#but oh my god the stories i found?!

[pinkmirth]

tumblr writers are truly a blessing. gift from heaven, i say!

#i’ve spent the last few hours binging fics #which I haven’t done in a veryyy long time #but oh my god the stories i found?! #m’gonna reblog em so y’all can read them too because wheeew! #disclaimer! they are mostly sugu fics ‘cause he’s my current obsession!!! #୨୧ — isla yaps #୨୧ — mira yaps! #❥ — rambles!

[caluupin]

Finished TGAAC around 2 1/2 weeks ago but only finished the doodles today. but still, here ya go!

#caluuart #art #dgs spoilers #dgs2 spoilers #tgaa spoilers #tgaa2 spoilers #ace attorney #the great ace attorney #tgaa #dgs2 #not tagging characters bc it's a lot #RAMBLE TIME. so ever since I finished dgs2 I have been listening to the soundtracks and MAN these bang so much #esp as a person who plays the piano and likes music. it's just. good. yeah. some of these do give me psychological dmg tho lmaoo #like kazuma's nocturne theme or his prosecutor theme. or the secret trial theme.... the partners - the game is afoot! theme.... I am normal #WHICH SPEAKING OF! man I love the sholmes + mikotoba partner twist so much even if i got a bit spoiled about it. i just think they're neat. #The partners of all time I think. #Also also the found family!?!?!? I am A SUCKER for found family. they fed me so well. #funny thing was the barok character development surprised me despite the fact that I also expected it since the first game lolol. #I do think he's an interesting character and probably one of the best character development in the game. And that I find his design cool. #oh yeah I didn't draw it but when I saw that albert mentioned that barok is “the darling of the van zieks family” I was genuinely like. #huh? wdym. like man at the time “van zieks” and “little darling” feels wrong in the same sentence. that was until I saw his pre- #-trauma pictures n well. albert isn't wrong. which was a slight surprise to me. #In conclusion: I liked it a lot. and now occupies parts of my brain along with my other brainrots. #They fight for priority in my brain whenever I try to sleep or disassociate lol. Well at least there's more material to think about. #off topic time: arlecchino animation. for the sake of the tag's length I'll just say a few things: #I am very very interested in her story and oh my god father. #My brain has stopped braining now; good night my fellows

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

Heya! Was this the piece you were talking about?

Seems to be from someone going by seyorrol

YES!!!!!!

HOLY SHIT YES THERE IT IS!!!! THANK YOU LOVE YOU YOU'RE AMAZING MWAH MWAH MWAH

#it looks like they're no longer on tumblr so no WONDER i couldnt find it!! #i vividly remember rb-ing from the original artist and checking their tags #bc my immediate thought seeing this was 'oh theyre fuckin lmao' #but then the notes were like 'theyre fighting' #but i checked the og tags and I Was Right <3 #god this is SO FUCKING PRETTY #the details the sheer level of it w/o being cluttered #the colors the composition the Very unique subject of the work #the flow of motion the EVERYTHINGGGGGG #rambles from the bog #i have seen many a work of art but this one... man... it speaks to me somehow #i dont think i can put into words how it makes me feel #i look at this and sigh dreamily. Peak Art imo #its my kinda shit! maximalist! unique! 'weird'! abstract! #its the kind of artwork i'd stand and stare at for a prolonged length of time #and theres yk! a Story behind it! #i would love to know it.... #found their deviantart all their stuff is Stunning #talk about a rich inner world holy shit... #WAIT wait wait wait can i get a link to the original image???

[sparrowmoth]

My half of an art trade with the amazing, fantastic @waterloou, who wanted to see Jesper as Dr. Frank-N-Furter. I simply couldn't resist adding Wylan as Magenta when I found my ref (below the cut).

Please do not use, edit, or repost my art without permission. Thank you!

