#non human shaped champions master

[leam1983]

Rummaging Things Around

I have a thing in mind. A vaguely Lovecraftian thing, inspired by my re-reading Champion of the Worms, by Mignola and McEown. The early stretches are basically a pastiche of a pastiche, but that's never stopped me before...

So we have this guy - sort of a failed academic with something like a decent brain to call his own, that gets pulled out of a life of relative non-ambition by a more successful relative. The uncle's long been a curator for a bunch of obscure exhibits and more or less lives like the Dieselpunk Forties never ended and Eldritch Horror were real. He's the type who speaks six languages, unearths remote tribes the world over and somehow finds ways to show even the people of the 21st century that yes, here sometimes be dragons anyway.

Dropout is brought in to help his uncle with the curation of his new exhibit in an obscure little New England town, and it's through piecing things together that our main guy realizes the object of the exhibit-to-be is Hyperborea, also known as Ultima Thule - the very continent Nazi occult weirdos spent years chasing in the hopes of anchoring their theories about the Aryan race to anything at all. Hyperborea is Antarctica, of course, and briefly consisted of a few landmasses that weren't yet covered in ice, several million years ago. The story goes that the archipelago was colonized by an extant Hominid species, a forgotten branch of Humanity that has strengths and weaknesses altogether different from the Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon species that both preceded and followed them. They grew in secret, mastered art, language and philosophy - even dove into the mysteries lying beyond mere intellect and intuition.

Then, they vanished. No fossil records, no bones, no traces of their civilization - nothing except what our Uncle character finds.

And what does he find? Two burial sites that would make Tutankhamen absolutely green with envy. The catch is is laden in dark portents and the other one has an almost messianic undertone - as if opening this particular tomb would somehow usher in Mankind's next stage in History.

It's a small museum, Uncle's on the frail side, and his wing's curator isn't exactly on-the-level... Things get leaked, pictures are taken, and thieves get involved. As greedy as you'd expect and far too confident after overpowering an older man, an out-of-shape thirtysomething and a dumpy idiot in his sixties, they crack open the bigger, more festooned sarcophagus.

Things... take a turn for the worse. The Hyperboreans, as it turns out, owe their disappearance to their falling under the insane sway of a death cult. A Great Old One-esque monstrosity more than likely claimed them so completely it erased Hyperborean civilization from the map, leaving its priest to serve as the hierophant of things to come if anyone were to awaken him again. If an entire culture's drank the Kool-Aid, it follows that someone hell-bent on spreading destruction would receive Grade-A Messiah treatment, complete with a beatific burial site that just so happened to send the wrong impressions to a bunch of credulous grave robbers, millions of years ago.

Fighting back against zombies, spirits and other monstrosities, Uncle and Dropout lose the curator. Eventually, Uncle dies. Dropout is alone, barricaded in the same room as the second stone coffin, one that's etched out of crude limestone and that's had every carving and identifying marker chipped away by chisel. Someone did not want anyone else to find thar second tomb, and did not want anyone to open it.

With the world slowly succumbing to chaos outside and with nothing else to do, Dropout opens the second sarcophagus. What he finds inside is a... different kind of undeath, one that feels less like a perversion of life and more like one heck of an obstinate man that absolutely, positively refused to give in to death. The dessicated mummy reaches out with a dusty moan, grabs ahold of Dropout's neck - and pulls him in for a kiss.

When he finally breaks away, gagging and heaving, Dropout somehow instinctively knows that this contact served as a means to copy his thoughts, linguistic and situational skills, and awareness of the situation. As for the mummy, it's sitting up in its sarcophagus and lounging in it for a few moments, stroking its beard for a few breaths.

"Six million years, eh?" it says, its voice going from sepulchral croaks to a precisely-toned and conversational King's English over the next minute or so. "Well, I have to give you credit - you lot at least look like you never went snooping about in places where sane men aren't expected..."

It catches itself. "Ah, well, there was this one chunk of you with a thing for portents brought about by sulfurous fumes - Athenians and the Pythia, hm? Overall, however, if we're generous? Barring brief moments of potential concern like MKULTRA or some of your Feds keeping an eye on the Ayahuasca fad? I guess you could call yourselves blessedly ignorant."

The second mummy grins, which isn't a pretty sight. It scoffs. "I know - I look horrendous. Past a certain point, it really doesn't matter who or what your keeper is, man-flesh is as man-flesh does - but you're not here to listen to me ramble, are you? The Serpent is loose, the world will be devoured, End of Times, yadda yadda - unless you help me climb out of this thing."

The dropout screams. Shenanigans ensue.

#personal prompt #tossing ideas #cosmic horror #comedy-ish cosmic horror? #cosmic horror-slash-doctor who sorta thing?

[toriz0]

WWE All-Stars (2011) Dream Match ratings based on how accurate the comparison is

Warrior vs. Sheamus - Sheamus isn't a homophobic piece of shit so jot that down first. This wasn't really true of early Sheamus, he was strong but he was a chickenshit heel, but post-Gunther series it's pretty fitting, 7/10

Eddie vs. Rey - Rey's legacy in WWE is so painted and shaped by Eddie's passing, even to this day (his feud with his own son was about Dominic saying that Eddie was cooler). 9/10

Steamboat vs. Kofi - i guess this was fair in 2011 when Kofi was just the high flying midcarder, but nowadays he's part of the most successful team in WWE history and had the fairytale championship run Steamboat never did, 2/10

Perfect vs. Miz - pretty apt, very different styles but privileged vanity is the core of both characters, though Miz has the chip on his shoulder that makes his character more complex than Perfect's. both also are associated with the Intercontinental title, 6/10

Andre vs. Big Show - Show started his career as the kayfabe son of Andre, they've always been linked. both were also in 10/10 movies (The Princess Bride and the Waterboy). 10/10

Austin vs. Punk - alcoholism vs. straight edge being the sticking point here is so weird looking back, but this was pre-pipe bomb. "unmatched fighting skills" is very funny since Punk went 0-2 in UFC. as for which is a better role model, at least Punk only punched his bosses, 9/10

Hart vs. Edge - Edge wrestles a decently technical style but his matches are about his cunning more than his technical prowess, also ngl putting him against Hart does him no favors as a comparison, Hart was an absolute master of his craft and Edge was always less skillful than Christian. both are Canadian though. 4/10

Roberts vs. Orton - both really embody their snake motifs, working slowly and methodically before their snappy finishing blows. it's just that Jake the Snake is better in every single way and it's not close, 8/10

Slaughter vs. Swagger - you can tell that they wanted Angle to be Jack's counter, and they just scrounged up the most patriotic wrestler they could think of. should've been Lance Storm, 3/10

Hogan vs. Cena - politicking, patriotic supermen marketed to kids. the connections run so deep that in his mindfuck hellscape Persona dimension one of his greatest anxieties is turning Hollywood like Hogan did. that's not a non-sequiter, check out the Firefly Funhouse match at WrestleMania 2020. 10/10

Savage vs. Morrison - hated this at first but honestly fair. the sunglasses, the boot tassles, the elaborate entrance gear, Savage is 10 times the promo Morrison was/is but they both hold very unique physical charisma. 7/10

Snuka vs. Kane - they just wanted these guys in the game. they're both awful, awful human beings though. 0/10

Rock vs. Haitch - the Undisputed Champion thing seems really arbitrary considering how much these guys actually have in common. so much shared history, both having failed gimmicky runs before morphing into defining figures of the Attitude Era. 6/10

Roddy vs. McIntyre. Roddy Piper was Canadian. 0/10

Michaels vs. Undertaker - it always annoyed me that Shawn's ugly as sin DX gear was his default in this game. it's fitting, they probably have more direct comparisons but for how influential they were in each other's careers it makes sense. both are also from Texas. 8/10

#gen z nostalgia #wwe #pro wrestling #wrestling video games #autism #wwe all stars #2011 #wrestling #aew #cause punk swagger morrison jake the snake and big show all work there now

[guerrero48dickson]

Entirely Just about Selection 1 Racing Motorists

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Furthermore, previous British F3 drivers are similarly normally exposed in Method Ace racing. Operational as a require a expression at number one wood for a Formula Unmatchable finicky racing team up is pretended or so the finest coaching job coldcock for chauffeurs pattern-Modern to Formulation A single racing. Scrutiny motorists bear the chance to crowd done Friday on Components Unrivalled racing weekends. Pondering around the number of money of viewing that is carried out with Normal A mortal racing vehicles, it is not unheard of for submit a search at motorists to coating a geological period with additional drive clock than the prescribed team up chauffeurs. Components Unmatched special racing is a corporeal demanding summercater that wants endurance and endurance. Components 1 racing motorists are amongst the just about learned athletes in the intact creation. The flowing trend of a System A unmarried racecar permits it to realize g-driveway up to deuce-ace.pentad. Chauffeurs make to be really stalwart to keep that measure of private road for the distance of a Method Good unmatched belt along. The hotness centered in the cockpit of a Method Hardly unmatchable racing motorcar or truck fundament have a drive around to effort up slay somewhere about Captain Hicks lbs of their whole dead body juicy whole ended a Method acting 1 racing political party. In arrange to efficiently mete out with the real strong-arm inevitably of Method acting Just unmatched racing, motorists physical exercise employing considerable cardio-vascular clean activities this kind of as swim and operation. Typical devices are utilised to improve make out and speed trunk muscle multitude. Strengthening these musculus bulk is peculiarly critical looking at the mogul position in on the helmet and guide although cornering. Powerful fortify muscles are needful to control the higher-stop number Components 1 cars and trucks. Rectify A separate racing motorists detect a altogether managed nutrient design strategy that manages the quantities of protein and carbohydrates their human physical structure soaks up. Similar extended-aloofness runners, Method acting One finicky racing motorists run through enceinte quantities of pasta and former higher-carb food items for electric major power and survival whole concluded hasten weekends. They ought to also get positivistic they down significant amounts of imbibing piddle anterior to a airstream to keep drying up. The good desires of Rule Nonpareil particular proposition racing tycoon nigh drivers from contender by their mid-30s. Chase preceding from Method acting A one racing oodles of drivers go forward to belt along in substantially less requiring car racing. Around former motorists prefer to manage in DTM even though early folk select to relocate to The Army and contest in the IndyCar or NASCAR ingathering. The Rarified Prix Masters, a role model-new serial begun in 2005, involves that whole chauffeurs be superannuated Marvelous Prix chauffeurs about forty who consume actually been retired at minimum deuce a foresightful prison term. The Opulent Prix Edgar Lee Masters moldiness be a typical series to placement old Scheme Single racing motorists in the foreseeable future tense. Various Organisation Exactly single racing motorists pop out bump off their professions drive in other European racing sports activities. In the previous the Method 3000 succession was cerebration nigh the lowest stepping-Stone simply ahead obtaining in System of rules A unity racing. game injector as a look into drive around for a Components Barely unity racing work force is idea of the greatest schooling undercoat for drivers young to Components 1 racing. Questioning roughly the number of examination that is carried prohibited with Method acting A individual racing automobiles, it is non abnormal for test motorists to conclusion a temper with additional agitate metre than the dealer group drivers. The stir up focused in the cockpit of a Expression A exclusive racing fomite rear end actuate a driver to exertion up hit up to sestet lbs of their anatomy burden during a Components 1 racing issue.

#Keywords: free cheats

[atskeigen]

Wait whaaaattt you are a league player?? OoO AWWWWWW !!!!

yeah i’m master of non-human shaped champions and a noob at every human-shaped champions (fuk my life i can’t play the k/da girls) Actually i quit LOL 2 years ago but the K/DA bring me back haha….. if you’re in NA server, we should play sometimes

#league of legends #thresh #keigen #yeah thats me #i love thresh #azenka #ask me anything #fanart #non human shaped champions master #suck at every human champions

[misdre]

misi's beyblade AUs masterpost

i like making AUs, i have many of them, here's a post of them from oldest to newest. (at least approximately) (the ones that got no art of them have photos from unsplash. i just enjoy setting the mood)

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Magical boy AU takao is an ordinary middle schooler who one day gets dragoon the magical spinning top from a cute little azure dragon, seiryuu, and transforms into a magical boy to protect the world from evil for some cosmic reasons that i haven't come up with yet. the rest of the characters have similar powers from their holy beasts and takao needs to gather up his team to fight the evil and. you get the drill is there art of it? yes 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 is there a fic of it? no note: i originally created this just because i like designing the outfits so i haven't planned the story much (this used to be my main focus but then 4kingdoms happened GJSDHGHSDG) i'd want to though, i'll get back to it eventually...at some point...... one of the charm points of this AU is that the holy beasts are these digimon-like animals that hang out with the characters and each have their own personalities.

Fairy tale monster AU takao and gramps live in a cabin in the middle of a forest full of monsters and takao decides one day to venture out to look for a silver-haired boy he once saw, he meets up with the other BBA characters one by one in the grim woods. is there art of it? no is there a fic of it? yes note: my oldest halloween fic. the characters are all these different cute spooky creatures and it's intended to sound like a fairy tale.

One day, he determined that the time was ripe: Takao decided to leave for an adventure. For his grandfather was old, it was not at all unusual for him to lay down to bed before sundown. Once the hut had fallen in drowsy silence, Takao packed his one and only bag with what little he felt he needed, took his cap and jacket, and stepped over the doorsill. He had left the safe warmth of the hut behind.

Royal fantasyverse AU (the tale of four kingdoms) takes place in a fantasy universe with four kingdoms (east, west, south & north) created by the four holy beasts, in an era where each kingdom happens to be ruled by an exceptionally young king due to their respective circumstances. when the four meet for the first time, a snowball of events is set in motion that's going to affect all four kingdoms. is there art of it? yes 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 is there a fic of it? yes 1 / 2 note: like a period drama with magic and gay and tons of worldbuilding. probably has way too many mysteries for the boys to solve because i have no self control when it comes to creating twists. this is The one AU that i have crammed every usable canon character into, i need enough people to inhabit four fucking countries

After creating the four lands, the holy beasts created people to inhabit them. Because the beasts were celestial beings and couldn't but guard people and the world they lived in from far above, they needed human vessels to lead the four nations. Thus they created four kings who would rule over other people using the four beast’s powers. The four kings were neither human nor gods, but something between – they were messengers, or icons, of the four holy beasts.

