My new favorite NPC and my new favorite saying when someone inconveniences me lol

Okay, so, due to the nature of Dimension20 and Fantasy High specifically, most of the NPCs live in a space between trope and caricature

Brennan being Brennan (and the Intrepid Heroes being the Intrepid Heroes) those tropes are often turned on their head and the caricature belies something deeper, but as a starting point, they are all larger than life, none more so than Arthur Aguefort himself

Which brings me to Worlds Beyond Number, and the Wizard Sly

Aguefort is a cartoon character. He wouldn’t feel out of place in a sitcom (with or without laugh track)

Sly, in the 30 minutes or so of screen time we’ve got so far, feels like a fully fleshed out, real person. Eccentric but not played for laughs.

and i’ve been thinking that, for the last day or so, there’s this thread between them (something more than “magical old black man”) and i think i landed on it

Time

What is chronomancy but divination turned up to 11?

These two men seek to make the world a better place through their knowledge of time. They can be gruff, but give good advice. They mentor multiple generations of young heroes. They both have red birds that seem near and dear to them.

The more i think about it, it’s not a thread that binds them. They, thus far, seem like two sides of the same coin. The Wizard Sly seems very much to be Arthur Aguefort freed from the hijinks of Solace and burdened with a more grounded world

… you know, with his capacity for shenanigans, i wouldn’t put it past Arthur to have dimension hopped and found himself having to run a long con

it’s like, super unlikely

but…

The fox deadpan saying "I eat meat" is so funny to me! There was no reason for him to speak up but he did and I love that for him

The wizard Sly is my absolute favorite npc

Just so unhinged but so real I love him

A recurring thought I keep having about the Wizard Sly, who solves future problems only he can see by preventing them from ever becoming problems in the first place.

What if the future problem is something these 3 people will do when they are working together?

What if their friendship was what needed to be altered today to prevent a future outcome?

He made sure Ame felt guilt, responsibility, and urgency at a critical moment. Was the intent to warn her away from a dire outcome (with her friends) or toward one (without her friends)?

The introduction of The Wizard Sly is so interesting in what it implies about the nature of the conflicts that will occur to the citadel during the campaign.

What are Sky's politics regarding the Citadel and Umora? What might he see that would prevent catastrophe for the World but still present a real danger to the Citadel. What is he actually prioritizing? He's clearly very hard at work and some of what he sees concerns very near events if he had the foresight to requisition something for Ame.

The last time the empire was attacked it was because they were not aware of an innovation in magic that left them vulnerable to attack. Did Sly see that? Were the seeds of that planted so long before he actually perfected his craft that he was powerless to stop them? Was he just powerless to stop them anyway- no one seems to take him seriously. Was he playing Cassandra on the great stage of the Citadel? The other empires have to have diviners too, is there a way to block divination? And if there is to what scale- obviously individuals and places can probably guard against divination but everything the Citadel/Empire does involves too many people and too many other places to not be detectable in some way? Does an event have to be larger than a battle but smaller than a war to completely escape notice?

Or is that scale the problem, too many people too near in the future. So many possible paths to take and the river flows along its bed but slowly surely the water wears away at the bank of the river. Not one big decision like the sound that starts an avalanche but water drops freezing in the crack in a boulder until that too inevitably breaks?

Haaaaa The Wizard Sly. Damnnnn. When Suvi asked for a piece of bad news (why would you even ask that to a diviner? wizard hubris is wild) and he just replied “you’re not ready for it” I got full goosebumps. I am also not ready for it, whatever it is.

Absolute legend of a guy but also I’m scared cause I know what Brennan is capable of with oracular visions (Calamity flashbacks)

AU Seed: Rival Art Thieves

Humming softly, Gale finished wrapping the portrait neatly in brown paper for removal and leaned it against the gallery wall it had once hung from so neatly, ready for easy removal. There were only a few things left to do, then he could be gone—into the night, as though he’d never been there. 

First, though, he needed to leave proof he had been. 

There were plenty of art thieves in the world; good ones and bad ones. Gale tended to judge good and bad on two scales; talent and morality. There were plenty of talented art thieves—perhaps a dozen with true talent—but morals? Scruples? 

As far as he was aware, there was only one truly good art thief. One man working from the shadows to reunite art with the peoples it belonged to, ripping creations from the rich and powerful in order to return that art to the people it was created for. One silent thief, never caught on so much as film.

Him. 

