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heliads · 2 years

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Hello again! Loved the last one and if you couldn't tell I'm in love with Derek sooooo.... Here's another imagine request. Can you do one where reader and Derek broke up after the kanima incident, and now it's in s3 when Derek gets with Jennifer and she took and killed the readers brother and Derek finds out

who isn't in love with derek hale let's be real

masterlist

The boy has been hanging around your apartment for about half an hour before you finally take pity on him and let him inside. Scott McCall looks relieved to be allowed in; the building is rather cold, and he’s starting to attract stares from well-meaning neighbours. All the same, you can’t pretend that you’re happy to see him. There’s only one reason Scott would be here, and it’s not a reason you like to consider.

For now, though, the two of you will dance around the topic. If Scott wants to bring it up, he’s going to have to do it himself, you won’t help him here.

Instead, you lead him into your apartment, walking back into your kitchen. “Want some water? You hungry?”

Scott shakes his head politely. “I’m good, thank you. I need to talk to you about something.”

You pour yourself a glass of water, shrugging. “I kind of got that impression when you loitered outside my door for thirty minutes.”

Scott has the grace to look ashamed. “I couldn’t risk leaving too early. We need your help, Y/N.”

You sigh, raising your glass in a mock toast. “See, I was worried we’d get here. I thought I told you guys I was done with that kind of life.”

Scott’s jaw tightens. “You can’t just walk away from this sort of thing.”

You smirk. “Actually, that’s where you’re wrong. I can walk away, and I did. I’m done with the supernatural sort of things, Scott. You better have a good reason for trying to drag me back into it.”

Scott folds his arms across his chest. “It’s all going wrong again. There have been strange things happening over town. Animals are turning up dead, a swarm of birds attacked the school, and people are being killed. Deaton thinks that a darach is to blame.”

You arch a brow. “What’s a darach?”

Scott knows better than to confuse your question for interest, but he does look relieved that you asked. “An evil druid, of sorts. It’s doing these ritual sacrifices all over town, and they’re not going to stop until they get unfathomable power.”

Something about what he said makes you pause. “You said that they’re doing ritual sacrifices. What do these sacrifices look like, out of curiosity?”

Scott grimaces. “It depends. Most of the victims had these hallucinations, then they disappeared. When we found the bodies, they’d been killed by a head injury, strangled, or had their throat slit.”

A realization crests over you like a tidal wave and you sway slightly on your feet.

Scott frowns at you. “Is everything alright?”

You wave away his concern. “Yeah. It’s just- I had a brother, and although we haven’t been as close, he recently came to visit Beacon Hills. He was supposed to meet up with me a few days ago but never showed. I assumed he’d backed out again, but he texted me something before completely cutting off contact with me. It was strange, barely comprehensible, something about someone being after him.”

Scott’s brow furrows. “You think he had one of those hallucinations when he texted you.”

You nod. “Was there a young man recently killed by the darach? He looks like me, but his eyes are darker. He might have been wearing a gray jacket with a blue logo on the left side pocket.”

Scott’s face twists with horror. “Yes. One of the sacrifices matches that description.”

That settles it, then. “I’m in. Whatever you need, I’ll do it.”

Scott blinks in surprise. “Really?”

You nod. “This thing killed my brother. I’m not stopping until it’s dead. I owe him that.”

Scott smiles, relieved. “Thank you, Y/N. Honestly. You don’t have to do this, you know.”

You laugh quietly, although the sound is not happy in the slightest. “We both know I do. What do you need from me?”

Scott doesn’t answer at first, his face written all over with the hesitation that comes with knowing a very unpleasant truth.

You take a half step closer to him. “Come on, Scott. I already said I’d help, and I mean it. What do I have to do?”

Scott lets out a slow breath. “I need you to convince Derek to help us.”

Ah. That.

Here’s the problem with meeting Derek, which Scott knows full well and is likely why he’s so afraid to ask you this: you broke up a couple months ago. It was very messy and not fun for either of you, but it’s not like you saw any other way to go about it. Coincidentally, it’s also when you turned your back on the supernatural world for good, or at least until you found out what happened to your brother.

You loved Derek Hale with all of your heart. Some part of you still does, even if you’d rather not admit it. You didn’t plan on leaving him for anything, even when you found out that he was a werewolf, but things changed when you realized he was turning random teenagers and trying to kill Lydia Martin on the half hunch that she might be the kanima.

All of a sudden, it was too much. You fell in love with the kind, honorable Derek Hale, the one that tried to serve his family’s memory by staying strong and protecting the ones he loved. That Derek would not have sought out high schoolers on the cusp of self-damage and turned them into wolves for his own pack, or been so willing to kill a girl who up until that moment had shown him no signs of harm.

It had been wearing on you for a while, and you couldn’t seem to turn your mind away from the whole matter. Eventually, you brought it up with Derek, and one loud, broken fight later, you walked away from him forever. Both of you said things that hurt the other, and you’re fairly certain that both of you regret it.

That regret still wasn’t enough to convince you to go back to him, though. You can’t go back to Derek until you’re certain that he’s your Derek once more, no longer the type to damn any other people if it means getting ahead.

However, you know why Scott wants you to ask Derek for help fighting the darach. After everything, Derek still trusts you like a drowning man holding on to one last hope. If you go to him, Derek will follow. There’s no question of that. The only problem is that you are so afraid of facing him again that you haven’t spoken to him since that fight, and you’re not sure if the words will flow as smoothly or hit as they should if you go to him now.

You can’t abandon the cause like this, though. Your brother was killed by the darach, and even if you haven’t really been speaking in a while, you owe it to him to get some semblance of revenge.

So, you force your shoulders to straighten, and meet Scott’s gaze once more. “Alright. I’ll talk to him.”

Scott’s eyes widen. “You’re sure?”

You nod grimly. “It’s not like we have any other options.”

Scott shrugs. “That’s good enough for me. Oh, and one more thing.”

You glance at him quizzically. “What other information could you possibly have?”

This time, Scott looks genuinely afraid of your reaction. “Derek is dating someone else. Jennifer Blake, an English teacher at our school. Also, Lydia’s fairly certain that Jennifer is the darach.”

In terms of truths that rock your entire world, that one pretty much blows all the rest out of the water. You have a thousand questions to ask- does Derek know that she’s the darach? Why hasn’t he been helping? If he’s dating some dark druid, why would he even listen to you?

Another one bursts into being in the recesses of your heart, one that you keep to yourself. Why does it hurt so much to hear that Derek has moved on? You were the one to end things, you should be over this. Yet for some reason, hearing that Derek is dating someone else hits like a dagger to the back, a complete blindside.

Scott doesn’t have many answers. In truth, you think that he’s hoping you’ll have some for him. That’s another problem in all this; Scott’s still a teenager, still a kid, and a kid in far too much danger than he should be at that age. So, you just force yourself to stay calm, and tell him that you’ll handle things. You can figure this out if it means giving the guy a break.

Then again, staring down the door to Derek’s apartment, you’re not sure that you can figure this out. You intended to have a speech of some sorts, a script that you could quote if necessary. At the bare minimum, you should have a plan, but you don’t. All you know is that you’re about to see Derek Hale for the first time in months, and you are nowhere near ready for it.

It’s not like you can leave, though, so after taking one last moment for yourself, you square your shoulders and knock. The sound echoes through the hall before you hear footsteps starting to cross the apartment, heading towards you. Then the door is swinging open, and you are face to face with the man you never thought you’d leave.

It’s funny, how seeing him hits you like a thunderclap. You are perfectly accustomed to Derek’s face, every line and furrow has been yours to know for quite some time. All this distance shouldn’t have done a thing, yet it appears that your resolve has been significantly weakened when it comes to seeing him.

You’re not the only one, though. Derek has always had a reputation for a solid poker face, someone who never shows a single emotion unless he’s forced to by some grave situation. However, when he looks up to see you standing at his threshold, his entire face changes. His eyes, previously tired, widen in shock and something almost like hope at the same time.

Derek stands there, stock-still, for a couple of seconds before he remembers himself.

“Y/N.” You nod, and he swallows hard. “What are you doing here?”

You glance at the apartment behind him, but it appears that Derek is the only one home. That’s good, because this conversation would be a lot more difficult if you had to talk to him with the very darach who killed your brother hovering over his shoulder.

“Can I come in? This isn’t something I want people to overhear.”

Derek nods a little too hastily, stepping aside to let you in. Some part of your heart twinges at how stilted this interaction is- at one point, he wouldn’t even lock the door if he thought you were dropping by, and this whole place was like your second home. Right now, you’re a stranger in a strange land, no more used to being here than any other foreigner just passing through.

You turn at the sound of the door closing behind you. Derek scratches the back of his head awkwardly, regarding you with the same faintly nostalgic look that you must wear as well.

“So, what’s going on? What brings you by?”

He looks a little too hopeful, and you hate to let him down. “There’s something you need to know about Jennifer Blake.”

Derek’s expression shuts down instantly. “Ah. That’s what this is about.”

You don’t like his tone, but you’re too far gone to back out now. “She’s not who you think she is, Derek.”

He scoffs, and suddenly all quiet hope for a future is gone, replaced by a bitter rage. “I really wanted this to be a friendly visit, you know. We could have still been friends. How is it that the second I try to move on from you, you come back talking about how she’s a monster?”

You want to laugh at how close he is to the truth. “Because she is a monster. Listen, I wouldn’t be here if Scott McCall hadn’t sent me. He says Lydia Martin was attacked by the darach, and she found out that your pretty girlfriend was one and the same.”

Derek raises a brow. “You think Jennifer is the darach? That’s absurd.”

You fold your arms across your chest. “Do you think I would have dared to come here if I wasn’t absolutely certain? We need you to help with this.”

He turns away from you, already heading back towards the door. “I’m sure ‘we’ have plenty of need, but I think I’ve heard enough.”

Your voice is quiet when you speak. “She killed my brother, Derek. Scott confirmed that they found his body.”

Derek stops moving abruptly, and when he faces you again, his eyes are haunted. “Your brother is dead?”

You nod. All of your words are gone, clogging up your throat until the only sound that comes out is the rasp of your breath. Derek, too, can’t seem to say anything, and walks back to you, wrapping his arms around you and pulling you close. It has always worked before, to keep both of you calm, and it works now just as well.

It works too well, in fact. It feels too right to be here, holding him, as if you have any claims left to Derek or his touch. You gave up all of this, and it is unjust for you to act as if you can come back into his life after you dashed it all to shreds.

Derek, however, does not seem to think the same thing. His hand is tracing patterns on your back, and if he harbors any more resentment, you cannot tell.

“I’ll come fight her. Did Scott give you a time, or is it a general allyship kind of thing?”

You break away to look at him fully, although you miss the feeling of your head against his chest the second you do. “You’ll go against her?”

Derek nods, a bitter half smile on his face. “She hurt you. That’s all it takes.”

It’s a simple statement, yet the second he says it you feel as if the very ground has been pulled out beneath your feet.

“I hurt you, though. I shouldn’t have walked away when I did.”

The words come out before you can stop them. Maybe you haven’t stopped thinking about that moment since you left, and every step away has felt like a leap in the wrong direction.

Derek, though, just shakes his head. “You were right to go. I wasn’t the person you thought I was, but I’m better now. I’m trying to be better now, and if I start with you, I know it’ll be alright.”

You smile at last. You don’t know how long it will take for bygones to fully be bygones, if either of you are really meant to last together. You are, however, willing to try. And, when Derek takes your hand again, smiling at you with the same look in his eyes that you saw on your first date, you know that he’s willing to try as well.

teen wolf tag list: @thatfangirl42, @rogueanschel, @lovesanimals0000, @rafecameronswhore, @bellabadacadabra

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queerofthedagger · 3 years

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Look I like, talk a lot about how much I love Arthur but I feel like I rarely if ever elaborate, and it's 4 am and I'm running on little sleep but --

The thing about Arthur is, he isn't just inherently good. No, my boy grew up in an environment so fucking toxic, as a social worker I can say with confidence that it's a miracle that he didn't turn out really, really horrible.

Privileged to his teeth, no positive, caring influence in his life apart from -maybe!- some nannies, and a father that makes my pedagogical heart throw bricks. Like. There's absolutely no positive, constant role model whatsoever, the best influence you can argue for is Gaius and well. Let's just say the road to hell is paved with good intentions and leave it at that.

Do you think Arthur got hugged as a child? Told that he was doing great? That whatever he was into at the time was appreciated? That Uther ever took the time to sensibly explain what happened to his mother? That it wasn't his fault? Do you think Uther ever told Arthur that Ygraine's death wasn't his fault? And if you do, do you think it was convincing? Because Uther sure as hell considered it at least partly Arthur's fault and believe me when I say that kids sense this shit.

Arthur might've been cared for on a material level but honestly? I think that's about it and let me tell you that it's not even anywhere close to enough. Not, like, at all. I want to cry just thinking about it and to draw a real-life comparison - kids I work with that come from these kinds of situations struggle so badly because there's a whole axis of guilt to it. Of course, there are loads of kids who have it way worse but we're talking about children and this is not the trauma Olympics.

Anyway. "I've been trained to kill since birth." Ever think about a 6, 7 year old Arthur who gets a wooden sword pressed into his hands, not for fun but for a training that is ingrained in him, will be his whole purpose? Ever think of Uther always finding him lacking and him not having any real friends because again, kids sense this kind of shit? Ever think about a 15-year-old child being forced to murder people? Ever think about how disgustingly ingrained the whole "sense of duty" thing is and where it comes from? That shit doesn't go as deep as making someone who's in their early 20's willing to sacrifice their life if you start telling them at 16. And even that is disgusting but anyway.

Arthur's whole existence, from the moment he could understand it, was always aimed at duty and responsibility and what Uther wanted from him. I'd bet the little money I have in my bank account that Uther made damn well sure there were no outside influences to "tarnish" the mind of his heir; and I'm not only talking about magic.

And yet. And yet, the moment there actually was an outside influence, the second Merlin stumbled into his life, "I know I'm just a servant and my word doesn't mean anything," Arthur fucking Pendragon leapt that shit up. Lancelot, maybe a commoner and forged his sigil but if he can't be a knight, the code is wrong. Let's go save a druid child Uther is turning the castle upside down over because Morgana and Merlin asked (and if this wasn't a recent change, Morgana would've enlisted his help much sooner, fight me.) Ealdor. The unicorn, obviously magic and because Merlin said so. Etc etc I could go on and this is just season one.

This is getting ridiculously rambly and long and is basically just an incoherent version of my extensive Arthur character analysis but what I mean to say is: yeah maybe he didn't legalise magic in the first four years of his damned rule, and there are definitely things he could've handled better or where his character was just inconsistent (though I'm also going to die on the hill that opposed to what tv shows make you believe, actual change of ingrained beliefs and behaviours does take a lot of time and in that regard, Arthur was maybe more realistic than this fandom was ready for. Anyway.) Considering the 100 bad experiences compared to the maybe 3 good ones with magic, Arthur did fucking great and I'm so tired of people shitting on all he did in the context of his reign/the show.

Uther was a tyrant, and he was an abusive, horrible father, and frankly it's a wonder Arthur didn't simply end up worse than him. No one ever really took a leap of faith on him - and I don't blame them, no one is ever required to reveal something about themselves that could put them into danger (unrelated but yes this applies to Merlin telling Morgana too, deal with it) - and there was little to nothing provided that could've prompted him to change his mind in the first place. And yet he kept questioning it. I'm sorry yeah it's not the Golden Age and it's oh-so-easy to find a single culprit to blame it all on but Arthur is not it, it's -imo- never what the show was about, and I'm just about ready to throw hands over this.

Arthur wasn't just inherently good, he fought and worked to be better, constantly, and to be honest that is bloody hard and it eludes me how people can not see this.

#arthur pendragon #meta #look this is half incoherent and I'm tired but i said what i said #arthur pendragon protection squad #merlin meta #mona's rambling

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beautifulterriblequeen · 3 years

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The Thief and the Tinker, Part 3: I See Fire

part 2

Part 3

Viren: Well how do you suggest we get him out?

Claudia: *grins, brandishes marshmallow on toasting fork* Unharmed is just another kind of harmed

Viren: Claudia no

Claudia: Claudia YES

I See Fire

Angst rating: 9/10

Viren is clever enough not to take the Silvergrove on alone, no matter how badly he wants Ethari to make him a magic key. Aaravos could be cooking in that pod for a while longer, but Viren still has a trustworthy and badass ally at his side.

Oh yeah, it's Claudia Time again!

Claudia is a powerful and imaginative dark mage, and she has the tainted Sun staff. So, you're the magefam, and you've made it to Xadia, to the edges of the Moonshadow Forest. And all you need to do to get the power of your dreams is to threaten one soft craftsman. But how do you find one specific Moonshadow elf in a hidden Moonshadow village somewhere in the middle of a giant spooky magical forest?

You burn him out.

Credit once again to@random-fandom-ramble for reminding me of this forest fire headcanon, because it fits so well. and so I don't get all the blame for this one, lol

Because see, that's not ordinary fire. Oh, no. That's dark magic fire. We've seen that before. It leaves permanent scars. Remember Sol Regem's eyes?

That's going to be the landscape when Claudia's fire gets through with the Moonshadow elves' home. Where I live on the US West Coast, they name forest fires, and if they combine, they get called complexes. So maybe we can name this fire the Dark Tragedy Complex? Because I do have to wonder... you could start a dark magic forest fire easily with a tainted Sun staff, but how do you put it out?

Two things are going to happen if these events should unfold. One is angsty. The other is also angsty but then amazing.

Firstly, Viren is going to get what he wants. He'll find Ethari, whose tree burned down :(. He'll show him the coins, and he'll offer a trade. Build what he wants and make it work, and Ethari can have his family back, uncoined and free.

And Ethari will say yes.

He'll say yes no matter what anyone else tries to persuade him to do, and I hope they do try, because see: Ethari has to make it look good. He has to make it look like he's all in on Viren's plan, to Viren. Even if that means turning his back on his people in their time of greatest need.

Secondly, the Moonshadow elves are going to be collectively homeless and bereft, hungry, injured, terrified, angry. They will have nowhere to go. They will be a people without a home. And no one else in Xadia will help them. Maybe they're too terrified to hide Ethari's people in case doing so brings Viren down on them, too. We've seen how ordinary elves flee in terror from dark magic. Maybe they're all fighting other issues, too. Viren knows all about stretching resources too far during times of crisis. Whatever the case, there will be no welcome anywhere in Xadia for the Moonshadow elves of the Moonshadow Forest.

