#in the same format i matched them with even though i thought i would do something different

[beary-rambles]

hiii, how are you? I saw that your requests were open and I was wondering if you could do Jacaerys Velaryon x reader. Where reader is Alicent’s firstborn daughter, and they were married in hopes to reconcile the family. Could you do newly married headcannons for them, sfw and nsfw. They don’t necessarily show their hate 24/7, they married out of duty, and for their families but they don’t get along or make efforts to get along, if that makes sense. More like a subtle enemies to lovers. If you can do this, it would be great. And I hope you have a wonderful day 😊😊😊

a/n: hiii i am great i hope youve been well. <3 TYSM FOR THE REQUEST !! sorry it took me a couple days to get too !! i went a little overboard sorry i just loved this rq sm !! <3 hope you enjoy !! (this is more of a fic in headcannon format :3)

word count: 2k

warnings: smut, slight enemies to lovers, slight baela/jaacerys romance for the drama, happy ending not bulleted, not proofread, avoided the use of y/n

You didn't hate jacaerys targaryen. No, you never had strong feelings about him. Even in your youth as you grew up you never thought much about him. If anything the most you had ever had is a slight resentment towards him for his treatment of aemond.

Your engagement had come as a surprise. Especially knowing how much your mother didn't care for rhaenyra or her family, especially her sons. But apparently rhaenyra and Alicent had a moment together and the two managed to come to an agreement for the sake of the family.

You couldn't gauge his reaction when he heard the news, he did not seem as shocked as you, leading you to believe he had already been informed. The two of you stared at each other and you could sense his annoyance. You've never had any bad blood so you don't understand what he could be so annoyed about until his eyes stray from you and you turn your head to where he's looking and notice he was looking at baela who also had a saddened look on her face but covered it up well. The two of you barely speak during the wedding prep.

The two of you actually argued quite a bit about the ceremony. You had wanted one more to your faith, the seven, while he was insistent that you had a traditional targaryen ceremony and for it to take place at driftmark.

“Of course you would want it at driftmark.” you scoff His head shoots up and he gives you a glare. “What could that possibility mean?”

“Nothing my dear i just find it funny that you of all people want a ceremony at driftmark. What sort of relation do you have there? Wouldn't a place like harrenhal suit you better”

His hands slam on the table and he stands his eyes never leaving yours as his face turns angry.

You can hear your mother scold you but you just laugh and keep a smile on your face. The meaning of your words are very clear to him but as he opens his mouth to speak his mother interrupts suggesting just to have two ceremonies.

You roll your eyes as he sits back down and agrees. The two of you continue to make sly remarks at one another to many, It would just look like friends poking fun at one another but the two of you knew that you two could barely stand each other. It was easy enough to fool the public into thinking the two of you had been a love match. Especially since they had no clue the two of you did not speak outside of public appearances.

Your wedding was magical, without any of the magic. You would have two ceremonies, one of the more intimate traditional Targaryen ceremony and one longer three day ceremony for the faith. you ended up having the targaryen ceremony first. It was a very small ceremony with only your family there.

Even though you held no feelings towards the velaryon boy there's something so intimate about the tradition ceremony that it had even your heart skipping.

you couldn't tell if he felt the same, he had a clearly fake pleased look but you did notice he did not spare baela one glance but instead had spent that night dancing with you.

you two decided not to consummate the marriage that night much to your relief, and would wait till your other wedding night. The public had no clue the two of you were already married, during your wedding feast many would come up to you and spare their congratulations and provide a gift.

You and jacaerys sat at the head of the table. The night had been going fine until one particular lord came up and started saying some inappropriate comments about you.

You began to shrink in your seat and could not find a voice to say anything yet you did not have to as jacaerys was quick to shut him down, his tone had changed much from his kinder tone earlier while regarding guests.

He had laced his land with yours and quickly shooed him away. He had turned to you and asked you if you were alright and all you could do was nod. jacaerys keeps his hand laced with yours the whole night. Despite the fact the two of you are still at odds you find comfort with his warm hand in yours.

The next day was the tourney. You knew jacaerys was going to be competing. No one dared to ask you for your favor. When jacaerys finally was announced he immediately strolled over to the royal box where you had been sitting, “your favor my love?”

After you had reached out and tied it around his sword he grabbed your hand and pressed a kiss to the back before riding away. When your wedding rolled around it had once again been a pleasant ceremony. A part of you which you didn't want to acknowledge felt as though there was a small smile on Jace's face when the two of you kissed. The celebration afterwards has also been nice but a part of you felt dread as you realized the bedding ceremony had been right around the corner. Jacaerys had noticed at some point during the festivities you had been upset, “are you alright?”

You didn't want to mention it so you just nodded my head and didn't turn to face him. You could feel his stare and when you didnt turn towards him he sighed. “If you hold any worries about the bedding ceremony, put them to rest. I have already insisted it is not necessary.” You whip your head towards him in shock but he had turned away from you and was staring at the crowd drinking from his chalice. “You did?”

“Of course, there is no reason to. Though the maesters were insistent they checked you afterwards. I had attempted to avoid that as well but they were persistent.” “Why?”

His face scrunched as if he had been confused about your question. “You did not want to do it. Did you?” Your head begins to hurt as you think about the fact he had put in all the extra effort to make sure you did not have to do something you did not want to.

The two of you decided to call it a night and you attempted to ignore your brothers yells of encouragement as you quickly exited the room. You had arrived at your chambers first and were quickly stripped out of your extravagant dress by some maids and the pit in your stomach continued to grow.

There was no way jacaerys would be a cruel lover. Sure the two of you did not get along most of the time but you felt he had been kind to you today and the last couple days. Lost in your thoughts you barely noticed as jacaerys walked into the room still in his formal wear and dismissed all the maids. You stood up to face him and suddenly it became alarmingly clear to you that you two were alone in this room while he was fully dressed and you were wearing a plain white nightgown. No words are spoken between the two of you as you stare as he begins to remove his formal wear. “I am sorry.”

His back is turned to you as he removes his coat and you watch as he freezes “what for?” “This whole marriage. You clearly did not want this and I am sorry you are being forced into this. Maybe I do not want it as well but it must feel worse for you.”

Your head had fallen to the floor as you went on. His hand grabbed your chin and he forced you to lock eyes with him. He had a relaxed face as he gave you a concerned look. “It is our duty you must be upset about it as well. Why would it be worse for me?”

“I assumed you had relations with baela..” you trail off and try to look away but his grip immediately pulls you back. “I promise you I shall never be unfaithful if that is your worry. You are my wife. I could not imagine disrespecting you that way.” It is clear to you he does not deny the fact he has feelings for her but you choose to ignore this fact as he leans in and kisses you. It becomes painfully obvious to the two of you that you are both terribly inexperienced He leads you over to the bed as you gasp as you fall back onto the bed

He is a very kind lover though it was very obvious to him he struggled to know what to do His fingers were clumsy as he attempted to prep you (which you did not expect as your mother told you he would just stick it in) But once he got to the rhythm of it he was very good and soon enough you had your first come. “Are you sure you've never done this nephew?” He laughs and shakes his head, “never dear auntie though i did read up on it.”

He kisses down your neck as he slips off your dress Lost in the feeling you barely noticed that he had slipped off his trousers he was still wearing and was fully nude You would say he has a nice dick but you've never seen another one so you have nothing to compare it to You fight the urge to reach out and grab it He clumsily lines himself up and it hurts.

He presses kisses all over your face in an attempt to calm you down and waits for you to give him the okay before he begins to move. Your mother had spent the last week tell you to be prepared to just lay there and take it and you would find no enjoyment at all but in this exact moment you had no clue what she was talking about You had never felt this amazing in your life, he was kissing you as one of his hands was playing with your clit and another one was locked with yours next to your head.

He was slow, not the rough and hard pace you had been expecting. He valued your pleasure just as much if not more than his own. He was also much more vocal that you had expected, your mother told you men do not make much noise but as he laid his head right next to your ear you could hear ever groan and whine leave his lips He encouraged you to come first before he spilled himself inside you. When he got up soon after you felt a chill, your mother did say men did just quickly leave as soon as they were done. To your surprise all he had done was get up to alert the maids to draw a bath for you.

This however alerts the maester and your mother who comes running in, your mother obviously concerned when she sees you but you reassure her you are fine. Jaacerys was nowhere to be seen and did not return til you were already asleep. You had expected the two of you to have a better relationship after the last couple days have been nice but jacaerys has a very sudden shift in attitude and is back to his sly remarks. A part of you feels sick as if the last couple days had just been a ruse to not have to force you to bed him and he was just like all men. Even when he comes back to bed you he is certainly not as nice as the first time.

“Jaacerys must be rather upset these days.” your brother aemond says over tea one morning “However, would you know that?” “Baela has been betrothed to one of arryns.” Now it has made sense to you and you find yourself seething with anger.

When he comes to join the two of you for tea you quickly make some excuse and rush away ignoring jacaerys confused look as he looks after you. The next couple days follow a similar routine. He is up before you and you pretend to oversleep so you miss breakfast with him, you busy yourself with other activities and avoid even being in the same room as him and when he tried to see you before bed you were already pretending to sleep. After the third day of this you hear him sigh as he sees you in bed already.

That next morning you expect things to go a similar way as the last couple had but were shocked to see jacaerys there instead of aemond who you were supposed to have tea with. “Jacaerys.” “Sit” “I'm supposed to be meeting with aemond-” “And you're meeting with me instead. Sit.” You begrudgingly sit and speak no words as he pours you a cup and you wordlessly take a sip. “You have nothing to say?” “Should i?”

He rolls his eyes, “we have not spoken in many a moon.” “I have been busy.” He scoffs, “busy with what?” You grow angry at his tone, “I apologize my prince but just because some of us aren't crowned princes that does not mean the things we spend our days doing are unimportant.” His face immediately drops as he rubs his hands over his face, “I am sorry, my lady, I didn't mean it like that.” You say nothing just look off to the side “I have just missed you.”

You laugh and his face grows angry once more, “what's that?” “Are you sure it's me you miss?” “Whatever does that mean.” You continue to laugh, “surely it must be your dear baela you miss not i. I heard she is to be married off.” His face turns confused, “what does baela have anything to do with this?”

“She is the reason you are upset, no? Why have you been upset?” He sighs and puts his head in his head. “No, I mean yes but no.” “What does that mean?” “I am not upset that she is betrothed.” You keep silent as he continues, “i thought we were meant to be ever since i was a young kid and i do admit that i was more than angry when i had been informed i would be marrying you and even angrier when we continued to argue but after a while i realized that i had enjoyed your company more and more, especially after our wedding.” A light blush dusts his face, “and when i heard the news of baelas betrothal i had expected myself to be filled with rage but i felt nothing. And that terrified me. The only thing I could think about was you.”

“I avoided being short tempered and nasty with you so I apologize but these couple days without speaking to you have been tortuous. I have come to realize I need you.” You are frozen as a warm feeling fills you, you can tell by the look on his face he means every word. “I love you jacaerys.” “And I love you my beloved.”

#jacaerys velaryon x reader #jacaerys velaryon #jacaerys velaryon fanfic #jacaerys velaryon x you #jacaerys x reader #jacaerys x you #jacaerys strong #jacaerys strong x reader #jacaerys targaryen x reader #jacaerys velaryon x reader fanfic #hotd fanfic #hotd imagine #jacaerys velaryon fluff #jacaerys fic #jacaerys imagine #house of the dragon #house of the dragon fanfic #house of the dragon fanfiction #jace velaryon x reader #jace velaryon x you #jace x reader #jacaerys velaryon x fem reader #jacaerys velaryon x fem!reader #hotd x reader #hotd x you #requests #jacaerys request #jacaerys requests #jacaerys velaryon request

[moonchildstyles]

announcement/sneak peek

happy spooky season everyone!!

ive never had the time to do something like this, but ive finally timed it all right and I'll be posting a halloween/spooky centered fic for this season! and, for the first time ever, I'm trying out a mini-series kind of format! if its something ppl like and interact with ill def consider doing this more!

anywayyyyyyyy, starting next friday, the 13th, on patreon I will begin posting my new mini-series called Oleander for early access! two weeks later on friday, the 27th, tumblr will begin the story!

it's a three part mini series with darker themes and ideas than ive ever worked with before! i don't usually spoil too much of the stories but ! this is another vamp h story!! very different from my previous vamp h though!!!

this will be my last big piece of writing for the year before I go on my break, and I'm so excited for you guys to get to read it and get to know this new story!

under the cut, I have a sneak peek attached! I also have a Pinterest board you can look at if you want to get a feel for the story!

—————

She hadn't misremembered, it appeared. His eyes really were almost black, just barely tinted a forest green—if the forest in question was being spotted in the pitch of night, only a sliver of the moon and stars above allowing any clarification.

Her heart jumped in her throat, running faster than it had any reason to when their eyes met. She forced herself to swallow it down.

"Sorry, sir," she muttered, unable to pull her gaze away from his even if she instinctively wanted to look anywhere else. "Did you find all you were looking for?" 

"I did, yes." His voice was a lulling rumble, rounded and heady as if the goal was to lure her nearer. If not for the table separating them, she would have fallen for it.

Offering a quiet smile, she gave him a polite nod. 

No other words were exchange, as per usual for his visits. The Count wasn't much for conversation and idle chatter like the rest of the village. Instead, she could feel him watching her as she counted up his herbs and the price of each bundle. 

He was buying the same ones he always did: winter savory (he switched to chamomile when out of season), tobacco, and lavender. 

The buds together created a confusing scent, adding to the mishmash of what the apothecary already was. She couldn't imagine that he would put these three together in any space of that castle, the mixture too aggressive. 

Though she tired her best to concentrate on only the herbs, (Y/N) was too aware of the static of his presence. She wondered what he thought when he came down to the village, what he thought when he interacted with people like her. He was always so stoic. He never gave anything away, though that didn't stop the village gossip from running wild about him.

Swallowing around her dry throat, heartbeat bubbling against her ribs, she matched his gaze. The pricing for his bounty came out on buzzing lips, "Sixteen shillings please, sir." 

