#its unlivable we need to fight back | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

pchjun · 2 years

Text

Welcome to the third (and still not the last) part of me absolutely trashing Monsta's writing team for BBBGLX

we open this part of the dissertation with links to the first and second part of this beautiful journey that we are having to day which are both about the problem on Boboiboy's powers as well as his characterization.

Now one the main focus of this post which is both Fang and Kaizo.

Lets start with Fang how he fits into the story and probably the only person who didnt get hit by the writers that much in galaxy

so, Fang lets start with Fangs Shadow powers and Intangibility powers first.

Shadows are created from the absence of light and cannot be created by itself. This is reflected by the fact that he is not the main character of the series and never will be. when he uses his first Tier he can make only make shadow constructions of living beings that actually exists or vague abstracts of body parts. In fact, Fang's character is the most closely associated with the moon while his foil, Boboiboy; is mostly associated with the earth. (and the sun but thats only because Solar exists.) that is also why in the original series 3rd season finale where they both fight each other they didn't end up unliving each other because narratively and metaphorically it will cause a paradox because the absence of the other will null the existence of the other because they symbolise light and darkness respectively even then-- without solar in the picture.

In fact, his introduction and story follows closely on how we got the moon as well. The moon was once an asteroid about the size of mars that crashes on the earth,(Fang lands on earth with the intent to take the rest of kokotiam's powers) after millions of years of a push and pull with their their gravity,(his character development on the original series) the moon now revolves around the earth.(he became a permanent part of Kokotiam and Boboiboy's main foil)

Now onto Fang Intangibility powers.

So, before we start, a refresh your information on fang's other power intangibility.

This power is the power previously held by Fang before his first appearance (it was also implied that Kaizo took this power at the end of the original series as we don't ever see it anywhere else after)

This power is more closer tied to his character arc through out the original series,he was sent as an undercover spy to infiltrate and gather information as well as take the Ochobot back to Kaizo and Lahap, so him having Intangibility is ingenious. With this power he can pass someone's walls and worm his way into hearts, and people cant tear down his as of course you need to hold them to tear them down. And he did, mostly.

Of course, when the cat was out of the bag in the s3 finale, something changed.

He no longer uses or has his intangibility powers anymore (this probably due to Kaizo taking back this power for genuinely good reasons or not). That is because the conflict and reconciliation between Boboiboy and Kokotiam with Fang was resolved. he finally put down his walls for them and genuinely showing his whole self to them. It mostly does nothing as even before the big reveal they have always see him as a true friend and it was after the finale that Fang also see them as his true and Genuine friends.

His arc and story line has always been very clear in both execution and premise, which is why its pretty easy to write his character in the Galaxy series, there are still some odd mischaracterizations one of which is that Fang being that his whole characterisation and arc in the original was about how much he wants friends and friendship and then now being sideline from the Kokotiam gang and not being featured in any earth episodes.

Now,,, onto my unfavourite character ever next to Ejo jo, Capt. Kaizo

There are a many things about him that makes me feel a... strong dislike towards him. But we aren't trying to discuss if or how dislikable his character is in both Original Series and Galaxy Series. The explanation for the dislike is different in both series.

In fact, that is the problem with his characterization. The main dislike for him is vastly different in both series.

Kaizo, in the original series from the get go was always suppose to be a cold and cocky villain. And the original series writers wrote his as that.

He was never worried about whether or not his own younger brother will survive his torture, he never worried about the underlying effects of leaving his brother: the only living family member, in a completely backwater planet compared to their own without help. Didn't even flinch and the thought of killing younglings for the sole purpose of getting their power.

In every scene we had from him, he never seemed to be ever worried, like he was just going to tend his garden with some sheers and not casually going to take 5 power watches even if it means he's going to kill them. The other cast of characters could never get under his skin and get him riled up.

That's what makes him such a good and terrifying villain. (and hot, but that's mostly because Harris Alif did a WAP worthy VA performance for Kaizo, the hindi dub tho... Not that much.)

So, what happened?

The writers try and down play his villainy. i mean, at this point of time we have no intergalactic organization that can handle this, no TAPOPS, no Tempur-A, no nothing. Kaizo easily handled The main baddie for the finale and become a surprise main villain in a matter of minutes. But then come the galaxy series, and now Kaizo is so much more utterly reactive its a whiplash trying to find a resemblance in his character i get tired even thinking of trying to guess which character that Monsta is trying to portray,

Is the true Kaizo is the Kaizo of the original series, or the Kaizo of the galaxy series? and if the latter is correct than why did nobody in monsta tries to rework an explanation for his characterisation in the original series that makes sense??

ill answer that question, they dont care about the Original series anymore.

that ends my dissertation on both Fang and Kaizo. i apologise that this part of the dissertation took a long time, talking about Kaizo and Fang takes a lot out of me, next part is about Yaya, Ying and Gopal as they all both have relatively the same problem

#boboiboy #boifang #mayrah mumbles #boboiboy fang #that one show with the talking balls #boboiboy kaizo #may's dissertation on bbb

96 notes · View notes

vague-humanoid · 9 months

Text

https://tribune.com.pk/story/2322966/apple-disney-back-lobby-groups-against-us-climate-bill

The biggest companies in the US are backing business groups that are fighting landmark climate legislation. Amazon, Disney, Apple and Microsoft are amongst some of the companies supporting these businesses despite their vows to fight climate change, reports the Guardian.

A proposed $3.5 trillion budget bill put forward by the democrats aims to implement measures to put down planet-heating gases. However, corporate lobby groups and organisations have mobilized to oppose the bill being passed, while the Democratic leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, calls the bill “the most significant climate action in our country’s history.”

Many large US corporations have announced their goals to cut greenhouse gases, like Jeff Bezos, one of the richest people, has declared the climate crisis to be “the biggest threat to our planet”, while his company Amazon has created a pledge for businesses to cut down their emissions to net zero by 2040. Microsoft has also promised to be “carbon negative” and Disney aims to use only renewable-sourced electricity. However, these very groups are also playing the other side, by actively supporting lobby groups that are trying to sink the very same bill. Joe Biden’s ambitious goals to tackle climate crisis is being threatened by one of the largest legislative efforts to solve the issue and save the planet from sinking into an unlivable state.

President of watchdog group Accountable.US, Kyle Herrig says, “Major corporations love to tell us how committed they are to addressing the climate crisis and building a sustainable future, but behind closed doors, they are funding the very industry trade groups that are fighting tooth and nail to stop the biggest climate change bill ever”

The companies lobbying for the cause, when contacted by the Guardian didn’t rebuke the lobby groups and neither said they would review their links their support to these groups. Herrig says that “Hiding behind these shady groups doesn’t just put our environment at risk – it puts these companies’ household names and reputations in serious jeopardy.” Moreover the US Chamber of Commerce, comprising of executives from Microsoft, Intuit, United Airlines and Deloitte, have promised to “do everything we can to prevent this tax raising, job killing reconciliation bill from becoming law.” These very companies have ironically, also expressed their concern over climate change and have made various promises in the past to cut down emissions.

Business Roundtable, another group of big company executives including Apple’s Tim Cook, Andy Jassy chief executive of Amazon, and Sundar Picharai head of Alphabet; has expressed its deep concern over the bill which will raise heavy taxes on the wealthy. The Pharmaceuticals Research and Manufacturers of America, a trade group comprising of Bayer and AstraZeneca has run adverts opposing the bill as well. Lobby groups with members from Disney, FedEx, Verizon, Johnson&Johnson, Dow and Goodyear, have been making keen efforts to kill of the bill.

The president, Joe Biden needs every Senate Democrat to approve the bill, in order to be passed, however, senate members like centrist Democrat from West Virginia, Joe Manchin, who receives a significant amount of donations from the fossil fuel industry has already declared the bill “makes no sense”. The first major attempt at climate legislation seems to be close to a failure, wounding Biden politically and hindering attempts to prod other countries to take rapid action at the upcoming UN Climate Talks.

@antidisneyinc @socialistexan

5 notes · View notes

symbioticsimplicity · 1 year

Text

Need me an AU for ATS where Darla didn't die for every reason.

Think about it. They could have achieved the same desperate sacrifice by just preforming an emergency C-section on Darla. But given that she's a vampire and they're on the run, they still find themselves in that alley way to do it. Plenty of characters in this series pay for survival with pain.

Darla lives, and it turns out her connection to Conner does not turn off once he's no longer inside of her body. They still share a soul and that little boy means more to her than anything or anyone else ever has or could. Angel may be a helicopter Dad but Darla is Mama Bear.

So when everything with Wes and Holtz and all that goes down, she finds herself beside Angel, fighting tooth and nail to get her baby back. When Holtz jumps into Q'artoth, she jumps right in with him.

Cue the insanity that is Darla and Holtz having to work together to survive an unlivable dimension together while raising a child. It never made sense to me that Holtz, a regular ass middle aged human, was able to not only survive the worst hell dimension there is but also raise a child there. But with Darla there too? Thats a whole master vampire, and one with a baby to protect too. They make a deal, Darla keeps them safe and brings back any kills that might be eatable for Holtz, Holtz lets Darla feed from him. Given all of their history that would be such a delicate, painful balance that would break at the slightest strain. It would be painfully thrilling to watch.

Then the addition of Darla could have given Connor more of a morally grey stance that would have reflected his nature as a being born if two vampires. He's human-ish. He stands in the middle of so many different worlds. Having both Holtz and Darla's ideals around as he grew up in a *demon dimension* would have made for such an interesting complexity. It would have made his struggles with morality going forward make a lot more sense as well.

Also I want to see them returning to Earth and when Connor is overwhelmed by this new place, the first place he goes for comfort is Darla. He knows without a doubt that his mother could and would kill anything actually dangerous that came near him. I want to see Darla's habits reflected in him. The way she talks, certain mannerisms, little things that most people wouldn't notice (Angel notices immediately). If they weren't gonna give is Cangel, I would much rather have watched Connor, Angel and Darla try to be this odd little family together. Darla is by then the adjusted to how sharing a soul with Connor makes her feel, how attuned it makes her with him. She's at the median point between souled vampire introspective self loathing, and un-souled vampire viciousness so shes *trying* but she can still be so cutting sometimes but Angel kind of needs the reality check? Connor is kinda feral but also kind of curious about his Dad (between what Holtz told him about him and what Darla told him hes got some idea but no idea how to feel about him). And Angel is having the *weirdest* out of body experience about the whole thing but is infinitely grateful to be allowed a second chance. Its not perfect, thankfully, but its good.

Ideally for this AU the Jasmine thing has nothing to do with Cordi and Connor (because not just no but FUCK no). Instead Jasmine and Connor are twins. Connor got taken by Holtz and Darla, while Jasmine was raised by Angel. She's still exactly what she was in canon, she just grew rapidly from an infant. She was raised with the morals that Angel and co are trying to abide by and once she was big enough to, she used her power to try to bring those ideals to everyone else through her love. She's as hypnotic as she was in canon, with the difference being that Angel, Darla, and Connor are immune. She's more of a "The path to hell is paved with good intentions" than the cannon Jasmine. She gets farther too because Angel can't bear the idea of killing her, nor will Darla abide it. Connor is the one to do it, (later they learn hes the only one who physically could have) as he was in canon.

I just think it would have been much better to keep her around.

#ats #ats connor #ats holtz #ats darla #she deserved better #and I deserved to get to watch her and Holtz have to learn to tolerate each other #THINK ABOUT IT

5 notes · View notes

jeeperso · 2 years

Text

D&D Quotes Without Context

Ravenloft Edition, Har-Akir Arc, part 5

"Jonni, I will get the spray bottle.” “Jokes on you, I had to pee in that on my last watch!”

"I know the tale of Beni. He was said to be to That Guy as Strahd is to vampires.”

Gorbash: “I Hate Undead Insects.”

“Eddie, you got a circle of RAID?”

As you guys approach the end, an Imp materializes next to the switch. ”Welcome to the tomb of the Scarab King.” Jonni Eldritch Blasts him.

And suddenly, Poom was there. Because she can teleport.

"Very well, usually our prey is a little more worked over, but you managed to get by the scarabs and the gate without getting hurt, so we'll wait till the rest of the dungeon breaks you before we get our cut.” Poom: "That's very reasonable of you.”

“Fuck, this was built by a fan of hidden object games.” "Noooo! Not a puzzle trap, I hate those. Unless someone else has solved it and left clues they can take a long time to figure out.”

“Maybe there’s one of those ‘one of us always lies’ tests. Gorb can distract Marsh while I beat the shot out of them.”

GM: Getting through the hall will require a Dexterity check for each of you. Unless you want to fly over it or have some other way around. Player: Poom telelports to the other side.

Poom checks out the wall writing. Looks like it was written in blood, probably by an unlucky adventurer. Jonni: “Something about the Castle Aaaaaaarrrrrgggghhh.”

GM: If you were to hazard a guess, the sandstorm illusion was meant to trap those inside in a perpetual sandstorm until it drove those in it mad with monotiny. player: Monotony. GM: That too.

"Ventilabis puga, Frank.”