But here's where it gets amazing. Because one hand will reach out. One small hand, from across the border. Good King Ezran will stand up on the seat of his throne and say, "You can stay here. I have forests. You're tired, you're hungry. You need medicine. Let me help."

And I'm gonna cry like a little baby.

How many cycles does this break, how many circles does it complete? Moonshadow elves used to live in Katolis before the border was created. When humans were under threat of total annihilation, the Moonshadow leader's daughter spoke up and asked for mercy. That mercy came in the form of land reassignment, and the Moonshadow elves had to give up their ancestral home, their Nexus, and travel east across the new Border. But that mercy got paired with justice, and the life-loving Moon Druids probably had to swear some kind of blood promise to keep an eye on the humans forevermore, and to kill any individuals who got out of hand, as if their sins were the Moonshadows' responsibility now.

That's got to breed a little resentment, a little superiority. "Look what we sacrificed for you, and this is how you act. Ungrateful." And maybe that was partially Luna Tenebris's goal: to hold to her vision of justice, she had to make the elves who shared her arcanum feel a little resentment. Moonshadows love life, but we can't have them being too soft to keep Xadia safe from dark mages, now, can we? I will never stop cackling over dragon politics okay, never

But the Moonshadow elves never figured on King Ezran. A soft boy who refused to let his father's assassination harden his heart, because every life is genuinely important to him. I've seen headcanons for Ezran getting the Sun, Earth, Ocean, and Stars arcanum. How about Moon, too? Because this is very Ethari of him, and if these stories of Viren's plan and the Moonshadow elves' displacement were actually to happen in tandem, the contrast between Ezran's soft choice and Ethari's hard one would be mindblowing.

Ezran completes the circle by inviting the Moonshadow elves to return to Katolis, to their ancestral home. They left long ago, paying the price for an act of mercy, but they were welcomed back by the mercy of humans, repaid after a thousand years, repaid in the face of tragedy. Tragedy on all sides. Tragedy Ezran wants to stop from happening, by being brave and caring and soft, and by being the first to break this thousand-year cycle between Katolis and the Moonshadow elves.

Rayla is his friend. And these are her people. It won't matter what they've done, only that they need help in a time of great desperation. And of course he'll help them. He's Ezran, and he's Katolis's greatest treasure.

Oh, what's that you say? Inviting the Moonshadow elves to settle in Katolis again would make it easier for Rayla to live with Callum in the future? Oh gosh, how about that? What a deal. *smug matchmaker noises*

And once the Moonshadow elves understand that they're safe and begin to trust Ezran--which could happen very quickly, because saving a Moonshadow elf's life when you didn't need to is a really fast way to prove you're trustworthy--maybe Ezran will be encouraged to take the next step toward peace, and eventually other elves and dragons will come to meet together to talk it over. And Ez will offer them jelly tarts, which they will love.

Back to Ethari, because we're not done with him yet. Ethari is soft, but he isn't weak. He won't be a willing pawn for Viren. He loves Runaan to the point of invention, and his devotion is more constant than the moon itself. He'll agree to do what Viren says, and he'll be Very Sad. But his spirit is in no way broken. Viren bribing him with the coins containing his family will only have the opposite effect. It'll give Ethari something to fight for.

We could get Focused Chaos Ethari. We could get Angery Trickster Ethari. We could get Rules, What Rules? Ethari. Let him try to steal the coins, try to break them, try to kill Viren, and be stymied at every turn, until he settles and seems cowed. And then all he does is craft his way out of the problem. What if we are gifted with Iron Man Ethari, who pretends to build a fake Key for Viren, but meanwhile he's really building a coinbuster with whatever he can get his hands on - primal stones, magically imbued gemstones, stolen artifacts, his own arcanum, his own reputation as the Master Craftsman of the Silvergrove. He'll use almost- almost - anything, to stop Viren and free his family.

Ethari may have to choose between those two things, though. And he's a hero, deep down, just like his family, just like his daughter. If he has to choose, he'll choose to stop Viren and save Xadia. He'll pay the same price as his family has if he must.

He'd let Viren think he was motivated purely by wanting his family back, but Ethari is far too steeped in the illusion and sacrifice for that to be all there is to his motives. It's a so-close-and-yet-so-far thing, how he and Viren almost embody the same ideals. Almost. Ethari would take one look at Viren, who just burnt down his whole Forest, he'd see the biggest threat in Xadia, and he'd say anything to get a chance to stop this juggernaut of destruction from getting his hands on whatever that ultimate power really is, locked behind that missing key. If he has to abandon his people and bawl his eyes out to convince Viren he's in, then he will.

And Viren wouldn't make it easy for him. He knows clever when he sees it. He went through all this trouble to persuade Ethari to work with him. He would need to keep Ethari as off-balance as possible to ensure that he keeps working as he should.

Angsty jewelry, anyone: Viren giving Ethari his husband in pendant form to remind him what he's working for, when Viren and Ethari both know full well that only dark magic can open the hellcoins. Ethari wearing another pendant of his love, except it's not a metaphor this time. It's literally his love, in a coin around his neck.

Viren would know that Ethari would have to stay close to Viren of his own free will if he ever hoped to free Runaan. And making people bind themselves to you is a big power flex. Remember that TDP stream future-season teaser note about Bait being in a creepy restraint in a future season?

This card is written on in all-caps, so that really could be "Bait" or "bait," or--knowing this show--both. Viren's been using Runaan as bait for Ethari all along. Putting his coin in a dark magic pendant casing for Ethari to wear would be a great parallel for that. Oh god. Oh man.

Maybe he'll stab the coin's scary casing right through that circle on Ethari's chest, right over his heart, make that Iron Man reference really obvious. Ethari also losing his shirt at some point, for angsty Viren-related reasons? It's more likely than you think. I mean... Ethari is literally involved in both forms of forging at this point. Shirt's gotta come off for uhhhh work reasons. And because he's hot. Because of all the forging. I mean how else are we finally going to discover what his markings look like

I mentioned that I liked god-tier villains, right? Yeah, this is amazing. I haven't wanted to die and ascend over an idea for quite a while, but Ethari vs Viren in a drawn-out battle of wills would kill me in the best way. Especially since, while it looks like they're essentially fighting for who gets Runaan, they're truly fighting a much larger battle with much higher stakes. They're fighting for the future itself. It's an epic struggle between the Narrative of Strength and the Narrative of Love. And we've seen what happens, over and over, when the Narrative of Strength gets to call the shots.

On a meta note: If Runaan and Ethari's story arc isn't a love letter from one trauma survivor to another, and on a broader scope to all survivors who see it, I don't know what is. Sometimes life just chews us up and spits us out and we can't stop it and it breaks us. But sometimes we can reach out and grasp the chance to help each other, even after that, even when it hurts a lot, because we know what it means to be loved, and to love, and to want a safer future for each other and for people we'll never meet. The future is worth standing together for, helping each other back up for, fighting side by side for, even if you can't see how it'll end, or even how to begin. We are stronger together, and sometimes we need to fight for our "together" before we can fight for anything else. And that's worth it, every time.

This is glorious, it's beautiful, it's tragic, it's amazing, it makes me want to dance, it makes me want to scream into the void, it makes me want to slap someone with a semi truck. No, someone specific, don't worry, and he super deserves it.

Because Ethari is going to win. He was always going to win. He's soft, and he's clever, and he hasn't forgotten what love means. It's what he's fighting for. Not power, not control. Love. He doesn't want to dictate Runaan's future, or anyone else's. He just wants his husband--and everyone else--to have one at all.

So he's going to win.

What beating Viren looks like, I can't guess yet. TDP is no stranger to angst, so there will probably be a high cost involved in thwarting the dark mage. Maybe not everyone can be rescued from the coins. Maybe Ethari will lose his life, or his soul, or his vision, or something else really angsty. Viren could even kill him and resurrect him as a smoky craftsman, or a zombie craftsman, or something equally biddable but horrible. The only thing I'm sure of is that Ethari would never willingly make a working Key of Aaravos Ethari as long as there's a chance Viren could possess it. But I do believe that if he gets the right opportunity while he's busy saving the world from Viren's dark intentions, he'll break his husband's hellcoin open somehow and set him free, even if he has to smile at the devil to do it.

part 4

#tdp #tdp theory #tdp speculation #tdp parallels #viren #ethari #laindrin #runaan #moonshadow elves #moonshadow assassins #hopepunk #tdp angst #heavy angst #tw trauma

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inventors-fair · 3 years

Text

Three Cheese Commentary: An exercise in utility

I really shouldn’t complain about contests being popular with people.

Still, what a way for the year’s contests to start. A heckuva lot of entries for a very hard prompt makes me feel good, in an odd way. I have a hypothesis that the clarity of directions and the examples provided were enough to make it feel as though there was a low barrier to entry. It’s interesting and kind of my fault that a lot of mythic legendary creatures found their way in. Ah well. Lessons learned.

If you’re reading this, I want to give you a little hint: we love hard decisions. If your cards really are brilliant, if you do your best to improve with each and every entry, if you listen to the commentary and submit the best possible card, then our jobs as judges would be nail-bitingly hard. And I love that. I love having to sigh wistfully and move a card from “winners” to “runners-up.” I love praising cards that contest for coolness in their spaces. In short: you don’t have to listen to us specifically because, well, we’re not professionals, but if you tweak the tweaks and polish on your polish, then—well, the goal is that you grow as designers and in your understanding of the game. And that you’ll have fun along the way.

For every card, I’m going to converse with the intent, talk about where improvements can be made and what might have gone wrong, and then go through wording nitpicks (another part of what makes cards hard, heh. You gotta do design AND cost AND flavor without committee). Cards with JUDGE PICK are personal favorites that for whatever reason either didn’t meet the criteria for winners or just tickled my fancy despite being some kind of not-there-in-certain-ways. Or maybe they just got pushed out of runners-up because of space. See? Hard decisions.

Let’s talk about some cards:

@aethernalstars — Anurid Matriarch

Intent: The Matriarch feels like a casual build-around-me keyword card with some connection to the Anurids of Dominaria. There are only two frogs with reach (and none with first strike) to date but this isn’t supposed to be a tribal card, is it. Not like that, anyway. Giving keywords those ups makes sense. Token generation is pretty solidly GW, giving them flying is WU, sure. First strike to double feels distinctly white. I imagine this card as a casual build-around-me or a token generator. Five mana for a 1/1 token ain’t bad.

Improvement: I have no idea what this card really wants to be. First strike doesn’t see anything outside of white, and reach doesn’t see much inside white. Or blue, for that matter. The flying makes sense for blue but this whole card doesn’t feel cohesive in terms of colors or identity. I did my Anurid research and I don’t see any precedent for this. Frog beasts are cool but… Well, this card answers the question of “why” with “just because.” I don’t fully understand the niche it’s trying to fill or the environment in which it wants to exist. If you’re gonna make a Frog build-around-me, lean into that. If you’re gonna make a keyword tribal card, focus on just one. If you want to make it color-balanced, look at what everything could do together for a flavorful feel.

Nitpicks: Flying comes before double strike.

Amarinthe — Rashmi, Enlivened Artificer

Intent: Temur has a pseudo-foothold in Kaladesh mechanically, so I’m not surprised that Rashmi’s here doing her thing. Giving your cards Jump-start is interesting, as UR has a sort of flashback mechanic, plus the lands from the graveyard work into green quite well. What I really like is the way that the Crucible effect interacts with jump-start. That’s pretty cool design chops. I can see this in a supplemental Commander sphere or even as a Standard mythic for a three-color archetype. It doesn’t seem exceptionally broken on either front. From a purely mechanical perspective, I think you made an awesome card.

Improvement: This card perhaps feels RUG, but it 100% doesn’t feel like Rashmi or a druid. Elves can be artificers on Kaladesh, and that’s not an issue, but you call her an artificer, you type her as a druid (which yes, was her original type when she was more druidic), and you give her a primary ability that’s got basically nothing to do with artifacts or druidic principles. The lands work great with the druid part, but the flavor could be sorted out. I would take out “jump-start” as a keyword and just work in the wording “you may cast from your graveyard” etc., make a new character, and flavor them appropriately. The flavor text should complement the mechanics; as it is, I’m not certain.

Nitpicks: “jump-start” should be lowercase, but it doesn’t really matter if you do end up taking it out.

@arashisann — Yurlok’s Conflux

Intent: With Yurlok being a new commander hotness, I can see the intent of this card as a Jundian standard/supplemental addendum. The lava flow makes mountains, then the second ability...represents something predatory? And the last is Jund destruction. The R>B>G makes sense there.

Improvement: I don’t know if this card is necessary salvageable as-is; you might be better off making two or three separate cards if you want to show this character. When making a saga, you have to tell a story in a limited form, and it’s hard, absolutely! You represented the lava flow in the first ability quite well, and I do like that a lot. The creature and artifact sacrifice isn’t indicative of anything that I can follow story-wise. Reading the wiki I understand the way that you might want to represent the Thrash dying or Esper being invaded. I don’t believe this is the way to do it. With the very last sentence not doing anything when you’re sacrificing anyway, I don’t believe the best card for you is a saga at all. How could you tell this in an instant or sorcery card, perhaps? The moment that Yurlok comes over the Esper border?

Nitpicks: “non-Mountain;” the land type should be capitalized in both parts, see Quicksilver Fountain. The ability should also be one word. As I mentioned, removing the counters doesn’t do anything mechanically because it’s sacrificed after resolution. Check the MSE Discord if you want to get your text fixed, BTW. I know how frustrating that can be.

@askkrenko — Etherium Restoration

Intent: You know, even without Ed being there, I’m getting a Bruna-ish feel. That’s not a bad thing, it’s just that UW expensive returning stuff kinda has those associations. The fact that the creature is being restored with etherium though is pretty awesome, and you know what, that alone (the return plus the re-artifacting) is a great way to convey what Esper does and wants to do.

Improvement: The aura and equipment stuff doesn’t grab me, honestly. What do auras have to do with Esper? And the only equipment that I could find that fit was Mask of Riddles. So I’m going to stop here because the obvious answer is that you’re exploring new story design space for what Esper might be. I respect that. With the information we have now, it’s middle-of-the-road. My vote would be to make this (3)(B/W)(U) and make an argument for UW reanimation to artifice overall, then completely drop the aura/equipment part. Plus, gotta say, I know the flavor text is a pop culture thing but you’re messin’ with my favorite plane! Show some respect! /j

Nitpicks: If you do keep that second part, “Aura” and “Equipment” should be capitalized.

@bread-into-toast — Krofor, Corpse Hauler

Intent: It’s a nightmare insect? I’m down. Even without that particular piece of art I can see how people might be afraid of a giant bug. This is pretty evidently a Commander-geared card although I can see how casual brewers might want to throw it down in a combo match and do some graveyard hate. GW graveyard exile and black ability scavaging is pretty cool, so I can see where your intent was with that. Good catch putting “Nightmare” first, too. I almost suggested mixing it around. I like how aggressive this card can be.

Improvement: Firstly, Corpse Hauler is literally another card which already had a self-evident mechanical ability to get creatures back to the hand. Even if it’s an homage, I would distinguish it; besides, it’s not so much “hauling” corpses as it is eating them. Presumably. “All abilities” is a bit of a slippery slope, too. Activated abilities is one thing, but all abilities whatsoever? I’m uncertain if that’s design space you want to tap into, but don’t pull the trigger. My main issue is that you have the activated ability cost “X and W, B or G.” I understand what you were trying to do but that that point you might as well just have it be “1X.” There wouldn’t be anything stopping you from making that mana already. In short, rectify the name to fit flavor, change the ability cost, and be wary of weird interactions with abilities.

Nitpicks: “Lifelink” and “Vigilance” should be lowercase ‘l’ and ‘v’ respectively. The X in the rules text of the activated ability should also be spelled out and not a mana symbol. You can change this in MSE by highlighting, then going to the star next to the bold/italic toggle and turning it off.

@col-seaker-of-the-memiest-legion — Sevala, Exiled Naturalist

Intent: I read up on what happened with Selvala after the events of the first Conspiracy set, and I see how you set off to mimic that, but then I saw the note about the Timeshifting, and yeah, I guess that works.. The green landfall, the red flashback and the white Path come across well. I suppose this is more of an eternal-themed card, although I could be wrong.

Improvement: Yeah, technically there’s nothing stopping you from having a noncreature card as a partnerable card. I’m trying to be diplomatic about the implications, though. Okay. So Selvala’s white aspect was introduced in the first Conspiracy set as she was heavily connected to the citizens of Paliano and worked as a community diplomat against the establishment. She forged a stronger connection to nature and thus became more green in her overhaul of the city. Path to Exile is not in her wheelhouse. She does not exile; she parlays, communes with creatures, seeks out new futures. What exiling magic does she have? What judgement? It doesn’t exist in her character, nor does the redness. Frankly landfall doesn’t really fit her character as well. The point is that even if a character could have a partner that’s a concept (which is antithetical to the mechanic as a whole), the spell you have chosen contrasts with Selvala instead of complementing her. And what does she have to do with flashback anyway? To improve this card, completely restart the conceptual process.

Nitpicks: The character’s name is misspelled.

@deafeningsandwichpeach — Ilharg, the Craze-Boar

Intent: Ha, I get it. I’m going to go out on a huge limb here, because I mean as much as I like all of this I get the feeling that either the name or art came before the full concept. Nothing wrong with that, because ultimately the card is good. SO. Either this is designed for a Timeshifted set where something really awful happens to our poor Boar God, or, well, something really bad DID happen to him somehow. I’m not sure what the land return represents flavorfully but it’s fine mechanically. The creature return as well is BR and I’m down for that, strong as it is. This card evokes the colors in a way that makes it slightly different than Jund; maybe it’s the art but I’m getting Innistrad vibes from him, the madness returning, the pain going on inside his head. It’s neat. Again, massive stretch though, let’s be real.

Improvement: And with that in mind, I wouldn’t have made him Ilharg. Honestly, this should’ve been a new character, and I would have been a lot more generous. I don’t really get what Ilharg as a whole even in an alternate timeline has to do with lands returning considering that he’s a big ol’ nasty city destroyer. Mechanically, this card needs to cost like EIGHT mana. The card you return from your graveyard to the battlefield stays there, and with a big enough graveyard you don’t have to worry about getting things from your hand anymore. Turns 1-4 dump all your creatures, turn five get the best of them if not earlier? Pretty busted in any format. For eight mana I wouldn’t complain.

Nitpicks: “up to two land cards,” not “lands.” Question: why isn’t he a God?