He didn't bat an eyelash at the price despite it being the biggest single purchase her father's apothecary would see until the next time he ventured down. Instead, he looked at her with his dark eyes and a tic in his jaw. He was unbearably handsome, made of cut edges and smooth planes, but he always looked at her as if he were angry and working to bury it down. She could never figure out why or what exactly made his nostrils flare or his jaw tight when he spoke to her, but she hoped she wasn't the only one he reacted to like this. 

His hands moved quickly, pulling out a small pouch of tinkling coins before he plucked out the exact amount for her. For a moment, she could see bank notes tucked inside the pouch as well. While she wasn't surprised that someone like him would have that kind of wealth, she had never seen it before with her own eyes. 

Passing off the change to her, his pale fingers grazed her open palm. Goosebumps immediately raised across her skin, his touch feeling as if he had been standing in the dawn's dew for hours, allowing the chill to cling to his skin and leach away all hope for warmth. The graze was quick, barely a heartbeat long, but she swore she could feel the lingering touch for moments after. Maybe he really did have a hard time navigating the village when the fog was this thick, having traveled in winding route and wrong turns for so long he still hadn't been able to heat up even after spending time in the shop. 

Flicking her gaze up to his on instinct, she saw he was looking at swatches of skin exposed from her dress, eyeing the goosebumps he had plucked up on accident. 

(Y/N) cleared her throat, nothing more than a reminder to herself to keep professional and not to gawk at the man. She placed the change in the small cup underneath the collection counter before reaching for his herbs of choice. A length of twine was used to tie up the bundle, ensuring he didn't lose anything on his way back home. 

"Thank you," he muttered once she passed them back, their skin no longer grain this time. 

"Have a pleasant journey back home," she chirped, her voice decidedly pleasant against the bubbling she was feeling inside, "Stay warm." 

The Count didn't give any kind of reaction to her before he was leaving the shop in a flourish. Taking advantage of the window at her disposal, she watched as he ventured out into the fog. The mist mingled around him, making him appear as if he were a ghost, one with the Earth-bound clouds. She was only vague aware of the way her body heat ticked up some now that he had left. 

Though she could hear the sound of footsteps descending the stairs that led up to their home a floor above, (Y/N)'s head was outside the shop and away from her father. She didn't turn even when she could tell he had made it to the landing. He was used to it by now, she knew. Her head was always miles away as far as he was concerned—thinking too big for the village and that was only going to hurt her in the long run. 

The air around her shifted, telling her that her father was just behind her, likely watching to see what had caught her attention this time. 

"Is that Harry?" he grumbled, spitting out the name while dismissing the faux-title since they were alone. 

Her father didn't much like the Count—Harry, as he bitterly spat out. (Y/N) was never sure what had set off her father's distaste for the man, just knowing that he thought him to be something of a boogeyman against the village. He didn't even go to church, her father regularly complained. What kind of man was he if he couldn't even bother to trudge down from his palace to spend some time with God, even if it was in the presence of commoners? 

(Y/N) never really minded. Though she'd never tell her father, church was boring. She couldn't blame Harry—the Count, whatever she was supposed to call him—for skipping out. Especially with the peeks a the castle she could garner if she trekked through the woods far enough. She wouldn't want to leave that place for anything. 

Nonetheless, (Y/N) answered with a soft, "Yes." Her eyes were still locked on the form of him she could barely make out through the mist. 

A grunt of disapproval left her father's lips. She didn't have to look at him to know that he had his arms crossed over his chest. "Are you okay?" 

It was when he settled a hand on her shoulder that she snapped out of her staring. 

"Yes, I'm well," she answered as placidly as possible when she turned to face him. She didn't want to show just how affected she was by the Count. Her father would do more than just grunt and disapprove if he knew just how drawn to the man as she was. 

He peered through the window, his eyes surely finding the one dark figure filtering through the fog. His brows slanted into harsh slashes over his eyes. "I want you to come and find me when he comes in from now on. I don't want him talking with you, anymore." 

Her fingertips buzzed at the new instructions, matching the kickstart to her heartbeats. As much as she heard her father's concerns, and had listened in to all the of the stories and webs spun about this man, those did little to deter her interest in Harry or quell the bubbling in her chest every time she saw him step inside the apothecary. 

"I can handle him, father," she countered, trying to sound as uninterested as possible while attempting to hold her ground, "We barely talk when he comes in, anyway." 

The creases between his brows only deepened when he matched her gaze. "I do not want you becoming one of his victims, (Y/N)."

—————

#harry #harry styles #harry x reader #harry styles x reader #harry styles blurb #harry styles imagine #harry styles one shot #harry styles series #vampire harry styles #harry blurb #harry one shot #harry imagine #vampire harry #harry smut #harry styles smut

[stargirl-int3rlud3]

𝐒𝐞𝐚 𝐒𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐬.

steven conklin x fem! reader

🗯 ! kissing, established relationship, rain & thunder, short but sweet !

synopsis; you've had a love for collecting seashells since you were little and you had a whole afternoon planned specifically for collecting shells, but your plans are put to a halt as the once bright sun hides behind the clouds and you're left with the pouring rain. sadden by the change of plans you text your boyfriend, steven, he knows just the thing to cheer you up. — ♡ ᵎᵎ

The happiness that had filled your body is something that one would deem childish. You planned an afternoon where you were supposed to go out to the beach and pick through the sand for shells. While you were getting ready you hadn't realized the formation of the storm clouds that began to appear. Unfortunately, as you were about to head out the soft sound of raining turned your smile into a frown.

You plopped yourself on your bed with a sad sigh, deciding to text your boyfriend Steven about the sad situation you were currently dealing with. Steven quickly informs you that he'll be over shortly to cheer you up. You waited as the thunder roared throughout your house, for Steven to arrive.

Steven hurried to find a coat and boots, making his way to the beach in no time. He spent his time carefully and concisely choosing shells that he thought you would love or ones that reminded him of you. Each shell had to be perfect for you. And even though Steven knows you'll end of talking to Belly about the sweet gesture which will than result in Jeremiah hearing about, who teased him the most for his smitten behavior towards you. In the moment it may be a tad bit embarrassing for him, but once he thinks about it later he's reminded that you spoke to his sister about it which meant that it clearly made you happy. That's what he cherished the most. Your happiness. Even if your happiness was something others saw as childish.

Tightly holding the secured sea shells Steven waddles to your place, politely knocking on the doors which leads to you springing off your bed in pure excitement. However, you were expected to see your boyfriend drenched in water holding sea shells close to himself. In that very moment you couldn't hold it in anymore, you pressed the palm of your hand to your mouth as tears leaked out of your eyes. You couldn't believe that he had went through all the trouble of getting you sea shells on a rainy day, when you followed him into your bedroom and he set the shells down you tackled him onto your bed, kissing any part of his face that your lips could find. Steven sat up with lovestruck eyes as he slight sways in circles over your overwhelming kisses. He gently pulls your face up to his and gives you a delicate kiss on the lips that makes you want to faint.

As you lay your head on his chest you mumble a string of words, "How can I be the luckiest girl in the world to have such an amazing boyfriend? "

" Because I'm the luckiest guy in the world to have such an amazing girlfriend" He smiles down at you.

Moving small pieces of hair away from your face, you smile brightly at him. Steven always had a tendency to move pieces of your hair away from your face and often smiled at you with the most loving eyes when you had your hair pulled back. Now all you could think about was how you were going to take those same shells and make matches bracelets for you two out of them. You knew that if you gave Steven a bracelet and showed him your matching one he'd put it on in seconds and never take it off even if it was falling apart.

☆ | this one was a very short one with little dialogue but i do hope you enjoyed!!

#luv₊˚꒰🩰꒱‧ #tsitp #the summer i turned pretty #tsitp steven conklin #tsitp steven #the summer i turned pretty steven conklin #the summer i turned pretty steven #steven conklin x reader #tsitp steven x reader #tsitp steven conklin x reader #x reader

[gentil-minou]

Lanuary 2024 - Day 12, Sizhui's Birthday

The gentians in his mother's garden grow late into the season, as if her spirit still tends to them. A-Yuan's laughter flutters on wings toward where Lan Wangji sits on the wooden deck and watches.

"He's doing well, Wangji," Xichen says.

Lan Wangji nods, the corners of his eyes softening despite himself.

He is. A-Yuan has come a long way in the long months that have passed since…since…

His fingers clench tight and he hides them in his sleeves.

"Soon he'll be of age to join the little ones' class. He'll be a bit behind in core formation, but with diligent study and practice I am certain he will catch up in no time."

Xichen smiles, as if he has no memory of why A-Yuan is so behind his peers. Why he will be starting late.

Lan Wangji's back itches. The bandages stick uncomfortably to his skin. He'd split the stitches open again the other night. He hadn't even done anything this time. His scars just tear open and blood spills from them afresh, uninterested in healing and moving on.

Lan Wangji cannot blame them.

Xichen continues speaking, unaware as always. Lan Wangji knows his brother has other responsibilities and his concerns about the Nie sect leader's growing sickness have recently taken precedence. But sometimes he wonders what sort of world Brother resides in. It cannot be the same world Lan Wangji inhabits.

"He will need a courtesy name soon," he says as his gaze drifts to the ribbon A-Yuan is still getting used to.

He'd marveled over the cloud pattern when Lan Wangji first presented it to him, delighted in being able to match his gege.

Again, his thoughts stray to another caregiver with a different colored ribbon. He wonders, not for the first time, what A-Yuan would have said if Wei Ying gifted him a red ribbon.

A-Yuan has not mentioned his Xian-gege once since he'd arrived. The masters say his memory has been altered forever. How mournful a life never knowing Wei Ying would be. Or would it be a mercy? Lan Wangji still does not know.

His brother gently tugs him away from his thoughts. "Have you thought of a courtesy name yet? If he is to be your heir then—"

"He is already my heir."

Rule number 24. Do not interrupt. Let them add another scar to his back, if they so choose.

Xichen sighs. "Yes. As a Lan heir, normally his name would be chosen by the elders, but I suspect you would disagree."

"Mn." He will, when the time comes.

The boy already has a name, though Lan Wangji will not share it with Xichen or Uncle or anyone.

The only one who's heard it are ghosts lingering at night by his bedside, when Lan Wangji is weak and whispering that name alongside another.

No one else will know the name until it's time. And they will have no say in it. Bitterness swells rotten and tired on his tongue, poison in his teeth. After all, why should they?

The person who should have given A-Yuan his name is no longer here. Why would anyone else ever deserve that privilege?

Eventually, Xichen stops his patient waiting, shaking his head and pretending Lan Wangji can't see. They spend a few more moments watch A-Yuan chase after a bunny, giggling as he trips over his ribbon. The garden is awash in color as red and golden leaves fall to join their brethren in the small pond. Curious carp swim to the surface for a nibble, dashing away once satisfied.

"What about a birthday?" Xichen asks. "You have not yet given one. Will you choose the day you brought him back?"

The day Lan Wangji found A-Yuan and brought him back? The day he learned of Wei Ying's death? The day he spent hours and hours scouring a barren wasteland for a ghost, for a body? The day he found only bones and misery, and one small sickly boy breath so sallow he'd been afraid to take a step lest he hurt him?

No. Nothing on that dark, horrible day. If he could, Lan Wangji would wipe that date off the calendar forever.

But his brother is right. A-Yuan deserves a day to celebrate.

"Mn. I will think of one," he tells Xichen, then says nothing as he waits for his brother to leave. Sometimes Xichen refuses to budge. Other times, he leaves Lan Wangji in peace, and Lan Wangji can let himself feel the fury that spikes in his veins at the sight of him.

This time, Xichen leaves quickly, blessedly. But simmering fury does not flow through his veins. How can it, when A-Yuan's laughter is music that lifts his spirits and fills this quiet space with life it hasn't had in decades.

A breeze scatters leaves into a whirlwind, spinning around A-Yuan as he yelps and holds his prized ribbon to his head. A red leaf gets caught in his hair, nestling unnoticed near his small ponytail.

This time of year…soon it will be Wei Ying's birthday. It would be fitting for A-Yuan to share that date with his Xian-gege.

It could also become a curse.

Lan Wangji swallows down the rising shame at his cowardice. How can he claim that day for A-Yuan when he cannot even speak Wei Ying's name to him? How can he pretend he has any right to that day, to anything belonging to Wei Ying.

No. That day will stay Wei Ying's. It will remain as Lan Wangji's day to repent.

But then, what else? Lan Wangji had so little time with A-Yuan and the Wens, he wouldn't know where to start. Should he seek out a fortune teller for an auspicious date. Another person assigning them their fate?

The idea sours low in his stomach and he casts it away. Whatever else, he wants A-Yuan to live a life freer than his predecessors. He wants him to have more than they ever had.

But he still needs a birthday.

A memory whispers along a winter's wind, carrying a chill from long ago.

"Zhanzhan, come, come. Let's eat cake."

In his memories, his mother's voice sounds like wind chimes and glass. Beautiful, yet breakable. So fragile, and so precious, something to handle with care and polish as needed.

"Mama. We have not yet eaten dinner," he'd said, already following rules that sought to bind.

"Mhm, but that's okay, little one. We can keep it a secret. Come, come. I want to celebrate your birthday early this year."

"But why? Won't I see you next month to celebrate?"

In his memories, his mother's smile is sweet and sad, but stubbornly sticks to her face.

He cannot remember what the cake tasted like, time becoming a chasm he cannot cross. But he remembers his mother's joy as she ate, how she dabbed frosting on his nose, how she laughed at the face he made, how she kissed it off with tenderness.

He remembers how a month later, long after her body had turned to ash, he refused to eat the cake set out for his birthday for years to come.

Eventually, he grew to love the taste anew, finding his mother in every sweet. Sugary syrups and fluffy dough, the same as her laughing cheeks. Honey eyes and candied laughter. Powdery warmth that cradled his back when she'd press him to her heart.

Now, he's grateful they were able to share one last cake between them, the memory better than any treat.

