jimothy-g-brooks

[jimothy-g-brooks]

Psychic Necromancy

A personality cult of psychics attempt to resurrect their dearly departed leader in a process they call 'Psychic Necromancy'. They are attempting to form a thought-construct of suitable complexity using the memories they each have of their dear leader. They will then put this construct inside of a suitable "spare" body, thereby bringing their leader close enough back to life.

The problem they discover, and have to admit to themselves, is that their memories of this person are a bit one-sided and the resulting constructs are tragically unstable. The cult will have to seek out their dear leader's enemies and victims and plumb their brains for their memories of this person, thereby creating a more complete picture.

#story prompt #could use this for #kitchen sink urbana #free for anyone else to use though #idea courtesy of what i thought was happening in #psychonauts 2 #psychonauts

[jimothy-g-brooks]

Clark Kent Kills Clown

The Joker takes a swing at Metropolis and Jimmy Olsen gets badly hurt, with bad odds of survival, and so Clark Kent decides to take care of Joker, once and for all. Not Superman, Kryptonian flying brick from space, zipping over to punch him through the chest, but Clark Kent, investigative reporter for the Daily Planet.

Clark does a deep dive investigation and precisely why steps haven't been taken by the relevant authorities, international, American or the state of New Jersey. Specifically, why haven't they just killed this sonuvabitch already? Because this is fiction and I feel comfortable going for the viscerally satisfying option.

Batman is actually all about this. He's against extrajudicial murder, especially from him but also from Superman, but this is using legitimate means, exposing possible corruption or just inefficiency and stirring democratic opinion in the public. Using Bruce Wayne's billionaire influence would be wrong but this is letting the people, normal civilians, influence the justice system to finally get rid of the Joker in a lawful manner. The only complication is Batman has to protect Clark from reprisals without revealing that he's bulletproof.

In the end, Clark Kent reveals a slew of corruption that has been protecting the Joker in a damning exposé. People are forced to retire, laws are changed and the next time Joker is brought in for mass murder he's given the death penalty.

Joker is certain Batman won't let him die, because up until now Batman has never let him die. And he can't die like this, by some Kansas farm boy pointdexter with a pen and a notebook, by the laws and trappings of society. He has to die by Batman's hands, finally getting him to snap and break his moral code, or Hell he'd settle for Superman as a consolation prize and leave the world with a killer Kryptonian.

Clark Kent is there, Barbera is there, Jimmy may even be there, it's a toss up. Joker is very relieved when Batman does show-up to interrupt the execution. He's not here to stop it though, he's here to fix some of the equipment and chastise the presiding officer for trying to pull a Green Mile.

Joker will die but it will be done by the book, as humanely as possible. He dies screaming in disbelief and rage that Batman would let him die like this. He begs him to just cut his throat, throw a batarang into his cranium, snap his neck, something. He rants and raves like this until they throw the switch.

#dc comics #batman #superman #clark kent #the joker #death penalty #I'm just mad Robot Chicken did it first #Including the Green Mile thing but backwards #I had thought of this long before I saw that but ya know

[jimothy-g-brooks]

Kitchen Sink Urbana: Magic (Part 2 v2)

Part 1

(Original Version, massively revised after stringent feedback)

Sorcery is sometimes derisively called "Mild Magic", mostly by Witches who think anything besides cosmic rending rituals is just not trying hard enough. It refers to a number of sorcerous ethnicities that have arisen spontaneously or been invented in the past 20,000 years or so of human history. It refers to a disparate number of unique and mutually exclusive magical systems with its own internal rules, limitation and implied cosmology and metaphysics.

How these magic systems are invented or discovered is only less unclear than which of the former descriptors, made or found, applies. The actual process is not well documented but largely seems to happen intuitively or even spontaneously. Many attempts to uncover the secrets of system creation and/or creating a system according to someone's specification are well recorded in their failure.

Wild Magic is all about constructing a wish and making just about anything you want happen, and the price you pay is dealing with the narrative twist the vague "Will Of Magic" spins on it. The primary purpose of Sorcery, such as there is a purpose, is to create a method to tap into the power of magic while insulating one's self from the narrative blowback. The more limited a magical system is, more of a given definition of "limited", the less "interesting twists" its practitioners may end up subjected to.

Each magic system has its own ideas about where magic comes from, extraplanar energy, the shed life force of all living things, the power of the collective unconscious, the cosmic lava spewed out from natural forces grinding against each other like tectonics plates, the stars and planets. Magic is stories, it might be the left over energies from when the universe was narrated into existence. Therefore, each of these stories is true or at least true enough for their practitioners.

A sorcerer first must be born before they are made. Someone with a gift of magic only resonates with one magical system, their power belonging to a particular story and set of metaphysics. They are a person for whom a certain set of supernatural facts are true for everything while not being true for everyone else. Largely, it's up to the would-be sorcerer to find out which magical system is the one they use and they must accept that the cosmology it lays out is the right and true one. There are some hypotheses that sorcerer start out resonating with multiple magical systems, a small number but still a plurality, and only lock in when they pick one and take in its beliefs.

It is difficult to gather together sorcerers of compatible magic systems over a long term basis and construct a wide-scale civil infrastructure that covers an area between a continent and a nation, let alone the entire globe. This due to both the rarity of sorcerers of sufficient ability and the sheer variety of magic systems, making standards impossible to set. Small nations and local municipals may incorporate sorcerers into their local infrastructure if there is a stable population of the right kind of sorcerers. In this age of global trade and interconnectivity, ever since the Industrial Revolution and compounded up until the Information Age and the population boom that has followed, technology reigns supreme.

#kitchen sink urbana #magic #world building

[jimothy-g-brooks]

Game Idea: Final Boss's Health Meter

I had an idea that, throughout the entire game, the final boss's health meter is just hanging there at the top of screen, unlabeled and unexplained. It's not until you fight the final boss that you see this accessory that's been hanging with you the entire time start to change. If other bosses normally get labels on their health bars, this particularly works if the game is named for the final boss, then the whole game retroactively works as bar's label.

#video games #final boss #health meter

[jimothy-g-brooks]

Generic Cain & Abel-esque Pre-Historical Origin Story For Dualistic Good/Evil Spirits In Urban Fantasy Setting

A long, long time ago, somewhere between ten thousand and a million years ago, one ape killed another ape. This wasn't particularly noteworthy, as animals killed one another all the time, over resources, over territory, over access to mates, it didn't matter. What made this stand out was when the victor stood over the cooling corpse of what might have been a brother, he felt bad.

