#an object/s or material/s used to cast a curse

[argonavta]

Greco-Roman curse doll

2nd century CE

#the word voodoo shouldn’t be thrown left and right like confetti by the way #let’s start calling things by their name #these are called kolossos (s.) kolossoi (p.) #equivalent of poppet. not necessarily used for harm #though in this specific case #and to use a definition in english #an object/s or material/s used to cast a curse #more specifically a love one - love curses are a thing #and curse doll should be just about right in English #there’s probably another dozen more accurate terms that still wouldn’t involve voodoo #this is called a testimone di fattura in Italian #translates to something like curse witness #ancient rome #greco roman #archeology #curse #hex #ancient curse #history #esoterica #esoterism #occult

[fairy-writes]

Hi!! Could I request action prompt 11 with Gojo? Pleaseee 😭❤️

YOUR BRILLIANT SMILE

Reblogs and Comments are greatly appreciated!!

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Fandom(s): Jujutsu Kaisen

Pairing(s): Gojo Satoru x Reader

Prompt: Carrying their lover out of a bad situation (fight, accident, etc.)(Action Prompt #11)

Genre(s)/Tag(s): Gender Neutral!Reader

Notes: Basing Reader’s cursed technique off of an old OC from way back when. (idek if the ability makes sense, but we’re rolling with it)

TW for injuries

This is for my 1K followers event! It’s going on between June 8th and June 22nd!

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No.

No. No. NO.

It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.

It was supposed to be a routine mission. Clear out an infestation of Semi-Grade Two curses in the local elementary school. You said you’d be home by dinner. 

Satoru said he’d hold you to that. 

You had left him that evening with a peck on the lips and a promise to come home safe. He had waved enthusiastically from your apartment before going to Jujutsu Tech to teach his students whatever he had planned that day. (Which wasn’t much.)

So when you didn’t show up for your weekly date night, he got worried. 

Where were you?

A call to your phone didn’t go through. The beep of your voicemail was the ring of the reaper, and he felt his heart drop into his stomach. 

You always answered.

Always.

It had taken seconds to get to the school, and all he saw was carnage. The veil was easy enough to break, they never were your strong suit, and Ichiji hadn’t been around to cast one for you. 

He stepped over the rubble of a twisted and contorted playground, plastic slides tossed aside and scorch marks on the ground remnant of your cursed technique. 

Your cursed technique. 

Remote Spontaneous Combustion. You had the capability to coat objects in cursed energy and then detonate that energy with something as simple as the snap of your fingers. 

Satoru was snapped from his musings by a whimper, and suddenly he was running. 

There!

Underneath some rubble, an arm was barely visible. 

Your arm.

He grabbed ahold of the largest piece of concrete that was burying you and heaved. It fell away easily with a resounding crash. The rest of the rubble is quickly cleared away, and he can finally see the extent of your injuries. 

Broken and mangled right arm. Bruised face with a gash cutting through your brow. Satoru can see where the material of your clothes had melted into your skin with second or third-degree burns. 

Satoru knelt down and gently put a hand on your shoulder, one of the only parts of you that was unblemished. You gave a quiet gasp, and your swollen eyes fluttered open.

“S—Satoru?” You mumbled, sounding like you were talking through cotton. You cough and blood spattered down your chin. 

Internal bleeding, maybe?

He offered what he hopes is a teasing grin, trying desperately to hide his panic. You needed medical attention now.

“You never showed up for our date.” He said, and you chuckled before wincing in pain,

“Sorry… Time got away from me.” You whispered and sighed as he used a reversed cursed technique. The glowing white light from said technique was soft as freshly fallen snow and lit your face in an almost divine light. 

Satoru prayed that it was enough. 

He watched as your wounds close. The bruising went down. The swelling disappeared. Your internal organs were repaired. Your eyes fluttered shut and then opened, and he could finally see those irises that he loved so much. 

You gave a faint, pained moan as he gathered you into his arms and buried his nose in your hair. 

He almost lost you. 

If he had been half a minute later, you could have died. 

“Never do that again. Promise me that.” Satoru whispered and felt your arms wrap around his shoulders. They were shaking, the adrenaline wearing off and leaving you with the fatigue.

“You know I can’t promise that.” You murmured back, and he gritted his teeth. He knew that deep in the recesses of his mind, he knew that you couldn’t promise something so impossible as that. 

“Promise me.” He said again, and his voice cracked. He pulled back to look you in the face; you were looking at him with such a pained expression that he felt his heart twist. 

He knew he shouldn’t be asking this of you.

But part of him wanted to be selfish for once. 

He lost Suguru. He couldn’t lose you too.

“Alright… I promise.” You finally said, and he leaned in and kissed you. You cupped his face and pulled him closer. He leaned his forehead on yours and closed his eyes. A weary chuckle escaped his lips. 

“Your breath stinks.” He teased and opened his eyes to see you rolling your own.

“Like you could do better.” You retort quickly.  He carries you out of the destruction with laughter on your lips, and his heart sings at the sight of your brilliant smile.

#gojo satoru x reader #gojo x y/n #satoru gojo x you #satoru gojo x reader #gojo x reader #jjk x reader #jujutsu kaisen x reader #jujutsu kaisen gojo #jjk gojo #jjk gojo satoru #satoru gojo #fairy writes #fairy 1000 followers

[monstersdownthepath]

Devouring Debt

Necromancy [curse] [evil] Antipaladin 4, Bard 6, Occultist 6, Oracle 7, Shaman 7, Witch 6

Casting time: 4 hours Components: V, S, M (a lengthy letter of debt collection handwritten in expensive inks worth at least 2,000gp), F (an elaborate stamp of an unholy symbol of a fiendish divinity worth at least 2,000gp)

Effect: One cursed letter Duration: 1 week/Permanent; see text Saving throw: Will negates; Spell Resistance: No

Initially created by fiendish worshipers of Braismois, the Silent Quill, this terrifying and unnecessarily cruel curse has since spread outwards into other cults of various fiends of greed, terrible bargains, baseless spite, unending hunger, and relentless punishment. Even casters with no faith in a particular fiend can use this spell simply to damn another unsuspecting victim’s possessions to a lower plane, and some especially vile users of this spell have been known to carry multiple stamps to vary up their ‘donations’ to the demons, devils, and daemons.

At the end of this spell’s casting time, with one final stamp the caster creates a letter that imparts a terrible curse on whoever is foolish enough to touch it. Any creature that touches the letter, except the caster, must succeed a Will save or the become cursed, and then the letter becomes mundane. If that creature succeeds their saving throw, the curse remains dormant within the letter until a creature touches it and fails their saving throw. The caster cannot touch a creature with the letter to curse them, but they may hand the letter to that creature or compel them to take it with skills (such as Diplomacy) or with spells (such as Beguiling Gift), or leave it where a creature may pick it up or touch it unwittingly. If 7 days pass without the curse successfully triggering, the letter dissolves into ash.

Only creatures with an Int of 3 or higher with some measure of physical property and a grasp of material wealth can be affected by Devouring Debt. A creature that becomes cursed immediately becomes aware of the spell’s effects, the money they supposedly owe (always a titanic, demoralizing amount), the fiend to which the money is owed, and the consequences of failing to pay, regardless of their relative intelligence, understanding of property, or language barriers. A collection period begins immediately.

The frequency of future collection periods depends on the HD of the affected creature; a creature with 1-5 HD is affected 1/week, a creature with 6-10 HD is affected 1/three days, and a creature with 11+ HD is affected 1/day.

Each time a collection period begins, roll 1d100+100 for each collection period that has occurred. This amount, which the victim becomes aware of, is the amount in gold pieces that they must forfeit to the spell’s effects to consider their debt payed for the moment. The victim ‘pays’ by offering coins, gems, art objects, or other material goods they own which have a total combined value equal to or exceeding the rolled number. Distance between the victim and the offered items does not matter, so long as they own the items; thus they may sell off distant properties or stored belongings/money if they wish. These offered objects disappear, reappearing in the vaults or treasure pile of the fiend to which the debt has been assigned (Braismois and Mammon have specific vaults set aside for belongings received via this spell). The victim must have some measure of ownership of the items in question or they cannot be offered as payment, though they may steal items, sell them, and use the resulting money to pay off the curse. The curse imparts two additional, though Evil, ways to satisfy the debt, both of which the victim becomes aware of: if the victim slays the owner of an item, they can claim ownership and use the item to satisfy the curse. In addition, the corpses of other creatures that the victim has slain themselves may be used as objects of payment: for the purposes of this curse, the corpse of a Small or larger creature with 2 or less Int is worth 50gp times its HD, while the corpse of a creature with 3 or greater Int is worth 200gp times its HD.

The curse will not take Artifacts, intelligent items, or cursed items as payment; at the DMs discretion, it may also reject other specific items based on the preferences of the fiend to which the spell is aligned.  Paying an amount exceeding the amount assigned by the current collection period has no effect on future collection periods; i.e. even if the victim pays 1,000 gold (or offers an item worth that amount) to cover a 300 gold debt, the next collection period will still occur and they will still have to pay whatever debt is assigned.

If the victim does not or cannot pay the full debt by the time the next collection period begins, their belongings are stolen from them at random directly by the spell’s effects until the current debt is paid. If they have no belongings valuable enough to satisfy the curse, they instead take 1 point of Constitution damage per collection periods that have already occurred as their flesh, blood, bone, and organs are shorn from them as if by starving, toothed maws. This damage does not heal naturally while the curse is in effect. A creature slain by the Con damage of the curse leaves behind only a puddle of blood and viscera. The curse resists being dispelled while money is still owed to it; the check to dispel it is raised by +10 until the current collection period is satisfied. Ending the curse does not restore any lost property or flesh, though Limited Wish, Wish or Miracle, or physically going to the vaults of the assigned fiend allows a creature to retrieve lost items. Obviously, in the latter case, this carries dangers of its own.

#Original Concepts #lmk if any language is particularly unclear #this is a complicated spell (based on an SCP) and thus i may have missed a loophole or not clarified something that needs to be

[ktheist]

muses. familiar!cat-shifter!yoongi x witch!reader

83.“My friends get so annoyed by how much I talk sometimes.”

x

“i thought witches don’t have friends.” yoongi scratches his arm, opening the fridge and checking out what little sustenance you have in it.

not much.

“and i thought familiars are supposed to indulge in their masters needs and wants,” hands on your hips you look at him with knitted brows and a pout.

but exactly five heartbeats later, you hear your phone buzzing and you’re hurrying to grab your bag, “i’ll be back!”

a second after the door closes shut, your head pops back in, the sulking pout now gone and in its place, the most brilliant smile and brightest twinkle in your eyes, “let’s have chicken for dinner! i left the money on the counter so you can order it and we can eat together.”

and then you’re gone.

min yoongi grumbles, eyes burning holes in the fifty dollar note lying on the white countertop.

‘did she think i’m broke or something?’

well, yoongi was quite literally homeless and living on tree branches in the deepest part of south korea’s reserves. but he was only living there because his last witch died from greed.

take over the world. become queen of every species on earth.

that sort of greed.

but you?

this 20-something year old pays - well, the humans like to call it tuition fee - to be a slave to an education that isn’t even beneficial to witches.

huh.

yoongi feels sorry for your bodiless ancestors who got burned at the stakes. if they had graves, they would be turning in them but they don’t because they took the risk to learn and practice witchcraft even if it was forbidden in their times.

now you’ve got all the reasons to learn - humans got so stupid that they stopped believing in anything besides logic - but you’re using him to predict what’s going to come out in your tests.

x

“ugh, my tailbone’s about to liquidize from having to sit in that exam hall for five freaking hours.” mina grumbles, stretching her arms over her head.

“okay, but why the fuck do we have to write a 10 page essay on why plato think our end goal is happiness?” soyeon’s scrunches her nose, as if physically cringing at the remembrance of it.

“isn’t that like, a statement? weren’t we supposed to talk about rousseau?” nayeon’s brows knit together in utter confusion.

“shit.” you’d expect soyeon to be cursing but it’s mina.

after a series of mina freaking out and the rest of you trying to calm her down by saying whatever possible answer they discussed could very well be wrong because nobody recalled hearing the professor mention who this rousseau scholar-guy.

except you.

and it wasn’t the professor who mentioned it.

it was the grumpy shapeshifting cat you’ve taken in who also happens to have futuristic premonitions.

almost as if they could hear your thoughts, soyeon turns to you, “we should’ve trusted ___’s instincts.”

technically, you were doing some reading on rousseau’s natural law theory when the girls sneaked up on you and scared your literal soul out of your body. they were surprised that you were even studying so you passingly mentioned having a strong, unquestionable feeling that he’s going to make an appearance in finals.

“you girls should’ve listened to me,” you cheekily proclaim, hands on your hips and chin tilted so high up, you can almost see the sun.

“oh great finals goddess, please tell us what you think will come out for criminal procedures,” mina gets on her knees without a care in the world and starts praying for you.

it wasn’t hard to stroke your ego and your friends know that better than anyone. so you tell them what they want to know on a pretense of ‘just predictions! don’t put all your eggs in one basket. i might be wrong!’

“yoongi, i’m home,” you singsong, swinging the door open only to have your shoulders sag at the lack of a certain black haired grump who would usually be sleeping on the couch and grumble for you to ‘shut up, i’m taking a nap.’

“huh, he’s not here.” you kick off your shoes and pad over to your room only to have your heart flutter at the sight of a cat snugly curled up in your bed.

“yoongi!” you squeal, dropping your bag and books on the floor before bounding over to the bed and gathering the slumbering feline in your arms.

the cat’s golden slits seem to appear on guard until they soften at the sight of you. he yawns widely as he stretches in your arms.

“i’m home, yoongi.” this time, your voice is barely above whisper, hand scratching his furry body as you lay on your bed, staring at the ceiling.

“you were right about rousseau and now my friends think i have some sixth sense,” you prattle on while the weight on your chest starts curling himself up - you have no strand of doubt that if you just looked down, the black feline will be snoring away as if he doesn’t have a single ounce of care for your story-telling.

not that yoongi’s ever showed an interest in your life besides the magic that you happen to bottle up and exploded the day he was walking around in seoul out of boredom.

you’re not sure when you fell asleep, but you wake up to the sound of ‘here’s your chicken’ and a ‘thanks’ before the door clicks shut.