#wesper #shadow and bone #six of crows #rocky horror picture show #dr. frank-n-furter #jesper fahey #wylan van eck #my fanart #my art #sab fanart #waterloou #<3 #oh my god I can't believe how fast I coloured this dajkgjdkgd #I'm really happy with how it turned out #my headcanon for the story behind this image is they were cast as leads in an RHPS play (modern AU ofc) #and maybe got a littttttle distracted during rehearsals #no one knows where they found the handcuffs lmao #anyway I love them and I love you Lou so I hope you love this! <3 #this is the first art trade I've ever done and it was super fun #10000/10 will be doing this again <3<3

[presiding]

formerly an essay in tags but - billie lurk. half-nameless, misremembered woman. her powers derived from the things taken from her, without any catharsis or empowerment. the rat charm, tied with deidre's hair, her lover's voice in the mouth of rats. her arm and eye, taken, given back only to cause her chronic pain, then lost again. foresight seems a cruel gift for a woman who botched the timing of her takeover of the whalers, and bet wrong when it came to delilah.

she never bore the outsider's blessing; his first visit to her was more like an assault. every other dishonored POV character gets the choice to be selfish, and for that selfishness to mean something, but billie's actions have no effect on the world at large, either, in a game without a chaos system.

some say that corvo is the ghost, but he can reach out and change things. billie's buried herself twice and come back and nothing she does seems to matter - she is less a protagonist, more a convenient full stop in the narrative.

try this: open doto, start a new game. sit in her cabin. notice how little of billie there is. even the woman she loved more than anyone has the face of another named character.

she sits amongst the assets of other games: empty canvases and a dressmaker's mannequin that wears nothing.

#billie lurk #even the wiki is wrong about her its infuriating #pulled this out of tags because fuck it #in daud's DLCs even the stories that weren't about him were about him #but billie's stories are the scrapheap. they're the stuff they couldn't squeeze in elsewhere. cheap jokes and macguffins #i'm not even roasting the devs for this i think releasing dishonored in 2016 then DotO in 2017 was a feat (derogatory) #games should be made slowly and with love #and i know that everyones talked about this endlessly #but billie is my fav and it sucks that she got a game that only causes me to grieve for her as a character #not FOR her as a person #only the potential story that never was. that she never got. #you can have your strong black woman and not turn her into a trope. give her depth and range and heartache and agency. yes there was traged #but how did it SHAPE her? #dont get me started on her being designated caretaker of a former god and dying assassin. what the fuck #some of this i'd be more okay with if she was younger - i mean. the blank canvases? really? #this game could have been about wyman and there's not that much that would have changed in terms of the core story #“found out the asshole that killed your mother is still around. gonna go deal with that.” #emily who is stoned: “cool.bring me snacks on the way back” #wyman: “oh he's saying actually it was gods fault and that its possible to kill him. well i have literally nothing in my schedule” #billie's not surprised by anything anymore but maybe wyman would freak out over most of it. could have been a lot of fun #also you cant fuck up wymans characterisation. they barely exist. #local empress sends her enby girlboyfriend to kill god #pres writes increasingly deranged essays in the tags #death of the outsider spoilers #i have to complain about doto once every year or so or i die #but i'm not really gonna let arkane hide behind dev excuses when it comes to racism like. its not enough

[eru-iru]

bedman? is here!!!

#guilty gear #bedman? #bedman #delilah #ギルティギア #ベッドマン #ディライラ #oh my gods them projectiles #and call 13c or whatever its called the eye super #looks fun #THEY ALSO REVEALED BEDMAN'S BIRTHNAME #I WAS SHAKING WHEN I FOUND OUT HOLY #its a funny name it fits him ahaha #gonna cry over arcade mode story #iruiruart

[blue-eli]

Ink October day twenty-nine: Wilder

To bewilder; to perplex.

Comparative form of wild: more wild.