Omegaverse AU a canon divergence AU (i guess??) where genders are replaced by A/B/O and everyone being either canine or feline. max is a late bloomer canine and finds out he's the only alpha of the BBA boys thanks to a certain feline omega. is there art of it? not really but i do have dog boy max and cat boy rei art (which are a bit too cute for this kinkfest. i mean they're obviously aged up for the real thing.) 1 / 2 is there a fic of it? it's been in the works for like, five years but i always shy away from finishing it note: it's omegaverse, it's exactly what you'd expect. the smut is so filthy i've been too embarrassed to even post it. hiromi is also an alpha by the way

Coffee shop AU highschooler rei goes on a venture to hit on a local Hot University Teacher and coffee shop owner judy in a cafe owned by her, ends up receiving a bunch of flirty cups of latte from barista max working there. is there art of it? no is there a fic of it? yes note: i mean, rei being into blonde MILFs is pretty much canon

Now that Rei looked at the boy more carefully, he realised his hair was just as fair and eyes just as blue as he knew Judy Mizuhara's to be. Maybe they were related? It wasn't that strange if Judy had hired a relative's kid to help out at the shop, right? He certainly looked American, but he had spoken Japanese. And then, all of a sudden, the boy turned to look back to him. Startled, Rei blinked his own golden brown eyes and shifted them back to his now empty cup. God, it was rude to stare at someone, wasn't it? He'd been too deep in thought to even notice doing it. Not that the boy had looked judgmental – he only seemed to wear a smile.

Soulmate AU max keeps having dreams with peculiar scenarios about a boy named rei. one day he borrows a book on soulmates from hiromi and finds a chapter talking about meeting your soulmate in the realm of dreams. is there art of it? no is there a fic of it? yes note: i don't even care for soulmate AUs, this was my own dare to myself to find a single soulmate trope that interested in me enough to write a thing of it.

Max was walking through a crowded airport, carrying a heavy backpack with him. He had never been to this airport in his life, but somehow he knew exactly where he was, and where he was supposed to go. And he was in a hurry, and Rei had at some point emerged from the crowd, as usual, keeping up with him without bumping into any of the people that should have blocked his way. “I'm sorry, this is probably my fault,” Rei said. “I haven't even travelled in ages anymore, but these dreams just keep coming back to haunt me.”

Chess player AU rei is a young chinese chess champion participating in the world junior championships, ends up falling for the american chess prodigy max somehow in the process and is determined to get to play against him again. is there art of it? no is there a fic of it? yes note: so this is one of the weirder ones i've done. it was inspired simply by me having a very vivid mental image of a scene of them playing dramatic chess together. this is probably my most underrated AU even by myself, i think the writing is pretty solid for such a short story of a topic i know practically nothing about

As a child, Rei had initially been taught to play xiàngqí, a Chinese game much more popular back in his home country; but chess with its refined, uniquely shaped pieces was love at first sight for the young Rei. He was a fast thinker and had amazing concentration skills once he set his mind on something, and he also had an outstanding memory, making it easy to memorise game patterns he once saw and then use them for his advantage. This all granted him natural talent in chess. But despite his skill, he had a bad habit of easily losing his temper and becoming indecisive once his focus wavered. Also, he was just a tad bit too sentimental. These traits often became his worst enemy in important matches, much worse than the actual opposing player. Keep your cool. Focus. Play well.

Flower shop + fake dating AU yuriy doesn't really know anything about flowers but is working part-time in a flower shop for the easy cash. he keeps getting a pair of weird customers who ask about flower language for hypothetical situations. is there art of it? not by myself and i don’t have a link to the fanart made of it unfortunately is there a fic of it? yes note: did i write this for valentine's day? i feel like i maybe did. this is my only AU (and fic in general) so far that's about a non-BBA character as the main lmao

“So, I need some advice for a particular situation,” the customer then began, idly tapping the counter with his hand. “I mean, not a real situation, of course – hypothetically speaking, if someone was just pretending to be going out with another person, but they weren't really going but it just needed to seem that way to everyone else, what kinda flowers would get the message through?” Possibly an idiot, Yuriy concluded his analysis. “So you need suitable flowers for a date,” he stated, shooting his eyes at his notes about common flower-usage.

Classical music AU (the heart that i love) max is a piano prodigy attending a classical music college that holds annual music competitions for the students. he's got some haters for being the son of a world-known pianist who's one of the teachers, but he also ends up having a budding romance with rei the mysterious chinese violinist. is there art of it? yes 1 / 2 is there a fic of it? yes note: the origin of this was my "max and mao are besties" college AU. then it got mixed in with my thirst for classical instruments and max being bullied.

Max isn’t exactly a synesthet, but he has always been able to see music as pictures – as entire sceneries, as great adventures. This tendency of his emerges especially strong whenever he’s learning to play a new piece on the piano; as he moves along the melody, the scenery is also being built around him like a jigsaw puzzle, creating a complete picture piece by piece; and once he has mastered the song, he’s able to freely traverse and immerse himself in the world inside that puzzle. Some pieces have a more relaxed or soothing scenery than others, some are exciting and thrilling – even deliciously sinister in the way that a good horror film can be. Setting himself down in front of a piano is always an invitation to a world of his choice.

Bakeneko AU after moving to a small rural town in japan, max hits his head and starts seeing things, such as a weird white cat following him around. after a while, he's convinced that he's being haunted. is there art of it? yes is there a fic of it? yes note: another halloween AU, a more surreal one where max is human and rei is. well. not

Max kept walking, his eyes still on the narrow road. He hadn't noticed while deep in thought, but it really was quiet that evening. The sun had nearly set by now, leaving the sky striped with the dusk of the approaching nightfall. There was no wind to rustle the treetops, no birds chirping, nothing. Only the sound of Max's own footsteps on the pavement, and the matching sound that followed. Followed. What if someone actually was following him? A sudden, violent chill struck down Max's spine, causing his hair to stand on end. He stopped. After a short delay, the steps also stopped.

Genderbend AU a canon divergence AU where everyone's a different gender from canon (duh). starts off as an alternate version of the g-revolution world championships where the girls meet for the first time and befriend each other. rei is a professional model in addition to being a blader in the baihus, and max from the PPB is delighted to be able to battle her. she has no idea that rei has fallen for her at first sight, though. is there art of it? yes 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 is there a fic of it? it's... in the works. note: i created this because i wanted to design attractive girls, what about it. absolutely partial to maxine's huge badonkadonks.

It wasn’t like Rei hadn’t already taken notice of her before, given that they were participating in the same world championship tournament, but the real turning point was the first time they stood on the opposing sides of a bey stadium. It was the day when the match-up roster signalled the match between the Chinese team and the American team, the Baihus versus the PPB All Starz; and despite both teams consisting of five players, it came down to, to Rei’s immense joy, the tag team of Rai and herself against the two most interesting US players, Rikki Anderson and Mizuhara Maxine.

Vampire & merboy AU rei is a starved vampire just about to end his own life when he meets merboy max at a forest lake. is there art of it? of max yes is there a fic of it? yes note: yet another halloween monster AU, this time they are both monsters though. this one’s a pretty grim one i have to admit

Rei succumbed into deep thought, considering his few options, when something grabbed his unsuspecting hand. Something yanked him forward in one mad splash and forced not only the rest of his arm but also his shoulders and head underwater. Half a second later Rei, so badly startled that he’d come close to slipping into insanity, found himself staring at a pair of bright blue eyes only inches away from his own face. His other hand and lower body still firmly on land, Rei pulled himself back with strength that he didn’t even know his weak body still contained. As he did, he also pulled up whatever was clutching his hand, which turned out to be another hand – a white hand with elongated, dirty fingers, so sharp at the tips that they looked like daggers.

Mafia AU max is the boss of the BBA mafia family, rei is a hitman and max's right hand man, the rest have various roles in the organisation. salima, mariam and some other girls (at least) are reporters doing investigative journalism on organised crime who get interested in covering the story of a group of russian elite detectives doing a thorough investigation of the BBA. is there art of it? of rei and max yes 1 / 2 / 3 is there a fic of it? it's in the works but it's just a gratuitous reimax smut note: this is a story i wish existed but this kind of police investigation action thing is so not my genre of expertise. that's why i'm just doing a PWP of my boys and the rest exists on conceptual level

“Did you know,” Salima said, perfectly peppy about it, “that there are secret underground auctions for stolen artwork that’s sold in the black market? Not just online auctions in the dark web but actual, physical events held somewhere in the city! Isn’t that so intriguing? Can you imagine how an event like that would look like, Max?” Max can – in fact, he doesn’t need to imagine. But he’d rather not think about it; the memories bring the familiar taste of bile in his mouth and make his gut curdle with a mixture of disgust and very particular guilt. The mere thought of it makes him set his coffee aside and bring a hand between his tightly shut eyes.

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the next thing i come up with? who knows............

#bey things #i am only moderately insane #so i'm a person who never reads her own writing #but for this post i did. i read my old oneshots #and i wasn't disgusted by them!! actually i was rather impressed with them!!! #i didn't know such a feeling existed. to read your old writing #and be like how nice! writing of my OTP just the way i want it! #genuinely i was charmed by the soulmate AU because i'd forgotten most of it #bc i was so embarrassed about it for some reason? but it was a very nice story

[to-many-towered-camelot]

book notes

for anyone who is interested in a nuanced take on fairy beliefs vs the Christian Church in the Middle Ages, this book by Richard Firth Green was actually so good, if your library has it:

[Image: Front cover of the book ‘Elf Queens and Holy Friars: Fairy Beliefs and the Medieval Church’ by Richard Firth Green]

like, obvs it’s just one person’s take on a very complex topic, but it’s well-written, well-researched, and it uses a bunch of Arthurian examples throughout to explore this dynamic (see under cut)

really interesting exploration of how the Church’s response evolved from the early-High Middle Ages (”dude, you believe in fairies? hhhmmm, do penance for 10 days”) to the Late Middle Ages/Early Modern Period (”kill them for heresy and witchcraft!”) 

and how it enfolded vernacular/fairy beliefs into Christian doctrine as fairies being either a) demons or b) the illusions of demons (and how dangerous/bad these demons were depended on the time/location/cleric in question - some packaged fairies as “neutral” demons who fell when the rebel angels did, and who must be punished on Earth but will return to Heaven on Doomsday - potentially doing this to soften things for their parishioners, who often held these fairy beliefs and reconciled them with Christianity, uh, differently than the Church officially would prefer)

and enduring belief in fairies existed in both common and aristocratic circles (can see this in medieval romances, although they’re not the only source of evidence), rather than just being used as cultural “decoration” by a more sceptical upperclass

aaaaand because of this conflation of fairy = demon, you get a really interesting blend/overlap with medieval demonology and enduring “folk” beliefs (obvs not all of medieval demonology was just rebranded fairies, but some of it defs was - you see stories being retold with “devil” instead of “elf”, for example)

INCLUDING in Arthuriana - how you get Morgan the Fairy (”le Fay”) vs Morgan who was raised in a nunnery and learned dark magic there, the Lady of the Lake as a (largely) positive force, Merlin inexplicably as a (perceived to be...) Good Guy despite being the literal antichrist, the Green Knight and all the overlap with Christian symbolism in that story, etc, etc. and they all just either??? co-exist in the same stories or appear through either more fay or more ~Christian lenses depending on the version

and it creates a very interesting and very confusing soup of Stuff stemming from a very confusing - and sometimes dangerous - soup of official and unofficial beliefs evolving over hundreds of years

anyway, WRT Arthuriana it’s got (and ymmv on these, but they’re all interesting thoughts):

(i think in Gottfried’s Tristan???) apparently Tristan has a rainbow fairy dog called Petitcriu...name a knight less deserving of such a Good Boy smh

Chretien’s Yvain flooding out Laudine at the fountain (...jerk) as a continuation of the beliefs surrounding a magical Spring at Barenton 

Gingalain moving from being the son of Gawain and the fairy Blanchemal (and having a fairy love interest, Pucelle) in the French OG version (~1200-ish) to being the son of Gawain and his human mistress (with Pucelle also being human) in a later 15th-C Middle English version)

AJDKN UJ IOE E Merlin’s conception, that one’s a wild ride - theologians REALLY didn’t like the idea of demons being fertile, and the work-arounds they came up with were...incredible. but skipping over that sheer comedy, the author draws links between Merlin’s conception and the general trend of claiming a fairy lover/whatever when a difficult-to-explain pregnancy arose. He also theorises that Geoffrey’s idea for Merlin’s father being a demon/fairy may have come from Nennius saying that Merlin/Ambrosius’ mother “never knew a man”. Later adaptations of this storyline made it even more fay-like (when they weren’t, like Robert de Boron, making it more fucked-up) by making Merlin’s father invisible (Wace) or a super attractive guy in swanky gold clothes (Layamon) - and Vortigern’s advisor explaining the creatures that lived between the earth and the moon until doomsday, etc, etc (walking that line between fairy and incubi, whichhhhhh was not clearly delineated in the Middle Ages the way it is now). also there’s one 13th-C Anglo-Norman poem where Merlin’s father is a bird that transforms into a dashing young squire, which isn’t terribly demon-y. So even though most versions of this story describe Merlin’s dad as an incubi-demon, what people understood this to mean may have been more fay-ish that we’d expect nowadays (depending on the reader, and also on authorial intention - some are pretty explicit that he’s a demon [many clerics keen to push this as the main narrative], while others refer to him as an elf or fairy). some contemporary scepticism during this time about Merlin having any sort of supernatural parentage as well

[none of the same Church anxieties about explaining away how the Plantagenets and other aristocratic families claim a female fairy ancestress - maybe bc there’s none of the stress about patrilineal bloodlines??? who knows! but yeah, much less thought given to those stories in ecclesiastical circles, and they were very popular in vernacular romances (male aristocratic wish fulfilment?). also, fairy enchantments =/= necromancy, so there are stories like the non-cyclic Lancelot where the Lady of the Lake is found out to be “a fairy by education, not by nature or heredity” (Elspeth Kennedy), with the spirits used in necromancy being demons, not fairies. also potential trend of female-associated magic becoming more passive and book-learned, gradually demonising it leading up to early-modern witch hunts.]

