#the best part is if a zombie kills an enemy that enemy also becomes a zombie

[beaft]

after spending many hours as the squishiest and most useless member of my party, i have finally settled on a decent build for chanterelle. i call it the Boys Build. it goes like this: chanterelle is able to summon up to fifteen Boys at any one time (regular zombies, mushroom zombies, dryads, etc). when there's a fight, chanterelle turns invisible, hides behind a rock, and sends in The Boys to do the dirty work. i have now won multiple fights using the Boys method without taking a single point of damage. it's not glamorous but it works

#the best part is if a zombie kills an enemy that enemy also becomes a zombie #the Boys are a self-sustaining ecosystem #it's great #bg3

[thecooler]

Landmine

Wake had rules of engagement when it came to dealing with any of the Emperor’s favorite minions— his specialist little zombies— lyctors. Those rules of engagement were as follows: 1. Do not fucking engage 2. If you somehow end up doing that, give them hell.

Words: 5,213

Relationships: Gideon the First/Commander Wake/Pyrrha Dve, Commander Wake & Our Lady of the Passion

Additional Tags: Pre-Canon, Enemies and Lovers, Non-Explicit Sex, Fighting and Fucking and Fighting as Fucking

Written for the TLT Holiday Gift Exchange on ao3, also my first work in the fandom so you gotta be nice :P

AO3 Mirror

Commander Awake Remembrance of These Valiant Dead Kia Hua Ko Te Pai Snap Back to Reality Oops There Goes Gravity was born in the pile of smouldering ashes that was the Blood of Eden. When she was very small, her mother told her stories about what they used to be, back in her grandmother’s day, and how the zombies and wizards had overwhelmed them with their numbers and their tricks, how her grandmother, her uncles, and countless more had been killed and had their bodies desecrated and turned into fuel with which to kill their brethren. She told her that one day, they would rise from the ashes, and triumph, and Wake believed that with her whole wretched heart.

When she was twelve, she held a gun for the first time. Her little calloused fingers fit around the grip like they were meant to be there. She raised her shaky hand, guided by her elder sister, God Shall Be My Hope. Their mother had been blown apart from the inside by a wizard, her parts too small and burnt to bear any resemblance to the person she once was. The Nine Houses, as it always did, reduced people to tools of war, and her mother was in the right place and the right time to become a bomb. It wouldn’t happen like that to her.

“I’m gonna bring us back,” she said, a few years later, when she was old enough to know that the Blood of Eden was operating like shit, but not old enough to know how to fix it. She said, “like we used to be, before they found that base and wrecked our shit.”

She remembered that Hope looked tired, and a bit scared. She always looked tired— bucking up at the age of fifteen and raising your sister did that to a girl. The fear was new, though. She said, “I don’t want you to go out like mom, Wake.”

Wake slid the magazine back into the pistol and smiled a nasty, curling, bitter smile, “Not up to me, but let me tell ya’— if I’m going out, I’m taking as many zombies as I can down with me. They’re gonna remember me, and even when I’m dead, my name’s gonna scare the piss out of them.”

Her sister said, “I hope you’re right.”

Ten years after that, Wake was a Wing Commander, and things were starting to go right. She knew how to hold any gun without shaking and without hesitating. She knew how a zombie’s eyes looked when light left them, and she knew more than anyone that they weren’t unkillable.

Her sister, meanwhile, was dying in childbirth on a shitty patch of dirt that the Houses’ God had long since forgotten. Wake made herself stay by her side and listen to her howls of pain. They didn’t have any anesthetic or morphine— their stores had been sacked by a drove of Cohort pigs not even a week ago. Wake was on fire. She was red-hot furious. Hope was dying— fucking hell— and there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it.

She said, “Save her, save her. I don’t fucking care about kid.”

Her sister wailed and clawed at her arm and hair and she said, “No, don’t you fucking dare. Don’t you fucking dare.”

But in the end neither of them really had much of a say in the matter. Hope died with a name on her lips, and Wake, who had never wanted to be a mother, gave it to the newborn Our Lady of the Passion, and did what her sister had all those years ago— she loved that shitty kid as best as she could.

---

Wake had rules of engagement when it came to dealing with any of the Emperor’s favourite minions— his specialist little zombies— lyctors. Those rules of engagement were as follows:

1. Do not fucking engage

2. If you somehow end up doing that, give them hell

The Commander had not woken up that day with the notion that she’d be toe-to-toe with a lyctor. But here she was, boots scraping up hard-packed red earth as she danced around one of their rapiers.

“You look like a pussy, fighting with that thing,” she snarled.

And the zombie smiled. Deep brown eyes crinkled around the edges, and stark white teeth peeked out through dark lips. Infuriatingly, it was devastatingly handsome. This realization slapped her across the face, and she thought, distantly, if I get out of this thing, I need to get laid ASAP.

It smiled, and then it pulled a spear out of the rigid corpse of one of its comrades and lunged towards Wake. The speed of it might have been impressive, if the asshole wasn’t literally bringing knives to a gun fight. She raised her pistol to block the spearhead before it made contact with her chest plate. The gun clattered on the ground behind them, and without looking, Wake leaped into a back handspring and kicked the pistol back into her grip. The zombie was looking at her with what she thought might be genuine awe, but she didn’t allow herself to ruminate on it. They’d been going at this for nearly an hour. She was running on fumes, and she had to finish this.

She flung herself forward, dancing around the lunge of the spear. She shot the hand that held it, then spun and kicked the steel toe of her boot into the joint of the opposite wrist. She smiled a wicked, feral grin at the sound of both weapons clattering to the floor.

She stood, breathing heavily, looking into deep brown eyes. In another life, she might have described them as warm. In this life, she shoved the barrel of one gun between them, and the other under its breast, where its heart would be.

She hesitated only for a moment, and in that moment, the zombie that she would come to know as Pyrrha Dve made a choice that would haunt her to her dying breath and beyond. She leaned forward and captured her dry, split, lonely lips in a kiss. She raised her dark, blood-stained hands and cradled her face with an alien softness.

Wake bit her. She clamped down hard on the zombie’s bottom lip until blood bloomed on her tongue, and then they broke apart, and the Emperor’s hand smiled, torn lip trickling blood down her chin. She said, “I’m sorry, destroy me as I am, but I wanted to kiss you before you killed me.”

Wake should have killed her then and there. She should have blown her head and chest apart and burned the bits of flesh and viscera that remained. Instead, she said, “Why the fuck would you want that?”

And the zombie laughed again, and again Wake didn’t take the opportunity to tear her heart out. She smiled a soft, destructive smile, and said to Wake, “I’ve only once met someone so willing to burn for what they believed in, and I loved him on sight. Commander, the first time I died, I asked of him what I ask of you now,” she pressed a calloused hand again to Wake’s face, and it was horribly warm. Those terrible dark eyes met hers, and she said, “make it quick.”

Then she kissed Wake again, and again, and again. And Wake didn’t kill her that day.

---

Wake ended up meeting Pyrrha one other time before she met the other one. This was a good thing, because if she hadn’t had the heads up she might have ripped his dick clean off. Pyrrha was bleeding from thick, deep cuts on her exposed biceps and throat, her breaths coming out as sharp, desperate wheezing. Her immortal blood seeped through Wake’s fingers same as any soldier, same as a dog bleeding out on the side of the road. Wake pressed down harshly on her throat with the butt of her pistol and hiked her knee up between the other woman’s legs.

“Hard already, Dve?” she taunted, then snorted when all Pyrrha could do was let out a low whine.

“Shit, baby,” Pyrrha said, fear creeping into her words.

Wake was no one’s baby. She leaned forward and sunk her teeth into thin cartilage, and tore off the tip of her lover’s ear with her teeth. She spat the severed flesh on the grimy, stained floor of the shuttle and looked at Pyrrha’s eyes.

No.

No, Pyrrha’s eyes were a warm, deep brown. The eyes that she was looking into now were a clear green, alarmed, confused, and still a bit horny.

Wake smiled, her lips curling, “Hello, Gideon,” she purred, jerking her knee against his half-hard cock. “How are you feeling?” and she slipped her gun into her holster and unsheathed her well-used knife. Without preamble, she thrust the blade between his ribs.

He howled out in pain, strong, calloused hands scrambling at her shoulders. But, notably, he didn’t push Wake away. Instead, between panting breaths, he said, “Who the hell are you?”

Wake leaned in close to his still-bleeding ear and whispered, “Your worst fucking nightmare.”

---

Long, long before she was born— long enough that it had long since faded into legend, a Lyctor had made contact with the Blood of Eden. Referred to only as Source Gram. She, allegedly, hailed from the Sixth House, and, even more dubiously, aided her ancestors in the beginnings of their movement. But nothing of the sort had happened since, and Lyctors had become the villains of legend. Many thought that they were immortal, and that they would be the death of them. They were something to be avoided at all cost.

But she knew she could not keep her knowledge of Pyrrha and Gideon from her people, and more than that, she didn’t want to. They could be of use to the Blood of Eden— invaluable even. And so she called her Wing Commanders together, and told them she had something important to discuss.

She told the Blood of Eden, “I have a source in the houses,” and the room went silent. Expectant gazes fell on her, and for the first time in a long time, Wake felt nervous. She tilted her chin up and hoped she could project confidence. “I believe,” she said, “that I’ve gained the trust of one of John Gaius’ hands.”

Her breathing felt impossibly loud. Then, We Suffer breathed out slowly, locked eyes with her, and said, “Tell us what you want us to do, Commander.”

After that, the next year and a half were a cascade of formed connections and formed plans. Source Joyeuse, Piotra, and Chysoar offered them tools and knowledge that her mother and sisters would not have dared dream of. They were in a better place than they’d ever been. Wake could taste the blood of the Emperor, could feel his death at her fingertips.

She was going to be the change she’d wanted to be since she was a child. She was going to avenge her mother, blown to pieces, and her sister, dead to the Nine House’s negligence.

She met with Gideon a few more times, and Pyrrha a few more than that. Each time, they fought and fucked, and sometimes they talked, but never about her plans. Gideon was infuriatingly loyal to his puppet master, and Pyrrha wasn’t supposed to exist. The knowledge of what they were planning would only burden her.

Especially when the Vat Wombs failed, and Wake set about making her bomb with her own two hands.

---

There was a certain level of domesticity that Wake had never allowed herself. She helped raise Pash, and the girl certainly looked up to her, but she wasn’t a mother. She didn’t know how to cook more than what you could boil in a pot of water with little to no additional steps. She could barely keep her own space clean half the time. And she didn’t do feelings talks. Never had, really. Hope had tried, when they were both young and stupid, because she read in some book that it was good to do so. Wake didn’t need a book to tell her that talking about that shit was important. She knew. She just didn’t do it.

Pillow talk, too, was a concept she was familiar with in theory, but something she avoided in practice. She’d fucked around with folks before Pyrrha and Gideon, and she let them assume that was still the case, though it wasn’t— she didn’t have time these days for that kind of bullshit. But even when she did have the time for it, she never stuck around for long after. She liked to think it added to her air of authority. They were done when she said they were done.

Sometimes, when it was Gideon, he would lay back after and hold his hand out, and if she had one (and she usually did), she’s shove a cigarette into his hand, and he’d smoke it and stare at the ceiling or the wall while the cuts and gauges stitched back up. He rarely said much of anything, but sometimes he would look at her for a bit too long, with a certain soft crease to his eyebrows and a barely-noticeable curl to his lip that looked alien on him, like it wasn’t an expression he had a lot of practice with.

He told her once that she had a wicked, mean smile, and she snapped back that he didn’t smile at all, so he shouldn’t talk, and he’d huffed out a curt laugh and said, “I used to. Not for a long time, though.”

And she hadn’t known how to respond to that, so she’d pinned him down, and he’d laughed, and it was a beautiful thing— one that she did not allow herself to dwell on for more than a moment, lest the sound worm its way into her cold, tired heart and find a home there. She sunk her teeth into his shoulder until she tasted blood.

On another occasion, he said, in that gruff, flat way he always spoke, “Sometimes I wish I’d known you before I knew him,” and she’d responded by telling him to take that sentiment and shove it where the light of Dominicus can’t find it. There wasn’t any worth in what ifs. If Gideon weren’t a tedious chicken-shit, it wouldn’t matter when they’d met.

Bottom line: she didn’t need, or want, his loyalty.

Pyrrha was different. It was like she’d orgasm and suddenly she had to talk, or she’d explode and take her necro with her. It usually wasn’t about much of anything. She’d lay back with her hands folded under her head and smirk and tell Wake all about what it was like, before she died the first time. She seldom talked about Gideon, and if Wake ever asked, it usually ended the conversation immediately.

But she’d talk about friends that had long since died. About Anastasia, and Cass, and Cyth, who was still alive, but who hadn’t spoken to her in a millennium. Wake, of course, knew Cyth. She’d been helping the Blood of Eden for some time, but the knowledge would bring Pyrrha no comfort.

Pyrrha would ask Wake questions, too, about her life, and the people she cared about. Once, Wake had spoken to her, briefly about Hope, and something in her voice must have given away her still-smouldering grief, because Pyrrha reached forward and rested her hand atop Wake’s. And there must have been something wrong with her, because for a few burning seconds, she allowed it. And then she said, with less anger than she’d hope to muster, “Get off my ship, Dve,” and the bastard had the nerve to pause to kiss her brow before leaving.

Wake should have killed her for that. She really should’ve.

The infuriating woman seemed to like to hear her talk about Pash in particular, even if it was just the same three things over and over. Wake never gave away much, even to her. She’d look at that shitty, grimy little photo in her toolkit and ask her questions, most of which she didn’t answer, but she never seemed to mind that.

Then, after the vat wombs had failed, and she took matters into her own hands, Pyrrha said, “I always wanted to be a parent,” in his soft, wistful voice. She was looking right at Wake, and for one mortifying moment, she thought that she knew. This shouldn’t have made bile burn up her esophagus, and it damn well shouldn’t have made her heart pound in her chest. She stared back at Pyrrha, her mouth slightly parted, and after a few long seconds, Pyrrha looked up at the ceiling and sighed.

“I think I could’ve been a good mom. Gideon always said I would, and Cass and Ana. Augustine, too, but he was always kissing up to me. He’d say the First was made of pudding if he thought it’d make me happy,” her words were sharp, but Pyrrha’s eyes always betrayed her with how repulsively soft they were. That warm, dark brown always reminded her of the hot chocolate she would get once in a while when she was small, before her mother died. She’d met the Lyctor Augustine once, and she couldn’t conceive of having anything more than passing resentment for the man.

"Any kid you raised would be a jackass with an awful sense of humor," Wake said dryly.

"Don't be a dick," but Pyrrha was still smiling.

She did not think through what she was doing when she settled back into the cot next to Pyrrha and rested her head on her bare shoulder. Her mind longed to wander. Images flashed in her periphery, of a quiet, calm life, somewhere far away with Pyrrha and Gideon and Pash and a shitty little kid. A world where the emperor was long dead and the age of Necromancy had begun to fade into memory.

But first she had to have the baby— the Bomb— and she didn’t know how happy Pyrrha would be with her after that.

It didn’t matter anyway. Even if it worked, and the Emperor was dead in a year, there would be work to do. Wake had long since accepted that she would be working until she was in the ground.

Pyrrha wrapped her big, strong arms around her and gave her a gentle squeeze, and Wake pressed her face into her chest. She didn’t know if it was the pregnancy hormones or something else firing around in her messed up head, but for a moment, Wake closed her eyes, and she allowed herself to imagine them in another life.

----

Celebrating the date of one’s birth was not something they could afford most years. She’d never had them growing up, and she turned out just fine. But the fact remained that having a birthday party was fun, and people, on occasion, liked to have fun. So they had a birthday party for Our Lady of the Passion on years where they had the means to. They had one on her fifth birthday, and her ninth, and now it was her fifteenth, and Wake was busting her ass more than she probably should to make it special, all while being nearly nine months pregnant and certifiably fucking huge. It was awful, it was uncomfortable, but she was, as Hope had once so aptly put it, more stubborn that those weird venomous cats, which were, for the uninitiated, endurance hunters, and ergo, very fucking stubborn.

We Suffer looked at her balancing a gift wrapped in crinkly brown paper and sighed audibly before lifting it out of Wake’s hands, ignoring the curse she bit out in protest.

“Have you ever considered sitting down— taking a rest?” She suggested in a soft, sing-song voice that she knew damn well Wake couldn’t stand.

“Have you ever considered shutting the fuck up?” She shot back, but there was no teeth to it.

“You’re carrying something pretty important,” We Suffer nodded to her stomach, “wouldn’t want it getting jostled too much because mom’s got too much goddamn pride.”

Wake frowned, brows furrowed. The details for her plan weren’t terribly well-known, and We Suffer wasn’t included in that circle. As far as she was aware, Wake was carrying a baby because she’d suddenly developed an affinity for them. So saying something like, I don’t really give a rat’s ass whether this thing is born healthy or on death's door, so long as it’s got blood, would be somewhat alarming. So she just grunted and didn’t complain about the help.

