#feat. as many fonts as i can get away with

[samwpmarleau]

“there’s a lot of people out there, good people just trying to live by the rules, but sometimes things happen that are out of their control. and, well — if we’ve got the means to help the good people out when no one else will, then shouldn’t we try?” [leverage au in/sp @jamiesfootball]

#not-so-casually borrowing someone else's au 2k23 #feat. as many fonts as i can get away with #this was originally going to get into specifics but i couldn't really figure out a good way how #so it's more of a general leverage au but the intent is there!! #ted lasso #roy kent #jamie tartt #rebecca welton #keeley jones #leverage #tedlassosource #tedlassoedit #tl #tledit #mine

[honeylikewords]

together. (jack russell)

jack and his wife celebrate the gathering of friends and family. (pregnancy arc!)

(warnings: food, mentions of meat, mentions of the very real likelihood of pregnancy :>, jack being surprisingly flirty and physically affectionate at a family gathering. just a really short fluff piece! word count: 2.2k)

(for context, the idea for this fic is that Jack owns a cabin in the woods and has invited his monster friends and family out for a feast!)

Jack prods a large rack of ribs with a thermometer, expertly needling the meat between the bones and checking the temperature in one swift motion. Noting the number flashing on the small screen, he turns a knob down on the grill and shuts the lid over the meat, trapping the heat and smoke within. As he turns around, he beams at his wife, hands in the front pockets of his bright green apron emblazoned with the words “SMOKIN’ HOT GRILLMASTER” in flaming font.

“Should be ready in, eh, twenty minutes?”

“Oh, good, then we’re on schedule.”

His wife reaches past his hands into one of the pockets and pulls out a printed sheet that had been folded into a tiny square so many times that the paper had gone soft, then flicks it open. Scanning down the list of main courses, she eyes the side dishes, baked goods and desserts, each listed with an appropriate prep time and step taken. Scheduling had been a pain, but it was a necessary task; trying to coordinate feeding this many people in a timely manner was no small feat.

Inside the cabin, a timer goes off, and Jack perks his ears, head tilting slightly in the direction the sound came from. His nose lifts and he inhales, a smile spreading across his face, and he puts his hands on his wife’s hips, swaying her playfully.

“I cannot believe how good that stuffing smells, cielito,” he grins, squeezing her hips for emphasis. “You’re such a good cook. The best, probably, in the entire world.”

“Hope it tastes half as good as it smells,” she shrugs, trying to humble herself in the face of Jack’s effusive glee, but he merely giggles and presses his nose to hers, shaking his head.

“It’s going to be perfect; it already is! I can smell it!”

He’s been bright-eyed and bushy-tailed all day, for some reason, all-too-happy to fetch things for her and run kitchen errands and clean up the myriad dishes left in the wake of their work. He’s been hovering as well, even as the guests began trickling through the trees and bushes; Jack would sense them coming, whether by smell, sight, or sound and watch excitedly for their arrival, then tug her away from whatever she was doing to greet them, insisting on both of them being side by side.

The number of hands, paws, tentacles and claws she’d shaken today as Jack animatedly introduced her to his friends, new, old, and in-between, was a blur, and as the cabin’s grounds began to fill with familiar and unfamiliar faces, Jack’s elation only grew. Now, with his hand pulling softly at the small of her back and the guests milling freely across the land the cabin sits on, he guides her, beaming, back into the kitchen to pull out the three trays of stuffing from the oven.

They sit, cooling, on the counter as Jack opens the lid on a massive pot of mashed potatoes and gives it an experimental swirl with a spoon, lifting some out and blowing on it before offering it to his wife; he holds the spoon gingerly to her lips and smiles that crooked, nose-wrinkling smile when she goes in for the bite.

“That was cute,” he remarks.

“What was?,” she mumbles around a mouthful of potatoes; she’s a little unhappy with the flavor and going to melt in another knob of butter and snip in a few more chives. 

As she goes to grab the chives and kitchen scissors, Jack leans back against the counter and plucks a nugget of stuffing from the tray, still steaming, and pops it in his mouth, cleaning his fingers with his tongue. She should scold him for eating too-hot food, or eating with his fingers, or something else, but she gets distracted by the sight (his tongue’s dexterity is quite noticeable and he’s smiling a bit too wryly for it to have been an accident), and has to blink away the fog left by it.

“Your face,” Jack clarifies, still chewing. “You made this little “ah” face. ‘S very cute.”

“Uh-huh.”

“You’re just very, very cute,” he continues. 

He pushes off the counter and comes to close the gap between them, pressing his chest to her back as she cuts the chives over the pot with the scissors and tosses in a stray lump of butter left behind by some other recipe. His hands gravitate low, to the softest part of her tummy, and he rubs a slow circle there, fingers knitting into the strings of her apron.

“You’re in such a mood today,” she teases, stirring the potatoes. “What’s gotten into you?”

“Nothing,” he says as he pushes his nose into the shell of her ear, kissing the lobe and squeezing her in his arms. His hands stay on her belly, and she reaches down to pat him, then pinches the back of his wrist playfully. 

“Well, as much as I love it, Puppy, you’re about to get burned on the stove--”

Instead of pulling off, Jack tugs her back from the cooktop and into his arms, burrowing his face into her shoulder and holding her still, fingers splayed over her tummy. She lets her arms rest atop his and leans back, sighing; it does, admittedly, feel very nice for the two of them to take a break from the hubbub and just enjoy each other, even if they haven’t been apart for more than a few minutes at a time.

“I’m just happy,” he mumbles. His lips brush against her neck and his words tickle her skin, making her shiver and squirm happily in his arms, which only pushes him to double down on the tightness of his embrace.

“I’m glad,” she responds, but he shakes his head, nestling deeper still.

“You don’t understand,” he continues. “You’re… we’re… I’m just so, I mean-- es eufórico, es maravilloso! Es… I just…”

His voice fades and he holds her flush against himself; outside, she can hear a game of touch football between the other monsters resolving into a dogpile, but the sound is a diminished half-note compared to the present, forward reality of Jack’s breathing against her skin, his hair brushing against hers, his arms corded around her waist. 

He draws in a breath and continues.

“I get to have a whole family. You, and me, and…”

Jack’s wide, fever-warm hand is splayed against her belly, and she looks down at it as he traces one finger over the bump of the knot in her apron ties, which rests above her navel. He presses in softly; not enough to feel pushed on, but a light, tender application of pressure that reassures her of his intent, and of his warmth. 

She turns in his hold, placing her fingertips on his slightly stubbled chin, and the touch guides his head up to meet her gaze. His eyes glow half-hazel in the golden light of the kitchen, and they flicker over her face searchingly, hoping for something from her. She grants him a smile, one that crinkles her eyes and makes him instinctively smile back as his hand twitches; when she kisses him, his hand strokes against her like a kiss to her tummy, too.

They can let some of this food sit a few minutes longer.

Jack stands on one of the picnic tables in the clearing, puts his middle finger and thumb to his lips, and lets out an almighty wolf whistle that rips through the trees. Dozens of heads snap to attention and Jack waves his arms over his head, summoning the clutter of monsters towards the tables laden with food (and some laden with things a human might not consider edible, but that many of the guests were sure to appreciate). 

As they begin to trickle in-- away from activities like rag-tag sports, card games, and gaggling near screens playing the national parades-- Jack remains on the table, bending down briefly to lift a full champagne flute up and tap its lip with a fork. The tinkling chime rings over the crowd and, once again, his friends focus their attention on him, now encircling the table he is atop.

“Thank you all so much for coming,” he begins, smiling in that broad, effervescent way he does when addressing a group. 

She watches him from the other end of the table, seated at the head with an empty chair beside her reserved for him. In the setting light of the sun, the greys in Jack’s hair shine gold and what remains of the brown comes to life with fiery red hues, the beams tracing against his cheekbones and jaw and drawing soft shadows. His slightly more full upper lip curls over his crooked tooth as he casts her a quick glance and widens his smile, somehow, further still. 

He’s shed his apron and put back on his fineries for the night: a dark green pair of trousers and his second-favorite black button-up, the sleeves rolled into place and the collar opened. His leather shoes reflect sparks of the sunset back across the table as he shifts his posture, weight coming to rest on his back foot. He knows how to captivate attention, somehow: it comes naturally to him, a sort of inherent magnetism that is uniquely Jack’s. 

When he addresses them, he fixes his eyes on various members of the crowd, shifting attention to organically and individually speak to an entire group; she wonders how he ever manages to become shy when he’s this beguiling. 

“I am overjoyed to be here, today, with all of you,” Jack continues, his glass held delicately as he turns to look at the breadth of his party. “Not only with those of you who are like me, but especially those of you who are different,  each and all of us siblings to one another in this world.”

The crowd rumbles in agreement-- somewhere, she can hear Ted’s instantly recognizable grunting-- and Jack nods, extending his glass out to gesture at the people before him. 

In the mass she can see others she knows to be wolves, a pair of minotaurs, ghouls and a few members of the undead; pointed ears give away some of the docile vampires, whereas other loved ones defy singular description as any one creature, more aptly seen as amalgams or chimeras. She sees the bright eyes of night-stalkers and the sloped shoulders of mountain-apes, and each face, though distinct, seems lit with a unifying ardor: they are home, among one another.

“On days like these, it is good to remember that none of us, no matter how unusual our circumstances, are alone: that through our trials, we find one another, and that we are here to love each other, even when the world seeks to convince us that we are unwanted. But, together, we are wanted,” Jack states.

“Together, we are loved.” 

He raises his glass high and grins. When he moves his hand, his wedding band burns bright in the last rays of the day.

“Together, we become family! Salud!”

He tips back the shimmering drink and others in the throng follow suit, cheering and drawing in sips of their beverages in celebration. Now finished with his address, Jack finally descends from the table and makes his way through the crowd, tossing his arm around friends’ shoulders or patting their faces, waving and laughing at his beloved family.

She loves to see him like this-- surrounded by those he loves, Jack becomes even more himself, fit to burst with all the joy he seeks to share-- and as he approaches, he turns his gaze to her, again, and her love multiplies.

He looks at her like she, herself, hangs the stars and the moon in the sky each night, like she’s every present that has ever been under the tree, as if she’s come home from a thousand years apart. Jack’s illuminating, radiant happiness is utterly compelling, and impossible to resist in its infectiousness; she finds herself beaming back in equal measure as he finally is able to pass through the crowd to near her.

Jack comes to sit by her side and places excited kiss after kiss against the side of her face, peppering them along her cheekbones and the tip of her nose as she shrinks into his shoulder. He tuts something about not being shy and tries to coax her out, but she obstinately hides herself in the warm haven of his neck and shoulder, both abashed at the idea of being so amorous in front of his family and divinely desirous of the closeness and comfort she has achieved in his hold. There’s a faint chill in the air as the night descends, and he’s blissfully warm; why would she ever leave?

“Alright then,” he teases, pinching her side and tugging her chair as close as possible to his own to throw his arm around her shoulder, “We’ll eat like this. I’ll get the fork and put it into that little cavern for you. Hm?”

“Works for me, Puppy,” she replies. 

“But, amorcita, please,” he implores, “If you don’t come out, who is Alan going to tell that awful story about the time he got trapped in a castle well for a week?”

Someone halfway down the table yells at Jack that it’s “hardly an awful story” and that it was “only a few days”, but the feeling of Jack’s shoulders bouncing with his laughter and the sound of it rippling through her ears is enough to make her want to pull free and see his elated face herself. 

Today was about their family, after all, she reminded herself, and she’d like to look at the father of her child.

links to previous fics in this series:

cubs.

familia.

penumbra.

bedrest.

thank you for reading! this was a short one but i wanted to get it out in time for the Dread Holiday; it was all written in ~3 hours, in one night, so if you see any errors... well, that’s why!

anyway, comments and replies are always appreciated, and give me immense motivation to continue these stories! feel free to let me know what you thought and what you’d like to see next!

#werewolf by night #wwbn #wbn #marvel #jack russell #jack russell x reader #not adding the misspelled tags this time Just To See #anyway i hope you guys like it!! this one is Very short compared to my usual standards but i had to write it in one sitting because #ive been siiiiiick and i wanted to get it out before the BLASTED DAY so. here it is!!! #yes im posting this at 3 am yes ill reblog multiple times tomorrow it is what it is!!!!

[cantsomeoneelsedoit]

Ch 19: Result

And now we see Fuuko on the other side of the hole from the Ch 18 cover, reaching in to pull Andy out.

This is crazy but there's something about this UNDEAD UNLUCK font that looks like an old photocopy. Like something that's been copied several times already. Like some worksheet your 70 year-old teacher busts out. Something that changed ever-so-slightly with each new copying.

So many shoujo moments here. Like he was waiting at her bedside for her to wake up? To the point that he had to find something to do bc he didn't want to leave? And he enjoys shoujo?

And he tries to act all casual--he doesn't even look up when she awakes. But we know he cares because he's been at her bedside this entire time.

Another cute romance gag:

Bc if this was a "pure" shonen, she really would've hit him:

shannaro

But Andy apologizes and tell her that he was listening to her the entire time and that it made him happy to hear her voice. D'aww!

And it gets better:

at which point the reader falls over and melts

But of course, it doesn't last bc we have to keep that romantic tension going, story-wise, and there's a Round Table meeting!

The 11th seat they've earned just drops in from the sky and lands next to Fuuko. They also earned the location of Unburn. Are UMA Burn and the Negator Unburn a pair? Does every negator have a counterpart?

In addition to Andy saying Fuuko's name, I think this is the first chapter where we finally hear all the Union members' names.

And on the topic of names and words, all the world's languages just got switched to English as a reward for capturing UMA language! Just poof! Instantly, just like an author making an edit.

The change affects the memories and cultures of all non-Negators. Shen looks so stunned and sad when Mui doesn't understand him.

Poor Shen.

If we're reading this as a story-within-a-story (and I am), the author/God was the one who decided to make Shen Chinese. They gave him a Chinese companion, Chinese lore, Chinese favorite foods, a Chinese weapon, etc. He likes speaking his language! He's proud of it! For the author/God to take it away from him is so cruel. How can he be himself without his language?

Authors usually make their works in their native tongue. It's hard to write a story that includes multiple languages. Just look at all the translators notes on Shen's dialogue up until this point in the story. There are always Tolkiens who can pull off a feat like integrating multiple languages into a work, but it's hard.

It's a lot simpler to just skip over that part and make all the characters speak the same language. I think UMA language is a direct reference to this aspect of story writing.

Finally, we hear some intriguing clues about Unseen and Unrepair, but then Galaxy UMA is released. What changes will it bring?!

Masterpost

#overreading undead unluck #undead unluck #undead unluck spoilers

[panda-writes-kpop]

Chapter Ten (Avengers AU): And I'd Get Them To Swap Our Places

A/N: Hi guys, girls, and non-binary pearls! This is one of my favorite chapters, so I hope you enjoy it as much as I do! 🥰

Avengers AU Masterlist | Masterlist

TW: Irene and Y/N don't get along because they have the same personality lol, bars, alcohol, Y/N gets friendzoned, cursing

“Are you sure we’re in the right place?” You ask as the truck you’re riding in hits another bump.

“Positive. Besides, that sign should be enough proof of the both of you.” Lia points to a large sign that you happen to pass by.

On that sign, there are the words New Asgard in a fancy cursive font that is large enough to be read from hundreds of feet away.

“That’s the part you’re concerned about?!? You think we’re lost, despite the fact that you’re about to meet a literal god.” Irene shakes her head before staring out of the truck window.

“Yeah, well I was also told that a purple space guy was trying to commit mass genocide but was then killed by a bunch of ancient space people that lost their home due to a predetermined prophecy that said that they would eventually lose their home. So, yes, Irene, my priorities may be a little out of whack-”

Irene scoffs.

“Get used to it, Y/N. It doesn’t get much better than this.”

You fold your arms in front of your chest before imitating her scoff.

“God, you really are a bundle of sunshine, aren’t you?”

“Don’t act like you’re much better-”

Lia sighs deeply as the truck comes to a stop.

“Come on, you two, we should get going. I don’t think you want to face the wrath of the Asgardians, do you?”

You eagerly jump out of the truck before Irene has the chance to move.

“Norway’s a beautiful country, isn’t it?”

You look at the nearby coastline, where multiple fishing boats and piers are arranged around the small town. Lia joins you as you stare at the scenery.

“Yeah, it’s a nice place. Most of the places that I’ve seen during my travels have beauty in them, in one way or another.”

You turn to Lia as a small smile appears on your face.

“You’re a world traveler?”

“The line of work requires it.” Lia bashfully says as you laugh.

“Yeah, I used to do a lot of traveling for work. I spent most of the time indoors, however, so I didn’t get to see much of the outdoor beauty.” You admit.

“Irene told me about you while we were on the plane over here…” Lia confesses which causes you to panic ever-so-slightly. “...and I have to say, I am impressed by the work you have done. Teleportation without supernatural abilities is not an easy feat, and yet you managed to do it without the resources that someone like Irene has.”

“Am I supposed to take that as a compliment, or am I awaiting the inevitable lecture?”

“You overestimate me, which isn’t such a bad thing.” Lia gently grabs your hand in order to fully grab your attention. “I promise you that I’m the last person who would ever judge anyone. I turn into a big, green monster when I get pissed. I have no room to judge anyone, but I don’t think you should write yourself off either.”

“Huh?” You boldly decide to interlace your fingers in hers, and she squeezes your hand in response.

Your heart skips a beat, which isn’t an unfamiliar feeling, but the way that she looks at you with complete understanding and acknowledgement is. You don’t know how to react or what to say, but you don’t want to ruin this moment for yourself.

“Everyone is capable of good, or at least that’s what I like to believe. No matter how bad you think you are, or how many bad things you’ve done, you can always change.”

“It sounds like someone taught you that lesson. A close friend or lover, perhaps?” You muse with slight disappointment in your voice.

“Yeah, she’s a friend. I’m not sure you would know her-”

“An Avenger?”

“The Black Widow.”

“You mean JiU, right? She’s wise beyond her years.” You note as Lia nods.

“Wise doesn’t even begin to cover everything that she encapsulates. Do you ever meet someone who perfectly understands everything about who you are as a person? That’s who JiU is to me.”

Your mind first wanders to Yoohyeon, but you quickly dismiss the thought.

It feels like there is so much time and distance between Yoohyeon and I. We’re not the same lovesick teenagers we used to be. We… grew up and became different people. Do I love her for who she is, or who she once was? Do I even know for sure anymore?

What about Dami? Dami and I… we’re like fire and ice, I swear. They say opposites attract, but they also pull away from each other. We do the same song and dance over and over again, but we expect different results each and every time. We fight and love and hate and make up just like nothing ever happened. She’s the only person I fully trust… but she’s one of the few people who have been successful in truly deceiving me. A dangerous confidant - a friend with lingering attachments and a poison-laced history.

Siyeon’s lovely, but she doesn’t know the full picture of who I am. She knows what I have told her, but unlike Yoohyeon or Dami, she has yet to experience the ups and downs of life with me. Will she stay when she sees the monster under the bed, or will she run just like everyone else has? Who is to know what she truly thinks of someone as complicated as I?