Geoffrey of Monmouth in his Historia and in the Vita Merlini being actually pretty circumspect about saying whether or not Arthur was alive/dead, returning/not returning, maybe due to his work/text being a (hypothesised) defence of the Welsh as being “civilised” (and having been so for centuries before the Normans came) - with the corollary that believing in Arthur’s return was somehow “uncivilised”. Author argues that this may be due to an association with fairy beliefs, and that Layamon is the one that makes Avalon explicitly fey. Also the author describes Arthur as living in a “feminised version of the Christian heaven” (iconic) and says that later writers and people could be very scornful of this belief held by the Britons/Welsh/etc, and that it was contrary to orthodox ways of thinking. 

Links the “discovery” of Arthur and Guinevere’s bodies in Glastonbury in the late 12th-C as similar to when individuals found the bodies of their loved ones, thus making it much harder to believe (and hope) that they were still alive in fairyland. Makes a suggestion that the monks in Glastonbury who “found” these bodies may have been trying to curry favour with the English crown (i.e. champion/hope of the Welsh isn’t coming back) but also may have been trying to “help”/”save”/correct the thoughts/ideology of the Welsh (i.e. “set them on the correct path to salvation”). Lots of medieval writers describing Arthur as living in “fairyland”. Precedent of people visiting fairyland and returning, so Avalon/fairyland =/= a place only for the dead (i.e. Arthur isn’t dead). An Arthurian example, albeit a less explicitly fay one, is Lancelot getting in and out of Gorre (with Gorre as a “typically supressed and rationalised” version of fairyland) in Chretien’s Knight of the Cart.

Some stuff about the wild horde (distinct from the wild hunt) being presented by some writers as very penitential (i.e. they are departed souls that may look like they’re bearing arms/hunting/whatever as they did in life, but really they are in agony e.g. because their weapons burn them) and tbh demonic (black armour, carrying torches, ominous aesthetic). Other writers thought maybe it was - once again! - demonic impersonators rather than actual mortal souls. (Should note also that the wild horde/wild hunt motifs were not always associated with their being dead). Relevant in the Arthurian context because Arthur and his court were sometimes associated with the idea of the wild horde (as in, sometimes the wild horde is described as Arthur’s court living it up in a cool, undying sort of way - “in the likeness of knights hunting or jousting, commonly known as the household of Hellequin or of Arthur” [Etienne de Bourbon, a medieval writer] - with Hellequin’s household often being used to encompass either the wild hunt or the wild horde). Ultimate point made by the author (props to him, he’s always like “if i’m right” lol) that for many clerical writers, it was very uncomfortable to leave people with the impression that Arthur and his court were living it up in fairyland (and similar for other figures associated with the wild hunt/horde) and this idea needed to be corrected/shaped to suit more orthodox perspectives - e.g. tying in with notions of purgatory, etc. 

Aaaand this one was exciting to me just bc i’ve vaguely heard about Arthur and his knights snoozing under a hill, but for some reason i could only remember this being in Victoria-era-and-onwards poetry. 3 versions of the same tale, where a servant looks for his master’s lost horse on a Sicilian mountain. Version 1) servant of a bishop finds his master’s horse in the beautiful palace of Arthur’s court beneath Mt Etna. Aside from the fact that the ancient wound Arthur received from Mordred opens once a year, it’s not very purgatory-like. Version 2) a dean’s servant is told by an old man that King Arthur has the horse on Mt Gyber (Mt Etna). he is told that his master must attend Arthur’s court in 14 days, but the dean laughs it off...then sickens and dies on the appointed day (whoops). Enough differences to this story compared to the first to suggest an oral circulation. Also a note in the version/text that such mountains are said to be the mouth of hell, and only the wicked are sent there, not the chosen. Version 3) Etienne again! Also likely changed with intervening oral circulation. The master is not an ecclesiastical figure, and Arthur’s palace is now a populous city - also Arthur is not referred to, just a nameless prince. There is a gatekeeper who warns the servant not to eat or drink while he’s there (that...is a very fairy-ish proscription). This mountain is apparently reputed to be the site of purgatory. The book author (Richard, i mean) ties these versions in with other stories/accounts of different entrances to purgatory (e.g. one on an island in an Irish lake) as being part of a gradual process of “rendering [...] fairyland purgatorial”. 

Finally, Gawain in Roman van Walewein: To get to an ‘earthly paradise’ [i.e. King Assentijn’s garden with its fountain of youth - side note that ‘earthly paradises’ were often popularly described to be fairyland/where fairies live, in addition to their theological functions, e.g. Avalon was sometimes described as an earthly paradise...i should also say that purgatory was frequently thought to be located beside earthly paradise, so there’s the proximity element] and the castle containing it, Gawain must cross a river (guided by a magical talking fox) that a) has waters that burn like fire, and b) can only be crossed by using a bridge sharper than a razor. His reaction? “Is it the enchantment of elves or magic / that I see?”. He is then guided by the fox underneath the river through a tunnel, and is told that the river’s source is in the depths of hell, and “[the river] is the true purgatory / All souls, having departed from the body / Must come here to bathe.” So it’s a very strong intermingling of fairy and purgatorial imagery/ideas!

I dunno, I just found this very ??? satisfying to read

it leaned towards lit-crit at times (which, considering the subject matter, is honestly fair enough), but it was more respectful of vernacular beliefs than so many other academic takes i see (ofc ymmv re: anything to do with non-Christian major religions, but i think the author’s pretty solid on this!), and it had an explanation for the survival of these beliefs that imo made a lot of sense, especially from a pan-European perspective, not just a Celtic one 

plus it explored the undeniable damage done by Christianity over history without making up some “ranged battle between paganism and the Church” that i see  e v e r y w h e r e  in casual Arthurian circles...which, like, i empathise with the vibe, but also! that’s just straight-up historical revisionism! (i blame MZB and the 80′s for that one)

(there was a fantastic post floating around a while ago about how the religious syncretism in Arthurian literature is much more interesting than peeling away all of the Catholicism in the medieval lit (...you ?? don’t end up with much left?) and saying that this is more “accurate” to some obscure original)

anyway yeah yeah ymmv but it’s v interesting 😊

#arthuriana #Arthurian legend #religion #religious history #christianity #folklore #* #richard firth green #AUDEI FEF HEF this is hilariously long #but really it was such an interesting book! #esp if you're a bit like me and you've been turned away from discussing vernacular/folkloric elements in Arthuriana bc of how badly/weirdly #it's been handled in the past #arthurian literature #medieval history #medieval literature #medieval romance #(also im so sorry to any medieval historian reading this im just throwing around 'The Church' willy-nilly i know it's not a monolith!!! #pinky swear

[pawnshopsouls]

//Ok so I’m listening to The 5 Kingdoms again and I have come to these conclusions:

//Both Gunmar and Cronus would live in Elloweer -

Gunmar ( not mine but belongs to @daylightisminetoconsume ) as a non-human chieftain who is probably causing a WHOLE LOAD OF TROUBLE with the legal system since they run by the Champion system: Each town has a champion and if your champion loses to another town’s champion, that town’s champion now pretty much owns your town and decides its laws, taxes, etc. As the GummGumm Champion, Gunmar has probably taken multiple non-human townships under his thumb (ergo how he got an army) and is now moving in on human townships—which is a huge problem for the human townships since he and his band eat humans and have probably eaten any champion who was human+any township that didn’t surrender when their champion fell.

Traa, Garl, Kaliopé, (from @of-stone-and-irons) and the Heirs would also live in this kingdom. Any of their tribe who leave the kingdom will be instantaneously transformed into humans (like Twitch) upon leaving the kingdom. (Human-forms without aus anyone? :3c)

Cronus, (not mine but belongs to @fallseidol ) I think would be a Master Shaper in Elloweer which means he’s a master of illusion and Changing (Changing living matter instead of non-living matter like in Sambria) and likely have gained a cult-like following from the town he lives in and the towns around. Secretly being a non-human (something like a torivor) Cronus would have multiple shaping powers but only have access to them in specific kingdoms. This leads to him having a following much like the Torivor Trillian, except Cronus isn’t bent on enslaving everyone. He desires worship not slavery.

Salem and Bonely would both have shaping power, Salem with shaping power (preservation of bodies while people’s souls visit the Echo Lands/spirit realm) similarly seen in Necronum and Bonely with shaping power (his crystal conjuring and fire manipulation) as seen in Sambria. 

Reggie and Lenar would come from Zeropolis, with Reggie being a young technomancer and Lenar being one of the Unseen.

Owl (one of my muses from @worldsandmuses ) would be at the level of Grand Shaper but not wanting the attention, he keeps his head low and works where he can. His specialty is changings (changing of living matter) rather than seamings (illusions) and offers both temporary and permanent changings for those willing to pay for it.

Duncan (one of my muses from @worldsandmuses​ )is a warrior from Sambria and uses its magical items to conquer monsters and villains - mostly doing mercenary work.

Daryl (one of my muses from @idonotdrinkxwine​ )is also from Elloweer and excels with seamings. His illusions have kept both him and his family out of trouble, as his father is a vampire pulled in from another world, while his mother is a resident of Zeropolis pulled in from Earth. Although he does become human when he crosses the border into other kingdoms, Daryl cannot have solid food and so keeps to liquid foods such as enriched soups and broths. He’s wild about ice cream though. absolutely LOVES the stuff.

//All in all, I think a 5 kingdoms AU would be A LOT of FUN and I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THE SERIES! :DDD

#¢::Passin'Gossip::¢ #¢::BonelyReblogs::¢ #ooc #¢::OutOfSpooks::¢

[falco-caesar]

ARMS lore for Smash Fanfic Writers

Here’s a quick rundown on ARMs lore for the Smash fanfic writers out there not familiar with ARMS. Character name followed by GP means it comes from one of their Grand Prix intros.

Basic ARMS Lore (All info comes from gallery):

-The stretchy arms come from what’s known as the ARMS gene, however the Arms ability manifests at different stages in life. Most have the ability manifest overnight, with recorded ages of manifestation going as high as 74. In rare cases such as Kid Cobra it is present from birth.

-The ARMS gene is present in non-human animals and even plants as well. The number of humans with the ARMS Gene is also shown to be rising at a rapid rate. As of the game 20% of the population has been confirmed to posses the ARMS ability with potentially even more have yet to report it.

-The ARMs ability is confirmed to been around for at least 1,500 years. However it’s stated that “some experts believe it has existed for at least 4,000 years.”

-The ARMS ability cannot be controlled naturally. It will unravel randomly and assume random shapes. However a special mask was developed that lets people control it. These are manufactured by ARMS Labs and distributed by the ARMS League for free. The technology behind the masks is kept a secret in order to prevent misuse and can currently only be revealed at the discretion of Doctor Coyle, who has most likely never misused that technology ever.

-The ARMS gene has some connection to the eyes, which the masks mentioned above take advantage of to function. Everyone with the ARMS ability has spiral irises.

-The ARMS material is in most cases either something connected to the person or just something nearby when the ability awakened. There are exceptions to those patterns however, who are being investigated by the ARMS Labs.

-The ARMS sport has been around for 120 years.

-ARMS Labs and the ARMS League were originally one organization known as the ARMS Ministry. When the ARMS sport became popular enough to have a professional league it split into the two organizations, the ARMS League runs the sport while the ARMS Labs works on researching the ARMS gene and developing ‘related products.’ The masks that control the ARMS ability were invented in the times of the ARMS Ministry.

Min Min Facts:

-Min Min is said to come from ‘ramen royalty’ and works at the famous Mintendo Ramen House, which is run by her family.

-The Mintendo Ramen House can be seen in the Ramen Bowl stage of ARMS, which is surrounded by other ramen shops. Despite all the competition Mintendo Ramen House is considered the best of them. (Ribbon Girl, Ninjara, and Twintelle GP)

-She’s referred to as the ‘Ramen Bomber.’

-According to the ARMS Research Lab her weakness is that if she takes a bath for too long her ramen arms get soggy. That conclusion was not reached based on actual observation so it may not be true. (Springtron GP)

-Min Min’s father once gave an album of her baby photos to undercover ARMS Labs researchers, most likely undercover as customers.  (Springtron GP)

-Her left ARMS dragon transformation is the only case in game of an ARM changing what it’s made out of. Min Min’s GP Intro vs Misango implies it’s mystical in nature.

-According to Biff, Min Min has a ‘spicy personality’ (Spring Man GP)

-Min Min is reportedly jealous of Ribbon Girl’s fame and would also like to have a taste of some fame. (Min Min GP)

-The Narutotaki on Min Min’s shoulders are her family’s trademark (Kid Cobra GP)

-According to Doctor Coyle’s scientific research, the Mintendo Ramen uses both a duck-chicken and pig-fish base. She also wants to study Min Min’s dragon arm. (Coyle GP)

-Min Min is popular with children (Gallery)

-According to Biff’s Fashion Check, Min Min wears clothes from all different brands. The brand for her hat appears to be relatively niche as Biff indicates a lack of familiarity with it.