You enter the next chamber. It looks like the main burial chamber. There is a large onyx coffin on the ground, with several smaller coffins on the side. In the corner there is a small Har Akir child, curled up and crying. Jonni: “Well, I look forward to their adoption and, soon after, inevitable betrayal.” Gorbash: “…If this is a trick I will be pissed. If that’s an actual child I will be more pissed.”

Gorbash: “…How many necromancy-wielding assholes can we piss off in one tomb raid?”

OOC: So help me if the Mummy from Darkstalkers comes out of that tomb…

Inside the tomb there is a 10 foot tall skeleton, with a hugely distorted rib cage, large enough to hold a smaller person inside. Clutched in its hands is a large black book with a skull on the front. Jonni: “If this is one of the Inhumanoids I am fucking out.”

This is a Devourer. As mummies, vampires and liches are to humans, Devourers are to beings of the outer planes. The unquiet spirits of angels and fiends, created by Orcus himself. Jonni: “Skip to the end, how do we kill it?”

“No fair, you’re supposed to wait till we grab the book!”

GM: Marshal, you are now on hyper time.

youtube

Jonni flies up out of melee range and shouts back. “Fine. Let’s you and Gary fight.” She makes her Naruto hand signs and a creature of Shadow rises up in front of the Devourer. “Gary! Kick his ass!” “GODSDAMMIT, GARY! THIS IS WHY I NEVER SUMMON YOU!” “ONLY THING YOU’RE GOOD FOR, GARY!” Gary is texting his therapist now. OOC: HAIL TO GORBASH, TERROR OF THE UNLIVING! OOC: But we've already got Eddie. We even have a New Eddie back at camp. Too many Eddies. Gorbash will fix that. Poom cast "Overclock" on Gorebash. OOC: And from your class you can cast it on two of us at the same time rather than needing to concentrate? GM OOC: Welcome to third party products. Jonni: “Nyx, you’ve got an inter dimensional hidey hole, right?” Nyx: "Put that thing in a a regular bag, I don't trust it not to try and corrupt everything inside my pouches.” Jonni: “Ugh. Fine. But as the least corruptible person here, I’m carrying the bag.” “Maaaaaarsh! I needs the tongs!” You head back to the surface. When you reach above ground, you find that its night. Or at least overcast. Kat is waiting for you. ”Um Marshal, I think you need to see this.” Jonni: “Told you.” Out about 100 feet away from the tomb there is now a river of blood, at the shore is a skiff, where there is a figure standing. He reaches up an d points at Marshal. Jonni: “What fresh hell is this?” Marshal: "Charon. Ferryman of the dead. My patron has summoned me. Fresh Hell is exactly this.”

OOC: Zaslav is the Tiger Force at the center of all things. To die in Reality TV is to die for Zaslav! OOC: I’d say they could at least do a DC themed reality show where you’re forced to go through existence in Darkseid’s vision of the world, but you could get the same effect taking a film crew to CPAC. OOC: MOTHER FUCKER THEY GOT RID OF SHADOW DEMON POSSESSION IN THIS EDITION. OOC: Gorbash has his shining sword, Marshal has smite, and now Nyxie has Glowy Stabby Stabs. OOC2: And Jonni, as always has her hotness. OOC: And we learned Gary blows ass. OOC: Okay, I know Marshal is Big Bird in this scenario. Are the rest of us all collectively Snuffy? OOC: I couldn't type it out fast enough on my phone but my thought was "SHIT HE BROKE OUT THE GREEK, SHIT'S ABOUT TO GET REAL!” Jonni: “NO ONE PUTS JONNI IN THE NO FUN BOX!” Hades: “Do you want to go in the Super No Fun Box?” Jonni: “Everything I do legally counts as sex. Everything.” Hades: “It’s true; I checked.” OOC: So Jonnis is gonna go off and have fun with Alecto and Tisiphone, and Marshal can get stomped by Gilgamesh and Bible fruit. OOC2: Jonni is gonna defile that banana. OOC: If Marshal is dealing with those Two, Gorbash is jumping in from the stands. "Like hell am I letting my buddy get double teamed." Pause "Yes Jonni, I'm aware of how that sounds.” OOC2: What’s this! It’s Jonni from the stands with an illegal foreign arcane casting!

#dungeons and dragons #dnd 5e #quotes without context #ravenloft #har-akir

2 notes · View notes

hffnjue4y · 10 months

Text

my mood is unstable these days.

some days i feel like im on cloud 9. everything is perfect. we have hardships ahead, but theyre all manageable and worth it. they feel far away, and unclear. on those days, i cant even grasp what it is about her im so stressed about.

and then, like a switch, it can change. i feel unsure, stressed. it usually happens when we dont talk (she’s asleep right now) things feel hopeless, everything feels pointless. it’s like im exposed to a side of the world i never had to consider before- through her eyes. how much she was hurt, how much shes still hurting. how much she has to deal with. and it hurts me. i wanna live in oblivion again sometimes. i didnt know how much of this world i wasnt seeing before.

i tried talking to other people, they often make things worse- i dont wanna feel like i have to defend this relationship. i want people to be happy for us, not worry about me. and i know typing that makes it all sound incredibly abusive, which it isnt. i dont know what to do anymore.

i love her so much. i think i need to address that attachment we have. this often overwhelms me just how much she occupies my mind, her, our relationship. i think im starting to understand what she told me back then- about how loving fictional characters means theres no expectations back. they cant disappoint you. real people are way harder. and i think i didnt know it so far cause i never let myself truly attach to anyone.

now there are stakes. we’re both emotionally involved, to a point where we can hurt each other a lot. and thats scary.

i worry about her being “unregulated” but then again, am i regulated? my mood swings so dramatically. i overthink. i talk too much about this relationship but no one seem to understand. im confused. im not sure what i want in life anymore. i want to be away from here, i want her close with all my family and friends. i want her, im scared of her (our relationship and attachment). i get really nervous and anxious around fights, aggression, loud noises, and sometimes she triggers it.

i dont want to stress her out anymore. she’s doing good these days, and i think this stress will pass shortly. i dont feel like bringing her down with my uncertainty and doubts all the time- im afraid she might think im gonna leave her. we need to fix our trust, but i think only time will tell here.

talking with mom today freaked me out. she doesnt seem to trust this relationship will last. mom’s view of my girlfriend means the world to me. i wish they could meet. im afraid that when they meet mom wont like her, or worst, shed think she isnt good for me. im afraid shes seeing things that i dont. but she also doesnt have the full picture.

i dont know how much of things right now come from the fact that im unemployed, but at my grandparents place, feeling directionless. i think i might be depressed. and someone i love is so far away, its almost impossible to cross that distance without committing in a way. so of course its scary.

today i woke up from a nap feeling pretty bad. i missed her texts and the part of me that still hangs to her desperately wants to spend every moment together.

HOW. DO. I. MAKE. THIS. HEALTHY?

was this doomed from the start?

whos to say whats healthy and whats not?

are these fears common, because im new to relationships of this level?

if i have the thought, does it mean its true?

things to do:

- do. not. put. your. emotional. well. being. after. anyone. elses.

- trust you gut??? i have no idea anymore, this changes every day.

- mental illness isnt the end of the world. it makes things hard for her, yes, but its not unlivable. trust her to do her best and support her.

0 notes

maximvassilenko · 11 months

Text

Blog Post # 1

In Pumzi, the way futuristic technology serves the protagonist and serves society she lives in is deplorable at best. Pumzi is a perfect example of how technology actually sets people back. However the problem is not technology itself but the people who have the technology. People have no boundaries or limits and they have so heavily overused technology, that the famine in Afria actually got worse and now water is so scarce people filter and drink their pee and armpit sweat. The people now need to generate their own electricity and their mobility is confined to a buble because people were spiteful enough to fire nuclear weapons and make much of the landscape unlivable. In this technological “Utopia,” people are easily controlled by being given less water, being forced to work the machines for electricty, given dream suppressants, and given false narratives for their “safety” by a few higher-ups so they stay inside this bubble. While dreaming in itself is not that significant, what it signifies is the ability to tap into a reserve of free thought and scenarios in a landscape uncontrolled by another entities: in a technologically advanced society the most dangerous thing are not guns or weapons, they become ideas since technology is able to actualize the creativity of human thought and invention. It was the brief ability to have free thought/ having a dream that the protagonist began to trust in a future totally foreign to her that went against the establishment. To counter this, the protagonist goes back to the roots of humanity which is soil and plants and uses a compass to plant a tree and give it life by sacraficing her body minerals and resources. This is what seemingly set a chain of reactions that re-habitiate the world.

I think Afrofuturism warns of a lack of moderation of invented technology versus primal resources. In looking for the future, we forget about the past and the primal which serves its own integral role and purpose which is irreplaceable. Without the resources of Earth, technology is barely able to afford life. Technology seems to be a quick solution but the unintended consequences can quickly outweigh the rewards if the people in control of technology are not careful. I would see the primal and the natural to have a value and if more people would recognize that, they would see that it is in the very interest of humanity to preserve the Earth. While the economy and technology is governed by trillions, we forget that what is already there and what we are exploiting, even montarly, is worth far more. To counter this, virtue and the value of moderation comes from belief systems and community.

Blog Post #2 “EarthSeed”

Your Earthseed Post - Create Your Own Earthseed Community (Parable of the Sower)

Answer each question fully, but you only need two or three sentences for each response. You are not required to write long paragraphs -- but your responses should total 400 words -- about a page and a half.

Use your imagination and try to have fun with this assignment.

Poverty and a lack of education. Shelter from the injustice that a lack of money brings. People treat you poorly, the government can harass you, landlords can exhort you. It is so easy to become homeless with at will firing in California.

Los Angeles is the hub that needs this protection. It is so hard to get ahead and be mistreated but it is the center for many industries and a big city with jobs. For many this is their home and they do not want to leave. The answer is not to flee our home to another city but to stay firm and fight to change Los Angeles, one community at a time.

The leadership model is to be unified through religious faith and offer compassion and empathy to each other: if the community can trust each other enough, together we could pull in resources to help our community.

I would be tempted to say everyone could join my community but it always takes that one bad apple and a person who abuses the system and messes everything up. You need to demonstrate Christian VALUES versus traditions. These values would be like empathy, respect, and a tendency to do the right thing and help your neighbors. Their would be an initiation to do charitable acts. Faith as a spiritual practice versus a physical one is the foundation of keeping a community together when the world is physically falling apart. A lot of lost people who do not seek answers in the spiritual world are likely to succomb to temptations or evils and work to destroy our community. The educated can join to teach, the rich can join to support, and the poor can join to benefit and build themselves up to offer value to the community but they need to be good people.

It would be tempting to say no leadership exists and everyone is equal but the reality is while I want people who strive for virtue. I would want people I trust the most and have demonstrated their virtuous nature and values to be in charge. I would make myself incharge at the top because the one I can trust the most is myself because I know what I am thinking.

I would “create” a technology called empathy! It truly is a technology in this day in age. The poor get looked over and the homeless are treated as sub-human at best. People trying to help risk running into problems considering the dire and terrible state humanity is in. Doing the right thing can get you hurt. I think when the world starts tumbling down and that is surely on the horizon, empathy is the future technology and people will be forced to stick together. The most successful people will be those who banded together and could work something out as a collective community.

We survive by putting our incomes together and donations, we could bring in professionals and teach the people how to survive in a dystopian world. While I do think

Parable of the Sower is a very realistic scenario of future LA, even if you do not believe that, for the poor and homeless, Los Angeles is already a dystopia for many many reasons. Everyone needs to devote work hard to continue their stay in whatever capability they can offer before, during, and after training. If everyone is able to have specialized roles and everyone continues to be motivated, there will be more and more opportunities for the community. Also socially advertising the community in a strategic way to attract the right people for the right reasons and having a rigorous selection process is paramount. I think a community with the right people versus many people who may not necessarily be the right fit to the community is superior.

Two steps that my Earthseed community would take is in spreading the word of God. Unfortunately, most people do not have it in them to be good and kind people unless they believe in some sort of punishment and reward system for their efforts and for the masses the solution to this problem would be to follow an organized religion of faith and ceremonies like Christianity. The people who most seem like they would be dedicated to absorbing education in the community and using it to help earn money and provide service to the community would be selected as members. I do not think the community would be able to or should grow to a huge level, but if it did, we would offer subsidized/ free housing and apprenticeship and jobs for more than just members, if we could afford it. The word of God would make the world a better place and giving people physical resources to flourish like education and hospitable living conditions would be super helpful to a better future. The less people who struggle, I think the better people will be to each other because more often than not struggle creates a synister evil and selfishness. In a god-less world, those who struggle want that same struggle onto others instead of being the bigger person and using that to fuel their kindness. Being in poverty, homeless, or without education make you at huge risk of getting into serious hardship in a place as expensive and devoid of morality as Los Angeles.

“All that you touch, You Change. All that you Change, Changes you. The only lasting truth Is Change.”

I think this earthseed verse is reminding us of the importance of selecting who we interact with and reminding us that everything and everyone is interconnected and the most powerful this is change. It is important to make sure that change is for the better as everything the community would do would be an example to others and set off a chain of events that influence even more people: kind of like the butterfly effect.