"Gege, look at this pretty flower!" A-Yuan's voice wraps warm around his thoughts, a hug that gently lifts him from his memory.

Lan Wangji blinks down at the purple-blue gentian sitting in his lap as A-Yuan's strokes gentle fingers over soft petals.

"There's so many. Can we keep them? I want to put them in my bed."

Lan Wangji's hand drifts to the stem, hesitant to touch the petals lest he break them.

"No, little one. We cannot."

A-Yuan pouts and whines, "But whyyyy? I want to make them my friends…" His bottom lip sticks out and trembles dangerously. He doesn't often throw tantrums, too well-behaved to try. But Lan Wangji has held him through silent tears after nightmares. It is not any better.

He swallows, wishing again for Wei Ying's guidance. The boy would never shed a tear if he were here. His eyes drift towards the flower bed where the buds drift in the wind.

"The flowers," he start haltingly, "need to rest in their bed. The way A-Yuan must rest in his."

A-Yuan tilts his head, "Really?"

Lan Wangji nods, anxiously on the lookout for any tears gathering in the corner's of big brown eyes.

A-Yuan's faces scrunches up as he thinks. "They have to stay in the soil… so they can grow big and strong? And make lots of friends?"

Lan Wangji nods in a hurry, not sure what else to say. Where did A-Yuan learn this?

But the rain does not pass, and churns into a storm.

"Then—then," A-Yuan quietly sniffles as he stares at the flower in his hand. "Then, then then when I— when I picked—picked the flower, did I—did I take it away from, from, from…its family?"

His tears slip like morning dew, with not a sound like there's no one there to notice. Lan Wangji helplessly cradles A-Yuan's face and tries to wipe them away before the can fall.

"I, I, I," A-Yuan whispers, "I did a bad."

"No, no little one." Lan Wangji repeats desperately. "You did not." He casts his glance around as he tries to think of something to salvage this.

There. An empty tea cup. He rises swiftly and fills with with water from the pond. Then, he holds A-Yuan's hand and guides him back to the flower bed.

He thinks of what Wei Ying would say. The story he'd tell.

"Your flower went on a little trip," he says. He digs a small hole in the ground and with gentle, slow movements shows A-Yuan how to plant the stem back in the ground.

"It went on a trip to see its friend, and now it's back home." He gestures for A-Yuan to pour water over the soil. "And now, it's been fed and it will be with its family."

A-Yuan sniffles and stares at the patch of disturbed ground. "It's having dinner with its family now?"

"Mn."

"Is it loud? Are they laughing? Are they eating soup?"

"…Mn." Water is technically soup.

"…I don't like soup…"

"…Plants enjoy soup. Water soup."

A-Yuan accepts his answer with a nod before smashing his face in Lan Wangji's robes. Lan Wangji gently brushes back his hair and straightens his ribbon, letting A-Yuan have a moment as long as he needs.

Eventually, A-Yuan lifts his head and pulls back, wearing a sheepish look. Lan Wangji crouches down to eye level and waits.

"Sorry gege, A-Yuan will get you another present…sorry…."

Lan Wangji shakes his head as he wipes away the remaining tear tracks. "No need."

"Gege doesn't like presents?"

"No, I like presents," he says, thinking of rabbits and fruit and pink flowers. "But I do not need one."

"Not right now?"

"Mn. Not right now." He tickles A-Yuan and his giggles sing across the garden.

Sugary syrup and fluffy dough cheeks, honey eyes and candied laughter. Powdery warmth that settles in his heart as he cradles the boy to his chest.

Gentians that bloom late into the season, petal soft and vibrant against red and yellow trees. Alive well after they should be, as if cared for by spirits unseen.

Gifts that have no end, that do not fade with time. That stay soft and sweet in his memories.

"A-Yuan, would you like a birthday?"

A-Yuan hiccups around a giggle. "What's a birthday?"

Lan Wangji's lips twitch, just a tiny bit.

"A day where we will celebrate A-Yuan."

"Hmm," A-Yuan ponders as he taps his nose in an achingly familiar gesture. "Does gege have a birthday?"

Lan Wangji blinks mist from his eyes and nods.

"Then A-Yuan wants a birthday too!" His cheers echo against the walls until stopping instantly. "How does A-Yuan get a birthday?"

Lan Wangji lifts A-Yuan into his arms, holding him close. He steps along the garden path winding through his mother's flowers and over the bridge that looks out into the small pond.

For a long time, after his mother's death, nothing seemed to grow in this garden. For a long time, Lan Wangji took satisfaction in it. Nothing should grow here where death festers.

But despite his past wishes, death begets life, and one year the gentians bloomed as if they had every year, and the next year again and the next year again. Year after year, stubbornly clinging to life.

His mother, he thinks, was probably the same.

The day she died, he vowed he'd never celebrate another birthday. They'd remain quiet days for reflection. After all, he never learned his mother's birthday. The elders never saw it fit and mother had never mentioned it.

But Lan Wangji has grown tired of choices being made for him. Perhaps he should make more choices of his own.

Although he won't ever learn his mother's birthday, he can celebrate her life over the memory of her death. He can give new meaning to the day, give new meaning to all the days.

"Your birthday," he tells A-Yuan, who resettles after attempted to grab the carp from so high up. " will be several days before mine, on a very important day."

"Yay!" A-Yuan cheers. "How will we celebrate? Do we celebrate together? Will we get presents?"

"Mn. A-Yuan will have many presents." He will make sure of that.

"What about gege?"

"No need."

He doesn't need them, he thinks. The gifts he'd wish for are impossible to receive.

But there are gifts he has, right in his arms. Gift that life in memories, close to his heart, polished to a shine.

(threadfic here)

(A/N My headcanon is that Sizhui's birthday is the day Mama Lan passed, but because he can't properly mourn her, this way he can celebrate her life alongside this boy who was his gift from another loved lost one.)

#i found a website that unrolls threads and it's changed everything #mdzs #mo dao zu shi #the untamed #wangxian #wei wuxian #wei ying #lan wangji #a-yuan #lan sizhui #lanuary #lanuary 2024 #mdzs musings #mdzs fanfiction #bushy writing

[angelsworks]

Little Witch The last kingdom x reader

Chapter 4

Next Chapter -> H E R E

Series Masterlist -> Here

Type: Series

Summary: You recover from use of your powers. Later you have a vision where you meet someone from your past.

Warnings: 18 +, suggestive situations, etc

Uhtred moves toward your small form. Crumpled on the ground.

“Are you sure you want to do that mate?” Finan asks, still keeping a great distance between the two of you.

Uhtred turns to look at Finan with an eyebrow raised.

“I mean, what if she gets you with her mind powers.” Finan’s voice has an edge of mockery. But his concern is real. He’s just seen you melt a man’s mind without touching him. He’s not convinced you won’t do something similar to Uhtred. Even in your sleeping form.

“What harm can she do while asleep?” Uhtred remarks. If you could do something like this while at their camp, it was worth noting that you chose not to.

He’s feels more certain you have good intentions towards him and his fellow warriors. While he was not entirely convinced of your innocence, his reservations towards you dwindled. Having no trouble picking you up or being near you more now.

He could see now that you were nothing like Skade. He could see why men feared Skade, her outward appearance matched her inner intentions. Yet with you he sees no reason to be scared. Well not until a few moments ago. Compared to Skade your vision was much clearer and your power was clearly stronger.

Fate had sent you his way for a reason. Now he was sure he would accept it. Fate had not been kind to him recently. He argued that this might be a some sort of present from the gods. A way to make up for all of the bad.

He crouched near your body. Your breathing soft, as you lay on your side. Your tattered dress covered in dirt. Both old and new.

Uhtred brushes a piece of hair out of your face. Taking the time to observe the peace on your face, that he sees only when you sleep.

Finan sends a look towards Sihtric and Osferth. Realising that any advice he gave to Uhtred about not thinking with his cock, clearly went in one ear and out the other.

The feelings among Finan, Sihtric and Osferth were almost unanimous. They’d seen the disruption and trouble Skade had left. They expected the same from you. Yet watching you today changed some of their perceptions.

They had decided you couldn’t be truly evil. Not when you went out of your way to save Osferth. At a tax to your own health.

They had decided to no longer judge you based of your appearance. You may look small and weak physically, but they were forced to stretch their ideas of strength after watching you force a man to his God with just a look.

The one perception that did not change was that you were dangerous. If they were not friends with Uhtred, they would see him as dangerous. Dangerous because of his immense strength and skill both on and off the battlefield.

You were dangerous because you were both a witch and a stranger. They had no stories shared with you, no memories, no battles. They didn’t know the first thing about you. Not even your name.

Uhtred reached his arms underneath you, picking you up and carrying you to his horse. He struggled little as he mounted his horse with you in his arms. Positioning you to straddle his lap, leaning your head on his chest. Drawing his own cloak around you.

Your body was limp. Even with the dead weight he thought your body too light. Your dress hid your shape. Though the contact between his chest and your body allowed him to realise how small you really were. As his arm held you close he could almost feel your bones through the thin layer of skin covering them.

He would make sure you were fed properly from now on. If you were to stick around he wouldn’t want you weak.

The horses went back into formation as they walked down the road again. Finan beside him. Osferth and Sihtric behind. All being extremely quiet.

“What will become of her?” Osferth asks, voice gentle. Mind contemplating your fate. Fate that now in rested in their hands.

Uhtred thinks about it, “she stays with us, but we will still be cautious of her. Know now she is no fake.”

“So have you decided to keep her then?” Finan’s question makes him snort. The sound making you stir beside him.

“A witch this powerful,” he looks down to you once more. “I would be foolish not to.”

Your mind is blank. Emerged in darkness.

A dull light emerging from the darkness works to break your unconscious state. The drowsiness of your mind begins to agitate you, as you struggle to escape it. You feel your mind try to awaken but your body is still numb. You try to move your arms, lift your lids, stretch you toes. All prove fruitless.

Slowly, the drowsiness begins to clear and your mind begins to sharpen. It feels as thought knives are being pushed through your skull as you begin to wake up. The pain solicits a groan, which passes your lips. Breaking the seal between them.

As you stir you are made acutely aware of your surroundings. The sound of horses hooves surround you. Your body is rocked forwards and backwards, a motion you match to being on a horse. Your face feels the cold of the wind, yet your body does not. A thick cloak covers you.

Your nose is filled with the scent of wood, leather and musk. The last scent makes your eyes flip open. You see the detailing of Uhtred’s chest plate. You comprehend the position your in. Practically wrapped around Uhtred’s front, face pressed into his chest, while his arms wrap around you and hold the reins. They act as barriers, securing you in place.

You want to feel embarrassed but your main concern is the pain radiating from your body. It was the same when you killed one of Steffens men. It made your body weak and drained your energy. The feeling was in no way pleasant.

This time you were already so weak before you killed the bandit. You weren’t sure what energy you had left to drain. All you knew was the pain you felt was worse than the last time and if Uhtred wasn’t holding you up, you’d lost likely be on the floor.

You groaned again as you moved your head to look at Uhtred.

“Easy witch, you move any more and you’ll fall from my horse.”

You said nothing as you stilled your body. Trying to remain as still as possible. While practically balancing on his lap.

While the position is not proper, being so close to someone else brings you comfort. You can’t remember the last time you had a hug or any sort of intimacy you enjoyed.

Reality breaks and you remember now more clearly, what you’ve done. How disturbed Uhtred and his men must be. They must think you’re the devil himself. Evil reincarnated.

You wonder why he holds you so close. So you can’t escape? Are they planing to turn you in? To take you somewhere worse than their care?

Your already laboured breathing gets impossibly harder to push out.

“I’m sorry.” You whisper pathetically. Trying to steady your panic.

“For what little witch?” Uhtred’s tone does not sound angry. In fact, this is the calmest you’ve heard him be.

You focus on the sounds and smells around you. Trying to ground yourself. You focus on the gentle sway from the horse, the cold on your face and Uhtred being so close. It creates a dream like calm. One that helps you to try and speak without crying.

“For killing that man.” Your eyes are focused on the trees as they go by.

“He planned to do the same to Osferth.” He points out.

Yet still you feel uneasy, guilty even. For exposing your dark powers to them. Making your relationships with them more strained, if not broken.

“I’m sorry I killed him the way I did.” You murmur. Not quite sure he’d even heard you.

Uhtred sighs, not sure what to say to you. While he’s starting to realise how powerful you truly are, he sees that you are no Skade. The thoughts leave him feeling conflicted.

“Try to sleep witch. We will speak later.” His words do little to reassure you from your doubts. Regardless you try to fall back to sleep.

Your exhaustion is apparent once again, when your body slips quickly into a limp state. Your eyes closing. Your nose filled with Uhtred’s scent. And finally you go back to sleep.

At some point in your sleep your mind becomes awakened with colour.

A bustling market filled with people becomes clearer. You see Uhtred beside you. A rope wound around your wrist is attached to his own. Tethering you to him so you can’t run away.

The picture turns to an alleyway off to the side of the market. Down it you see a figure adorned in a dark blue cloak. The cloak is familiar. It’s not until the hood is pulled down that you see her. Astrid. The sight is enough to fill your heart with joy. It’s a welcomed difference from the previous dread and panic you felt.

The next time you wake the sky is grey. Not with night, but with a muggy morning gloom. A camp has been made around you but it’s deserted. The fire put out. Small bowls and other items lay around it.

You take a deep breath in as you try to sit up. Your side aches. The feeling making you wince. You are glad no one is around. You can’t think of any convincing lies for your injuries.

The cloak is still wrapped around you from yesterday. You find your ankle tied once more to the floor. The sight making you sigh.

On the other side of camp, out from the trees Osferth emerges. He sees you awake and gives you a weak smile. He walks over to the camp, packing away the bowls and other items on to the four various horses.

Finally he comes over to you, hesitant. He crouched in front of you. Looking deep into your eyes. As if searching for something.

Even though he doesn’t consider himself a monk anymore, Osferth still feels he is a holy man in his soul. His previous life has set expectations for how sin and evil will appear to him.

