#I can definitely see Sam using this as some bard thing

[foxfireink]

Hi! I found your blog when you reblogged my "how to writeblr" post but your WIPs all look super fascinating! If you have taglists, can you please add me to the ones for "Songs of Decay" and "Bards, Courts, and Changelings?"

Also please feel free to ramble about either of these WIPs, I'd love to hear more about them.

Wow, thank you for the ask! We have added you to our taglists! :D And we are soooo happy to ramble about Songs of Decay and Bards, Courts, and Changelings. This is Inkwell. I am gonna cover Songs of Decay, and Crooked Writer will cover BC&C in a part two post.

Be warned. This is a very long post. I had waay too much fun writing it, hahaha. Bards, Courts, and Changelings will be a much shorter post, as it is in an earlier stage of development.

Part One: Songs of Decay

A HISTORY OF THE PROJECT

This is definitely a 2020 project, hahaha. We wrote draft 1 in script format because it was an easy way to write intermittently. We pulled out board games like Arkham Horror (2nd Edition) and Betrayal at House on the Hill to help us add the eldritch elements and throw in some chaos. We tracked the insanity level of different characters through some of our scenes. Then, when we were done, we were so happy with the story that we wanted to DO something with it rather than it just being a hobby project… and we were like, "What if we actually turned it into an audio drama?"

Crooked Writer does voice acting, but neither of us had ANY experience with writing audio dramas. It was our lazy way of not converting to prose, but also trying something new!

We created draft 2 by having friends come read what we'd gotten done out loud. We would edit and write for two weeks, then gather online, divvy out parts for the night, and read through it. It gave us a lot of motivation to get through the draft! I personally am not the kind of person to sit in on someone's early writing project and read it out loud for an extended period of time on a consistent basis, and it still blows my mind that our friends wanted to do that with us. It was so much fun.

Now, a great deal of research and worldbuilding later, we have four seasons planned and are midway through writing draft 3 of season 1. :D

WORLDBUILDING

The story isn't straight cosmic horror, it's more flavored by the eldritch, and much more inspired by the board game Arkham Horror than Lovecraft. We have our own pantheon of Horrors who have different thematic elements and warp and corrupt in different ways. Technology is roughly equivalent to the 1910s, and eldritch Horrors have been threatening to end the world as we know it for centuries. We have four countries who approach the long-standing eldritch problem VERY differently:

Our setting country, Malgrave, has a "kill it with fire" approach. They have a specially trained corps of Stewards and an Eldritch Anomalies Department (the EAD) to handle things using mostly weaponry. Malgrave views eldritch corruption as an individual's choice to bring Horrors and Fiends (Horrors = world-ends-upon-arrival monsters, Fiends = smaller monsters) into the world and destroy/remake it, so laws tend to treat cults and such in a similar way to how you'd treat the mafia. The temptations are overpowering to many. You can't trust anyone completely.

Side note, because I love the Stewards: The Stewards have really fun political power dynamics, as they are supposed to keep the king's family from turning on him/protect the family, but also can't really contradict a royal, sooo it gets messy sometimes. They technically have the power to report or stop a royal that's corrupted, but just try doing that in practice and see how it goes. Stewards tend to be more subtle. They also die, a lot. The MC's father, Sam, is one of the few Stewards in living memory to retire from active duty. Pays well, though!

Eastcairn, Malgrave's other neighbor, uses augury - magical engineering - to create wards and automatons that are powered by protective patterns. These patterns slowly corrupt over time and must be maintained regularly, or they will amplify corruption rather than negate it. Eastcairn views corruption as a contagious miasma in the air and isolates eldritch outbreaks in sanatoria and asylums. There are many strains of corruptive virus, and most if not all are incurable by current science.

Logoria is Malgrave's neighbor to the left and uses patterns just like Eastcairn, but rather than using physical augury patterns they use mathematical patterns in music and dance to ward off corruption. They have trained singers and musicians and dancers, and choirs are common.

Not a ton of development on the fourth country, because it's farther away (only worldbuild the top of the iceberg, right?) but it has a protective martial art, a caste system based around the concept that corruption runs in family lines, and people there know what different kinds of corruptive influences/objects/presences smell like.

These varying perceptions pool together in our story, as Sam is from Eastcairn but worked in the Stewards in Malgrave and has a medley of views about the nature of eldritch corruption that often conflict with prevalent theories. Augury isn't well thought of in Malgrave, but both he and Tom practice it. The conflict of "eldritch corruption: illness or choice?" is central to the first two seasons of Songs of Decay (particularly the second).

CHARACTERS AND STORY (Season 1)

Tom moves into the very rural Malbury county because living too close to his far wealthier ex-wife will end with him losing custody of their daughter, Sara. His dad lives in Malbury county and is supposed to be living far away from all eldritch influence. However, Tom is appalled to see how rife the county is with cultists, corruption, and eldritch Fiends - such as the Moose that he and Sara run afoul of on the first day of school. Tom also has a past record that requires him to report to the EAD and means that the EAD could refuse to grant him an augury license, which is literally Tom's livelihood right now, SO Tom offers to help with local problems. In doing so, he trips into the plot of a local cult that centers on the estate of one Lady Esther Lambert, a widow with a grudge against the EAD. Esther married into one of the local noble families and is used to fighting for herself because no one else will. She throws an annual party at her house at the end of summer, but this time things go very poorly very quickly. Tom and Esther have to band together with other guests to stay alive and prevent the summoning of a greater Horror, but they don't know who to trust when you can't even rule yourself out as an enemy.

So, throughout Season 1 you've got Tom trying to be a good single parent, learning how to prep and cook three consistent meals a day while also getting drawn into fighting eldritch monsters and cultists. You have Sara, his daughter, who is trying to adjust to a lower class lifestyle, meeting a grandparent for the first time, and stressing about her dad putting himself in danger. You have Sam, who convinced his son to move to Belleview because he was worried about him, but also has so much corruption from his time in the Stewards that he is one poor decision away from snapping entirely. You have Chief Compton, a former city policeman and current head of the local EAD bullied into the role after the last chief died trying to contain an eldritch summoning. And you have Lady Esther, whose late husband's family literally built her house around the idea of summoning eldritch Horrors, and whose perception of the local EAD is so poor that she would rather fight off monsters with a shovel than call them in to help.

We are having a great time writing this story. :D The hope is to ultimately put it on YouTube, but we want to get the first two seasons ready before we get to that, as they contain the first major arc.

Okay, I am done now. If you've made it this far, thank you for reading! Again, really appreciate the ask, and absolutely delighted to be able to ramble away like this.

Cheers!

-Inkwell

Songs of Decay tag list: @hd-literature @pure-solomon @blind-the-winds @sarah-sandwich-writes @lucianinsanity @coffeewritesfiction @surroundedbypearls @tate-lin @ettawritesnstudies

#writing #writeblr #cowriting #writing ask #worldbuilding #eldritch #cosmic horror #characters #WIP Summary #WIP ramble #so much ramble #inkwell writer #songs of decay #foxfire ink #foxfire asks

[nellie-elizabeth]

The Legend of Vox Machina: Into Rimecleft (2x06)

Eyyyyy we're splitting the party, this should be good.

Cons:

Okay. So. Keyleth encouraging Vax to talk to the Matron of Ravens... I get why they added this little detail in, but to be honest it's a characterization change I'm not sure about. Keyleth in the streams has always  been very dismissive or even distrustful of the gods. It feels weird that she should be the one to gently nudge Vax towards exploring that relationship. Maybe I'm misremembering and Keyleth says something to him in the stream too, it's hundreds of hours of gameplay and character choices aren't always 100% consistent, but this just rang false for me as a Keyleth moment.

Literally I have no other complaints though, this episode is perfect.

Pros:

I've been saying that all the episodes could use a couple more minutes of breathing room, and this episode really helped by having a section where everyone's just walking on their journey to meet the second sphinx, and they have a chance to chat, to catch up. The aforementioned Vax and Keyleth moment happens there, and we have Pike worrying about Grog, we have the ADORABLE moment of Percy giving Vex his coat... he's so smitten, I love it. It just really gave the group a chance to breathe and check in with each other before their next big moment of tension.

Grog's nightmare at the start of the episode was so intense, and was mirrored so beautifully by the agonizing ending where he stabs Pike with Craven Edge! This is changed in circumstances to how it happened on the stream, although something similar did occur, and it's so brutal to see it play out! Travis is killing it in the voice acting department. He really only offered comic relief last season, but now he gets to shine.

That goes double for Scanlan - see, when I started watching Critical Role during campaign one, my original favorites were, quite predictably, the twins and Percy. Percy's got that anime angst thing going on, and then pretty quickly so does Vax, after the Sunken Tomb incident. But as I kept watching, slowly emerging to the forefront of my "favorite characters" list was... Scanlan Shorthalt. It's partly the genius of Sam Riegel. He's such a charismatic man, he can take the jokey little gnome bard character and just shatter you to pieces with what happens next. And since watching this show, they have the time and space to set that up properly... hot damn, this is one of my absolute favorite episodes of the whole show thus far.

To start, we see that Scanlan does have people checking in on him, in their own way. He's not as completely isolated as he pretends to be, it's just that his humor is deflecting people from noticing his pain. Grog offers to carry him to warm him up, and yeah it's a comedy beat, and yeah Grog is manhandling him, but that's Grog's way of showing he cares, too. And Pike wants to talk to him about Grog, and yeah she tells him off for making a dumb joke, but she was looking for some sincere conversation from him, and he was the one who failed to give it.

Then we get Kamaljiori. This is a significant shift from how this encounter went down on the stream. I actually laughed out loud when the sphinx just introduced himself, because let's just say that's definitely not how it went the first time around! I love how Kamaljiori's trials are similar to Osysa's, in that they both involve touching on the insecurities of the party members: Vex doesn't have family who cares about her other than Vax, Grog needs to find where his strength comes from, etc., but it's also different. They're finding fun ways to mix up all the different combat scenarios from the show, what with this being a one-on-one test of strength that's ultimately won by emotional damage.

Fucking Scanlan, pulling out a pop ballad to wound Kamaljiori's heart... and it's honestly such a good song? Sam has such a good voice, damn! I actually got goosebumps. It's such a funny twist, and so heartfelt, and Scanlan actually finds a friend who understands him on an emotional level, who he can joke around with but who understands there's a heart under all that, and that he's having a hard time. It's so heartwarming for Scanlan to find this, and he even gets his own Vestige out of the deal! Mythcarver. I like how they've added in the twist about Mythcarver being tied to all the other Vestiges, so it can lead them to find the others as we go.

And then... just to pile on the angst... looks like with Ripley's assist, Umbrasyl has found Vox Machina. This was such an epic showdown, and again it's increasing the menace of these dragons. We just watched how Vox Machina couldn't get a hit in on this Sphinx, and now Umbrasyl is able to go toe to toe with him! I was genuinely moved by Scanlan and "Kammi" defending each other during the fight. This ancient powerful being risked his life to protect his new little friend. In fact, he lost his life, after thanking Scanlan for letting him see Osysa once more before the end. This totally broke my heart!