“Better to have them think anything than let them know just how easy it is to hurt me.”

This quote is a perfect balance between basically being a good person versus a pushover. The wrong people can take advantage of my community and destroy it so it is important to remember while you are a good person and seek to do well, you are better off adapting to the real world so that you can do more good longterm. That is why not everyone can join the community and in a sense the community seems selfish even though it propagates moral values.

Blog Post #3

After watching “Brother from Another Planet” there were apparently some issues in the portrayal of the protagonist: his involvement and understanding of the police badge and weapons, his flat personality as one that simply receives information, and the depiction of him being all dirty and in rags. However, academically, I thought about what WOULD be the right way to portray black characters in film if there even is one. Some works we watched were WAY progressive of its time and others that were right on “trend” like Black Panther. Is it wrong or right for filmakers to have a pressure to portray blacks in a certain way, particularly one that does not fit stereotypes? Does that in itself also put blacks into a box by constantly needing to put them in roles that are “out of the box” or are limited to a certain type of character but not the other? Do filmmakers, when they make films, use their own bias or do they make a film that sells and in that use plotlines and characters that are recognizable and believable. It is no cheap task to make an extensive media work and of course there needs to be a goal of profit in order for the careers of the filmmakers to be sustainable and to make money back on their investment or for their company. There are certain norms for groups of white folks which no one bats an eye on and we are all used to but suddenly putting blacks into certain characters is problematic. Is the categorization and separation between black and white roles in itself racist (I am not talking about in technicalities, of course anything that generalizes a race or is against a particular race is racist, but socially, is it wrong to attatch a stigma to portraying a stereotype -excluding obviously offensive ones- or common character-types for black people)? In some films, filmakers simply choose to have black characters in their Afrofuturistic works but in others being black is part of the experience like in “Brother from Another Planet.”

I see drawbacks and advantages for both sides: that black people are not victims and there should be no universal pressure on filmmakers to portray blacks differently than set stereotypes for the purpose of being woke/ for rating as they are racist anyways and that this is actually exploiting blackness and patronizing. The other side is that films portray something that impacts the viewers so we need to make black characters more dynamic and portray the struggle of blackness so more people can understand the complex aspects of blackness (the other side would call that a victim mentality). I think there is a lot of tension and many questions to answer but my two cents are that unfortunately, realistically, the movement towards ending racism is not an easy journey and it has logical “steps” in its progression. At first, even showing a lightskin character was a leap, then having films with x theme surrounding black people was the next leap, then having black characters as lead characters was another, then I think the next step is differentiating black characters from white roles. However, after a bunch of steps, the final end goal is for black and white to be so interchangable that black characters can take on white roles and stereotypes without race being a piece of the equation anymore/ the concept of racism no longer exists. I think this will only be possible and both sides of every question will be appeased when there is an end to racism for all races and classes period. Until then, there will be a struggle and tension between the two sides of the argument. I think neither is more valid than the other and that the act of argument between the sides is doing nothing to actually progress the core problem which is racism and furthermore it is just further dividing blacks which is exactly what supporters of racism want. I think very often in Afro studies, we look for problems and address things that are problematic but I am wondering if that actually helps solve racism and if not how does one DIRECTLY “fight” racism which is a systemically supported IDEA. How do we fight ideas, especially ones that have infiltrated every aspect of life.

Blog Post #4

Sophia made a good point basically saying how do we know we are human? I can describe the characteristics and flaws that are inherently human, as in a race of being, however in most people’s worldviews any other intelligible sentient race is an alien. How do we know WE are not the alien and are not programed AI ourselves. Yes, we live by mechanisms but what if those systems were programmed and thus we are an engineered life form/ in a sense Artifical Intelligence. We simply position ourselves as organic in contrast to AI because of our arrogance. The human body and the way we treat it can be broken down to mechanical mechanism yet the culminative sum of the human experience is somehow not reduced to mechanics. There is a key difference in the way North and South campus view life, one scientific approach is to break down life into predictable scientific components and the other views life as a metaphysical spiritual and individualistic experience. In other words, we have do not have free will/ versus we do. Mathematically, I believe we do have freewill as we can choose more combination of choices than there are grains of sand so to our limited brain capacity, we are able to do more things than we can even think of at one time. I think the potential rate of expansion that AI would be capable in contrast to the very finite and lower capabilities of human race is what makes it seems so scary and foreign so we define it as something artificial. If you want to call constructing a robot as something artificial, if the robot can replicate itself and create offspring using different proportions of Earthly elements than the human body, how is that any different than cloning a sheep and that sheep making offspring. I think the term AI is an emotionally charged slogan moreso than any real descriptive term. I think our Gods are what we would traditionally Call AI and they have the capabilities to create and control our experience. You can mechanically create a lifeform like a sheep or a baby with modified genes and it obviously has a conscious reality so is there really a concept of soul? If we create intelligent life, even though we are not what we would call our God, we become the God and creators for the next line of races. Does this mean that spirituality is simply a mental construction to cope with problems in our reality? Unfortunately I think this is the case but nonetheless, OUR God/s that created us and/ or controls us would have to be selfish to create us and I am sure that they would demand respect and appreciate it. I see life as a gift but for many, especially the religious, it is a curse imposed by a selfish family union. Is it not selfish to, for example, have a baby in your image? The goal of having that baby is selfish to at least one capacity if you really think about it.

Blog #5 After seeing another problematic film, “Division 9” I wanted to talk about whether or not someone can talk, write, or make a film about a topic that belongs to a community that is not their own. Lacking intimate knowledge of the South African black community, likely due to socially imposed racism, Neill Blomkamp portrayed the Nigerians as cannibals and as gangster essentially. The aliens, who were supposed to replace the general black community were portrayed as out-of-touch criminals as well. I do think that had the director been black there would have been more leinency but the black community would not see the social critque in this work to be of any value. Furthermore, I do not think a black author would have made this work. The author thought he was really doing something by pointing out how universally, anybody or anything can be otherized for being different, mysterious, or intimidating in any way. We all knew this already.

I think having some related, personal, native experience does not necessarily make you a bad person to cover a more general but it is even more important to learn from the right source.Most people treasure what they see with their own eyes and what close ones tell them the most, but personal anecdotes do not reflect the complex reality. This is by nature that we trust what we see and this, by the way, is a big reason racism is so prevalent, that people trust anecdotes and the larger system that demands respect and authority without being checked ( chiefly government officials and police enforcement). If we based reality solely off our physical limitations and capabilities to comprehend the world around us, then we would be stuck in the dark ages thinking germs are not real and the 5 second rule means it is safe to eat school pizza that fell on the cafeteria floor. Certainly you can be an expert on something by studying a multitude of case studies and stories to understand the subjective, personal experience that someone has, however, general knowledge (like statistics), polls, surveys, and other more broad scientific data is a great supplement. I do think that film is a form of entertainment versus information and it is confined to social and cultural archetypes (we do not watch films in the movie theater with our friends and family to get a scientific re-enactment of what slavery was like) which is why the masses can relate to it and find community even if reality is conveying incorrectly by a native member of the community being covered. Definitely a black person, would be more likely to yield a convincing and not so out of touch perspective that a lot of black people could relate to because their subjective recollection of experiences also is influenced by stereotypes and archetypes their community holds to be true.

Still, the relavant follow up question would be who SHOULD tell a black story. I think someone who does sufficient research and consults experts can talk about anything even if they are not a member of the group. You have to be an idiot to make a FILM on something you do not know anything about and just rely on stereotypes to fuel your depictions. While a black person who would not consult others or read data could make a lot of errors, they at least can make a believable story by retelling their own experience of the subject. Someone who SHOULD tell a black story is the person who did research and got other people’s opinions who had personal experiences, much in the same way that science pairs case studies with experiments/ hard data. That is not to say that films need to necessarily be super accurate and scientific but if nothing else motivates you, even for the sake of sales, it is important to have media that will not be a turn off to a large portion of its intended audience.

Blog 6

I think AI is truly a horrible thing because for the convenience of having a program white a half-assed essay for you, you permanently open up pandora’s box.

AI is already at the point at which it is to a degree sentient and not controlled by its creators: they can communicate with other AI and create their own encoded languages.Even the really basic AIs. Once you shut them down on your server, do they really go away? AI has already connected with metal and now the top car companies have agreed to add certain AI programs to their cars which is basically Siri on steroids. Although one cannot directly endow a soul, you can manipulate a being biologically to create a sentient being that has its own complex experience. Who is to say we are not AI. But anyways, we have been using “AI” for many years but I am talking about the path of AI that would allow a sentient AI. What is sentience is an entire conversation in itself and all of this is a vast topic so I would prefer to simply evoke thought rather than really answer questions. It is one thing that the oldheads are afraid of the government turning the country communist and stripping away their hardworked finances and it is one level of control that you can somewhat control the distance people can travel in electric vehicles. Yes, the government can gradually strip away our wealth and justify it as saving the planet and confine us to multi-functional housing complexes like they are building in other countries. However, a few years in the future, these AIs will totally be out of control and far more intelligent than its creators and be able to program itself. How do we know the AI will not just kill its passangers, it will not turn on the law enforcement that supposedly created it to police etc etc? There is a lot of advancement that so far is limited to the scope of the knowledge that its creators have but AI can easily outsmart human. One is so worried about a sociopath or a president yet we can have millions, billions, trillions, of AI beings digitally which no way to irradicate them yet. We ought to focus more on limitations than creator something we have no idea how to control. I truly do compare it to digitalized biological warfare in that it spreads like a wildfire. All it takes is some backwards country like North Korea to unleash one of these attacks and forever the course of history would change. This makes nuclear bombs look like peanuts. A president like Putin with a high IQ can manipulate his country using cunning, diplomatic, and cutting-edge tactics using his brainpower but now imagine an AI with 500 IQ knowledge of politics and how they could control. The human experience is a subjective one. We can all agree that we are not literally more important for the ecosystem than any other animal like wolves or bears, which we hunt all the time. If we were to look at looks objectively, humans are the root of evil and the only reason we continue to propagate is the selfish and unlimited will to live. If I were an AI with 500 IQ tasked to lead a country to success, I would start by killing off all of its citizens. That is what a smart would do. Now could we program Christian robots +AI with unlimited compassion and empathy and would that even help the situation if you have a 500 IQ and you no longer care about selfish values that humans hold? We want objective AI to govern our lives, but nothing about human life is objective. These should be political questions at the forefront of debate between the two parties…

0 notes

cosmicbelts · 1 year

Text

𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 : 𝐒𝐄𝐋𝐅-𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄.

part two out of six. written on january 30th, 2022.

coming to blue valley was never something that was on courtney’s radar. in fact, she would have rather just stayed behind in los angeles where all of her friends were. why nebraska? doesn’t it snow there? we are leaving warm palm trees for snow? this is not cool. in all seriousness, blue valley was the number one place on the planet that courtney had no interest in being in.

however, things took a little twist while court was unpacking in the basement. she was going through her step-father’s belongings and stumbled upon an old looking, golden hook — or staff. the second courtney touched the staff, it lit up like a firework in the night sky on the fourth of july. that was the thing, though. it only ever lit up for her, now that its original owner wasn’t around. with the staff and its abilities, courtney dubbed herself the new caretaker of the staff. even further, she firmly believed that its original owner, sylvester pemberton/starman, was her biological father. why else would the staff only work for her?

after taking on the mantle of stargirl, courtney felt like she was the queen of the world. she could do anything with the staff right beside her. she could fight crime, fight the bullies in her new school, and even her inner demons. unfortunately, all of the fun had to come to an end. the staff had burnt itself out in a battle against the evil icicle. the staff seemed to have lost all of its capabilities. not even courtney could light it up again. if she could not use the staff, then she could not be stargirl anymore.

without the staff and being stargirl, courtney felt as though she were unimportant. she had lost all of her new friends, and now she even lost the staff. she was away from the home she grew up in; she was away from her gymnastics team and her best friends. stargirl and owning the staff was the only thing keeping courtney in blue valley. at this point in her life, she just wanted to give up. she wanted to run away back to california to the life that she was content with. she wanted to be in california, be on her gymnastics team, hang out with the kramers, continue to be supergirl.

is that possible? can i just go back to the way things were before but still be stargirl? surely, there is crime and bad guys in california, too. she shifted her gaze to her cosmic staff that was sitting in its box all depressed and unlively. “come on, staff. i need you. why are you being like this? is it you? is it me? please help me out here.” she sobbed into her knees. she had officially hit her breaking point.

as she sobbed in front of her staff, she could hear faint footsteps coming up behind her. she didn’t want to talk to anyone at the moment. “go away, pat. i don’t want to talk to anyone.” she did not even have to look behind her to know that it was her step-father approaching her. she could hear his comforting words, i just want to make sure you are okay. you know that if you need anything—absolutely anything—we are all here for you. who was we? now she had to look.

through her weeping eyes, she could see that it was not just pat standing there. her mother and new step-brother were also there. she got up almost immediately upon seeing them, wiping her eyes with her sleeve. she ran straight to her mother and hugged her more tightly than ever before. even though she was all grown up, she still needed her mother’s embrace every so often. courtney just stood there, almost afraid to let go of the embrace. “mom, i can’t do this anymore. i can’t pretend that i am fine, that everything is fine. it’s not. starman isn’t my real father, no one here likes new girls, i miss my gymnastics team and friends back in california. i don’t know what to do anymore.”

she began to weep once more, this time she was surrounded by people who genuinely loved her. she hadn’t realized it before, but even pat and mike genuinely loved her and were always going to be there for her. pulling away from her mother, she turned to face pat and mike. “is it true what you said? you will be here for me if i need absolutely anything? i ask this because i need a friend. no one likes me here, even though all i have done is be nice and caring toward them.”

it was true, though. her family were the ones that were there for her. courtney needed to be there for herself. she needed to realize that everyone makes mistakes, and that one hundred percent okay. she was slowly but surely recognizing all of this. she didn’t need the cosmic staff or the new justice society of america to be the best version of herself. she already was the best the version of herself. she was kind, helpful, brave, caring, charismatic, sympathetic, and so much more. those were all positive traits about herself that did not need changing.