Before he talks to you he looks in your eyes. Searching for any indication you are evil.

He sees a frightened girl, eyes wide. Trying to appear braver than she is. He sees a girl who saved him, despite their poor treatment of her.

“Thank you for saving me.” You nod. Voice weak. Unsure what to say to him.

He pulls out a flask, offering it to you. Without appearing too eager you take the flask. Pulling at the top and taking a large swallow. You don’t care what the liquid inside is. Water, ale, whisky. It could be poison for all you know. As long as your spit stops tearing your throat at every swallow, you’ll die happy.

Thankfully it’s just water. You’re tempted to joke about it being holy water, but feel that with Osferth it may be true.

With the flagon half empty you hand it back to him.

“Thank you.” The water had done wonders for your throat. Words now coming out smoother than before.

He tries to reciprocate your smile and does so poorly. It’s clear he still, like the others, has his reservations about being near you.

Soon after Finan and Sihtric return. Regarding you with impartial gazes, not saying anything. They pack up any items left around the camp before preparing to saddle up.

You don’t notice when Uhtred comes beside you to untie your ankle. Instead lost in thoughts of Astrid and seeing her again.

“Witch, you ride with me.” Is all he says before picking you up and throwing you over his shoulder. The action jostling your sore body. Your bite your lip to hide your moan.

He places you on his horse and climbs behind you. Taking the reigns and setting off. Once again in front with Finan.

You doubt a piece of rope could be put between you and Uhtred with how close you are. Your ass directly in front of his crotch. The rock of the horse bumping you gently together. The feeling of it making you blush.

It would be a long ride to town. At least you know you would reunite with Astrid.

#angelsworks post #the last kingdom #the last kingdom x reader #the last kingdom series #uhtred the last kingdom #osferth the last kingdom #sihtric the last kingdom #finan the last kingdom #dark

[aftermathfanfic]

D&Ducks

So, I was originally going to make this post for when I hit 300 followers, but I don’t think that’s going to happen anytime soon, and I’ve been thinking about this for way too long, so fuck it. I’m just gonna post this now and see what happens.

In case it wasn’t obvious from the hints I’ve scattered through Aftermath, I am a huge D&D nerd. I love playing the game, I love running the game, I love the monsters, everything. And what I particularly love doing is building characters and monsters for the game. I use a lot of custom monsters for the games that I run, even though I don’t end up using all of them, and what I’ve done in the past is that I created character sheets and stat blocks for some of our favourite anthropomorphic ducks. In fact, on my main blog, I documented a solo adventure that I ran by myself, for myself, in story format as I put these duck characters through a premade advennture! (I eventually stopped, because playing a D&D game by yourself is as dull as it sounds)

So today, I’m going to revisit those roots and lay out how I would build the Ducktales characters as tabletop RPG player characters! This is something I’ve given way too much thought to, so be warned – this is going to be quite long-winded, with little to nothing to do with Aftermath itself, and of interest to only a small subset of people.

Let’s begin!

The Basics

I want to preface this whole thing by mentioning that while I’m going to try and describe these characters in a way that can be transposed onto any RPG system, I’m going to be using the Pathfinder RPG (1st edition) as a basis for these characters, just because it’s what I’m most familiar with at the moment. The basics are the same – roll a 20-sided dice, add a number and hope to get a big enough total – but there are more nitty-gritty rules and it's way easier to kill off your characters.

Another thing to keep in mind is that I’ll be inserting these characters into a D&D setting of my own creation, rather than any pre-existing settings. I don’t have a name for it, but essentially this setting is an undisciplined mix-and-match of characters from different IPs that interest me. The McDucks, in this setting, live as a powerful noble family in a kingdom of united beast-folk families.

Final thing is that even though these guys are anthropomorphic ducks, they’re going to have the racial traits of humans to make things simpler on me. I’ll also be giving them a swim speed of 15 feet in addition to those traits.

Dewey

This spry duck stands with the cockiness of an ambitious hero, a sword in each hand. A bright blue tabard, tattered from numerous skirmishes, flows down his chest to cover steel armour of haphazard construction.

Age: 16 Alignment: Chaotic Good Class/Level: Fighter 3/Bard 1 Ability Scores: STR 16, DEX 16, CON 14, INT 10, WIS 8, CHA 14

In this world, the triplets were raised by their uncle Donald in a quiet fishing village on the outskirts of the city of Duckland, in the providence of Calisota. They never got so much as a hint of their caretaker’s history as an adventurer, not until they found their uncle’s old adventuring gear, stowed away in the attic of their house. Among this gear was two finely made swords, both of which Dewey snatched up and started swinging around – resulting in the destruction of several family items and the near decapitation of Huey. Donald was forced to tell the triplets of his past as an adventurer, and the revelation shook them to the core. To make up for it, he decided to teach them how to adventure properly, in the hopes that if they wouldn’t be persuaded out of their trouble-making instincts, he could at least teach them to be safe while doing it.

Dewey remains the chief chaos-monger of the triplets. Ambitious and eager to live up to his family name, Dewey often throws himself into danger without hesitation, giving no thought to possible traps, uneven terrain, or indeed, the strength of whoever he’s fighting against compared to his own. He makes up for his recklessness by being virtually untouchable in a fight, deflecting swords, claws and spells with his twin swords. The longer blade, named Helios, was once wielded by his Uncle Donald. The shorter blade, Asteria, was his mother’s.

Against intelligent foes, Dewey never fights to kill – a trait unique to the McDuck adventurers – but rather, he tries to disarm and trip his foes, intimidating them into surrender. He’s remarkably acrobatic, and his fights are often performative in nature – hence his level in Bard. The sheer bravado he displays in combat inspires his family to fight even more fiercely and distracts his foes long enough for him to knock the wind out of them.

Huey

This anxious duck wears a heavy breastplate and a red cap, a collapsible spear slung around his back. He holds a large, heavy book bound in red leather with the letters ‘WJW’ imprinted upon it.

Age: 16 Alignment: Neutral Good Class/Level: Cleric 2/Wizard 2 Ability Scores: STR 14, DEX 10, CON 12, INT 16, WIS 15, CHA 13

Though regarded as a do-gooder by his brothers, Huey Duck is just as brave, ambitious and adventurous as the other McDucks. He took the role of the older brother quickly, seeing himself as a caretaker of his brothers and, prior to moving into Manor McDuck, the fixer-upper of torn clothes, broken furniture, and the like. With a resourcefulness and intellect beyond his years, Huey takes the role as both the primary healer of the party and – when the occasion calls for it – the firepower.

Huey originally had his heart set on joining the Woodchuck rangers, a group of survivalists and wilderness protectors on the outskirts of the world. While there, he met clerics and priests of Artemis, goddess of the hunt, with whom he made a rapport with. He even began to learn the ways of these wilder clerics, learning magic that could heal, magic that could wound, and magic that let him shape the natural world around him. In the end, however, he was rejected by the rangers, for while his survival skills were impeccable, his fighting prowess left much to be desired. Disheartened, but determined to make use of what he’d learned, he continued his studies of the ways of Artemis, delving deeply into his survival skills and the art of restorative magic.

At some point during his escapades with his uncle, Lord Scrooge McDuck, Huey became enamoured with the other side of magic – that of the arcane. He poured over arcane tomes, taking on wizardly studies in addition to his clerical practices. He has recently begun leaning more heavily towards wizardry, for while he’s grateful to Artemis for his abilities, he considers the goddess to be more of a tutor than an idol to be worshipped. He’ll never be the strongest of Artemis’s faithful, and he’s made peace with that – wizards get more exciting spells, anyway.

Louie

This youthful duck leans against the alley wall, his head concealed by a dark green hood. He smirks at you, absent-mindedly flipping a coin up and down in the air.

Age: 16 Alignment: Chaotic Neutral Class/Level: Rogue 3/Sorcerer 1 Ability Scores: STR 9, DEX 15, CON 12, INT 12, WIS 13, CHA 18

Thief. Charlatan. Snake. Louie Duck has been called many things, and he’s never let any of it stick. He’s out for himself and his family first, and what he’s out for is treasure. Coins, gems, jewellery – he doesn’t care. He loves it all. He’ll do the right thing for his family (though not without a fair share of grumbling), but he always makes sure he gets something out of it, and he isn’t above guilting or threatening the other party into upping his eventual reward.

Louie is a rogue. Obviously. He specializes in deceit, coercion, lock- and trap-picking, and even forging documents, if the opportunity is ripe. He tries to avoid combat if he can help it, but when he’s eventually forced into it, he relies on being able to feint against his opponents to catch them off-guard. When this doesn’t work, his alternative strategy is to bamboozle his foe, trying to convince them that he’s on their side, or that there’s a bugbear behind him, or that they don’t really want to hurt him. And when that fails, he panics, runs away, and then takes potshots from afar with his crossbow.

During one of the family’s adventures, Louie came really close to death. A screeching owlbear had ambushed the party and cornered Louie alone. Disarmed, wounded, and terrified, Louie tapped into something dormant deep inside him and – with a pop – vanished. He re-appeared a mere five seconds later, but that five seconds was all his family needed to redirect the beast’s attention and save his life. Since then, Louie has continued to delve into his hereto unknown sorcerous powers, learning more and more about them each time he calls upon them.

Webby

This wild-looking duck girl wears a loose-fitting pink blouse and a purple skirt, with a matching pink tie in her headfeathers. She gets into a battle stance, grinning eagerly.

Age: 15 Alignment: Chaotic Good Class/Level: Ninja 4 Ability Scores: STR 14, DEX 17, CON 14, INT 13, WIS 12, CHA 12

Webby is as wild, excitable and knowledgeable as she is in canon, raised in the manor of Lord McDuck and trained by her grandmother to be a silent and deadly assassin of House McDuck. To Lady Beakley’s disappointment, while Webby has proven to have mastered the arts of stealth and disguise, she's really squeamish about killing people for some reason.

Webby takes after her granny as a highly skilled ninja – a class somewhere between the monk and the rogue. A master of stealth, disguise, martial arts and more, Webby may not seem like it, but she’s one of the most accomplished spies Lady Beakley has ever had the privilege of training. Moreover, her training allows her to access a limited well of mystical energy that allows her to perform impossible acts. Her preferred method of attack is to overwhelm her foes with quick, rapid strikes before retreating into the shadows and hiding before they realise what happened.

Aside from being an incredible warrioress, Webby also fancies herself as an amateur historian and lorekeeper – particularly when it comes to the McDuck family history. The arcane and the occult may be guesswork to her, but ask her to name an ancestor of Clan McDuck, and she’ll give you the entire genealogical tree. She knows about every single historical event that happened in Duckland, and she can name all the native monsters in the area, right down to their weaknesses, habitats, diets, and the best method to befriend them (just in case).

Scrooge McDuck

This elderly duck stands with the pride and confidence of an experienced adventurer. His cane, cloak, top hat and bright red plate armour all combine to make an imposing figure out of this old duck.

Age: ??? Alignment: Neutral Good Class/Level: Fighter 6/Rogue 4/Duellist 10 Ability Scores: STR 11, DEX 10, CON 8, INT 15, WIS 15, CHA 16

Ruling from McDuck Manor, Scrooge is the Lord of Duckland, and one of the most powerful and influential figures in Calisota. With a manor full of artifacts, treasures and magical items, he is known throughout the land as the Richest Duck in the World, and you’d be hard-pressed to deny it. This Scrooge is mostly unchanged from the one we all know and love from canon, except this Scrooge has an army of trained soldiers, a cabal of ingenious wizards, and a small cabinet of assassins who have one loyalty and one alone – House McDuck.

You may not have heard of the Duellist class if you’ve only come in from D&D 5th edition. Honestly, you might not have heard of it even if you haven’t. The Duellist is a prestige class, one you can only take levels in if you meet the specific prerequisites, whose abilities allow Scrooge to fight with a flourish. He fights like the heroic swordsmen of old, parrying aside the blades of his foes and deftly moving around them before they can even pinpoint where he is. He fights not with a traditional blade, but with a sword concealed within his cane – a gift, from the late Ludwig Von Drake.

Other D&D aficionados may also notice that Scrooge’s physical abilities are a bit low – that, unfortunately, is due to his venerable age. In Pathfinder, your physical abilities reduce with age, while your mental abilities improve. In his prime, Scrooge’s ability scores were STR 17, DEX 16, CON 14, INT 12, WIS 12 and CHA 13, but the days of his prime are long behind him. For this reason, before going into battle, he typically equips himself with a Belt of Physical Perfection, restoring his physical prowess to what it was as a young lad. I know canon Scrooge doesn’t like to use magic (and he still doesn’t here), but that’s… really not an option in a fantasy RPG like this.

Donald Duck

With an incoherent squawking sound, this sailor rushes into the fray, swinging his fists wildly and leaping onto his foes.

Age: 42 Alignment: Neutral Good Class/Level: Barbarian 12 Ability Scores: STR 15, DEX 11, CON 13, INT 10, WIS 15, CHA 13

This good-natured, short-tempered, and risk-averse fisherman may not seem like much at first glance, but he was, in fact, once an adventurer. And as far as the rest of his family are concerned, he still is. Once a sailor for the House McDuck navy, Donald retired from his adventuring life after his twin sister, Della, was lost to the Astral Plane in an impromptu expedition gone wrong. Though he was pulled back into the adventuring life by his triplet nephews, he has never lost his cautious edge, and he remains as the most responsible member of the McDuck family.

Donald fights as he does in canon – by flying into a rage and launching himself at his opponent. He punches, kicks, bites, trips, and attacks every part he can get a hold of. In the old days, he used to use an enchanted sword, though it has been so long since he picked up the blade that much of its magic has disappeared. Nowadays, he relies on a pair of enchanted cestuses, which are essentially medieval boxing gloves with metal plates and rivets.

Mrs. Beakley

This enormous, bulky woman looms over you, her cold gaze peering into your soul. Despite her housekeeper attire, she stands tall and rigid like a soldier, and the sheathed sword on her belt does not escape your attention.

