#the only people who can deal psychic damage to me are those I follow and I like the control of that

[felikatze]

give me the a brainworms i am deeply invested in this man

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okay first of all you asked for this. second of all if i am a little off track from the game that is explained by me just building thoughts like building blocks without looking back. third i was supposed to be studying for an exam but this counts as practice right? it's character analysis anyway lmao.

buckle the fuck up, my dearest anon, because I have sub headings.

1. A as the Player Character

Let me begin with why I am obsessed with this horrid little guy in the first place: he's a silent protagonist. I am always obsessed with protagonists. It's a law of nature. I love taking hollow characters and dissecting them for scraps. It's a long standing practice of mine.

Being a silent protagonist, A, as X, does not have a set personality. However, there are patterns. Firstly, as any semi-silent protagonist, A is a reactive character. He does not start incidents, he only responds to situations, presented by the Sephirah, as they arise. He does not actively seek out new information, merely going about the routine of expanding departments, but expresses curiosity when information is presented to him.

I'm aware fandom likes to characterize X and A differently, likely because they are initially presented as different characters. I, on the other hand, would like to pose the theory that they are more similar than expected.

I believe that A is also a reactive character, rather than active. Despite the fandom wiki describing him as stubborn, the goal A pursues with such fervor, the completion of the Seed of Light, is not actually a goal he set for himself. Carmen is the one who set this goal for him by leaving him her legacy.

Throughout the backstory we get relating to the Cogito Project, A is Carmen's assistant, whereas Carmen is the driving researcher. This is how many of the City's inhabitants seem to be; going with the flow of goals set for them by superiors. Yes I will get into his attachment to Carmen later.

The above is not to say A isn't stubborn. Once he has accepted a goal as his own, he will pursue it at all costs, as is obvious from any and all flashbacks leading to horrible deaths. But the point isn't his pursuit of the goal, but where that goal comes from. Even Lobcorp itself supports this, despite what Hokma may say; A as X follows the "simple" task of managing the Corp's day to day activities, and executes any mission given to him by the Sephirah. He outranks them, and doesn't actually need to do their missions, but does so anyway. Players are driven by the reward offered by those missions, of course, and A might be the same in that regard. Nonetheless, at no point in gameplay do you do anything somebody else hasn't told you to.

The overarching narrative of the Script would be the most obvious example. Every single person in the game follows the script, whether they know it or not.

Lastly on this note, a phrase we hear attributed to A, "Machines must behave as machines." Now, Angela may be attached to this phrase because it bears significance to herself as a machine, and informs most of A's unjust treatmeant of her. However, what if it doesn't just apply to machines? The phrase reads as such, "Everyone must act according to their own role."

2. A, Carmen, and the disease of the mind

So, A will at any cost pursue goals Carmen set for him. Question is, why? The obvious answer would be saying he's in love with her, which like, true. But also, how did Carmen come to be so precious to him?

Let us return to the comparison, "This is how many of the City's inhabitants seem to be." We don't really know why exactly most characters joined Carmen, excluding mainly Daniel and Benjamin. But this does not mean we can't have theories.

Carmen's ideal was curing the "disease of the mind." What is the disease? Complete hopelessness. The inability to form aspirations and dreams, to think of a better future. A is a very reactive character who does not set goals for himself. Therefore, I personally conclude, that initially, Carmen's ideology resonated with him because he could identify with the disease.

This is the point where I start rewatching Lobcorp story clips. Dear god.

So, by briefly binging day 27 onward, I've come up with lines that very much support this lil theory of mine:

First, from Carmen, a description of the disease, "People lock away their own potential."

Second, a line from Angela, after the memory synchronization, "You've locked yourself in this prison without bars."

Carmen describes A as humble, and Benjamin thinks he is warm. If I suppose A was one of the diseased initially, Carmen would be the catalyst for this change. Carmen was someone with big aspirations, with plans to heal what is wrong with the City, and it gave him hope. He was one of the diseased, but through time with Carmen, with that relentless optimistic spirit, he may have been cured, for a time. It's not a stretch to say that she was his light.

But lor shows us what happens when the seed of light sprouts wrong, doesn't it? It distorts. A grasped hope for the first time and then it is ruthlessly crushed. Carmen was everything. Yes, A is described as a jack-of-all-trades, as a genius in all pursuits he puts his mind to, but what does that matter in the face of someone who can unite people? Who can give them hope of a better world? Who can inspire them to actually use the talents they have?