And while we're all being sad about this Sphinx dying, meanwhile Grog is losing his battle to control Craven Edge, as he ferociously tackles Umbrasyl single-handed. Keyleth is trying to get a plane shift spell going, Grog is covered in Umbrasyl's blood and won't stop attacking, Pike tries to stop him and... gets impaled for her trouble! Gasp!

I'm actually really excited to see the Fey Realm stuff play out and the Westruun story also take strides, while our party is split up. It feels like it's a good opportunity to mix things up, and honestly will build to a really satisfying reunion in a few episodes!

A couple small things to call out: the Vax and Percy tension is still there simmering in the background. He's short with Percy about reading the runes, then shoulder-checks him on his way to go face the Sphinx. I'm obsessed with guilt-ridden Percy trying to make nice with Vax and just getting nowhere... I hope we get some of that in the next batch of episodes. Keyleth has a moment where she's hesitant about trying an unfamiliar spell, and Vax calls her "Kiki" and encourages her to try, and she is quite calm and more self-assured than we'd normally see her as she agrees to try. I love this! She's growing into her confidence more and more! Grog's attempts to hide what's happening with Craven Edge are very suspicious but also very funny. This week, he claims he was talking to the trees, to throw Pike off the scent.

And that's it! I can't believe this show keeps making me wait after such tense moments. Pike is seriously injured, Grog is drowning in guilt, the group is separated... can't wait to see more next week!

10/10

#review #tlovm #tlovm review #the legend of vox machina #critical role

[anachronistic-falsehood]

SENDING THIS TO U BEFORE I FORGET FEEL FREE TO ANSWER WHENEVER U FEEL LIKE IT <3 talk 2 me about dstuck sam thief of heart and ponk sylph of mind the floor is yours king

OUGHGUGHH. OK. ALRIGHT. OK. UYEAH

okkk alright. csam. VERY heart player negative class vibes for me. like he’s more dirk strider than cwilbur is to me tbh he’s SOOOOO self obsessed but also hates himself. he’s surrounded by himself and reminders of himself constantly and it’s all self inflicted. he has all these different identities so he doesn’t have to face himself. the hotel and sam nook. the prison and the warden. the egg and sam bucket. he hates himself but he just doesn’t want to show it.

thieves wear figurative masks. meenah is a BADASS COOL GIRL!! and vriska?? i mean *gestures vaguely* LOOK at her. feelings?? what are those!!! thieves also have a self imposed lack of their own aspect, or at least feel like they do when they actually could have an abundance of it if they tried: meenah killed herself and the other dancestors, ridding themselves of their lives, and vriska insists that she’s the most unlucky person ever when actually!! most of her “8ad luck” is a result of her own actions!!! IT’S ALWAYS SELF IMPOSED!!! Sam brought ALL OF THIS on HIMSELF! he invested himself in the role of Warden and as a result did horrible things that he normally wouldn’t have done if he just remained as AweSamDude, your friendly neighborhood redstone guy!! (putting the rest under a cut bc SURPRISE!! this is getting long)

ok. Heart players. now the heart aspect has been very dirk-ified in canon so it’s easy to ignore the opposite end of the spectrum, which is represented by the Leijons. they’re very positive!! while they both have negative classes, Meulin with one that leads to a lack of the aspect in the player themself, and Nepeta with a reallocating class (takes and gives, so rogue or thief) but the way they handle these classes is so different. mages and rogues kind of provide others with their aspect in many ways. thieves…. don’t. thieves are black holes. they suck up their aspect and leave nothing behind in return. which can be good if you’re a thief of doom of something!! but a thief of heart??? girl you’re hurting everyone around you and it’s so so tragic.

and yet sam (and dirk!! and cwilbur!!!) still reflects some qualities of the leijons. he cares. he cares so so so much. the difference is that nep and meulin don’t let their hearts consume them. they work in tandem with their aspect. thieves and princes and bards don’t. they CAN’T. and that’s what differentiates a thief from a rogue. rogues give their aspects to other people and use their aspect for the benefit of others. thieves see their own detriment of their aspect and hoard it, never using it, never giving it away, until they’re buckling under the weight. for a thief of heart, they bear the weight of every single action they’ve done and take it to heart, convince themself that they’ve either a) done something so amazing and they’re the MOST WONDERFUL THING ON THE PLANET and become so self centred they end up tearing apart their session, or b) done something so terrible, so unforgiving, that they can’t possibly be anything but an irredeemable monster. that’s Sam. he can never redeem himself, so he might as well lean into the awful things he’s done, right? might as well play the villain. because if he can’t be good, what else is he supposed to be???

ALRIGHT. CPonk my cponk <3 sylph of mind. yeah i picked sylph because of the fact that they’re canonically a doctor and that is SUCH A SYLPH THING TO DO!!! going out of their way to become the only person on the server who can help heal people should the need arise!!! sylphs fix things, that’s their whole schtick. they help, they heal, they fix. Ponk was one of the last people on Schlatt’s side in Manberg. they were so determined to help fix it and take care of Schlatt’s deteriorating health. sylphs are LITERALLY the definition of “i can fix him” IT’S INSANE. babygirl you’re trying your best but it’s at the determinant of yourself TAKE A BREAK!!!

“but WHISKEY wasn’t cpuffy a therapist?? why isn’t she a sylph???” I HEAR YOU!! but guess what?? Puffy knew when to quit. she shut down the therapuffy office because no one was using it anymore. she never saw much success from it from the get go. She focused her efforts on protection and defence instead of healing and help. Ponk stuck with it. And Ponk stuck with Sam, after everything. They confronted him multiple times about what happened between them but they still hung out with him. They still talked to him. They still cared, despite everything. They never stopped trying to make Sam see the error of his ways. They never stop trying to fix him, even when Sam insisted that the only way for him to atone for his actions would be for him to die. (Idk how much of Ponk’s lore you’ve seen, but there’s a scene after the prison breakout when Ponk confronts Sam again and Sam puts a sword in Ponk’s hands and tells them to kill him and Ponk refuses IT DRIVES ME INSANE. HI. THE TRAGEDY OF AWESAMPONK. AUGHHHH). Sylphs help others to their own detriment, Kanaya trying to auspisticize between anyone and everyone even though it hurt her, and Aranea trying to fix the timeline and accidentally sending it all up in flames.

MIND PLAYER. MIND PLAYER PONK. Ponk’s aspect ties in soooo well with their class. Mind players revolve around the consequences of the choices of people around them. Basically KARMA IS A BITCH AND HER NAME IS CPONK BABEYYY!!! Remember the fuckign banquet. That was cponk’s justice in a lot of ways. In a server that beat them down and hurt them when they tried to help, this was them trying to stand up and take something back, even if it was motivated by the egg. But still, they didn’t kill anyone. That’s the difference between a sylph and a seer, i think. Terezi killed Vriska because she Vriska hurt people, and she foresaw that Vriska would continue to hurt people. Sam’s actions hurt so many people, including himself, but Ponk tried to help him, and even their revenge ended up being nothing more than a scare that lead to the death of a person who hadn’t even wronged them, and they weren’t the one who brought down the blade anyway. Yes, Kanaya killed, but it was in defence. Sylphs rarely seem to kill for revenge purposes

Ponk is more often than not an observer. They stand by and watch people’s actions play out and. witness the consequences, and then step in when things get dicey. Ponk got their arm cut off trying to find out more about the prison, the corruption behind it and the way it functioned. They could tell Sam was getting consumed by the prison and his role as the Warden. it cost them a life but they were trying to dig into a suspicious corrupt system to help someone they cared about. A Sylph of Mind tracks the results of other people’s actions and tries to fix them. They try to build up the damage from its broken pieces, even if the shards cut their own hands.

#dreamstuck #whiskeys word soup #dsmp #dream smp #YEAH. ANYWAY #honestly that one scene after the prison break is soooooo insane to me. it’s almost trimax vashwood-esque in its vibes tbh #AWESAMPONK YOU DRIVE ME INSANEEEEEEE #THANK U MAC FOR LETTING ME RANT ABT THIS <33333 #mcyt classpects

[vitos-pink-shirt]

Because I’m incapable of keeping my interests separate, here’s the Mafia characters as D&D classes:

Vito:

I really think Vito is something with the vibes of an Oathbreaker Paladin or a Hexblade Warlock. I’m leaning more towards Hexblade Warlock because for me it makes sense; he made a pact (became a made man) with a patron (the mafia/Falcone/maybe even Joe?) and all of his power comes from that pact, but he learns that the pact is asking of him more than he can give.

Joe:

Listen I think Joe is either a Bard/Fighter multi class (for reasons) or a Cleric of the Order. He just really gives me cleric vibes, he seems to be like a healer (he’s there for his friends) but also he can choose to give out damage like candy. Also I think it fits well that clerics get their magic through faith, and Joe keeps fighting because he really believes that he and Vito will make it one day.

Henry:

I think Henry is a tried and true Rogue (maybe rogue Swashbuckler or Mastermind?). I’d say Barbarian just for him to have the “rage” ability lol but I definitely think he’s more of a con man than he is a fighter. His backstory is also kinda fitting, kid who fell from wealth and lost his family, decides to stick it to the world, only to find a few friends he can hold on to.

Lincoln:

OATH OF VENGEANCE PALADIN. I feel so strongly about this one. Maybe he takes a few classes in Monk just for how efficient he is even without a weapon lol. But he is absolutely an Oath of Vengeance Paladin, he’s messing shit up and being a complete tank while he’s at it, and he’s fueled by vengeance.

Donovan:

He’s giving College of Whispers Bard/Assassin Rogue. A spy type of bard and a kind of hitman rogue. I could also see Warlock for Donovan, in that he made a pact with the CIA and is now using that pact against the CIA when they let him down.

Tommy:

I think Tommy is a good old Fighter :) he’s just a guy and he’s good at hitting things :) I really don’t have much else to say for him lol. Maybe specifically a Cavalier Fighter, since he’s supposed to be really good at driving.

Paulie:

Ok so I think Paulie could be a Barbarian, or an Oath of Conquest Paladin (turned Oath Breaker at the end). Flavor-wise I like the paladin class for Paulie the most, he had big dreams (like Vito) and thought the life could get him there but realized all it could do was use him.

Sam:

For Sam I think maybe another rogue, but specifically an Arcane Trickster Rogue. Or maybe a Warlock of The Great Old One, it’s focus is knowledge and knowing what everyone is thinking, and I feel like Sam tries to be a perceptive person. Another thought I had was maybe some type of multi class between those two classes. His pact would probably be with Salieri, but I also like the idea of him making a pact to just survive.

