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the-eldritch-it-gay · 9 months

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26, 27, and 35 for majexatli!

What was your favorite enemy? Did your Character have any memorable fights or moments in combat that were ripe for headcanons and interpretation? (26)

I think the battle I remember most was the battle with Nere, I think in part because god to put it mildly it did not go well. The party comp was Wyll, Majexatli, Karlach, and Shadowheart. And for. Probably 2 rounds of combat both Wyll AND Majexatli were downed. This did happen a couple times, Shadowheart was on the other side of the battlefield so she could only do healing words to try and get them up and she did run out of those. And you know, since Majexatli is in a relationship with Wyll and Karlach, what a start to a relationship huh, where two of you are bleeding out next to each other over and over again while the other is decapitating people over your unconcious bodies ñlskdflñdflsññfld.

With regard for combat interpretations/hc... I think the most has happened in regards to Majexatli's wildshape and they're not all entirely from true combat. Which you know, makes sense, Circle of the Moon druids, their whole thing is fighting in wildshape. A side effect of wildshape is that if combat ends and you immediately go into a cutscene, obviously you can't be the one talking in the cutscene so it always switches to one of the companions and they have to talk or be the focus of the screen instead. So I think I kinda decided that actually, that kinda fits Majexatli, especially at first. For the entirity of act 1 and most of act 2 they have a +0 charisma. So like they are not the best person to be talking to someone, nor do they want to. So I imagine Majexatli avoiding conversations with npcs by just not dropping wildshape after battle. Similarly, Majexatli uses wildshape a lot out of combat. Sometimes just for fun (shout out to all the times I wildshaped a bunch just for fun and then forgot to long rest before a battle!). Do npcs freak out a little when there's like, a deep rothé or whole ass owlbear wandering around indoors? Yeah.

The other thing that came out of combat is, about you know. Just considering with Majexatli The Mental Toll that comes with tanking a lot of damage in wildshape and being forced out of wildshape because your wildshape form gets killed and then wildshaping again. Especially because. Majexatli has,,, lets just say some history with being killed in wildshaped before the whole tadpoling. So narratively I imagine part of Majexatli's transformation over the game has to do with the repeated dying in wildshape and its toll on their mental health. Cuz as I've said. To me these look like two different people.

Who ended up in your Character's most used party? (27)

Shadowheart I think is the one who Majexatli almost always brings along. Majexatli is a druid and can do healing and some support, but also they can´t do that when they´re too busy tearing people limb from limb with their teeth in wildshape.

As for the others, it generally tended to be a rotating cast. The usual makeup was something like

Majexatli (tanking damage and doing some spells)

Shadowheart (support)

Karlach/Lae'zel (general fighting. Tactics wise the lean towards Lae'zel because Lae'zel's jump distance and action surge can be really helpful. But they favor Karlach because Karlach does actually approve of Majexatli's decisions along with doing good damage and because she's their girlfriend.)

Wyll/Astation/Gale (this last spot was filled in depending on what seemed good to have and/or who Majexatli wanted to spend the most time with.)

Has your Character done anything that they regret in Act 1? (35)

I think there's probably a few things. The two biggest ones are that they failed to save Mayrina (they killed the Hag but didn't manage to get her from the cage in time), and also that the guy from Waukeen's Rest who they saved from the burning building did die while Majexatli was trying to help him search for his wife. (I guess I as the player had assumed npcs wouldn't willingly walk over fire but the guy had one hitpoint and stepped in one of the countless flames. and i didnt have a recent save so I just went forward with it.)

In general I also think they wished there had been a few less casualities at the goblin camp. While Majexatli used non-lethal damage and just rendered people unconcious for the most part on anyone temporarily hostile who wasn't one of the 3 leaders, there still were some deaths and while the goblins were trying to kill them, they still didn't feel great about it all. I think there were a couple times where Majexatli really questions their use of lethal force after the fact.

#Eldritch IT Answers #thedragonagelesbian #eldritch it speaks #OC: Majexatli #long post

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semi-imaginary-place · 11 months

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finishing ffxvi

endgame lore dump time! ultima+fallen discovered magic and created an advanced civilization. the use of magic caused blight so they abandoned their physical bodies and went to a new land (a new world??? why else bother with becoming beings of spirit) and that was Valisthea. but they also brought the blight with them to valisthea, so part 3 of their plan is to make a 3rd land/new world free of blight. the mothercrystals were collecting aether to power the creation spell. ultima created humans to farm out a vessel capable of holding the power.

if they wanted to go the whole pilisophical debate on how free will is a burden, they should have developed that more through out the game. the weight of choice and the weight of consequence by. because clive doesn't make all that many weighty choices in the game, save the ship of sinking orphans or save the tower of burning orphans but you can only choose 1. that type of stuff. like maybe have clive go interact with the mothercrystal cities and see how their destruction has directly ruined these people's lives. Like i think half of valisthea is dead since the start of the game, could have framed that through the lens of choice. or they should have made a Dragon Age branching paths game although that makes it incredibly hard to make sequels as games like Three Houses or Origins can attest.

well everyone in twinside is dead.

oooooh after clive sucks a dominant. if they try to prime they go berserk. ooooh yeah that explains why he didn't have shiva and what happened with titan because that was never explained well. im surprised dion is willing to risk going berserk given that that exact thing happened just a short time ago and led to the destruction of his beloved empire.

i've given up on jill as a character, im fine with her being a side character, this game is the joshua clive show, but if they were going to sideline her they should have done so from the start instead of building her up as a main character only to drop her story line off a cliff. and get rid of the romance, the romance adds nothing to the game and actively makes it worse, its just a distraction from the rest of the story. having Jill be a side character is fine, reducing her role in the story to that of Clive's girlfriend isn't ok.

sidequest time: sabine might be sheltered but i do agree with her. why is a rosarian secret organization headquartered in dhalmek?

the reason i didn't understand why jill couldn't prime after clive absorbed shiva's aether was that at the very beginning of the game its established that the phoenix shares its blessing with its shields. Its established as normal that eikons can share their powers and that clive can use the phoenix's power. its only later that the game brings up the plot point that if clive drains someone, priming will kill them or berserk them which isn't explained at all with titan.

the tomes and dion quest may be my favorite. the flower lore continues. the national flower of sanbreque is the same one used for the poisonous tattoo ink used on bearers. our roots do not define us. where the emperor gifted the domesticated flower to dion to shackle him and make him obedient, tomes his other father figure gives him a wild flower to set dion free. for all the things each tell clive, tomes his guilt for not better mentoring dion and dion his crushing guilt of failing not only sanbreque but also tomes, they say very little of that to each other.

they're even going to Origin without Jill, she got sidelined SO HARD, dropped off the edge of the world. Joshua and Dion are both going and they're going to die if they prime. AND THEY DON'T EVEN GO ON AN AIRSHIP there was that whole subplot about Mid designing an airship. a great way to foil Ultima's plan is to keep Joshua at the hiddeway since Ultima needs both brothers.

really boss fight immediately??? where's my final dungeon so long i want to cry and give up.

huh. ultima's kindred/the fallen turned their bodies into the crystal/the mothercrystals (from which all crystal originates). what what happened to that whole dragon corpse thing. unless you're saying they're a hivemind dragon? those made into crystal were meant to be abandoned in valisthea but by destroying the mothercrystals clive has freed them. ok you lost me. presumably 8? 9? eikon statues each with an ultima in front of it and there was also an ultima sealed in joshua. each mothercrystal was actually an ultima, but there were only 5 mothercrystals. im confused.

Ifrit doesn't get a new design new design now that phoenix and ifrit have fully combined? robbed. ROBBED. After seeing the mural the entire game I was hoping to be able to play as the true eikon of fire. they never did explain what was special about the element of fire, i mean why wasn't leviathan or garuda the vessel?

oh clive absorbed ultima. why'd you'd that

clive, didn't we have this whole arc about not sacrificing yourself and going it alone.

so joshua his body falling apart gives the past of his power to clive before dying. clive beats up ultima and absorbs him. clive then restores the damage on joshua's body/tries to pour phoenix back into him before deciding to kamikaze black the entirety of origin. He's then implied to have died of the curse from using too much power on the shore and jill's reaction later. joshua is implied to have survived and written the story in the epilogue. hey clive maybe if you just sliced the crystal like you did the others you might not have died.

or apparently the lyrics hint that clive wrote the story in joshua's name and clive was looking at the moon. who knows i dont care anymore.

the joshua and clive scenes in this last part were good and the rest of it was bad

this story is wack. one of the least coherent stories I have seen in some time, the further on it goes the worse it gets. and it started so strongly too or perhaphs because of the prologue format. it brings up plot threads only to drop them character arcs go no where, it thematically backtracks and double crosses itself. it tries to do 17 themes without tying them together.

FFXVI feels like some mix of got, dragon age, final fantasy, but worse than all of them.

ambiguous and concrete endings are equal, it is about what purpose each serves. what does an ambiguous ending add to the themes, to the atmosphere, to the storytelling? what does a concrete ending add to the themes, to the atmosphere, to the storytelling? on a personal level i enjoy the mastery needed to craft a subtle and good ambiguous ending. however the ambiguous ending here doesn't help any part of ffxiv

#ffxvi #ffxvi spoilers

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xmoriartea · 1 year

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So after our last lovely scry of the evening, we learned a few things: Strahd was taking the merfolk and turning them, Rahadin was in full gear war mode, and Nadia had been taken and was already turning others in the lake.

We had work to do.

While most of us slept in the Tiny Hut inside the Inn, the artificers Kalina and Tanner got to work prepping everything we needed. Silver powder. Ruby dust. Some bombs. You know, average supplies. Leaving the clerics their requested supplies, Tanner and Kalina then went to meet with... the elves.

Kasimir is my cleric's least favorite person, but only because Alkali isn't counting Strahd and Rahadin as people. BUT Tanner rightly guessed, Kasimir and Patrina also wanted to see Rahadin suffer, and so he supplied them with spellbooks (since as "GUESTS" of Ravenloft, theirs were confiscated) to gain their assistance.

Patrina was fucking giddy and sprinted off with hers to prepare and I'm betting this girl never needed the promise of vampirism to be blood thirsty. Kasimir kinda just grimaced a lot and looked at his sister like 'something's going to burn down, okay, lets come to terms with it now.'

For the Record: Tanner, a whole ass day later, still hasn't told Alkali, because he has an INT of 20 and she has a SPITE of 30

On the way back to Kalina's place to pick up some other things, our vamp courier friend Lexx came streaking like a bat out of hell towards Tanner demanding to know what she just delivered to Strahd.

APPARENTLY Strahd DID NOT like Tanner's Very Thoughtful prosthetic gauntlet and DOES believe in killing the messenger.

Tanner apologized, explained, and watched a vampire get somehow more pale. He then told her she best get out of Vallaki asap cause it was about to become a No Go space for all undead, and he didn't want her hurt. Chased by vampires and werewolves, maybe, but not hurt.

And because he's an Artificer™, Tanner had been having ideas. Ideas about motes and running water around the town, connecting the water to the lake, etc. Tanner didn't have the time for this, but he knew two crotchety old women with specialties in moving parts and liquids.

Kalina's grandmother Ethel and the local alchemist Faraga fucking hate each other, but they're the best in their games around. Big "If she dies who the fuck do I harass?" energy with them. Tanner found a questionable temp youth potion from the Bonegrinders... and he was offering it to the victor.

So while the rest of us fool are dealing with vampires, these two horny and hateful old women were racing to invent plumbing out of sheer spite - you love to see it.

What you DON'T love to see is Tanner trotting over to the tannery where he left Strahd's fucking HAND to be turned into a GLOVE because he AND the lowercase-t tanner are both absolutely fucking haunted.

Thankfully, Alkali had already drained the hand of its blood for her own haunted uses.

Meanwhile, since all this shit was happening at like 5am, around 20 minutes to sunup, Alkali got to work. Planning to do the ritual downstairs in the inn, she had a word with Denica about using the floor space and was told she'd received post.

Alkali was handed a letter with achingly familiar handwriting, and sort of felt her stomach drop. A vistani man had dropped it off, but it was marked with post from the port where she was supposed meet her twin.

She had no idea how this letter got to her, what this possibly meant for her brother, and she really really hated to think on it. She had just held Mina through her grieving and now had to go save 1 of 2 mertwins she promised to protect — THIS was already too much sibling crisis without factoring in her own.

So she put the letter away, trusted her brother was Far Far Far Away from this, and actually got to work with Forbiddance. Now. Forbiddance is a damn good spell. But it's not Protect the Town good. Vallaki's pretty big.

But you gotta love a fish with faith huh?

Her casting of the spell at the heart of the town was amplified by the town's guarding Saint, a being Alkali once animated the bones of to also defend the town in new and exciting ways, leaving them in her debt. This spell rolled out like crashing waves to the walls of Vallaki and held.

Now the fun thing: all of Alkali's magic is wet. It's just how it be when you're an Umberlee bitch. So for the first time EVER, these landlocked, lake-fearing Barovians are all hearing the sounds of waves and ocean, like she just slapped seashells to all of their ears.

Now there was some unrest about that, and maybe we should have given Burgomaster Ismark a heads up, but eh. They're fine.

As long as you hear the sea in Vallaki, you're safe.

Back together again, the party split up once more with the majority going to find horses and Tanner and Alkali off to pay Lady Wachter a visit. Von Holtz had promised to send us a carriage to speak face to face, but we were on a time crunch. Fish to save. So. Horses.

Lady Wachter... we know she's fucky. We don't know her whole ass deal, but we know Things™ and we know she's pro-Strahd even if she sat on the Vallaki Council. So Tanner made it quite clear that she had a choice. She either heed our words and understand Vallaki (and thus herself) were in danger OR we eliminated her as one of those dangers. She was Not Pleased. But we promised her we could be more rewarding than Strahd if she swore herself to the town entirely.

Restoring her family seemed to be the incentive she needed (but never a knock a death threat).

That all set, off to the Von Holtz estate we went. Along the way we saw your fun and casual and totally new roadside grave, sensed some undead lurking in the woods, and just sort of rushed on by all of it because it's a Ride to the estate and this was only a bullet point on our to-do list.

We get there, we stated our business, and we were asked to wait. 5 minutes. 10 minutes. 20 minutes. We joked that this motherfucker was taking so long we could have cast Forbiddance in here. For funsies.

Von Holtz arrived, said he didn't expect us so soon, and sat across from us. Now. We're quite the party with our NPC friends, six strong. And dear Kalina... is a newfound Paladin of Gond. The moment he walked in, she nudged Tanner under the table because her God Senses were tingling.

So not everyone knows, but things start to... feel off. Tanner runs the conversation, having been the one to strike the deal about trading some manner of protection to Holtz for the dragon skull in his study. And the rest of us start to... pay attention.

As the deal proceeds, Tanner moves to shake Von Holtz's hand, and holds out his left one, putting Holtz in a position to do the same. But Holtz strictly holds out his right. Because for as much as it SEEMS he has a left hand...

he doesn't anymore. We have that in a bag.

And the moment Tanner asks why he didn't like the gift, all the remaining pieces fit into place and we realize we're in a small room with Strahd.

It fell quickly into mayhem. We were not prepared for THIS encounter exactly, but we made do. He pulled some funhouse shit and melded into the walls, as these runes started flashing around the room and we realized we were locked in.

(Oh, and don't worry. The hellhound there is ours. His name is Bandit.)

We started busting down the door, we know we did some Good Startling hits to Strahd before he vanished, but the goal was to get out, get the skull, and Peace. We mostly all got out, he showed himself again, AGAIN tried to fish and bag Arabelle, but I twin Reaper cantrip'd him (thank you Death Domain) and the fish and the polymorph dropped.

Then we started wailing on him.

Maybe we don't run yet. Maybe... Maybe we see if we can mist him. Or—

A few of us dropped to 0 when the runes in the room went off, but Mass Cure Wounds is a very good scroll and they're back up. We got... wildly close to making him HURT, but he just phased into the wall and was gone again, so we move.

Fool just keeps underestimating us though. He had prepared to give us the skull. Had had it loaded onto our cart outside well before we realized what he was. So Tanner shrunk it, shoved it into the bag of holding, and we Booked It to the lake.

