

It was common for her to get a little scratched up on a mission. She'd let you clean her up and fuss over her for a while over the small injuries. However when things were a little more serious she'd either hide it or make it out to be not that big of a deal. You'd scold her for that when you found out and she always promised to tell you the truth.

Yet when Wanda got shot she did far from it.

Wanda had told you over the phone that her mission had overrun. She assured you she was fine and that she would seen you again soon. In reality? Wanda was laying in the hospital wing in the Avenger's compound, planning to stay there until she was healed enough to be able to conceal her injury with a small bandage and a believable fake injury to explain it.

It had worked at first. Of course it had, you had never had any reason to suspect her of lying about something that serious before.

One night when Wanda was at your appartment she had disappeared into another room for a while. You called out to her a few times but had no response. So you went in search of your girlfriend and in finding her also found out her secret.

You opened your bedroom door after knocking and saw Wanda sitting back on your bed with the plaster dressing at her side as she inspected how her wound was healing. She had been so concentrated on the damaged skin on her stomach she didn't noticed you until she felt your presence in the doorway.

Her head whipped up as she pulled her top down and stood up to face you. You had your mouth slightly agape in shock, already knowing what Wanda was trying to hide but had to ask anyway.

"What was that?" You whispered, frozen in place in the doorway with your hand still on the handle.

"I told you it was just a deep cut." Wanda said as cooly as she could as she put the dressing in the bin.

"That wasn't a cut, Wanda." Wanda laughed lightly as she ran her hand through her hair showing her nervous habit. She couldn't make it any more obvious she was lying.

"It is. Sorry, I just got distracted, let's go back to the movie." The desperation to change the topic stung slightly, telling you just how much Wanda didn't want to tell you the truth.

"Let me see." You said, blocking her exit.

"It's nothing, y/n." Wanda refused to meet your eye.

"So you won't mind me seeing."

"It's not pleasant, y/n." Wanda said, trying to add some humour to lighten the tension.

"Wanda, show me."

"It's not-" but you were already reaching for her top on other side of the injury.

"Y/n, don't." Wanda refused to ever get physical in that way, always so afraid of hurting you. She didn't swat your hand away, she didn't push you or hold your wrist, she just stepped out of your reach over and over until she was backed into a wall.

"There's no point in looking." She defied but you already had ahold of her top and pulled it up to expose the gunshot wound.

Your breath caught in your throat as you saw the area a bullet had hit. The image of it would be one that stayed with you forever. Even if it was partly healed, the signs of trauma were still there.

"That's..." You could barely speak. "That's a... gunshot...mark." You weren't even sure you were speaking properly. Wanda didn't say anything, she only started at a part of the wall behind you.

"When?" You asked, letting her shirt down and picking up the plaster dressing from the bed. You struggled to undo it in your shaking hands.

"The mission." Wanda whispered, knowing she had to tell you the truth. The whole truth.

"It's healing quickly." You murmmered as you gently placed you dressing over the wound. The redhead didn't respond, still figuring out how best to say it.

Wanda had been away for another week after the call. You first assumed it had happened towards the end of that week. As you smoothed the dressing over as softly as you could it dawned on you what had happened.

"You called me after it happened." You said suddenly as you took a step away from her. Wanda looked down at the floor in guilt.

"You lied to me." You said as a tear formed, it was a lot to take in and you were feeling overwhelmed. "I could have helped you."

"You would have worried." Wanda finally said as she stepped towards you and tried to take your hands in her own.

"Of course I would have I'm your girlfriend! I have every right to worry." You fired back.

"Not about this, I was fine. I was being taken care of."

"This is not fine, Wanda. You were shot."

"I know the risks." Wanda assured, as though that was what you were thinking about.

"I know you do, so do I. But you're meant to tell me when bad things happen, I'm meant to be there for you whatever happens."

"Baby." Wanda reached out for you again and this time you let her. "I'm sorry. I just thought it would be better that way. You don't have to worry about what you don't know." She said softly.

"I'm always going to worry."

"I know, it just worked out last time and I thought it would be best now too." She rambled with a slight smile, clearly still anxious.

"Last time?" You stopped smiling when you spoke. Wanda's eyes widened as she realised her slip up.

"No, not last time! That's not- well it kind of-"

"What the fuck do you mean?" You pulled away from Wanda to put distance between you again.

"I just broke my leg once and stayed with the Avengers until it was healed it wasn't that bad-"

"You..." You breathed out heavily and turned around as you put a hand to your forehead, tears whelming in your eyes again. "You broke your leg and didn't tell me." You confirmed to yourself.

"I was honestly fine."

"Stop saying that!" You yelled in anger, beyond frustrated at Wanda for still not understanding you. "You're still lying. Do I mean that little to you?" Wanda rushed over to you quickly and tried to put her hands on yours again but you shook her off.

"No! No I love you so much." Wanda pleaded.

"All those times you told me the missions were extended..." You breathed heavily, starting to spiral as you realised how much there was to question. "Was it all a lie?" You whispered.

"No! Y/n, please you have to listen to me."

"I have been listening to you, and where has it gotten us?" You asked rhetorically, all energy drained from your voice and the distinct salty taste of tears attacked your taste buds, you hadn't even realised you were crying. You trudged like a zombie through the appartment with Wanda hot on your tail, still pleading with you.

"I always thought I could...where are you going?" Wanda asked as she noticed you putting your jacket on. You hadn't even realised you had done that.

"On a walk, I need to think."

"Please don't go." Wanda said, her tearful voice ripping through your heart.

"I need to be alone Wanda. I need to think about us."

"Us?" Wanda's voice was barely audible.

"I don't... I don't think I can do this."

"Y/n please it won't happen again." Tears were streaming down Wanda's face now as she begged you to stay. "I can't do this without you." Your hand hovered over the door handle until it dropped back down to your side. You walked over to Wanda and placed a soft kiss on her cheek before you left.

No longer being Wanda's girlfriend proved hard to adjust to. There were days you wanted to call her and apologise, desperate to make things right, and there were other times the heart ache was too much.

You seemed to always have her on your mind. Wondering what she was doing, if she was thinking about you, if she was taking care of herself, if she was moving on...if she was safe.

The weeks merged together and the pain showed no signs of going away. You didn't talk to Wanda and the Sokovian didn't talk to you. Nat still text you to check up on you but you always found yourself wishing she spent all that energy on Wanda. After all, it was you who broke up with her.

Eventually you were willing to do anything to get Wanda out of your head. You worked harder at your job and put in extra hours, you took up random hobbies that you didn't even enjoy, you even went on a couple of dates. Anything to be at home as little as possible. Your home was where you thought about her most, every room holding countless memories with Wanda, those moments being the ones you lived for with her.

The dates never led to anything, you didn't want them to. You weren't ready to start dating seriously again, you just wanted to be around new people but you always found yourself comparing them to Wanda. That was until the night you felt your heart shatter all over again.

Nat had invited you to a small party at one of Tony's beach houses. You had politely declined at first, making up some excuse about being busy, of course Nat saw right through you. She insisted it would be good for you to get out and while you knew she was right, you also knew Wanda would be there.

You didn't want to make things awkward, you just wanted to heal in peace so you could find some way of moving on. Your excuses were no match for the Black Widow's stubborness.

Not only did Nat persuade you to go after promising things wouldn't be weird, she also told you she would take you. The kind gesture was clearly just a disguise for making sure you really came. But you appreciated it all the same.

You had been anxious all day in the wait for the party. You and Wanda still hadn't talked to each other and you really wished you had. Would it have made the night less awkward?

Nat arrived promptly at the time she said she would and complimented you on your outfit. The drive wasn't filled with any unbearable silences like you had guessed it would be. In fact it made you realise just how intent Nat was on keeping your friendship and you quickly found yourself falling back into the way you used to. All that time spent around new people and it turned out you just needed to be around someone you knew.

"You feeling okay?" Nat enquired after a while.

"Yeah." You lied with a small smile and avoided her searching gaze. She clearly saw right through your lie...again.

"If it gets too much we can go whenever you want." Nat assured and you smiled genuinely.

"Thanks Nat." She shot back her familiar smile before turning her attention to the road again and before you knew it you had arrived.

It was a beautiful place. The house was sitting at the side of a small cliff with the front raised above sea level and the left side and back stepping out onto the sand. It was kind of place you would love to retire to and knew that Tony would probably only ever visit that house a few times. That seemed absurd considering the price and rarity of such a place, but you guessed billionaires never had to worry about that.

There were people scattered around the beach watching the last of the sunset over the sea. It was breathtaking to say the least, you wished you could have just stayed out there for the duration of the party.

What Tony considered to be a small party was one with friends and family. Problem was, Tony had a lot of friends. It just seemed like a much less formal party than you were used to. The atmosphere was welcoming and it put you at ease to see everyone like that.

You spent a while catching up with some of the Avengers you hadn't seen in a while and just like you had with Natasha, you found yourself falling back into old habits and convosations.

You weren't sure how long you had been there when you saw Wanda. She was strolling around the room, eyes roaming over everyone's faces as though she was looking for someone in particular.

She looked beautiful. Her hair was down and mirrored the movements of her short skirt whenever she moved. She had applied a natural look of makeup that reminded you of the few times you had tried to do it for her only for you to both discover she clearly knew what she was doing more than you. She had teased you about that for a while.

The sokovian's concentrated look was one you had always admired. Her focus on one thing, especially when that thing was you, had always made you smile, unable to stop yourself thinking you were the luckiest person alive to be her sole focus. You missed that all so much.

You weren't sure if you should approach her or not. Thankfully the brief moment Wanda caught your eye she smiled warmly and came over to you.

You smiled back before glancing down at your drink and playing with the fabric of your shirt, not really knowing what to do with yourself.

"Hey." Wanda greeted as she approached.

"Hey yourself." You replied with a nervous laugh.

"I'm glad you made it." She said genuinely.

"Yeah well, Nat basically dragged me over here." You laughed again but stopped when you saw Wanda's smile faulter slightly at your words. "Not that I didn't want to come!" You rushed. "I did I just..." You trailed off, not really knowing what to say. God, it was awkward.