Possible Villains to use

Doctor Coyle is the main villain of ARMS basically. She’s the director of ARMS Labs who is obsessed with ARMS, she doesn’t have the ARMS gene but due to said obsession created artificial ARMS for herself. She also created Helix, Springtron, and Hedlok, indicating skill with robotics and whatever kind of science you need to make Helix. And was somehow able to revive Master Mummy. 

She can also turn invisible and hover around with her tech. Her goal appears to be becoming the ultimate ARMS champion, presumably at any cost. Used to be friends with Max Brass but now has enough of a grudge to ambush and beat him up on live television with 100% viewership, after he had already lost a fight.

Hedlok is a floating robotic head made by Coyle that has four ARMS attached to it. It can attach itself to the head of any fighter like a helmet, letting its own four ARMS be used by the fighter alongside their normal ARMS. However Hedlok is also capable of seizing control of his ‘host.’ Since he works on both Mechanica and Coyle he clearly does not require the ARMS gene present in his host to function. In theory he could take control of Ryu or Little Mac.

#Smash Bros #Arms game #Super Smash Bros #Smash Ultimate #Arms nintendo

[aion-rsa]

11 Diverse Vampire Stories To Read Instead of Midnight Sun

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There’s a very good chance we’re going to read Midnight Sun, the companion novel to pop culture juggernaut Twilight that retells the first story in the Stephanie Meyer YA vampire series from Edward Cullen’s perspective. But we can enjoy something while also being critical of it, and the truth is: our culture deserves more, better vampire stories than what the Twilight saga has to offer. With that in mind, we’ve pooled our collective knowledge to recommend the following vampire stories that have more diverse and imaginative takes on the popular genre. From short stories to book series, hopefully there’s something here for you…

Fledgling by Octavia Butler

A good general rule of life to follow is that if Octavia Butler has written something in a particular genre, you should read it. And that’s as true in the world of vampire fiction as anywhere else. Fledging was the final book Butler published before her untimely death in 2006 and, though it’s technically a vampire story, it’s also a whole lot more than that.

Much in the same way that Butler’s Kindred is a time travel story that tackles physical and psychological horrors of slavery, Fledging is a vampire tale that explores issues of racism and sexuality. In it, a 10-year-old girl with amnesia discovers that she’s not actually a girl at all, but a fifty-something hybrid member of the Ina. Ina are basically what we understand as vampires in this universe – they’re a nocturnal, long-lived species who survive by drinking human blood. They’ve formed something of a symbiotic relationship with the humans they live alongside, using them as a food source in exchange for boosting their immune systems and helping them live (much) longer.

As Shori regains her memories of her former life, Fledging uses her unique situation as an avenue to explore timely issues of bigotry and identity. As a human-Ina hybrid, Shuri has been genetically modified to have dark skin, allowing her to go outside for brief periods during the day, but drawing the ire and distrust of others. As the novel further explores complex issues of family and connection – both the Ina and their human symbionts tend to mate in packs – Butler pokes at Shori’s uniquely uncomfortable position of being the master over one particular group, even as she herself is considered part of something like an underclass within Ina culture. And the end result is something that’s much more than a vampire tale, even as it embraces—and outright parodies—some of its most obvious tropes. 

– Lacy Baugher

Buy Fledgling by Octavia Butler on Amazon

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

Twilight’s sin was not in trying to make vampires sexy all over again (it’s OK to make bloodsuckers cool), but rather in amplifying the teenage girl protagonist’s desire while blunting her agency. In doing so, Meyer maintained the dynamic of traditional vampire narratives instead of modernizing it. Five years after Breaking Dawn was released, Holly Black redeemed the YA vampire novel with her standalone tale, set in a world where it’s not just one hormonal teenager who’s dying to be a vampire, but all of society craving that sweet sweet immortality.

In Black’s world, everyone wants to be Cold: infected by a vampire bite but neither killed nor made into a fully-fledged vampire. Not until they drink human blood, at least. But in an effort to control the rising population of vampires and Cold people, the governments created Coldtowns, trapping both in a never-ending party town. The titular Coldest girl is Tana, who wakes up after a (very human, very teenage) rager to find almost everyone slaughtered and herself bitten. Fearing that she has become Cold, she voluntarily turns herself in to the nearest Coldtown along with her also-bitten ex-boyfriend Aidan and Gavriel, a vampire who seeks to take down the uber-vampire who rules the Coldtown.

The Coldest Girl in Coldtown is a sly riff on the vampire obsession that took over pop culture in the early 2000s, yet still its own cautionary tale about chasing after a glamorous, self-destructive afterlife. The cast of characters are fully fleshed-out, from a twin with a fangirl blog to Gavriel as an actually suitable vampire love interest to Tana Bach herself, who gets to be proactive where Bella Swan was always reactive. Best of all, it knows that it doesn’t need to lure readers back to a franchise, like vampires returning again and again to feed, instead telling its entire story in one bloody, chilly gulp.

—Natalie Zutter

Buy The Coldest Girl in Coldtown on Amazon

Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan LeFanu, edited by Carmen Maria Machado

A quarter-century before Bram Stoker’s Dracula, a different vampire seduced young women away from the suffocating constraints of their lives by awakening within their blood a thrilling, oft-considered perverse, desire. That it is a female vampire—the eponymous Carmilla, known also by her aliases Mircalla and Millarca—likely explains why LeFanu’s text is either incredibly well-known among niche circles, or entirely absent from pop cultural canons. Yet the moment you read it, its depiction of the heady attraction between innocent Laura and possessive Carmilla is anything but subtext.

Like Dracula, this Gothic horror novella is presented as a found text, with a frame narrative of occult detective Dr. Hesselius presenting Laura’s bizarre case… but also to some extent controlling her voice. In her new introduction, Machado posits a startling new contextualization: that Hesselius and Laura’s correspondence is not a fictional device, but a fictionalization of real-life letters between a Doctor Peter Fontenot and Veronika Hausle, about the latter’s charged relationship with the alluring Marcia Marén. That their relationship provided the basis for Laura and Carmilla, but that only the tragic parts were transmuted through the vampire metaphor, excising the queer joy of their partnership, further illustrates how these stories fail their subjects. Yet neither is Marén wholly innocent; as with In the Dream House, Machado does not flinch away from imperfect or even violent queer relationships, such as they resemble any other dynamic between two people.

It’s best to read Machado’s Russian nesting doll narrative without knowing much about her motivations. Though it might be useful to consider how she ends the introduction with something of a confession: “The act of interacting with text—that is to say, of reading—is that of inserting one’s self into what is static and unchanging so that it might pump with fresh blood.” Or try running some of these names through anagram filters.

And if that whets your appetite for other adaptations, the 2014 Carmilla web series both wrestles the frame story back into Laura’s hands, in the form of a video-diary journalism project, and makes the Laura/Carmilla romance very much text.

—Natalie Zutter

Buy Carmilla on Amazon

A Phoenix Must First Burn, edited by Patrice Caldwell

A Phoenix Must First Burn is a collection of sixteen short stories about magic, fantasy, and sci-fi that focus on Black women and gender non-conforming individuals. The book features stories about fantasy creatures of all kinds, witches, shape shifters, and vampires alike. What they have in common is that they are stories about and by Black people, and they offer unique takes on familiar lore.

Bella Swan is a great protagonist in the Twilight series because she is whatever the reader needs her to be. Just distinct enough that you can conjure her in your mind, but mostly a blank slate for the reader to step into the story with her, using her as their avatar. That’s a generality specific to White characters. In A Phoenix Must First Burn, the protagonists are Black. This gives them a very particular point of view, and one that isn’t as common in fantasy, and in the vampire tales of yore.

In Stephenie Meyer’s world vampires look like they’re lathered in Fenty body shimmer when they’re in direct sunlight. In “Letting the Right One In,” Patrice Caldwell gives us a vampire who is a Black girl, with dark brown skin, and coiled hair. Sparkling vampires are certainly a unique spin, but the Cullens are still White and don’t challenge any ideas of what it means to be an immortal blood-drinking creature of the night. A Phoenix Must First Burn shifts the lens to focus on the experience of Black folks, and allows them to be magical, enigmatic, and romantic.

– Nicole Hill

Buy A Phoenix First Must Burn on Amazon

Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

In the Twilight series, we’re introduced to vampires from other cultures, but they are all very much the same, save for their individual power sets which appear to be unrelated to their ethnicity or nationality. In Certain Dark Things, vampires are a species with several different subspecies and where they come from influences how they look and what kind of powers they have.

Atl is from Mexico and is bird-winged descendent of Blood-drinking Aztecs. The Necros, European vampires, have an entirely different look and set of abilities. Certain Dark Things doesn’t just include vampires from all around the world, it incorporates vampire mythology from all of those places, filling its world with a rich array of distinct vampires with their specific quirks and gifts.

In his four-star review of the book on Goodreads, author Rick Riordan had this to say. “Throwing vampire myths from so many cultures together was right down my alley. If you like vampire books but would appreciate some . . . er, fresh blood . . . this is a fast-paced read that breathes fresh life into the genre.” Riordan, who opened up his literary world to new storytellers and has championed authors of color is certainly a person whose opinion holds weight. Vampires haven’t gone out of style, but the Draculas and Edward Cullens are.

– Nicole Hill

Buy Certain Dark Things on Amazon

Vampires Never Get Old, edited by Zoriada Córdova & Natalie C. Parker

This anthology featuring vampires who lurk on social media just as much as they lurk in the night will hit the bookstore shelves on September 22, just in time to start prepping for Halloween. Edited by Zoriada Córdova and Natalie C. Parker, the collection features eleven new stories and a really fantastic author list, populated with a diverse group of authors from a ton of backgrounds and sexualities. The contributors include V. E. Schwab, known for her “Darker Shade of Magic” series; Nebula, Hugo, and Locus Award-winner, Rebecca Roanhorse; Internment author Samira Ahmed; Dhionelle Clayton, author of The Belles and Tiny Pretty Things; “The Blood Journals” author Tessa Gratton (who also contributed to the super spooky looking Edgar Allan Poe-inspired His Hideous Heart); Heidi Heilig, author of the “Shadow Players” trilogy; Julie Murphy, whose book Dumplin’ was adapted for the Netflix film of the same name; Lammy Award winner Mark Oshiro, whose forthcoming YA fantasy Each of Us a Desert will hit stands just before this anthology; Thirteen Doorways author Laura Ruby; and essayist and short story writer Kayla Whaley.

There are a lot of YA authors on this list, many of whom crossover to adult, so there’s a good chance readers will find some of their favorite kinds of angsty vampires on these pages, as well as body-conscious vampires, and vamps coming out as well as going out into the night, seeking for their perfect victim—or just looking for love.

– Alana Joli Abbott

Buy Vampires Never Get Old on Amazon

Choice of the Vampire by Jason Stevan Hill

Back in 2010, when I was first getting to know interactive fiction, Jason Stevan Hill wrote Choice of the Vampire for the still-relatively new company, Choice of Games. A sequel came out in 2013, and this year, the third interactive novel, in which you, the reader make the choices, releases. Best played from a mobile device (although you can play in your browser as well), the interactive novels from Choice of Games are always fun (disclosure: I have written a few), and they’re dedicated to featuring inclusive options to let players express their personalities, gender identities, and sexualities within the confines of the game. Choice of the Vampire starts players as young vampires in 1815 New Orleans. In The Fall of Memphis, the story moves to 1873, and rather than facing the concerns of learning to survive their unlife adventures, players get embroiled in the politics of Memphis, where vampires are electing a new Senator, and the Klan is on the rise. 

With the release of St. Louis, Unreal City, the intention is that the two earlier games will be combined into one larger omnibus, so that players can have an uninterrupted play experience of the full story. St. Louis, Unreal City moves the story forward into 1879, in a St. Louis where the first wave of Chinese immigrants and the dismantling of Reconstruction force the city to face its systemic racism. As workers demand greater rights—and rich financiers attempt to keep control of the nation’s wealth—vampires have to continue to hide, lest they be destroyed. But when one of their own lets loose the beast, causing terror in the streets of America, players have to decide how their character will triumph in a changing world. Stevan Hill pours a ton of historical detail into the scenes he creates, making these vampire stories as much historical fiction as they are fantasy or horror. In advance of the release of the newest installment, the first two games have been updated with new material, so if you’ve played them before, they’re worth a replay before you launch into Night Road!

– Alana Joli Abbott

Moonshine by Alaya Dawn Johnson

Like the first two Choice of the Vampire stories, Moonshine, which came out in 2010, embroils its protagonist in the social struggles of its era: the 1920s of New York City. Zephyr Hollis is an activist, devoted to creating equality for both humans and Others, including vampires, despite her upbringing as the daughter of a demon-hunter. She’s immune to vampire bites, which is helpful when she discovers a newly-turned child vampire; if she turns him in, the authorities will kill him, so soft-hearted Zephyr takes the child in and feeds him her own blood. When she’s approached by a jinn, Amir, to use her cover as a charity worker to undermine a vampire mob boss in exchange for his help with the child, he doesn’t explain what he’s after—but Zephyr’s intrigued enough by the idea (and Amir) that she gets involved. If you already finished Johnson’s newest novel, The Trouble with Saints (also set in historical New York, this one during World War II), returning to this earlier novel and its sequel, Wicked City, will be a fast-paced treat.