Pash was never good at keeping to herself, and Wake pretended to hate it more than she did. Couldn’t have the girl getting ideas in her head that she could go around doing whatever she wanted. But hell, it was her birthday, so when the little shit bumped against Wake’s side with a shit-eating grin and raised eyebrows, Wake smiled back.

“Where the fuck did you get hair dye, you little shit?” Wake said, running her fingers through freshly blue hair. The sides of her fingers came away slightly stained.

“Scavenged it,” Pash said— she still had a bit of a lisp when she tried to say s-words, but it was a far cry from where she’d been ten. Back then she’d been nigh-incomprehensible. The kid eyed her stomach dubiously, the same way she had since Wake started to show. The two of them hadn’t talked about it, and Wake didn’t intend to, unless Pash brought it up. It’d be a non-issue soon enough, anyway.

“Sooooo,” she said, bumping her shoulder to Wake’s. The kid was stupid tall, and seemed to still be growing, “what’d you get me, dear auntie?”

“I got you my goddamned presence, you little worm,” Wake said with no venom and a traitorous smile curled on her lips. She added, “and a cake, so you better be fucking grateful.”

Pash threw her hands up in surrender, “I am, I am! Shit,” she laughed, and Wake let out a snort that to her own ears was far too fucking fond. This seemed to please Pash, who mumbled something about finding Unjust Hope and took off.

Wake watched her go, and felt herself grow a bit sentimental. She could remember when that kid was small enough for her to hold in both hands. She could remember when she was nothing more than what the Bomb was now, curled inside her, unaware of the world, or the destruction they’d be born into.

Pash had asked her once, when she was eight and newly old enough to understand what had happened to her mother, if Wake hated her for killing Hope. If anyone had asked her before that moment, she might have said yes, or that at least that a part of her did. But Pash had looked at her with those big, sad hazel eyes, and she’d found that there wasn’t any hate left in her for Our Lady of the Passion.

She told her, “No, I don’t hate you. Don’t go getting a big fucking head about it, though.”

And nearly seven years later, she seemed to have gotten a big head about it anyway, by the way she felt comfortable flipping Wake off or calling her old lady. From anyone else, this would have been a deal breaker. She’d fold that fucker in half just to shove their head so far up their ass they forgot which way was up. But the most Pash ever got was some sharp words and a tired huff. So maybe it was her own fault, a little bit.

A little under an hour later, they were all sat around a garbage sheet cake with a single candle in the middle, and Pash was opening their gifts— one of which was a machete with a wicked curve. At the sight of this, Pash let out an awed gasp and raked her eyes over it was a ravenous want. She was Wake’s kid, alright.

From across the table, We Suffer cocked an eyebrow at her, and rather than dignify that with a response, she looked at Pash and said, “You should learn to use it, just in case. But the biggest thing is just getting into a minion’s head. Fuck with them. Make ‘em think you can beat them at their own game, and games they ain’t even thought of yet.”

Pash smiled a wide, toothy grin, “Do you know how to use it? Can you teach me?”

“A little,” Wake said. Sometimes, after a rendeavouz, when Pyrrha was too antsy for pillow talk but nonetheless unwilling to leave, the two of them would practice swordplay together. Pyrrha said she looked like a dog with a stick, but she was working her way up to a dog with a sword. “When I have time, alright?”

Even God didn’t know when that would be, though. The baby would come soon, and, if all went to plan, the death of the Emperor with it. The aftermath of that was impossible to calculate. Even his inner circle wasn’t sure what would happen. But Wake always found time for Pash, one way or another.

Pash set the machete on the table, and seemed about to say something, but then the familiar voice of one of her Wing Commanders, Cherry, crackled over her walkie. It said, “Duty is trailing you. Ninth house operation’s gotta move up.”

We Suffer eyed her from across the table, and as she took the words in, her gaze hardened. What she thought she had figured out, Wake couldn’t be sure. But she’d always been bright, that one. She probably had a pretty good idea.

“Fuck, kid, I gotta go,” she said, feeling genuinely sorry. But Pash was looking at her with a wicked grin and fire in her eyes.

“Go give those zombies hell. You’ll teach me how to use this thing when you get back.”

“Hold me to that,” Wake said, and then she left the base for the last time.

---

Wake stood on wobbly, uncertain, bloody legs. The Bomb was clutches to her chest, rolled a little too tightly in a blanket. On its soft, brown head a few strands of bright red hair, so much like her own, clung wetly to its skull. She refused to recognize herself within her weapon, even as it fussed and whined and cried and reached its tiny, chubby hand towards her in ask for safety, comfort, or anything else a mother might have to give.

But Wake wasn’t a mother. She was a warrior, a commander, a phoenix rising from the ashes, over and over. She put the wailing bundle into a haz suit and clacked the visor shut. Its cries continues, crackly and insistent, through the speakers.

Pyrrha was always the one that wanted to be a mother, and as she stood before her now, Wake felt as though she could read the thoughts storming through her head. She looked at Wake, who must look now like an uncaged beast, covered in her own blood, hair a wild tangle, eyes alight with adrenaline, and she looked every bit as sappy and lovelorn as she always did after they got done fighting or fucking. She said, “Wake, darling, I don’t have long. Let’s take the baby and get out of here. Please.”

“I’m not your darling,” Wake snarled, “and I’m not fucking going anywhere with you.”

Pyrrha stepped back, her eyes widening slightly, at Wake’s tone, and she felt a flush at pride at the sight of hurt contorting her features. Her eyes were always so wide and dark and expressive. She swallowed, “Gideon will be back soon. I can feel him. And he won’t let you go— you or the baby.”

At this, Wake threw her head back in a long, cruel laugh. Against her chest, the Bomb wailed, and in response Pyrrha stepped forward, hands outstretched, and Wake pulled her bundle closer with a low growl. “Fuck off. Gideon can do what the fuck he wants,” and, against her better judgement, she added, “you don’t think he’d kill a baby.”

Pyrrha’s eyes were fixed on the Bomb, like Wake didn’t exist at all, and it took a moment for her to reply, “He’d to anything for him. He’d always do anything for him. Wake, I don’t know what you think your plan is—“

“You don’t,” Wake said, “you don’t have a clue. But it doesn’t matter. I’m gonna kill the fucking emperor, and then it won’t matter who gave Gideon his marching orders. Nothing will matter.”

Pyrrha looked like she might say something more, but before she had the chance, she slumped forward, just briefly, and when she stood back up, green eyes blinked awake, and looked at her, and looked at the Bomb.

Gideon said, “What the fuck did you do?”

Wake said, “I’m going to kill your fucking boss, dipshit.”

Gideon went very still. He looked at Wake, in her ragged haz suit, and the baby, whose baby blue eyes were squinting through the harsh light of the shuttle over at him. For a moment, silence hung between them, save for the occasional fussing of the Bomb in her hands. “Say something,” Wake said.

“I don’t know what you want, Wake. I’ve never known.” Gideon looked properly sad then. The harsh lines of his face softened, and his eyebrows knit together. He looked like he might step forward, and for a precious moment in time, she lived in the world that Pyrrha had always wanted. She lived in a world with them, and maybe Pash, and no one else. Hormones going to her head and nothing more, and even if it were more than that, Gideon shattered the illusion with his next words.

“I can’t let you kill him. You know I can’t.” And he sounded so pathetic and desperate that Wake had to clamp her jaw together and look away, lest she burn apart where she stood.

“You’ve never let me do shit,” she said, laughing bitterly. She turned a knob on the side of her helmet, and the plex slipped down. Her voice came out crackled through the headset. “See you when we’ve won,” she said, and turned to open the airlock, to descend to the planet, and to light that motherfucker up.

Then a fist slammed against her back. She felt a rib break as she tumbled forward into open space. She turned around and briefly saw Gideon’s pained, horrible face, and for a split second, she swore she saw a flash of brown in his eyes. But she was losing air quickly, and she had to lose it quicker, if she wanted the Bomb to make it to its destination.

She wasn’t going to get back home, she wasn’t going to a half-flipped moon, she wasn’t going to see the demise of the Emperor of the Nine Houses. She wasn’t going to get to teach Pash how to use those damn machetes.

“Fuck you!” she snarled, and she directed her life preserves to the Bomb.

As they fell, and life drained slowly and agonizingly from her body, Wake shrieked, “Gideon! Gideon! Gideon!”

And she burned, and she burned, and she burned.

#the locked tomb #commander wake #awake remembrance of these valiant dead #pyrrha dve #gideon the first #our lady of the passion #pyrrhawake #writing tag #waves cutely

[asknarashikari]

About Gotchard showing Spanner being dead wrong about the Chemy, despite being stubbornly set in his ways, I was actually glad that Geats (sorry) did that too to Azuma, they're displaying his edgy rival personality as a hindrance to him.

He stubbornly uses Water or Magnum as a club because it suits his style. He refuses to listen to any feedbacks about it (because distrust). Maybe this lowkey explains his character too on won't trying other solutions?

Other than obviously not giving best results for not fully utilizing what you have, being too stubborn to reason leads to Keiwa trading Boost and Magnum for Zombie. So his team gotta to cater to him for a chance of being better even if it 'weakens' them.

He shuts up anyone speaking to him, other than above, it's also about Keiwa figuring out the Concentration which leaves him pausing because Azuma can't be talked with, when it'd be the key. But of course... the naive newcomer can be what's blamed by fans for slowing down, when it's communication that is important in teams, not fighting ability.

In the face of cooperation being the key to survival and progress like how he advances the Concentration game, he still refuses to accept that he has done infinitely better when working together (Kaito also has this problem). He only wins later thanks to Beroba's offering while also backing him up throughout JGP.

Which shows later when he's potentially dying when he finds himself without a Driver fighting as human. He's only saved because there are others willing to cooperate including to him. Other characters specifically point this out to him too.

He also refuses to listen to others in dire times of him and others being powerless against the boss, and recklessly charges towards it. His personality actually killed him and only by sheer luck he survived due to Zombie living up to its name.

Gaim also had a minor early part where Kaito's anti-friendship and social darwinism view of obtaining and offering power bites him back by getting backstabbed by Jonouchi and Hase, and thus was bailed out by Kouta and Micchy, the people whose approach he looked down upon, though of course Kaito brushed it off as Jonouchi and Hase not worth something.

But of course, only characters like Keiwa (and by extension, similar naive characters) are the ones who got their traits blamed for their failure to win, that they must become cruel pos to survive or get ahead (how are those fanbase's views on these type of characters different from Kekera's early on?). While Azuma's traits aren't acknowledged as what hinders him and something he should change too to get ahead or survive.

I mean Keiwa'd be the likely more popular pick on who people expect to die in this situation, but Azuma's the one who actually dies... and this'd be depicted as "if Azuma can't, then newcomers like Keiwa and Neon would always do worse", rather than Azuma's traits being his downfall, for earlier elimination (rather than latter 2 being luckier). This also should show 'proof' that Keiwa won't win by becoming like Azuma either... and bad guys can be manipulated and taken advantage by others as well (e.g. Daichi by Beroba and Kekera for his tree).

I don't know what it takes to have the fanbase actually acknowledge that these type of personality as flawed and a hindrance not unlike "softness". They seem to tend to be viewed as just cool and independent to hold their own and resist instead, while those who cooperate got mocked for being reliant, regardless of overall results (albeit Spanner isn't well liked at least on Tumblr to you). Fanbase do really look down on power of friendship and cooperation even though it's how humans thrive....

In addition to above, Geats also had people like Kanato and Daichi, having their traits being their downfall as well. Kanato got eliminated due to his spite, while Daichi made too many enemies that led to his early eliminations (making him look like actual DezaStar, and pushing others' buttons)... but they too can have some people depict it as the series wasting them as villains, rather than acknowledging their traits as their downfall.

Sorry for this but I'm going to be chopping up this ask to pieces... It's just so lengthy I feel like I need to address it bit by bit

Honestly, Azuma doing these things just made me think he was a fucking idiot. Sure, maybe the Water Raise Buckle confused him because he had never encountered it before (Ace apparently hadn't either, despite how many times he'd been in the DGP) but Magnum? The one his self-proclaimed rival uses all the time? Give me a break.

Yup, Azuma's tendency to strike out on his own and distrust of others definitely bit him in the (Buffa)butt several times, though they did somewhat justify this with what happened to Tooru.

Of course, that just means that Azuma immediately equated every single Kamen Rider he encountered in the DGP to the couple of people who murdered his friend- emphasized by how he mocks people for trying to rescue civilians as just doing it for the extra points, rather than doing it because they actually want to do the right thing.

This could be seen as an extension of his stubbornness as well, in that he refuses to change his beliefs even when evidence to the contrary exists.

Of course to his apologists, Keiwa was the one in the wrong for dragging them both down, when it was Azuma who can't be bothered to have a proper conversation... Honestly, it's a bit of a miracle he was able to cooperate with Berobitch at all, though I doubt he actually trusted her per se. He just saw her as useful to fulfilling his wish. He probably didn't see the other Riders as useful, except maybe Keiwa during the Concentration Game (when it was apparent that Morio was pulling a fast one on him).

I think in this situation Kaito was also partially done in by his own arrogance. He seems to have a very dim view of some of the other Riders. (I guess this applies to Azuma in some sense as well, because of his aforementioned generalization of them)

At this point I'm not really sure what would convince those fans. Honestly, I wonder if those fans think Riders working with anyone at all is a strange concept, when of course that's been demonstrably false since the very first Rider himself.

There may also be a subset of fans who may think that KR is the "solo hero franchise" vs Sentai being the "team hero franchise", so while they won't criticize Sentai having friendship/teamwork as an emphasis, they will criticize KR for it.

To me, it's almost bizzare to think KR shows would say different things about friendship and teamwork than a Sentai show would. They would naturally reflect the views of the ones making them and ultimately approving what we the audience see... But behind the scenes they're worked on by a lot of the same people- same writers, producers, directors, etc. Why would one franchise denounce these concepts and the other exalt them?

Yeah, I don't really know what to say to these fans. I just don't. Sometimes characters are just there to be fucking horrible. Not everyone can be significant, and if your fave happens to be that guy... You'll just have to live with it.

[starlight-matrix]

I don’t normally post original stuff here but part of me just really wants to put my ideas out in the world, so that they exist even if I never end up turning them into a full story.

Anyways, here’s a Life Series pirate au!!

- technically based in 3rd life, but follows other dynamics from later seasons

- scar and ren are rival pirate captains. ren is a seasoned pirate, he’s been doing it far longer and is far more feared. scar is new to the trade but very quickly made enemies and a reputation for being impossible to kill

- scar’s first mate is grian, of course. they’re best friends and it’s undecided whether or not scar begged grian to become a pirate with him, or grian lost a bet of some kind and being a pirate is his punishment

- also on scar’s crew: cleo and bdubs, his mom and brother; tango and impulse, mutual friends of cleo; scott and jimmy, allies of scar’s

- affiliates to scar’s crew include mumbo, who is an engineer friend of scar and grian’s who is terrified of the open sea. they keep trying to convince him to join their crew, with dubious success. also gem, who is either a bounty hunter/assassin/guard for hire who has her own beastly reputation and whom scar constantly tries to scam (unsuccessfully)

- ren’s ship is called the scarlet hound and his crew is generally referred to as the hounds (but meant like “hound’s” bc ren is a werewolf and they’re all “his”)

- martyn is his first mate, is one of if not the only member of ren’s crew who has been around since the beginning of ren’s pirate career. their crew has changed many times due to deaths in the field

- other members of ren’s crew include: skizz, etho, and bigb (of course); pearl, who was an outlaw in a similar vein to gem before she became allies with ren and martyn; Joel and lizzie (Joel was an enemy of ren’s but lizzie and ren got along and became allies, which forced Joel to put his opinions aside so he could follow lizzie)

- hybrids/fae exist! ren is a werewolf; lizzie is a pixie/fairy; scott, grian and Jimmy are avians; cleo is a zombie (she was revived from the dead by a necromancer); tango and impulse are both different species of dragon/netherborn

- there’s a little bit of empires crossover in that Rivendell is a real place with a lot of influence in this world; xornoth isn’t evil (yet) and is the current ruler. the cod empire either does not exist or is not affiliated with jimmy. other empires may exist but aren’t relevant to the story

- after xornoth rose to power, he and scott had a falling out and scott ran from Rivendell to pursue his own life, and either met jimmy afterwards or brought him along (this would make Jimmy a Rivendell citizen)

- Scott and Jimmy then met scar and grian, who invited them to join their pirate crew. they accepted for the thrill

- cleo and Etho are exes, in the same vein of limited life where scar and bdubs are their kids and Cleo took them in the divorce. no idea if they’re biological kids or not, don’t think it really matters. a large amount of the beef between the two crews is bc of this

- another point of contention is impulse, who was childhood friends with skizz. they went down different life paths for a while and met again after skizz had joined ren’s crew; impulse joined as well, only to betray them months later and steal valuable information from ren’s office on the way out

- impulse had joined scar’s crew during their time apart and they’d already planned on getting impulse into ren’s crew to steal, they just hadn’t planned on impulse being friends with one of ren’s crewmates

And that’s about all I have so far!! I have some vague plot ideas for a maaaaaybe 2 part fic someday, but who knows if it’ll ever exist for real. Feel free to comment any opinions or ideas for this au <3

#my fanfic

[fidelixcorde]

@bccksmarts: MASKS & RIBBON

(*)

🎭 MASKS - do they act differently around certain people? what's different between the way they act around friends, family, strangers, etc.?