Wanda hummed in acknowledgment and a silence fell over you both. You wanted so badly to ask how she was but couldn't get your mouth to form the words.

Wanda watched your conflicted expression and nodded a little to herself, thinking she knew what you were thinking. If she had used her powers she would have known how wrong she was.

"I'll see you around." Wanda said as she turned to leave. You almost called out to her to stop her until you realised you didn't know how to say it.

"Yeah...see you around." But Wanda was already walking away.

You wandered towards one of the balconys and leaned on the railing as you gazed out at the sea. It was getting dark out but there was still enough light to be able to see.

You watched the gentle waves from the sea hit the shore as the wind tickled your face and played with the hair you had spent a while on earlier that night. You had been on a constant battle of wanting to look your best and wanting to look as though you didn't care. You still didn't know what you wanted.

Your convosation with Wanda had left you more confused than ever. She had seemed genuinely happy to see you and yet things were so off. You told yourself that was bound to happen considering the circumstances, but you couldn't forget how quickly Wanda had wanted to go. Would you be able to be just friends with her? Was that something she wanted? Was that something you could even do?

One thing was for sure, you were definetly still inlove with Wanda Maximoff, and breaking up with her was the biggest mistake of your life.

You sighed heavily as you rested your face in your hands and tried to focus on the feeling of the wind against you. Would it be fair of you to say any of this to Wanda? To tell her how conflicted you had been and that you still loved her? To confess all of that to her when there was a chance she had moved on. Maybe you should have made your move before you knew for sure, because it was still unknown to you.

You looked up at the sea again as you rested your chin on your hands. You had to do something, before it was too late.

The familiar sound of giggling that had always brought a smile to your face snapped you out of your trance. You followed the sound of laughter and saw Wanda stumbling about on the beach, holding someone's hand as she guided them further out.

Even from the fair distant you could see the giddy smile on Wanda's face. That had always been a smile reserved for you. A familiar feeling of anxiety started to grow in your chest as you watched Wanda turn around to face the girl and cup her face in her hands.

You knew you shouldn't have watched. You knew it would hurt like hell, but you had to know for sure.

The Sokovian continued to smile at the girl infront of her before leaning forward to kiss her. Not a small kiss. Not a light peck. A slow, passionate kiss. The kind you remembered for a long time. The kind that held a special place because you took your time to familiarise yourself with your partner.

Your guts twisted and a sudden pang to your chest made you finally tear your eyes away only to realise your vision was blurred with tears. Your heart was racing and your breathing was shallow. You were too late.

You turned to go back inside and blinked back your tears in a desperate effort to have clear vision so you could locate Natasha and leave. Wanda's laugh continued to haunt you until you were back inside and the music was able to drown everything out.

You searched frantically for Nat and when you found her you saw her surrounded by a large group of friends. She was laughing with them and thoroughly enjoying their company, no doubt treasuring the precious time she could spend with them that wasn't work related. You didn't want to take her away from that.

You hurried through the house and called an uber but your hands were shaking and it was proving harder than it should have. When you finally got outside you leant against the wall and tried to steady your breathing but failed.

You leant forward to rest your hands on your knees and stared down at the ground, hoping the new position would help. It didn't.

Defeated, you slumped down against the wall and finally let yourself cry. You cried over your biggest mistake with Wanda. You cried over the relationship you had lost. You cried at the loss of the love of your life. It was gone, and you had no idea what you would do.

You eventually forced yourself to stop crying as you stood up from the ground. The ache in your chest was stronger than ever, but you just had to focus on getting home.

The moment you did, you broke down crying again.

You had texted Nat on the way back to your appartment telling her you had left, but that didn't stop the onslaught of calls you had later that night. You ignored all of them but made sure to text your friend that you were okay. While you didn't want to speak to Nat in fear that you'd tell her everything that was on your mind and the ache in your heart, you didn't want her to worry.

You didn't talk to Wanda either. God, did you want to.

What you had seen played in your head like a glitchy television that still managed to present in high quality. You remembered that sweet smile, the joyful laugh, the way she only focused on the girl she kissed. Wanda had moved on while you had swerved off of that road and into a ditch, that was how it felt at least.

It was well into Sunday evening when Natasha knocked on your door. You were laying on the couch in your comfiest pajamas surrounded by every blanket you owned as you ate a tub of chocolate fudge brownie ice cream. So of course you weren't about to get up to answer the door.

"I know you're in there, y/n." Natasha called after a while. Your eyes shifted from the TV screen at the sound of Natasha's voice, but you still didn't want to get up.

"If you don't open the door I'm gonna let myself in." You rolled your eyes, nor believing Nat. Boy, you were wrong to.

A second later there was a click from the door before it swung open and Natasha stepped through, at least being nice enough to close it behind her.

"Really?!" You exclaimed. Nat gave you the one over before taking in your surroundings with a concerned look.

"I'm sorry I didn't come sooner." She mumbled as she strolled towards the couch and sat down by your feet.

"I'm fine." You clearly weren't, you were pretty sure your eyes were still puffy from your crying session ten minutes prior.

"What happened at the party?" Nat asked sincerely. You were about to question how she had put that together until you realised even someone who wasn't a superspy could figure that out.

"Nothing." You muttered, stabbing the ice cream with your spoon as you tried to keep your eyes on the screen.

"Y/n." Nat said sternly. You couldn't help but look back at her when she used that voice. You chewed your lip as you attempted to organise your thoughts, having no idea where to start. Luckily, Nat was willing to guide you.

"You talk to Wanda?" She enquired. You nodded as you stared down at the tub.

"It was unbearably awkward." You admitted making Nat chuckle.

"You talked to her since?"

Since my heart shattered again?

"No." You said sadly. "I don't think I can." You admitted, biting your lip in an attempt to keep your breathing and voice steady.

"Why not?" You sighed deeply, glancing between Nat, the TV and your melting ice cream.

"Have you talked to Wanda?" You fired back.

"I work with her, I'm gonna need you to be more specific."

"About...you know how she's doing and if... if she's moved on?" You didn't look at your friend as you spoke.

"No, I don't need to to know. Y/n what's going on?" Nat asked as she moved your feet to put on her lap so some of the blankets coukd cover her too. She proped her elbow up on the back of the couch and resting her head on it as she watched you with a concerned gaze.

"I think- no, I know I made a big mistake breaking up with her." Nat didn't respond so you kept going. "In that moment I just... I don't know I freaked out. I questioned a lot and instead of letting her explain I tried to make everything fit into place by myself, assuming the worst about everything. I should have actually listened to her." Your voice broke as you spoke, tears threatening to spill. "I miss her so much, Nat. I still love her but," You bit your lip so hard you were surprised didn't taste blood. "She's moved on. And now I can't get her back because if wouldn't be fair to do that when she's got someone new." Tears finally streamed down your face as you breathed heavily, the pain in your heart was immense at having to finally say it all aloud. "I've lost her."

Nat quickly moved towards you and enveloped you in a hug, letting you cry into her chest for God knows how long.

"Why do you think she's moved on?" Nat asked softly as she rubbed your back.

"I saw her with someone else. They way she looked at her..." You trailed off, not sure you could finish.

"I don't think that was what you think it was." Nat said.

"You think she was platonically kissing her?" You were surprised you even had it in you to make a sarcastic comment.

"It happens." Nat deadpanned.

"Not with Wanda." There was no arguing with that.

"She could have been tipsy." Nat offered and you finally pulled out of her hug to look at her questioningly.

"Why are you so sure of this?" Nat opened her mouth to speak but closed it soon after as though she thought better of what she was about to say and instead shrugged.

"She's moved on, Nat. I need to let her be and move on too. It's been long enough."

"And how do you plan on doing that?" Nat asked, genuinely curious.

"I'll go on another date." You said simply. The redhead glanced around at the ice cream and the collection of blankets, clearly skeptical that you were ready for that.

You sighed and leaned over to grab your phone and brought up a text message from one of your colleagues. Nat read the message from a few hours prior of them asking you out on a date and how you had accepted.

"I have till Friday to get at least some of my shit together." You said when Nat had done reading.

"Is this the one that asked you out before?" Nat asked with some resistance in her tone, she knew all about that person.

"It is." You tried to ignore the resurfacing memory of that terrible day.

"She doesn't really seem like your type." Nat stated giving you a questioning look. She really wasn't. She was bashful and irritating among many other things. The complete opposite of Wanda. You theory was that if anyone would help you stop thinking about Wanda, even temporarily, it would be her. You were terribly mistaken.

"No harm in trying something new." You said simply, faking satisfaction.

"I guess." Nat muttered, clearly far from convinced but not discouraging you from your date. Turns out she had other plans.

It's not like you had high expectations for that date. The bar was so low and yet Ione still managed to limbo under it.

She turned up half an hour late in a car the reeked of cigarettes. You didn't mind that she smoked, it was more than being in a trapped space with smoke drifting around didn't get on too well with your asthma and she insisted it was too cold to wind the windows down even a little bit.

The restaurant was the only enjoyable part of the date. It was a nice, casual place that had a settling atmosphere, but the moment Ione started the convosation you were reminded of her nature.

She spent most of that dinner talking about herself and her 'amazing hobbies' that you gathered to be a bunch of bullshit. She was committed to it though, you'd give her that. As if her 'hobbies' wouldn't be enough to impress you (they definetly didn't anyway) the taller girl started to casually mention the hookups she had had recently. You were honestly baffled by her. She bragged about them like trophies, always smirking at you as though telling you to feel lucky she was giving you the time of day.

Everytime she said something new the only thing you could think was 'Wanda would never say that.' So in terms of taking your mind off of your ex? Ione failed in that department too.

Throughout the meal she never once stopped to ask about you. Part of you was glad for it, because you never had to talk. You got maybe ten words in that night, all of them completly disregarded. It was hands down the worst date you had ever been on.

"I'm just gonna have a smoke while you pay." Ione said casually as she stood up to leave, leaving no room for any objections. You opened and closed your mouth life a goldfish, somehow still shocked at her antics.