“was that the chicken?” groggy but hungry, you march over the kitchen where yoongi - now in his human form - is taking out the boxes with your favorite swicy chicken restaurant symbol from the plastic bag.

“with the way you were snoring, i didn’t think i should order dinner at all,” he says nonchalantly.

“i-i don’t snore!” you almost scream, cheeks heating up.

“uh-huh,” there it is again, the nonchalant tone that almost drives you up the wall. then he turns to face you, index finger tapping the corner of his mouth, “you’ve got some drool there.”

almost as if possessed by a chaotic spirit, you trudge to the bathroom, slamming the door behind you in your haste. your reflection stares back at you with bed hair pointing everywhere and alarmed, round eyes as you wipe the corner of your mouth with the back of your hand only to notice nothing there. you repeat the motion once again and true enough, not a smidge of drool is present.

“that lying-!” you huff, marching back to the kitchen with one objective in mind.

“lying isn’t very nice, yoongi,” you say, barely putting a lid on the boiling anger.

“being too trustful isn’t very witch-like either.” he counters, a swicy chicken in hand and bright red sauce in the corner of his mouth.

“i curse you into a monkey!” you scream, index finger pointed in his direction.

but instead of the black haired familiar morphing and turning into the animal you cursed him into, he continues eating without even batting an eye.

“what- but-” you look at your hand and then back at him, “i cursed you!”

“you can’t curse your own familiar.” he finally says halfway into your quarter-ish life crisis, “now sit down and eat before your stomach starts grumbling too.”

you huff in bashful frustration. face too hot to even look at yoongi in eye but you’re too hungry to throw another fit.

believe it or not, this is just one of your routine in your daily life - him teasing you, completely nonchalantly and you getting worked up over it and end up making a fool out of yourself.

in a few hours, you’ll end up forgetting it ever happens and end up cuddling the cat that’s curled up on your pillow. you’ve just finished revising another topic of your next exam.

the next time you wake up, it’s to grown sized male snuggling into your chest, his arm slung over your back and your leg wedged between his. there’s not so much as a hair’s breadth between you.

“y-yoongi,” you stammer out, unable to think properly.

but when the aforementioned man simply groans and nuzzles his face in between your boobs, your cheeks hit up and your hand ends up swinging in the air before it hits its target.

his cheek.

now he sports a red handprint on his porcelain skin as he goes around, making coffee for himself while you diligently study at your desk. it’s some time in the afternoon that a furry ball leaps into your lap and kneads your thighs with his little paws before curling into a ball.

“aren’t you so cute?” your heart flutters at the adorable little fur ball, hand scratching the underside of his neck and giggling at how he’s purring in appreciation.

you end up dropping your apple pencil and shutting off your ipad. carrying the clingy furball in your arms, you plop down your bed.

“ugh, my back feels like it’s gonna crumble off like biscuit crumbs,” you lament, not caring if the sentence makes no sense.

but before you can think of any other sentence that makes no absolute sense, you feel the weight on your stomach shift, the furball you were caressing now turning into a lump of skull with actual human hair as it holds itself up and places its forehead on yours.

“how is it that you willingly take me to bed when i’m a cat and slap me in the face like i’m some pervert when i’m my human form?” this time, you know he’s teasing you because he’s smirking like he’s amused.

“it’s different because you were a cat!” you thank merlin that your voice comes out strong and certain.

“i’m still me no matter what form i take though,” his hand is warm on your thigh. his breath fans your skin, “still a man.”

“it’s different,” you know you sound meek compared to when you started out.

but your face is hot and your heart is palpitating inside your chest. all of a sudden you feel too shy to even look at him. so you cast your gaze to the side. relief floods your system when he lifts his head from yours. but it’s short-lived. teeth bite on the delicate skin of your neck. not enough to hurt but enough to incite a surprised yelp from you.

and a swing of your hand.

that’s how yoongi ends up with another red handprint on his other cheek. the first one is barely disappearing.

and you, with a hickey on your neck that you don’t know what to explain to your friends tomorrow when you meet them for the exam.

but one good thing comes out of it. after the slap, a rope materializes and wraps itself around yoongi. it’s pure magic and not even he can undo it.

“stop teasing me,” you start, sitting on the chair with your legs crossed.

“start treating me like i’m a man even in my cat form and i’ll consider that,” he counters.

at that, you lift an eyebrow, all of a sudden feeling a rush of confidence, “start acting like a man in your human form then.”

that’s when yoongi looks at you like you’ve challenged his essence. his existence.

“untie me and i’ll show you what a man is, master,” he challenges back.

it’s the word ‘master’ that gets your stomach fluttering with butterflies.

“you have two heads but you’re using the useless one to interpret what ‘a man’ means?” eyebrows rising to the ceiling, you pretend to be surprised.

“you’re a witch but you don’t even know how to use a spell,” he shrugs, reverted to his nonchalant self.

and that’s what irks you the most. how he acts like it has nothing to do with him but rubs your lacking in your face.

“lay down.” you order and his body is sent flying backwards, barely missing the wall in his abrupt descent.

yoongi groans, gathering himself once again.

“see, i know you can’t go against my words,” you say, triumphant.

“how did you find out?” he strains his neck, trying to look at you now that he’s laying down.

“the way you always did what i asked and last night, you ordered the chicken anyway even though i was sleeping and i could’ve slept through the entire night.” those were suspicions - you only confirmed it when you gave him the direct order.

“fine, you win,” he announces, barely caring about the argument.

“good.” you nod, mentally willing the rope to untie itself. but nothing happens.

you try again.

and again.

and again.

“can i please be released?” yoongi finally says after one too many mental tries.

“uh, wait,” you push yourself off the chair and tread over to manually undo the knot that keeps the rope tightly wrapped around yoongi.

“you can’t do it with magic?” comes the million dollar question.

you sigh, dejected, “i think i need to be angry - or feel strongly about something to get my magic to work.”

that’s what happened when yoongi met you. overstressed and barely focusing on your surroundings, you ended up getting run over someone who was on a bike. everything just kept going wrong. you ended up bawling your eyes out on the sidewalk - the man who ran over you started panicking thinking he broke a bone.

“i’m cool now though.” you shrug, easily dismissing the dejection and whatever that upset you before.

the rope comes undone and yoongi shimmies himself out. but before you can do anything, his hand shoots out, wrapping around your wrist and pulling you down until your knee digs into the mattress in between his legs, your faces too close. if he’d just tilt his head, his lips would easily brush yours.

“yoongi,” you warn but he shushes you.

“try getting the rope to move with magic,” he instructs, voice uncharacteristically soft and soothing.

you take a deep breath, eyes trained on the rope lying around him whilst trying to ignore the millimeter distance between your faces.

you move your index finger and the rope lifts itself up. you motion to the left with your finger and the rope gradually slithers through the air in the direction you’re pointing.

“it’s working,” you almost squeal, beaming.

and in your excitement, you seek yoongi’s gaze, only to see the rope crashing against the ground in your periphery.

“good,” a smile plays on his lips.

all of a sudden, you’re out of breath, the perpetrator also being the cause of the rush of blood to your face.

thanks.

the words doesn’t really get passed your lips because his feel feather-light but his fingertips on your cheek is calloused but grounding. that’s how you know this isn’t just some dream.

then he pulls all of you down. the sudden shift of motion illicit a gasp out of you. but the shock stricken state is short lived. you find yourself breathing in his musky woody scent.

he leans down, kissing the delicate spot on your neck that makes your heart wretch inside your chest.

“yoongi, maybe we should take it slow and practice some other time?” you suggest and he chuckles, the sound ringing in your ear like a blissful melody.

“i’m not doing this for a practice run,” he confesses ever so casually, “i took on the form of a cat because you told me about the one you have back home. but you got too familiar with it that you forgot about me.”

he licks your flesh like a cat would. it’s supposed to be an innocent, cat-like gesture but something about the way his male body is hovering over you makes the fibers in your system go on panic mode. you wish the bed would open up and swallow you whole but you’re not powerful enough for that.

yet.

“i’m upset,” he sulkily says and sinks his teeth into your skin.

x

the fading redness on his left cheek where you first slap him is rosier than ever after your third slap landing on that one.

“when are you gonna let me go?” his voice echoes in the silence.

you turn around to see the man sitting cross-legged on your bed with his hands on his sides, the rope tightly wrapped around him. after he bit you, the rope ended shooting up and around him, as if it had a mind of its own and sought to protect you by disabling your neck-biting familiar.

oh, you sport similar hickey on the other side of your neck now too.

“hmm,” you tilt your head in contemplation, “after my last exam?”

“that’s like, in a week,” he grunts, “how am i gonna bathe? and eat?”

“you have two heads, yoongi. figure it out.” you shrug and turn back to your books and ipad.

x

note. this was requested by an anonymous as part of my drabble game.

#bts scenarios #yoongi scenarios #bts fanfic #yoongi fanfic #yoongi fic #bts fic #yoongi x you #yoongi x reader #bts x reader #bts x you #bts smut #yoongi smut #bts fluff #yoongi fluff #drabble game 1 #excerpt from a fic i'll never write

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #169

Two builds in one day? That’s right! Today’s my birthday, and that means I get to pick the servants! As a birthday gift to myself, we’re making Caster of the Nightless City! As usual, expect spoilers in the build breakdown below the cut and in their character sheet here!

Scheherazade is a Creation Bard to truly bring her stories to life, and a Genie Warlock to create her own Bedchamber of Survival.

Race and Background

Wildly, Scheherazade is a Human, giving her +1 to all abilities. She’s also a Guild Artisan with one of the most demanding patrons in the world, giving her proficiency with Insight and Persuasion. 

Ability Scores

Your Charisma better be as high as possible, you’re literally famous for your storytelling skills. After that is Wisdom. Anyone can read a story, but to tell a story you’ve got to be able to read the audience. Your Intelligence is also pretty good, because let’s be honest, remembering over 1,000 stories is pretty goddamn impressive. Your Dexterity isn’t awful, because we need to be able to go from standing to dogeza in seconds. This means your Constitution and Strength are rather low. Sadly, telling stories doesn’t make you all that battle hardened.

Class Levels

1. Bard 1: Being a bard gives you proficiency with Dexterity and Charisma saves to avoid fireballs and being banished to other dimensions. (Though I guess banishment is better than death?) You also get proficiency in three bard skills, that is to say, three of any skill. Performance for storytelling, Acrobatics for faster dogezas, and History for more story material.

You can use Bardic Inspiration to give a d6 to an ally Charisma Mod times per long rest, and these dice can be added to pretty much any d20 roll to make it a bit better. (Not yours though, heaven forbid you have to get out there and... attack things.)

Speaking of not attacking things, let’s talk Spells. You cast em with Charisma, and get stuff like Blade Ward for taking less damage and Friends for convincing people to let you live in the first place. You also get Charm Person for a similar reason, Bane to weaken their offense if they still want to try anything, Feather Fall to avoid death by heights, and Silent Image for the first of your storied illusions.

2. Bard 2: Second level bards become Jacks of All Trades, adding half their proficiency to ability checks they’re not proficient in. By becoming more useful, you’re less likely to get killed! Probably. You also get a Song of Rest to boost healing during short rests. Healing is good, healing helps people not die. Finally, your Magical Inspiration lets allies add your inspiration dice to damage or healing caused by spells. Again, healing is good, and I guess doing more damage can be nice sometimes.

Speaking of doing damage, we’re not doing that. Instead, grab Sleep for a bedtime story.

3. Bard 3: Graduating from the college of Creation will help you bring your stories to life thanks to your Performance of Creation. As an action you can create a nonmagical object once per long rest or by spending a 2nd level spell slot. The item must be medium or smaller, and can only be worth at most 20 times your bard level in GP.

You can also help your allies star in legends of their own with Stories of Potential that add extra effects to your bardic inspiration depending on how they’re used. Ability checks get advantage on rolling the inspiration, attack rolls deal thunder damage to nearby creatures if they fail a constitution save, and saving throws add temporary HP to their users.

You can also cast Calm Emotions to keep the king from beheading you in the morning.

4. Warlock 1: Now that that’s taken care of, let’s get some help from a Genie. Picking this patron gives you a Genie’s Vessel, a tiny object like, say, a scroll case, within which you can find a Bottled Respite that you can hang out in for up to 2x your proficiency bonus hours per long rest, but you can only enter once per long rest. Any items you leave behind stay in the respite until the vessel is destroyed or you take them out again. Also, I gotta remember to point out the inside is bigger than the outside, space isn’t an issue for you.

You also learn to imbue your attacks with a Genie’s Wrath, adding thunder damage equal to your proficiency bonus to one attack per turn. You don’t really attack that much, but it’s nice to make every bit count.

Speaking of attacking, you can actually do that with your new Spells! You still use Charisma, but you have Pact Magic, so these slots don’t mix with your old ones. The plus side is they recharge on short rests instead of long ones, and you can still cast bard spells with warlock slots and vice versa.

You get Minor Illusion for cheap lifelike stories, as well as Eldritch Blast for the ever-present caster balls. For first level spells, you get Detect Evil and Good and Thunderwave for free, as well as Comprehend Languages because copyright doesn’t exist in D&D, and Protection from Evil and Good. Some kings are evil, some are good, but very few are neutral. (WARNING: does not actually protect against good or evil aligned humanoids)

5. Warlock 2: Second level warlocks get Eldritch Invocations, ways to customize the selling your soul experience. Armor of Shaodws gives you free mage armor to avoid dying, and Eldritch Mind makes it easier to concentrate on your spells, which are keeping you from getting killed.

Speaking of spells, Sense Emotion lets you read the prevailing emotion of a nearby creature as an action, and you can repeat the action each turn. Good storytelling requires you know what your audience wants.

6. Warlock 3: Third level warlocks get a Pact Boon, and Pact of the Tome gives you a super cool magic scroll that gives you three cantrips from any spell list. You get Guidance and Resistance for added protection, and Mage Hand. Handling hot objects can be dangerous! Now you don’t have to do that.

Besides that, you get second level spells here, like Enthrall. Being the center of attention is dangerous, but you’re the most personable member of the party, so this might be less dangerous than letting them talk. You also get Phantasmal Force and Gust of Wind for free, letting you attack with fictional characters and just make things a bit more dramatic.