@deg99 — Radiant Return (JUDGE PICK)

Intent: Black reanimation, white attachment, red hastiness. All the colors are definitely there! There’s something Mardu-not-Mardu about this RWB card, and I think I like it. I could see it as a standard card, definitely, or as a commander staple for a really interesting commander. I’m honestly not sure exactly what kind of deck would really appreciate this card right now! Keskit/Akiri? The Auras part is a little more interesting. Ardenn/Vial...Smasher? The fact that it defies current archetypes but still makes sense is very cool to me. I also wonder what a standard expansion in which RWB auraquipment is an archetype would look like now.

Improvement: A little flavor text could make this work one degree better. It’s really on me that you went into the future with this card, isn’t it. There’s no major improvement to be made besides that. Consider contextualizing for future contests, perhaps? When necessary, anyway.

Nitpicks: “Return target...to the battlefield, then attach any number of Auras and/or Equipment you control to it...etc.” Don’t need the trigger.

@demimonde-semigoddess — Seaglide Whaler

Intent: A pirate’s life for me! So we got an aggressive tempo-y pirate person with a decent couple of sharpshooter abilities. Blue sirens are certainly reasonable, as are Grixis pirates. I like the notion that it has to attack to “survey” and then take whatever shots it makes. I don’t think Ixalan could have had this card but honestly the future is a place where anything could happen.

Improvement: The problem with these colors is that in practical terms, the second mode is strictly black and yet can be played in an Izzet deck. Hybrid is a weird mistress. As much as these abilities might neatly tie into the three colors, hybrid makes deck construction nearly impossible. You can have a pinger in UB or a Fatal Blow in UR, both of which are either severe bends or breaks. Making this a straight UBR 3/1 flier could have been okay, perhaps, or having on-color activations, but as it is now, hybrid makes things hard. Consider looking at a Venn diagram between UB and UR to consider more appropriate abilities?

Nitpicks: Kathari Bomber implies the second mode to be “...damage this turn and sacrifice Seaglide Whaler.”

@dimestoretajic — The Dark Tendril

Intent: Sultai skulk-lord could be a fun card to open and build around in limited, and a BUG defender-y deck could have some fun application. I like how you’ve made the new character and sort of done another take on treefolk.

Improvement: For this contest, I don’t feel a strong color balance in this card. Skulk was a weird black/blue centered mechanic, sure, and green assigns the toughness, but… This feels like it’s trying to make skulk look cool rather than address the issue that skulk was just plain not a good mechanic. I get where the color weight is supposed to be but the whole thing is shadowed by that underlying desire. If this card had just been “Creatures you control can’t be blocked by creatures with greater power” and the other stuff, on a name/type that was more resonant, then I think it could have been a stronger contender. I don’t understand the world in which “The Dark Tendril” lives. I don’t understand why it’s a treefolk. I would get rid of naming skulk, make the type more apparent, and give the character some character.

Nitpicks: Three-colored cards really should have a gold border, not a hybrid one. Also, promo frames tend not to have flavor text (with exceptions for cards with no rules text like Memnite).

@driftingthruthecosmos — Ulti, Sudden Conjurer

Intent: I like that triggered ability because it’s got some smooth flow over it. GU has its flash aspect, but black also likes destructive instants, and then the Disentomb-effect fits nicely into a payoff that feels black for sure. I also like how you’re using the three colors to push the card into a really neat 3/3 aggressive creature. Flash and deathtouch literally only show up together in these three colors but not together—and here you are changing that on a powerful legend!

Improvement: But the fact that she can only return creatures with flash is kind of a bummer. Sure there are plenty of cards that could work with her, and having some Ambush Viper casual tribal wouldn’t be too bad, but it’s still limiting. I would have implied that she works with flash, or let players work with flash, without being so specific about it, and I feel that the card would be improved with implied flash tribal over explicit in this case. Additionally, what on earth is that last ability doing? Each end step, you have to sacrifice a creature or lose one of your potential targets for her trigger? I have the feeling that you may have been too cautious to push power levels here. If you want to limit her, have it be “Whenever you cast your first spell during each opponent’s turn…” or something, and axe that last part.

Nitpicks: “unless you sacrifice a nontoken creature.” Full stop, you can never sacrifice creatures you don’t control so adding “you control” is redundant.

@dumbellsndragons — Gorvax, Lich of the Horde

Intent: It’s a Mardu zombie orc wizard. At this point, you’re already doing something right for the Timmies out there. The first ability has Tainted Remedy plus some crazy draw after that, and oh man, it’s begging to be punishing. “I’m gonna Heliod’s Intervention you. Deck yourself. Runeflare Trap. Molten Psyche.” But also, that second ability? You can Bolt during an opponent’s turn and turn it into a one-red-mana Ancient Craving. For mythic, to build around? I honestly think that that’s perfectly fine. And insanely powerful.

Improvement: There’s weird stuff going on, but the hard part is that I don’t know if there’s things to improve. Giving your spells lifelink has Jeskai precedent, but it’s not NOT black. Doing a little digging, I can see that there are indeed zombies and even liches on Tarkir, but only in Sultai… But there’s no reason that the Mardu wouldn’t have them, right? Hm, maybe “Victory or Death” gets muddled here. Wizard, though, that’s a sticking point. And frankly, the whole “Lich” thing. I don’t see the lichiness in the abilities or the wizardry in the Mardu. You know what would be dumb fun? Ditching the Mardu aspect and making this WUBR. Wouldn’t fit the contest but what a friggin’ commander.

Nitpicks: None!

@emmypupcake — Knight of Summer’s Vigor

Intent: I was surprised to see that there are actually quite a few green Knights. It makes sense, of course, considering both Eldraine and Bant and Selesnya. So yeah, an elf knight who makes more knights? This is a powerful card with some crazy abilities if it gets out of control at all, but the color restrictions and the lack of substantial evasion ensure that it’s not busted out of the gate. The name’s pretty good, too! Oh, Knight of New Alara...

Improvement: For this contest, I don’t feel color blending as much. Tokens with GW and knights with R(W) are fine, yeah, but aside from that, the colors of the tokens and the general feeling of the card isn’t enough to really excite me. I do want to see a set in which this card could exist, perhaps, with multicolored knights and elves and whatnot. I don’t have any real improvements for this card; I just don’t think it stands out against some of the weirdness. Keep it around and add some flavor text. Consider: what would you like for this set to be? In what world would these knights exist? Why is summer important?

Nitpicks: “Whenever,” not “when.” See Pollenbright Wings

@evscfa1 — Estrid, the Unmasker

Intent: The Commander sets with shard Planeswalkers did give us a lot to work with but not a lot of extra stuff, so it makes sense that people might pick up on them for the contest. White auras, exile, and taxing all make sense mechanically. I feel that this is more standard than supplemental, a little weirdness for the way that the specific tokens and all would want to work. I don’t mind that part, honestly. Bringing Estrid back would be fine by me, even as monocolored.

Improvement: Because, well, this is a mono-white card. The +1 creates white Auras (that don’t do anything, so that’s an issue), the -2 is close to Generous Gift, and the -8 is an enchantment-oriented Hum of the Radix, like a twist between Sphere of Safety and Aura of Silence. None of these abilities feel anything but white. The emblem is arguably UW, but not by much. With Auras that don’t do anything and a color identity that doesn’t mechanically contribute to the card, I feel that you can either keep her and buff some of the abilities or try to make her feel more in line with the contest, which you don’t really have to do at this point. I’m also worried about the name and the ability tie-ins. Estrid doesn’t “unmask” at all, does she? She’s a mask user, not a revealer of truth or any of the things “unmasking” would imply. Why would she make a False Mask? Is this some alternate storyline? If so, I don’t really understand what changed, or why.

Nitpicks: “*Its controller” in the -2, “*get an emblem” in the -8.

@fractured-infinity — Rhythm of Death (rare)

Intent: Red (/black) gains first strike, black (/green) has deathtouch, green (/red kind of) has lure. Everything’s coming together in a kind of keyword soup, so that’s all well and good! In limited someone who opens this will be very, very happy to make people cry. In casual Commander, it’s sure to help make negotiations.

Improvement: In terms of this contest, yeah, this isn’t really buttering my radishes. It’s there, it’s pretty standard, and it makes sense. There are two cards that have first strike and deathtouch and four more that can gain it naturally and all but one are in those colors. And that wouldn’t be a problem if this card was presented differently. I’m ignoring the art for now because it’s actually distracting here. What is the “rhythm?” Is something being given the rhythm? What’s repeating, cycled, constant? What about a rhythm gives the creature these abilities? Change the name, flavor it up, get some text in there, and use blank art.

Nitpicks: “Enchant creature (lowercase) >> Enchanted creature has first strike and deathtouch, and must be blocked if able.” Take that with a grain of salt, though. Protective Bubble might have it say “Enchanted creature must be blocked if able and has first strike and deathtouch.” Or you can cut the middleman and make it two lines: “Enchanted creature has first strike and deathtouch. // Enchanted creature must be blocked if able.”

@gollumni — Exotic Wings

Intent: It’s interesting that we have two back-to-back “must be blocked” cards (hm, no shorthand?) in a row, both Auras no less, but very different. I like your flavor use with the wings being a status symbol, bright and glittery, and therefore turning the creature into irresistible prey of sorts. Aura colors are good, and the solid green effect is in there as well. The mechanics fit a pretty standard-ly powerful draft uncommon that can be used for beating down when necessary.

Improvement: I’m 90% sure that right now GW doesn’t get flying by itself anymore, or at least very rarely. Pollenbright Wings and Shield of the Oversoul exist, so I’m on the fence. Maybe I’m biased with recent printings, but for two mana I’m not sure it’s what GW would need. That said, I’m sure there’s dissent and arguments to be made, and yes, I know its full color identity includes blue; this is pragmatic. I think this could have been solidly WUG with another buff, perhaps, but that just would have made it favorable for this contest and honestly it’s up to playtesting to see if those colors need a cheap flying aura. But the wings. The flavor. I… So these wings belong to birds, naturally? Who is summing this enchantment for mating? This is some kind of buff or boon that most any creature could have so in what world is some enchant-o-mancer giving “do me” wings to Mx. Passerby?? But, this may be just a quirk of the game, yeh?

Nitpicks: None!

@hiygamer — Etherium Replicator (JUDGE PICK)

Intent: Major kudos for making my look up Prototype Portal and seeing that my gut was wrong and that you DID use the right wording! This is a super-Esper card, more than any of the imprinted cards and honestly a great use of the art. Thopter Foundry is a great card but this one isn’t a bad use and would kind of make sense. Now, I’m not going to put this in improvements, because I want to ask a question: could this card be just plain UW? Possibly, but also consider: this card could be just a straight-up artifact as well, and it feels better how it is now. Why? Because the black invokes a different feeling. It invokes consumption, recycling, progress, larceny, calculation. It’s a very blue side of black. And it also feels, well, Esper! Its an established use of theme!... Honestly it’s probably more that. But I like it anyway. I’d say my bias was showing but none of the winners necessarily invoked Alara straight-up so thpt.

Improvement: There are mostly just wording errors. To be honest, if you’re getting something big, could this card be three mana? That’s probably pushing it, but worth testing. Multicolor custom cube time.

Nitpicks: “enterS the battlefield” (tense), “artifact or creature” (instead of the other way around), and most importantly: “Create a token that’s a copy of A CARD exiled with Etherium Replicator” etc. Because you can copy the ETB trigger and/or use shenanigans to exile other cards.

@hypexion — Ferrari, Sharp Scrapper

Intent: Well if my eyes don’t deceive me, it’s another Esper card! And an artifact-y card? Hm, artifact-enchant-y card. It’s easy to see the designation between colors, with self-mill and the lifegain going into black but leaning towards all three colors, the second ability being straight Disenchant, and the last one being an interesting UB pseudo-reanimation on the cheap, which is super interesting and aggressive. I can see this card intended as either a standard staple or being used as a supplemental planeswalker face card. There’d be a heavy amount of artifacts and enchantments for sure, probably artifact creatures.

Improvement: Did I miss something? When did WUB start caring about enchantments as a multicolor wedge identity? Alela and Zur have their thing, sure, but are those the baseline now? I’m more head-scratching and 0% mad, honestly. As a flavorful card, though, I’m not sure what you’re conveying exactly. So they get rid of stuff and they’re happy when they find garbage, but sometimes they want to scrap things they don’t like, but then they can recreate some of your garbage? Let’s back up and say that this card isn’t a Scrapper and that they’re an artifact/enchantment person. In the most general sense, I don’t really feel a harmony of ideas. The card feels one-note, like there’s very little to do besides abuse the -2 ability and maybe the -1 to get rid of some big thing on the table. The +1 exists to serve the -2, and the -1 feels like it’s trying to be protective for protection’s sake. I don’t know why this character does the things they do through the card. As utility planeswalkers become more abundant, the things they do have to be more resonant; imagine a fully-built world and put your card in the middle. No card is a metaphorical island.

Nitpicks: I think (maybe) that the +1 could be: “Mill up to three cards, then you gain 3 life for each artifact and/or enchantment card milled this way.”

@i-am-the-one-who-wololoes — Corpse Spell

Intent: I think you made this very apparent. As a counterspell, it does the job well, and then it lets you get an idea for free! The choice of casting a noncreature spell is particularly interesting, as it plays into this weird and not-really-that-common theme of transfiguration. Obviously polymorphing appears in blue and red but it feels black because of the flavor you’ve chosen to convey. That’s a great job.

Improvement: The big mechanical thing is that I would 100% make this let you case an instant, sorcery or creature instead of just a “noncreature spell.” These colors don’t really feel like they could transmute a creature into something that’s not an idea or, well, a corpse, and it really seems as though that’s the idea you’re going for. The big flavor thing, though, is the name. I really and truly don’t know what you’re trying to convey. Now, I’m aware that English isn’t your first language, and that’s a barrier that I’m not sure how to cross for this kind of criticism. “Corpse Spell” seems like a playtest name. As a concept, this card is great. As a submission, I’m still having to extrapolate a lot; most importantly, it doesn’t tell me how the caster is using the magic to turn a creature into something else. Work on telling that story, and when possible, use native speakers to help get ideas across.

Nitpicks: I think the wording would be: “Counter target creature spell. You may cast target noncreature card with converted mana cost less than or equal to that spell’s converted mana cost from your graveyard without paying its mana cost, and if that card would be put into your graveyard this turn, exile it instead.” Because if you exile it as it resolves and it’s, like, an artifact or planeswalker, what’s the point? Hence my note about instants/sorceries and maybe other creatures.

@ignorantturtlegaming — Draxys, Scourge Eternal

Intent: This card absolutely fits the elemental shell. It feels to me like a standard or CMR-style bomb mythic that hits the table and kinda goes nuts. I mean, it wouldn’t be your commander probably, but in Conspiracy-style? Man. Multiplayer draft, that’s what I mean. It gets cards, it gets counters, it deals damage, then Blitz Hellion-s away. It does indeed feel like a blend of all the crazy things that come in these colors, and you did that much very well. It’s not broken, but it’s powerful, and it’s repeatedly monstrous (not the mechanic, lol) with the fear that it’ll return (until someone Doom Blades it, but that’s the game for ya). Great feeling of a massive beautiful monster.

Improvement: Really, the one thing I would do to improve it would be to consolidate the second and third triggers into “When Draxys enters the battlefield, draw four cards, put four +1/+1 counters on it, then it deals 4 damage divided as you choose among any number of creatures and/or planeswalkers.” No, wait—why not make it an 8/8 and just have it draw cards and deal damage? Because of its massive cost, you’re not gonna play it and then activate Wheel of Fortune in the same turn unless you’re playing some crazy massive game, and then it just shuffles away anyway! So, my suggestion would be to make this one massive bomb when it hits and really get the Timmy out of it.

Nitpicks: None!

@jsands84 — Quarrel, Tariff Enforcer

Intent: The colors are obvious enough, right? A sphinx (blue) based on taxing and punishing (white) to make your opponents lose life (black). Couldn’t be simpler. The color weight is reminiscent of standard cards like Ultimatum cycles but heck, we’ve seen weirder commander cards in the past. I like the fact that even though the color weight is really heavy, the keywords support that kind of aggression without being too overbearing like we’ve seen in other chase rares and mythics.

Improvement: That said, I don’t think it needs that weight at all. 3WUB would have done the exact same and it wouldn’t have looked awkward. Why would it need that weight in the first place? Well, perhaps if it entered the battlefield with an amazing immediate effect. And this card, well, it doesn’t. You have a great eye for flavor and the fact that a legendary (read:uniquely adept) sphinx is enforcing the tax laws of the universe? 10/10. But it doesn’t need that kind of punishment, especially considering, like, the effect really doesn’t come up outside of vintage. So yeah, reduce the weight.

Nitpicks: In the flavor text, “their” referring to the universe is kind of an odd pronoun. With most cases IIRC the concept is objectified instead of personalized, see Aether Adept. (Also there aren’t many cards with ‘universe’ in the flavor text, surprisingly.)

@justincase-1012 — Startling Wisp

Intent: Illusions are almost entirely blue (and one of only two illusions with zero blue in its box is Esper-centric, funnily enough) so that’s all interesting, but this is definitely breaking from the artifact theme and going for color flavor. The fact that it is the one doing the startling is somewhat black, but the discard definitely is. Because of the narrowness of this ability, I feel that it’s intended to be a draft/standard oriented card as opposed to eternal breadth. A 1/1 flying indestructible spirit in these colors is honestly pretty fair and ghostly!

Improvement: This card is too narrow to be common but definitely too specific to be rare, and that narrowness really is...weird. It doesn’t just require noncombat damage, but it requires noncombat damage from creatures. Why? “The next time a source would deal noncombat damage to you or another creature you control this turn” would be perfectly reasonable. Also, why the next phase? Just have it say “Then, if ~ is on the battlefield, return it to its owner’s hand.” The timing doesn’t feel necessary. And honestly, I don’t find this card “startling” much. It’s alluring, certainly, but not startling. Consider renaming and tightening the focus. Too narrow and things just get ugly.

Nitpicks: So you do need “this turn” as I said above, and then looking at other printed oracle text: “that damage is dealt to ~ instead” etc. etc.

@kytheon4-4 — Surrak of New Atarka

Intent: Surrak was a three-color monster the last time we saw him, and he’s back in action now and reclaiming his colors. This is definitely meant to be a commander of sorts, hyper-aggressive with some awesome combat to boot. The first ability’s Gleam of Battle is really aggressively costed here but it makes sense in a timeline when he’s reclaimed some kind of new unity. And of course, the callbacks to both Tarkir timelines is there and well and good. Color-wise, your choice to then go ahead and make a future new timeline is really interesting and I can feel that sort of “new ‘Naya’” blood pumping in Surrak’s veins.