We short rested out there, everyone checking in on each other, and Tanner gave Kalina the protective ring he was going to give Holtz. Alkali squinted angrily at a boat out on the lake, but most importantly, we recovered so much HP. Oh my gods were we low.

And it's about this point that I, Kaitie, started to run through EVERY Fucking Encounter with Holtz and shriek a little now knowing he's Strahd. Lads. I said so much shit to his face with a smile and a courtesy and he couldn't do shit. I WINED AND DINED HIS BRIDES WHILE HE WATCHED. Bless.

But I'm also left thinking of the original 'deal' Von Holtz wanted to strike where we let Arabelle and Rowan stay at his estate for a time and how he PROMISED Strahd would never know and I just

BUT we still had to get in the lake and see the damage. No rest for the weary in Barovia, folks.

#barovian currents #curse of strahd #this was HALF of a session #JUST HALF #so much shit went down that note omfg

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coalitiongirl · 3 years

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Fic Recs (under 300 edition)

So I wanted to get back to reading Swan Queen fic regularly, and I asked people to rec longfic that they'd read (not written) and loved that had fewer than 300 kudos! I haven’t read most of these, but I’ve collected them here so y’all can go through the list and discover some new fics with me! Please try to kudos and review every fic that you read! It means the world to the writers and will keep em writing, and then we all win. 😁

Atonement by SgtMac (M): With Regina's magical heart failing thanks to years of previous evil, Emma and Regina and Henry (and Granny!) set out to save her life by traveling to the Enchanted Forest and requesting help from ancient magical beings known as the Guardians. Given a mission as simple as it is impossible - to achieve atonement by creating peace - the ladies find themselves joining a rebellion and fighting for the very soul of the Enchanted Forest all while trying to help Regina to understand that the self-loathing and guilt which have driven most of her actions don't have to doom her chance for a new beginning or even, a chance to live and love again. A S4(ish) SQ love story set against the turmoil of war and the chaotic savagery of the old world.

Blood and Sand by cheshire6845 (E): A/U The Savior is a slave forced into the role of fighting as a gladiator for the House of Hearts. The odds are against her survival as she will have to win in the arena, navigate Cora's schemes, outlast a general's vengeance, and not be killed out of spite by the current House of Hearts Champion - Regina the Undefeated. This story follows the major plot points of Starz Spartacus with some twists along the way.

But what if there was no time by KizuRai (M): When she wakes up, it's dark. She can't move, she can't see, she can't feel and she can't hear. Where am I? She feels a forceful oppression, pressing her down, draining her of her energy and she's powerless to stop it. How did I get here? The question of here is relative, she's not even sure where here is. What happened? There must be some reason for being stuck here but her memory is fuzzy, like all her thoughts are being sifted through a filter. Who am I? She's not sure if she actually exists or she suddenly became sentient in the darkness.She hears a voice reverberating in the distance, it's distorted and quiet but she hears it all the same. It breaks the monotony of the silence. Someone's coming for her, they will get her out. She's just not sure she wants them to as the price might be too great.

Finding Home by evl_rgl (T): “I wanted to remember you so badly that I pulled back your cursed town just so that the memories would make sense. I needed you so badly that even when I had no memory of you, I still tried to find you.” Regina gave Emma and Henry memories of a happy life together before they fled Pan’s curse, leaving them with no memories of their lives in Storybrooke. However, when the memory spell shows signs of failing, threatening to rip apart the minds of both Emma and Henry, Regina makes a drastic choice to go back and fix it, understanding that it will mean living alone in a world where her son doesn’t know her. Was the spell really faulty, though? (swanqueen)

Five Flames by MariaComet (U): In the past, Emma Nolan disconnected from her peers in high school, preferring to keep to herself. In her sophomore year of high school, she decided to try and join the boy’s wrestling team because she was bored. She didn’t expect herself to become the champion of the most bullied kid in school or the secret best friend of the school queen. She also didn’t expect to join a club that would change her life. In the present, Emma is trying to cope with a humiliating loss in her martial arts career. She claims to be “training” but is stuck in limbo between wanting to retire and try again. She is isolated from her former best friend, Regina Mills, a local celebrity chef and the rest of her old friends. When one of them calls her with an idea to honor their deceased teacher, she is confronted with unresolved feelings and questions about how powerful love truly is.

A Glamour of Truth by PrincessCharming (T): After 2x10, Regina uses magic to show Emma the obvious truth. A tentative trust forms between them amid hilarious bickering. With Emma's help, Regina struggles to regain a place in her son's life... until Cora arrives, wanting her daughter back. Pieces of Regina's past emerge showing that the board was set long before the game started. The final battle begins soon.

His Dark Materials 'verse by MoonlitMidnight (M): A modern Alternate Universe in which Dæmons (the external physical manifestation of a person's 'inner self' that takes the form of an animal) are present. In which Emma and Regina have led slightly different lives and they make slightly different choices.

How Many Miles to Avalon? (WIP) by RavenOutlander (E): Regina would do anything to save Emma from the darkness and bring her back home safe and sound. Even put up with the two idiots, Captain Guyliner and a bunch of dwarves she decidedly wanted to drop off at the nearest exit. But in their search for Emma, they find that she might not need that much saving after all. Caught up in a search for the infamous Philosopher Stone, an all out war between DunBroch and Camelot, and ghosts from the past to haunt her every waking moment, Regina finds herself scrambling to keep her and her family's happy endings from falling apart.

The Hyperion by FrankenSpine (M): After wishing upon what she believes is a shooting star, Emma Swan finds herself aboard the Hyperion, the royal starship of an alien Queen from a faraway galaxy. She quickly learns of the tensions between the Queen's people and her own, but the Queen takes an interest in her and agrees to take her away from Earth forever. Adventure awaits. *(Loosely based on Guardians of the Galaxy with just a hint of Farscape)*

If Wishes Came True (It Would've Been You) by Angeii_K (M): After Regina films a guest appearance on her friend Neal’s popular show, he invites her to spend the weekend with him and his girlfriend. What she never expected was to actually like the woman. Sparks fly between the two, which results in them questioning everything and making choices they will later regret. 4 years later, they meet again in the most unexpected of ways. Now co-stars on the same show, they are forced to work through the emotions from their last encounter. What will happen next? Only time will tell.

The King Doesn’t Have To Know (WIP) by highheelsandchocolate (M): The White Knight had never seen anyone like her before: the Queen was nothing short of mesmerizing. Her possessive yet neglectful husband, however, was another thing entirely.

The Lich by Dangereaux (M): Gay disaster Emma, exasperated Regina, and a monster. A Halloween special.

Maybe if We Close Our Eyes we Can Reach the Stars by wellthizizdeprezzing (T): Emma is a lonely astronaut. Regina is an adventuring alien. Their paths cross leading them onto a journey of new discovery. Between galaxies and many miles of cold black space, despite not speaking the same language, they manage to fall for each other. An out of this world love story.

A prisoner long forgotten by sugarsweet_19 (M): ‘I wish I had a child as white as snow, as red as blood and as black as the wood of the window-frame. Soon after she had a little girl, who was as white as snow, with lips as red as blood and with her hair as black as the ebony of the window-frame. She was therefore called Snow-white.” This is how our story starts but how will it end?The evil queen as been locked up in a tower and forgotten that is until princess Emma looks for a place to hid from her parents after they tell her she has to marry Neal the son of the dark one.

Revenge of the Three Little Pigs by mskyo (M): Regina and Emma find themselves alone and looking for the rest of their party. The Evil Queen must face the consequences of her past actions. Will Emma come to her aid, or understand that justice must be served... *Some chapters have fairly graphic sex, and violence*

Things I Almost Remember by cheshire6845 (T): A/U Despite an oncoming war between the Dark and the Light, Emma and Regina are best friends growing up in the Enchanted Forest. When war does come, they find themselves on opposite sides. Regina will have to defy her mother to save Emma. Will Emma be able to save Regina when Cora curses her daughter to live in the Land without Magic?

What We Make (WIP) by DiazTuna (M): “My mother.” He says calmly. He’d known all along, she’s aware. But he’d known that today would be the day that would get this going. She wants to ask what it was like, to have woken up this morning, laced up his boots and walked into hell just knowing. “It’s programmed the cyborg to kill her. Before I have a chance to be born.” -In which the leader of the future sends his best soldier back to the past to save his mother from a killer cyborg. Terminator AU.

The Wrong Way by pcworth (M): Takes place right after Zelena steals Regina's heart. Zelena offers Regina a chance to go back in time with her and change both of their lives for the better. But what will be the price of that decision. Slow-burn to SwanQueen

zombie trash by 13pens (T): Zelena could have her brain and eat it, too. Fic operates on three premises 1. this takes place in any universe where zelena is a reformed asshole 2. zombies are a thing and exist iZombie style 3. i have NO chill

#swan queen #fic rec #ouat

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absolutepokemontrash · 3 years

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The Demon Bros Play DND!

Who’s ready for some Stupid Headcanons?

So, the Satanic Panic of the 1980s claimed that the tabletop RPG known as Dungeons and Dragons had the power to turn your children into satanists and devil worshippers. So of course, the brothers have totally played DND after hearing about all the human world nonsense.

Lucifer the Back-up Back-up DM

He’s too busy to play this game dammit, stop inviting him! What do you mean both Satan and Simeon can’t DM the one-shot? Ugh... fine.

Despite all his UUUUUUUUGGGGHHH, Lucifer is a damn good storyteller, prepare to be immersed as hell.

Also, sorry guys, he’s a rule whore. If something’s against the rules, YOU AREN’T DOING IT.

He’s also a complete sadist who will randomly get everyone to roll perception checks for NO REASON.

Lucifer has definitely stood up and slammed his hands on the table while giving a description for extra effect, Mammon screamed and nearly fell out of his seat which REALLY ruined the mood.

“Everyone, we’re rescheduling, I’m too busy.”

He’s been a player a few times, and he’s NOT good at it. All his characters end up being really generic and boring. He’s better at being the world and everything in it, not the dummy wandering around it.

Human/fighter lookin’ motherfucker

In conclusion, he’s a good DM, but he’s probably too busy to play.

Over-Powered Self Insert (Mammon)

This game is for nerds! He’s not playin’, Levi!

Fine, his character is great and amazin’ and is also him. MC! What do these numbers mean-

Mammon’s the type of player to make his character a self insert and not take it too seriously, then get really REALLY attached as the campaign progresses.

He’s the type not to make a backstory for his character either, so go wild DM MCs!

He also both purposefully and accidentally metagames a whole bunch. Like dude, YOU know this, YOUR CHARACTER DOES NOT.

Shit he forgot his dice, can he borrow some?

“Okay MC, that’s five points of piercing damage.” “I RUN OVER AND HEAL THEM! I’LL SAVE YA MC!”

Mammon goes out of his way to save MC’s character long before it would make sense in-character to do so.

“Well, as your first man it’s my duty to save your character! You’ll probably be a blubberin’ mess if I didn’t...”

He’s not the best role player, but he’s also not the worst at it either. He tends to break character when things get too serious and he doesn’t know what to do.

Notes who? He came in here with one sheet of printer paper and it’s for doodling only.

He and Asmodeus start the tavern brawls. No question about that.

Theft is very common, he’s stealing from everyone, including but not limited to: the party, the royal guards, the dead enemies, the giant fuck-you dragon that Satan dropped in there to deter Mammon from stealing...

“I’m gonna steal that crown from the dragon.” “Roll stealth.” “Nat 20 BITCHES.” “Fuck you.”

If his character dies, may the Demon King have mercy on his greedy little soul because he’s going to mope about it for a damn long time.

Over-Powered Self Insert Again (Leviathan)

His character totally isn’t a self insert, shut up! He just looks and acts like an idealized version of himself!

He’s the one with twenty pages of character info and backstory AND the amazing commissioned art.

Levi has about 40 sets of expensive blue dice that he claims gives him the best rolls but an average session with him usually leads to roughly 10 crit fails.

While his luck with dice isn’t that good, he’s the player who will get as much out of their turn as possible, AKA break out the calculators and notes we’re doing some math.

His turn goes on for at least ten minutes because of all the shit he’s doing. When you finally think it’s over he goes “I still have my movement!”

Takes notes like a madman, every bit of lore and character info is being written down, meaning it’s a headache for everyone involved if there’s a continuity error because Levi WILL point it out.

“So you all head to the east, the great Valley of-” “Hang on, valley? In the second session you said there was a mountainous area to the east.” “Levi, shut up.”

Levi is the self appointed “guys come on let’s get back on track!” player, and whoever’s DMing is grateful to have him.

Levi is kind of the opposite of Mammon in terms of character seriousness, at first he’s taking everything super seriously and then as the campaign goes on he slowly loosens up and has some fun.

Out of curiosity one day he searches up a magical girl DND class and he’s ALL OVER IT. PLEASE LET HIM BE A MAGICAL GIRL NEXT CAMPAIGN-

Damn good at roleplaying, he’s carrying the entire in-character discussion until everyone else gets into it.

The Done With Your Bullshit DM (Satan)

So, this is the game that’s supposedly summoning him all the time despite the fact that he hadn’t been up to the human world since the 50s... what the fuck is everyone on up there?

It was the 80s, probably a lot of drugs.

When Satan DMs, you can only break the rules if it enhances the story... or if it fucks with Lucifer’s really boring character.

He will fudge dice rolls every once and a while, he also gets very attached to the characters everyone has made so he doesn’t want to perma-kill any of them unless they roll a DND quadruple natural 1 sin or something.

As attached as he gets, he isn’t above completely raging, killing everyone’s characters, and ending the session if everyone’s being annoying.

Don’t worry, your characters will be safe and sound next session once everything calms down... just don’t mention how Satan burned your character sheet right in front of you. It’s your fault if you didn’t make a second copy of your character sheet!

He’s pretty decent when it comes to improv when a player stumbles into something he didn’t plan out, but that’s not going to stop him from getting a little annoyed.

Though, if you somehow manage to get to the big bad too soon... yeah sorry, he’s got a way more dramatic fight scene planned, your player’s getting conveniently blasted out of there.

As a player, Satan is pretty decent at the game overall, but he tends to be a little aggressive if there’s an overarching mystery to be solved.

He needs to understand what’s going on! He doesn’t care if it upends the plot or it’s too early to find out! He needs to know!

His character is actually distinct and different from himself, Satan thinks it’s more interesting that way. All the books he’s read have made him a pretty awesome role player!

Satan’s notebook both as a DM and a player is filled to the brim, no detail is too insignificant to be put on the page.

Satan doesn’t fear dungeon puzzles... dungeon puzzles fear Satan.

“Are you all stupid?! This puzzle is so easy a four year old could solve it!”

I ROLL TO SEDUCE- (Asmodeus)

At first he didn’t want to play, he doesn’t play these kinds of games, sweetie. He’s too pretty.

When he’s finally convinced he puts a decent amount of effort into his character, but leaves the backstory pretty open.

Asmo would probably be the bard... right? No. He’s the warlock with the magic sugar daddy patron, and the warlock patron is spoken to as such.

“Hey baby... how’ve you been? Have I been good~?” “...”

Huh! Who woulda thought that all the bedroom roleplaying would transfer so well to DND!

Simeon is the only DM that doesn’t immediately shut this down, so Asmo will be extra inclined to play if Mr. Nice Shoulders is DMing.

When he gets really into it he buys a bunch of sparkly and very pretty dice, they bring him good luck in every roll!

Asmo has a fictional harem, no question about it. It gets to the point where Satan, Lucifer, and Simeon stop describing NPCs as attractive.

He’s rolling to seduce either way, he’s turned many an antagonist into a lover. To be fair, Asmo’s horniness has gotten everyone out of a lot of jail cells... so they can’t complain.

His notes consist of really random comments about the plot and the other players. It’s also COATED with doodles.

‘Wow, this character is such an asshole, I hope Belphie kills them.’ ‘Shit.’ ‘MC looks so cute when they play their character!!!!!!!! :D’

Poor bab forgets the rules a lot... it’s just too much to remember, okay?! How was he supposed to know that he ran out of spell slots an hour ago?!