7. Warlock 4: At fourth level you finally get your first Ability Score Improvement, which will be used to round up your Dexterity and Constitution for a higher AC and higher HP. Not dying’s good, you should try it out.

You also get Prestidigitation to add minor effects to your stories, and Flock of Familiars to summon background characters.

8. Warlock 5: Fifth level warlocks get third level spells, like Major Image to make larger effects for your stories. You also get Create Food and Water and Wind Wall for free.

On top of that, the invocation One with Shadows lets you turn invisible as an action in dim light or darker, and lasts until you move or take an action. When a truly good storyteller gets going, the story takes on a life of its own, and they just sort of... fade into the background.

9. Warlock 6: Sixth level genilocks get an Elemental Gift, giving you resistance to thunder damage. Like Cursed Arm always says, you can’t travel the desert without protection from wind. As a bonus action, you can now fly for 10 minutes Proficiency times per long rest. Admittedly you don’t really do that too often, but I’m sure you can illusion up a big genie hand or something to lift you up.

You can also summon a main character now thanks to Summon Fey. You can create a small fey creature in one of three moods that can teleport around and fight for you. Fuming fey get advantage on attacks after teleporting, mirthful fey can charm creatures, and tricksy fey create magical darkness which you can use to turn invisible.

10. Warlock 7: Congrats on your fourth level spell slots! Your freebie spells are Phantasmal Killer and Greater Invisibility to put less focus on yourself and more focus on the terrifying monsters you can summon. You can also use Hallucinatory Terrain to reshape the world into the world of your story. You can also use Trickster’s Escape once per long rest to cast Freedom of Movement on yourself to get the hell out of dangerous situations.

11. Warlock 8: Use this ASI to bump up your Charisma for better spells and better stories. You also learn how to Charm Monsters to avoid even more danger by just... getting along with everything.

12. Warlock 9: Ninth level warlocks get fifth level spells, like the freebies Creation to make even more nonsense out of nothing and Seeming to again, avoid danger. On top of those, you can use Modify Memory to retcon your stories to prevent your audience from getting too upset. You also gain the Gift of the Protectors, allowing you or another creature to write its name on part of your scroll. The scroll can hold the names of Proficiency people, and once per long rest the first creature to drop to 0 hp sticks around at 1 hp instead. You can also erase names if you have a falling out, but since it’s first come first served you might just want to keep this to yourself.

13. Warlock 10: Tenth level genielocks get a Sanctuary Vessel, allowing you to take up to 5 willing creatures into your Genie’s Vessel with you. You can eject creatures as a bonus action, by leaving yourself, dying (don’t do that one), or by destroying the vessel.

On top of all of that, creatures that stay in the vessel for at least 10 minutes get all the benefits of a short rest, plus they add your proficiency to any healing they get from hit dice. That’s on top of the d6 they were already getting from your song of rest.

Oh right, you get another cantrip too. Grab Blade Ward again. You can never be too careful.

14. Bard 4: Yeah, did you think we were done with bards? Nope! This level of bard gives us another ASI that’ll max out your Charisma for the best spells possible!

You also learn Message, because miscommunication can be deadly, and Lesser Restoration. You never know what kind of status effects might doom your party, after all...

15. Bard 5: Fifth level bards get their inspiration bumped up to d8s, and they finally become a Font of Inspiration to recharge their inspiration on short rests. I wanted to get sanctuary vessel as quickly as possible for the sake of getting your bedchamber of survival, but it’s awfully tempting to put these two levels earlier, ngl.

You also learn how to Feign Death, because nobody’s going to bother killing you if you’re already dead, right? This spell makes you or the targeted creature effectively dead by the reckoning of anyone around them. They can’t take actions, are blinded, and can’t move. They get resistance to all damage except psychic, and any diseases or poisons they’re affected by are frozen until the spell ends an hour later.

16. Bard 6: Sixth level bards can use Countercharm to protect their party from effects that would charm or frighten them, giving them advantage on those saves for a round.

You can also put on an Animating Performance to turn a large or smaller object into a Dancing Item, which follows your orders, given by your bonus action. You can do this once per long rest, or by spending a third level spell slot.

Your last bard spell is Catnap, putting up to three creatures to sleep for 10 minutes. If they stay asleep the entire time, they get the benefits of a short rest. Dying of overwork... what a horrifying concept.

17. Warlock 11: At eleventh level, instead of getting your spell slots made bigger you get a Mystic Arcanum, allowing you to cast a sixth level spell once per long rest. Guards and Wards is very useful if you’re paranoid, creating wards to protect up to 2,500 square feet of space (a.k.a. 100 5′ squares). You can specify creatures that are immune to effects, or a password that does the same thing.

In corridors, fog fills the area, and forks in the road have a 50% chance of forcing creatures down the wrong way.

Doors are magically locked, and up to 10 doors in the area can be covered by illusions.

Stairs are covered in Webs that regrow when destroyed.

You can also place: Dancing Lights in four corridors, Magic Mouth in two places, Stinking Cloud in two places, Gust of Wind in one corridor or room, and Suggestion in one five foot square.

Casting Guards and Wards in the same place every day for a year makes it permanent.

18. Warlock 12: Use your last ASI to bump up your Constitution for better concentration and health. You also learn your last Invocation, Minions of Chaos! Once per long rest you can cast Conjure Elemental using a warlock spell slot. It is a little bit risky, but even you have to be willing to stick your neck out at some point. Might as well be level 18.

19. Warlock 13: Your seventh level Mystic Arcanum is Mirage Arcane, allowing you to reshape reality in a square mile, altering the entire terrain to your story and even making entire structures out of nothing. Even creatures with true sight will still feel the illusion, so feel free to recreate the tower of babel and hide out on the top of it.

20. Warlock 14: Your capstone level gives you a Limited Wish from your patron, recreating any spell of fifth level or lower once per 1d4 long rests. Sometimes your story just needs a Maelstrom, and nobody’s going to wait for you to take 9 levels of druid just to finish a story.

Pros:

If your DM rewards creativity and you’ve got the mind thoughts to power this build, this build will treat you very nicely. This whole thing is basically an excuse for the roleplayer inside of you to ham up your acting, chew the scenery, and distract everyone from the rogue rifling through their pockets.

Speaking of distractions you can make some really good ones. Show up to the BBEG’s lair, butter them up with some stories, then trick them into entering your vessel, and then they’re trapped in there for up to 12 hours. If you can trick them into allowing you to catnap them, that gives the rest of your party a full 10 minutes to ransack the place before they even know what’s happening. You can always kick them out if they’re being unwelcome guests, but there’s no way for them to leave on their own outside of killing you. And that’s easier said than done, because...

You’re really hard to fight. Between all the illusions, summoning creatures to fight on your behalf, the invisibility, and the altering reality in a mile radius, landing a blow on you is an ordeal, especially if you know they’re coming.

Cons:

If you’re actually stuck in a cage match with an enemy it’s gonna take a while, because you really aren’t built for damage. You have a negative strength stat, and your first damaging spell doesn’t show up until level four. Just bring them into the vessel, help them relax, and put them to sleep with catnap, that’s way less work than actually fighting them.

On a similar note, anything that can see through your illusions is going to cut through you like butter, because you’re pretty squishy. Only 15 AC and just shy of 150 HP means you should avoid fights like... well, you do in canon.

Another side effect of your squishiness is that your concentration saves aren’t that great, which is really bad for an illusionist/summoner. Neither your animated item nor your invisibility use concentration though, so you can actually get away with more than you’d think, it’s just a complicated juggling act. And trust me, you do not want to drop them in the middle of combat.

#fgo #fate grand order #D&D 5e #DND #Caster of the nightless city #warlock #bard

[tipsycad147]

Binding and Banishing 5

Ice Binding 1

Light a white candle and your favorite incense. Meditate a short while

on the problem. Invoke the Spirits of Protection for you and yours. Then

take a piece of brown paper, like from a grocery bag, on it use a lead

pencil to print and write the name of the offending person or people. If

unknown people are involved, also print and write, "and all persons unknown

that are causing harm to me!"

Cross off each line forcefully and say, forcefully,

" I freeze name(s) to be bound by this spell, unable to cause any more

harm to (name(s)! As I will, so mote it be! "

Then put a spoonful of used coffee grounds on the brown paper, fold it

small, and place it in the freezer. Leave it until the problem is

completely resolved. You may wish to  wrap a rubber band, string, twist tie, etc. to keep the coffee grounds from falling out of the paper. You can also use a ziploc bag. Be sure and burn the candle completely up. Don't  use that candle for a different purpose.

Ice Binding 2

Another way of ridding yourself of an unwanted negative influence is to write the name of the person or event at cause on a piec of paper. Concentrate on putting the negative energy into the paper. Place the piece of paper into a jar of water and put it into the freezer. Allow the paper to remain frozen in the water until all of the negative energy flow has completely stopped, then you can remove it, thaw it, and bury it in the ground.

NEW BEGINNING SPELL

Just before sunrise, go outside with some heather and a feather. Face East, light incense, and hold feather in hand while concentrating on the new day ahead as a new beginning. Say: Flight of feather, Scent of Heather Give me Cleansing With this beginning! Blow feather from hand and let the wind carry it away. Watch the sunrise and feel its rays cleansing you for the new day ahead. It is done.

PEACEFUL HOME

This spell is very good if there is a lot of turmoil or stress in the household. Do the following spell, and while doing so, remember to focus on your intent for a peaceful household. Sew a small pouch of lavender cloth. Place a small trinket in the pouch for each member of your household. Add to this a pinch each of lavender, rose and chamomile, before placing each pinch in the pouch, remember to hold it for a moment and REALLY focus, finally, add a small amethyst. Now, anoint a lavender or pink candle with peace oil(see recipes) and then light it. Sit in front of the candle and hold the pouch in your hands and whisper the following chant over it softly 3 times: Blessed Goddess, most gentle one, calm my home for me. Relieve all tension, send it far, so from stress we shall be free. Touch my family with peace and calm, and the sweetest softest bliss, Bless my home, Great Gentle Goddess, with your calming kiss. Set the pouch with the candle. Allow the candle to burn down completely. Hang the pouch in your home, preferably in the room where everyone gathers the most. Whenever tension seems to build, repeat the above chant 3 times and envision peace and tranquility radiating from the pouch and The Goddess.

Poppet Binding Spell

The purpose of this spell is to rid yourself of the negative energies of someone who is mentally or emotionally abusing you. If done properly, it will not harm the object of the spell nor will it affect his or her daily life in any way. It will simply make the person powerless to mentally or emotionally harm you.

Preform when Moon is dark

Materials:

Small cloth doll,(poppet) leave the head unstitched until you are ready to begin the ritual Needle and thread

Some personal item from the person you want to bind (fingernail clippings, hair, handwriting sample)

Black ribbon

Black candle

Cauldron or other fireproof container

Sterilized needle

Piece of parchment paper and pen or quill

One candle at each quarter (optional)

Ritual:

Call the quarters - I like to use candles at each quarter to form a circle of fire for extra protection. Light the black candle Concentrating deeply on the person you are binding, place the personal object inside the head of the doll and sew it shut.Tie the black ribbon around the poppet's head, signifying the binding of that person.

'With harm to none, my will be done

I hereby bind you (name of person)

Your words cannot harm me

Your thoughts cannot harm me

You cannot harm me'

Continue chanting this or something like it until you feel power surging through you. Visualize the person helpless to slander or verbally and mentally abuse you while you are chanting.

~ Now, to bind the spell ~

If you have a sigil or a craft name, sign it on the small piece of paper. If not, sign your own full name. If others are working the ritual with you, they too should sign the paper. With the sterilized needle, prick one of your fingers and put a small drop of blood over your signature. Again, if others are working with you, they should place a drop of blood over their signatures. (using a different needle, of course) Fold the paper, light it on fire and drop it into the cauldron (which should be on a heat-proof surface!). Meditate on the flames until the paper completely burns away. If you are working with a group, join hands at this point and feel the power surging around the circle as the spell is bound. Ground and center Release the circle. Thank the Goddess and God for their protection and power Bury the doll as far away from you as possible within the next few days.

RID OF NASTY ASTRAL SLIME

After Chakra cleansings in the evening by the ocean or a large body of water like a river or lake or pond. As the sun sets so your bad fortune will drain away. Hold a stone or object that you find and feel is appropriate and project all the nasty slimy and inky feeling you picked up from this person into it. Really focus on letting all your emotions about it as well and let them flow into the rock. When you have done this say: "I release this astral slime And all darkness which is not mine I let go of all that may have harmed My aura is bright all negativity released And I am charmed" Now throw the rock into the water preferably as the sun drops below the horizon and be conscious of its fading light taking away your bad feelings from this person. You can do this spell on then first night of the waning moon (after a full moon) for seven nights if you really feel tainted. Also Place 1/2 cup vinegar, a bunch of fresh or rosemary and 1 tablespoon of sea salt in your bath. Light a white and a blue candle. Imagine yourself surrounded by blue light, giving you positive energy. Visualize all of the negative energy and astral slime leaving your body through every pore.

SPELL BINDER

This is best used at the end of a spoken or written spell. This adds a certain boost to the releasing of energy. It also works best if you are wearing a Pentagram you have attuned to yourself. Speak these word with all the fibers of your body while releasing the spell's energy: By the Pentagram I wear, Water, Fire, Earth, and Air, Ruled by Spirit as All should be As I speak So Mote It Be!

Spell Breaking or Reversal

from Tesa on the kitchen witch list

This spell is performed to either reverse  a spell you have cast, or  to break a spell cast by another.

What you need:

Your cauldron

A black or purple candle (purple for spell reversal,  black for spell  breaking)

During the full or waning moon, place the purple or black candle  inside your cauldron. Fill your cauldron about half way with water.The candle should be at least as tall as your cauldron or slightly  taller. Focus on the task at hand- imagine the energy from the spell  you are reversing or breaking is forming before you into a large ball  of light. Imagine that the energy is now moving

toward the candle and  inhabiting it. Light the candle as you are focusing

and say, "Break the spell, break the curse, the spell which was cast

is now reversed." Now imagine the energy slowly disappearing and that it no

longer exists. Allow the candle to burn down until it fizzles out in the water. Say, "It is done." Pour the water outside in a stream or into the

ground away from your house. You can bury the candle or throw it out with

the trash.