You sighed as you leant back in your chair and motioned to a near by waiter for the bill, thankful the date was finally coming to an end.

You stated down at your empty plates and allowed your mind to wander towards the place it always did. Wanda. You wondered if her dates had been nearly as bad as that one. She had always gone all out for your dates, treasuring those events that were limited by her work.

When you looked up again you felt your breath catch in your throat. It was as though by thinking of Wanda you had somehow conjured her. She stood in the entrance to the restaurant looking frantic. Her hair was frazzled and her clothes were ruffled as though she had exhausted herself going to the restaurant.

When her eyes finally landed on you you were unable to look away. She looked so god damn beautiful. The brown eyes you had come to love stayed fixed on yours as she made her way towards you, a determined look across her face.

"Wanda?" You asked, not quite believing how she was infront of you much less how you seemed to be her sole focus.

"Hey y/n." Wanda smiled weakly as though all confidence had gone. "Can I sit?" She asked, motioning to the chair Ione had been in.

"Err..." You looked towards the window where you could vaguely see your date on her phone while smoking. "Of course." Wanda smiled gratefully and sat down, instantly fiddling with the rings on her fingers, one of her many nervous tells.

"What are you doing here?" You just had to know.

"I um...I wanted to see you. I know this isn't the best time and I'm sorry-"

"But how did you know I'd be here?" You enquired.

"Nat told me." She answered truthfully.

"She what?" Instantly comfused and annoyed at Nat for telling Wanda that, why would she want to know.

"Y/n I know we didn't end in the best way." She started, glancing up at you nervously, the memory of that night reflecting in her eyes as it was in yours. "And I'm still so sorry for lying to you." She said earnestly, you couldn't help but listen to her words. "And I still...I still love you." She admitted and bit her lip as voice wavered slightly.

"I thought you had moved on." You whispered, not believing what you were hearing. You expected to wake up any moment to discover it had been a cruel joke your mind had played on you. It wasn't, Wanda was as real as ever and so were her feelings. "I thought you wanted me to move on."

"I never moved on from you, y/n. I couldn't." Wanda said as she reached out for your hand. You let her but didn't hold it back.

"But that girl at the party." You started.

"I was a bit drunk and just feeling sorry for myself. It was a mistake, and I regretted it as soon as I realised what I was doing." Wanda explained hastily. The frantic look in her eyes was back. It was the same look you had seen the night you broke up with her. This time you didn't disregard it.

You breathed out shakily and looked down at Wanda's hands in your own. Ever so slowly and cautiously, you closed your hands around hers and looked up at her again.

"I still love you too. I never stopped. You made a mistake and so did I." You said as a tear formed in your eye. Wanda smiled back at you and squeezed your hands lightly.

"And I'll spend forever making it up to you if you'll let me. Could we... could we try again?" She asked hopefully. You didn't spare a moment, nodding frantically. You eagerly welcomed Wanda back into your life, immense relief washing over you at the feeling of coming home.

You had missed her so much. You had a lot of lost time to make up for and you didn't want to risk wasting a second of it ever again. You leaned forward across the small table and so did Wanda, her perfume filling your sense and acted as a drug for the butterflies in your stomach. Yes, after all that time, Wanda Maximoff still gave you butterflies.

Whether it was because your thoughts were especially loud or it was just instinct, you didn't know, but it was perfect.

You kissed her slowly and passionately, refamiliarizing yourself with the lips you had never really forgotten. You only pulled away when you felt the bill being placed on the table. You blushed a little and quickly paid for the dinner before getting up from your seat and beckoning Wanda to follow.

When you left the restaurant Ione was about to come back in.

"Hey." You called. "You're welcome for dinner but it's not really working for me, good luck with those hookups though!" You said with a grin before turning on your heels back towards Wanda. Ione didn't say anything back, completly comfused by the encounter and gave a small wave in goodbye as you walked away.

"You want to go back to mine?" You offered with a grin.

"I'd love to but..." Wanda trailed off as she turned you towards her and cupped your face in her hands. She brought her lips down to yours again as you wrapped your arms around her neck to deepen the kiss, relishing in the softness of her lips. "Just had to do that first." Wanda explained with a grin before taking your hand again to walk with you back to your appartment again.

The appartment that you would very soon both call home.

#wanda maximoff imagines #wanda maximoff x reader #wanda maximoff imagine #wanda maximoff #wanda maximoff fluff

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amor-immortalem · 3 years

Text

Everything Undesired Chapter 3

Chapter 2

“So what’s the plan?” Beel asked as he and Satan followed Lucifer to the Demon Lord’s castle.

“I say we go for an instant kill,” the Avatar of Wrath smirked, “make an example out of them.”

"I'm hungry enough I could swallow them whole." Beel commented.

"No, a quick death is not what they deserve even if they'll find themselves stuck in the eternal torture they so rightfully deserve once they reach Asmo's court in the second layer." Lucifer stopped and turned to his brothers, a knowing smile graced his lips, "Rather, we'll torture them slowly. We'll make them suffer for every bit of pain they've inflicted on our brother before we even allow Asmo to deal with them. "

The demons nodded as the doors to the castle swung open. There waiting for them was Diavolo's ever so capable butler, Barbatos.

"Good evening," The ancient demon smiled, "Here to see the young Lord, are you?"

Lucifer would only nod as Barbatos led the way.

Levi paced about outside Mammon's room. How does he even begin to approach this? The thought was almost enough to send the Avatar of Envy scurrying back to his room.

"No, Levi your brother needs you right now! Ruri-chan would never leave someone who needs her behind so you won't either!" He took a couple deep breaths before opening the door and hit his brother who was coming out of the bathroom with the door. Mammon stumbled and just barely caught himself before he could take a tumble down the stairs.

"Damn, Levi," the Avatar of Greed groaned as he held a hand to his lower back. "It's like you're tryin' ta take me out..."

"I'm sorry. I thought you were still in bed and I-"

"It's fine. I've had worse, what's another bruise?" Mammon attempted to force a smile- to crack a joke as he leaned against the railing. "So what's up? Need something?"

"We all know what happened to you, Mams..." Levi frowned. "Asmo figured it out when we were having a family meeting while you were out of commission." He only watched as his older brother shoulders tensed up before relaxing.

"It's funny right?" He let out a bitter laugh, "I'm s'pposed ta be this big strong demon, but I end up getting tied down and used like a glorified sex toy- a cheap whore... fourth most powerful demon in the devildom my ass."

"No, its not funny." the purple haired demon frowned. "We all feel so bad for you. Personally, I can't even begin to imagine what you went through. I feel bad. There were a lot of nights were I saw you coming home super late. Part of me wonders if I had reached out to you then if we could've found out sooner..."

"It wouldn't have done anything... They ordered me not to talk." Mammon had a distant look on his face. "Even if I could've, I wasn't really all that there. After the third time, it just got to be too much and I just checked out. I don't actually remember coming home most nights... just waking up in bed like it was all some horrible nightmare..." At this, Mammon started to move down the stairs and took a seat on one of the couches.

Levi followed him down, talking a seat on the opposite end of the couch. "Why did you do this to yourself? The not eating and sleeping I mean."

"The nightmares just got to be too much so sleeping just became not worth it and I don't really know why I started starving myself.... one day I just... couldn't eat- at least not more than a few bites every couple of days anyway. If I had anymore than that it was hard to keep down. Maybe it was the guilt I felt that was making me sick..."

At his brother's word's the demon cocked a brow. "Guilt? Why do you feel guilty? You didn't do anything wrong."

"I feel like I cheated on Arella- like I didn't love her enough to fight harder against the witches. Levi, ya don't understand. I finished- multiple times at that so I must've enjoyed it deep down..."

The Avatar of Envy's jaw dropped at that statement. "That doesn't mean anything! So what if you finished? It was just a physical reaction to a stimulus. Its the same as sneezing when someone tickles a feather under your nose. A-and cheating's only a thing that can happen when both parties consent to it. It doesn't count if you get raped- at according to humans anyway."

"It still doesn't change the way I feel though. Honestly, I'd be surprised if she still even wants me at this point."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm damaged goods, Levi. You know what women down here are like- humans can be like that too... they don't want a guy who can't protect himself from somethin' like this cause that means he can protect him."

"Yeah but not Arella!" Levi stood up a deep frown on his face. "She's different and you know it. I can't believe you would even say that about your own girlfriend."

Mammon only frowned at him. He grabbed a blanket that had been draped over the back of the couch and cocooned himself in it. "I know 's a stupid thing to think, Levi, but 'm not used to someone like her. If I was datin' any other girl she'd have left me on the spot."

"I-I'll be back," Seeing his older brother this way, seeing the Avatar of Greed in this bad of shape, the purple hair-demon realized he was not the person most equipped to deal with this sort of thing. Instead he would go get Asmodeus, certain that the Avatar of Lust was the only person who could really help their brother. "I'm going to get Asmo."

Mammon would only watch his brother go silently. In all honesty, he was greatful to his little brother coming to see him. He did need someone to echo the words his human had said to him earlier even if he himself wasn't yet convinced.

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"Asmo, there's an emergency!" Levi just barged into his brother's room as Amsodeus looked up to him.

"What happened? Is Mammon alright?" Asmo looked up at him, pink to yellow gradient eyes filled with worry.

"Physically but he's in a real bad place mentally." Levi looked down. "Even back when our insults got to him so bad he wanted to.... unalive himself, he was never this bad. Arella’s still busy with making food for him and I wasn't any help, but as the Avatar of Lust you know so much more about how to help a victim than I do."

"That was the next stop I was planning to make after gathering up my nail polish and other tools but all that can wait, I suppose." He gave Levi a reassuring smile. "As long as you attempted to reassure him that this was never his fault to begin with you've done more than enough." The demon rose placing a hand on his older brother’s shoulder. "Don't worry, Levi. We'll get our brother back to his old self eventually- It make take a few years and many late night talks with all of us but it will happen. Given the right support, a victim can heal. Maybe not completely, but at least enough where its not the only thing they think about and Mammon has always been a resilient person.

The Avatar of Envy only nodded as he and the strawberry blonde demon walk out of his room together.