Age: Late 70s/early 80s Alignment: Lawful Neutral Class/Level: Ninja 16 Ability Scores: STR 14, DEX 8, CON 8, INT 15, WIS 17, CHA 11

Mrs. Bentina Beakley, unmarried, is the silent right hand of Lord McDuck. On the surface, she is merely the housekeeper of the manor. Beneath that, however, Beakley becomes a terrifyingly effective spymaster who has her eyes everywhere throughout the realm. Though her days as an assassin are over, she remains a cold, clever, yet surprisingly empathetic figure – so much so that she was willing to give up her career to raise a young Webby Vanderquack.

Like Scrooge, Bentina has suffered from reductions to her physical abilities from her old age, in exchange for bonuses to her mental ability scores. Her abilities in her prime were STR 20, DEX 14, CON 14, INT 12, WIS 14, CHA 8. Unlike Scrooge, she does not have any magic that can improve her abilities, but she also doesn’t see the need to. She fancies herself more of a ‘behind-the-scenes’ person these days, managing an intricate network of spies and blades for hire, gathering blackmail and intelligence for use against the enemies of House McDuck.

Launchpad

The friendly airship pilot waves at you from the cockpit, oblivious to the fact that he’s flying you directly into a mountain.

Age: 31 Alignment: Lawful Good Class/Level: Commoner 5 Ability Scores: STR 12, DEX 11, CON 17, INT 8, WIS 11, CHA 13

Launchpad remains the happy-go-lucky guy he is in canon, save that he now pilots an airship instead of an airplane. And rest assured, he is just as unqualified to fly it as ever.

#ducktales 2017 #ducktales d&d #dt17 #huey duck #dewey duck #louie duck #webby vanderquack #scrooge mcduck #donald duck #mrs beakley #launchpad mcquack #pathfinder #d&d #I even made a map for the D&D world this is set in #never finished it though #I also made character sheets in case anyone wants a look

[stormyoceans]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GJHxF4UbMAAydho?format=jpg&name=small

Do you think we're really going to get this, Monica? There are too many signs. although the plot is absolutely not new, but we get Jimmy in a medical gown, enemies to lovers, mountains again, the pursuit of the main character by bandits. is it possible that it will be filmed by Jojo? could today's mv be a future soundtrack? someone hurry up April so that at least one of these questions is answered.

BY GOD IT’S JIMMYSEA AS INTHU AND THAPFAH WITH A STEEL CHAIR!!!!!!!!!!!

okay, so, before answering you anon, let me just do a quick summary of the situation for people who may not be familiar with The Lore™

basically, before last twilight was announced during GMMTV 2023, the entire nomnom fandom was convinced that the show jimmysea were going to have with p’aof was an adaptation of the novel ทำนายทายทัพ by ดวินทร์

here’s the best synopsis translation i could find:

​​Indhu is a YouTuber and a fortune teller who never discloses his face to his viewers. He writes some articles on gypsy horoscope on the internet and in a few magazines. Even though someone wants him to do a fortune telling face-to-face, he always refuses. He avoids people since he has got a sixth sense and he doesn’t want to accidentally foresee someone’s fate. One day while doing a fortune telling for his close friend at her house, Indhu meets Thapfa, a doctor and his friend’s eldest brother. Thapfa is moody because his mother wants Indhu to do a fortune telling for him but he hates fortune tellers. Thapfa misbehaves against Indhu even though it’s their first-time meeting. Indhu is not happy with that. However, he foresees Thapfa’s fate that the man is going to face a deadly destiny in the near future. Thapfa has been harmed by someone several times after he had accidentally heard a secret about a man trying to kill his wife. He doesn’t recall the forecast he received from Indhu until Indhu sees him being attacked by a car. Indhu saves Thapfa from the accident and warns Thapfa that he might lose his life next time if he doesn’t do something to solve this issue. While the officers investigate the case and track down the suspects, Indhu’s friend asks him to allow her brother to temporarily stay at his weekend house in Mae Hong Son. Staying in the same house in cold weather and under the starry skies brings the two rivals, Indhu and Thapfa, closer. Without realizing, their relationship becomes closer and tighter as time goes by.

the main reasons nomnoms believed that this could happen were because this novel can be seen in bad buddy ep 12 and because way back in the days both jimmy and sea liked a tweet that compared them to the characters. in the end we got last twilight instead, even if recently, during the last twilight final episode event, jimmy said that he thought he was going to act in another project

the theory of jimmysea as inthu and thapfah has now resurfaced thanks to a frankly suspicious interaction between jimmysea and the last twilight admin while promoting the new MV:

jimmy has also used the 🔮 emoji in one of his last mirror selfie with sea and apparently p’aof mentioned that for his next series he would go back to the mountains (i can’t find the source on this tho, sorry ;;;;;;)

SO BACK TO YOUR QUESTION ANON. HONESTLY AT THIS POINT ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE AND IDK WHAT TO THINK ANYMORE. the emojis p’jojo used to describe his new series don’t really match with this story, but then again, it’s not the first time p’aof and p’jojo switch projects. like you said there are starting to be a bit too many signs pointing to this actually happening at some point to just chuck everything to coincidence and i personally would LOVE to see jimmysea in these roles. it’s the ‘enemies’ to lovers grumpy/sunshine science vs spirituality pairing of my hopes and dreams!!!!!!

so you know. MY CLOWN SHOES ARE ON MY MAKE UP IS IN PLACE MY WIG IS SECURED I WILL BE WAITING Y'ALL AT THE MASS MANIFESTATION EVENT AT MY HOUSE TONIGHT AT 9 WE'RE MAKING THIS HAPPEN WITH THE SHEER POWER OF DERANGEMENT AND DELUSION

#nomnoms: WE'VE CONNECTED THE DOTS #other fandoms: you didn't connect shit #nomnoms: WE'VE CONNECTED THEM #WHAT IF - DARE I SAY IT - WE GET TWO (2) JIMMYSEA SERIES IN PART 2 #WHAT IF #LITERALLY CAN GMMTV 2024 PART 2 JUST COME ALREADY SO I DON'T GET INVOLUNTARY COMMITTED BEFORE IT EVEN HAPPENS #jimmysea #m: ask

[hybbart]

I wanna say that I absolutely love your post apocalypse ranchers au. Theoretically I love post apocalypse stories, but most ones end up just being 'everyone sucks and is terrible to each other all the time' which i hate. But yours just has all the community and inherent goodness of people that I really wish was in more post apocalypse media. (I also love the layout, smthn about the little portrait scenes with a few lines' description is a really nice format to me. it's like a blog almost)

idk if this is coherent but basically i love the post apocalypse au and I so wish there were other stories like it out there

I apparently had even more thoughts on this than I anticipated even after forcing myself not to talk about most of it, so borderline essay below...

It's much more common in video games but I get what you mean.

Honestly I think it's an issue of American apocalypse media, and the general intent people go into with the genre. Usually when you're writing a man-made apocalypse story it's to say something about society, and if it's a man-made apocalypse you can generally assume it's not something positive, especially given the sort of person that type of story would attract.

The American aspect I won't get into cause that might be a bit too spicy, but I'll just say if you look at fiction from places with more socialist or collectivist attitudes (that's not specifically influenced by American media or trashy escapist fantasy for edgy teenagers) you find those qualities depicted more. In American apocalypse stories altruism is more of a notably heroic trait for the MC.

(I think the concept of an apocalypse might also just much more terrifying and unknown to North American audiences. Things like relics outside of museums and casually decorating the scenery with ruins is more common in Eurasian media. Ancient history, and the implications thereof, is much more tangible there. I don't think an American version of digimon adventures would ever conceive the digital world as it's presented without drawing attention to it as something tragic and sombre, for example. Probably a whole essay could be written why but this is already too long.)

I think it's also because it doesn't really match well with action and horror genres, which is what apocalypse stories are usually paired with. Apocalypse ranchers is a survival slice or life, and cozy, and the format isn't very conducive to complex action, so there's no need to include it.

In an action story you focus on the action, and physical conflict drives action, and in a horror story the conflict has to scare you, usually involving tragedy. In a survival story the minutia is more important, and in a slice of life the conflict is more mundane. So, I guess that's to say there's more breathing room in RAAU to depict the more realistic daily interactions with people that are ostensibly int he same situation as the ranchers - average people who happened to survive.

I do understand that frustration though. I write a lot of post-apocalypse fiction myself, and this is usually how I would write characters acting simply because that's how I would act, if not out of altruism, then out of practicality.

Um, the restaurant for example. The ranchers are on foot and already overladen with their winter supplies, and they've come to a place that's already established a chain of charity. It's more food than they will need before they're likely to find even more food, and it will be more of a burden to carry it all. In a space that's already established itself as a charitable one people are more likely to return the favour. Think about all those stories you hear about people in fast food drive thrus paying for the person behind them for dozens of cars in a row. Of course there's always gonna be someone who breaks the chain, but that's one person in however many people before them, and it's not necessarily because they're a villain.

(There's also a pretty blatant cottagecore/solarpunk wish fulfillment aspect to the apocalypse fiction I like to write not gonna lie.)

Anyways, I guess that's all to say that you should keep your eye out cause there is other apocalypse fiction out there with that sort of characterization of humanity. Shaun of the Dead, Dr. Stone, and Girls Last Tour come to mind off the top of my head. As far as video games are concerned, lots of survival an apocalypse games, especially open worlds, like minecraft, 7 days to die, no place like home, my time at portia, cattails, plague inc, and niche tend of have a more compassionate setting, even when it looks more bleak and depressing on the surface. They have to for game balance. (multiplayer can't be accounted for, though)

At the end of the day, apocalypse stories really live or die on empathy whether even the creator knows it or not. There's a reason ants so efficiently deal with cordyceps attacks while humans struggle to imagine all of humanity collapsing if it leapt to us, I think. I think where they god wrong is seeing that as a bad thing the characters have to overcome.

#raau ask

[collegetennisoriginstory]

Out of curiosity why did you choose to have the men and women's tennis teams train separately? Will there be mixed doubles teams as well? I really enjoy Tobin and Rayyan, but would be nice to have them be opposite gender too 😊

Otherwise really liking the story!

Hahaha. Okay, I sense my answer is going to be hella long because it's something I've thought about extensively (I don't know how many of you are that interested in the (over)thinking I do with regard to my world-building/narrative-plotting/character-development), but here we go!

I think there's two questions here: (1) why Tobin and Rayyan are only same-gender, and (2) why the men's and women's teams train separately. I think these are separate considerations, so I've answered them separately! [Technically, Tobin and Rayyan could be same-gender i.e. on MC's team, AND the men's and women's teams could train together].

Why are Tobin and Rayyan same gender?

In the NCAA competition format, men's and women's teams compete separately. The relationships between Tobin x MC and Rayyan x MC are almost wholly dependent on them being on MC's team, e.g. competing together, being doubles partners etc.

(Long answer below the cut)

Why do the teams train separately?

Even the side characters (e.g. Deepal, Jacks, Emerson) have their specific interactions/dynamics with MC based on having to compete for spots on the same team or being possible doubles partners (in the case of Jacks).

Hence, I could write the men's and women's teams training together, but most of the characters you'd actually hear about / get to interact with at length with would still be same-gender. Max or Akimi or Blake etc. could be opposite-gender, though, so maybe it is worth thinking about! [When I played in college (not div 1 or anything), we trained separately so I just wrote what I knew BUT I do know some colleges train together!

Whenever I have the time, I might think about rewriting to have em train together, but it won't be on my top priorities--just because of the amount of work that'd be involved!]

More on Tobin and Rayyan being same-gender:

There are very few competitive mixed doubles matches in NCAA—maybe a few standalone tournaments, and mixed doubles are never really used to determine the college's overall standings/path to the championships)

Hence, if I wanted Rayyan and Tobin to be main characters in the IF that (a) play/compete with MC, and (b) have the chance to be MC's doubles partner in official competitions, they'd have to be the same gender. Writing them opposite-sex would change the entire nature / dynamic of their relationship with MC.

Rayyan's meant to be MC's main rival, first upset that they're partnered with MC (if they are), then grudging respect for MC as they realize that they're actually good, better than anyone else they've ever played with, then grapple with the tension that MC might actually be better than they are.

Tobin's meant to be MC's captain, and also another possibility of a doubles partner—an alternative or narrative foil to Rayyan, and provide the possibility of exploring an arc where one of the team's best players actually does not feel threatened by this young upstart.

Mixed doubles / opposite-gender tennis RO?

That said, I did make Felix, Tobin's ex on the opposite-gender team, a more integral character to the IF. There'll be a mixed doubles session where MC gets to partner Felix, and that'll be fun regardless of whether MC ever wants to pursue anything further with them.

MCs can and will be able to... "do the dirty" with Felix at least once, and have this impact the narrative, even if it'll never be a r'ship that's romantic in nature. So, a half-compromise of sorts?

Another reason why I liked this narrative solution so much is that Sam and Felix are both... kinda chill people (well, Sam's nice/fun, G is too ironic/dry to ever actually give off "I'll fight you" vibes) so I thought someone grumpy and very hostile would round out the semi-RO options for MCs who don't date same-gender characters.

[That said, Felix is written as canonically non-binary, though originally they were written more as gender-selectable (i.e. nb or opposite-sex). So I'm aware it's still not exactly a hetero/'straight' relationship.]

#college tennis: origin story #ct:os #if #interactive fiction #asks #rayyan #tobin #felix

[alexissara]

Gundam: The Witch From Mercury - Quick Review

Gundam: The Witch From Mercury or as we'll refer to it as Gwitch has finally wrapped and I wanted to share my thoughts quickly in the quick review format [written in basically one take with just all the points I feel like bringing up]. This is a show I'd watch with my Gfs and my Metamore every single Sunday for a while now and that's given it an extra special flare. I was captured by the stunning animation, great fights and the blooming of some lesbian feelings.

This 24 episode toy commercial is among the best in the Gundam series and is probably one of my favorite anime. However, it is a flawed series that I feel was really lacking in a lot of ways likely due to executives being worried about both having a woman be the protagonist of their warm crime cartoon and to have queerness be a center of the season.