SPELL TO RID ONESELF OF A BOTHERSOME SPIRIT

Say "What is dark be filled with light, remove this spirit from my sight." Before starting place your hand before you, and start the flow of power out of your hand and then say the words, letting the envisioned blue-white light from your power hand fill the room or house or any other place that you might be.

TO FREE A HOUSE FROM HAUNTING

"The Presence that stands Upon the stairs The unseen hands That move the chairs. The lights that play Across the wall, The stains that stay, The plates that fall, The mist , the chill, The wandering scents This gentle spell must speed them hence. At midnight, set A table neat, With cup and plate, And wine and meat, Invite the ghost To sit and feast, As any host Should urge a guest. Presently, clear The meal away, Then open the door and softly say- "Quick or dead, Thou art fed, Cease to grieve And take thy leave" Bid him depart But should he remain Be calm, take heart And feast him again.

CHARM OF THE BEAST SPELL

-- mugwort angelica 3 hairs of an imposing beast black cloth oil of frankincense or myrrh Mix the mugwort and angelica in equal parts, add to it the 3 hairs and bind together in a black cloth. Add a few drops of the oil onto the cloth. then say " He who is strong, he who is mighty Lend thine power to this charm Demons turn on your heels and run" Draw over it a pentagram and the charms of banishment. Burn the mixture to drive away the spirits that ail you. Burn it in your home or room you wish to exorcise. Bury it before your doorstep and no demon shall touch you nor enter. Wear the charm or hide it in the roof to ensure safety against any ills.

TO BANISH AN UNWELCOME ENTITY

Speak directly to the entity, or in the room most affected, saying: It is time to leave here; all is well. There is nothing here for you now, You must be gone Go now, go ~ complete your passing, Go, and with our blessing fare well. Farewell. Remove everything of the previous occupant ~ writing and photos in particular. If there is anything you wish to keep, purify it with salt or incense, saying: With this I purify you of the past Of hurt and memories Keeping only Love

https://crimsonwolfe.tripod.com/id4.html

[scribblewriting65]

Owl House Season 2 Hype/Speculation!

The Owl House (one of my favorite cartoons of recent memory/maybe all time) has been given a season 2 teaser (in the form of a new intro) and Season 3 Greenlight! Obviously I’m over the moon (like many others) and I thought it’d be fun to give some thoughts and speculation on what’s coming.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYqzwDPczqs Link to the intro, follow along for a full understanding!

Luz Noceda

Our favorite bi protagonist has been through a lot, but she still shines bright, literally. Her abilities have gotten a small but noticeable upgrade in the intro, able to conjure multiple objects from one glyph. First off, look at her go! She’s killing it! As for speculation, I’m curious (and it seems likely) that she’ll learn more glyphs, maybe even get another upgrade or two alongside the above? She’s a quick learner, so I’m looking forward to seeing where this goes.

Willow Park

Willow didn't have too much in the ways of development in the first season, but she's still got a lot to work with in terms of both powers and friendships, especially with Amity. The undisputed master of plant magic from the cast, this friendly face looks as adorable as ever, even when she conjures gigantic vines with awesome green glowing eyes. She's made massive vines already, almost spreading out like spider webs, but the likelihood of seeing her work magic (Ba dum tsh) with other plants and fauna would be incredible.

Augustus Porter (Gus)

He may be the youngest, but Gus has more than enough heart to make himself known. His optimism shines through as he uses illusion magic with a smile(s), but he also has a touch of snark via his wink, a cool little detail. As for the book, my best guess would be that it's a sort of illusion spellbook (and magic itself will be covered later). He took a sort of backseat amongst the Hexside friend group, but I'm still looking forward to seeing what he can do!

Amity Blight

Once a normal bully, but now a full ally to the whole OH crew and love interest for Luz, Amity has had good steps in character progression, and the tidbits we've seen from press releases have me very excited. In her shot of the intro alone, she exudes confidence and grace, pulling off one of my favorite poses ever as she summons her trademark Abomination Goop. 

While it is true that she took on a more lovestruck personality as the first season went on and she talked with Luz, it's important to remember that she has plenty of power at her disposal, being a top student and Grudgby player even after quitting. And she comes from an abusive home, which we'll be seeing more of (including meeting her parents), giving me both nerves and excitement to see her grow even more into her own. If they can balance her personal and romantic growth, Amity has potential to be a truly standout character.

Eda Clawthorne

While she's been stripped away of her magic (I'll get to that later), Eda still has her trademark snark as she uses Owlbert. While Lilith only got two still frames, I still wanna point out how the sisters could interact. Eda will likely have uncertain feelings throughout the show possibly even to the point of those feelings being her second arc for the season, with the first being learning glyph magic from and with Luz. King also gets a shoutout from being in Eda's hair, but he could have an interesting arc if previous promo materials were anything to go by. Either way, Eda has a lot to unpack and learn, and I very much look forward to it!

Extras

Since they didn't get much attention, I'll go through the other important characters relatively quickly. First and fastest is Kikimora. She has a wicked design change when she's enraged, with her hair growing larger and exposing her other eye, which has inverted colors from the one we normally see. As for her role, I'm thinking she'll take Lilith's normal place, being Emperor Belos' public face/representative even more now that Lilith's defected.

Along with Kikimora, we have the Spy (no official name given). He looks cool in his robe and mask, and it'll be interesting to see if anything comes about when he fully reveals his face. As for his role, we already know that he's spying on the Owl House from the end of Season 1. However, I believe there's at least a bit more to him. With his robe, mask and staff being very similar to that of Belos, I'm thinking that not only is he Belos' best spy, but possibly his best and/or favorite apprentice or something similar, with a slim possibility of him being Belos' successor, should that come up.

As for the Emperor himself, he's patched his mask back up and is looking to be much more involved this season. There isn't much to go off of with what we got from Season 1, but I'm interested in seeing just how else he does magic differently, and whatever's going on with his staff that seems much more mechanical than other staffs we've seen.

Details/Final Thoughts

One element that was common with all the moving characters in the intro is the lack of magic circles (a cornerstone of magic in The Owl House), instead using glowing parts (like Willow's eyes or Amity's hands) to convey magic being used. I saw a theory that this could lead to an evolution in their abilities, and while that would be cool, I'm not sure that'll apply to everyone in the intro. Maybe Luz, but the others I'm not sure.

Speaking of magic, Eda shouldn't be able to use magic with her curse still in effect (even if it's only in half). My best guess? She's drawing from Owlbert, her living staff. She'll be much more limited with what she can do, but it would be a good way to show that she isn't completely powerless, but still needing a whole new education with anything beyond the bare essentials of magic. With the colors being much darker and more detailed than the original opening, we're going to be getting, well, darker with the tone of the story, which I very much look forward to. 

I already touched on Lilith and Eda's relationship, but now it's also a race between the Owl House and Belos to finish a portal to get Luz home, which I think will have big effects on the world. Even smaller things like meeting Amity's parents will have impact, and as someone with an abusive father, I'm interested in seeing how they expand on what Amity's parents are like beyond what we got in Season 1, and how her friends will help.

Overall, I’m extremely happy with what we’ve gotten here! Dana Terrace and The Owl House crew, you guys have done fantastic work, please feel proud of yourselves as you keep it up! Season 1 was great, and I’ve got high expectations for Season 2. This is gonna be good!

And please, tell me your thoughts below! Got any good theories? Hopes for the coming episodes? Let me know!

#the owl house #speculation

[chamomileteainabuttercup]

Thanks for tagging me in, @demisexuallupin

How many works do you have on AO3?

Currently 24, but there are many more orphans, whether from fandoms I no longer enjoy or because I really didn't like how they were written any more. I orphaned rather than deleting them because I knew from comments there were people who'd enjoyed them, so I might as well leave them available in some form.

What’s your total AO3 word count?

782,484 (probably a lot closer to a million if we could count the orphans, I know at least two of them were over 100,000 words each)

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Currently I've got fics for Star Wars, various Star Treks, The Witcher, Tintin, Jeeves and Wooster and Sailor Moon. Past fandoms included A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones and Steven Universe (see above about "fandoms I no longer enjoy") - I'm not sure how many in total.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Curse of Chamomile (Geraskier)

Fairy Tales in Deep Space (Garashir)

Locked Inside (also Garashir and have you ever noticed how "Geraskier" and "Garashir" look like the same word written in different bad handwriting also both involve a pretty-eyed slut called Julian)

Boba's Back (Bobadin)

No Peeking (Dincobb)

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

Oh yes! If only to say thank you and I'm happy they enjoyed it. As for why, it's a combination of "it's just polite," "it's a gentle form of self-promotion" and "the response and interaction is a huge part of why I actually publish stories online instead of just thinking about them to myself." The best comments are the ones that turn into a real back-and-forth conversation, and those often generate more ideas for the story.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

I think it's To the Island, a Garashir fic which ended with the two of them concluding they couldn't be openly together because Garak has a lot of enemies and it would be too dangerous. (But I wrote a sequel where they reunite some years later when circumstances have changed.)

Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve written?

I'm trying to think if I have, but I think the closest I got was crossing over characters from Star Trek: the Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, and it was an AU - not very crazy at all, I just adjusted time so that two characters who would have attended Starfleet Academy several years apart were there at the same time and fell in love. That's Cadets and it's Datashir if you're interested.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Not outright hate, but a very ungracious comment of the "I don't like this ship but your writing is good" variety.

If it had been "I didn't use to like this ship but I enjoyed your story so much I'm starting to feel differently!" I would have been very pleased (and I have had some comments like that), but no. If you don't even like the ship, please don't read my story, it is not for you.

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

hahahaha I write little else! A big part of why I write fanfic at all is that I want sexy material with the characters I like from media that doesn't get that (onscreen/page) sexy. I do have some G-rated fics, but they're in the minority. My smut tends to be romantic and fluffy and tender, though at the same time it can be relatively hardcore/kinky, I just think it's possible to have romantic, tender rimjobs and canings, you know? The characters are always in love or on the way there. It is virtually always queer. I've written more m/m than f/f, mostly because the SF/fantasy/adventure-type stories I like have disproportionately male casts with more screentime and interesting development given to male characters, and that is an industry problem not a me problem. (I love Sailor Moon the best and that has an overwhelmingly female cast which is great, but the characters are mostly in their early teens and I don't find them sexy at my time of life.)

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not to my knowledge.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No, and I don't think I could. I've written fic based on discussions I've had, so I consider that co-created by my discussion partner (eg Just Business, Nothing Personal with @djarining) but actual writing feels very personal and idiosyncratic to me and I'm not sure I could mesh with someone else's writing effectively, even if we did it in a relatively discrete way like alternating chapters.

What’s your all time favourite ship?

Probably Garashir, but I don't have a strong degree of favouritism.

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

oh uhhhh are we counting incomplete fics that I abandoned a long time ago? Because that's most of 'em, I'm very poor at finishing stories. I tend to want to go on until I've run out of ideas completely and have nothing left for a conclusion.

What are your writing strengths?

Lively dialogue with distinctive character voices seems to be the biggie. Also generating a vibe of comfort and healing. I think I write fairly vivid descriptions.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Not finishing things, struggling to create a plot, getting bogged down because I suddenly hit this weird mental state where I can't figure out how to describe kissing without making it sound gross or boring, and doing the writing-a-sex-scene equivalent of falling asleep right after coming - the chapter tends to end a bit abruptly after a climax because I've spent a long time writing through all this emotional and sexual intensity for the characters and I want to finally push the chapter out and get some response to it.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I don't care for it myself but I don't object to other people doing it! The fandom I'm currently most involved with is The Mandalorian and there's this current of people using lots of Mando'a dialogue, especially to express deep personal feelings, with characters who we've never canonically heard use the language, eg Boba Fett referring to Jango as his buir when in Attack of the Clones he called him Dad. I'm not saying it's incorrect, people are free to imagine whatever they enjoy, but it throws me off/alienates me slightly while reading - like it doesn't feel natural to me that Boba and Din would speak Mando'a to each other, especially because given Boba's life story I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't speak it well or feel comfortable with it. It's entirely a matter of personal taste rather than something I disapprove of, I want to make that quite clear.

I mildly disapprove of people scattering in words of a real-world language that they clearly don't speak (eg gratuitous "hai" instead of "yes" in an anime-based fic) and are just getting from a phrasebook or Google Translate, just because it's kind of clunky and not really the flavour enhancement I think they intend it to be.

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

I think The Vision of Escaflowne. A very, very long time ago.

What’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

Whichever one I'm currently enjoying writing! I feel very fond of Curse of Chamomile because it was the first Witcher thing I wrote based on having only watched the Netflix series, and I felt quite indimidated to begin with but the comments I got were welcoming and lovely and some people even said the characterisation I arrived at worked like a blend of the Netflix series and the books, which was a lucky trick given that I have never read them. That was a really encouraging and up-cheering experience. A lot of the early comments coincided with the time I was on a very enjoyable winter holiday to Taupō so when I had downtime I could refresh AO3 on my phone and there was often something new, and it all just reinforced my Good Time so I remember it fondly.

Tagging, ummm, I always feel awkward doing this because what if someone else tagged them already and I didn't notice? Anyway, we'll say @djarining and @beboots and honestly, anyone else reading this who would like to have a go, consider this your free tag.

#fanfic #ao3

[bastsoldtrollblog]

Powers list- Psionics only.

Hera: Super-strength and durability for a troll of her caste- She’s about cerulean/blue range.

Aki: Explosion based psionics. He can use his body to shape the explosion, like the shaped charges that are used to blast through tanks. He’s basically immune to the explosions he creates, but it’s difficult to protect anyone else; He just has to use himself to shield them. It’s also easy for him to overexert and give himself psionic scars.

Helios: Electronic control- To the point of being able to access and manipulate things online, regardless of security. He can’t go beyond certain limitations of what he’s manipulating but he can bypass a lot of encryption and security measures.

Io: Psychic shield creation. They can create small platforms/surfaces/shields along their body, with the caveat of having to remain very close to them to exist. I.E. If they made a platform to step on, it’d disappear almost as soon as they took their foot off it.

Anirus: Weather manipulation and sensing. They are acutely aware of the meteorological data of their surroundings, i.e. atmosphere pressure, wind, cloud density, humidity and so on. Understanding and manipulating this information to create the weather they want comes naturally.