Growing up in foster care gave Taylor the most excellent form of camouflage. She spent so long attempting to assimilate and make herself appealing as a potential adoptee that she learned how to read and mimic others, and how to hide in plain sight, which ended up becoming her biggest asset as a secret agent in the Network. So it really depends on the other person. Taylor can present herself differently to pretty much everyone she meets, like acting sweet and demure towards the elderly, meek towards authority figures with a stick up their ass, and assertive towards those getting uppity. And while most of the world will see what she wants them to see -- a violent, bloodthirsty girl ready to throw hands at the first opportunity with a penchant for chaos -- only those she deems her safe people will know who she is at the core. Someone who just loves so much, and is afraid to be alone.

🎀 RIBBON - how would they fit into other worlds / aus? what aus would you like to try out? what fictional world would they fit / not fit into?

The best part about having a muse who's entire backstory includes becoming adaptable to her environment for survival is that she's pretty easy to plop down into other universes and see where she ends up. At most, Taylor is an easy choice as a companion to someone from the original cast of characters, mostly as a guard dog if they've earned her loyalty. For example, in her H/P AU -- I have several, but let's chat about the main one -- she earns herself a spot among the Golden Trio, being a source of protection and advice for Harry, Ron and Hermione, whilst also being aggressive towards their enemies to try and smack some sense into them. I guess for AUs where I'd struggle with her would be more along the lines of an apocalypse, like the Wa.lking Dead. Taylor knows that, for survival, she would need to join a community, or at least have a few people in her corner. But she also knows that, logically, when societal rules no longer exist, she's in danger of being killed by a human than by a zombie. Isolation would be terrible and boring for her, but she'd be too hostile towards strangers to even think about joining a community. It'd be a challenge, for sure.

#; when my thoughts start to rhyme (answered) #; we were borderline kids with a book of disorders (character study) #bccksmarts #mwah!

[surpriserose]

okay heres the ramble and its about the last of us the game and show and also tlou2 and video game violence because its fucking...gamer time and im just putting a cut because this will probably get long and also like...spoilers

okay so i just finished the latest episode of the last of us and jesus fucking christ just in general but also like...tlou game mutuals was joel always this...like...brutal/slash does he like...feel this brutal? because holy shit?

like obviously im still sympathetic to the guy like thats kind of the point is that yeah ellie sees the best of him despite him having a very checkered past and in a way so does the player because like....you are him you know? like i wouldnt be surprised if they like? upped the violence joel has on screen considering how the last of us 2 like....goes? like joel faces consequences for killing a guy the player and him didn't even really acknowledge as a person? because he was just a nameless enemy right? like i think that was the case but um...ive never played the games i just kinda watched on the sidelines until the show came out. sorry for being the exact demographic hbo is going for btw abvlnajkds

but anyways i think that idea that like the protagonist facing consequences for killing what the player ultimately just considers waves of enemies is interesting even if you're like okay well joel shouldnt have died and i think its something more games should acknowledge because like? depending on the game you can kill upwards of thousands (if you want a scale from like...harvest moon to plague inc i guess you can even kill billions you know?) and they just become not even people just obstacles because thats mechanically what they are.

like part of my criticism with stuff like...dc and marvel movies is how video gamey they are? and i say that every time because there are just waves and waves of faceless aliens/robots/whatever with just one big bad guy who actually gets a name and some kind of like...consideration of what it means to be killing them. and i mean like literally faceless a lot of the time. Like its an easy way to depersonalize someone you know? like look at this shit

aquaman ^^^ like bro can you even see....they took away your humanity and also your field of vision

age of ultron ^^^ like bro you are surrounded by fucking corpses...i know theyre robots and also all cgi but you know what i mean?

dragon age 2 ^^^

breath of the wild ^^^ which i guess i would say is kind of notable because you actually see the yiga without masks but not when youre fighting them

and this shit is specifically for more human kinds of enemies like specifically so you feel less bad killing them you know? non human enemies dont really get the same treatment because just by being non human you feel less bad about it you know? like orcs, goblins, supermutants, zombies whatever you can think of theyre already fine to kill because theyre non human and assumed to be evil (like think the dnd alignments kind of shit, where humans and elves can be good or evil or whatever but ALL orcs are always evil)

and like yeah...they arent human but theyre still sentient? like supermutants and ghouls in fallout form their own societies and you can have them as companions but that doesnt stop you from mowing them down in droves.

and zombies are kind of like? the ideal of this, especially tlou's zombies sorry i mean theyre clickers but theyre zombies you know what i mean

like they were people they were alive but now theyre okay to kill and are barely even human (including the lace of faces)

like thats why zombies kind of became so ubiquitous in video games i think like theyre perfect for enemies (literally mindless, not human, inherently evil) but also since they were human its easy enough to pluck out one to care about out of the thousands you can kill to feel bad about like i dont know if anyone cares about telltales the walking dead anymore but thats got a prime example they give you a starving kid zombie and of course youre gonna feel bad about killing them but not the rest of the horde.

^^^this is world war z im not trying to be misleading but you understand right? the zombies here arent even formerly human at this point theyre just a mass.

and yeah obviously none of this shit is real its all cgi and pixels and shit but that doesnt mean it cant affect you? that you shouldnt think about it? but its so frustrating to me like thats why one of the examples i gave was dragon age 2 and not just because ive been playing it like so so many of the enemies in that game are faceless smugglers/mercenaries/gang members but you as the player character are ALSO a former smuggler/mercenary who just joined to support your family but you cant give the same consideration to any of the enemies EXCEPT a kid roped into it to feed his family and you can only do that in one optional quest like...how can we be sure none of these enemies dont have stories like that?

well i mean obviously we can because they arent programmed to unlike plot relevant characters but thats kind of my point, the violence becomes so abstracted until they want to judge the important characters for being murderers or being murdered and only a few get to be important.

idk i mean what kind of brought this up for me was a scene in the episode i just finished. like i ask if joel was that brutal because he literally tortured a guy and as a viewer that was really effective for me? like these guys werent innocent but neither is joel what gives either of them to do this to each other you know? and i feel if that scene was in the game i would have heard about that?

i say that because like does anyone remember the controversy over gta5 having a very violent (and i believe interactive?) torture scene that was very similar to this scene. and people were pissed a scene like that was in a game because it wasnt the abstract violence people are used to in games with those faceless enemies you dont care about stopping you on the way to your next quest it was some guy who was up close and personal and suffering because of you as the player doing this to him this wasnt a funny corpse ragdolling when you hit them with your car this was a person the game wanted you to think of as a person for once and that was what made people uncomfortable

#hi hello is this thing on #anyways pretty good episode it really got to me

[alicemichelle297]

"Infected" and ready to mingle - The Last of Us episode 2 recap

"Infected" opens with a fungus expert in Jakarta being called in to examine an infected human. The scene reads as a medical horror, and the doctor is just as freaked out by it as we are. I think it's good HBO keep reinforcing the semi-realistic nature of this infection, especially since fungus is such a unique take on the zombie "virus."

However, the scene ends with her medical opinion being to bomb the city, which no doctor would ever recommend. I can believe in fungus zombies for the next hour, but the single line "bomb" was too much for me.

Later on, Tess mentions that the government was trying to "slow the spread" by bombing the major cities like that's a totally normal thought to have. It also didn't seem to work very well, but that's neither here nor there.

When we left off last week, Tess and Joel had just learned that Ellie was infected by not turning. They obviously want to keep her at arms-length until they know more, but Ellie is lucky they didn't just abandon or kill her when they found out. Better safe than sorry, when it comes to zombie infections.

Bella Ramsey continues to do a great job as Ellie. Her version brings a certain tone-deafness to their whole situation whether it's goofing off at the hotel pretending to check in when there could be infected just around the corner, or making her best impression of a zombie just after Joel threatens to shoot her "if she so much as twitches."

Joel absolutely doesn't want to be involved in this, but Tess is more practical. Do the job, even if her cure is bogus. Both of them gradually start to warm to Ellie throughout the episode, whether they want to or not.

As the group moves through Boston, we obviously get the impression Tess and Joel have made this run many times before as smugglers. They have a route they prefer to take and communicate in short hand to get around. Ellie is just as lost as we are, but she follows them because she obviously has no other options right now.

As the show adds more things to the lore that weren't in the games, I've been falling more in love with it. Seeing a group of infected laying the shade and rolling over in unison as the sunlight came over them was so satisfying to watch. And learning that they're connected by strands of fungus running underground adds an element of horror to every encounter from now on: any infected could also be a tripwire connected to a larger group.

I don't remember this part of the game very well, but I get the impression we're seeing more than we did last time.

Again, going to Tess and Joel's experience, they recognize a Clicker's handiwork just from the bites it left behind on a dead man Ellie finds. Infuriatingly, the group decides to continue through a building that they have good reason to suspect has at least one Clicker in it, and they barely tell Ellie what's going on aside from "be quiet."

When the Clickers came on screen, the suspense was killing me. The whole minutes of silence in the dark culminating in a horrifyingly convincing depiction of a video game enemy I have been dreading seeing for the past 10 years. I have to wonder how much was prosthetics and how much was CGI, but either way the effect was too convincing.

At the end of the day, Tess ends up being bitten and she becomes frantic to get Ellie to the Fireflies to find the cure, even though we know she can't have more than a few hours left.

When the massive horde we saw earlier gets triggered, Tess hatches a plan to sacrifice herself by blowing up the building with some barrels of gasoline and a lighter while Joel and Ellie escape.

The low-point of this episode is definitely its ending, wherein Tess seems to struggle to use a zippo lighter and almost lets the infected get by to kill Joel and Ellie, only succeeding after one of the infected approaches her for the most disturbing French kiss I have ever seen.

I know this isn't the point, but it does not take 100 tries to flick a lighter no matter how stressed you are. Maybe if she was visibly shaking from the infection taking root it would have been more understandable. I have no idea why HBO decided to inject some sexual energy into Tess' death scene, but here we are.

#the last of us #the last of recaps

[dritamango]

War of beach cheats

WAR OF BEACH CHEATS FREE

WAR OF BEACH CHEATS WINDOWS

WAR OF BEACH CHEATS WINDOWS

Unlock the help room at the end of wave 3 and open the mystery box grab the gun then kill all of the zombies (it's easier on two player) when you do it on two player one guard the door and the other guards the windows behind the door guarder. Me and my friend found out that when you first start out grab the kar98k on the wall next to the last window on the right (the gun is on the left of the window)only aim for the heads of the zombies to get more points or money. Zombie) Then since the zombie is crawling it willīe slow so go rebuild the windows, refill ammo,Īnd whatever else you need to do. Leave oneĬrawling zombie alive (make sure it is the last If you want to goīack to the mystery box throw a bomb then all the Note: It would really help if you had a back up Outside and the guy with the machine gun guards If one of you gets a flamethrowerĪnd the other gets a machine gun (best if it is aĬhopper) then spend about 7 more rounds in that You can get the mystery gun then you guard the Player takes turns guarding each other so one of Go to the door with help on it open it then each Should be enough time for 3000 dollars each. Last at least 5 rounds in the first room, that On nazi zombies (2 players) when you first start, Location: Before you get to the theater, some of your allies will break through a door to your right. Location: The card is in the closed-off subway entrance across the street from the start of the mission. Mission: Heart of the Reich (Six of Clubs) : Location: Clear all four mortar pits, then go to the small shack in the south of this area. Mission: Breaking Point (Three of Diamonds) : A Japanese soldier hanging upside down is near the card. Location: Go to the left as you move toward the second bunker. Mission: Blowtorch & Corkscrew (Ten of Clubs) : Location: During the first half of the mission, just after the kitchen area, you will eventually see a room to your right that has a large hole in it. The card is in the far bottom left corner. Location: Enter the asylum, the immediately go to the left. Mission: Ring of Steel (Jack of Spades) : Location: At the end of the mission, take either the left or right path. Location: Just before the second mortar position is a bunker to the left. Mission: Burn 'em Out (Queen of Hearts) : Search the stalls to your right to find the card. Location: Destroy the tanks, and go through the barn. Mission: Their Land, Their Blood (Joker) : Follow the bar around to the end to find the card. Location: After the sniper section at the first part of the mission, Reznov will lead you through a building. The card is to the right when you go into the room with the stairs. Enter the building, and go into the lower level. Location: About halfway through the mission you will see a big building with a mini-trench outside. Location: At the end of the mission before going into the last building, look to the right. Mission: Little Resistance (Four of Clubs) : If you don't want to use this feature, please disable in-app purchases in your device's settings.Location: At the very beginning after leaving the shack, you will see another shack to the right. However, some game items can also be purchased for real money.

WAR OF BEACH CHEATS FREE

PLEASE NOTE! Boom Beach is completely free to play. The fight becomes a race to harness the ancient powers hidden on the islands. Fight for every beachhead, free enslaved islanders and explore the uncharted archipelago. Take your expeditionary force to beautiful paradise islands invaded by the enemy. Storm the beach and win the day! Boom Beach is a combat strategy game where you fight an epic war against the evil Blackguard.

#War of beach cheats

[helliontherapscallion]

New Enemies, New Alliances (Sweet Betrayal Part 4)

Part 1     Part 2     Part 3

Spotify Playlist (collaborative)

Warnings: Swearing, graphic description of injuries/death, violence, grief, blood, manipulation

Word count: 3,661 

(A/N): Things are starting to get spicy, folks!

“Nice job today, I think you’d actually put up a fight in battle now,” Dream grabbed your hand and helped you up. You basked in the compliment, they were few and far between. Now, if you didn’t pass one of the Badlanders by accident, Dream and Lucius were the only ones to recognize your work. 

You brushed off your training clothes and smiled to yourself when you saw Lucius move to pat you on the back before stopping himself. He’s been around for a month now and he still isn’t used to not being able to touch anyone. You remembered that when he was alive, physical touch was his love language. It must be killing him to not touch anybody. 

“Yeah! I’d hate to be on the other side of your sword, homie!” You have no clue why he started to call you ‘homie’, he hated that word when he was alive. Faintly, you supposed that he must’ve learned it sometime between after he died and when he was looking for you as a ghost. 

“Thanks, guys,” you fiddled with the handle of your sword before swinging it over to rest on your shoulder. The walk home was filled with Lucius and Dream exchanging terrible puns, much to your exasperation. Out of all the things he could’ve kept in his personality after he died, it just had to be his love for puns. 

As the days passed and the war’s climax drew closer and closer, stress was increasing in the White House. Schlatt had become far more paranoid of traitors in the midst of the remaining cabinet, and truth be told you were also growing more paranoid. It was like you and Schlatt were the only ones completely loyal to Manberg anymore. 

Lucius had increasingly grown worried for your well being, always trying to push you to go to bed early and urging you to distance yourself from Schlatt. In your opinion Lucius was insane for even suggesting the latter, Schlatt was everything to you. Without him, you’d be nothing. 

“I really don’t-”

“Lucius, drop it,” you hissed out, rubbing your forehead and returning to your work. You needed to get this paperwork done as soon as you could, otherwise Schlatt would have your ass. 

“I’m not going to ‘drop it’, (y/n). You need a break! All of this,” he swung his arms around to gesture at your office, “isn’t you.” 

“You don’t understand, Lucius,” you bitterly chuckled and threw your quill down onto your desk. The ink that was on the tip splattered over the desk, staining the birch wood black. “This,” you gestured towards the office and walked over to the window. Lucius followed you and looked out at the city. You clasped your hands behind your back and smiled fondly at the sight of the endless buildings. “This is me.” 

“I know you, you aren’t this- this brutal or bloody insane!” Lucius tried to put his hands on your shoulders but stopped himself, settling for crossing them across his chest. “You’re caring, funny, ambitious, and most importantly agreeable! Now, if someone even slightly crosses you, your first thought is revenge.” 

“That person was a coward through and through. Aren’t you happy that I’m finally standing up for myself?” 

“Standing up for yourself? Standing up for yourself? You get stepped on constantly by that ram asshole that you call a father, you call that standing up for yourself?” 

You spun around to face him, looking down at his face with a harsh glare, “you have no right to bring Schlatt up, he’s done everything for me while you were just galavanting around the SMP doing Ender knows what! He’s the one that took me in. He’s the one that cared for me. He’s the one who made me who I am today. He’s the one that made me less of a coward.”