This sensation of contrition elevated a mere ape into a man and turned a simple killing into murder, the first murder. From this, the guilt, the ability to recognize wrong, evil was born. Like a light casting a shadow in reverse, the ability to recognize that he could have, should have, done better, from this resolve good was born. Or maybe it was the other way around, good was born from guilt and evil was born when the man tried to steel himself against it.

Since then, the seed of two spirits, two powers, have been orbiting the souls of mankind, incubating and growing within its shared unconscious.

#world of darkness #princess the hopeful #urban fantasy #world building

[jimothy-g-brooks]

Unseen University in Other Settings

I've given some thought on how something like the Unseen University would work in other fantasy settings. The conceits that I thought were central to the concept and therefore needed to be adapted to any other setting were as follow:

Due to previous generations of wizard-on-wizard violence, the wizards within these walls have become min-maxed masters of anti-magic defenses. Instead of deciding that murder just isn't viable anymore, they've all resorted to non-magical methods of doing so instead. This system only comes to a grinding halt when a guy makes it to the top of their order who may or may not be any good at magic but he sure seems impervious to mundane methods of assassination.

The relationship with the non-magical populace surrounding them is as follow: The only magic they're really good at it is the kind for murdering and the kind for making murderous magic go away. As they are past masters of defenses against magic as it is, defending against their murder magic is a hopeless endeavor. OTOH, being as they put all their focus on not being murdered by magic, they're even squishier than normal mages and sticking a sword into them will do the trick. Therefore, although they enjoy elevated positions of privilege, it's marked by a culture of non-interference between they and them, until something magical comes up and the wizards are expected to do something about it.

Thoughts?

#discworld #wizards #mages #world building #crossover

[jimothy-g-brooks]

My D&Derivative [Alignment]

Part I

Instead of the normal 3x3 grid, I have this, a circle that implies a morality system that loops back in on itself. The primary "pure" alignments are the labelled colors there along the cardinal points, Blue, Green, Red and Purple, roughly coordinating with Good, Neutral, Evil and Complicated. However, I'll be sticking with the color names, as the normal alignment names are rather loaded. Using color names lets me control the narrative. There are no truly "in-between" alignments, but each "pure" alignment has a pair of border alignments: Cyan(<-Blue->)Indigo, Lavender(<-Purple->)Rose, Pink(<-Red->)Orange & Yellow(<-Green->)Aqua.

The colored labels in the corner are the ends of axis used for the alignment system that when mapped out may form a 2x2 grid turned on its side. I preferred a circle, because it accomplished a few things. I thought it was prettier and more unique compared to the grid. I thought it made the idea of each alignment blending into one another easier to visualize, going around in a circle. It brough home an idea that there is no middle ground in the center of an empty circle, you have to pick a side or, more succinctly, a point at the edge of this circle.

Selfless vs Selfish represent motivations, goals and drives, are you trying to broadly help all others or are you only interested in helping you and yours. Competence, capability and comprehension aren't accounted for in this system: It's broadly assumed that the goals you are pursuing are being achieved and your purported selflessness or lack thereof isn't just wishful thinking.

Callous vs Careful isn't disengaged from motivation but it is concerned more with action. Another if somewhat extreme way to put it is Maximizing Harm vs Minimizing Harm. Though the exact form that will take will differ, especially with "Careful", on whether you mean to help others beyond your own connections or just help yourself and your own. If you're of a Callous variety, someone who carelessly or purposefully leaves pain and suffering in your wake, whether your intentions were good or were selfish might be purely academic, or they might make all the difference.

When you go about trying to selflessly help others, do you care about collateral? Are you the type to ruthlessly slaughter every bandit and bandit-adjacent person in the forest to keep a region full of strangers safe? When you capture the slavers' collaborator, do you skip straight to torture to get him to tell you where the children are? What awful things are you willing to do some people to help some other people? And do you do it all because you genuinely trying help, genuinely believe this evil will result in a better good for the world?

While the other alignments can be self-explanatory, the Purple alignment can be harder to pin down but hopefully the above question-prompts help sell the mindset. It should be not outside the realm of possibility for a Blue aligned and Purple aligned character to work together towards a common goal, possibly even operate in the same group long term, albeit with some friction. They both want to help people.

Purple and Red might work together for a little while, if Red can focus on hurting the right people and not attract Purple's ire. Otherwise, Red is exactly the sort of person Purple is looking to hurt. Green and Purple are exact opposites and possibly have the most friction, the least reason to interact. At best, Purple might think of Green as a bystander and, at worst, a small minded petty cowards. Green would consider Purple to be a sanctimonious lunatic who's great crusade is rivalled only by the great body count that crusade leaves behind.

Part II: Greater & Lesser alignments and associated Outsiders

#d&derivative #adventurer's bible #alignment #alternative alignment

[jimothy-g-brooks]

Kitchen Sink Urbana: Global Superhero Teams

The Peacekeeper Society

The Global Council is this Earth's rough equivalent of the United Nations, founded a century ago after the near cataclysmic conflagration of the Greater War. Supersoldiers of every stripe and shape and nation played a huge role in that conflict, a not inconsiderable number of them being WMD's in their own right. Since the stated aim of the Council was to prevent such a global catastrophe yet again, it organized the constituent nations' supers into the Peacekeeper Society.

A century removed from its founding, Council and Society have evolved and changed beyond their original purpose. The Peacekeeper Society now represent the world governments' voluntary superhuman task force and emergency response unit. They respond to wide scale disasters and aid mundane authorities in international crime with no clear jurisdiction.

Obedient of the laws of the lands and the world as a whole to a fault; they are not here to use their superhuman might to supersede the authority of the people. They are here to work with the authorities and render all the aid that they can to uphold the law and work as examples to others to strive to. Symbols of hope and peace.

The "core" team, the ones listed in the official public documents with their names and pictures on the websites, are a little bit of a PR stunt. A member from each major nation and then one from each continent from a non-major nation, specially chosen to display the wide diversity of peoples there are on Earth. Photogenic appeal and a lack of scandals is also necessary to make the cut.