Gale was aware, of course, that there had been others who had trod the path of an enterprising, Robin-Hood-esque art-thief—Stéphane Breitwiese, for one, had been an inspiration. There had been others, their names less well known and their prior careers less… chaotic? Publicly enflamed? 

He shook those thoughts off and went back to the task at hand, carefully wiping down the little glass plaque he’d brought to replace the stolen painting. It would inform the gallery of why the painting had been taken, drawing attention to reason for the theft—warning other galleries that he was coming for them, as well.

“Now that,” intoned a bored, cold voice from the shadows above him, “is just needless pageantry.” 

Want to see more? Leave me a comment.

This is a story in progress, featuring retired-assassin Astarion, who retired from a life that his former mentor and master, Cazador Szarr, will stop at nothing to drag him back into. With a bounty on his own head, he seeks to buy back his life by stealing as many valuable paintings before his time runs out.

...except he has a rival. An exceptionally frustrating and dashing rival in the form of Gale Dekarios, who has made it his life's mission to return art to the people it belongs to, following years of stealing it on his ex-wife's behest.

Created with @wincestielfttfwin ♡

Scattered work start-up notes below for your amusment:

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||| With Astarion as a rival art thief in it for profit, with some formidable talents of his own; I think he’s a retired assassin with a price on his own head he’s trying to pay off before someone completes the contract on him ||| Stealing for his life while trying to evade the man who made him and who has offered him a choice; live by the sword or die by the sword. Or, less dramatically, come back to work and start killing people for Cazador again or get killed. ||| Astarion hopes he can just pay off the price on his head, since Cazador dangled an impossible price over his head ||| Intrigue sparks when they try to pull off the same job and the same time; Astarion shows up while Gale is still setting up his Stolen to be returned to the people to whom it belongs by Gale’s Art Thief Name Here display in its place because he’s Gale and he does have to show off a bit, after all ||| And Astarion calls it pageantry, they argue, sparks fly and neither of them realize it—Astarion baits Gale with something flirtatious, then escapes with the art while he’s distracted, possibly tripping an alarm deliberately on his way out to be a shit ||| They meet again while they’re both casing another job, Gale persuades him to work together and split the gallery; Astarion takes the art that Gale wasn’t there to steal, Gale takes the three works he’s there for and they go their separate ways. By working together, Astarion can take much more art, much more easily… so he says yes ||| Gets to see Gale on the job, realizes he’s actually pretty skilled (and he has been the whole time, but now Astarion’s having trouble denying it) ||| Jobs goes really well, Gale asks him to work together again, Astarion says no (to keep him safe) and vanishes the instant he’s not looking, leaving Gale pretty heartbroken ||| …until he starts getting anonymous texts that are very much Astarion, flirting with him more comfortably when they both pretend he’s anonymous ||| Astarion deliberately bumping into him again on a new job, working together… and the pattern repeating again. Perhaps a couple times more. ||| Until Cazador makes an attempt on Astarion while they’re both casing a job together and it could easily have killed them both - almost kills Gale, if Astarion hadn’t barely spotted something critical and saved them both ||| And Astarion vanishes into the wind again, rather than get Gale killed ||| And they go back to not talking ||| And Gale mourns the loss of his friendship and what he’d hoped was a blossoming romance ||| And keeps working ||| …until he finds a note behind a painting he steals with his name on it, in a familiar handwriting.

AND @wincestielfttfwin WAS IN CHARGE OF LAYERING MYSTRA

IT'S SO GOOD, HERE WE GO:

I really was picturing the vibes of some yeah, again, Cary Grant in To Catch a Thief, Catherine Zeta-Jones in Entrapment, we’re wearing tight clothes and doing all sorts of gymnast-style feats to get our burgaling done, so I thought “what if Gale’s background is a gymnast?”

So then I thought, Gale, training for the olympics around age 15, catches Mystra’s attention

Mystra is a museum curator in my idea space, and she believes she can make use of Gale’s skillset and naivete

She convinces him that the real villains in the world are the private collectors who’ve smuggled art of artifacts out of their countries of origin and that all those important objects belong in a museum (with my apologies to Indianna Jones)

So, Gale gets into thieving for Mystra initially, going after targets who yes, are terrible people who’ve absolutely smuggled their art and have it illegally, and Gale brings the art/artifacts to Mystra, who waits until the initial heat around their theft has died down to display them in her museum as coming from an “anonymous donor”