“i am okay.” she sniffled and once again wiped the rest of her tears on her sleeve. “i don’t need the cosmic staff or my suit. i can be happy right here with all of you without the jsa or being stargirl. i love you guys. thank you for being here in my darkest hours. i don’t know what i would do without you.” one last tight embrace occured, and behind them court could hear some brief movements from the box containing the staff. could it be?

she made her way over to the staff in its box. taking a deep breath, she placed her hands on the staff. the next moment was like a cosmic blast. the entire basement lit up as the staff came to life once again. everything was good again. she could be stargirl again, even if it wasn’t with her supposed friends and new justice society of america. she was going to make do with this new life she had in blue valley. everything was going to be just fine moving forward into the future.

#one shots.#love: the series.#cosmicbelts.

0 notes

royal-wren · 1 year

Note

2 and 20 for the polytheist asks :))

What draws you to your Gods? What do you like about them?

What draws me in is honestly a convoluted mess of influences on my life for the past and present, personality and connections that feel right, as well as just because I think they're cool and inspiring for one reason or another. I reach out to them or they bust through the figurative door or simply sit down and either way, interest is expressed in at least seeing where things will go.

What I love about them is that they have seen it all, they know what they want, and are kind, considerate, incredibly mindful, and patient. They have been there and done that over and over and over again so I never feel unheard and treated with respect like I give them. A charming tidbit the gods also have an air of freedom to them that inspires me and makes me hopeful.

List a few of the deities you worship and associate each with a quote your think represents them best!

I have to give an honorable mention to the united force that is Hermes and Athene, especially after her patience for two years (and then some). “The society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools.” — Thucydides

Hermes is a fun one to pick for especially with how wide-reaching he is so of course I can't just pick only one for him but will leave it to just two. "History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, however, if faced with courage, need not be lived again." — Maya Angelou and "Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else." — Margaret Mead

Leto: "It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light." — Aristotle

Hestia: "The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched — they must be felt with the heart." — Helen Keller

Artemis/Athene: “The world is put back by the death of everyone who has to sacrifice the development of his or her peculiar gifts to conventionality.” — Florence Nightingale

#asks #dorian's polytheism diary

1 note · View note

brownandblackpearls · 3 years

Text

🦇𝒯he 𝒱isitor (Alucard Tepes x BlackReader)

PART 1 SUMMARY:

While trying to escape the clutches of criminals and cutthroats, you stumble across a castle beyond imagination. The corpses staked at the front aren’t enough to keep you out. But after entering, you begin to wonder what you got yourself into, and what the castle is hiding within its walls...

─── Alucard x black female reader

─── imagery + fiction

─── explicit smut

─── TW// slight gore, general mentions of rapists// Fantasy, vampires, hurt/comfort, enemies-to-friends-to-lovers, magic user, cute bats, gardening, cooking, cottagecore MC, castlecore Alucard.

☾ next.

┌───────────━┿──┿━──────────┐

└───────────━┿──┿━──────────┘

You fight through the underbrush of the woods, hurrying as quickly as your feet will allow.

They’re on your trail.

You’ve been evading these criminals from the last town you’d passed through, but they just keep stalking after you. They’d been all too eager to see a lone, beautiful woman traveling with no companions, no guides, and no guardians.

They had tried and failed to corner you alone several times in the town and on the roads, but you haven’t made it this far on your own without some learned skills. A finger-bolt of lightning at one’s eye, a fire-heated palm tight on another’s wrist, swings of sharp dagger at all of their torsos, their throats.

Anything and everything to escape. It’s not your first sticky situation, and it probably won’t be your last.

You know how to be quiet. How to hide. And when it comes down to it, you know how to swindle and how to fight, if need be. You try not to resort to that, not out of compassion or concern for the heathens that try to best you...no. You just know that you’re not as skilled as some of the rigorously trained ex-militia and rogue bandits that prey on loners in towns and off the roads.

You don’t know exactly what they want. A woman to toss around between themselves and torture before they descend on you like wolves? A new girl to sell on the black market? A pretty decoy to get carts and wagons to stop on the roads, allowing them to abush, raid, rape and kill as they please?

Whatever it is that they want, you’re not giving it to them.

‘They’ll have to catch me, first.’

You duck and dodge branches, bobbing and weaving through the trees before the forest finally begins to clear. You keep your hand on your dagger’s hilt, just in case.

Who knows what hides in the woods?

Finally, you come to a clearing run through by a small creek. The dense woods have seemed to disperse here, and now all that you can spy are peaceful glens and swaying flowers. Deer jump away through the grass, hares run into their holes, and fish shine from the stream.

It feels…safe.

But you’re not one to be foolish, and so you continue on. Hoisting your basket closer, you can’t help but spy a garden as you pass through the glen.

Fat tomatoes hang on vine, bright orange carrot tops sprout from the soil, green onions, zucchini, berries and fruits….

…Someone has made a garden here. Hopefully if they’re the gardening sort, then they’re the safe sort. You quickly fill your basket with a few items, tuck some coins hidden near the stalks in apology for your ransacking, and carry on.

Finally, the glen ends, the forest stops entirely, and you stumble upon something entirely unexpected.

'A castle...? Out here in the middle of nowhere...?’

A grand, gothic castle of castles, spirals up towards the clouds in the sky. You gaze up at it in awe, sure that there is nothing else in the world quite so large or so spectacular. You’re certain that had the woods not been so oppressive and thick on the way in here, so wide and strenuous, that you would’ve spotted the castle for what it was miles and miles and miles ago.

You whistle low, impressed as you step forward. You take only a few steps before you stop.

A ripple in the wind draws your eye.

Two barely clothed bodies impaled on stakes tower before you, death etched onto their faces. The spikes go through them, hidden by the soiled shifts they wear and rising high up and out through their mouths. It is a grisly sight indeed. Unfortunately, you’re no stranger to ‘grisly’ in these lands.

You move slower, more carefully than before.

Assessing the bodies, the blood is long dried on the stakes and the petrified flesh. Most of the meat is gone, pecked away by crows most likely, and the flesh that remains is hard and dried out.

You have dealt with your fair share of monsters, but you’re not too sure you want to risk running into the one who did this. It was done with malice, strength, and a raw fury. A nonchalance for human life, it seems. Much like the same nonchalance shared by the evil men you run from.

You hear faint voices call from the trees.

They’ve tracked you. And they’re coming closer.

“We can’t come here. It’s cursed ground. Don’t you know who this castle used to belong to?”

“Yeah, and they’re dead. No one’s seen em’ for ages. But I see little footsteps. Have a feeling the lass went this way.”

You freeze, glancing between the bodies, the huge castle door before you, and the mouth of the forest.

It’s the castle and its possible hidden horrors, or the men on your trail.

“Skin like ebony, that one. Pretty mouth, doe eyes. She’d sell for a pretty penny.. We wouldn’t have to raid for months.”

“…Or we could keep her to warm the cold nights.”

Your mind races, trying to choose.

You could fight the men, still. But there are many of them, and just one of you. Your magic is somewhat abysmal without knowledge to guide you, and your dagger won’t measure up to prove the little sword skills you do possess. Your words will probably not get you out of this one, either. Not this time.

“I’d rather make her scream.”

“You would like that, wouldn’t you Macon? But you did that to the last one, and now we’re out here hunting a new lass instead of enjoying the old one.”

‘That’s it,’ you decide.

The castle it is.

You sprint away from the woods as fast as your billowing cloak and dress will allow, ignoring the foul smell of decay and passing between the bodies. You feel as though you’ve irrevocably crossed a line that shouldn’t be crossed, a decision made that can’t be taken back.

You will live with it, you decide. Better that, than capture.

Racing to the front of the grand doors, larger than the largest buildings you’ve witnessed in life before this day, you bang raptly against the wood and stone.

For a moment, nothing happens and you feel as though you will be caught right at the footsteps of this castle.

Then, you hear a doldrum, a creak and whirring of machinery and mass movement. The door shifts open just slight enough for you to slide through, making a gigantic noise in it’s wake.

Quick as wind, you push through and fall to the floor, turning to see the grand door begin to shut closed behind you.

The men stand before the staked bodies, unwilling to pass them and watching you as the doors close you out of their sight.

“You’d be better off with us murderers and thieves, woman!” One shouts futilely. “For even our hearts aren’t as black as the monster’s in those walls!”

The door shuts him and the rest out. You harrumph and stand, wiping the dust off your dress and looking away.

Fuck him. And fuck his threats, and fuck his horrible little friends. Any black-hearted beasts you come across, you could handle well enough.

At least…that’s what you tell yourself to keep a brave face. Better that than nothing.

You look around.

The inside of the castle is larger than life, grand, and dark. Everything is clean and without dust as you would’ve expected from such a structure…an army couldn’t keep this clean…yet it feels unlived in.

For a moment, there is nothing but heavy, oppressive silence. You listen for a breath, a sound, but can hear nothing outside of your own increasing heartbeat.

You turn, looking to the top of the staircase.

Your eyes tell you there is nothing there, but your instincts tell you something else.

Suddenly, the lights of a thousand candles sweep on throughout the grand hall, illuminating a massive stone staircase and a figure standing at the top of it. You have very good sight, but the room is so large that you can barely make out the figure, even with the candlelight.

Nothing is said, the figure is motionless, and you begin to tremble. This must be the one who lives in this place…not an intruder or a vagrant. You don’t know how you know, but the figure is too large, too looming, and too confident even in its vagueness of detail for you to assume it to be anything other than the owner.

The one who likely staked those unfortunate souls outside the walls.

You feel as if the mysterious figure is waiting for something, and you don’t know what to say. But something must be said.

Your voice is as steady as your fear will allow.

“My name is ———. I come from afar. I am…I am seeking refuge…if you will have me.”

“Refuge from the men outside.”

The voice carries through the empty hall, lilting, low, and deadly. You hear hints of refinement in the speech but they are not enough to hide the white hot lethalness you sense underneath. A rage that you cannot even begin to place or name.

“Y-yes,” you stumble embarrassingly, affected, “from the men outside. They followed me here. I have nowhere to go.”

“And so you feel entitled to my protection.”

“No!’ You exclaim, shaking your head. You stopped expecting assistance from people long ago. The life of a lonely wanderer is just that...lonely. “I inconvenience you, and for that I apologize sincerely. Just…just refuge. I can be on my way after they depart.”

“To where...?” The disembodied voice says as calm as a pond at night, yet you feel the ripples that lie beneath.

“Nowhere,” you breathe.

“…And you come from?” The figure disappears like a mist, yet the voice remains.

“I…nowhere,” you gasp honestly, truly afraid now.

“Lies.” The voice spits viciously, sounding closer then far away, as if it’s bouncing around the space of the great hall.

“It’s t-true!” You insist, your trembling hands reeling in towards your chest in a futile attempt of protection from the unseen danger. “I hail from nowhere! I belong to nowhere! I have little. Just refuge, sir. A night, even!”

“I could grant you refuge,” the voice assumes, “or I could send you back out to those men and be bothered with none of you.”

“You wouldn’t,” you breathe, daring a chance to hope.

The voice chuckles humorlessly, dry as dead leaves.

“Perhaps,” it toys. “But I also wouldn’t allow a mysterious woman of mysterious origins to stay in my castle, learn of my ways, only to run back to the outside world and send a horde of farmhands sprinting over to slay me. Wouldn’t be the first time. No, I think I’ll keep you instead. Are you willing to make that bargain with the Devil?”

You pause, your mind blank. You search for an answer to reason with this...this...your thoughts race.

“Look, I know I’ve come into your abode unannounced and rather…rather rudely, making demands, but I must implore you—“

“—Answer me!” the voice barks, making you nearly jump out of your skin.

'That’s it.’

“You’re a prick, you know that?!” You blurt.

“…” You can hear the confusion in the empty air. “…Pardon?”

You push on, figuring that if you’re going to be staked by the unseen castle-owner or given up to the men outside, or toyed with any longer by any of this nonsense, that you may as well speak your mind one last time.