Even with that handicap for choice, the Society has a whole planet to pick and choose the best and the brightest. And when a desirable asset doesn't fit the diversity quota or has a few too many black mark on their record, then they can still go on the unofficial reserve team and be equally compensated. They're picked for their ability and competency, and skill in heroics, diplomacy and legal minutiae, screened for their capacity to obey the edicts of the Council and whatever nations they're sent to operate in.

Each constituent nation with a charter with the Peacekeepers often has their own branch team, usually referred as the national Peacekeeper Society. IE, like the American Peacekeeper Society, as it might be on our Earth. They're almost always local mirrors of the Global Peacekeeper Society, with members chosen out of a combination of ability and good press and a semi-secret reserve team filled out with members purely for their competence.

The Enforcers

Founded 50 years ago by certain members of the Peacekeepers that had become dissatisfied. Not by the pageantry, they understood the necessity, to give people symbols and role models. Not by the restrictions, because they agreed that men and women of such power should not be allowed to operate unabated. But by the failures that the need to adhere to both had caused.

The Enforcers were neither the first nor the last to try to form a more law-breaking vigilante group on a global scale, an organization that does things that aren't pretty or right but gets the job done. They are the only ones to still survive up until this point, where all other groups were disbanded and arrested by world authorities and the Peacekeeper Society.

No small part has this been because of the tacit approval by the Society and that because the Enforcers' founders understood why the Peacekeepers operated as they did. They knew that powerful people needed to be seen and cheered for playing by the rules and that if they were going to break those rules, they needed to be jeered. This is why they call themselves the Enforcers, to put the public on edge about their existence and their actions.

They're hard men making hard decisions, but there is in fact some amount of public relations going on or anti-pr more accurately. They go out of their way to be disliked by the mainstream and have themselves presented as shady loose canons by the press. They seed rumors that they're the governments' shady black op deniable assets to discourage the admiration of fringe groups as well.

They have far fewer numbers than the Peacekeeper Society and all its branches around the world and the reason for that is two and a half fold. First and a half, slower recruitment, in part because almost nobody wants to join a pack of barely paid vigilantes that nobody else likes and the other part is that said vigilantes want almost nobody to join them, screening for the contradictory values of willingness to break the rules and distaste for the same. The second part is because, recently, a schism in the Enforcers broke off and formed a third group, a smaller but a significant chunk, some 20 years ago.

The Guardians Of The Earth

Thought to be future supervillains in the making by their former comrades, certainly not helped by the fact that their ultimate goal is, not to put too fine a point on it, world domination. They don't broadcast this fact and they haven't made any overt moves in that direction just yet either. Their former comrades in the Enforcers only have pretty good guess work on their motivations, piecing together the rhetoric of this faction's founders as they radicalized the others.

The founders of the Guardians believe that superheroes, due to a combination of their superpowers and more specifically the unaccountability those superpowers grant, and their track record for benevolence and public service, would be superior and incorruptible world leaders. The unaccountability is important, the ability to act and aid the public as problems arose without having to worry about laws, special interests or the willingness of your subordinates, politics. If superheroes ruled the world, they could do what was right, when it was right to do so and not have to worry about any opposition or red tape. Or such was and has been the the growing rhetoric of the founders, fed to their followers and those who would listen and radicalizing them over years.

A major obstacle to the founders' plan is that they are very obsessed with doing it right. They don't want to turn into supervillains at the last minute, in part because that will just get them squashed. Their plans for world domination need to be done heroically and correctly. That means they spend their time seemingly a whole lotta nothing, besides actual superhero vigilantism, ala the Enforcers. What this means is that some of their followers, the ones they've radicalized, grow frustrated with this inaction and are liable to go rogue. None have yet, but a few of the Guardians have disappeared.

In fact, the founders' plans are constantly on slow, steady progress, as far as they're concerned anyway. Doing superhero vigilantism like the Enforcers is the point. Unlike the Enforcers, they also do PR, or they do the opposite kind of PR. They're trying to get the public to cheer for them whenever they break the rules to do what's right. Slowly eroding the public's reticence towards their shenanigans, their suspicions and reservations, until the Guardians are allowed to do whatever the want and are effectively the rulers, the Lawgivers, of the Earth.

In a way, the Enforcers already did that, paving the way for them. Fifty years ago, a group like the Guardians would have been disbanded by the Peacekeepers at the urging of the public and the authorities. After years of the Enforcers doing their thing with the tacit approval of those would have otherwise stopped them, people have gotten accustomed to unaccountable superheroics and it's only the PR angle that's different.

#kitchen sink urbana #superheroes #world building #there's a terrible reading you could make of this #very conservative reading where following the rule of law is the right way #and people trying to do good outside those rules #must be the bad guy or otherwise perceived as the bad guys

[jimothy-g-brooks]

Worldbuilding I thought of for kink reasons: "Okay, wizards are just a thing, but lemme explain why the cellphones aren't magic."

Worldbuilding I thought of for non-kink reasons: "What if everyone in the world were turned into blue-skinned hermaphrodites?"

#kitchen sink urbana #magic #world building #kink #blue-skinned hermaphrodites #but like what would it do to social norms and global relations #to clarify the pre-draft version of what would become kitchen sink urbana was originally conceived for kink reasons #but then i got super into the implications forgot about the kink and dived into the worldbuilding #my autism had a boner

[jimothy-g-brooks]

After some feedback, here are some notes I made on changes to Magecraft and its problems:

· Call Brain Poisoning "Systemic Amnesia". In-universe, "Brain Poisoning" is the slang term. As before, how strongly it effects someone is based on age and power. A change: It also more strongly affects those with more pride and ego, though this fact is actually not well known.

• Also, it affects those who frequently and strongly associate with practitioners of any one particular Magecraft *through* the magic. As in anyone who's relationship with the mage is based on their magic powers. It's not *as* strong but if you associate with one magic system too much you might also start to unconsciously forget that other Magecrafts exist until you're reminded again.

· The Dark Lord is replaced with the Grand Archetypes, which includes a Dark Lord but also includes a Good King, where magic also stacks the deck in favor of someone wise and benevolent to get lots of power and the ability to use it well. A Magecraft will develop a Good King first, long enough for a generation to appreciate at least.

• When people believe someone is benefiting from the Good King effect, especially people outside that Magecraft, and they're in the know, they make ready for a Dark Lord to develop. The person under the Good King effect is usually blind to this, an extension of Systemic Amnesia, but the best place to look for a future Dark Lord, if it's going to be an *individual* (It's not always, or even a person necessarily. Neither does the Good King and that *is both* something people tend to forget) is within the Good King's immediate circle of influence.