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"Mammon, I'm back," Arella called as she entered the bedroom carrying a tray with two bowls of cup noodles placed on it. When she noticed him starting blankly at the screen of his D.D.D, her stomach dropped at the thought of those monsters daring to contact him again. She made her way down the staircase as quick as she could without spilling the bowls on the tray. When she got to the glass coffee table, she placed the tray on the table and placed a hand of his shoulder. "Give me your phone, Love." It was an order Mammon was all to eager to follow, practically shoving the device into her hands as he buried his face in his hands. "I made you two cups. Eat as much as you can, even if its only a few bites."

"I'm sorry. Please don't be mad. Don't leave me because of this..." The demon's voice quaked as he looked up at her.

"I promise I won't. No matter what's on this screen, I'm not leaving you for anything."

He could only nod as he picked up a cup as Arella took a look at his phone. She frowned at the messages on written in the group chat.

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Masterlist 2

#tw victim blaming #tw mention of mental illness #tw mention of rape #obey me #obey me shall we date #obey me swd #obey me! shall we date?#mammon angst #obey me lucifer #obey me mammon #obey me leviathan #obey me satan #obey me beelzebub #obey me oc #arella

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actress4him · 3 years

Text

Querencia 9 - Trying

(Day 3 of Whumptober 2021)

Taglist: @darthsutrich , @inky-whump , @lave-whump

Previous | Next | Masterlist

Fandom: Original work

Warnings: lady whumpee (no whumper), referenced fantastic prejudice, referenced panic attack, referenced homelessness, panic, touch repulsion, trauma

No. 3 - STICKS AND STONES MAY BREAK MY BONES BUT…

taunting | insults | “Who did this to you?”

Nari and Jamil sit at the kitchen table for a long time after Liliana rushes out, lost in their own thoughts. Jamil is probably berating himself for feeding the kid bacon, and Nari knows she should talk to him about it, but she can’t seem to pull herself out of her own spiral of, What do we do? How can we possibly fix this…fix her?They’re in way over their heads. Yeah, they all came into this team with their own types of trauma, but not like this. She’s not a therapist. None of them are. That’s what the kid probably needs, a therapist, but somehow she gets the feeling the suggestion wouldn’t go over well.

Jamil is actually finally the one to break the stormy silence. “Um, do you want some breakfast?”

Normally she’d get it herself but he needs something to do right now, something to make himself feel better about what just happened. “Sure. What you’re having is fine.”

He busies himself getting out eggs and firing up the stove.

“You had no way of knowing.”

He nods without turning around. “Yeah, I know. Still feel bad, though.”

“I know.” She sighs, drums her blunted fingernails on the table top. “It’s gonna take time.”

At this he spins around, still holding a brown egg just a shade lighter than the palm it’s cradled in. “What…what do you know, do you know anything more than what Quinn told us? Where she’s from, what happened to her?”

Nari shakes her head. “Nope. She spoke more this morning than I’ve heard from her so far…if you don’t count the things she was saying in the hall last night. I’m hoping she’ll open up to us eventually, but…it’s gonna take time.”

Jamil chews on his lip, thumb rubbing over the smooth surface of the eggshell. “Probably has something to do with her powers, huh?”

She offers him a small, sad smile. “Probably.”

Jamil is one of the lucky ones. He grew up in India, where the revelation of people with powers had gone over quite differently than many other countries. He has two loving parents that were happy to encourage him in exploring his powers. There had never been a day when he had to be afraid for his life because of what he could do…until he came to the U.S. and joined their team, of course. Sometimes she wonders if he ever regrets his choice. He’s the heart and soul of their little family, though. She can’t imagine not having him here.

Shaking his head, he turns back to the stove and cracks the egg on the edge of the counter. “It’s been what, two years now?” He doesn’t have to specify that he means since Frost saved that burning building and turned everyone’s view of Supers upside down. “When are we gonna stop having to deal with the fallout of people’s stupidity over ‘Nons’?”

Nari leans onto her elbow and fiddles with her eyebrow ring. “I wish I knew, dude. I wish I knew.”

Thankfully Nari is able to coax Lili out of her room for lunch fairly easily. The door opens to a practically brand-new person, obviously having taken advantage of the shower after breakfast. There are no more streaks of dirt across her face, and her once frizzy, tangled hair frames her cheeks in soft curls.

She looks like the kid she is. A nineteen year old girl, according to Jamil, who should be starting her first year of college or working at Starbucks and hanging out with her friends going to parties and concerts.

Not living on the streets. Not having panic attacks because she thinks she’s going to be in trouble for healing someone.

The only thing ruining the illusion is the baggy long sleeve tee that used to be white, and the navy blue lounge pants that are streaked with mud and pool around her ankles. And, of course, the ever present gloves, threadbare as well. Nari makes a mental note to slip some of her own clothes into the dresser in Lili’s room, at least until they can take her shopping.

Not much is said over lunch, a simple affair of various kinds of sandwiches. Liliana manages to eat one with only jelly, and the rest of them pretend very hard to not be watching her like hawks.

Nari and Alex both invite her to hang out with them afterwards, but she shies away and retreats back to her bedroom.

The next couple of days pass in the same way. They barely see her except for meals, though she is eating more and more. Jamil has made it his personal mission to come up with things for them to eat that are simple but interesting. Nari is able to get a few pieces of clothing to Lili, and, though it takes her a while, she eventually shows up wearing some of them. It’s a change that brings a smile to all of their faces. The subject of shopping, though, seems to throw her into a near panic, and Alex saves the day by quickly changing the subject before she can make another hasty retreat.

On the third evening, she finally gives in to their requests to hang out, much to everyone’s surprise and delight. They’re taking turns playing sports games on the Wii, something Quinn insists on them having because, “If you’re gonna burn your brain cells staring at a screen, you might as well get a little exercise while you do it.” It seemed like the best option for Lili, since they had no idea if she had any experience with video games.

She spends most of the time curled up in the armchair, separate from everyone, not making a sound. But she’s here. She’s present, with the team, seeing them behave together like friends, like a family, and that’s gotta count for something. Nari is encouraged by it, anyway.

She’ll get there. This is a good first step.

It seems like an even better step when Alex somehow convinces/coerces her into taking a remote and joining him in a game of archery. She looks so small next to him, silhouetted against the big screen, and her hands shake so badly for the first couple of rounds that she barely hits the target.

But she doesn’t give up. She doesn’t run away. And little by little, as they all encourage and cheer her on, she seems to even relax, her virtual arrows hitting closer and closer to the center.

It’s enough to bring a smile to Nari’s face.

Then the game ends, and Lili loses badly, of course, but everyone still cheers and she seems the most comfortable she’s been yet. Not smiling, but not stiff and cautious, either.

Until Alex puts a friendly hand on her shoulder.

In the blink of an eye she’s crumpled into a pile on the floor. Nari isn’t even sure to start with what happened, it’s all so fast, but she is sure that Lili is kicking frantically against the floor, trying to get away from Alex. Immediately he drops down to her level, apologizing, but the damage is already done, despite the fact that none of them have any idea what the damage is or means or how to keep it from happening again. As soon as she’s far enough away from him to deem it safe, she bolts to her feet and runs out of the room.

In the silence that follows her exit they all hear the quiet clicks of her bedroom door closing and locking.

“I…I don’t know…I didn’t use my strength on her, I promise, it wasn’t that hard. And I could have sworn she saw it coming, I made sure she was facing me first before…” It’s rare for Alex to be at a loss for words, but he just shakes his head and drops down the rest of the way to the floor.

Quinn sighs. “It’s okay, Alex. We know you didn’t mean to. I think it’s safe to say that any kind of touch is off limits for now, though, until we find out more.”

Nari is still staring at the doorway where Lili disappeared, her heart aching at the sudden leap backwards in progress, at the fear she had seen flashing in Liliana’s eyes in the near-darkness. “Oh, jagiya. Who did this to you?”

“I don’t know.” Jamil steps up next to her, eyes trained in the same direction. “But whoever it is, when I find them I’m gonna make them wish they’d never laid eyes on her.”

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nothing-more-than-hot-leaf-juice · 4 years

Note

What would an Azula redemption arc look like?

First things first: I hear this thing a lot about how “Azula deserved a redemption arc” and while I don't think Azula was irredeemable, that’s not to say that she should have been redeemed nor was she in the right place to be redeemed during the series. Post-series, I think Azula could have gotten better, but I don’t think “redemption arc” is the right phrase for it.

Second, I hear a lot about how Zuko should have been the one to go on a “life-changing field” trip for her redemption arc and I don’t think it’s that simple, nor do I think Zuko would be the right person to help her become a better person. The fact of the matter is that even though they are siblings, they spent a good part of the series trying to kill each other. Azula shot lightning at Zuko in the first episode of season 2, they both almost killed each other in The Boiling Rock and The Southern Raiders, and Azula tried to kill Katara during their Agni Kai. They are siblings and I do think they care about each other deep down, but the fact of the matter is that their relationship was hostile and damaged. Repeated murder attempts aren’t a thing either of them is going to get over quickly and they aren’t the type of thing that’s going to make it possible for Zuko of all people to be the one to help Azula heal. There’s also the fact that he’s a teenage boy dealing with his own damage from his abuse and just because they had the same abuser doesn’t mean he’s going to be the right person to help her heal.

An Azula redemption arc would in no way be the same as a Zuko redemption arc, but let’s first examine why his redemption arc worked in the first place:

I’ve written more about Zuko’s redemption arc and why it works here. But in terms of him making amends, the big reason why his redemption arc worked was because it stemmed from him choosing Iroh over Ozai. It was his recognition that the unconditional love and support Iroh had shown him was right and the cruelty and conditional acceptance Ozai had shown him was wrong. And further, it was his realization that he was right all along in terms of being compassionate and his father was wrong when it came to the war. He recognized that all the war was needless suffering because he had seen the real human cost in season 2. And through that journey, he saw that the people of the Earth Kingdom didn't deserve the destruction the Fire Nation was bringing on them and realized they had been wrong the whole time. And his betrayal of Iroh was the catalyst for his redemption arc because Iroh realized that already and spent season 2 trying to get Zuko to embrace compassion and peace. He spends a lot of time after he joins the gaang wondering “what would Uncle do?” and tries his hardest to do the things that will make his Uncle proud. Even though Iroh showed him unconditional love upon their reunion, Zuko still put the work in to do right by Iroh in order to make up for his betrayal.