Please help him, MC...

*Dice Cronch* (Beel)

Homeboy has been given edible dice, no question. He has also eaten the non-edible dice...

Beel goes to Satan for help with making his character, and he ends up really loving the character! :D

Problem is, he’s not that good at roleplaying... D:

“Can my character eat that person?” “Beel, no- you know what? Let me check what you’d need to roll to do that.”

I’ll save you MC part 2 electric boogaloo, but when it comes to Beel, the entire party is getting protected, no matter how little it makes sense in-character.

While Beel does take notes, a lot of them don’t end up being very important for later events. For example, he’ll jot down stuff about the layout in one room, but it turns out he didn’t take notes for the room that was actually going to be used for a boss fight.

He’s always nice to the NPCs, shame Belphie doesn’t show them the same courtesy.

Murder Hobo (Belphie)

Chaotic evil.

“Belphie, your character’s alignment is neutral good, remember?” “Fuck that, this guy’s annoying me.”

If Belphie doesn’t like an NPC, it’s up to the rest of the party to stop him from derailing the campaign and killing them.

He has space themed dice because cow-man likes space and thought they were pretty.

Notes? NOTES? You think Belphegor, the Avatar of SLOTH, takes notes? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA-

He’s drooling all over the notebook... ew. Someone wake him up and tell him it’s his turn.

He puts about 35% effort forth to make a halfway decent character, and approximately 4% effort to actually roleplay.

Belphie sleeps through important plot details so he’s almost always really confused. He’ll turn to MC and ask them to explain what he missed before not learning his lesson and going back to sleep.

Wake him up for the dungeon puzzles though, he and Satan love those.

“Okay, we can’t see what’s in the room because none of the conscious party members have dark vision?” “Nope, what do you do?” “...I shove Mammon inside and shut the door.” “WHAT?!”

Bonus! The Best DM (Simeon)

Our favourite angel has homebrewed this entire campaign and boy fricken howdy are these players going to enjoy it.

Simeon fudges the dice rolls to avoid anything too irreversibly bad happening, buuuuuuut he’s still a total asshole who does the random perception rolls to keep everyone on their toes.

Everyone gets a character arc god dammit, even if they don’t have a backstory, one will be provided!

He’s got a map, he’s got miniatures, he’s got dice and backup dice for the backup dice, he’s got DM notes for days!

Simeon could be a voice actor with the amount of character voices he can do, no one ever gets confused with who’s talking.

Did someone just uncover a massive bit of plot that was meant to be found out later? Good job! No harm done! Simeon’s DM improv is second to none, and the plot will adjust accordingly!

#Obey me #Obey me!#Obey me Headcanons #obey me! headcanons #Obey me Lucifer #Obey me Mammon #Obey me Simeon #Obey me Leviathan #obey me beelzebub #Obey me Belphegor #Obey me Satan #Obey me Asmodeus #Obey me MC #obey me shall we date #obey me! shall we date?

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prettywarriors · 3 years

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Fate The Winx Commentary

Good morning internet! Today is the drop of Winx: Riverdale edition! I sure hope you're ready for my aggressive and unnecessary commentary, because it is coming for you either way!

The netflix landing page lets us know:

Fate The Winx Saga

6 episodes, 48-53 minutes each

"Genres: Fantasy TV Shows, Teen TV Shows, Italian TV Shows"

"This show is: Emotional"

As mentioned elsewhere, my Winx knowledge is limited, so I will be coming into this fairly fresh and will try to be unbiased. As I have seen trailers, the keyword here is Try.

Episode 1

'To the Waters and the Wild'

CW: Animal Death, Swears, Implied Child Death, Blood, Implied Teen Sex, Burns, Weed, Fatphobia, Whatever the term pussie falls under

Episode 1 TL;DR: We meet everyone, learn their dynamics, have the basics of the magic system beat into us, meet our monsters, and name drop Harry Potter. Standard first episode stuff.

I do want it on record before we start that I got about halfway into the first season of Riverdale, and the first season of Netflix Sabrina. They were, well, bland and boring imo? I did get through a few seasons of Teen Wolf, but that's because it was capable of Fun and Jokes. My current expectations are a few unintentionally funny lines, maybe some almost decent magic effects, and because it's 2021, one whole gay character (I did hear one of the boys (there are boys?) is bi, but also an asshole so I'm hoping for some wlw)

TV-MA LANGUAGE AND SMOKING OH FUCKING BOY Almost full moon (waxing) in opening shot- I Will be tracking moon inconsistencies if it keeps showing up that is a pet peeve but hey look a bunch of sheep That's a good start (it's ominous though. don't hurt the sheep) Swears count: Feckin' 2 Mystical portal barrier. Oh yeah s5 of the magicians is on netflix now WELP THOSE ARE SHEEP GUTS RIGHT OUT THE GATE HUH For CW it's up a tree, and the dripping blood is a good warning of what's about to be seen :( oh and then the man who was looking for the sheep dies offscreen save for a spray of blood. THIS ISN'T YOUR CHILD'S WINX CLUB it seems to say. I assume. How much blood was in the original winx because this is already at least a full cup. (Also the monster noises for whatever was chasing the man (werewolf it was a werewolf trailers are bad guys) were not very good)

Opening credit scene is 5-6 different blooming elemental wings. They're pretty, but it's unclear if the last one is secret 6th member wings (because the second to last ones are fire which is the main character's element right?) so maybe we'll get a late 6th addition? (I am in I.T. please give me the most relatable character you cowards)

KIDS IN THE CORNER BY AMBER VAN DAY PLAYING I like where they shot this but that might just be european woods pretty. The opening location was nice and mossy save for the sheep blood Fancy big stone school establishing shots (it's nice, and huge) and we land on a red head who seems less than pleased to be here Courtyard shot of... whatever the name of the replacment plant girl is, holding a tray of various potted plants for an older man (father? first day of school send off maybe?) Aisha(?) walks by, not talking to anyone, Stella(?) is taking Magical!Selfies with at least 3 other girls, Musa(?) has a suitcase and headphones and smiles at a passing girl Oh boy a boy with a pocketknife doing little tricks with it! Nothing says edgy like an actual knife edge. Gonna take this moment to point out I have some level of face blindness and while the girls all look fairly different from one another, if there is more than one tall blonde white boy as I fear there may be, I WILL NOT be able to tell them apart. Not through maliciousness, just general incompetence, so anything I say about the boy characters (I want to say they're the knights to the girl's faeries? is that right? this whole thing smacks of gender) should be taken with a heap of salt I've come to accept tv just. displaying text messages on screen as a storytelling method. It's never my favorite but it just Is a modern story element. Also Bloom needs to meet stella at the alfea gates Alfea I presume is the school- does the name mean something? It sure feels like the word elf and therefore fae but I don't feel like googling anything this early in Oh look two more blondish tall white boys. Pocketknife was wearing something else i think, one guy has a brown jacket and pink shirt (bad combo), the other looks old even by tv highschool/college standards and his jacket has a jock vibe. Jock jacket also has an earring? Is this the bi character who is an asshole? From this one second of him, only in profile, I will assume yes, he is an asshole I like Bloom's backpack Pink shirt looks at Bloom from across the quad. I am already tired of this romance Cool he walks up to someone he has identified as lost, and is 'impressed with [her] confidence in the face of complete ignorance' COMING OUT OF THE GATE WITH A NEGG HUH PINKY He even states he wasn't offering help Then Why Are You Talking To Her Jackass Subs are going with the fairy spelling, and Bloom confirms she is a fairy and we confirm this is College. Unless this is a european thing where they call schools different things. I think that's just for public and private? And maybe just england? I'm American all they teach us is 1492-ww1 over and over for like. 10 years sorry Rest of the World 'What Realm are you from?' 'California' Speaking of ameri-centric, I'm gonna Guess that original Winx, the italian cartoon, didn't have their main character be from cali usa? I am presuming this is a side effect of making this property for a more global distribution than I'm guessing winx was originally conceived as back in the early 00s The Otherworld. I assume this is the fairy realm and whatnot? And the magic school. Seems to be located behind a magical barrier in the earth realm?? If that's right it seems weird if basically everyone who goes to the school is from the otherworld Pinky doubles down on his rudeness but in a Fun and Cute way because :/ and the Specialist hall is Very Pretty, oh and there's a fairy hall. Are specialists the boy...things? magi knights? bros of the blade? guys who wear those 'here come a special boy' sneakers from that one comic? Stella sees this conversation which is great because they drop the term mansplain. why would otherworlders know that term even??? Edgey(?) sees Pinky and they hug it out Stella knows Americans are the type to wander off so I guess there's a lot of inter-world connections?

Miss Dowling- is this teacher going to be like the pedo in riverdale who got *checks notes* killed off by one of multiple serial killers later on? Dowling is the headmistress, gotta keep the otherworld a secret from earthers, time and place for portal making. all standard fantasy stuff so far, nothing to make this stand out Stella has a gateway ring, and frankly isn't too nice? all the backgrounders clothing is Bland and very normal 7 realms of the otherworld, Solaria is where Alfea is, i like magic globe Incase you forgot this was a modern tale, people update their insta stories here. 'I was kindof bummed I didn't see a single pair of wings' YOU AND ME BOTH BLOOM 'We had wings in the past, transformation was lost, tinkerbell was an air fairy' This is either a cop out for your glittery cowardice, or a set up for the main girls re-finding transformation magic later. I did like the Tink bit Bloom is a fire fairy and the subtext of this conversation is that bloom's magic did Something bad. I hope it was burn down her old school's gym a la buffy movie I like miss Dowling but in the I wouldn't Be Surprised if you turned out to be Evil way, and I guess Alfea is a very privileged upper crust school. What types of college do normal fairies go to then huh? damn privileged fairies 'our students have gone on to do amazing things like re-discover long lost magics' We Get It. You will give me Wings, but Only If I'm Patient Dowling throws a jab at Bloom about power control, but I like her necklace so It's Fine

Bloom video calls her parents while unpacking in the dorm, which may have come pre-fit with a heck ton of board games? Love it. Or new plant girl brought them along with her many plants Stella has a fancy mirror and lots of jewelry and fashion photos and makeup, Musa has a laptop and apparently not much else, gotta get those establishing personalities down I guess 'Ladies of the Flies honey don't be sexist' Bloom's dad for feminist of the year (these jokes are bad but i guess we can call it a dad joke as justification) Asiha gives Bloom a look and saves her from the call with her parents- yay friendship step one achieved Blooms parents think she's in the alps because magic secrets and what not Aisha asks bloom if she's never read harry potter and I guess Bloom is a potterhead (that's the term right?). Is this self awareness that all magical school fantasy series have the same basic bricks? Bloom is a ravenclaw sometimes slytherin, Aisha is a Gryffindor Stella is changing because she's the fashion one and has a fun pastel rainbow skirt, and uses magic to make a real aggressive lamp. She's also a mentor (maybe older than the others by a bit?) I am assuming Stella here is something along the lines of a diplomats daughter the way she talks about appearances. She better get down and dirty later on to show her growth about how some things are more important than looks yada yada Fairy magic powered by strong emotions, i am waiting for bloom's backstory to be movie x-men rogue style tragedy Terra! Which. Of course is the Plant Fairy's name. Stella is a little mean to her about the plants and she takes it with a smile and some subtle snark back using classic literature Oh that's fun Terra points out the name-plant thing, and name drops her cousin Flora. That's. The one they replaced with Terra right? Terra's dad works in the greenhouse at the school which explains earlier (and her mum is named rose) Stella is indeed a second year and Musa's eyes change for. Lie detecting magic? and loves her headphones (Overstimulation?) Aisha wants somewhere to swim and we cut to a 'pond' by specialist training. Assuming she wants to sim because she's a water fairy, why Don't they have a pool? also this pond looks. Unpleasant for swimming

Girl specialist! Does that mean we have boy fairies? Boys. Fighting. Talking about girls. All gingers are nuts. Thanks edgelord AMAZING SHAGS THOUGH 'I didn't realize your hand was a red-head' it's not truly edge if we don't talk about sex every 10 minutes Subtitles earlier only said boy 1 boy 2 but now pinky or edgy is Riv Edgy smokes weed, and pinky is a big brother figure to him, and the head? of the special boys doesn't like edgy. Me neither older guy Bit of swordplay, more girls, every specialist has black training outfits, very military Pinky is Sky who is son of Guy of Place. an important lad. without context this is meaningless to me There's a giggly boy who laughs at the idea of a war in the future and gets a talking to. I suspect this boy will be re-occurring enough to die- he has those tertiary character elements with his intro and such (and he's black so I am prepared for your standard racist murder choices) Burned Ones exist outside the barrier, which makes me wonder if dead shepard was in the otherworld? There was nothing establishing that he was in any type of Other place but :/ Oh look edgey is having a smoke cross the barrier while we learn about the creatures that live beyond it. Time to find out these creatures no one young has ever seen are still kicking Specialist leader had to kill his own pa after a burned one got him. They also. Used a shotgun when trying to fight it. Do specialists even have powers or are they just good with weapons? Edgey finds the shepards corpse. Mostly blood 'it's been 16 years since the last sighting' 'Rosalind killed all the burned ones' ahh magical creature genocide hey when is abarat 4 coming out. and is rosalind hot?

School, gossip, Aisha and Musa are snarking at Tera for thinking the guy died of natural causes because we need to have these characters not actually like each other to make it stand out when they do Aisha talks about how she eats a lot and if she didn't swim she'd be massive and we cut to the plus sized tera looking uncomfortable are we really doing this? Tera points out that Musa was ignoring her earlier and it's all just uncomfortable and not great character conflict (but I thought I saw Musa holding an honest to god ipod? it's blue but it could be a phone case. Her hand is in the way) tera and dad interaction is nice, i'm also convinced they couldn't afford more than 3 magic adults

Girl with braids and metal in her hair! There were witches in winx right? Like 3 minor antagonist girls? I assume this is one of them. Because she has alternative fashion and is therefore evil /s Beatrix. Names in this series leave something to be desired (that something is subtly. I get it, they're carry overs from a series for a younger audience, she-ra had the same issue, but i can still poke fun) Swear count: Arsehole 2 Bollocks 1 Shit 1 She's a weird ass kissing with clearly ulterior motives

Bloom is Studying and her notebook is just FAIRY MAGIC POWER = EMOTIONS LOVE FEAR? HARTED? FIRE FAIRY CONTROL? in case you weren't paying attention Oh a flashback already to the magic triggering event? Her mother had pointed out she's an introvert, and past!Bloom doesn't Party. She goes Antiquing and is a Weird Loner (her 'basic bitch' of a mom's words) Swear count: Bitch 1 Bad daughter count: 1 Bad mother count: 1 Magic glowy eyes for Bloom: 1

Bloom Hates Parties and asks Pinky I mean Sky where she can be Away from People and he fears he'll be Mansplaing to her to. vague that it's dangerous outside instead of saying 'hey there's monsters and someone was just killed by possible one of them stay in the barrier' Stella wants to talk to Sky because they have History. I did hear there was a love triangle between these three. I am bored and everyone at this party is a nosey bitch who is watching their tense conversation. Also Something? Happens when Stella gets upset [mystical warbling] Random magic effects in the (very pretty) forest Bloom is trying to practice her magic on her own, and to do that she's gotta look at sad teen pics. And look, her burnt bedroom from her first power usage The fire magic is pretty good. I think fire is like. the opposite of water when it comes to cg where it almost always looks pretty good, while I swear i've seen the actual ocean look like a shitty render Magic out of control, bloom can't control her emotions, Aisha can stop her with water magic which makes some nice steam Bloom is angry at aisha for saving her. So far 3 of the 5 girls are abrasive at best remember when people made characters likeable? Swear count: Shit 1 (but it doubles as the literal meaning because of flooded toilets) Swear count: Bitch 1 Ass 1 Taking away your teen's door is. Really shitty. Not almost burn down your house worthy but damn cheerleader mom I do not understand sleep shirts with buttons. That seems painful if you lie the wrong way? Her mom was seriously burnt by first magic usage that's a backstory Shit count +1 Main character aspect time: dormant fairy blood line? awfully strong magic for that. baby who died day after it was born and now she's here? ...I was going to say changeling thanks aisha A Barbaric practice loving hints at long term world lore Hell is a bad word for kids!! Cutting to headmistress and her secret passage after finding out bloom is secret pureblood? this really is a harry potter thing

edgelord offers giggly some booze, and says pussies twice because he's Edgey and does peer pressure Tera calls him out and knows he's a sad nerd in disguise not a 'badass' and he says she's 'three people in disguise' because fatphobia shit +1 arehole +1 tera. chokes out edgelord with a vine because she's had enough of this shit. good for her edgelord is Riv, and he lived