“Are you serious? He’s the one that completely fucked up your life! When was the last time he’s said anything that bordered on nice to you? When was the last time he said he loves you? I just want the best for you, (y/n),” he ran a hand through his hair and looked up at you in desperation and frustration. “You wouldn’t be this mentally unstable or this disfigured if you would’ve just stayed away from him like I told you to do when I was alive.” 

“You clearly don’t know what’s best for me if you’re too blind to know that Schlatt changed me for the better,” you scoffed to yourself. “That person left the second I killed you.”

You watched as his already pale skin blanched impossibly and his eyes widened in horror. “You- you what?” 

So he doesn’t remember his own death? How interesting. 

“You don’t remember? You were my first kill, I can still remember the crunching sound your skull made and how warm the blood that splattered on my face was when I drove that pickaxe through your forehead. The power I felt after I came to terms with the fact that I just took someone’s life? Exhilarating.” 

You smirked down at his terrified face, taking great pleasure in the fear he felt. He took several steps back from you, almost tripping when his heel caught the edge of the carpet. Grinning, you followed him until he was pressing himself up against the wall. You leaned down close to his ear and whispered, “I’ve never felt anything like it before. You were my first friend and my first kill, kudos to you.” 

He ducked out of your presence with haste and distanced himself from you, his chest heaving with panicked breaths. He stuttered out a response, “do you even regret it?” 

Regret was something you always pushed deep into your subconscious, “regret is for losers, winners own up to everything they do,” Schlatt’s voice echoed in your mind. You didn’t like thinking about your regrets, however the delicious fearful tone that shook Lucius’ voice was too alluring to ignore. He deserved every single ounce of the fear that racked his body, the argument that had raged on previously still filling you with anger. You’d humor him for now.

You certainly regretted it when you first killed him prior to losing your first life, if losing your first life is anything to go by. You hadn’t even done it on purpose; it was simply a freak accident in an abandoned mineshaft. You didn’t know that when you and Lucius discovered it that you’d leave without him. You could remember exactly what happened that day.

“Luci, wait up!” You pushed yourself to run faster into the cave, chasing the short teenager. He threw his head back and laughed, “catch me if you can!” 

You grinned happily to yourself, “I’ll catch you faster than you can say a damn pun!” 

You followed him deeper and deeper into the cave, passing different assortments of ores and jumping over crevices along the way. The carefree laughter that bounced off from the stone walls mingling with the slapping of both of your leather boots against the floor. 

Despite the sharp twists and turns, you managed to stay hot on his trail. Eventually, he led you deep into a mineshaft. That was where you couldn’t keep up with him anymore. By the time you followed him around a corner, he was nowhere to be seen. You slowly came to a stop and looked around at the dark hallways. This had to be the largest mineshaft you’d ever seen, it was seemingly endless with a labyrinth of twisting halls. You looked behind you only to be met with even more dark halls. You couldn’t even remember where you came from, everything in here looked the same. 

In the distance, you heard the hissing of cave spiders and the pitter pattering of their multitude of feet on stone. You swallowed nervously and took out your pickaxe, mentally scolding yourself for not thinking to bring your sword. Every single sound made you jump out of your skin and press yourself up against the wall, preparing yourself to swing at any movement. 

Eventually, you gathered the courage to start to wander the maze of hallways. You gripped the handle of your iron pickaxe in a vice grip, ready to kill any mob that would potentially sneak up on you. 

“Luci, please come out. I’m starting to get scared.” 

You paused to strain your ears for any potential reply, only to sigh to yourself when you heard nothing but cave spider sounds and the faroff dripping of water. With a steadying breath, you ventured further into the mineshaft. 

As you passed a hallway, you saw sudden movement from the corner of your eye. Squeezing your eyes shut with a small yelp, you spun around, raised your pickaxe, and swung it down with all your might. 

In an instant, you heard a sharp gasp. When you felt your pickaxe make contact with something, a sickening combination of a crunching and squelching noise accompanied the feeling of something warm splatter across your face. You peeked your eyes open to see what mob had attacked you. 

Instead of a zombie or… or whatever your mind was expecting to see, Lucius stood there looking at you with his eyes bulging and his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water. Your hands left the pickaxe and flew up to your mouth as you stepped back in horror at what you’ve done. As soon as you dropped the pickaxe, Lucius’s body dropped with it. He fell to the stone ground limply with a thud, landing on his side with his arms and legs awkwardly sprawled out. 

You stood frozen as you watched his body start to convulse before falling still completely after what seemed like hours. Nothing but the roaring of blood in your ears and the obnoxiously loud thumping of your heart in your throat was heard. You finally snapped out of your trance when you saw his body still and started to dissolve in glowing golden dust. 

“No, nonononono what the fuck did I just do?!” You dropped to your knees next to his body, feeling icy dread as you saw the telltale sign of death floating from his body. Gritting your teeth, you pressed your hands over his limp arm where the majority of the dust was coming from in a desperate attempt to potentially save him. He was already losing his warmth, you could feel him rapidly cooling under your hands. To your terror, the dust merely slipped through the cracks of your fingers. 

Strangled sobs left your mouth as you removed your hands and dragged his upper body onto your lap. You lifted him up and hugged him as tight as you could, once again pressing your hands over the glowing gold, trying and failing to keep his body in one piece. You hated how he was slowly lightning as his body was dissolving. 

“I’m sorry,” you repeated to him like a mantra. “I’m so fucking sorry Luci, come back.” 

Just before he fully left you, you buried your face into the crook of his neck, praying to whatever gods were above that he’d just wake up and laugh loudly. 

“You should’ve seen your face,” he’d tease you, “I really got you good this time, didn’t I?” 

He’d then realize just how terrified you were, and he’d then hold you close to him while humming your song over and over. He’d tell you, “turn that frown upside down! You’re never fully dressed without a smile.” He’d put his pointer fingers on the corners of your lips and lift it into a smile, telling you to “fake it til you make it” and that “your smile is your best asset to use against someone.” 

You’d ask him in a bout of confusion, “but then you’d be vulnerable! Isn’t it better to just… hide it all?”

He’d give you that dazzling smile of his and gently tap your nose with a finger, “hiding everything behind a smile is better than being a husk of a person. I know there’s a constant happiness deep down in you, I’ve seen it and it’s absolutely beautiful. C’mon,” he’d start to jab your sides lightly, “give me a smile!”

You’d shove his hands away from you with a small, genuine smile. He’d then haul you up to your feet and lead you out of the mines, pulling you behind him as he ranted constantly about what he had planned for you both for the day with his signature blinding smile. 

But that didn’t happen.

Soon enough, you were holding nothing in your tight grasp and your face was hovering midair with something coming to rest in your lap. As you pried your eyes open and saw the bloodied pickaxe that laid in your lap and the blood that covered your clothes and slicked your hands, a guttural scream ripped itself from your throat. You’ve never screamed so loudly or so intensely; you were unsure if the copper you tasted in the back of your throat was from your fried vocal cords or from Lucius. 

You stayed in that spot crying until you couldn’t anymore. The full reality of the situation hit you as you finally found your way out of the cave after days of wandering. Not knowing where else you could go, you stumbled to Schlatt and Quackity’s house. 

The second Quackity opened the door and saw you sobbing and splattered with blood looking like you haven’t eaten or drank anything in days, he immediately took you into their household and sat you on the edge of the bathtub. He was the one that cleaned the blood off from your face with a warm washcloth and held you to his chest after you cried out when the feeling of the warm water was too similar to the blood that had splattered your face days before. 

Schlatt had been the one to coax you to eat something after you had passed out in Quackity’s arms, whether due to lack of sleep or nourishment, you didn’t know. Alongside that, he was the first one you talked to about a couple of days into your stay with them. 

Though you never told them what happened to your late best friend and what you did to him, they fully supported you and slowly nursed you back to the point where you could keep yourself alive without their constant aid. Whenever you’d have nightmares of the incident, Schlatt would be quick to make you realize that you were in their guest bedroom and not deep inside of a mineshaft while Quackity would stay by your side throughout the night softly humming small tunes. 

Though everything came crashing down when Philza showed up at their door one day and drugged you home, your time with them solidified your suspicions that you could be loved. 

You blunk, the scene of the blood spattered stone being replaced with your office and the very boy you accidentally killed cowering in the far corner of your room. He was staring at you like you were a starving lion and he was a cornered gazelle, watching your every move vigilantly. You couldn’t blame him, he was in the same room with his murderer after all.

“...I didn’t mean to kill you; I was terrified at the time, I couldn’t believe that I killed my best friend. Hell, I even killed myself because of the guilt.” 

Though a brief flash of sadness reflected across his face, he hadn’t budged from his place with his eyes still trained on you, “t-the past doesn’t matter. Do you regret it now?”

You once again paused, the question of ‘do you regret it’ circulating your mind once more. If Lucius hadn’t died that day, you wouldn’t be the person you were today; you’d still be getting stepped on by everyone. You’d still be a coward, a spineless nobody. You wouldn’t be happy. 

Though you hated yourself for even thinking about this, you questioned if you were truly happy here. You had everything you’ve ever wanted here: the power that you craved, a surefire means of getting your revenge, and living with the person that had constantly supported you. You couldn’t explain it, but it felt like something was missing. Yes, you’ve felt like that your entire life, but lately it felt like a massive, evergrowing void from deep within your core was swallowing everything within you. Maybe Lucius was right. Maybe-

“Why are you hesitating?!” Your eyes snapped to Lucius, surprised at his outburst. Now instead of the petrified look on his face just moments before, a spiteful one replaced it. “Why the fuck are you hesitating?” 

“Lucius-” 

A bitter chuckle interrupted you, “the fact that you’re hesitating tells me everything I need to know. I really thought the real you was somewhere deep within you, but you were right! This is the real you... You really are the monster everyone says you are.” 

Before you could say anything, he fazed through the door leaving you standing in the middle of your desolate office. It felt like a spike was driven through your heart, you never would’ve expected Lucius to say anything like that. Not Lucius, never Lucius.

The pleasure that coursed through your veins previously during the argument had long since fleeted and been replaced with something you vowed to never feel again: regret. Disgust hit you full force as you remembered the delight and satisfaction that filled you at the sight of his fear. Your first and closest friend that stuck with you through thick and thin, his utter fear gave you pleasure. You really were a monster, weren’t you?

A knock sounded at your door, making you jump out of your skin. 

“(Y/n), it’s time for our session.” Dream’s voice sounded through the thick doors. You sighed and looked at your suit, you weren’t even dressed properly. 

“I’m not ready yet, I will be in about five minutes.” Your tone wavered slightly, making you hope that Dream wouldn’t comment on it.

“Is everything alright? I’m coming in.” 

The door opened to reveal Dream wearing his usual lime green hoodie and his signature smiling mask. His curls bounced as he made his way over to you and examined your face. 

“You look like shit,” he mused, “you know, you don’t need that ghost. He’s just been holding you back this entire time.” 

“Well,” you crossed your arms and looked off to the side, “he isn’t in the picture anymore.” 

He was silent for a moment before he walked over to your couch and sat down haphazardly, gesturing for you to do the same. When you did, he hummed, “you know, Lucius isn’t the only one holding you back from your full potential.”

“Who is then?” 

“Schlatt.” 

Schlatt’s name sent ice through your veins, your fingers growing numb and your throat drying up. 

Just as you opened your mouth to object, Dream raised a finger to silence you. “He can’t even run his own country that he claims to be so proud of. In fact, he’s making you do all his dirty work while he gets drunk off his ass, not even recognizing you for your work. Everything you’ll ever do, even if you half ass it, is always going to surpass him at his best... He’s going to fire you soon, you know.”

You felt truly helpless in that moment, “what? He needs me, he-”

“As soon as the war ends, he’s just going to toss you aside just like everyone else in your life has. Just like Philza has, and now just like Quackity, the Badlanders, and Lucius has. But…” 

He turned his head towards you and tilted it slightly. You hesitated before clearing your throat, “but what?” 

“I can help you. I won’t throw you out like you’re a piece of garbage; I’m not a brain dead idiot like they are. I see your potential, and you’re going to absolutely thrive if you accept my help.” 

You narrowed your eyes at him, “...what’s the catch?” 

“Ever the vigilant one; so wary of the world at such a young age, so smart,” he chuckled to himself. “What you have to do is simple, not even a moron like Schlatt could fuck it up. I’ll do all the work here, all you have to do is pledge your undying loyalty to me. Of course, you could stay here,” he released a long sigh, “and waste your potential while simultaneously inevitably getting abandoned, or you could break the cycle by working with me and reaching your full potential; I’ll never abandon you like they all did. Are you in?” 

He stuck his hand out towards you and held it in the air, waiting for you to seal the deal. You stared at it as you contemplated his offer. 

Though the thought of Schlatt throwing you out crushed your heart, you wouldn’t be lying if you said you expected him to do so sooner or later. With his ever growing dependence on alcohol, his judgement has grown increasingly more clouded. The furthest corner of your mind acknowledged that he was going to abandon you sooner or later as the abuse got worse, but your conscious mind refused to even think about him not being in your life. 

Maybe it was time to turn a new leaf, Dream had said that you hadn’t reached your full potential yet and everything here was holding you back. You trusted him, he had proved to be a good mentor and a good person during your training sessions. He proved to genuinely care about you. 

“Well, are you in or not? I’d hate to see such potential get wasted because someone is stuck in the past.” 

You slapped your hand into his and shook it firmly, “I’m in.” 

His mask lifted up slightly as he smiled underneath it. He shook your hand and matched your firmness, “excellent.”

General taglist (comment if you want to be added):

@crybabyjabby  @izzybobizzy13  @goldenstarofthunderclan  @bunnyz-pxstel  @averytiredfanfictionwriter  @dcml04  @sparkling-gayyyy  @bbigbbrainn  @thaticecreambish  @kiinokochii  @satansphatass  @bxkubitch @bxmentchildxx  @roxy3457  @montygator17  @feverish-dove  @the-fictionwriters-hairdo  @jichuuchaeng  @404rynnotfound @luluwinchester  @laura--444  @the-cult-classic-bitch  @youngstarfishdinosaur  @nottheotheruser  @ohworm-writes  @localwolfanon  @realitycanbeajerk  @v10dw4lk3r  @esylwen  @seraphsema  @boiled-onionrings  @smolgreenybeany  @louistommosnesquickmilk  @galaxios  @ryxjxnnx  @autumnpleaves  @ravennightingaleandavatempus  @0ton1n  @self-righteous-dumbass  @a-simp-for-block-people  @fortunatelylazystranger  @m1lkmandan  @mirios-sunflower  @ahmya-4  @shinipii  @noyasblush  @auroraskyfall  @cryptocry  @hee-hee-haw  @blackstar-gazer​

Gender neutral reader:

@totem-awooga  @parkeepingparker  @whatislifebutlemons

Sweet Betrayal:

@zefrenchturtle  @smolgreenybeany  @wouldyoulikesomepollen  @savleftus  @bonkaloid  @prickypearpropaganda  @marceline1212  @simp-of-newyork  @wasteofspacze  @mossanon  @hee-hee-haw  @keiarma  @expir3d-m1lk  @seraphsema  @aiyncel  @louistommosnesquickmilk  @xx-smiley-xx  @maelstromania  @miloisagoodboy  @boiciph3r  @izuruamme  @sticksdoesart  

#jschlatt x reader #quackity x reader #dream x reader #dream smp x reader #mcyt x reader #tw: swearing #tw: blood #tw: manipulation #tw: grief #tw: death #tw: injury #tw: violence #sweet betrayal

[tippenfunkaport]

SPOP Catradora ZOMBIES AU

I have been haunted by this idea since September but there is no way I am going to have time to write it so I am unleashing this AU idea into the world, free to a good home.

Yes, we are talking about Zombies (sometimes written as Z-O-M-B-I-E-S the cheese-tastic 2018 Disney Channel movie). Quick recap if you've never seen the movie, it's a high school love story between a "zom" aka zombie and a "pom" aka cheerleader. Zombies face a lot of prejudice but are being allowed to attend regular high school for the first time this year. They have a kind of hulk mode that gives them super strength but they lose control without their (easily hacked for plot purposes) wrist bands. Meanwhile, the cheerleaders represent the status quo and see the zombies as a threat to normalcy. There are also werewolves that come in later movies we could add if we wanted.

(And, yes, I'm aware that the way I'm casting this makes the prejudice / racism metaphor weird but I would argue the metaphor was already weird considering the two main leads of the movie are white so...)

Here's how we cast it...

Adora as Zed. She just wants to live a normal life but is cursed with super strength she cannot control and the prejudice of being a zombie in a world that still thinks they are nothing but monsters. She's become an unwilling symbol of hope, assimilation and the model zombie but all she really wants is a normal life hanging out with her girlfriend and playing on the football team. In time she comes to realize that she can control her powers without the wrist band.