Seilyn: The ability to become intangible and phase through objects. His psionics are damaged now, however. His lusus has the same ability.

Sahi + Silans: Both have the same psionics, basically just electricity generation.

Radaka: Random visions of the deaths of those he meets. It most often occurs on first meeting but may happen at any time. He sees his own death, from his perspective, in his dreams.

Sahine: A form of psychic pyrokinesis fueled by the ghosts of his ancestors. He tends to become possessed by said ghosts and lose control. The flames can create solid objects such as weapons or appendages, and leave painful curses instead of burns.

Mikail: Cryokinesis. Due to [REDACTED]’s influence, he can harmlessly freeze people and things, preventing magical/eldritch/psionic powers from being used.

Suhari/Pheira/Akidis: The ability to destroy things with immense accuracy. They can only destroy one material at a time, i.e. flesh or bone but not both. As it stands, however, none of the Mitaze’s have access to this power anymore.

Saidyr: The ability to sense and manipulate waves within a relatively small radius. This includes light and sound waves.

Nihl: Fear-based voodoos which force his victims to focus on him, coupled with intense feelings of utter helplessness.

#bastspeaks

[wearesorcerer]

[5e] 9th-Level Spells

You may be wondering why I’m starting my review of 5e spells with the highest level spells available. That’s simple: you only get one.

The 5e Sorcerer table isn’t quite like the 3.x one, but it is like the 3.5 Warlock and Psion: at any given level, you can known X spells and have Y spell level as your maximum. The table is elegant, but you have to know to level your character from first level rather than reading the table straight across if you’re making a higher level character. (I’ve made this mistake many a time. It’s why I dislike this sort of table: it looks nice but isn’t actually helpful.)

If you’re trying to have as many spells of the highest available spell level as possible, you would have from 0th to 9th 6/3/2/2/2/2/1/1/1/1. I find it easier to work backwards in this case, as you can say “I want to reserve X spells known for higher-level spells” and then figure out how many low-level ones you can have instead of getting to a higher level and running into a corner.

The question with 9th-level spells is not “what’s good?” because they’re all good. Rather, it’s “what’s worth taking as my single most powerful class feature?” That should narrow things down a lot.

Primary List

gate · mass polymorph · meteor swarm · power word kill · psychic scream · time stop · wish

I’ve written about wish and time stop ZA WARUDO! (time crunchy noises), but not in the context of 5e. Wish has changed substantially; time stop hasn’t. You have a few options, but the majority of them are boom-boom.

Gate: you can hold open an interplanar portal for as long as you concentrate (up to a minute) at the cost of a 5,000 gp diamond; if you know the name of a specific creature, you can use the spell to summon that creature. For some odd reason, gate is both the most Warlock spell in the game besides planar binding, yet is only a Warlock spell through a UA variant. For a Sorcerer, this could be useful, but you’re making your best spell cost you money every time you cast it. Strategically speaking, this spell is situational enough (read: a Wizard spell) that if you wanted it in the first place you should take it with the Ritual Caster feat, but for some reason this most obviously ritualistic spell isn’t a ritual. There are better uses for your spell known, but this is by no means a bad spell. Save for a scroll or something.

Mass Polymorph: you polymorph (Wis negates) up to ten creatures you can see within 120 ft. for as long as you concentrate (up to one hour), just like with polymorph. It incorporates animal shapes into it. If you want animal shapes, you should find a way of getting it instead: you don’t need a 9th-level spell slot for it (so can cast it more often -- 8th + 9th level spell slots), it lasts for 24 hours, and you can affect more creatures (30 ft. area = radius = 96 squares - the one you’re in = 95 Medium creatures [more if they’re smaller and squeezing together]). I don’t care for the concentration aspect of the 5e polymorph spells. I mean, I get the rationale, I just find it odd for this particular spell -- and I’d rather not give my opponent a tactical reason to target me. Pass.

Meteor Swarm: four fireballs fall from the sky and each deal 20d6 fire + 20d6 bludgeoning (Dex half; average 140 damage), setting everything they touch ablaze. Beautiful. I love meteor-style spells, so this is high on my list even though it’s a boom-boom spell and I’m not particularly boom-boom oriented. The best part of this is that it has a range of one mile, so you can destroy enemy armies without risking getting killed! Yay! Yes.

Power Word Kill: one creature within 60 ft. of 100 HP or less drops dead (no save). 100 HP is more than the average of many high-level characters, so unless the DM gave a boss max HP you can use this to kill even major opponents reliably. An optimizer will tell you that a spell without a save is something you should always take -- and would be correct insofar as it makes you more difficult to stop. I, however, dislike that mechanic: there’s almost no reason a spell shouldn’t have a save. This one should have the choice of Wis (resisting the mental influence) and Con (staying alive despite the heart attack/stroke/whatever). A very good spell, but I’d call it OP.

Psychic Scream: 10 creatures of Int 3+ within 90 ft. take 14d6 psychic damage and are stunned (Int half [damage]/negates [stunning]); their heads explode if they die. The beauty of this one is that it goes off of Int rather than Wis (meaning Wizards are the only targets you really need to worry about) and it automatically avoids friendly fire. Yes.

Time Stop ZA WARUDO!: you get 1d4 + 1 rounds to act, but the spell ends if anything you do (including effects you create) affect other creatures or objects someone else is wearing or carrying or you move more than 1,000 ft. from where you cast the spell. The main purpose of this spell is to buff yourself a lot, run the fuck away, or stack delayed blast fireballs to deal a buttload of damage. That’s all very nice, but it’s a continuation of the 3.0 nerf to the spell: in 2nd ed, you could pull a DIO and attack people or an Over the Hedge and steal things. Now for my main quibble. 3.5′s Player’s Handbook II had the celerity line of spells, which you could cast as an immediate action (choice of reaction or bonus action). Each one dazed (incapacitated) you afterward, but gave you an extra move (lesser), action (no prefix), or round (greater) to do with as you pleased. I’m willing to guess that there are similar spells in 5e. In 3.5, there were ways of becoming immune to dazing; maybe there’s a 5e-compatible build for that. Either way, as a 9th-level spell, I should get to throw knives at people to my heart’s content before dropping heavy objects (like steam road rollers) on them. Good, but I’m going to go to my grave complaining about the restrictions.

Wish: you can do practically anything, but you have a one in three chance of losing your ability to cast your highest-level spell. IT’S A TRAP!

For very personal reasons, I’m torn between meteor swarm and time stop, but psychic scream is also up there. I think power word kill is unfair, but I cannot say that it’s a bad spell. I don’t like mass polymorph, but I think that’s more me not liking how 5e deals with durations. Wish is too big of a risk for a Sorcerer: you have the chance of losing the most powerful class feature you get and have nothing else that can compensate for that loss (unlike a Wizard); it’s better as a scroll. Gate really should be a ritual, but it isn’t, and it’s expensive, so it really depends on how badly you need to move lots and lots of creatures or summon forth an Elder God.

Divine Soul (Cleric) List

astral projection · gate · mass heal · true resurrection

I’ve already covered gate, thankfully.

Astral Projection: exactly what it says on the tin for you and eight willing creatures. I have never understood why this spell is so high-level. Mechanically, it’s riskier and more expensive than casting plane shift, which is two levels lower. Thematically, it’s a mass version of an effect which in folklore is almost always caster-only, which makes no sense, and it’s at max-level when this is fairly standard practice for shaman and shaman-like figures. (Heck, that’s what a bunch of the associated drug culture is about!) Maybe someone can explain to me why you would want to use this spell. Pass.

Mass Heal: heal 700 HP divided as you choose among any number of creatures (except constructs and undead) you can see within 60 ft.; also cures them of all diseases, blindness, and deafness. On the one hand, this seems like a great spell with a raid or during a cataclysm. On the other, you can accomplish everything this does with lower-level spells. Pretty good, but maybe hold out for...

True Resurrection: a creature you touch (or whose name you speak) is restored to life and perfect health (no wounds, no missing limbs, cured of all diseases and poisons, freed from any curses), even if there are no remains, provided the creature has been dead for no longer than 200 years and is free/willing to return. PICK THIS ONE!

Variant List (UA)

Foresight: for eight hours, a creature you touch can’t be surprised, gets advantage on most d20 checks, and causes all creatures attacking it to roll with disadvantage. This is better than the 3.5 version, which was already very good. Yes, this. Very.

Really Cool Spells It’d Be Great to Take If You Could

Or me lamenting about the limitations of the Sorcerer list

imprisonment · invulnerability · power word heal · prismatic wall · ravenous void · shapechange · storm of vengeance · time ravage · true polymorph · weird

Imprisonment: you know any of those fairy tale/folklore/mythology spells that trap someone for, like, ever? This is it. (Combines the spell of the same name, maze, and binding from 3.5.) You’ve got options if you want to seal someone away -- and it lasts until you say otherwise. Sure, it’d be nice if it were a ritual, but it ain’t; you just gotta take a minute to cast it (and throw in 500 gp. of material per HD of the target).

Invulnerability: you are immune to damage for up to 10 minutes (at the cost of “a piece of adamantine” [in D&D, that’s closer to depleted uranium than it is to diamond] of 500+ gp.). Maybe you don’t like the cost for a spell of that level, but hey, invulnerability.

Power Word Heal: target (non-construct, non-undead) regains all HP; has the charmed, frightened, paralyzed, and stunned conditions removed; and can stand up as a reaction if prone. This is a Bard spell, but it’s on the Cleric and Druid variant lists, so probably is an option for Divine Souls. I can see it being handy, but you’d think mass heal would be a better choice.

Prismatic Wall: you conjure up a rainbow wall/sphere (as prismatic spray) that’s a bitch to get rid of. You want an abjuration? This is it.

Ravenous Void: a miniature black hole that needs some errata (how many spaces do creatures and objects getting sucked in move each round?). It’s ludicrously awesome, though.

Shapechange: other than true polymorph, this is what you want out of polymorphing magic.

Storm of Vengeance: let’s say you want all of the boom-boom of meteor swarm but are more meteorologically focused. Here’s your answer. You end up dealing an average of 49 damage (of three elemental types and bludgeoning) to each creature below a storm cloud (360 ft. radius) you conjure within sight. There’s an arbitrary distance beneath the cloud included, as it doesn’t say how far up the cloud has to be.

Time Ravage: you decrepify someone with timey-wimey magic -- but it’s somehow necromancy!

True Polymorph: you can transform almost anything into almost anything else. The limits on this spell are basically to keep you from thinking you’re a literal god and overall I’d think this would work better in a skill-based magic system, but nonetheless it’s quite clearly the best polymorphing spell in the game.

Weird: this is mass phantasmal killer. It’s directly comparable to psychic scream -- Illusion rather than Enchantment, fear rather than stunning, and more potential targets in a smaller burst instead of headsplosions.

#5e #spells

[5ecardaday]

March of the Returned (4th Level, Necromancy)

Casting Time: 1 hour

Range: Touch

Components: V, S, M (an object of importance to the dead creature, consumed in the casting)

Duration: Instantaneous

Classes: Cleric, Paladin, Warlock

Using the creature’s personal connection with the material component of the spell, you conjure its body and soul back to life, causing each to separately manifest on the Material Plane. The creature’s body returns to life with 1 hit point, except that it is an undead, and has no memory of its life before death. The creature’s soul returns to life as a ghost, which also has no memory of its life before death, and which appears in a random unoccupied space within 100 feet. This spell also neutralizes any poisons and cures nonmagical diseases that affected the creature at the time it died. This spell doesn't, however, remove magical diseases, curses, or similar effects; if these aren't first removed prior to casting the spell, they take effect when the creature returns to life. The spell can't return an undead creature to life. This spell closes all mortal wounds, but it doesn't restore missing body parts. If the creature is lacking body parts or organs integral for its survival -- its head, for instance -- the spell automatically fails.

If you’d like to support what I do, find free pdf’s for my content, get insight into my design process, and get access to other exclusive homebrew content, feel free to check out my Patreon, whose link can be found on my page.

#dnd #dnd 5e #mtg #dnd homebrew #dnd spells #mtg ths #theros set #theros block #spell #4th level #cleric spell #paladin spell #warlock spell #sorcery #march of the returned

[manage-mischief]

Conjunctions

Summary: I wrote this drabble for @blisfvll on tumblr's writing challenge. Thanks for giving me a prompt for inspiration! I've been having a bit of writer's block lately so it was good to get creative. (also the next chapters of Regulus Black and the Darkest Shadows will be up next week, sorry for not posting this week my beta and I have both been insanely busy!) 

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Read on AO3 or FF.net

“Lils.”

“Hold on,” Lily said, holding up a finger. She was deeply engrossed in her Transfiguration textbook, doing some last-minute review before her morning exam.

“Lils.”

“Mhm.”

“Lily!”

The sudden shout shocked her. She dropped her book, exasperated. “What?!” she spat—a bit harsher than intended—at her boyfriend who was sitting across the breakfast table. James’s eye widened.

“You’ve got your elbow in your porridge…” 

Lily realized her left elbow did feel a bit wet. She looked down and, sure enough, she had been using her oatmeal as an arm rest. She cursed under her breath before swiftly cleaning herself up with a flick of her wand. Sirius, James’s best mate, snickered.

“Merlin, Evans,” Sirius teased, “Stressed out much?”

Lily rolled her eyes, but stuffed her book in her bag anyways. Sirius did have a point. She’d studied enough. Still, she could feel her leg bouncing wildly with nervous anticipation. This wasn’t just an exam: it was a NEWT. It was one of a series of tests that would determine the rest of her life. Her job, her happiness, her ability to support herself and a family…Lily shook herself out of her spiral of worrying. It wouldn’t do her any good.

“You should eat something, Lil,” said James, kindly. “Erm…maybe not that porridge though…”

Lily smiled in spite of herself and plucked James’s bagel out of his hands. “Thanks,” she muttered with a mouth full of warm bread. James feigned indignation.

“Oi, Prongs, that’s the price of dating Lily. She steals your food,” said Sirius, as he proceeded to swipe a sausage from James’s plate.

“A bargain price to pay for Lily’s affection,” said James. “But not for you, you wanker!” James locked Sirius in a playful wrestling match, attempting to retrieve his stolen food from Sirius’s fork. The two boys caused quite the ruckus, drawing the attention of many of the surrounding students, who had suddenly noticed their cutlery dancing across the table as the two boys fought.