Gahyeon… sweet, innocent Gahyeon. She knows nothing of me, and for good reason. If she did, she’d have me locked up within the hour. She has strong morals and a sense of identity, which is something I wished that I had. I’d taint her with my corrupt ways. It’s good that I’m far away from her. She doesn’t need someone like me in her life.

Handong is as complicated as I am. We seem to have a mutual understanding for each other, but how far will that take us? Is she somebody that I can truly trust when our true colors come out? I like her dryness and that she sees the world just as I do, as a place filled with imperfections and disasters waiting to happen.

SuA is lost and alone in a world that doesn’t treat outcasts kindly. I’d be willing to take in her, to show her the kindness that no one ever showed me, but what if I end up making things worse? That’s just a risk I can’t take.

JiU has enough on her plate, it seems. I can’t ask her to take care of someone who’s as much of a mess as I am.

Irene? There’s no way in hell we’d last a day locked up in a room together, let alone trusting each other with sensitive information.

“No, I don’t think I’ve ever met someone like that. I don’t tend to make a lot of friends, which is something you probably already knew.”

You pull your hand away from Lia, but she’s quick to grab your hand again.

“Consider me your first, then.”

“You don’t have to do that, you know. I’m not a charity case-”

“I’m not saying you are, Y/N.” Lia says. “Everyone needs someone. Why can’t I be that someone for you?”

Despite being friendzoned in the most obvious way, you can’t help but feel attracted to the girl next to you.

“I’d like that a lot, actually.”

“Are you two done gawking yet? We need to talk to Thor because I have things to attend to.”

Annoyed, Irene strolls forward and directs your attention towards the town.

“Yeah, we are.” You mutter before letting go of Lia’s hand, for good this time.

“Good. We’ve got no time to spare.”

~

The pungent, strong smell of booze penetrates your nose as soon as you walk into the local tavern. It’s about exactly what you expect from a small town bar, including the assorted stuffed animal heads that are mounted to the wall. They stare at each and every visitor with a dull, blank stare that could scare off the most fearless of folks.

You stay close to Lia as Irene leads the two of you through the semi-packed bar. Despite being the middle of the day, everyone and their relatives has come to drink and have a good time.

“Asgardians must like their alcohol…” You say to yourself as Lia chuckles.

“You have no idea… their alcohol tolerance is crazy. Even the lightweights can outdrink Irene.”

“Not another word, Lia.” Irene hisses as she stops at the counter. “Hey, you there, do you know where Thor is?”

The bartender pauses as they scan the three of you.

“Who’s asking?”

Irene takes off her infamous aviator sunglasses.

“Does this make a difference?”

“No.” The bartender dryly responds as Lia steps in front of Irene.

“Lia, what are you-”

Lia turns to Irene.

“Let me handle this.”

Lia turns back to the bartender with a warm smile on her face.

“Do you remember the big green woman who helped you escape Asgard?”

“Yeah, she was hot.”

“Well… that green woman was me.” Lia bashfully says as the bartender gasps.

“I knew you looked familiar! C’mon, I’ll take you back to Thor right away. She’ll be so happy to see you!”

The bartender steps away from the counter, and they lead you to another door near the back of the tavern.

Once you enter through the door, the bartender leads you down a dimly-lit hallway until it opens up to reveal a large backroom that’s filled with all sorts of fancy, expensive liquors. A wooden table sits in the middle of the storeroom, and seated in one of the oak chairs is none other than the woman whom you’ve heard so much about.

“Thor, you’ve got company!” The bartender cheerfully says before exiting the room.

“FRIENDS!” She roars happily before slamming the mug of beer in her hand on the table.

You’re surprised that the mug doesn’t break upon impact, along with the rest of the valuable bottles in the room.

“Ah, Thor, it’s great to see you-” Lia starts, but the goddess interrupts.

“Please call me Sana! We’re friends, are we not?” Sana looks over at Irene. “Ah, Iron Woman in the flesh! What brings you to New Asgard?”

Irene grits her teeth as you suppress a laugh.

“It’s great to see you too, Sana. We’re here to talk about-”

Irene is interrupted when Sana gets a first glance at you.

“And who might you be, exactly?”

You pick up on her flirty tone, but you decide to play coy for a little bit.

“Oh, nobody special.” You tease. “I am in the presence of a goddess, after all.”

“I like this human! She gets it.” Sana declares with a warm smile.

“You’re not special, Y/N, Sana flirts with anything that breathes.” Irene comments.

“I don’t see her flirting with you, Irene.” You shoot back, which causes her to scoff.

“We’re friends, remember?”

“Okay, moving along…” Lia redirects the conversation. “We came to talk about Thanos and Ragnarok.”

“Ah, I see. Come and sit.” Sana gestures for you all to sit at the remaining empty chairs. “I have quite the story for you all. It all started when I was a young girl on Asgard-”

#kpop x reader #kpop imagines #kpop scenarios #kpop #kpop fanfic #kpopidol #girl group imagines #girl group scenarios #kpop au #girl group #girl group au #kpop fluff #girl group x reader #girl group fluff #twice au #twice #twice sana #twice x reader #twice x you #twice imagines #twice scenarios #twice fluff #sana #sana x reader #sana imagines #sana au #sana scenarios #sana fluff #sana x you #avengers au

[tigerkirby215]

5e Vex, the Gloomiest build (League of Legends)

(Artwork by Horace “Hozure” Hsu. Made for Riot Games.)

Writing this build in a dark room late at night, super tired and stuff... Stuck inside cause of this dumb virus... AFKing in TFT for a Prestige skin like a tryhard... It’s kinda aesthetic, ya know?

GOALS

Another person to kill... Shadow? Can you handle it? - You don’t need best friends: you’ve got your Shadow. He’s the only cool one, because he’s basically you.

Ugh. Can we get some rain clouds in here? - No one likes a debbie downer, but everyone loves a good scare!

Man, walking suuuucks - Nowadays even the anti-dash champion needs a resetting dash. “Do the thing, Shadow.”

RACE

I could make Vex a Harengon to justify her rabbit ears, but she doesn’t really do much “jumping.” That, and I didn’t buy Wild Beyond the Witchlight. So Halfling still works good enough for a yordle. Your Dexterity increases by 2, and while your movement speed goes down to 25 you have Halfling Nimbleness to move through people who are bigger than you. You’re also “Brave” for advantage against fears (when you hang around the Shadow Isles stuff really isn’t that scary) and of course have good ol’ yordle Lucky to reroll Nat 1s.

Halflings are normally pretty cheerful but Ghostwise Halflings are perfectly dark. You’d normally increase your Wisdom by 1 but I’d recommend increasing your Constitution instead. But I mean, it’s not a big deal if you take Wisdom instead. It is only +1. You also get Silent Speech to keep to team chat with 30 foot telepathy. I mean, they have to understand your languages but at least you don’t have to tell everyone what you’re talking about. And oh yeah you obviously speak Common and Halfling.

ABILITY SCORES

15; CHARISMA - Turns out when you don’t release any new yordles for (wait it’s been 5 years since Kled was released? Holy shit) people end up wanting them.

14; DEXTERITY - Just because you don’t like walking doesn’t mean you’re slow.

13; CONSTITUTION - Imagine dying like a normie.

12; WISDOM - Vex isn’t sad because she’s pessimistic. She’s just realistic.

10; INTELLIGENCE - You’re too cool for school. (And I needed everything else more.)

8; STRENGTH - Ughhh I don’t wanna lift heavy stuff! I’m tired...

BACKGROUND

I guess you’re technically a Haunted One, even if the black mist is the best thing that ever happened to you. You get proficiency in Arcana and Survival as well as two language of your choice to talk to your "allies.” (I guess one of them has to be exotic or whatever.) (I’d personally pick Sylvan as the language of yordles and whatever language the majority of your party knows as your second choice, but that’s just me.)

The thing that sucks about having a Heart of Darkness is that everyone keeps trying to help you, thinking that your sadness (and the living shadow on your back) is something to be fixed. I mean, at least you can get the NPC normies to help you, as long as you don’t spook ‘em. “No doctors! I told you: being sad makes me happy.”

(Artwork by @ToggleD0wnFall on Twitter.)

THE BUILD

or whatever...

LEVEL 1 - SORCERER 1

Starting as a Sorcerer for saving throws and stuff. Also proficiency in Intimidation and... Persuasion, I guess? Look, persuading people that you’re fine “no really” is a skill too.

I wonder what Sorcerous Origin we’ll pick... If only there was one based entirely on shadows and darkness... Oh hey Shadow Magic. As a Shadow Sorcerer you get Eyes of the Dark for 120 feet of Darkvision to see with your dumb Halfling eyes, and Strength of the Grave which will let Shadow take a hit for you. (As long as you make a good Charisma save.)

But of course the main appeal of a Sorcerer is the Spellcasting. You can learn 4 cantrips from the Sorcerer list and two level spells: For cantrips Mage Hand will let Shadow pick things up for you, Mind Sliver and Sword Burst will keep loud people off you both up close and from afar, and Prestidigitation will let you do all sorts of normie yordle magic. As for leveled spells Shield and Mage Armor are both kinda mandatory for some Personal Space.

LEVEL 2 - WARLOCK 1

What? Did you really think we wouldn’t get at least some support from adults? Work for that cool gloomy dude Viego and make a pack with The Undead. That’s because Undead are super dark and morbid and have a Form of Dread: as a bonus action you can turn on your Doom and Gloom for 1 minute. You get some temporary hit points, fear people when you hit them, and are immune to fears yourself. You can transform a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus and regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

You also get Pact Magic, which is different from normie Spellcasting because you get the cool stuff done with just a Short Rest. Anyways you can learn two cantrips from the Warlock list like Minor Illusion to have Shadow trick some normies and Eldritch Blast to Eldritch while you Blast. You can also grab some first level Warlock spells like Hex to mark people you don’t like, and Arms of Hadar if you really need your Personal Space.

LEVEL 3 - WARLOCK 2

Second level Warlocks get their Eldritch Invocations for extra stuff that you don’t have to put effort into. While Armor of Shadows does exist it’s honestly better for you to cast Mage Armor with a spell slot, so with that being said take Agonizing Blast to agonize while you blast and Eldritch Mind so you can keep your concentration around annoying people.

You can also learn another spell like Hellish Rebuke, because people just keep barging into your Personal Space!

LEVEL 4 - SORCERER 2

Now that you can agonize your blasts it’s time to go back to Sorcerer. Second level Sorcerers get a Font of Magic for Sorcery Points which currently don’t do much other than give you more spell slots. You can turn your Warlock slots into Sorcery points though, which is good because they come back on a Short Rest but the rest of your magic does not.

You can also cast another spell like Earth Tremor, to slow people down with Looming Darkness and sunder the land with your edginess.

LEVEL 5 - SORCERER 3

Third level Sorcerers finally get Metamagic! Empowered Spell will allow you to maximize your damage and retain your role as an artillery mage. Alternatively if you want to guarantee fears in your foes take Heightened Spell to give them disadvantage to resist Shadow’s influence.

If you want Shadow to stick around then Dust Devil will swirl around for quite awhile. Alternatively Shadow (Magic) also teaches you Darkness for free, and you can cast it with 2 Sorcery Points to see through it! Your friends can’t see through it, but you can team up with Shadow for some powerful combos when you can see them but they can’t see you!

(Artwork by @jpdiasarts on Twitter.)

LEVEL 6 - SORCERER 4

4th level Sorcerers get the first of many Ability Score Improvements, but I can’t take Fey Touched every time for Flash. That, and we won’t give into basic yordle society. So let’s get value out of our Halfling race with the Second Chance feat. Along with +1 to your Charisma you can also use your reaction to make an enemy you can see attacking you reroll their attack roll, potentially making them miss.

Don’t use this against an attack that you can Shield against, but if someone gets a really good roll you can use this to get your Personal Space back! You can only use this once per combat though (it comes back when you roll for initiative!) so make sure to use it when it matters to keep your spell slots in check.

Oh and you can also learn another spell, and another cantrip! For your cantrip Shocking Grasp will help you push people away if they get too close (folk tend to react poorly when zapped by a tazer!) As for leveled spells Web will keep foes from dashing around, and is also pretty flammable. Huhn; wonder if that’ll be useful.

LEVEL 7 - SORCERER 5

5th level Sorcerers get gifts from the Ruined Queen Tasha in the form of Magical Guidance. You can use a Sorcery point to reroll a d20 if needed, potentially squeezing a success out. Don’t use this all the time (even if Warlock slots means you’ll have plenty of Sorcery points to spare) but this can be very useful in an emergency!

You can also learn third level spells and hey: Fireball may be a normie spell, but it’s still pretty effective. It’s maybe a bit too flashy to be Looming Darkness but it’s a good source of AoE damage which isn’t as loud and annoying as Shatter.

LEVEL 8 - SORCERER 6

All this time being a Shadow Sorcerer and Shadow hasn’t even done anything for us! Well how about you go out there and get some work done, Shadow? For 3 Sorcery points you can summon a Hound of Ill Omen to target a foe within 120 feet of you.

Shadow is basically a Dire Wolf except he’s Medium, has temp HP equal to half your Sorcerer level, can move through stuff (but takes damage if he ends his turn in stuff), and automatically chases whoever you told him to go for. Shadow will appear 30 feet away from the person you told him to get, and will chase after him like I said. All he’ll really do is attack the target you told him to though; he won’t even opportunity attack unless it’s the person you told him to chase. But if Shadow’s near someone they have disadvantage on their saving throws, which is pretty cool. (Unfortunately it’s only against spells, not your Form of Dread.)

Speaking of saving throws: Slow is a really great way to keep normies from running around doing annoying stuff. And you don’t have to hit Shadow with it which is pretty cool.

(Artwork by @Lauriquess on Twitter.)

LEVEL 9 - WARLOCK 3

Third level Warlocks get to choose their Pact Boon: if you want a really small Shadow go for Pact of the Chain, and if you want your cool necklace go for Pact of the Talisman, but we’ll be going for Pact of the Tome because you’re mostly a spellcaster really. (And we definitely don’t have enough cantrips.)

You get a Book of Shadows (See? Books can be cool!) with three cantrips: take Thaumaturgy to be extra spooky, Vicious Mockery for some sick teenage burns, and Sapping Sting to make normies fall over when you fear them. Some might say that 10 total cantrips by level 9 is a bit overkill but look on the dark side: you’ve now got a cantrip for basically every type of saving throw in case you can’t hit with Eldritch Blast!

Honestly none of the Pact Boons are particularly important for Vex so I picked the one that made the most sense. Feel free to take something more practical since 10 cantrips is admittedly overkill.

Oh and you can learn more Warlock spells, so now it’s time to finally take Misty Step. For Flash!

LEVEL 10 - WARLOCK 4

4th level Warlocks get another Ability Score Improvement: getting more Charisma for better spellcasting is probably a good idea.

You can also learn another spell, and hey look another cantrip. For your cantrip even if more damage options are kinda overkill by this point Chill Touch inflicts Grievous Wounds, which might be useful. You can also grab another second level spell and Blindness / Deafness (which is on the Undead list) is far more useful than any of the other normie options you’d have at this level anyways.

LEVEL 11 - WARLOCK 5

5th level Warlocks get another Eldritch Invocation, and even if you’ve got a resetting dash you’re still a squishy mage. So grab Tomb of Levistus for Zhonya's Hourglass.

You can also grab third level Warlock spells now! Remember how I took Fireball and complained that it wasn’t a good replica of Looming Darkness? Well Hunger of Hadar takes your Concentration but it’s a lot edgier!

LEVEL 12 - WARLOCK 6

6th level Undead Warlocks have become Grave Touched by the mist, and can make mist of their own! Along with being able survive without eating, drinking, or breathing you can turn any of your damage into necrotic damage. If you’re in your Form of Dread however you can add one extra damage die to whatever you’re using to get people to buzz off, adding to that morbid and macabre aesthetic.

You can also add another spell and if you’re bored with Shadow being a wolf how about you make them a Summon Shadowspawn? Weaponize your Fury, Despair, or Fear (I’d honestly recommend Fury since it has good synergy with your Dreadful Aspect) and work together with Shadow to deal with all your annoying foes! I’d also suggest replacing Hellish Rebuke with Counterspell, because even if the former fits better the latter is way more useful.

(Artwork by Jennifer Wuestling. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 13 - WARLOCK 7

7th level Warlocks can finally activate Shadow Surge. Relentless Hex lets you mark a foe with Hex and then dash to them. And technically you can move Hex around after the fact to reset your dashes! And while you’re at it you may as well grab Dimension Door for Summoner Teleport.

You could also upgrade Summon Shadowspawn to Summon Aberration if you so desire, but Summon Shadowspawn is more than strong enough and far more fun and thematic.

LEVEL 14 - WARLOCK 8

Another Ability Score Improvement. Yay. Cap off your Charisma for the best spellcasting you can get out of Shadow. You can also learn another spell, but we’re going to wait for...

LEVEL 15 - WARLOCK 9

9th level Warlocks get another Eldritch Invocation: even if it’s kinda ineffective Ascendant Step is still pretty useful to have Shadow carry you around. I mean yeah it’s slow but not that much slower than walking for you, and Shadow can lift you up in the air. “Shadow; carry me...”

You can also learn 5th level spells. If one guy’s being particularly annoying Negative Energy Flood can get them to shut up and work for you. Alternatively if you want more Personal Space Antilife Shell is on the Undead List and will make sure normies keep faaaaar away.

LEVEL 16 - WARLOCK 10

Are you ever so sick of everything that you just want to explode? Necrotic Husk has two benefits: for one you’re resistant to Necrotic damage, and immune while in your Form of Dread because being around Viego for so long means you’re used to his work.

But additionally when you are reduced to 0 hit points you can use your reaction to drop to 1 hit point instead and cause your body to explode! Each creature of your choice within 30 feet of you takes 2d10 + your warlock level in Necrotic damage. You do gain 1 level of exhaustion after using this, and after using it once you can’t do so again until you finish 1d4 long rests. So I’d perhaps use Strength of the Grave first unless you really need to lash out.

I hope you weren’t expecting more spells because you aren’t getting them from Warlock: just a cantrip. By this point we’ve honestly got far too many cantrips so I dunno maybe just grab Prestidigitation again and swap it out from Sorcerer when you get the chance.

(Artwork by @DukkoArt on Twitter.)

LEVEL 17 - SORCERER 7

Finally back to our yordle roots: 7th level Sorcerers get 4th level spells like Storm Sphere for a sphere of darkness and angst. But I mean the real benefit is that you get more Sorcery points let’s be real.

Oh and you can swap out Prestidigitation for Gust I guess. Spooky winds and stuff. Either this level or next level depending on your DM.

LEVEL 18 - SORCERER 8

Your last Ability Score Improvement... You’re gonna have to ask: what’s more important to me? More Metamagic, or more Eldritch Invocations? If Metamagic is to your liking take Metamagic Adept for Careful Spell and Distant Spell along with two more Sorcery points to use on them. If you like Eldritch Invocations though Eldritch Adept has a ton of options as a level 10 Warlock. I won’t tell you what invocation to take (they’re all great boosts but none of them shout out at me as something you should prioritize) as there are plenty of options to make your own Vex now that they’re all grown up.

I can at least tell you what spell to take: none of them! Wait until next level!

Oh and you can swap out Prestidigitation for Gust I guess.