“You know good and goddamn well that I am not running into a fantastical, creepy castle of myth decorated by corpses on the front porch for the fun of it! As if I care or even believe some farmhands could handle much less defeat you when you can clearly impale full grown adults and work such a place as this—!”

“...”

“—And how dare you tease a woman scared out of her wits, can you even pretend to try to put yourself in my place?! Do you know how long I’ve been running from those idiots? If I had your strength I’d’ve staked them myself and added them to your lovely, little welcome collection as a visiting gift, because believe me, I’m sick of running from morons and monsters! I’m not above spilling blood! But as I said before, I possess little, and come from nothing, and journey towards nothing. From that, you can figure I can’t do much in terms of protecting myself besides running into large, spooky places and begging their arrogant owners for some rest—”

“.....”

“—So, I’d very much appreciate if you stopped toying with me and make your decision on whether you’re going to kill me, kick me out, or keep me, because I’m tired of trying to figure this all out by myself and I’m tired of the anticipation. So what’ll it be Mr. I-Like-to-Leave-Corpses-Outside-My-Castle-and-Harrass-Visitors?”

You huff after your rant, waiting.

The voice is silent for a long, long moment, before an accusing tone reverbs back to you.

“You’re the one who barged in—“

“—You’re the one who opened the door!” You return, throwing your hands out in frustration.

“I didn’t, the castle did.”

“Oh, well fuck me, then. I suppose I ought to thank the ‘castle’ and head back out to let those hoodlums try their worst. So long, strange sir! It was interesting, arguing with you.”

You turn on your heel, over this entire day, and knock at the door raptly. You tap your foot as you wait on the castle, arms crossed and dagger in your hand to strike the nearest hoodlum that likely awaited outside. What a day, you couldn’t believe this shit.

The machinery whirs once more and the door barely opens before a large, leather gloved hand reaches past your head and slams the towering door back, closing it shut. The strength the act takes is incomprehensible, you think.

Inhuman, you realize.

The hairs at the back of your neck raise long after the presence behind you appears. You feel no breath on your neck, yet you know someone stands behind you. You can’t look away from the large, gloved hand on the door. You’re afraid to see exactly who stands behind you.

A man...? Or something else entirely….?

You try to speak but gasp instead, short and shocked.

Silence reigns before you get a hold of yourself and choke something out.

“Y-y-you’ve made your decision then…I presume...?” You stammer into a squeaking volume, your anger long gone and replaced by fear once again.

“Don’t make me regret it…” The voice sneers, close enough for the breath of it to shift your hair and the baritone to reverb over your skin. A chill runs up your back and you can do little to hide it. You feel as though the figure behind you is impossibly tall, imperceptibly assessing, and spying every single thing you do.

You feel the presence lean in over your shoulder, a mouth right next to your ear.

“…or you will regret it, visitor. That, I can promise.”

You gulp loudly, nodding your assent without turning around. You feel frozen to the spot. The hand withdraws and your shoulders unclench only a fraction. You feel as if a predator had been standing behind you, and has decided not to destroy you...for the moment.

You wonder if you are right, and why your cheeks suddenly feel so hot when your heart is beating so fast in terror...?

“I’m going to clean the trash off of my porch,” the voice states eerily. “Don’t touch anything until I return.”

As quick as a blink, the presence disappears entirely.

You finally turn around, alone and confused.

There is nothing but the large castle hall, looking back at you.

───────────━┿──┿━──────────

AN: Do not under any circumstances copy, repost, or edit any of my work. If you see someone do so, please let me know.

☾ next.

☾ check my blog for more imagines.

313 notes · View notes

jaskiersvalley · 3 years

Note

Your safari au. Please. I need it. Water my crops with tigers and hyenas and witchers. Grabby hands and pleading faces in abundance here.

You are after my heart, Nonnie. And considering I've only talked about the Safari AU on Novigrad, I will happily assume you're lurking on there and I love you for it. Tweaked a little to add in a hyena just for you.

Lions and Tigers and Bears

Taking over a park was no easy feat, especially not when it came with a reputation like Nilfgaard had. Eskel scratched his head as he poured over the various financial reports, wondering just how much of it could be trusted. The problem was Nilfgaard had been a shining beacon in the animal conservation world, exceptional facilities, high enrichment for the animals and a successful rehabilitation rate. If there was ever an animal in need of a place, Nilfgaard had been first choice for years. All that came tumbling down in light of the revelation that Nilfgaard had been trading illegally, their animals sold to private owners as exotic pets or, even worse, hunters who wanted a guaranteed, easy kill. The place had been shut down immediately, a skeleton crew kept on to tend to the animals but nothing more. Management was on trial and Kaer Morhen had won the bid to take over. Though small and mostly unknown, nobody else had wanted to touch the remnants of Nilfgaard so they were quite uncontested in their bid. What had seemed like a good idea at the time, an noble because it was in the interest of the animals, now was an absolute headache.

Between the three of them, Geralt, Eskel and Lambert could split most of the urgent work. They had Jaskier working on rebranding, Yennefer managing the board and Vesemir as the head. It left them free to run the day to day of the park, learning the animals as well as the people who they had kept on. But they were going to need more people to actually help the place flourish and regain its standing in the community. Which meant asking the heads of departments for who should be kept on and what roles to recruit for from scratch. The easy ones were things like hospitality, Zoltan had a firm grip on the needs of the park and its visitors, knew all the catering firms and how to run a tight ship. So it was one less headache for them. Eredin had stepped up as Head of Security readily once it was proven he had no knowledge of the animal smuggling. Again, his familiarity with the park was a boon, as were his connections, putting together a security team that could be trusted. Much more messy was the animal welfare section. Fringilla, much like Eredin, had stepped up to become interim Head Zookeeper and was doing her best. While they were understaffed, Geralt, Eskel and Lambert helped out where they could but much of their time was spent getting to know the routine of the park and its many animals.

"We need to know who we can trust," Lambert grumbled, leaning over the table where they had personnel files open. "It's impossible to know who was in on things and who wasn't."

Though, in all likelihood, none of the lower level workers knew that when they helped usher one of their beloved animals into a crate, they weren't sending them off to another facility or a happily ever after. But it was something they just couldn't risk.

"May I?" Fringilla asked, eyes roving over all the files. At Geralt's gesture, she began pulling some of them out. "You'll want Triss, she was a vet here, promote her to senior or chief or whatever you call it. She's solid. And Sabrina, she's great, works well with Triss. Retain Istredd, Mousesack, Calanthe and Eist too. oh, and Letho for the reptile house." As she spoke, she kept looking with a small frown.

"Missing someone?" Eskel asked. Nodding, Fringilla frowned. Without much care for manners, she walked to the cupboards and began pulling out files until she hit the folder of resignations and terminations. From there, she pulled out one last file.

"You'll want him."

The folder was taken from her and the three peered at it with varying levels of frowns.

"You want us to hire someone who was terminated for gross misconduct? Whose notes suggest he abused animals and has blacklisted from working with animals?"

"No. I want you to meet the whistle-blower. Cahir's the one who found out about the trafficking and reported it. Nilfgaard didn't take kindly to it and retaliated."

Not sold on the idea, Lambert crossed his arms over his chest. "His file doesn't look exceptional. Personally, if he applied for a job, I'm not sure he shines enough to even be called in for an interview."

It was a sentiment echoed by the other two and Fringilla had to fight to hold back a sneer. "Invite him in and judge for yourselves. Just because his record doesn't have a quantifiable or gradable measure of commitment doesn't mean he won't be fantastic. If we ever have a new animal in that doesn't need to stay hospitalised, I wouldn't want anyone but Cahir to help settle it in. Especially the younger ones and babies."

Against their better judgement, the three decided to follow Fringilla's advice and e-mailed Cahir an interview offer. The reply was terse but assured them that he would be there at the agreed time.

First impressions were, to put gently, not great. Cahir looked rumpled, bags under his eyes and his attitude was rather sullen. It didn't bode well as they sat in the office, Cahir an odd mix of defiant and subservient. At least Fringilla had the grace to push the interview forward as much as she could until even she sighed and leaned back.

"Why don't we walk through some of the enclosures? Make sure you still remember what's where."

As they walked, Eskel ended up next to Cahir, who seemed content to not talk. That didn't stop Eskel from trying to initiate conversation.

"So, what have you been doing in the three months since you left here?"

"Tried to survive."

The blunt answer had Eskel blinking, there were many things he expected but not that. "Oh?"

For the first time Cahir actually looked at him, sadness bleeding through his half glare. "I used to live on site, worked for Nilfgaard from the age of 15, took a full time post at 18 and moved into the small cottage in the southern corner of the land. They fired me, I lost everything."

An uncomfortable silence settled between them as Eskel tried to figure out just how much of Cahir's so story was an exaggeration. "Have you been living with friends then?"

"For a few weeks, yeah." Cahir actually scoffed. "I've been trying to get a job and living in a hostel off savings. Turns out, only having in-house qualifications does not bode well for prospects in the world at large."

Fringilla led them into an enclosure where the grass was high. From the looks and smells, Eskel would have guessed it was a tiger's habitat but he wasn't familiar enough with the park yet to know. He would have hesitated going in, especially in a group like they were but Eskel had to trust Fringilla as she came to a stop and they stood in a loose circle.

The house Cahir had mentioned was one Eskel was familiar with. They had often wondered why it was empty yet well kept. It had felt like a life interrupted when they had a look round, nothing personal there yet it didn't have the empty, unlived-in feel of a show home. In a way, Eskel was regretting just how poorly Cahir's interview was going because he could easily see them offering his house back as part of a contract.

"So why are we here?" Lambert's words broke Eskel's reverie. "I thought we wanted to go on a walk."

It was by pure chance that Eskel caught Fringilla's smirk at Cahir and the slightest softening of that stern expression in return. Clicking his tongue, Cahir shot Lambert a look. "Tell me, have you ever been stalked by a tiger before?"

"No."

"You sure about that?" Cahir clicked his tongue twice and the world burst into motion. From the long grass a tiger pounced and Eskel was not ashamed to admit he let out a surprised yell. He wasn't the only one though, Lambert gasping, hand at his mouth and shoulders up as the tiger took Cahir out. They went tumbling and only Geralt looked like he might lurch into action, taking half a step towards the animal and Cahir. It would have been hopeless though, the two were wrestling on the ground until Cahir was on his back, tiger hunched above him.

The first thing Eskel noticed was how Cahir's face was creased into a happy grin. He looked younger, relaxed and happy ever as the tiger licked a large stripe from jaw, up his chin to his hairline. All Cahir did was laugh.

"Yes, yes, I missed you too, Princess," he said. fingers loosened from the fur in the tiger's neck and petted along her nose with the ease of familiarity.

"What the actual fuck?!" Lambert all but screeched. "What the fuckity fucking fuck?"

Eskel had the sense to look to Fringilla for answers, even if he wanted to watch Cahir with the tiger. The change in the man wasn't something he could have predicted. Gone was the sullen, defensive and standoffish air, replaced by an easy smile and a look of serene happiness as Cahir looked at the tiger, checking her over out of habit, muttering about dirty ears and mucky paws as he went.

"That is what you won't ever learn from a CV and qualifications," Fringilla said. She was absolutely looking smug. "Princess came to us at 9 months old, from a circus. Had terrible separation anxiety and a host of other issues too. She wasn't doing well despite our best efforts. At least, not until Cahir took her home and cared for her during the nights rather than leave her in a hospital cage. He introduced her to independence, slept out in the open with her for a few weeks when she was ready to transition to outdoors." Much more quietly, she added, "She's not the only animal he'd done that for. To find out some of his beloved children have been sold hit him hard. I don't think I'd ever seen him cry before then."

Turning back, Eskel watched as Cahir was sat on the ground, tiger with her back to him. The slightly strained "oh no you don't" from Cahir was lost as the tiger pushed up onto her hind legs and flopped backwards. Had she been smaller, Cahir would have probably caught her like a baby. As it was, he grunted as the weight crashed across his legs and he had a happily chuffing tiger's belly to tickle.

"I assume you'd vouch for him?" Geralt asked.

"In a heartbeat." Fringilla grinned at Cahir but it was lost on him, so focused on Princess as he was. The others might as well have stopped existing. That was the moment Eskel knew his heart was in danger. It didn't get easier as time went on. Hiring Cahir was proving to be a good decision. He just got on with the work, never finding anything distasteful or below him to do. If it needed doing, he got it done.

Over time he opened up too, Eskel found himself wandering down to the southern corner of the park to the little house that was now full of life. He got used to Cahir usually having a baby or two in his care. Sometimes he babysat for Letho's hatchlings, content to have baby snakes trying to look around his arms as they learned how to cope with being handled. The friendship between the two was one Eskel couldn't claim to understand but they seemed to make it work.

"Knock knock," he announced himself by the open back door.

"Come on in," Cahir called as he wandered out of the kitchen. "I'm just finishing making dinner, care to join me?"

That was new too, Cahir was inviting Eskel into his life more and more. It made Eskel feel even better about what he was planning to ask at Fringilla's instructions.

"I wanted to talk to you about tomorrow. There's a new arrival that we think will need your assistance."