#tears of the kingdom #loz totk #totk #the legend of zelda #legend of zelda #legend of zelda tears of the kingdom #totk link #blue boi draws #ink october 2023 #ink October 2023 day 29 #I have extremely conflicted feelings about this game that I think boil down to: I don’t dislike it but it did disappoint me #like there are a lot of things about it but the things I dislike are loud in a way that makes them hard to ignore #there are also a lot of tiny nitpicking things I dislike about it that I feel bad about because they are probably insignificant or cases of #people having different taste in things. like the bombs I miss my remote destination bombs :( but also the mechanics that replace them are #really fun. I actually think most of the mechanics and puzzles are really good (I probably have more fun in Zonai shrines then sheikah #on average) I also think expanding to the sky and underground was really smart and good. I think most of my issues are with the story #they did Zelda so dirty. sooooooo dirty. the three good things they did with her are 1 gave her good parental figures 2 cut her hair #3 tURNED HER INTO A FUCKING DRAGON. A WYRM. A CREATURE. #that’s probably my favourite main story thing besides maybe the companions and also Tulin #I love Teba the fact that his son is featured heavily and is done so good in this game is amazing. #also revali being basically never mentioned was really good. fuck you revali #love the Zonai HATE them founding Hyrule (or well rauru) #love the designs dragon goat people love good dad to Zelda the king can go fuck himself #the thing about me is I hate ​colonial the divine right of kings and monarchies so much. the kingdom of Hyrule stinks of these things #botw to me was in part a story of a monarchy failing. the king and the system failed Zelda failed Link and failed their kingdom. #I knew that more then likely they would be rebuilding the kingdom in the sequel but oh my gods does the addition of the politics of Hyrules #founding make it worse. there are so many people who have explained in detail this but right now my brain is just… GAH #*banging my head against the wall* can we PLEASE acknowledge the flaws of the Hylian royalty I’m not even asking for them to be discrowned #at this point I just want anything that isn’t this glorifying shit. and it sucks because I like Sonia!!! I like Minaru!!! #ran out of tags but I need you to know I am fucking vibrating about this

[c00kie-d0e]

Changed their backstory and name now they are called Jewel mWHAHAHAHAGA

#it would be funny to explore a story where regular guys had normalish humanish lives #Jewels new backstory is based off of the fact that if my dog ran away hed prob pgo and plan world domination #evil dog #jewel ran away because the pet life wasnt it #cat food is not that yummy and she had to go look for her own bones and food ebcause the owner didnt know 💀💀 #regardless they love their owner/parnet(??) because they are silly #it would be funny for a human to realize that regular guys can assume human forms #im not sure about jewels story yet so this might change in the future #i wonder what jewel did through the years away from home #i bet jewel knew that old person y/n was getting older and wanted to say goodbye one last time? #OH GOD NO IM GONNA CRY #strange ass found family type shit lmoa

[horsemage]

I think we should bring back basic etiquette lessons such as shutting the fuck up when you’re watching a movie in a group that is not exclusively your friend group 🙂

#welcome to another Mick Airs Out Their Grievances and by god is it a VERY long one #prob best if u don't expand the tags #am I being maybe a bit meaner about this than I would be for any other movie? maybe but pac rim is one of my favorite movies of all time #so I think I get a pass on this one. #one of the groups on campus is hosting movie nights & I went to this one bc I've only ever watched pac rim on my laptop and wanted to watch #it on a larger screen. yay yippee I love this movie! #there r maybe 10-ish of us in this room and a three person friend group is sitting on the couch one of whom has seen the movie and two who #have not. okay so far so normal. #and then the movie starts and they won't! stop! fucking! commentating! the whole fucking movie!!! I don't have a problem with doing that #when I'm in just my friend group because I know that I can tell my friend to stop talking or pause the movie or whatnot but not when I'm in #a large group w people I'm not good friends with ffs #and the comments aren't even funny or anything they're all oh this is JUST like in iron widow!! oh they're SO gay and autistic!!! and #they're talking so loud about this that it completely drowns out the movie audio which has already been turned up a few times #like. be considerate!! some of us want to yknow actually listen to what's going on and not whatever bullshit you're saying #I nearly walked out three or four times before I actually wound up doing so #I may have been a bit of a bitch at the end but I don't care. I got up to leave because this was not an enjoyable environment and one of #them offered to turn the movie down if it was too loud. this caught me a bit off guard since I expected them to still be so wrapped up in #their convo and. well. I may have said 'it's not the movie that's too loud' before closing the door #this also reminds me a lot about my issues with online shipping culture and it bleeding through into how we interact with media irl #this is probably heavily influenced by my aromanticism but I'm so sick of people constantly reading romantic relationships into everything #AND placing more importance on those relationships than any other form. I don't mind romance in media. I think if done right it has great #emotional impact on a story but when a movie is running and when other people who may not want to hear it are in the room watching it too #is not the time to be loudly saying 'he's autistic!' 'they're in love!' 'she has a crush on him!' #I have my own interpretations of the movie some of which agree with what they said and some of which don't but that's beside the point of #knowing how to coexist politely in public #anyway. I think they were awful and annoying and they ruined my night out. #I think I'm just so incredibly mad about this because I love the movie and I was looking forward to watching it in a group of people who #found it cool as well while still having some modicum of politeness #I almost wish I had been meaner but that's the extreme annoyance talking I think #hater hour over love u guys bye