LEVEL 19 - SORCERER 9

9th level Sorcerers can learn 5th level spells which means you’ve finally caught up to your Warlock slots. And look at that: the good wish Tasha gave you one last way to weaponize Shadow. Bigby’s Hand does a bunch of cool stuff and is pretty much the ultimate way to make Shadow crush some normies. (Most literally.) Alternatively if you want to borrow from Viego Enervation will let you heal from the mist and also do some damage. Great if you’re stuck in a corner with a bunch of annoying normies.

LEVEL 20 - SORCERER 10

Our final level is the 10th level of Sorcerer for one last spell, one last cantrip, and one last metamagic option! For your metamagic it’s honestly about time you take Quickened Spell to up your DPS. For your cantrip take Mold Earth to dig holes in the sand and brood. And as for your leveled spell? Honestly I just like Synaptic Static, and there isn’t much else I want anyways.

FINAL BUILD

PROS

We’re all doomed. But you’re more doomed - 5th level spells pack more than enough punch, and you’ve got plenty of them. Warlock slots will always be at your fingertips, and Sorcery points give you plenty of flexibility too!

I can feel it: someone’s happy over there! - Along with giving you a temporary hitpoint shield Form of Dread puts a nice bit of CC on all your abilities. Keep enemies scared and sad with tons of Doom and Gloom!

Ugh. Stop copying me Shadow! - Hounds of Ill Omen are cool. Summon Shadowspawn is also cool. Bigby’s Hand is especially cool. And hey: even your lower level Concentration spells like Hex? They’re pretty cool too.

CONS

Ughhhhhhhhhh this is gonna take foreeeever! - You’ve got limited fumes, even for a coffeelock. Form of Dread has limited uses and there’s only so much spell slot melting you can do to get your magic back.

I’m dancing... Happy? - You’ve got a really boring set of really normie skills... and if you’re playing Vex the way she’s meant to be played you’re probably not going to use any of them except for Intimidation.

Yup; the glass is half empty - Half your levels are Sorcerer levels, meaning you’re squishy. You’ve also got Mage Armor on which guess what: also means you’re squishy. People who hit teenagers sure are lame but it’s really not hard to Power Word Kill you.

But I guess you’re pretty cool overall. Shadow’s an alright partner and you can spread Ruination even without Viego. Trudge around and get people to frown for once. There’s nothing wrong with being sad, and there’s nothing wrong with wanting the world to be sad. But do try to at least be happy out of character, because we play games to have fun. I mean, who’d play a video game that just makes you depressed and angry?

(Artwork by @AzzylumArt on Twitter.)

#dnd #dnd 5e #dnd build #dnd guide #League of Legends #League of Legends Vex #vex league of legends #Vex #yordle #shadow isles #dnd warlock #dnd sorcerer #shadow #meh #whatever #I dunno what to tag this

[herherteartear]

blanket kick

précis— Peter's not the suave man he would hope to be in front of his crush. instead, he's a blushing mess that haunts his memories and causes him to take out his frustrations on his blanket. luckily, you prefer cherry cheeks over smooth lines any day.

pairing— Peter Parker x enhanced!maximoff!reader

a/n— this is my first standalone written story and my first time writing for marvel! i hope you guys enjoy thisss<3 i'm also open to creating drabbles to continue this if anyone's interested????! pls enjoy and pls comment and let me know ur thoughts!!!

there are many ways to describe Peter Parker, but none could ever wholly capture the true essence of the boy

besides the obvious stuff,, his intelligence , his insanely good looks , his teenage awkwardness,,

it was a hard feat to string along words to describe the way he carries himself , the way he is with others , the way his heart loves with the same ability a sponge soaks up water and soap

Peter's had crushes before

perhaps more than he'd like to admit

(can't blame the boy, who gave Ty Lee the right be that cute!?)

but when he sees her, his heart begins to swell and suddenly, he forgets how to breathe..

or how to think... talk. y'know normal human stuff

in all honesty, Peter has tried his absolute hardest to block out their first meeting from his memories

he doesn't regret meeting her, of course not! never would he even repent that embarrassingly wonderful day

he only wishes it would've gone a little differently

let's set the scene, shall we?

the sun was shining brightly, the sky was a Carolina blue, the clouds were the prettiest porcelain color, rimmed with lace

Peter was riding in an awfully silent car that Happy was driving to the airport. despite being terrified of what's to come,, the fight Mr. Stark had recruited him for,, the boy was thoroughly enjoying this adventure.

the car came to a stop, which did little for Peter's nerves. he gathered his courage before stepping out, eyes squinting at the brightness of the yellow sun. once his eyes adjusted, they landed on the prettiest head of hair he had ever seen

(although he did think the same for Hermione Granger)

Peter had never been on a plane before that day. but even then, his sparkling eyes stayed trained on her,, completely ignoring the brilliant private jet behind her

"oh? Happy, i thought it was just us?" her voice made Peter's ears burn. he swallowed thickly. you blinked at Peter, curious but also intrigued , you smiled.

to which Peter choked. on air. your eyebrows furrowed in worry.

"a-are you okay?"

"god, kid, get ahold of yourself."

"i-i'm okay! it's– i'm– i'm fine!" Peter quickly stuttered out.

"well, Yn, this is– uh,, what's your name again?" Happy turned towards the boy who's cheeks were now redder than a firetruck.

"oh! i'm Peter– Peter Parker. it's nice to meet you- not that i don't know you. well i don't, y'know not personally. but like from the news.. not that i believe the news! they're awful to you, but i mean i guess i do sometimes– but never about what they say about you–"

"i'm Yn Maximoff. it's nice to meet you too, Peter." you cut him off before Happy strangled the cute boy. you had an amused smile

he was cute

finally getting on the plane, Peter had hoped he would be able to sit far away from you and wallow in his embarrassment,

maybe sneak a glance or two.. imagine a couple of scenarios where he wasn't a doofus,

but that's not quite what happened.

after witnessing just how much the new kids was able to ramble,, Happy was not about to spend a whole ass plane ride remotely close to him

so he took it upon himself to make the kiddies sit together.. much to Peter's dismay.

like!!? did Happy not see how Peter crashed and burned in font of you?!

you, on the other hand,, had the opposite reaction.

being the youngest avenger, you don't get to be around people your age too much,, which isn't something you're complaining about!!

you totally made the decision to be an avenger and you happily welcomed the consequences..

that didn't mean you didn't get lonely at times. especially now with the accords and the team breaking up., things got a whole lot more lonely

your sister, Wanda, had made her choice to leave the compound. you completely understood why, but a part of you had hoped she would've taken you with her

although, staying at the compound did ensure your safety.

it was a weird time for the avenger's , it felt wrong for you to say some of your teammates were criminals

it left a sour taste in your mouth

you glanced from the window seat to see Peter nervously wringing his fingers. you frowned.

"are you okay?" you asked, gently. Peter's eyes widened and his heart jumped to his throat. he wanted to say something, something cool or aloof, something that would make up for his ranting earlier

"i've never been on a plane before." Peter squeaked out. he dropped his shoulders, rolling his eyes at himself. that was the highest pitch he had ever heard his voice. you took in his clearly anxious posture.

"lets switch seats? maybe looking out the window will help you." you stated. before Peter could quickly shake his head, because how rude would it be of him to take your seat?, you were already stood up.

"oh god!" Peter breathed. he quickly shifted over to the seat you once occupied. he wanted to put up more of a fight, but the way you were swaying due to the turbulence, made his palms sweat in fear for your safety.

"you, like, swing from buildings and stuff, right?" you asked. he turned to you with a nod. "are you afraid of heights? or do you just not like planes?"

oh god. oh. no. you thought– you thought he was scared of being on the plane. Peter wanted to shrink in a hole and hide. you probably thought he was such a baby! that he could handle swinging from hundreds of feet in the air, but a plane is where he drew the line?

but what else is he supposed to say? 'oh, no! it's not the plane I'm scared of. it's just your beautiful smile and the way you smell like cocoa that gets me sweating'

wtf.

that was so wrong in so many ways.

"um, no, no. i'm okay, just– just a little nervous, is all." Peter tried to force out a chuckle. but it come out more like a cough. you mouth formed an 'o.'

"ohh, okay." you paused before your eyes lit up. "how about we play a game? to distract you?"

"o– okay.."

"can you talk with spiders?" Peter lifted his eyes from looking at his hands hovering above yours,; he let out a much more relaxed laugh than earlier.

you took advantage of his distraction to swiftly bring your palm from underneath his and slap the top of Peter's hand. he jumped.

"ouch!" he playfully pouted. you eyes glanced down at his lips. you giggled nervously. your hand went to hover over his, him now being the one to do the slapping. "of course i can't talk to spiders! i– i feel like i should probably be able to shape-shift into a spider in order for that to happen, y'know?"

you nodded thoughtfully. "that's true.. you didn't hear this from me, but i heard there's an Ant-Man going around." Peter looked at you with wide eyes.

"no way! that's crazy! does he like turn into an ant?" you bumped his hand with yours in order to get his attention back to the game. his hand burned at the feeling

"i don't know-" you said in a singsong tone. "it's just what's being said around the compound." you quickly slid your hands to avoid Peter's attack. he huffed.

"how are you so good at this?" he knitted his eyebrows to focus on how to attack quickly without hurting you.

"it's a game i used to play with my brother and sister." you answered. Peter finally took his chance to slap your hands, to which you squealed excitedly as you had tried to move in time. Peter and you fell into a fit of giggles.

you both leaned against your seats, still facing each other. your hands fell on top of Peter's.

the brown haired boy quickly slid his hand out from under yours, not because he didn't enjoy the contact, but because he was worried you'd feel how clammy his hands were

you frowned slightly at the loss of contact.

"a– are we really fighting your sister?" Peter wondered out loud, without a second thought.

you shifted uncomfortably. Peter quickly noticed; his heart sped up and he mentally scolded himself for being so inconsiderate.

"not because i think she's evil! i mean,, i know that's what the news says.. but they also think Spider-Man's like thirty. and i'm not thirty! its just everything's crazy right now.. with the accords., i can't even imagine how you're feeling! probably terrible.. oh, g od wait, not terrible, i'm s–"

you had been watching with an endearing look in your eye. you had come to find that you enjoy watching Peter ramble.

his eyes would become unsettled and shaky, his body would begin to become more and more animated, but his voice

gosh, his voice was something you wanted to listen to for the rest of your life

but you could tell he was getting more and more skittish. so you put him out of his misery

"terrible probably wouldn't be my go-to word, it's up there though.. at least i got to meet you." you smiled softly.

Peter's eyes ran over your soft features. night had fallen, so the windows of the plan displayed an almost picturesque display of the moon and stars. the light hue of color the moon provided painted your face in a way that clouded Peter's thoughts.

with your comment of being grateful to have met him, Peter wasn't in control of his mouth for much longer.

"so pretty." he breathed. both of you guys froze.

Peter's face quickly morphed from love-sick to mortified. you blushed violently.

deciding you didn't want Peter to fall into another rant-like apology (because if you got to listen to him talk for that long in this setting, you might just drop the 'L' word) , you said,

"let's watch a movie?"

the two of you sat, shoulder to shoulder, watching Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World, but being too hyper aware of their thighs pressed together and brushing hands to actually pay attention

upon arrival, both teenagers walked off the plane, sleep deprived , but with thumping hearts and dazed grins.

Peter threw himself on his hotel bed that night,, hiding under the covers

his thoughts replayed your interaction over and over (and over and over) in his head

the boy shoved his head, face first, into the stiff hotel pillow and let out a muffled groan

Peter flipped himself over, stared at the ceiling, before remembering his spouts of unnecessarily long explanations

he thrashed his body, kicking his poor blanket in frustration but most of all, out of embarrassment

he calmed himself down once his memories refreshed themselves over your gentle giggles and how soft your hands were

Peter fell asleep with cherry red cheeks and a blissful grin.

because despite those small mess ups, despite the futile way he beat his covers in humiliation, Peter treasures that day like no other.

#peter parker #peter parker x you #peter parker x reader #peter parker x yn #peter parker fluff #peter parker fic #peter parker fanfiction #peter parker imagine #peter parker x y/n #tom holland #peter parker headcanon

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #159

Today on Fate and Phantasms we bring you the outlaw star himself, Assassin of Shinjuku! As always, it’s hard to go into detail about Sassyshin’s abilities without giving away his identity, so true name spoilers below the cut.

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

Next up: Wait a minute, I thought King Arthur was a girl!

This build blends Yan Qing’s Shadow Monk techniques with the Doppelganger’s shapeshifting, here represented by the Whispers Bard levels. Kill people, steal their identity, repeat!

Race and Background

Technically Yan Qing is part ghost, but it’s a lot easier to call him a Variant Human instead. If you really want to lean into the doppelganger thing Changeling’s right there, but then you won’t get +1 Dexterity and Charisma, Acrobatics proficiency to jump up entire castles with ease, and the Observant feat to show off why they call you the Skillful Star. This feat gives you +1 Wisdom, the ability to read lips, and you get +5 to your passive Perception and Investigation scores so your disguises are a bit more detailed.

Of course you get the Criminal background, giving you Deception and Stealth proficiencies.

Ability Scores

Speaking of being the Skillful Star, all that martial arts training should make your Dexterity pretty freaking high. After that is Charisma, you’re really good at disguises, and almost as good at making convincing arguments. Almost. After that is Wisdom for more skill and more observational skills. Your Constitution isn’t half bad, you can take a lot of damage and keep going. When you’re fighting against Guda. When you’re actually on their team, that’s a different story. Your Strength should probably be a bit higher, but it’s not very useful for the build. Finally, dump Intelligence. Sassy-shin is many things to many people, but Himbo is definitely one of them.

Class Levels

1. Monk 1: Starting with monk will help you get your shirtless scenes going earlier thanks to your Unarmored Defense giving you an AC based on your dexterity and wisdom. You also get some Martial Arts, letting you use dexterity instead of strength when fighting, giving you a minimum of a d4 in damage when using unarmed attacks, and you can attack as a bonus action if you attack as an action.

On top of all that, you also get proficiency with Strength and Dexterity saves as well as Athletics for even better climbing skills and Insight, because you can’t manipulate people if you don’t know what they want.

2. Monk 2: Second level monks get Ki points each short rest equal to their monk level. Currently, that lets you Dash, Disengage, Dodge, or Attack Twice as a bonus action, but more stuff will come up as we go. Your Unarmored Movement also lets you move just a bit faster while shirtless.

3. Bard 1: Your impersonation powers come from the doppelganger, a fictional creature (also you’re fictional, but hush), so bard’s as good as any class to get their powers from. Grabbing bard second gives you Perception proficiency for even more detailed disguises, as well as Bardic Inspiration. Right now they’re a pool of d6s that recharge on long rests. You can hand out to allies to help them with their d20 rolls-checks, saves, attacks, all that good stuff. Unless your DM somehow incorporated C. Stars into their game, this is one of the closest ways you have to get the actual Skillful Star skill in D&D.

Beyond that, you also learn a couple Spells that use your Charisma to cast. Light helps your dumb human eyes see in the dark and also do the glowy hand thing. It won’t actually help with damage, but it looks cool, and that’s what’s really important. You also get Vicious Mockery, tbh stealing the memory of an enemy’s loved ones means you can get some really disturbing insults.

For first level spells, grab Bane for more insults, Disguise Self for a cheapo disguise that doesn’t even work physically, Longstrider to press your speed advantage further, and Heroism, because you’re a pretty nice guy when you put aside the identity theft.

4. Bard 2: Second level bards are Jacks of All Trades, adding half your proficiency bonus to checks that you’re not proficient in, even making you a little bit faster by boosting your initiative bonus. You can also use a Song of Rest to add a d6 to the healing your party does over a short rest. I mean, you’re a character in a novel, you’ve got to have some good stories to share, right?

For your spell this level, grab Speak with Animals. Working with Lobo is always rough, but at least now you’ll be able to tell his “I’ll tear you limb from limb” bark from his “I’ll tear you limb from limb later” bark.

5. Bard 3: Your doppelganger side grants you the power of a bard from the college of Whispers. When you join the college, you can use your bardic inspiration to create Psychic Blades, adding 2d6 psychic damage to a weapon attack once per turn. I’ve given up trying to figure out if hitting things with your hands count as weapon attacks, so maybe just keep a knife on standby.

You also learn Words of Terror, spending a minute alone with your target to force a wisdom save (DC 8+proficiency+charisma mod) or they become frightened of a creature you choose for up to an hour or until it or an ally takes damage where it can see you. You can use this once per short rest, and if they succeed on their save there’s not tell that you did anything. You also get Expertise in Insight and Deception to make your disguises flawless.

Your spell this time is Enhance Ability, making you even better at whatever you set out to do by giving you (or another creature) advantage on one kind of ability check. For those of you playing along at home, this means you now have a +8 to deception checks, with advantage. Even without your disguises, you’re already doing pretty well for yourself.

6. Bard 4: But “pretty well” isn’t perfect. We can do better. Use your first Ability Score Improvement to grab the Actor feat, rounding up your Charisma for extra inspiration and stronger spells. You also get advantage on deception and performance checks to act as a different person, no spells required. On top of all that, you can mimic the speech of a creature you’ve heard talking for at least a minute, requiring a contested Insight check vs your Deception check to figure things out.

For those rare times you’re trying to be yourself, you can also use Friends to get advantage instead. When that inevitably backfires, use Mirror Image to create some shadow clones for an easier escape. The spell makes three copies of yourself, and when you would get hit by an attack there’s a 75% chance it will hit one of them instead. After they take a hit for you, they pop, reducing the odds of blocking the next attack. MI is technically UA, but it’s not exactly a massive power boost.

7. Bard 5: Fifth level bards see their inspiration dice grow to d8s. While that doesn’t affect your psychic blades, your Font of Inspiration does, letting you recharge inspiration on short rests for more consistent support and damage.

You also learn how to Feign Death to escape any criminal/detective duos on your trail. Admittedly this isn’t as effective as disguising yourself as a civilian, as it basically knocks you out for an hour, giving you resistance to most types of damage and prevents any sort of effect from diseases or poison.

8. Bard 6: The sixth level of bard is where our plan really comes together. No, I’m not talking about Countercharm, get that shit outta here. We’re here for the Mantle of Whispers, letting you steal a humanoid’s shadow when it dies nearby once per short rest. Using their shadow, you can create an hour-long disguise that not only makes you look like the person, but gives you information they would give away to acquaintances. Creatures can see through the disguise with an Insight check against your Deception check, but you get a +5 to that, on top of everything else.

9. Monk 3: Stealing peoples’ identity is nice, but it’s time we got back to punching good. Third level monks get their way, and Way of Shadow helps you take advantage of Shinjuku’s oppressive atmosphere to make the town your own. Your Shadow Arts lets you cast spells like Darkness, Darkvision, Pass without Trace, or Silence using your Ki points. You can also cast Minor Illusion to take your stealth to the next level with some free distractions.

Besides all that, you can Deflect Missiles, catching them out of the air to reduce damage and possibly even throwing them back as a reaction.

Now that you have a bunch of things eating away at your Ki points, you can use your Ki-Fueled Attack to attack as a bonus action if your main action uses your Ki. Now nothing can stop you from delivering those hands.

10. Monk 4: Been a while since your last ASI, huh? Use this one to boost your Dexterity for a better AC and stronger attacks. You can also Slow Fall as a reaction, reducing fall damage by five times your monk level. As Moriarty could tell you, falling off a skyscraper hurts.