The shows 24 episode length feels too short to tell the story that was being told, while individual episodes don't ever feel like they waste time there was not enough space for things to have impact and Miorine in particular feels like she is kind of just an object for the plot whose feelings vary depending on what the writers want. She isn't given the time to cook up an arc for her so she ultimately just serves the plot as a "I don't think killing is good" character. Still her romance with Sulleta is compelling even if it's not the connection to Sulleta that is my favorite [Sulleta sapphic polycule all the way really].

The show has good background music but it is mostly the same song. The opening and EDs are all really great songs. The mech designs are mostly super cool and they are in fact, great toy commercials. While I would never put together a model kit, I would and very likely will, buy whatever video games they produce that put Sulleta in the for front. It set up an interesting world I would like to see more stories told in.

The fights are all really amazing but the end does include one fight between broths that really muddles the rest of the plot to sell one more toy and it sucks ass. Still the rest of the fights were really Immculate.

The series does kill off most it's women who can pilot a gundam which is annoying because we see men getting to live. While the show does center a Lesbian relationship the most explicit romantic desires outside of Sulleta are expressed by men about women. In general the show puts a ton of men in the spotlight and keeps them in the forefront. It feels like the show was insecure about women taking the center stage so the rest of the plot is mostly focused on men. Women do get to do plenty of things but it still feels like we could have had more women taking the stage in battles. For gundam though, it's a decent amount of women in mechs. Plus Sulleta does get to be in a mech most episodes.

The show doesn't have a kiss in it, there is no kisses between anyone but the lack of a sapphic kiss feels bad. Like you can say "yuri doesn't do kisses" but you would be old if your saying that because I do quick reviews of Yuri manga all the time here and basically everything I am reading has kisses, a lot also have explicit sapphic lust, and increasingly even using the word Lesbian. This show instead opts to say "Gay Marriage is normal" in episode 1 and then never show anyone being gay who isn't the main couple, there are ships but every single known romantic connection outside of Sulleta and Miorine is a man's feelings towards a woman or a woman's feelings towards a man. Queerness isn't even off handily mentioned by anyone else. Still it is really nice to have them be gay married at the end even if we're not seeing the wedding or a kiss we do know for sure their married, that's explicit and they have matching rings.

Still, the show does offer us a lot of really cute sapphic ships. It also offers us a really good cast of women even if I wish they got to do even more. Chuchu is maybe my favorite gundam character ever, Prospera my beloved I will stan forever my wonderful wife, Secelia  is a bitchy queen, and a lot more are also bangers.

Politically the show nods to leftist politics but it doesn't really fully commit to that as it keeps giant companies around in it's time skip and it seems there has just been some kind of "balance" stuck where captalism is fine again. Even though the government is evil we don't fight it really. I'd like to see a show in this world that takes on the Space Assembly League. I guess the takeaway is buy Gundams, I mean Revenge is bad.

Overall, I really enjoyed the show Sulleta is such an endearing main character she is charming and sweet and strong and she is for sure my favorite MC of any mech anime and in general one of the best anime main characters of all time. I think the show is a great piece of art but short of a master piece. Perhaps these are the limits of a show that is a toy commercial. Regardless, I had a great time and I don't look forward to my wallet running dry on prints from fan art of Gwitch and Super Robot War games and shit.

#Quick Review #Gundam #Gwitch #G witch #gundam the witch from mercury #Anime

[ziezie13]

My first completed fanbinding! There were so many fun typesetting elements I had trouble narrowing the photos down but I didn't include everything. My favorites are definitely the music QR codes and the meta AO3 fics.

Until My Feet Bleed and My Heart Aches by @kazliin

‘…Of all the rivalries in the world of sports over the years, perhaps none has become so legendary as that of Russian figure skater Viktor Nikiforov and his rival, Japanese Yuuri Katsuki…’

A single event changes the course of Yuuri’s life, throwing him into a bitter rivalry with Viktor Nikiforov that spans across his entire skating career. But as the years go on, rivalry and hatred begin to develop into something very different and Yuuri doesn’t seem to be able to stay away, no matter how hard he tries.

Hatred and love are two sides of the same coin and even though everything changes, some things are still meant to be.

Technical stuff and bonus photos below the cut.

General

197,692 Words / 11 x 8.5 Paper / 500 pgs

Title Font & Chapter Number Font: Just Signature

Chapter Title & Body Font: Adobe Caslon Pro

Misc Fonts: Georgia, Lucida Sans, Zilla Slab, PT Serif, Segoe UI

Designed, typeset, and bound by me.

Programs used: InDesign and BookletCreator.

Anyone who knows me knows I am a sucker for enemies to lovers and this fic executes the trope beautifully. It was one of my very first fics on AO3 and since then I have read it countless times. The fic diverges from canon in a single moment and what proceeds is one of the best Victuuri fics of all time.

Materials

This was the first ficbinding project that made it off of my computer. The original plan was to keep the book thinner by scaling the page size up to 11 x 8.5, but obviously that didn't work. I ordered short grain 11 x 17 sheets from Nicole Nikolas Modern Paper Goods and printed with my large-format inkjet printer (which used more cyan and magenta than I would have expected).

Once my signatures were printed I realized just how massive this thing was, and in that moment I decided the casing was going to be leather. I ordered Royal Blue leathers from Peggy Sue Also Leather's Dutchess Collection. And while I waited for that to come in I hand-painted the chapter numbers using Dreamland Watercolor's Beta and a fluid writer. The color changing effect wasn't as dramatic as I hoped but it still turned out gorgeous.

I decided not to complicate things too much and left the spine flat and the edges deckled. I used the basic method of sewing tapes and spaced five of them out across the spine. The headbands are actually Vintage Petersham Grosgrain Magenta ribbons from Fini Ribbon that I folded over some string I had laying around. I also made my own endpapers from Strathmore drawing sheets and more of the Beta watercolor which I sprayed over the sheets using a cheap paintbrush.

I created an embossed frame on the cover by layering chipboard on top of the 0.098" Davey Binder's Board I ordered from Talas. Then I cut out a window so that I could do the title out of watercolor. I didn't have a pairing knife for the leather so I tried sanding down the edges to help minimize the thickness of the folds. I am actually not sure if this helped or not but the leather turned out better than I thought. The only issue was that I didn't have enough of an overlap at the top and bottom on the inside of the book board, and the endpapers couldn't cover the seam properly. I came up with the solution of adding a second layer of chipboard that I covered in light blue construction paper. I made it to the same dimensions as the Davey Board and then glued everything together with pva. I really like the effect it has and it also worked out as a base to paint the title onto.

Typesetting

Typesetting this fic was a lot of fun because of all the social media aspects included in the fic. This included articles, Reddit threads, Twitter posts, Instagram posts, Youtube videos, Tumblr posts, and even meta AO3 fic summaries. I did my best to match the real-life counterparts as best as I could. I ended up using Segoe UI for most of the social media typesetting. The articles used Zilla Slab for the title and PT Serif for the body. The AO3 summaries were the most complicated as they used Georgia and Lucida Sans fonts and jpeg graphics.

The other really exciting element I incorporated was the music. Kaz used music throughout the fic as a very imporvictant part of the storytelling. Yuuri and Victor communicate through their skating and their routines and the music is what brings those routines to life. I placed QR codes in the margins at the start of each routine. It is so cool to hold your camera up and suddenly have the music playing from your phone as you read! I also included an appendix of the music so that when QR codes become obsolete the music is still accessible.

#bookbinding #ficbinding #yoi #victuuri #my work #first fic bound

[thelooniemoonie]

So I just finished reading House of Leaves...

Here are my thoughts. I will do my best to avoid spoilers, but will mention a thing or two.

Oh man, that was one hell of a ride. While I myself am a huge fan of horror, this was the first horror book I have read, and what a great experience it was!

Going into the book I already somewhat knew of the madness that lurks inside (that being the quarter inch, and the impossibly long hallway) and was surprised that the madness started on very early. Being the book is over 700 pages long, I sure as hell didn't expect it to start about 60 pages in.

What you don't expect however, is the madness that takes it's toll the longer the book goes on. Multiple storylines, narrators and themes start converging together to the point where everything starts falling into place, to the point it becomes nauseating as exploring the house itself. What I can say however, is that the house is only barely scratching the surface of what is truly going on within these pages.

For context the book is cleverly written as a meta-narrative, as an essay analyzing the film The Navidson Record, a fictional film that does not exist in the real world. What the book strangely does however, is reference actual real life sources when dissecting its premise, to the point where reality and fiction start blurring. The book feels as if it's having a conversation with itself, covering countless of different themes and metaphors that overlap with one another. Given this thing has been analyzed and picked apart for decades since its release, I'm gonna leave it to the experts about the secrets within its pages. (Although I will say this: pay attention. The longer the book goes on the more the different puzzle pieces will start clicking together.)

I was curious as to how a book may scare a reader since I'm unfamiliar with the experience of reading horror, but I will say the longer the book went on the worse it got. If I had to make a comparison, it would be the same feeling I experienced when watching Skinamarink: Dread. A long, droning kind of dread that one experiences when you are alone in your house and all the lights are off and everything is black. And you know no one is coming for you. But you swear you saw something from the corner of your eye. It's the feeling of running up the stairs after turning the lights off and praying something isn't running after you. Dread.

Very quickly things will become nauseating. At first I wasn't scared of the premise of the house: it's a haunted house that defies reality. So? But I found myself not dreading the events that unfolded or the "interesting" formatting of the book, but that the reality of the book itself seemed to be imploding on itself. Spoilers, but the one moment I think where I specifically started spiralling was when Exploration #5 was occurring, and Navidson had to stop and rest with only his matches, he pulls out a book to read and it's....the House of Leaves? The book you're reading right now? But how is that possible? How is Navidson reading the real life book that you're reading, when the fictional events that are pertaining to him are happening right now to him?? What are even the Johnny segments?? (Note: don't read them at work like I did) Why does nobody cited in this book know who the Navidsons are, even though they're quoted directly in reviewing the film?? What the hell is going on???

.

I made a joke in an earlier post that Navidson wants to fuck the house. I meant this as a joke. What I soon horrifically realized was that others were correcting me in that it wasn't a joke. Navidson wants to fuck the house. But he also doesn't want to fuck the house. But it is also a secret third thing that's literal to the foundation of this story. (No pun intended.) But oh god it gets so much worse.

At the time of writing this, I just finished the book 1 hour ago. I feel like I just stepped off the worst rollercoaster. And I loved it.

10/10 very spooks

On a less serious note I think the funniest moment in the book was when the Chad's and Daisy's teacher, after noticing their strange behaviour at school due to the effects of the house, reasonably decides to pay their parents a visit to talk about it. What the poor lady doesn't expect however, is that she arrives right after the events of the house unfold and the Navidsons are having the worst week of their life, coming to the screaming and crying family while there is a dead body on the floor.

In essence it can be summed up by this gif, which frankly sums up the vibe of the story overall:

So yeah it's a good book. I recommend it.

#the moon speaks #house of leaves #idk if i will post more but if i do i pull put it in the main tag #so if u wanna avoid spoilers you can just block it

[winterpinetrees]

The Stormson (A Gap Years prologue)

I have been defeated by my own plot (it turns out that writing, even very amateur and casual writing for three people on tumblr, is hard), so here’s backstory for my favorite middle aged elf. Watch out for mentions of the casual eugenics and murder that the nobility is built on.

@lokiwaffles I know you like Ryn, so I hope you enjoy. Sorry about not mentioning that Ryn isn’t his full name until now. whoops.

Both of the letters arrived on the same day. The young man wasn’t surprised. His home was isolated, even by Voyager standards, so it was easier to send physical deliveries all at once by boat. If anything, he was surprised to only receive two sponsorships after everything he’d done.

Ryndrion, though everyone called him Ryn, was a child of the storm. No matter what his noble classmates thought, that was a title, not a name or a metaphor. He’d earned it, and he’d earned it younger than anyone had ever expected. Fourteen years later and he was still one of the youngest stormsons on the gulf coast. Now, the voyager had set his sights on something new. Ryn had just returned home after his third year at the Conservatory to wait for a sponsorship that would allow him to continue. He wasn’t worried. Ryn had every desirable trait that the nobility could want from a commoner. He was skilled and cunning and had human-like endurance that no privileged royal could match. He was used to waiting, but he hadn’t been prepared for just how lonely it would be.

His harbor was a fraction the size of the Conservatory. Over half the population were wildblood humans or half-elves, and few of the others were anything more than sparks. Hurricanes, far stronger than in the human world, broke over the barrier islands every summer. His family were Voyagers going back as far as anyone bothered to record. His father was a stormson like him, and his mother was a farmer with the most accurate throwing arm of anyone in town. His siblings were all doing something like what they were supposed to do, but Ryn went away with those cutthroat scouts to some place inland where they teach children to kill each other. Barely strong enough to spark a candle and he’s trying to be a noble. What else was he supposed to do? Stop? He’d sailed a hurricane, he could manage the nobility if that was what it took to get his people back into orbit.

However, a Voyager is nothing without their crew. That was the first thing Ryn learned as a boy. The sea has no sympathy for petty disputes and power grabs, and it does not care about your titles. You work together, each crewmate doing what they do best, or you all sink. It was different at the Conservatory though. The school of the nobility was an overlapping mess of hierarchies and ambitions. Survival of the fittest, they claimed, but Ryn had grown up closer to nature than any of them. Nature was brutal, yes, but it didn’t conquer. Nature didn’t make power grabs or demand obedience. It just was. The nobility didn’t understand that. They didn’t want to. None of the nobility could understand the way he saw the worlds, and no Voyager would sympathize with his goals. The other commoners at school hailed from across the entire planet, and many of them were too bloodthirsty for Ryn to trust them with anything, especially not his life. He was adrift, alone, as he faced the most important decision of his life.