#here’s a LONG post that nobody asked for :) #if anyone else plays dnd and has other thoughts about the classes they’d be #PLEASE tell me I’ve been thinking about some of these for a long time #vito scaletta #lincoln clay #tommy angelo #mafia trilogy #pink shirt posts #dnd

[foreos]

i wound up making a new post lol but uh here’s hatchetfield characters as dnd classes

linda- warlock with wiggly as her patron. you could probably use the great old one as her subclass and just flavor it as wiggly

hannah- wild magic sorcerer. no question. i know warlock with webby as her patron also makes sense but like come on.

miss holloway- idk which one but she is a super high level magic user. i feel like you could make her a warlock with a pact of the tome or like a school of enchantment wizard.

emma- for some reason i get huge rogue vibes from emma

lex- school of abjuration wizard

ethan- i’ll be honest i have no clue. i definitely can’t see him as a magic user but i also don’t really like any of the nonmagic or limited magic classes for him.

paul- for some reason my brain is screaming artificer but that’s probably just cause he’s a tech support guy. i’m not really sure for paul either

tom- this might be controversial but i feel like tom’s a ranger. idk i feel like tom is definitely more of a nature person than a tech person and that he’d be cool to just chill in the woods and fight monsters.

becky- my first instinct is cleric but she honestly doesn’t really have cleric vibes to me. maybe like a sorcerer of the divine soul so she still has a lot of primary healer options while still retaining the ability to absolutely fuck up some monsters.

ziggs- either a druid or a bard. i’m kinda leaning towards druid.

hidgens- bard. 100% bard. i don’t know which college and i don’t care he’s just a bard.

bill- probably a cleric. bill’s definitely much more of a healer than a fighter.

charlotte- oh lord i have no clue. this isn’t based off of canon at all but she has divination wizard vibes.

ted- either a bard or a barbarian. he’s either gonna seduce something or hit it really really hard. the barbarian thing is fully based on him hitting sam with a garbage can lid.

zoey- bard <3

lucy- ranger <333 is it disrespectful towards chumby to say she would be in the beast master concave

grace- paladin. i know it’s easy to say cleric but i feel like she’s more of a paladin.

pete- artificer. if you give him a chemistry set then you’ll see some seriously nerdy shit.

steph- something fighter/monk/barbarian adjacent. i feel like deep down steph just wants to punch something

rose- bard but in a fig faeth way :)

frank- i was trying to think of like salesman type stuff and i feel like bard of eloquence fits him??? idk but he has like expertise in persuasion

john- paladin but in the opposite direction of grace

boy jerry and girl jeri- paladins but i think they used to be something else. don’t know what though.

alice- she could be a bard or she could be a fighter i think

deb- probably a druid. i think all druids are stoners.

duke- probably some sort of fighter but like one of the cool ones, you know?

i’m definitely missing a bunch of people there’s so many characters

#hatchetfield #starkid #nightmare time #nmt #nmt 2 #the last version of this was a reblog so like #dnd #if you have any ideas please help #black friday #the guy who didn’t like musicals

[larsisfrommars]

My Predictions for Campaign 3 Characters

Travis Willingham

Class: Cleric (Domain of War, Nature or Forge) OR Druid (probably Circle of The Shepherd) bonus if he finally gets his wish and is a werewolf! I could see him picking up a martial class again (probably Monk or Fighter) but I’d honestly be disappointed. We already have seen him play a martial class and a couple light spell casters and I honestly wanna see him play a high Wisdom character, we already saw what he could do with a high Charisma character! I wanna see the other side of that social/mental stat coin!

Race: I could see him playing a Human again, or maybe a Dwarf! It’s kinda hard to tell what his race preferences are other than Big & Strong sooo maybe one of the Monster races from Volo’s guide? Bugbear maybe? I also REALLY hope somebody plays a Warforged this campaign and a Warforged Forge Domain Cleric could be REALLY cool and On Brand for Travis I think.

Marisha Ray

Class: Marisha is SO freaking smart and kicked so much ass as both a monk and a druid, I want her to be able to play a character that really highlights her irl intelligence again so maybe a Wizard or Artificer? I don’t know Artificer subclasses aside from Armorer BUT School of Divination or a good-aligned Necromancer could be really cool! Battlemaster Fighter might also be a good choice for her!

Race: Something tells me she’s never going to fully abandon that Avatar The Last Airbender aesthetic she has going on so maybe an Fire or Earth Genasi (to keep the cycle going since Kiki had Airbender aesthetics and Beau had Water Tribe vibes) a Fire Genasi Necromancer would be metal AF. Speaking of metal, she’s also a good candidate for my Oh My God Someone PLEASE Play A Warforged self-indulgent desire lol.

Liam O’Brien

Class: Monk (if he’s not already playing one in EXU which I feel like he is) if he does it’d probably be Way of Shadow or Kensei, mostly because he’s already done the fire aesthetic thing (so no way of the four elements or sun soul) and we’ve already gotten Cobalt Soul from Beau. If not a Monk then a Bard, in true Tragic Character Obessed Fashion we know and love it’s gonna be College of Whispers or Glamor. Plus, knowing he’s a Shakespeare nerd I could see him leaning really hard into that for a Bard. He might surprise us and play something cheerier this time who knows?!

Race: Don’t ask me why I say this, it’s not even like I want anyone to play a Gnoll, but something tells me if ANYONE was gonna be a Gnoll it’d be Liam, there is a crackhead in the corner of my brain insisting it’ll be so. The RATIONAL side of my brain is thinking Elf or Tabaxi because Liam has shown us He Likes Cats A Normal Amount. I don’t know if he likes playing animals quite enough to endure playing a druid long term but I could see him embracing one of the anthro D&D races with no hesitation.

Sam Riegel

Class: I know Liam picked for Sam but my bet is, for maximum chaos, and because how much everyone enjoyed it in Aeor and Sam is alllll about inviting chaos to the table at all times so I’m willing to bet he’s going to play a Wild Magic Sorcerer, or maybe another subclass of Sorcerer like Divine Soul. I also think he’d have a lot of fun with a martial class like Way of The Drunken Master Monk or a Fighter of some variety.

Race: there’s literally just one non-home brew small race Sam hasn’t played let’s be real, I have no doubt in my mind Sam will be playing a Kobald.

Laura Bailey

Class: Laura is the hardest to pin down, she’s so versatile and brilliant but the best I can think of are the two classes her twin and her husband beat her to, Rogue or Warlock. I think she’d make an excellent pirate so I could definitely see her playing a Swashbuckler Rogue, it’d be a charming homage to both Liam & Travis’s previous characters but I feel like she’d make a point to be not at all like either of them personality wise. Regarding Warlock, anything not Pact of The Archfey (too close to Artagan) but no matter what DEFINETLY gift of the chain ‘cause we know how much Laura loves her creature companions.

Race: Again I’m not sure, I definitely don’t think she’d go for elf or Genasi or tiefling. I think she’d make an adorable Halfling or Gnome, Yuan-ti or Tabaxi could be fun and sexy. OH! She loved Kiri so much I think she could have a TON of fun roleplay wise with a Kenku!

Ashley Johnson

Class: Ashley has waaaay too much fun playing martial classes so my money is on Paladin or Fighter. So far as oath if she picks Paladin maybe Vengeance or even Conquest, something dark and dramatic that she can sink her roleplay teeth into now that she has time to play a campaign without getting whisked away for shooting. I could definitely see her going with Champion or Eldritch Knight! Just HITTING THINGS kind of fighter for sure.

Race: I could see her having a bit of an affinity for the more monstrous races, something big and scary maybe a Goliath (like her buddy Grog)? Or maybe a full blooded Orc or Hobgoblin, even a Drow (or half-drow)? If not one of the traditionally “evil” races I could see her going for Dwarf or Dragonborn for sure.

Taliesin Jaffe

Class: Again another insanely versatile and brilliant player where I have almost no idea where he’ll take a turn next. Idk what would be a sharp left turn from Cleric that he hasn’t already played (fighter, rogue, bloodhunter). I’d say druid but I feel like that’s too similar to Caduceus. Some people think he’s gonna play Kingsley but I highly doubt it, but I wouldn’t be shocked if he went for Bloodhunter again because he missed the opportunity to play it at higher levels because of how Campaign 2 went. It could be fun seeing him go for a charisma based class since we’ve already seen him go for high intelligence and high wisdom, maybe a Bard or Paladin? I know he played a dragonborn Paladin a long time ago in the home game and he didn’t seem to vibe with it, so maybe Bard then, I can’t imagine him picking anything other than College of Whispers lol. Sidenote: could totally see anyone Tal plays as being a Vampire, that’d be cool.

Race: Again, he’s done strange and fantastic combinations in the past but I like the potential of a Kenku Bard (functionally a jukebox!) plus Taliesin is great at realistic crow sounds so he’d have an opportunity to do that more which would be funny. Elf would feed into the pretentious stereotype that Taliesin is fantastic at playing into. I could also see him going for Changeling (if Matt allows it) or Tabaxi. He too is on my Please Somebody Anybody Play Warforged Please God, self indulgent wishlist.

#critical role #Cr meta #cast meta #campaign 3 #campaign 3 predictions #taliesin jaffe #ashley johnson #laura bailey #travis willingham #sam riegel #liam obrien #marisha ray #matt mercer #please let Travis play high wisdom character #please let travis be a werewolf #and tal be a vampire #somebody PLEASE play a Warforged i love those magic robot mofos #Liam Gnoll crack theory #analysis

[rosauni-verse]

scanlan is fjord's father: a thesis

it's way past time to compile ALL OF THE EVIDENCE for my all-time favorite crack theory

point one, timing:

first of all, fjord is an orphan, and barring some serious plot twists it doesn't look like his parentage is ever going to be relevant. also, as far as i can tell, he doesn't know anything about his parents and has no way of finding out.

so already, there's a chance.

fjord is 33, which places his birth roughly 13 years before the end of vox machina's campaign. scanlan is easily the oldest of VM, and certainly didn't begin his carousing when he met the party, so there's plenty of time to have met a half-orc woman. he doesn't keep track of his past lovers, as evidenced by kaylie, and when asked if a love potion would make him fall for percy, sam replies: "a human man? that was teenage years, baby" implying that scanlan has gone far above and beyond the standard when it comes to hookups. along with everything else about scanlan, really.

so, the timing checks out-- a lone orc woman passing through the coast who either can't or won't take care of a child.

point two, appearance:

fjord's size/strength has become a running joke of the campaign, but it's worth paying attention to. as showcased by jester, a human doesn't always have to be in the equation to make a mixed-race dnd character. fjord is noticeably shorter and slimmer than other half-orcs/orcs, which makes perfect sense if he happens to have gnomish heritage.

fjord is also very handsome. as a possible son of a famous bard, this needs no explanation.

point three, personality and traits:

scanlan and fjord share two key stats: charisma and wisdom. 20/20 charisma means very handsome, very charming, and very good at manipulation. we see both of them use that last power for not-so-good-things, sometimes.

fjord is also so skilled at voices and mimicry he fools a good number of the party for months before returning to his natural accent (which sounds awfully like a tal'dorei accent as well, but this is a less solid point.) i'm willing to bet he'd have a damn fine singing voice if he tried. he also definitely enjoys having access to more illusion-based magic like disguise self, and enchantment-based magics, both of which are pretty bardic schools.

now, the 7 wisdom score. they manifest in similar ways-- impulsive, prone to getting in over their heads, and having to haul themselves across the line of being a better person. once again not much explanation needed here.

finally, returning to the gnomish heritage thing, fjord has a natural curiosity surrounding magic, throws himself wholeheartidly into whatever he decides is his new path in life, and is extremely resourceful (see: the remorhaz fight during his period of njormalcy.)

point four:

i mean, you can't disprove it. so unless matt mercer himself strikes me down, this is my hill

#also they're both subs but that's not the point. #cr spoilers #campaign 1 #meta #fjord #scanlan shorthalt #critical role #t #crack theory

[thatanonymouschocolate]

College AU Imagines/Headcanons D&D Edition

Wanted to do DnD since the idea of Baird being into a bunch of nerdy shit keeps swimming around in my brain..hope you enjoy 

Ps: Idk what to put for the carmines so i didn’t include them this time (i was running out of brain juice for most of these)

Baird 

Surprisingly I can see him as a the DM (Dungeon Master) he has that big creative brain creating beautiful worlds and stories for his campaigns for the players to enjoy

When he’s a player though I can definitely see him as a Cleric (his sassy, sarcastic and salty personality is just fit for it i can’t unsee him)

“If you do something stupid I am not healing your ass.”