11. Monk 5: Fifth level monks get an Extra Attack each attack action, and you can turn those attacks into Stunning Strikes by using Ki. If the target fails a constitution save all attacks on them for the round have advantage. Great way to fish for crits for your psychic blades.

12. Monk 6: Sixth level monks get Ki-empowered Strikes, making your unarmed attacks magic against resistances. You’re a Tier-3 character, you’ll probably need this.

You can also use your brand new Shadow Step to teleport between shadows as a bonus action. Moving so quickly also gives you advantage on your next attack.

13. Bard 7: Seventh level bards get fourth level spells, like using Phantasmal Killer to create a more offensive shadow clone. For up to a minute one targeted creature needs to make a wisdom save. If they fail, they’re frightened and at the end of each turn they have to make another wisdom save or they take psychic damage.

14. Bard 8: Use this ASI to bump up your Charisma again for stronger spells and inspiration. You can also use Freedom of Movement to escape from impossible binds. Just disguise yourself as a free person, I can’t believe nobody thought of this before.

15. Bard 9: Our last level of bard charges your Song of Rest to a d8, and you get a fifth level spell. Mislead lets you move so fast enemies will have to hit your afterimage, simultaneously turning you invisible and creating an illusion of yourself.  The illusion lasts for an hour, but you only stay invisible until you attack or cast another spell. It can speak or gesture just like you, and you can even see through its eyes.

16. Monk 7: Seventh level monks finally get Evasion, turning your dex saves into supersaves. Now your failures deal as much damage as your successes, and your successes avoid all damage entirely. Your Stillness of Mind also lets you shut down effects that are charming or frightening you.

17. Monk 8: Use your last ASI to bump up your Wisdom for a stronger AC. Technically grabbing more Dexterity would be better here, but I like rounding stuff up more than capping it out. Makes room for DM stuff.

18. Monk 9: Your Unarmored Movement Improvement lets you run up walls and over water, so long as you don’t end your turn there. You can finally climb up that huge freaking castle you’ve been eyeing for a while!

19. Monk 10: Tenth level monks get a Purity of Body that makes you immune to disease and poison. At least this isn’t your capstone?

20. Monk 11: As an eleventh level shadow monk gets a Cloak of Shadows, letting you disguise yourself as a Vashta Narada as an action, becoming invisible in dim light or darker. This lasts until you attack, cast a spell, or leave the shadows. I’m pretty sure this qualifies for that whole “cast no shadow” thing you’re always going on about, right?

Pros:

You are the one true imposter. With advantage as well as +21 to all your deception rolls to disguise yourself, you’re pretty much undiscoverable. On top of that, you’re also great at reading people with a +15 to insight. The only person doing impressions around here is you, thank ya kindly.

Like all monks, you’re really fast, with 50′ of movement speed, dash options, teleporting options, and ways to make yourself even faster via magic. You go down harder than the KT event, but you’re fine as long as you don’t get hit.

You also come with tons of ways to mess with the enemy. Make yourself invisible, shoot darkness like a squid shoots ink, have them chasing an illusion, or even just disguise yourself as a loved one. You are a terror to fight.

Cons:

Touching on that thing I said back in Pro #2, you’re pretty squishy, with barely over 100 HP and only 17 AC. Stick to the shadows, you’ll need them.

You also have a serious issue with range. Anything that can outspeed you will find it pretty easy to have you running in circles, since your best ranged attacks are cantrips.

This build is also a little bit complicated, with balancing your Ki, inspirations, who you can disguise as, who you can mimic, and all that fun stuff. Like a lot of the clever people builds, don’t expect to play this one like you would a barbarian.

#fgo #fate grand order #D&D 5e #DND #Assassin of Shinjuku #Bard #Monk

[writingsfromstarfleet]

Q - Not That Bad

♫ - The Rains - Henry Jamison 

For the always lovely @okamiredfoxx I sincerely hope you enjoy! All you lot too, as always, thank you for reading! Hugs! ♡

The captain had called his staff to the bridge not too long into your shift, and you made your way there alongside Geordi. As you entered, Picard was stood almost defensively with Riker shadowing behind, seemingly arguing with a man who you had never seen before. Seeing the uniform, you turned to Geordi.

"A higher up? The captain doesn't argue with superiors, does he?" you whispered, as Geordi folded his arms and shook his head.

"Oh, this guy is not a superior."

Before you could ask what that statement meant, the man in question made a dramatic motion around, his voice loud over the hum of the Enterprise; despite Geordi's claims of the man not being superior, he held every single crewmembers attention like a queen in her court. He turned, arms wide to gesture at the crew.

"And this.. this-"

His words cut off as he made eye contact with you, and your breath hitched. He was handsome, whoever he was, and certainly entertaining. You raised an eyebrow, unsure of why he was looking at you in such a manner, before he made his way to you with a graceful decorum.

"Ah," the man began, taking your hand and raising it to his lips to place a delicate kiss atop your knuckles. "Le plus beau, magnifique."

Unsure of his action but somehow not able to take your eyes off him, you were thankfully dismissed of the interaction by the captain.

"Enough, Q. Get off my bridge!"

'Q,' you thought, smiling a little to yourself. You were no longer looking at him, but he most certainly was looking at you. 'What a gentleman.'

Whether that thought was genuine or sarcastic, even you couldn't tell.

Q had lived a long time, he had met many people, aliens and the like. In all of that time, he had never seen someone with quite the amount of ethereal beauty you possessed. Never had he been brought to silence, for any reason, but most certainly not by a simple human stood before him.

Backing away, he didn't take his eyes off of you, blowing you one last kiss before he went back to tormenting the captain. Your head spun to Geordi, who had a look as though to say he knew this was far from the end of it. Q had since vanished, leaving Picard and Riker, as well as the rest of the bridge crew, awkwardly looking in your direction.

"A word, Y/N. The rest of you, back to work." Picard's voice was stoic and professional as always, and you followed him into his ready room.

"Sir, who was that?" you asked.

"His name is Q, he's part of what's known as the Q Continuum. Often he shows up, causes a lot of trouble and leaves. I know you may be feeling somewhat unnerved by his actions out there, but rest assured we will keep you safe."

"Safe, sir? Is he dangerous?"

"He can be," he replied, sitting upright in his chair. "Never to a full degree, but he can be."

The captain had since dismissed you, and on your walk back to engineering, your thoughts had drifted to the omnipotent being that had you at his centre of attention. He couldn't be that bad, could he? He seemed polite enough, though there was nothing to hold him to on your part; you'd never met a Q before.

Some days later, it began. Little notes left around your work station. Without fail, every couple of days there was a new one sitting there. Each and every day, you would get to work to find something new waiting for you. You knew not of whom was leaving them, and you were desperate to find out. You tried to keep a close watch on your areas, even choosing to work later in hopes to catch whoever it was off guard. Not in an unkind way, of course; you simply wanted your secret admirer to not be so secret anymore.

Part of you had hoped it was Q, though you thought it improbable, given he had left the ship that day and not been seen since. You thought through your friend group, those you worked with and knew, and believed it could have been the ensign from medical you had grown somewhat close to in the past month or so. Still, your guess was as good as any.

"Any luck?" Geordi asked, smile gracing his face as always. You sat down and sighed.

"Absolutely zero."

He handed you a letter, in the finest font, copperplate handwriting adorning the envelope. Inside, you knew already there would be some form of poem, whether it was a rewrite of an old Shakespearean sonnet, or perhaps a Wilde or Keats poem. Geordi chuckled.

"Seems like someone has taken a real liking to you, Y/N. I'd tell you who it is if I knew. Whoever it is really has their grasp on the arts, I'll say that."

You laughed with him, pocketing the note and continuing on with your work. Geordi's expressions suggested he knew, or he had a clue at least, and you got on with the day without distraction.

"Finally." Huffing and leaning against your quarter's door as it shut, you let out a breath. A long day, things not really going wrong per say, it just felt busy, and you wanted nothing more than to get into bed and sleep.

"Finally indeed."

You jumped, turning to see who the voice belonged to.

"Q?" you questioned, wondering if you believed your eyes or not. Cautiously, you stepped forward.

"I see you've been getting them, then." He nodded to your desk, where the pile of notes sat, tied with a piece of twine holding them together. You chuckled.

"Yes, I have. It's nice to know my poet has a face. A handsome one at that."

"No doubt you've had a lecture from Picard about me. I would guess he told you to keep a distance, that you would be safer away from me."

Your eyes widened at the mans words; he was very correct. Sighing, he took your hand, continuing.

"Well, I could see why. I have perhaps endangered him a couple of times, but alas, one must do something to entertain oneself, right? Anyway, I could never harm such beauty."

Your cheeks reddened, your mind not processing how such a being could be labelled as dangerous. He was gentlemanly and kind, at least to you. A hand on your cheek brought your eyes up to look at him, your gaze having fallen for you to look at the ground as he complimented you.

"You certainly have a way with words, Q." Your voice light, he smiled at you. Charming it was, to you there was no malice under it at all.

"Give me a chance to prove I'm not so bad, Y/N? Let's have dinner sometime."

You smiled, nodding at him.

"That would be lovely. Of course, it's the least I could do for the intergalactic Lord Byron."

He leaned down and pressed a kiss to your cheek, and one to your forehead. His last sentence before leaving was whispered, quiet and reserved, a strange feat for the overt and loud man.

"Be thou the rainbow in the storms of life. The evening beam that smiles the clouds away, and tints tomorrow with prophetic ray."

#star trek #star trek imagine #star trek x reader #star trek the next generation #star trek tng #the next generation #tng #q #q x reader #q imagine #x reader #imagine

[raeynbowboi]

The Character Forge: Building an Embodiment of Insanity

I’m going to diverge from my usual routine a bit today. Normally, I pick a pop culture character and make a build for them. But today, I want to do something different. I’m going to build a character around a theme, motif, or focus area. I’ll be covering a character focused on insanity. My goal for this build is to create a character who is explicitly crafted to instill and feed paranoia, delusions, and psychological trauma in as many facets as possible, including racial traits, feats, and spells where applicable. 

Building on Insanity:

it’s easy to simply say I want to drive people crazy, but it’s another thing to actually map out the effects you want to have on people. So before we can address individual spells and features, we need to discuss what impacts we want our abilities to have.

Alter Senses: Spells such as Unearthly Chorus, Blindness/Deafness or Blur that distort what a person sees and hears is a great way to instill a dread of insanity. Spells that buff your abilities or debuff the target are great ways to effect people’s perceptions.

Hallucinations: Similar to alter senses, Hallucinations cause people to see things that aren’t really there, playing a trick on their mind. A focus on illusion magic will help with this.

Fear: While insanity is not intrinsically linked to horror, the ravings of writers like Lovecraft and Poe often feature protagonists who have lost their minds or interact with people who have, usually accompanied by horrible nightmare imagery. Frightening people is a good way to warp their mind.

Mind Control: There’s nothing scarier than realizing you don’t have full control of yourself. Through Charmed effects like Compulsion, Command, and Dominate Person, you take away free will and make their mind your plaything.

Mental Anguish: a focus on attacking the mind itself, psychic damage is the best way to actively attack the minds of your victims.

Mind Alterations: Permanent changes to someone’s mind like Modify Memory can be truly horrifying, especially when the stolen or altered memories make it so that a person’s mind no longer makes sense.

Powers, Features, and Abilities

Altered Senses Blindness Deafness (Bard, Cleric, Sorcerer, Wizard, Spore Druid, Fiend Warlock, Undying Warlock) Blur (Artificer, Sorcerer, Wizard, Desert Land Druid, Hexblade Warlock) Maddening Darkness (Warlock, Wizard) Mental Prison (Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard) Pass Without Trace (Druid, Ranger, Trickery Cleric) Power Word Pain (Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard) Unearthly Chorus (Bard)

Illusions, Delusions, and Hallucinations Alter Self (Artificer, Sorcerer, Wizard, Warlock: Master of Myriad Forms*) Disguise Self (Artificer, Bard, Sorcerer, Wizard, Trickery Cleric, Warlock: Mask of Many Faces) Dissonant Whispers (Bard, Aberrant Mind Sorcerer, Great Old One Warlock) Distort Value (Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard) Hallucinatory Terrain (Bard, Druid, Warlock, Wizard) Illusory Dragon (Wizard) Major Image (Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard) Minor Illusion (Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard) Mirage Arcane (Bard, Druid, Wizard) Mirror Image (Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard, Trickery Cleric, Coast Land Druid) Mislead (Bard, Wizard) Project Image (Bard, Wizard) Silent Image (Bard, Sorcerer, Wizard) Simulacrum (Wizard) Weird (Wizard)

Psychic Barrage Mind Sliver (Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard) Mind Spike (Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard) Phantasmal Force (Bard, Sorcerer, Wizard) Phantasmal Killer (Wizard, Hexblade Warlock) Psychic Scream (Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard) Shadow Blade (Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard) Synaptic Static (Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard)

Fear and Paranoia Cause Fear (Warlock, Wizard) Enemies Abound (Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard) Eyebite (Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard) Fear (Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard, Oath of Conquest) Hallow* (Cleric, Fiend Warlock, Divine Soul Sorcerer, Theurgy Wizard)

Brainwashing Command (Cleric, Paladin, Fiend Warlock, Divine Soul Sorcerer, Theurgy Wizard) Compulsion (Bard, Order Cleric, Heroism Paladin, Aberrant Mind Sorcerer Warlock: Bewitching Whispers) Dominate Person (Bard, Sorcerer, Wizard, Order, Trickery Cleric, Conquest, Oathbreaker, Treachery Paladin, Archfey, Great Old One Warlock) Enthrall (Bard, Sorcerer, Heroism Paladin) Incite Greed (Cleric, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard) Mass Suggestion (Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard) Otto’s Irresistible Dancing (Bard, Wizard) Suggestion (Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard) Tasha’s Hideous Laughter (Bard, Wizard, Great Old One Warlock)

Mind Altering Crown of Madness (Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard, Oathbreaker Paladin) Confusion (Bard, Druid, Sorcerer, Wizard, Knowledge Cleric, Oathbreaker, Treachery Paladin, Warlock: Dreadful Word) Feeblemind (Bard, Druid, Warlock, Wizard) Gift of Gab (Bard, Wizard) Glibness (Bard, Warlock) Mind Blank (Bard, Wizard) Modify Memory (Bard, Wizard, Trickery Cleric, Aberrant Mind Sorcerer)

Eldritch Horrors (Fear of the Unknown) Arms of Hadar (Warlock, Aberrant Mind Sorcerer) Create Homunculus (Wizard) Enervation (Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard) Evard’s Black Tentacles (Warlock, Aberrant Mind Sorcerer) Hunger of Hadar (Warlock, Aberrant Mind Sorcerer)

Oh How the Mind Races

When setting up a race for this build, like with the spell list, we need a race whose features exacerbate the insanity features.

Changeling: Being able to shapeshift so easily is a great way to make someone feel crazy.

Eladrin Elf - Winter: Their Fey Teleportation can Frighten those they appear next to.

Gith: They have psionic features.

Kalashtar: Split between two minds, Kalashtar is a race with psychic powers.

Simic Hybrid: While not inherently mental or insane, their existence as gene spliced humans with animal features, it’s an easy way to invoke Lovecraftian Horror.

A Class in Judgement

Bard     Whispers: This subclass is hellbent on attacking the mind, unearthing people’s fears, and preying on them.

Sorcerer     Aberrant Mind: This subclass gets their power from a mental aberration, and is a Sorcerer variation on the Great Old One Warlock, and invokes Lovecraftian Horror.

Warlock     Great Old One: Invoking the twisted mind of H.P. Lovecraft, who himself was paranoid, the Old Gods similarly prey upon the minds of mortals.

Wizard     Divination: Not really a mental subclass, but you could flavor Portent as messing with perceptions, and making people misjudge their aim.     Illusion: This school of wizardry is focused on making people believe things that aren’t there.

Stats and Proficiencies

As the main classes suggested cast with Charisma, that is our main stat. You need to convince people to believe your mad ravings are true. Dexterity will make you hard to hit, all the better to convince people you aren’t real, are a figment of their imagination, or otherwise paranormal. A good Constitution ensures that even if you are hit, you can act like it’s no big deal, or like you’re supernaturally immune to pain or injury. Having high Wisdom reinforces your own perceptions and makes sure you can’t be fooled. Strength will follow, it’s not a super important stat for this build, but if you want to deal at least decent damage with your physical attacks, it’s a little important. And Intelligence gets dumped. Book Smarts won’t help you much in deceiving people or driving them insane.

Race: Changeling Background: Charlatan Alignment: Chaotic Neutral Class: College of Whispers Bard (14)             Aberrant Mind Sorcerer (6) Base Stats:    Strength: 10 (0)    Dexterity: 19 (+4)    Constitution: 14 (+2)    Intelligence: 8 (-1)    Wisdom: 12 (+1)    Charisma: 20 (+5) Saving Throws:    Strength: 0    Dexterity: +10    Constitution: +2    Intelligence: -1    Wisdom: +1    Charisma: +11 Combat Stats:     HP: 137     AC: 17     Speed: 30     Initiative: +7     Proficiency Bonus: +6     Passive Perception: 17     Dark Vision: 0 feet Proficiencies:     Deception (Charlatan)     Insight (Changeling)     Intimidation (Changeling)     Perception (Bard)     Persuasion (Bard)     Slight of Hand (Changeling)     Stealth (Bard) Skills: Acrobatics: +7                Medicine: +4 Animal Handling: +4       Nature: +2 Arcana: +2                      Perception: +7 Athletics: +3                    Performance: +8 Deception: +17               Persuasion: +17 History: +2                      Religion: +2 Insight: +13                     Sleight of Hand: +10 Intimidation: +17             Stealth: +10 Investigation: +2             Survival: +4 Damage Resistances:   Psychic Sorcerer Feature: Sorcery Points   6 Sorcery Points Sorcerer Feature: Metamagic   Extended Spell   Subtle Spell Bard Feature: Magical Secrets    Evard’s Black Tentacles    Immolation    Pass Without Trace    Phantsmal Killer

Spell Slots    1st (4)    2nd (3)    3rd (3)    4th (3)    5th (3)    6th (2)    7th (2)    8th (1)    9th (1)

Spellbook of Madness

Cantrips                                2nd Level                        4th Level    Chill Touch                             Blindness/Deafness         Compulsion    Dancing Lights                       Blur                                  Confusion    Friends                                  Calm Emotions                 Evard’s Black Tentacles    Mending                                Crown of Madness            Phantasmal Killer    Message                                Darkness                       5th Level    Mind Sliver                             Detect Thoughts               Dominate Person    Minor Illusion                          Mind Spike                       Immolation    Prestidigitation                       Mirror Image                     Mislead    Unearthly Chorus                   Pass Without Trace          Modify Memory 1st Level                                  Phantasmal Force             Synaptic Static    Arms of Hadar                       Shadow Blade                6th Level    Dissonant Whispers            3rd Level                             Eyebite    False Life                               Enemies Abound            7th Level    Tasha’s Hideous Laughter     Fear                                   Project Image                                                  Hunger of Hadar                                                  Major Image                                                  Sending 

Actions:    Countercharm: Using a Performance action grants friendly creatures within 30 feet radius advantage against charmed and frightened conditions. Bonus Actions:     Bardic Inspiration: Add 1d10 to 5 allies’ rolls per long rest.     Flexible Casting: Convert your Sorcery Points into spell slots. Features:     Change Appearance: Shapeshift as an action. You have advantage on Deception checks to cover your tracks.     Divergent Persona: You have proficiency with a tool. Create a false identity for this proficiency. While using this identity, you have doubled proficiency with the tool of your choice.     False Identity: You have created a fake identity, and can forge documents if you have seen their handwriting.     Font of Inspiration: Regain a Bardic Inspiration after a rest.     Invasive Thoughts: Create a telepathic link with a creature 30 feet away as a bonus action.     Mantle of Whispers: When someone dies, steal their shadow and wear their shadow as a disguise for an hour. You gain access to the dead person’s general information.     Psionic Defense: You resist Psychic damage.     Psionic Sorcery: You cast Aberrant Mind spells without components.     Psionic Spells: You gain additional Aberrant Mind spells     Psychic Blades: Add 5d6 Psychic damage to your melee weapon attacks.     Shadow Lore: Those who fail a Wisdom check become Charmed to believe that you know and will expose the deepest darkest secrets, and obey your commands out of fear of being found out.     Song of Rest: With a song, add 1d10 to healing effects from a rest.     Unsettling Visage: Once per rest, impose disadvantage on a creature trying to hurt you.     Warped Being: your AC is 13 + your DEX mod while without armor     Words of Terror: Your words instill fear for 1 hour.