Ryn picked up the letters. They were heavy black paper with white ink, closed by a wax seal and decorated with a simple design. The formatting was almost identical to the letter that had announced his admittance a few years before. The first letter had an emerald green seal stamped with the skull of a sabertooth cat. White autumn leaves spiraled over the front. It was a formal sponsorship from Princess Emer Sondaica, niece of the apex and presumed heir to the world. She offered him a place in the autumn army for the next six years, and opportunities in her noble house if and when he graduated with high honors. It was the deal that he had been hoping for.

There was something off about it though. The invitation addressed him as Ryndrion Stormson. For some reason, he’d expected better from her. The noblewoman had sailed with his father as a girl, and Ryn thought that she would remember their traditions. The long form of a Voyager’s name was only used for logistics on a scale where the nickname wouldn’t provide enough information. The Conservatory’s database might record him as Ryndrion, but a direct letter like this should have called him Ryn. Stormson was also odd to use in a letter, but he’d accepted that the nuance of that would be lost by the nobility. If they wanted to call him stormson, then so be it. Maybe the princess had a point though. Ryn would have had to be blind to miss the looks his neighbors gave him. He was different now. He’d abandoned his crew.

The second letter was stamped with a charging indigo bull. It was the symbol of the other most ancient genus, Gens Mercuralis. It had been massacred in a coup almost a century before, and one of the only survivors was in the same Conservatory class as him. Her name was Ishtar Mercuralis, and she was strong as an anchor but nowhere near that stable. They were friends, or at least Ryn wanted to think that they were friends. The letter had the negative image of sheets of rain and crashing waves, the symbols of the storm army. Fitting. He opened the letter and another piece of paper fell out.

Ryn Stormson,

Officially, this sponsorship is from my cousin. That is a technicality. I am sponsoring you. The Sondaicas do not want me to succeed, and you know as well as I do that these games are never fair. Fitness depends on the environment, and in this environment if I do not keep my head down I will not survive.

I hate it.

You’ve definitely received another sponsorship. Genus Sondaica, right? The most powerful gens collecting another prodigy. They do not want a spark. Emer is too weak already and you know they hate reminders. You are more clever than the rest of our year combined. If you join me, then we’ll both be in the same army. I have a secret. The first wargame begins the morning that every student returns. We team up, we take charge, and we change the game before the Sondaicas have anything in place to stop us. I want you to help me. You might not be the only person strong enough to change the world, but you are the only one who wants to.

Tell no one about this note.

Ishtar Mercuralis

Six weeks later he stands in formation with a hundred other young soldiers under a crescent moon. Dawn light reflects off of the waves stitched on his collar, and a shining new high-tech vambrace lies deactivated on his left arm. Ishtar stands a few feet to his left, tired and smiling.

Her secret was wrong. The game began just after midnight, and of their army, a dozen elven children are already dead.

Survival of the fittest.

………

Ishtar was born 18 years before Ryn, but due to the huge difference in their magical abilities, he is ‘older’ than she is by an amount that will increase as they both age. In this, they’re about 20 and 22. Also it’s about 1870. Elves live for a long time.

#by me #the gap years #my oc stuff #ryn stormson #writing that *is*

[fukuwatchesbl]

OFTS Ep2 - Stringed throughts

As last time, I already watch the episode yesterday. These are my thoughts on rewatch. I know it may be weird to process this way, but I want to actually watch this series and not focus on analysis first. It also allows me to connect elements better and perceive things I hadn't.

Under the cut.

I thought mew was our narrator, but with more characters showing in the confessional, it's now obvious he isn't. Interesting way to borrow from reality tv format to get insight in characters thoughts. Also, it gets very noticeable that nick has not been shown in the confessional (yet), but every character introduced in the first bar scene of Ep1 has. Is nick set as an outsider of the main group?

[had to take a short break, because my partner is cutting onions]

love to have Jennie and her partner in a stable relationship

cheum is the most romantic of the group, to the extent of being a bit too cheesy/naive for me

boston: it'll last 3 months - mew: watch me

mew, why are you taking top's time limit as a challenge ? also, please reassure me, and tell me your plan to resist top's advances is a joke... that's not a good way to handle any relationship

boston is the worst judge of character. He's convinced himself top is exactly like him (he's wrong), he thinks he and nick are on the same page (they're not)

ray starting to drink in daylight because mew's in a relationship now... ouch, my heart. I appreciate their friendship dynamic though, it's not fully honest, but there's true care

is Top the possessive kind? weird how this doesn't match with the dynamic he and mew have when it's just the two of them... maybe he just doesn't like to share (his toys)

Was wondering how Nick would end up crying in Sand's arms, now I know. I love how Sand looks like he hit the jackpot just because he won't have to move out

I liked that the public confession and the uneasiness it creates for the person on the receiving hand were mentioned.

Top will have ticked 2 of Mew's 3 conditions by the end of this episode

Ray stalker era

whoever guessed sand's weird bottles were plum wine was right

the "favorite"... this felt so manipulative. Nick, run!

the way ray empty his glass in one go, while sand takes his time.

2 characters with past traumas. Is there more?

that shower scene made me so uneasy. it felt like top didn't know if he wanted to go on or to stop

mew is such a tease

boston using a nickname Nick specifically said he didn't like. I would have been pissed if someone had done that to me

see, as much as I don't trust top not to cheat on mew, he, at the very least, doesn't push the boundaries mew clearly sets (the ending of the shower scene is an exception, but it feels like there were more to it). I don't trust boston to do that with anyone

ray stalker era part 2

boston definitely knows about ray's feelings for mew. will he try to use this to drive top away from mew? (this is me clowning, i'm just wondering as to how it'll play out)

so sand is not a hooker, only accumulating odd jobs

back to the confessional: we opened the episode with perspectives on romantic relationships, and we're closing with perspectives on sex relationships

the closing credits have each character alone (mew in ep1, ray in ep2)... will we see characters in pairs later on?

I really like how each character handles relationships in different ways, how we get different views on romance, sex, and even friendship to some extent.

#only friends the series #fuku watches ofts

[inventors-fair]

"For Each" Commentary: Masses of the Mind

And here's the gist of it: as I've been drafting more, I've been learning that constructed formats are...hard. Very hard. I'm not good at them. On occasion my decks will do decently enough but you know what, if I can match the power level of the same person who can't draw their removal spell because they drafted it too late, then dangit, I'll take the inevitable win/loss/whatever in stride. So what does this have to do with this week? Very little, except that numbers make for an interesting ride.

We did an Eldraine draft—original Eldraine, mind—this Friday. It was incredibly fun, and I think that seeing the board swarm/unswarm and seeing how the numbers affected the board is going to influence this judgment a lot. I have my soft spot for cards of a certain color, as many of you should know by now, because it's been going on for...several years at this point, but regardless, there are some days where I have to step back and just let it all slide. An understanding of a perfect board state, an understanding of the circumstances, an understanding of meta design—it all has to come together. Let's have some fun.

If you're new to the crew or reading through because you've stumbled upon this blog—hello! Also, if you see a card with JUDGE PICK next to it, that means that I liked it enough to go "hey I wanna talk about something real good this card is doing." So let's jump into it.

@arixordragc — Soul Incubator (JUDGE PICK)

The card itself: fantastic design. Should it be mythic, and should it be five mana? That I'm not so sure about. Maybe it's because symmetrical effects have been slightly less favored in recent years—though I'm a fan myself. Aggressive symmetrical effects can really push the gameplay into a place where you're looking at the most complex build, in my opinion. That said, the general effect is lovely. I think that making deaths of creatures matter changes gameplay drastically in any format.

When your opponent's staring down your blockers, trading doesn't seem so good. Boardwipes are even stronger, and shrivel effects make it go from evil to downright repugnant. The 4/4 Horror is an interesting choice as well! Really, that's what makes me like this card a lot. I think that in terms of deck building, this card asks to be built around, or at least it asks of the general black aggro/goodstuff builds that it's included for the sake of itself. Nothing wrong with that, of course, and having the horror there to further your wincon of beating face is a strong choice. The name isn't quite gripping me, although I see where you're coming from—the souls incubate the horror, and it needs a varied diet. That's fair; personally, incubators will always be artifact-aligned for me.

~

@batatafilosofal — Guardian Hydra

Ward keywordal! I'm...going to posit a rhetorical question of why something like hexproof or shroud pseudo-typal hasn't been done before. The fact of the matter is, as with many Bogle effects, it makes for uninteractive gameplay. If you manage to get multiple creatures with ward, then that's all fine, but what's the rest of the deck look like? The answer isn't something that I feel pushes for "fun." Incentivizing difficulties in interaction makes choices matter less.

I do like it in a vacuum, though, or at least the first and third abilities. There's nothing wrong with ward by itself and there's nothing wrong with hydras. I think the first and third ability without the middle jam-it-full-of-ward ability would've been just fine. Implication of ward benefits would affect deck choices and lean into certain color combinations more than straight-up declaring it. I love ward and I love hexproof even more, honestly. I have to abide by my designer senses.

~

@bread-into-toast — Awakened Whirl Turtle

You know, I initially thought of scrying, but there are other effects beyond that. Scrying would potentially mean throwing away cards you want in favor of cost reduction. Commune with Nature or a well-placed Once Upon a Time means you can snag a turn-three 5/5 with ease, on the other hand. I think that having that easy big creature isn't the worst thing in the world, although there are two really big questions that I'm left with. The first is whether or not this would be trying to be some kind of archetype; the second is, if not, how many cards in the set would be able to support it in limited.

As for the first question—well, no, it's kind of answered by the second, isn't it. Or at least they're related, and the point remains that I don't think this card could be supported that well in a limited environment, and feels more awkward than not in a constructed one. Gimmicks are fun and I love it when I can use cheatsy-type effects to make my opponents moan and groan and etc. I'm not sure there's more to it than that at the moment. However, I do want to jam my appreciation for the implied/intended flavor. Throwing the spells away to "feed the turtle" on accident is pretty great.

~

@certification-wizard — Grist, the All-Swarm

There she goes again! Grist is a fun one. I think just having this planeswalker here is a good effort, and tokens-to-loyalty can get out of hand really fast without being too crazy broken. Flavor-wise, there's not much to go on that Grist hasn't already covered, but that's all fine. My first point of note is the wording of the first loyalty ability. Did you check for wording/precedent? I couldn't find anything with the exact template, and even with "copy this ability." Personally, I think it should've been make an Insect, then you may sacrifice a nontoken, and if you do, make another Insect, capital 'I.' Love the flavor of that.

With the second loyalty ability, however, there's only one mono-green card that does multi-mill, and while there are a few black cards that do it, it's not in the hybrid pie. Additionally, that doesn't actually benefit Grist or ask you to build around her exactly. What is this ability doing for you, for the card? Perhaps the implied game state is like Ghoulcaller's Bell, but I don't believe that's enough justification. What could be a green AND black ability that would, fairly, help to win the game or advance the game state for Grist?

~

@halfsilveredmirror — Aether Swimmer

Let's make this a learning moment: when a prompt asks for rules text, that means all text outside of italicized reminder text. On that technicality, this card would be ineligible. Also, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this isn't something that everyone knows right off the bat, and it's within the spirit enough. Allonz-sea-creatures!

From what I can tell, though, hexproof to your spells doesn't actually do anything. I really like how you used affinity on a technical level because, yes, you do "control" spells albeit in a slightly different context than "controlling" artifacts. Hexproof is a static ability of permanents and has no bearing on the stack; hence, why Invisible Stalker can be countered. The wording felt frustrating a little until I realized that that's what you were trying to go for. Sadly, comp rules take issue.

Perhaps this would be a kind of storm build card, perhaps a cheap-creatures deck, perhaps many things. Giving your stuff hexproof is still fine. I'm not sure this card necessarily has a home, however, and it would be a fine flash-protection spell in general without the baggage. For future reference, the Fair inbox is always open for clarifying questions, and the workshop in the Discord is a great resource for technical finagling.

~

@helloijustreadyourpost — Maddening Imp

Yes, it is indeed a maddening little fellow. I've been on the fence about this card and I think this is one of those really unsatisfying conclusions, so apologies in advance: this card is very good but isn't scratching my particular itches for this contest. In a limited environment, it would be pretty great as an aggro card, but that's also assuming you're getting the most benefit by having a) fewer big creatures of your own and b) your opponent having bigger creatures than you in general. I love symmetry. I love mill. This card, though, asks of you to build a deck that assumes a fair amount about the game state.

Is it a sideboard card, then? Probably not, because jeez, it's a three mana 3/2 flier! That by itself is so tempting to just jam into any deck and go wild. And you still can't assume that your opponent is going to be running something big enough to justify it. Heck, what if they're primarily a creature deck, and you never get a hit on them? The ways in which this card can go right are easy to visualize. The ways in which it can just break you even, well, that's fine too. But what I think that I'm getting at has already been stated: it's just not reliable. Jeez, what if you're stuck in a stalemate chump-blocking position... Okay, admittedly, that's kind of funny.

~

@i-am-the-one-who-wololoes — Bully the Peasants

The first thing that came to mind for me was Foul-Tongue Shriek. Maybe this card could be more punitive if you have something that requires multiple blockers, but in general, I think that you could have bumped the power level up a little. I personally feel that black should get more stuff that interacts with combat like this, although it does have a LOT of tools in its wheelhouse already.

Let's do the ever-fun questions of flavor. Who is the speaker in the flavor text talking to in the context of the art? The peasants aren't the implied ruler, and they're being, well... Honestly, it's almost comical: "bully" is a pretty lighthearted term for the razing and ravaging that's happening in the art. It's gruesome but juxtaposed with the name and snarky flavor enough that it goes, for me, from funny to incongruous. I don't know who the speaker is supposed to be, I don't know who they're speaking TO, and I'm having a major tonal issue overall. Going into super-seriousness would be fine, or going into more Lorwynian cajoling would be fine too. We're just at a weird place as it stands.

~

@just--a--penguin — Bruna's Illumination (JUDGE PICK)

By itself, I think this card's pretty great, and Innistrad could stand for a Revelation kind of effect—Sphinx's, I mean. Pausing for just a moment here to say that "draw" doesn't need the "You" in front of it in the second bullet. Continuing: I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that most people would be using the second mode more often than not. Lifelink is quite fun with these effects, and, well, it's easier to gain cheap amounts of life, looking at Lone Missionary and whatnot. How much life gain you gain before making this card pop off? Even then, saving yourself with a quick lifegain spell hasn't felt bad yet if you can get the crackback.

