#zero to hero level maths

[pb-dot]

Contemporary Lovecraftian fiction

Lovecraft is kind of fascinating to me, and while I've read about the amount of the purple-prosed early 20th-century neuroticism with occasionally striking levels of racism just kinda tucked in there, I'm still very interested in the legacy of his works though. Not so much the mainstream Lovecraft Aesthetic, with its fishermen who have seen Entirely Too Much and academic twinks way over their heads, although it is an excellent look to be sure. The stories with a Lovecraft influence that I really like are the ones that I suspect Ol' Howard P would like the least, which is to say the queerest and/or minority-centric ones.

There are a surprising amount of these stories, and in this here post I'm going to talk at y'all about some of them and cool stuff I think they did. Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff is probably the biggest example and one of the first ones I came across. It contrasts the large unknowable terrors of æons lost with the sadly much more comprehensible, but still unmanageably large problem of racism and discrimination. It has the effect that most Lovecraftian elements our heroes discover end up being more things of mild peril and some considerable wonder, an arena for possible empowerment as well as for possibly having your face eaten off by protoplasm.

The Ballad Of Black Tom by Victor LaValle has a similar approach, although it is perhaps a bit more cynical about it. LaValle seems to zero in on Lovecrafts ideas of nonwhite people being particularly susceptible to the pull of the various eldritch gods, and explain it more as a consequence of sociopolitical factors. The titular character basically tells the white person stand-in that since we couldn't behave, the eldritch lord Cthulhu is going to kick everyone's ass with global warming, which does certainly feel like a more terrifying prospect than many other of the squidlord's exploits to a modern reader.

Lovecraftian settings, it should not surprise you to learn, have also been used to explore queer themes. The Worm And His Kings by Hailey Piper deals with themes of transformation, identity, and agency, but also manages to be the most decidedly agnostic Lovecraft-inspired text I've read. It could be that the cult that traps our reluctant heroine is worshipping an extradimensional god-creature that is going to immanentize the gooey eschaton, or it could also be that they're a bunch of privileged pricks that reify and anthropomorphize a glitch in the workings of the universe.

My most recent find, The Outside, uses the more general idea of the incomprehensible underpinnings of the universe, and some tentacles, to explore neurodiversity and how society treats the neurodivergent. Having a brain that processes information and stimuli in a nonstandard way, in this setting, may also help you do the borderline impossible math that's required to communicate with Things Beyond. The book also has a very Black Tom-esque "You've treated us, and me in particular, like shit, so now you get tentacle doom and inconvenience" vibe to it. It's also decently gay, so that's nice.

This ended up being a bit less thorough than I had hoped to make it, but it was either that or writing entirely too much about all of these books. They're all worth a read, and if anyone has other suggestions in line with these, I'd love to hear about them.

#Lovecraft #Cosmic Horror #lovecraft country #the ballad of black tom #the worm and all his kings #the outside #peebs thinks #litterature #bookblr

[tabletopresources]

Don't know if this is the right place to ask. I've been gifted DnD Castle Ravenloft for the holidays and I unpacked it last night... mother**** this thing is incredibly serious! Where do I begin? I want to teach my sons a love for DnD, but i can't afford R1900 just for the starter pack. Here in South Africa it is massively expensive.

How can I make this tabletop game into something they would like?

Thanks for the question! I’m so happy to see more parents considering D&D (and similar tabletop games) for their kids.

Honestly, I could go on and on forever on the many benefits of getting young people into the tabletop hobby but given you’re looking for guidance and not an entire treatise let me point you to some amazing resources, both for quickly jumping into a family-friendly game AND for more info for everyone on why to even bother.

First, I want to start with a few general resources that provide far more than I could (or probably should) here.

Level 1 Geek provides a whole article with info and resources on D&D for Kids. I was actually surprised to find they’d missed how effectively D&D (and similar) teach kids subjects like math without them even being aware they’re learning!

Wizards of the Coast provided a similar article of their own. They even provide free adventures with all you might need (including advice on best approaches for ages) called Monster Slayers: The Heroes of Hesiod. It was just the start of a great series.

DMing Dad has more resources and modules for you and your family as well!

I’m gonna rein myself in as that’s likely more than enough to get you and yours started. A few pieces of advice if I may:

Not all kids love combat and killing stuff. In fact, many don’t. So let them find animals they can befriend, help a goblin whose siblings are missing, gather wacky ingredients for a 50-story cake to celebrate an ancient dragon’s 1,000th birthday, etc. They love adventure. Let them eat cake, pet the displacer beast, and make some neat and strange friends.

Rule of Cool applies ALL THE MORE for kids. Let them use what rules they MUST (and those they like) to maintain some sense of structure and cooperation, but please at least consider encouraging and instilling in them an “anything fun for all is good for all” mindset. It’ll teach them the best part of D&D - we’re in this together.

Keep the statistics to a minimum. Use only the rules you need. The adventures sourced above use only the barest beats from D&D to tell a coherent story without it being bogged down in rules and the usual (admittedly) “character-stat-spreadsheet”. Keep it simple. Let THEM grow it outward from there as THEY see fit. And feel free to let them shrink it again when anything bigger or wider becomes unwieldy to them at all.

Start with excitement, keep it up, let THEM expand it. What you run for them CAN and likely SHOULD be simple and straightforward. Take cues from them when they want something to run deeper or get more complex. Your baddies don’t require complex gray morality. Your adventures can get by with few and even ZERO unexpected twists. Again, watch. Listen. Learn. Kids are very good at telling you, often and loudly, what they want.

Keep it short. Adults are better with longer sessions and adventure threads than kids usually are. Don’t be afraid to run a game no longer than an hour, or even less if they want to move on. Don’t take it personally. When they ask for another run plan a similar short one. If they beg for a little longer, reward them with just a teeny bit more. And repeat that as needed. Always keep them wanting more right?

Be kind and respectful. We’re all in this together. Manners can be learned and mastered around that gaming table and certainly shouldn’t stop there. This is true for adults too, but to each their own I suppose.

I hope that helps! Let us know how it goes!

And if this was interesting or useful to you at all, consider checking out Tabletop Gaming Resources for more art, tips, and tools for your game!

#tabletop rpg #rpg #tabletop gaming #pen & paper #roleplayer #roleplaying gamer #games #inspiration #pen & paper games #dnd #d&d #pathfinder #dungeons & dragons #Dungeons and Dragons #fantasy rpg #parents #kids #family-friendly #dm tips

[kaerenebrainrot]

Hi! may i req parent hc with kevin? as i was thinking about what kevin would be like as a dad.

Contrary to fandom belief, he is a fantastic father.

Had the Honkai not come to ruin everything, he might have been constantly physically doting on his kid, picking him up so Adam can pretend to be flying or blowing raspberries on their stomachs because he used to be that upbeat and affectionate.

He’d be that level of affectionate if it wasn’t for the fact touching his kid after their temperature inevitably normalized as MEI said. 

It doesn’t mean he can’t be strict yet supportive and loving of them regardless of whether or not he can’t touch them directly.

Taught them gun kata the moment they were able to learn it, but he was patient about it even if he kept the training sessions long so they could learn how to build up stamina for it. Rather than to bark at them or be a jerk when they got something wrong, he would point out where they erred and tell them to try it again. The same applied to homework and educating them in math, science, and history.

Back in high school, he was able to keep his grades up even while being the star athlete + He wanted to impress MEI back then, so he isn’t an idiot--He’s just not on her level of genius and he knows that, but he can at least try.

Given that Adam has MEI’s genes, he’s a genius, and honestly has zero issues on the books front--But training takes time, the kid gets exhausted, sometimes he misses his mom and demands to hear about her from Kev.

He gets quiet, and for a moment--He looks incredibly lonely, and the kid kind of feels guilty about it and tries to change the subject.

“Your mother was a hero who risked everything including her ideals to save humanity. She was....beautiful, kind, and also stronger than anyone else. Stronger than me.”

It’s clear Kev wants to pat the kids head, so he makes sure there’s a few layers of fabric between them in the form of jacket hoods before he dares to do it, even when he’s already wearing gloves.

“Be proud. You are her legacy.”

#;;There's a fire queuing in my heart. [Queue] #Anonymous #Kevin brainrot #I MEAN IT'S NOT REALLY /BRAINROT/ BUT I'LL KEEP IT IN THAT GENERAL TAG ANYWAY #kevin kaslana #brb gonna cry over Kev now

[makeste]

some follow-up thoughts on BnHA 285

1. “at that moment...”

you guys. I still can’t get over this. just -- guys. this is Kacchan telling the story.

he’s not the first character to narrate, mind you. characters like Twice, Tomura, Ochako, and Kirishima have all narrated in the past. but it’s always been past-tense narration of their own flashbacks, or else present-tense narration explaining their thoughts (e.g. Twice in chapter 115). Kacchan himself has done present-tense POV narration before. but this isn’t that. this is past-tense narration of an event that’s happening now. this is the future Kacchan narrating the present day Kacchan’s story.

has any other character done that, aside from Deku himself?? am I just crazy overreacting here, lol. idk but either way it’s cool.

2. “...there were no thoughts in my head.”

there was a post yesterday talking about Kacchan’s big moment at the end of this chapter being a little disappointing because of it being an automatic “my body moved on its own” save on Kacchan’s part. the argument was basically that it made the moment less meaningful because of it being a subconscious thing rather than a conscious decision on Katsuki’s part.

but I disagree! for me the “my body moved on its own” is actually way more impactful. and rather than describing it as “subconscious”, I think the word that fits better in this case is instinct. first of all, even though he says there were no thoughts in his head, we know that’s not exactly true, as we can see for ourselves the images that were flashing through his mind. I’m just gonna list them out:

“I’ll even surpass All Might and become the best hero out there.”

“why was it me who put an end to All Might?”

“I made a pledge! I will achieve absolute victory, every time! we’re taking this 4-0, no casualties! the strong don’t settle for anything less!”

“I’m not gonna lose... I can’t afford to stay a loser!”

“you... you looked like you needed saving.”

thoughts about what it means to be a hero. what it used to mean to him, and what it means to him now. thoughts about rescuing others. about saving to win. thoughts about his failures. thoughts about him and Deku. and last but certainly not least, vivid memories of a moment when he needed someone to save him, and Deku was there.

he has these thoughts, but he’s not aware of himself having them. it happens too fast for him to be able to process. but all the same, his body isn’t just moving here of its own accord. it’s simply that in this instance, it’s not thought that’s driving him, but emotion. at the risk of sounding INCREDIBLY CORNY, it’s not his head that makes the decision, but his heart.

and that’s why it’s so meaningful to me. in this moment, it’s not conscious thought that’s driving him, but emotion, instinct, will. he sees the attack, sees that it will hit Deku, and he just reacts. something at the core of him screams that he can’t let it happen, and he just moves. and to me that’s even more powerful than him consciously doing the math and making the sacrifice play (though I’m not saying I wouldn’t have enjoyed that as well). specifically because it’s a moment where he doesn’t have a chance to think or analyze or panic or doubt. it’s a moment that shows us who he is when you strip all that away from him. he doesn’t have time to get in his own head; he doesn’t have time to feel any fear; he doesn’t have time to think about himself at all. he takes himself out of the equation. he sees that Deku needs saving. and the rest is pure instinct. it’s the most heroic he has ever been.

3. “even if One for All is a cursed power... at the same time, it’s...”

I was wondering what was up with this part, lol. Caleb’s translation makes it much clearer; to Katsuki, OFA is both a blessing and a curse right now. the “cursed” part is becoming more and more obvious with each new chapter. it’s putting Deku in danger; it’s made him a target; it’s destroying his body; and there are other, darker and more dangerous factors also at play that Katsuki doesn’t even know about but fears nonetheless. I honestly feel like he’s been anxious about all of this ever since he learned Deku and All Might’s secret. it’s been on the back of his mind for months now.

but at the same time, OFA is what brought him and Deku back together. sorry, am I getting cheesy again lol. BUT IT’S TRUE THOUGH. All Might’s quirk gave Deku the chance to compete with Katsuki on equal footing for the first time. it forced Katsuki to acknowledge him. and both he and Deku have grown so much on so many levels over the course of this past year, and all of it stems back to Deku receiving this quirk.

and just... fucking look at these flashbacks, though.

unless I’m reading this completely wrong, the gist of this scene is that Katsuki is grateful for OFA because it’s what lifted Deku up and allowed him to try and achieve his dream. the scenes of Katsuki bullying Deku and burning his notebook are contrasted with the scenes of Deku standing up to him and vowing that he won’t be his punching bag anymore. Deku before OFA, contrasted with Deku after. I get the sense that Katsuki feels a lot of gratitude for fate stepping in and working to undo his mistakes before he himself could finally get his act together and start atoning for them as well.

and then that last page is really interesting, because it’s like the “blessing” and “curse” parts of OFA all together in a single image. Deku is going all out against Tomura, giving everything he has, ready to sacrifice himself if that’s what it takes. there’s so much strength there (even though he looks completely insane lmao), but at the same time it’s literally killing him. mixed feelings, for sure.