This build was a bit unorthodox, but it was also a lot of fun to put together. Can you think of a better way to embody madness and insanity in DnD 5e? Do you think you’ll use this in a campaign? Do you have any ideas for something else I can do with DnD 5e? Thanks for joining me, and I’ll see you guys next time in the Character Forge, where heroes are made.

#dungeons and dragons #the character forge #insanity #insane #crazy #madness #dionysus #bill cipher #lovecraft #cthulu #hp lovecraft #horror #terror #halloween #nightmare #illusion #illusions #delusion #delusional #dnd #dnd 5e #5e #5th edition #fifth edition #grim #dark #darkness #shadow #creepy #creepypasta

[hikari-writes]

『Haikyuu!!』

Fluff Oneshot

Winter Wonderland Collab

❝ Cure For A Broken Heart ❞

Pairing: Goshiki Tsutomu

Warning: Cheating ex boyfriend, past toxic relationship

Genre: F L O O F

Words: 3.6k

Notes:

-F!Reader

A/N: heres another piece for the winter wonderland collab feat baby boy goshiki :3

Winter Wonderland Masterlist

You stomped your way through the shopping district full of couples making out, anger seeping through you as you tried very hard not to yell at those strangers. 

It was hard to contain your anger towards happy couples, especially since you had just broken up with your cheating boyfriend. 

Definitely not a good way to start your Christmas evening.

You rubbed your eyes to get rid of the tears that were welling up in it. You tried to get your mind off of things as you thought on how Oikawa would react when he finds out about your breakup. 

He'll most likely nag you for hours, saying that he knew that your (now) ex-boyfriend was bad news all along. You couldn't help but to heave another sigh. 

Not that Oikawa hadn't warned you about your ex before. He warned you multiple times, even. But you were too blinded by what you thought was love for your ex to even pay any attention to Oikawa's warnings. 

As you kept walking and walking without any particular direction you were heading into, you finally found yourself in an unfamiliar side of the shopping district. 

The place wasn't bustling with as many people as the center of the shopping district you were in just now. There were fewer shops, and the things that were being sold in them weren’t as eye-catching as the ones in the busy part of the shopping district. 

Just then, your feet stopped at a shop that appears to be a cafe. You looked at the shop sign. There, written in a beautiful font, was the shop’s name.

“...Shiratori Cake House.”

You stared at the picture of a swan on the sign board logo. Fits the cafe’s name to a T, you thought. Seeing as how the place is void of any visitors, you figured that there won’t be so many customers in the cafe and decided to enter the cafe to treat yourself to something sweet and take your mind off the aching pain in your heart. 

Truthfully, you could’ve just gone to the cafe Oikawa worked at, since you’re more familiar with that place and you might even got to ask for a bit of a friend discount from him. But since it was CHRISTMAS, the place will undoubtedly be flooded with customers, who were mostly Oikawa’s fangirls, and you didn’t want to be suffocated with so many people while your mind was in total shambles. You needed peace, quiet and a little bit of a sweet treat to mend your broken heart at the time.

As soon as you stepped in, however, you realized that your previous guess was completely off. 

The cafe wasn’t lacking in customers.

It didn’t have any customers to begin with.

You looked around in confusion. You even thought that maybe the place was actually already closed for the day. But you were definitely sure that the sign read “OPEN” before you entered just now. See, it wouldn’t have been weird if business was running slow if this was any other day. But it was CHRISTMAS. Every cafe, bakery and cake shop in the town was swarmed with customers, especially considering the fact that there weren't as many shops like that in your town to begin with.

Your confusion was cut short when you heard a male voice called out to you.

“Welcome, dear customer. A table for one?”

You turned around to see a guy with a black haired bowl cut wearing what you presumed to be the cafe’s uniform greeting you. You sent him a nod and followed behind him silently as he led the way to one of the tables. Considering the fact that he was serving you, you took it that it was still business hours at the time. 

“Take your time, and just call me whenever you’ve decided on an order.”

He handed you the menu and you took it with a curt nod. You didn’t spare a glance at the menu as you stared at the waiter. He noticed your gaze and looked at you with confusion evident in his eyes. 

“Is there something wrong?”

At his question, you found yourself opening your mouth to say something that even you yourself wasn’t expecting to come out of your own mouth. You guessed you could say you said that on the spur of the moment, but what exactly prompted you to say that was unknown to even yourself. Who knows, maybe the stress and sadness you were feeling after having just broken up with your ex made you lose some of your brain cells.

“Can I get a smile from you?”

You asked with a straight face, as if you didn’t just ask a question that might as well be considered as a pick-up line. After blurting that out, you realized how much you actually sounded like Oikawa. Guess being friends with him had made his habits rub off on you too. You internally cringed at what you just said, and was about to apologize to the waiter when you saw his reaction. 

He looked extremely surprised at your sudden request and he was blushing extremely hard, you could even feel the heat he was radiating. He kept opening and closing his mouth, as if trying to say something to you but the vocabularies in his brain just disappeared. It was apparent that he had never experienced being hit on before. His reaction seemed to be contagious when you found even yourself blushing at his reaction, and you were left with an awkward silence as the both of you continued to hang your head low. You gotta admit though, he was pretty cute so that just became another factor as to why you blushed after what you just said.

Not too long after that, another waiter stepped in and pushed the black haired waiter away. You snapped out of your flustered state and looked up at the waiter who just helped the two of you get out of that awkward situation. He had copper-colored hair with a….unique hairstyle.

He heaved a sigh before meeting your gaze.

“Please excuse him, dear customer. Although, I must say, you did break him after what you just said.”

At his statement, your blush grew darker.

“B-broke him, you said...”

You quickly averted your gaze and stared intently at the menu in front of you, trying to distract yourself from the unbearable awkwardness. 

You skimmed through the menu and took a quick glance at the cakes displayed in a window glass. All the desserts looked delicious, sure, but you couldn't buy all of them. Finally, you decided to go with the easiest solution.

“Say, what do you recommend? Do you have any special menu that you specialize in?”

You turned to the two waiters who, oddly enough, were still standing near your table instead of just waiting at the counter until you called over. 

At this question, the black haired waiter perked up, and he seemed like he had finally been snapped out of his embarrassment. 

“If you're asking what we specialize in, I must simply mention our tea! While the tea leaves aren't anything fancy or anything of the sort, the way we *cough* I *cough* brew our tea is enough to bring the full flavour of the tea. I'm sure you'll enjoy it!”

He seemed rather enthusiastic about it,but the other waiter just shot him an unpleasant glare. The black haired waiter quickly shut his mouth up. From the way he said it, you could pretty much deduce that the aforementioned “tea that they specialize in” was brewed by the black haired waiter himself. Nice display of confidence.

The other waiter cleared his throat before speaking. 

“I'm pretty sure she meant what sort of DESSERTS do we specialize in, Tsutomu, not drinks. And to answer your question, we do pride ourselves in our chocolate desserts. I highly recommend you getting the Black Forest cake, but since it IS Christmas, we also have Strawberry Shortcake to offer, if you'd prefer that.”

You contemplated on what to order for a moment. In the end, you decided to go with what he recommended (since he did go out of his way to mention that).

The waiter displayed a small smile that probably meant “Oh thank goodness I didn't waste my time recommending that cake to her,” as he jotted down the order. He didn't say it aloud obviously, but his smile just kinda radiated that vibe, y'know?

You then turned towards the black haired waiter, Tsutomu, you presumed, and gave him a small grin. 

“And I also would like to have this tea that you specialize in.”

His face lit up and he seemed to be blushing a bit. He nodded enthusiastically while the other waiter just gave him a distasteful look. 

The two walked away and you took the opportunity to look around the cafe. It seemed to have a pretty good interior design, and the cakes being displayed also seemed to sparkle brightly. You wondered why there was no customer at all. Probably because of how it's located in a pretty deserted part of the shopping district. 

Meanwhile you were busy looking up and down the shop, the two waiters who were serving you just now whispered to one another. 

“Before you start, let me just make one thing clear. She obviously wasn't actually planning to hit on you from the look on her face, so stop acting like a high school girl who just got herself a boyfriend.”

The copper haired waiter, Shirabu, started. Tsutomu seemed a bit disappointed at this, but he quickly furrowed his brows at him. 

“But still, I was still being hit on by a really PRETTY girl. It's probably a Christmas miracle or something.”

He sighed with a small blush adorning his face, to which Shirabu just replied with a disgusted look. 

“I wonder if she has a lover or not...”

He quietly asked the question out of curiosity. Shirabu looked at him for a moment before glancing at you. 

“Think about it logically, Tsutomu. Today is Christmas. It's basically a holiday for couples to spend their time together. Meanwhile our dear customer right there is, as you can see, alone. Plus, why would she wonder around this part of the shopping district alone if she wasn't preoccupied with her thoughts. She probably either is definitely single from the start and wanted to get away from the busy part of the shopping district which was full of couples, OR she had just broken up with her lover.”

After explaining his guesses (Thanks, Sherlock), Shirabu seemed to realize something and turned to Tsutomu almost immediately. 

“Don't tell me you….you wanted to ask her out or something?? Tsutomu, it was just ONE pick-up line, for God's sake.”

Shirabu frowned at the younger male, expressing his disbelief with a sigh. 

“That's not it!”

He hissed in defense. Tsutomu turned to look at you again who were staring off at the shop's window, silently admiring the falling snow outside. 

“It's just...she seemed sad and I was just wondering if she has a special someone who she can confide in….or something.”

Tsutomu softly explained, his eyes still fixated on you.

“You know what people nowadays call you? A busybody. Why would you care for a stranger anyway?”

Tsutomu gave a silent glare towards Shirabu as he finished brewing your tea.

“Well then, Shirabu-san, if I'm a busybody then you're a jerk. It's called being KIND and maybe you should try it sometimes too.”

“Alright, then, go take this cake to her, if you're SO kind. And DON'T scare her away, you hear me? She's our only customer today and we don't appreciate you blabbing unnecessary stuff at her and making her leave.”

With that warning, Shirabu handed Tsutomu a plate with a slice of Black Forest cake on it. Tsutomu just grumbled as a response and made his way towards you. 

“Here is your order. Please enjoy it.”

Your train of thoughts was interrupted when Tsutomu came back with a tray of your order. You nodded and mumbled a small thank you before picking up the cup of tea. It was freezing cold outside so you figured the hot tea could keep you nice and warm.

As soon as you took a sip from it, you were completely stunned by the flavour of the tea. 

Turned out he wasn't joking or blindly bragging about the tea he made. It was, without a doubt, extremely delicious. The coldness you were feeling was gone in an instant and it felt as if your entire body was filled with the warmth of the tea. 

“It's really delicious.”

You commented and looked at him with a genuinely warm smile. He tried to hide the smile that was forming on his face but the blush on his cheeks was enough proof to know that he was completely pleased with your compliment. 

All of a sudden, you were washed with feelings of nostalgia. Now that you thought back on it, you also always tried your hardest to brew the best tea for your ex-boyfriend. All of that memory seemed like a blur to you now that you know that he probably didn't mean any of the compliments he gave. Heck, you even caught a glimpse of him pouring the tea you made into the sink but you decided that that was just your mind playing tricks on you.

“Urgh, this SUCKS. I came here to forget about him but he still somehow managed to wriggle his way into my mind...”

You closed your eyes and your brows were knitted together in frustration as you thought that. You inhaled the scent of the tea and thankfully, that managed to calm your nerves down. 

“Are you alright??”

When you heard the panicked voice of Tsutomu, you opened your eyes and only then did you realize something sliding down your cheeks.

“What….?”

You touched your cheeks to inspect what it was. Well, even if you didn't, you already had a pretty good guess as to what it was. 

Tears were running down your cheeks in an uncontrollable manner. It was as if the more you tried to wipe them away, the more they came flooding down your face.

Tsutomu was panicking so hard, he felt as though he just lost ten years of his lifespan. Meanwhile Shirabu was glaring daggers behind his back, thinking that Tsutomu had said something to make you cry. 

“I'm terribly sorry, I….”

At this point, you had buried your whole face in your hands, ashamed at yourself for crying in front of these strangers. Just then, you felt a comforting hand being placed on your back, softly rubbing circles on top of it.

“It's alright if you felt like crying. Just let it all out.”

Those words were all that you needed before streams of tears started to pour out of your eyes and a few sobs to escape your lips. The fact that you suddenly remembered how your ex-boyfriend would always tell you to not cry in front of him because he claimed it’d be “troublesome” made you realize how toxic your relationship was.

After a few minutes had passed and you had calmed down, you pulled your hand away from your face before facing Tsutomu. He noticed this and looked at you with a concerned look. 

“I’m really sorry. That was shameful of me to cry in front of a total stranger. Thank you for giving me the chance to let all that out.”

You smiled at him and he retreated back his hand that was on your back. 

“Uhm...if you don’t mind, you can tell me your problems. I believe that it’s better to have someone you can confide in rather than keep it to yourself.”

You looked at him for a moment. Most people won’t really care about a stranger’s problem, so Tsutomu offering that came as a bit of a surprise to you. But if he had offered that, then it’d be nice to accept it.

“Thank you for the offer...Excuse me for bothering you then.”

So you told him everything from how you were burned out because of your work and were hoping to have a nice, relaxing time alone with your ex….and how you discovered he was cheating on you when you went to his place uninvited. You stormed out of there, and walked and walked and walked...trying to get as far away as possible from his place. Then, before you knew it, you found yourself in front of this cake shop. 

Tsutomu listened so intently, nodding his head every now and then to silently reassure you that he was listening. It warmed your heart when you saw how considerate he was being. For once, you actually felt as if a burden had been lifted off your shoulders. 

Shirabu who was sitting at the counter was silently listening to your story too. He made his way to your table and put down a slice of Strawberry Shortcake, claiming that that one was on the house.

“It’s hard to see the truth when you’re too blinded by what you wanted to believe. I’m sure that’s what happened to you too. Whoever that guy was, he clearly is a jerk that doesn’t have any respect for people. How can he be so disrespectful to someone as beautiful and kind as you?”

Tsutomu huffed out in frustration. You smiled at him for a moment before realizing what he just said at the end of his line.

“What...was that?”

You asked with an awkward smile and a small blush adorning your cheeks.

“Huh? I said he’s such a jerk---”

Before he got to finish the sentence, his eyes widened as a realization dawned upon him about what he just blurted out and before he knew it a deep crimson blush was already dusted upon his cheeks.

An awkward silence came upon the both of you and Shirabu who was watching the whole thing heaved an exasperated sigh as he thought on how hopeless the both of you were.

“A-anyways...thank you for hearing me out. And the food here is delicious too. I’ll definitely come back here again and bring my friends as well.”

After finishing your cakes and tea, you got up from your seat and went to the counter to pay for your orders.

“Ah, it’s already so late so uhh.. I think it’s best if I accompany you until you reach the main part of the shopping district.”

Tsutomu quickly got up from his seat and walked towards you. You honestly didn’t want to trouble him any further, but he simply assured you that he wanted to do it himself. Shirabu also nonchalantly encouraged you to take him up on his offer. At last, you did and walked out of the cake shop side by side with Tsutomu. 

The rapid contrast of the temperature from the heater in the cake shop and outside of it made you involuntarily shiver. As you exhaled, you could see your own breath in front of you. You’re definitely curling up under your kotatsu tonight.

The both of you walked in silence, admiring the colourful decorations being put around the district. When you finally reached the more busy part of the shopping district, the both of you stopped in your tracks.

“Thank you for everything today. You’ve been a great help…..Uh….”

You stopped mid-sentence as you realized that you didn’t know what this stranger’s name who had been so kind to you was.

“Just call me Tsutomu.”

He replied as if he knew what was on your mind. You smiled and nodded.

“....Tsutomu, thank you again for today. You can call me Y/N.”

You didn’t know whether it was because of the cold or because he was blushing, but you noticed his cheeks being dusted with pink hues. The same could be applied to you as well as you felt the rising heat in your cheeks. 

You bowed one last time and was about to continue walking when he called out to you.

“Uhm! Y/N...now that I think about it...I uh... I don’t think I caught what your phone number was….”

The both of you stood there in silence, your blush only grew deeper as moments passed by and you quickly responded to him by taking out a piece of paper from your bag and scribbling down your number.

“Here!”

You handed him the piece of paper and hung your head low, too embarrassed to face him. He took the paper and held it close to his chest.

“....I’ll be sure to contact you.”

He whispered under his breath, barely audible to your ears. You nodded and the both of you shared a small, content smile before making your separate ways to your house and back to the cake shop respectively.

That Christmas had been very hectic and you were drained out, but spending your time at the cake shop was an experience you’ll never forget. After all, the cute, black haired waiter there did help mend your broken heart at the time. 

Bonus~

Oikawa totally wasn’t having it when he knew you gave out your phone number to a total stranger. In the end, he nagged you for hours about the danger of strangers and also how he was going to kick your ex-boyfriend’s ass after that. (He, Iwaizumi, Matsukawa and Hanamaki brought you cakes and some games to cheer you up so you weren’t all that bothered by his continuous nagging.)

The End

Gen. Taglist: @vventiis @laylahoran @whootwhoot @mirakeul @kiyorei @instantmiya-main @ourvisty @tamaguchi @cadenceh2o @hidehaskak @yamagucji @ynainnit @tsukisemi @that-chick212 @bakuhoetoedoroki @alysken @ineedsomefoodpls [Join my taglist here!]

Winter Wonderland Taglist: @aii-channn @peteunderoos @jungtoast @nekoclysm @our-tall-slytherin-queen @isabella5 @slippinglasses @yhyucklee @rowley-with-ackerman @lilacnoodles @ineedsomefoodpls [Get into the winter wonderland taglist on this post!]

#goshiki tsutomu x reader #haikyuu goshiki #haikyuu x reader #haikyuu goshiki x reader #[❄]-winter wonderland!