Catra as Addison. Her mother, the mayor (Shadow Weaver), is pushing her towards a picture perfect life and a spot on the cheerleading team, but she's not sure if that's what she wants, especially because the spotlight makes it harder to hide her terrible secret: she was actually born a cat girl with cat ears and a tail that she hides with a wig and creative tailoring. Falling for a zombie is only going to put more attention on her and make it more likely people will learn that she's not as perfect as her mother likes to pretend she is!

Bow as Bucky. Listen villain cheerleader Bow is hilarious to me, let me have this. Plus this makes him Catra's cousin so we get those good platonic Bowtra family vibes! He is the star cheerleader on the school's championship squad who wants the zombies out of the school and will do whatever it takes to get rid of them (he justifies this as being for the good of the school and everyone's safety but that's just because he doesn't want to admit this his motives are mostly selfish and he resents the attention the zombies get because it takes away from him and his team). We combine his arcs from both movies and let him come around midway so he's not quite as terrible as in the movies. His evil minions on the cheerleading squad are Double Trouble, Mermista and Sea Hawk (aka Lacey, Tracey and Stacey, you decide who is who).

Glimmer is Eliza. She's tiny. She's angry. She WILL try to blow up an entire occupied building if it means helping her people. Now, you and I know that there is no Eliza / Bucky romance in the movie but here's how the Glimbows can still win: we do it anyway. Picture it: enemies to lovers Glimbow, opposite sides of a culture war, first they are trying to kill each other, then they are hate smooching and then they are overcoming their differences and smooching for real. A proper redemption arch for Bow!Bucky instead of whatever half-ass thing the movie did? Come on, it could be so good!

Scorpia is Bree, Catra's best friend, who doesn't think she has the right "look" to be a cheerleader (come on, this fits so well) and Perfuma is Bonzo, the sensitive zombie poet who wins her heart.

(Because Eliza is also the tech girl we could split her character and give the wrist band hacking part of her storyline to Entrapta if we want to include her too. Alternately, she can be a techie allied with the cheerleaders since Catra and Scorpia are already on that side for Super Pal Trio vibes.)

Zed!Adora's family is made up of Mara in Zevon's parental role and Razz as Zoey, her sweet, lovable zombie grandma who just wants to get a dog and name it Loo-Kee.

Hordak is Shadow Weaver's brother who is the head of the zombie patrol. Castaspella and Huntara are the principal and football coach. (Yes, this makes Casta a prejudiced nightmare, sorry Casta, there are only so many roles.) For the purposes of this bit, Casta has to either not be related to Glimmer or she is but was never turned into a zombie and is prejudiced against her own kind I guess?

If I were writing this, I'd fold in stuff from the second movie too so Lonnie is Willa (but she's the one with sexual tension with Addision!Catra instead of Wyatt), Frosta is Wynter (I mean...), and Wyatt is Rogelio. Kyle is... also there? I don't have a part for Spinnerella and Netossa, sorry gals, maybe you are background citizens of the town? We save Prime and the gang for the alien movie part whenever that comes out.

Anyway, think about it, it works incredibly well with everyone's canon storylines and could be a lot of fun! Forbidden love Catradora! Enemies to lovers Glimbow! The evil trio of Seamista and DT, taking people down with the power of bitchiness and cutting remarks! Scorpia being an adorable bean who just wants to be a flier while Perfuma is a hippie zombie who just thinks she's the greatest! Everyone has lots to do plot wise so it's good ensemble fun!!

Free idea to a good home!!

#zombies #z o m b i e s #catraodra #spop #shera #she ra #glimbow #seamista #adora #catra #au idea #free idea #glimmer #someone write this please #it would give me such joy #bow #scorfuma #zeddison

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed Episode 11 second part

(Masterpost) (Other Canary Absurdity) 

Warning: Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!

Message from the Lan Clan

After dinner the Yunmeng bros go to talk to Jiang Fengmian in his study. They're quiet and respectful here, with no shoulder-shoving or arguing. This scene has such Brady Bunch energy, where Dad's Study is the Man Place where boys come to talk about Serious Things.

The boys tell Dad Jiang about the Yin Iron and he says yeah, I know. This is probably why he let them run off on their road trip without punishing them, but he could have, like, shared data with them so they might have actually achieved something related to the Yin Iron, rather than just wandering around the countryside bonding with Lan Wangji and Nie Huaisang.

He shows them a letter from the Lans that basically says the Lan Clan is in the shit, and he tells them they've got to go to the Wen indoctrination because otherwise they will also be in the shit. 

He gives the boys a warning about the Yin Iron, which is that 

1. it can be refined and 

2. if you refine it carefully, it will not control you. 

Awesome tip, will definitely use, thanks pop.

(more behind the cut)

Jiang Cheng wants to argue about going to the Wen party, but Wei Wuxian vocally gets on board, not leaving any opportunity for whining. 

Wei Wuxian is only sucking up a little bit in this scene. He obviously has a lot of affection for Jiang Fengmian, but WWX doesn't play up to his favoritism nearly as much as he could. Compare, for example, how he leans into Yanli's preferential treatment of him.  

Fight Outside the Cold Cave

Over on the Gusu side of the country province township, the disciples have gathered outside the cold cave that previously none of them knew about, and Su She is freaking out. 

Most of the acting in The Untamed is naturalistic, but then there are occasional characters who are portrayed with a much more theatrical, broad style. Su She's villainy is not given a lot of layers; he's playing a type, more than a person.

Many of the villains in The Untamed are played this way, but not all. Wen Zhuliu, for example, is a genuinely horrifying bad guy while also conveying depth and ambivalence--despite having hardly any lines. And JGY is a masterpiece of a performance. For Su She, the directors or the actor have opted for "sniveling backstabber" as a type, which is unfortunate, because it robs his final scenes of emotional impact.

Lan Qiren tells the disciples to get to safety. He rushes forward, gamely getting his ass kicked by human cuisinart Wen Xu.  He's not as effective a warrior as either of his nephews but he's a brave S.O.B.

Hanguang Jun to the Rescue

Before things can go completely pear-shaped, Lan Wangji sails in with his guqin.

The Blue Steel technique of the Lan Clan

Like many gifted learners, Lan Wangji's musical abilities are more advanced than his social skills. Here he musically makes the ground literally explode, almost as if it had been specially rigged with incendiary charges.  

Lan Wangji is very pretty when he's worried, and his affection and concern for his uncle is touching. He's 100% not interested, as we will see, in Lan Qiren's whole "lets all die for the future of the Lan Clan while my nephews hide" agenda. He's on his own agenda of smiting the wicked and protecting the weak.

Notice how Su She is standing right next to Lan Qiren here, even holding his arm? The next thing that Lan Qiren says is to tell all the disciples to keep up as they run into the cave. Somehow Su She totally does not keep up, and he gets caught outside along with a bunch of other disciples.

Giving Up

Wen Xu and his men kill most of the other caught disciples, and then threaten Su She, asking him how to get into the cave. In fear for his life, he tells them. Not cool, Su She, but possibly forgivable. Although when you voluntarily join a, you know, battle cult, physical courage is kind of an important qualifier.

But this shit here...

They didn't fucking ask about the books, douchebag.  

Su She was there in Lan Qiren's house when the two heads of his clan knelt to each other, each claiming the right to be the one to stay behind and die. And he heard Lan Qiren say that the ancient books are the foundation of the clan and that only if LXC and the books survive, will the clan continue. By giving up both men, and pointing out the book situation, Su She has totally earned his expulsion. 

Lan Wangji Takes a Stand

Lan Wangji decides, for the first but not last time, to openly defy his uncle...and it's got nothing to do with Wei Wuxian. Lan Wangji is a hero, who follows the dictates of his conscience. His conscience is extremely filial and extremely orthodox, but he’s got a growing open-minded streak.  This is going to cause a whole lot of conflicts for him over the next few years.

This time, however, he manages to skate out from under the whole disobedient, unfilial thing by citing Lan Yi's directive, which means Lan Qiren has to accept it because she's his predecessor and elder relative (She is probably not a literal ancestor, since she spent her life in a cave putting fucking headbands on fucking rabbits which probably didn’t leave time for having babies).

This is a pretty extraordinary moment for Lan Wangji and for Lan Qiren, because Lan Wangji just asserted his own form of authority to do the exact opposite of what Lan Qiren wanted, and Lan Qiren just sucked it up and let him.

It's also very different from western stories involving a holy McGuffin such as the Yin Iron. Lan Wangji's solution of "fuck it, just let the bad guys have it, it's not worth so many people dying for" is refreshing and surprising to me, a westerner raised on The One Ring, the Grail, the Death Star Plans, etc.

Lan Wangji steps out of the cave and uses a sword blast to save Su She, the ungrateful bastard, from getting stabbed by Wen Xu. Then he surrenders, and they break his leg to slow him down. This does not actually incapacitate him, because he is Lan Fucking Wangji, already a BAMF at like 17 years old. When they whack his leg, his chunk of Yin Iron falls out onto the ground.

That thing was in a magic bag of holding before. So...it just falls out when you whack him? If they whack him again will his guqin fall on the ground? What about candy?

Archery Practice at Lotus Pier

Meanwhile, back at Lotus Pier, the brothers are enjoying some quality time together before they head to the hostage-taking indoctrination.

Wei Wuxian is such a great cultivator that he can hit a distant target even when he jerks his bow upwards as he releases the arrow.

Jiang Cheng seems fairly pleased, and proud of his brother. He's competitive and fundamentally grumpy but not, at least here, a sore loser.

Club Ruohan

We go over to Da Club, where Wen Ruohan is yelling at Wen Qing for letting Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian go. He names them both, so they're becoming more and more known to their enemies. Which is not a good thing.

He menaces her with the zombie mosh crew, having them kill a dude in front of her and then saying her baby brother will be next in the circle of zombies if she tries any more stunts. Neither of them can imagine how much zombie ass her baby brother is going to kick, later in his (un)life.

Side note: What is up with WRH’s hair? Why bother pulling your hair up over your ears if you're going to leave an enormous curtain of it over your face? It's because he knows there's a wind machine next to his throne, isn’t it?

Leaving Lotus Pier

Jiang Cheng: when I ran off earlier in the year on my road trip you didn't pack a goddamn thing.

Wen Indoctrination

Is it even possible to stand next to this much active volcanic shit and not, uh, die? I live in the tornado part of the US so I don't know much about lava (yet. 2020 still has 2 months to go). But it seems like it would be hard to breathe the air. Also they appear to build houses on lava piles, which seems imprudent.  I say that even as someone who plays The Elder Scrolls Online, which is full of lava towns and nonsense like “ash farming.”

Nie Huaisang is adorable at all times, but particularly here, when he's so happy to see his friend who *didn't* fuck his gege and then abandon him without an explanation. 

Nie Huaisang: I'm so glad I can count on Wei-Xiong to be consistent and not vanish for months, or become a traumatized shell of his former self, or, like, horribly die.

Jin Zixuan isn't quite as happy to see Wei Wuxian.

Wen Chao enjoys the sound of his own voice way too much, and is malevolent and boring. On the plus side, he likes to stand with his hand stuck out in the air, which is fun for your resident photoshopper.

Nie Huaisang is so miserable every time he's holding a sword, or blade, or whichever we're supposed to call this. He's got his fan tucked into his belt, which is sweet. He is happy to give up his sword but don't you dare try to take his fan.

Meanwhile Wei Wuxian is worried about Lan Wangji, and Jiang Cheng isn't.

Lan Wangji shows up under guard, and takes his position at the front of the line, but without any extra disciples. The Wens let him change into snowy white robes after breaking his leg which will go well with arterial blood spray. He's focused and is determined not to interact with Wei Wuxian in this public context.

When I was little, I would sit near my best friend at church on Sunday, but not be allowed to talk to her until church was over, and it was exactly like this. She was good at churching and I was hyper and hated church. We are still best friends and these things are still true.

This interaction is like a thumbnail for the whole dynamic of these three boys: Lan Wangji outwardly ignoring Wei Wuxian while having many interior feelings about him; Wei Wuxian demanding attention and creating a bit of a scene, due to his very genuine caring; Jiang Cheng telling him to leave that boy alone for fuck's sake.

Lan Wangji: Stop trying to talk to me Wei Ying, I’m busy composing a song in my head about the two of us and our love for each other. 

#fytheuntamed #the untamed #the untamed gifs #the untamed meta #wei wuxian #lan wangji #jiang cheng #lan qiren #su she #jiang fengmian #restless rewatch the untamed #canary3d-original #my gifs #the untamed spoilers

[onesunofagun]

Undeath in the Era of the Hero of Time : 1

aka Seeing the Hero’s Shade in this TP replay shook up all my feelings of agony again and now I’m working backwards from there because I like to hurt myself.

Part One: An Overview of How Fucked Things Are ™

aka The Blood Soaked Hyrule of OoT’s time 

Take it as you will, in the Zeldaverse, the colour green has an overwhelming association with undeath. 

Sure, sure, life too, I hear you. Farore came down and produced all the living beings that would uphold the law, apparently (specifically not claiming monsters and demons, but that’s another thing). On the surface, that make sense. Forests, lush green fields, prosperity, all of those good things. Green the colour of the most common rupee, green the colour of the Hero’s tunic. Green the colour of magic, and potions that revitalise the body and spirit.

The thing is, revitalising the body and spirit is a flexible idea. To imbue something with new life and vitality can have a lot of implications, especially when you stop talking about the strictly living. 

I feel vitality is certainly the best word, not only because of it’s association with life and potency ala the Goddess origin stories, but in the ways that the game uses green itself, such as a measure of both magic and stamina. Green is the colour chosen to represent the unlocked potential within young Heroes. 

Vitality specifically refers to a state of being strong and active, and it also refers to the continuance of something to exist. That’s a great thing for plants, or economies, or a potion taken by a young Link who’s swung their sword around or fired off a spell one too many times and feels a little low.

But the dead, though?

As it happens, Hyrule is absolutely littered with human remains, in no small part due to the very recently ended civil wars. 

The Civil War, if you need the reminder, is described as a time when the many races of Hyrule were divided and each focused on establishing dominion over the Sacred Realm (because Triforce). I touched on this in my last meta post, but basically, its no holds barred to stop that from happening because if the wrong person gets into the Sacred Realm and makes a wish, it immediately malfunctions. 

The criteria for getting into the Sacred Realm and touching the Triforce without royally fucking everything, is basically impossible for anybody not chosen by Hylia. 

If you are neither of Hylia’s Bloodline (The Hyrulean Royal Family) or one of her Chosen Avatars (The current incarnation of the Hero), you are not supposed to touch the Triforce. Ever. You WILL be found wanting, it WILL shatter, the Sacred Realm WILL be corrupted by your selfish desires, it WILL unleash and onslaught of mystical influence (reflecting your heart) onto the country.

Now, if it’s Zelda or Link who touches it, that’s fine. Good vibes will pour out. An age of prosperity will ensue. The Sacred Realm is in its default state, a blank and neutral wellspring of magical force.

The game has been rigged from the get go because Hylia still had a job to do. She had to get creative because Demise almost captured the flag, so to speak, leading to the snafu of the Cycle and all that because she cheated at the game, but ultimately Hylia’s task was to guard the Triforce. And that still remains true, for the most part. The Hyrulian Royal Family (and the Shiekah by extension) had to stop at absolutely nothing to win the wars and unify the country, and retain the stasis of the Realm and Triforce, because that’s what their divine orders are.

That’s what they’re supposed to do, ‘the very reason that they’re born’, to lend a quote from King Daphnes. With Hylia on their side by default, they’re willing to do a lot of fucked up things to make sure that happens, ‘for the greater good’.

These dark times are a result of our deeds... -- TP Zelda

In OoT The Sheikah are known as the Shadow Folk. They are heavily associated with death, whether that is caring for the dead’s rest in the graveyard, or working as spies and assassins on behalf of the Royals, or dabbling in various forms of necromancy. Red eyes are an established trait of their people. I will note that, at least from a Japanese point of view, red is often used with the intention of intimidating evil spirits. But it is also a color identified with power and vitality.

So, one could suppose, the Sheikah red eye also symbolises power/control over evil and darkness (spiritually).

That’s a little something that plays nicely with things like the OoT Manga’s explanation of the tear on the eye (and the previous betrayal of the Royal family) and the high probability of a Shiekah faction defaulting during the wars and being banished with other traitors to become the Twili. I know the manga isn’t canon and also SS Impa has a tear, but if you squint, that might be because of her own feelings of personal failure to the Goddess after Hylia’s shedding of her Divinity. You could headcanon that. The existence of the Yiga later in BoTW as a similar happening of division and betrayal lend some more weight to things.

Also, Sheikah who defaulted during the civil war might have even been the ones who actually utilised the Shadow Temple. 

Headline: Necromancer ninjas in the process of torturing enough info out of the enemies of the Royal family, who were reportedly seeking the Sacred Realm, decide ‘hey fuck it, let’s take it ourselves’. 

That certainly fits into the description of, ‘interloper skilled with dark magic started to appear, seeking dominion of the Sacred Realm’, for me.

Anyway, to the point.