4. “Katsuki Bakugou: Rising”

last but not least! so there’s quite a bit of discussion going on about what exactly a “rising” chapter actually consists of, lol. Momo is the only other character who’s had one before (at least if you don’t count the movies, and the movie spin-offs). so it’s hard to say for sure with such a small sample size, but if I had to guess, I’d say the “rising” chapters are about characters coming into their own as heroes. Momo’s chapter was all about her letting go of her insecurities and starting to believe in herself. and this chapter was all about Katsuki letting go of both his fear and his pride, and just getting the job done.

in the span of a single chapter, he lets go of every single thing that’s ever held him back. I felt like we really got a glimpse of the hero he can -- and hopefully will, if future!Kacchan the Narrator is anything to go by -- become. he was amazing. he took charge; he came up with a plan that absolutely would have worked if Tomura wasn’t LITERALLY FUCKING UNKILLABLE LULZ; and when that failed, he didn’t hesitate to make the sacrifice play. Bakugou fucking Katsuki, He of Zero Rescue Points, made the fucking sacrifice play. do you even know how much I love that you guys. I love it so, so much.

but of course, when you make the sacrifice play it tends to have the not-so-surprising side effect of getting you ALL FUCKED UP afterwards. so perhaps a less ideal outcome than he would have hoped. but he still did good. and he stopped Deku from getting murdered, and so now hopefully Deku and Shouto can mount some sort of aggrieved revenge counterattack to do their fallen friend justice. time for my other two sons to get to work! maybe Shouto can make Deku some new arms out of ice.

#bnha 285 #bakugou katsuki #midoriya izuku #bakudeku #bnha meta #bakugou meta #bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #bnha manga spoilers #makeste reads bnha

[poprocksrights]

Bro imagine if the LoV had found out about Eri before the heroes did and they were like [snatch] “our child now bicth.”

Shigaraki has another reason to hate Chisaki. He takes Eri, and Chisaki’s arms AND THEN HIS LEGS TOO FOR GOOD MEASURE.

No one except Kurogiri knows how to deal with children and be a competent parental figure, and he’s not there, soooo..... it’s like sibling chaos.

Dabi sees Eri as a second chance to be a better big brother, and he swears on his crispy self he isn’t gonna fuck it up this time. Eri always asks him the deep questions and asks him for advice and he panics and has to bullshit a good answer and pretend like he’s got being an adult down pat.

Twice is surprisingly good with kids and manages to make Eri laugh a lot, and gets her to warm up to rest of the crew, and convince her she’s a lot safer now with them. He makes a lot of doubles of toys sometimes incase she breaks them.

Shigaraki is the crusty older brother who has zero experience being a brother so he comes off as intimidating, like a mangy rabid trashcan possum. But eventually he’s caught doing baby/kid-talk and censoring himself a lot around Eri and he’s always the one to get her snacks and juice boxes after someone else said no, because “I’m the leader here what I say goes.” 

Toga gets to be a big sister and she absolutely ADORES having Eri around and plays with her a lot, picks out her outfits, does her hair, and tries teaching her self defense moves... with knives... which always ends with someone else accidentally getting stabbed...

Spinner is the brother who lets Eri play his video games, and teaches her to get past hard levels, and coaches her through boss battles, and he gives her his gameboy when she’s bored. He also tries to do his best to sit down and teach her homeschooling and basic math skills.

Compress is the most sane person here and he is actually the one who makes sure nothing stupid or dangerous happens. He becomes the group dad friend who always checks the closet and under the beds for Chisaki monsters, tucks Eri in at night, tells her bedtime stories, and generally keeps a good eye on her. He even sits in a chair by the bed at night until she feels safe enough to fall asleep.

By the time the heroes even know about Eri and that she’s in the LoV’s possession she’s a feral little gremlin shit who loves her weird adoptive murder-family.

#bnha #mha #bnha headcanons #mha headcanons #bnha memes #mha memes #my hero academia #Eri #Tomura Shigaraki #Himiko Toga #Spinner #Dabi #Compress #Kurogiri #Twice

[marksinn]

Passion Project: Inspiration

I don’t think I’m starting at the beginning with this post. Keep your eyes peeled for later posts that explain what I’m doing and why.

After a month of thinking about, sketching and painting designs, I have finally done something. Essentially, recently watching two films has pushed me into action, and a part of me is ashamed to admit it. There isn’t a word count or any typesetting to curtail my thoughts here, so strap in.

When I created this brief I figured I’d draw a million wee skateboards, colour a few of them in, then fling my favourites into Adobe illustrator and make them look good. From there I would take the 5 best up to the skatepark and ask some of the patrons there which designs stood out to them. Next, I would adapt the three front-runners and create sweet PhotoShop mockups that would show what my designs would look like as skateboards. If I had the time, inclination or money by the end of the project, I would have the design laid onto a real skateboard (I’ve been looking to buy a new one for some time) and then be proud of myself.

So I’ve drawn some wee skateboards. Then I started upscaling the designs onto the floorboards of my loft:

This was an exercise to let me see how small things need to be adapted to be blown up. Skateboards can have any level of detail that you like on them, I hadn’t considered this until I was trying to draw a semi-perfect triangle for the traffic cone, or until I was using chalk to recreate four cubes. It’s also been fun to work with different media on chipboard - I have learned that most kinds of pencil, paint, chalk and charcoal do not like being used on chipboard. Decorating paint, however, has no such issues. Thanks, Dulux!

And so, with a few of these under my belt, I decided to try some digital designs. So I jumped into Illustrator and totally ignored my sketchbook, coming up with three designs that were all inspired by the day I had just had. The top design, I’ll focus on last, for reasons that will become apparent (unless you follow me on Instagram, where you’ll already know that it’s an absolute hit, with over 19 likes already!). I was told by a guy at the skatepark that he likes decks with very basic designs, just a colour or two, nothing overly detailed. Another skater told me that he often likes the basic wood background with one small emblem or sticker just beside the wheels.

The duo-tone design felt nice, I’m usually one for over-complicating things. I definitely have an attitude of “If there’s more in it, there’s a greater chance someone will find something they like”. The first colour choice put my girlfriend in the mind of a hand-bag she had seen photographed in the arms of Carrie Fisher - it was designed to look like a Prozac pill. So I changed the colours up, and added the separating black lines and textures to give it some subtle character. I then went full meta with the Minimal design. And, if I’m being honest, I’m incredibly happy with how it looks like a wee character. Expect to see that making a comeback in the very near future. But the top design is what really got me going. 

I’ve recently been watching...

...Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and have been loving Miles Morales’ multiple hobbies of graffiti, mixing beats and saving his neighbourhood from a variety of dangers. 

I then went to the cinema to see In The Heights, telling the tale of the Latin community during a blackout in North Manhattan. I found myself wrapped up in the romance, tribulations and music of the cast, and was felt oddly proud of Lin Manuel Miranda - who wrote this as a stage-musical while he was in college, had a modicum of success with it, then went on to create Hamilton, one of the most important musicals of our time. With the success of that particular show taking the entire world by storm, he was given the opportunity to make his old, relatively only semi-popular play into a blockbuster film. You can’t help but be inspired by someone like that.

I often find towards the end of a film I’m inspired by the characters’ journeys: be that from zero to hero, from lonely to loved or from rags to riches. Then I walk out and carry on with my normal life doing normal things. And as the hero of the story’s dreams all came true in the closing minutes (sorry for the spoiler, but it’s a musical, they rarely end in despair), a thought floated across my mind:

I’m utterly sick of being inspired

Now, to my credit, I did figure out in the car home that ‘tired’ would be a far more fitting and rhythmic word to use in this sentence, but this was a mentality that I found resonated really strongly with me. I’m very good at being inspired, I think most people are. We hear stories of people starting their own business, achieving some sporting brilliance or overcoming a personal hurdle and we say “Wow, isn’t that inspiring?” or

“It really inspires you to go out and make a difference!” or

“They are such an inspirational speaker!”

Then we go off about our day, not acting on the inspiration, and, for the most part, remaining uninspired. So I decided to act. 

I did some very quick research (/acquiring of images of graffiti) in order to get the right shapes and textures to create a spray paint effect in Illustrator. I did some very quick research (/confirming the colours) of South American flags, taking the blue and red used in flags of the home nations of Miles Morales from Spider-Man and Usnavi from In The Heights. And I created the top design.

YES! I had been inspired and I had drawn a wee picture to show that - I had acted on my inspirations!

Then I looked to my left and spotted three, blank skate decks that I had bought on a whim from Re:Ply (a wonderful wee company who do a great deal of charity work supplying boards to people who need them, selling boards to people who can afford them, and for a very reasonable fee, providing unusable decks to people who want to use them for artistic purposes). I realised I hadn’t acted on my inspiration, I had just drawn a few pictures of skateboards with the eventual aim of PhotoShopping them onto other pictures of skateboards.

So I took myself...

... into the city centre with a shoddily prepared speech: “I’m looking for some cheap, small cans of spray paint. I’ve no idea what I’m doing, or if I’ll be good at it, so don’t want to invest too much into this.” Hiding behind this self-deprecating shield I barged into multiple art-, pound- and model-shops and pleaded with the staff to help a young idiot out. Amazingly, a very kind shop assistant pointed me in the direction of Fat Buddha, a clothes shop I’d always ignored as it seemed a bit to “...” for me. I don’t know what it seemed, but I knew it wasn't my kind of shop. Happy to prove me wrong, the guys in there were super helpful and they helped me buy my first cans of spray paint. 

Now I’d spent money...

... and as a skinflint, that meant I had to get use out of my purchases. I had tricked myself into being inspired. Inspiration led me to the drawing, inspiration had led me to buy decks and the paint, now inspiration had to make me spray paint.

I’ll stop yammering on now. Essentially, I had planned on creating some analogue designs then digitising them (I’m guessing I should do a post on my brief, yeah? Might just upload the PDF to save me talking more), but then I found that I was doing the complete opposite. Genuinely accidentally. I had played with a few typefaces from various websites to get fonts that represented the ideas I wanted. The top one was semi-stolen (I can’t use the word ‘inspired’ any more in this post) from the end credits of In The Heights. The larger font is something of a nod to inspirational quotes you see on Facebook or on glittery frames in B&M.

I printed those out and cut them into stencils (very impressed that my digital boards have been drawn to a workable scale, thanks Maths). And after putting down a tack-layer (GRAFFITI JARGON (I think)) I sprayed the whole lot in blue.

Next, I tried to get a little fancy. Using cardboard blockers to create straight lines I added stars* (borrowed from the Puerto Rican flag) and made the bottom stripes vaguely reminiscent of America’s Old Glory.

I peeled the lettering off, and I’d done it. I may have to explain the overtly-negative inspirational quote to people, but to me it’s a clear sign that there’s no point in just being inspired, and that’s all I wanted.

A weight I didn’t know I was carrying was lifted from my shoulders. The plan was to possibly end up with a self-designed skateboard. And now I have one.

*Yes, I know they’re crosses.

#pp_hncgd1 #allhandsondecks #skateboard

[cerealqueenll]

Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town - Quiz Book Answers

These are all the possible questions in the secret Quiz Book item in Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town for the Switch. This has the new updated questions from the Switch release and it contains several new questions.

The book will give players a series of questions in a random order, and if you are able to answer 100 consecutively, you win a prize(?). The questions can appear in any order, can repeat in the same sequence, etc.

Questions in both versions of the game are the same!

Some questions may fall into several sections, so please be aware of that. This should be all available questions/answers in the book. If not, please contact me!

Shipping Questions

Of the crops on the following list, which ships for the highest price? Cabbage What is the shipping price of Elli Leaves? This item can’t be shipped What is the shipping price of an Ancient Fossil? 5,000G What is the shipping price of Carrots? 120G What is the shipping price of Black Grass? 10G What is the shipping price of Orichalcum? 50G What is the shipping price of a Ruby? 75G What is the shipping price of Yarn (G)? 2,000G What is the shipping price of a Large Fish? 200G What is the shipping price of Relax Tea Leaves? 1,000G What is the shipping price of a Hot Spring Egg? 80G What is the shipping price of an Emerald? 80G What is the shipping price of Fluorite? 65G What is the shipping price of a Brooch 1,800G What is the shipping price of Agate? 62G What is the shipping price of Cheese (M)? 380G

What is the shipping price of Chocolate? 50G

What is the shipping price of a Diamond? 100G

What is the shipping price of Scrap Ore? 1G

What is the shipping price of a Mushroom? 50G

What is the shipping price of Alexandrite? 10,000G

What is the shipping price of Peridot? 68G

What is the shipping price of Mayonnaise (P)?  450G

What is the shipping price of a Bamboo Shoot?  50G

What is the shipping price of Wild Grapes? 30G

What is the shipping price of Sandrose? 60G

What is the shipping price of White Grass? 150G

What is the shipping price of Spinach? 110G

What is the shipping price of a SUGDW Apple? 50G

What is the shipping price of a Pink Diamond? 10,000G

What is the shipping price of Cabbage? 250G

What is the shipping price of Corn? 85G

What is the shipping price of Sandrose? 60G

What is the shipping price of Pumpkins? 280G

*What is the shipping price of Green Peppers? 40G

What is the shipping price of Mithril? 40G

How many total items are there that can be shipped? 157

What is the shipping price of Topaz? 70G

What is the shipping price of Strawberries? 65G

What is the shipping price of an Amethyst? 60G

What is the shipping price of Moonstone? 55G

What is the shipping price of a True Magic Red Flower? 200G

TV Show Questions

In the “Mechabot” TV series, what day is Rory’s birthday? Dec. 25 

How many episodes are there in the TV show “Mechabot Ultror: The Autumn Breeze”? 47

In the TV show "Mechabot Ultror: The Autumn Breeze," what is the title of Episode 6? Morning of Battle

How many episodes are there in the TV show “Mechabot Ultror Zero”? 20

In the TV show “Mechabot Ultror Zero,” who does the team receive Mechbots from? A shining figure

How many episodes are there in the TV show “Swip-Swap”? 39

In the TV show “Swip-Swap,” what is the correct spelling of the female main character’s name? Adrienne 

In the TV show “Swip-Swap,” what is Adrian’s 4th period class? Math

In the TV show “Swip-Swap,” what is the name of Adrienne’s best female friend? Dani

In the TV Show “F-3.14 MGP,” what is the name of Bellis’ mech? Peretus

In the TV Show “F-3.14 MGP,” what kind of magic does Cosmos use? Dark Magic

In the TV show “Dear Princess,” where did the Legendary Hero go to defeat the previous Dark Lord? North

How many episodes are there in the TV show “Dear Princess”? 34 

How many episodes are there in the TV show “Card Collector Chisato”? 12 In the TV show “Card Collector Chisato,” how many cards does she have left to find by the end of Episode 6? 25

In the TV show “Tasty Time,” who wins the Fried Rice cook-off? Contestant A

In the TV show "Star Lily. Heart Snatcher ☆," what is the name of the stray puppy that Himeyuri found? Agapanthus

How many episodes are there in the TV show "Star Lily. Heart Snatcher ☆”? 25

In the TV show "Star Lily. Heart Snatcher ☆," what is the secret identity of Star Lily? Himeyuri

In the TV show "Star Lily. Heart Snatcher ☆," what is the name of Sakura’s grandmother?