• Usually, Magic favors someone with a reason to have beef with the Good King to become the Dark Lord. If interference manages to head the Dark Lord off before they develop, by turning them away from being an asshole or offing them, good times are had by all. Unlike with Witchcraft, trying to avoid the plot won't get you punished. *Not unless you do it so many times you get complacent about it.*

• If a Dark Lord manages to entrench themself, then the third Grand Archetype will appear, the Chosen One. Usually someone with beef against the Dark Lord, always someone with a reason to fight them and with Magic favoring them to win, though strong enough to guarantee that win, just enough to even the odds against a more experienced and unfettered opponent.

• If the Good King is still alive by this point, the entrenchment of a Dark Lord normally causes the Amnesia to lift and the Good King will be able to recognize the problem and the solution, so that'll help. The Chosen One, also, tends to be the least affected by Systemic Amnesia out of the Grand Archetypes.

• If the Chosen One Wins, even odds if they will become a Good King-esque figure. Even odd to that then that another Dark Lord will appear to stir up trouble but just as likely that there will be a Happy Ending.

· Another change: Not every Magecraft is playing out this drama all the time, it seems to cycle. It favors the smaller, less influential Magecrafts more often but when it gets to the big ones it also seems to become more aware and savvy and willing to break its patterns to ensure "surprise and suspense".

• Conversely, something akin to the Chosen One will make an appearance without the need for a Dark Lord. If a populace or any group of people are facing systemic hardship, nothing to do with magic, an associated Magecraft may produce a Messianic figure to clean it up and fix their problems. Like the regular Chosen One, even odds they'll become a Good King esque figure and then even odds a Dark Lord might then show up, but more likely it will be unproblematic.

• The Grand Archetypes are merely the most common variation of Arcane Conflict, a drama that floats or may float, in potentia, around any Wizarding School or Sorcerous Ethnicity. Something that ensures that having Magic around is never boring, not for a large population overall. It's the variation that most people expect, ignoring or ignorant of other forms.

· If you really think about it, there definitely a sense of being puppeted around by a semi-malevolent god. It might give you a happy ending, but first it will make you dance to its tune and put you through the ringer. Science and technology doesn't do that, science and technology doesn't have an *agenda*. "The atom doesn't care if you are worthy, a gun won't thirst for blood in your hands, a cure for cancer won't see you punished for your hubris."

• For all the miracles or promises, and can deliver, there's a reason why wider society keeps even relatively controlled magic at an arm's length. Some places embrace Magecraft, thinking they can play its game and *win*, and some might even be right. And some places do away with it at all and hunt down any practitioners they find.

#kitchen sink urbana #magic #draft notes

[jimothy-g-brooks]

Kitchen Sink Urbana: Magic (Part 2)

Part 1: https://jimothy-g-brooks.tumblr.com/post/736391012903223296/

Sometimes derisively called "Mild Magic", Magecraft is the umbrella term covering the wide array of sorcerous ethnicities and wizard schools that have arisen spontaneously or been created in the past 20,000-ish years of human(oid) history. How these magic systems are invented or discovered is only less unclear than which of the former descriptors, made or found, applies.

The originator of a magical system produces a series of patterns from the force of magic itself that consigns itself to a set of limitations, origins and triggers. The actual process is not well documented but largely seems to happen intuitively or even spontaneously. Many attempts to uncover the secrets of system creation and/or creating a system according to someone's specification are well recorded in their failure.

Wild Magic is all about constructing a wish and making just about anything you want happen, and the price you pay is dealing with the narrative twist the vague "Will Of Magic" spins on it. The primary purpose of Magecraft, such as there is a purpose, is to create a method to tap into the power of magic while insulating one's self from the narrative blowback. The more limited a magical system is, more a given definition of "limited", the less "interesting twists" its practitioners may end up subjected to.

Each magic system has its own ideas about where magic comes from, extraplanar energy, the shed life force of all living things, the power of the collective unconscious, the cosmic lava spewed out from natural forces grinding against each other like tectonics plates, the stars and planets. Magic is stories, it might be the left over energies from when the universe was narrated into existence. Therefore, each of these stories is true or at least true enough for their practitioners.

Now Magecraft Systems can be separated into two broad categories, Wizardry School and Sorcerous Ethnicities. Mind, these aren't binary choices and more exist on a spectrum. You opt-in to wizardry, you choose to learn magic and make it a part of your world. At the far end of the wizarding spectrum, anyone can learn to use this magic system and become a wizard, but often you have to have some innate gift for it first. For sorcery, you just are, and you don't have much of a choice in the matter. The most sorcerous of sorcery is the sort where basic competence is naturally intuitive and only mastery is something that needs to be worked towards. More often, a sorcerer must work to become adept with their powers at all.

Schools and Ethnicities of the same kind can and have developed independently across the globe, almost always simultaneously, unmooring them from any one location or particular racial ethnicity. Some magic systems have examples of either wizards or sorcerers, with those who worked hard and those who hardly worked for it at all. In either case, they are still bound to the same magic system and the same drama that follows.

The two dramatic flaws that all systems of Magecraft seem to share in one form or another is Brain Poisoning and the Dark Lords. The first is for the tendency of mages to passively forget that other magic systems exist. The older and/or more powerful the mage, the worse this tends to be. They'll easily remember when reminded but shortly afterwards slip back into the mindset of forgetting to take them into account, as if theirs was the only magic system in the world. It's also worse for wizards than it is for sorcerers.

This means mages that haven't forgotten, that have resisted or fought off the Brain Poisoning, can easily become Outside Context Problems for others. At its worst, the Brain Poisoning can cause a mage to stop taking into account the Other M's, psychics, enhanced martials artists, gene-supers and warpcraftsmen. A common sign that ostensibly different Magecrafts are actually a part of one larger super magic system is when the Brain Poisoning doesn't cause powerful practitioners to forget about those others. Where Witchcraft is categorized in all this, and at what vague stage even it becomes discounted, seems to differ from system to system.