In ostensibly one of the most haunted areas of the game, Kakariko village, we’re treated to the Graveyard and the Royal Family’s Tomb, the Shadow Temple, and the Bottom of the Well. All of these showcase the obvious death and torture that went on, as well as the creepy byproducts of places so saturated with blood, pain, regret, and hatred.

There are skulls in little alcoves on the walls of the catacombs, literally built of bones, who deliver messages to Link. The ones that whisper these messages are all marked by the glowing green eye sockets. Here, the green is used to make the presence of a ghostly sentience inhabiting the skull. 

Unsettling. Musty. 4/10 heebie-jeebies.

The Deadhand, giver of childhood trauma that it is, really does its job to hammer home the fact that there has been so many deaths, so much anguish and horror, that those remains can seemingly form into entirely new monstrosities. An amalgamate of undead flesh and nightmare fuel, made up of the body parts of torture victims and the grudges of lingering spirits, seeking to consume the living vitality of whatever comes near-- Link wearing green around the thing might as well be red to a bull.

When defeated in game, it typically drops a small green pot that refuels Link’s magic.

This is a common theme with undead enemies, specifically the ones that are of the zombie flavour. Redeads, Gibdos, Deadhands. All of them generally give up, effectively, distilled magic as a drop item.

Terrifying. Probably smells even worse. 11/10 heebie-jeebies.

Literal torture device. So many people died here, the room has a green tinge to it. It is soaked in the spiritual imprint of the pain and anguish that took place here. Blood sits here looking freshly spilled, despite the civil war ending many years prior and the Shiekah having ‘died out’, save Impa.

Elsewhere in the temple and under the well, blood splatters are darker red and at least have the decency to pretend to be old. This means one of two things:

Impa still has to make sacrifices to the Seal that contains Bongo Bongo, or feeds people to the undead creatures who lurk down in the dark so they don’t wander up. (Cue the gasp of ‘so that’s why she let the Hylians into Kakariko! Every so often one of them goes missing!’)

Which is a fun dark headcanon to play with, but probably not the case.

Or more likely, the residual spiritual energy that the green haze suggests manifests fresh blood in a manner typical of extreme hauntings. For the victims, their hatred and pain persists so strongly, that their blood seeps up from the cracks no matter how long it has been.

Poltergeist shit. Slip hazard. 8/10 heebie-jeebies.

Then there is this. Some people say its just another torture thing, it could have been intended to convey some sort of acid dip. If not torture, maybe bodily disposal. And sure, that’s a reasonable guess. 

But it is at the very bottom most cavern of the Well of Three Features, and if it were acid-- for how long the bodies have just been marinating in it-- you can assume nothing would be left of them to stick out. And the fact that all the bodies are neatly spaced, with the arms oddly preserved. They’re presumably like that from lowering bodies in from the wooden beams, the victims may have been tied up with their arms straight upwards. 

But, given the Redeads wandering around nearby, I’m pretty sure that’s what this thing does. Make Redeads.

The liquid itself hurts Link, but Link is also alive, and this pool seems to be lacking much of a glow. It’s green, sure, but it’s not exactly teeming with energy. And I think that might be part of its designated purpose-- extracting that green vital energy from living prisoners, draining them until they’re dead. I’m talking juicing people and scooping out the good stuff like the pulp from a really disturbing OJ. 

But still steeped in the juice as a corpse, you’re basically pickled in magic brine, so then those gross husks crawl out as Redeads. (Hey, you know what’s handy in wartime? Scaring the shit out of enemy forces by sending some zombies at them. And if they kill them, you’ve lost nothing. If the Sheikah could actually control them? Undead soldiers. Excellent stuff.)

But all the pulpy good stuff is gone, and has been for a while, so most of the bodies in there haven’t pickled in enough magic to reanimate, I suppose.

Human juicer that churns out zombies. Out of juice currently. 6/10 heebie-jeebies.

Now, THIS is active zombie juice, if I’ve ever seen it.

This is the Royal Family’s Tomb, by the way. Note the skeletons, picked clean, missing a lot of bones. And that’s a choice they made, because there are also full skeletons around to find. 

There are plenty of Redeads down there, for good measure, so I’m going to assume the skeletons are potential graverobbers who were eaten. If Sheikah can presumably command the dead, then the Redeads down there might actually be a counter measure against thieves. If a thief freaks out in the dark when he realises there’s undead down there trying to eat their face, there is also a good likelihood they’ll trip and splash into this green death. A few seconds of exposure is probably enough to kill the average person, and then if their corpse stews for a bit, you have another Redead. 

Their living energy revitalises the goop. Their body becomes bolstered security measures. It’s a self sustaining system.

Horrific but effective. 5/10 heebie-jeebies.

Also, there’s a chance that a couple of the skeletons or one or two Redeads down there are the remains of the Composer Brothers. But they will get their own special part in this series, covering Poes in particular.

But for the moment, let it be noted: their eyes are also that ghostly green.

Poes are spirits that are unable to move on and who have the unfortunate fate, if left unattended, of turning into phantom monsters who forget their human selves and prey on the living. They tend to pop up the most in two places. One, the Kakariko Graveyard, is obvious and somewhat expected. Dead people, lots of lingering spirits, most of them probably Sheikah and Knights of renown who died in the line of duty. Understandable.

So when you apply the same thought to the fact that Hyrule field is the second most common place to find them, you may as well be concluding that it’s an enormous mass grave of war casualties.

We have established that mass quantities of concentrated death, especially earth that is saturated by the spilled blood of strong soldiers and highly skilled warriors (full of life and magic, as it were), can result in creepy shit made from human remains reanimating over time. 

Poes share their haunting of the field with these bumpkins:

These hauntings are not the result of Ganondorf, or the corruption of the Sacred realm. They are not a particular curse placed by anybody.

The Poes and Stalfolk are present in the game from the very beginning, and quite normal fare for Hyrulean life. Lon Lon ranch and castle town are walled off for good reason, and the drawbridge raises at night specifically in response to the literal skeleton monsters who roam around at night. 

Stalchildren, specifically, seem akin to the Deadhand in that they are not a direct reanimation of any one particular set of remains. Rather, they seem to be mutated amalgamations of various parts. In the case of the Stalchildren, they rise up under the dark of night, a not-quite-human formation of bone and magic. They seem to possess an aimless drive to attack, perhaps possessed still by the orders of the soldiers who died there. 

Interestingly, in a somewhat similar fashion to BotW’s blood moon reanimating the fallen monsters (due to the potency of Malice in the land peaking at those times), Stalchildren only seem to be active under the moonlight. They disintegrate when the sunlight touches them, which promotes the idea that they are the bones of the fallen possessed by the ghostly memory of the war.

They also appear to wear raggy leather kilts, which is a feature they share with the related monster, the Stalfos, who are often acting out the part of a soldier as well. Even better, those bastards are actually WEARING GREEN, to boot, which given the history of Hyrulean Knights prior and their uniforms (SS and Minish cap) is pretty self evident. 

Stalfos, however, are also confirmed as humans who have died under certain unique circumstance (such as the magical influences of the Lost Woods) and reanimated as a consequence of what I assume is basically magic poisoning.

It could be a bit like an overdose, succumbing under the intense mystical forces at play within proximity to the Deku Tree (which the strong of spirit can resist). It could be a draining effect, maybe even just a gaseous version of what’s happening when people come into contact with the green goo, except extracted by the forest spirits and plants (also possible that the strong of spirit might resist). That could go either way.

The forest absolutely does eat people’s spiritual energy, though. RIP to Grog and Link’s mother. They’re Stalfos now.

"Anybody who comes into the forest will be lost. Everybody will become a Stalfos. Everybody, Stalfos."

Upon killing both kind of Stal, however, the bones rapidly deteriorate into flames.

You guessed it: green.

I’ve already pointed out a BoTW reference already, but to add more context back into this thing about the tie between green and things in Hyrule that refuse to die properly:

That last one is cheap of me I’m sorry but we’ll get to him too

So we have established that green has an overwhelming association with not only life, but states of undeath.

The overview is, things were already pretty fucked in OoT Era before Ganondorf got the Triforce.

On to part 2!

#tloz #legend of zelda ocarina #Ocarina of time #link #zelda lore #zelda meta #zelda theory #zelda theories #zelda discussion #death tw #blood tw #shadow temple #shiekah #stalfos #poes #undead tw #long post #hero of time #hyrulean history

[fanfiction-funtime]

Self insert oc: Alexander Vodka

AKA: Eis Cay'zar

Author of fate

A writer from Schneznaya who was driven from his home for his anti-Tsaritsa paper.

_____________________

Physical description:

A chubby fellow in a 1950's style noir trenchcoat and hat, some would even say he looks like he jumped right out of a noir comic book and into reality. He has brown hair and green eyes, a cowboy mustache, and a pointed beard like some kind of comic book supervillain genius.

He often acts confidently and even a bit egotistical when in places he's recognized and famous in, however in newer places he often seems distant and shys away from almost all contact.

Noone knows where his vision is, but they know he has one because of the cold aura that surrounds him.

At night he'll often trade his outfit for one more reminiscent of demons or vampires.

_____________________

Abilities:

Weapon type: Catalyst

Basic attack-truth: uses his catalyst to shoot a short burst of up to 3 ice shards, can attack in fast succession.

"Truth hurts, especially in bursts"

Charged attack-Bifrost: Alexander quickly makes an ice clone behind the enemy and fires 6 shots, this can increase to 3 clones if charged enough(times: 1 for 1 second, 2 for 2 seconds, and 3 for 2.5 seconds)

"I hate crowds, best company has always been myself"

Elemental ability-ice wall: creates an aura of sheer cold around himself that will damage enemies the more they stay in it, and apply the normal sheer cold to them. Does not affect party.

"My therapist said I put up walls because of trauma, but I couldn't hear them through the wall I had just built"

Elemental burst-a story to be told: Alexander takes out his book and opens to a random page, then randomly summons ice sculptures of one of 8 beings:

"Aster": this summon looks like the flatwoods monster, it surrounds the party in a swirl of ice blades that deal 2X damage as the character for 10 seconds.

"Who needs brawn, when you got brain"

"Ultimate foe": a demonic, pointy being of shadow. Will independently deal 25000 damage to three random foes.

"Meet my penultimate friend"

"Beethoven": a sculpture reminiscent of a ww1 zombie general, calls down a barrage of ice bombs that deal 5000 damage to enemies hit for 7 seconds.

"Good scifi doesn't predict, it prevents"

"Sorrows Joy": an angelic, faceless, robot like humanoid that spawns 25 angel shaped traps that freeze enemies around the character.

"With any luck, you're the only real one I've made"

"Death rider and the magic prince": two statues, one of a mummy like Schneznayan mystic of ancient barbarian times and the other an elven cavalry knight from the myths of mondstadt. The knight gives the party a 45% boost to speed and attack while moving, and the Schneznayan gives +10% damage bonus to elemental skills and +55% damage bonus to Catalyst.

"Feel the wrath of honor long passed"

"Zero point and Lion queen": a knightly man of spiked armor and a golden ottoman warrior woman whose golden chain completely obscures her head. Your enemies become inflicted with pyro and you are surrounded by thorn bushes that deal continuous damage of 1000 for 10 seconds.

"Walk down the way on a moonlit day"

The traveler: a child in a red straight jacket, his binds become undone after 4 seconds at which point all enemies take 10,000 X Alexander's level of damage.

"I uh,wont have to pay any copyrights will I?"

"Giota": a child in pyjamas who looks ready to sleep, this summon is very rare. It fully restores all party members and gives a 200% boost to both defense and damage of your characters.

"This fella's been with me since I was a kid"

"If it is a soldier's duty to escape the confines of a prison, is it not every person's duty to escape reality if even for a moment? A wise man said that, pray that I may one day be like him."

Passive-part the wasteland: Alexander is immune to sheer elements, and Grant's 50% resistance when in the party to all members.

_____________________

Story

Abandoning a dream

As a kid, Alexander was always put down when he said he wanted to write fiction, "there's no money in it" they all said.

He couldn't get into any art schools without support so he focused his mind elsewhere, a place he could hopefully use his writing to do just as much good: the first newspaper in Schneznaya.

Horrible truth

He didn't start as a trouble maker, but the more he sought out the truth the more he couldn't stand back and watch. He published numerous papers about the Tsarista's wrongdoings and the crimes of the fatui, how they would harass merchants in other nations, the unfair taxes many shipping businesses had to keep quiet about, all the way up to the war crimes the Tsarista had done in direct contradiction to her own laws.

Sadly, not many believed him even with evidence, but some got his message.

Those who fight

One day Alexander was approached by a man who claimed to have formed a resistance against the fatui. Alexander had inspired many people to disrupt the organization, and have even begun working with those outside Schneznaya.

With their help he didn't just publish some crimes, he published them all, he even got information that turned the general public against the fatui even if just a little.

In a way h had achieved his dream of helping others with his writing, even if it wasn't how he wanted.

Stop the presses

When the Tsarista started her big move of taking gnosis, she brought the hammer down on dissent like a boulder on a ten year old's wrist. One day a squad of thirty fatui stormed Alexander's home and business to silence him, and while they shut down his business they couldn't catch him.

Alexander fled into the wastelands of ice and snow and wasn't seen for several weeks.

Deus ex Vodka

One day Alexander showed up in Inazuma, a nation that had been oppressed for some time now and had recently reached it's height, yet no resistance had formed.

That was until Alexander came along.

Alexander published numerous books, spreading them throughout Inazuma. All of them spoke of freedom, of bravery, of rising up to achieve your ambitions.

And with those stories he inspired countless to take up arms, and in turn inspired countless to join the resistance.

And with mere fiction he had brought about hope,

And with mere fiction he shall do it again, in every form, and in every nation.

Vision: cold hearted

While wondering the waste Alexander fell down and looked to the skies.

He did not ask celestia why, he did not grieve or blame that he did not do more, instead Alexander did something he hadn't done in a long time:

He imagined.

And after he imagined he took out his notebook and wrote. In the freezing cold for seventeen days he wrote stories of hope and freedom.

For seventeen days the cold did not so much as cause him to flinch as he wrote tales of bravery.

For seventeen days Alexander Vodka lived how he wanted to live.

And at the end, he lied down to die.

Then a light shown, and when he opened his eyes to look he saw that the storm parted around him, and in his hand was an ice blue gem.

But Alexander was too paranoid from years of abuse from his peers as a child to wear it loosely, and far to extra to just get a lock. So instead Alexander shouted to celestia "if I shall have this Vision for my art, then it shall not kill me no matter what I do!"

He then shoved the vision into his heart and fell down.

Before he could bleed out however, a woman appeared.

"Hey Tsari, how ya doin." Alexander said as blood poured out his mouth.

"You dramatic fool," the Tsarista sighed as she put a hand on his chest, "you have my element, do you know how bad it'll look for me if you die by shoving your vision into your heart?"

"Why do you care? We hate eachother, in case you forgot."

The archon sighed, "you're just rebelling against what you see as unjust, just as I am. To be honest I feel a sort of rivalry with you, so it'd be a shame if you just died. Also," she painfully shoved the vision all the way in, painfully, "if your going to die it better be because of me, got it?"

Then Alexander sat up, and the god was gone. Along with the hole in his chest.

"Rival of a god eh?" He sat up, putting his gat back on his head, "I like the sound of that."

_____________________

How is this an insert?

Well his story can't be the exact same as mine, so I took my life and goals and made predictions, then fictionalized those predictions and expanded.

His appearance is pretty close to how I'll likely look based on my current appearance, and his dramatic attitude is exactly how I wanna act.

Him being shy in new places with strangers is me exactly as I am now really, however I do believe I'd act confidently if I were famous so he does as well.

Him being Catalyst is because I'm not athletic at all, and I figured a dps Catalyst would be cool. His main ability and resistance/immunity to sheer cold is based on how I wrap up in warm blankets when it's cold, and his ultimate is made up of characters I've made.