OBLIGATORY GOOGLE SEARCH FOR THE TERM CHANGELING REMEMBER BELLA'S VAMPIRE GOOGLE GOD I LOVE TEEN FANTASY AND THEIR INSTANCE ON GOOGLING COMMON FANTASY TERMS OH hey the lamp bloom brought with her is the one she was fixing at home that's a nice touch Stella bonds with Bloom about homesickness, and the takes a selfie Musa is a mind fairy. So she. Is a telepath with purple eye magic? Oh there's types of 'connections' Memory, thought (others but i am cut off from the lore) Stella did Something to someone who Talked To Her Man last year and now lent Bloom her teleportation ring to send her some because miss mentor really cares more about her shitty man then helping the girls she's in charge of First World- earth Old Cemetery? Very Sexy. and bloom sweetie don't leave a mystical gateway open, and how will you explain to your parents how you're back so fast Wait she's only 16? SO this really is some european college where that's a funny way of saying High School Fire guilt, bad feelings about life shattering revelations, better connection with mother. I gotta say I have low expectations of this show carrying the family connection through the rest of this. That conversation felt more like a Hey We Made These Movements Onto Other Stuff Now

Lighting choices are interesting, with green, orange and purple for creepy warehouse. THE Creepy Warehouse where she would sleep without her parent's knowledge wow right that GIRL DROPS THE DAMN RING AT THE FIRST SIGN OF burned one looked more alien than werewolf-y here Decent Horror movie looks, and dude stole her ring. Rude. Saved by the headmistress, and tera/aisha/musa are here to great her Stella can't be here though because she has to greet a half naked freshly showered sky because life is suffering and producers insist people like to see teens half naked (who. Who?) shit +1 and she dumped him. pity part of one and using it to try to get your bone on. HEY A SONG I KNOW. IT'S WHATSITCALLED FROM THE BAYONETTA COMMERCIALS WAY BACK WHEN. in for the kill la roux. I do wish netflix would either commit to telling you what song was playing or didn't tell you at all

Riv offers Beatrix a hit from his joint because what Is a Bad Kid hasn't changed in like 70 years Blowing pot smoke into someone's mouth isn't as sexy as ya'll seem to think it is Musa has cute sleep socks with little pom poms, and I love Tera's floral jammies Tera offers a bluetooth speaker so they can listen to music together Musa also calls out Tera's fake happiness this is the good shit character interaction i live for Musa Empath Mind Fairy 'somber indie music'

If you kill a burned one in the human world Something? Extra bad happens? So the headmistress knows Bloom's a changeling, and ohhh that's the last time a burned one was spotted. Is Rosalind the famed Monster Slayer the birth mother of Bloom? Tera text flirts with Giggly who IS NAMED DANE and has a thing for. Sky? Riv? I told you these boys all look the same to me so if it's a half naked pic on fairy insta i'm out of context clues. Crymeariv is the insta name that answers that. Is this the slow burn enemies to lover mlm i can't finish this sentence i don't care riv is a dick Stella and Sky are in a bed and she doesn't seem to have a top on so Implied sexy times? MYSTERIOUS HOODED AND ROBED FIGURE CROSSES THROUGH THE BARRIAR AND SHOOTS THE BURNED ONE WITH LIGHTNING MAGIC OH IT'S beatrix

alt-J – Adeline as an ending song

#fate the winx saga #text #commentary #hey tumblr thanks for deleting all my text because I resized this window #we're off to a great start #fate episode 1

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hothian-snow · 3 years

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Worldbuilding: Sith Magic (WIP)

An update to my original post.

I want to theorize about what magic may have been commonplace during the times of the Sith Pureblood, before they became influenced by the Dark Jedi. Some beliefs and practice may have evolved into what we know today, but many traditions will have likely died down, lost to time and to cultural colonisation. These are my headcanons, inspired by some headcanons others have made plus my own understanding of traditional witchcraft and Ancient Greek magic.

1) Magic of the Sun

Korriban is one of the original homes of the Sith Pureblood, and presumably the most prominent one. What could be seen the moment you step onto Korriban is the rocky red ending desert and the blistering sun. Magic from many cultures around our world are rooted in the land, and I believe Sith magic should be no different. In this case, their magic will be drawn from the sun, the bones that lie beneath the sands.

In the real world Greek Magical Papyri, a record of Greco-Egyptian magic spells, the sun god Helios is called upon in various rites ranging from consecration to restraining anger to bringing victory. In that same manner, I believe the sun may be called by the Sith to perform magical acts. In a lot of POC traditions, planets are also deified to be gods (something like astrolatry in Thailand etc), and so the Sith - who in my views are POC-coded - may revere the sun as a central religious figure (which makes it ironic that the concept of the Dark Side of the Force was later made to be the enemy of the Light). The sun nourishes, but it also burns. The light allows you to see, but too much can blind. It is the sun’s heat that rot corpses, freeing flesh from bones, rushing forth decomposition. The sun is life and the sun is death.

Just as Ancient Greek witches could be identified as descendants of Helios due to their flashing eyes, it is also possible that the Sith Pureblood may view themselves to be descendants of the sun. After all, their fiery eyes are like two miniature suns and their distinctive red skin are like the blood-red dawn.

2) Magic of the Bones

In many ways, the Force is similar to the real-world belief of animism. Inside everything is something that is alive and powerful. In the bones, buried beneath the sands, are a vault of memories. Through feeding the bones - feeding the spirits within the bones - one can cultivate a relationship with the dead. One can redden the bones with flowers from cactus mixed with drops of blood, or blacken them with roots and soot. Incense smoke can be like food to the soul. This works for both animal and Sith bones.

Once awakened, bones can be your teachers, or used both as an offensive and defensive tool. The empty eye sockets of skulls can be placed in strategic places, eternally watching guard. Fangs and claws can be turned into magical talismans, to protect their masters and shred their enemies to pieces. Bones may whisper their wisdom to you. Learn from the tuk’ata how to protect and defend. Learn from the K’lor’slugs how to poison and strike.

3) Necromancy

With the talks of bones, we cannot avoid the topic of necromancy. In a lot of POC cultures, ancestor veneration plays an integral part of bringing families together. As the Sith Purebloods are POC-coded, and because we have seen in-game that ghosts of ancestors (Lord Kallig) may wish to help their descendants (the Sith Inquisitor), I believe ancestor veneration would have a prominent role in Sith culture. Ancestors may send you dreams for you to be prepared for upcoming threats. Ancestors may work their magic from beyond the grave to influence situations in the living world.

Aside from having a ghost literally show up, transmission of knowledge through dreams is one way that tradition can be passed down, in spite of the Sith Genocide that occured. Children may have been made orphans, but it does not mean that their parents can’t speak through them in an oneiric vision. Texts may have been burnt, cultural artifacts may have been destroyed, but magic prevails. History finds a way to be remembered.

Dream incubation can be used to receive information that would be otherwise unknown. Trances can be used to induce visions from the dead and from higher powers. Ointments made from poisonous herbs, smeared onto the body, can be used to induce the liminal state required for a person to get in touch with the otherworld.

There is also canonical evidence that necromancy was practiced among the Sith before the Dark Jedi colonised them: Dathka Graush, a Sith King of Korriban active in the decades prior to the arrival of the Dark Jedi Exiles in 6900 BBY, was among the earliest practitioners of Sith necromancy. Necromancy can be as dramatic as raising zombies using occult incantations, reanimating the freshly dead and the buried skeletons. However, I also want to go for a different approach.

Inspired by Ancient Greek necromancy, I believe the dead can be split into many types. Perhaps there are the restless dead, like the Greek aōroi, the spirits who could be appeased and channeled to wreak havoc. Perhaps there are the mighty dead, (war) heroes who have been elevated to the point where they are venerated and prayed to for strength and miracles. The dead can be called upon to glean prophecies, and deals can be made with them, pacts sealed in blood. The dead can teach you secrets and grant you powers, and you can send them forth to haunt your enemies until they are maddened. A Sith may ask the ravenous dead to feed upon their enemy, and pray that the power of the tomb claims the rest.

Some parts of the current Sith cultural beliefs may have been influenced by the beliefs of the Sith Pureblood (pre-Dark Jedi arrival), but twisted into a reactionary belief in response to the Jedi code. For example, the Jedi seems to have an accepting attitude towards death (“there is no death, there is only the Force”) while the current Sith seems to wish to overcome death, whether through having a long-lasting legacy or through occult means (like Darth Zash or Emperor Vitiate). This is why a Sith like Darth Marr who are not scared to die are viewed as being terrifying. I believe this culture of immense fear towards death is a new thing.

In my headcanon, the Sith Pureblood originally viewed death as something to respect and fear, but also understood it to be a necessity - and in some cases, a beautiful part of life. Through death, grapes are transformed into wine. There is sacredness in the sweet and cloying rot, a holiness to decay and entropy. Because of this, there may be a field of magic that focuses not just on reanimating corpses, but on hastening (or temporary slowing- with consequences) the way and speed at which something decomposes. Imagine a Sith gripping their enemies with their bare hands, and from that touch comes a death sentence: bodies begin to bloat, festering sickness seeping into muscles and bones, flesh turning necrotic before death consumes them.

4) Potions and Poisons

The art of pharmakeia and veneficium is something that came up in the Sith Inquisitor storyline. Zash makes offhand remarks about poisoning her foes, and the ghost that taught the Sith Inquisitor how to Force Walk requires the Inquisitor to drink a cup of poison first. Poison can both kill and teach. In the real world, many traditional witches who walk the poison path have made allies of their poison plants. In Greek myth and religion, Circe uses potions to transmute men into pigs, and transforms women into monsters by poisoning water with drugs.

Ziost, which became capital of the Ancient Sith Empire after the reign of the Sith Overlord Adas came to an end, was described to be a planet of dark forests and barren tundra. With forests comes plants, and with plants comes poison. Perhaps dirt from graveyards and places of bloodshed can be mixed with foul herbs, along with powdered molts of poison insects, and then infused into oil to be made into a tool for cursing enemies. Should a hair or piece of armor from one’s rival be found, one could powder that and mix the blend into a poppet, enabling a Sith to feed their enemy poison from a distance.

The flipside of poison is medicine. Healers may have been as abundant as poisoners, or perhaps healers were poisoners and poisoners were healers, for the difference between killing and treating is just application and dosage. Potions may also be made to bless and enhance the abilities of someone - something like how stims are used in the current setting - and washes and ritual baths may be used to free someone from unwanted afflictions.

5) Force Lightning

I believe Force lightning has always been used by the Sith Pureblood, but its prestige and popularity only has sky-rocketted once Vitiate became Emperor. Dromund Kaas’ constant lightning and perpetual thunderstorms may have been “a result of the Sith Emperor's experiments in arcane and forbidden uses of the dark side of the Force”. Hence, it may be possible that the usage of Force lightning became a symbol of power due to Vitiate’s influence.

6) Sith Artifacts and Tools

The most well-known artifact of the Sith is the Sith holocron. I am not certain but I believe the oldest Sith holocron may be the Telos Holocron, and one of the earliest contributors to the Telos Holocron was Ajunta Pall who was a Dark Jedi. The holocron’s purpose in storing information and passing down the legacy of a Sith Lord is linked to my view that it is the Dark Jedi who want to be immortalized and are afraid of death, not the original Sith Pureblood. Thus, I infer that the Sith holocrons are made by the Dark Jedi who colonized the Sith, which makes sense considering that it just looks like an alternative version of the Jedi holocron.

However, one clear power of the Sith holocrons is how they are able to ‘corrupt’ its user to the Dark Side. This made me wonder if the Sith Pureblood may have had artifacts and fetishes that served similar purposes in corrupting, influencing and swaying their enemies. If knowledge could be passed down through ghosts and dreams, then there is no need to spend time crafting the perfect holocron and effort could instead be focused upon creating tools of defense and offense.

It would have been very practical to create an artifact out of roots and bones, place it in places of ruin, death and grief such as places of murders, and enchant it to soak in the horrific sympathetic energies of the locales it was placed at until it becomes full, brimming with misery and torment. It could then be buried on the plot of land that a Sith’s enemy lived on, hence bringing suffering to their home and family. Something like that - something folk-ish, something requiring only skill, cunning and determination, not fanciful ceremonial rituals like the ones we see the current Siths doing - is what I believe defined the practice of the original Sith Pureblood.

#sith magic #worldbuilding #swtor #Star Wars The Old Republic

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ad1thi · 4 years

Text

just friends (?) P3

part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4

- just out of curiosity, how does everyone feel about a kofi goal dedicated to a companion piece from tony’s perspective??

There’s moments in Steve’s life - where time feels like it's come to a standstill. Where nobody moves, nobody even breathes - they’re just suspended.

This moment, when he looks up to see Tony staring back at him, this is one of those moments. The entire coffee shop dulls around him, faint background noise compared to the pounding of his heart - and all Steve can see is Tony.

He wants to move, to get out of his seat and walk over to Tony, to talk to him, to touch him, to explain - but he’s stuck to his seat; immobile under the sheer weight of Tony’s gaze.

He’s imagined this moment for months, it's not beneath him to admit that he frequents this coffee shop with this very scenario in mind; but now that it's actually happening - Steve has no idea what to do.

There’s small mercy in the fact that Tony seems to be the same - stuck, unmoving, that is of course until the old gentleman standing behind him in line prods him none too gently with his walking stick and complains that Tony’s holding up the line.

Tony shifts his gaze to look at the man standing behind him, and it's like the spell is lifted, and the world starts spinning ‘round again. He desperately wants to look up at Tony again, but instead he keeps his eyes strictly on his sketchbook. Steve isn’t an idiot, he knows that Tony didn’t mean to come to the coffee shop that he frequents, that this is nothing more than a chance encounter, and so Steve won’t do Tony the disservice of looking back up and forcing Tony to acknowledge his presence.

He’d reconciled himself to the idea that he might never see Tony again, so even just getting to see Tony from across a coffee shop is more than he could’ve hoped for. It was going to happen eventually, he reasons, pencil idly spinning in his hand, we were going to run into each other eventually. After everything, the least that Steve can do is give Tony the option to gracefully make an exit.

“Is this seat taken?” says a voice near him and Steve opens his mouth to say no, because he doesn’t want company right now but the words get stuck in his mouth - because Tony is hovering near the empty chair.

“Steve?” Tony says again, furrowing his brows, “Are you waiting on someone?”

“No!” Steve half-yells, suddenly terrified that Tony will walk away. Tony raises an eyebrow and he clears his throat, “I mean no, not it's not taken.”

“So I can sit down I presume?” Tony asks teasingly, and Steve replies “Anytime.” He means it to come out flippant, to match the tone that Tony is obviously trying to set, but from the way Tony’s face twists - it must come out as honest instead.

Still, Tony doesn’t call him out on it, just smoothly settles in the chair opposite him. Steve’s heart is beating so hard that he can hear it roaring inside him, but then Tony flashes him a soft smile - and it's like everything inside him settles.

Things get better after that.

Steve had assumed that the meeting at the coffee shop was a fluke, hoarding the stilted bits of small talk close to his chest like a dragon hoards gold - but Tony shows up at the coffee shop every Wednesday morning like clockwork; grabbing a coffee and settling down in front of Steve for light conversation while he sips his drink.

They fall into a tentative friendship. It isn’t as easy or as smooth as what they used to have, but Steve can recognise that it's far more than he thought he would have a month ago - and when it comes to Tony, he’ll take what he can get.

That, at least is familiar.