[13eyond13]

one of the lesser talked about fun things about intentionally reading more books is finding new stuff to be a bit of a hater about tbh

#and i know sometimes im probably just not properly picking up whatever the writer is putting down but whatever it's still fun #to actually know what you think about stuff like the highly regarded classics and extremely popular hyped up things #here are a few writers im a bit of a hater about w my opinions now btw #neil gaiman: does not do it for me at alllll #have read the graveyard book and american gods and hated almost every minute of both #in american gods i just found the aesthetic ideas and characters completely unappealing and in the graveyard book #i thought it was dreary and not well described enough... kept feeling like it was too bare bones in some way to picture things properly #i was like 'hmm i wish this was one of his graphic novels instead bc i'd like to be able to see what's going on here a bit better...' #also his humour just never lands for me and i do not often get his references either #ray bradbury annoys me in a similar way to neil gaiman but also somewhat oppositely like where #the way they write characters and plots and ideas and the stuff they care about gets on my nerves in an almost identical way #that i don't know how to define except to say i had a bit of a 'same energy' experience reading Something Wicked This Way Comes #and some of neil gaiman's stuff #but unlike neil gaiman i think that ray bradbury attempts to describe things unusually so much and TOO much #to the point that it takes me out of the story in a different yet similar way #to how the lack of description in neil gaiman's stuff does #what else have i become a bit of a hater about or did not get the appeal of lately? hmmm #oh hp lovecraft hahahaha #least scary stories ever god everything he's scared of is so dumb #like even aside from his extremely racist takes and fear of the 'exotic other' his fears about being cosmically insignificant are just like #yeah and? whats so scary about that hahaha i literally just dont get it #also the amount he writes dialogue in heavy accents annoys the shit out of me #p

[imminent-danger-came]

It's just me and the 2 different season 4s that destroyed me

#these two shows are my everything #The writers of these two shows are snorting the same crack #I'm sorry but so many other cartoons don't even compare. #Sorry toh sorry shera (derogatory) sorry amphibia #I am on the fence about steven universe. like yes su is good and I love it dearly but is it as good as these two shows? #no. #not to me #not if it's tdp and lmk #now if I truly had to choose between tdp and lmk I'd choose tdp but. why compare 2 bad bitches #For tdp it's the cycle and dealing with grief for me. For lmk it's the narrative of self worth and the importance of stories for me. #OH GOD AND THE 'LEAVING THE WORLD BETTER THAN YOU FOUND IT EVEN IF IT HURTS AND CAUSES PAIN' #LIKE LMK STOP. STOP IT. #Ough but tdp s4 with it's themes of building a better future you won't get to see? Reconciling two opositions? Pain and love? #Like fuck me dude #God. GOD #lmk #lmk s4 #lego monkie kid #tdp #the dragon prince #tdp s4 #imp tag #lmk meme #tdp meme

[crossbackpoke-check]