And like, it’s not suuuuuuper secret that Mystra is up to some shady practices in her museum, but she’s got Important Social Connections enough to be pretty powerful and well-respected, and the people she-via-Gale is targeting are already into enough shady shit, they can’t exactly go to the cops about it, so *shrugs* all round

And of course, at some point in a barely-legal timeline, she and Gale start their romantic relationship, though Mystra knows it will reflect poorly on her, so she insists they keep it a secret, and Gale still has all his “not good enough for Mystra” self-esteem issues, believing *he’s* the problem (for some reason, he never made it to the Olympics, so he sees himself as a “washed-out gymnast” who clearly isn’t good enough for Mystra, the Curator of Important Museum who has her pulse on the rest of the art world too)

HOWEVER! There’s some specific artifact Mystra is butt-hurt her museum doesn’t have. I thought maybe it’s something she even wrote her Master’s thesis on and is convinced it would tie together some important/essential collection in her museum, her “brain-child” exhibit or whatever, and when it went up for auction X number years ago, she was outbid by someone else, so it is in Another Museum, and Mystra has never let it go

So, still young, trying to impress Mystra Gale decides to stage his first heist at another museum. He manages to steal the thing, and he brings it to Mystra, but unlike stealing from shady private collectors, this heist was BIG, and it made the news. People know the thingy was stolen, and the cops are looking for whoever did it!

So, Mystra of course freaks out, because she can’t handle having this kind of heat put on her. She can’t even take the artifact, because it’s too hot right now, it would ruin her if word came out she had it, her whole life would blow up in her face (heheh), etc. And she’ll never be able to put this in her museum now. So, she breaks up with Gale, leaves him with the very highly-sought after artifact, and he is utterly shattered

But in the end, he decides that maybe a museum in like, NYC or London isn’t the best place for the artifact anyway. He returns it to the culture it’s from and realizes that’s what he should’ve been doing all along. The museums and people like Mystra treating all this art as their personal feathers-in-their cap are part of the problem. And thus, Gale’s crusade is born!

Really really loved the name cloak ceremony. It was so cinematic and helped me kinda *get* what it's really about.

Cuz I mean I knew the whole protection bit, names have power and obfuscating your real one will of course be wildly beneficial.

But I did have an "oh shit" moment where I realized the true decision behind choosing a name, and why Sky is so big.

It's a balancing game of finding yourself in an abstract, a facet of a word that fits who you are, what you hold dear, or what you want to become/exemplify, and the perception of others who won't know or see how you connect to your name but will fill in meaning based on their personality and values or assign expectations depending on history. To lose your true name to the cloak is to move into almost a bigger shell. Something that not only encompasses who you are but covers what you will become and how you are seen.

Sky is a big name, a title, because it's so big literally and metaphorically! It's always changing and always there, and there are so many ways to put meaning to it and interpret it. Sure, there are Suvi's predecessors, who both seem like major historical figures, who have their legacies and shoes to fill, but also, it's a major thing to exemplify by itself!

Continuing under the cut with the Archmagi's little speeches & Suvi's connection to her name cuz I think it kinda tells us a bit about their personalities.

Saber:

What power then, that that great firmament might rain down. Whether thunder, lightning, great powers to cover all, and with its judgment mete out what it sees fit.

Of course the Archmage named Saber has a very weaponized view of the sky, concerned with the power it (& Suvi) holds and how it is used to defend or attack. (I wonder if he sees himself, above all, as a weapon to be wielded by the Citadel)

Sand:

What cannot be seen, who's weightless weight we bear each day upon our shoulders, turns the mountains into dust. Subtly and the movement in spaces unseen. The dominion of your title.

Tbh Sand is the Archmage that interests me the most, I'd say her choosing of her name had to do with time. The invisible currents in the sky, the hidden stars during the day, the sun disappearing at night. Always shifting even when unobservable and moving ever onwards.

Sorrow:

Things eternal. That have been with us since the dawn of time. Wisdom in the watchfulness of a constant partner ever above, defined by its distance.

Sorrow is also very interesting. The sky as something always there but never interacting. A monolith of cosmic knowledge, knowing from observation but not experience. (Perhaps a sorrow of missed connection)

Serenity:

Movement. Life, in a desert beyond which no growing thing can be seen from our vantage point. We see the beginnings, wisps of vapor that will become storms, rain to fall upon forest and field. A partner in a dance to sustain the world forever.

Serenity's view is one that I'm fond of, the sky as a nurturing force, full of change and life-giving, whose effects will spread beyond what can be observed. (Legacy, perhaps, the peace in knowing that the seeds you sow continue to grow for a long time, ripples in a pool).