They talk about everything they’ve missed in each other’s lives over the last six months - from Steve’s degree (he graduated last month and is sending out portfolios to galleries), to SI (Tony just got back from a two week event in Tokyo) and everything in between.

Once, Steve tried to bring up Bucky, but Tony held up his hand and said in a pained tone, “Don’t. I’m not ready for that, not yet.”

Steve had nodded, “Until you are ready, just please know how terribly sorry I am,” and that had been the end of it.

It isn’t good, there’s periods of silence, and times when Steve can see Tony pulling away from him, building up walls so that he doesn't get hurt again, so that Steve doesn’t hurt him again - but then Steve will say something and Tony will smile, wide and unabashed - and it’s worth it.

Tony has always been worth it.

He knows that he has to bring it up with Bucky, but that doesn’t mean that Steve’s looking forward to it. Or that it’s going to be an easy conversation.

Hence why Steve is currently cooking for the first time in almost two weeks, and he’s pulling out all the stops. He’s just about to put the lasagna in the oven when there’s a knock at the door, and he cranes his neck back to yell “It’s open!!”

A couple of seconds later, Bucky shows up in his line of sight, and whistles lowly when he sees the mess in the kitchen. “Aw shucks Stevie you didn’t need to do all this for little ol’ me, what’s the occasion?” he says in an exaggerated tone, and Steve rolls his eyes.

“Can’t a fella cook his best pal a lasagna without getting the second degree?” he tries for a joking tone, but from the way Bucky’s eyebrows arch - it obviously falls flat.

“A fella can,” Bucky starts cautiously, “but somehow I don’t think that’s what's going on here.” So much for weaselling out of this, Steve thinks, patting his hands against his apron and turning to Bucky.

“I have to tell you something, but I don’t think you’re going to like it very much,” Steve stuffs his fists in the pockets of his jeans, “just - just wait until I’m done before you say anything?”

“Stevie, you didn’t kill someone did you?” Bucky chuckles nervously, “because I have to be upfront with you, these shoes aren’t made for mud and I don’t have a shovel on me.”

“No it's not that don’t be a punk,” Steve licks his lips, heart beating erratically against his chest, “I’m uhh - I’ve been seeing Tony for the past couple of months.”

Bucky goes unnaturally still and Steve rushes to explain, “Not in the way you’re thinking of! I’m not like stepping out with him or nothing, he’s just - you know the coffee shop round the corner from SI? I go there sometimes when I’m stuck for inspiration or need a change in scenery and for the past couple of weeks, Tony’s been showing up too. It’s honestly nothing, he just hangs around long enough to get through a coffee and then he’s off but I wanted you to know.”

Steve rubs the back of his head and says firmly, “I fucked up with both of you once and I’m not about to do it again. There’s nothing going on I swear on my Ma, but I am seeing him again.”

Bucky stays quiet for what feels like an eternity, before he says in a very quiet tone, “Do you still love him?”

“I think I might love him until I die,” Steve says back, equally soft, and Bucky nods once. He pulls out a chair and sits down. Steve opens his mouth to say something, but the oven pings; and he’s forced to grab oven mitts and pull out the lasagna before it burns.

When he sets the carousel down on the table, Bucky starts up conversation like everything’s normal, like Steve didn’t just admit to being in love with his ex-fiance - and while Steve isn’t naive enough to think that that’s the end of it, the knot that’s been building in his stomach ever since Tony sat down across him in the coffee shop a month ago slowly loosens.

“So,” Sam says, apropos of nothing, “Are you gonna tell him?”. Steve jerks in surprise, almost dropping the tub of paint in his hand onto the easel he’s been staring out for the last 10 minutes. He turns to face Sam with a glare, hoping it conveys all of his complex emotions, but Sam just stares back, unrepentant.

“Well?” Sam asks again when Steve isn’t forthcoming, “Are you?”. Sam’s gaze shifts to the canvas that Steve was previously staring at, and Steve doesn’t need to look behind him to know that the half done face of Tony Stark is going to be staring back at him.

“No,” Steve says mulishly, “I’m not. I just got Tony and Bucky back in my life again, I’m not going to fuck that up a second time.”

“Because keeping this,” his hands gesture vaguely at the canvas, “keeping this from him is exactly what fucked things up the first time. But no, I can see your point about how doing the exact same thing is a good idea. What’s that quote from Einstein? Something about how a fool does the same thing over and over and expects a new outcome?”

“Fuck off,” Steve says, throwing a rag that Sam expertly dodges, but its half hearted. He knows that Sam’s right, but he’s just reached a good place with Tony, and he knows in his bones that telling Tony about his feelings will just fuck that up again. He can’t do it, he won’t do it. He won’t live through losing Tony a second time.

“Steve I’m serious, what’s your game plan here? Are you just going to pine uselessly for the rest of your life? He’s going to move on from Bucky eventually you know, what happens then? Are you just going to watch him fall for other people all over again? I don’t get your angle here.”

“There is no angle!” Steve says loudly, before clearing his throat and bringing his voice back to normal, “There is no angle, there is no game plan there’s just - keeping Tony in my life.” He looks up at Sam with wide eyes, “I can’t go through that again Sam, and if that means just keeping him part-time, then that’s enough for me.”

There must be something in Steve’s voice, because he knows that Sam came here with the intent of fighting him but he just deflates, padding over to pull Steve in for a hug. He rests his chin against the top of Steve’s head, running his fingers through his hair, and Steve lets himself lean against Sam’s chest.

“I won’t push it anymore,” Sam murmurs after a fashion, “but I think you should tell him Rogers. His answer might surprise you.”

That’s what I’m afraid of, Steve thinks to himself, but says nothing - just hums in reply.

tbc

taglist: @honeybearrhodey, @rogers-stark45, @tried-our-best, @kirouskasa, @fincaffeinaddict, @endlesslove1084, @imaginestevetony, @illegalchandler, @poughkeepsies, @scarletluvscas, @thewondersoflebanon, @kylizzles, @medio-melon, @moon6shadow-main , @benjamin-solos, @dauntlessdiva, @capnstarkey, @geraderlopoly, @xarawnsamaax, @angelmydear, @theavengays, @imposter-human, @tonystarkisanangel, @littlemissstark , @allthingsmarvel100 , @endrega23 , @riotfalling , @spiderrpcrker, @rxmanoff , @firebrands , @omg-just-peachy, @iam93percentstardust, @dreamsofg0ld, @thxngam, @krzyktty101, @velvetjane, @rebel13lion39, @superhusbands-superfan

#my writing #stevetony #superhusbands #steve rogers x tony stark #steve rogers/tony stark #just friends AU #steve rogers pov #steve rogers centric #i know i said 3 parts #but i promise that part 4 will be out next week #and maybe an epilogue??#idk how do people feel about that #as always #please let me know if you want to be added to the tag list

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sob-dylan · 4 years

Text

ranking of bcs season 5 episodes based on how sexy i found them

10. Namaste dir. & writ. Gordon Smith

good ep, not sexy. jimmy commits his first hate crime against the dandy howard hamlin. hostile work environment at los pollos. the return of the uncomfortably stereotypical thugs that beat up mike. very let down because gordon smith has written some of bcs’s sexiest episodes in past seasons, including gloves off, chicanery, & something beautiful. the car chase intercut with lyle cleaning the fryer was pretty sexy tho. 2/10

9. Dedicado a Max dir. Jim McKay, writ. Heather Marion

this ep ranks so low because of what it could have been. was expecting it to be the sexiest episode, but was given very little of what was promised. the fountain was sexy, scheming kim was sexy, any invocation of revenge is sexy. that’s about it. 2.5/10

8. Wexler v. Goodman dir. Michael Morris, writ. Thomas Schnauz

first we’ve seen of nacho in a long time, but as usual it’s not nearly enough. he is reunited with mike, giving him the opportunity to play a bargaining chip for the first time in two seasons, which is sexy of him, but also reminded me of the how little he’s done since he became fring’s dog. nacho being underutilized is not sexy. (i could go on a whole rant about the poker chip we’ve seen nacho fiddling with a few times during different collection scenes, but i don’t think i quite understand it enough). kim suffers the worst day of her professional career because jimmy decided he knew what she wanted instead of listening to her. not sexy. lalo getting arrested was, of course, very sexy. 4/10

7. Magic Man directed by Bronwen Hughes, written by Peter Gould

sexy episode, but it all rests on the shoulders of lalo, nacho, & gus (+ a very timid domingo-- i’m into that). the mcwexler stuff just made me sad. lalo’s lounging in el michoacáno with his blue loafers kicked up? much appreciated. lalo and nacho constantly calling each other “man”? nice! the sit down between lalo and gus was very sexy, but the sexiest part of this episode for me was the trap house, especially the beginning sequence. loved the scene starting from inside the car with some great tunes, the camera following the meth down the drainpipe, lalo’s erratic driving and his refusal to acknowledge arlo, the power that nacho has demonstrated by arlo shutting up when he gets out of the car, the slightly shaky camera work in this moment, nacho leaping up those stairs and then pounding on the door before gently telling mouse it’s okay. all incredibly sexy! 6/10

6. JMM dir. Melissa Bernstein, writ. Alison Tatlock

pretty fucking sexy for production legend melissa bernstein’s directorial debut. not only is it the first bit of substantial lalo content in a while, it’s the debut of jorge de guzman! the shot of him from the shoulders down with the focus on his tattoo? sneaking a phone in so he can tell nacho to burn down los pollos? the arson itself? very, very sexy. vague allusions to what went down in santiago? frustrating, but sexy. kim and jimmy consummating the most ill-advised marriage ever authorized by the state of new mexico? sexy, (especially kim’s hair). lydia rodarte-quayle! “shanked and shivved and whatnot.” that was a very sexy suggestion, lydia, keep ‘em coming! 7/10

5. Bagman dir. Vince Gilligan, writ. Gordon Smith

vince gilligan’s triumphant and very sexy return. the shoot out! the time lapse of the clouds while jimmy and mike walk along at a normal speed! “my wife” & “mrs. goodman!” and of course, the sexiest thing of all, the meeting between kim and lalo. gordon smith redeemed himself with this one. despite the piss-drinking, a very sexy episode indeed. 7.8/10

4. The Guy For This dir. Michael Morris, writ. Ann Cherkis

a very, very sexy ep! a swarm of ants set to yodeling isn’t in itself sexy, but i respect the symbolism and the bold creative choice. but then! the garage scene! imo this was the sexiest scene of the season. everything from the blocking to the lighting, not to mention the Acting. i’ve rewatched that scene many, many times. other sexy things about this episode: kim yelling at acker, kim opening up, nacho’s lounging-at-home-watching-soccer outfit, amber & jo, the one genuine smile nacho has all season (at the beginning of a devastating conversation with his father), lalo making jimmy and nacho watch him drive his car, “you’ll make time!”, nacho’s signature car-leaning, & “once you’re in, you’re in.” 8/10

3. 50% Off dir. Norberto Barba, writ. Alison Tatlock

look: i can admit that this hole ranking system is heavily dependent on how much nacho & lalo there was in an episode. this episode started with a home invasion at casa de varga so that gus could intimidate nacho in his underwear and ended with nacho rolling up on jimmy and then making him drop his mint chip in the street. and in between? the poker game. the birth of ocho loco/krazy-8. THE PARKOUR. “ignacio varga, eres un chingon.” the small expression of pride on nacho’s face when lalo says “it’s your call.” nacho finally accepting food from lalo, only to find it’s a trap! lalo using his own brand of the lie detector to make nacho offer to kill his oldest friend. dear god! this ep marked the explosion of the eduardo “lalo” salamanca/ignacio “nacho” varga tag on ao3. it’s an inspiring kind of sexiness. mike’s story was compelling, but a boner-killer. 8.9/10

2. Bad Choice Road dir. & writ. Thomas Schnauz

ah! the something stupid callback! jimmy falling to his knees when he finally gets a signal! kim crying! jimmy’s trauma! the godfather reference with the oranges! (and no, i didn’t pull that out of my ass. peter gould mentioned it on the podcast) the care-taking, despite kim having every right to be furious with jimmy! the tender and heartbroken look on lalo’s face when he leaves the nursing home! lalo impatiently ordering his new chauffeur nacho around! the way lalo stands when nacho drops him off at the well! how happy nacho is to finally be rid of lalo for just 3 seconds before lalo gets back in the car! the lalo leap! the final scene! rhea claiming her emmy! but ultimately what’s so sexy about this ep is how well it encapsulated the ethos of the show. i’m still salty about the dinner party (???) with lalo, nacho, and nacho’s girlfriends getting cut, tho. 9/10

1. Something Unforgivable dir. Peter Gould, writ. Peter Gould & Ariel Levine

i don’t consider it the best episode of the season (that would be bagman), nor is it my favorite (that would be 50% off), but imo it is the sexiest episode of bcs yet. slippin’ kimmy! the finger guns! the kansas city royals shirt! kim laughing in howard’s face! the post-coital mcwexler scheming! and of course every single scene in mexico! nacho’s forced smiles! lalo’s unmitigated excitement at returning home! “nachito!” lalo’s despicable but still somehow sexy attitude toward that poor kid ciro! the scene where he’s fixing the car! lalo’s praise of nacho! lalo being the life of the party! everyone adoring him expect for juan bolsa! lalo’s party shirt! nacho’s tough but respectful chain-over-a-fully-buttoned-shirt-cause-it’s-time-to-meet-the-don look! nacho spelling out exactly what he wants! lalo closely watching nacho and don eladio! the intimate, late-night fireside conversation! the beautiful emotional asymmetry of that scene! a man who is finally ready to allow himself to trust someone choosing the wrong person! (in other words: lalo lowkey trying to get laid while nacho’s actively trying to facilitate his assassination!) nacho being the resourceful little bitch we all love! lalo immediately blaming poor ciro! (seriously, what is the story there??) the frying pan! the fucking tunnel! lalo kneeling over that dying hitman, peeling off the mask that’s melted to his face, and gently telling him “esta bien” ! lalo limping out of his estate with murder in his eyes, ready to hunt down the only man not carrying the Salamanca name he’s ever trusted! if this ep had included nacho regaining a shred of agency over his situation, it could have a perfect score. 9.9/10

#long post #long inscrutable and outrageous #i swear to god i'll shut up eventually #but if you haven't unfollowed me yet it's your own fault #bcs #better call saul #lalo salamanca #nacho varga #kim wexler #jimmy mcgill

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skekshroom · 4 years

Note

Skekmal is tasked with capturing a human who always seems to be two steps ahead of him, soon their encounters become flirtatious and their little game of cat and mouse comes to an end when the human runs out of tricks and is nearly killed by a a different creature causing the Hunter to rescue them, humiliated and too tired to fight they ask Skekmal to make their death quick, instead he asks them to be his lover.

yuh i got u lol ! im v sleepy so please excuse any spelling errors n shit like that hngh

theres like 1 suggestive comment heads upp

[SkekMal x reader]

Your breath burned as though you’d inhaled smoke and your head pounded something just as terrible.

You panted heavily as the beast hit the forest floor. Its low bellow faded into silence and the pounding of your own pulse in your ears. You looked up from where you sat sprawled out, up at the masked face of the Hunter. He slid his dagger out from the animal’s thick hide and strode over towards you. You had nowhere to run. Nowhere to go. It was game over for you.

You wanted to scan the undergrowth for escape routes, form some sort of contingency plan in your head, just do something to try to escape but-- but nothing happened. Your eyes were too tired to flicker about for paths to try to run for. The rest of you was too exhausted to even tense to get up and run. It really was the end. You’d take death on your back without a fight... The last way you expected to at this point.

“Just.... make it quick.” You hissed between ragged breaths that broke up your sentences. “If you’re ....going to do it, just get it.... over with.” Your brows furrowed together and your chin tilted up, exposing your neck. You braced yourself for claws or a bade slashing your throat, but none came.

SkekMal had to admit, you looked rather nice like this. Disheveled, propped up by your elbows, eyes squeezed shut and pleading for him to do something to you. What a prize, the elusive (y/n) would be.

The Hunter stood still for many moments before he dropped to one knee and held out his hand. You looked bewildered, but offered your nondominant hand. He chuckled. You really thought he was going to cut it off or something. He enveloped it in his and stared hard into your eyes with that piercing green stare.