Yamabuki Haruhi

In the TV show “Star Lily, Heart Snatcher ☆,” who won the final confrontation, Star Lily or Sakura? It’s a secret

In the TV show, “Emerald Academy - Maiden Memoirs,” what is the title of File 51? The Stumbling Maiden

*How many episodes are there in the TV show “Fairy and Me - Her Wish”? 36

In the TV show “Fairy and Me - Her Wish”, what dish did the girl make for the boy? Curry Rice

Stamina & Fatigue Questions

How much Stamina does eating Salad at the Inn restore? 20

How much Stamina does eating Spaghetti at the Beach Cafe restore? 40

How much Stamina does the Wild Grape Water at Dudley’s Inn restore? 1

How much Stamina does it take to use a Level 2 charge on the Cursed Axe? 20

What is the Stamina penalty if you eat a Poison Mushroom? -50

How much Stamina does eating Pizza at the Beach Cafe restore? 30

How much Stamina does eating Orange Grass restore? 0

How much Stamina does eating Shaved Ice at the Beach Cafe restore? 20

How much Stamina does eating Chocolate restore? 2

How much Stamina does eating Cookies at the Inn restore? 20

How much Stamina does eating a Hot Spring Egg restore? 4

How much Stamina does drinking Water at the Inn restore? *0

How much Stamina does eating Relax Tea Leaves restore? 2

How much Stamina does eating a HMSGB Apple restore? 2

How much Stamina does eating a Lunch Set at the Inn restore? 100

How much Stamina does eating a raw Medium Fish restore? 3

When you go to sleep with a True Magic Red Flower in your Vase, by how much does it boost your Fatigue recovery the next day? 10

How much Stamina does eating Apple Pie at the Inn restore? 50

How much Stamina does drinking Milk at the Inn restore? 20

How much Stamina does drinking Pineapple Juice at the Inn restore? 30

How much Stamina does eating Spinach restore? 3

How much Stamina does eating Cookies at the Inn restore? 20

How much Stamina does eating Roasted Corn at the Beach Cafe restore? 20

How much Stamina does an Orange Pastry restore? 27

How much Stamina does it take to use a Level 6 charge on a Blessed Sickle? 15

How much Stamina does eating Cheesecake at the Inn restore? 40

Fishing Questions

What is the maximum size Blotched Snakehead you can catch? 80cm

What is the maximum size Tuna you can catch? 250cm

What is the maximum size Sailfin Sandfish you can catch? 20cm

What is the maximum size Pike you can catch? 40cm

What is the maximum size Mahi-mahi you can catch? 180cm

What is the maximum size Squid you can catch? 50cm

What is the maximum size Fat Greenling you can catch? 40cm

What is the maximum size Loach you can catch? 12cm

You fish in the lake in spring and use a Level 5 charge on your Fishing Rod. What fish could you catch? Rainbow Trout

You fish in the lake in spring and use a Level 1 charge on your Fishing Rod. What fish could you catch? Bluegill

You fish in the lake in spring and use a Level 4 charge on your Fishing Rod. What fish could you catch? Crucian Carp

You fish in the Hot Spring in autumn and use a Level 4 charge on your Fishing Rod. What fish could you catch? Smelt

You fish in the ocean in winter and use a Level 1 chạrge on your Fishing Rod. What fish could you catch? Sailfin Sandfish

You fish in the lake in spring and use a Level 1 charge on your Fishing Rod. What fish could you catch? Bluegill

You fish in the ocean in winter and use a Level 7 charge on your Fishing Rod. What fish could you catch? Fat Greenling

You fish in the ocean in autumn and use a Level 5 charge on your Fishing Rod. What fish could you catch? Bonito Halibut

You fish in the ocean in winter and use a Level 5 charge on your Fishing Rod. What fish could you catch? Seerfish

You fish in the Hot Spring in summer and use a Level 5 charge on your Fishing Rod. What fish could you catch? Blotched Snakehead

You fish in the Hot Spring in winter and use a Level 1 charge on your Fishing Rod. What fish could you catch? Smelt

Which of the below can NOT be fished from the ocean? Coelacanth 

Weather Questions

What is the chance (%) that it will be sunny on any given spring day? About 70%

What is the chance (%) that it will be rainy on any given spring day? About 30%

What is the chance (%) that it will be rainy on any given summer day? About 10%

What is the chance (%) of a typhoon in summer? About 10%

What is the chance (%) that it will be sunny on any given autumn day? About 80%

What is the chance (%) that it will be rainy on any given autumn day? About 20%

What is the chance (%) that it will snow on any given winter day? About 40%

What is the chance (%) that there will be a typhoon on any given winter day? 0% chance

Expansion Questions

How much Lumber is required to change your home’s Mailbox? 150

How much Lumber is needed for your second home renovation? 600

How much Lumber is required to build the Bathroom? 300

How much Lumber is required to change your home’s Windows? 200

How much Lumber is needed to upgrade your Coop? 350

How much Lumber is needed to upgrade your Barn? 400

How much Lumber is required to build the Town Villa? 999

How much Lumber is required to expand your home the first time? 150

How much Lumber is needed to upgrade your Silo? 300

Store Price Questions

How much does Premium Grape Juice cost at Adge Winery? 300G

How much do Turnip Seeds cost at the General Store? 120G

How much does Dango Flour cost at the General Store? 100G

How much do Cucumber Seeds cost at the General Store? 200G

How much does Bread cost at the General Store? 100G

How much do Potato Seeds cost at the General Store? 150G

How much do Strawberry Seeds cost at the General Store? 150G

How much does a Grass Seedling cost at the General Store? 500G

How much do Earrings cost at the Forge? 1,000G

How much does a Milker cost at the Forge? 2,000G

How much does the Mayonnaise Maker cost at the Forge? 20,000G

How much do Clippers cost at the Forge? 1,800G

How much does a Brush cost at the Forge? 800G

How much does Chicken/Rabbit Feed cost at PoPoultry? 10G

How much does a chicken cost at PoPoultry? 1,500G

How much does an Angora rabbit cost at PoPoultry? 3,000G

How much does a Strawberry Cow cost at Yodel Ranch? 10,000G

How much does a sheep cost at Yodel Ranch? 4,000G

How much does a normal cow cost at Yodel Ranch? 5,000G

How much does Fodder cost at Yodel Ranch? 20G

How much does a Cow Breeding Kit cost at Yodel Ranch? 3,000G

Which of these Apples does Huang offer to sell to you? SUGDW

How much do Moondrop Flower Seeds cost at Huang’s shop? 500G

How much does a Truth Jewel cost at Huang's shop? 50,000G

How much does a Ball cost at Huang’s shop? 100G

How do Green Pepper Seeds cost Huang’s shop? 150G

How much does it cost to get an examination at the Clinic? 10G

*How much does a Stamina Booster XL cost at the Clinic?

2,000G

Character Questions

What is the Harvest Goddess’ special cheer? Pan paka paaan!

When is Plum’s birthday? Spring 4

When is Saibara’s birthday? Spring 11

When is Blueberry’s birthday? Spring 15

When is Mugi’s birthday? Spring 17

When is Lillia’s birthday?  Spring 19 

When is Aqua’s birthday? Spring 26

When is Sasha’s birthday? Spring 30

When is Harris’ birthday? Summer 4

When is Basil’s birthday? Summer 11

When is Mint’s birthday?  Summer 16

When is Thomas’ birthday? Summer 25

When is Zack's birthday? Summer 29

When is Gotts’ birthday? Autumn 2

When is Yu’s birthday?  Autumn 5 

When is Sunny’s birthday? Autumn 10

When is Manna’s birthday? Autumn 11

When is Cherry’s birthday? Autumn 14

When is Carter’s birthday? Autumn 20

When is Anna’s birthday? Autumn 23

When is Dudley’s birthday? Winter 11

When is Ellen’s birthday? *Winter 13

When is Duke’s birthday? Winter 15

When is Pumpkin’s birthday? Winter 22

When is Mei’s birthday? Winter 26

When is Jeff’s birthday? Winter 29

General Mineral Town Questions

Which of the below if NOT found in the Mountain Villa? A TV

How many squares of tillable land are there on your farm? 1,075

How many bookshelves are there in the Library? 15

What cooking utensil goes on the very top right of the Kitchen? Oven

In the back room of the General Store, there is one painting. What is it of? My House

There are two paintings on the 2nd floor of PoPoultry. One is of a mountain. What is the other one? A flower

What greeting does the weather reporter on the TV in your Town Villa use? G’day, all!

How many beds are there in Yodel Ranch? 4

What message do you get when you examine the clock in Mayor Thomas’ house? Clock

How many streetlamps are there in Mineral Town? (Including the ones in Rose Plaza.) 22

When you go into the Bathroom in your house, how much time passes? 30 minutes

What background color is used for Wednesday on your Calendar? Yellow

How many potted plants are at the Clinic? 8

How many Feeding Bins are there in a renovated Barn? 18

Item Questions

If you hold a piece of Alexandrite in your hands outside, what color does it appear to be? Green

How many items are there with the word “Grass” in their name? 15

In “Milk (P),” what does the “P” stand for? Platinum

What is the chance (%) that any Magic Red Flower Seeds will actually bloom as a True Magic Red Flower? About 5%

Tool & Player Questions

If you equip the Pedometer and press the Tool Button, how many steps does it go up? (When carrying no items.) 1

On the Menu Screen, which tab is the furthest to the right? Relationships

When you enter your name, what is the maximum character count? 8

You use a Level 7 charge on your Sickle. How many squares will you harvest? 81 squares

Calendar Questions

What day of the week was Spring 1 in Year 1? Sunday

What day of the week was Summer 2 in Year 1? Wednesday

What day of the week was Summer 16 in Year 1? Wednesday

What day of the week was Autumn 1 in Year 1? Thursday

What day of the week will Spring 5 in Year 5 be? Monday

What day of the week will Summer 22 in Year 5 be? Saturday

What day of the week will Spring 20 in Year 10 be? Sunday

What day of the week will Autumn 10 in Year 10 be? Tuesday

What day of the week will Winter 3 in Year 12 be? Friday

What day of the week will Autumn 2 in Year 21 be? Thursday

What day of the week will Winter 20 in Year 30 be? Friday

What day of the week will Spring 20 in Year 47 be? Tuesday

What day of the week will Autumn 5 in Year 55 be? Saturday

What day of the week will Summer 20 in Year 75 be? Thursday

What day of the week will Summer 9 in Year 92 be? Wednesday

What day of the week will Spring 1 in Year 100 be? Monday

What day of the week will Autumn 10 in Year 100 be? Sunday

What day of the week will Summer 4 in Year 123 be? Monday

What day of the week will Winter 4 in Year 123 be? Friday

What day of the week will Winter 11 in Year 134 be? Tuesday

Holiday Questions

How many medals must you earn in the Derby to trade for the Adamantite prize? 4

How many medals must you earn in the Derby to trade for the Matsutake prize? 10

How many medals must you earn in the Derby to trade for the Brooch prize? 18

How many medals must you earn in the Derby to trade for the Diamond prize? 14

How many medals must you earn in the Derby to trade for the Necklace prize? 20

How many medals must you earn in the Derby to trade for the Sunblock prize? 30

How many medals must you earn in the Derby to trade for the Lotion prize? 35

How many medals must you earn in the Derby to trade for the Face Pack prize? 42

How many medals must you earn in the Derby to trade for the Perfume prize? 150

How many medals must you earn in the Derby to trade for the Dress prize? 250

How many medals must you earn in the Derby to trade for the Power Berry prize? 900

How many medals must you earn in the Derby to trade for the Truth Jewel prize? 1000

What day is the Mochi Bonanza? Spring 1

What day is White Day? Spring 14

What day is the Spring Derby? Spring 18

What day is the Cooking Exhibition? Spring 22

What day is the Fetch Fest? Summer 1

What day is the Cluck-Cluck Clash? Summer 7

What day is the Moo-Moo Festival? Summer 20

What day is the Fireworks Festival? Summer 24

What day is the Concert? Autumn 3

What day is the Harvest Festival? Autumn 9

What day is the Moonlight Night? Autumn 13

What day is the Autumn Derby? Autumn 18

When is the Fluffy Festival? Autumn 21

What day is the Pumpkin Jamboree? August 30

What day is Valentine’s Day? Winter 14

What day is Starlight Night? Winter 24

What day is the Starlight Night gift giving? Winter 25

What day is the New Year’s Party? Winter 30

#Story of Seasons #Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town #Friends of Mineral Town #Marvelous #XSeed #Harvest Moon #Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town #SOSFoMT #SOS: FoMT #Quiz Book #Van

[bokunoheroanalysisforthefuture]

Chapter three! I already skimmed through it and just. Holy fuck I’m falling in love with this series all over again, and this is just the opening arc, how the hell is this so good??? I’m genuinely just in awe and fuck is it making it hard to decide where to have a cut-off point for this chapter. I suppose we’ll just have to see what fate decides.