“Stop hurting me, or I’ll write your mum!” Sirius wailed, stretching his arm just out of James’s reach. “You know she loves me best!”

“Hey!” said James, “I know it’s true, but hey!”

Remus, who had been quietly observing the scene, struck out with lightning fast reflexes and grabbed the fork from Sirius’s hand, promptly popping the coveted sausage into his mouth with a satisfied grin. James and Sirius looked properly affronted.

Lily chuckled. “Boys,” she muttered. She smiled gratefully at James. He and his friends never failed to cheer her up.

“I had to fight back!” James earnestly explained. “It was a matter of honor!”

“You don’t have to explain yourselves to me,” said Lily. “I know Remus just can’t resist grabbing Sirius’s sausage.”

Remus choked on his pumpkin juice, red as a tomato. James and Sirius laughed heartily.

“Evans! I knew there was a reason we kept you around.” Sirius nodded at her, approvingly.

“Merlin, Lil! See, this is why I love you!” James froze as soon as the words left his mouth. His eyes widened in shock, as did Lily’s. Her face flushed as red as Remus’s had. She was speechless.

Remus cleared his throat. “C’mon, Sirius, we’ve got to get to that…thing.”

Sirius stayed put. “No, I wanna know…Ow!” The table rattled as Remus obviously kicked the other boy in the shin, flashing a warning look.

“Oh,” Sirius stammered, “oh yeah. Right. The thing. Let’s go, Moons.’”

The two boys departed, leaving James and Lily alone at the breakfast table. Neither would meet the other’s eye. Lily tried to force herself to say something, anything, however, her vocal chords stayed obstinately stiff. She was too shocked. After a few seconds silence, James stood. He looked mortified. “You know what,” he said, hastily, “I’d better go help them with the…thing…Good luck on the exam, you’ll ace it I’m sure…I’ll see ya later, yeah?”

“James—” Lily tried to call after him as he rushed from the hall. She felt awful. She hadn’t said it back. She should have. She’d wanted to. But, she had been so surprised and, in the moment, had panicked. And now, James thought she didn’t love him. Before she could ponder her mistake any further, the bell rang. Dammit. It was exam time. This debacle would have to wait.

---

The exam had been a breeze. Lily was relieved. Now, she had a week before her next NEWT. And, this meant she had time to brainstorm how to make it up to James.

She was laying on her bed, making random objects float around her head. She had no idea what to do. James was always the hopeless, dramatic, romantic type. And, frankly, he was usually the one apologizing to her. If their roles had been reversed, he’d have concocted some elaborate scheme to win back Lily’s affections—likely involving plots, dramatics, and the help of his gang of friends…His friends…that was it! Lily shot up from her laying position, invigorated. She was concocting a plan. Yes, yes, Lily now had a grand plan to declare her love for James Potter. She dashed down the stairs, clear on what she had to do next.  In order to perform her grand, elaborate gesture, Lily would need the help of James’s best friends.

Luckily enough for Lily, the boys were all lounging in the Common Room—sans James. Lily knew he would be at Quidditch practice for the next hour and a half. Hopefully, this would give her enough time to organize her gesture.

“Remus!” Lily called out from across the room. “Sirius! Peter! I need your help!”

“Well, if it isn’t ‘heartless Lily Evans’ herself?” Sirius teased. He leaned back in his chair dangerously, resting his feet on the small wooden table. Peter chuckled until Lily flashed him a death glare. The runty little boy fell silent.

“I’m serious—I swear if you make a joke I’ll hex your balls off, Black!” Lily warned, just as Sirius had opened his mouth to make a pun about his name. He paled and shut it immediately.

“What do you need, Lily?” Remus asked kindly.

“I…well…you clearly know what happened this morning with James…” Lily looked down, embarrassed. The boys nodded. “I messed up. Royally. I need your help to make it right.”

“Our help?” Sirius asked, raising an eyebrow. “Why do you need our help?”

The three boys leaned forward, curious to hear what she had to say.

Lily grinned cunningly. “Well, I had this idea…”

---

Lily and the boys scrambled around for the next hour, making sure every little detail of their plan was set. Finally, the Gryffindor Common Room was ready for James’s arrival. Lily felt a little guilty abusing her Head Girl authority to throw the rest of the students out, but this was for the greater good.

“Hush, and get into positions!” Lily hissed impatiently at her three companions. They quickly scrambled away, ducking behind the chairs and suits of armor in the Common Room, out of sight.

“Wands at the ready!” She ordered, checking her watch for the thousandth time. James would be arriving soon. He must be close. Her heart began to pound anxiously.

A moment later, Lily heard the Fat Lady’s muffled voice as she conversed with someone else outside the door. It had to be James. But, what if it wasn’t? Lily stupidly hadn’t planned on encountering any of his other Quidditch mates. What if one of them had arrived before James did?

Luckily for Lily, the top of a messy head of hair emerged from the portrait entryway. She breathed a sigh of relief. It was James. This was it.

“Lily?” James asked, raising an eyebrow. She stood alone in the middle of the atrium. Her legs felt like jelly. Perhaps she should have dressed up more. “What are you—”

“James Fleamont Potter,” Lily proclaimed, raising her wand above her head. The signal.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the infinitesimal movements of Remus, Sirius, and Peter, as they began casting their spells. The light in the Common Room turned pale pink. Fireworks began erupting over her head, spreading out around the room as they danced in the air. A flock of songbirds burst from the tip of Remus’s hidden wand flew promptly into a heart formation, chirping merrily. Two cherubs holding harps fluttered near them. Heart shaped bubbled filled the air. The scene was, in Lily’s opinion, utterly sickening with cliché. She hoped James would love it.

“I love you, too.” Lily said, just as the fireworks regrouped in above head, spelling out the same message in flashing lights. Gooey harp sounds echoed through the air. The birds clumped together in a tight formation and flew to James, turning into a bouquet of roses before his eyes.

Lily held her breathe as she watched her boyfriend take in the scene before him. James looked up from the bouquet, grinning madly.

“Well?” Lily asked. “Say something?”

“WOOHOO!” James shouted, rushing to Lily and taking her in his arms. He lifted her off of the ground as he spun her around. Lily laughed as he set her back down.

“I’m sorry I didn’t say it earlier,” she apologized.

“Lily,” said James seriously, “Don’t ever apologize. This way was much better. I feel like the belle of the ball.” He winked.

“Only the best for you, your majesty,” Lily teased back. She was staring into James’s eyes as he held her hands when a chorus of cheers erupted from behind them.

“What the hell?” James jumped back, startled to find his three best friends who had materialized beside them.

“Nice one, Evans,” Sirius clapped her on the back. “I knew Prongs’d fall for this sappy romantic crap, the big softie.”

“Who’re you calling a softie?” James pouted.

“You, idiot. Look, you haven’t even snogged your girlfriend yet. You’ve just gazed lovingly into her eyes. It’s gross!”

Remus and Lily shared a look. “Come on, Sirius, Peter, let’s give these two some privacy.”

As the three boys walked off towards their dormitories, James grabbed Lily by the waist and pulled her close. “Just for that, I’m gonna snog her extra hard now!” He shouted into the distance. Sirius’s laughing reply echoed down the stairs.

Lily shook her head affectionately. “You’re an idiot.”

James smiled back, running a hand through her hair. “But you love me.”

#jily #james potter #lily evans #marauders #sirius black #remus lupin #marauders era #wolfstar #minor wolfstar #jily fluff #fluff #Harry Potter #hp marauders #hp fanfic #harry potter fanfiction #my writing #peter pettigrew #james potter x lily evans #blisfvllswritingchallenge

[fortune-fool02]

Bonding

Siren Speedwagon x female reader

Requested by: @atlantianchronicle

Please enjoy.

For a large portion of her life, [Name] believed merfolk to be only stories, especially as the town she lived in was by the coast and the people seemed to love the stories. She, herself, had never seen a merperson before but she always had this feeling that there was possibly some form of truth behind the stories.  

Yet, all possible doubt she had of their existence was thrown out the window when she met Speedwagon. Well, she didn’t actually meet him, per say, more along the lines of she had caught him in one of her fishing nets and had pulled him onto her boat. His scales glimmered in the light of the moon, a stunning silver colour as he thrashed about in the net, hissing in his attempt to free himself. She had snapped out of her little daze and did the right thing, freeing him without hesitation and letting him return to the water. 

Odd as it was, it was that reaction that made Speedwagon curious of her. He has encountered humans before, the scars along his body told of his encounters with humans, and she was the only one who willingly freed him. No attempts to cut off his tail fin nor trap him. She used the knife to cut the rope and freed him. And cursed by his own curiosity, Speedwagon went back to her and thus was the birth of a rather strange friendship. 

***

“There, I think that is everything.” the [Hair colour] woman muttered to herself after gathering all of her diving gear together, laying it out before her so she could quickly check it was all there. During her time knowing Speedwagon, she has learned so many fascinating things about those incredible creatures. One of them being that, if they come onto land, their bodies change. Their tail fins shed and all aquatic characteristics become human though the transformation is quite painful for Speedwagon. 

The merman was curious of the human world and was eager to learn more. From his encounters with humans before, Speedwagon had a bit of a grasp of human language but there were still things he didn’t understand and [Name] was more than happy to help him understand. 

Seeing as Speedwagon had spent time learning more of the human world, he offered to show [Name] his world in return, which she happily accepted. Gathering her diving gear, [Name] made her way to her boat and began to set everything, awaiting for Speedwagon to direct her of where to go.

Once at the spot, [Name] dropped anchor and changed into her diving gear, Speedwagon waited patiently, watching. He found it odd how humans had to use so much stuff to breathe underwater but, then again, they weren’t like this kind. She turned to Speedwagon, ready. 

“Give me a minute to change and check the area, okay?” he said, removing his clothes as he did. This didn’t faze her as much as it first did but the transformation was painful enough as it was for him, clothes would get in the way. She did avert her gaze though, giving a nod. Speedwagon dived into the water, embracing the familiarity of returning to his natural environment. His form transforming, silver smooth scales covering his skin, a small dorsal fin lining his spine. Once his transformation was complete, he took in the area, searching for any possible predators that would mean harm for [Name]. The last thing he wanted was for her to be hurt. 

He surfaced, confirming it was safe for her to enter. With a thumbs up, she slipped her mask on and jumped into the water as well. A smile lifted his lips at this, giving her a moment to adjust to the water before holding his clawed hand out for her. She smiled behind her breathing apparatus and took his hand, letting him guide her through his world. 

He had a place in mind he wanted to show her, someplace he has not shown others before, not even those of his colony. He was unsure why he wanted to show the [Hair colour] human it but he just wanted to. Their hands remained interlocked as he guided her through the water towards an underwater cave. The water-proof torch on [Name]’s gear did little to illuminate their path but Speedwagon knew the way like the back of his hand. 

The entrance of this cave was hidden behind a thin wall of seaweed, something the blonde haired merman had done to stop others from discovering his little place, he moved some aside and allowed [Name] to enter first. Taking her hand again gently, he guided her upwards towards the surface. 

The moment she removed her goggles and breathing apparatus from her mouth, [Name]’s eyes lit up with amazement. Around the smooth rock platform was an array of shiny objects that Speedwagon had both found among shipwrecks and stolen from ships, casting a sparkling light upon the cave walls around them. The reflection off the water gently bounced off the ceiling, giving it that wave pattern. It was beautiful. 

“This place is amazing, Speedwagon.” A smile lifted his lips at that, a warmth spreading through his chest at seeing her happy of this. 

“Thanks, it’s a place I sort of made my own. You know, somewhere to be alone.” he told her, swimming over to the edge of the platform but not climbing out of the water. [Name] joined him, holding onto the edge to keep herself afloat to talk to him. Whenever they talked, there was never a dull moment or a boring conversation, Speedwagon just had this way of lighting up any topic. 

“It’s amazing, Speedwagon. Why did you bring me here if this is your place to be alone?” She asked him, normally when people had an alone place they didn’t often show it to others; especially how Speedwagon had told her that his kind of very territorial, so it made her wonder why he would show her his place like this. 

Speedwagon just shrugged his shoulders, something he had picked up from watching humans, “I just...wanted to show you.” It did confuse him why he felt warm when he was with her, and with all she has done for him -allowing him a safe place to rest, giving him food, helping him understand more of the human world- he just felt it was right to show her his world

She smiled softly at him and his chest fluttered again. “Thank you, it’s a lovely place.” The flutter grew more at that. He made her smile. To him, that seemed to be worth more than the little treasures he had decorating this cave. His eyes fell onto her hand close to his on the rock, holding her up; her eyes taking in the beauty of the cave. Slowly, his clawed, webbed hand inched closer to hers until they were touching. The material of the glove was not as soft as her hand under it but he didn’t complain. 

Feeling something on her hand, she turned to see Speedwagon’s hand on hers, his finger curled slightly around hers. [Eye colour] eyes met his bright ones to see uncertainty in his, ready to pull away if she asked him to. She didn’t. Instead, she turned her hand a little and interlocked their fingers.

Surprise flooded his body, he didn’t know what to expect but this was more than he could have hoped for. For now, he didn’t care if they were two different species, he was happy with her as she was with him, and that was all that mattered to him at this moment. Here with her. 

#speedwagon #robert e o speedwagon #jojo bizarre adventure #speedwagon x reader #robert e o speedwagon x reader #jojo bizzare adventure x reader #jojo #jojo x reader #speedwagon jojo #reo speedwagon #robert edward o speedwagon #mermay #phantom blood #phantom blood x reader #jojo phantom blood #jojo part 1

[monstersdownthepath]

Doom Foretold

7th level Enchantment

Bard, Cleric, Wizard

Casting time: 1 minute Range: 30ft Components: V, S, M (a crystal ball, polished mirror, or similar symbolically prophetic item worth at least 1,000 gp) Duration: Instantaneous

Your dark words spell out a tale of inescapable disaster for a single living creature within range of this spell. The victim of this spell becomes absolutely convinced that the fate they fear most is just around the corner, waiting to strike at the moment their attention lapses, and thus they must remain constantly vigilant against any and all threats from any and all creatures, objects, and locations. The victim treats no creature as if it were an ally and in turn is not treated as an ally by any creature, becomes unwilling to use any item, spell, or effect which could conceivably damage them if something were to go wrong (such as Fireball igniting some explosive material or a mis-swung sword clipping their artery), becomes unwilling to allow any creature to use spells or abilities on them, will refuse to eat or drink anything they did not witness being prepared, and adamantly refuse to sleep and thus will be unable to benefit from long rests (unless they did not need sleep in the first place).