[microsuedemouse]

9, 16 and 18 !

you always ask questions. you're my favourite mutual. ily

9. favourite brand of clothing?

(did I adjust the spelling in this question to non-American English? yes I did)

MOKUYOBI, without a single doubt!! This brand makes me feel more like myself than almost anything else. It's a splurge (mostly bc of shipping to Canada... curse you, customs charges) but I usually aim to grab stuff on sale, and it's worth it once or maybe twice a year. It's got the colour palettes I love so much combined with casual shapes and styles!! I don't love dressing in girly clothes but it's often hard to find my favourite bright colours in more androgynous styles.

I'm wearing a Mokuyobi t-shirt right now!!

16. if you had to get a tattoo right now, what would you get and where?

yells I've wanted to get another tattoo basically since I walked out with my first one, if I'm honest. I was so nervous going in, bc I'd wanted this tattoo for years at that point but I'm a big baby? but by the time it was done I was like. Oh. I Get why people get addicted to this, actually.

tattoo in question, though I actually think it looks even better now, having healed further:

...which is. a line from one of my favourite songs by my favourite band, flor. this particular line resonates with me a lot and means a lot to me. (the line is actually 'all this joy out of the ashes,' but we don't talk about that.)

anyway, all of that being a needlessly long lead-up to: if I were to get another tattoo right now. there are lots of things I want tattooed, but only a couple things I have specific design plans for, and one of those is also flor-related. the second time I ever went to see them, I was on my own and had been through a Rough Few Months, and wound up sitting in a back corner of the venue in tears after the show, just from being so overwhelmed. their frontman, Zach, who is The Sweetest Human Man Who Ever Lived, quit helping the others tear down (lol) to come sit with me until I was okay. this was only the second time he'd ever met me!! but he came and hugged me and just, made sure I was all right. at one point I told him, "you guys got me through so much this last year."

corny as it is, Zach's response was something I will never ever forget, because it meant so much, especially coming from him - someone who was such a comfort to me as a musician, but who scarcely knew me as a person and was still looking out for me in that moment regardless. he told me simply: "you got yourself through so much. we just helped."

I still think about that all the time. I cannot overstate how much it meant to me. so I've long considered having it tattooed, as well. Zach has continued to be unbelievably sweet and friendly every time I've seen him, and the last time I did so - back in fall of '19, which is TOO LONG AGO - I asked him to write those words down in a notebook for me: "you got yourself through so much." he actually wrote it twice after worrying that the first was too messy lol.

so. one of these days, I'm going to have those words tattooed onto me, in his handwriting. I've thought about putting them on the other forearm, but I have another idea for that one too - a line from a different song, one of my favourites from my other all-time favourite band, Motion City Soundtrack. I think it would be cool to have lines from two different songs that are really special to me, in the same font, in symmetrical spots? (also the line is "it's a pleasure to meet you" and would be on my right forearm and it chuffs me a little to imagine handshakes with that there, hah.) anyway, as a result I'm still not 100% certain where I would put "you got yourself through so much" - possibly underneath the ashes tattoo, where I can always see it. back of the shoulder is also a possibility but I like the idea of it being somewhere easy for me to look at.

GOD JESUS that was a long answer. I am so sorry. this is the problem when anything gets me talking about flor.

18. rant about your favourite musician

L M F A O I DID NOT READ AHEAD ON THESE QUESTIONS

anyway uh. yeah. it's flor.

I kind of went on a tangent about Zach up there, because he truly is one of the most wonderful people I've ever met, and I'm insanely grateful that he always greets me like an old friend. all four of the boys are like that, really; they're amazing at remembering individual fans and making you feel loved and welcomed when you chat with them after a show. but Zach is the best at it. one time he saw me on the sidewalk before a show that he didn't expect me to be at, and he got so excited he started singing, like- like just one long, high note. and even though I was crouched on the ground digging around in my bag and couldn't get up fast enough, he blew right past the other two girls I was standing with - both of whom he's known for years longer than he's known me lmao - to kneel down and wrap me in a hug. anyway he's one of my favourite people alive.

but to also rave for a moment about the band as a whole, rather than about the boys as people: flor has legitimately changed my life so much. I discovered them by accident and literally don't know who or where I would be now, four-and-change years later, if I hadn't. their music has been a comforting and uplifting constant for me since the first night I heard it. their shows have been some of the best experiences of my life - every flor show feels like being home, and being completely myself, and being so fucking full of joy, no matter what my life is like outside of that moment. their fanbase, the florfam, is full of such amazing people, and I've made so many great friendships amongst them. because of flor I learned to go to shows alone, and go into Toronto alone, both of which are feats I could never have imagined tackling before I fell in love with this band.

but even more, because of flor I learned to travel alone. I am an incredibly anxious homebody, and I still get nervous spending the night away from home most of the time, but for flor I got my passport renewed and travelled solo to the States - first on a bus, then the next year on a plane. I met up with friends I'd previously known exclusively through twitter, and it was like we'd known each other for ages. we hugged like old friends when we met and cried when it was time to part again. the Courtney before flor could never have done something like that.

I have grown so much because of falling in love with this band. I've done things I definitely never would have otherwise. I've written whole stories that would never have occurred to me without flor's music. a flor show feels like home, like love, like raw, abundant, riotous joy. I've never been anywhere happier. I've never gotten out of one without crying!! the music those boys make is my favourite in the whole world, and I keep it close to my heart always, but their impact on my life is so much bigger than that.

#long post #like LONG long holy shit I'm sorry? #but also oh my god Izu THANK YOU #you had no way of knowing how these questions would open me up like an exuberant can of worms but here we are #and I had SO MUCH FUN. #personal #survey #flor

[breakingsomething]

Dawn Station - Pilot

Basic summary: Video game developer Jack Mcloughlin is finally releasing a new game after a ten year hiatus.

Content warnings: Murder, dismemberment, body horror

It comes as a shock to everyone, including you, when Jack Mcloughlin announces the release of a new game at the start of the second week of October.

There are several reasons why this is such a big deal. One: Jack Mcloughlin has been making games since he was twenty seven, and has released only five of them in the thirty years he's been doing it. Two: Jack Mcloughlin is world renowned for his fantastic horror games, all done in wildly different styles, but still notably his own. Three: Jack Mcloughlin has not, up til now, so much as mentioned working on a new game. The only social media site he's fully active on is Twitter - which you check regularly for any updates - and before the release of his last game, Ehrmann Lab, he had left a series of cryptic clues for two months leading up to the announcement. Those had been probably the most fun two months you'd ever had in your life, and even helped you make new friends. But this time around, there is no warning. The trailer is dropped at Purina Expo, one of the biggest American gaming conventions of the year. You were incredibly lucky to be able to snag tickets. Usually, this convention is where the hottest games that would be coming out the following year would be announced, trailers would be played, and developers would discuss - so everyone there on October 10th is shocked to not only be the first to see the trailer, but to hear from the man himself. Jack Mcloughlin takes the stage, gleefully announcing the release of Dawn Station on October 31st this year.

Now, the release of a new game from Septic Games - Mcloughlin's own software company, which he founded after his second game's release - is a big enough deal. But this… this is something else. Mcloughlin explains it before the reveal of the trailer, and you listen with great excitement.

"Dawn Station," says the man, practically bouncing across the stage with glee and shouting into his mic with a hoarse Irish accent. "is a feat of modern gaming. Now, I understand that when you play games, it can get boring to replay them later on after you've finished, because - well, you know how it goes! You know all the twists and turns, all the jumpscares, all the fights, all the spooks. But what if I told you that there was a way you could play where things were different each time?"

Behind the man, on a large screen, an image comes up. This is the first promo image for the new game to be shown to the people. The image is of a tilted hallway in what looks like a complex, broken down space station, overgrown with unusual plants that glow and spark. In the centre of the image is an astronaut. His helmet is on the floor, blood soaked. His face is half in shadow. All that can be seen is curly olive hair and neon green eyes - two on his face, and one embedded in his neck. The suit itself is torn, ripped open with a mouth and a dripping tongue where the being's stomach should be. A torch is on the ground behind him, attempting to cast light on the room. The words "Dawn Station" come up in solid, bright green font next to the being's face.

"This is Dawn Station!" cries the developer, over the many excited murmurs of the crowd. "The first ever virtual reality game with a fully developed artificial intelligence antagonist! An antagonist who learns from the players movements and choices, who grows and changes based off of what you do. You control the game, now more than ever! He's clever, he's learning, he knows where you are, and his objective is to kill the player - introducing... Alien X, otherwise known as… the Anti!"

Everyone cheers. Mcloughlin steps aside, a beam splitting his pale face, and allows the room to darken, and the trailer to play.

You're in awe. The trailer shows that you play as a character named Drew Oliver, an astronaut in their mid twenties who's aboard the Dawn Space Station, which has fallen to the planet you seemed to have been monitoring - the Othohiri 5RM. The game seems to revolve around attempting to explore the little bits of the planet that you can while repairing the ship and dealing with your descent into madness, all the while being chased down by the Alien X, a shapeshifting monstrosity who's eager to end your life before you can finish your goals. After watching it… well, everyone is absolutely blown away, especially you. This is unlike anything Mcloughlin had ever produced, especially to this scale. It's no wonder he hadn't produced a game in ten years if this was what he had been working on. You're practically vibrating with excitement at the breathtakingly beautiful scenery and realistic yet perfectly stylistic graphics, and the 8D sound design that seems to echo from all around you. It's incredible. The second you get back to your hotel room that night, you're one of the first to preorder the game.

Your week at the convention ends, and you go back home, counting down the days to the game's release. However, even more exciting things are happening. On Twitter, a few of your favourite youtubers are acting rather cryptic. KrisDoesGAMEZ and rrroadblock, two streamers you like, retweet Mcloughlin's announcement tweet with eye emojis and promises of the game being good. DUSSST, visualthursday and BroAverage make their own posts about it. PeachCheerio and TheSkinnerr upload short update videos promising exciting things to come.

On October 15th, it happens - ten youtubers each upload an early access demo of Dawn Station, having been chosen and given the code to play it by Mcloughlin himself. You don't watch the videos because you want to play the game yourself with no spoilers, but from what you've seen, it's fucking amazing. Critics are already calling it the game of the decade. The internet is thriving, and a few people have already cosplayed Drew, the main character. Your best friend uploads a joking cosplay of the Anti and walks around town with it on. He gets over a thousand likes and teases you about being too good for you now that he's internet famous. You're living for all of this.

On October 16th, youtuber PeachCheerio is murdered in his own home.

Everyone is shocked, rightfully. Here is a man who had streamed just the day before, chatting with his members and looking at Dawn Station memes on Twitch. Today, he was discovered by his girlfriend in his own home. Leaked police reports tell you that the man, whose real name was Ronald Murphy, had been messily dismembered, his organs removed, half of them missing. You're in shock. He was one of your favourite streamers, and maybe it's silly to mourn someone you've never met, but you're deeply, deeply saddened by the news.

However, it doesn't stop there. The very next day, youtuber DUSSST - or Louise Greendale - is found the same way Ronald had been. Louise's girlfriend apparently called the police in hysterics before panic tweeting about the incident. The posts were taken down an hour later. The screenshots of what she'd said trend of Twitter and Tumblr anyway.

This is when the conspiracy theories arrive. Two youtubers dead in two days, both brutally taken apart and missing organs? Some people mock the theorists for it. Who had even said Louise had been killed the same way as Ronald, anyway? That is, until more apparent police reports are leaked revealing the details of Louise's death. The internet goes wild. The Los Angeles police department posts a video begging whoever's causing the leaks to stop, to think about the families of the deceased. All this does is prove that they're true. This video, too, is later taken down.

You log off in disgust. Some people have no fucking shame.

Things heat up the next day, on October 18th, when user rrroadblock, or Aryan Jha, dies as well. The death is covered up for the first few hours afterwards, but eventually is leaked in the same manner as the last two murders. This time, the theorists are no longer labeled as crazy. In fact, everyone's getting in on this mystery now. Three popular youtubers dead now, each found in bloody states in their own homes, three days apart? No one knows what's happening, but that doesn't stop people from guessing. And while you refuse to involve yourself in any of this, you also find yourself wondering who or what - not what, of course it's not a what, that's just ridiculous - who is killing all of these people.

Day four. The internet is silent, waiting. And yes, sure enough, youtuber KrisDoesGAMEZ, or Kris Velvet, is dead.

This time, someone realizes something that makes everyone pause. Each of the dead youtubers are all the ones who were given the free demo of Dawn Station, and are even dying in the order that they played it in. Everyone goes insane. Even you're suspicious - of what, exactly, you don't know, because why would someone murder someone else so brutally over a video game? Despite that, this can't be a coincidence. People place bets on whether youtuber ducksontheroof, or Donna Campbell, is going to be the next one to be found dead. Donna herself makes a statement on her Instagram, expressing disgust at all the people who were spreading such information around. She then deactivated all her socials apart from her YouTube. The people who had been making bets were shamed, and you have to log off yet again. This is getting to be too much.

You stay offline until nearly four pm the next day. Your friend calls you up to give you the news, but you already know what they're going to say. Let me guess, you start, voice flat and tired. Donna Campbell's dead.

They confirm it. You don't know what to say.

Her family put out a statement asking people not to theorize about her death. People do it anyway. Reports state that the remaining five youtubers who had played Dawn Station, along with, surprisingly, Jack Mcloughlin himself, had been taken into police custody. For protection, you assume. Once again, the internet goes insane. This proves their theories about the game connecting all the deaths, and a silent dread and buzz of twisted excitement hangs over everyone. You're just disgusted. People are treating this like some kind of murder mystery game, like this isn't real, actual lives.

Two days pass without news. At the end of the second day, there's yet another leak. Youtubers Doomandgloom - Persephone Henry - and TheSkinnerr - Rodney Pratt - are dead. You're just numb. You're just so fucking numb.

This reveal, of course, inspires yet another debate. If the youtubers had been under police protection, how had they died? Had the police seen anything? Why hadn't the leak said anything about it? Who was killing all these people in so little time, how hadn't they been caught? Had, really, no one seen anything at all?

There are now three youtubers left who'd played the game. Hothothotstanley, or Stanley McIver, visualthursday, or Khia Herrera, and BroAverage, or Chase Brody. You met Stanley McIver, once, at a convention in London three years ago. You have a picture on your memory board of you standing in the convention hall, him with his arm around your shoulder, you with a grin and sparkle in your eye. You can see the picture from your bed. You turn away from it.

However, the next day is a surprise to everyone. A video is uploaded to someone's Twitter - a full, uncensored video of the murder of Stanley McIver inside the government safe house he and the others had seemingly been kept in. The video is immediately taken down and the Twitter deleted, but everyone has seen it. Including you. The video is… horrifying. Of course it is. Why did you watch it? But you do manage to see who it is that killed him. Everyone on the internet does. And this - this video, that's maybe five minutes long - is enough to make everyone go silent.

The killer looks exactly like the Anti from Dawn Station.

No one knows quite what to make of this.

Even less so when Jack Mcloughlin dies the next day.

He's murdered. Same way as all the rest of them, in police custody. Now this is enough to shock everyone into mourning silence. Only a few pricks are left, and their accounts, channels and blogs are swiftly deactivated. Nine deaths in nine days. Nine deaths. Nine. Jack Mcloughlin.

The next day, Khia Herrera - well, you know.

Chase Brody is the last one left alive. You never watched his channel that much - he's really into horror, and is known for his Walking Dead playthrough and his Undertale Genocide run - but you still already feel a strange sense of loss. A sort of emptiness. Something churns in your stomach that you don't understand. There's a lot that you don't understand.

The release of Dawn Station is cancelled.

You spend the night at a friend's house, and just bawl for hours. You shouldn't be so upset, you shouldn't! You never knew any of these people! But fuck, there's something about seeing all these people who you'd been watching online for so long, who have given you so many happy days, so many laughs and inside jokes… just die. How had this happened? Who was it who was doing this?

Your friend sadly suggests it's some sick Jack Mcloughlin hater who decided it'd be fun to cosplay as his newest character and kill people to scare everyone. But while you outwardly agree, you internally know it's not true. Because every time you watch that video, every time you watch Stanley die - and you watch it a lot, just trying to make yourself feel something, even if it's just sick - you can tell the person isn't human. You know that's ridiculous, of course. But there's something about its eyes. Its face. It glances up at the camera and makes eye contact, and grins with too many white, jagged teeth, like an anglerfish. The eye in its throat sees you too. It glows. You shudder every time, watching it shake with glitches and laughter.

You're scared. You feel sick and dizzy and you lock your doors out of fear. You stay inside and open Tumblr, Twitter and Instagram again.

Poor Chase Brody, says the internet. They're already mourning. Already accepted his death. Poor, poor Chase Brody.

You hope he's ok, wherever he is.

#dawn station #jacksepticeye #antisepticeye #boop writes

[jinruihokankeikaku]

have you done an analysis on the Page of Hope? if not then can you, please? :3 also maybe in a small portion of it can you talk about how being a derse dreamer may affect them? thank you so very much if you're able to!!! 💙

Page of Hope!! Swweet!! Another canon classpect, and a preeeeeeeetty cool one, at that. (This is a full-length analysis of the Role, but there will 8e a section dedic8ed specifically to Derse Dreamers towwards the end.) Here’s Jake English’s canonical Mythological Role, the…

Title: Page of Hope

Title Breakdown: One who passively defends [invites to defend, equips others with, calls others to serve] Hope [raw positive energy, faith, belief/desire, positive emotion, delusion/illusion]

Role in the Session: The Page of Hope is the most powerful Role in the Game (barring the Lord or Muse of Hope, I guess, but by definition both of those classes can only appear in Void sessions, so…) (I guess that’s not entirely true, as you could have a session with a Lord or Muse of Space, and a Lord or Muse of Hope, that could win the Game but couldn’t scratch. I’m still putting the odds of success there at “Unlikely”, though.) (Anyways…)

No, really. This is all-but-canonical (if I weren’t in the middle of a reread right now I’d try to track down the exact page, but recall the conversation between Jake and Aranea prior to her “healing his mind”). My rationale behind this statement goes something like this “Hope is a font of raw metaphysical power bordering on the divine, with the potential to turn belief into reality, but it has a tendency to induce irrationality and uncritical belief in those bound to it. The Page is the Class with the most raw potential, but begins the Game almost completely incompetent, and takes a long while to grow into their Role, barring external intervention such as Aranea’s. Any Class-Aspect combination is greater than the sum of its parts, so it follows that the Page of Hope would have more raw potential than any other Mythological Role, and then some.”

How does this actually apply to the Game? Well…that’s where the issue becomes a bit more complicated. While the Page of Hope is technically more powerful than any other Role, they’re also more likely to be incompetent, confused, delusional, and otherwise unprepared to function effectively within their Role. Their Quest will involve the long, arduous process of concentrating their scattered, slim Hopes and dreams into a pattern of directed activity – the Page will have to confront unexpected circumstances and waves of self-doubt and skepticism without allowing their faith and their confidence to buckle under the pressure. The Page may well falter, or even fail outright, several times, but as long as their will to live remains intact, they should persevere through these challenges.