Improvement: The first damage trigger is great, if pretty pushed for Naya colors. The second clause is… Well, call it a “winmore” if you want, but it really is a winmore. Big creatures are big and that’s okay, but if they’re that big and dealing damage, then an indestructible counter is kind of adding insult to injury. And frankly, why not combine these all into one trigger, so that the Gleam ability is just a little less pushed? Whenever the creature deals damage, THEN it gets a counter, and IF it’s four or greater THEN you draw a card, and THEN if it’s eight or greater, something weird happens.

Nitpicks: None!

@mardu-lesbian — Contentious Pair

Intent: A white Soldier, a red Goblin, and a deathtouch counter, and yep, the gang’s all here. Token-making in red and white is pretty standard, a little less for BR and more heavily in the white part of WB, but all the same there’s nothing wrong with that appearing in the three-color combo. It’s interesting you went for a post-Conflux kind of deal with Alara...wedges? Really unique. This is most definitely designed to be a common card for a standard expansion, meant to be drafted and whatnot. It implies a lot about the potential future!

Improvement: I’m unsure how you came up with these colors and creature types. Bant, the shard of soldiers, and Jund, of Goblins, do have one shared color: green. But then this card would have been what, white-green-red? And that’s problematic in another way, and I get that. As it stands, though, this feels heavily weighted towards BR and less towards white, and honestly, this feels definitely uncommon. You get two bodies at instant speed, one of which will most likely destroy an attacking creature. Instant deathtouch isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and it’s been in standard for a bit. The bodies and potential permanent deathtouch when you have an empty board is what raises the complexity. My flavor question: why are they contentious? Makes me feel like we’re seeing the start of the story more than a split-second moment; this card might feel better as an uncommon sorcery.

(Also, I’m just imagining them coming over a mountain at instant-speed during combat, and the soldier and the goblin are just talking about their differences and the goblin is showing off their poison dagger when a beast just WHAMS into them and they both instantly die as the soldier looks on in shock and horror. I do love it when cards tell weird stories.)

Nitpicks: None, I don’t think.

@misterstingyjack — Galtiber, Segovian Titan

Intent: Ah, the memes. Well, still, 1/1 tribal is an interesting take on the whole build-around-me dealio. I can honestly say I’m unsure where this card would fit, but that’s not a bad thing. It feels build-around me, but could it work in a limited environment? You’d need a higher as-fan of 1/1s or tokens, and that’s not a bad thing. Honestly, this card doesn’t feel too bad. He’s a protector and he makes them all work together. It’s a neat little design that captures the diligence, unity and edification of these citizens.

Improvement: I really can’t think of a place where this card would see play, though, and the issue is? There’s no real way to improve that past putting this in a pretty bonkers set where it can either go nuts or be mediocre. There are a lot of cool things you can do with this card, but where does he fit? Segovia is a weird plane and designing for it is hard. I love this card and would love to build with it but the fact is that it’s just going to be weird. I’ll put this in nitpicks, but there’s wording issues. Additionally, talking about the character by name in the flavor text is a little off-putting to me. I’m sure it’s happened before but the story feels like a moment being described more than a character.

Nitpicks: “Creatures you control with base power and toughness 1/1” is the correct way to word these things, Iiii think.

@morbidlyqueerious — Ricantha, Ribbon-Dancer (mythic) (JUDGE PICK)

Intent: As much as this technically could be someone’s general, I like this card as a standard-legal mythic, like Kethis or Yarok. It’s surprisingly easy to understand while being quite powerful in its own way. I wouldn’t call it a Voltron card so much as I would call it a control bomb, certainly for limited. The white-blue deals with the tapping, more the blue with the freezing, and the alluring aspect and keywords fill in the green. It brings a lot of the multicolored feel even with a monocolor activated ability.

Improvement: You know, the flavor almost outshines the color aspect. Looking back I do see the intent, but I’m also mostly seeing an interesting take on the dancing and the enchanting aspect. They’re vigilant, they ‘tie down’ the creatures, and they make other creatures follow them. Honestly, this is a case of “right card wrong contest,” where you made a great card to convey the specific act of ribbon-dancing and a dance leader so much that it overtakes the intent of color. The jokingly biting way of saying this is that you didn’t pander to me as a judge enough (/s). I don’t know about reach; first strike, maybe, to show their agility?

Nitpicks: The combat trigger should be one sentence, see the oracle on Kamigawa snakes.

@mtg-ds — Majak, Revival Instigator (JUDGE PICK)

Intent: Now I wouldn’t call this a gimmick card but I would say that there’s a lot going on here, again, with the flavor. Sacrificing each other creature actually feels white in a Cataclysmic way but with a black edge of making all the zombies. Hasty zombies fills in the red and plays into the instigative aspect, and man, getting everyone out onto the dance floor? I’ll admit that this card is kind of silly with the art, but there’s something unusually cathartic about it. He enters, turns them all into zombies, makes them dance, then whenever someone else dies they join the dance, and when he leaves the music stops. Like, it’s kind of brilliant, how the zombies can’t dance without him. As a flavorful card for a supplemental set I think that you did a fantastic job.

Improvement: My first small note is that the art is again really distracting, and like, I understand that that might’ve been the purpose but “zombie dance party” out of context feels a little unusual, and the name “Revival Instigator” is a touch on the nose. But those are small concerns next to the fact that this card really could have been black/red and wouldn’t have made that much of a difference. Could’ve even kept the Cleric typing. Again, I need to also say that this card is downright fantastic mechanically, but just not quite white there for the purposes of this contest. Keep this card as-is, maybe make him a Human IMO. I don’t have any significant improvements.

Nitpicks: None!

@naban-dean-of-irritation — Tamakoma, Spectral Shiver (JUDGE PICK)

Intent: Clever clogs, I looked up that name and it is indeed fitting! Very clever you are, just as clever as giving the UB flash ninja ETB feeling that strikes fear into the heart of those who don’t know she’s coming. White’s got the spirit flash and indestructible, black’s got deathtouch, flash, AND indestructible, and blue’s got the ninja feeling. Something tells me this would totally be a supplemental card unless Kamigawa goes three-colors, but to be honest I get a MH1 vibe more, and that’s okay too. Major kudos for making me double-check cards like Ambuscade Shaman for this weird wording.

Improvement: I can see how this card would be white flavorfully; I think its just precedent working against you. Because of the way that black has been encroaching upon indestructible in the past couple years, this card could just be blue-black and fit into the ninja feeling just as well. I personally like the white spirit aspect. It’s just not as present here as I would have liked for this contest. Great card, no mechanical improvements.

Nitpicks: I don’t know if “the hollows of the night” are, like, a thing? I don’t know, just as a writer it reads weird to me. One day I’ll be accredited and that won’t seem like such a jackass comment too.

@nine-effing-hells — Llanlaia Rywh, the Inmost Eye

Intent: I like your take on elves here, using the focus and mood to turn the ordinarily green elves into some warrior monastery funky stuff. I’m getting the sense of a cave world, or some kind of twisted plane where expectations are thwarted and the different races of Magic have to find their own kind of way around. Definitely a face card for the tribe in whatever set it’s based in.

Improvement: There’s no blue and black here, or at least I’m not feeling it mechanically, and for this contest that’s the most important thing. Giving a Runed Halo effect on a pump is really darn powerful, and to have this dismiss any damage or removal at instant speed is definitely powerful and definitely white. The concept of looking within for meditation is a bit blue, sure, but I don’t see that expressed on this card as much. I do have some major presentation issues. The name is almost completely unpronounceable, so consider shortening it and cleaning it significantly. The flavor text is also in need of shortening and edits. “Look within to look around.” With a hint that the elves are blind, boom, you’re golden. So: name change, flavor paring, and consider that this card feels overall white. That said, for flavor and balance reasons for this card, keeping those colors is fine. Also consider that this is a really damn powerful beater.

Nitpicks: None that I can tell.

@partlycloudy-partlyfuckoff — Everlasting Forefather

Intent: Here’s the thing: I’ll get to stuff in the ‘improvements’ section but mechanically, this card is really interesting for a number of flavorful reasons. Three-mana 4/3 with mentor is perfectly powerful in these colors, that’s great, flavorfully fine as a forefather. Creating two spirits upon death, awesome, those are the embodiments of his students and ideals, and most importantly, play into the embalm, where his zombie can teach the spirits after death and makes for great flying beaters, AND that Zombie token will make more spirits in remembrance. The use of flavorful mechanics gives it an interesting edge even if all these individual mechanics could be in mono-white.

Improvement: One, I would personally make this a warrior, but that’s super minor. Two… I can’t think of any reason outside a custom set where you’d have three non-evergreen mechanics from three different sets and two different planes on the same card. It feels like a custom card, not in the sense that it’s at all thoughtless or amateurish, because it’s not, but because there’s no way of making these pieces come together in a meaningful way; it feels like you’re removing the restrictions on what can go together for the sake of it. MH1 did have some mechanical mashups and we’ve explored that before. This feels like a bit too much for what we’re looking for. Honestly, for a custom multicolor cube or w/e, keep this card. But you might also want to consider MSE or having someone render for you, because with the VERY necessary rules text, this one takes up a lot of text; no room for flavor, and no need, ‘cause you do it all naturally anyway.

Nitpicks: Mm, none, I don’t think!

@reaperfromtheabyss — Glorified Minddrinker (JUDGE PICK)

Intent: This is definitely asking to be in a standard/draftable set as a tribal beater. You give it evasion, you use other vampires/warlocks to mess stuff up, you get in, and you drink. BW vampire lifegain meets the milling, and there you have it. What I really like is the fact that it’s “any card,” like Bloodchief Ascension, but that feels blue, because they’re drinking from the mind and not just the body, and I dunno, I REALLY like that kind of neat flavor niche. I also love how this makes a really roundabout already-exploited infinite combo with Sanguine Bond and Mindcrank, both of which are halves of other better combos.

Improvement: Mechanically, there’s nothing to improve here, except you might want to consider some kind of evasion. I think there’s just the nitpick of having “Glorified” in there without any understanding of what makes this creature glorified or why. A snippet of flavor could have helped with that, and with only two abilities. I don’t know, this one just didn’t pop to me for some reason. It’s a perfectly fine submission, and it just needs a little more pop.

Nitpicks: None! Nice and clear.

@shootingstarhunter — Storm Key

Intent: I find it interesting that the mana made from sacrificing is red but the abilities have a central Riku-like fascination. This feels like a supplemental card for sure, although I’m sure there are standard shenanigans. It would require a set in which RUG/Temur has an artifact theme and in which giving things storm is on the table. I have the feeling that in a genuinely competitive Maelstrom Wanderer deck that this card could turn a possible win into a guaranteed win. It’s there to help big things be bigger, but without a win-more feel, and I like that.

Improvement: In terms of this contest, it lacks elegance in its cohesion. The flavors don’t necessarily blend as well as they could. There’s a lot of rules text that emphasizes the separation rather than blending it together. My suggestions: Make it just cost RUG, no generic, reword the first ability to be: “When ~ is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, add R for each spell you’ve cast this turn,” and the second ability to “5, T, Sacrifice ~: When you cast your next instant, sorcery or creature spell this turn, copy it for each spell you’ve cast before it this turn.” And then add reminder text about targets and permanents. A tiny bit more flexible and less text, and you can add in some flavor. Personally I don’t really get the “Key” aspect. It feels more like a big machine of sorts.

Nitpicks: Remember to capitalize “Sacrifice” in the ability costs. Second reminder text should be “You don’t choose new targets for the copies.” I think, there’s not much precedent. Check the MSE Discord for tech help in getting your name/type text straightened out if you’d like.

@snugz — Erratic Polymorph (JUDGE PICK)

Intent: This does feel very wild, more of the Temur frontier or even the Ketria triome. Either one of those sets getting a return could have this, or a supplemental draft set on that world, or a commander product aimed at those timelines. This card’s pretty flexible in that sense! The red lack of control over twisty magic is definitely evident, with the green bear and the blue otters as representative of those sides of the wild. I like how you took blue’s natural sense and made it river/forest oriented. Big boys and little boys do different kinds of cool damage. I can dig it! (Although I’m more inclined to bears than otters myself…)

Improvement: I wouldn’t call this “elegant” as a primary adjective for its color balance, even though it’s very neat still overall. The obviousness of green being bears and blue being otters doesn’t take away from the fact that both of them make sense. The long and short is that I don’t have card improvements, and this card’s just for a different contest.

Nitpicks: None-zo

@starch255 — Dopplicant

Intent: Very clever, I see. You used white’s enchantment base for the card type even though it’s a strictly red and blue ability. Copying any spells is on the table now with Lithoform Engine so that makes sense. This could be in just about any set with these colors, and you know what, that’s perfectly fine. Jeskai, Raugrin (ugh), or otherwise, there’s cool stuff happening.

Improvement: With a vague name and flavor, it’s easy to have this card be a thumbs-up mechanically, but what...exactly is it? It’s name makes me think of the creature Duplicant, which is fine, makes sense, although it’s not a creature here like any of the other “-cant” cards. I just can’t place it, which is obviously a presentation thing over a mechanical issue. For the Fair, presentation is somewhat important, and also contextualizes your cards. It might just be a “me” thing to keep in mind for when I’m judging, so don’t take it personally at all. I think the idea is sound and all we need is polish.

Nitpicks: None~

@stormtide-leviathan — Jeskai Confluence

Intent: Like the confluences of C15, this is a charm-like modal spell with three pretty standard modes for the colors: blue draw, red damage, white erase. I can see this being part of either a standard return to that other timeline or as part of a “clan clash” supplemental set for sure.

Improvement: In the main post, there were examples like Shattergang Brothers that were posted as technically fine but not elegant. Totally separating your colors and abilities was part of that, breaking the cohesion. Unfortunately, charm effects were most definitely part of that area. I know that Magic design space isn’t eternally open, and I hate to say this, but because this card uses 2/3 abilities already found on the printed confluences and only minorly changes the damage, this feels somewhat derivative. I would go back to the drawing board and look at overlap rather than individualization, what the colors could have done together to make a card that creates something unique.

Nitpicks: There should be a period after “once” instead of an emdash.

@thedirtside — Twisted Design

Intent: I think that with Tezzeret being who he is and with the cool trend of colored artifacts, this card could absolutely find play in a variety of places. It feels almost like a story card, someone’s terrible (well, twisted) creation. That much is absolutely apparent. The counter/exile is definitely blue and black-ish but I like how the theft kind of ends up being red as well and the artifact typing helps with that. Flavor text is pretty okay too. Short, simple.

Improvement: That...second ability. Are you choose a card as part of a cost? I’m no rules guru but I’m almost certain that you can’t do that. And it doesn’t specify the speed, so you can basically pay the (very fair) cost to exile the spell, but then very unfairly get it back anytime you want. Why random, too? What if that spell has other random restrictions or no legal targets? There’s a lot to unpack from that with no printed precedent because, to put it bluntly, it doesn’t work within the rules. I really like the idea of having a card where you can somehow steal, twist, or morph their spells into new nightmares or futures. Work with that idea to make something URBy that, well, works rules-wise.

Nitpicks: It took me a bit to find your source photo with your source link (X), and I don’t even think that blog’s using proper permission. Here’s the gist: if you can’t find the original photographer, either go stock or don’t use art, OR find a source that’s more easily traceable. Pretend that you’re someone who has to find the source working backwards.

@walker-of-the-yellow-path — Ziziphus, the Lotus Eater

Intent: I could never be like him, I could never talk like that. Also, thank you for making this explicitly commander-based, heh. Food tokens are interesting, and I can see the token art already as well as the kind of person you might imagine Ziziphus to be. Oddly enough, they feel Therosian, considering the “lotus eaters” in the Odyssey, and that’s not a bad thing I suppose. Food’s sort of in the green area, with blue-white profiteering, and the general combat lull sort of encapsulating the whole GWU-ish control feeling. Turbo-fog ahoy.

Improvement: Competitive commander gets shut down pretty easily and casual commander becomes almost instantly unfun. It’s an instant-speed everyone-gets-it nigh-uncounterable Pacifism array that’s flavorfully understandable but puts a target on you as the one person to kill if anyone wants this game to ever end. I understand the top-down design but it’s impractical and I don’t see a game where this being your commander would make the gameplay better. So like Gwafa Hazid, consider your design: what would entice people to take the food? What’s the payoff? How often do you want this to happen to improve gameplay without causing staleness? Is food where you want to go, using lifegain to then further prolong the game?... Oh. Oh, someone can also just lorus-ify Ziziphus itself and then nothing happens in this version. That’s something to consider.

Nitpicks: The name’s really similar to “Sisyphus” in pronunciation. I was distracted.

@whuh-oh — Tainted Lightninghorn

Intent: Some day, I think we’re gonna get a five-color Lightning Blankemental kind of card, and I can’t wait for it. So yeah, it’s an aggressive predatory insect elemental with nasty sauce, and I feel this in a supplemental set for sure.

Improvement: So as an uncommon, it’s already pretty pushed, too much so. Ball Lightning set a precedent, and it’s a rare for a reason, honestly. That much power even for four mana with the abilities you’ve given it is a but much. For this card, most importantly, I need to be as clear as I can: The interaction between deathtouch and trample is an unintuitive quirk of the game. They do not belong on the same card with zero restrictions, especially not on an uncommon. Sometimes it’s okay to just make a cool card because it’s cool. I like my weird cards, I like my weird interactions. Forcing them feels like choosing indulgence over good design. I’m not feeling the uniqueness of the colors, I’m not feeling the flavor (why does lightning leave decay?), and I’m not feeling the gameplay. Where do we go from here? I think this general concept is fine for a personal set or a supplemental concept. Contextualize it for that area, look at environmental answers, and then see if you want to play with what the colors do.

Nitpicks: I’m 90% sure it’d go “Deathtouch, haste, menace, trample.” Also, I’m sure someone pointed out the whole flying-without-flying thing for the art, that’s very mildly distracting.

@wolkemesser — Murmurs of the Bosk

Intent: Yeah, this is very much a Lorwyn-inspired card, and I’m happy for that. Both the treefolk flavor and the permanent return are green, returning to the battlefield is white and black, and the white enchantment plus toughness matters (also in green) gives this card a magnificent flow of feeling, the trees returning. I can see this in any set, but especially a standard return to Lorwyn, and yet it could have a home in several cool recursion decks! It’s a nice little addition for both lovers of slow return and for treefolk fans.