“He’s the one who’s been a real father to me.... It was cruel and it was wrong!”

Another thing that needs to be made clear: Zuko’s redemption arc worked because he spent time making amends with the people he hurt, but not just because he wanted to make amends, but because he genuinely related to and wanted to help them with their struggles. He was able to make amends with Aang, Sokka, and Katara by relating to their dilemmas and doing everything in his power to help them through their own emotional struggles he also struggled with. He helped Aang overcome a fear of firebending because he too struggled with finding a way to see his element beyond destruction and harm. He helped Sokka “regain his honor” by helping him at the Boiling Rock because he knew what it was like to fail at something and have a person he cared about bear the consequences of his actions (Sokka with Hakoda and Zuko with Iroh). And he helped Katara find the person who killed her mother because he understood what it was to have the Fire Nation take away his mother. Zuko understood their pain in these specific cases and leaned his hand not only to show them that he had changed, but because he had changed. It was because he genuinely understood and wanted them to overcome their problems. He wanted Aang to find his inner fire, he wanted Sokka to regain his honor, and he wanted Katara to be able to find closure because those were all things he wanted for himself. His acceptance into the gaang wasn’t ‘do X thing and then that made up for how he hurt them’ or ‘said he had changed and felt bad and that was enough’-- it was the combination of his genuine remorse, his ability to relate to them, and the actions that stemmed from that.

“You can do it, you’re a talented kid.”

“You need to regain your honor? Believe me I get it.”

“I know who killed your mother and I’m going to help you find him.”

So the main takeaway: Zuko had the capacity to be good all along but needed the right influence and before he made amends with the people he hurt. He needed to heal a little bit himself, confront the fact that he was hurt too, and change on his own before confronting the gaang.

So for Azula to have a redemption arc, she would need to do the same. She would need to address the people she had hurt and Zuko was one of the people she hurt the most. That’s why Zuko wouldn’t be the person to guide her on the path to redemption. She’s the one that needs to do the work to make amends with him (this isn’t to say that Zuko hadn’t hurt her in fights before, but she was the instigator of most of their fighting). But before she’s able to do that she would need to do some work on herself.

The thing that’s going to make it difficult for Azula to get ‘redeemed’ is that Zuko had a war to change sides on. There was a tangible conflict for him to help the ‘right’ side with. Post-war Azula doesn’t have that. She doesn’t have a Firelord to help Aang defeat or a war to help end.

But another thing that’s going to make it hard for her is that her actions were objectively more harmful than Zuko’s were. Zuko spent season 1 trying to capture Aang, but there were multiple instances where he chose to put others before his search: he chose not to leave the Southern Water Tribe alone, when Iroh was captured he chose to save him from the earthbenders rather than go after Aang, and during the Storm he chose to keep his ship safe rather than go after Aang. He never intended to hurt Aang, even though his actions were harmful. The worst things Zuko did were as follows: burning Kyoshi village, capturing Aang in the North Pole, betraying Iroh in Ba Sing Se, and sending the assassin after Aang. But in all these cases, there was either someone else with worse intentions or he did tangible things to make up for them or the actual consequences weren’t that bad in the end. Kyoshi village was fine, Aang escaped his capture, he committed treason for Iroh, and he risked his life to stop Combustion Man.

So what exactly does Azula need to redeem herself from?

1. Repeatedly trying to kill Zuko

2. Almost killing Aang in Ba Sing Se

3. Sending Mai and Ty Lee to prison

4. Conquering Ba Sing Se/wrecking havoc on the Earth Kingdom in general

5. Hitting Iroh with fire (The Chase) and sending him to prison

But again, she doesn’t have the outlet of war to tangibly show that she’s changed sides. And for most of these actions, it’s other people that dealt with the consequences. Katara healed Aang and Zuko after Azula shot them. Zuko helped Iroh after Azula shot him and Iroh busted himself out of prison. Mai and Ty Lee were released without her help. The Order of the White Lotus freed Ba Sing Se. She doesn’t have a clear way to make amends for the damage she caused.

So she’s not going to be able to make personal amends with the gaang. Mostly because there’s no reason for her to do so. Zuko was able to because they needed a firebending teacher for Aang and their goals were aligned. Azula doesn’t have that. That’s one of those things that’s just not going to happen because neither party has a reason to want to make amends.

I don’t think she’s going to be able to reconcile with Mai and Ty Lee after what she did to them. She was going to hurt the people they cared about and at the first instance of disloyalty, their childhood friend threw them in prison. At the Boiling Rock, Mai betrayed her because she was going to kill Zuko and Ty Lee betrayed her because she was going to hurt Mai. Neither one put Azula in danger, but she still tossed them aside when all they wanted to do was keep the people they loved safe. They move on from her after the series and find new people to surround themselves with. They were entirely justified in deciding to cut Azula out of their lives after how she treated them.

And in terms of Zuko, again, they spent a good part of the series trying to kill each other and I’ve written about the complexity of their relationship and Azula in general here, here, here, and here. But the point is that they spent most of their lives pitted against each other by Ozai and they have some serious resentment and hostility towards each other. This isn’t their fault, but it’s undeniable and that hostility is something that’s going to make it impossible for Zuko to be the right person to help Azula heal. He shouldn’t have to if we’re being honest because of how outwardly violent she was to him. But more on that later.

So because of these things, I think Azula’s redemption arc would have to parallel Iroh’s.

It’s talked about a little bit, but Iroh was at one point militaristic and destructive. When he was kidnapped in season 1, the earthbenders called him a war criminal. In the flashback of Zuko Alone, we saw him laugh about “burning [Ba Sing Se] to the ground”. In between Ozai’s coronation and Zuko’s banishment, Iroh let go of his need for military victory and learned to focus on spirituality and peace. This is when he joins the White Lotus and starts to see the faults in Fire Nation propaganda, especially after he lost his son in the process. But what I think is important to remember about Iroh is that he faced the dragons long before his son died. In The Firebending Masters, Zuko says that Iroh allegedly killed the last dragon “long before [he] was born” and they deemed him worthy anyway, despite the fact that he still went on to use his bending abilities to conquer the Earth Kingdom. This means that the dragons were able to see deep inside of him and that gave him a greater appreciation for firebending not as a weapon, but as an extension of the self. So if Iroh had that chance when he was younger, before he decided to live peacefully and help others, Azula might have that chance too.

And Azula is a prodigy at firebending, but the reason Zuko and Iroh are better than she is is that they recognize firebending as energy and life. They use it to keep them warm and they incorporate other bending techniques into it. We only see Azula use firebending as a weapon, never as a tool. She considers firebending something she has to conquer rather than something that’s a part of her. And she thinks this way because that’s what she was taught her whole life, but like Zuko, she needs to understand her element beyond its ability for destruction in order to accept that she herself has the capacity to be something more than a destructor. Azula determined her self worth and the worth of others by their strength and abilities. In order for her to move past this mentality, she would need to go to the dragons.

And this might be the place where Iroh can step in for her. I’ve written about the dynamic of Azula and Iroh’s relationship (or lackthereof) here. But during the series, Iroh’s priority was to protect Zuko and Azula just happened to be one of the people he had to protect Zuko from (see The Avatar State, The Chase, and The Guru.) If Azula were to face the dragons, she might want to kill them in order to prove herself as worthy since that was the mentality of the Fire Nation, but if Iroh were to connect with Azula in any way it would be though firebending. It would be in guiding her to the dragons and showing her the true meaning of the element.

Second, and again like Zuko, she would need to recognize how she was hurt by her parents. There’s that scene in The Beach where she mentions how she was hurt by how her mother treated her, but doesn’t actually talk about it. It would be beneficial for her to verbalize how her self image was warped by how Ursa viewed her. Azula seems to realize that how Ursa favored Zuko over her wasn’t right, but she doesn’t understand that the way Ozai treated her was wrong either. She relished the praise her father granted her and didn’t recognize how he used her for her abilities and didn’t value her as his daughter. So a big part of her learning to become better would be recognizing that the way Ozai treated her was wrong and that she has value beyond her ability to carry out his orders. Azula needed to have her own “it was cruel and it was wrong” moment now that Ozai’s in prison and she’s not beholden to him. And it would take her time to come to that conclusion, but she could get there eventually. Through all of this, Azula really just needs her mental health addresses over anything else.

And for her to truly be “redeemed” (for lack of a better word) she would need to do two things: she would need to prove to Zuko that she was remorseful for how she hurt him and she would need to prove to the world that she wasn’t seeking destruction anymore. Let’s parallel to Iroh’s redemption arc again. Iroh changed in small ways by helping those around him, mainly Zuko, but his redemption from his years as a general for the Fire Nation and his actions in that regard came in his freeing of Ba Sing Se in the finale. That was his moment of redemption. Azula, being the conquerer of Ba Sing Se, would need to have a moment where she proves to the world that she’s going to work for the greater good over personal glory or her father’s orders. There would need to be an opportunity for her to use her abilities to save people, most likely from Ozai’s supporters.

And in order for her to reconcile with Zuko, she would first need to be genuinely remorseful for how she hurt him and would need to recognize how Ozai hurt him. For most of the series she relishes in his suffering and if she’s going to truly be redeemed, she would need to first, be genuinely remorseful for how her brother was hurt and second, take steps to show him how she doesn’t want to hurt him anymore. In the finale, we see just how fractured their relationship is as she shoots him with lightning and Katara heals him. In season 3, Zuko learns to heal by letting go of the family that hurt him and finds a family that’s going to look out for him and protect him. If Azula is going to prove to Zuko that she’s changed, she would need to act as his protector. Maybe from an assassin or something along those lines, but she would need to put all her efforts into showing him how she’s changed, similar to how he risked his life in stopping Combustion Man to prove to the gaang how he changed.