A pretty chill DM is fine with any editions of D&D as long as he and the players are having fun 

As a DM he won’t put up with shitty players he lets that be known before the campaign even starts. Meta gaming, people with main character syndrome, murder hobos, creepy people? Yea no you’ll get the boot 

Knowing him he’d definitely use that 3D printer from class to make figures for the sessions…don’t tell his professor he’ll get his ass kicked 

Cole

Baird probably told him about D&D and Cole wanted in on it. 

Since he’s a new player it might take him a while to get the hang of it and lots of help from Baird but he’s still having fun since he’s hanging out with friends

Definitely see him as a friendly Paladin or even a non horny Bard his friendly personality just screams these classes Bard definitely calls to him the most though he uses some of his songs he’s been practicing on in role play which other players and Baird seem to enjoy.

He plays multiple instruments, mainly playing Sax but that’d be a lot to carry so to dnd sessions he brings his flute and plays songs when he’s trying to inspire an NPC or another player to add that extra pizzazz

His Charisma has mostly gotten the party out of trouble (bc salty boy baird got them in trouble as usual lol)

Dom

Our Culinary King over here always bringing food to the sessions because they can get kinda long 

He know some DnD stuff due to Maria playing and even being a DM a few times so she drags him to a session and he decided to give it a try

Can see him playing Ranger (since he’s always willing to help and is pretty resourceful with his knowledge of stuff in game)

He’s definitely likes the skills ranger gets especially animal handling (He’s been thinking about getting a dog)

The medicine and survival skills has help himself and his party especially when the cleric is injured or unconscious 

Marcus

Also a new player like Cole but is pretty quick to get the hang of it 

Would probably be a Paladin (bc of those leadership skills and wanting to do the right thing in gears games)

He’s not sure about role play so he’s mostly quiet in sessions but he does like watching the others role play 

He’s pretty invested in the story that Baird or other DM’s have for the players (probably bc of all the book club stuff Anya takes him too so it's pretty much a story that he gets to be a part of which he thinks is fun)

Is impressed about dice and eventually gets addicted to collecting them 

Anya

Is extremely excited when she here’s the others talk about DnD

Has a dice obsession and is pretty proud she got marcus into collecting dice

She’s probably be a cleric when baird is the dm but i can also see her as a druid

She and dom probably have animal companions in the campaign and are instantly emotionally attached to them

Tries to include marcus in role play and he’ll get there…eventually 

Loves that she now has something else to talk to marcus about and can see him outside of classes more often

Sam

She’s a DM when Baird isn’t

I can see her and Baird giving each other advice and tips on their campaigns and sometimes coming together to brainstorm and add stuff to their stories

Can see her playing Warlock or Barbarian when she is a player

Definitely likes character creation the most

Would probably draw out her character and make a bunch of art oher and the other’s characters

Loves painting the figures that Baird made using the 3D printer 

#gears of war x reader #Augustus Cole #Damon Baird #Sam Byrne #Anya Stroud #Marcus Fenix #dominic santiago #college au #gears of war headcanons

[carpsurprise]

fantasy au hcs for the marriageable canidates?

fantasy au headcanons for the bachelor/ettes!

this was fun!! if this isn’t what you wanted exactly i apologize!! i tried to make these all a little different, but i def headcanon that abigail/sam/sebastian are in their own group together!! but that’s a whole other thing!!

alex:

-definitely a man of weapons! he can use swords, spears, any kind of fantasy weapon you could really think of

-he only knows a few spells and one or two different types of magic, but he has amazing precision and would be a great warrior

-i can see him as a leader of a group of mages for hire, where he can travel as he pleases and make easy money

elliott:

-elven, but one that's still tied to the ocean (possibly a seafarer)

-i do think he could do enchantments and spell writing 

-people would seek him out as a mentor and a companion, since he’s so easy to get along with and so willing to help others

-the sound of his piano by the sea, depending on the tune, can signal good luck or something foreboding is coming

harvey:

-herb collector and a healer

-i think he would have an herb/potion shop smack in the middle of a village to help heal and educate others 

-i don’t think he’d also be very social, but i think when he goes to forests to look for more herbs, forest spirits would be attracted to his presence

-his friends are the trees and energy of the forest !!

-maybe a satyr would be a good look for him?!

sam:

-i think sam would definitely be a traveler, but would never be alone. he’s the type of person to tag along with others on their journeys and help them out along the way

-he would be a being of the sun or stars and feel most comfortable (or have his height of power) in sunlight

-a bard (dnd) kinda thing. i think he could enchant others and uses his talent of music and his friendly charisma to charm and help himself/others

-he’s got real talent that keeps people’s eyes on him! i think he could easily make others like him using a magical skill through music and keep himself on everyone’s good side.

sebastian:

-definitely a mage, but a hermit who keeps to himself

-i think he’d be very talented in certain types of magic and that would make others seek him out

-he’d be very passive and want to spend his time perfecting his own skills rather than seek others out

-if not something like that, i could definitely see him only coming out under the cover of night and stealing objects of high value to resell sort of like a mercenary?

shane:

-definitely the grumpy mage that doesn’t really associate with others

-he keeps his magic limited to helping animals

-often looks over and protects farms and fields from other people/animals with intent to harm

-i think he would use summoning magic!! i think he originally learned it for selfish purposes, but turned it around to protect helpless animals from danger

-he can communicate with animals through waves instead of words! he can sense their emotional states and worry and uses that to act!

abigail:

-the easy answer: knight. 

-but i’d like to think she would want to be a dragon slayer of sorts

-she would keep a piece of whatever hoard the dragon would have as a sort of trophy 

-otherwise i think she would know arcane magic that could benefit her and her only

-would definitely live in an abandoned castle (most likely haunted) and would spend her days with riches and a drive to use her sword for any reason

emily:

-i think with how spiritual she is canonically, she’d be someone people would look to in terms of religion or clairvoyant magic

-maybe not so much of a priestess, but an oracle!

-she has a very mystical/fantastical aura to her anyway, i think she’d definitely be seen as a prophesier or something ethereal

-definitely very powerful!! some type of creature of aether

haley:

-miss mermaid is the easy choice to go but i do think she’d be perfect for a life at the beach and in the ocean

-friends with the dolphins and fish (stingrays are her favorite though)

-with an offering of seashells she could help ships with directions and other nautical things

-but… as a mermaid she would definitely be prone to mischief!! ask her to do something without a gift and she’ll lead you astray

-not to your death of course but… it’ll definitely add a couple gray hairs to any sailor

leah:

-would spend her time in the forest, with other forest spirits

-i think animals would be drawn to her and put their trust in her!! like how shane can feel other animal’s emotions, i think she would be able to directly communicate with them 

-she would have horns!! maybe curly horns like a ram has

-her magic would be centered around the forest and sunlight!

-she’s the type of spirit you run into in the forest and is bound to help with friendly advice, but the second you turn your head she’s disappeared into the air

maru:

-i think she would use magic to benefit others!

-she would build staffs and other magical items for others and help them enchant them

-maru would also definitely be a mentor of others 

-though i see her more as a steampunk fantasy than a high fantasy type of thing, i think she could make armor for specific types of buffs and magic

-she would look very cute with elf ears i will admit

penny:

-she’d be an amazing archivist for magic books and knowledge

-i could see her living in the trunk of a giant tree, dedicating her life to collecting magical knowledge and letting others borrow the information to better themselves

-hm… magic cafe maybe? like make tea with herbal potions in them and help others wind down?

-i think she’d be good at blessing objects and doing little here or there magical jobs to help others out with small things

#stardew valley #alex stardew valley #elliott stardew valley #harvey stardew valley #sam stardew valley #sebastian stardew valley #shane stardew valley #abigail stardew valley #emily stardew valley #haley stardew valley #leah stardew valley #maru stardew valley #penny stardew valley #alex #elliott #harvey #sam #sebastian #shane #abigail #emily #haley #leah #maru #penny

[centaurianthropology]

Thoughts on Critical Role C3E1

Spoilers below the cut, beware ...

The setting is lovely, and I can’t wait to see the maps we get.  I also really like the flavor of different sorts of species we didn’t see in the last campaign.

I really enjoy Marisha and Laura as a pastel goth duo.  Yes, I already ship them.  Yes, I 100% believe Imogen is going to be infinitely scarier than Laudna.  Aberrant Mind Sorcerers are scary as shit, and once she gets into hardcore psionics, Imogen is going to kick shocking amounts of ass.

Can’t tell if Laudna is a vampire or a hollow one.  I lean hollow one, because that’s a Mercer homebrew, and she snickered when Sam mentioned folks with souls.

Laudna was a delight.  She’s so over-the-top, and Marisha is clearly having a blast playing her.  

I feel like Imogen is going to be the black hole of backstory character this time around.  She has been through some things, to get so tangled up with Laudna.

Ashton and Fresh Cut Grass are a delight.  I had suspected from the header image they dropped that Taliesin might lean into bastard energy this time, and he really did.  

Inevitably, Ashton is going to have some sort of major backstory shit too, which will be deeply plot relevant.  Neither Tal nor Matt can help themselves.  

Also, calling it now that Ashton is a Mercer original subclass.  He mentioned doing a gravity build, which makes me think Matt took the Wild Magic base and then heaped the gravity parts of dunamancy on top of it.

Fresh Cut Grass stole the show, hands-down.  Loved Laudna and Ashton too, but FCG is just a complete delight, and Sam playing the counselor and the healer is a fun turn.  He is also a robot, and I love how hard he’s leaning into that.  Everything about him is great, and I can’t wait to get to know what devastating twist Sam’s going to throw at us with FCG.