Improvement: This card was going to be a runner-up or even a judge pick, but the severity of nitpicks grew until I realized that there were just too many problems to give it full commendation. I’ll put the revised wording in the ‘nitpicks’ bar and get to the big ones: the name, and the flavor text. The name is obviously an homage to Murmuring Bosk, right? That’s understandable, but the name is literally so close that I can’t think of anything else. The difference between being honoring and being derivative is enigmatic at times. This particular case is more evident. And the flavor text is almost completely ripped off from Doran’s card itself. Literally, it keeps the order and adds four words that don’t add sense or depth to the character. For future submissions, keep that in mind. As a mechanical suggestion, you could just have it be the greatest toughness without targeting, and it does need to target the card in the graveyard.

Nitpicks: “At the beginning of your upkeep, you may return target permanent card with converted mana cost X or less from your graveyard to the battlefield, where X is the greatest toughness among creatures you control.”

Join us tomorrow, for a new contest, and a brush...with DEATH.

- @abelzumi

#mtg #magic the gathering #custom magic card #commentary #three cheese blend #inventor's fair #long post

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orderofthedyingstar · 4 years

Text

RECAP: SESSION 14

The party is off on the road to Asaraoi, the last major town before it’s just the Long Road between them and the capital city of So’Joh. Rhododendron asks Jun about how his journey out of So’Joh went, but he doesn’t supply too much information beyond saying that there were bandits and a druid colony in the forest near the Long Road. He also supplies some information about the upcoming ‘Night’ of Endless Rains, and how they’ll probably end up getting stuck in Asaraoi since they’re so close to Yulong’s Fingers and that entire portion of the country will be completely flooded (and underwater). Rhododendron also tries to ask Junzabout a dance show he’d attended a while back but like always Jun is very reluctant to talk about his time as the Royal Seer, but does mention that Inigo was at the show with Umbra. He keeps making the noise from the horses’ hooves louder to avoid talking, much to Marlee and Verrix’s confusion.

Rhododendron: “VERRIX!”

Verrix: “Hmm? What?”

Rhododendron: “What do you think we need? Verrix?!”

Verrix: “What??”

Rhododendron: “What do you think we need in Asaraoi??”

Verrix: “What did you call me?!”

The party plans on getting their final round of supplies before the Long Road, including a map of So’Joh. Verrix is still bitter about his cloak, which got fixed when Dilong saved their lives in the temple, but with silver stitching. While reviewing their supplies, Inigo says that he has a tinder box and then immediately drops it over the side of the cart. Jun mentions that he wants to break into the palace for the supplies he needs, including a glass eye worth 100gp. They also debate asking bandits on the road about Umbra, to which Jun offers to pick through the brains while Rhododendron suggests that Verrix use his powers of persuasion - which Marlee expresses some doubt in. Inigo still isn’t able to recall very much from his past memories.

Jun supplies a little more information about So’Joh and Nartai, including the fact that the criminal organization the Masks are a prominent figure in the capital - but Verrix isn’t worried about them. Rhododendron asks Jun if he’s worried about running into anyone in So’Joh, and but he says that he wouldn’t be recognized since he had someone help him (“paid a lot of money to”) change his appearance. Rhododendron pesters Jun about his appearance, and he continues to avoid giving an answer. Eventually, after repeated bothering (and some guilt-tripping) from Rhododendron, Jun gives a bare description of what he looks like, including that he has a tail. Rhododendron asks Jun if he thinks that the royalty in So’Joh are looking for him, to who he says that he doesn’t think that they care. Rhododendron thinks that the Emperor is probably looking for Jun on some level (and assumes that the child who died was the crown prince, which isn’t true since the child was a princess and wasn’t first in line to the throne, but Jun doesn’t correct her*). He tells her that he’d rather be dead than be the Royal Seer again.

*he usually uses ambiguous pronouns w no descriptions when giving info about ppl he doesn’t want to talk about, and rhododendron has a habit of filling in the blanks w her assumptions and he just tends to go along w them lmao

Rhododendron also manages to remember that the 80-day timeline on Queen Lunette’s return reward has passed, but the party hasn’t heard anything yet about the outcome of that. They wonder about who her replacement might be, and Jun expresses some concern that the Emperor of So’Joh might try to get involved with Gosha.

The party finally arrives in Asaraoi, where Verrix stocks up on some explosive crossbow bolts and Rhododendron gets rations and basic supplies for the road. She also asks around about a glass eye but doesn’t find anything even close to what she’s looking for. Marlee pesters Verrix about working on the book he’s ‘writing’ again, and Rhododendron gets him a forgery kit and a bracer for Inigo (but she doesn’t give them those gifts yet). Inigo looks at the wanted posters and wonders if he knows any of the people on them, while Verrix manages to recognize Jun’s description of what he actually looks like - and finds out his legal name; he points it out to Rhododendron.

The party also finds out that the people of Asaraoi sacrifice a volunteer from the town every year during the week of the flood, and are understandably horrified by this (or, Rhododendron and Verrix are). They talk to one of the clerics at the local church about it, and she’s very nonchalant about the whole thing. She also mentions that the town (as well as the town of Moyoto) pay the ‘Bloody Price’ (in sacrifice, again) to the local giants of Giant’s Pass to keep them from attacking their towns. Marlee gets increasingly annoyed/bored with the cleric’s retelling of the Night, and she insists on being the one to talk about the myths behind it.

Marlee: “Anyways, she didn’t know what she was talking about.”

Marlee talks about how Yulong, the goddess of the ocean and storms, worked with Laoteng and Nyvarstra to give people life. She’s known for having a volatile temper, shifting just as frequently as the ocean’s tides used to. Yulong once fell in love with a mortal (that Marlee says was probably ‘young and hot’) and Yulong’s grief was so much that she flooded the entire world for weeks until Ardrin and Nyvarstra punished her for harming mortals indiscriminately and trapped her deep in the ocean. Marlee thinks that Yulong was being overly dramatic.

Rhododendron: “Have you ever been in love, Marlee?”

Marlee: “Y - no, but I would like to.”

Rhododendron: “I don’t really think you’re an expert on the subject.”

Marlee: “She still took it way too far, like it couldn’t have been that good. Like two weeks? She was like, drowning people, oh my gods. She needs to, like, chill.”

Marlee also mentions that there are different versions of the story, such as their love being forbidden by Laoteng or Zelia also having been in love with the mortal and killing them for revenge over not choosing her. Rhododendron remembers that the party still needs a map, and Marlee points to an excessively massive one on the wall, saying that they’re easier to read (and glossing over the fact that she might actually need glasses).

Rhododendron: “We don’t need more details, we’re going straight to Nartai, which is the biggest detail on the map since it’s the capital - ”

Marlee: “Oh my gods, we can go shopping??”

Rhododendron: “How about we go shopping after we find Raz?”

Marlee, delighted: “Oh! Ah, your little boy-toy, oh that’s cute.”

Rhododendron: “I…don’t want Raz to be my boy-toy…”

Rhododendron escapes the conversation after that, taking Jun with her and leaving the rest of the party behind with Marlee at the tavern. She also wants to investigate the church again to see if they can find the town’s sacrificial volunteer.

Rhododendron: “We’ll have to explore the realm of your available emotions eventually.”

Jun: “I’m good, we can stick with none.”

Rhododendron: “I don’t know, it’s probably be good to know if you can feel…certain things…”

Jun: “Hmm, no, not really, I can’t really see any benefits.”

Rhododendron: “You don’t want to know the spectrum of pain you can feel?”

Jun: “Uh. What I felt in the temple was enough. Don’t gotta experiment with that.”

Rhododendron, upset: “Okay, whatever. Let’s just go. To the church.”

Rhododendron talks to Asaraoi’s sacrifice, who seems pretty calm about the whole situation. They ask her about where she grew up, and whether or not she loved the people in that town and what she’d be willing to do to prevent her family from getting hurt - what lengths she’d go through to keep the people she loved safe. They never really reach an understanding over the matter, especially since worship of Yulong is very limited or nonexistent in most of Gosha. The volunteer cleric tells Rhododendron that she looks lost, and that maybe she needs some sort of Guidance. Rhododendron is relived that the sacrifice is willing rather than forced, and also decides that they need to bunker down their horses in one of the warded stables before the floods come. They return to the party to discuss where to store the horses and Marlee offers to pay for them since the rest of the party is ‘so broke’.

The party decides to stay in the cart outdoors for now, and Rhododendron gives Verrix the paper and ink she bought (for writing the book) in front of Marlee before taking it back later. Marlee tries to teach Inigo some basic hand games (like patty-cake). Rhododendron tries to get through another section of the book Marlee lent her, getting progressively more embarrassed as the material gets increasingly strange. Jun lends Rhododendron his spellbook to hide the cover of the smut book from curious passerby, which she snoops through - she finds out that it’s a very old children’s textbook on Arcana that he’s written notes in and shoved extra papers into. She asks him about why he’s carrying a children’s spellbook with him, and he admits that it hurts to think about too much and would rather not continue on with the topic.

Rhododendron: “Why are you a wizard still?”

Jun: “Cause it’s useful.”

Rhododendron: “…And why does that matter?”

Jun: “Cause there’s probably people that want to kill me.”

Rhododendron: “But you’re not in a country where people want to kill you anymore.”

Jun: “Kind of about to be, though.”

Rhododendron: “Yeah, but you don’t have to be, is the thing. Why are you here? Why are you helping me? Why have you stayed so long? Why are you still seeking magic when you don’t have a heart?”

Her line of questions triggers an emotional response in Jun (very bad CON save), who doubles over in pain while his eyes roll in the back of his head. Both Verrix and Rhododendron freak out, with Verrix insisting that she’s killed him. It takes about an hour and half before Jun’s pupils reappear and he passes out. Marlee checks in on them a few times during this, and tries to ask about what happened but Rhododendron refuses to give her an answer (even though Marlee says she is “the epitome of good”).

Marlee: “Do you need me to heal him?”

Rhododendron: “I don’t think so, I tried a few times and it didn’t do anything. It just kind of burned up in my hands.”

Marlee: “Ow, always kind hurts though, like a slap.”

Rhododendron: “That is not how I cast Cure Wounds.”

Marlee: “Oh, well. Maybe one of us is doing it wrong. Could be me.”

Verrix: “Yeah, maybe.”

After turning down Marlee’s offer to cast Cure Wounds or Lesser Restoration on Jun, the party decides to take a long rest, leaving Inigo and Verrix on the first watch. Inigo teaches him the hand games that he and Marlee were doing (both of them roll extremely well). Marlee and Rhododendron take over the watch after them, and Rhododendron tries to ask Marlee about the smut book…

Rhododendron: “YOU’RE INTO THIS?!”

Marlee, completely deadpan: “Ya, it’s hot.”

Rhododendron: “Are…you hoping this will happen to you at some point???”

Marlee: “It could.”

Rhododendron: “Oh my gods, oh my gods. I don’t even know what to say to you right now. I’m not even halfway done.”

Marlee: “Oh my gods, you’re not even at the best part.”

Rhododendron: “What’s…the best part…?”

Marlee: *winks*

There’s a day left before the rains start, and Jun still won’t wake up. The party heads into a room at one of the inns in town, crowding into a room with a couch and a bed. They debate trying to protect the door against thieves before deciding that they 1) have way too many people in here for a thief to want to rob them and 2) don’t look rich. Verrix still sets up a simple trap to make noise with some spare junk to rattle if someone tries to get through the doorway. When they look out the window they can see the sacrificial cleric walking through the town as the rain starts to pour. It takes a few hours for the rain to start flooding the town about four feet from the ground. Rhododendron, Inigo, and Marlee play go-fish and strip poker while Verrix stares out the window and watches fish (and jewelry) and shapes in the darkness float past.

As the next few days pass the party splits up to spend time away from each other in the main hall downstairs, with Marlee trying to pair random strangers up with each other. Rhododendron spends some more time going through Jun’s spellbook. On the forth day Jun finally wakes up, and he admits that he’s having a hard time telling what is real after having prophetic dreams for the past few days. After Rhododendron spends some time doting on him, they speculate about Inigo and Umbria’s connection to Zelia, a whether or not that’s going to come up at all as they get closer and closer to confronting Umbra. Jun still struggles with understanding how much information to share, and doesn’t really want to share things about the future that might not come to pass.

Rhododendron: “You don’t have to lie to me.”

Jun: “I just don’t really know what to say, there’s just stuff you shouldn’t have to worry about.”

Rhododendron: “I mean…you don’t really have a stake in my heart, though.”

Jun: “I don’t understand…?”

Rhododendron: “You don’t get to decide how I feel, is what I’m saying.”

Jun: “That is true, I can’t even decide how I feel.”

Rhododendron (after Jun’s tried to escape the conversation several times): “……Jun? Remember that I trust you.”

Verrix goes around and pickpockets some merchants while Marlee continues to cause personal drama amongst the others trapped in the tavern with them. He also uses his weighted dice to scam some people out of a few silver, and then runs up to the room to hide out from people in case they figure it out. When a merchant knocks at their door Verrix ducks under the bed to hide with Marlee’s armor while Rhododendron (poorly) attempts to lie to the merchant. Verrix refuses to crawl out from under the bed even after the merchant leaves, insisting that he’s totally fine down there. After failing to convince Verrix to come out from under the bed, Rhododendron leaves the room to search for Jun, who left a while ago to go get tea. Verrix gets bored and tries to put on some of Marlee’s armor, but he can barely even drag the helmet halfway out from under the bed (and critically fails to shove it back under the bed, so he just kicks a blanket over it).

Rhododendron fines Marlee and Jun talking about all of the ‘couples’ that she’s helped create, and both of them tell her that they haven’t seen Inigo in a while. She goes looking for him and finds him up in the attic, which is used for storage. He says that he just wanted some space to think, since he saw someone downstairs with a tattoo he recognized - a skull with a dagger through both of the eyes - since he also has the same tattoo. Inigo isn’t able to remember anything about the significance of the symbol, but mentions that Marlee suggested Remove Curse or Lesser Restoration to try and fix his amnesia, although he’s hesitant since the memories he’s gotten back haven’t been the most pleasant.

Rhododendron: “Listen, Inigo, I have heard quite a lot about the person that you used to be, but I think you should keep in mind the kind of person that you are now.”

Inigo: “Stupid?”

Rhododendron: “I, uh - ”

Inigo: “I’m kidding! I mean, I’m not but I am.”

Rhododendron: “I just mean that at your core this is the person that you are, and you shouldn’t forget that, even when you remember who you are.”

Inigo: “That’s a lot of forgetting and remembering, but I’ll try.”

After talking about Inigo’s lack of memory and who he might have been for a while, they briefly touch on Raz’s situation and Inigo asks if her ‘little wizard’ is awake yet.

Rhododendron: “Do you not know his name?”

Inigo: “No, I know his name, it’s just - you kind of dote on him a little.”

Rhododendron: “I don’t dote on him!”

Inigo: “I’m just saying, you don’t see Verrix doing the same thing.”

Both of them also express their frustration with being stuck in the inn for the better part of a week, and Inigo admits that he’s been helping her with her chaotic destroying and re-pairing up of the couples in the building. Rhododendron begins to worry that Marlee will get this bored while they’re all trapped out on the Long Road together, and try to start things amongst the party members. The two of them leave the attic, and Rhododendron goes to investigate the halflings downstairs to see if any of them have the tattoo that Inigo was talking about. She eventually finds them, but they aren’t exactly forthcoming on information (CRIT MISS Persuasion).

Rhododendron goes back up to the attic to send up a quick prayer to Yulong while the rest of the party regathers in their room to watch the floodwaters slowly receded. She returns to the room afterwards, and then reminds Inigo, Marlee, and Verrix that they need to wait until most of the crowd has left the building until they try to get their horses back since they’d spent too much time causing trouble. Marlee offers to officiate some weddings to fix some of the broken up couples, but Rhododendron tells her that would probably just make things worse. Rhododendron and Jun find their horses (Tulip and Carnation) just fine, although there are a few less lucky steeds that got partially eaten by the creatures that were moving around during the floods despite the magical wards on the stables.

The party reunited after the crowd has left the inn, and Rhododendron gives Inigo the bracer she got for him (and he starts to feel a little bad about causing trouble in the tavern), making Marlee and Verrix suspect that she has feelings for him.

Verrix: “Did she give you a present too?”

Marlee, delighted: “She. Did. Not!”

As the last of Yulong’s tears of grief dissipate from the Material Plane, the party prepares themselves to head into So’Joh and begin their months-long journey on the Long Road.

#Marlee definitely needs glasses lol #also when i started these recaps there were only twenty eight sessions #now....there’s...more...#dndas #dnd another sunrise #dndas recap

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lettersofwrittencollective · 5 years

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The Pull (10/?)

Summary: The Ragnulf’s are one of the oldest lines of werewolves known. A gift from ancient times was given to the line. Though not all of the line will experience it. There are some who will experience a Pull. This Pull leads them to their true mate, a soulmate. The problem is, just because the wolf finds their true mate does not mean that they are the same for that person.

Author: @lettersofwrittencollective

Pairing: Stiles x Hale!Cousin OC (Reader)

Word Count: 2741

Warnings: I don’t believe there are any.

A/N: As always, please let me know what you thought. Any comments, questions, or concerns.

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You were sitting on the small terrace, watching the sky change colors as it prepared for the sun rise with a warm cup of coffee in your hands. You were never much of a morning person, but if these nightmares had anything good, it would be this. The scene in front of you was perhaps the most beautiful thing you had ever seen.

You wondered about the conversation you had last night. After everyone had gone to whatever room they were going to occupy for the night, you and Lydia had stayed up for a little while longer trying to figure out the best way to go about tomorrow. She had asked if you’d be willing to track Malia and you had to tell her that you were only able to get general scents but were having a hard time actually locking in on a specific scent to be able to follow it. It’s Lydia that suggested using your hearing instead and you could have kicked yourself for not thinking of that. It was such an integral part of you.

You and Lydia had talked about it and figured it would probably be best if not all the wolves in the vicinity were chasing a coyote. Were or not, if Scott was having a hard time controlling his own instincts a group chasing down the poor thing may very well turn into a hunting party.

The two of you figured it would be best if, as a group, you all paired off. In order to try and keep the wolves from hunting, Lydia figured it would be best to be one wolf with non-supernatural person. You’d had to remind Lydia that she is technically considered supernatural. The idea the was to leave Allison with Isaac, Lydia with Scott and Stiles with you. She’d also asked you about the purple of your eyes and you had no answer for her so you simply said it was a family trait.

It’s as you’re sipping the last of your coffee and wondering just what the world has coming their way that the doors open. You don’t bother to look over, already knowing that it’s Isaac

“You really should be asleep, you know.”