Substance, Shadow, and Spirit [remixed, abridged] by Tao Yuanming

#liv in the replies #patrice bergeron #boston bruins #brad marchand #do you ever think about how brad marchand said that when bergy retired he would retire or are you capable of normal thought i'm not at all #please say a gratitude for both my sanity& y'all that this poem (which has been saved in my camera roll with the vague idea of using it for #??? ​long) & not one of the poems i had saved for carey for a really long time & remixed & everything with another poem until i found a poem #that absolutely murdered me in cold blood but there is an alternate universe where i did& then had to explain my unhinged thoughts to you. #anyway how are we feeling about bergy retirement. pspspspsp sara & luna are y'all doing okay like. the doc title for this one was #patrice the hockey player means a lot to me but patrice the person means so much more #which is why the end line of the other poem was so *%"@^)! (you love / what you are) because patrice does. like he is a whole ass good huma #& now since no one asked i need to tell you all the details about everything also y'all please clap i made an edit with NO baby pictures #although i did find one & save it & minimal genres of photo i always use in edits because they're my taste & aesthetic but anyway. #when i saved the first photo and marked it as one i wanted i accidentally wrote “how will he know they love him” which is not the line but #makes me feel feral about patrice & the rest of them all had hurtful names too but also. the third picture is literally a CELLY like brad #just scored a goal & he is clinging to bergy for dear life with that shit i saved that as “oh the agony on his face for unendurable” #& yes it is one of my cliches to have a draft day picture but in my defense the lifelong bond that patrice has/d with boston deserved to be #there even if i put in the love story & YES that picture is from the 2011 playoff right below it shared joy & pain & i couldn't tell you #when the brad marchy photo for together forever is except for the fact that i saw it & just the gut punch of oh my god the way he looks at #things men will praise you for is the stanley cup. duh. but i love the contrast of “some deed” being the stanley cup but then #bergy's choice to do noble deeds (ends up still earning praise &that's my note to his efforts outside of hockey we love a supportive captai #should also mention the first two i came up with & had the photos i knew i wanted for were the first and last one alskaldk but i KNEW i #wanted chara somewhere in the paragraph about leaving & then while i was looking found the one of bergy playing tuukka on accident & yes #i do have to make goalie jokes every time. no reprieve . no dice/no deal/no goal goalies have no rest/reprieve etc etc the one that killed #me though was looking for a patrice award pic & i wanted basically the one that i got for “how will you know any will praise you” & instead #also got the picture of patrice winning the some community hero award for charity work that he does & i love him mama & of COURSE that puck #is from bergy's 1000 game who do you think I am (if you guessed sleepy and emotional about patrice you'd be right) and ALSO please be ready #for all the patrice posts/bruins posts that have been sitting in my drafts to be released on this occasion of patrice retirement #I FORGOT TO MENTION THAT TUUKKA ALSO RETIRED THAT’S WHY HE WAS ON WISE OR SIMPLE NO REPRIEVE AND THAT LATE OR SOON WAS ALWAYS GOING TO BE #CHARA BECAUSE CHARA LEFT FIRST TO GO TO THE CAPS AND THEN LEFT IN RETIRMENT HE LEFT SOON BUT NOT FOR REAL THEN LATER LEFT FOR REAL (RETIRED)

[skeletalheartattack]

Olimar using special technology to extract Louie's incredible cooking skills (one of his few positive traits)

the faint sounds of a tied up louie are heard as olimar commands one hundred pikmin to carry one large syringe closer and closer in hopes of sucking the only good left in him. the pikmin seem happy to do this.

#ask #anon #i wouldve liked to have drawn this in ms paint but. ogh... #id like to play the pikmin games one day. love those freaks. #my friend fadian continues to torture me with being mean about oatchi #hi fadian if youre reading this please go to hell!!! please!!! please please go to hell!!!!!!!!! #leave oatchi alone. okay ❓ #i really like that funny dog #moss too. fucking beast. #my only personal experience with pikmin was a friend bringing it to a friends house and watching him play it for a bit. #then we switched over to luigis mansion and laughed at luigi shoving items he found up his ass. keys. gems. you know. #we were in middle school. it made sense. #the friend who brought over the games was constantly distraught though at us implying luigi was putting stuff up there #that or it was the other friends older brother. #it was on a big fucking box tv. oh how i miss you big fucking box tv. #i never owned one but god. #playing brawls story mode on that tv was something else to me #ive watched a bunch of different streams of pikmin games. but the ones i watched through fully never finished the games. #and with pikmin 3. theres not a lot of streamers i watch who have played through it. #ogh. #anyway thank you for your insight anon :) louie will be a soulless husk soon.

[pinktinselmonstrosity]

i only have three more best picture nominees to watch before the oscars 👀 and i'm leaving the ones i'm most and least excited for til last so i think i'll watch poor things next

#have been ranking/reviewing on my letterboxd but the list is private for now #will share it once i've watched them all #i just saw the zone of interest and i can't fully make my mind up abt it ? #on the one hand it was viscerally disturbing. it really felt like staring into an abyss of evil #and oh my GOD the sound design was a masterpiece whoever did the sound design needs to work on every horror movie from now on #but on the other hand i found it very monotonous and like. pointless? in a way? #like in the first five minutes you realise they're going about their ordinary lives in the shadow of this great evil #and you think oh my god that's awful that's horrific these people are evil #and then the whole rest of the film is just. still that? #idk i just feel like there are other stories that could have been told #one 1 star review i saw started with ''why must i watch the daily lives of nazis?'' and then goes on to explain how this question #is just not really answered by the film. like you watch it it's there but i just don't know. why? #anyway #still making my mind up about the ranking #🧃