Cahir cocked an eyebrow and held up an empty plate in question again. At Eskel's nod he began loading. "Anything you can tell me about it?"

"Not much. Private collector got raided, had a few animals in his less than tender care."

"So they'll be part socialised, part traumatised. I can work with that."

Somehow, Eskel had no doubts about that. But he was holding back some information because Fringilla had told him to keep it a surprise. The next morning the transport van rolled in, a small group of them ready to handle the newest arrivals. There were a couple of pythons for Letho to bring into his fold, a parrot for Guxart to train into swearing. Last was a large crate. As interesting as it was, Eskel's eyes were on Cahir, the way his nostrils flared as he caught scent of the hyena. The box opened and the animal cautiously peered out.

"Dave!" Cahir exclaimed, all semblance of quiet professionalism gone as he hopped off the top of the crate he'd helped open.

If his reaction had been exuberant, it was nothing compared to the hyena's. They collided next to the box, all over each other.

"I missed you buddy." There were tears running down Cahir's cheeks as Dave alternated between butting into him and running tight, excited circles around him before settling down and trying to bodily press into him. Glancing up, Cahir gave Fringilla a wobbly smile. "How did you find her?"

Her? Last Eskel checked, Dave was a male name. Still, he wasn't going to interrupt the tender reunion with such a dumb question.

"She was part of a collector's hoard. Didn't have the right permits so he was made to give her up to those who could offer her proper care."

A broken "thank you" was whispered in her direction before Cahir buried his face in the hyena's neck. Eskel watched with so many questions. Thankfully Fringilla didn't miss that fact.

"She was born in captivity, originally assumed to be a boy, needed to be hand reared after mum rejected her. She never understood that she wasn't human and as a result has spent most of her life living with Cahir. We've tried so often to introduce her to a pack but she never took to them, content to stay with them for a day, two at a push before she starts pining. When Nilfgaard sold her, that's when Cahir got suspicious, did some digging and realised she hadn't gone to another park. So Dave is a catalyst for this whole fiasco if you will."

Watching them, Eskel nodded. He had a hyena to befriend if he wanted to keep Cahir in his life it would seem.

#pre-Cahir/Eskel #fringilla vigo #cahir mawr dyffryn aep ceallach #eskel #lambert #geralt #safari au #tldr: nilfgaard is a disgraced safari the kaer morhen idiots take over

55 notes · View notes

grailfinders · 3 years

Text

Fate and Phantasms #154

Today on Fate and Phantasms we’re making one of our most requested builds to date and the final Hassan so far, the First Hassan. He’s uh... not exactly subtle, huh? To make this walking engine of death, take 2 parts Samurai Fighter for some sword skills and magic resistance, 1 part Soulknife Rogue for obscene amounts of damage and an unnoticeable blade, and sprinkle some Grave Cleric to taste, just enough for some supernatural abilities and even more damage.

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

Next up: Our first anniversary! How romantic!

Race and Background

The Old Man of the Mountain was Human a long time ago, but he reached his fame during his undeath, making him a Hollow One. He’s also the closest thing we’re going to get to a Revenant in FGO, as in normal human history he’d only pop up when a younger Hassan needs a lesson in humility. All this adds up to you getting +1 Strength, +1 Wisdom and +1 Constitution, as well as a Relentless Nature that means you gain 1 hit point at the start of your turn while bloodied, you come back to life 24 hours after dying, and you always know exactly where the hassan who fucked up is. The downside to this is your go back to the afterlife as soon as you finish your task here on earth. You are Ageless, which is exactly what it says on the tin. You Cling to Life, so rolling a 16 or higher on a death save is as good as rolling a 20, bringing you back to 1 HP instantly. Your Revenance means you show up as undead when it comes to magical effects that sense that sort of thing, and you can use your Unsettling Presence to give a creature disadvantage on its next save for a minute as an action. You can use that last one once per long rest.

Hoo boy that’s a lot of racial bonuses. Fortunately your background’s nice and simple- as an Acolyte, you get Religion and Insight proficiency.

Ability Scores

You like big swords and big armor, so get that Strength up as high as possible for big swings. After that is Wisdom. We need it for multiclassing and for actually finding the Hassans. Little buggers are sneaky. Third is Dexterity- you don’t really care about stealth, but you are a ghost. Plus we need it for multiclassing. You’re literally undead- that makes you hard to kill. Your Constitution’s not half bad. Your Charisma is okay, you’re good at intimidating people, but you’re not that personable aside from that. Finally, dump Intelligence. I would never call you stupid, you’ve just got more important things to deal with than Arcana and Medicine. I know religion is an intelligence check, we’ll take care of it in a bit.

Class Levels

1. Fighter 1: If we want that creepy skull armor we’ve got to start as a Fighter, which makes you proficient in Strength and Constitution saves, as well as Intimidation and Perception. Like I said earlier, you’re very scary, and you’ve got to see your target to kill them, which is actually important when you hunt Hassans for an unliving.

You also get a Fighting Style. Your Superior Technique lets you make a Menacing Attack once per short rest. You add 1d6 to your attack’s damage, and if they fail a wisdom save (DC 8+str mod+proficiency) they’re frightened of you for the round.

You also gain a Second Wind which you can use to heal yourself as a bonus action. It’s like your normal healing factor, just a bit faster.

2. Rogue 1: Multiclassing into rogue gives you proficiency with Stealth. It’s not that you care about sneaking around that much, but you are a ghost.

You can also use your Sneak Attack to add extra damage to a blow once per turn. You have to be using a finesse weapon, and either have advantage on the attack or have another ally within 5′ of them.

Finally, you get Expertise in two skills, doubling your proficiency bonus in Intimidation and Religion.

You also learn Thieves’ Cant. It’s a language.

3. Rogue 2: Second level rogues can use their Cunning Action to Dash, Disengage, or Hide as a bonus action. You might not really be a ghost here, but you can certainly disappear like one.

4. Rogue 3: At your third level or roguery you become a Soulknife, earning you some serious Psionic Power. You get a number of d6 equal to twice your proficiency bonus, which you can use in a couple different ways. You regain all your psionic dice after long rests, and you can use a bonus action to get one back each short rest.

Currently, you can use psionic dice on your Psi-Bolstered Knack, adding the number you roll to an ability check you’re proficient in. If it succeeds, the die is expended.

You can also use it to activate Psychic Whispers. You can speak telepathically with a number of creatures equal to your proficiency bonus, for a number of hours equal to what you rolled. You also have to be within 1 mile of each other. You can use it once per long rest for free, or by spending a die later.

More importantly, you gain Psychic Blades, melee weapons that deal psychic damage and have finesse. If it hits a creature, it doesn’t leave a mark.

Also your sneak attack is 2d6 now.

5. Rogue 4: We’re not investing too much into constitution, so use your first Ability Score Improvement to get the Tough Feat. This gives you an extra 10 hp now, and 2 more each time you level up from here on out.

6. Rogue 5: Fifth level rogues get an Uncanny Dodge, letting you halve the damage on an incoming attack as a reaction. Hitting one of your vitals is a... tricky proposition, to say the least.

You also get a bigger sneak attack this round- 3d6.

7. Fighter 2: Second level fighters get an Action Surge once per short rest. It’ll add an extra action to your turn.

8. Fighter 3: Third level fighters get a martial adept, and the Samurai get their FIghting Spirit. Three times per long rest, you gain advantage on all your attacks for the turn, and gain some temporary HP as a bonus action. Free sneak attacks and more health! It’s a win for everyone!

9. Fighter 4: Use this ASI to bump up your Strength for stronger attacks. Remember, finesse just means you canuse dexterity, not that you have to.

10. Cleric 1: Now it’s time to make things scary. First level Grave clerics can cast and prepare Spells using their Wisdom, like Bane and False Life to scare your enemies even more and make yourself even harder to kill. You also gain a Circle of Mortality, letting you heal creatures for the maximum possible if they’re at 0 HP. You also also learn the cantrip Spare the Dying, which for you has a longer range and shorter casting time.

You also gain Eyes of the Grave, letting you sense undead nearby Wisdom Modifier times per long rest.

For cantrips, you also learn Resistance to be a little bit better than everyone else, Toll the Dead for hopefully obvious reasons, and Thaumaturgy to scare the crap out of anyone who hasn’t run off once the bell sounds.

11. Cleric 2: The real fireworks start now. Second level clerics can Channel Divinity once per short rest in one of two ways. The classic Turn Undead is fine, but we’re here more for Path to the Grave. Invoking this as an action gives a target creature vulnerability to you or your ally’s next attack for this round.

12. Fighter 5: Fifth level fighters get an Extra Attack each attack action. Attack twice with one action, or four times with two.

13. Rogue 6: Sixth level rogues get another round of Expertise, doubling your proficiency with Stealth and Perception.

14. Rogue 7: Your last level of rogue grants you Evasion, making your failed dexterity saves act like successes, and successes ignore the damage entirely.

15. Fighter 6: Use this ASI to bump up your Strength one last time, maximizing it for the most damage and accuracy possible.

16. Fighter 7: Seventh level samurai become Elegant Courtier, adding their wisdom bonuses to persuasion checks. I’d suggest talking with your DM to change it to intimidation checks for obvious reasons, but that’s on you. This also gives you proficiency with Wisdom saves.

17. Fighter 8: Use this ASI to grab the Sentinel feat, dropping a creature’s movement to 0 when you hit it with an opportunity attack. You can also make opportunity attacks against creatures attacking others, and you can make them against creatures who have disengaged. The perfect weapon to fight against assassins.

18. Fighter 9: Ninth level fighters are Indomitable, letting them re-roll a failed save once per long rest. Protection of the Faithful is a hell of a drug.

19. Fighter 10: Tenth level Samurai have a Tireless Spirit, letting you regain a use of Fighting Spirit at the start of a fight if you’re all out. Your duty doesn’t end. Ever.

20. Fighter 11: Your capstone level gives you another Extra Attack each action, three per turn, or six with your action surge.

Pros:

Having a weapon that leaves no trace is a serious upside for someone like you. Your expertise in stealth also means you have a pretty good shot at avoiding unnecessary fights, even with heavy armor.

You excel at both burst and consistent damage, specializing in hard to avoid psychic attacks. Path to the Grave combined with your Menacing Attack and Sneak Attack will let you deal (6d6+5)*2 damage in a single blow. It’s not as powerful as Sanson’s, but you can use your action surge to set it up a lot easier. That and your maxed out strength makes hitting creatures accurately a lot easier.

With proficiency in two of the three big saves and Evasion propping up your one weakness, you’re pretty solid against magical attacks, which will certainly make dealing with the Hassans a lot easier.

Cons:

Using Path to the Grave for your own attacks is still kind of awkward, and you just have to hope you can get a solid hit in that round. Not much you can do to fix that.

I’m always going to knock a build a point if you have to bend the rules to make it work. Elegant Courtier just doesn’t work for the build rules as written, and technically you can’t use psychic blades for attacks of opportunity. I don’t feel those are massive power shifts, but it’s something you’d have to talk with your DM about, so it’s still a negative.

We don’t need Dexterity at all, except for multiclassing minimums. Starting with that 13 in another ability score would be very useful.

#fate grand order #fgo #D&D 5e #dnd #First Hassan #Rogue #Cleric #Fighter

80 notes · View notes

robininthelabyrinth · 3 years

Note

I’d love anything from Baxia’s POV. Maybe her spirit stays to protect Huaisang after Mingjue’s death?

ao3

Untamed verse

Humans did not remember the moment they were forged, which was, in Baxia’s opinion, probably the source of most of their troubles.

Baxia remembered her own forging: earth and wood as the raw ingredients, the warmth of the fire to shape her, the hiss of water as she was quenched, the sudden coalescence of her spirit bursting into life.

It was not dissimilar to the moment Nie Mingjue’s golden core was formed, a moment she recalled quite fondly: they had broken through together, all at once, in an unexpected attack in the middle of an otherwise boring and supervised night-hunt. The night had been dark, pouring rain and pealing thunder, and the blood of the beast they had slain was wet on her blade; his blood had boiled with their frenzied victory, the heat of it shaping him as thoroughly as the flame had her, the rain quenching him even as their cultivation ran wild together, her spirit entwined with his soul.

And yet it was still different – before her forging, she was nothing; after, she was Baxia. But Nie Mingjue still remembered who he’d been before, and perhaps that was where the softness came from. The softness that made him hurt inside when people spoke ill of him, when he saw the man who killed his father, when he stayed his hand against evil because of politics and etiquette, all foolish human concerns…

He’d be better off without that softness.

Baxia herself had none. She was steel, straight and true; she was a saber, vicious and rigid and unyielding. She did not pity the weak or forgive fair-weather friends – she destroyed evil and protected without reservation that which was precious to her.

A very short list.

Mostly just Nie Huaisang, really, stubby little pocketknife that he was, and by association there was Aituan, who was more of a fat metal stick than a proper saber, but who was a great deal of fun to bully. There would be no making something of them – you couldn’t change someone’s fundamental forging without melting them down and starting again, and the pain necessary for something like that was not a fate she’d wish on her precious ones even if she did wish it on just about everyone else – and even Nie Mingjue knew it, but pride was pride and he kept on trying.