And it’s very possible that they’ll never have a good relationship, but if what we’re looking for is an ‘Azula redemption arc,’ that’s what needs to happen. And Zuko isn’t required to forgive her or have her in his life. The fact of the matter is that Azula hurt him and the people he cared about repeatedly. And just because they were hurt by the same person doesn’t mean she didn’t hurt him too. They very well may never have a ‘good’ relationship, but that doesn’t mean Azula wouldn’t be able to get better on her own.

I think if anything, Azula might be able to immerse herself in firebending. That’s something she understands and that she’s good at. But in order for her to find peace within herself, to move past the mentality Ozai and Ursa instilled in her, and to become a better person, she would need to follow a spiritual path. She would need to go the route of Iroh. Azula doesn’t need to be any kind of military leader or fighter. What she needed was to recognize herself as something other than a weapon, because as long as she valued herself for her combat and military abilities, she was going to seek destruction. In order for her to heal, she needs to recognize that her ability as a prodigy doesn’t mean she was meant for power or destruction, but rather it’s a gift. Azula is an incredible bender, but she didn’t appreciate herself or the true meaning of the element. And if she’s going to move beyond ruthlessness and callousness, she needs to learn the beauty in her element.

In conclusion, an Azula “redemption arc” is easier said than done. Azula’s motivations are sympathetic and it’s obvious that she’s a victim of abuse and manipulation, but she did hurt people in major ways. She hurt people in ways she wasn’t able to make up for and that’s why if she were to become better, she would need to learn to let go of this image of herself as a force for destruction and recognize the beauty of firebending. She might never fully reconcile with Zuko and it’s improbable that she would develop meaningful relationships with Mai and Ty Lee, but the fact of the matter was that Azula was 14 and her actions stemmed from her abuse. Her path to becoming a better person wouldn’t focus on the people she hurt, because they had moved on and cut her from their lives, but rather it would focus on her individual path to growing past the propaganda of her nation and the emotional abuse under her parents.

Azula’s “redemption arc” would not be rooted in interpersonal relationships, but rather would entirely focus on interpersonal growth.

#this got long #went off a little bit #azula #atla #avatar the last airbender #zuko #iroh #ozai #ursa #hot leaf meta #the babes are asking #tw: abuse #spoiler alert: azula needs to meet the dragons #and get some therapy

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utilitycaster · 2 years

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would love to hear you elaborate on your updated Empathy domain thoughts!

So, Transfer Suffering sucks a little less...but not much. It's so crunchy, but like, in a way that makes combat harder to track.

Previously, I (and I think most people) understood the mechanic as this:

When you halve the damage of an attack as a reaction, you gain temp HP equal to your cleric level plus your WIS modifier. On your next turn, when you make an attack (I am still not sure if this must be a physical attack or if spells that require attack rolls count), if hit, you deal extra damage equal to your temp HP, which goes away and you've resolved the suffering. (well. you haven't resolved my suffering but you get what I mean.)

If you do not hit, on the turn following that, you take this damage yourself (ie, loss of the temp HP AND equal damage to your regular HP pool), resolving the suffering.

This episode clarified that alternatively, if you take damage such that you lose the temp HP normally through comabt you don't need to attack or take more damage.

This makes it a bit better in that instead of forcing you into attacking on your turn, you now can alternatively tank. However, this is still a problem, because you're now kind of acting like a barbarian (ie, to maintain something, you must hit or be hit) except you are also a cleric, so the things you need to do on your turn include not just "hit things with a big weapon" and "tank" but also "heal people". You also, unlike a barbarian, are tracking this potentially across 2 rounds of combat while also tracking who needs healing and potentially your sympathetic binding and whatever else is going on.

It's like if Taliesin were playing Caduceus and Ashton simultaneously as one character. It's immensely difficult and overcomplicated. I now understand the premise of it a bit better, and I appreciate that there's a way to try to maintain a reasonable cleric action economy...but it requires you take damage, thus putting the party at risk of losing their main healer.

In short: it's a mechanic based on constant gambles and calculated risks where there's no optimal choice. It requires a player who is exceptionally strong in combat in terms of both martial and casting strategies; enjoys tanking; and is extremely decisive. It also requires a lot of build choices that favor physical stats to actually make oneself into a viable tank and damage dealer (though again, this is less of an issue if spell attacks count...although clerics get no attack cantrips so that's going to burn spells, which means we're just uh, transferring the suffering into dealing with resource management). It also probably works best in a party with a significant secondary healer available.

My feelings on the class have therefore gone from "this should be incinerated in the dead of night and let us never speak of it again" to "It is exceptionally difficult and most players would not enjoy this but there are a handful who might see it as an interesting challenge, though I'd be shocked if anyone wanted to actually play it for a whole campaign unless they were themselves the secondary healer."

#cr tag #critical role spoilers #long post

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ganymedesclock · 3 years

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I would love to hear about Taylor for the powers pspsps thing!

Taylor's powers are arguably very central to the conceit they're in, since I was thinking (as is my vast entertainment) about the rpg format established by things like dragon quest and final fantasy, and how it regards both its heroes, and its final bosses. In particular, a big part of Taylor is they're actually designed to be an inversion of a silent protagonist- I wanted them to be a strongly self-motivated character.

I also made them a healer, which, as I said a bit in my last post, I think healer characters get a bit of a rough shake in that they're often seen as just Nice, Unthreatening, Goodie Goods, which admittedly does make some sense because when you remove abstractions from magical healing you get some questions about like... basically arcane flesh-sculpting, and if you meet someone who can cast spell of bend your organs, you really hope they're on the level.

Taylor's powers are very strongly associated heavily with red thread. Their name is, admittedly, a pun- they are literally a tailor's apprentice as the story starts- and much of their motivation through the story is feeling compelled to try and fix, or tend, to 'abandoned, wounded things'. All of their party members- and themselves- have significant problems, wounds and trauma. I used red because it's a traditionally villainous color, often contrasted against a heroic blue (while I have not drawn them yet, the antagonistic royal couple is heavily blues and whites)

Part of this is deliberately invoking the superstition of the 'thread of fate', and the idea of a destiny bond with my own personal spin, that I don't think we're actually fated to anyone as much as we weave our own threads towards others. This kind of tied into that Taylor, as a person from a small community on an island with a very bleak climate, has a strong personal work ethic and relationship with handcrafts, that they tie directly to taking care of others. If they make a shirt or a baby blanket for someone, odds are very good they know exactly who's going to wear it, and might personally involve things they think suits that person, or that they like.

Much of Taylor's conflicts in the story are about being ripped away from other people, and trying to mend that inciting tear. Their sense of identity, community, and their life ambitions were all cut away. Many times, stories court the idea of the destroyed town, but they make it so that the hero was a foundling with a greater destiny somewhere else, or otherwise leaves it behind and mostly forgets about it, comes to connect with other places instead- as a kind of fantastical, "imagine if you could just leave your boring life that you kind of take for granted and go somewhere else, and yeah you'd be sad if that life burned, but think about how much else you could do-!"

Taylor as a protagonist is a person all about attachment and connection, so, even if their village is fine, being taken from it and lost in another country is actually deeply upsetting to them. It's a huge loss of identity. And that sense of holding and mending ties in well to their undead nature. The human skeleton.... is not supposed to sit together on its own. It's sewn together at many points by ligaments and sinews- so Taylor, as a being completely stripped of flesh, literally has to use their power to hold themselves together. The exposed threads on places like their jawbone, and the slightly ramshackle nature of their glamour as they start to pull it together, kind of deliberately evoke that stress for me- their stability is something they have to keep working on. Like only having one shirt with a stubborn rip in it- mending it will have to happen multiple times, and getting new pieces of fabric or trying new methods to help it stay.

But in a more positive sense, this also talks about how Taylor is actually a very magnetic person. They forge connections with people, and where their vulnerabilities may not always be enough to hold themselves together, those connections they've made to other people are able to save them in vital situations.

This actually comes back to that Taylor is associated with the water element- specifically, they're associated with blood. Blood is a potent symbol, and overt blood magic is a very 'bad guy' domain, but when you think about it, we've long used blood as a symbol of devotion and connection. Sworn brothers-in-arms sharing blood, a "blood oath"- or even in a scary sense, deals with the devil that are binding if they take our lifeblood. Taylor moving from life to undeath devours a useful reservoir they have of themselves- in line with the certainty and confidence they used to have- and while they cannot ever be unmarked by this, they will become able to build a new reservoir of self, identity, and blood, through the connections they have with others and a sort of symbolic transfusion in that sense. The red threads, in this sense, are an easy shorthand for veins, and at times might even take that form directly or emulate them.

It kind of ties in to how another very common "bad guy" trope is viscera, a sense of organic, seething life, life where it shouldn't be- which I've always found interesting when conflicts are often framed as life against death as a one to one with good against evil.

But at the same time, everyone knows that it's the bad guys who pull corpses out of the soil with new vitality, while the good guys can immolate those zombies with scathing force and resurrect their own bloodlessly and prettily.

(Yes, it's because we see in zombies a specter of death and decay, graves dishonored, and such; I'm not saying there aren't reasons for it, but I think that you could just as easily argue the opposite- that perhaps the stuff of darkness is the stuff of life)

Other than the nature and aesthetics of their powers, Taylor has a pretty classic goody two-shoes kind of mechanical 'class'- they play very much like a final fantasy Paladin who balances healing and defense with solid, reliable damage output. A condition Taylor has that's shared by many other characters in their setting is this sense of burnout and the need to maintain a reservoir- Taylor has to balance spending symbolic blood to attack, and keeping enough of it in their body to hold together in both a literal and figurative sense. As a valiant and noble person, they are dangerously inclined to pushing to their limits or waxing too sacrificial- they want to take care of everyone, and sometimes that means there's not enough left to take care of themselves.