And what kind of pressure is it to put the legacy of a messiah in the hands of the diseased?

3. A and the Perception Filter: A is weak to White damage

No, I am serious about that. He's extremely weak mentally. Obviously death of a loved one is a changing experience for absolutely anybody, but Carmen's death destroyed him.

Not only did he refuse to confide this grief to anyone and bottled it up, now everybody looked to him to lead the project, but he just isn't Carmen. He isn't an ambitious person, he doesn't have the same optimism, he can't bring people together, but people expected him to, and he failed. Hard.

While he was without a doubt talented in science, he was also just an average guy.

After her death, A grew to hate humans. He lost trust in them. He refused to confide in anyone, and be confided in by anyone. Thus, the team fell apart.

In both lobcorp and lor, we get interesting tidbits about precations taken to protect the manager.

Firstly, Lobcorp's perception filter. The cartoony art-style of the game is a result of the game being in first person. Through the eyes of the manager, everything is cartoony!

This is a measure undertaken to specifically protect the manager's psyche. Angela tells us that, before it was deployed, the manager would frequently go insane, one notable incident including the manager trying to hang himself. When we first hear this, the previous managers and X are still separate in our minds. However, they're all A! A went insane multiple times without it.

This is understandable, considering that employees also frequently go insane and try to kill both themselves and others. But they're there in action, confronting the Abnormalities directly. Just watching them made the manager go mad. They could not handle the responsibility for the employees' deaths.

In lor, Angela explains why she picked the Rabbit Team from R Corp as their main contractor instead of any other team. One team was simply too big for L Corp's narrow hallways, and the other team... dealt in psychic damage. It was simply too big of a risk for the manager. But the manager is always secure behind the cameras. Would that teams methods just be that brutal visually, or would their attacks have reached the manager?

Combined with his immense grief at all of his friends and coworkers dying in part because of him, A cannot bear to look at death.

4. A's greatest flaw: Avoidance

A common thread during Core Meltdown flashbacks: A refuses to look at suffering. He just can't. Whether it be looking away from Elijah writhing on the floor or hanging up on Daniel's panicked report of death.

This is actually the thing Angela takes the biggest issue with, and what hurt her most. A would never look at her, acknowledge her, and she did not understand why. But I think A did not refuse to look at her out of maliciousness. Rather, it was out of grief over Carmen. He could not look at her without being reminded of what he lost.

Angela's creation came about because A wanted someone to guide him, someone like Carmen. He threw himself into the project to the point it made Benjamin happy that A was passionate about anything again. But as soon as the project he distracted himself with is complete, he is filled with regret. Carmen cannot be replicated, and he breaks again.

Furthermore, tying this back to my first point about A being a reactive person, we see Angela take charge over A. She's the one recruiting employees and leading the business. It was likely a relief for him to be able to step down from the leading position.

But avoiding it made everything worse. He did not act when he saw Elijah's unchecked ambition, he did not act beyond a simple check at Gabriel's decay, he gave Giovanni the same hope he clung to to no avail, et cetera et cetera.

Avoiding his problems is making them worse and sending everything down the drain (including his psyche), so he deals with it the only way he knows how, avoiding them more!

Biggest example of A's big avoidance problem as his psyche crumbles: the memory wipe. A, in perhaps his one singular moment of acknowledging his emotions, recognizes that he is incapable of fulfilling the Script in his current state. His grief is just too much.

By erasing his own memory, he could start fresh without his grief, because he might've really killed himself otherwise. His suffering became bigger and bigger, and he coped by avoiding it.

The memory wipe allowed him to distangle his problems. Through his interactions with the Sephirah (which I will not individually detail for the sake of my sanity and because I dumped all this on a friend on discord already), he can deal with and actually process his issues one at a time.

As the motto describes, only by facing the fear can he build the future. Only by finally facing his grief and acknowleding it, seeing that the past cannot be changed and he has no choice to move forward, can he actually do so.

5. The Sephirah as ghosts

Lobotomy Corporation feels like a ghost story. I've touched upon this in my previous A post.

As you reach the Corp's lower levels, there are less Sephirah. First there are four. They act like normal employees, and do not breach into the story's underbelly until you reach their core supressions and the facade breaks. Second, counting Tiphereth as one, there are three. They still go about their duties, but they know what they are. Third, there are two, and the facade is gone. They know what they are, and they will tell you about the sins of the past.