_____________________

Tagging: @genshin-obsessed, @golden-wingseos, @storytravelled, and @love-psxlm

#genshin #genshin impact #genshin oc

[scruffypegasus]

Xander Smith and Dereta

Human version of XenoPone Scout and his daemon Dereta

Human Au Known as Xander Smith and his Daemon Dereta (Cheetah) from South Africa, he was a confident, friendly and easy going scout, who liked helping out the new rookie scouts, but hated sitting still for any long periods of time, he always needed to be doing something. Or he'll start getting fidgety, and run laps inside the base if he hasn't been given a task to do....also he's also a little Claustrophobic. When things get a little too much for him, he'll go out for long runs with his Daemon to settle his nerves or to cool off his anger. His 'Day Job' is working at the post office, delivering mail and secret messages under the guise of a mail carrier.  Xander generally worked well with his teammates and his general fighting style was hit and run tactic's, doing his best to run circles around his enemies, sadly though he's not great with taking hit's and will go down easily if cornered. And unfortunately that is what happened when he was attacked by Frank Seaver  (Fatal Ink) who ambushed him when he was trying to escape from 'seeing something he wasn't suppose to' Xander was not killed, badly beaten and captured by the 'Magisterium' he was interrogated and then went through terrible brainwashing to make him one of them, he is now a shell of his former self, though his Daemon still seems to hold onto the last threads of who they were, so when encountering previous allies she'll briefly break free of the control blurting something useful out to her former teammates before returning to being silent. His Teammates really hope that they can one day rescue him and try and reverse the brainwashing.   Clone Au

He and his Daemon are not a Clone of the 'Current' Scout, They are actually Clone of the previous Scout before him (Not Classic Scout, their have been many mercenaries hired by Red and Blue over the year's, and they have couple of different mercenary teams....anyway while other mercenaries may have died a part of them is still in the (CLASSIFIED) and some times a rare respawn failure ends up bringing one of these guys back. Which is what happened with these two. Though the side effect to this is that while they are 'back' they have no memories of who they are or what their doing here(Memories will recover over time), but still have the skills they were hired for. Xander Scout and Dereta were confused on what was happening and got captured by Blue Team (The team he replaced the Scout of) but they didn't get far with trying to pry information from him before (Classified) came in and took Xander Scout back to their secret base where he was going to be 'Studied'. After much research and deciding they could manipulate and use the amnesiac Xander and Dereta, they re-recruited them and were having them work around the base when the 'Freaks' broke containment, during the chaos Xander and Dereta ended up getting knocked out by an unknown attacker. When they regained consciousness they found themselves in a strange cage, a metal barrier keeping them apart as they started trying to figure out how to get out a terrifying voice got there attention Dr.SO was there, with a warped Daemon and a strange ancient looking object in his hands. A never ending smirk on his face as he approach another machine that seems to have cables and wires attached to the the cage they were in, opening up a chamber in the machine removing a strange crystal from is and throwing it to the side and replacing it with the thing in his hands, closing the the chamber and turning to his prisoner's. "Welcome to your new lives!" he says gleefully before turning on the machine. Xander and Dereta can't remember much of the transformation as the pain was too much to bare, they where only saved from the torture when the power from the machine overloaded and caused a blackout but the change done to them had already been too much. Xander now finds his mind seems to fades and becomes zombie like if Dereta goes too far from him, something she can do now. She's much stronger and can do things that were impossible before, like travel further from her partner, but if she's away too long she'll start going feral. The two are much more clingy to each other now since the 'experiment' trying to hold onto what little of their humanity they have left.  Xander and Dereta are currently 'On the Run' from the Scream Fortress Crew and (CLASSIFIED) having used the new found strength and other abilities making escape from the facility easy, but both finding the world they knew is no longer the same and a much more dangerous place to live, having to hide from strange machines that will shoot at them on site (though they seem to do this to any human they come across so it's not just because of their appearance), the two now mostly travel at night gathering what supply's they can, and and hope to find one day a place that are willing to take in the two mutants.

#TF2/HDM Crossover #TF2/HDM #XenoPone Scout #cheetah #alien #mutant #scout #Scream Fortress #screamfortress #TF2 #Team Fortress 2 #teamfortress2 #Xander Smith #Dereta

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #120: Nitocris

Today on Fate and Phantasms we’re making Chaldea’s most historically dubious pharaoh, Neitiqe- I mean, Nitocris! Make ghosts, praise Horus (no not that one), and I guess you can drown your brother’s killers while we’re here.

Check out her build breakdown below the cut, or her character sheet over here!

Next: So that’s why the English don’t like the French...

Race and Background

Much like your Senpai (who’s... actually younger than you?) Ozymandias, you’re an Aasimar. However, thanks to H.P. Lovecraft and Lumley you’ve been forever associated with the underworld, making you a Fallen Aasimar. That doesn’t actually change anything at level one thanks to Tasha, so you get +1 Wisdom and +2 Constitution. You also get Darkvision, Celestial Resistance to necrotic and radiant damage, Healing Hands to literally slap people back to life, and the Light cantrip, because you can’t have shadows without a light source.

Like Ozzy, you’re a Noble, giving you proficiency with History and Persuasion. “Come to my new basement, it won’t kill you!” is a notoriously hard sell to people who aren’t winos.

Ability Scores

 Make your Wisdom as high as possible to be the best pharaoh you can be. After that is Dexterity, you’re clearly not wearing heavy armor here. Your Intelligence should be relatively high to help you figure out whodunit. You’re nice enough, but your timidity gets in the way of talking to people, so your Charisma is a little low. After that is Constitution, and then Strength. Casters are not known for hitting the gym.

Class Levels

1. Cleric 1: Again we’re kind of cheating here since you are a god, but hey, holy power is holy power. Holding on to the gate of the underworld puts you in solid running to become a Grave cleric, despite Horus’ general inclinations. This gives you a Circle of Mortality: healing creatures at 0 hp causes them to always get the maximum amount of healing, and you learn Spare the Dying as well. For you, it has a range of 30 feet and can be cast as a bonus action.

You also get the first of your eyes of Horus, the Eyes of the Grave. As an action you can detect undead within 60′ of you. You can use this a number of times per long rest equal to your Wisdom modifier.

Speaking of Wisdom, that’s what you use to cast and prepare spells. I’ve said this before, but casters have way more flexibility with their spell lists than most other servants, and as a Cleric you can change spells daily to fit the party. Take any spells mentioned here as a suggestion, not a mandatory part of the build.

For cantrips, Guidance gives you a pep talk from Ozymandias, Thaumaturgy allows you to announce your presence like a true pharaoh, and Toll the Dead is the first of many Necrotic damage dealers you’ll get. 

For first level spells, you get Bane and False Life for free, creating small spirits that hamper your foes and give you a bit of protection. You can also use Ceremony to perform some funeral rites, protecting new souls as the leave for the underworld, or Sanctuary. Creatures that fail their wisdom save (with a DC of 8 plus your proficiency plus your wisdom modifier) have to attack someone other than the target for up to a minute, or until they attack. Look, I’m just trying to make the whole “no armor” thing you’ve got going on not a terrible decision. Please put on some leather at least.

You also get proficiency in Wisdom and Charisma saves, as well as Religion and Insight. You’re literally a god, it should come naturally to you.

2. Cleric 2: Second level clerics can Channel Divinity once per short rest. You can either Turn Undead, forcing those who fail a wisdom save to run away from you until they take damage, or show an enemy a Path to the Grave. As an action, you curse a creature. The next time they get hit by an attack from you or one of your allies, they have vulnerability to all damage taken by that attack. Fans of our older content may remember this as That Thing That Made Sanson Terrifying from ages ago. It’ll definitely send some souls underground if your party has any rogues or paladins.

3. Cleric 3: Third level clerics don’t get new features, but third level Aasimar do! Your Necrotic Shroud lets you transform as an action, frightening creatures nearby if they fail a charisma save (DC based on your charisma, not wisdom). It lasts for 1 minute, during which you can deal extra necrotic damage equal to your level whenever you hit something with a spell or attack. You can use this once per long rest. Turns out ghost tornados are spooky, who knew?

That being said, you also get second level spells, like Gentle Repose and Ray of Enfeeblement from your domain. I’m not sure how well embalming plays with resurrection, but it’s probably fine, right? You also get some blessings from Horus, like Protection from Poison and Lesser Restoration. 

4. Druid 1: You didn’t think that bit in Ozymandias’ breakdown was just a joke, did you? As a druid, you can speak Druidic. You can also cast and prepare more spells, also using Wisdom. Since we’re mixing two full casters, just use your total level to find out how many slots you’ve got.

Shape Water and Create or Destroy Water will make drowning your enemies a bit easier. Infestation will make them suffer before they go. Fog Cloud can act like a bunch of ghosts in a pinch, obscuring you from your foes, and Cure Wounds is just a good spell to have. You probably should’ve been using it as a cleric, but being a druid opens up a lot of preparation slots.

5. Druid 2: At second level, druids get their circle. The Circle of Spores will let you use your Wild Shape in ways that are slightly less lore breaking, though again Egyptian gods did have that human/beast duality thing going, so using your action to transform into a beast of CR 1/2 or lower with no swimming or flying speed wouldn’t be the end of the world.

You get Chill Touch as a free cantrip for a ghostly hand that deals necrotic damage, prevents healing, and slows down other undead, giving them disadvantage to attack you. You also get a Halo of Spores, using your reaction to deal more necrotic damage to a creature that gets near you if it fails a constitution save. Mushrooms are kind of like ghosts, when you think about it. They’re the remains of the dead, they hang out in dark places, they can kill you without touching you... Finally, you can use your Symbiotic Entity instead of your wild shape, gaining temporary hp based on your druid level, doubling your halo of spores dice, and dealing extra necrotic damage with your weapon attacks. This lasts for ten minutes, until you lose those temporary hp, or you use wild shape again. Much like the circle of wildfire, you gotta turn into a bear before summoning ghosts if you want both effects.

6. Druid 3: Third level druids get second level spells, including the freebies Blindness/Deafness and Gentle Repose from your circle. Better get used to it, there’s a bit of overlap between the two subclasses. You can also cast Barkskin to make your armor situation less precarious, or Earthbind and Skywrite to show your mastery of the sky, grounding anyone who dares raise a wing against you.

7. Druid 4: At fourth level, druid can swim in their wild shape, and the beasts they can transform into include anything CR 1 or lower. You also (finally) get your first Ability Score Improvement, bumping up your Wisdom for better spellcasting and hitting things. That’s right, you can hit things with wisdom now, thanks to Shillelagh! It makes your staff extra powerful, lets you use wisdom instead of strength, and makes your attacks magic! All for the low low price of one cantrip.

8. Cleric 4: To make up for how long it took you to get your first ASI, you get two in a row now. Grab the Eldritch Adept feat to finally grab Armor of Shadows, letting you cast Mage Armor at will on yourself for free. You also get the cantrip Resistance for even more defense.

9. Cleric 5: At fifth level, your Turn Undead becomes Destroy Undead. Now any zombie of CR 1/2 or lower that fails its wisdom save is instantly destroyed!

You also get third level spells, like Vampiric Touch and Revivify for when you vampiric touch the wrong person. You can also Bestow Curses on the unworthy, Speak with Dead, or cover yourself in a Spirit Shroud to do even more necrotic damage with your attacks. It also slows down enemies that start their turn near you, and prevents them from healing when they take that necrotic damage.

10. Cleric 6: Sixth level grave clerics get a second channel divinity each short rest and become a Sentinel at Death’s Door. When a friendly creature would get hit by a critical hit, you can use your reaction to turn it into a normal hit instead, a number of times per long rest equal to your wisdom modifier. Only you get to abuse critical hits, that’s the pharaoh way.

11. Druid 5: Your druid spells catch up to your cleric spells now, also reaching the third level. For circle spells, Animate Dead gives you the start of your zombie army (just say they’re possessed, like they’ll be able to tell the difference) and Gaseous Form lets you get a little bit ghostly too. You can also Feign Death to prevent your party members from getting eaten by your army if you forget to keep them under control, or make a Tidal Wave. We’re definitely coming back for that spell for your summer form.

12. Druid 6: Sixth level spore druids can summon a mushroomy ghost to possess a corpse thanks to their Fungal Infestation. As a reaction, you can reanimate the corpse of a beast or humanoid that died within 10′ of you as a zombie with 1 hp. This one only lasts for an hour, but you can use the feature a number of times per long rest equal to your wisdom modifier.

13. Druid 7: Seventh level druids get fourth level spells, like Blight and Confusion. Normally you’d kill people with an excess of water rather than a lack of it, but hey, it’s more necrotic damage. You can also cast Conjure Minor Elementals to summon some freeform “ghosts”. I’d recommend either eight Steam Mephits for the aesthetics or four Summoner Dust Mephits for their flavor. You could also use Summon Elemental to get one big ghost air elemental spirit.

14. Druid 8: Eighth level druids lose all movement restrictions and can turn into beasts of CR 2 or lower, meaning you can finally take to the skies as an incarnation of Horus. You also get another ASI to max out your Wisdom. 

15. Druid 9: Ninth level druids get fifth level spells. You get Cloudkill and Contagion to spread the pharaoh’s curse to any who would disturb your resting place, whether that’s your tomb or your bedroom. People gotta knock first.

You can also Control Winds to ground other fliers, Reincarnate to continue your lineage (it won’t actually work on you specifically since you have to be alive to cast it, but just team up with Ozymandias and it’ll all work out.), and Conjure Elemental for more powerful ghosts. You can either cast it at fifth level for an Air Elemental, or upcast it to a sixth level slot for an Invisible Stalker. 

16. Cleric 7: You know the drill by now; you can now cast fourth level spells! Your domain spells are Blight (again) and Death Ward for a way to cast guts on a creature. You can also cast Control Water to drown your enemies even more, and prevent your party from joining them.

17. Cleric 8: Use your last ASI to bump up your Dexterity for some more AC. You also get another boost to your Destroy Undead, and it now destroys anything of CR 1 or lower. Be careful about using this around your zombie army.

You also get Potent Spellcasting, adding your wisdom modifier to your cleric cantrips’ damage.

18. Cleric 9: Your cleric spells catch up to your druid spells now, giving you Antilife Shell to protect you from anything other than your own army, and Raise Dead to bring the dead back the “right” way. You can also Hallow ground if you want, protecting an area from Celestials, Elementals, Fey, Fiends, and Undead. You uh... you might want to exclude some of those creature types if you want your ghosts to work right.

19. Cleric 10: Our last cleric level nets you the amazing Divine Intervention. Talk to your god for a free pass on whatever nonsense your party got you into this time. You have to get 10 or less on a d100, but it’s better than nothing. You can use this once per long rest, or after a week if you succeed. You can also cast Word of Radiance to mix things up. Not everything’s gotta be all doom and gloom you know.

20. Druid 10: Our capstone level gives you some Spreading Spores. As a bonus action while using Symbiotic Entity, you can send your ghosts away to guard a 10 foot cube for up to a minute. Creatures that move into the area takes halo damage if they fail a constitution save. You also can’t use the halo of spores reaction while they’re out and about, for obvious reasons.

If that wasn’t enough, you also unlock the awesome power of Druidcraft, the most powerful prognostication cantrip in the game. As long as you want to know the weather, druidcraft will never let you down.

Pros

Thanks to your split casting classes, you have a bunch of high level spell slots that you can’t do much with. That’s a good thing though, because it means you don’t miss out on much if you spend them building up your Undead Army. Assuming you save a sixth level slot for an invisible stalker, that still gives you 64 zombies or skeletons, plus five temporary zombies from Fungal Infestations. Nice. They aren’t tough, but you can cover a ton of ground with them, and that’s all before calling in any elementals.

Druids are tough, and spore druids especially so. Your HP isn’t amazing, but bolstering it with your own healing, plenty of temporary hp from your Symbiotic Entity, and destroying crits with Sentinel at Death’s Door means you can stay in the fight much longer than your health total would let on.

You also come packing with plenty of abilities to help damage dealing teammates. Like I said at the start, Path to the Grave can be terrifying if you can hand it off to a rogue or paladin, and you also have multiple options to prevent enemies from healing that damage back, making your dps’s job a lot easier.

Cons

Your Concentration isn’t that good, which wouldn’t be the end of the world if not for your tendency to get up close and personal to use spores. It’s especially bad if you’ve got an elemental out, because those don’t go away if you lose concentration, they’ll just try to kill you for an hour.

You use your reactions to stop crits, deal damage, and make zombies, and you won’t always know which one should you focus on at any given time. You only get one per round, but who knows when the next crit’s going to befall your squishy wizard?

Clerics and Spore druids both get powerful 20th level abilities. You get neither of those abilities, because you split the difference. You’re also stuck with fifth level spells. A massive zombie army is nice and intimidating, but it doesn’t make up for missing out on immortality.

#Nitocris #Fate Grand Order #FGO #D&D 5e #Fate and Phantasms #Cleric #Druid

[myth-lord]

Why don’t you just DIE! (already)

Sometimes when you kill an enemy it isn’t exactly the end of the fight, sometimes it is just the beginning!

These are all the monsters from my list/project that can metamorphic into a new form after you seem to have beaten them.

KHALKOTAUROI

First Form:

Much like a mechanical/golem-like bull made from metal, strange red fiery spiritual fire leaks from its cracks, eyes and nostrils.

Reborn Form:

After you destroy the mechanical body an full HP Aatxe spawns, this red bull spirit was trapped inside the metal shell and is more angry than before.

ALP-LUACHRA

First Form:

Like a very pulsing big human, almost bursting and very disgusting, intelligence isn’t in its eyes, it just wants to eat, instead of a tongue however an Olm/Amphibian-like creature bursts from its mouth, seemingly controlling the human host.

Reborn Form:

After killing the human host, the small Alp-Luachra bursts from the corpse and is forced to fight for itself, it tries to enter the bodies of your playable characters, so you better kill it fast.