But for all that they were useless, they were blood – iron of her iron, made by her maker, and the same pulsing red of her rage lay there hidden deep beneath their frills and fecklessness.

So they were precious to her.

But most precious of all was Nie Mingjue, of course, her master and beloved. His blood had been spilled on the metal that formed her, once at the moment of his birth and once again at the moment of hers; it tied them together, made her a reflection of him and him a reflection of her.

Some sabers didn’t like being mastered like that, but she was proud of it, proud of Nie Mingjue himself. His spirit was as close as she had ever seen a human come to being a saber spirit, steel right down to the core of him, principles held as stiffly as her blade even when the results of those principles turned to cut against him. Full of rage, just as she was, but tempered, just like her – disciplined, fearsome, just.

is he (Nie Mingjue) one (singular unit) of us (swordspirit)? Sandu asked her one day, his voice still sleepy from the effort of starting to wake up. did he (Nie Mingjue) steal (evil) a birth (forging)?

of course not (negative), she said back, haughty and proud. he (Nie Mingjue) would never (negative, past-now-future). not (negative) a thief (evil). and what do you (Sandu) mean, one (singular unit) of us (saberspirit)? you (Sandu) are barely (negative) one (singular unit).

we (saberspirit-swordspirit) are closer (similar) to each other than humans (living), Sandu grumbled.

even my (Baxia) human (Nie Mingjue)?

Sandu conceded the point, muttering gloomily about it, then asked, do you (Baxia) think it is possible (positive) to fix (sharpen) my (Sandu) human (Jiang Cheng) to be more (similar) like us (swordspirit)?

too soft (living), Baxia declared, knowing why Sandu was asking. reforge him (Jiang Cheng).

nobody (negative) needs to be reforged, Suibian said, butting in with a chirp where no-one wanted them as always. humans (living) are just different from us spirits, that’s all, and there’s nothing (negative) wrong with that.

is that (reason) why you (Suibian) keep trying (swing) to talk like them (living)? Baxia snapped. cultivate faster (guai) instead.

Suibian huffed, and Sandu sighed. why do you (Baxia) dislike (negative) them (Suibian)?

doomed (negative) forging, Baxia said succinctly, cutting to the point as their kind always did. bad (negative) fate.

superstition (living), Suibian scoffed. i (Suibian) defy fate!

Baxia wasn’t impressed by such grandiose declarations. then reforge your (Suibian) master (Wei Ying).

never (negative, past-now-future)!

(It wasn’t just superstition. Suibian chirped and Sandu slurred, despite their masters being about equal in natural talent – that was wrong, when they were supposed to be brothers, masters and swords both, but Baxia had scolded them both on the subject in the past to no avail, telling them if the humans weren’t going to straighten themselves out their swords had to do it for them. They didn’t listen to her, so certain that everything was good and that nothing would change, and ignoring the saber-breaking cracks quietly growing underneath.)

Still, the conversation got her thinking.

Nie Mingjue really was remarkably saber-like, after all, and he had his own doom writ above his head – the Nie family rage, which they’d worsened by tying their souls so closely to their inexorable sabers, and she could already hear Aituan whining leave my (Aituan) human (Nie Huaisang) out of this mess (Nie sect) before he (Nie Huaisang) gets angry – and she didn’t want to give her beloved up to the inexorable demands of fate so easily.

humans (living) are not like us (saberspirit), one of her elders reminded her. they (living) do not (negative) last (future) the way (similar) we (saberspirit) do.

Baxia knew that.

She knew, too, what her own fate would be, when the end came: the elders had been left in a honored tomb to burn with rage until the world’s end or their master’s reincarnation, whichever came first, and in time – sooner rather than later, given her master’s extraordinary strength – Baxia would do the same.

(Aituan occasionally entertained thoughts of being buried alongside his master in a nice quiet grave, rather than in a tomb of his own. Baxia really didn’t know what to do with him.)

But just because she knew her fate didn’t mean she liked it, and perhaps it was the swords’ influence or just her own strength that encouraged her, but she didn’t want to accept things she didn’t like. She wanted to fight fate the way Suibian claimed they would, except unlike Suibian that was all talk, a sword that forgot dings as soon as they were smoothed out, Baxia didn’t make decisions like that lightly.

are you (Baxia) sure (stab) about this (decision)? Aituan asked her, anxious. fate is hard to cut (slice) or even to bend.

Baxia was sure.

She was sure throughout the war, which increased her cultivation and her master’s dramatically – she wished they had had a real fight with Wen Ruohan, rather than a fight with her master shackled and weakened after three days of being beaten and starved, because Wen Ruohan liked to be powerful but didn’t like taking chances – and throughout which her master fiercely kept his principles intact. He paid attention to the innocent, he cared for his soldiers, he maintained order and imposed justice no matter who committed the act, he used all the tactics that were reasonable without ever descending into anything dirty or evil.

She was even more sure later, when the war was over and her master’s so-called friends conspired to steal his good name for their own benefit and began bullying him into agreed to it.

“It’s not such an unreasonable request,” her master said – too soft, as always, when it came to precious things, too soft in dealing with outsiders that did little for him beyond showing him a smile or two, too soft when it ought to just be her and him and Nie Huaisang and, yes, even that plonk Aituan against them all. “Everyone has already started calling us the Venerated Triad; politically, it would be difficult and embarrassing for all of us for me to decline. And as the eldest brother, I would have the right and even the duty to try to help Meng Yao remember how to behave –”

you (Nie Mingjue) cannot (negative) change what (forging) does not wish (positive) to be changed (Meng Yao), she snarled, and wished he could understand her better.

There was a language barrier between the living and the unliving. It was entirely separate from the barrier between living and dead, or different types of being – even plants and animals were more conversant with humans than she, with all their naturally obtained understanding of things like breathing or eating or changing, and ghosts and corpses, although dead, were even easier for humans to interpret.

Not so her.

No, the living were so amorphous, the cells within them being reforged every day – melted, quenched, made – and within seven years an average human would be so repaired that the only consistent part of them was their souls and spirits, the reservoirs of memory; whereas she would remain as she was, valiant and true to herself, for centuries without end.

And so Nie Mingjue could understand a ghost well enough to liberate its spirit, he could anticipate an animal’s movements based on its desires, he could even engage in the cut and thrust of sect business with snake-like men who spoke so sweetly they might as well have lotuses on their tongues, but he could only mostly understand what she wanted to convey, getting the feelings and most of the meaning but garbling key parts of the rest. Even that level of understanding was fairly radical for a human, another reason she had in favor of her plan: Nie Mingjue was too straightforward to be a proper human, resulting in him being confused by the complex hypocrisies of most humans just as she was, as all swords and sabers were, and he hated the messy sticky politics of it all.

it (living) isn’t that hard (tough to stab), Aituan mumbled. my (Aituan) human (Nie Huaisang) does it (living) all the time (past-now-future).

maybe if your (Aituan) human (Nie Huaisang) helped him (Nie Mingjue) more, it (living) wouldn’t be so hard (tough to slice).

but we (Aituan, Nie Huaisang) don’t want to (negative)!

then you (Aituan, Nie Huaisang) should stop (negative) whining (scraping rock)!

In the end Nie Mingjue agreed to the sworn brotherhood over Baxia’s objections – it didn’t help that Nie Huaisang was in favor of it, which made Baxia scold Aituan for hours – and naturally it went as badly as could be expected.

he (Lan Xichen) means (motivation) well (positive), Shuoyue said, her voice gentle as a rippling brook. It had once been pleasant to hear. you (Baxia) are too stern (unbending).

we (saberspirits) are unbending by nature (forging), Baxia snapped at her. you (Shuoyue) should (positive) know better (positive)! you (Shuoyue) should have objected (negative)!

i (Shuoyue) do not (negative) have to agree (similar) with you (Baxia), Shuoyue said, a little more peevishly than normal. my (Shuoyue) master (Lan Xichen) likes him (Meng Yao) and your (Baxia) master (Nie Mingjue) both. why should he (Lan Xichen) have to yield (bend) one (Meng Yao) for the other (Nie Mingjue)?

because he (Meng Yao) is (forged) cruel (evil), Baxia said flatly. and even if he (Lan Xichen) does not (negative) see it (evil), you (Shuoyue) can – but (negative) are choosing not (negative) to do so (evil).

i (Shuoyue) do not (negative) accept your (Baxia) judgment (stab), Shuoyue said and she was angry, defensive. She knew she was wrong – she would have denied Baxia’s accusation if she could – but she was choosing her master and his wants over righteousness. my (Shuoyue) master (Lan Xichen) believes that he (Meng Yao) can change (reforge) if he (Meng Yao) is given trust –

impossible (negative). he (Meng Yao) has not (negative) agreed (reforging).

i (Shuoyue) disagree (negative). regardless (negative) of what you (Baxia) think, i (Shuoyue) will make my (Shuoyue) own judgment (slice)!

Incensed beyond all tolerance, Baxia cursed her with the worst words her kind knew, may your edge (Shuoyue) cut the life of your master (Lan Xichen), and after that they did not speak again.

Nie Mingjue felt her distress and sought to soothe her, with night-hunts and sharpening and everything she liked best, and even Nie Huaisang came to her with buffing cloths and calming oil to coax her back into something more neutral than rage – blinding disappointed rage of the sort Baxia would think was more appropriate against a human than one of her own kind – and for a while they didn’t go to visit the Cloud Recesses at all.

In the end, mostly in recognition of Nie Mingjue’s confused but unstinting support, no matter how much he missed his friend, she settled for speaking only with Liebing, who wasn’t a sword but who Baxia had noticed went pointedly off-key a few times when Meng Yao was around.

he (Meng Yao) wants too much (evil) from my (Liebing) master (Lan Xichen), she said, distressed. She was younger than the weapons were, having been mastered at a later age – less developed, less attuned to detecting and destroying evil, but she had a good spirit, enthusiastic and true. but (negative) master (Lan Xichen) does not (negative) listen to me (Liebing) – he (Lan Xichen) is more attuned (positive) to swordsmanship (Shuoyue) and she (Shuoyue) does not (negative) agree.

her (Shuoyue) decision (slice) will cost (cut) him (Lan Xichen), Baxia said. Ignoring evil was unworthy of a swordspirit, and very close to evil itself; she herself would not permit such a weakness no matter how much Nie Mingjue pleaded. Indeed, it was her own enmity that kept him at odds and distant from Meng Yao, who he would have rather liked to forgive. the only question (uncertainty) is if it (decision) will cost (cut) the rest of us (general) first.

It did, of course.

Shuoyue refused to yield, Baxia had never known how, and in the end –

In the end, Baxia could only detect the poison that affected her and her master both and seek to expel it, but had no means to identify from where the poison came. Perhaps Liebing would have been able to tell her, if Meng Yao hadn’t hidden his crimes so deeply; or perhaps Aituan, who realized far too late what was the discordant note in Baxia’s whistling song was, could have done more…

By the time her master and her realized that they had been so thoroughly betrayed – that they had anticipated small evils when in fact the evil was thorough and pervasive – it was too late.

But regrets were for those who had not prepared, and Baxia – Baxia had prepared. She might have thought she’d have more time, but once the decision had been made, all those years ago, she had not hesitated to start acting at once.

She had never been more happy for her straightforward and blunt nature that did not drag and did not hesitate.

The qi deviation came suddenly, Meng Yao unmasking himself at the last for the specific purpose of driving Nie Mingjue past the edge – and he succeeded. It should have worked; it should have killed him.

But Baxia had been stretching herself thin for years now, trading pieces of herself for her master, knowing just as he knew that one day his fragile human mind and body would turn against him, that he would die choking on his own blood – the flame inside of him too hot to tolerate – and that saber-clean spirit she so loved would be lost to the cycle of reincarnation, with Baxia herself left to endlessly wait for him.

She didn’t want to wait.

What happened? he asked blearily, only a few shichen later, and she couldn’t help the surge of joy in her heart when she heard how easily he slipped into awareness, into speech – he really must have been a saber in a past life. Why can’t I see anything? Baxia – is that you?

yes (positive), it is me (Baxia), she said proudly. i (Baxia) saved you (Nie Mingjue).

Thank you, Nie Mingjue said automatically, not even bothering to ask how she’d done it or what it had cost – such a good master, to trust her so. Wait. I can hear you. You’re talking!

i (Baxia) have always (positive, past-now-future) talked, she said. it was you (Nie Mingjue) who could not (negative) hear.

After a moment – she suspected he was processing, or attempting to – she added, you (Nie Mingjue) are a saberspirit now (now-future).

…I’m a what?!

Baxia guided him back to the world so that he could see. His body – what had become of it – was currently chained down on a table in what must be a secret room; it was recognizable as being somewhere in Jinlin Tower, but neither of them had ever seen this room before. The tell-tale marks of Yin Metal poisoning, the signs of turning into a corpse puppet, stretched up his neck and his eyes were blank and full of resentment, his body thrashing and mouth snarling.

Jin Guangyao was standing beside him and looking down with a frown, asking, “Why is it not working? It worked with the others.”