Now we get to the recurring characters.  Gotta admit, I have mixed feelings about them.  On the one hand, I do like the feel of Fearne and Orym (it seems like Robbie’s character will simply be an extended guest rather than a permanent addition), but I am a little disappointed we aren’t getting brand new characters from Liam and Ashley.  

So, from my understanding (did not watch EXU), Orym is pulling a Yasha, is either gay or bi, and has a dead spouse of the same gender.  And he’s sitting right next to Taliesin, who is playing an an occasionally male-identifying hot rock person.  Liam’s got his sights set, is all I’m saying.  

Fearne seems interesting.  Again, didn’t see EXU, but I do find the seems-sweet-but-is-really-an-asshole vibe from her cool, especially when paired with what I suspect is going to be a seems-like-an-asshole-but-is-secretly-sweet thing Ashton has going on.  

Robbie’s bard seems cool, and I could see him being a recurring character, which is nice.  I don’t want an eighth regular cast member, since the table is already crowded and it’s hard enough to wrangle seven, but I do like the notion that they might be leaning into recurring guests.

And Travis.  I know folks are already speculating that he isn’t going to be Travis’ true PC, but I actually sort of love the idea that he will be.  Taking joke characters into serious territory is a fun concept, and having a much older character is also something no one has played with yet.  Bertrand Bell is another recurring character, so that still does seem odd, as does the level disparity between him and the rest of the party, but after the end of the episode, I think Bell might be a reluctant vampire, or possibly isn’t really Bertrand Bell.  The party is a bit unbalanced, with two sorcerers and two fighters, and no rogue.  If Travis is only using Bell as a hook, I could see him coming in as a rogue.  Still, I can’t help but like the possibility of Bell as a permanent character, possibly with his stats nuked by this very large angry orc at the end.  

This party is definitely struggling with the same issue that plagued the Mighty Nein at the beginning: why are these assholes sticking together?  Giving them an employer is a possible fix for that (and may be a fix for doing a West Marches campaign as some have suggested, with the end-of-the-month Thursday going to the other campaign running parallel to the main one), and will at least give them a reason to hang together until the big plot hook sinks in on them.  Bell might stick around at least that long, or may be Travis’ permanent character, and a great way to reduce the risk of getting romanced again.

All in all, a decent start.  Some very engaging characters straight out of the gate (FCG and Laudna), others I think will probably get interesting in a hurry (Imogen, Ashton, Fearne, and Orym), and one total wildcard both character and plot-wise (Bertrand).  I sort of wish they hadn’t had a guest character in the very first episode, as it took time away from establishing new relationships between the adventuring party, but those will develop in time.  It took quite a while for the Mighty Nein to break apart from their initial relationships too.

I find all the hooks back to campaign one a bit odd, as I was hoping for a clean slate for this campaign like we got for two, but it’s too early to judge them.  I am not as immediately gripped as I was by campaign two, possibly because this feels like a lighter, more cartoony campaign than two, but I’m willing to go on this ride and see where it takes me.  

Final impression: not bad, probably on par with the first episode of campaign two.  Starting a new campaign, especially when some characters aren’t new, is a challenging thing to try.  I look forward to seeing how the players and Matt handle this new setting and this new story.

#critical role #critical role spoilers #beware the spoilers below the cut

[doubleca5t]

What Your Favorite Marvel (Avengers) Ship Says About You

HUGE shoutout to @runawaymarbles for helping me put this one together. Couldn’t have done it without you!!

Transcription below the cut

Stucky (Steve/Bucky) - Whenever you see a really long fic tagged “hurt/comfort” your eyes go wide because you know what you’re going to be doing until 3am

Pepperony (Pepper/Tony) - You thought 50 Shades of Grey would have been better if the girl was the dom

Stony (Steve/Tony) - Your ideal relationship dynamic is a bickering married couple

Starmora (Peter Quil/Gamora) - Your ideal relationship dynamic is sitcom wife/sitcom husband

Iron Husbands (Rhodey/Tony) - Your ideal relationships dynamic is that meme that’s like “hoe don’t do it… oh my god” but somehow both partners are the hoe

Clintasha (Clint/Natasha) - You think the avengers movies just haven’t been as good since the first one

FrostIron (Loki/Tony) - You don’t understand the people who think these movies have too many jokes and quips. As far as you’re concerned, they don’t have enough.

Thorki (Loki/Thor) - You were writing supernatural slash BEFORE Castiel was introduced

Science Boyfriends (Bruce/Tony) - You are a firm believer in the inherent eroticism of doing science

Iron Winter (Tony/Bucky) - You are a firm believer in the inherent eroticism of wanting to kill each other

Winter Widow (Bucky/Natasha) - You are a firm believer in the inherent eroticism of shared trauma

Phlint (Phil/Clint) - You are a firm believer in ignoring the main cast in favor of the funny side characters

Steggy (Steve/Peggy) - You just wanted good things for Peggy, and really, who wouldn’t?

IronDad [Yes I know this is the platonic ship name and it should actually be called Starker. I fucked up, okay. Hoobastank voice I’m not a perfect person] (Tony/Peter Paker) - You unironically browse the teacher crush tag on tumblr (FBI OPEN UP!!!)

SamSteve (Sam/Steve) - You think the concept of opposites attract is HIGHLY overrated

Romanogers (Natasha/Steve) - You think the concept of opposites attract cannot be highly rated enough

Scarlet Vision (Wanda/Vision) - You’re always a slut for awkward nerds

Claura (Clint/Laura) - You’re always a slut for retiring to the country to live a quiet life

Fosterson (Jane/Thor) - You’re always a slut for a good romcom

Thunderscience (Thor/Bruce) - You’re also a slut for a good romcom, but your definition of a romcom includes Thor Ragnarok

IronStrange (Tony/Dr. Strange) - I was gonna say this is just the same joke as Steve and Tony but even moreso, but I don’t know if a pairing can qualify for bickering married couple status if they never liked each other in the first place

Winterhawk (Bucky/Clint) - You downloaded the Jeremy Renner app

Shieldshock (Steve/Darcy) - I can’t guarantee that you’ve masturbated to that clip of Steve splitting a piece of wood in half with his bare hands, but it’s a very real possibility

Tasertricks (Darcy/Loki) - I can’t guarantee that you wrote self-insert x Draco fanfic growing up, but it’s a very real possibility.

Brutasha (Bruce/Natasha) - You don’t get what all the hate was about, Age of Ultron was great!

SamBucky (Sam/Bucky) - You think the best way to resolve a love triangle is by ignoring the axis

Wintershock (Bucky/Darcy) - Your favorite Disney movie is Beauty and the Beast

Blackhill (Natasha/Maria Hill) - You’re just here for some secret agent women

Black Pepper (Pepper/Natasha) - You’re just here for some women who can step on you

Warfrost (Sif/Loki) - You’re just here for some MEN 👏 GETTING 👏 PEGGED 👏

Thundershield (Thor/Steve) - You don’t understand people who think the term “himbo” is overused. If anything, you think it isn’t being used enough.

Frostshield (Loki/Steve) - You believe every good lawful good paladin needs a chaotic neutral bard to balance him out

Danbeau (Carol/Maria Rambeau) - You just want good things for Carol, and really, who wouldn’t? Well I know who wouldn’t but we don’t have to get into that.

#mcu #marvel cinematic universe #marvel #shipping #stucky #stony #pepperony #iron husbands #science boyfriends #starmora #clintasha #frostiron #iron winter #winter widow #phlint #steggy #samsteve #romanogers #scarlet vision #claura #fosterson #thunderscience #ironstrange #winterhawk #shieldshock #tasertricks #sambucky #wintershock #blackhill #warfrost

[luckthebard]

Based on where the m9 are now, do you think any of them will multiclass? If you could have any of them multiclass to anything, whether for cool/interesting ability combos or just interesting rp possibilities, what would you be interested in seeing? I’ve never played D&D (and what I’ve seen in CR is really my only experience with it) but I think it’s really neat to see the rp possibilities and/or some of the min/max possibilities (the owlbear with sneak attack for reckless attacks was amazing)

Honestly? I don’t currently see any of them multiclassing, but that’s also because there’s not been a moment in the story that would really encourage it. And there aren’t any really...obvious multiclasses, if that makes sense?

In campaign 1 we had Vax go Rogue/Paladin, which was very story-driven, while Grog going Barbarian/Fighter was far more mechanically driven, and Vex going Ranger/Rogue was somewhere in the middle.

If I were to guess the least likely to multiclass, at the moment, I’d say Beau, Caduceus, and Caleb. They all seem pretty solidly set in their class and the paths the class is leading them down. Mechanically, there aren’t a lot of classes that would be a huge benefit for any of them to take other levels in either. 

And I honestly might add Jester to the “currently unlikely to multiclass” list. Although there was a brief moment on Rumblecusp where I thought her relationship with the Traveler was shifting enough to point her toward, say, levels in Warlock, the TravelerCon arc resolution doesn’t seem to point that way. I’d only see that changing if her renegotiation of her relationship to Artagan leads her to decide for herself to pursue a different approach with him.

Characters who seem a bit more open to multiclass potential? Veth and Yasha. 

Veth multiclassing into Artificer would make a ton of sense. She’s already starting to spend more time inventing spells and she has a background in alchemy, and it’s an Intelligence-based spellcasting class - the same as Arcane Trickster. The biggest barrier I see to that is that Sam already played an Artificer (Taryon) in a previous campaign. I’ve never played or seen a Rogue/Artificer combo, but I think it would be super interesting.

Yasha is tricky because I think narratively there are a few multiclasses that would make sense but none of them are supported by her stats. RP and narrative would absolutely support Barbarian/Bard Yasha, but as delightful as Ashley’s pitch perfect portrayal of her -2 Charisma is, sadly it’s also an insurmountable barrier to that multiclass (rules as written). And even Barbarian/Cleric, which would be potentially interesting for Yasha, would be off the table because of her low Wisdom score. Barbarian/Fighter can be a useful mechanical combination at higher levels (as Grog showed) but right now I think Yasha would do better to build up a few more Barbarian levels and abilities.

Now, this is all likely to change, because as the story moves forward these things shift over time! There was definitely a point in the campaign where Beau was less committed to and confident in her place in the Cobalt Soul, for instance, where I could have seen her shifting to take levels in Rogue. I would have seen this happening if, say, Dairon had rejected her in Xhorhas. I don’t think that’s likely anymore though. So it’s possible new narrative potential for multiclass could happen to any character, depending on where the story goes.