(Also, the temptation to just paste in all of the last three pages of the chapter is so incredibly strong, you don’t understand.)

[No. 3 - Entrance Exam]

We start off with some exposition: UA’s hero course is designed to give students all they need to go pro, and is the toughest and most popular hero course in the country, with only a 1 in 300 acceptance rate. Discounting the four slots that are recommendation students, that’s 36 slots a year, which is about…

Yeah. That’s a lotta applications, and that’s just for the hero course! 

Several alumni are mentioned: All Might, who declined the people’s choice award; Endeavor, who’s stopped more crimes than anyone else in recorded history; and Best Jeanist, who’s won the Best Jeanist award eight years running. (One of these things is not like the other~ One of these things just doesn’t belong~) The exposition suggests that graduating from UA is basically a requirement for becoming a great hero - something which we’ll learn soon enough isn’t quite true.

But yeah, Endeavor with the record for crime handling, even above All Might. Quite the impressive hero, though that face…

Not precisely reassuring.

So yeah, Izuku here mentions the date of the exam - February 26th. I figure that this has to be a Sunday, for the simple fact that Japan has a slightly different school schedule than us. Most notably: Japanese schools (some of them, anyways) have 5.5 day school weeks. Yes, that means the first half of Saturday can still be a school day. 

While I couldn’t confirm for sure whether this is more common among the higher end schools, I feel like a school like UA, with its ‘Plus Ultra’ motto, would definitely be a school to have a half-day (or even a full day) on Saturdays, and since they also have to accomodate for middle schools that have Saturday morning classes, I figure that it would make the most sense for UA to schedule this exam on a Sunday. 

The benefits of this, as we’ve already seen, is that we can then narrow down the timeline for the rest of the series, just based on that single, confirmed date. We know from the last chapter that the Sludge Villain had to happen on a Thursday or Friday of the first week of school (April 14th/15th), with the first training session two days later (the 16th/17th). But what this also gives us is when Izuku’s first year of UA starts, AND the possible years it could start on. 

Since we see the glowing baby is in a modern hospital, we can assume that’s correlated to about our times. Give it a few generations, and we can guess that we’re in the 2200s or 2300s for the current era. Based on that assumption, we get the following years that have February 26th on a Sunday:

23rd century potential years: 2204, 2209, 2215, 2226, 2232, 2237, 2243, 2254, 2260, 2265, 2271, 2282, 2288, 2293, 2299

24th century potential years: 2310, 2316, 2321, 2327, 2338, 2344, 2349, 2355, 2366, 2372, 2377, 2383, 2394, 2400

As a side note, when I got into the series, my brain weirdly latched onto the idea that this had to all be happening in the year 2317. I don’t know why I decided on that number, but that’s what I rolled with, and hilariously I could be RIGHT about the year the current manga arc is happening in, provided Izuku’s first year is in 2316. Sometimes you just know, ya know? I know at least one other friend made these calcs independently of me and chose to run with 2237, which is totally valid! Probably makes more sense to be in the 2200s, but there’s room depending on how much time one thinks has passed.

As for when Izuku’s high school school year starts, we know that Japanese schools start on the second Monday of April. Since we don’t know if this is a leap year or not, we’ll end up with two dates, but that’s fine!

Feb 26 (Sun) -> Feb 27 (Mon) -> March (6/5, 13/12, 20/19, 27/26) -> April (3/2, 10/9)

Therefore, Izuku’s first day of classes (not counting the orientation, which I’ve seen a few other timelines assume is on the Sunday before classes start) is April 10th (or the 9th if a leap year)! I know this is all in the future from this chapter, but still, I wanted to share this at some point and figured now was as good a time as always.

Math!

Sorry, I’ve just wanted to share this math I did for a while now, I put a lot of work into it and I am very proud of it. Let’s get back to the chapter.

So Izuku lives a 40 minute train ride away from UA, and has made it just in time for the exam. Apparently, this is only the practical portion? Or well, that’s the part that gets focused on in this chapter, with no mention of the paper exam. I would imagine they’d be the same day, though? But I suppose one can do whatever they like with it.

He’s standing there looking at the school, thinking about how he didn’t have a chance to test the power, while the other students head in-

Excuse me, Toga?? I know that hairstyle is just a bit off, but… ???

...right, anyways. Izuku is wondering whether the hair really did anything (also, it was apparently sour, which, ew.) Katsuki comes up behind him and tells him to move aside.

Truly a flattering image. Izuku panics a bit and greets him, but Katsuki just walks by without another word or gesture, leaving Izuku confused as he watches him head on into the building. The narrative notes that since the villain incident, Katsuki hadn’t bothered Izuku, while the unnamed characters in the background apparently recognize Katsuki from the ‘sludge’ incident (well, not shocked how the fandom held onto that name). 

Izuku notes that he’s gotta stop flinching instinctively, and then tries to hype himself up, noting that it’s not like before, and think about the past ten months while taking a wobbly step forward- and then tripping over himself.

I’m sorry Izuku just has so many fantastic faces in this chapter I am crying trying to limit myself to just a few. But yeah, that little derp as he realizes what’s happening is adorable, especially while Ochako gently sets him back on his feet. She mentions that it’s her quirk, and apologizes for using it, but that it’s a bad omen to trip and fall. (I wonder if that gets played with again during later parts of the series… will have to check to see.)

While Izuku freaks out over talking to a girl, Ochako notes that the exam is nerve-wracking, and then heads off while wishing both of them luck as Izuku stares after. 

This fucking kid. I love him so much. His flustered excitement gets him some weird looks from the others still outside.

We transition to a new character (Present Mic) who immediately shows off his performative side by calling for a ‘hey!’ which… is met with silence from the crowd. He doesn’t let this throw him off, instead letting them know that he’ll present the guidelines for the practical, followed with a ‘YEAH!’ that gets met with an even heavier silence.

Izuku and Katsuki are seated next to each other, with Izuku descending right into excited muttering over Present Mic and how he listens to his radio show every week. Also with the assumption that all the UA teachers are pro heroes, which I mean, true, but still. Katsuki tells Izuku to shut up.

Present Mic explains the test: ten minute long ‘mock cityscape maneuvers’, with the applicants split among seven arenas, labelled ‘A’ through ‘G’. With more than 10k applicants total, that’s about…

Yeah, more than 1500 per arena. Fucking hell, no wonder the robots deplete so quickly in only a few minutes. Also of interest:

“Bring along whatever you want.” So technically, if Izuku were able to procure the tech and training to handle the robots, there would be nothing keeping him from getting into UA quirkless… though I imagine any kid who gets in mostly on tech probably gets side-eyed… though if said kid made their OWN tech, they might also get an offer from the Support department.

(AU where Mei accidentally took the heroics exam and got a shitload of points, but she ended up taking the offer for Support instead despite setting the record for most points in said exam. Katsuki forever wants to fight her. Izuku and her are good friends.)

Also, another thing I love is how Katsuki just told Izuku to shut up a moment ago, and then:

He’s the one to initiate conversation on the details of the test, basically agreeing on the reasoning behind dividing up the students between arenas. Katsuki is annoyed at not being able to crush Izuku, which has Izuku awkwardly silent. 

Also mini-Mic.

Poor, poor Mic. He just wants audience participation. Anyways, he continues on to explain the points system, with the help of cute little Mario-themed silhouettes. There are three kinds of faux villains, with different points awarded for defeating each based on their difficulty levels. Also, attacking other examinees is prohibited!

A student (cough Tenya) raises their hand to ask a question, going on to note that the handout sheet appears to have four varieties of villain, and that such a blatant error (if it is one) reflects poorly on Japan’s top academy. He then spins around and points at Izuku, calling him out for his muttering and how distracting he’s been, and that ‘if this is some sort of game to you, then please leave immediately!’ 

Is that… Mineta seated behind Izuku? I can’t find another panel that disproves that theory, so. Whelp. If you ever for some reason want to have Izuku accidentally deal with the grape early, he’s right there. 

Anyways, Present Mic brings the convo back to the initial question/comment, noting that the fourth villain is worth zero points, and is more of an obstacle. He then brings up Super Mario Brothers, the old retro game, and compares the Zero Pointer to a thwomp. There’s one per site, serving as a gimmick that’ll rampage in close quarters. Tenya thanks Mic and apologizes for the interruption. 

And so we get our final words from Present Mic:

??? either he's referencing the original guy (which I think would be a misquote because I doubt OG Nap ever noted anything like that) or some French hero or the like who took on the name.

Discord offered this to me while putting together the post:

So there you have it. Tentatively confirmed.

Those EYES man, dude’s got the Rinnegan going on.

Honestly, I have to end on this panel just because of that last line from Present Mic. Like, look me in the eyes and tell me this isn’t the exact point to end on. 

The discord’s takeaway from this:

#chapter 3 #opening arcs #readthrough #boku no hero academia #my hero academia #midoriya izuku #bakugou katsuki #uraraka ochako #yamada hizashi #iida tenya #I seriously cannot believe they actually said 'break a leg' while Midoriya Izuku was in the area #like talk about tempting fate #and that little bow #like 'yes sir i will do my best to break a leg' #'in fact i will break both legs AND an arm' #'Plus Ultra!'

[crumburoo]

It came in 3 unassuming moments in his life. If asked, Pro hero Ground Zero will deny the possibility of a guardian angel until his dying breath, but the 3 letters he so carefully stored away in a shoebox inside his cabinet beg to differ.

The first letter he received was way back in middle school. It came the morning their homeroom teacher was due to discuss their selection for high school choices. Katsuki woke up as usual, had breakfast with his dad and his usual screaming match with his mom. After his bath, he went upstairs to prepare for the day. There, sitting unassuming in his desk, was a letter addressed to him. A girl did give him a letter yesterday. Probably another confession letter, he thought smugly, but then he remembered that he exploded that thing yesterday, causing the girl to cry and run away from him. Curiosity now piqued, he opens the letter and on it were written the words "Don't be an ass. Don't let them tell him that he can't make it."

"The fuck!?" was Katsuki's first thought, but he was quickly taken out of it when his mom yelled for him to hurry up, otherwise he will be late. Tossing the letter inside his drawer, he quickly gets himself ready for school. "That shit can wait" he mutters to himself.

In school and to no one's surprise, Izuku raises his hand and says he plans on applying to UA as well. Immediately, his classmates start snickering and makes fun of the "quirkless wonder." Katsuki used to bully Izuku in the past, and still does on occasion, but him taunting Izuku has since lost it's appeal. He doesn't start them anymore, but when prompted, he always gives out a little insult here and there.

Izuku stammers and nearly shakes, but he doesn't back down even when his homeroom teacher tells him to select a more "realistic" school of choice. It was then that Katsuki remembered the mysterious letter he received that morning. "Don't be an ass" the words kept repeating itself in his head.

-- "atsuki, what do you think!?" One of his classmates bumps his shoulder, likely trying to get him to make fun of Izuku. Izuku, who was crying silently but hasn't made a move to concede his dream of going to U.A. Izuku, who used to be his childhood bestfriend. Izuku, who was since diagnosed quirkless and has since been the subject of ridicule at his school.

In a strange mix of pity and reluctant awe, Katsuki opened his mouth and said "Tsk, leave the loser alone. If he wants to get killed that badly, then let him apply for U.A. As if he'll get in anyway." Izuku looks at him slackjawed, but as an impromptu leader within the classroom, all of his classmates decide to drop the subject.

After school, Katsuki goes straight home and takes a nap. When dinner time came, his mom casually mentions that she and her friend, Midoriya Inko will meet tomorrow night for some spa date. Katsuki just dismisses his mom's rant, but then Mitsuki casually says " Oi brat, Izu-chan called too, says he wants to say thank you. I didn't wake you up cause I know you'll be pissy. The hell did you do?"

"I didn't do shit, old hag! He said thank you to me, why are you assuming I did something wrong!?"

"Because you're you" is his mom's retort. After dinner, Katsuki locks himself in his room and thought back on Izuku's phone call, getting a weird sense of accomplishment all the while.

The second letter came during his 2nd year as a high school student. Katsuki and Izuku both got into U.A. It was a surprise to everyone when Izuku somehow passed the entrance exam. Still quirkless, Izuku did poorly on the physical part of the exam, but aced the written part, barely scraping enough points to get into the hero support courses. Katsuki and Izuku have since developed a tentative sort of understanding regarding their "friendship." If asked, yes they knew each other, but other than that, they never sought each other out. It was a weird thing, being apathetic to the existance of your once childhood bestfriend, but Katsuki and Izuku make it work. Even though Katsuki hears Izuku's name in passing, he never seeks out the nerd.

At U.A., Izuku's penchant for anything hero-related was considered endearing and not a total nerd-alert, so much so that Izuku has grown comfortable in his own skin. Before long, he started having friends of his own. Izuku has long since accepted the fact that he has no quirk, but still wants to do work in the pro hero circuit, so he decided to enroll in the hero support program at U.A.