The seconds is what is called the Dark Lord Problem. It is in reference to a strong, almost guaranteed, tendency for some anti-social maniac of a practitioner to gain a lot of magic power and maybe more besides. They then proceed to make it everyone's problem, starting with their fellow practitioners of the Magecraft and moving out from there. It's not always a different individual rising up each generation, gathering minions about himself, it can be a lot of things, some drama, some complications, but it's the most common form it takes. Fortunately, these entities tend to be the most Brain Poisoned of all, focused entirely on the little world of their magic system and anyone adjacent to it, to the nigh the exclusion of all else. The ones who aren't like that become the real nightmares.

The result is a bunch of insular subcultures that resist or are resisted by larger global society from having their powerful resource integrated into modern living. With a bunch of mutually exclusive systems, a global standard is even harder to set than it is with technology. Some areas of the world have a local favorite, becoming loose centers of that Magecraft, if the local authorities believe they can handle the attention of that drama's Dark Lords. Largely, this remains a world of machines and technology since the Industrial Revolution centuries back, and the world of spells and rituals is left further and further behind- or so some people would hope. Others aren't so sure, and some aren't so enthused.

#kitchen sink urbana #magic #world building

[jimothy-g-brooks]

Blakoat, the Dark Cloak Pokémon

Fakémon based on Harry Dresden from The Dresden Files

Dark / Fire

HP: 40 Attack: 100 Defense: 45 Sp Attack: 120 Sp Defense: 65 Speed: 90 (It's a glass cannon) Total: 460 (same as Mr. Mime)

A tall (6'7), dark and mysterious Pokémon wrapped in a tattered cloak that offers little protection but manages to cover its body in obscuring shadows, only arms, eyes and feet can be clearly seen. Protrusions underneath, believed to be horns, give the top of the cloak around the head the vague shape of a hat. It carries occult imagery about it and appears to be a master of the mystic arts. Blakoat's magical powers allow it wield many different elemental special attacks of Fire, Ice, Lightning, Flying and Steel-type. While its Dark-typing was always obvious, it does not naturally learn Dark-type special attacks but relies on underhanded physical moves of that type.

Also, researchers didn't pick up on the Fire-typing for a very long time until many clues began to pile up. In particular, all Blakoats have a particular fear of being submerged into the earth or in running water or being buried under rocks, as these things seem to rob them of their powers. Still water doesn't appear to have the same effect, however, and they're able to deal with that just fine. Furthermore, Ice-types like Frosslass tend to feel antipathy for Blakoats and Steel-types like Magnemite feel nervous and unfocused around these creatures.

Blakoats have a deep distrust of Fairy-types and a disdain for Psychic and Ghost-types, though it will use many Psychic status moves. They consider themselves defenders against those kinds of creatures and more, with varying results. Individuals will claim a swathe of territory, in cities or in the wild, and declare themselves the protectors of all who live there against evil. The all-male species are particularly, paternalistically and patronizingly, protective of women, children and humans. The more of those categories any creature falls under, the more protective a Blakoat will be of the individual but also the more withdrawn and uncooperative it will be as well. They are attracted to female trainers, moreso than males at least, especially those involved in the occult or with a strong sense of justice, but many of those become frustrated with the Blakoat's aloof attitude on their team.

And a Blakoat's protection can sometimes be as dangerous as their scorn. Bearing a dark and fiery temper, a few are infamous for burning down sections of their own territory in an effort to drive out intruders. That said, they are especially nervous about hurting humans, even criminals, considering it a taboo. Those who commit this forbidden act run the risk of becoming addicted to the heady feeling of power over the helpless and weak. This is the dark urge inside every Blakoat that they try so hard to fight. Others of their kind make special care to neutralize individuals that have fallen to such practices.

#pokemon #fakemon #art #look ma #the dresden files #harry dresden #blakoat #gonna have to keep drawing this until i'm happy with the results

[jimothy-g-brooks]

There are other forms of magic, wizardry and sorcery, which I'll get to in another post, which are *less* hostile but are still not conducive to modern living. Doylist: I felt it was conducive to a couple traits that I wanted.

1. Magic isn't nailed down. It *feels* like it can do anything and you can feasibly make up any rules and implied metaphysics for different groups of magic users.

2. Despite being such a potentially overwhelming force and all the word count I give it, the setting isn't *about* magic. The stories told in this setting easily can be, but not the setting.

3. Easy conflict generation. Why did X become a problem? Because *magic*. I often have indie horror in mind when thinking of this. Also, the recent Grrl Power strip about dungeon harvesting, that's an inspiration too.

Kitchen Sink Urbana: Magic (1?)

"Kitchen Sink Urbana" is the name of a fictional setting of mine taking place on an alternate modern Earth where elements of high fantasy, urban fantasy, soft science fiction, furry nonsense, superheroes and pop-culture anime all exist together, out-in-the open.

The following is an OoC lecture about why a masquerade-free urban fantasy setting doesn't have magitech or arcane elements dominating its setting. Instead, magical elements are consigned to isolated corners, known about but contained and not interacted with by wider society. It's not entirely out of ignorant prejudice, but has practical reasoning behind it.

~

Wild magic, witchcraft, the truest, rawest magic, the oldest kind of magic, is about constructing a wish. First, you need to gather things that are symbolic to what you want. Second, things with mystic "weight" like dead languages, geometric shapes, weird knick knacks that are old, portentous times like full moons, new moons, solstices or eclipses. Imitating a ritual that has been done before especially helps, especially if it's old and hasn't been done in a while. Third, willpower or emotion, having other people pitch in to the ritual certainly helps. These ingredients can be partially substituted with innate magical mojo. Blood sacrifices of various severity also work as well.

You get all these things together and as long as you get enough of all that, you can basically wish for whatever effect you put a ritual together for. Now, here's the kicker: You don't get to decide how your ritual works out and there is no standard result if you do everything "correctly".

Magic has an intelligence and a will, albeit not exactly sentience, the ability to recognize its own existence. You're basically wishing on a monkey's paw of sorts. It won't twist your wish into the worst possible interpretation necessarily, but it will twist it into the most interesting interpretation. Magic wants a story and usually that means conflict. It also can mean resolution, sometimes magic "decides" that all the trouble you went through to get to this point counts as conflict enough and lets you have your happy ending.

Only some of the time though. A lot of the time, it's time for the sequel to your suffering as some twist is thrown into your wish. And trying to game the system is a good way to get extra screwed: One of the oldest stories there is is making someone pay for their hubris, after all.