[lulu2992]

Do you think the Seeds’ behavior towards the Deputy changes at all depending on their gender? I’ve listened to the arcade voicelines of John and Jacob and the things they say to female Deputy sound a bit… flirtatious. What’s your overall take on those voicelines? You’re probably aware of how the fandom likes to think the Seeds are sexually repressed and want to sleep with the Deputy. That is especially evident in the fanfiction. Do you think that the way they act in the arcade is canon or just a misinterpretation on Ubisoft’s part? Also, what about Faith? Would her behavior change at all depending on the Deputy’s gender? Thanks in advance.

In cutscenes, the Deputy’s gender doesn’t change anything... but the reason for that could just be that it was easier for the devs to only have one, gender-neutral version of the cinematics. Maybe, in theory, the Seed brothers would act a bit differently depending on the Deputy’s gender, but it’s also possible that they treat everyone with the same amount of (dis)respect. I like to imagine Eden’s Gate members don’t care about who people are or what they look like, and that what truly matters to them is what they do, but that’s up to everyone’s interpretation.

Now, are some of their Arcade lines really supposed to sound flirtatious? Maybe it was the intention of whoever wrote them (the game has 25 or so writers) because they thought it would be funny and/or make players uncomfortable, but it’s also possible that we are just over-interpreting and imagining things. And I may be too optimistic, but I want to believe that those lines wouldn’t be in the game if they were out of character.

As for Faith, some people in Far Cry 5 say that many men are attracted to her, but I don’t think that necessarily means she acts differently towards them; they’re probably statistically more likely to feel “seduced” by her than women. When it comes to the Deputy, since Faith doesn’t have gendered dialog and never uses nicknames (not even “Deputy”), I suppose she would behave the same regardless of their gender.

Also, in Far Cry 5, we have very little information about the Seeds’ sexual orientation and who they could potentially be attracted to. We know that Joseph had a wife and that John might have (had?) a thing for Mary May, but that’s pretty much it. I think it’s indeed possible that they’re “sexually repressed” considering what the Project’s rules are, but do they want to sleep with the Deputy? Well, whoever was in charge of the official Far Cry Twitter account in January 2019 humorously didn’t deny this possibility. Does that prove anything? Not really… But whether or not it was intentional, the game certainly leaves room for speculation!

#in short: it’s unclear… but that’s what’s fun! #far cry 5 #joseph seed #john seed #jacob seed #faith seed #the deputy #so I said the game itself doesn’t give us a lot of info #but john sort of has a girlfriend in absolution (not really canon) #and jacob had a wife in an early version of the story (the idea was scrapped) #that’s not in the game though so we really don’t know much #I spent almost 2 hours looking for that post with the tweet oh my god #but I found it so yay

[an-eldritch-peredhel]

#dang it do i have a new oc now

Sounds like!! I'd love to hear more if you've got it!

(referring to my tags on this post)

You will meet a stranger, sometimes, if you make a habit to frequent taverns, inns, halls for game, or even the one tree where the young Bracegirdle cousins sneak off to play marbles. Well, you will like as not meet many strangers, except in the last case, but this one will be different. Or perhaps you get lucky, and don't frequent such places, but find yourself in one unexpectedly, and meet them regardless.

Everyone in Gondor knows someone who knows someone who met Lady Luck, no one has met her themself. If you do, starry-eyed romantics say, you'll be blessed with good fortune for all your days. The pragmatists tell you you'll be blessed with the good sense to discern a scam.

He may smirk at you after winning a bet, some dark-haired man, using his earnings to buy a round for the bar. It's always a different man, but it always goes to Alwed's tab. It keeps the crowd from getting too rowdy, even if the more superstitious get on edge.

No one remembers meeting them the first time, but dwarves with common sense avoid Audr's shell games and silver-toothed smile- you always win, but it's never worth it.

A woman with greying-gold hair and stiff fingers might call herself Eadrun, and challenge you to a game of dice. Few decline, and far fewer win.