You offer a weak smile without looking at him, “It’s been kind of difficult lately.”

“Why didn’t you tell me that both Derek and Peter are missing?” he asks as he’s handing you another mug of hot coffee.

Setting your empty mug down, you take the drink from him and wrap both hands around it. Inhaling the scent of the hazelnut roast, “Honestly, I thought I had. I swear, with everything that’s been going on though, I must have just imagined having the conversation.”

He sighs and comes to sit next to you.

“I’m sorry,” he murmurs softly, “If I had known, I would have come over more.”

“It’s fine, you were here most nights anyways… Wait how did you not notice they weren’t barging into the room after you?”

Isaac looks a bit sheepish before saying “I just assumed they were ignoring you…”

He looks so serious that you can’t help laughing, “Isaac, my cousins may be… difficult… but they’re not gonna just ignore screaming nightmares.That’s kind of hard to do.”

There’s a pause, almost as if he’s not sure he should ask but soon enough, Isaac is asking if you really think that saving Malia is going to help them.

“You want an honest answer?” at his nod you shake your head, “I’ve got no idea… all I know is that a nemeton is supposed to be a sacred place. I can’t help but wonder if somehow this nemetons been corrupted. In the past, when a sacrifice was made to the nemeton, the Druids would choose from volunteers. It was considered an honor. At least, that’s what my dad used to tell us. The sacrifices here, they had no idea why they’d died. What if it twisted the magic somehow?”

“Well, how would we know if it had?”

“Your guess is as good as mine.”

He sighs heavily, dragging a hand across his face and through his hair, “So this may not even work.”

“But Isaac, isn’t it better to try? Even if this doesn’t work, they’re going to feel better about trying. If they don’t succeed… well it’s not like it can get any worse.

I know you’re worried about Allison and Scott and, to a lesser extent, Stiles. So why not at least try?”

He nods his head and is silent for another moment, before - “Do you think it’s one of them? Or that it could be?”

“I don’t know.. Maybe? But honestly Isaac, I’m not going to put my life on hold trying to figure out who it is. The pain is manageable and it’s not like there’s much I can even do. It’s not like I see them and I suddenly know who they are.I still have to get to know them..”

“Scotts good people ya know..”

“You saying that cause you think it might actually be him or because you want to be able to date Allison and not feel guilty? He seems nice enough, but he’s not really my type. Besides, I think he’s interested in the new girl, Kira. Haven’t you notice his heart race pick up just a bit each time that he talks to her?”

Isaac shakes his head and you playfully shove him, telling him that he really needs to work on actually using his new abilities.

The sun has risen over the city and it’s slowly coming alive. You and Isaac stay out on the terrace for a little while before it’s time to head back in. Isaac will be going to get Allison and you will be staying here to work out the plan with his friends.

Later that afternoon, you join the McCall pack in the woods not too far from the Tate house. Everyone’s on edge and there’s a moment where Lydia questions if what you’re all doing is more bad than good. You stay quiet, not because you agree but because this isn’t an argument for you to be a part of, it’s a family matter. Scott, however, is making it something positive and Isaac and Stiles begin to bicker.

Ignoring them, you drown them out and try to focus hearing what’s going on in the woods around you. You hear Stiles dad calling for Tate and then there’s the sound of something crashing.

“Hey guys-” you begin but there’s a gunshot ringing through the woods that makes you flinch back.

Scott jumps on his bike, calling for Lydia who doesn’t seem to hesitate before she’s on the bike with him and they’re taking off. Isaac and Allison are paces behind them.

Stiles is trying to get everyone to wait and so you clear your throat, reminding him that you’re still here when he turns to face you. He lets out a frustrated huff before reaching into his pocket and calling his dad.

Cell phones have too much going on with them for you to want to try to make out what the Sheriff is saying but Stiles looks confused as he begins to pace.

“It took the doll again?” he turns to look at you while asking “What the hell is so important about this doll?”

Stiles is still on the phone when suddenly something occurs to him,”It’s the doll” he says assuredly as he hang ups the phone before second guessing, “It’s the doll?”

There’s more gunshots and you begin to worry that Allison or Isaac could be getting shot, you move to go after them before you remember, you could trigger a hunting party and you said you’d stay with Stiles. So you stop your forward movement and settle for pacing between the trees. Taking a deep breath you try to focus on Stiles’ words, this doll means something. The gunshots however, are making you more and more nervous.

“Alright but why would it go all the way to the school and then all the way back to the house just for a doll? One that was in the car in the first place. We didn’t find it in the coyote den”

Hearing another gunshot you snap at Stiles “I was there Stiles, I know it wasn’t there.. Look it just likes the doll-”

“Yeah, it likes the doll alot.”

You rub your temples for a moment, trying to focus on the situation in front of you and not the fact that your friends are running towards bullets. “Wait, what kind of doll is it Stiles?”

“It’s a - I don’t know. It’s a doll, you know?” He huffs, “It’s got little arms,a big baby head and dead, soulless eyes. Actually, I took a pic,” says as he reaches into his pocket and stands up. A moment later, he’s handing you the phone. “Here.”

You look at the picture, the girl in the blue jacket is on the right, sitting with a younger girl with red jacket. She’s the one that’s holding the doll. “Stiles, she’s not the one holding the doll. How many people did you say were in that accident?”

Stiles takes the phone back and looks at the picture again, “That’s Malia’s younger sister. So it was her doll.”

He continues to stare at the picture and you’re struck struck by the memory of taking your mother's favorite blanket to her grave when Stiles is looking at you.

“What?”

“I know where she’s going.”

Suddenly Isaacs screaming and you’re running towards him when Stiles grabs your arm and pulls you back

. “Natasha! You can’t go, he’s going to be okay.”

“You don’t know that Stiles, you he could have been shot!”

Stiles pulls you into his arms, his chest against your back and he’s wrapped both arms around your, “I promise he’s going to be ok.”

You had decided to listen to your instinct and trust these people you remind yourself. You have to latch onto Stiles, your hand gripping his arm, and take deep breaths in order for you to actually do it. It takes a couple seconds but you nod. Stiles makes sure that you’re okay before the two of you are making your way towards the site of the crash.

Stiles is on his phone, apparently leaving a message for Scott and you end up trailing just a little bit. You’re slightly on edge and you keep telling yourself that Isaac and Allison with both be okay. You’re not really paying attention to your surroundings, knowing that you need to get to the accident when suddenly your foot lands on something that makes you freeze.

Looking down your eyes fall on a bear trap and your foot is smack dab in the middle of the pressure plate. Shit. Isaacs scream suddenly makes sense. You could step down and allow the jaws to snap on your legs but to be honest you’re not sure how well you would heal or how quickly. You’re voice comes out panicked when you call Stiles’ name.

He doesn't seem to notice as he turns to you but he sees something on your face, panic you assume, and he looks at the ground, his eyes landing on the bear trap.

He walks slowly towards you and you’re trying not to twitch on the plate. There’s a squeaking sound and you call out his name again, terror lacing your voice this time.

“Natasha... don’t move.”

“Wasn’t part of the plan…” you snark at him, terrified about what this thing may actually do to you. “Stiles- look for a warning label.”

“A warning label?”

“Instructions on how to disarm it.”

“Natasha, why the hell would they put instructions on the bottom of a trap?”

“Because animals can’t read.”

Stiles nods his head and kneels down. You try to focus on staying still and not breathing too fast, afraid you’ll trigger the trap. You can see Stiles moving around and it feels like a lifetime later before he speaks-

“Ummm... Tasha... we got a problem.”

You can only whimper as you risk turning your head to look at him. He’s looking up at you and his eyes meet yours

“I can’t read either..”

Because of course whatever the nemeton is doing is going to be worse when they’re trying to help. But, this is Stiles - he’s the one that’s been piecing together everything from what you’ve seen.

“You don’t need the instructions,” you dismiss. He looks at you, confusion written on his face and you continue on. “I’m willing to bet you’ve never used the instructions to anything in your life. You don’t need them because you are too smart to waste your time with them, okay?

You can figure it out. Stiles- you’re the one who always figures it out. So you can do it. Figure it out. “

You stay still, watching as Stiles finds a valve of some sort. He looks at it for a moment and you hold your breath. He asks if your ready and you give a small nod, he turns the valve and you jump off the plate, you end up practically falling on top of Stiles and arm around his neck, you grab his jacket with your opposite hand. His arms wrap around you and the jaws of the tramp snap together.

You’re breathing heavily and let out a slightly hysterical chuckle. You can feel the soothing circles that Stiles rubs across your back and you’re able to calm down.

Stepping out of his arms he lets you go and you thank him. The two of you begin to work your way towards the crash again when a roar is heard throughout the woods.

Scott was able to do it.

Later that night, after you had checked on Isaac who was healing up just fine you had decided to check in on the others. You found yourself at Stiles’ house, figuring Scott and Lydia would, also, be here. You had brought over popcorn and the Star Wars prequels, figuring they may need some time to just unwind and that it would be a nice gesture that they might like.

As you stood there, you realized that you could distinguish individual smells. Taking a deeper inhale, you realized that you could make out distinct smells and not just generalizations. Only stiles was here. He invited you in and the two of you sat in his living room. You gave him the popcorn and movie anyways, thanked him for earlier that day and when he had asked why you were so sure that he was going to be able to get you out of that trap you merely replied that you just knew. You were going to leave, when Stiles surprised you.

“Hey, uhh” he started off as he rubbed the back of his neck, “I - Uh.. That is to say… Well I wanted you to know that - it’s, it’s not that I don’t like you…. You’ve actually been pretty awesome during all of this. It’s just that- well we’ve been hurt a lot. That’s not to say that you’re going to hurt us but- you know how sometimes it’s not that people just pretend to be something that they aren’t - Not that that’s what you’re doing it’s just that -”

He’s gesturing somewhat wildly and seems to be looking at everything but you so you put your hand on his shoulder. He stops suddenly and when he’s looking at you, you say, “Stiles- I get it. Maybe I was overreacting, it just kind of sucked that it seemed like everyone but you was ok with me being around.”

He smiles back at you and, pulling your hand back to your body and you rub your upper arm.

“Wait, are you cold?”

Before you can respond, he’s already jumped over the couch, practically killing himself in the process and is on his way up the stairs.

“Wait - Stiles” you call after him but he’s already gone.

A few moments later, he runs back downstairs with a blanket that he drapes over your arms.

“Thanks..” you murmur. You’re not sure what the plan is but Stiles quickly sets up the blu ray player and settles down on the couch. Smiling at him you get comfortable on the couch. The two of you watch the movie and then put in another, during which you fall asleep

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Tag list: @nicole-lynne @fandom-princess-forevermore @capandbuck @biles-bilinski-24 @stiles-o-dylan24 @fiveisadorable @falling-stars-never-cry @blueraindrops @its-livelovelife @screamxqueenx94

Edit: had to change the gif cause tumblr kept removing it?

Do not copy and paste my writing anywhere without my consent. This work is the property of lettersofwrittencollective . Associated characters belong to MTV and are being borrowed for this work, all OC’s are the property of lettersofwrittencollective. These works contain material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of these works may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author/publisher.

Posted 20 March 2019

#Reader insert #stiles #stiles stilinski #Stiles x reader #stiles imagine #stilinski #stiles stilinski x reader #stiles stilinksi x reader #Isaac Lahey #Teen Wolf #Teen wolf x reader #teen wolf imagines #my writing #The Pull #Series

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tearlessrain · 5 years

Text

I’m about to watch Arthur and Merlin, which is free on youtube and came up in my suggestions randomly. I have no idea what it is but I am hungry for the arthurian Content so Imma watch it and see how it goes

update: it was way better than I expected and accidentally SUPER gay. that merlin tv show everyone loved was amateur hour compared to how gay this was.

“there is magic in the air, and in the water, but it has been forgotten by many in these lands” wow why does that sound familiar I wonder

the funny thing is I watched fellowship of the ring literally yesterday so this will be hilarious

but there is hope [extremely unsubtle cut to a baby who is definitely important]

now I think... and I could be wrong... but guys I suspect this baby might be the chosen one.

oh god there was no father he was conceived by midichlorians

THE SKYWALKERS HAVE INFILTRATED THE CELTS

okay place your bets is it arthur or merlin

it’s Merlin. or Merddyn rather, in a surprise twist this movie was written by Fucking Nerds

so far mild cheese aside this is surprisingly watchable

“your crops fail and so you ask the king for help, but do not help yourselves! where are your alters?? starvation is punishment for your lack of faith!” THE RNC HAS INFILTRATED THE CELTS

okay so near as I can figure out the mark is from the old gods but there’s a druid who I guess speaks for the king or something who wants them to worship different old gods and now he’s demanding the villagers make a human sacrifice and it’s gonna be Smol Merddyn.

aw no they killed Celtic Shmi. Merddyn got away though and is now wandering the Forbidden Forest

I’m mad this is actually a solid movie so far. absolutely nothing unexpected has happened but I didn’t click on a movie called “Arthur and Merlin” to be surprised

oh wait that kid who freed him was Arthur

fifteen years later arthur is... a military leader who looks strangely like one of those romans played by obviously white actors in older movies

I honestly can’t pinpoint when this movie was made on aesthetics alone

ooo some Roving Misogynists™ are here to cause trouble and assault random women for being christian. by order of the druid no doubt.

“you mock us!” “I do.” okay I’m starting to like this arthur.

oh my god is that. he just fucking. tripped over excalibur while wading in like a two foot deep pond to get this woman’s cross back for her. best interpretation ever.

wait Olwen??? as in Ysbaddaden’s daughter Olwen?? once again I assumed they’d go with Guinevere or make someone up but I forgot, this movie was made by Fucking Nerds.

okay I know insisting everything is gay is a constant thing on this site but I want to point out that Arthur has showed nothing but very platonic friendship to Olwen but this is the face he makes when he sees Merddyn in a vision

and I mean to be fair to him this is what Merddyn looks like now

goddamn

oh no they’ve immediately made it very clear that he’s Romantically Involved With Olwen In Secret Look They’re Kissing Nobody Is Gay

so now I really want to know who wrote this movie because what I’m seeing here is people who intentionally chose to use the name merddyn, and know that olwen exists, but then decided to pair her romantically with... king arthur. and culhwch just doesn’t exist I guess. not that this is the most off the wall welsh mythology ship I’ve encountered but still it’s a weird one for this kind of media even if it’s an indie film

who are you people. how did this movie get made. I mean I like whatever it is but for real how and why did you do this.

I love how there’s just this trio of random dudes who don’t even have names who are arthur/olwen’s friends. and yet somehow they’re likable and I’m rooting for them. whoever they are.

so the only real problem with this movie that’s denting my enjoyment is that nobody has names and they all have the same haircut so I lose track of who’s doing what. see these are arthur’s friends:

and these are bad guys:

and Olwen is the only person in either screenshot who has a name

if any of them ever changes into a new outfit I’m screwed.

I’m gonna be real with y’all I love me a cursed forest

in an ironic twist, excalibur is now firmly stuck in a tree trunk and arthur cannot get it out

why is this movie GOOD what the heck. I mean the druid and king situation is blatantly ripped from wormtongue and theoden but I still like. care about the king. they’ve done it well.

“I’ve already told you, I am no longer a man.” “are you so sure???” see I know nothing will happen since this is a movie not a fanfic but that line is the quintessential hate-makeout segue

THIS IS VERY HETEROSEXUAL they’ve had most of the argument while approximately that distance from each other

oh god what the fuck arthur’s friends got sacrificed by the druid just to make a point to olwen. this is the opposite of a Sacrificial Girlfriend.

they do not need to be this close to each other to argue but they keep on doing it

they’ve been on screen together for less than five minutes y’all

arthur: maybe you’re right, you are no longer a man

merlin: [conjures an entire patch of flowers for him to make... some kind of point I guess?]

okay now they’re arguing again but there’s all this “I thought I knew you” talk (which, again, it’s been five minutes) and the actors have clearly decided that their dynamic is based entirely on constant, roiling sexual tension

why does every single thing they say scan like dialogue from a slow burn enemies to friends to lovers fanfic

“the girl in the village, did you love her once?” “I know little of love” “Surely a man who can control the growth of a flower must be able to make love blossom” JUST FUCK ALREADY

this is how they’re having this conversation by the way

there was only one shrub hollow

“to control nature is one thing, but only the most powerful sorcerer could control the mind of a man- OR WOMAN,” he said, heterosexually.

y’all I’m gonna be honest I thought I was just projecting at first but this is the gayest thing I’ve seen since the baseball song in high school musical 2. this is just absolute beleg and turin levels of probably unintended but utterly blatant homosexuality. I’m so glad I decided to watch this movie and youtube was right to recommend it to me.

this movie really speaks to me because on a spiritual level I too am a mystical but irritable and socially stunted forest hermit with sexy hair just waiting for a brash but pure-hearted warrior who looks like a roman statue to draw me out of my cave with homoerotic banter.

oh it’s not excalibur it’s... nuadu. which I guess in this movie is not the king of the tuatha de danann but a sword forged by them? see my first impulse would be to assume that the way they’re mangling everything, the writers knew nothing about Celtic folklore, except that they’ve chosen such weirdly specific things to mangle. they know their shit, they’ve just deliberately chosen to go absolutely buckwild with it.

THEY’RE DOING IT AGAIN THEY ARE INCAPABLE OF ARGUING WHILE STANDING MORE THAN TWO FEET APART

for real though character-wise this might be one of my favorite interpretations of merlin/merddyn I’ve ever seen. I feel like everyone involved was genuinely super passionate about the subject matter they were working with. like all jokes aside he’s really honestly well acted and well written.

STOP IT NOW YOU HORNY SIMPLETONS

uh oh they’ve been captured by... bandits?

oh it’s olwen’s uncle

“TO GOOD WOMEN... WHY DO YOU NOT DRINK, MERDDYN”

it is a mystery, olwen’s uncle.

a mystery.

this motivational monologue could have been so cheesy but like. I’m here for it. I would follow arthur into battle.

aw come on. olwen’s uncle betrayed them. I kinda saw it coming but dammit.

again, the druid should be absolutely stupid but he’s kind of a cool villain.

yay olwen’s uncle unbetrayed them. probably so would I if I’d seen what merddyn just did to the druid’s guys.

so the druid is trying to sacrifice ten thousand souls to raise a god from the underworld and merddyn is on the fucking warpath. and olwen’s uncle is ON BOARD HELL YEAH.