#rpg tomfoolery #Taylor the Friend of Darkness #readmore

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grailfinders · 3 years

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Fate and Phantasms #158

Today on Fate and Phantasms we’re making the best blue dog in Chaldea since Cu Chulainn (And also the guy riding him) Avenger of Shinjuku! (If we really want to avoid spoilers, should we be calling them the Rider of Shinjuku?) As always with these servants, it’s hard to go into detail about who they are without spoiling stuff, so keep that in mind before going further.

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

Next up: Funny amogus reference!

Hessian Lobo are mostly a Shadow Sorcerer to summon a big scary dog and other magical nonsense we need stuffed into this spirit origin, but they also get a couple levels of Fighter, because the endgame levels of Sorcerer are bad, and you do hit things with a sharp stick from time to time.

Race and Background: You’re a Human, but you’re also a ghost that haunts a stretch of road, killing all you come across, so that makes you a Revenant as well. (I will tell you now, a lot of headaches would be solved if you just went with Halfling Revenant instead, but human’s still the most in-character.) This gives you +1 Strength, +1 Charisma, and +1 Constitution, as well as a Relentless Nature. This means you gain 1 HP each round if you’re bloodied, you can’t die permanently, and you always know the direction of your DM assigned goal. Once that goal is complete, you die instantly. Bit of a downside, but tbh D&D games take forever, you’ll barely notice.

In life you were a Soldier, and while that doesn’t fit the background of both members of your party, the Athletics and Intimidation training will come in handy.

Ability Scores: Make sure your Charisma is as high as possible, you are terrifying, and you know it. Strength is a close second, because heads are notoriously difficult to separate. After that is Constitution, not only are ghosts hard to kill, but you’re also invisible half the time, which makes things even harder Your Wisdom isn’t bad- you can tell where people are when it’s time to take heads, but you still don’t really have eyes. You don’t really get off your horse that much, so your Dexterity is pretty low, but we’re dumping Intelligence. One of you is literally brainless, and the other is an animal. You won’t be solving Sudokus any time soon.

Class Levels:

1. Fighter 1: Starting as a fighter nets you plenty of goodies, including extra HP and weapon proficiencies so you can use a real scythe. You also get proficiency with Strength and Constitution saves, as well as Animal Handling to keep the king of Currumpaw under control and Perception. You can see without eyes, that’s pretty skillful.

You also get a Fighting Style, and if you really want to play D&D without a head the Blind Fighting style is a must, giving you blindsense in a 10′ radius around you.

You also get a Second Wind once per short rest as a bonus action which’ll heal you a bit. I guess that’s your oblivion correction.

2. Fighter 2: Second level fighters get an Action Surge, letting you take an extra action in a turn once per short rest. I hope you like it, because this is the only way you’ll be able to attack twice per turn for ages.

3. Sorcerer 1: While I wouldn’t call you a wizard, you do some wacky tricks that you can only really do in D&D with magic. Since these come from your being dead/unethical spirit origin mad science, I’d say a Shadow sorcerer is the closest thing in the rules books.

First level shadow sorcerers get Eyes of the Dark, giving you 120 feet of darkvision, which is really impressive for someone without eyes. You also get the Strength of the Grave, letting you make a Charisma save when you drop to 0 HP once per long rest. If you succeed, you drop to 1 HP instead. This doesn’t work on radiant damage or critical hits, but all that makes you more ghostly, so that’s probably fine.

You also get Spells that you can cast using your Charisma. Friends will help you work with your slobbery partner more easily, while True Strike and Sword Burst add a bit of flair to your weapon attacks. You also get the cantrip Mind Sliver to track down your prey.

For first level spells, Mage Armor will help out with riding around in a suit, and Expeditious Retreat makes you a bit harder to escape from. Both these spells can also be pretty useful for Lobo once he shows up.

4. Sorcerer 2: Second level sorcerers are a Font of Magic, which lets you turn spell slots into Sorcery Points and vice versa. You can only have a number of sorcery points equal to your sorcerer level at most, and they refill on long rests.

You also learn the Jump spell to help the King of Currumpaw get around the crowded streets of Shinjuku.

5. Sorcerer 3: At third level you get two Metamagic options to alter your spells. Subtle Spell lets you cast magic without somatic or verbal components- very useful when you don’t have a mouth. Twinned Spell will let you cast spells on two targets instead of one, which is great for making both you and your ride invisible.

Enlarge/Reduce might not seem that useful, but trust me you’ll love it in a bit.

6. Sorcerer 4: Use your first Ability Score Improvement to bump your Strength up a bit for stronger melee attacks.

The cantrip Message will help you get around that whole “no mouth” thing to talk to your party members, and your first bit of Invisibility will make sneaking up on your target a breeze.

7. Sorcerer 5: Fifth level sorcerers get Magical Guidance, using your sorcery points to re-roll failed ability checks. I’m not saying the Hessian is magically glued to his saddle or anything, but you never see him fall off, do you?

You also get third level spells, like Hold Person, which makes taking peoples’ heads off so much easier.

8. Sorcerer 6: As a sixth level sorcerer, you finally get your Hound of Ill Omen. Using three sorcery points, you can summon a hound as a bonus action, targeting a creature within 120 feet of you. It’s mostly a Dire Wolf, with a few changes:

It’s medium, not large, and a monstrosity, not a beast.

It gets temporary HP equal to half your sorcerer level.

It can move through solid objects as if it was difficult terrain, taking 5 force damage if it ends a turn in something.

The hound automatically knows the location of the target at the start of each turn.

On top of all that, it can only move towards the target, and can only use its action to attack the target. Also, the target gets disadvantage on saves against your spell while within melee range of the hound. The hound disappears after it or the target hits 0 HP, or after 5 minutes.

The big problem here is the size; you’ll either have to use Enlarge/Reduce to ride it, or just Be a Halfling.

Either way, you can also use Haste to double a creature’s movement speed, give them an extra action each turn, and boost their AC and dexterity saves. The creature also has to take a turn to rest after the spell ends, but that’s probably fine.

9. Sorcerer 7: Seventh level sorcerers get fourth level spells, like Dominate Beast. I know I just said Lobo technically isn’t a beast, but it’s the thought that counts.

10. Sorcerer 8: Now that you have a mount, we can get Mounted Combatant, giving you advantage on attacks against creatures smaller than your mount, and they get evasion. You can also force attacks that hit them to you instead. Don’t do that though, you’re a sorcerer, and Lobo can be rebuilt on a bonus action.

You can also Charm Monster this level, which comes with the added benefit of actually working on your wolf.

11. Sorcerer 9: Ninth level sorcerers get fourth level spells, like Greater Invisibility, which lets one target become invisible for the duration regardless of how many heads they take off.

12. Sorcerer 10: Tenth level sorcerers get another Metamagic option, like Extended Spell. A lot of your spells are buffs, and it would be awkward for that invisibility to drop when you’re halfway through a hunt.

You also learn Minor Illusion, because I couldn’t really come up with a sixth cantrip to give you but now you can make your cape look cooler, and Hold Monster. Just ask Sanson, a disappointingly small number of the things you fight are actually human.

13. Sorcerer 11: For your fifth level spell, Tasha’s Otherworldly Guise both makes you scarier and makes you a stronger fighter, making you immune to Fire and Poison damage as well as the poisoned condition. You also get +2 to your AC, gain a flying speed, and you can attack with your weapon twice per action, using your charisma instead of strength, and it counts as magical damage.

14. Sorcerer 12: Speaking of, let’s bump your Charisma up a bit for stronger Strength of the Grave saves and better magic.

15. Sorcerer 13: Lobo is now so fast you can Teleport as an action, moving you and up to eight willing creatures to a destination on your plane of existence. There’s a slight chance for failure that goes up the less familiar you are with the destination, but that’s probably fine.

16. Sorcerer 14: At fourteenth level, shadow sorcerers can Shadow Walk, letting you teleport between areas of dim light or darkness within 120 feet of each other as a bonus action.

17. Sorcerer 15: Your seventh level spell, Dominate Monster, finally lets you put Lobo fully under your control. He might not like it, but he’s only alive for five minutes at a time anyway.

18. Sorcerer 16: Use your last ASI to max out your Charisma for the toughest saves, strongest spells, and strongest attacks while using your Otherworldly Guise.

19. Sorcerer 17: Speaking of strong spells, you can now use your Blade of Disaster to cause disaster for anyone banking on an intact neck. You can create a magical blade that deals two attacks per bonus action, dealing 4d12 force damage on an attack. On a critical hit, the damage is tripled instead of doubled, and it crits on 18s or higher. Also, it can pass through anything, including a Wall of Force.

To make that even scarier, you can cast it as an Empowered Spell, letting you reroll up to five damage dice each attack.

20. Sorcerer 18: Your capstone level gives you an Umbral Form, letting you use a bonus action to become a shadow that can move through physical objects and has resistance on all damage besides force and radiant for a minute. You take 5 force damage if you end a turn inside an object.

This is especially useful given the fact that you have a ride that can only go forward, and already moves through objects itself.

Pros:

Once you lock onto a target, it’s really hard to shake you. With a hasted dire wolf, you can go 100 feet per round, you’ll always take the shortest route possible, and they literally can’t hide from you.

Two levels of fighter on any sort of caster is very useful, thanks to your action surge giving you an even better version of Quickened Casting.

Mounted Combatant is a nice enough feat, but it doesn’t do too much to help out here since a lot of your spells aren’t really attacks. That is until you realize Blade of Disaster makes melee attacks, and Mounted Combatant doesn’t specify it only works on weapon attacks. This means you can make all those attacks with advantage, further increasing your odds of getting enormous crits with each swing.

Cons:

The reason that great combo above doesn’t quite work is simple, though: You need your concentration focused on keeping your mount around at all, since without Enlarge/Reduce you’re stuck with a medium sized wolf. That also means you can’t haste the wolf and ride it. Or turn it invisible. Or even charm it.

The biggest problem here is Flavor. You can either do all the cool things Hessian Lobo does, or you can ride the wolf. These are mutually exclusive, unless you A) are a halfling, B) have a cool DM, or C) just invest in a horse.

Despite being a frontline fighter, all those levels of sorcerer make you incredibly Squishy. With a low AC and low HP, you’ll have a hard time sticking around without your invisibility. Normally this would be made up for thanks to your mount keeping you out of trouble, but your wolf only knows how to run even further into danger.