The victim will be distrustful of all other creatures and paranoid of all forms of conspiracy and danger, to the point they may even begin questioning if inanimate objects will bring their doom, such as the roof above their head or floor beneath their feet caving in. Therein lays the weakness of this spell, however; if the victim goes a full 24 hours without taking a single point of damage or incurring a negative condition, they may make a Wisdom saving throw against the spell to realize that the doom they imagine does not exist. Failing the save means they must remain unharmed for another 24 hours to make another save.

Remove Curse cast at 8th or higher level removes this spell. The victim being assured of their safety via the spell Divination or more far-reaching future sight allows them to make a Wisdom saving throw with advantage to end the spell. If the victim ever gains the effect of the Foresight spell, Doom Foretold ends.

#D&D #Dungeons and Dragons #D&D 5e #dungeons and dragons 5e #homebrew #DnD homebrew #original concepts

[suhmayzooka]

cursed child broadway, feb. 23, 2020

third time seeing cc in three months for one reason: my sister is, in her words, “in love with joey labrasca” (karl).  she thinks he’s absolutely perfect.  this past week i’ve endured her talking about how hot he is.  i mean, i’ve gotten quite a bit of good lily luna material for my fics now, but at what expense? did i need to know that joey’s (very mild) acne made him look handsomer? did i need to know about how deep his eyes are? did I?

i teased her about what she’d do if he wasn’t on, and she said she’d be so upset.  

we get to the theatre, i look at the cast…and james romney was karl.

my sister was shocked.  the love of her life, who most likely has forgotten about her existence, wasn’t there for what looks to be our final time seeing the year 2 cast.  she was devastated.

we also got to see antoinette robinson as hermione and tom patrick stephens as ron!  and sarita amani nash was myrtle!!  and kimberly dodson as polly!!

james!karl was great and i will bombard my sister with as much james romney content as i can in order to piss her off further :)

patrick du laney was the sorting hat and aaron bartz was the station master.  we actually saw aaron walking into the theatre as we waited outside for part 2.  he definitely has the draco swagger.

anyway let’s get to the good stuff!

~james snyder as harry! great as usual. i don’t think he did much differently than last time, or if he did it wasn’t very noticeable.

~diane davis as ginny – same w james.  i think she held on to albus longer when they hug in godric’s hollow this time?

~jonno roberts as draco: okay this guy singlehandedly inspired me to start a fic back in december (that has…….yet to be finished………) with how his draco and bubba’s scorpius behaved and this was no exception.  idk whether his mic got caught on something or if he was really bringing it all out, but when he shoves scorpius’s head against his desk in the dark world, he GROWLED the “you do NOT use her name in vain” line ???? i’ve never heard him say it like that, it’s usually more of a hiss.  idk how to describe how he said it other than “growl.” almost like an animal.

then when he said “do it safely, i can’t lose you too” he’s looking directly at scorpius.  it’s different from how i’m used to seeing him and closer how i picture him saying it; usually he’s looking away, like he’s afraid of showing vulnerability to scorpius.  but here, with him looking directly at him, and said with so much emotion and love, even in such a dark place…oOOF

he refused to let go of scorpius when they met again in godric’s hollow.  my heart…..always one arm around scorpius’s shoulders, or one hand on his chest, as scorpius clings on to him.

~kimberly!polly SMILED and giggled when she stepped in blood? “oh, potter, i’ve got blood on my shoe!” *delighted* and then as the staircase rolled away, she turned on her stomach to gaze down at scorpius, grinning flirtatiously.  this is my second time seeing her as polly, but from what i remember, katherine!polly wasn’t as sadistic in the dark au as she was.  i personally prefer kimberly!polly.

~sarita!myrtle!! like w kimberly!polly this is my second time seeing sarita!myrtle and i don’t really remember much about lauren!myrtle to compare, but sarita!myrtle was hilarious.  she got a round of applause just for appearing.  “girls….*turns around, stares directly @ albus* AND BOYS” *albus turns around, confused, as if she’s talking to someone behind him* UGHHH she’s so good and she’ll absolutely kill it as (main) polly, i can feel it.

~this was my first time seeing jack pravda as young harry! his voice is deeper than zell’s, and he was so adorably confused in the graveyard scene.  “why are there so many flowers?”

~antoinette!hermione was a lot less playful than jenny!hermione.  she does try for comedic effect, but she’s a bit more serious overall.  she was so scary in the first timeline!  when she waves her wand to dismiss the class and she’s standing all alone, she looks out with such a distant, despairing expression, then composes herself immediately. 

~tom!ron was very funny!  again, my issue with ron in cc comes down to how he was written.  he may have been relegated to shitty comic relief (why……is one of the first things he says……a fart joke…..?), but it’s up to the actors do what they can to flesh out some semblance of a likeable character from the bs that the script gave us.  and tom!ron was great!! he’s not as…dopey? dorky? as matt!ron, who’s very funny but a bit—childish? i guess? tom!ron feels more like an adult who still has a childish sense of humor, if that makes sense.

~ROMIONE.  watching a new take on romione was like falling in love w romione all over again.  tom/antoinette was a very loving pair.  jenny/matt tease each other a lot more, but tom/antoinette are more tactile.  their kiss was so sweet

~there’s hardly any love for sara farb’s delphi for some reason. i’m not sure why; her shift from delphi diggory to delphi riddle is so chilling. delphi diggory has a high pitched voice and is really goofy around albus.  scorpius absolutely hates her lmao.  as soon as she switches, her voice drops to a low growl and she’s downright terrifying.  i’m sad to see her go!

~WILL CARLYON.  is it possible to fall in love with the portrayal of a character in a handful of scenes? he’s got like five lines total but oh my god.  one thing a lot of people note about nicholas!albus is the way he’s so obviously a fourteen-year-old child.  will’s james sirius potter is SUCH a thirteen-year-old in the opening scene…it’s somewhat disconcerting watching this very-obviously-twenty-something-year-old man flap his arms going “WATCH OUTTT FOR THE THESTTRRAAAAAAALS” but it works? it’s believable?? he’s so close with lily luna.  this is my third time seeing him and every time he pretends to pounce on her and hug her during the thestral line i fall in love?? ginny scolds him and he is sheepish, but he won’t stop making the troll face at albus.  “SLITHERING SLYTHERIN STOP WITH YOUR DITHERING” *smacks albus*

~yeah i promised jsp content and i’m fucking delivering

~he’s sO excited watching albus get sorted. when the hat goes “SLYTHERIN” he’s absolutely shocked.  he’s confused.  he just stares at albus, confused, until yann (jonathan gordon, who once again gives us a delightfully dislikable yann) says some shit and james just turns to him and swats his hand at him.  he genuinely looked ready to fight yann.  i couldn’t tell but i think he tells him to stop?? it was hard to hear but his mouth definitely moved, i think to tell yann to cut it out.

~the scene with the students eavesdropping on mcgonagall’s meeting with the parents.  oh my god i don’t think he did anything that much differently than last time but i need to talk about this because i didn’t do it justice in my last recap.

~they sit on the stairs (iirc) top to bottom craig, yann, karl, rose, james.  i’m gonna ignore craig, yann, and karl since there are some serious family feels going on w rose and james

~jsp and rose begin the scene smiling, snickering as they hear that albus and scorpius fucked up.  “ahaha they got into deep shit” but then when they learn that they wrote rose and hugo (??whom??) out of time and then killed harry, their faces fall.  james’s eyes become vacant, far-off as he learns what happened to his brother.  his breathing becomes heavier and faster until he’s a few breaths from hyperventilating.  he leans his forehead against the stairwell/banister and shakes his head, mouthing/whispering “no…no…”

~nadia brown’s rose is such a little shit but she’s so good in this scene.  when she learns that she didn’t exist in the new timeline, she grabs james’s shoulder and he grabs her hand.  they don’t let go for the rest of the scene.

~i’m like half convinced that will got the part because of his amazingly expressive eyebrows.  i think my sister calls it “back row acting?” his eyebrows can probably be seen from the back row.  after the mcgonagall scene is over he sits on the stairs, raising one eyebrow at rose and hermione, then goes back to reading the scroll.

~i didn’t mean for this to become a will carlyon fan account but he deserves it.  according to nicholas he’s the biggest potterhead in the cast. he’s a ravenclaw. he can sing.  he’s so fucking valid and i’m so glad he’s staying for year 3.  he’s got two followers on youtube and one of them is me.  please guys like no one talks about him and i’ll fill this niche.  same with the lovely sarita. she’s so kind and so beautiful and so talented she can sing so well and she gives everything during wand dance listen i spent the beginning of this thing making fun of my sister for liking joey so much but sarita……..

~cc nyc said straight girl/lesbian solidarity  

~anyway…

~nicholas podany as albus.  so. Many. Tears.  i didn’t realize this before but his whole body trembles when he cries?? i first noticed this when he and harry were in the slytherin common room.  i was like “are his pajamas vibrating?? is this an optical illusion (they’re striped pajamas)???” no, his whole body was shaking with suppressed crying.  once i noticed i couldn’t un-notice and this continued for the rest of the show.

~bubba weiler’s scorpius didn’t seem much different from usual? i could go on about him but….that’s what my unfinished fic is for……one day……….

~okay so this is where i elaborate on the scorbus moments that made me want to YEET myself off the roof of the theatre (if you had to make sense of my typos on discord: i am Sorry)

~the slytherin dorm scene: scorpius tickles albus to wake him up.  he then makes himself comfortable on albus’s bed and won’t stop rubbing and patting his thigh.

~in addition to being austistic, bubba!scorp is bisexual (jon case would be proud) and here is PROOF: to flirt, bubba!scorpius leans against objects, sprawls his body out, plays with his hair, etc all extremely cheesy, greasy, suave moves.  he blows a kiss to polly as he’s sprawled across the stairs.  when he ROLLS down the stairs (looked painful…) to see rose at the end, he plays with his hair, shoots her a finger gun (further proof he’s bi), and lowers his voice.  but the comparison i need to highlight is THIS: when he says rose smells like bread, (1) he leans against the suitcases, trying to look suave, and (2) his face is instant regret. he silently bends back and mouths “WHAT WHY BREAD?? WHAT??? WHY???” and now…when he delivers his “ENGORGIMPRESSED” line to albus, he (1) leans against the sink, (2) grins, lowering his voice, and when the pun doesn’t land, (3) his face immediately falls, instant regret, the literal definition of “oH MY GOD WHAT WHY DID I JUST SAY THAT” the same expression he had when rose wasn’t impressed.  coincidence? i think NOT.  he’s trying so hard to flirt but he has no idea how to interact w people im --

~delphi in the church: when the adults have all surrounded delphi with their magic in the center of the stage, albus, ginny, and scorpius are huddled together. scorpius is behind albus, clutching his shoulder and hand.  albus breaks free for “SHE’S A MURDERER I’VE SEEN HER MURDER” (an underappreciated line imo) and scorpius just watches him, clearly wanting to help but not knowing how

~the final hug.  my initial, endorphin-fueled reaction was, verbatim: “THE FUNAL HUG NSCWR SEEN IR LAST SO LLNG NEVER SAW NICJ HUG HIM BACK NOSES ALMOST TOYCHONF.”  not even this is enough to convey my reaction to the final hug, but i’ll try my best to transcribe it.  

scorpius: runs up the stairs, grabs albus into a hug

albus: stunned for a moment, then wraps his arms around scorpius’s shoulders and hugs him back, burying his face into the crook of scorpius’s neck.  this is the first time i’ve seen him hug back, at least so fiercely.  they stand there for a good 3-5 seconds, then albus says, quietly, “what’s this? i thought we didn’t hug.”

scorpius, pulling back but still close to albus: “i wasn’t sure whether we should…” *looks up at albus, literal inches from his face* “in this new version of us…” *more gazing into each other’s eyes for a few seconds*

albus: “well…you better ask rose if it’s the right thing to do…” he sounded unsure? not as playful as before?

scorpius: *stares at albus for a few seconds* “a..aaha………..yeah right!”

he turns around and runs down the stairs.  albus goes “i’ll see you at dinner!” and scorpius turns around, smiles at him, and walks off, albus grinning and gazing so lovingly as he departs i’m gonna c r y

i can’t think of anything else to say about the show itself?  but my sister has given me a lot of material so i’m gonna talk about what went on with her because it’s relevant to our stage door interactions.

as we ate, she described how she would rewrite cc.  she has valid and absolutely invalid suggestions.  she would keep the father/son issues, make scorbus canon, remove or rewrite rose, and rewrite delphi’s backstory (valid).  she would remove the sorting hat and the dark timeline (not valid).  

during the intermission between acts 3 and 4, we started looking through the playbill and she started gossiping/venting about how much she hates the people in her school’s theatre (valid, since they’re bullying assholes).  i brought up a meme i sent her that i saw on twitter about how no high school theatre guys can sing, act, dance, and not be sexist.  somehow this discussion went back to nicholas podany? she was like, “i’ve been listening to his songs and deep blue is a low-key bop.” i asked if she heard his most recent song, telling myself.  she hadn’t and she immediately went to soundcloud to listen to it.  her reaction was PRICELESS.  she absolutely adored it.  she was dancing in her seat, going “okay this is actually really good??” like ofc it is? i don’t recommend bad songs? she tried to replay it but then her data ran out and the lyric theatre wifi is shit so she got very upset.  then the lights turned off and she reluctantly took out her earbuds.

there was a little girl (around 6-7ish, i’d say) in the very first row dressed as hermione for part one--complete with a doll and a broom.  for part two she was wearing a hedwig costume that looked homemade! she was very adorable, and bubba waved hello to her when he came for the curtain call.

stage door:

~sarita came out first! we told her that this was our third time at the show and second time seeing her.  i congratulated her on being cast as polly and she was so happy! dare i say…..loml

~tom and antoinette were so happy to have been the first cover romione we saw! tom was like “ah, you saw the best ron (himself)!” we were in front of a man from the uk who had seen the london show five times, and he and tom struck up a conversation about where they were from.