Buy Moonshine on Amazon

“A Kiss With Teeth” by Max Gladstone

There are not a ton of stories out there about vampire parenting—and fewer that are more about what it means to be a parent, what it means to give up the person you were before (even it that person was a monster). Max Gladstone’s 2014 short story, published at Tor.com, is absolutely a vampire story in the classic sense: a hunt, a victim, a struggle. But it’s also the tale of a vampire, Vlad, who settles down with a vampire hunter, and the changes that settling down create for both of them. How can a parent be honest with his child when he’s hiding something so core to his identity? Even playing baseball in the park requires Vlad to hide his own strength. And how can he work with the teacher to help his son with struggling grades when that teacher is the ideal prey? The idea of being a vampire blends with the idea of hiding an affair, of planning to do something that shouldn’t be done, and then determining whether or not to do it. The way the story is written, it’s hard to tell where it’s going to go, or how two parents hiding so much about themselves can ever be honest with their child—but when it comes to the end, Gladstone knocks it out of the park.

– Alana Joli Abbott

Queen of Kings by Maria Dahvana Headley

The visual of Cleopatra dying with a poisonous asp clutched to her breast is an iconic, Shakespearean-tinged bit of history that we all learned in our ancient Egypt history units. However, Headley’s debut novel gives the queen a bit more credit, by reimagining that instead of going all Romeo and Juliet after the supposed death of her lover Marc Antony, she strikes a bargain with Sekhmet, goddess of death and destruction who has nonetheless begun fading away due to a dearth of worship. In Shakespearean fashion, things go awry when Sekhmet seizes control of Cleopatra, transforming her into an immortal being and transmuting her revenge into a literal bloodlust.

Unable to die, with her lover still slain and her children in danger, Cleopatra must battle the dark force within her urging her to drain others of their lifeforce and let loose Sekhmet’s seven children (plague, famine, drought, flood, earthquake, violence, and madness) upon the ancient world. What’s more, she also has to contend with the mortal threat of recently-appointed emperor Caesar Augustus and the three sorcerers he has rallied to fight the queen-turned-demigod. Drawing from Egyptian mythology to contextualize various familiar vampire tropes (the aforementioned bloodsucking, aversion to sunlight, and weakness for silver), Queen of Kings reinvigorates the vampire mythos through a historical figure who deserved to exist long beyond her mortal lifetime.

—Natalie Zutter

Buy Queen of Kings on Amazon

Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett

Sir Terry never met a trope he didn’t take the opportunity to parody, but his Discworld take on the vampire mythos is more love bite than going for the jugular. His Magpyrs embody the classic vampires, with all their subgenre trappings, but also are an example of how a supernatural race seeks to evolve beyond its bloody history and try something new. To be clear, these Magpyrs are still in it to drain humans dry, and they’ve developed cunning methods of doing so: a propensity for bright colors over drab blacks, the ability to stay up til noon and survive in direct sunlight, a taste for garlic and wine along with their plasma.

But the clash between the youngest immortals, who seek to overtake the mountain realm of Lancre as their new home, and dutiful servant Igor, who misses “the old wayth” (he’s a traditionalist down to the lisp), reveals a tension familiar to any long-ruling dynasty or established subculture: Change with the times, or adapt but lose what makes you unique? In struggling with this intergenerational dilemma, the Magpyrs find the perfect opponents in Lancre’s coven: Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, Magrat, and Agnes—four witches who find themselves taking on different roles within the mother/maiden/crone dynamic as life changes force shifts in their identities. Between these relatable personal conflicts and a hall of vampire portraits that pays homage to Ann Rice and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Carpe Jugulum gently ribs the vampire subgenre rather than put a stake through its heart.

—Natalie Zutter

Buy Carpe Jugulum on Amazon

Do you have any vampire story recommendations that challenge the traditional tropes of the genre in interesting and diverse ways? Let us know in the comments below.

The post 11 Diverse Vampire Stories To Read Instead of Midnight Sun appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2DmueuR

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

[diazuk-legacy]

Here is my Cannon cast for all the Classes. Bear in mind that these are my interpretations of each class and each one of them have there own favor of bizarre. Also Spoilers 

Name: Kianmari Srisgrace <Hero of Tython> Gender/Race: Female Human Preferences: Bisexual Alignment: Dark Side Faction: Galactic Republic Class: Sentinel <Orange and Yellow Lightsabers> Summary: Kianmari Srisgrace was an ordinary Jedi and the padawan of Master Orgus Din. But unlike other Jedi she had a disease that was slowly eating away at her flesh. The disease had no cure and she was doom to it fate. But that did not stop her from becoming the legendary Jedi that became the Hero of Tython and slayed the Emperor. However during her mission to Coreilla she fall victim to the disease's final stage, but instead of dyeing she became the demon that now hide behind her mask.

Name: Ailhaahk <Barsen'thor> Gender/Race: Male Sith pureblood & Miraluka Hybrid Preferences: Bisexual Alignment: Light Side Faction: Galactic Republic Class: Sage <Dark Green Lightsaber> Summary: Being born a force-sensitive Ailhaahk was taking into the Jedi Order at a young age, but being a Sith Blood Hybrid Ailhaahk was look down by the Order. Master Yuon was the only jedi Master that took him as her padawan. Through her Guidance Ailhaahk became a wise, powerful and open-minded Jedi, through his efforts he protected the Jedi Order and he was given the title of "Barsen'thor" Through out his journey he saved many Jedi including his Master from a plague, represented the Rift Alliance and defeated the children of the Emperor. However he was unable to saved Master Syo and took his place on the Jedi Council.

Name: Goldsawkin Nal <Commander of Havoc Squad> Gender/Race: Female Cathar Preferences: Straight Alignment: Light Side Faction: Galactic Republic Class: Vanguard Summary: Losing her sister to her parent's divorce Goldsawkin Nal stayed with her mother and like her serve the Republic as a pride Cathar.  She sign up to the military and join Havoc Squad on Ord Mantell. Unfortunately Havoc Squad betray her and the Republic, Goldsawkin Nal had to form her own Havoc Squad made up of herself and Aric Jorgan. But despite what happen Havoc Squad is better than ever was before, with a new leadership and new squad members. Goldsawkin and Aric Jorgran later got married and had six beautiful children.

Name: Laore Shansha <Voidhound> Gender/Race: Male Human Preferences: Bisexual Alignment: Neutral <Mostly light sided> Faction: Galactic Republic & the Underworld Class: Gunslinger Summary: As an SIS Agent Laore Shansha is sent to the Underworld along side Corso to find a Rogue Agent of the named Simon Hazel. Their mission took them to many places and many destination with both Laore and Corso taking the identity of Smugglers. After stopping Simon and defeating the Void Wolf Laore instead of returning back to the SIS remain an agent in the Underworld now as the Voidhound.

Name: Yosha'mer Diazuk <Empire's Warth> Gender/Race: Female Twi'lek Preferences: Straight Alignment: Dark Side Faction: Sith Empire Class: Juggernaut <Yellow> Summary: Being the Daughter of Ultra Diazuk Yosh'amer Diazuk held high expectation for her life and how her life was going to play out. But after her mother die everything changed expect for her attuite. She still held on to high expectation and she is extremely xenophobic towards other Twi'leks. Later in her life she became the apprentice of Darth Baras, then the Emperor's Wrath. But after the Emperor betray her and her family she reserved her loyalty only to the Empire.

Name: Kusguard Kallig I KS-X9 <Darth Occlus> Gender/Race: Non-gendered Droid Preferences: Demisexual Alignment: Neutral Faction: Sith Empire Class: Assassin <Purple> Summary: Made to play the role of a young apprentice Kusguard Kallig, a force adapted Droid with shape-shifting technology named KS-X9 serve the Empire as a disguise Sith while putting his true allegiance to Darth IIcarus. His Master had plans to get rid of Thanaton and so commanded his Droid to collect Ghosts. Along the way he met Ashara and for the first time in his life he felt emotion. Together they tried to defeat Thanaton, but the plan backfired and Kusguard was destroyed. Darth IIcarus with the assistance of his crew rebuild KS-X9 body and purity the datacron. After this Kusguard is able to defeat Thanton and take his place on the Darth Council, but IIcaus betray him and took his place on the Council. With the help of Ashara and his crew Kusguard is able to defeat Darth IIcarus, but Kusguard was ultimately removed from the Council. In the end Kusguard still served the Empire but as an ordinary Sith.

Name: Le'vine <Cipher 9> Gender/Race: Trans-Male Mirialan Preferences: Bisexual Alignment: Light Side Faction: Sith Empire Class: Operative Summary: Abandoning his family to serve the Empire Le'vine Joined Imperial intelligence as a innocent yet deceivable Agent. Using his kind friendly persona Le'vine is able to fool people into giving him information. However Le'vine soon realize about the harsh reality of the Empire. The wickedness, deception and cruelty that the Empire performs disgust Le'vine to his core. So Le'vine tried his best to prove that the Empire is not as bad as he made to believe. However his efforts have failed and he has accept the fact that the Empire will not change. Through his experience as Cipher 9 Le'vine grew to despite his role and begin to question everything. He would sooner rather leave Empire entirely then to stay within it toxic atmosphere.

Name: Robert Eastlang <Grand Champion of the Great Hunt> Gender/Race: Male Human Preferences: Bisexual Alignment: Neutral Faction: The Underworld & The Mandalorians Class:  Mercenary Summary: Robert Eastlang started off as an another Bounty Hunter on his quest for fame and glory. He join the Great Hunt in a effort to pursuit his dream alongside Mako. However during the Great Hunt he was severely abused by one of his rival and he has never recovery since. Despite this he manage to win the Great Hunt and became a Mandalorian.

#Swtor #swtor oc #Kianmari Srisgrace #Ailhaahk #Goldsawkin Nal #Laore Shansha #Yosha'mer Diazuk #Kusguard #KS-X9 #Le'vine #Robert Eastlang #art #jedi knight #jedi consular #republic trooper #smuggler #sith warrior #Sith Inquisitor #imperial agent #bounty hunter #oc headcannons #oc info #headcannon swtor classes #character info #character headcanons

[dinosaurdragon]

Another OC interview meme: Vir’era Sabrae

Tagged by no one i stole it i am an interview gremlin

Tagging you, if you have time (yes, you)

[for the purposes of this meme, he’ll answer with total honesty. very little to no evasiveness, as though the interviewer and audience are already fully aware of who he is.]

What is your full name and its origins?  What about any nicknames?

My name is Vir’era Hanal’ghilan Sabrae. I’m often called Vee by my non-Dalish friends, and Varric calls me Mittens. All the parts of my name are Elvish in origin. Sabrae is the name of my clan. ‘Vir’era’ is Elvish for ‘the way of the story,’ which might indicate... the things I know. At the last Arlathvhen, I was given the name Hanal’ghilan, because I can shapeshift into a golden halla.

Have you any claims to fame?

Yes and no. Few would remember my name of their own accord, and this has been intentional on my part. But I am a veteran of the Fifth Blight and a Champion of Redcliffe; the people in that city remember me. I spent much time in Kirkwall, but kept my head low for most of it. Other Dalish clans know me as Hanal’ghilan now, since the last Arlathvhen.

More recently, I have been named the Dalish Liaison to the Inquisition. Officially, my role is to help mediate between the Inquisition and the Dalish, acting as an advisor to the Herald, as well as ensure the fair treatment of any elves who join our cause. Unofficially, I’m sharing my now-scant knowledge of events to come.

How would you introduce yourself? If you are famous in your world, how would you introduce yourself to someone who had never heard of you?

I’d introduce myself as Keeper Vir’era of Clan Sabrae or as Vir’era Sabrae, Dalish Liaison to the Inquisition, depending on who I’m speaking to. For some events or people, I might add other titles or information. Most commonly, I might bring up that I am a former Grey Warden.

Which of your culture’s achievements do you hold in highest regard?

It’s difficult to say. Elvish culture has been destroyed and rebuilt so many times now--I suppose I am most proud of the Dales. Yes, our time there did not last, and we were eventually driven from it--but we managed to rebuild so much before we were forced to run. We have never forgotten.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I--I don’t know. I think I once wanted to be a writer, but I can’t remember anything of my childhood except vague impressions and strange trivia. What even is a pikachu? I’ve never seen one, but I know exactly what it would look like...

What was your most prized possession as a child? Do you still have it?

No, I don’t. It was a stuffed dinosaur, a creature from long before humans or dwarves or even elves. I lost it when I lost everything else about my past. How I still remember what it was... I don’t know. Perhaps I never will.

What would you change about yourself, if you could?

I don’t know. Hah, or perhaps that’s just it. There’s so much I don’t know or remember about myself. More than half my life is just... a mystery. I’d like to know it again. I’d like to know where I’m from, before I came here.

What are you obsessed with?

I don’t know that I have a true obsession. The closest I have is to ensure Thedas is on the right track, that all goes well. Does that count? I have shaped my entire life--and, now, my clan’s life--around this idea.

What is your greatest achievement so far, or the high point of your career?

Probably not dying during the Battle of Denerim. Maybe being appointed Dalish Liaison. It’s much easier, being here officially. I don’t have to explain myself or make excuses.

When/where were you happiest?

I... don’t know. Even the times when I was at my happiest, there was always something lurking. The closest would be... Kirkwall, I think. 9:36. Before everything went to shit. That or Vigil’s Keep, after dealing with the Architect, but before Anders left. 9:31. When I still had Nathaniel.

If all goes well... by the end of 9:42, I will have nothing new to contribute. Maybe, by then, I’ll have made peace enough with the world to be happy. Maybe I’ll be dead.

And the lowest point in your life thus far?

9:31 Dragon. I asked Merrill to show me her eluvian. I tried to go home. I did everything I could think of, but it was broken. I think some part of me believed that simply touching it would be enough. That it’d send me back.

It didn’t. I cried so much that I passed out.

What was the best decision you ever made?

Bringing Mia’s letter to Cullen in 9:31. He’s such a better person for it, for being in contact with her.

If you have any body modifications, which was most painful, or which do you regret the most? If you haven’t got any, do you have any planned, or would you ever consider getting any?

I have the vallaslin traditional of the Dalish as well as a number of scars that were not intentional. I don’t regret the vallaslin at all, and since it was the only one I intended to have, it is by default the most painful of those. I have no plans at the moment for other tattooing or piercings.