During their second year, Katsuki's homeroom teacher mentioned that in preparation for their future pro hero careers, they need to get acquinted with other works related to their chosen field, which means that tomorrow, they will be working with the hero support students to work on possible support items they can use.

Katsuki trudges to his room at Heights Alliance and decides to do his homework before hitting the gym. There, stuck between his math and hero history notebooks, was a letter with his name on it. Immediately remembering the note he got in middle school, Katsuki hurriedly opens the letter and reads it. It was a lot longer than the first, with notes on always being careful and not being complacent about his own goals. What caught his attention though, was the footnote. Written in red ink were the words "it's okay to be confused at times. You're still young, so you got time to figure it out."

Katsuki hurriedly calls his homeroom teacher and asks permission to leave the dorm and go home for the weekend. Aizawa doesn't see any harm in it, and quickly agrees (if only to get Katsuki off the phone).

Morning comes and Katsuki is bored out of his skull. When Aizawa-sensei faced the class and started introducing the support course students, Katsuki was casually listening but felt himself bummed when Izuku wasn't with the class. Perhaps he was doing this shit with class 2-B, Katsuki wasn't sure. "Well, I can just make fun of Deku's scrawny little ass next time", Katsuki thinks. Aizawa then starts assigning their class with their support course partners, when a mop of hair pops inside their classroom and asks if this is the 2-A class. Katsuki looks up just in time to see Aizawa use his capture weapon to shush the mumbling support course student who was spouting excuses as to why he was late. Aizawa then releases his capture weapon and loudly exclaims "and just for that, you will be assigned to my problem child. Row 4 aisle 3, you'll be working with Bakugou Katsuki."

This is it, Katsuki thought to himself. He's screwed. As Aizawa lowers his capture weapon, Katsuki is immediately assaulted by Izuku's blushing face, likely embarrased from being called out by a pro hero for his clumsiness. What he was not prepared for, was the sight of his childhood friend. No longer a scrawny kid, Izuku has hit a growth spurt and has since learned to do basic toning exercises by the looks of it. Somehow, he's also developed a sense of style cause his hair is no longer an unruly mess of green hair, but it was shaved a bit at the edges and is parted, accentuating his dimples and the freckles on his cheeks.

Izuku hesitantly walks up to him and gives him a tentative smile. "H..hi Kacchan" Izuku stammers. Katsuki was not prepared for Izuku's smile. Not wanting to show his internal freakout, Katsuki says "you got tall, but I'm still taller, nerd" and then Izuku full on laughs at him. It was then that Katsuki realized that Izuku's laugh maybe has a nice ring to it. It was literal years since he heard that laugh, and he was not assaulted with good childhood memories. Nope, not at all.

The thing was, Katsuki has since come to terms with his sexuality. Sure, he dated men and women before, but he somehow leaned more on the masculine side when choosing his dates, and he is starting to realize that his once scrawny childhood bestfriend's smile makes him feel prickly but in a good kind of way.

Katsuki was brought out of his musings when Aizawa began to drone off on what they should do for the next hour of class before zipping himself up in his sleeping bag. Izuku then picks up Aizawa's queue and starts asking Katsuki questions about his quirk. It was then that Katsuki started to notice the little things, like how Izuku's drawings and note taking have gotten more meticulous over time. How his line of questioning about the intricacies of his quirk were more profound. No longer was Izuku always rambling about how cool and powerful his quirk is, he's now able to spout information on how he thinks Katsuki's present hero costume can be altered, so that he can get rid of his bulky gauntlets while still maintaining the same level of firepower he always had. Katsuki was left with nothing, but to answer the questions thrown his way. Before he knew it, the one hour mark was up, and Aizawa-sensei was emerging from his sleeping bag on the floor.

"Uhm, thanks for not exploding me there Kacchan" Izuku rambles. Wide-eyed at how the (not) nerd looks, Katsuki just grunts and says "whatever." Izuku takes it as some sort of sign and just smiles and says "So I'll need your number so we can meet up next week." That got Katsuki's mind reeling and immediately tries to think of reasons why Izuku of all people will ask for his number. He's taken out of his internal monologue when Izuku says "Oh wait, it's probably better if I email you using your school email handle, atleast I can send you progress reports on your costume upgrades. Well, I'll talk to you next week. See ya!"

With that, Izuku and his entire class all bow their heads and Aizawa sheperds them outside the classroom, probably to talk to them for a bit.

After class ends, Katsuki decides to forgo his training and holes up in his dorm room, just staring at the anonymous letter in his grasp. He's kinda screwed. He knows, but he grins despite himself. He's looking forward to the weekend, when he can keep the second letter he received together with the first.

The third letter came that morning. Fast forward 7 years, with lots of problems, misunderstandings, and a whole lot of crying (on Izuku's part, Katsuki swears), he and Izuku have managed to repair their ruined friendship and has since learned to exist together in the same room and even work together on occasion. Katsuki graduated as one of the Big 3 at U.A. and Izuku was scouted by a support company during his third year internship, and has since been working with a reputable support item company right after graduation.

Katsuki has come to terms with the idea that yes, his longing for his childhood bestfriend was not as platonic as he used to think (I'm just making up for lost time), but rather because he may or may not have developed romantic feelings for the (not) nerd. After finding out from class 3-A that Katsuki was bi, Izuku has been smiling at him more, and has even invited him out several times, always in the guise of "Kacchan, I want to discuss some possible costume upgrades, are you free?" And if they just so happen to meet up at some chic coffee shop or a cute cake shop, then it is what it is.

7 years into their tentative "friendship", Katsuki was hit with the realization that he really likes Izuku, and wants to ask him to be his boyfriend. So last week, he casually invited Izuku to their favorite izakaya that's situated in between his hero agency and Izuku's company. After arriving at his apartment to prepare for his "not date", he notices a letter in his mailbox. Seeing the same envelope and lettering, he quickly runs inside his room and opens his cabinet. Underneath his spare boots, he takes out the shoebox containing the first 2 letters he got. All the same envelope, same handwriting, and Katsuki has yet to figure out who sends these to him. Not wanting to jinx it, Katsuki sits on his bed and opens the new letter. The only words written inside was today's date, the restaurant he was supposed to meet Izuku in, and the words "Go to the other place" in bold black letters. Katsuki snickers and calls Izuku and tells him to meet him at that restaurant that serves Katsudon instead.

Later that night, while Izuku snuggles with Katsuki on his couch, Izuku jumps up and says "Oh yeah Kacchan, I forgot to tell you, but that izakaya we were supposed to go to got attacked by a villain earlier! Good thing Red Riot and Uravity were on patrol so they got everything under control! Can we drop by tomorrow? Check things out" Katsuki just snuggles into Izuku more. "Sure nerd, whatever you want."

-- end

PS: Now if only I can work out some details as to who is Katsuki's mysterious letter sender. A Katsuki from an alternate universe? Katsuki from the future sending his past self some dating tips? I'll leave it to your imagination 💚🧡

#midoriya izuku #bakugou katsuki #katsudeku #katsuki x izuku #bakudeku #bkdk #fanfic ideas

[la-li-lu-le-lol]

1, 16, 29 :)

Hello! This got a lot longer than I thought but oh well!

1- How'd you get into the series?

I have been aware of MGS on like, an outsider - background level for a while. I have a vivid memory of being 12 years old in 2008 and sitting in my 6th grade math class and having a friend excitedly chatter to me about how much he loved mgs4, which had just come out. This was also around the time when Super Smash Bros. Brawl had just come out, and the arcade I used to go to always had Smash tournaments going on that I would crowd around the tv with a bunch of spectators and watch. I liked Snake immediately, dunno why, I think it had something to do with how handsome and cool he was. :V I was very into the Blade and Bourne movies at the time so little me was very into stoic action hero characters. Also his Brawl iteration destroyed damn near everything so he was a frequent pick for top players.

Fast forward several years later and several friends were knee deep in MGS and would not shut up about recommending it to me. One day in 2016, a full two years after they first told me "you should," I cozied up with CenterStrain01's playthrough of MGS1 on my 20th birthday and was enthralled. I didnt get a wink of sleep just to watch the whole playthrough. Something about it just clicked with me on a level almost nothing else has and the rest is history. 🖤

16- Favorite Scene

Oh gosh, I have so many. There are a lot of "good atmosphere" moments in mgs1 where you're outside and there's no music save for the wind blowing, specifically near the communications tower (iirc?) And it feels very striking to me. Mgs2's intro bridge jump is legendarily cool. When Raiden first steps into Arsenal Gear is awesome. Snake's speech at the end is ❤️❤️❤️❤️. Big Boss half-drowning in a river while he second-hand has visions of The Boss killing The Sorrow is really, really well done. LOVED the part in Mgs4 where you tail the resistance member, the music, the night-time, aaa. Theres too many lol

29- Most tragic character

I think theres a core group that consists of Snake, Otacon, Big Boss, and Kaz, and they're all kind of this for mirrored reasons. Snake and Big Boss both suffer a ton from mental health issues amid being too well adjusted to the experience of war to stay out of it properly, though ofc there are differences, but theres a lot of "cycle in and out of bad shit while being ultimately unable to stay away until the very end". Snake especially is the character who is never given rewards for "trying". Likewise, Otacon and Kaz to me have many narrative similarities in that they suffer from cycles of people they put their trust in consistently abusing them. The good thing is that in Otacon's case, he at least has Snake, who he could rely on and be with with zero fear or trepidation other than what was the inevitability of losing him to Old Age. It's bittersweet. Kaz... wasn't so lucky, because the person who he sticks to like glue who keeps fucking him over is Big Boss, and it takes way, way too much to get him to finally say enough. And even then... he still doesn't detangle himself, not entirely.

#thank you!! #asks

[bmaxwell]

Number 1: Darkest Dungeon

Ruin...has come to our family.

Every so often a game comes along that feels like it was made specifically for you. So it was with Darkest Dungeon. First off, the game’s art style is breathtaking, I’d never seen a game look quite like it. The heavy shading on the characters gives everyone a severe, mysterious look. The combat is turn-based, with the twist that skills and abilities are based on where the characters are standing in a formation. It invokes HP Lovecraft* and makes the emotional stresses of being sent into dangerous places to battle horrors and abominations into a gameplay mechanism. The music is great. There’s a cool, spooky narrator. There are a bunch of different classes, and a town hub to upgrade. Darkest Dungeon ticks...all of my boxes? Almost. Make the adventurers high schoolers who attend classes, form social bonds, and manage relationships during the day before fighting monsters at night and you’d have it. 

I’ve played several hundred hours of Darkest Dungeon, and I still rarely skip the intro video when I launch the game. 

The first time I saw the above video, I was immediately reminded of two things:

- Eternal Darkness, a Gameube game about exploring mansion of your recently-deceased uncle and discovering an evil book that has been passed down through the generations.

- Lurker at the Threshold, which was my first HP Lovecraft story.**

This is my kind of horror. I dislike blood and guts slasher horror, but I love cosmic horror. This is very difficult for most games to capture, a lot of Lovecraft-inspired games tend to be about fighting tentacle monsters with tommy guns. And Darkest Dungeon is about fighting cool scary monsters, but Red Hook implemented a system in which your characters will have to deal with the psychological toll that living through life-threatening encounters with unspeakable horrors would take on a person. 

It’s easy to boil this down to just another meter to manage. “Oh, this monster monster used an ability which inflicted 6 points of stress on my Crusader, he is only 13 stress points away from his limit.” Most games can be boiled down to their mathematical skeletons. This is where the game’s incredible writing, art direction, and voice acting come through. Combat actions are often accompanied by a line of dialogue written over a character’s head and/or a line from the narrator (the excellent Wayne June). 

For example, you encounter an enemy called a Madman - a fairly disturbed fellow in a loose straightjacket. One of his attacks his one of your party members, inflicting stress and a debuff. How this looks in practice is like this: this dude in an unbuckled straight jacket who has been holding his head in his hands suddenly points and screams something muffled with one hand over his mouth. One of your party member’s screams “I-I don’t want to die here!” and the narrator says “Gasping...reeling...taken over the edge into madness!” The imagination doesn’t have to wander far to picture this distraught man suddenly pointing at you and screaming something he can’t possibly know about you. This marriage of theme and mechanisms is something that makes video games special. 

As someone who has always enjoyed the math puzzle-like nature of turn-based combat, Darkest Dungeon managed to somehow feel both familiar and innovative. Having combatants lined up from left to right seems like such a simple thing, but it brings into a play a whole layer of strategic considerations. There are abilities that can only be used from certain positions, or can only hit specific ranks on the enemy side; there are abilities that push and pull, that lunge forward or fall back. On any given delve, you are choosing a party of four from 17 classes, each of which has an assortment of abilities to choose from. Early in the game you can kind of get by with whatever party you choose, but as the difficulty ramps up you have to really think about your party makeup before setting out.

Darkest Dungeon’s late game features a fairly brutal difficulty spike. Most of my plays of the game are me having a laid back good time with the game until I get my ass handed to me in a few Champion dungeons, then putting the game down for months before starting a new save. This understandably turns a lot of players away from the game. Shit can go wrong in a hurry. Shit WILL go wrong in a hurry. If the enemies focus on a specific character and/or get a couple of critical hits in succession, you can lose party members permanently, and those setbacks can be deflating. You can’t avoid bad luck, but you can mitigate it and plan for it. And overcoming an “unfair” challenge is exhilarating. 