All other forms of magic are aimed at mitigating this factor, accepting and constructing limitations into different sorcerous ethnicities and wizard schools to let one perform magic without some narrative interference. Even these aren't completely successful and some amount of narrative convention flows through every form of magic, breeding conflict for the sake of a story.

The other abnormal powers of the world, metahumans, mentalists, mad science and especially the mystic martial arts, what make up the rest of the 5M's, are theorized to have been forms of magic once upon a time. They somehow shook off the narrative nature of magic and somehow became more "real". Many people suspect that narrative conventions still flow around these sorts of people, but only in concentrations or on a macroscale.

This is primarily thought to be the impetus behind science and technology, a form of power that works precisely as it is supposed to and won't try to screw you over for funsies. This world's Industrial Revolution saw to it that magic was very nearly consigned to the waste bin of history. It never completely went away but is largely thought to be the dangerous, primitive art of a bygone age, now only the domain of the foolish or the truly desperate.

In modern times, wild magic is especially dangerous. Any given working will almost always have some unexpected twist. Using wild magic and then trying to masquerade it as technology, usually an engineering project some poor sap was failing to get working before a deadline, is called "sprinkling it with fairy dust". Unless the engineer in question can patch the magic out in time, or comes clean, interesting tragedies may occur among the userbase.

Historically, witchcraft wasn't always like this. Unexpected twists happened infrequently, only so often as to be noted. When it did happen, many people initially assumed that the rituals were done incorrectly, but the oldest form of magic long gained a reputation as something potent but volatile. As humans found non-magical solutions to their problems, even as far back as pre-history, and therefore had less and less of a reason to use magic, it became more volatile.

It was if magic sensed that less opportunities to stir the pot and incite conflict were going to occur, and so more frequently used its opportunities to do so. Newer religions and sects began proscribing against magic, limiting it or outright banning its usage, at least with witchcraft. Without sentience, self-awareness, perhaps it could not recognize the self-sabotage for what it was. It's difficult to ascertain as communication with the so-called "Will Of Magic" is spotty at best and a farcical delusion at worst.

When the Industrial Revolution rolled around, proceeded by the Atomic Age and the Information Age and all that came with it, wild magic had well and truly earned its epithet. Everyone knows about it, it's not a secret, but this is a world ruled by science and technology. Except, every now and then, when someone is either truly desperate or merely that arrogant, they'll put together a ritual to try and make the magic happen.

#kitchen sink urbana #world building #magic #Grrl Power

[jimothy-g-brooks]

Kitchen Sink Urbana: Magic (1?)

"Kitchen Sink Urbana" is the name of a fictional setting of mine taking place on an alternate modern Earth where elements of high fantasy, urban fantasy, soft science fiction, furry nonsense, superheroes and pop-culture anime all exist together, out-in-the open.

The following is an OoC lecture about why a masquerade-free urban fantasy setting doesn't have magitech or arcane elements dominating its setting. Instead, magical elements are consigned to isolated corners, known about but contained and not interacted with by wider society. It's not entirely out of ignorant prejudice, but has practical reasoning behind it.

~

Wild magic, witchcraft, the truest, rawest magic, the oldest kind of magic, is about constructing a wish. First, you need to gather things that are symbolic to what you want. Second, things with mystic "weight" like dead languages, geometric shapes, weird knick knacks that are old, portentous times like full moons, new moons, solstices or eclipses. Imitating a ritual that has been done before especially helps, especially if it's old and hasn't been done in a while. Third, willpower or emotion, having other people pitch in to the ritual certainly helps. These ingredients can be partially substituted with innate magical mojo. Blood sacrifices of various severity also work as well.

You get all these things together and as long as you get enough of all that, you can basically wish for whatever effect you put a ritual together for. Now, here's the kicker: You don't get to decide how your ritual works out and there is no standard result if you do everything "correctly".

Magic has an intelligence and a will, albeit not exactly sentience, the ability to recognize its own existence. You're basically wishing on a monkey's paw of sorts. It won't twist your wish into the worst possible interpretation necessarily, but it will twist it into the most interesting interpretation. Magic wants a story and usually that means conflict. It also can mean resolution, sometimes magic "decides" that all the trouble you went through to get to this point counts as conflict enough and lets you have your happy ending.

Only some of the time though. A lot of the time, it's time for the sequel to your suffering as some twist is thrown into your wish. And trying to game the system is a good way to get extra screwed: One of the oldest stories there is is making someone pay for their hubris, after all.

All other forms of magic are aimed at mitigating this factor, accepting and constructing limitations into different sorcerous ethnicities and wizard schools to let one perform magic without some narrative interference. Even these aren't completely successful and some amount of narrative convention flows through every form of magic, breeding conflict for the sake of a story.

The other abnormal powers of the world, metahumans, mentalists, mad science and especially the mystic martial arts, what make up the rest of the 5M's, are theorized to have been forms of magic once upon a time. They somehow shook off the narrative nature of magic and somehow became more "real". Many people suspect that narrative conventions still flow around these sorts of people, but only in concentrations or on a macroscale.

This is primarily thought to be the impetus behind science and technology, a form of power that works precisely as it is supposed to and won't try to screw you over for funsies. This world's Industrial Revolution saw to it that magic was very nearly consigned to the waste bin of history. It never completely went away but is largely thought to be the dangerous, primitive art of a bygone age, now only the domain of the foolish or the truly desperate.

In modern times, wild magic is especially dangerous. Any given working will almost always have some unexpected twist. Using wild magic and then trying to masquerade it as technology, usually an engineering project some poor sap was failing to get working before a deadline, is called "sprinkling it with fairy dust". Unless the engineer in question can patch the magic out in time, or comes clean, interesting tragedies may occur among the userbase.

Historically, witchcraft wasn't always like this. Unexpected twists happened infrequently, only so often as to be noted. When it did happen, many people initially assumed that the rituals were done incorrectly, but the oldest form of magic long gained a reputation as something potent but volatile. As humans found non-magical solutions to their problems, even as far back as pre-history, and therefore had less and less of a reason to use magic, it became more volatile.

It was if magic sensed that less opportunities to stir the pot and incite conflict were going to occur, and so more frequently used its opportunities to do so. Newer religions and sects began proscribing against magic, limiting it or outright banning its usage, at least with witchcraft. Without sentience, self-awareness, perhaps it could not recognize the self-sabotage for what it was. It's difficult to ascertain as communication with the so-called "Will Of Magic" is spotty at best and a farcical delusion at worst.