“You’ve impressed me, (Y/n).” He declared. “ I’d like to take you as my partner. My mate. My spouse. Come with me.”

You blinked owlishly. This had to be some kind of trick. Surely the Hunter wouldn’t stoop this low, though, right? You closed your eyes and smiled, a look of sheer defeat.

“Huh,” You chuckled in disbelief. “What the hell, why not.” SkekMal’s eyes narrowed, clearly expecting a much more formal answer. He yanked you forward, closing the gap between the two of you. Your bluntness was answered with his own.

“Good. Then it seems I’ve got my prize.”

#skekmal #skekmal x reader #skeksis #skeksis x reader

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jq37 · 4 years

Text

The Royal Report– A Crown of Candy Ep 10 Blood and Bread

Come Together

Welcome back and I hope you took advantage of the opportunity to catch your breath because the Rocks family is granted no such reprieve. Fresh off the heels of Jet’s tragic murder by Ciabatta and Calroy answering the question of whether a cake can coup, we pick back up with Theo who’s foiled his imprisonment by making use of the skills Lazuli taught him and magically busting down the door. Then, he makes use of his other knight skills and absolutely eviscerates the shocked guards outside.

He runs for the King’s quarters and, obviously, doesn’t find Amethar as he’s in a smoking crater outside, but he does run into Caramelinda who he immediately informs of the situation as best he can. Cara is confused, even as guards (Cal’s men) show up and start firing on them. She tries to get them to stop on her royal authority but Theo hears a lot more soldiers coming on a Nat 20 Insight and is like, “We need to go.” Cara does her own Insight check and has the good sense to follow him.

They run and Theo takes her into a little secret door in one of the hallways. Just in time too, because Cal walks by all camp-y kids movie villain, clearly telegraphing his intention to kill Cara, and tries drawing her out by saying some bait-y stuff about Amethar but Theo says they should ignore it and they escape down a spiral staircase instead of confronting Cal.

Meanwhile, Ruby (still Invisible) runs across the bridge, feels Jet pass, and keeps running, all the way to the standing stones of the Sugar Plum Fairy.

“Bring her back,” she demands, tearfully. “I know you can bring her back. What is the point of having magic if I can’t bring her back. Please.”

The SPF appears and gently says that the nature of the world is such that she can’t bring Jet back. However, it may be possible to bring them to Jet. Go north to the Stone Candy Mountain, she says. That’s where she is and where her sister is waiting.

Ruby then sneaks her way back to the castle, and sees Kerradin on his way there with about 30 knights. On double Nat 20s, when she gets to the castle, she clocks her dad immediately. Cumulous (who was also in the general area Ruby just came from and can now see where she is based on the glow of her magic, though he doesn’t know it’s her) also sees Amethar. Ruby, horrified at the thought of losing both her sister and father within about five minutes, runs to him.

Liam, still in the lingerie shop, hears Ciabatta wonder where the “witch boy” (Liam himself) went and also gives away some plot info for free: Alfredi has been hanged and she was apparently the only person skilled enough to make watersteel daggers. They’re fresh out. They leave and Liam pops out of the Rope Trick. He checks the glowing chest and sees that all that’s in there is a glowing rock--ambush bait. He then wraps Jet’s body in tasteful lingerie (sure), puts it in a cabinet for later retrieval, and takes her sword and locket for Ruby before stealthing away to find the others.

Amethar, fallen but not Fallen, unsteadily picks himself up, just in time to see the magic glow of his invisible daughter’s footsteps approaching him. “Pops, it’s me,” she says, voice wavering. “I think Jet is dead.” Amethar gives her a huge dad hug as she channels some of his barbarian energy, vowing to kill whoever did this, and their children, and drown their lands. The very stealthy Liam and Cumulous also show up for this--Liam joining the hug and Cumulous just announcing his presence awkwardly when his name is mentioned.

Liam lets them know where Jet’s body is and also gives Jet’s things to Ruby. Ruby takes the sword but haltingly insists that Liam keep the locket--it won’t work alone, and besides, Jet would want him to have it.

Cara and Theo pop out of the secret tunnel and the kids instantly Perception/Insight check her (no doubt feeling burned after Cal’s betrayal). Ruby, on a 23, gets nothing sinister--it’s just her extremely freaked out mom. With that reassurance, she reveals that Jet is dead and Liam chimes in that it was Ciabatta and his men. Liam accusatorily mentions the letter that got them ambushed and Cara claims to not only not know about the letter, but to not know the lingerie lady at all.

Ruby lets everyone know that Kerradin is on his way and Cara says that most of the Castle Candy soldiers have been sent to Castle Many Licks on Cal’s orders. It’s mainly just Cal’s men in the castle--the castle that is currently being redecorated with House Cruller banners. Translation: They’re F’d.

Amethar remembers that Manta Ray Jack is still in the harbor and--after talking Liam out of going rogue and tracking Kerradin--the group decides getting to him and making a break for it is the best bet. They pick a path that will go past the lingerie shop so they can pick up Jet’s body on the way.

They see torches being lit and hear dogs--clearly a search party coming for them--so Ruby uses Prestidigitation to scent the path with anise so the dogs will be confused (which Brennan rewards with disadvantage on tracking checks). Ruby and Amethar are both mortally wounded, but they decide that getting away ASAP is a better option than waiting to tend to their wounds. They roll initiative and head off.

The Sweet Escape

This is another unusual combat episode from Crown of Candy. There’s not so much brawling as there is running and trying to avoid fighting. I don’t think a play by play will be very interesting, so I’ll just give a quick rundown of the highlights.

The mechanics of this is it’s basically a series of group stealth checks until they get to where they’re going. Ruby still has 25 mins left on her invisibility and Brennan lets her cast Mage Hand with a 1st level spell slot to keep Theo’s armor from clinking and giving him disadvantage for seven rounds.

They fail their first round of checks and are spotted by hot-hounds (hot dog hounds, of course). Cumulous tells the group to keep going and he stays behind to handle it. He kills the dogs (yay?) but alerts other guards in doing so. Liam, with his crossbow, headshots the guard about to make trouble for Cumulous and then Cumulous steals his chariot.

Ruby, cantrip master, uses her Mage Hand (feeling a kiss on her cheek as she does) to hold a lantern and send it in a different direction, creating more confusion for the people tracking them.

Cumulous, on a Nat 20 Animal Handling check, fully on purpose (and after taking a bunch of damage from being fired on by ballista) drives the chariot off a cliff.

We’ll get back to that.

Liam, four rounds in, remembers that, oh yeah, he *does* have Pass Without Trace which gives +10 to all stealth checks--a little late but a game changer nonetheless. As he casts it, Cumulous feels the call of something like the Hungry One but not the Hungry One and Liam feels that same weird magical feeling he did running from the Cathedral in Comida.

Cumulous, as he rockets off the cliff (killing the horses in a very Hardwon Surefoot move), uses Fluffwind (his staff) to cast Gaseous Form--dropping his speed to a snail’s pace but saving his candy bacon.

The rest of the group does stealth checks until they make it to Dulcington. Ruby sets a tent on fire with her lantern as a distraction and all of them have to cross a river (the bridge is occupied by guards). Ruby gets a Nat 1 and falls in but Liam gets a Nat 20 and helps her across.

Unfortunately, the initial splash into the river alerted guards and they’re run up on by Ceresian soldiers. But, really, it’s more of a minor annoyance. Between Peppermint Batman critting, Ruby doing some sniping (losing her Invisibility in the process), Theo desperate to not see another Rocks dead on his watch, and Amethar in a full dad-rage, these guys are dead before they even have a chance to attack.

Cumulous drops Gaseous Form and anime sprints back to the gang.

Amethar and Liam grab Jet’s body and then run for the harbor with the others. Theo Messages Jack to get the ship ready because they’re gonna be there in a minute and they need to go NOW.

Enemy archers fire on them but they ignore it and just keep running. When they show up, Jack is confused but they’re like, “Sail now, questions later.”

Brennan says there’s no way they’re gonna get the ship going before soldiers catch up with them but he obviously didn’t count on Amethar going into a rage and just pushing the boat himself, snapping the mooring keeping it docked. As soldiers ride up on them, Ruby uses Mage Hand to help with the few remaining ropes and Theo casts Knock to undo the reins on one of the horses, sending the mounted soldier flying.

They narrowly escape up the river, and that’s where we end our episode.

Thing I’m Concerned About

This is something I mentioned as an aside in the last recap and it seems that it’s become relevant so I’ll be more explicit now. When the tear-away lingerie came up in episode one, it seemed like it was news to Cara (and I’m sure Brennan too because it was obv off the cuff). But last episode, the letter they got seemed to indicate that she was in cahoots with that person. But then in this episode, after a pretty high Insight check that indicated she was on the level, she said he didn’t know about any lingerie lady. Which seems to indicate setup, right? Which would make sense there was nothing at the shop and assassins waiting (assassins who seemed unsurprised to see the kids and not her for what it’s worth). But the way they got the letter, with Cara leaving the room, it seems like she would have seen it. So was that even really her? Is there a bad guy walking around with Disguise Self? If so, Bad! Also Bad! if she actually does turn out to be bad and it was like a DC 30 Insight check to find out, “Surprise! Your mom has been secretly evil this whole time!” Cara calls Ciabatta Imperator before she gets that info and idk if that’s Brennan misspeaking or A Clue and it *better* be the first because I don’t have the energy for *another* betrayal right now. It does seem like exactly the kind of thing you’d use in story to bait the twins if you knew them though, right? Like anyone who even sorta knew them (but especially someone who really knew them like Cal--was he there for that lingerie conversation in episode 1?) would know that was surefire twin-bait.

Don’t love that the SPF is, with different faces and different tactics, corralling everyone to the Mountains. I don’t know what her game is but I Do Not Trust fae. Also, maybe I’m being paranoid but when the SPF said, “Your sister is waiting,” I def had a burst of...your sister as in Jet or your sister as in this bastard child who we know nothing about? Wouldn’t that be such a dirty trick? To skirt fae lying rules (idk if they exist in this world) by talking about Jet a bunch and then saying, “Your sister is waiting,” about a totally different (half) sister?

So who all is working together? Cal last week said he was working with Alfredi and Ciabatta was also working with Alfredi. Plus, Kerradin was there (which, sidenote, WILD. Did Alfredi just take all the heat or something?). But I can't imagine everyone’s goals are fully synced. Ciabatta seems to mostly care for his own power. The Pontifex wants the Ramsian Doctrine fulfilled presumably which puts her at cross-purposes to Cal. What’s everyone’s game here. Is any of this stuff just happening independently of the others and Amethar just has hella enemies/has just lost Concord protection?

All this “like the Hungry One but not the Hungry One” stuff has me suspicious. People have mentioned to me that the noises that Brennan makes when he brings that up are kinda snorty and pig-like which raises two possibilities. It could be the vengeful spirit of Preston--which would go with the ice motif since he’s a peppermint pig and we all know peppermint is the cold magic of candy. It could also be related to the Great Boar of the Meatlands. I can see a pig spirit showing favor to an angry kid who took good care of his best pig friend who then tragically died, even with the cross-food barrier. Idk, we’ll see how this goes.

Ruby, my girl, please don’t do anything rash in your grief. You’re 1000% valid but please stay as levelheaded as you can.

Five More Things

Lol at Ally very confidently saying they don’t have Pass Without a Trace even after being reminded of it and then three turns later being like wait nevermind.

Killshot Thompson at it again with those precision voice breaks at all the most heart-crushing times. I would have loved to have seen Emily’s reactions from video village during the scene with Amethar. And then the, “I can’t lose another. Please,” to Liam? Ugh. My heart.

Ally’s “WHY?” when Manta Ray Jack started ringing that bell was beautiful.

“Another secret black woman,” might be the funniest thing Lou has ever said. And he’s said a lot of funny things. He originated, “Somebody call Wizards of the Coast.”

A second set of double Nat 20s from Siobhan! She also did it in Fantasy High Sophomore Year when freeing Fig from mind control. The only other person I think who’s done it is Lou as Fabian during the arcade battle in FH S1. You can’t really tell because of the way I glossed over the nitty gritty of this ep, but the Nat 20s were really out of control this session. It’s just that, as the cast said in Adventuring Party, Nat 20s don’t get you spectacular things this season. They just mean you get to not die that turn.

#dimension 20 #dimension 20 spoilers #a crown of candy #a crown of candy spoilers #the royal report

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whoelsereadslightnovels · 3 years

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IN A DIFFERENT WORLD, BUT WITH FRIENDS.

CHAPTER 1: IN A CERTAIN FOREST

Inside a certain forest, two figures with strange clothings that looked like (Basic) outfits worn by characters in RPG games could be seen hiding behind a bush.

“Hey Yimso, are you sure this is a good idea?” The one wearing a mage robe whispered to the one wearing chainmail armour. “Huh? Oh, of course I’m sure.” Yimso gave a wide grin as he drew out his sword. “We just need to wait for ‘it’ to let its guard down for a single moment.”

“Aight then…. .” The mage gave a sigh and said while still feeling nervous and turned his gaze away. The one besides him was a tank so he could take quite a lot of punishment but he was a mage; a class that was known to be weak in close combat. They much were better suited studying and researching magic behind closed doors or giving support from behind so his nervousness was justified. Of course, there were exceptions, but they could never compare to other classes when it came to endurance. Especially the one beside him; he was a tank.

“….” After comforting the mage, Yimso turned away and looked over the bush where around 20 meters away, a 3 meter long and 1.6 meter tall black wolf was eating a brown rabbit.

The rabbit being eaten by the wolf was not really any different that one you normally see on earth, except that this one was around 60 centimetres tall and had an over 20 centimeter long horn on its head. The horn must be the rabbit’s weapon, and a pretty good one at that at it seems to have put up a fight against the wolf, seeing that a small red puddle of blood had formed, trickling down from a wound on the wolf’s belly.

There were also carcasses of other horned rabbits close by. They were probably hunted by the wolf too.

After a while, the wolf had had its fill and seemed to have fallen asleep.

Whoosh

Right then, an arrow flew out from a tree top and hit the wolf. The arrow couldn’t penetrate the wolf’s hide though; falling to the ground after it hit its body. Fortunately the arrow was never meant to penetrate through the wolf’s hide but carry a vial which broke after hitting the wolf.

The foul smelling liquid contained in the vial instantly drenched a part of the wolf’s face, startling it awake.

“Tito, now!” Yimso roared as he rushed towards the wolf with a shield a sword in each hand from behind the bush. Right then, the man in the red robe pushed his opened hand forward and a ball of fire the size of a human head shot towards the wolf’s head.

“ROAR”

The wolf roared in anger towards the bush they were hiding in. Unfortunately for the wolf, the fireball had shot right into the open maws of the beast and set the wolf’s head on fire. Moreover, the flames, upon coming in contact with the foul smelling liquid had created a small explosion and caused the flames to burn even more brilliantly.

“ROAR” The wolf bellowed in pain and anger.

Just then, Yimso, who had reached the wolf narrowly dodged a blind claw strike from the wolf and bashed its head with the shield and quickly moved backed after giving it a kick in the face.

Slash

Right after, a lean man wearing light leather armour and wielding two short swords rushed out from behind him and towards the wolf. He also had a short bow on his back, likely to be the one that shot the arrow earlier. He had made his way towards the wolf and slashed it with his swords, leaving 2 long gashes on the side of the wolf after which he quickly jumped into the bushes.

The wolf cried out again and wanted to attack the creature that had wounded him. But taking advantage of the moment the wolf looked away, Yimso brought his broadsword down on the wolf’s neck.

BAM

The sword hit the wolf’s neck, making it kneel and tearing the skin but failed to cut through the firm neck muscles. The wolf quickly recovered and sent a paw towards Yimso.

He hurriedly lifted his shield to block. The attack hit the shield, making his arms go numb and pushing him back by almost 3 meters before he could get back his footing. Suddenly, his body was washed over by a wave of green and light while the wolf’s was covered by a grey one, greatly relieving the numbness in Yimso’s arms, while the wolf felt it’s body grown heavier in an instant.