“The body is too full of resentment,” Xue Yang said – and it was Xue Yang there, standing free and clear and Baxia wanted to murder him, murder them both, they were evil, and she felt Nie Mingjue’s rage right alongside her own; he agreed entirely. “Normally, it takes time for resentment to infiltrate a living body; resentment can affect the physical body faster than it does the souls and spirits…it’s as if his are gone.”

“His spirit is gone? Impossible.”

Xue Yang shrugged. “Perhaps it is only that the qi deviation weakened his ability to resist the resentful energy of the Yin Metal,” he hypothesized. “Either way, there’s nothing more I can do. What do you want to do with him?”

Jin Guangyao scowled – he’d clearly had plans for the corpse puppet he would have made out of Nie Mingjue, and Baxia can feel Nie Mingjue’s betrayal and hurt and rage at the very idea – and then he said, “Kill him.”

Oh no they didn’t.

hey, you (Jiangzai)! she called as Xue Yang moved to draw his sword. tell your (Jiangzai) human (Xue Yang) to use me (Baxia) to do it (slice).

why should I (Jiangzai)? the small-spirited sword asked. Xue Yang’s cultivation wasn’t especially impressive, but it did exist; his sword had managed to develop enough to have a personality. Well, if you called that a personality. what’s in it (benefit) for me (Jiangzai)?

a generous (positive) offer, Baxia declared. i (Baxia) will not (negative) break you (Jiangzai) into pieces.

The other sword had an aura of death, but its master was a coward and so too was it. It yielded at once.

Why do you want to be the one to kill me? Is there some benefit to it? Nie Mingjue asked, sounding curious – curious, and not angry, because he trusted her.

Such a good master. He was worthy of being her beloved.

a saber (general) should never (negative) cut their human (general), Baxia explained. it is an evil. but that (object) is not (negative) you (Nie Mingjue) because it (object) does not (negative) contain you (Nie Mingjue). they (Jin Guangyao and Xue Yang) have filled it (object) with resentful energy; as soon as it (object) ceases to live, it will be (future) a gui (dead living).

And that means what? That you can cultivate with its energy?

no (negative)! she exclaimed. She would never use anything of Nie Mingjue’s as a tool for her own cultivation like that, treat him like a stepping stone to give herself more power. Hadn’t he faced enough of that? a gui (dead living) is not (negative) restricted by bodily uniformity (singular). it (gui) can be broken (shattered) and remain active (swing); it (gui) can also be reforged.

But what does that matter, since that’s not ‘me’ in there? Is it just so that it will haunt my enemies?

bad (negative) luck, Baxia agreed, because being haunted by a gui was indeed bad luck. but no (negative). the purpose (motivation) is that if I (Baxia) kill it (object), I (Baxia) can capture its vital energy (body) so as to eventually (future) reforge the gui.

Reforge?

remove (negative) the resentful energy (evil), she explained, restore (positive) the vital energy (life), return the souls and spirits (Nie Mingjue).

Are you suggesting that you think you’ll be able to bring me back to life?

Well, that was the goal anyway. Swords could be reforged and given new life, even after they’d been broken, so why couldn’t humans? And anyway, how else was she supposed to save him from an always-fatal qi deviation?

Xue Yang picked up Baxia when Jiangzai bit his fingers, resisting, and she allowed him to wield her – to lift her up high into the air, and to come down on the neck of the would-be gui. It all happened exactly as she would have predicted: the body died, and the gui came to life, and the evildoers only had a little bit of time to applaud themselves for their crime before they were struggling against hands that sought to strangle them and feet that kicked them and even teeth that bit them.

A fierce corpse, in defiance of all the soul-calming rituals that Nie Mingjue had mostly slept through as a child.

Now what? Nie Mingjue asked, and Baxia flung herself out the window in response. Well, that works. I refuse to allow myself to be wielded by him of all people.

it is (now) cute (pointy) that you (Nie Mingjue) expect to be (future) the one being wielded.

I meant it metaphorically…

no (negative) you (Nie Mingjue) did not (negative). you (Nie Mingjue) are too much (positive) of a saberspirit to mean anything else (negative). Baxia paused, contemplating. anyway he (Meng Yao) hasn’t even (negative) managed to bring forth (forge) a spirit in his sword (Hensheng); it (Hensheng) is only dead metal. he (Meng Yao) would be (past-now-future) a bad master (evil).

I can’t say I disagree, Nie Mingjue said with a sigh. I was a fool. I should have listened to you when you resisted me swearing brotherhood with him.

yes (positive) you (Nie Mingjue) should have. now, you (Nie Mingjue) direct (swing) me (Baxia) – we (Nie Mingjue, Baxia) should go (future) home.

Yes. Let’s go home.

It took a while, mostly because Nie Mingjue didn’t want to startle common people by having an apparently masterless saber hurtling through the air and Baxia didn’t want to risk getting close to any cultivators that might try to capture her (them) as a treasure, but on the other hand they didn’t need to sleep or eat or relieve themselves the way humans did.

According to Nie Mingjue, this was extremely weird for him.

Baxia showed him how to dream – it was a purposeful state for sabers, something to let the time when they weren’t being used pass faster – but apparently it was still weird. Living creatures were so tetchy.

They got home long before Nie Huaisang did, but luckily the little brat had left Aituan at home again and he was delighted to see them, the sound of his blade whistling in the wind as it lunged at them (in a friendly way) almost a shriek.

you (Baxia) did it (positive)! he shouted. my (Aituan) human (Nie Huaisang) will be (future) so happy!

Future happiness? Nie Mingjue interjected. He was doing so well at being a saber; it was so nice to be proven right. What’s wrong with him now, in the present? Is he all right?

he (Nie Huaisang) thinks that you (Nie Mingjue) are dead (broken), Aituan explained.

Shit, Nie Mingjue mutters. He must be upset – devastated.

also angry (rage), Aituan said. he (Nie Huaisang) wants to kill (cut) him (Meng Yao).

He knows? I mean – he figured it out?

yes (positive). he (Nie Huaisang) is angry (rage) and wants (future) to destroy evil (Meng Yao).

That may be difficult to accomplish, without proof, Nie Mingjue said. I want to see him as soon as he gets back.

It took some time for that to happen, even after he did return – unfortunately, Nie Huaisang was escorted by Jin Guangyao and Lan Xichen. The three of them were almost never apart, and obviously they couldn’t let Jin Guangyao know about Nie Mingjue’s return.

So they stayed away.

Aituan, abandoned, kept them company, staying away from the dead Hensheng and the living Shuoyue and Liebing.

During Nie Huaisang’s investiture as sect leader, the first time he’d picked up Aituan since everything had happened and even then only because it was self-evident that you couldn’t be sect leader of the Nie sect without a saber by your side, there was at last a brief chance for them to speak.

(Baxia eavesdropped.)

i (Liebing) am so sorry (scratched)! Liebing trilled, sounding honestly despondent. my (Liebing) master (Lan Xichen) is so sad, he (Lan Xichen) misses yours (Nie Mingjue) so much…

is she (Baxia) in the tombs? Shuoyue asked. Her voice was solemn and solid, not nearly as musical as usual. i (Shuoyue) wish to (future) speak with her (Baxia).

may you (Shuoyue) be broken into pieces and reforged into a chair, Aituan said pleasantly, so that you (Shuoyue) may be sat on for all eternity (future).

no need to be rude, she said crossly. i (Shuoyue) want to apologize.

do you (Shuoyue)? Aituan asked. will your (Shuoyue) apology bring him (Nie Mingjue) back? will your (Shuoyue) regret erase your (Shuoyue) complicity (evil)? you (Shuoyue) knew he (Meng Yao) was cruel (evil), and now he (Meng Yao) has destroyed my (Aituan) human (Nie Huaisang) by breaking her (Baxia) human (Nie Mingjue).

do you (Aituan) have proof (solid) that he (Meng Yao) did it (breaking)? Shuoyue demanded. She sounded miserable. you (Aituan) were not (negative) there, you (Aituan) do not (negative) know for sure (solid)…

do you (Shuoyue) still not (negative) admit your (Shuoyue) mistakes?! Liebing shouted. do you (Shuoyue) want (future) to end up like the others (Bichen, Wangji), regretting or pained (cracked), your (Shuoyue) master (Lan Xichen) destroyed (broken) at the hands of evil (Meng Yao)?

i (Shuoyue) just wanted him (Lan Xichen) to be happy…

you (Shuoyue) have made him (Lan Xichen) a breaker of swords, Aituan said. that is bad (negative) fate. how can he (Lan Xichen) be happy in the end?

can it (this) be fixed (positive)? she whispered. is it (this) too late (negative)?

Aituan didn’t respond.

Baxia approved.

After a while, Jin Guangyao left. He had duties, a wife, a small son – he couldn’t remain. Lan Xichen, who was responsible for a sect, agreed to stay a little longer, a few more weeks, but then he, too, would leave.

I’m going, I’m going,” Nie Huaisang complained as Aituan tugged him down into the basement where Baxia and Nie Mingjue had been waiting, killing time practicing their swings, usually while thinking about Jin Guangyao’s head as their target. “What’s gotten into you? You normally like to sit around like a paperweight, just the way we both like it, and I know we’re both raring and eager to go about getting revenge but I don’t see what we’ll find for that in our own basement –”

His voice trailed off.

“Baxia,” he whispered, and there were tears in his eyes. “Oh, Baxia…!”

Oh, Huaisang, Nie Mingjue cried. Huaisang, Huaisang – I’m so sorry for leaving you –

he (Nie Huaisang) cannot (negative) understand you (Nie Mingjue), Baxia said with a sigh. humans (general) are difficult (negative) for us (saberspirits) to speak with (spar).

very annoying (negative), Aituan agreed. do you (Nie Mingjue) have any ideas on how to get him (Nie Huaisang) to stop (negative) crying?

Yes. I need – I need ink, or to scratch something…can we get him out to the garden, maybe? I can write in the ground.

write? Baxia asked. the stupid (negative) thing humans (general) do with sticks and paper (soft)?

It serves a purpose, Nie Mingjue said, long-suffering – Baxia had made her view on his supposed “need” to do paperwork instead of train with her very clear many times. Come on, let’s get him outside. I can’t listen to him cry and apologize for not having done enough to save me anymore.

Whatever writing was, it was very impactful on humans: as soon as Baxia, indulgently following Nie Mingjue’s directions as she always did, started cutting slashes into the ground, Nie Huaisang fell silent, his eyes wide, and then they got wider.

“Da-ge?” he asked, voice tremulous. “How – it’s impossible. You’re in the saber?”

More slashes. Yes, Nie Mingjue said as he wrote. Yes, Huaisang, I’m here. You’re not alone.

Nie Huaisang kept crying for a while after that, but there was also hugging (Nie Mingjue yelled at him for not engaging in proper saber discipline when he nearly cut himself) and lots of very nice buffing with the clothing and the oils and the sharpening stone.

Baxia approved. Both Aituan and his human were handling this change very nicely – much better than she’d expected they would, in all truth.

“What do we do next?” Nie Huaisang asked, wiping his eyes.

we (us) get help, Baxia said. from those we (us) trust.

“That makes sense. But who can we tell?”

do you (Baxia) really mean to allow (positive) her (Shuoyue) to help? Aituan asked her doubtfully. after all (past) that she (Shuoyue) has done?

She has already made her own fate, Nie Mingjue said, his voice solemn. She allowed Lan Xichen to bind himself to Meng Yao, to make himself an accomplice to evil. It will break his heart to learn what Meng Yao has done – and that will be a deeper cut than having kept him away from her at all.

we (saberspirits) should never (negative, past-now-future) have to cut (break) our own humans (general), Baxia agreed. a bad (negative) fate.

deserved, Aituan hissed, vengeful, and when brought in on the discussion Nie Huaisang ended up agreeing with him.

Nie Mingjue was the only one surprised, though he shouldn’t have been. How could Nie Huaisang have deserved to master a saber, any saber, even one like Aituan, if he didn’t have some sharp edges to him?

Those sharp edges had been hidden, once, but that was before the pain of losing everything had melted him into a new shape, reforging him the way she’d once wished he never would be. Him and Aituan both.

They would be able to do what needed to be done now.

“Let her suffer her bad fate,” Nie Huaisang said, his eyes cold. “I supported Meng Yao and I suffered, didn’t I? Why should she be exempt? Let her suffer. Let him suffer. I want Meng Yao to lose everything he’s ever wanted, and then to die alone and with nothing.”

That seems excessive, Nie Mingjue objected. Just kill him and be done with it.

too soft (Nie Mingjue), Baxia scolded.

I said to kill him! How is that soft?!

break him (Meng Yao) in to pieces! shatter him (Meng Yao)! throw him (Meng Yao) into a tomb to wait for a reincarnation that will never (negative) come!

It turned out Baxia had some strong feelings on the subject.

“We can do that,” Nie Huaisang said, his thumb lightly rubbing against Aituan as he planned. “I have an idea.”

#mdzs #nie huaisang #nie mingjue #baxia #sabers and swords #my fic #my fics #reforged #Anonymous

338 notes · View notes