Is it something to build a deck around, or to incentivize deckbuilding? Honestly, yeah. This one in retrospect was pretty darn close, and I think I wasn't feeling the deck in the same way because there's always a chance that you topdeck this card with no lifegain on board and, well, that's no fun. Plus, what a mana investment—but also what card draw! I'd love to play this in a constructed Azorius control build. I'm also a monster.

~

@nanokore — Assembled Swordsworn

So, this is a smaller multicolor Kemba's Legion. I think that that's unfortunately as much as I can say about the mechanical side of things. Personally, I always liked the Legion effect, and you can check the wording there. It's going to see as much play as the archetype allows and that's perfectly reasonable in the correct world/limited setting, whatever that may be.

On the flavorful side of things, I'd like to take a moment to point out a discrepancy, or at least a place to look for where flavor comes into play. In the flavor text, it's implied that this golem is supposed to be cutting through swaths. However, the mechanics are centered around this creature being a blocker. When matching the mechanics and flavor together, the verbs of your card's mechanics can be key to ensuring the flavor lands. Protection, servitude, guardianship, etc. could serve a multi-blocking swordsworn character in a way that the current flavor has a hard time matching.

~

@piccadilly-blue — Crag Surge (JUDGE PICK)

I don't think it's broken but whoo boy it's asking to be broken. ... IS it broken?? I genuinely don't know. I don't think this card is doing anything that it's not supposed to be doing and I don't think it's doing anything at a higher rate than other, better rituals. The question: how do you get Mountain cards (oh yeah, that's the only technical note, adding "card" there b/c zones) into your graveyard the easiest? And then, how do you get this thing to go bajonkers on the whole ordeal?

I like mono-red. I like discarding cards. I absolutely adore Tectonic Reformation and think it should be run everywhere all the time. Cycle, cycle, cycle, cycle, CRAG SURGE, cycle, cycle, cycle... To what end? I don't care 'cause I love this card. Except maybe cycling into Emrakul and Surging for a zillion to get there. That would be not good. But it wouldn't be broken because it would only be played in formats with interaction so, you know what, I wouldn't worry about it because RRR is a big cost. Unluckily for you, I'm well aware that my tastes for drooling over combos and bad decks isn't relevant to a card's actual goodness. Let's keep this trophy between you and me, then?

~

@railway-covidae — Bisecting Blaze

Doesn't have trample? Harrumph. That's half a joke, but I want to go back here, because on a genuine note, giving a creature a power boost without trample and making it sacrifice doesn't feel good at all. Berserk and Fatal Frenzy are only good because of their trample, honestly, and for five mana, I could potentially do more damage to an opponent with a Fireball, or just another creature.

That said, that's the only thing I would change about this card mechanically; I'd even keep that same cost in, and the same rarity too. Name might have to be something different unless the art and flavor text really spoke to what was being bisected. As for the deck archetype or deck construction, something that plays red and creatures in limited could probably go for it without any issue, ngl. Constructed? Don't hold your breath. Maybe a weirdo Xenagos Reanimator would be happy to have a zillion-jillion creature. ... Actually, no, wait, Xenagos would love this, ha.

~

@reaperfromtheabyss — Crimson Connoisseur

Once more! Once again! A good card that's not quite eyebrow-raising but just plain good. Blood is everything that this card cares about, and it makes blood, and you can either stock up on blood to make this a bigger attacker or you can use 'em to get more cards to make more blood. This one implies that you've already got blood and/or are making blood; I like how it doesn't have evasion, actually. Lifelink it more of a target. The ability to get blood puts this beater in someone's sights but not insurmountably so.

See what I mean? Having played with blood, and having loved blood, blood is wonderful. What do I have to say about this card that blood hasn't already said? For one, the name's pretty great and very standard for vampires. Uh... Man, I guess that's about it. You've activated the trap card of making me want to do an IF cube again without having the spare time to actually go through and do it. Once I get [major project] done, I SWEAR—

~

@sparkyyoungupstart — Endless Hallway

I was honestly surprised that there were so many creatures this go-around, but I suppose I shouldn't be THAT surprised. I liked the massive variety and I do appreciate that. Let's go with the intriguing part of it: black-white walls. Nightmare walls. Actually, pause: before delving into some of my wall-themed problems that my therapist is ostensibly not helping me scale, I want to say that an Endless Hallway being a manifestation of a nightmare is a really cool trick. Nailed that for sure.

What I'm not as keen on is the fact that a) this is a wall without defender, b) the Labyrinth ability word just makes the walls all the more unscalable in combat, which is redundantly frustrating interaction-wise, and c) that last permaremoval ability is...weird. Wait, "is being blocked by?" What would be the point of blocking this wall? Why does it have both a blocking ability and an attack incentive? It has zero power; why would you attack with it? Okay, now that I'm talking about the card as I'm actually reading it and less that I'm going over the things I thought I'd been reading, I'm a little more finger-waggly. This card is mixing some metaphors and could perhaps use a spin on the revision table.

~

@spooky-bard — Curious Creation (JUDGE PICK)

And there we go, a soothing card that's a little bit funny and a little bit I'm worried for the animals. But holy crap, dude, you circumvented the changeling problem brilliantly. Because they're oozes! Creature type matters-ers, rejoice. I know other effects similar have been done before, and I'm ignoring that, because I think this is the best way to just find a deck that plays as many types as possible in order to maximize oozitude. If you've opened this up in limited, chances are that it's just gonna get +1/+1 for each other creature you control, but that's okay! Maybe there are more oozes, or maybe shapeshifters.

I think it's hard for me to place this card crazy high because, in terms of deck construction, it's making me think more of what I'd have to not include over what I could include. For example, would I play two of these? They're both good, but each addition of a cool ooze is a buff that's not, well, buffing it. Still—a small price to pay for something so cute. Seriously cute combination of art direction and flavor text. Lovely stuff.

~

@spore4ever — Unveil the Menagerie

This was the card that came right after in the order that I was thinking of. Okay! So let's solve this problem first. How would you keep everything the same and not have changeling be a factor? I would try this:

"Reveal the top seven cards of your library. You gain 1 life for each creature card revealed this way that doesn't share at least one type with another creature card revealed this way. Put up to two creature cards revealed this way into your hand if they don't share a type with another card pur into your hand this way. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order."

It's not perfect, but you're limited by cards, not types. See? That's the gist of it. I think your art direction really pops and I think the idea is pretty cool. It's...very wordy. Honestly, I would cut down on the specifics if you wanted it to be less of a mouthful, but that's a me thing, and the card still functions well enough for me not to worry about it too much.

~

@stareyedesper — Y'Yzai, Hive Queen

I haven't tried pronouncing this card and I can already say I've never pronounced anything more wrong in my life. Anyway, perhaps the last ability should be "Each creature token you control enters the battlefield with your choice of a flying counter, a vigilance counter, or a trample counter on it" per other Ikoria cards and Capenna commander cards. So there we go! Hm, this does indeed feel commander-y, does it not? Nothing wrong with that—I think it could function as a cool set mythic or a commander showcase card regardless.

Falco's kinda cared about counters before, but tokens specifically? Honestly, this is kind of new territory, so props to ya. Also I just got distracted on Draftsim with New Capenna for half an hour, so there's...well, you can see why commentary gets posted in the evening. With this card, I think that having the flavor of an insect noble and the build-around of mass tokens would be a lot of fun, and none of the three keyword tokens would break it that wide open. Having a buttload of tokens being made all with unique counters might be really busy, though. Perhaps that's something to consider in the long term or at least in the do-I-have-enough-counter-keywords term. Someone's gonna build it, though!

~

@stupidstupidratcreatures — Gurmag Gardening

I actually don't know if this works within the rules as it stands. At least, I'm not sure that it...should? I'm weirded out by this card and it's not in a way that feels grokable. There's an inherent quality to the weirdness that I'm afraid I can't define. Maybe it's the specificity of it that makes it feel weird, or the argument about whether a taxing effect on top of a reduction effect would apply since "reduce" doesn't have an action/verbage in the comp rules (as far as I know) to allow for a card like this.

There's a sense that this card was made from a mechanical standpoint without wider consciousness—i.e. it feels one-to-one connected with delve as a mechanic for the Sultai. I don't really want to build "delve typal" in that sense; delve is a situational mechanic that happens to play off of other identities inherent to the colors in which it sees play. What's the flavor supposed to represent in connection to that? What is the relationship between delve and the world of the card? I'm not convinced there's a bridge yet. I encourage you to really take the time, wriggle out a few iterations, and really nail your card in every aspect. Ask the questions that may not be apparent to you.

~

@wolkemesser — Gatewatch Formation

I will never use the first mode of this card. Straight up, this card is asking for one thing and one thing only: play cheap superfriends, then max them out. I genuinely don't think that the first mode would see play except in the most dire of circumstances, and it wouldn't feel good for a second while using it. Sacrificing planeswalkers never feels good. But doubling them? Or, well, proliferating? I'm with you there. The valorous power of black feels pretty radically morphed here but I suppose that Liliana is trying her best.

The flavor's a bit wriggly too but I see the story effect that it's going for. A planeswalker's only powerful enough to deal five damage, huh? I'll be real, Capt'n Messer, I wanna absolutely abolish something if I'm sacrificing a planeswalker. You could've gone a little more ham with the first mode! Well. The real question is whether planesliferate is going to change the way that I build superfriends decks in my head. You know something? It just might. I may have a BW build and you may have unlocked it with this card. Too bad it's a figment of our collective imagination. But it ain't bad.

Tune in tomorrow when the world will be colored strangely, mottled and gorgeous, for you alone. —@abelzumi

#mtg #magic the gathering #custom magic card #inventor's fair #commentary #entries #for each contest

[chaoscriess]

𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒! death, a ton of angst. reader mourns stu's death, writes him a letter to help the grieving process, cussing.

𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐒! on mobile, format might be weird. lowercase intended, unedited, double periods intended. I love writing angst and this was a great fic idea

stu x gn!reader

When you first found out about stu's death, you didnt believe it. you couldn't believe it. it just wasnt possible.

until the next day at school, when you didnt see stu, billy, or tatum, and sidney and randy both refused to talk to you.

they thought you were a monster because you were dating stu

even though you didnt even know stu was behind the mask

it hurt, it really fucking hurt.

you had nobody to talk to, and the entire town was against you.

weren't they supposed to be helping you? comforting you about the death of your boyfriend even if he was a killer? I mean, you didnt even know about it.

shouldn't they have been consoling you? even if they were lying through their teeth, shouldnt they have been telling you how sorry they were that your boyfriend turned out to be a murderer?

you had always hated woodsboro and the people in it, but now it was worse.

now you wanted to strike a match and set the whole fucking town ablaze.

they didnt even know it was billy's fault. you knew him well, he would have never even done that shit if it weren't for that cocksucking bitch billy.

you were angry, so fucking angry.

you got a therapist after a couple weeks of crying every day and not doing anything unless your mother dragged you out of bed.

your therapist told you that the best way to deal with your situation, that being having your boyfriend, the love of your life, ripped from your grasp way, way, way too soon, was to write him a letter

you were confused, how could you write him a letter if he was dead?

you had already recieved his ashes, you and his parents being the only people that showed up to his funeral

even though they were late, you still found it nice that they showed up.

back to the letter thing, your therapist told you to write a letter to him, assuming that he could read it in the afterlife, and then keep it or dump it in the sea with his ashes.

you chose to keep the letter. you chose to also keep his ashes, his parents didnt want them.

but the letter went something like this,

shit, I dont even know if this is going to work.. whatever, let's hope it does.

stu macher, the love of my life. i dont even know where to begin... from the moment I first met you, I knew you would be mine someday. ever since we met on that playset when we were seven, i knew that i would fall in love with you. and when I first realized that I had fallen in love with you, it was because of a feeling I got, not a thought about how cute you were, or how nice your shirt was, or how kind you were to me, it was the feeling that I was finally safe with someone. you made me feel safe after so many years of hating everything. it sounds stupid but I dont think it is.

when you kissed me for the first time on those swings at the same park we met at, 7 years later, I felt like nothing could ever tear us apart, like we'd be together forever. but now you're gone, and suddenly i cant find peace anymore. I cant sleep without dreaming of you, I cant eat without thinking about us cooking in my kitchen, and i cant drink anything without thinking of the stupid drinking games we would play at your stupid parties.

why did you make my life so wonderful? did you know you would kill every bit of my happiness eventually? did you know that you would leave so soon?

why did you do it? why'd you kill those people? now everyone hates you for what you did. I hate you for what you did. I know it wasnt your fault, but I cant help it.

I dont go outside anymore. every time I step off my porch, I can't help but remember our dates where we sat in the field near your house and looked up at the sky for hours.

sidney and randy hate me now, but I cant blame them. they say i was dating a monster. I dont think you're a monster..

I dont know how I'm going to recover from this, but I know I'll have to.

eventually.

I dont want to forget you.

but what if I do?

what if I forget what we had? what if I forget how your stupid cologne smells? how you feel in my arms, how your lips felt on mine.. I dont want to forget.

I dont want to move on. my mother says I have to, that I need to find someone else to take my mind off of you. I screamed at her, told her to fuck herself and that I hoped her husband died so she felt how much it hurt. I dont feel bad. I dont regret saying it.

I hate you, stu macher.

I'll never fucking forgive you for what you did to me.

and most of all, I hate that I still love you.

yours forever, y/n.

after you wrote it, you felt better. you felt like he was reading it over your shoulder the whole time.

you were still upset though.

a few months later, you accepted the fact that stu would never come back. he was gone for good.

it hurt, but you got accepted it.

and you may have accepted it, but you never truly got over it.

stu was truly the love of your life.

#chaos calling! #stu macher #stu macher x reader #stu x reader #stu macher is my soulmate #im in love with him