The Page’s relationship with their team will likely be complicated by the Page’s initial inadequacies, and (real or perceived) discouragement or disdain from their teammates could seriously hamper the Page’s development. It’s crucial that they have their team’s full support, especially early on, as without it they are far more likely to hesitate and lapse into a spiral of self-doubt, self-deprecation, and ultimately self-destruction. In the worst-case scenario, a team (or individual team member) that actively discourages or disparages the Page could cause the Page to fail their Quest outright and either die or stagnate and invert to a Thief of Rage – in either case, the team has then lost their most powerful asset and (in the case of inversion) gained a very powerful enemy indeed. A Page of Hope would be greatly aided by a Sylph of Time – the Sylph’s intervention, which might be seen as fatalistic or unnecessarily meddling by their other teammates, would probably be embraced wholeheartedly by the Page, who will need all the help they can get, especially when it comes to the notion of fate and “good” vs. “bad” endings, early on. A Page of Hope is powerful in their own right, but is especially strong as a support player to a combat-oriented Hero such as a Knight or a Prince, either of their own Aspect or of the similarly resilient and fatalistic Aspect of Doom.

Opposite Role: The Thief of Rage, as mentioned above, is a powerful Role with a lot of potential to do harm, and could be particularly dangerous to the easily-manipulated Page of Hope. Defined as “one who steals skepticism, negative emotion, wanton destruction, or metanarrative disbelief”, the Thief could potentially empower the Page, clearing away many of the obstacles (in-game and psychological) set before them. However, in doing so, they’d also be clearing away many of the Page’s opportunities for introspection, and running the risk of (or deliberately encouraging) the Page’s completely embracing the darker sides of their Aspect, such as misguided faith or delusional suspension of disbelief. If they were to manipulate the newly-empowered Page to serve their ends (a trivially easy task for someone with the power to steal and exploit negative emotions), the two of them would be a nigh-unstoppable force with motivations that would almost certainly be less-than-pure.

God Tier Powers

Hope is the Culminative-Conclusive-Personal Aspect, and the Page is the Passive Defense/Service Class. This means that the powers an Ascended Page of Space might wield will concentrate the Page’s core beliefs into a unified and intensified force, in the way that a lens might concentrate a laser. These powers will largely be directed towards arming and/or armoring their allies with the results of their hope, turning beliefs that the Page once lacked confidence in into weapons capable of fortifying an army, concentrated in the hands of a very few players. Here are a few ideas as to how such forces could manifest…

Luminous Cavalcade: When the Page leads their allies in battle, those allies will be fortified on both a physical and metaphysical level – they’ll be exactly as effective as the Page believes them to be. Guided by and armed with the Page’s force of will, each member of the team will accomplish feats they’d previously have been incapable of, vastly increasing the strength with which they use their own Aspect. This would include things like Jake English’s “Hope Field”, which not only made a tiny splinter of Dirk’s consciousness fully real, but also allowed said splinter to wield powers Dirk Prime had not been previously seen to use.

Flower of the Dawn: The Page’s Hope blooms out around them, restoring Hope where it had once been lost, and calling on anyone and everyone near it to fulfill their Hope. Those touched by this field are, should the Page allow them to be, armed with Hope, wielding a portion of the Page’s own power as though it were their own to do any of the things a Hope-bound player might – conjure luminous destructive or creative energy, form constructs capable of effecting physical reality simply by imagining them, or even just finding the Hope within themselves to stay in the game and keep their head up.

Higher Calling: Those near the Page feel subtly, yet surely, called to serve the cause of Hope in much the way that the Page is. This isn’t exactly mind-control, and the calling doesn’t compel action from anyone, but simply awakens a seed of Hope within those who hear it, inviting them to believe whatever it is they believe with more surety and conviction than they otherwise might. It also doesn’t implant new beliefs where they otherwise wouldn’t be – it merely amplifies those beliefs, turning them into nigh-indestructible ideological shields and concrete courses of action as opposed to merely pleasant notions.

Personality: The Page of Hope is initially someone with many scattered Hopes and dreams, but little confidence or competence with which they might act on them. They’ll likely have a number of interests about which they’re passionate, and various firmly-held convictions, but they’ll find themselves stymied both in daily life and on the grander scale of the Game as their attempts to fulfill their Hopes and act upon their ideals fail one by one. The challenge set before them is for them to truly examine their beliefs, to hold each one up to the burning light of inquiry, to hold tight to those that emerge unscathed and to allow all others to fall away. Only once the Page has concentrated their Hopes into a unified, genuine, system of belief will they be able to unlock the vast potential within themselves.

DERSE DREAMERS: A Page of Hope who happens to be in Derse’s Lunar Sway will be more focused, but also more prone to spiraling into cynicism and despair. Their Quest, and their character arc in general, will lean towards pushing the limits of the Page’s belief – a relentless stress-test that will run the risk of shattering the Page, but from which they will emerge, should they emerge intact, tempered anew and with further magnified strength and conviction. In their personal relationships, the Derse-dreaming Page of Hope will be less naïve and a bit more focused on a few particularly strong beliefs.

Songs

The Only Hope for Me Is You by My Chemical Romance

Vindicated by Dashboard Confessional (havve I already used this one? Wwhatevvs im usin it again)

Lion’s Teeth by the Mountain Goats

Thanks for the ask, anon!! I hope you found my analysis entertainin and/or informativve!! I lovve Jake English as a character, so this one wwas a really fun analysis to wwrite (I may havve run just a 8it longer than I usually do.)

~ P L U R ~

#Hope #Page #Page of Hope #Homestuck #Jake English #Classpect #Classpect analysis #Class #Aspect #anon #ask

[tigerkirby215]

5e Quinn, Demacia's Wings build (League of Legends)

(Artwork by Katie "TeaTime" De Sousa. Made for Riot Games.)

lol who gives a shit about Quinn?

I do. I do Riot. :(

Honestly while I haven’t played Quinn in awhile I still think she’s an extremely fun champion, and not just because you get to bully the enemy top laner with discount Vayne. Quinn has a very unique playstyle that’s so different from every other champ in the game which makes her real refreshing to play after sticking to other champs for an extended period of time.

But let’s be real the main reason I’m making a Quinn build is so I can have a cheat day. I mean she’s obviously just a Beastmaster Ranger, right?

GOALS

Valor, to me! - Burd up! I really wish that Quinn was called “Quinn and Valor” in game.

Stick to the plan, Val - When the going gets tough it helps to be a swift scout, dashing around the enemy and vaulting off them if they get too close.

I'd keep my head down if I were you - While it’s perhaps not the first thing that comes to mind Quinn is known for letting down a volley of arrows when she first engages with Valor on her back.

RACE

League of humans, at least until I go back to Ionia to make more furries. Regardless we’ll be switching it up a bit with a Mark of Finding Dragonmark from Eberron! You get a +2 to Dexterity and +1 to an ability score of your choice: I went for Charisma because “League of Legends female body types.”

You get an early set of boots with the Mark of Finding, since Courier’s Speed increases your base movement speed to 35 feet. And to help with backflips Intuitive Motion will let you add a d4 to your Acrobatics checks (or your Land Vehicle checks, but I’d perhaps discuss with your DM to change that to Air Vehicles instead?) But most importantly you get Magical Passage for a one-time use of Misty Step, for Flash!

IF DRAGONMARKS AREN’T ALLOWED: A Variant Human works fine. Take a +1 to Dexterity and Charisma and the Crossbow Expert feat a little earlier than usual.

ABILITY SCORES

15; DEXTERITY - Dexterity is tied to shooting and back flips, both of which you’ll be doing a lot of.

14; WISDOM - You have a bird’s eye view; the best advantage.

13; CHARISMA - This is partially because “League of Legends female body types” but mostly for multiclassing.

12; CONSTITUTION - Demacians are no easy prey, and spending so much time behind enemy lines has made you sturdier than most.

10; INTELLIGENCE - Intelligence is tied to military tactics among other things.

8; STRENGTH - This is partially because “League of Legends female body types” but mostly for multiclassing because we don’t need it over the other stats.

Feel free to swap Wisdom and Constitution if you want worse skill checks but better durability.

BACKGROUND

We’ll be going for Faction Agent not because it fits best but because it has the abilities that make the most sense. I’m sure you could refer to the Demacian Scouts as a faction after all. Regardless you get proficiency in Insight along with one WIS, INT, or CHA skill of your choice: I opted for Perception for that bird’s eye view. You also get proficiency in two languages so once again pick your poison.

The main reason we opted for Faction Agent was for access to a Safe Haven behind enemy lines. You can always find insiders to give you a place to hide, or to give you information. Not that Val needs any help finding people. "Sometimes I swear that bird is just showing off."

(Artwork made for Riot Games.)

THE BUILD

LEVEL 1 - ROGUE 1

Starting off as a Rogue for the skill proficiencies primarily. Acrobatics and Stealth are the two main ones we want but I’d also recommend Investigation and Intimidation. (Persuasion may be more useful in the average campaign but it doesn’t fit Quinn well feel free to build the character however you want but I focus on making the character as lore accurate and gameplay accurate as possible.) Anyways as a Rogue you also get Expertise in two skills: I’d recommend buffing your Perception right out the gate, as well as your Stealth because... it’ll be useful as a Rogue I assure you.

Rogues can chat with spies and infiltrators behind enemy lines thanks to Thieves’ Cant, a mixture of words and phrases that don’t actually mean what they sound like. But of course what we’re really here for as a Rogue is good ol’ Sneak Attack, for a d6 if you sneak attack an enemy (duh) or if Val (or another ally) is distracting them.

I’m going to briefly mention what weapons you’re probably going to want to start out with: a Hand Crossbow is an obvious must but until about level 6 or so you can honestly just stick to a Light Crossbow to do more damage at a better range early on.

LEVEL 2 - ROGUE 2

Second level Rogues can further abuse their range thanks to Cunning Action, letting them Dash, Disengage, or Hide as a Bonus Action. Play around bushes to get the jump on your Harrier marks.

LEVEL 3 - BARD 1

Seeing as Bards are good at everything we’ll be taking some Bard levels. As a Bard you get proficiency in one skill as well as a musical instrument: pick whatever instrument you prefer and I’d of course take Animal Handling to take care of Valor.

You also get Bardic Inspiration to tell your allies of information you scouted ahead with your bonus action, letting them add an extra d6 to skill checks, attack rolls, and saving throws that they know are coming. You have a number of inspirations equal to your Charisma modifier, and regain all expended inspiration die at the end of a long rest.

But of course the main boon from being a Bard is access to Spellcasting! You get two cantrips from the Bard list: Light will let you see with your dumb human eyes, and Message will let you chat with your team behind enemy lines. You also get four first level spells from the Bard list: Animal Friendship is kinda an obvious one, as is Speak with Animals. Other than that Heroism will help you (or your allies) keep their cool behind enemy lines, and Color Spray (ty Tasha’s) will let Valor blind your foes so you can get away!

LEVEL 4 - BARD 2

Second level Bards get Jack of All Trades, letting you flex into whatever role your party may need. You also get Song of Rest to heal for an extra d6 of health during short rests to patch yourself up after getting into a scrap. And finally Tasha’s gave you Magical Inspiration, letting your allies with Bardic Inspiration add a roll on their inspiration die to the damage or healing of a spell.

You also learn another first level spell like Feather Fall, in case Valor needs to drop you.

LEVEL 5 - BARD 3

Third level Bards get Expertise in two skills: Acrobatics proficiency is a requirement for backflips, and Animal Handling would be good to handle Valor. (But more realistically expertise in Insight or Investigation would be more useful.)

But more importantly we can finally get some combat ability out of the Bard! The College of Swords gives you proficiency with medium armor and shields, neither of which we really need. It also gives you a Fighting Style you won’t use with a Hand Crossbow, but Dueling is probably better for your purposes.

What we’re mainly here for is Blade Flourish, which despite the name works on ranged attacks! When you take the attack action on your turn Harrier will increase your movement speed by 10 feet, and once per turn you can use one of the following Blade Flourishes:

Defensive Flourish increases the damage of the shot by a roll of your Bardic Inspiration and let you add the number to your AC as Valor makes it harder for the enemy to hit you.

Slashing Flourish will let you pick up a Runaan's Hurricane to deal extra damage to the target and everyone within 5 feet of them.

Mobile Flourish lets you vault off an enemy, dealing extra damage equal to a roll of your Bardic Inspiration and pushing them back a number of feet equal to 5 plus whatever you rolled on your Bardic Inspiration. If you want you can then use your reaction to run up to them, but I don’t know why you’d want to do that.

Basically no matter what your Blade Flourish does extra damage equal to your Bardic Inspiration, and you can choose to either make yourself harder to hit, do AoE damage, or push the enemy away. Oh and you can now learn second level spells like Animal Messenger so Val can get important information back to Demacia.

(Artwork by Michelle Hoefener. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 6 - BARD 4

4th level Bards get the first of many Ability Score Improvements but we’re actually going to take a Feat: the Crossbow Expert feat will let you ignore the Loading property of crossbows to attack more than once on your turn, attack in melee range without disadvantage, but most importantly if you attack with your hand crossbow you can make one more attack with your bonus action!

You also learn another spell, and another cantrip! For your cantrip Minor Illusion is great to make a distraction, and for your leveled spell Locate Object will help if you need to find an important artifact belonging to the enemy. Are there more useful spells? Yes, but I’m building what would make the most sense for Quinn as a character. Feel free to take Heat Metal or Lesser Restoration as you’re allowed to change my builds however you want.

LEVEL 7 - BARD 5

Grabbing the 5th level of Bard for Font of Inspiration, letting your Bardic Inspiration (and Blade Flourishes!) come back after a Short Rest. Which is good because your Bardic Inspiration increases to a d8!

You can also learn third level spells like Leomund’s Tiny Hut for a safe place to rest after a long combat.

LEVEL 8 - BARD 6

But of course the 6th level of Bard wouldn’t hurt, as you’d now get an Extra Attack from the College of Swords! You can also learn another third level spell like Sending to send information more directly. Again: feel free to take spells that you feel are more practical if you wish.

(Artwork by SixMoreVodka Studios. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 9 - ROGUE 3

Going back to Rogue to get our Scouting badge, specifically with the Scout subclass! You get to officially be classified as a Skirmisher, and can move half your movement speed if an enemy ends their turn within 5 feet of you. This movement doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks either, so I’d flavor it as you vaulting off the foe to safety.

You’re also a natural Survivalist, with Expertise in the Nature and Survival skills. That’s why we didn’t get Survival proficiency earlier! And to top it off your Sneak Attack increases to 2d6.

LEVEL 10 - ROGUE 4

4th level Rogues get another Ability Score Improvement, and we’ve been sitting on an uneven Dexterity score for awhile now. So the Piercer feat will let you increase your Dexterity by 1 while also augmenting your skills with a Light Crossbow, allowing you to reroll the damage die of one of your attacks and deal triple damage if you crit!

I’d discuss with your DM if your Blade Flourishes count as “weapon damage die” for the sake of Piercer, because if they do you’ll likely get a lot more value out of this feat. If not well... it’s still useful regardless!

(Artwork by bekkomi on DeviantArt.)

LEVEL 11 - BARD 7

Quickly going back to Bard for some 4th level spell slots to cast spells like Dimension Door to quickly get out of danger.

LEVEL 12 - BARD 8

But of course the 8th level of Bard will get you some more Ability Score Improvements: more Dexterity will mean deadlier shots and more AC. And you can learn another 4th level spell like Freedom of Movement to get out of sticky situations.

LEVEL 13 - BARD 9

9th level Bards get to pretend that a d8 Song of Rest die by total level 14 is valuable. You do at least get 5th level spells like Rary's Telepathic Bond to keep communication up with your team.

LEVEL 14 - BARD 10

But what we’re mainly here for is the 10th level of Bard. To start off you get Expertise in two more skills: Insight and Investigation would both be the most practical choices. Your Bardic Inspiration also increases to a d10, which means that your Blade Flourishes increase to a d10 as well!

But far more importantly you get Magical Secrets, and hey look by total level 15 we finally got Valor! Summon Beast will let you summon a beast of land, sea, or (most realistically) air to fight alongside you! The flying beast has a 60 foot flying speed, Flyby (which lets it avoid attacks of opportunity), and can attack using your spell attack modifier to deal damage equal to a d8 + 4 + the level of the spell slot you used to cast this spell. It’s only a second level spell but it gets quite strong when upcast, so you can choose how strong you want Valor to be!

Alternatively if you want to fly Behind Enemy Lines, look no further than Fly! It gives you a 60 foot flying speed, plain and simple! And if you upcast it Valor can even bring a friend, or several friends!

You can also learn another cantrip like Mending, because it’s good to keep your armor in check as well as your falconer’s glove.

LEVEL 15 - BARD 11

Seeing as we got Valor we may as well grab a few more small things from Bard. 11th level Bards get 6th level spells like Find the Path, to find the path to the objective. Again: feel free to take more practical spells I am merely taking what makes sense for Quinn.

LEVEL 16 - BARD 12

12th level Bards don’t get new spells but they do get Ability Score Improvements. I’ll leave you with a choice: more Charisma will increase your Bard saving throw DCs (and Valor’s hit chance) as well as give you more Blade Floruishes, but the Sharpshooter feat will let you consistently add more damage to your shots while also ignoring range limitations and cover.

(Artwork by Ina Wong and West Studios. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 17 - BARD 13

Grabbing 7th level spells from the 13th level of Bard like Teleport, to recall back to base when needed. You also get to pretend that a d10 Song of Rest die by total level 18 is majorly impactful.

LEVEL 18 - BARD 14

14th level Swords Bards get the Master’s Flourish, letting you make a Blade Flourish every turn without spending a Bardic Inspiration, as long as you make your Blade Flourish a d6 instead.

But you also get two more Magical Secrets! To call down a Skystrike try Steel Wind Strike, which will damage up to 5 creates in the area and also let you teleport to one of them after using it. Your other spell doesn’t really matter much so... I dunno. Blindness / Deafness so Valor can make a Blinding Assault? Again feel free to make your own choices to customize the build.

LEVEL 19 - BARD 15

We’ll be stopping at the 15th level of Bard for a d12 Bardic Inspiration, as well as an 8th level spell like Feeblemind to weaken an enemy beyond any capability of fighting.

LEVEL 20 - BARD 16

But we may as well grab one more Bard level for one last Ability Score Improvement. Again up to you if you want to cap out that Charisma modifier or take Sharpshooter for some more damage.

Now that that’s done it’s time for some Ranger levels! Oh wait...

WHY NO RANGER LEVELS? - Put simply it would’ve been very hard to get Quinn’s unique skill set without some weird multiclassing shenanigans or a Bard investment. The three things I needed for Quinn were the following:

* Bird companion (Ranger or Druid)

* Flight (Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard, Artificer, or some weird stretches of logic like “be a Druid and turn into a bird to fly lol.”)

* Skystrike (either Conjure Barrage [bad] on Ranger or Battle Smith Artificer, or Steel Wind Strike on [high level] Ranger or Wizard)

Put simply there was no combination of subclasses that wouldn’t result in weird mix of classes other than Bard. Add in the fact that I really wanted Scout Rogue levels as well as Crossbow Expert (both of which would conflict with Beast Master Ranger) and Bard seemed like the most logical course of action.