THE HOBBITS THE HOBBITS THE HOBBITS THE HOBBITS TO ISENGUARD TO ISENGUARD

arthur and merddyn have escalated to clutching each other’s clothes during their heated two-feet-apart discussions

olwen is a badass in her own right like she has her own whole thing going trying to save the king from basically his own literal dementia and the druid who’s taking advantage of it, which is somehow way more compelling than just magical mind control.

“I thought the cave taught you fairness” “well... you taught me fighting” JUST KISS.

okay let’s see how they pull off this dark god on the shoestring budget they definitely have, at this point I honestly believe in them.

by avoiding showing the god entirely apparently but they made it work even with that.

aw the king has named him his heir. which again we all knew would happen but it’s still so well done.

and we end on merddyn placing the crown on arthur’s head while lovingly quoting his own words back at him, while olwen looks on with the kind of approval that implies they’ve ended up with some kind of road to el dorado situation. solid.

so I was expecting this to be absolute garbage with bad actors and checked out writers just trying to make another mediocre coattail-riding medieval fantasy movie and what I got was some weirdly good actors and writers who are clearly obsessed with celtic folklore and desperately wanted to just run amok with it for an hour and 45 minutes. and they did. they poured every ounce of their hearts and souls and tiny, tiny budget into it. and it was beautiful. 10/10

#tearless liveblogs #I just watched an entire merlin/arthur/olwen crackship slow burn enemies to friends to lovers fic in the form of an indie film #and I loved it

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we-are-guildmaster · 5 years

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A Selection of Krazy Kragnar's Rules of Adventuring

The source is Owen KC Stephens on Facebook, author, and gamer extraordinaire.

RULE 17. IF YOU NEED AN ADVENTURE, GO TO A TAVERN. If an adventure doesn't turn up, keep drinking. You are an adventurer. Get drunk enough, and something is going to happen.

RULE 82. MAKING DEALS WITH FIENDS FOR POWER CAN BE A GOOD SHORT-TERM ADVENTURING STRATEGY. BUT IN THE LONG RUN, NEARLY ANY MORTAL COMES OFF POORLY IN DEALS WITH IMMORTAL SUPER-GENIUSES. Try holding out for free samples, or waiting until you can enslave minor fiends. In the long run, those tend to work out better. And remember, if you have a friendly paladin, you don’t have to explain to them WHY fiends are attacking you to get their help.

RULE 24. KNOW YOUR FOE. It's crucial to understand if you are facing a white dragon, or a wight dragon.

RULE 27. HEALER, HEAL THYSELF Yeah, it's tempting to prioritize the meat shields, or the spellslingers, or the deathbringers. But if you go down, none of them can heal you worth a darn. And if they can? Then they can do whatever you wanted to heal instead of yourself. You're no use to us dead. (Necormancers excepted)

Rule 5. DON’T GO ADVENTURING WITH ANYONE YOU WOULDN’T TRUST IN YOUR HOME. It doesn’t really matter if you are a paladin who wouldn’t trust the rogue not to make off with your home’s silverware, or a rogue who wouldn’t trust a paladin not to complain about the cache of stolen silverware hidden in your home. If you can’t trust them with dinner, you can’t trust them with your life.

RULE 68. FOCUS DAMAGE, SPREAD PENALTIES Focus damage -- better one dead kobold than five wounded ones. Spread penalties -- better five penalized kobolds than one hosed one. Kobolds suck.

RULE 164. ASSUME ALL TREASURE CHESTS ARE MIMICS WITH A PRECIOUS POTION HIDDEN IN THEM. Work to neutralize it without breaking the potion. If it's not a mimic, no harm done.

RULE 107. START WITH POLITE. MOVE TO RUDE AS NEEDED. If you are rude to a dragon, later being polite is likely pointless. If you are polite to almost anyone, it rarely makes becoming rude later less effective. And nearly anyone could secretly be a dragon.

RULE 9. DON’T WASTE TIME DOING SOMETHING FANCY IF YOU COULD JUST KILL IT. Yes, setting up that acrobatic spinning flip to flank, mass group heal, or perfect obfuscating cloud of farts is amazing and impressive. And if there’s a lot of fight left, it may be worth setting up for the next target. But if you can just kill a foe, do that. A fight is for fighting, not impressing the yokels.

RULE 80. EVIL ADVENTURERS CAN BE EXTREMELY SUCCESSFUL. CAPRICIOUS, MERCURIAL, BACKSTABBING, UNRELIABLE, DERANGED ADVENTURERS CAN’T. EVEN IF THEY ARE GOOD-ALIGNED FAIRYFOLK OR BARDS. We get it, you’re a free spirit. Fine. Evil free spirits don’t get cut any slack. Good free spirits do... right up to the point people would rather fail than deal with you. Experienced adventurers will take evil, orderly, good-as-their-word, competent allies over well-meaning flibbertigibbet anarchists every time.

RULE 42. LEARN FROM OLD WISDOM, BUT DON’T REPLACE COMMON SENSE WITH RHYMES, QUOTES, CATCH-PHRASES, AND RULES FROM EXPERTS WHO DON’T KNOW YOUR EXACT SITUATION RIGHT NOW. Yes, even these Rules of Adventuring. Yes, even this one. This rule used to be “learn from the past, but think for yourself,” but no one would do that second part.

RULE 57. CHECKING FOR TRAPS EVERY 5 FEET IS ITS OWN TRAP. NOT CHECKING FOR TRAPS OFTEN ENOUGH IS ALSO A TRAP. I don’t know. Check casual.

RULE 20. BACK YOUR TEAMMATE’S PLAY. Yes, they may be making the wrong call. Or maybe their claim of wanting to become a slaver is part of a scheme to get in good with the villains. Whatever they attack, whatever they lie about, back them to the hilt. If it was a wrong call, play it out and either correct or ditch them later. The middle of an encounter is not the place for debate.

RULE 114. WHEN IN DOUBT, CHOOSE THE COURSE OF ACTION THAT’S LEGAL AND ETHICAL BY LOCAL STANDARDS. Obviously if your god, or personal code of conduct, or agreement with a magic sword (see Rule 15) forbids cannibalism, don’t eat sapient, sentient creatures. But if the locals invite you to join them in eating their honored, fallen leader, and you’re on the fence, go ahead and tuck in. Broaden your horizons. It probably just tastes like chicken, anyway.

RULE 45. THE SHOURTEST ROUTE BETWEEN TWO POINTS IS THE ONE YOU WON’T GET LOST TAKING. Short cuts aren’t. Bandits love geographic isolation. The path less travelled is less travelled for a reason.

RULE 70. DON’T BE A MURDER-HOBO. Get a mailing address. It’s useful for receiving extortion money, letters begging for help, and magic items you custom-ordered.

RULE 242. YOUR WIZARD NEEDS TO KNOW WHEN TO USE FIREBALL, WHEN TO USE LIGHTNING BOLT, AND WHEN TO USE DISPEL MAGIC. A wizard who thinks a fireball is the solution to every problem is a wizard who is going to get you all killed someday. With a fireball.

RULE 83. YOU CAN BE WORKING TOWARDS GAINING YOUR TYRANNICAL GRIP ON A KINGDOM WHILE ADVENTURING, IF THAT’S YOUR THING. JUST DON’T EXPLAIN IT AT LENGTH TO THE PALADIN. ALSO, SEE RULE 6. Long-term goals are fine. Just don’t put them above the thing you are doing right now, and don’t rub them in the face of allies who won’t like them. See Rule 26.

RULE 26. BEING TRUE TO YOUR NATURE IS NOT AN EXCUSE TO BE A DICK. Your teammates aren’t your family, and they may not be your friends. They are the people you depend on in life-and-death situations. Don’t treat them like drek, even if that your normal SOP. See Rule 25.

RULE 251. IF ONLY ONE MEMBER OF THE PARTY IS MAKING MAPS AND KEEPING TRACK OF LOOT, ONLY ONE MEMBER OF THE PARTY IS SAFE FROM BEING LEFT LOST AND PENNILESS IN THE MIDDLE OF A MEGADUNGEON. Do your share of the boring stuff. For your own sake.

RULE 102. NEVER UNDERSTIMATE THE VALUE OF BEING ABLE TO COMMUNICATE WITH THINGS. Even if you are going to kill all the troglodytes, it’s useful to be able to overhear their plans, intimidate them, identify their leaders, and ready trashy trog novels you find on their bodies during boring nights waiting for the snowy passes to clear.

RULE 216. NEVER BETRAY YOUR PARTY. If you think this is impossible, remember you can recategorize people as "a group of enemies who don't yet know I am about to betray them." But keep your perspective in place.

RULE 59. IF NO ONE IN YOUR PARTY IS GOOD AT FINDING TRAPS, HAVE THE TOUGHEST, MOST HEAVILY ARMORED, MOST MENTALLY STABLE ALLY GO FIRST. Also, if no one in your part is good at finding traps, avoid being thought of as the toughest, most heavily armored, most mentally stable member of your party. ADDENDUM 59A. Alternatively, have the most expendable or temporary ally go first. Undead and summoned creatures are great at this.

RULE 11. IF YOU DON'T HAVE A WAY TO HURT FOES AT RANGE, AND FOES WRAPPED AROUND YOUR HEAD, YOU ARE NOT READY TO ADVENTURE. This is a case where bad choices are better than no choices.

RULE 6. REMEMBER THE GOAL OF YOUR ADVENTURE. DO NOT ADJUST YOUR GOAL WITHOUT BOTH A GOOD REASON, AND A DISCUSSION WITH YOUR PARTY. Nothing gets adventurer’s killed faster than having two team members trying to sneak past the slavers because the goal is to steal their money, one start a fight because they want to end slavery, and one stealing slaves because they are worth more on the open market than the money to be stolen.

RULE 69. KILL CONTROLLERS, THEN LEADERS, THEN HEALERS, AND THEN BRUTES That is, of course, all things being equal. If the brute is killing people and the controllers and leaders ineffectual, retarget appropriately. See Rule 42.

RULE 62. KILLING THE WRONG ENEMY NOW IS USUALLY BETTER THAN WAITING TO KILL THE RIGHT ENEMY LATER. Yes, that’s bloody-minded and mercenary. So are most successful adventurers.

RULE 15. DON’T MAKE DEALS WITH INANIMATE OBJECTS. You can’t trust anything not driven by the same primal needs as you. Especially rings. Never trust rings with goals and desires.

RULE 44. THE MAP IS NOT THE TERRITORY. It’s all fine and well to base your plans on a good map. If you have no choice, you can even base your plans on a bad map. But the rivers, cliffs, and dense thickets don’t care if they are on your map or not. You are going to have to deal with reality, not with a representation of it.

RULE 61. DON’T DIE WITH HEALING POTIONS IN YOUR POCKET. Yes, it’s possible to use a consumable resource too soon, or at the wrong time. But if you never read the scroll of fire resistance, it can only go up in flames! Plus, your memory is limited. Use stuff. Hoarding only looks good on dragons.

RULE 84. BEING EVIL DOESN’T MEAN YOU DON’T NEED FRIENDS. In fact, you need all the friends you can get. Be helpful. Be sincere. In addition to all the normal benefits of friends, you can’t sacrifice the person you love most in exchange for ultimate power if you don’t love anyone. See Rules 51 and 216.

RULE 256. THE ADVENTURE ISN'T OVER UNTIL YOU HAVE YOUR REWARD, PAYMENT, AND CUT OF THE LOOT. Until you've got yours, bad things can still happen. Like the druid wanting the cleric's torc of wisdom. See rules 216, 164, and 107.

RULE 58. KNOW IF YOUR PROCUREMENT EXPERT IS GOOD AT FINDING TRAPS. It’s also useful to know I they are good at TELLING you about traps.

RULE 60. ANY TACTIC, SPELL, MAGIC ITEM, SECRET TECHNIQUE, OR LOST LORE YOU USE TO WIN CAN ALSO BE USED BY YOUR ENEMIES. KNOW HOW YOU’D COUNTER THE MOST EFFECTIVE STRATEGY USED BY YOU AND YOUR ALLIES, JUST IN CASE. See Rule 216.

RULE 25. KNOW YOUR ALLIES. Your teammates are going to be true to their nature. Don’t act surprised when they do the thing they have always done, no matter how many times you have talked and they promised not to do it anymore. If you don’t want allies that do that thing they always do? Get new allies.

RULE 94. SUBSTANCE OVER STYLE, EXCEPT WHERE STYLE BECOMES SUBSTANCE. For the most part, no one will take a patchwork king seriously. Unless the leader of the Thieves’ Guild manages to pull off being The Patchwork King, and then suddenly it’s a thing.

RULE 46. THE CAMP IS NEVER HIDDEN ENOUGH, THE CAVE IS NEVER EMPTY ENOUGH, AND YOUR ROOM AT THE INN CERTAINLY ISN’T SECURE ENOUGH. While it’s important to just accept that there’s going to be risk when you are away from a secure base of operations (which hopefully is surrounded by a population that loves and trusts you—however you can manage that), never let your guard all the way down. Letting your guard down is like letting your pants down: Sometimes you have to do it, but never kid yourself about how vulnerable it makes you.

RULE 224. NARKU NARIIN ATIGAT KUL MOTSHAM MAARUBH. Those who ignore what came before are doomed to make unremarkable mistakes. If you’re going to fall for classic tricks and traps, at least do so in a saga-worthy way!

Rule 51. IF IT SEEMS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, IT’S AN ILLUSION. The world sucks. People suck. Destiny sucks. Basically, everything sucks. So if something seems entirely suck-free, it’s actually a vampire demon dragon luring you into a false sense of security. If life was good, you wouldn’t have become an adventurer.

RULE 255. PAY. YOUR. DUES. Fees for the Adventurer’s Guild? A cut to your Pakhan? Taxes owed to the Infernal Revenue Service? Whatever it is, you don’t need the hassle of fighting on two fronts. Pay what you owe, until and unless your adventure calls for you to overthrow the authority you are paying.

RULE 81. NEVER REMOVE PART OF YOURSELF TO REPLACE IT WITH PART OF SOMETHING MORE POWERFUL THAN YOU. You never know when the original owner might want it back. Or may have left a fragment of its soul inside for easy-serve possession options of new bodies.

RULE 191. DON'T FORGET THAT NOT ALL UNDEAD ARE EVIL, AND NOT ALL ANGELS ARE GOOD. Sure, that's the way to bet. But like all betting, it won't turn out well for you unless you control the house.

RULE 21. KNOW YOUR ROLE IN THE PARTY. You are a collection of specialists. Know not just what you are good at, but what everyone is good at. Help create situations where your teammate's specialties come into play. That’s just efficient adventuring.

RULE 34. IF IT EXISTS, THERE’S AN INCUBUS BASED ON IT. Yes, even that. Yes, it’s gross… to you. For someone else, that’s the whole reason to go adventuring. This is almost always a bad thing.

RULE 54. THE MORE DANGEROUS THE REGION, MORE LIKELY IT IS ANY INNOCENT IN NEED OF HELP YOU ENCOUNTER IS ACTUALLY A DEMONIC UNDEAD DOPPLEGANGER DRAGON. Most adventurers have caught on to comely prisoners in vampire castles being ringers, but the same applies to wounded baby unicorns and sole survivors of previous adventuring party. See Rule 51.

RULE 13. KNOW WHO YOU ARE WORKING FOR. WHO YOU ARE *REALLY* WORKING FOR. Yes, the mayor sent you to kill the raiders, recover the stolen town treasury, and discover the source of the strange lights in the woods at night. But if the mayor is taking marching orders from a mind-controlling warlock, that’s crucial information to have.

RULE 67. GOING FIRST IS GREAT. GOING LAST MEANS YOU SURVIVED. The most effective of tactics isn’t as good as winning. It’s often better to be lucky than good—it’s just harder to arrange. Except for bards. Which is why everyone hates them.

RULE 36. SIZE MATTERS. Sometimes bigger is better. Sometimes smaller is smarter. But the tactics of wasps killing giants is different than of giants killing wasps.

#KKRoA #adventure rules #owen kc stephens

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ambivalentangst · 6 years

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Cry and Scream, Soldier

do you guys ever have those people, especially the ones you only have online, that make your day like,, a solid 308% better?? Always? Because same and I LOVE ONE OF MINE TO PIECES, so I had to make something for their birthday. Without naming names, thanks for putting up with my bullshit for almost three years now—this one’s for you

tw: emotional trauma, self hatred, and descriptions of violence

Lance has always had a lot of nervous energy, but ever since that last mission gone wrong, he hasn’t let it out. There’s no room for that, and so his fingers remain still on the table where before he’d have all but worn a hole through the smooth surface with his tapping. His feet stay firmly on the ground, his lip remains free from teeth that want to nip at it.

Lance stares at the ceiling of the common room and does not move.

He supposes it’s not all bad, the tension building within him like a rubber band slowly being stretched too taut. He knows that he used to put Pidge on edge in the form of a lingering distraction on the outskirts of her brilliant mind. He hopes the lack of fidgeting is easier for her than for Lance. Every glance at the shine of his new fingers makes his stomach clench painfully, and he cannot allow himself to think about it.

He’s sweaty, just come back from training. He’s never liked training all that much, but he understands it to be necessary. Lance can feel the lecherous eyes of his own incompetence boring holes into his back, anyhow. He feels it splash against his calves, bite at his heels. He craves anything that means he won’t be left behind, so he’s forced himself to wrap the hideous amalgamations he calls hands around the handle of his sword, to press over the triggers of his rifles. Lance, at meals where everyone looks at him like he’s made of glass, jokes about his grip being easier with the lack of sweat.

Lance blinks at the sound of footsteps from down the hall. He’s found routine in that, the smile that hurts his cheeks but one he wears anyway when his teammates are around. His hand digs into his pocket, fumbling for the orange screen he pretends to be enamored with. In truth, sometimes Lance looks back on all the pictures he’s taken with the aliens they’ve saved and hopes in some private part of him that they’ll still appreciate him the same way despite everything.

Keith walks in and Lance greets him cheerfully. “Hey, mullet,” he tells him and stretches exaggeratedly in a practiced motion.

Keith’s acknowledging nod is jerky and over with quickly. “Lance.” Lance has always been a good actor, and he is as effervescent as ever as he tucks his hands under his thighs. “Coran mentioned that you’ve been logging a lot more hours on the training deck recently. You’re still,” Keith fumbles, and Lance thinks about how painfully obvious it is that he’s still uncertain of what to do with the mantle of a leader, “okay, right? Eating and sleeping and everything?”