~nadia brown was so happy to see us! she didn’t remember us lmao but she’s so friendly

~edward james hyland (amos/dumbledore) was…politically campaigning?? the people in front of us were from vermont and he was like “ah…vermont…do you support bernie??” just like that.  they were caught off guard but i think they gave an affirmative answer, and he was like “and if he doesn’t get the nomination…?” they were still caught off guard and he just went “you’ll vote blue, right…? cause it’s the right thing to do….?” idk i’m firmly liberal but i thought this was a weird place to get political but okay

~EVERYONE was telling nicholas podany about how much they love telling myself.  he was telling the people in front of us about how it was mastered/mixed by solange’s producer(?) and my sister and i exchanged :0 looks.  she was getting shy, but i was like “tell him! he’ll love to talk about it, i guarantee it!” because even though i produce 0 content, i *am* an artist and i *do* know that we artists love validation

~so he came to us and she started talking about his songs! we’re fortunate that it was a more rock-y song so we’re…able to sound like we know what we’re talking about lmao.  growing up our mom would play us classical music (check out beethoven’s wig yo) and our dad would play us the ramones.  one of my earliest memories was arguing with my sister (probably around 4 at the time) about the lyrics to “i wanna be sedated” ahh… (she was correct btw)

~(don’t argue with me the ramones may not be poets but they’re valid)

~i was right! he was SO excited to talk to us!! my sister complimented the song and the production.  she said “i ADORE your new song!! it’s a high key bop!” and he broke into the BIGGEST smile.  she was like “i’m gonna play it until i hate it” and he said something along the lines of “i was in the studio listening to it nonstop for 8(??) hours i can’t stand it.”  he was talking about how he made the song with his “own scorpius” but i forgot who…he said scorpius and my mind blanked lmao.  he’s brought this person up before in interviews so i can probably find it.  she complimented the fact that it was different from his usual stuff and he told us about how he had a rock band in high school.  @nick where tf is your rock content pls deliver

~i actually spoke this time and cut in to tell him about how she was trying to listen to it on repeat but the signal gave out. she was trying to tell me to shut up but it’s my legal duty as the older sister to embarrass her.  

me: “I told her about your song during the intermission—”

her: “don’t!”

me: “no, nO, i told her and she was listening and then she ran out of data—”

him: “aaAa noo!”

her: “I listened to it!”

~then i told him that we loved seeing how he played albus and that we’re going to miss him, that we were going to see the cast change show but we couldn’t get tickets (i kindly left off the reason why), and he was so sweet about it *clenches heart* he told us how much he loves being able to experience this, that we’ll be so lucky to have james romney take over, etc etc i kinda wasn’t listening bc I was too emo, but I remember going “…but I don’t want to say goodbye…” and he just. gave me a sad look like “I know.”  there was so much pity in his expression.  why is he leaving us.

~the uk guy behind us was talking about how he’d seen the london year 3 and 4.  nicholas was like “oh, joe and dom? yeah i’ve spoken to joe and dom—wait, no, i haven’t met dom? i know he has an impressive social media presence” and they started talking about how different actors bring different things to albus and how the show allows them to explore different aspects to their characters and he just…wasn’t making any of this any easier for me lmao i’m mourning the loss of nick!albus and it’s not even march

~i feel bad that we weren’t able to speak with fiona reid (petunia/umbridge) because nicholas was talking to us.  

~jonno roberts.  this was the first time i’ve interacted w him at sd.  his draco has made such an impact on me, he’s my favorite actor in the show, and what do i say? what great words come out of my mouth? “hi you were great.” my sister KICKED me with her heeled boots. good thing i’m a lesbian because my doc martens protected my feet from the force of her anger.

~james snyder was enraptured in conversation with the people in front of us and just took our playbills to sign as he spoke with them. then he went “hi,” passed over us to talk to the guy behind us.  my sister was like “you were great!”

~tbh sd was kinda messy bc we were at the end of the line and the barrier things didn’t allow for the actors to get enough room to interact with the fans at the back. also jonno was standing there and he’s not a small man.

~saw several male actors leaving sd, waving goodbye at us and just walking away.  MOOD.  i was exhausted and i wasn’t the one running around on stage!

#ccsquad #cursed child #hp #i see cc

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #139: Cleopatra

Today on Fate and Phantasms, we’re making the last queen of Egypt, Cleopatra! She’s a Divine Soul Sorcerer for some Pharaoh flavoring, and a Battle Smith Artificer for a giant metal snake and vast material wealth from your empire.

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

Next up: Is it bad if the mad Vlad’s MAD or is a MAD mad Vlad just sad?

Race and Background

With the blood of the gods in your veins and the lack of restraint for your snake’s attacks, you make a good Scourge Aasimar. This gives you +1 Intelligence (thanks, Tasha) and +2 Charisma. You also get some Darkvision, Celestial Resistance to necrotic and radiant damage, the Light cantrip, and Healing Hands. Once per long rest, you can touch a creature as an action, healing it a number of hit points equal to your level.

Like a lot of pharaohs, you’re a Noble at the very least, giving you proficiency with Persuasion, and we’re swapping history for Religion here.

Ability Scores

As a cunning negotiator and shrewd businesswoman, your Intelligence has to be pretty high. Your manifestation has also been affected by rumors of your effect on men, so Charisma is next. Your Wisdom is also pretty good, can’t be a businesswoman without a good insight check. Your Dexterity isn’t amazing, but knowing how to not die is useful. Your Constitution’s pretty bad, but we’re dumping Strength instead. You’ve got armies for that.

Class Levels

1. Artificer 1: I know artificers usually make their stuff, but hey, nobody said you couldn’t have a trade-based artificer. Your empire’s pretty big, finding a bag of holding won’t be that hard.

First level artificers get Magical Tinkering, letting you add minor magical effects to small objects, basically your version of prestidigitation. You also learn Spells that you can cast and prepare using your Intelligence.

When you start as an Artificer, you also get proficiency with Constitution and Intelligence saves, as well as History and Perception. 

You get some cantrips, like Message to sneak notes to your advisors, and Create Bonfire, because you’re the goddess of magic, you do what you want.

For first level spells, I’d suggest Cure Wounds to deal with your snake issues, Detect Magic to find the best deals on magic nonsense, and Feather Fall. Later on, that last one will be your giant flying snake breaking your fall, but feel free to use it earlier if necessary.

2. Sorcerer 1: First level divine sorcerers can learn Spells that use Charisma to cast. Thanks to your magical origin, you also know Divine Magic, giving you access to the cleric spell list and a freebie in Cure Wound. Hey, it frees up a prep slot. You’re also Favored by the Gods, letting you add 2d4 to a save or attack roll once per short rest. You’re a god, you do what you want.

For spells, Friends,  Thaumaturgy, Minor Illusion and Charm Person will be useful for navigating court, while Frostbite and Mage Armor will be much more helpful once things get busy.

3. Sorcerer 2: Second level sorcerers are Fonts of Magic, giving you a number of sorcery points per long rest equal to your sorcerer level. Your Radiant Consumption also kicks in this level, letting you spend an action to transform your self for a minute. While transformed, you shine with bright light for 10 feet and dim light for another 10, and at the end of each turn you deal half your level in radiant damage to everything around you. You also deal extra radiant damage once per turn to something you hit with an attack or spell equal to your entire level. You can do this once per long rest. Your snake ain’t too picky with what it hits, but it hits nonetheless. 

You also learn Comprehend Languages, because people tend to be more honest when they don’t know you understand them.

4. Sorcerer 3: Third level sorcerers get Metamagic, ways to customize their magic using sorcery points. Subtle Spell lets you cast magic without making it obvious, and Twinned Spell lets you make the most of your spell slots by basically casting a single-target spell twice over.

You also learn the spell Detect Thoughts. Strategy’s well and good, but nothing beats knowing your opponents’ next moves before they do.

5. Sorcerer 4: Use your first Ability Score Increase to grab the Tough feat. Sorcerer hp dice are not your friend, but this spell will give you an extra +2 HP each level, retroactively too.

You also learn Dancing Lights for more holy nonsense, and Enhance Ability to do what you want, giving you (or target creature) advantage on one kind of ability check.

6. Sorcerer 5: Fifth level sorcerers can use their sorcery points on some Magical Guidance to re-roll a failed ability check.  Once again, you do what you want.

For your last sorcerer spell, grab Bestow Curse for a little pre-mummification mummy magic. This is one of those “have fun with it” spells, so feel free to make it wild.

7. Artificer 2: With who you are out of the way, let’s get back to what you do. As a second level artificer you know how to trade for Infused Items, magic items you can make at the end of a long rest. You learn four now, but you can only use two at the same time. Enhanced Weapon will work well with next level’s features, but Enhanced Arcane Focus will make your magic stronger now. Mind Sharpener lets you keep your concentration when you get hit, and Bag of Holding is just really useful.

8. Artificer 3: As a Battle Smith, you are Battle Ready, giving you proficiency with martial weapons, and you can use your intelligence instead of strength when using a magical weapon. You also learn how to build your Steel Defender, a medium sized construct that uses your bonus action to command. It can attack creatures, or defend party members. Rules as written it has to have two or four legs, but snakes are cool, so I’d allow it. 

You also learn your first specialty spells, Heroism and Shield, for more survivability. 

9. Artificer 4: Use this ASI to become a Martial Adept, giving you one superiority die (1d6) per short rest. You can use it in one of two ways- Commander’s Strike lets you ignore one of your attacks and your bonus action to let another creature attack as a reaction instead, adding the die to their damage. Alternatively, your Tactical Assessment adds the d6 to an Investigation, History, or Insight check you make instead.

10. Artificer 5: Fifth level battle smiths get an Extra Attack per attack action, and they can now cast second level spells. Your specialty spells are Branding Smite and Warding Bond, neither of which are particularly useful for Cleopatra. Instead I’d suggest Levitate to get the full Giant Metal Snake Coiling Around You effect, and Protection from Poison. As a noble, that’ll probably come in handy a lot.

11. Artificer 6: Sixth level artificers gain Expertise with all tool checks, doubling their proficiency. You’re royalty, you had a lot of free time. You also learn the Mending cantrip to heal your snake in a vain attempt to make it stop biting you, and you get two more infusions. Spell-Refueling Ring will help you recharge those spell slots/sorcery points, and the Eyes of Charming help you save on slots by using an item instead.

12. Artificer 7: By seventh level, your Flashes of Genius let you use your reaction to add your intelligence modifier to a check or save happening within 30 feet of you. You can use this a number of times per long rest equal to your intelligence modifier.

13. Artificer 8: Speaking of your intelligence, use this ASI to bump that up a bit for stronger spells, attacks, and more flashes of genius.

14. Artificer 9: At ninth level your Steel Defender grows even stronger, thanks to its Arcane Jolt. When you hit a creature, either with a magical weapon or your Uraeus Astrape, you can either a, deal extra force damage to it, or b, heal a nearby creature. You can do this once per turn, a number of times per long rest equal to your intelligence modifier.

You also get third level spell now! Your specialty spells are Aura of Vitality, leaning into your Isis-ness to heal people as a bonus action, and Conjure Barrage for when you’re fighting something that won’t stay put. You could also use Fly on your snake to give it some extra mobility, or Intellect Fortress to give long lasting resistance to psychic damage and advantage on intelligence, wisdom, and charisma saves. You’re the queen, you do what you want.

15. Artificer 10: Tenth level artificers are Magic Item Adepts, letting you attune an additional magic item and crafting a common/uncommon item takes 1/4 the time and 1/2 the gold. 

You can also trade for two more infusions now. The Ring of Mind Shielding will protect your brain even more, making you immune to having your thoughts read, any sort of lie detection, or knowing your alignment/creature type. it also lets you possess the ring if you die while wearing it! You could also get the Cloak of Protection, giving you +1 AC and +1 to all your saves.

16. Artificer 11: At eleventh level you can make Spell-Storing Items, weapons or other hand-held items that can hold spells for other people to use. They store a 1st or second level spell to put in it at the end of a long rest, and then other creatures can cast that spell using the item a number of times equal to twice your intelligence modifier. It uses your intelligence, but the caster’s concentration. You can also only have one object used like this at a time.

17. Artificer 12: Use your last ASI to bring up your Charisma for stronger sorcery spells.

18. Artificer 13: At long last, you can use fourth level spells! Your specialties are Aura of Purity, protecting creatures around you from disease, poison, and status effects for the duration. You also learn Fire Shield, which gives you resistance to cold or fire damage, and deals damage to attackers of the opposite type. Again it’s not super in character, but you’re the god of magic, what do you care.

For additional spells, Fabricate and Stone Shape will let you construct great works over time, and Summon Construct will bring in another giant metal snake to make sure the first one doesn’t get too uppity.

19. Artificer 14: Fourteenth level artificers are Magic Item Savants, giving you yet another attunement slot and you can ignore all restrictions when using magic items.

You also learn Guidance as your last cantrip, and get your last infusions. The Bracers of Defense give you +2 AC, or the Ring of Protection can give you +1 AC and +1 to all your saves. Trying to get a Golden Rule going is tough when all your ability points got put into your soft stats.

20. Artificer 15: Our capstone level gives you Improved Defender, increasing the severity of your Arcane Jolt, making your snake just a bit tougher, and giving it a way of dealing damage while also protecting your party.

Pros:

Thanks to your divine favors, magical guidance, and flashes of insight, you’re awfully good at cheating the odds with your saves and checks. Basically, if you really need to get something done, you can do it.

With multiple people on the battlefield and a variety of goodies to hand out to your party, you are great at supporting your party. 

With your high intelligence and charisma, you can control social situations easily, especially when you mix in your mind-reading abilities.

Cons:

If you ever fall into an anti-magic zone/exist at low levels you’ll find your AC very lacking, especially given your HP. Basically, hope your snake helps out.

Speaking of your snake, using it and your radiant consumption at the same time makes things complicated. I know the flavor is your snake is hitting you, but really you’re hitting your snake, and it doesn’t get resistance like you do.

Our tiny multiclass into sorcerer gives you a lot of flexibility and stealth options, but it means you have limited sorcery points. Thankfully, your sorcerer features don’t bother with your points, so it’s not game breaking for you.

#Fate Grand Order #D&D 5e #FGO #Cleopatra #Fate and Phantasms #Sorcerer #Artificer