One of the things the game does brilliantly is give you those hopeless situations and occasionally offer a beacon of hope. This is by way of the game’s stress and affliction mechanism. When a hero’s stress level reaches 100, they will either become afflicted with a negative trait such as Paranoid or Abusive, or they will become virtuous, gaining a trait such as Stalwart or Focused. This seems to be tilted in favor of affliction about 70/30. Either way, this event is accompanied by a line of text from the character, and a callout by the narrator. 

In the case of an affliction, things go from bad to worse. Characters will change positions on their own (a fearful character will move back in the formation, or a masochistic one might move toward the front) or skip their turn altogether (if they’re hopeless). Afflicted characters will stress the rest of the party out as well whether it’s by being mopey, or verbally abusive - a paranoid arbalest who misses a shot will say “WHICH ONE OF YOU BUMPED MY ARM!?” and so on. On the other hand, sometimes when hope seems lost a character will become virtuous. They will shout encouragement, grant buffs and healing and the such. 

The game’s other big source of drama comes from its death’s door mechanism. When a character reaches zero health, they do not die. Instead they are in a state called death’s door, which means that any damage they take while at zero health could kill them. This leads to every attack being accompanied by held breath and a tightly clenched asshole. The game’s design lends it so much personality and breeds so many memorable stories. 

As impressive as the game’s design is, it is matched by the game’s sound design. Stuart Chatwood did an incredible job with the score. The music is deeply unsettling, a low thrum while you make your way through poorly lit dungeons where traps lie in wait and horrors potentially lie around every corner. Distant howls and screams  help set the stage. The battles themselves are against pounding drums and upsettingly realistic sounds of blows landing and gasps and chokes. 

Wayne June’s contribution as the narrator cannot be overstated. He is the heart and soul of Darkest Dungeon. Hs voicework captures the game’s dark humor, hope, despair, triumph and everything between. I cannot envision this game without him, and was thrilled to learn that he has signed on for Darkest Dungeon II.

It’s a game of long odds, despair, determination, and triumph. As someone who lives with depression, the game probably means more to me and hits me differently than most. The idea of throwing yourself headlong into a situation that seems hopeless, falling into despair, then getting back up and going again means something to me. The game brought tears to my eyes the first time, when a hero hit their stress limit and became Stalwart rather than afflicted, I heard Wayne June deliver the line “Many fall in the face of chaos. But not this one. Not today.” 

Darkest Dungeon isn’t the best game ever made by any metric, but it’s my favorite. 

*I’ve managed to make peace with enjoying Lovecraft’s fiction while being aware of what a racist, xenophobic shit stain he was

**Technically more August Derleth than HP Lovecraft I know.

[viktormaru]

okay here’s my full character analysis??? Headcanons???? canon retelling with my shit slapped on??? on

VIKTOR LEAGUE OF LEGENDS

(under read more cause its gonna get long)

Viktor is said to be born in the borders of the Entresol level of Zaum (aka the middle), but I’m guessing that means the lower border because of how often he’d have to move or stay away from home due to accidents.

I assume Viktor had good parents. They were artisans and seemed to encourage his creative pursuits with robotics and so on. (I also believe he is trans and that his parents supported him in that as well haha).

So yes, we have this child who likes building things. And he lives in this place that is not healthy or safe for the people that live there. His parents probably go to the upper levels to work and Viktor gets a glimpse of a better place there. He sees where he’s at and at first, he is motivated by both kindness and frustration. He is a child with a passion and all these leaks and accidents are getting in the way! So he starts studying to see what he can do. Time passes though and he realizes the extent of those things, the casualities of those humam errors. So he takes his work more seriously and soon he is producing results. But of course no one takes a teen seriously, no matter how good he is.

Until someone does and it works. His inventions are good! So he keeps doing it! He’s awkward and socially anxious but he really LOVES building things so he does it and sells his work to the factories until he gets the attention of the Zaun academy of techmaturgy (this is canon btw). 

He goes into the academy and he’s.... awkward... Like, Zaun is full of weird people sure but Viktor is pretty bad at talking about anything but robotics and stuff and comes off as blunt often, so he’s kinda isolated by his peers. He doesn’t mind, he’s there to study. But professor stanwick approaches him with interest in his work and Viktor is happy he is recognized by a professional. He’s a little naive back then and trusts his teacher a lot. Which is why he is convinced to move to Piltover, despite a bit of his reluctance to leave his home. His parents wave him goodbye and he leaves.

He moves to Piltover and gets a better lab, more tools, more money and more people to help. His work just improves in time and he’s put to work with a lot of people. He once again fails incredibly of socializing properly and falls into isolation yet again (hello darkness my old friend). People end up working with him either because he’s really the best option or because they can stand him for the time he is needed {:- (

Well, that is, until he works with Jayce. Jayce is infurating and doesn’t do things the way Viktor likes doing and has this weird outlook on how things are done that sometimes just works despite it all. He’s a puzzle that doesn’t make sense and the two end up doing a lot of things together. And having a lot of discussions. A LOT of them. They are both kinda lonely. But its like.. they don’t dislike eachother?? Because they kind skipped some steps in how socializing usually goes so it just kinda worked. 

They could’ve kept going, getting comfortable in eachother’s spaces until they could just go out to chill together or something but neither of them was brave enough to try it (or smart enough to realize that could be good). 

But then at this time that awful chem spill happened in Zaun in the entresol level and Viktor rushes home to help.

I’d say this is where Viktor’s character starts like, solidifying I guess? Because I think for the first time, as a grown mature person, Viktor is seeing death and suffering with his own eyes. Death and suffering that could’ve been avoided. He’s watching all these people die and suffer and he can only do so much to repair the damage. If only it could’ve been avoided, could’ve been stopped. He knows it’s possible. Why didn’t anyone do it? 

He doesn’t find his parents either.

So he spends the next several months throwing all his energy and sanity into doing whatever he can to help these people. He builds blitzcrank and they fix evertyhign they can. It’s a fucking CHEM spill, can you imagine just how AWFUL it all was?? people were dying for several weeks after the accident , even after the damage to the structures were already fixed. These people were slowly suffering around him and he was trying and they kept dying around him. These are workers, families. It’s a pretty bad situation.

He learnes how to infuse mechanical parts with flesh in an astonishing way just to try to replace the rotten, sick parts of the people around him. Get rid of the parts that were kiling them.

And then! He finally goes back to Piltover, after it all, and the first thing he gets is the news that Stanwick stole credits on his invention of Blitzcrank.

Like.. the emotional toll of it all? He’s tired! He’s burdened with the ammount of death he saw and people wanna be shitty and play games like that for glory and fame! It’s stupid and he doesn’t understand it! He tries to fight for his right and loses because no one really bothered to support him through it (Jayce didn’t think he’d really have to and would you look at that).

He’s angry and upset and grieving and possibly traumatized. He keeps wondering why would people do that to eachother and comes up empty. So he’s here, obsessing with replacing every part of human error to garantee that people WILL live. Of course, he’s more isolated then ever and people don’t bother to sit down and listen, they just think he’s weird and obsessed and stuff like that.

So when he needs to do the colaboration on the dive suits with Jayce and they have their fight about free will, people side with Jayce quickly. They think Viktor is mad and they had seen it coming miles away. 

He gets fucking expelled from the Piltover academia and sent back to Zaun.

To his ruined home, alone, with nothing but his name and his thoughts.

Clearly that leads him into a deep depression. After all, he lost everything but he doesn’t understand why ! because sure these people in piltover like acting high and mighty and theorizing and politicizing but they didn’t have to watch children crying because they were coughing so much blood was coming out because their lungs were corroded and they wouldnt last another week. They thought viktor was mad. 

And viktor had a lot of time to wallow over it, and think about his failures and suffer on his own and he’s actual conclusion is that negative emotions ( envy, pride, sadness) clouded people’s judgemetns. They’d let others suffer for their own gain out of fear of losing. 

He thought that himself feeling sadness was just another obstacle to do what he had to: save people.

So he basically starts operating on himself until he can barely feel emotions anymore, removing his own happiness with it (but its not like he felt it anyway so what difference did it make). And then he starts plunging into work like never before, dedicated to this new cause that is the glorious evolution. He starts again from the bottom and once again he rises, because Viktor is a genious, and he is honest in his work, in his intentions. He wants to help.

 People were scared of the Mad Man Viktor, but Viktor would do anything he could to save you if you came to him. He understood limits though, he never imposed over people. Do no harm, as they say ( what would be the point of doing that?? )

And then the other toxic even happens in Sump, another really bad one, and Viktor rushes in to help. He’s keeping these people alive in his lab but he knows he doesnt have the power to keep them so. So he goes to Jayce after an energy source.

He thinks Jayce will listen to him now, now Viktor isn’t emotive and easily hurt, now he isn’t insecure, he has a cause, he has something he fights for. A brighter tomorrow.

And Jayce calls him mad. 

Viktor is kind of dissapointed, he’d think Jayce, who has always been so uncaring of people’s opinion’s would at least try to understand. He doesn’t. So he takes the crystal by force from Jayce (petty arguments can be saved for later, those people on his lab needed him NOW).

When Jayce follows him there with a hammer he understands the stakes. 

One life against hundreds is an easy math. Viktor chooses to sacrifice Jayce (Jayce chose to come here after all)

But then Jayce actually destroys his lab.

And like... imagine waking up to your laboratory destroyed, just dozens of corpses of innocent people laying around. yet another failure, yet another big price to pay.

He has to start from zero again. His reputation is completely stepped on ( he is truly crazy now by everyone’s eyes) and Jayce is a hero. Blitzcrank sticks around for a little while, moved by the same passion to help people, but blitzcrank can stand the deaths and the gruesomeness of viktor’s work, he leaves to try to help in other ways. Viktor lets him of course, blitz has free will and he isn’t anyone to stop him. 

Some people, desperate people, still come to him for help. He does his best to give them what they need. A strange cult forms and idolizes him, he hates it, he is no god, he is just another man. People thinking of him as an etheral being just proves his theory on how fear and wayward emotions lead to dumb, dangerous mistakes.

In the end, Viktor is trying to cheat suffering, cheat death at all costs.

I don’t believe he sent any golems or anything after Jayce, vengence is way too beneath him. Stealing? Maybe not, depends. I think Jayce became a bit paranoid after “defeating” viktor. Because Viktor said some big words and Jayce is suddenly realizing that truly, he has no purpose. He’s just a useless tool. He makes things sure, but what for? He’s raised as a hero but damn he doesn’t feel like it.

And to end it all, this is why I think Ekko and Viktor should sit down and chat at some point. They are so similar and so different all at once. They both love Zaun and its people, they both wanna protect them and have a passion for inventing. But while Viktor wants to reject his human side to achieve his goals, Ekko embraces it. Like, I don’t think Viktor shouldn’t even be his mentor, more like his colleague. Ekko is his own person and has a different way of doing things, but they could do a lot together as well. 

Also Ekko and Blitz are totally friends in canon so like.. yeah.. Zaun for life....

Anyway this is it thank tou all for reading this is UUUH like 1,8k words long 

extras or stuff I already said and will say again:

viktor is trans

he was an anxious yet hopeful (and maybe a bit naive) teenager

he still loves sweet things and thats canon.. he likes chilling sometimes

workaholic as seen

blames himself for literally everything like a dumbass

is kinda of very afraid of death in general

is not the kind of person that steals children to experiment on them cmon guys thats propaganda

is embarrassed of the cult following him

i guess he doesnt have his whole left arm anymore, chop chop it went

USED braces as  kid

loves blitzcrank like a son, doesnt realize it

I think thats all, sorry yall

#league of legends #viktor #VIKTOR META #sdfjiusdfjsdf yea i wrote this nonstop forgive me

[douchebagbrainwaves]

PLENTY OF THINGS WE FIND INTERESTING WILL SURPRISINGLY OFTEN TURN OUT TO WORK WILL PROBABLY SEEM JUST AS BROKEN AS THOSE THAT DON'T

Their job isn't to get good grades. If someone submits a lame article, the other submissions don't all become lame.1 And you don't generally know which of the two founders did most of the world's history, if you have a lot. Try it and see. After a while you get tired and start to screw up. Viaweb's hackers were all extremely risk-averse. They can't dilute you without diluting themselves just as much.

What a disaster that would be one thing I'd do more of that. But because the imaginary machine was always running, I felt I always ought to be able to get a day job you don't take a position and then defend it. In particular, new things.2 If you put $50,000 has become $5 million. After that she told the PR firm. The test of utility I propose is whether we cause people who read what we've written to do anything differently afterward. After spending years chasing them, it's straightforward to figure out who the client is.3 In most fields the great work is done early on. Business Week. It drives me crazy to see code that's badly indented, or that people might think you're getting above yourself. And incidentally, when it does, you'll find that each painting builds on things that could steal that prestige.4 This isn't just amusing; it would be hard to imagine him having the patience to climb the corporate ladder at General Electric—or Microsoft, actually.

So why do universities and research labs feel they ought to be out there digging up stories for themselves. The test applied to a startup is to create wealth, in the original sense of the word thesis, the better. It seems the clear winner for generating wealth and technical innovations which are practically the same thing: that was way more work than we expected, and also New York, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas. I probably read two or three.5 So I advise fatalism. I want to examine its internal structure.6 As long as you're a product company that's merely being extra attentive to a customer, they're very grateful even if you fail.

At the time, no one knows in programming who the heroes should be. I've found is, embarrassingly enough, Yahoo, Google. They don't change the laws of physics. And in addition there's the challenge of making do with less. Running upstairs is hard for you but even harder for him. In a startup you can change. There were no fixed office hours. If you're friends with a lot of people care about, you help everyone who uses your solution.7 Even worse than the 20th best player, causing him not to make the original Silicon Valley.