#oh boy I wrote a lot #apologies #fun with d&d mechanics #critical role #long post #replies #Anonymous

[gffa]

I was talking with @himboskywalker​ about Tolkien and fandom and fic, because I’m always curious where people’s “area” of the wider Legendarium are at, whether they’re a fan of the Dwarves or the Humans or the Elves or the Valar or what!  (As a surprise to absolutely no one, the Elves are where my heart is at, where I very much love the Noldor, but if you give me a choice I’m going to run over to that Sindar-centric fic every time.) Which got us onto the topic of fic recs, where, yes, I’ve done a LOT of Tolkien fic recs but I tend to read something of a wide variety and this is a list specifically aimed at those who are familiar with the wider Tolkien world, but haven’t really read much fic and want to know where to start! Other Recs First: - If you haven’t gotten further into Tolkien’s work (like say beyond the movies), I’ve done something of a primer here, which includes fic recs and brief explanations and links to videos that help explain some things.  It’s not as hard as it seems to get involved, honest! - Some other fic recs here, as an addition to the above. - My Tolkien blog (which I haven’t been on in awhile, though, I haven’t let it go in my heart yet) has, I’m not kidding, A LOT of fic recs, I did recs regularly for about three years, so it’s almost as massive as my collection of SW recs. If I Could Only Pick Three To Start You With: ✦ And What Happened After by thearrogantemu - This is the fic that took me from enjoying the Silm characters to diving face-first into really loving them, because it wove such an engaging story about the characters sailing to Aman at the end of LOTR, where various characters you wouldn’t think interacting would be as meaningful as they are, but the fic absolutely sells them on it.  Frodo and Feanor having a conversation about language?  Sam and Maglor sharing a boat to the West?  These things are amazing, as this is a fic about healing and what it means to sail into the Undying Lands.  Also, it has a Feanor and Fingolfin reunion that literally put tears in my eyes. ✦ Interrupted Journeys by ellisk - I’m generally not someone who does a lot of rereading of fic just because I have so many new ones to get to, but I’ve read my favorites in this series (parts 3 to 5 are my sweet spot especially) probably four times through now because “Elfling Legolas growing up in Greenwod with a whole cast of characters around him, as the Shadow so very, very slowly creeps towards them” may sound somewhat simple, but the worldbuilding here is off the scale.  The weaving in of how much the First Age and various Elven politics influenced Thranduil’s ruling of a Silvan people is a major theme, but it’s also good parents raising that precious Elfling right and he and his cousins+friends getting into all sorts of mischief, so it’s balanced between humor and drama in the exact amounts I want.  You can skip the first two fics and jump into the third if you like, which is when Legolas is introduced, but I enjoy the whole thing. ✦ Return to Aman OR Quenta Narquelion by bunn - I can’t pick between these two, they’re both incredible.  Return to Aman is basically “Elrond grabs Maglor and drags him to Aman with them” and it breaths such incredible lift into all the characters of Aman, it doesn’t negate the terrible things the Feanorians did, but neither does it negate Elrond’s love for them and his biological family, too.  It’s another fic that’s about healing and forgiveness and it made me glow to read it.  Quenta Narquelion is basically “Feanor refused the call of Mandos after he died and everything started to snowball from there” and it’s an absolutely heartbreaking look at all our Problematic Fave Feanorians and how they were once good people trying to do the best they could, but bit by bit they slipped into the dark.  It’s especially amazing for capturing the complexities of Feanor, as he hovers over his children as a spirit and it really brought me around on his character. The Silmarillion and other First Age Batshit Faves: ✦ The Starlit Sky by Cirth is the fic that really made me get the potential of reading about Maedhros and Maglor raising Elrond and Elros, where it does such a fantastic job of showing that there was genuine affection there, even the midst of all the angst and trauma and pain.  You really get why Elrond could never give up on them, after reading this fic. ✦ In Courts of Living Stone by ncfan - “What if Maeglin never left Nan Elmoth and instead, several decades later, found himself on an errand to Menegroth and developed a relationship with Finduilas instead?” isn’t a fic I expected to capture my heart, but boy did it ever.  Beautiful characterization and beautiful writing, it really captured my imagination, but also gave me ALLLLLL the Maeglin feelings, as well as made me pine that this Finduilas couldn’t have been more common in fandom. ✦ naught but the shores and the sea by ncfan is more of Elrond and Maglor, where it’s an AU that has Elrond finding Maglor after the disastrous attempt to recover the Silmarils and I loved it a lot. ✦ The Crane Wife by Trebia is one that takes an underused character from Tolkien (Lalwen, in this case) and breathes this incredible life into her, gives her personality and joy and sorrow and meaning and, look, any fic that can convince me that Thranduil would marry a Noldo and utterly believe it, you know it’s well-written! The Second Age Is Kind of Quiet in Fandom But I Love It Regardless: ✦ The Art of Long-Distance Grandparenting by Kazaera is a lovely and bittersweet (but mostly lighter in tone) fic about the separation of the Sea between family members and does a wonderful job with Idril’s character, as she tries to stay connected to her grandchildren while being so distant from them and unable to see them, unless they choose to come to Aman.  There’s joy to be found here and it’s a lovely read. ✦ Relativity by French Pony is a lovely look at the final meeting between Elrond and Elros and strikes the right amount of bittersweetness, where it’s awkward and difficult and heartbreaking, but also feels natural and like this was how it was meant to be.  I had many, many Elven Twin feelings during the whole thing.  (I like all their fic, they’re worth checking out their other stuff for, too!) ✦ A Thing or Two About Elrond by Crookneck is a series of fics about Elrond and the various relationships he has--with Celebrian, with his children, with Gil-Galad, etc.--and I remember being really charmed by all of them and how much shit Elrond has seen over the course of his life. The Third Age, Lord of the Rings Version: ✦ Boromir's Return by Osheen Nevoy - This one is sort hard to summarize, but it’s basically “Boromir lives, makes a friend, and slowly changes everything about the LOTR plot”, but it’s so much more than that, where the worldbuilding is phenomenal, the pacing is incredible, it made me fall in love with Boromir as a character all over again, it contains probably the best portrayal of Denethor I’ve ever read in fandom, and I really loved the OC and so on.  It’s utterly engrossing and honestly I cannot recommend it highly enough, even if you’re not usually into this sort of thing. ✦ The River by Indigo Bunting is a fic where Legolas and Sam get separated from the others for a brief time and I love fics that take two characters who don’t interact much, throw them into an intense situation, and sees what happens.  It’s not precisely a light-hearted fic, it’s very intense, but it’ll make you fall in love with the sheer good in both characters and the friendship they develop.  It’s brilliantly written and I cannot recommend it enough. ✦ A Bit of Rope by Aiwendiel is a fic where Gandalf doesn’t fall at Moria and it changes everything--not necessarily for the better.  The slow, creeping sense of things changing, things going just a little bit worse here and there, until you realize how much darker the Fellowship’s journey could have been, was brilliantly done, and one I thought did justice to the idea, it’s not grimdark, there’s still light and hope here, but it makes you feel like, oh, maybe things happened as they did for a reason, even as hard as that seemed sometimes.  Gorgeously plotted and utterly engrossing. The Third Age, Mirkwood Version: ✦ daw the minstrel has an entire series of fics about Legolas growing up in Mirkwood and there’s absolutely a reason why she was one of the most well-known authors in that corner of fandom.  Her ability to create new characters (including two brothers for Legolas) was incredible, I cared so much about the family dynamics and got swept up in the drama (which was in a very loving family, but Legolas was definitely a mischief-seeker) and they’re fantastic.  If you find yourself in something of a stretch with too many OCs and your attention wavers, you can always skip around, they don’t have to be read in order and a lot of the non-canon characters can be skimmed over, imo. ✦ In a Field of Blood and Stone by ScribeofArda is so much better than what The Hobbit movies gave us of the Battle of Five Armies, it does such beautiful justice to the complicated character of Thranduil and Legolas, not sacrificing the warmth there for how difficult these times are and the war they find themselves in the middle of.  This Bard is also really engaging and fun to read--I read pretty much the entire novel’s worth in, like, a day or two because I could not put this one down. ✦ Swordplay and Swimming by cliodna_bright has an incredible meeting where Thranduil comes to visit Rivendell, runs into Elladan and Elrohir, who are young enough that they speak without thinking, and it’s not precisely a humor fic, but I was screaming the entire time because it’s so sharply written and so absolutely delightful, I LOVE IT. ✦ Deep and Crisp and Even by rivlee made me fall in love with how Elves and humans may look very similar, but there’s this sense of otherworldliness to the Elves, as shown through Bard’s eyes when he has a meeting with Thranduil.  Beautifully written and just the right amount of atmospheric. The Fourth Age Where Everything Actually Does Mostly Work Out: ✦ Far Horizons by Bodkin is the Fourth Age fic of my heart, where the various Elves that we came to know in Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit are all in Aman and decide to build their own realm there.  Which is difficult because Elven Politics even just amongst themselves, much less clashing with all the established politics of the other Elven realms in Aman!  But it’s a light-hearted fic (for the most part) that’s about healing and moving forward, balancing their ties to their history versus that Middle-Earth changed them, and I love it for soothing my soul.  (Thranduil sailed, you can’t tell me otherwise!!!)(Bonus moments of Glorfindel being pretty hilarious.)  I like all of bodkin’s work, but this one has a special place with me. ✦ Age of Healing by trollmela is one where Maedhros and Legolas have a conversation in Aman and it’s about the bittersweetness of healing and how difficult it is, taking two characters who would never have met in canon and weaving something entirely engaging and poignant out of it. Collections That Span The Ages: ✦ This Taste of Shadow by Mira_Jade - This is a collection of dozens of various shorter stories (or sometimes 10k “ficlets”) that you can largely skip around in if you have specific characters you like or you can just start at the beginning and read through.  It contains looks at pretty much everyone, from Maedhros to Galadriel to Thranduil to Elrond to Caranthir to Glorfindel to the Valar, etc.  I’ve enjoyed pretty much everything I’ve read in this collection! ✦ Fiondil's Tapestry and Tales from Vairë's Loom by Fiondil are in the same vein and I have really enjoyed everything I’ve read from both of them!  I especially remember that there was one chapter that had a scene between Thranduil and Cirdan and thinking, ahhhh, why has no one ever written that before!? as an example of the neat things it does.  But also lots about Elrond and Glorfindel and the Valar and so on! This probably doesn’t feel like a super extensive list, but those collection series will give you an excellent spanning of Elves, Humans, Dwarves, Hobbits, etc., not just the same central characters, but giving time to a lot of lesser focused ones as well.  Like, I feel I’ve read a fair chunk of Elwing fic, but I couldn’t point you to a specific one in my list of recs, which means I’m pretty sure it was in the collections ones or else she got some good scenes in one of the Aman-based fics, so I swear the above is at least a solid place to start for dipping one’s toe into Tolkien fic. AS ALWAYS, OTHER PEOPLE’S RECS ARE WELCOME, god knows I haven’t read anything in the last two years (and will have missed a lot even before that) and so I always need more recs, too!