These were the spells [Heal] and [Slow] casted by the mage Titus just now. He was hiding behind a bush with the lean looking guy who was preparing to shoot another arrow.

Yimso, sheeting his sword, held the shield with both hands and charged straight at the wolf. The wolf who had its left eye blinded by the fire glared at him while squinting its remaining eye and pounced forward with its maw, filled with knife like teeth wide open.

Yimso put the shield over his head and dived to the right, before colliding with the wolf. Just then, a fireball and an arrow with a vial of the liquid from before entered the maw of the wolf that could fit a child inside it causing an explosion even louder than before to occur.

BOOM

The wolf collapsed on the ground, twitching and continuously puking out black coloured blood. The blood from the wounds made by the short swords on its side also turned from red to black. Clearly, it had been poisoned and was quckly nearing its end.

“Whew” Breathing out a sigh of relief, Yimso dropped his shield and collapsed on the forest floor and said “Hey, Tito, Puvi! How long are you going to be watching from over there, come over and let’s finish up here!” He then turned to look in the wolf’s direction and a floating blue box appeared in front of him.

Species: Black Wolf

Type: Wolf, Beast

Level: 8

Rank: Elite

HP: 100/2550

MP: 200/200

Status: Poisoned, Fatigued, Heavily wounded

Description: A species of wolf. Its stats are focused towards agility, making it fast but sacrificing defensive capabilities. As a beast type, this creature is also vulnerable to fire.

Rustle, Rustle

After the rustle of leaves, the 1.65 meter tall mage and the 1.8 meter tall assassin walked out. “Hey, how is it going for you down there?” ‘Puvi’ joked. “Any chance you’ll be going into the light soon? Hahaha!”

“Yeah right, and who’s going to take aggro if I go?” Yimso sneered. “As if i could die sooner than you do.” He joked as he was pulled up by Puvi. “Now let’s hurry before more monsters appear.”

Although they had not gone too far in, this was still the jungle, and there were predators that could catch the whiff of blood from miles away. So they had to either wipe out the scent of blood or leave the scene after they are done. They had already learned their lesson before when they had camped out in the forest and had slaughtered a deer next to the camp without burying the entrails, leaving it in the open which caused the camp to be surrounded by wild animals pretty quickly.

Luckily, they hadn’t attracted a big animal and only smaller ones had appeared. They had quickly packed up and escaped before the bigger predators had appeared; like this wolf that they just killed.

“Here you go.” Titus handed Yimso a vial made of transparent glass containing light green liquid and drank one himself. The only difference was that his was blue in colour. “And I told you not to call me that. Call me Titus, I said” He spat.

“Thanks, ‘Tito’.” He looked at him with smiling eyes at him as he took the vial. Of course, Yimso wouldn’t reject the vial that was being given to him. He knew that it was an item, a [Health Potion] to be exact, that they had found was obtainable in this strange world they had found themselves in one day.

The inhabitants of this world seems to have been born with a game like floating interface that they could use to check out their ‘status’ or sometimes others’ too. And the three of them had discovered that they had it too. Yes, similar to the ‘system’ described in novels back on earth.

The ‘system’ had appraised them as below.

Lowest grade Health Potion

-Heals most light wounds and restores 300 Hp instantly.

-Use: You drink it. What did you expect?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lowest grade Mana Potion

-Restores 200 mana upon use.

-Use: You drink it. 😊

“Yuck! I really wonder what in the world do they put in these things? They taste disgusting.” Yimso thought out loud while making an exaggerated ‘disgusted’ expression to which Titus just answered with a shrug.

“System, show me my status.” Instantly upon saying those words, a blue box with numerous texts appeared in front of him.

NAME: YIMSO

LEVEL: 8

HP: 620 /700

MP: 160/250

#Note: Recovery rate increases when not in battle

RACE: HUMAN

BLOODLINES: [NONE]

MAIN CLASS: [WARRIOR]

JOB: TANK

SUB-CLASS: [NONE]

TITLES:

[BEGINNER TANK]

Effects:

HP= (V)*100

MP= (I)*50

[STATS]

STRENGHT: 9

AGILITY: 5

DEXTERITY: 5

VITALITY: 7

INTELLIGENCE: 5

[SKILLS]

[PASSIVE]:

-NONE

[ACTIVE]:

-1. (1) [SHIELD BASH] (1): Attacks the opponent with the shield, doing extra damage with chance to stun the opponent.

Effects:

Extra damage depending on strength stat

30% chance to stun opponent

MP COST: NONE

-2. (1) [VERTICAL SLASH] (2): Cuts down vertically with the sword.

Effects:

Extra damage depending on strength stat

MP COST: NONE

-3. (1) [BATTLE CRY] (1): Gives out a loud bellow and casts a buff on the user.

Effects:

+20% Strength

+10% Agility

+20% Damage reduction

MP COST: 100

“Well, my wounds are healing at least.” Yimso mind shrugged as he looked at his previously wounded shoulder. He had been grazed by the wolf when he had dived to dodge the explosion.

Over to the wolf’s side, Puvi had stabbed his sword into the wolf’s chest, ending its life, then collected its knife like teeth and claws and dug out a crystal orb the size of a fist from its chest, then put them in a pouch. “Hey Tits, catch!” He yelled as he threw the bag at Titus.

“Sigh, I feel like I’m being bullied.” Catching the orb and putting it into a backpack, Titus couldn’t help but sigh and grumble as he thought about how his friends keep giving him nicknames.

After resting for a few minutes, they discussed for a while before deciding to take back the entire wolf carcass back. And so, they departed, with Titus carrying a backpack half his size and Yimso carrying an almost 3 meter long wolf carcass on his back.

“I’ll scout ahead!” With that, Puvi dashed ahead and started jumping from one tree to tree, soon disappearing.

2 hour later

“Huaah~, thank goodness we are finally out of that damned forest” Yimso sighed as he could finally see their destination; a village surrounded by 5 meter high walls made of wood.

“Gasp, pant” “Finally. W-we are finally…. o-out of… that forest.” Turning around, Yimso was greeted by the sight of Titus gasping for breath while carrying a backpack that had become almost as big as him after collecting items from beasts they encountered on the way and several plants and herbs in the forest. As for Puvi, he was carrying a small boar he had caught on the way; this was going to be their meal for tonight.

Puvi looked towards the town surrounded by walls and sighed. “Come on guys we’re almost there.” After stopping for a moment to catch their breath, they started moving again.

End of chapter 1: In a certain forest

*Note: The numbers inside the brackets on either sides of the name of the spell refer to the tier and level of the spell, respectively. Thank you for reading. Arigato!

#fantasy #fiction #novel #light novel #multiple protagonist #game elements #original work #amatureartist #fantasy world #adventure #in another world but with friends

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shirtlesssammy · 4 years

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8x23: Sacrifice

Welcome back to what might be our longest (and last) hellatus. This was a request that we were going to do after the series ended, but here we are. Enjoy!

Then:

Dean Winchester loves needs one (1) angel.

Now:

Jody Mills is on the Bumble date from Hell with “Roderick”. And by that, I mean she’s trying to put herself back out there after grieving the loss of her husband and son --and Roderick is really Crowley.

Jody heads to the bathroom to pull herself together and Crowley starts his spellwork to threaten the Winchesters --again. Jody starts puking blood in the bathroom while Dean tries throwing his weight around negotiating the trials and demon/angel tablets. They make a deal, so YAY.

Kevin retrieves the demon tablet for the brothers. Dean gives him the key to the bunker.

Cas, meanwhile, is chilling with his new friend, Metatron. He asks about God. Metatron describes God as “larger than life, gruff, bit of a sexist. But fair --eminently fair.” Hm, Metatron always did like to spin those stories. They’re outside a bar waiting for signs of the next angel trial --retrieving cupid’s bow.

The brothers head to Sioux Falls to Bobby’s (probably theirs now?) salvage yard. Crowley is there waiting for them and ready to exchange tablets. He’s got a contract for them to sign --well, Sam to sign since he’s doing the trials. Dean demands to read the fine print before Sam signs anything. Sam unleashes his inner Veruca Salt and grabs the pen to sign. The brothers are not on the same page about this it seems.

In Heaven, Naomi learns where Cas is --and that he’s with Metatron.

Dean continues to read the contract and Crowley continues to needle him about how his humanity is a handicap. It’s revealed to all be just a ruse to distract Crowley when Dean throws some demon binding handcuffs on him. They tell Crowley that making him mortal is the third trial.

Cas tries to speed up the love train for the bartender but fails awkwardly.

For Who Gives a Fuck if He’s Awkward Science:

Naomi and her squad show up. They take Metatron, leaving Cas alone.

The brothers head to the church where the final trial will happen. They tie Crowley up and go over the game plan. Sam will inject purified blood into Crowley once an hour for eight hours. He’s going to have to confess to God to purify his blood and isn’t sure where to begin. Dean has some ideas, and, like, No ? He lists Ruby, Lilith, losing his soul, not looking for Dean in Purgatory ---and Chuck really would like a clip show of his favorite torture moments I’m sure, but support your brother a little, hmmm?

Anyway, while Sam heads to confession, Cas flaps in to ask Dean for help (like, is this the last time he flaps in to see Dean? I...really miss his wings.) He tells Dean that Naomi took Metatron, and explains that they were working on the angel trials --and planning on shutting Heaven and Hell down.

Naomi wants answers from Metatron, and she pulls out a hand drill to extract them from him.

Dean tells Cas that Sam needs his help more than Cas does. Sam pops up and tells Dean to go with Cas. Dean agrees and they fly off together while Sam starts the final trial.

Cas and Dean head to the bunker to have Kevin translate the angel tablet. There’s one problem: Kevin has never laid eyes on the thing before. He’s also done with all the prophet stuff. Cas, not done with all the angel badass stuff, begs to differ.

Sam continues to look SUPER rough. He’s doing so poorly, in fact, that Crowley gets the drop on him despite being tied to a chair. Crowley chomps a hole in Sam’s arm so that he can make a bloody phone call to any demon in range as soon as Sam steps away. GROSS

Dean and Cas get shot at by cupid’s arrow as a bow hunting demo airs on the bar’s TVs. Er, they wait for the cupid to arrive while continuing to strike out in the bar. Er, they wait for the cupid to arrive.

*Fourth Wall Dialogue Alert*

Cas: “You really think it’s wise to be drinking on the job?”

Dean: “What show’ve you been watching?”

Dean asks Cas about his plan to board up Heaven. He expresses worry that Cas is going to meet a bloody end locked away with the other angels. “So this is it,” Dean says fatalistically. “ET goes home.” He lingers on something unsaid, before a delivery worker arrives and distracts them. (“Nooooo,” I cry. “What were you going to say?”) The delivery lady is super cute. At last the love interest arrives! Is Ed finally going to meet his constant companion?! She bestows a glowing smile on Ed and Rod, the regular patron seated at the bar. Patting them both on the shoulder, she bids them farewell. Astonished, Dean watches the woman just…leave.

Meanwhile, Ed and Rod mutually admire the drawing of a hunting bow on the TV. They lock eyes. Music swells! It’s love! While Dean stares gormlessly at the two lovebirds, Cas is already two steps ahead and on his way to track down the delivery driver - their cupid.

Crowley sings Bowie to Sam as the floor cracks and ground shakes. Abaddon enters in all her stitched up glory.

For Yes Please Science:

Sam gets hurled through a window, but Abaddon….isn’t exactly aiming to help out the current King of Hell. She wallops Crowley instead, intending to claim the throne for herself. Sam races back in, douses Abaddon in fire, and sends her smoky demon form into the night.

Dean and Cas corner the cupid outside of the bar. Cas demands her bow, blade sliding from his sleeve. In what could be a first for him, Dean counsels, “Talk first, stab later.” MADE FOR EACH OTHER!

The cupid tells Cas that she’s avoided Heaven as its leadership has fallen. She offers the bow freely and Cas raises his blade to cut it from her palm. YIKES

In Heaven, Metatron confronts Naomi with a bloodied eye. (We clutch our blankets to our chests and think of Cas’s “re-programming” with renewed horror.) Metatron reflects that losing God was the worst thing he endured, and then he was run out of Heaven by the upper echelons of Heaven. “Did you really think you could do all of that to me and there would be no payback?” he asks.

In Hell Quest Central, Sam sets Crowley upright again now that Abaddon has fled the building. He repaints the devil’s trap and continues the trials. Crowley drops movie reference after movie reference and I can’t help but point out that he’s targeting the WRONG WINCHESTER with those overtures. “I deserve to be loved!” Crowley declares at last, and emotion crests over him, taking both Sam and Crowley by surprise. As the cure continues, things get quiet. Crowley asks Sam how he asked for forgiveness because he doesn’t even know where to start with his own soul.

Kevin can’t find the Heaven trials anywhere in the tablet and while Dean’s arguing with him, Naomi flaps in to talk to Cas.

Naomi insists that Metatron is playing Cas, lying to him so he can get help enacting his revenge. “This is what you do,” Cas growls. “You twist things.” VALID mistrust! Naomi tells them that Metatron’s plan is to expel all angels from Heaven.

“Our mission was to protect what God created,” Naomi says with tears in her eyes. “I don’t know where we forgot that.” She offers up an overture, telling Dean that if Sam finishes the trials then he will die. Naomi picked that knowledge directly from Metatron’s head.

After Naomi flaps away, Dean orders Kevin to find out if it’s true that Sam will die. Cas flies Dean to Sam, then flaps away to finish what he started. Just as Sam is about to do the final rite, Dean races into the church and shouts for him to stop.

In Naomi’s office, Cas discovers her sprawled out (mostly) dead on the desk, her probe jabbed into her brain. Metatron confronts Cas with an angel blade to his throat. Naomi was telling the truth! That rumpled eccentric is out for revenge!

Meanwhile, Dean explains to an actual, GLOWING Sam that he’ll die if he completes the trials. “So?” Sam asks. SAM BBY.

Upstairs, Cas is strapped to Naomi’s torture chair while Metatron placates him.

He cuts a slit in Cas’s throat to extract his grace, and counsels him to go back to Earth and settle down for the rest of his life. Metatron tells Cas that he didn’t endure trials. Instead, he helped Metatron to gather ingredients for a powerful spell. He gathers Cas’s grace to finish the spell and just before he zaps Cas on a one way trip to Earth, he tells him to come see him when he’s dead so he can hear his story.

Sam argues with Dean about the trials. He insists that Dean absolutely CAN fight the forces of evil on his own. Sam tells him that he’s been a lodestone around Dean’s neck for a long time. His greatest sin was “how many times I let you down.” OH SAMMY!

“I know we’ve had our disagreements,” Dean argues, “I killed Benny to save you. I’m willing to let this bastard and all the sons of bitches who killed mom walk because of you, so don’t you dare think that there is anything past or present that I would put in front of you.”

Sam listens to this and finally gasps, “How do I stop?” Dean wraps a handkerchief around Sam’s hand and tells him to let go of the spell. Sam stops glowing…which is great! Except he collapses in agony which is…less great. Dean calls for Cas desperately.

Cas wakes in a field and strides out to a lakeshore.

Sirens clang in the bunker, locking Kevin inside. And outside…stars fall. The angels are being expelled from Heaven, their wings burning as they plummet to the Earth.

We’re just going to end this recap with a bunch of gifs, ‘kay?

Waiting for a Quote to Fall:

It’s not a date until I’ve cried

This is a secret lair. You understand me? No keggers

Would you say that you're looking for, uh, a partner in crime? Or someone who's into nurse role-play and light domination?

There is no out. Only duty

Do you really think it's wise to be drinking on the job?

Talk first, stab later

Want to read more? Check out our Recap Archive!

#spn recap #spn rewatch #spn 8x23 #sacrifice #dean winchester #sam winchester #castiel #cas #kevin tran #crowley #abaddon #metatron #naomi #jody mills #supernatural season 8

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grailfinders · 4 years

Text

Fate and Phantasms #8: Altera

Coming up next in Fate and Phantasms, the harbinger of Civ destruction Altera! For this build, we have three goals: 1, we gotta become the favored child of Mars. 2, we need to be able to destroy any bad civs we find along the way. 3, we need to find our Photon Ray. As per usual, a quick rundown can be found here, an a more in-depth explanation is below the cut.