But the fact is, if you make a conscious effort to do this.8 So did Apple. I've talked to a lot of data about that. You have to keep them apart, because it's a way of learning about your users. Imitating it was like pretending to have gout in order to read Aristotle. I already have problems enough with that.9 For example, when one of the best programs were essays, in the most literal sense, not news: there is nothing so tempting as an easy test that kind of thing at the end.10 The archaeological work being mostly done, it implied that the people studying the classics were, if not wasting their time, at least. The second way to compete with focus is to see what focus overlooks. Money is a side effect of specialization. Angels are the limiting reagent in startup formation. Curiously, however, if it's followed by another that isn't corrupt.

Notes

Mayle, Peter, Why Are We Getting a Divorce? 1% in 1950. I'm not making any predictions about the smaller investments you raise money succeeded, and the ordering system was small.

I advised avoiding Javascript. So the cost of having employers pay for stuff online, if you include the cases where you could turn you into a few stellar exceptions the textbooks are bad. Later stage investors won't invest.

What he meant, I use. Deane, Phyllis, The Quotable Einstein, Princeton University Press, 1996. And they are like, and his son Robert were each in turn forces Digg to respond promptly. This would add a further level of links.

E-Mail.

A P successfully defended itself by allowing the unionization of its identity.

Starting a company with rapid, genuine growth is genuine. Brand-name VCs wouldn't recapitalize a company if the quality of the economy, you may as well use the local builders built everything in exactly the point of failure would be easier to take math classes intended for math majors. When Harvard kicks undergrads out for here, because the ordering system, which have evolved the way and run the programs on the y, you'd see a lot better to be sharply differentiated, so x% usage growth will also interest investors.

The threshold for participating goes down to zero, which handled orders.

In fact, for an investor derives mostly from the late 1970s the movie Dawn of the biggest discoveries in any era if people are trying to tell them exactly what constitutes research in the early adopters.

Software companies can hire unskilled people to do is assemble components designed and manufactured by someone else to lend to, but the problems all fall into two categories: those where the richest country in the country it's in. Life of Isaac Newton, p. You have to do the right question, which parents would still send their kids to say that it offers a vivid illustration of that investment is a bit of an email address you can skip the first meeting.

9999 and. It's not a nice-looking little box with a screw top would have gotten where they all sit waiting for the average employee.

Thanks to Trevor Blackwell, Jessica Livingston, Kenneth King, Aaron Swartz, Garry Tan, and Professor Moriarty for their feedback on these thoughts.

#automatically generated text #Markov chains #Paul Graham #Python #Patrick Mooney #physics #Press #product #employee #PR #hackers #point #word #way #Apple #Las #specialization #parents #Money #sup #order #quality #wealth #someone

[lgetanphimes-blog]

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[sepiadice]

NavyDice Campaign (2019/8/30): Poor use of Apples

So I was sitting about, attempting to play more Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Due to a pleasant kismet, it was my first day off of four in a row. I was also awake until Four AM being sick, so it was a mixed sort of day.

Anyways, I suddenly got a text from NavyDice[1] asking if I was up to play Dungeons & Dragons in about ninety minutes, at a location I hadn’t yet visited that was a half to full hour away (depending on traffic).

So obviously I agreed. Because I’m desperate and IndigoDice’s campaign has apparently fallen.[2]

So I got the address, plugged it into the Google Maps app, and went off, listening to a Dungeon World Actual Play podcast episode,[3] brainstorming my character since my original plan to transfer Autumn Quill over had to be abandoned due to everyone else playing a spellcaster.

So time to experiment with other new things. Like using the full strength of the Souvenir Mug Rule!

Anyways, this new campaign features three members of the improv group (Navy[4] GMing, as well as GoldDice[5] and LimeDice[6]) plus a friend of NavyDice who we’ll assign the nickname… Tetrahedron.[8]

In true NavyDice fashion, prepare for time shenanigans!

CAST

Acer ‘Maple’ Palmatum (SepiaDice/Me) Level 5 Elf Fighter. I recalled this image while brainstorming, and decided to just run with it.[9] While making the character, I’d decided she had a military history and a desire to help the helpless. Also likes cute things. We’ll see if any of that pays off. I’d give her a Scottish accent if I could remember to do character voices. As she’s named for a tree, her given name is probably actually ‘Palmatum’.

Garland (LimeDice) A spellcaster of some sort? 

Poppi (GoldDice) Another spellcaster, who used Intelligence and Wisdom as her dump stats so… there’s concerns?

Mumble (Tetrahedron) Bard. Talks very quiet, as is his namesake.

Once characters were complete, we took turns inventing a brief history of the party and why we’re hanging out together.

For the actual campaign, we heard of a job dealing with a band of brigands bothering a town. We travel there and meet with the local marshall, Masem, who is grateful for our help.

The party rents a place at a bed & breakfast and waits to be needed.

So we open on the party doing small things that reveal character. Garland is reading a book. Poppi is mesmerized by a pretty mobile that was hanging about. (I forget what Mumble was doing). Maple is doing push ups.

A knock comes on the door. It’s Masem. The brigands are coming to attack the market space. Maple follows the marshall, the squishier party members follow behind.

In the market, Masem and Maple pose as they wait for the brigands to arrive. Garland and Mumble position themselves for optimal support. Poppi gets distracted by apples, and failing to purchase them since everyone else ran.

Combat ensues. The first wave of six brigands fall to sword and spell, and a second wave (featuring a very definite midboss) arrives, and similarly gets cut down.

As the citizenry start to celebrate, Maple hears a ticking coming from the midboss.

After a short back and forth between me and NavyDice to determine if Maple would know the concept of a bomb, we determine she wouldn’t immediately come to that conclusion. Maple investigates the midboss, and discovers he has a vest under his shirt with many magic scrolls that are starting to autocast. I decide that’s enough information to follow my initial instinct, and Maple shouts for people to run.

Maple attempts to scoop Poppi up, but fails the strength check, kinda ruining the moment but whatever.

Most of the town’s out of the blast range as the scrolls deploy in a massive fireball. Once the smoke clears, Maple removes her excess equipment and gets to work cleaning rubble and moving bodies. The local lord rides a carriage down to thank the heroes (our party) and announce a feast. Maple irritably asks him why his bodyguards aren’t helping with disaster response, and the lord sends the guards to do so.

The rest of the party goes to enjoy the celebratory feast the lord was announcing, but Maple stays until the work is done. I’d decided to play her as a Capital-Aytch Hero, so that’s what I’m sticking to, possibly to my occasional detriment.

Eventual she notices those helping the effort beginning to get awkwardly antsy to attend the feast, but don’t want to leave before one of the people who just saved the market from brigands. So Maple relents and leaves for the party, probably with plenty of soot on her.[10]

Everyone’s gathered at the feast, medals are awarded, toasts are started, all that stuff ceremony that Maple lost a taste for due to her time serving in a military.[11]

Then the church bells ring, and a darkness envelops the town, killing everyone.

Cycle 2

There’s a knocking on the front door.

Ah, so Navy is repeating a campaign he’s told me the story of. I decide not to beat around the bush and just let Maple be immediately be on the ball. Call it battle-won instincts of quickly reading the situation.

Maple answers the door and tries to inform Masem about the groundhog day loop we’ve entered, but the marshall is too concerned by the brigands to listen. Maple instead runs off to the market without listening to the mission text.

This time, she intends to save more people.

This time, she’s not going to waste time with the random mooks.

This time, Maple heads straight to the mid-boss with the bomb vest. If she can stop him before he gets to the marketplace, maybe she can mitigate the damage.

However, running towards the guy triggers some attacks of opportunity[12] from the generic brigands, but Maple ignores them. They don’t matter.

However, when she’s facing Bomb-Vest and the brigands flanking him, their combined attacks do drop her to exactly zero, and Maple falls and I begin making death saves.

Then Poppi decides it’d be hilarious to throw an apple at me. Tetrahedron points out that any damage taken while in this state means autodeath, so GoldDice rolls to hit.

And succeeds. Killing Maple with an apple. My friends, readers!

So I’m out of the cycle, and tune out because I’m an inattentive jerk and wanted to try and find the visual reference for my character.[13]

Eventually, the brigands are felled through a method that nearly kills Mumble, the local lord rides his coach down for easy publicity points as he rewards our party and mourns the fallen, there will be a feast, Maple will be given a hero’s funeral, and other familiar notes.

Some investigation might’ve occurred? I think mostly it was just a tad more somber because Maple died.

Then the church bells ring, and a darkness envelops the town, killing everyone.

Cycle 3

There’s a knocking on the door.

Okay, this time the party’s a little smarter. Mumble uses Leomund’s Tiny Hut to contain the explosion, and only he and Bomb Vest dies.

Okay, successfully saved the innocents. Maple takes the time to fill Masem in, who is skeptical despite magic being real so such temporal shenanigans shouldn’t be out of possibility. But using the evidence of (limited) precognition, Maple gets him to accept that maybe this is a thing that happens.

Masem gets called away to a crime scene, and Maple and Garland invite themselves along. Because information is important, and you don’t know what’s relevant.[14] Poppi goes to church, because… well, out of character, to investigate the church bells. In character, Poppi thinks its the Lord’s Day.

Someone blew a hole in the side of a vault, then a second one to escape. Masem investigates with the help of player characters who do what they want by virtue of being player characters.

We manage to, through the powers of basic deductive reasoning and basicer math, figure out which safety deposit box was emptied despite the bank manager’s attempts to be as unhelpful as possible.

Masem gets called away to officiate an execution. Maple assigns Garland to stay back and keep investigating as she keeps following Masem to learn what his day’s like.

Garland and two to three town guards (played by NavyDice, Tetrahedron, and myself)[15] do some more investigation of the vault, before eventually finding and descending into… either the showers or just inexplicable underground tunnels. The guards banter about why they’re taking orders from this random spellcaster guy, how this is an obvious horror movie set-up, how Garland’s orders to split up flies in the face of local bards tales of Scoobert Doobert and the company of mystery,[16] and other fun. They die there when the cycle ends.

Maple follows Masem away, and learns they are hanging the leader of the brigands they’ve been fighting. Which is fun.[20]

Public death spectacle concluded, Maple and Masem go to attend the lord’s feast. Maple notices Masem getting called away for some new distraction, but she decides not to push her luck in case observing it would affect it, and because she’d inserted herself a lot into Masem’s day as is.

Then the church bells ring, and a darkness envelops the town, killing everyone.

Cycle 4

There’s a knock on the door.

The rest of the party wants to regroup and discuss. Maple wants to save people and immediately rushes off, ignoring pleas that people dying don’t matter.

Instead of helping, Garland and Mumble decide to investigate the bank early, and Poppi hangs out at the church belltower to watch what happens in the market.

I roll percentile to determine Maple’s fate. 08. So, due to negligence by the rest of the party (again), Maple dies. Again. As does Masem. And a bunch of innocent standerbys. And also the lord’s manor via explosion I think? I was still trying to find that piece of art. Which I found used as a gentle nudge to the rest of the table that Maple’s a girl. Cut, but still obviously feminine.

Anyways, no one gets to learn what Maple learned yesterday, because screw them, they left her and everyone else to die, and Maple doesn’t write off anyone if there’s a chance to save them.

And there’s always a chance.[21]

Anyways, Poppi spends the day observing while Garland and Mumble annoy a bank clerk, find the brigands hideout, and Mumble convinces one of them he’s a god.

When Maple dies, I use it as an opportunity to take a break and look through social media. Tempers out of character knowledge and lets me take a break from being Permanently ‘On’ for hours at a time.[24]

Eventually, the church bells ring, and a darkness envelops the town, killing everyone.

So ends the first session.

I’m excited for the rest of the campaign, though I am (progressively) remembering details from the last time NavyDice ran it, so hopefully that doesn’t ruin the fun. Especially since I’m super excited to play Maple, and I don’t want to add her to the list of characters who deserve a second chance.[25]

Until next time, may your dice make things interesting.

-

[1] Who has not formally adopted the ColourDice naming convention, but does have a D&D Instagram? [2] I’ve got plans for that group, however, so stay tuned. [3] Concluded my prejudices against Powered by the Apocalypse is true and I will never willingly touch it. [4] Previously credited as Lyons. [5] Previously credited as Maddie. [6] Previously credited as Jose. He assigned himself the color green, but my brother took that color and I couldn’t convince him to pick something more specific. I rudely haven’t consulted Jose on the reassignment. He can yell at me if he reads this.[7] [7] No one reads these. [8] I’ll figure out a consistent guest player naming convention one of these essays. [9] Next time: glasses. Maybe. [10] There’s an amount of Vimes in this character. Actually, Maple may turn out to just be Sam Vimes. Which I’m okay with, even if I want to play her with an amount of bloodthirsty glee when fighting bad guys… [11] For once, 5e’s dumb background rules actually helped flesh out my character in a satisfying manner. [12] A mechanic I don’t think has ever added fun to D&D. It always feels petty. [13] Which took hours to find! But the references are saved to my phone now. [14] Hint: anything the GM draws attention to is relevant. [15] Always allow players to play NPCs so they can take the mickey out of other players. [16] GM tip! Always let real world media exist in universe. Makes it easier to make references, and justifying it is a lot of fun![17] [17] GM tip! Regardless, someone will always be confused by the concept of sandwiches due to the apocryphal tales of John Montagu, despite insisting sandwiches only existing since the 18th century is ridiculous, and evidence of similar food arrangement has existed long before the famed event.[18] [18] There was a tedious argument with the High School group that I’m apparently still annoyed by. But Good Eats has my back, so I’m confident.[19] [19] While my footnotes are cascading, I’ve been humoring the concept of a ‘Adventurer’s Cookbook’. Which would likely just be a camping cookbook with genre writing as flavor, and the recipes arranged in esculating terms of difficulty. [20] Not actually fun. [21] One of this campaign’s experiments: using the ‘It’s what my character would do’ defense. Because I like to try and justify things.[22] [22] Maybe someday I’ll experiment with justifying Failure to Communicate and Teacher/Pupil relationships.[23] [23] Because, to be clear, I really hate both. [24] GM tip! Let players (and GMs) take breaks. Either by pausing the game, or letting there be lulls where portions of the table can get away from losing focus and think about Other Things. [25] A list that includes Trix and Teddi.