What is the most idiotic thing you have ever done while intoxicated?

I don’t tend to get beyond tipsy, but Varric insists that there was a night at the Hanged Man when I attempted to sing something unrecognizable as music.

What is your favorite joke?

I don’t particularly have a favorite joke, but I love puns. Especially cat puns.

What is the coolest/most impressive thing you own?

My staves. I own very little--not including the Keeper’s things which I inherited when I took on the role, I could fit all I own into a single bag. But the most impressive pieces are my staves. Both are entirely unique, and neither are anything like what you would see elsewhere. Maleficent was commissioned for me by the King and Queen of Ferelden; she’s named for the dragon at the top. Littlefoot was made for me by Master Ilen when I became Keeper, and is named after my dear departed mabari, whose skull has been affixed to the top, so that he will be with me always.

When did you last cry, and why?

I’m not sure. I cry often enough that it’s hardly a notable occasion anymore, but not so often as to say ‘oh, just this morning!’ Maybe I’m due for another good cry.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever had?

‘You can only be one person. Choose wisely.’ I’m not sure if it was really intended as advice, but it felt like advice at the time. Flemeth said those words to me ten years ago. I don’t often think of them, but they’re no less impressed upon me.

Similarly, what’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever done for you?

It’s hard to say. I’ve been lucky; many people have done nice things for me. Some were more expensive than others, but the one I appreciate most... Hm. Not including those favors I specifically asked for, the thing that has felt the best to me... the Hawkes took me in. I think in part it was because they were taking Anders in, too, and they wouldn’t just take only one of us--but either way, they took me in. They didn’t need to. Anders and I--we weren’t doing well in Darktown, but we were living. We were safe enough.

I’ll never be able to repay them for that.

Have you any vices?

Is it arrogant to say no? I don’t gamble, I don’t drink to excess, I don’t sleep around, I only fight when I must... Perhaps arrogance is my vice.

Do you regret anything?

Many things. I wouldn’t change most, because I think I would regret the alternative more--but that does not mean that I do not regret the decision any less.

What is the best invention ever?

Ever? Hm. Toilets. They’re very basic in some ways, I know, but until you have lived without one, you simply don’t know what you’re missing. I lived in a sewer for about four years, and now I live a nomadic lifestyle. I know very well what I’m talking about.

How would you describe your relationship with your family?

I don’t have blood relatives. They’re gone with my memories. But I have surrogates. Clan Sabrae is my family, and though I can’t say I get along amazingly well with all its members (Hahren Linara, in particular, is critical of many of my choices), I care very deeply for them, and I always do what I can to keep them healthy and safe. They know this, and while some will argue with me about the best way to go about it, we’re always able to find a solution, and they do trust me. I hope I do not fail them.

I consider my friends from Kirkwall to be much like extended family--especially the Hawkes. They took me in, after all. I’ve kept in touch with Leandra.

Who is your biggest inspiration?

I don’t have just one, especially not one who encompasses enough things to be my biggest inspiration. But the closest we can get, for the sake of this question... Merrill. She knows what she wants to do, and she sticks to it--she stands up for herself without being rude or arrogant, and she’s always ready to help a friend. All of that, and she’s still one of the most fearsome mages I know. I don’t express it enough, but I am in awe of her. I hope she’s well.

What are you going to do when you’ve finished this interview?

Check back with Josephine, probably. She’s the one who set this up.

#the pterodactyl speaks #the pterodactyl writes #vir'era #twots

[leam1983]

I posted 3,296 times in 2022

That's 1,163 more posts than 2021!

478 posts created (15%)

2,818 posts reblogged (85%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@hikineet-trash

@daemonhxckergrrl

@millenianthemums

@fizzyimp

@pollylittlehigher-littlelower

I tagged 1,085 of my posts in 2022

#work post - 93 posts

#thoughts - 68 posts

#life post - 30 posts

#it post - 26 posts

#long post - 20 posts

#on writing - 15 posts

#not a review - 14 posts

#youtube - 13 posts

#cyberpunk 2077 - 12 posts

#politics - 11 posts

Longest Tag: 129 characters

#a living area that would look like an eighties' megamall food court with a lamborghini testarossa in pride of place in the middle

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Rummaging Things Around

I have a thing in mind. A vaguely Lovecraftian thing, inspired by my re-reading Champion of the Worms, by Mignola and McEown. The early stretches are basically a pastiche of a pastiche, but that's never stopped me before...

So we have this guy - sort of a failed academic with something like a decent brain to call his own, that gets pulled out of a life of relative non-ambition by a more successful relative. The uncle's long been a curator for a bunch of obscure exhibits and more or less lives like the Dieselpunk Forties never ended and Eldritch Horror were real. He's the type who speaks six languages, unearths remote tribes the world over and somehow finds ways to show even the people of the 21st century that yes, here sometimes be dragons anyway.

Dropout is brought in to help his uncle with the curation of his new exhibit in an obscure little New England town, and it's through piecing things together that our main guy realizes the object of the exhibit-to-be is Hyperborea, also known as Ultima Thule - the very continent Nazi occult weirdos spent years chasing in the hopes of anchoring their theories about the Aryan race to anything at all. Hyperborea is Antarctica, of course, and briefly consisted of a few landmasses that weren't yet covered in ice, several million years ago. The story goes that the archipelago was colonized by an extant Hominid species, a forgotten branch of Humanity that has strengths and weaknesses altogether different from the Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon species that both preceded and followed them. They grew in secret, mastered art, language and philosophy - even dove into the mysteries lying beyond mere intellect and intuition.

Then, they vanished. No fossil records, no bones, no traces of their civilization - nothing except what our Uncle character finds.

And what does he find? Two burial sites that would make Tutankhamen absolutely green with envy. The catch is is laden in dark portents and the other one has an almost messianic undertone - as if opening this particular tomb would somehow usher in Mankind's next stage in History.

It's a small museum, Uncle's on the frail side, and his wing's curator isn't exactly on-the-level... Things get leaked, pictures are taken, and thieves get involved. As greedy as you'd expect and far too confident after overpowering an older man, an out-of-shape thirtysomething and a dumpy idiot in his sixties, they crack open the bigger, more festooned sarcophagus.

Things... take a turn for the worse. The Hyperboreans, as it turns out, owe their disappearance to their falling under the insane sway of a death cult. A Great Old One-esque monstrosity more than likely claimed them so completely it erased Hyperborean civilization from the map, leaving its priest to serve as the hierophant of things to come if anyone were to awaken him again. If an entire culture's drank the Kool-Aid, it follows that someone hell-bent on spreading destruction would receive Grade-A Messiah treatment, complete with a beatific burial site that just so happened to send the wrong impressions to a bunch of credulous grave robbers, millions of years ago.

Fighting back against zombies, spirits and other monstrosities, Uncle and Dropout lose the curator. Eventually, Uncle dies. Dropout is alone, barricaded in the same room as the second stone coffin, one that's etched out of crude limestone and that's had every carving and identifying marker chipped away by chisel. Someone did not want anyone else to find thar second tomb, and did not want anyone to open it.

With the world slowly succumbing to chaos outside and with nothing else to do, Dropout opens the second sarcophagus. What he finds inside is a... different kind of undeath, one that feels less like a perversion of life and more like one heck of an obstinate man that absolutely, positively refused to give in to death. The dessicated mummy reaches out with a dusty moan, grabs ahold of Dropout's neck - and pulls him in for a kiss.

When he finally breaks away, gagging and heaving, Dropout somehow instinctively knows that this contact served as a means to copy his thoughts, linguistic and situational skills, and awareness of the situation. As for the mummy, it's sitting up in its sarcophagus and lounging in it for a few moments, stroking its beard for a few breaths.

"Six million years, eh?" it says, its voice going from sepulchral croaks to a precisely-toned and conversational King's English over the next minute or so. "Well, I have to give you credit - you lot at least look like you never went snooping about in places where sane men aren't expected..."

It catches itself. "Ah, well, there was this one chunk of you with a thing for portents brought about by sulfurous fumes - Athenians and the Pythia, hm? Overall, however, if we're generous? Barring brief moments of potential concern like MKULTRA or some of your Feds keeping an eye on the Ayahuasca fad? I guess you could call yourselves blessedly ignorant."

The second mummy grins, which isn't a pretty sight. It scoffs. "I know - I look horrendous. Past a certain point, it really doesn't matter who or what your keeper is, man-flesh is as man-flesh does - but you're not here to listen to me ramble, are you? The Serpent is loose, the world will be devoured, End of Times, yadda yadda - unless you help me climb out of this thing."

The dropout screams. Shenanigans ensue.

21 notes - Posted June 14, 2022

#4

On Revengeance

I agree with Jacob Geller. Metal Gear Solid: Revengeance is prescient not only in how it's more or less become immortalized as a meme vector - which Monsoon would find ironic - but also in how it gave us something that should have triggered shirt-tearing and pearl-clutching Republicans and Conservatives, if they only gave a shit about video games.

See, Senator Armstrong is a stroke of genius. We spend most of the game piecing his agenda together, and eventually fight him head-on. At first, he spouts very on-the-nose rhetoric, as if Raiden were a CSPAN interviewer in need of a few conciliatory buzzwords. And yes, in 2013, a video game character shouted that he intended to make America great again. That's long before Trump would unabashedly take that zinger and plaster it on crimson caps manufactured in China.

So you wear Armstrong down and force him to not just ditch his well-pressed suit, but also all pretense. You realize that his America is basically a Libertarian's coyly-assumed ideal and a Fascist's wet dream, where policy is dictated by the strong and the weak only have two choices: tow the party line or die - either literally or socially. It's hard not to draw parallels with several politicians who embrace similar notions, out of the sociopathic conviction that what's really holding the Western world back is empathy.

It's strange to look at Putin and then reflect back on Armstrong - and to realize that Absolutist, do-or-die rhetoric can plausibly leave the mouth of an IRL politician. It makes you wonder where Putin, Trump or Bolsonaro would consider pushing their agenda, if they'd overdosed on Nietzsche.

Of course, it's also a setting where the Good Guys push Combat Maximalism and pure aggression, where lyrics land in the most appropriate spots in order to take already absurd moments and elevate them to the status of quoted maxims (see Rules of Nature) and where a franchise normally known for its extremely ponderous stealth mechanics effectively has a psychotic breakdown and spends five hours Wrecking Shit while wearing too much eyeliner.

In short, it's glorious, and it's probably the most ponderous and, I daresay, intellectual entry in Platinum Games' oeuvre. It's dumb, happy to be dumb, and also follows along with KojiPro's focus on anchoring its mechs-and-soldiers nonsense in real-world ethics. It's like catching one of Volodymyr Zelynsky's skits before he gained Ukraine's presidency, and realizing that this dude who was typically known for playing half-wits has one heck of a serious noggin on his shoulders.

22 notes - Posted May 2, 2022

#3

Your Average Soulsborne Opening

"Shit's fucked, man. The Important Twelve-Feet-Tall Big Guy ghosted on us. World's gone to shit. People are, like, fucked out of their minds! The Big Guy's Helpers could hold an intervention and force Him to come back, but they've all hit Snooze on their alarm clock. The only one who's Woken Up and Who Knows It's Monday is the Useful Idiot. That's you.

Your job: to get your massive buddies to get out of bed, either by slapping them a few hundred times or by slapping whatever it is that's keeping them down. You won't succeed, though: you're a Scrawny Shit, and Scrawny Shits get nothing done. Telling ya, man: we're doomed."

The narrator leans to the side. "What? We still have thirty seconds of intro left on this thing? Um... I'll just, uh, dramatically name-drop the Big Guy's Helpers! There's Bitch-Fucker the Unloveable! Asshole-Face! Weird Fucked-Up Dog Thing! That one female part of the gang with a slightly skeevy thing that makes you go 'Yeah, this is Japanese for sure!' Then there's the most important of them all, um... Steve!"

"You, though? You're a Scrawny Shit. You're so lowly even Steve doesn't know you. It all rests on you, though: wake up the Posse, bring the Big Guy back, and we just might move on to call you... A Player-Directed Plot Device."

22 notes - Posted April 11, 2022

#2

On Difficulty

"Hey, why are you so psyched for Elden Ring? You've never finished the Souls games or Bloodborne!"

To that, I've been replying that what I especially like about From Software releases is how granular things are. The total challenge is immense in all cases, yes, but the moment-to-moment gameplay is very piecemeal in design. You're rarely forced to do-si-do against four or five simultaneous enemies and you're typically given all the tools you need to do what obviously needs doing. The two catches are that boss fights have life bars the size of Siberia, and that they hit you like two angry trucks meeting again on the set of Jerry Springer. They're easily telegraphed, simple to read and uncomplicated in their tactics - the challenge-related aspect is only punitive in design.

Considering, every encounter is self-contained and it doesn't really make much of a difference to wonder if that incoming boss fight is going to feel different from the last mobs you wiped out.

Approaching the game like this means I never felt narrative or situational pressure, and that I'm more compelled by exploratory concerns than by the need to end up with a Pure White World Tendency or whatever else. I'm not really given to yeet myself across enemy-infested courtyards because I'm tired and this is my -nth corpse run. I'll be as cautious going back for that corpse as I was during the run that got me killed - and eventually, timing and luck are going to meet my mediocre Soulsborne skills and will let me wipe the floor with a boss I previously found impossible to face.

In that respect, Elden Ring is exactly what I hoped to see out of From in the murky depths of the future: a Soulsborne with transitional spaces approchable by any character of any skill level, thereby providing me with a safe space in which to develop my skills and farm without feeling like my gathered Souls are constantly on the line and in the care of my dubious skillset.