For as few elves remain in Middle Earth, the one who calls himself Herendil and laughs as though his name is a joke should be recognizable. He seems young and lighthearted in a way most have lost, but he will play you cards, win just as much as he loses, and disappear, never recognized.

A hobbit-lass may giggle, red curls gleaming in the sun, and introduce herself as Peony Sandheaver, her family is visiting from Bree, and she wants to see how Shire-hobbits play Jacks.

Sometimes an orc prays over a set of knucklebones, knowing that at least one god will hear one prayer. Orcs have little luck in battle, but uncanny luck with dice.

There are countless stories, just as many true as not. Countless names, far more unnamed figures, always just out of place enough wherever they are to be interesting and promise new tales, never enough to provoke suspicion, not at first.

Even those in the Blessed Realm may find this dark-eyed stranger. Always dark-eyed, like bottles of dark glass. They stop by Aulë's workshop on occasion, to learn and suggest and play new games. They never win the first round, but most have the sense not to bet anything they aren't willing to lose on the second.

Oromë's people call them Umbarnica with a laugh and a toast in welcome. They thrive in the drunken revels after a successful hunt, sharp as ever as they dance from game to game, cackling at ill-advised propositions offered as collateral for or against a bet. Usually this means them winning to avoid it, a frequent enough occurrence as-is, but every now and then they'll decide to let someone get lucky. The bragging rights are the real reward.

And there are no guarantees with this stranger. No way to ensure their favor, though many ways to get their attention, few good. They like irony, take pleasure in hubris reaching its fall. They love superstition, even if they don't always honor it, and they love stories. There are gods that can be mistaken for kind, they are not one of them, created to serve the king the Dark Lord could have been. Their favorites are fickle, their grudges subtle but long-held. They love cheaters, unless they're at the end of the attempt. They will always catch you, and you will always regret it. They slink through candle-shadows and pipe-smoke, grinning, dance in town squares turned to faire grounds, curl up on comfy chairs indoors on rainy days.

But sometimes, in these days, you won't meet a stranger at all. Sometimes your storyteller will get a bright-dark glint in their eyes, and some dice will roll strangely high and some dice will roll strangely low and either way the story will be better for it. And if the next time the group meets you need to take a moment to remind the storyteller exactly what happened last session, well. That's why you take notes.

So pray to the dice-god, card-master, quick-sighted. It might do you no good, but they love superstition, and they love stories. And when you play a dark-eyed stranger, don't cheat at cards.

#ask #cuarthol #umbarnica #my writing #my ocs #they play favorites with the orcs because they feel like they have bad enough luck as is so they throw them some bones #and they like the Narrative of it all #i had fun writing this #they're very amoral not in the sense of being Evil and Bad they just. don't have morals. #they're kinda like a trickster god i think. and they like underdogs but not as much as people think #in my headcanon a lot of powerful maiar were intended to serve melkor before he went all evil but not all of them also went evil #and that leaves a very interesting crack for them to fall through because they just don't really. fit. anywhere #my arien is also a case of this (sibling of the balrogs) #and ultimately the deciding factor in turning evil is mostly if they are able to find support and a purpose with people who care about them #even if they still don't quite fit in #so umbarnica is also a case of this but instead of arien who found her niche by following the formula as closely as possible #(find a vala- take a role under her doing something directly related- oh whoops Fate called so i'm going to be a good maia and do my duty) #(if i don't do everything right i'm going to go insane and then go evil. please for the love of eru let me just do my valar-damned job) #umbarnica went 'yeah you can't tell me what to do. if you try to keep me stuck here in aman i will go insane and then go evil.' #'is that what you want? no? then let me cause nice low level chaos and fun wherever i want and i'll stay out of your hair' #i think they like dnd a lot for the sheer novelty of it #a lot of their domain is gambling or adjacent so to have a game of chance that seeks to tell stories and build community is intriguing #namo is probably the one who has official jurisdiction over them? but mostly in the sense that fate and luck are tied up #he does the bare minimum to make sure they don't get out of hand. neither *likes* this arrangement but they're content with it by now #but yes i'm gonna be calling them umbarnica #is that their name? sure as much as anything can be. #i just thought that 'little doom' would be a really funny euphamism tbh