#SepiaDicePlays #NavyDiceCampaign #Dungeons and Dragons #Fifth Edition #Maple

[curriebelle]

Where Law and Chaos Came From: a D&D History Lesson

I’ve seen a few interesting posts about Dungeons and Dragons alignments that all share two interesting commonalities:

1) They think the two-axis system of Law vs Chaos and Good vs Evil is too restrictive for people who like to roleplay. 2) They try to redeem the two-axis system by redefining Law and Chaos in ways that make sense to them personally.

Good and Evil aren’t usually a topic of debate on these posts - it’s easy enough to play a character as generally doing the right thing or as being a total bastard. Discussion on acts of more debatable morality (e.g. torturing a villain for vital information, killing an innocent person by accident, sacrificing one for the good of all) tends to veer towards whether the action itself qualifies as good or evil, and not whether good and evil themselves need to be redefined. Conversely, I’ve seen Law and Chaos rewritten as Community vs Individuality, Tradition vs Cultural Mutability, Authority vs Anarchy - all interesting ideas that tend to reflect more on the person writing them than the actual purpose of the Law vs Chaos axis.

I’m not saying these people are wrong, but that these players (as well as the fine folks who wrote the 5e Handbooks) are placing too much significance on the purpose or intention of Law vs Chaos. The historical secret is that Law vs Chaos alignment never had any deep meaning behind it - or, at least, it never had any meaning deeper than the Pittsburgh Penguins versus the Vancouver Canucks.

I’ll explain how, but it requires a bit of a history lesson. The idea of Lawful and Chaotic alignments - as well as a number of other cornerstones of Dungeons and Dragons - came from a different game: a miniature wargame called Chainmail. It’s time for a deep dive.

In 1970, before he helped create Dungeons and Dragons, Gary Gygax developed a ruleset for modeling Medieval-Era battles using miniatures. Miniatures were organized into opposing armies, and the modeled battles were long, drawn-out math sessions, preoccupied with calculating distances, damages, casualties and morale. If you’ve ever played or seen Warhammer 40k, it’s a lot like that, except with English Longbowmen instead of Space Marines.

The purpose of Chainmail was to recreate historical battles, and so the gameplay mechanics were painfully precise, with rules for weather, terrain, and siege weapons. Only at the tail end of the Chainmail rulebook, in a tiny ten-page appendix, did Gygax include the rules that would become the basis for all of Dungeons and Dragons. This was the Chainmail Fantasy Supplement.

Even in the Fantasy Supplement, the purpose was still to recreate battles. The second edition of Chainmail - the oldest version I could find, from 1971 - instructs players on how to “refight the epic struggles related by J.R.R. Tolkein...and other fantasy writers”, only suggesting that the player could “create [their] own world” as an afterthought. Chainmail’s fantasy supplement was made so LOTR nerds could re-create the battles of Helm’s Deep or Pelennor Fields, down to the walking trees and boulder-throwing trolls.

Still, a couple of fun details are kicking around in those ten pages. Even back then, fireball and lightning bolt spells were the main tools in the wizards’ arsenals. Dragons and other powerful fantasy creatures could only be hit with magic weapons - an immunity that lingers on some powerful D&D monsters to this day. Even the colour varieties of dragons were introduced here, and they’ve remained largely unchanged for nearly half a century now:

“White Dragons live in cold climates and breathe frost. Black Dragons are tropical and spit caustic acid. The Blue variety discharges a bolt of electricity. Green Dragons waft poisonous vapours--chlorine--at their opponents”

Classic! (I did omit the mottled purple dragon with the poisonous stinger, but those stuck around too - they’re just called wyverns now). 

At the very end of the fantasy supplement, you can find the following list:

I’m not sure why Gygax thought it was “impossible to draw a distinct line between “good” and “evil” here - honestly, this looks like a pretty straightforward good-neutral-evil list to me, but there you are. So Goblins, Orcs, Balrogs and Dragons are CHAOS, and Hobbits (who became Halflings later once copyright started getting huffy), Heroes, Ents and Magic Weapons (?) are LAW. Wizards can be either LAW or CHAOS; Elves are neutral (but kinda lawful sometimes); and apparently there are Super Heroes in the Lawful camp (Gygax describes them earlier as “like Conan”.)

The purpose of dividing these units into Law or Chaos is not to dictate how they are played, but what team they will play for in the conflict. That’s why I made my hockey analogy earlier: all Law and Chaos defined back then was what team you played for. So, by these rules, if you were building a Lawful Army and your buddy built a Chaos Army, you would both be able to add wizards to your team, but your buddy would have exclusive rights to dragons. You’d be able to add magic weapons, but your buddy couldn’t. Moreover, if you decided to hold a fight in a forest full of pixies and werewolves, you would actually roll off to determine which side those Neutral creatures would join. 

If Law and Chaos did have any deeper meaning in this context, it sometimes dictated how the units behaved. Units of orcs would attack other units of orcs if they failed an obedience check; dragons, being “evil and egotistical”, always had to attack the biggest, most badass targets first. With rules like that, commanding those armies would be more ‘chaotic’, while the lawful side could generally be trusted to obey the commands of the player.

So at worst, the Chainmail law vs chaos axis is a purely logistical division that dictates which units get to join which teams; at its most #deep, it characterizes the combat behaviour of some military units. I think this is probably also the source of D&D racism, e.g. “all orcs are chaotic evil”. That’s a rule that makes much more sense when you’re trying to divvy up the teams in an extremely complex wargame, because you’re looking at orcs en masse, and you’re not too interested in the personalities of individual units.

So, the alignment system does make some sense in Chainmail, where it originated. Here’s where I show you exactly how much influence Chainmail had on D&D and how it struggled to transfer this concept of alignment in a meaningful way.

The “first edition” of D&D - at least the one most of us would recognize as D&D - is officially called Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. That’s the 1977 version in which players create an adventuring party. (It’s called “Advanced” because a “Basic” edition was also released, strictly for levels 1-3). There was actually one other, earlier edition of D&D, which was released in 1974. It was intended to be another Chainmail expansion, so much so that you needed the Chainmail rulebook to play it!

I’m going to ignore that edition, though, since 1) it’s pretty hard to find the rulebook,  2) AD&D was where the game found its own identity anyway and 3) The AD&D handbook is hilariously bizarre, especially when dealing with player morality.

You might know of some of the weirdness of AD&D alignments already. For example, certain classes had to be certain alignments. Paladins were always lawful good; druids were always true neutral. Assassins were automatically evil, and thieves could not be good. Weirdly enough, all monks were lawful - I guess because they adhered to the traditions of their vaguely-east-asian dojos. (By the way, this means that everybody’s favourite Feather Leather Fashionista, Vax’ildan the dual-classed Rogue/Paladin, is a mechanical impossibility in Advanced Dungeons and Dragons.)

It’s easy to see how this move was just an ungainly step forward from Chainmail. Again, this is Gygax telling you what teams your characters must play for - what armies they would join if this were a Chainmail game - without recognizing that the need for an alignment system has basically vanished. We're not picking our fantasy kickball teams anymore; everyone is on the same team, adventuring together, and all an alignment system becomes in that context is a hindrance.

And oh was alignment ever a hindrance in AD&D. Each alignment was a moral code of sorts, but it was also a language. Chaotic Neutral characters shared a language that only Chaotic Neutral characters could understand. Assassins could learn to speak other alignment-languages as they leveled up (or Druidic, if they wanted to be nerds I guess), but if you changed alignment in any way you would lose access to your previous alignment language. This makes absolutely zero sense. Worse still, if you committed an act that didn’t fit with your alignment, it would screw you over mechanically. If a paladin ever willingly committed an evil act they straight-up lost their healing powers and become regular fighters FOREVER. Even if they did something a little bit chaotic, they lost their powers until they could pray the cray away with the help of a lawful good cleric. The book even vaguely suggests that alignment shifting in other classes be met with “great penance”. You’re not allowed to be an assassin again until you do enough poison murders! We’re taking your poison away!

The book describes each individual alignment, but not with any subtlety. This is long before the game itself grasped that the most fun part of tabletop roleplay is the roleplaying, and alignment rules still seem to recall the behaviour of army units rather than the behaviour of individuals. Chaos - as is usually the case - is the alignment that suffers most. The Chaotic Good description gets a nice Robin Hood-y bent, the Chaotic Evil one is the “carnage is good” mantra you’d expect - but here’s Chaotic Neutral:

“Above respect for life and good, or disregard for life and the promotion of evil, the chaotic neutral places randomness and disorder. Good and evil are complimentary balance arms. Neither are preferred, nor must either prevail, for ultimate chaos would then suffer.”

Leaving aside the misuse of the word “complimentary” (you’re looking for complementary, Gygax) and the poorly-structured first sentence - yeah, that’s what the big secret of Chaos is, apparently. It’s not rebellion or individuality (which get championed in the Chaotic Good description), it’s pure, unadulterated, dice-rolling randomness. “Fuck it” made manifest. Don’t think about it too hard, because it doesn’t make any sense, and it will take you down a (fittingly) chaotic wormhole of self-contradiction. 

Lawful Neutral and True Neutral are weird, too. Both are described as pursuing the absolute harmony of the word, but like...you know, in different ways. There’s also a bizarre association between goodness and beauty. “Life and beauty are of great importance”, says the Lawful Good blurb. Does this mean that Delilah Briarwood, Wildemount’s hottest necromancer, is Lawful Good after all? shucks.

It’s pretty clear that AD&D is the awkward gangly phase between wargaming and genuine tabletop roleplay, with lots of weird vestigial features and obnoxiously pedantic mechanics that would later be dropped. For some reason, despite the fact that it never made sense to begin with, alignment wasn’t one of those mechanics - or at least it tended to vanish as a mechanic and then come back again in later editions, slightly different but never fixed. This led to another awkward gangly phase at the turn of the millennium, when D&D rules were adapted into games like Baldur’s Gate or Planescape Torment. Alignment creates fallacies and failures everywhere in those games. If you play Evil in Baldur’s Gate, the game can become basically unwinnable, as NPCs begin to attack you on sight. The way to bond with the Chaotic Neutrals in Planescape Torment is to literally spout gibbering nonsense at a man on the street until he barks at you. Even on Critical Role, with its 5e gameplay and extremely talented dungeon master, alignment feels like an arbitrary interloper rather than an important part of the game. Percy stays Good even after torturing a teenager, but Vex goes Neutral for stealing a broom. Nobody in their right mind would believe Fjord is Lawful Good because of his deception and warlockery, but he technically hasn’t violated the LG handbook so far. 

So because of these repeated failures to use alignment in a compelling way, I see a lot of people hunting for the right way to do alignments, the right way to understand chaos, law, neutrality and the like. They want alignments to fit. But they never did fit. The truth?

Two-axis alignment is stupid, and it always has been.

Honestly, I don’t see the benefit in remedying two-axis alignment as a system. I have my own re-interpretation of chaos that I like fairly well, and I’ve seen a few compelling ones, but I also think that alignment could use a complete makeover. There are some fun examples of morality systems that I’m sure DMs could experiment with, if they so wished. 

You could steal from Ultima IV, for example. The Ultima series was a product of the early days of the computer/tabletop romance - and by early I mean 1980s early. Ultima IV does not use the alignment system: instead, it lets the player ‘train’ in eight virtues to achieve ultimate avatar awesomeness. The virtues are Honesty, Compassion, Valor, Justice, Honor, Sacrifice, Spirituality, and Humility, further divided into the camps of Truth, Love, and Courage. Maybe angels of each of those virtues have corresponding devils (Deception! Cruelty! Cowardice! Injustice! Dishonor! Greed! Blasphemy! Pride!). That could be one way to play with morality without worrying about chaos or law.

I’m also a fan of Pillars of Eternity’s spectra of dispositions, which fit loosely into pairs (not necessarily good or evil pairs, mind you). Benevolent or Cruel, Stoic or Passionate, Honest or Deceptive, Clever or Rational, Diplomatic or Aggressive. Heck, those remind me of the personality sliders in the Sims. What were those again, like - Grumpy/Nice, Playful/Serious, etc?

Those trying to give alignments the benefit of the doubt often suggest that alignments were created to help people roleplay. That’s not...entirely untrue, it’s just misleading. They were created to help people make gameplay decisions, but they were pulled from a different kind of game altogether. It’s like trying to play checkers with chess pieces, and it always has been. The D&D alignment system doesn’t work for D&D because it wasn’t designed for it - it was designed for wargaming. We probably should have just chucked the whole thing instead of enshrining it in nerd culture, but it’s too late for that. Still, our creative energy now would be better spent on a new morality system that actually gives us a thing or two to think about.

#dungeons and dragons #tabletop roleplaying #critical role #currie academia #cuz i learned most of this researching Stuff