Silence:

The sky is not the weather or the wind, the sky holds all things, let it be known that vastness is yours. The sorrows it will bring you, that you and your road are vast and broad and lead to all places. Many who have destiny curse it. But what a burden, to be able to choose any path under the sun.

Less of what the sky itself holds or is, but instead acknowledging the freedom something so big has. Suvi can shape her and others' interpretations however she wants. There is space to spare, and the legacies of those before her haven't restricted anything at all. That there is the possibility of things going wrong, or being missed, but at least it was a choice that could be made. (Everything that can be said with silence, when it is best to talk and best to hold your tongue. The possibility in that empty space of what could come next)

Suvi:

...The version of the sky that Suvi will claim for her own is a sky that she saw when she was 6 years old. The dead of night. Stars visible. Snow gently falling. As her world got blown apart. And she remembers the explosion of magic, she's never seen anything that big, and she thought it would destroy everything, not just her but the world itself and yet the sky looked down and held it all and watched it all and persisted. That is the sky that she claims.

& when giving Ame her name:

That night, and the day we met Eursulon, contain everything in this world I seek to protect. All below one big sky.

Very inchresting & I know I'm not the best person to do a ton of meta on subject but, I was originally going to say Silence's view was similar, then Sorrow's, but neither are quite right. The sky is always there, through fear and joy, and remains a constant no matter what changes. It holds everything, stands in relief no matter what, feels it, but can weather it and remain unchanged. Suvi wants to be strong, to be able to go through and witness terrible things but remain stalwart in the face of it, protecting no matter what. To always continue. To see and have those happy times with those she loves and see them safe while still watching and waiting in just in case.

Inspiration for the future WBN musical episode!

Feel free to add as you reblog! This is how I imagine everyone is feeling at the end of episode 22!

The Wizard, The Witch, and The Wild One (Taylor's Version)

Ame - Bad Blood, Getaway Car, I Did Something Bad

Suvi - mad woman, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, Look What You Made Me Do, Out Of The Woods

Eursulon - The Man, Bejeweled, Long Live, The Archer

Ame & The Fox - I Know Places

Silver - ...Ready For It

Steel - You Need To Calm Down, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things

Sly - Mastermind

The Fox - Anti-Hero, Look What You Made Me Do

AmexSuvi - Don't Blame Me

SilverxSuvi - Paper Rings, Endgame

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1ybL8ifea6AZbdJz2kjvhy?si=qhLUV4N-SSi16Mm5NkrPMw

a lot of folks have asked why Ame didn’t drop Sly’s name because then surely Steel would have been more amenable

but I’m 99% sure that would have made things so much worse

Stone was in the college of Diviners

Moved there after being kicked out of the Citadel. One of the few to be allowed back in at all

Steel speaks of prophecies and traps like she’s speaking from experience. There’s a fear there.

if I’m right, Steel hates Sly. Because Stone heard a prophecy, one that led her to send her daughter to a witch’s home for the summer, one that put an amulet around Suvi’s neck, one that meant Soft and Stone couldn’t, wouldn’t wait for Steel on that first mission they went on without her

the last mission they ever went on

and Steel doesn’t want that to happen to Suvi, to Ame. She wants to protect them from the trap.

Ame dropping Sly’s name would have certainly added more context and possibly led to a lore drop

But i def don’t think it would have helped her case

[ETA: i got the timing wrong. Stone was Diviner then Abjurer. Still doesn’t stop me from thinking Stone and Sly cooked up their plans from the start and/or were in cahoots]

forget shadow wizard money gang, SHADOW BUG GEO GANG IS WHERE IT'S AT YEAAAHHHH

So in the therapy fic au the Do'Urdens are all at Mithral Hall for the equivalent events of Legacy (which is a significantly larger crapshow to compensate for there being 5 extra drow with their own adventuring parties) and some of Drizzt's siblings already met Artemis, Nalfein is one of them. Additional note, Nalfein has a Sorcere Master's ring, he wears it often, this ring can see through most illusions.

So Drizzt is excitedly introducing everyone to his siblings and Nalfein looks at "Regis", takes just long enough that "Regis" recognizes his face and silver eyes, and then smiles.

It is not a nice smile.

Adventures of Sly Cooper #1 (2004) by Gamepro

By Travis Kotzebue and Augie Pagan.

Canon HoDcore kinser designs creature was NOT on my bingo card.