#tolkien stuff #the silmarillion #fic recs #tolkien fic recs

[twdmusicboxmystery]

TWD 10x19: More Stuff Pointing to Beth’s Imminent Return

Morning Everyone! As you can see, these are just a few more odds and ends about 10x19 that I didn’t cover yesterday. It’s not so much details or not details as just things I didn’t get around to in my first post, which was already very long. So, in no particular order, here goes.

***As always, spoilers abound below for 10x19. Don’t read until you’ve watched!***

First off, there were several Beth references that didn’t occur to me until I was watching the episode live.

Gabriel’s whole speech about how the bible is “still” important.

He gives Mays this rundown about how the word of God is still important and applicable. How it’s a beacon of light in an otherwise very dark world.

Now, I’m sure lots of people picked up on this as a Beth reference. Talk of the bible. Talk of light in the darkness. These are symbols that have definitely been used around her before. But what struck me upon rewatching it was the way he said it was “still” important. It can be directly linked to her “I still sing.” And if you analyze both conversations, both are about transcendence, rather than just surviving.

Mays fires his gun at the little office, and then only afterward, tells Gabriel Aaron is inside and asks, “do you think he made it?”

Guys, this is subtle, but this is a huge parallel of Beth. Think about it. Aaron being in the office could almost represent a tomb of some kind. He’s tied up (imprisonment). Mays shoots the gun (bullets). Then asks, “Do you think he made it?” When he goes to check, he says, “looks like he’s still breathing.” And then, when he brings Aaron out, he’s bleeding from a wound in the left side of his forehead. Exactly same place as where Beth was shot.

 I can’t believe it took me like 3x watching the episode to pick that up, lol.

Gabriel’s story about his mentor

I felt like this had to be important, but it was hard for me to say how. And even now, I don’t think I have it all pinned down, but it may not matter. This speech may actually be more about Gabriel and his character than anything else.

I did wonder if the mentor in his story could represent Rick. It doesn’t all fit in detail (Rick’s not the biggest people person out there, lol) but there was a time when Rick really didn’t like Gabriel and wouldn’t give him the time of day (understandably) but eventually Gabriel earned his trust and they did become friends. Even if I’m right that this represents Rick, I’m not sure what the point of having this speech here is. It’s probably the kind of thing I’ll have to return to.

As always, I wanted to relate it to Beth, but I wasn’t sure how. I did feel somewhat justified in looking for TD clues here, not only because the episode is so heavy in them, but because right before Gabriel starts relating the story about his mentor, he says, “I’m serious.” And there were a few small clues, such as talk of driving 80 mph (Beth’s been missing 8 years in the show). But that’s pretty small.

But the one big reference that got me kind of excited was the funeral reference. He talked about going to a funeral with his mentor. While there have obviously been other funerals, the one really big one we saw Gabriel preside over was Tyreese’s in 5x09. A huge Beth episode, where we actually saw the number 8 next to her. And we have to assume, if TF tried to bury Beth, that he would have presided there, too. We just haven’t seen that, yet.

But here’s what got me. Even though Gabriel says this was the funeral of the young man, he said he was a college kid. And while Beth never went to college that we know, in Still Daryl did accuse her of looking for hooch like some dumb college bitch.

So, between that and all the other callbacks and references in this episode, I do think this was a subtle reference to her and perhaps to her “funeral” that we never saw. I’m unsure why they’ve put it here or how it’s supposed to function for us, but I think that will become more clear as the story progresses.

TTD:

I’m not going to do a separate Talking Dead post this week, because there just wasn’t tons to point to in this episode. Basically, there were three things that jumped out at me.

1. Ross Marquand mentioned the three people exiled from Alexandria in S5. And it seemed like a really random reference to bring up. I’m not sure why he did. For one thing, it’s a callback to S5. But that thing about those three being exiled was never hugely resolved. I know a couple of them were meant to be the walkers Aaron and Maggie found in the sewer, but still. It feels unresolved to me, and him bringing them up randomly here felt significant.

2. The Golf Sequence. So, I mentioned the golf parallels in the episode yesterday, but apparently there was a much larger, extended golf sequence where Aaron and Gabriel put together a whole mini golf course, but it got cut from the episode for time. So, not a big deal. It’s just that there would have been MUCH larger golf parallels in this episode if they could have included them.

3. The writer talked about how, at the end of the episode, where we see Gabriel and Aaron heading toward he water tower, there’s a dark, ominous forest between them and the water tower, and anything might happen in there. So, it     sounds like this story with the two of them isn’t exactly over, and we’ll probably see another episode about the two of them in S11.

Alright, I said yesterday I’d talk about where this is going. It still sounds like one of these two might die, and you know I lean toward it being Gabriel. I did have a few people message me and point out that Aaron putting a gun to his head might foreshadow his death, and that’s a possibility. I can’t deny it. Honestly, I don’t follow the symbolism around either of these characters (except where it indicates Beth) closely enough to make an educated prediction here. But I do still lean toward it being Gabriel. Mostly because, as I’ve said before, he’s the Sirius character. And there’s one more thing that may indicate this.

The Bible Passage Gabriel Looks At:

I talked yesterday about how Gabriel opened one of the bibles and we could see the passage. It’s 1 Samuel: 1-21. Read the passage HERE.

Now, this passage basically talks about two things. This is where a new king needs to be crowned, and that king will eventually be David. First, the prophet (Samuel) goes to Bethlehem to offer up a sacrifice so the Lord will show him who is to be the new king.

Just the fact that we’re talking about a sacrifice, and it’s Gabriel reading the passage, screams death omen to me.

Also remember that both because of the cross she wore in the hallway at Grady, and because of Gabriel’s (yes, Gabriel’s) strange words to Sasha in 5x16 about “sacrificing one of your own,” Beth is often seen as a symbolic sacrifice of some kind. (I even think his white shirt in 5x16 could point toward him being a sacrifice, but that’s a whole other theory.)

Back to the bible reference. So the second thing that’s done here is that each of Jessie’s sons is brought before the prophet so he can tell which one the Lord has anointed to be king, but he doesn’t choose any of them, saying the Lord is telling him that the king is not among them. He asks if these are all of Jessie’s sons, to which they reply that the youngest (David) is not present.

Now, if you know anything of the bible, David does become king, but they didn’t think to bring him before the prophet here, because they just didn’t think he was “king” material. David was a shepherd. He was humble. He was a poet and a bard.

Yes, you read that right. David sang. He actually sang very beautifully. Tended to totally mesmerize the court with his singing.

Sound like that could be a Beth parallel to you?

In this passage, David is not crowned king, but he is anointed to be king one day. I also notice that the page Gabriel looks at says 1 Sam 16:21, which just means verse 21 is the last verse on that page. Verse 21 ends with David basically living by and learning from the current king, Saul.

Just reminds me of Rick declaring Beth the “new sheriff in town” and how we’ve always said she’ll be his protégé.

So, all I’m saying is that I think this passage suggests both a sacrifice of some kind, and the coming of a new “king” (read: sheriff) that has a lot of things in common with Beth. And since it’s Gabriel who opens the bible, it makes sense that he’ll be the one to die as or just before she arrives. Just saying.

Okay, that’s all I have for today. I’ll get to some Asks tomorrow.

#beth greene #beth greene lives #beth is alive #beth is coming #td theory #td theories #team delusional #team defiance #beth is almost here #bethyl

[sonnetos]

RELATIONSHIP INTEREST TRACKER 

i have finally jumped on this bandwagon from the last couple of days. bear in mind these will for the most part be a list of non romantic relationships as i don’t really feel comfortable shipping venti with people. it’s mentioned in my rules but i’ll only ship venti with immortals who also appear young / use the teen model. at the moment i’m singleship but am tentatively open to more ships so long as they follow these terms. 

KEY

💕 = romantic 

🧡  = platonic

💙  = familial 

💚  = mentor / student

🖤  = enemies / frenemies / rivalry 

thank you mars / royalstorm for the helpful little guide! without further ado here’s my thoughts.

MONDSTADT

albedo /  🖤🧡:  i actually really love the idea of albedo & venti being sort of frenemies for a while. venti has already expressed a great deal of mistrust when it comes to albedo whereas they seem to be fairly friendly with everyone else. i don’t foresee this staying that way & can easily see them becoming unlikely friends eventually but certainly in the beginning i can see them butting heads. 

diluc  /  🧡💙:  i tend to see these two as sort of buddy film comedy duo for obvious reasons. but on a more serious note i think given it’s heavily implied venti fought in the rebellion with diluc’s ancestor, i think there’s a good chance venti also kinda views diluc like a concerned parent would. especially if venti knows of diluc’s history & what became of crepus.

jean  /  🧡💙💚:  in mondstadt i tend to view jean as one of venti’s closest friends & trusted allies. a great deal of this is due to how much jean resembles vennessa in spirit & personality. with that in mind i tend to feel jean is one of the few people venti will actually listen to when it comes to advice & one of the only people who is capable of guiding him to a place where he’s taking better care of himself. there’s very few people alive today he trusts more then jean.

kaeya  /  🧡:  drinking buddies! unfortunately kaeya is an outsider & didn’t participate in the save dvalin mission. therefore venti’s a lot more closed off to him in particular. not as far to albedo’s extent where he doesn’t trust him but he is less inclined to expose himself when in kaeya’s presence than he would if he were with jean or diluc. i do think they’d get along well though! maybe even work together to tease diluc. 

lisa, amber & the other knights  /  🧡:  same deal as kaeya but likely even less close. i think they’d be relatively friendly though. in terms of lisa & amber i think venti also trusts them a good amount compared to most of the others in mondstadt. 

barbara  /  🧡💙💚:  on a similar level as jean, venti respects & trusts barbara a lot. i don’t think they’d be as close as first but i think they’d be really sweet friends. i’d love to see them bond over music & maybe even learn some things from each other. 

fischl, diona, razor & bennett  /  🧡💙: i’m losing steam so i’ll be brief. c’mere kids grandpa would like to tell you some stories. 

klee  /  🧡💙:  “hey wanna help me blow up dawn winery?” “boy do i?!”

mona  /  🧡:  what if we sat on a bench in mondstadt...and we were both broke & hungry 

rosaria  /  🖤🧡:  i can see their relationship being on similar levels of mistrusting but somewhat friendly frenemies. though i think most of the mistrust would be on rosaria’s end because i don’t think venti would have much issues with her. 