Lance laughs, though is careful to make sure the sound doesn’t come off as mocking. Keith is still stumbling to find his footing on unfamiliar terrain, and Lance refuses to be the one to shove him off balance. “Yeah, don’t worry about me, Keithy-boy. I’m fine. Peachy. Dandy. Right as rain. The list goes on.” Lance will not drag Keith down with him into his muddled mind and scream ridden slumbers, even at his own expense. He is fine, will make himself fine for their new leader who is still mourning his lost brother, though nothing is final yet. He won’t let Keith blame himself, and so he smiles.

“Okay,” Keith tells him awkwardly, shifting from foot to foot. “It’s just, you know, you didn’t do that before. And I thought it was weird. So I’m checking on you.” Keith’s efforts to care are comforting and make the curve of Lance’s scarred lips more genuine. They aren’t awful. They didn’t have to be remade, and as it is, the svelte lines crossing them are only visible under a bright light, a little white shine on his mouth that isn’t quite natural.

Lance nods in understanding, though doesn’t wave him off. His hands are much better off shoved into his pockets or smothered under his flight suit. “That’s good.” The phrase isn’t quite right, and Lance tries again. Tries to play at normality, like he hasn’t had claws pierce the mouth he can never seem to stop running. “It’s good to see you. How’s being leader treating you?” Lance is good at deflecting, just as he is good at being casual about everything else. He steers conversations with invisible suggestions and hints at matters he never directly brings up.

Keith’s mouth pinches and Lance is only more certain that he made the right choice when he sacrificed himself for him all those weeks ago. Keith is strong and fierce and everything Lance longs to be. He could never withstand his absence. “It’s hard,” Keith whispers after a moment of silence, almost ashamedly. Anger at whatever has made Keith embarrassed to show that kind of weakness builds to the cusp of a boil in Lance’s stomach. “Shiro was so much better at this, at everything. He knew everyone, how to be sure that we’re safe and given the support we need and I’m just scrambling to keep up with it all. There’s always another battle and sometimes I just want a break. Shiro never had to take a break. He was fine, but he’s better and I’m not. I’m just a kid.”

Keith’s voice cracks and Lance motions for him to sit. He doesn’t touch him—not anymore, not with his mechanic joints that never move as much as flesh and bone once did—but he does draw a blanket around his shoulders. “You don’t have to be Shiro. We’re not expecting you to be. When you became leader we took you as Keith, and that’s all we want. We all need a break. It’s okay to take one and to not be able to handle it all to start with. It’s,” Lance pauses because he knows all too well just how futile the fight they’ve adopted is. He thinks of white masks and twitching fingers before he can continue. “It’s not something you can take on alone. We’re here to make sure you don’t have to.”

Keith nods and Lance takes note of the way he tugs the fabric down a little more snugly. “Thanks, Lance. I’m, God, I’m so sorry for putting this on you, especially after I got you—”

His voice catches, and Lance shakes his head quickly as he cuts him off. “Nope! Nopity nope, not your fault. I don’t want to hear it. I made the sacrifice play, got my ass handed to me, and now I’m back home gearing up to return the favor. Nothing Lancey-Lance can’t handle.” He smiles brighter, wider, as though that light will cancel out the darkness blurring features but not the laughs the Galra made as they mutilated him slowly, carefully.

Keith’s face contorts now, looking angry. “They’re gonna’ pay for what they did to you, Lance,” he snarls. Lance ignores the jump of his heart at the familiarity of the sound. He goes to deflect—always avoiding anything that isn’t everybody else—but Keith isn’t done. “Your hands, your legs. They’ll regret it all.” Lance wants to tell Keith to stop, that he hates the mention of his defects and the pain. His kneecaps had been fixed, but Pidge and Hunk had had to get to work on crafting his new fingers. Lance has blocked out those first few days he spent going without. He’s never felt more pathetic than when Hunk spooned goo onto his tongue because neither hand had the ability to hold the utensil itself.

Keith is gathering speed now, vicious and furious, as he rants about what Lance and his tormentors deserve. Lance is able to handle it with bated breath until Keith says something about the fact that he missed all of Lance’s animation and chatter while the team tore themselves apart finding him. The shout builds unexpectedly, frantically from someplace terrified and twisted inside Lance. “Shut up! There’s no need for revenge because I’m okay and I don’t need to move like that anymore and everything is fine!”

This is not fine, not the tears building in Lance’s eyes, nor the suffocating tightness in his throat.

“I’m okay and everyone can just move on and stop worrying about every damn thing because I’m doing everything like they asked. I won’t tap or twist or talk back or anything anymore because my hands are disgusting enough as is—I don’t need any more alterations.” He spits the word like it’s poison, thinking of the druids and their cackling laughter as Lance howled in agony. “I’ll do everything like I’m supposed to and help everyone forget that I’m wrong now, so if everybody could shut up and let me that’d be great.” Lance pants, chest heaving while the world crashes down around him in memories and magenta.

Lance’s foot shakes.

A blade severs his pinky from its knuckle.

He forgets what they asked of him, alone in his cell while he wonders if it’s night or day. His knee knocks against the ground—Lance is always moving, always speaking, never still—and there goes his ring finger too.

Lance screams and screams and screams and tries to learn, but a lifetime of motion is not stopped so easily. When his hands have been stripped bare they move onto his knees. Those break and heal and break again in a hideous cycle.

Keith’s hands are shaking Lance’s shoulders and though he desperately wants an outlet, some form of release, he does nothing but meet Keith’s eyes while someone pulls at the string that is the only thing holding him together. Lance hears his voice through dim halls and lurking, yellow eyes, cutting through the acrid fear that has seized Lance. “Lance—Lance? Lance, come on, talk to me.”

Keith’s voice is frantic and Lance remembers his resolve to make being leader easier for him. He finds his voice, lost somewhere that Lance can’t place. “I’m fine, I’m fine,” he tells him and hopes Keith’s woeful lack of social aptitude will be enough to disguise the tremor in his voice. “It’s okay, look, I’m sorry for freaking out,” Lance has to pause to suck in air, though he does not remember doing anything that would leave him breathless, “don’t worry about it. Don’t tell the others.”

Lance hates this, the phantom touch of Keith’s hands holding his own. (He craves the contact, and clings to it like it’s his only anchor in a storm cleaving the ocean in two.) “I’m fine,” he murmurs desperately, even as somehow his head is pressing itself into the space between Keith’s neck and shoulder. The spot molds itself to Lance and it’s the warmest thing he’s felt since the smell of garlic and the salt of the sea was more than a memory. Later he’ll wonder how Keith felt—he’s always regarded touch like it’s more alien than the ship they’ve all made home—but all Lance can think in the moment is that he’s so, so grateful he’s there.

“I’m fine,” he says as he sobs and gets Keith’s shirt all wet while his fingers that are his own and somehow not fist in the fabric of it. “Leave. I know you’re busy. I don’t want to take up your time.” Keith’s arms are around him and they’re just as clumsy as he always is in times like these, not at all like the sure grip he maintains when he flies. Lance wants it, needs it.

“I’m fine,” he whispers and Keith doesn’t pretend to believe him, but he does stay. Lance is not fine, but he also cannot ask for anything more.

#keith #lance #langst #klance #klangst #ambivalentlangst #ambivalent gifts

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headcrossed · 6 years

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A/N: no one asked for this, but I can’t stop thinking about it so here goes. Also still taking requests for these guys, if anyone’s interested!

THE RFA PLAYS DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS FOR THE FIRST TIME

SEVEN

We all know he’s the one that suggested it. Call it a team building exercise, if you will. Besides, since they’re going to be having more parties now in the future, they gotta make sure they stay strong as an organization. What better way than this?

Since no one else is experienced with this game, Seven also takes it upon himself to DM.

Even though oddly enough, he’s never really played it either... at least, not officially.

He found a rulebook when he was younger at the library, and it inspired him, but he knew he couldn’t take it home where his mom might find it.

So instead he memorized it, and when Saeran was sick he would make up a story and roleplay with him. No stats, character sheets, or anything. Just two lonely kids getting enraptured in pure imagination for a little while. It’s one of the fondest memories he has from his childhood.

I’mma be honest: Seven’s DM-ing style is basically the same as Griffin McElroy’s in TAZ.

He keeps things pretty well-balanced. Plenty of humor and shenanigans, but the more serious and emotional moments are really moving, and everyone’s surprised by this.

Zen and Yoosung and even Jaehee and V probably shed some tears over the way the story unfolds.

He also does really good voice acting for his characters. Nowhere near on Zen’s level, like you could still kinda tell it’s him doing the voices if you couldn’t see his face, but he gets into character really easy (even Zen thinks he should audition to voice act for a game or something... ;) )

Yoosung

Aside from the obvious previous experience he might have, he probably played some one-shot campaigns with some D&D clubs on campus before.

The first character he makes is probably a literal recreation of his LOLOL character, since it’s familiar to him, and is a good place to start with since he’s not very experienced. Besides, he’s built like a tank in LOLOL, and if he knows anything about these kinds of games, it’s that balance is key, and they need at least someone who can soak up all the damage of whatever Seven throws at them (is he afraid that he’ll make them face bosses way to big for any of them to handle and they’ll all die in the process? GOD YES)

And it turns out that concern was legit. He dies like 5 minutes in.

Scrapping that strategy, he probably will end up making a half-orc , and he ends up really enjoying this character a lot more.

Plays him... surprisingly chivalrous, probably ends up saving a princess at some point in the game.

Seven lets him romance her and... wait... HE HAS A GIRLFRIEND NOW!!!

The game doesn’t count, my sweet summer child

It’s a little awkward that she’s voiced by Seven,and even though he teases Yoosung about it (both in-game and out), quite often it’s really sweet, actually.

He really, REALLY wishes he could commission someone to do fan art of them, but he has no money T_T

Might ask V if he gets desperate enough... might

Believe it or not, Yoosung will actually ditch playing LOLOL for this.

He likes being able to see all his best friends gathered in one place, laughing and just having a good time. It warms his poor college student heart.

ZEN

He’s not really sure how he was convinced to do this, but somehow he’s very into it

He’s not very good at the numbers part of the game (and he usually has to ask Yoosung or Jaehee to help him with it), but he really shines in the roleplay department (I mean he’s an actor! If nothing else it’s a really good opportunity to work on his improv skills)

Plays an high-elf bard, with a VERY high charisma stat.

“Not very original, huh Zen? Trying to make life imitate art?” “Shut up, mistah trust-fund kid!”

AND HE PLAYS THEM EXACTLY HOW YOU WOULD EXPECT.

Flirts with EVERY ENEMY. To the point that Seven has to make his character have near-death experiences MANY TIMES to get him to stop.

Still, somehow, by the end of the game he has amassed a harem of enemies who worship him for his god-like beauty.

VOICE ACTS FOR HIS CHARACTER AND SINGS ACTUAL BARD SONGS HE’S MEMORIZED BEFORE-HAND (rest in peace, Jaehee)

Oh but he doesn’t stop there.

He COSPLAYS HIS CHARACTER, AND HIS WHOLE FANBASE GOES INSANE

His bard now has a whole fandom and following irl too. He even made a separate social media account where he shares all the amazing fan art that people have drawn for his character. He even thinks that maybe they should start broadcasting their sessions or do a podcast.

JAEHEE

Jaehee is an absolute beast at this game.

She’s read over the rulebook at least 20 times and knows it inside and out.

Probably gets into arguments with Seven and maybe accidentally metagames once or twice.

She should be dm-ing not seven what the hell are they all thinking? She knows the stats better, anyways

She plays a rowdy dwarven paladin, and no one expected it.

Her logic is: it’s a fantasy-world. She can be whatever she wants, and she wants to smash things, be as rowdy as she likes, and be blunt and tell things like it is.

Also she’s semi-intentionally trying to recreate a gimli and legolas style relationship with Zen’s character, go figure ;) it’s actually really sweet at the end of the day though they make a great fucking team.

Has her own special routine for dice-rolls that she believes will increase her odds of getting a better roll.

They all laugh at her for varying degrees for it but FOR SOME REASON IT WORKS AND SHE HAS CRAZY NAT 20 STREAKS SOMETIMES.

She ends up stealing a lot of Jumin’s kills, but she’s just roleplaying, after all. (Seven gives her bonus xp for good roleplaying too like yeah good for her for using this as an outlet)

Frequents D&D forums a lot now. Thinking up new strategies and probably makes like a million new characters based on them that she may never play (but she hopes to, someday)

JUMIN

He’s heard of it before, and that’s no surprise with his extensive interest in small specialty businesses and the fact that the RFA has at least two members who have played it before.

But alas, he has never played it himself.

He agrees because the level of spectacle that he’s seen around playing this game is astounding, and he’s intrigued. Thinks maybe he’ll get a new business idea out of it.

“So Jumin, what race are you going to play as?” Seven asks, innocently, as though he doesn’t know the answer.

“... you’ll see.”

Everyone gets suspicious, but he keeps his poker-face as cool as ever.

When they go around the table introducing their characters, he puts on his most serious face, puts his hands up in front of his face like paws, and introduces himself as his character: Elizabeth the 4th, Tabaxi Ranger

Zen has to leave the room to get over a sneezing fit, Jaehee’s glasses shatter, Seven straight up dies laughing on the floor. None of it matters to Jumin. He’s living the fucking dream.

All that being said, Jumin is definitely tries to take a more methodical approach to the game. He carefully plans out his strategies for the best strategical outcome.

Although

He actually ends up really enjoying it, at the end of the day.

You know he’s looking into premium gear for future sessions. Buys all the rulebooks and lorebooks, buys a bunch of really cool-looking handmade dice (that he personally tests himself for balance, to make sure they all roll true). He probably even commissions someone to make custom mini figurines for their characters.

Like Zen, he’s also not quite sure how he got roped into doing this.

He’s never played, or ever really even HEARD of this game before, let alone understand how it works, but given an opportunity to hang out with the rest of the RFA and relax, he takes it. It sounds like fun to him anyway.

He has to spend a lot of time making his character (this poor boy, he sees everyone else with their faces stuffed in the character stat books and he doesn’t wanna ask if he can borrow it ‘cause they need it to make their characters too and doesn’t want to interrupt them)

When he finally DOES make a character, however. He goes with a Tiefling Druid. Not only do they look aesthetically pleasing and unique, but also he empathizes with how they’re treated by society as a whole. It’s kinda the perfect fit.

He’s super clueless when they first start playing.

Seven says “Roll for initiative” and he sits there like “wait... what do I do? ^^; ”

Jaehee, Jumin and Seven usually help him out and explain things as they go along.

As the game progresses he picks things up bit by bit. Turns out, he’s actually really good at roleplaying.

In the beginning, he plays his character as this cold and distant, not really caring about anyone in the team, but over time that dissolves into unerring loyalty to the rest of the party. Probably created an elaborate backstory involving a long lost love, too.

Everyone gets super attached to V’s character.

But of course, OF COURSE

When they face the final boss of the arc, someone has to sacrifice themselves to defeat it.

V immediately volunteers, and is dealt a killing blow before any of the rest of them can so much as talk it through.

As he dies, he says “My people only know hatred because they have been so hated. But... I’ve never felt that. Not with all of you. Thank you, for showing me that there’s hope for all of us!” and his character dies, with a smile on his face.

DAMNIT V NO

EVERYONE’S FUCKING CRYING NOW LOOK WHAT YOU DID

All-in-all though, he had a really great time. 10/10 would play again. Maybe even starts constructing a story-based campaign in his head and wants to try DM-ing next time!

He’s always snapping super aesthetic photos of the sessions, and probably does a painting of all their characters together to commemorate their first campaign.

SAERAN

Saeyoung invited him to play, but he says no.

It’s childish and he has other things he wants to do.

Saeyoung doesn’t pressure him, and honestly he thought that would be the last he’d hear of it.

However, Seven’s house is usually where they end up meeting to play (since no one else really has the room for it, and playing at Jumin’s house is ruled outright due to level of c-hair)

He’s a little annoyed, and thus stays in his room for most of the night, figuring he can wait the session out in his room.

But alas, the one thing he didn’t factor in was wanting some ice cream at 1 am.

After a deep internal debate, he ultimately decides to leave his room to satisfy the craving, and unlocks his door.

He wanders into the kitchen, surprisingly unnoticed, silently grabbing a spoon from the drawer and taking the carton of ice-cream out of the freezer, when he overhears something... familiar.

“BOOM! BOOM! Drums sound in the deep. A mighty roar soon follows, as the chamber rumbles with the sound, pieces of the construction tumbling to the floor of the ancient hall in its wake...”

Seven roars, for effect.

“Oh shit...” Zen says.

“Louder and louder, the sound draws nearer, until the sound stops at the foot of the barricaded door. Large shadows overcome what little faint light shone from beneath the door...”

*pushes up his glasses* “Roll for initiative”

“WHAT?!”, screams Yoosung, “WE JUST FOUGHT A CAVE TROLL! WE HAVEN’T EVEN HAD THE TIME TO RECOVER!”

“Shame...” Seven says, “If only there was one more party member... then you might have a chance...”

Seven then looks over to the doorway, locking eyes with Saeran briefly.

Memories prickle at the back of his head. Memories of those same eyes lighting up as he told the same stories to him. He remembers getting lost in those stories, feeling happy deep down as he figured out what he would do next. He even remembers... smiling?

He runs back into his room, and slams the door.

And that’s the last the RFA sees of him...

Or so they think.

Half an hour later, he comes out of his room, pulls out one of the kitchen chairs, sits down and slams a hastily-printed character sheet.

“Looks like you’re running into some trouble with that Balrog... tch. Amateurs.”

He made a Kenku Monk, chaotic neutral alignment.

And he completely destroys the boss that Seven had planned for them.

DID SOMEONE SAY EDGELORD?

Probably splits from the party a bunch, but Saeyoung planned for that, so there’s usually a bunch of story-heavy side-quests waiting for him anyway, and they all eventually lead him back to the party somehow.

But truth be told, he’s not that mad about it.

Every opportunity he gets to describe exactly the kind of moves he’s exacting on the enemies they face, he takes. He explains it in creative, gory detail, and it shocks some of the other party members, but Seven seems cool with it.

That’s right kiddo, harness all that repressed rage. Let it out.

He’s helping clean the kitchen after everyone’s gone when Seven asks,

“So? You going to play with us next session too?”

He pauses washing the snack dishes for a beat, and the corners of his lips start to twitch, just a little.

“Y-yeah, I-... I actually had a lot of fun.”

His brother pats him on the back, his hand still on his shoulder when he says “I’m glad! That’s what I was hoping to hear.”

“... Wait... you planned this from the beginning, didn’t you?”

The sly smirk on Seven’s face says it all. Bih you know he did

“... you little shit.”

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