#FGO #Fate Grand Order #D&D 5e #DND #Avenger of Shinjuku #Fighter #Sorcerer

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rapifessor · 2 years

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Thoughts on 2.7 Special Program

I’m definitely late to the party at this point but I wanted to make a post about this topic so fuck it. Let’s talk about the Genshin Impact Version 2.7 Special Program. I would have posted about it earlier but unfortunately the Genshin Impact YouTube channel was ERROR, so I wasn’t able to watch it before I had to go to work today.

Obviously the centerpiece to the whole thing is Yelan and Shinobu. At least, that’s the part that I cared about the most and paid the most attention to. The rest I didn’t give much of a shit about but some of the system changes are kind of interesting. We’ll get to those in a bit.

I am immediately a fan of Yelan’s Elemental Skill. It could do crap damage and I’d still love it because of the SPEED, man. I just have a thing for high mobility in video games, and it kinda makes me wonder if you couldn’t abuse the ability for non-combat purposes. If it’s affected by movement speed bonuses the same way Sayu’s Skill is, then hell yeah.

The Elemental Burst I sort of already knew about, basically it deals damage and then it functions similarly to a Xingqiu Burst. Meaning Yelan will probably be a great replacement for or second copy of Xingqiu. I’d be shocked if she didn’t deal similar or greater damage than him, considering she’s a 5-star character. That’d be a pretty big miss on HoYoverse’s part.

Her passive talent that gives the active character gradually increasing damage during her Burst’s duration seems really good, but she also has a weird one that increases her Max HP for each different element you have in the party. I like that HoYoverse is exploring this design space and trying to encourage elementally diverse parties, but why HP? I didn’t hear the Special Program commentators mention that she had HP scaling so that just seems like a total waste of a Passive Talent on a character we are told is meant to be a DPS. I dunno, maybe she does have HP scaling and they just didn’t mention it. One can hope.

Now onto Shinobu. I found the description of her kit to be very basic, unfortunately. Conceptually she’s very interesting. An Electro healer that sacrifices her own HP to heal her allies is a really cool concept. It kind of reminds me of the color philosophy of Black in Magic: the Gathering, in that it’s a color that can do almost anything that the other colors can, but it usually has to pay life or sacrifice creatures to do so. The analogue in Genshin now is that Electro isn’t a “healer” element, but now it can be. It just needs to sacrifice HP to do so.

But at the end of the day she’s just another healer that also deals some damage and can maybe support Electro-based reactions. I’m kind of expecting her healing and/or damage output to be mediocre at best since she’s a 4-star character and I think HoYoverse never wants there to be another Bennett/Xingqiu/Xiangling (aka insanely broken 4-star characters). I won’t lie, I was kind of hoping she’d be good because I think she’s hot. I’ll still use her of course, whether she’s actually good or not. And who knows, maybe she will be and I’ll be surprised. But I won’t get my hopes up.

Lastly, I’ll briefly cover the “system optimizations” that were talked about at the end of the program. It’s basically a bunch of tips for players to help them strengthen their characters and complete domains more easily. High level material domains will suggest strategies for clearing them faster, and in the character menu there are new buttons that allow you to view suggestions for which Talents to level up next as well as which stats to use on your artifacts, based on data collected from other players. Cool stuff, but I’m already at the point where I’ve pretty much solved Genshin Impact and personally I’d rather watch a detailed guide video to decide what to equip my characters with.

Phew. That was a marathon of a post. Gonna wrap this up here and get back to Genshin so that I can do my grinding for tonight’s Project 888 update post.

EDIT: Oh yeah, I forgot to mention how one of Shinobu’s Passive Talents increases the healing and damage of her Elemental Skill base on her Elemental Mastery, which is just... ew. You would think that HoYoverse wouldn’t pull that shit a second time after the community’s dissatisfaction when they did it with Miko.

The problem with Elemental Mastery scaling is that it’s such a weak stat for Electro characters. I get that HoYoverse wants Electro to be an EM-based element and that’s fine, but they need to make it worth it first. As things stand, Electro characters just benefit more from ATK than they do EM. Electro-based reactions need a buff to their scaling for Elemental Mastery to be good on Electro characters, and the one we got before wasn’t nearly enough. We all know Anemo was the real winner there.

#genshin impact #thoughts #analysis #genshin 2.7 #yelan #kuki shinobu #genshin yelan #genshin shinobu #long ass post

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burns-art-account · 3 years

Photo

Mmm, free time after online school, we love it.

Anyway, I had some thoughts on Ember, so I decided to draw her. I tried to tie the fire aspect more into her design, especially because yellow/red and blue/purple fire contrasts so well.

Backstory, headcanons and thoughts below: warning, somewhat graphic depictions of death and feeling aware of you being a being

Backstory:

I imagined her to be a more reserved, quiet girl from a really small family, meaning her and her parents and some distant family members far away. When still alive she wasn´t really out going and kept to herself, unfortunately keeping her from making friends or crossing somebody´s thoughts for more than a few seconds. She didn´t get bullied, peers were actually rather polite to her. But that´s it. They quickly forgot about her again because nobody really considered her as a friend.

Amber is no one in the public´s eye, just that girl that lives in the old wooden house further in the trees.

For her, it felt like she truly was nobody, like there wasn´t anything resembling a person in her that was worth noticing. It nagged at her, feeling like a shell you feed and take care of so it doesn´t break, but she had no idea why she took care of it. Who she took care of. It was a truly numbing feeling, which didn´t help her feel more like a person she wanted to be. Holidays came, school closed. And it was in this time she tried to “build” herself, an identity people wouldn´t forget after five seconds, someone people wouldn´t ever consider when planing parties or anything. She took guitar lessons ever since she was little, now was the first time she realized she didn´t like the melodies. She didn´t like the soothing, the taking for granted and then forgotten. She came to realise she likes the loud, the unapologetic tones people either hate and shout about, or adore and feel with. Music sticks with people. Amber didn´t like her style of clothes, the colours were muted and the fabric felt like a cage, so she took different paints and scissors and made them hers. And she also didn´t like how plain her face looked, so she bought some eyeliner and tried it a few times. Fifteen tries before she found the style she liked. It surrounded her eyes in black and made them stick out.

She never got to establish herself as a living human being.

Her house burned down with her and her parents in it at night. Somebody tried to make a campfire in the woods near her house and fucked it up. She woke up from the heat, but there was no way she could escape, her doorway was a burning ruin, not letting her escape even if she tried. Jumping out the window wasn´t worth it either, she lived on the second floor, and due to the layout of the land around their house she´d fall a greater height straight into some rods left from construction work in their garden. She couldn´t bring herself to iimpale herself on them, Amber was frozen in a corner awaiting her death.

She saw her limbs burn before the pain and smoke killed her, dying afraid of her demise and regretting life choices.

She was feeling weirdly light, and could feel painful tugging on her arms and legs. Or what was left of them. Her skin being blue and purple only registered after. She tried to grab some of the ruins left from her former home but fell right through them. Suddenly she was awfully aware of her existence, sobering up from her pain and coming to the realisation how she didn´t survive. That the pulsing in her body wasn´t her heart and bloodstream, that the exposed bones from her hand weren´t like the ones from her biology books from school, like the ones before she woke up. That her flesh wasn´t red.

She never saw her parents rise. Didn´t see them looking at their mangled corpses, feeling the same way she did. It´s ironic, she thought, how identical “Amber” sounded to “Ember”. Ember never came back to this place.

Amber was no one in the public´s eye, just that girl that lived in the old wooden house further in the trees before it burned down.

But Ember would make herself known, would make them remember.

Headcanons:

- Ember saw her mangled limbs before she died and unconsciously shaped her body to look like that afterwards. After indulging in what she would´ve liked to do alive, she realised her body changed. Her fiery temperament is shown through her hair, her skin is healed, like she healed from most of her trauma from her death, and the beforehand almost unnoticable freckles shine like embers now. She realises she can change her appearance by “realising” it

- She actually changes her clothes and hair styles quite often, depending on the situation

- When she befriends someone she gets really protective of them, going as far as almost burning down a guy who demanded she hand him his “girlfriend´s” drink the young woman entrusted Ember with.

- She isn´t truly evil or wants anyone to suffer, she causes trouble for attention because she has no idea how to get positive attention as a ghost in this town, especially now that she already caused so much damage

- The trio figures this out at some point after they learn to engage and ask questions first; shoot later or never. They make peace and help her deal with her obsession in a safer way. Her and Sam actually become good friends, cause many of their likes overlap in one way or another

- Ember herself isn´t afraid of fire anymore, she learned to embrace it and it doesn´t have to hurt her. But she hates seeing the alive, especially kids and teenagers, close to open fires

- Since Danny doesn´t like being a ghost at first, rejecting that side of him every chance he gets before he finally came to accept himself, he never realised that his physical appearance was tied to his own perception of himself. Ember helps him with that and encourages him to take some freedom with it, he has a secret identity after all

- Ember and Val aren´t best friends, but they respect each other. Ember respects Val enough to keep away from her while she is at work and school when she´s around. Valerie respects Ember enough to leave her alone when she finds her singing to an audience

- Despite having a music taste which contains alot of swearing, she herself doesn´t swear all too much, actually reserving it for snapping moments because “going off” helps her release steam

- While Danny is cold to touch, especially while emotional, Ember has a high temperature that gets even hotter while emotional, like standing to close to a fire

- While alot of her attacks are based on music and sound, many are based on fire, some even using both. One being a soundwave that, although, not as strong as Danny´s ghostly wail, burns whatever it hits, which can and will result in big fires consuming whole places

- Her physical form is based on her perception of herself, which involves a lot of emotions, but the fire she creates and causes, no matter how far away she is, will change colour based on how deeply she feels at the moment. Yellow and red are the beginning of the spectrum, blue and purple the end

- She likes to continue being a teenager, buying herself a phone and, with the help of technus, getting it to work normally

#danny phantom #ember mclain #drawing #headcanon #backstory #Ember #dp #fire

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