When the Industrial Revolution rolled around, proceeded by the Atomic Age and the Information Age and all that came with it, wild magic had well and truly earned its epithet. Everyone knows about it, it's not a secret, but this is a world ruled by science and technology. Except, every now and then, when someone is either truly desperate or merely that arrogant, they'll put together a ritual to try and make the magic happen.

#kitchen sink urbana #world building #magic #fictional history

[jimothy-g-brooks]

Alright, so one of the set of characters I used this stock idea for was a set of bad guy Sonic OC's.

Samniel The Kitsune - The Sovereign Of Sorrows: A snow white magical fox from a faraway land taken as a baby by a clan of evil bat wizards and raised to fuel their magics and terrible rituals. She served them for generations, in fact, until they grew arrogant and assured in their control over her. She has six tails, each one used to fuel one of the other Sorrows. She wears a cape of leathered bat wings and manacles with chains around her wrists that remain even after she broke free.

Edge The Hedgehog - The Sorrow Of Rage: Real name, Edelburga, though she hates being called that. Once a noble if always aggressive protector of her people, Samniel manipulated factors that caused her to turn against and destroy those very same people. Once possessed of a strong sense of justice, now she has only anger and regrets.

Princess Goldenrod The Cat - The Sorrow Of Pride: Once a noble, fourth in line to some forgotten throne, Goldenrod was another victim of Samniel's manipulation, albeit more direct than with Edge. Filled with thoughts and ideas of saving her kingdom from the corrupt court that ruled it, she eliminated her rivals to the throne only to spark a civil war that destroyed her kingdom utterly. Now she fights to regain some measure of her stature and rebuild that which was lost, and it still doesn't matter whom she has to destroy to do it.

Mr. Malaurdum The Duck - The Sorrow Of Greed: A businessman that was as shrewd and corrupt as they come, who only cared about adding more and more to his influence and his coffers. Samniel tried to sink her claws into him but he saw right through her, and then offered himself willingly in exchange for magical power.

Grok The Frog - The Sorrow Of Hunger: A jolly fat giant of an amphibian, Samniel found him dying in a ditch. Driven from civilization, run out of every town he came to, for his insatiable and awful appetites after some old tragedy drove him to seek solace in endless hedonism. She couldn't have constructed a more perfect destruction of someone's life, not unless she tried really hard. Taken by him and his circumstances, she offered him power to feed and indulge his every desire.

Grease The Bat - The Sorrow Of Sloth: Real name, Ater Caligo. The, or at least one of the, last surviving members of the wicked Caligo Clan of wizards that enslaved Samniel for generations. He's a black vampire bat with the weird nose and huge leathery wings. These match the ones Samniel wears as a cape, Grease's father's. Not that he cares too much, his family brought it on themselves and there's nothing he can do about it. He'd rather spend his time moping or napping, unless Samniel goads him to do her bidding through repeatedly applied pain and fear. His catchphrase is "Pointless".

Mallory the Duck - The Beast Of Sorrows: Mr. Malaurdum's favorite grandchild that he doted upon. Actually, his least favorite, knowing any he showed favoritism to could be targeted for leverage, so he picked the most naive and stupid of his descendants to get that bull's eye painted on her back. It worked too, because when Samniel demanded her as a price, the kitsune was thrown when Malaurdum did it without pausing. Mallory was then unpleasantly integrated into a robot golem and used as its power source / process core / unwilling pilot.

The Seven Sorrows (Stock Characters)

Alright, stock characters of my imagination, the Seven Sorrows:

The Seven Sorrows are a group of bad guys who almost seem to map to the Seven Deadly Sins. Rather, five of them map to a kind of vice or sin, two sins are missing and the two extra characters seem to have their own thing going on.

The characters that fill the roles of Rage & Pride have a lot of parallels in their motivations, the difference is pure classism in exactly the direction you'd expect. They both feel like they've been done dirty and lash out at the world that wronged and wounded them. The other difference may be that Pride wants there to be a world the acknowledges that they were wrong and that this person is great. Rage just waits for the day they burn everything to the ground or they burn out, only then can they know peace.

The roles of Greed and Gluttony contrast precisely for looking the same but actually being different. Greed is just callous and calculating and willing to sell their own kin up a river for a profit. Gluttony just lives in the moment, uncaring, deliberately unthinking, drowning in the pleasure of the moment to keep themself from remembering yesterday or wondering about tomorrow. Their whole deal may be "More More More" but emphasis should be places that that is a surface level reading.

Gluttony also has elements of lust, their whole deal is hedonism, fulfilling physical desires without thought to the consequences, now or later. How much lust is displayed depends on the media the Seven show up in.

The Sovereign Of Sorrows is the first of the non-specific vice. This is the Satanic figure of the group, the one responsible for the downfalls of the lives of all the others, turning them into the wrecks they are now. Except Greed, Greed was always that bad and joined up without prompting, looking for power. The Sovereign does this out of pure sadism, and they may be responsible for losing some of their minions for the same reason, unable to help themself.

The Sovereign's deal is that they were once a slave to a very cruel and sadistic family. After killing them and setting themself free, they've decided to never be fettered or chained by anything again, especially morals, which their masters certainly never had. In fact, the rest of the Seven may each be based on one of the family.

The Sorrow Of Sloth is the last surviving member of the family. Sloth was disgusted by their family's excesses but was too apathetic, scared and powerless to do anything about it. The Sovereign rewarded and punished them by giving them powers and forcing them to come along with Sovereign's atrocities, unable and unwilling to resist.

The Beast Of Sorrows is the last and is more of a victim than a villain. They are the child or grandchild to Greed, who sold them to the Sovereign in exchange for membership and power. The Sovereign gleefully enslaved them, inflicting worse things on the child than the Sovereign ever endured and turned them into the Beast. A victim made to help their tormentors.

The role that they possibly fill in an action-adventure story is third party wild card antagonists. The Sovereign's primary motivation is stirring shit up, their minions probably have more goals than they do. Though the Sovereign will throw their weight behind their minions to keep them happy, especially if it's something that will ruin someone's day. Primarily, the Sovereign keeps them in line through a combination of psychological manipulation and gaslighting, and by being the one who owns their super powers, able to take them away if so desired.

The Sovereign primarily seeks more things to make themself more powerful and the pleasure of using it to twist the world into a worse place. They may throw in with another villain if the opportunity to do both is there, playing the role of a mini boss squad too.