The sad truth is that in all honesty Quinn doesn’t even use Valor that much in her kit is kinda the main thing. I wanted to prioritize the crossbow shooting of Quinn more than anything. If you want a more traditional Quinn build that prioritizes the Bird then Scout Rogue 8 / Beastmaster 12 (using Tasha’s Beastmaster companions) will give you more bird and just about everything that this build did minus the flight. (If you build like this I’d also recommend dropping Crossbow Expert and simply opting for a Longbow, or seeing if you can get an Artificer teammate to make you a Repeating Heavy Crossbow.)

If you really want flight and are willing to stretch your imagination then Scout 4 / Drake Warden (UA) 16 gets Perfected Bond by Ranger level 15, allowing you to ride the flying mount. Yes you’ll have a Fireproof Valor but you can just call that Phoenix Quinn.

Of course all of this can be avoided if your DM either gives you a magic item that provides Flight or lets you put Fly on the Ranger spell list. The golden rule is to always discuss with your DM if you have a particular vision in mind, or else accept the sacrifices you’ll have to make for practicality.

FINAL BUILD

PROS

Just like hunting thresher geese - 3 hand crossbow attacks per round with a 3d6 Sneak Attack and a d6 (or d12) Blade Flourish adds up to some pretty decent damage per round overall, and that isn’t even considering Sharpshooter.

I'll follow your lead, Valor - Most of your spellcasting is utility based, meaning that you don’t need to worry about your spellcasting modifier. And hey: we got Valor without having to go for Beastmaster Ranger!

Buy me some time - Mixing Bard and Rogue together means that you have proficiency in quite a lot of skills! Expertise in 8 total skills, proficiency in one more, and Jack of All Trades for the remaining skills. You can fill any role that the party may need!

CONS

Look Val; snacks - It takes us quite awhile to get Valor; some would argue too long. Put simply there’s very little way for us to get the very specific spell list required for Quinn (Summon Beast, Fly, Steel Wind Strike) without doing some weird multiclassing shenanigans. You could go Lore Bard if you want to get access to Summon Beast and Fly faster (Scout 3 / Lore 6 = basically everything to play Quinn by total level 9) but then you’d miss out on Extra Attack among other things.

Still heart, steady aim - Low Constitution along with a d8 hit die really doesn’t do you any favors. You’ll likely have a little over 100 health, which means that it won’t take much effort to put you in Power Word Kill range.

Who's there? Jarvan who? - Honestly our Charisma is low for a Bard, and while most of the spells we took are utility based it still sucks to only have two Blade Flourishes. Feel free to use Point Buy instead for some better starting stats and less in those fairly pointless stats like Intelligence. (8 / 15 / 12 / 8 / 13 / 15 would be my recommendation to have the best Charisma you can get while still having decent Wisdom to boot.)

But your job is to scout: any kills you pick up on the way are a nice bonus. Soften the enemies up with Valor by your side and do what needs to be done to win the war without the enemy knowing you’re there. Fight differently, fight dirty, and remember that no matter what at least you’re not playing Vayne top.

(Artwork by Xu “Crow God” Cheng. Made for Riot Games.)

#DnD 5e #dnd build #dnd guide #dnd #League of Legends #League of Legends Quinn #League of Legends Valor #League of Legends Quinn and Valor #Quinn #Valor #Quinn & Valor #dnd rogue #dnd bard #dnd ranger? #bird up

[myadventureincreativewriting]

A Gorgon’s Last Act

A Gorgon’s last act - Inspired by 4.48 Psychosis – the line “I write for the dead the unborn”.[1]

Word count: 911 words

  The pitter patter of raindrops on stone statues echoes through my makeshift cave. My victims keep me dry, stone figures angled to keep the water off my skin. The occasional drop weaves its way through though, setting off a cacophony of hisses as it hits my hair. Only one small statue sits in the cave beside me, too small, an unforgivable mistake.

“Be careful, keep your eyes closed, I’ll keep you safe from him, I promise. Just keep them closed tight.”

  Within a moment of a door slamming, a slurred voice calls to the child “SOPHIE! SOPHIE WHERE YOU AT? Come help me brat. Or d’ya want another whipping? WHERE ARE YA? YOU UNGRATEFUL CHILD? I feed ya and you won’t even help me!”

  The man staggers in while the child crouches in the corner, trying to hide in a room with no furniture besides a small table and two wobbly chairs. First, he sees the cowering girl, then he notices me standing guard.

  “If you come near this child, I will not regret turning you to stone.”

  “I can do what I like with me daughter. Screw off lady, before I punch ya!” He moves closer, undoing his belt and gripping it in his hand with practiced malice. “I said MOVE woman!” He rears back his hand, belt ready to swing.

  And then I move the tinted glasses from my eyes. Trapping him in that position for eternity.

  I put the glasses back on, before calling to Sophie whose little body is quaking. “Sophie, you’re safe. He can’t hurt you anymore.” She looks up, teary-eyed, then runs at me and wraps her little arms around my neck, embracing me with relief.

  But then she pulls back, the movement dislodges my glasses. I’m not quick enough. One blink and her smile, along with every part of her, is forever frozen in that state.

  Forever, that is, unless I am vanquished. When I die, all my victims are set free. But I must destroy all the other statues first. I must not let these murderers and abusers free into the world even though their deserved deaths will forever be my burden to bear. I will rot in Tartarus for this but rather that than leave the innocent child trapped. She did not deserve her fate, as I did not deserve mine. I was young, I made a mistake that angered the wrong Goddess. Athena punished me rather than Poseidon, my partner in a moment of sin I shall forever regret. She made me into this monster, she ensured that I would never be looked upon with affection ever again. Not without dire consequences.

  As the rain lightens, and then, eventually stops, I stand up from my protected spot and pull the young girl away from the others. Though she is small, the rock that makes up her solid form is extremely heavy, far too heavy for me to lift off the ground. And so, I drag her the short journey to the safety of higher ground. I try to be gentle, wrapping my arms around her waste as I move her, carefully avoiding rocks pointing out of the muddy ground. I reach a large tree and slide her body behind it, facing away from what will soon be a pile of rotting flesh and broken bodies.

  Reaching into my satchel and nudging a bejewelled hand-mirror to one side, I pull out the map that I drew before setting out for my hidden den of statues. “This will guide you home, little one, your mother is worried sick about you. That man will never hurt you again, I promise.” I tuck it securely into a crease in her stone clothing. “Live long, be happy, worry not for me. Though we will never meet again. Where I am going, you shall never be able to follow, but your safety is all that matters to me.” A tear runs down my cheek as I cup her smooth face in one hand, kissing her forehead. “Goodbye, Sophie. I love you.”

  I leave her there. Running. For if I slow, I may change my mind and head back. Up a hill I climb, up to where there’s a cliff. Looking down, I see the bodies of my chosen victims and sigh. It’s time. There are many boulders behind me, each of them about waist height. I use all my strength to push them off the ledge one by one, watching them crush the statues beneath, as tears stream down my face freely now. Each boulder crushes the bodies of abusive scum, each death is a victory and a burden. When the last boulder falls, I make my way down to look at my handiwork. The stone statues lie crushed, not a single body remains whole of those that lay there.

  My smile is watery as I pull the mirror from my bag face down. I send a last prayer for Sophie to get home safe. Then look up to the sky, to the river flowing freely in the distance. Finally, I look to the ground beneath my feat. “I’ve heard that you are a good man Hades. Your wife I know to be just and kind. Please do not let that child suffer when she eventually falls under your care. Please look after her and keep her in a place where that horrendous man will never reach.”

  I remove my tinted glasses.

And turn the mirror over.

[1] Sarah Kane, 4.48 Psychosis (London: Methuen Drama, 2000) <https://rlmalvin.angelfire.com/KaneSarah448Psychosis.pdf> [accessed 19 February 2021], p.9.

#medusa #gorgon #death #stone #greek mythology #changing perspectives on 'villains' #my story #my writing #medusa is not evil #she was cursed for petty reasons #victims of greek mythology #major character death #sacrifice #a gorgon's last act #sarah kane #4.48 psychosis #inspired by 4.48 psychosis

[homogrimoire-archive]

The Remnant Branches

CH. 6 - The Woe of the Wretched

Part 3: A Sibling's Love

Having completed his mission for Oz already, James returns to Jakob to deliver some unfortunate news. After, he begins his peaceful quest to search for any astronomical information this world may hold. This first takes him to the library in the nearby village.

AO3 Link

The elevator reached the surface with the sound of its old doors creaking open. Ironwood was feeling ambivalent, however. On one hand, his mission was complete, and he had five days left to do as he pleased. On the other hand, reviewing the video tapes revealed that the mother had perished in the factory while running away from her children with a man. It is only human to want to be free from burden too. Ironwood knew he had to at least tell Jakob that harsh truth.

“Oh, thank goodness you’re okay. You were in there for a while.” said Jakob as James entered the door.

“Yes, I’m fine, but, there’s no easy way to say this.” From the look on Jakob’s face, Ironwood could tell he already knew what was coming.

“It’s my mom, huh? It’s alright. Nier already told me. He said he found her on his way back, and brought me back some of her perfume.” he said sadly.

“How are you holding up?”

“I’ll be alright. And Gideon will come around eventually. … I just-” he let out a sigh. “I just don’t know what to feel now. It hurts that she left us, but I know this was all too much for her. She just wanted to be happy, and her happiness didn’t involve us, but I still love her. We had some good times, and she did try for a time, and she is my mom. I just can’t bring myself to hate her. I feel like I should be stronger, and not even cry for her. Is that bad?” he asked, eyes watery and voice on the verge of cracking. Ironwood thought for a moment.

“I will be honest, I can’t understand how you feel, so take this as a grain of salt: I don't think you’re wrong for wanting that. Ultimately, she hurt you, her child. But understand this,” James got down on a knee to be eye level with him, “you are strong. From all my years, I’ve learned that it's easier for people to hate than it is to love. It takes a lot of strength to love, especially after what she did. And look around you!” James got up and motioned him to look at the shop around him. “Despite everything, you’ve managed to run this shop and become an excellent blacksmith, all while taking care of your brother all on your own. That is no small feat, especially for someone your age. This is a tough time for you, but you will get through it. You are strong.”

“Thanks mister Ironwood.” Jakob sniffed. “I needed that. It's gonna be hard, but things will be alright. I think she would want us to be alright too. And besides, I still have Gideon.”

“I’m glad. Oh, and here’s some junk I collected on the way. I figured you could use it.” Ironwood tossed a bag full of scrap onto the counter.

“Sweet! Thanks!” he exclaimed happily.

“No problem Jakob. … It looks like I’ll be on my way now.”

“Alright, stay safe now. There are a lot more shades out there than here in the Junk Heap.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve faced all sorts of monsters before.” With a final wave goodbye, James closed the door behind him and made his way to the exit. He was never the best at goodbyes or any sort of closing remarks.

As he walked, he thought about how Jakob could still love his mother after what she did. However, he knew he would have to be content in knowing that he would never understand it. A child’s love for their parent was a powerful thing.

He rememberd that Nier told him that there was a library in his village just across the plains. He hoped he could get lucky and find some old star charts or any sort of astronomical information. While Remnant was overall more technologically advanced, this world had traveled into space, well beyond their atmosphere.

From the information stored at the factory, he learned that this world had sent people to their unbroken moon, set artificial satellites in orbit around their planet, and sent machines to study planets billions of miles away. It amazed Ironwood so, and he intended to learn as whatever he could from this world’s knowledge on outer space. It was about time he treated himself to enjoying his little hobby.

Astronomy was something that always interested him. So much of it was unknown. There was a sense of serenity in that. It was a place free of the chaos of a cruel world. He considered that space could be chaotic too, but in its own ways, ways much less cruel. Space is an exotic, previously unknown beauty to him. He dreams that it is a place free of duty and worry, where people are safe, and will never have to worry about the cruelest cruelties of life. Salem, Grimm, murder, and needless suffering are absent there in his dream.

However, more than that, much more than that, a part of him believes something. It is the part of him where his last shred of innocence exists, the part where he holds onto hope for a merciless and unforgiving world. It believes that there, he can finally love.

-

After about half an hour fighting aggressive shades across the plain, James finally arrived at the gates of the village. He knocked on the large door, and waited. Looking up, he saw a man looking down on him over the side of the top of the gate, and disappeared from view, shouting an ‘okay’ that led to the gate opening. A guard gave a grunt of acknowledgement as he passed. It was a quiet place, and nothing like Atlas. By the fountain, he noticed a woman at a fountain singing a song. It helped calm him after the heavy, heart racing, fighting.

Ku ata

Tsu no-o va-lai

Tzud-e jei

Fo-aul ae kai

She seemed like she could help him.

“Excuse me, miss, would you happen to know where the library is?” he asked her.

“Do I look like a tourist guide to you?” she said curtly. Ironwood didn’t know what to say. “I’m just joking with ya.” she laughed. “It’s that building at the top of the hill.” she pointed out. “I’m Devola, and if you need any help finding something, ask my sister Popola. She’ll be in the room on the second floor to the right.”

“Alright, thank you.” he waved as she resumed her song. He just hoped his encounter with the other sister wouldn’t be like that.

The library had all its books stacked up its walls, leaving it a rather open space. At first, he aimlessly wandered around, scanning the spines of the books he passed. So far, he hadn’t found what he was looking for, and decided to give Popola a visit. At a shelf next to the base of the stairs was a little girl struggling to reach a book. Her hair was a silvery white, akin to Nier’s. He noted that similarity. He reached for the book and handed it to her.

“Here you are.”

“Thank you mister!” she said with a bright smile. She took a seat at the stair’s first step and began to read the simple book. Aside from her pale skin, which could be attributed to a lack of sunlight, odd considering the eternal sun, she did not look sick to him. Once at the top of the stairs, he turned right and knocked on the door.

“Come in!” she shouted, and Ironwood entered. “Oh, a new face. Not often you see one of those. How can I help you?” she said, looking up from the paperwork on her desk.

“I’m looking for books on astronomy, or any information you have on it really.” he said.

“Hmm… Astronomy… I don’t recall there being any books on that here, but-”

“DEVOLA, HURRY, QUICK!” screamed a voice downstairs.

“Crap, crap, crap!” she fearfully repeated as she leaped over her desk and bounded downstairs. James made sure to get out of her way, and looked downstairs once she had past him.

At the bottom of the stairs was the girl from earlier. She was curled up, wincing in pain as a darkness enveloped her arms and legs. There seemed to be some lettering in it. It had almost seemed familiar to James, but it faded before he could more clearly see it.

However, he knew for sure that this was Nier’s daughter, Yonah, with her silver-white hair and some sickness that could only be the Black Scrawl. It was unlike any kind of sickness he had seen before. He saw Devola scoop her up in her arms and leave the library.

He made his way down the stairs and picked up the book she dropped, A picture book titled The Wizard of Oz. Amused at the title, but otherwise uninterested in it, he placed it back on the shelf. Aesop’s Fables, Red Riding Hood, Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, and Goldilocks and the Three Bears were among the selection of books with colored pictures and big fonts.

Realizing he was the children’s section, he went back upstairs to browse another random section. He managed to find what he assumed was the philosophy section, based on the titles. It was filled with names unknown to him, Friedrich Engels, Karl Marx, Karl Grün, Simone de Beauvoir, Georg Hegel, Zhuangzi, Mozi, and many more.

He picked up a book by Karl Marx and flipped through it. Interestingly, none of its words were capitalized. He assumed it was a printing error. Once he saw that it concerned economics as well, and he quickly put it back. He dealt with enough economics back home, and had no desire to read about it on his little vacation. He owed himself that much, even if he was starting to feel guilty for taking such a long break from his work. He managed to find the romance section, but quickly found that none of it was to his taste. Romance as a genre was he never really understood the appeal of anyways.

Eventually, he settled on a titleless book that was at the top of a first floor shelf. It seemed mysterious, and therefore interesting.

There was an android who was set to oversee a small village. Her name was Skald, and embedded in her was the incredible power of an ancient song from another world. The song allowed her to help and manage her village in incredible ways, but, it soon corrupted her and the villagers. As a result, her creators had her and the village destroyed.

Learning from their failure, the scientist removed the magical power of the song. Despite having less power than before, she still ran and oversaw the village well enough. Her creators were pleased and began to make plans for mass production. While her creators did that, she had grown close to another woman in her village. They did lots together, so much so that many began to believe they were sisters. And soon, they began to refer to themselves as sisters. The scientist saw that there was an increase in her performance during this time.

However, the woman died in an unfortunate and sudden accident, leaving Skald all alone. Her performance decreased greatly as a result, and she was eventually decommissioned. She was not saddened at the revelation of her fate. In fact, she seemed grateful. However, the scientists were saddened by their creation. They created something near immortal that could love, and would more often than not have that love ripped away from them eventually.

In honor of their creation, they learned from their cruel mistake. Skald was renamed Popola, the nickname given to her by the woman and villagers, and she would have a twin to be by her side. Her name would be Devola, after the woman who loved Skald as a sister. “Together, they could sing a song that would calm and heal the heart. Together, they would face an otherwise lonely existence. Together, love would allow them to survive a cruel world.” was the ending of the short story.

Ironwood wasn’t sure what to exactly think of the story. He wondered why someone would write such a preposterous backstory about their village leaders. But then his thoughts were interrupted by the door opening. In came the younger sister, Devola, who went to meet him.

“Good, you’re still here. Sorry about earlier.”

“It’s alright, things happen. Will she be alright?”

“Yeah, she’ll be fine, she just needs some rest and medicine. She’ll be back here tomorrow I’m sure, unless Nier gets back soon. But Popola wanted me to pass a message. She said that you should try the Lighthouse at the Seafront south of here, or the desert civilization east of here. There's a store there where you might find what you’re looking for.” She pointed in the directions he should go.

“Alright, thank you.” James said happily. “Oh, and before I forget and you might want to check out this book.” he said, handing her the book he read earlier. ‘“I can’t imagine why anyone would write something like this, and I think you wouldn’t want it in here.” Curiously, she took the book and glanced at the cover and its back, and quickly flipped through its pages.

“Ha! This is a strange little book. Thanks for catching it. Here, take this to keep it between us.” she tossed him a small sack that rattled. James opened it to find coins in it.

“Are you sure? I don’t think you need to give me this. It-”

“Hey, don’t worry about it.” she calmly interrupted. “You just go and have your fun.”

“Well, alright. Thank you then.”

As he walked to the eastern gate, he wondered what it would be like to have a sibling. However, he simply just could not imagine it. A sibling’s love was something he never felt, and would never feel. He wondered if he should feel sad about that or not.

-

We give the finality of death. Iron skin draws out fear and terror, and is bathed in flesh. We are satisfied by the snatching of life. We realize our purpose through the crushing of the bodies. In our delight, we spread death far and wide. We are the iron will. We kill. Kill. Kill. Kill.

This interloper knows what he does as he slashes the blade on the way to his destination.

He knows there is blood on his hands, and accepts it readily, for he knows he must.

What he does is as just as it is unjust.

He knows this, and slashes again.

It must be done, so he believes.

Anyone can do this, so long as they think they are right.

#James Ironwood #rwby #nier #the woe of the wretched #the remnant branches #2.5k words #if only james had taken the time to read marx\ #lol #or any of the children's stories #sure he might realize things later on and have an existential crisis but it's better than what he's going through rn #then again remnant is probs going through an existential crisis having found out about salem