MANANANGGAL

First Form:

Much like a female version of the Aswang, which are demon-possessed humans in my project, much like the creatures from the movie Evil Dead.

Reborn Form:

After you do enough damage to the Manananggal it will turn into a different form, it sprouts bat-like wings from its back and its torso rips itself free from the lower body, its intestines dangle beneath it and it can use these organs to attack enemies with.

Third Form:

Doing even more damage to this flying form will morph it into the final form, which is just a head with bat-like wings instead of ears, much like a more crazy and scary looking Chon-Chon (my other flying head which is unrelated to the Manananggal), in this final head-form the Manananggal is extremely desperate and it attacks with tentacles which dangle from its neck.

AWD GOGGIE

First Form:

Like a horrifying giant green caterpillar.

Reborn Form:

After you seemingly kill it, it will turn into a cocoon, and while you may think this will turn into a butterfly monster you are wrong, the Awd Goggie is loyal to its giant Caterpillar form and will become an bigger, more colorful red spiky caterpillar, it gains very different attacks and abilities in this new form. You can destroy the cocoon before it hatches, so the second form can be stopped, if not, it is a pretty tough enemy to fight!  

EINHERJAR

First Form:

Much like a bigger Berserker (wild humans bred for combat and war) with stronger armor and instead of two small axes like their Berserker brothers use, the Einherjar uses a giant axe.

Reborn Form:

Even after the death the Einherjar won’t stop fighting, it turns into a Draugr first, which is a zombie-fied version of the Einherjar, it behaves much like the Draugr-enemy, but it can’t re-spawn as a Draugr after being killed, as it has a third form as well.

Third Form:

Killing the zombie form of the Einherjar also doesn’t stop it from fighting, now it will turn into a powerful spirit and picks up his axe again to fight once more, instead of striking flesh and bones the Spiritual Einherjar targets and destroys the soul/spirit of its victims.

BINAYE AHANI

First Form:

These twin aberrations are also found as a duo, you can target each of the two twins separately.

Reborn Form:

The best way to deal with these monsters is trying to kill them both at the same time, as when you kill one of the twins first the second will go berserk and transforms into an even more abominable and powerful form, raging with anger and emotions after losing its other half, it gains some new lightning-based abilities in this new form.

BUBAK / TATTY BOGLE

First Form:

The first half of this monsters fight is mostly magical as it seems to be just a scarecrow hanging from the famous wooden crosses they are mostly found on in real life, in this form it just summons fear-magical attacks, illusions of your worst fears and supports the other enemies on the battlefield with its evil magical buffs.

Reborn Form:

After doing enough damage to a Bubak it will turn into a physical attacking enemy, it will jump from the wooden cross and now replaces the magical attacks for physical attacks, it’s attacks can still cause the fear-effects on your playable characters.

DJIEIEN / DEATH WEAVER

First Form:

While still alive, these macabre Lich-like spiders look pretty much like giant monstrous spiders, while they have undead features, they aren’t really undead, YET.

Reborn Form:

After being killed the Djieien’s own necromantic poison automatically reanimates its corpse into an undead, much like a lich, but instead of a human it is a giant spider. While alive the Djieien are already terrible horrors with abilities to create undead minions with their necromantic poison, but in their undead forms the creatures becomes even more powerful and harder to defeat, it can create mummy-like minions with its magical webs and only critical hits can fully destroy them.

FAFNIR / GREED DRAGON

First Form

: Vile but beautiful, that is the best way to describe these golden dragons of extreme greed. A Fafnir looks like wingless golden dragon surrounded by its own treasure and covered in precious jewels and legendary items of value.

Reborn Form:

Even after the death these dragons can’t part with their own treasures, their avarice-cursed spirits will possess their treasures and animate them into a living treasure heap. While not as powerful as the dragon itself, this form gives the Fafnir a second chance to defeat their foes and still being in control of their treasure.

GOBLIN / ELOKO

First Form:

At the start of the battle these green, envious, small humanoids start in a trio, standing on each other’s shoulders, the highest Goblin on top uses a ranged weapon to attack.

Reborn Form:

After some damage is done, one of the three goblins dies and they are now a duo, this changes their entire tactics and they use a new weapon together, they use a very long saw (used to saw through trees) together, they run through enemies both holding the saw on one side.

Third Form:

After receiving more damage the second Goblin also breaths out his last breath and joins the dead, leaving a single Goblin behind to fend for its pathetic existence, in this form the Goblin mostly tries to escape, leaving the players characters without the deserved exp, so you have to kill the Goblin before it escapes.

SPRIGGAN

First Form:

Spriggans are Goblins infected with fey-energy, this mostly happens to goblins that live in the fey forests or which have friendships with fey. They have blue skin instead of a green skin, but they are still pathetic like their goblin cousins, however when they become scared or angry they turn into their reborn form.

Reborn Form:

When angry or scared (in other words when their HP is almost depleted) these blue fey goblins increase in size and strength and become a giant version of their former self, pulsing with fey magic. Why the Spriggans gained this ability is unknown, though wizards think it has something to do with the goblins/and/spriggans envy for the size of bigger creatures, fey magic helped them in achieving this goal, though the progress of turning so large isn’t without pain and stress for the otherwise pathetic creatures. After their anger or stress has gone away the Spriggan will shrink in size again.

HEIKEGANI

First Form:

I’m still experimenting with this creature, but I think I have a start now: The first form of the Heikegani in my project is of a human-corpse which head is replaced with the body of these demonic crabs, the crabs replaced the victims head and ride the corpse like a rider would ride a horse. The reason the Heikegani are so obsessed with “wearing” human bodies is because the fact that humanoid hands can hold weapons, and Heikegani are addicted to fighting and weapons, mostly swords and katanas.

Reborn Form:

After you reduce all the Heikegani’s HP its mounted body will perish and the small crab-creature will have to fend for its own, it has some nasty painful attacks even in this form though, so it isn’t defenseless to say the least.

KERIT / CHEMOSIT

First Form:

While Kerits appear to be just Black Bears, the real creature is actually an alien parasite made up from only pink and purple tentacles, they thrive inside the bodies of bigger predators, in general most are found in bears, but big cats or wolves are also possible, some were even found in predatory fishes like sharks. Anyway, in my projects game-sprite the Kerit is always a Black Bear, just to make things less complicated. While they appear to be just black bears, three tentacles sprout from their maws, hungry for the brains of other creatures, as Kerit (the parasite) needs brains to stay intelligent and alive.

Reborn Form:

After enough damage is done to their bear-host the pink/purple tentacles burst from their fleshy-shell, the creature now appears like a messy undead bear with a LOT of tentacles coming out of its torn-off lower-maw and from its belly, the largest tentacles replaced the bears sluggish locomotion. In this new form the Kerit gains more psychic attacks, and it can hit multiple enemies at the same time.

LOU CARCOLH

First Form:

This giant horrifying snail still has its shell on its back during its first stage.

Reborn Form:

After doing enough damage, the shell will break and the entire slimy snail creature is visible, while it loses a lot of defense in this shell-less form, it gains speed, and its slime-like abilities become more powerful in this stage as well.

MOROI / VAMPIRE

First Form

: Much like a vampire from twilight (just kiddn), more like a vampire from Interview with the Vampire, a beautiful man/woman (my project has both these) holding some (blood) wine in a royal-looking glass, it is dressed in fine clothes and both the male and female Moroi look like noble and rich humans.

Reborn Form:

Doing enough damage to these undead however, will release their real forms, which are far less noble and pretty, more monstrous and hungry for the blood that was denied from them, you see, the Moroi needs blood on its skin regularly to stay this pretty and civilized, without blood it turns into the monstrous, bestial undead it was intended to be.

STRIGOI / NOSFERATU

First Form:

The parents of the Moroi, these look more like the Nosferatu (cool and actual-scary vampires for newbies) and they embrace their monstrous nature, they have the power to control the blood of themselves and others, this gives them their ability to control animals, mind-control and such as well.

Reborn Form:

While already monstrous and ugly in their first form, their true form is even more bestial, they sprout giant fleshy bat wings from their backs and their fangs grow even more out of proportion, their power over blood becomes also stronger in this form, as anger turns the Strigoi more powerful.

OTSO

First Form:

In this form they are just bears with a row of green hairs running along their backs, just a cool looking bear, while they don’t have any magical abilities in this form, nature seems to protect them and after every physical bear-attack the Otso makes, nature makes a move for it as well, this can be healing the Otso randomly, giving it more strength, or summoning plant-based creatures to aid it, the Otso has the intellect of a real bear, so it doesn’t even realizes it is being helped by higher spirits.

Reborn Form:

After you kill this beautiful bear creature however, nature will embrace the bear and merges its spirit and corpse with the plant matter around it, turning the Otso into a bear made from wood, plants and other natural material, now the bear doesn’t need nature anymore to fend for itself, as it became a force of nature, natures protector, natures soul warrior, it gains intellect of its own and many magical abilities involving plants and nature, while its first form is a BEAST, its new form is a PLANT.

POLONG / CARNAGE

First Form:

What seems to be just a bloody zombie is actually a horrible blood-parasite in a corpse shell. In this form the Polong is actually very weak, and its true form is far more dangerous.  

Reborn Form:

After you destroy its corpse-home, the Polong bursts out as an water elemental-like creature made from blood, the blood of murderers, thieves and other criminals to be exact. A creation of the vile Strigoi, these blood parasites gather more blood to grow larger and split into multiple Polongs after they absorbed too much of it. In this form its far more dangerous, it can harden its own bloody mass into red obsidian-like spikes to do some serious damage to its victims and enemies. The worst thing is that after another enemy or playable character dies the Polong can enter the corpse again and regenerate all its lost hitpoints, be sure to first kill the Polong and then any other creature on the battlefield.

POLTERGEIST

First Form:

These psychic spirits (also called Psychic Elementals) can enter and animate almost any tiny, small and medium object they encounter, I’m not so sure what object the Poltergeist in my project is found in, but it is probably some furniture like a chair or maybe cutlery.

Reborn Form:

After you destroy their inanimate shells the psychic spirit of a child burst out, it is a very vague humanoid spirit though, more like an insane mind of a child coming to life, it loses any physical attack it had in its object form, but gains powerful psychic abilities in return, if you keep it alive for multiple battle-rounds, it sometimes finds another object and becomes a physical attacker again.

DYBBUK

First Form:

While the Poltergeist is the psychic energy and soul of a paranormal child, the Dybbuk is the psychic energy of a demon, unlike the Poltergeist which can only possess inanimate objects, the more powerful Dybbuk can possess almost any living creature weaker than itself, it is hidden in random other enemies, and gives these monsters/creatures not only more HP but also powerful psychic abilities.

Reborn Form:

After you kill this other monsters the real Dybbuk bursts free, now losing any psychical attack it had and focusing entirely on its extremely powerful psychic abilities, it can also posses other monsters now, and if not protected by spells, your own heroes/characters can also be possessed if they are unlucky.  The Dybbuk’s real form is even more insane and disturbing than the Poltergeists form, much like a demonic mind gone wild.  

POLUDNICA / LADY MIDDAY

First Form:

In their first form these Nymphs of Light, sunrays and heat are still pretty, hiding their burned faces underneath their golden waving hair, almost appearing like Hesperids, the gentle nymphs of the sun or even muses.

Reborn Form:

After these ladies become angry and almost perish however, their real nature becomes apparent, their hair turns into solar-like fire, and now their burned faces become visible. Their already deadly scythes become even more deadly and become double-sided and they glow like the sun, an aura of heat becomes visible and everything around them catches flames, you really shouldn’t anger these ladies!  

RAIJU

First Form:

Being playful shapeshifters, the Raiju is mostly encountered as a tanuki/badger/small predator in the wilds, in their true form they aren’t as cuddly though.  

Reborn Form:

After being attacked a lot the Raiju sheds its fake form and turns into the lightning elemental it was born to be, just a wild mess of lightning and electricity without any form of its own. This Raiju isn’t as playful anymore as it is now angry that you hurt it, all it wanted to do is play with you, it didn’t know nor cared for its lightning hurting its playmates in the progress… These lightning elementals are very hard to hit and magic or magic enchanted weapons are needed to dispatch them once and for all, earth magic does great against them.

RAT KING

First Form:

Rat Kings are bizarre creatures, they appear to be just larger-than-usual rats with bright red eyes that collect swarms of non-intelligent rats around them to become a living swarm of rats (not bound by the tails though, like in the real folklore, I left that bit out of my version). All the rats in the swarm are controlled by the Rat King and they are more than willing to fight and die for their “King”.

Reborn Form:

After defeat is in range, the desperate little creature rapidly starts to devour all the death rats that made up its swarm, increasing the Rat Kings own size until it rivals the size of a bear, in this form I like to compare it to the Ugjuknarpak, a giant rat from Inuit myths. The rats that were still alive swarm all over the now giant Rat King like a living coat, functioning as a living armor of suicidal rodents.

RAUDKEMBINGUR / TROLUAL

First Form:

These red-painted monstrous whales make Moby Dick seem like a wussy, their biggest hobby is destroying ships which they use their entire mass upon, one of the biggest enemies in my project, the Raudkembingur in Mythica is like all the Evil Whales (they are all found in ABookOfCreatures) into one in my project, spare for the sharp-finned Sverdhvalur which most important feature (its sharp dorsal fin) I gave to the Japanese monster shark Isonade.

Reborn Form:

Sometimes when you defeat/kill a Raudkembingur it will turn into a Bakekujira/Ghost Whale, born from vengeance these ghostly skeletal whales never stop attacking and tracking their killers. Bakekujira are also found in the seas on their own in my project, but they can also spawn from killed Raudkembingur on the spot.

GASHADOKURO / BONE LORD

First Form:

A gigantic skeleton, nothing more, nothing less. They are created from the merged combined bones from the victims of starvation, a vile creation of the Horseman of Famine (Limos in my project)

Reborn Form:

After you defeat these giant skeletons, they will fall apart into a small army (5) of lesser skeletons (called Spartoi in my project).

STELLA

First Form:

These small Crown Of Thorns starfish monsters are burning with heat, in their first form they are red with almost red-hot spikes covering their bodies, Stella can control their own temperature and turn the water around them very hot.

Reborn Form:

After they are defeated however, their temperature and abilities changes to colder climates, they now can freeze the water around them and also the blood in their enemies bodies, their color changes to a beautiful blue with almost frozen spikes covering their entire starfish bodies.

SUCCARATH / SU

First Form:

See the artwork for what it looks like.

Reborn Form:

The Succarath doesn’t really change into a different form, it just spawns its children on the battlefield, and when you kill the Succarath while there is still a child alive, the soul of the Succarath will be transformed into its psychic child, morphing it instantly into the Succarath itself, you have to kill all the children first to really defeat this creature.

BOLOTNIK

First Form:

These fat, lazy and spoiled toad-humanoids sit on a mobile-throne which is carried at all times by four lesser Vodyanoi (frog-humanoids), the Bolotnik do all their magical attacks, which involve water, mud and quicksand, from their throne, using their magical muddy staff.

Reborn Form:

After you do enough damage, the poor four Vodyanoi slaves of the Bolotnik will perish and the mobile-throne will fall apart, so now the Bolotnik has to fight without it. It can still use magical attacks but also adds physical attacks to its list.

WENDIGO / WINDIGO

First Form:

The first form of the Wendigo has it hovering in the air, wearing the skull of a stag and mostly bestowing terrible magical curses of hunger and cannibalism on its victims/enemies and allies as well, which become more dangerous during the battle as they become more hungry for your flesh, it doesn’t attack physically at all during this stage.

Reborn Form:

After you do enough damage to the Wendigo its skull-mask breaks off and its true form becomes visible, the Wendigo falls from the sky and turns into a raging, hungry ghoul-like horror, instead of influencing others to become hungry it becomes gluttony incarnate itself, attacking with powerful claws and horrid overgrown teeth. You see, you can please both fans of the Wendigo at the same time! In my version it still wears the skull of a deer, but turns into a more accurate-to-the-real-myth version in its second form.

SLUAGH / WRAITH STORM

First Form:

Like a living swarm of spirits/wraiths, hovering together in an enormous tornado of souls and evil.

Reborn Form:

After you defeat the Sluagh, it turns into three ordinary Wraiths, the last three wraiths that survive, much like a spirit-version of the Gashadokuro turning into Spartoi Skeletons.

DRAUGR

First Form:

Draugr, in my project, look like veteran zombie warriors, arrows sticking from their bodies and into their eyes, daggers and swords are stuck in their undead flesh and it doesn’t seem to bother them at all, they only make great use of all these weapons and arrows inside them in their attacks and abilities.

Reborn Form:

The Draugr doesn’t change form at all, it just has the annoying ability to not stay dead for long, it has a 50% chance of resurrecting itself during the battle, and this can go on FOREVER if luck is on the Draugrs side, of course there is the option to just escape from battles.

@rtwork of Succarath and Heikegani = Paizo/Pathfinder

#Mythology #Folklore #Monsters #Fantasy