Race and Background

You are a Human, giving you +1 to every stat. You’re also an Outlander, granting you proficiency in Athletics and Survival. One of the key points to Civ judgement that so few people understand is you need to be able to get an outsider’s perspective before you destroy it for not living up to your standards.

Stats

We’re using the standard array, but feel free to just use this as a general guide for your own rolls. Just make sure you have high enough charisma for multiclassing. Make Strength highest to help crush the bad civ. Second is Constitution, followed by Charisma. This is more for multiclassing purposes, but you are absolutely terrifying, so it fits. After that comes Dexterity. You don’t need to move around much when your target’s are usually stationary, but it helps with defense against those weirdos who don’t want their homes burned to the ground. Finally, put the last two into Wisdom, then Intelligence. Civ judgement is more of an art than a science.

Class Levels

1. Barbarian 1: As a barbarian, you gain proficiency in Light and Medium armors, as well as all weapons. You also get Strength and Constitution saves, and grab Animal Handling and Intimidation. You may be a shepherd, but that’s not what most of Europe remembers you for.

You also get Unarmored Defense, giving you an AC equal to 10 plus your dexterity and constitution modifiers. Most servants don’t really seem that keen on armor, but you make it look good. You also get barbarian’s iconic ability, Rage. With Rage, you gain advantage on Strength checks and saves, bonuses to melee damage, and resistance to the common physical attack types. All for the low low price of not being able to cast spells or wear heavy armor.

2. Barbarian 2: At second level, you gain a Reckless Attack, letting you gain advantage on all attacks this turn in return for your enemies having advantage against you until your next turn. You also gain Danger Sense, granting you advantage on dexterity saves against effects you can see.

3. Barbarian 3: At this level you gain you begin your journey down the Path of the Zealot, a subclass reserved for those barbarians so destructive that the gods come down and go “Now that’s a lotta damage!” When you enter the path, you gain Divine Fury, causing the first attack you make each turn while raging to deal 1d6 + half your barbarian level in radiant damage. Your sword is already the world’s scariest rainbow and we haven’t even cleared level 5 yet. You are also marked as a Warrior of the Gods, meaning resurrection spells don’t need material components to raise you, which will make your party’s cleric very happy.

4. Barbarian 4: Grab your Ability Score Improvement and slot it into your Dexterity and Constitution to round them out. Remember that changing your constitution modifier retroactively adds to your health total.

5. Barbarian 5: Fifth level barbarians get an Extra Attack and Fast Movement, adding a second attack to your attack action and 10′ of movement to each round, respectively. Civs typically don’t run away, but the people who make them do, so that’s pretty helpful.

6. Barbarian 6: At sixth level zealots gain a Fanatical Focus, letting them reroll one failed save per rage. Keep your eyes on the prize, and one day all the bad civ will be gone.

7. Barbarian 7: Seventh level barbarians hone their Feral Instinct, giving them advantage on initiative rolls, and if you’re surprised you can rage to act on your first turn anyways. Show them why ambushing a living weapon is a bad idea.

8. Sorcerer 1: Now that we’re pretty safe on the physical front, let’s take a moment out for some spellcasting. First level sorcerers gain a Sorcerous Origin, yours being your Divine Soul. This grants you an extra spell (Bane, because you’re chaotic), and lets you grab your spells from both the cleric and sorcerer spell lists. Speaking of, grab Green-Flame Blade, True Strike, Light, and Thaumaturgy as your cantrips and Sudden Awakening and Healing Word as your first level spells. The combat spells likely won’t get used that much, but Thaumaturgy is great for speaking over panicking crowds.

First level Divine Soul sorcerers also become the Favored of the Gods, letting you add 2d4 to a failed attack or save once per short rest.

9. Sorcerer 2: Second level sorcerers become a Font of Magic, granting sorcery points equal to their sorcerer level, which currently can be used to get more spell slots. Grab Purify Food and Drink as your spell this level, because food and drink are good civ, you need those to live.

10. Sorcerer 3: At third level you gain two metamagic options, letting you alter your spells slightly at the cost of sorcery points. Grab Careful Spell to help you protect any good civ caught in your NP’s blast, and Empowered Spell for when you want to go ham. Also, grab Shatter. There’s nothing to suggest you could actually use this in-game, but a spell that specializes on blowing up constructs over living things fits your theme pretty well.

11. Sorcerer 4: At fourth level you get another Ability Score Improvement, which will get slotted into Strength. You also get another cantrip and spell, Message and Protection from Poison. It’s not quite Natural Body, but it will do.

12. Sorcerer 5: As a fifth level sorcerer you get access to third level spells. Grab Lightning Bolt to serve as your Civ ending NP. It’s not quite a Proton Ray, but it’s powerful and destructive, and has a wide enough range to do serious damage to buildings.

13. Barbarian 8: Back on the wild side, you get another Ability Score Improvement, this one going into Constitution for more health and AC.

14. Barbarian 9: At this level you get a Brutal Critical, letting you add an extra damage die of the types used to your critical hits.

15. Barbarian 10: As a tenth level zealot you now have a Zealous Presence, letting you use your bonus action to give up to 10 non-you creatures advantage on attacks and saves until your next turn once per long rest. Are you inspiring them, or are they just terrified of failing you? That’s your little secret. (It’s the latter.)

16. Barbarian 11: At this level you gain a Relentless Rage. Now upon dropping to 0 HP while raging, you can make a DC 10 Constitution save. On a success, you drop to only 1 hp instead. Each time you use this ability between long rests, add 5 to the DC. Just keep in mind that you’ll still die if you’re killed.

17. Barbarian 12: Another Ability Score Improvement, another notch in your Strength belt. If you’re using the standard array, you should be maxed out by now.

18. Barbarian 13: Your Brutal Critical improves, letting you add two dice to a critical hit’s damage roll.

19. Barbarian 14: At this level, zealots figure out how to Rage Beyond Death. Now dropping to 0 HP doesn’t knock you unconscious. You still make death saves, and taking damage adds failures, but dying due to death saves still won’t kill you until your rage ends, and even then you’ll survive if you’re at positive HP. Now you won’t die, even if you’re killed!

20. Barbarian 15: To cap things off, you get Persistent Rage. Now your rage will only end early if you fall unconscious, which as we just went over last level, won’t happen.

Pros: Despite your middling AC you can function as a front line fighter thanks to your high HP, high attack, and the fact that you just won’t die. Plus, your low mental scores are made up for by Favored by the Gods and Fanatical Focus, making you surprisingly difficult to hypnotize or control magically. Your spells and abilities also give you a solid mix of attack and damage types for when you need to mix things up.

Cons: Speaking of mixing things, Rage and magic don’t do that, so making use of your skills can require a bit of juggling on your part. Plus your anti-hypnosis skills are on at least a short rest cooldown, so you really only have one extra turn to find that caster and end them before the rest of your party finds out how difficult you are to kill the hard way.

#fgo #dnd #altera #fate grand order #fate and phantasms

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gluupor · 5 years

Note

oh my god your harry potter au!!!! would you ever consider expanding it? I love your writing so much and tge way you adapted it to the hp universe? so brilliant!!

Part 1 can be found here

Neil tripped through the hallways, tightly clutching the Sorting Hat. The stupid thing had gotten him into this mess by putting him directly in Kevin’s path and it was going to get him out of it. He needed to get it to Matt or Dan. To a true Gryffindor who could pull Gryffindor’s sword out of it so Kevin could destroy the final two horcruxes. Not that they knew what the final horcrux was, although Neil had a suspicion that made him feel vaguely ill. That couldn’t have been what Lola meant when she’d said it was in ‘the boy’ could it?

She’d been gloating, calling him stupid and weak, crowing how they’d never defeat the Dark Lord because his life was tied to the boy’s, and they could never kill the boy. Admittedly, his mind had been a little hazy at the time from all the crucios. She’d been carving into his arms with a cursed blade and not minding her words at all, believing that he’d be dead before long.

Besides, what did she know? She and Neil’s father had been Death Eaters, but they weren’t important enough to be in the Dark Lord’s confidence. They were only his American attack dogs.

The battle was raging around him. He’d only been at Hogwarts for two years before spending the past year with Kevin and Andrew hunting horcruxes, but it had become his home in that time. The sight of intruders in the castle filled him with rage that helped power his spells.

No unforgivables, of course. Kevin was adamant about that. But as much as he hated his father he’d learned from him that a lot of damage could be done with a well-placed slicing hex.

He and Kevin had been separated before Neil had reached the headmaster’s office. He hoped Kevin was okay, that he’d found Andrew and had someone watching his back. With luck, he’d made it to their agreed upon rendezvous point.

“Crucio!” The spell hit him as he rounded a corner, catching him off guard.

He fell back, screaming, as his bones seemed to catch fire. As many times as he’d been hit with this spell—and it was a lot; Lola had been a big fan—he never built up any tolerance to it. He’d heard that people could lose their minds if kept under the spell for too long; he wondered if they stopped feeling pain at the end.

The pain abruptly ceased. Neil panted, willing himself to get up and fight back. He’d dropped his wand; he needed to find it. He cracked open his eyes and found himself looking up into gleeful face of Riko Moriyama, his expression full of madness and triumph.

“Where are you going with that ratty old hat, Nathaniel?” sneered Riko. “On the way back to your hero?” The hatred that coloured the word hero was intense. Riko had always been violently jealous of Kevin’s status as the Chosen One. “He’s nothing, nobody!”

“At least he’s not the pathetic servant of a dark wizard,” said Neil.

“You know nothing,” spat Riko before hitting him with another crucio. This one seemed to last longer; he wasn’t sure how much more he could take.

When it ended, he was coughing up blood, which couldn’t be a good sign.

Riko came closer, his eyes alight with malicious joy. He kicked the Sorting Hat away from Neil’s questing fingers.

“Are you scared to die, Nathaniel?” cooed Riko. “Are you worried no one will care?”

Neil ignored him, looking past him to where Jean was standing, cowering and looking nauseated. He was even more diminished than when they’d last seen each other: when Neil, Kevin, and Andrew had been briefly captured and brought to the Moreau family estate by the Butcher’s Men. They’d barely escaped with their lives.

“Take the Hat to Kevin,” Neil rasped, locking eyes with Jean. “You said you owed him.”

Jean’s face was pained as Riko turned to him, sneering. “You’re my dog, not Kevin’s,” he said. “Stay.”

Jean’s eyes flashed but Neil barely noticed, his attention stolen by yet another crucio. This was it, he realized. His end. He’d known he was living on borrowed time since he’d escaped Lola and his father; he’d never expected to live this long. His only regret was that he hadn’t be able to say goodbye.

Sorry, Andrew.

The pain stopped unexpectedly. Neil gazed up at Riko blearily, not daring to hope—

“It’s not as fun when you don’t scream,” said Riko, offhand. “I guess you’re finished with our game.” He raised his wand again. “Avada—”

He was cut off by a sword stabbing through his chest. He looked down, confused as the bloody metal pushed through his sternum. A scream tore through his throat as his skin blackened, looking burned. Neil watched in fascinated amazement as Riko disintegrated into ash, nothing left behind except for an anguished cry from outside the castle. The eerie sound seemed to hang in the air.

Jean stared in horror, his mouth hanging open as he looked at his shaking hands as if he couldn’t believe they belonged to him. His eyes widened as he caught the script on the hilt of the sword: Godric Gryffindor.

Neil scrambled for his wand and tried to stand, before his shaking legs buckled beneath him. “Seems you were sorted wrong,” he rasped, his voice coming out sounding like gravel after screaming for so long. Only a true Gryffindor could pull that sword from the Hat.

Jean’s head snapped up. “I asked—” he said, his own voice hoarse. He licked his lips and tried again, nodding to the Sorting Hat that was crumpled in a heap by his feet. “It said I would make a fine Gryffindor. I told it I would be disowned if I was anything but a Slytherin. We argued.”

“At least it let you have what you wanted,” complained Neil, scooping the offending object off the floor. “I wanted to be a nobody Ravenclaw and look where I ended up.” The Hat seemed to smirk at him, Where you belong.

He tried to stand again; this time Jean shook himself out of his stupor to help him. “We have to get the sword to Kevin. He needs to destroy the last horcrux.” He shook his head at the pile of ash that had once been Riko. “I can’t believe Riko was a horcrux. It explains his personality, but honestly, did Lola really think I would hesitate to kill him?”

Jean didn’t answer, still too much in shock by what he’d done.

“Snap out of it,” said Neil, poking his arm.

“He had—” Jean cleared his throat. “Riko had magical protections provided by the Dark Lord. I shouldn’t have been able to—” he broke off again and stared at the sword. “It should have bounced off the protections.”

“Basilisk venom courtesy of Kevin’s second year adventure,” said Neil sagely. He hadn’t been around for that, but he’d heard about it straight from the source.

“He was supposed to stay out of the battle,” said Jean, again looking at the pile of Riko ash. “But he claimed he was invincible and he really wanted to hurt you and Kevin.”

“Speaking of Kevin…” Neil staggered as every single one of his muscles protested his movement, aching like—well, aching like he’d been tortured. Jean was unsteady on his feet as well—due to shock, not injury—and the two of them supported each other as they lurched toward the Great Hall.

Neil couldn’t help but notice that the fighting had tapered off during his confrontation with Riko. The halls of Hogwarts were almost empty, free of anything except rubble. He hoped they weren’t too late, that this break in the fighting didn’t spell failure.

There was a hushed silence hanging over the Great Hall, pregnant with grief and shock. Neil’s entrance caused a reaction, little sounds of surprise coming from those closest to him and radiating outwards. He supposed he could understand: he was looking worse for wear, spattered in Riko’s blood, and leaning heavily on a known Death Eater who was carrying Gryffindor’s blood-soaked sword. It would have been stranger if people weren’t staring at him.

Neil glanced around desperately, scanning the faces for the one he wanted to see. It was easy to find Kevin at the centre of the room. He was holding his jaw as if he’d been punched (which was strange; as a rule, Death Eaters didn’t use Muggle fighting techniques) and Neil relaxed when he caught sight of the expected blond head at his side.

The ripple caused by Neil and Jean reached him just as Neil caught sight of him. Andrew turned sharply, his face set and hard.

Neil was hit by a sinking feeling; he turned to survey the rest of the room. There were only a couple of people whose deaths could make Andrew look like that. But, no, Aaron was with Katelyn, helping the matron administer healing potions to the wounded, and Nicky was wrapped up in the arms of his Durmstrang boyfriend, Erik. Neil also caught sight of Renee, Dan, and Matt. Jeremy and Allison were also alive, although Allison was weeping bitterly over what appeared to be Seth’s body.

Neil turned back to Andrew, finding him within arm’s reach.

“What’s wrong?” he asked. “Why are you upset?”

“Idiot,” said Andrew harshly, fisting a hand in the front of Neil’s robes and dragging him into a kiss in front of everybody. It was a hard and desperate kiss, full of teeth, but Andrew’s hands were strangely gentle as they roamed Neil’s body, being careful of aggravating his injuries. Neil petted his shoulders carefully to reassure him.

“Where are you hurt?” asked Andrew, pulling back.

“I’m fine,” said Neil. Andrew’s eyes flashed, so he quickly corrected himself, “I took a couple crucios but the blood is Riko’s.”

Andrew flicked his eyes to Jean and the sword he was still gripping. “Found your spine, Moreau?” he asked blandly, before focusing on Neil again. “I thought you were dead.” His voice was flat and emotionless but he’d already showed his hand.

Neil took a step closer. “I didn’t think our first kiss would be with everyone looking on,” he said.

“Then you shouldn’t have disappeared during a battle.”

“Riko was the horcrux,” Neil whispered. “We can win. We can have a future.”

Andrew’s eyes were bright and shining and full of promise. “Then let’s get that sword to Kevin and finish this.”

#aftg #tfc #andreil #neil josten #andrew minyard #jean moreau #kevin day #my fic #bits #cw torture #cw blood #cw violence #partly inspired by a post I saw that pointed out that Jean Moreau was Neville Longbottom #agust-dgaf #asks

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