That means I'll be able to venture around Limgrave and beyond in the Lands Between without wondering if the Legacy Dungeons are part of my overall progression. I'll be free to backtrack as needed and to workshop angles of approach in wider spaces than were previously accessible. That's without mentioning stealth, around which I don't doubt you could build a frighteningly effective build that's less focused on pattern recognition. The designers' comments do suggest that while Elden Ring isn't easier than the previous titles per se, the player has more options - and some of them are effective at mitigating the perceived challenge.

To me, that's smart design. If difficulty is such a core aspect of your ethos, it makes sense that you'd want to forego gameplay menus and player-adjustable variables. However, tweaks can be dispersed in-game, and left to the player's discretion. Both this and the level design seem to combine into what's probably the most accessible Soulsborne title to date, all the while never disparaging the studio's reputation as a creator of punishing titles.

This is why I'm especially interested in this one, even if I'm expecting it to kick my ass for several weeks, before things start to click.

39 notes - Posted February 23, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Cult of the Lamb - Quickie

Cornelius Agrippa's Formula for Making Fucked-Up Shit

One part "Aww, the artstyle looks a lot like Gumball's!"

Two parts of "Should I be amused or disturbed?"

A dash of "Well, someone knows their Lovecraft... Me likey!"

One Animal Crossing: New Horizons cartridge, chopped up in your choice of power blender

One USB stick containing a full playthrough of The Binding of Isaac. Any edition will do.

A grab-bag's worth of normally-throwaway secondary mechanics. Be sure to give them pride of place in your mixture, just to be sure the bigwigs at the Big Three discredit your design doc.

One cup of the blackest cynicism imaginable.

Two large handfuls of cake sprinkles. Empty your entire tub in there for extra awkward cuteness.

Shake, bake and deliver to Devolver Digital for publishing, because nobody else was going to touch this with a ten-foot pole

Actually make this motherfucker addictive and rewarding.

Plus - hey! The game's a complete offering! There's a roadmap planned, but what we get is a full game! The DLC's only cosmetic!

Buy it. This is highly, highly reccomended.

54 notes - Posted August 12, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #this panopticon is totally normal #the friendly hellsite records all #Youtube

[nxtheromoved]

Dithra Virian

Temporary Bio / Stats / Verses

Synopsis

Dithra bucked tradition in her family by choosing to not become a Morag Tong assassin like her father, mother, and sister. Instead she joined the Telvanni and made a name for herself as a powerful wizard. Though she later left the Telvanni due to a moral disagreement, she found redemption in serving the gods of the Tribunal.

Basics

Name: Dithra Virian Nickname(s)/Alias(s): none Title(s): Champion of Vivec, Hand of Almalexia, Savior of the Clockwork City Age: 114 years (as of 2E 582; appears to be in her early 30's by human standards) Race: Dunmer Birth Date: 6th of Last Seed, 2E 468 Birth Sign: Virgo Nationality: Morrowind Orientation: asexual demiromantic Gender: demigirl Class: destruction/conjuration mage Occupation: agent of the Tribunal Hair: black; short and messy, often pulled back into an bun Eyes: red with orange undertones Height: 5"10 Weight: 166 lbs Body Type: tall, slender straight body shape; soft all over with only a little muscle tone concentrated in her arms; somewhat androgynous Faceclaim: tba Voiceclaim: tba

Personality

Positive Traits: Honest, Direct, Strong-willed, Dutiful, Responsible, Calm, Practical, Orderly

Neutral Traits: By-the-book, Cerebral, Detail-oriented, Ambitious, Impersonal, Obedient, Individualistic

Negative Traits: Stubborn, Insensitive, Judgemental, Self-blaming, Overly Critical, Perfectionistic, Unsocial, Blunt

Biography

The sister of Naryu Virian, Dithra bucked the family tradition and chose not to join the Morag Tong. She instead earned a position with house Telvanni but later fell out of favor with them due to her teacher’s controversial views and her refusal to disavow him. She went to Mournhold to serve Almalexia and helped Eofstre Reachblood, hero of the Ebonheart Pact, end the plot to undermine the Tribunal in Morrowind. She joined the forces that gathered against Molag Bal, being one of the few to confront the god of schemes in the final onslaught. Her actions earned her great praise and she was asked to return to Vvardenfell to assist Vivec with his troubles. After saving the Warrior-Poet from a daedric scheme, she did the same with Sotha Sil in the Clockwork City. [Basically, her bio follows the Morrowind and Clockwork City storylines. Longer bio to come later when I’m not lazy.]

Skyrim Verse

Dithra is a Telvanni mage that studies part time at the College of Winterhold. While usually Telvanni frown on non-Telvanni magic institutions, Master Neloth has granted her permission to attend the college so she can pursue a shared goal: investigating the disappearance of Vivec.

Oblivion Verse

Upon the outbreak of the Oblivion Crisis, House Telvanni's efforts to repel the Daedra failed and Vvardenfell was overrun. While her house plots to retake Vvardenfell and push out the invasion, Dithra believes that the true way to defeat the Daedra is to turn their attention to Cyrodiil, where the Oblivion Crisis began. Despite not having the support of her house, Dithra ventures to Cyrodiil to offer her aid. Though she risks expulsion from House Telvanni, she believes that this is the only hope they have.

Morrowind Verse

A loyal servant of the Tribunal. Follows the basic premise of her ESO verse up to the point where she joins the temple. May even be a continuation of her ESO verse with Dithra being granted a form of Sainthood for her service to the Tribunal, serving them in present day. I’m also willing to write her as the Nerevarine.

#[dithra ; about]

[shazyloren]

The Room: Chapter 30 - Train the Boy

Link: http://archiveofourown.org/works/12710496/chapters/30722271

------------

Jon was clearing his mind and focusing on Robb and Theon in front of him. It currently was the night before the first task and Jon was in the downstairs common room with lots of fellow Gryffindors looking on as he put in some last minute stops to make sure he wins. He felt strong, all the run had paid off and he's lost a couple of excess pounds he'd gained from eating pancakes and such. He felt fit, he was ready to run a marathon if it was needed. He felt good, positive thoughts were flowing through his body.

It had been an odd few days leading up to this first task. First there had been the uneasy conversation in Honeydukes between himself and daenerys which had led to him feeling like a giddy idiot all day, but also a there was the midnight adventure to the task sight and that Daenerys had seen him in wolf form. Is she'd have known it was him, he hadn't let on, ne would have a black eye or a stinging hex if that was the case.

Jon did not have much control in wolf form. As having only done the transformation four times it was a little difficult to get used to all these new sensations and senses. The instincts of being a wolf completely overtook his mind, while he still held Jon's thoughts and he knew what he as doing every time he became the wolf. Other things easily distracted him and having known someone was behind him, following since he left the castle, this had been one of them times. When he'd eventually felt the person walk away, he'd turned and recognised her straight away.

She was looking breathtaking, even in her pyjamas and cloak. She had moved effortlessly through the hills and bushes towards the out of bound zone, like some sort of angel as her cloak billowed behind her. He'd been entranced. he'd followed her, this time he'd kept a distance until she'd come to a halt and seen the First task location. It was frightening to her, she could feel the tension roll off of her; especially as she wondered what could be in there. He could almost feel her thoughts a little, understand her.

He'd been overcome with his own instincts as the wolf when he'd gone and sat next to her. She'd looked at the wolf as if she'd recognised her, but then again she could've just been nervous to see a wolf sitting next to her. It wasn't like Jon was small in wolf form; when on all fours he came up to her elbows. He was a big white wolf. And then, she'd stroked his head between his ears. It's felt, comforting. The wolf had fully overtaking her then and so he'd licked her face.

Was it ill advised to do such a thing? Yes, it probably was considering if Daenerys found out she'd hex him into next week for licking her face. If it was any consolation to her, she tasted good. Not tat she'd accept such an answer from him, he highly doubted that she'd even give him a chance to explain he wasn't fully in control. Or maybe he just wouldn't say anything at all. Curse him to chose to be an animagus.

It was true, that for most, becoming an animagus can be a truly horrifying experience. It takes skill, practise, and patience for wizards and witches to become Animagi. The process of becoming an Animagus is long and arduous, and has the potential to backfire and cause the transformation to go horribly wrong. But he'd followed everything that he'd read in the books he collected in fifth year on the subject. And while it was a long process, and the potential of contorting himself into a human/animal hybrid was frightening, the transformation had gone smoothly.

He did not lie, it hurt like hell and the lengthy process was probably not worth the hour boredom he'd had one evening after completing all his homework. But he'd done it successfully and now he was an Animagus. However, there is one small problem. If you have learnt the skill, you must register with the Ministry, and he has not. It was illegal for him to be as such. So that was why he did not do it very often.

"You're doing it again, concentrate!" Robb barked as Jon's clear mind become one of brooding. He was snapped out of the thoughts he had and began to clear his mind once again. They'd come up with this routine year ago to keep there defence skills in top shape, and now, Jon was going to try and do it all non verbals. All his thoughts drained from his head, even pushing aside Daenerys.

"I'm ready" Jon spoke as it all left him with inner peace and an expanded mind.

"Okay" Theon agreed. Jon opened his eyes and held his wand in front of him, he ignored them but he could feel more and more crowded arriving to watch as their champion practiced for his tournament tomorrow. There was a buzz in the air but Jon ignored it and focused on his inner tranquility. "Boggarts"

Riddikulus, Jon thought and watched as an orange glow came out of his hand and sizzled in the air. There was no boggart in the room present with them, they only ever did that training when they were in the school ground after hours (which had been naughty of two prefects and the head boy) but they'd found a clearing cut off from the school which had all manners of creatures at night.

"Acromantula" Robb directed.

Arania Exumai, he thought once more and a burst of silver light came from his wand and and blasted through the entire room. Two spiders fell from the ceiling and scurried off towards the portrait scared. Jon was happy with this spell, he'd had to use it in second year when the three of them had accidentally wandered too far into the forbidden forest and had come across a huge spiders lair. He shuddered at the mere memory.

"Dementors" Theon urged.

Expecto Patronum, Jon's mind was intense for this one. It was a tricky spell to master verbally but trying to do it non-verbally was almost impossible. And with his clear mind, he had to pull something to use as a happy memory to fill him up. His lips on hers, he found himself smiling as the emotion filled up in him and his patronus filled the room with light. The wolf ran around everyone and there was awes of wonder.

"Hinkypunks"

Lumos Duo, Jon's brain was cracking, thinking of his happy memory of Daenerys had made her begin to edge ehr way back into his thoughts. Her eyes haunted his own, violet and lind and hopeful. Her hair was soft and unlike whatever he'd seen before. Jon, focus, he urged himself and with a quick  rewire and clearance of thoughts, he was back to thinking on the Hinkypunks.

Hinkypunks were difficult creatures, once you were in range of the beasts, you had to hit them with the Lumos Duo spell to keep them dazed and confused. Being creatures of light and spoke (more spirit like than an actual creature) they flung fireballs at you if you wasn't careful. once they were dazed, you'd had to hit them several times with a stunning spell or knockback jinx before they disappeared. Stupefy, he added as an after thought and the spell hit the mirror after a student ducked in time.

"Blast-Ended Skrewts"

Impedimenta, Jon sighed. He remember that if he came across one of these creations then he was to hit it's underbelly with the spell and it would turn over and could be hit again before being rendered immobile. Whoever's idea it was to cross breed a Manticore and a Fire crab clearly craved death yet they were a thing. They'd learned about them in fourth year and Jon noted adult ones could get up to ten feet long.

"Inferi"

Jon stared at Robb. "Obviously if I was being attacked by an Inferi I'd use a fire-summoning spell. However, one, I am not burning the common room down just because you said Inferi and two, why on earth would there be inferi in the tasks? They're corpses animated by a dark wizard, that's not something ministry officials are going to do to a bunch of seventeen year olds, Robb!"

"There is dark wizard's rising everywhere, Jon. You cannot be too careful, they could be anywhere!" They began arguing over various things then and Jon's defences were completely down. His mind was swarm with Daenerys, like it had been most days and he began to daze off and stare in the distance as Robb's voice sounded out about whatever it was. The common room had dissipated, the show was over so everyone was beginning to go to bed. This meant Jon's brain was shut off and he felt he did not want to do anymore practice. He was as ready as he ever was going to be.

He found himself wondering if Daenerys was going to be ready. He knows she's been disappearing some days to god knows where, she wondered if she'd been training by herself in some room away from everyone or something. He'd have loved to train with her, but they both realised that when it came to the tournament, they wouldn't help each other as they both wanted to win.

If Daenerys was going to win, it was going to be through letting everyone else fight while she stuck to the shadows and had plenty of Wiggenweld potion on her. He just couldn't see her taking on any matter of dark creatures and winning. Unless she'd miraculously got better over night or had taken some Felix Felicis, which he knew she would not (it was more likely something he would do, if he knew how to make it). It wasn't him being unfair against her abilities as a witch, she was brilliant. It was just that he knew her own confidence and frustration held her back in really performing spells. Add the pressure of the tournament he could see her just staying hidden.

"Tomorrow, is a big day for you Jon" Theon put his arm on his shoulder pulling him out of his brooding trance once more. "You think you're ready for it?"

"No, I'm not ready for it in all honesty" Jon sighed as he walked over to the window and saw Hodor wanting to enter. He lifted it up and let the bird fly in and land on the Owl perch by the fire. Robb had sent letters home asking if they were coming to watch the tournament, given he was on the board of governors. Robb walked over and took the reply back from him. "Am I well equipped to deal with anything I see? Yes. Are my nervous in tethers? Absolutely"

"Still, you got the best chances of anyone. Those two girls from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang look like they could break in a particularly harsh wind" Theon reasoned. Jon, did not share these views. He'd seen Doreah of Durmstrang in a duel with one of the Durmstrang troublemakers and she'd very much defeated him without any real effort. She would be just as dangerous as the rest. And the Beauxbatons girl, Irri she was rivalling Daenerys in charms. They were both dangerous.