Pride and Greed are a pair of Starscreams, the ostensible lieutenants of the Sorrows, and constantly scheming against the Sovereign and each other to take the Sovereign's power for themself. Greed does it because they want the power, but is willing to be the power behind the throne if it comes to that. Pride believes they deserve the prestige and would accept an advisor so long as they didn't feel like they were a puppet. The Sovereign keeps them around for no reason because the high stress environment this creates is exactly their kind of jam and is precisely what is expected of their roles besides.

#sonic oc #fanfiction

[jimothy-g-brooks]

The Seven Sorrows (Stock Characters)

Alright, stock characters of my imagination, the Seven Sorrows:

The Seven Sorrows are a group of bad guys who almost seem to map to the Seven Deadly Sins. Rather, five of them map to a kind of vice or sin, two sins are missing and the two extra characters seem to have their own thing going on.

The characters that fill the roles of Rage & Pride have a lot of parallels in their motivations, the difference is pure classism in exactly the direction you'd expect. They both feel like they've been done dirty and lash out at the world that wronged and wounded them. The other difference may be that Pride wants there to be a world the acknowledges that they were wrong and that this person is great. Rage just waits for the day they burn everything to the ground or they burn out, only then can they know peace.

The roles of Greed and Gluttony contrast precisely for looking the same but actually being different. Greed is just callous and calculating and willing to sell their own kin up a river for a profit. Gluttony just lives in the moment, uncaring, deliberately unthinking, drowning in the pleasure of the moment to keep themself from remembering yesterday or wondering about tomorrow. Their whole deal may be "More More More" but emphasis should be places that that is a surface level reading.

Gluttony also has elements of lust, their whole deal is hedonism, fulfilling physical desires without thought to the consequences, now or later. How much lust is displayed depends on the media the Seven show up in.

The Sovereign Of Sorrows is the first of the non-specific vice. This is the Satanic figure of the group, the one responsible for the downfalls of the lives of all the others, turning them into the wrecks they are now. Except Greed, Greed was always that bad and joined up without prompting, looking for power. The Sovereign does this out of pure sadism, and they may be responsible for losing some of their minions for the same reason, unable to help themself.

The Sovereign's deal is that they were once a slave to a very cruel and sadistic family. After killing them and setting themself free, they've decided to never be fettered or chained by anything again, especially morals, which their masters certainly never had. In fact, the rest of the Seven may each be based on one of the family.

The Sorrow Of Sloth is the last surviving member of the family. Sloth was disgusted by their family's excesses but was too apathetic, scared and powerless to do anything about it. The Sovereign rewarded and punished them by giving them powers and forcing them to come along with Sovereign's atrocities, unable and unwilling to resist.

The Beast Of Sorrows is the last and is more of a victim than a villain. They are the child or grandchild to Greed, who sold them to the Sovereign in exchange for membership and power. The Sovereign gleefully enslaved them, inflicting worse things on the child than the Sovereign ever endured and turned them into the Beast. A victim made to help their tormentors.

The role that they possibly fill in an action-adventure story is third party wild card antagonists. The Sovereign's primary motivation is stirring shit up, their minions probably have more goals than they do. Though the Sovereign will throw their weight behind their minions to keep them happy, especially if it's something that will ruin someone's day. Primarily, the Sovereign keeps them in line through a combination of psychological manipulation and gaslighting, and by being the one who owns their super powers, able to take them away if so desired.

The Sovereign primarily seeks more things to make themself more powerful and the pleasure of using it to twist the world into a worse place. They may throw in with another villain if the opportunity to do both is there, playing the role of a mini boss squad too.

Pride and Greed are a pair of Starscreams, the ostensible lieutenants of the Sorrows, and constantly scheming against the Sovereign and each other to take the Sovereign's power for themself. Greed does it because they want the power, but is willing to be the power behind the throne if it comes to that. Pride believes they deserve the prestige and would accept an advisor so long as they didn't feel like they were a puppet. The Sovereign keeps them around for no reason because the high stress environment this creates is exactly their kind of jam and is precisely what is expected of their roles besides.

#creative writing #stock characters #writing prompt #seven deadly sins

[jimothy-g-brooks]

So, my idea for a trashy mind control hentai is such:

Your conflict instigator is a magical door that traipses about the world, possibly the multi-versal, like a rape-y semi-2dimensional TARDIS. This door is possessed by an immoral succubus spirit who gets attractive women fucked so she can feed off the pornographic energy- not sexual energy, pornographic, the succubus is a conceptual entity like that. And she isn't afraid to use mind control to make it happen.

She finds Protag-kun, a hentai consuming pervert with similar interests to her, and offers him up his wet dreams of beautiful brainwashed women to service his every need. However, he objects and refuses on the grounds that that's fucking immoral. He's not into magical date rape irl.

Piqued by his rejection and/or impatient to feed, she mind controls him as well, repressing his good conscience and half-puppeting him to live out his lurid fantasies.

I was watching Mother's Basement new seasonal Trash Anime review and I now have an inspiration for my own ideas. One is a trashy MC hentai I'll describe in another post, so I can tag it appropriately and the one I'll describe here is an idea for a trashy ecchi harem isekai:

I Was Transported To My Magical Harem Island

A mighty wizard created an extradimensional tropical island and populated it with succunymphs, goddess-like women in both power and beauty. They are a harem meant to tend to his every need and a powerful team of heroines to protect the multiverse, in that order. Now he and his harem are retiring, in a way, embarking on a decade long road trip across said multiverse. The wizard requires a replacement, both as a lynchpin to the island's magic and to tend to the need of his many, many daughters.

Before embarking on his trip, the wizard drew up a list of young men from across the multiverse that had the innate metaphysical qualities to sustain the island's magic and could and would drop everything to become the love master of a tropical island full of beautiful superpowered women. He then allowed his daughters to collectively choose from that list the man who would fill that role.

Protag-kun, of course, is their choice. There is some conflict with some of the girls since he isn't everyone's favorite pick. In fact, for more conflict, he may be nobody's favorite and more of a compromise choice than anything else. However, due to their natures as succunymphs, and him as the love master of the island, they want his dick. He himself may also feel compelled to make them happy, as part of his and their connection to the island.

#nsfw idea #suggestive #rape mention #mind control #hentai mention