LIYUE

zhongli  /  🧡:  hag best friends!!! as much as venti likes to tease him, i would say zhongli is one of venti’s closest friends & trusted allies. but they’re the sort of friends who disagree on everything & bicker all the time. an unlikely best friends kinda deal

xiao  /  💕🧡💚:  it is not a secret that this ship has be down bad. but! as i’m ship exclusive for it already ( hi sam ) i’ll just go over non romantic stuff. i think they have potential to be pretty close friends! i would like to explore the possibility of venti being kind of a mentor to xiao in terms of anemo spirit & what not.

ganyu  /  💕🧡:  outing myself as a crackshipper once more but outside of xiao, ganyu’s the only canon character i would be open to shipping with. i think their dynamic would be really fun & fresh. think howl’s moving castle kinda deal lol. i’m not super invested in them as of right now as i haven’t written with any ganyus so i mostly see this dynamic as platonic but i would not be opposed to seeing it as romantic either. 

hu tao  /  🧡:  bane of zhongli’s existence buddies! but for real i really like the potential of this friendship. i think it would be a lot of fun. 

beidou  /  🧡:  drinking buddies electric boogaloo 

xinyan  /  🧡💚:  i think venti would really like xinyan actually! he’d find her refreshing & her music like a breath of fresh air. i think they’d be a similar sort of deal to how venti & barbara are only more punk rock lol. 

chongyun, xingqiu & xiangling  /  🧡💙:  come hang out with grandpa part 2

qiqi  /  🧡💙:  "i’ve had qiqi for a day & a half but if anything happened to her i’d destroy liyue harbor”

ningguang, keqing & the qixing  /  🧡:  genuinely haven’t thought about their dynamics much. i think they’d probably get along well though! though perhaps in a similar vein to how venti is with diluc or zhongli where they can’t stand venti half the time ( & i can’t blame them ) 

baizhu  /  🖤🧡:  another frenemies situation possibly! i feel like unlike zhongli venti would possibly be wary of baizhu & the way he goes about business. he definitely thinks baizhu is a scammer though. again i don’t think it’d be as much mistrust as albedo but venti’s got his eye on you, doctor.

MISCELLANEOUS 

fatui members  /  🖤:  yeah if you’re fatui or aligned with the tsaritsa in any way venti inherently mistrusts you. which is primarily due to the encounter with signora. signora in particular venti dislikes & wants to steer clear of. but if you’re fatui in general it’ll be a tough job trying to gain his trust or friendship. 

traveler & paimon /  🧡💙💚:  a similar deal venti has with jean. venti trusts traveler a lot & considers them a close friend & trusted ally. this somewhat extends to paimon but i feel venti is suspicious of them as well. not to mention venti would be more likely to tease paimon as well. 

other archons, ocs & crossovers  /  💕🧡 💙 💚🖤: this is a circumstantial case obviously but everything is on the table! feel free to come hit me up if you want some of this bard in any shape or form. 

#ship guide. #long post #sorry i got tired very fast so a lot of these don't have in depth little things #anyway drops this and runs

[arcticwaters]

i was looking through the mighty nein’s stats and i thought it would be interesting to see what possible choices the team has for multiclassing and what i think would be the most likely/interesting pick. (note, i’m aware that it’s unlikely most of them would multiclass, such as the two clerics who would miss out on automatic divine intervention, but this is just for fun.) gonna base these off of their current lvl 13 stats, and ignore the possibility of changes later, either from ability score improvements, or DM gifts.

beau

beau has access to: fighter, rogue, cleric, druid, artificer, ranger, wizard.

honestly any of these would work pretty well with beau, the only ones that i think she would balk at would be druid (i doubt marisha would dip into that again, plus beau doesn’t seem like the type) and wizard, because of her open distain for most of them. i doubt she has any desire in forming an intimate relationship with a god but cleric would be extremely interesting for her if she wanted to dabble in spellcasting. (knowledge domain?) she could use some range, so ranger wouldn’t be too bad. and artificer would be a great show of her smarts, but those tend to be a little more support, while beau prefers to get up in it. so i think the most likely choices for beau would be fighter or rogue.

dueling fighting style to get an extra +2 damage (assuming her staffs count as one handed? i’m actually not sure. if not then great weapon fighting i guess.) second wind is good and action surge would be amazing on beau, basically giving her six attacks. martial archetype, battle master would be an interesting pair with her ki points.

rogue i feel would be best for beau if she wanted to go ranged (because i don’t know if staffs and fists are finesse) to get that sneak attack unless she’s willing to trade her bo for a shortsword, however you really can’t go wrong with cunning action and expertise. archetype i’d go with scout for skirmisher or swashbuckler for fancy footwork. honestly mixing and matching between rogue and fighter is great for up close melee fighters, like lvl 2 fighter for action surge, and lvl 5 rogue for uncanny dodge. beau would be great with uncanny dodge.

caduceus

cad has access to: bard, druid, fighter, monk, rogue, ranger, sorcerer, warlock.

cad is not a melee fighter, so the physical classes are out (tho monk!cad would be so funny, imagine cad being like “oh ok, time to square up”) and of the spell casting ones bard and druid are definitely the best options.

for the longest time before i watched c2 proper, i thought cad was a druid, and i’m genuinely surprised that he hasn’t multiclassed yet. everything about him screams druid. unfortunately, i don’t know enough about druids to know what set up would work the best for him, but i’d imagine forest or swamp land circle would be good. (spores sounds like it would be a good fit on paper, but cad is really averse to the undead, so that doesn’t quite line up.)

cad’s no singer, but if they got him another bone flute he’d be pretty set with bard. it’d be a really interesting choice for him, just a little more extra support in the form of bardic inspirations and countercharm. jack of all trades would also help off-set some of his more lack luster skills. for college i’d say either glamour, or valor. (valor has that cool feature where you can add inspiration to a damage roll or ac.)

caleb

caleb has access to: artificer, bard, cleric, druid, sorcerer, warlock.

i honestly have no clue what caleb would multi into if he wanted to. none of these options really fit him as a person. i could see him maybe going warlock if he’d gone down a much darker path but he doesn’t seem to care for higher power. really the only option of these that i think he might even consider is artificer, as it’s the only one that uses intelligence. but even that, not really. college of lore bard for cutting words and additional magical secrets?? eh.

tho i will say, with just one more point in dex, he could be a monk, and wouldn’t that be an interesting story beat for the empire siblings.

fjord

fjord has access to: barbarian, artificer, bard, fighter, sorcerer

since fjord already has two classes, it’s unlikely he’d desire to pile more on, especially since he just got a new homebrewed oath and he’ll likely want to get as much as he can out of it. but if he did, i’d say go for bard with that max charisma, or fighter.

honestly i just think it’d be really funny if he leaned back into the texas accent and all his bard songs were country. college of swords (dueling) or eloquence. bard gives him more variety of spells and some extra support. 

for fighter fighting style, go for dueling - unless he picked that for paladin, but i don’t think he did - defense, or protection. martial archetype, definitely eldritch knight for some bonus wizard spells.

jester

jester has access to: druid, fighter, monk, rogue, ranger, warlock.

i WAS gonna say “wild magic sorcerer” (various members of the team - who don’t seem to understand how clerics work - made a big point to be like “no jester the magic was always in you!” and it would be interesting if that ended up being true and she was a sorcerer.) but then i realized her charisma is just shy of enough, so i’m gonna say what literally everyone else has already said: warlock.

celestial. the moonweaver. i don’t really think more needs to be said on that, there’s some good metas about it already. (tho, i could also see her being an arcane trickster rogue, but i doubt that would happen because for one, laura already tried rogue with vex, and they already have veth. but if jester did want to try melee, that’s probably what she’d do.)

veth

veth has access to: artificer, wizard, fighter

while it would make total sense for veth to pick wizard, i feel like the arcane trickster part of her already covers that. honestly artificer would be the more interesting pick. i know sam already played an artificer, but so much of veth’s character already covers artificer, especially with how she tinkers around and makes things. it also gives her access to support spells, including cure wounds. honestly i just think it’d be so funny if the nein could ALL heal. (focusing so much on support and healing this campaign has really been the key to their successes honestly.)

veth has a lot of moments where she’s like “i don’t know what do, i can’t get sneak attack!” so having at least the option to heal or throw out a buff spell would up her choices whenever she feels stuck. support artificer spells like flaming sphere, faire fire, and grease can be clutch.

alchemist of course. it would just be such a great way to combine caleb and yeza’s influence on her.

i’ll also say fighter, with an archery fighting style for that +2 damage, extra attack, action surge, and second wind. really can’t go wrong with that. gunslinger fighter would also be super interesting, if matt allowed sam to replace guns with a crossbow, or if veth started using her gun more.

yasha

yasha has access to: fighter, rogue

yasha’s unfortunately low stats make her kind of a one trick pony of “hit things hard” especially since she should stay pure barbarian until lvl 15, where she will basically be unkillable. (plus at lvl 20 barbarians get a sweet ass boost to str and con.) but luckily, all three of these classes work really well together.

fighter: great weapon fighting so she can reroll those 1′s or 2′s, second wind so she can heal herself (that, if she already used up healing hands, pairs up great with rage beyond death and persistent rage. yasha would like, never ever die, never even get knocked out.) action surge for four attacks. martial archetype, go for either champion for that crit on 19, or battle master for those cool features.

rogue: barbarian/rogue has a ton of potential. she’d have to occasionally switch out her greatswords for some finesse such as shortswords and try out two handed fighting, but because she’s almost always fighting next to beau, she’ll get that sneak attack (tho also, wouldn’t going reckless automatically give her sneak attack too?) plus, finesse lets her use the str stat, so she should still be able to apply the rage bonus. there’s a ton of damage possibility here, along with the always good bonus of expertise for a skills buff (never roll a horrible stealth roll again, ashley johnson) and cunning action so she doesn’t have to choose between attacking or dashing/disengaging. plus, if she wants to sacrifice persistent rage, she could get uncanny dodge, allowing her to tank even more. she definitely should NOT do this, but she could also sacrifice rage beyond death to get evasion, letting her handle dex save spells better. like beau i’m gonna say scout for skirmisher or swashbuckler for fancy footwork.

really is a shame her wis is so low, cuz man i’d love to see her try out monk.

just for fun, i’ll do molly too. i only have his lvl 5 stats to go on, but i’m going to assume that by lvl 13, he would’ve focused on raising his already good dex or getting better con (or perhaps take some more feats, like veth) and any other stat under 13 at the time probably would’ve stayed that way.

molly has access to: fighter, rogue, cleric, druid, ranger

cleric (moonweaver) would’ve been really interesting, but i don’t quite have a handle on molly’s character to know if this is something that would’ve fit him. (and there’re a ton of cleric domains, i don’t kno the ins and outs of them all.) he also didn’t seem all that interested in getting some range. so i’m gonna say the best fit for molly going based on his build and fighting style is rogue

molly already used finesse weapons, so getting up in there for some sneak attack would be an easy fit. molly had access to two attacks, so being able to dash on a bonus action to get up to any just-out-of-reach target so he wouldn’t have to waste that action would be very useful. along with being able to attack twice and then disengage. archetype, probably assassin.

i’ll also be basic and say any character who has access to extra attack(s) can’t hurt dipping into fighter just for that sweet sweet action surge. (i currently play a fighter, so i’m a little biased.)

beau, fjord, and veth could also take blood hunter if they wanted. (caleb is one point shy in dex, and jester and yasha in intelligence, but they could too in theory by the grace of the dm.) i don’t know enough about the blood hunter class to know if this is something that would fit them, but considering where the plot is going, it could make for an interesting story beat.

#critical role #the mighty nein #d&d classes