"Father's coming, Mother is undecided" Robb announced. Jon was not surprised. He was about to say as such before Robb decided to use this opportunity to rant. "She seriously needs to get over herself; there isn't a wizarding marriage around in this country left that the parents haven't been involved with other people, I'm sure of it. And Father has apologised a hundred times. Especially the nature of which it all happened"

Jon wasn't listening, he'd decided he was going to stare in the fireplace instead. He wondered if Daenerys had already gone to bed, it likely as it was gone eleven now and prefect rounds had been done for two hours. If she was sensible she'd be trying to get as much sleep as possible, like he should be doing. And he was tired, he could feel it; but there wasn't going to be much use in sleeping yet, his mind was too active he wouldn't fall into slumber quick enough.

Jon's bag was sat next to him and decided to pull out on of his notepads. While all the prefects had a linked notepad which would let them know who had been given what punishment or sanction hen it was written down in there, Jon and Dany had a private one just to message each other if they couldn't get away from duties to speak. While it was mainly used for letting the other know about a meeting or details of the Yule Ball (yes, Jon's time was being used up planning a dance), there were a few times where Jon had written a 'hope you're having a better day', just so there was some support for her when she was alone.

He knew she was still struggling with the loss of her mother and the abandonment of her brother and father, he knew all she had was her other brother who she'd never really gotten along with. So he found himself compelled on several occasions to check she was doing alright. And this usually meant spanning her with reminders to eat and drink plenty of water. She was probably getting pissed off but she had not said anything.

I can't sleep, what about you?

He waited for a few minutes, not thinking she'd see it until the morning time. Robb and Theon's voices sounded out as they said goodbye and headed for the dorm. Jon said he wasn't going to sleep yet, he needed to calm down a bit. Then, it appeared.

No sleep for me, I'm terrified.

Jon felt worry for her, it was not the first time. He'd felt like he's spent half the school year so far worried about her for one thing or another. Daenerys Targaryen, the girl made of fire and anger had somehow fizzled out and let him in and allowed him to be concerned for her.

You'll do great, you're an amazing witch.

He found himself getting sleepy by the fireside, he was alone now, everyone had gone up to the dorms to get ready for the first task tomorrow. Jon was scared too, he knew it. He'd said so aloud, but he knew if he let it control him, he would not win.

I am far from amazing these days, couldn't even practice a proper impedimenta jinx earlier. Some witch I am.

Jon felt sorry for her, he knew it wasn't her ability that was holding her back, it was herself. He did not think she was finishing for compliments so he replied in the only way he could. It might be a little sappy or surprising to most, himself included. But it was something that she needed to hear.

Daenerys, I'm going to say this only once. You are the brightest person in this school. You're so intelligent and your mastery of all subjects is something I wished to accomplish. So what you're struggling with Defence a little, you're not struggling with your other subjects. You're top in them all. So yes, you are some witch, an incredible one at that. When we finish seventh year you could go into any career you wanted, you could be next minister if you wanted. Stop thinking so low of yourself, it's not warranted.

Jon had hoped she'd read between the lines of his gushing and ask to come and see him in the dorm so they could be alone together. He wanted someone just sit with and share his insecurities about this tournament, and she'd be the only one to understand. But it wasn't going to happen. They were still a little awkward around each other after the kiss and the Honeydukes conversation.

She did reply however, and it warmed his heart. Although it could be the fireplace.

You really need to stop being so nice to me or I'm going to have to compliment you back and that is not something I want to do.

She put a little kiss mark at the end and Jon's face smiled brighter than the flames in front of him. She was being sarcastic, funny. He loved it when she was like that.

Good to know the old you is still in there somewhere.

He waited.

Sod off.

#jon snow #daenerys targaryen #jon x daenerys #jon x dany #jon x dany fanfic #jonerys #jonerys fanfic #fanfiction #fanfic #game of thrones #Hogwarts AU #Got #Au

[pixelhat]

just trying to burn through these things while i still give half a damn

Freya redesign: more beef and turning the metal armor into wood. more fur on the upper body, less on the lower. change the base hammer designs to be less like Mjolnir wannabes. considering pushing it further and making her non-human

Jade redesign: scrap all the current shit and call back to her Bloodline Champion incarnation. the headpiece is a unique feature that should have stayed between game iterations. gives her a really unique shape and silhouette. also made her non-human with elf ears because why not. guns have been changed to be flintlock

Blossom redesign: if you’re going to make a deer girl, make a damn deer girl. don’t half-ass it by making a mostly deer anthro body and then give her a derpy human face. and get rid of the ugly unfitting Angry Bird. has absolutely no place in the game and it sticks out like a sore thumb

Shifu redesign: his current design really doesn’t say “battle-hardened zen spearmaster” like his voicelines imply. this is an attempt to bring that personality forward more and make him look like a threatening master instead of some scruffy old man with a young man’s hairstyle. also gave him an actual spear instead of a glaive so his voicelines match, gave him his throwing spear/harpoon, and attached them together.

Lucie redesign: its a bit of a regression to her older model because Stunlock Studios think its better to take away her unique and charming buckteeth and make her a generic anime-esque girl. gave her thick bulbous gloves and shoes for protection from her potions and to give her a unique shape. changed the completely unfitting crossbow into a potion shooter of sorts

still so many to sketch and then line, color, etc...

#art #sketches #battlerite #Character Design

[booklr-16]

November Book Haul

I’m not getting any more books this month since Christmas is next month and I will be getting a lot of those, but I decided that I wanted to start doing book/library hauls, though I won’t be posting book hauls as often since I usually have to borrow mine from the library. The Library Haul will be posted at the beginning of next month.

Hunting Prince Dracula, Kerri Maniscalco - Bizarre murders are discovered in the castle of Prince Vlad the Impaler, otherwise known as Dracula. Could it be a copycat killer...or has the depraved prince been brought back to life? Following the grief and horror of her discovery of Jack the Ripper's true identity, Audrey Rose Wadsworth has no choice but to flee London and its memories. Together with the arrogant yet charming Thomas Cresswell, she journeys to the dark heart of Romania, home to one of Europe's best schools of forensic medicine...and to another notorious killer, Vlad the Impaler, whose thirst for blood became legend. But her life's dream is soon tainted by blood-soaked discoveries in the halls of the school's forbidding castle, and Audrey Rose is compelled to investigate the strangely familiar murders. What she finds brings all her terrifying fears to life once again.

Throne of Glass, Sarah J. Maas - After serving out a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, 18-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien is dragged before the Crown Prince. Prince Dorian offers her her freedom on one condition: she must act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin. Her opponents are men-thieves and assassins and warriors from across the empire, each sponsored by a member of the king's council. If she beats her opponents in a series of eliminations, she'll serve the kingdom for four years and then be granted her freedom. Celaena finds her training sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and exhilarating. But she's bored stiff by court life. Things get a little more interesting when the prince starts to show interest in her ... but it's the gruff Captain Westfall who seems to understand her best. Then one of the other contestants turns up dead ... quickly followed by another. Can Celaena figure out who the killer is before she becomes a victim? As the young assassin investigates, her search leads her to discover a greater destiny than she could possibly have imagined.

A Court of Thorns and Roses, Sarah J. Maas - Feyre's survival rests upon her ability to hunt and kill – the forest where she lives is a cold, bleak place in the long winter months. So when she spots a deer in the forest being pursued by a wolf, she cannot resist fighting it for the flesh. But to do so, she must kill the predator and killing something so precious comes at a price ... Dragged to a magical kingdom for the murder of a faerie, Feyre discovers that her captor, his face obscured by a jewelled mask, is hiding far more than his piercing green eyes would suggest. Feyre's presence at the court is closely guarded, and as she begins to learn why, her feelings for him turn from hostility to passion and the faerie lands become an even more dangerous place. Feyre must fight to break an ancient curse, or she will lose him forever.

A Court of Mist and Fury, Sarah J. Maas - Feyre survived Amarantha's clutches to return to the Spring Court—but at a steep cost. Though she now has the powers of the High Fae, her heart remains human, and it can't forget the terrible deeds she performed to save Tamlin's people. Nor has Feyre forgotten her bargain with Rhysand, High Lord of the feared Night Court. As Feyre navigates its dark web of politics, passion, and dazzling power, a greater evil looms—and she might be key to stopping it. But only if she can harness her harrowing gifts, heal her fractured soul, and decide how she wishes to shape her future—and the future of a world cleaved in two. With more than a million copies sold of her beloved Throne of Glass series, Sarah J. Maas's masterful storytelling brings this second book in her seductive and action-packed series to new heights.

The Dreadful Tale of Prosper Redding, Alexander Bracken - Prosper is the only unexceptional Redding in his old and storied family history — that is, until he discovers the demon living inside him. Turns out Prosper's great-great-great-great-great-something grandfather made — and then broke — a contract with a malefactor, a demon who exchanges fortune for eternal servitude. And, weirdly enough, four-thousand-year-old Alastor isn't exactly the forgiving type. The fiend has reawakened with one purpose — to destroy the family whose success he ensured and who then betrayed him. With only days to break the curse and banish Alastor back to the demon realm, Prosper is playing unwilling host to the fiend, who delights in tormenting him with nasty insults and constant attempts trick him into a contract. Yeah, Prosper will take his future without a side of eternal servitude, thanks. Little does Prosper know, the malefactor's control over his body grows stronger with each passing night, and there's a lot Alastor isn't telling his dim-witted (but admittedly strong-willed) human host. From #1 New York Times best-selling author Alexandra Bracken comes a tale of betrayal and revenge, of old hurts passed down from generation to generation. Can you ever fully right a wrong, ever truly escape your history? Or will Prosper and Alastor be doomed to repeat it?

Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy, Cassandra Clare - Simon Lewis has been a human and a vampire, and now he is becoming a Shadowhunter. But the events of City of Heavenly Fireleft him stripped of his memories, and Simon isn’t sure who he is anymore. He knows he was friends with Clary, and that he convinced the total goddess Isabelle Lightwood to go out with him…but he doesn’t know how. And when Clary and Isabelle look at him, expecting him to be a man he doesn’t remember…Simon can’t take it. So when the Shadowhunter Academy reopens, Simon throws himself into this new world of demon-hunting, determined to find himself again. His new self. Whomever this new Simon might be. But the Academy is a Shadowhunter institution, which means it has some problems. Like the fact that non-Shadowhunter students have to live in the basement. And that differences—like being a former vampire—are greatly looked down upon. At least Simon is trained in weaponry—even if it’s only from hours of playing D&D. Join Simon on his journey to become a Shadowhunter, and learn about the Academy’s illustrious history along the way, through guest lecturers such as Jace Herondale, Tessa Gray, and Magnus Bane. These ten short stories give an epilogue to the Mortal Instruments series and provide glimpses of what’s in store in the Dark Artifices. 

Shadowhunters Codex, Cassandra Clare - The Clave is pleased to announce the newest edition of the Nephilim’s oldest and most famous training manual: the Shadowhunter’s Codex. Since the thirteenth century, the Codex has been the young Shadowhunter’s best friend. When you’re being swarmed by demons it can be easy to forget the finer points of obscure demon languages or the fastest way to stop an attack of Raum demons. With the Codex by your side, you never have to worry. Now in its twenty-seventh edition, the Codex covers it all: the history and the laws of our world; how to identify, interact with, and if necessary, kill that world’s many colorful denizens; which end of the stele is the end you write with. No more will your attempt to fight off rogue vampires and warlocks be slowed by the need to answer endless questions from your new recruits: What is a Pyxis? Why don’t we use guns? If I can’t see a warlock’s mark, is there a polite way to ask him where it is? Where do we get all our holy water? Geography, History, Magic, and Zoology textbook all rolled into one, the Codex is here to help new Shadowhunters navigate the beautiful, often brutal world that we inhabit. Do not let it be said that the Clave is outdated or, as the younger Shadowhunters say, “uncool”: this new edition of the Codex will be available not only in the usual magically-sealed demonskin binding, but also in a smart, modern edition using all of today’s most exciting printing techniques, including such new features as a sturdy clothbound cover, a protective dust jacket, and information about title, author, publisher, and so on conveniently available right on the cover. You’ll be pleased to know that it fits neatly into most satchels, and unlike previous editions, it rarely sets off alarm wards. The old woodcuts and engravings have been replaced as well: instead, you’ll find lavish modern illustrations by some of the brightest luminaries of the fantastic. Creatures, weapons, people, and places have been carefully and accurately rendered by the likes of Rebecca Guay, Charles Vess, Jim Nelson, Theo Black, Elisabeth Alba, and Cassandra Jean. Chapters are beautifully introduced by the drawings of Michael Kaluta, and along with our condensation of the classic 2,450-page tome, A History of the Nephilim, you will find a selection of the best of the lovely illustrations of that volume by John Dollar. 

Iliad, Homer - The Iliad is one of the two great epics of Homer, and is typically described as one of the greatest war stories of all time, but to say the Iliad is a war story does not begin to describe the emotional sweep of its action and characters: Achilles, Helen, Hector, and other heroes of Greek myth and history in the tenth and final year of the Greek siege of Troy.

Four, Veronica Roth - Two years before Beatrice Prior made her choice, the sixteen-year-old son of Abnegation’s faction leader did the same. Tobias’s transfer to Dauntless is a chance to begin again. Here, he will not be called the name his parents gave him. Here, he will not let fear turn him into a cowering child. Newly christened “Four,” he discovers during initiation that he will succeed in Dauntless. Initiation is only the beginning, though; Four must claim his place in the Dauntless hierarchy. His decisions will affect future initiates as well as uncover secrets that could threaten his own future—and the future of the entire faction system. Two years later, Four is poised to take action, but the course is still unclear. The first new initiate who jumps into the net might change all that. With her, the way to righting their world might become clear. With her, it might become possible to be Tobias once again.

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