And finally, you reach Keter, and there is only one.

This gradual decay of the facade is what really gets to me. I said that by interacting with the Sephirah, A deals with his issues one by one, but that's what the Sephirah are, in this case. Representations.

The people the Sephirah used to be are dead, and the Sephirah are their ghosts. The core supression involve putting these ghosts to rest. Doesn't it match the progression of a typical ghost story? Find the ghost, find what they used to be, and help them move on.

So, if everyone is a ghost, then A is alone.

But, behind the scenes, the Sephirah are still there. They are still people, and they have changed for the better, too. As always, A simply does not look.

(Does he even see the good others see in him? Does he look away from praise, too? Did he even realize Benjamin's admiration for him? Will we ever know?)

6. A's end.

A's progression of moving on would be fine and dandy if it did not end as thus: A does kill himself.

A sees himself beyond the point of no return. Everyone is dead. He is alone. Carmen is never coming back. He can't call it quits now, or else everything has been in vain. (Even if the last days show us a part of him wants to just quit, so badly.)

So, there's only one thing left to do: follow the Script to its ending. Fulfill Carmen's legacy at all costs. Death as the ultimate release.

This is the point where I admit I do not like the death as release trope. But the game does a good enough job as presenting it as the only option A had, or the only option he saw himself as having.

However, I've mentioned it before, I'll mention it again: A was not alone. Death was his release, but he left wreckage. In order to end his own suffering, he inflicted the same pain he went through on others.

Throughout the game, he moves on and pushes through. The ending shows that in reality... he didn't.

At least in lor the characters stick together and help each other heal.

This has been most of my thoughts on A, amounting to my longest analysis post ever, having taken me approximately two and a half hours to complete, and clocking in at 2337 words including up to this paragraph.

Thank you anon for giving me the incentive to verbalize all of this, so I can finally be at ease having inflicted my thoughts on everybody else.

#Feli gets asked #lobotomy corporation #ayin #library of ruina #also i saw apparently another fandom besides lc uses the ayin tag which is just fun to watch honestly #many characters could rival this word vomit probably but as i said i already inflicted most of my thoughts abt netz on my good pal borgor #thank you borgor for dragging me back into projmoon stuff. also curse you terribly #long post #Feli speaks

[utilitycaster]

Wizard Breakdown Tracker, #136

Yet again we have had an episode covering a remarkably short span of time - perhaps our shortest yet, as honestly this might have covered under an hour, in-world. So once again I cannot really vamp about what most of the NPC wizards are doing, because honestly I am pretty sure Eadwulf might have just been doing push-ups the entire span of this episode. So our eyes turn, pun intended, to the man of the hour, the drow trapped on an emotional rollercoaster only partially of his own making, Shadowhand Essek Thelyss, and pretty much everyone else can wait. Probably for a couple of weeks since I suspect next week will similarly not cover much time.

As a reminder, Caleb Widogast is a PC, not an NPC, and is also, currently, a sheep.

Currently sidelined: Allura, Pumat, Trönt, Astrid, Eadwulf, Ludinus, Oremid, Known Gem Wizard Hotsauce Lutefisk (this is still funny to me and I have learned that the audience one must cater to is always one's self), and the body of Vess Derogna which to be perfectly honest was probably unceremoniously dumped somewhere in Aeor, which is going to make this either way more awkward, or way less. That said the Mighty Nein's next task is "deal with Ikithon" so it's not like they're going to avoid murdering Assembly members.

Essek Thelyss: I observed that there were four major themes among the tags in my activity from this past episode:

I want to punch Lucien so much

I want the wizards to kiss so much

ha! tiny Veth on a sheep! the water elemental has titties!

In my opinion there is too much going on

These are all very correct opinions to hold and Essek is currently, if I may understate the situation, experiencing the last one. And also probably some variation of the first two. Probably not the third.

Within this one hour, at most, span, which I should note immediately follows his discovery that the Aeorians were excellent at dunamancy and did not appear to give a shit about the Luxon in the bargain, he has learned that Caleb and Beau have some abilities based on those eyes; that the cranky immortal weasel that sits on Jester's shoulder is actually her shapeshifted archfey god; that time travel specifically tailored to do the exact thing he wants to do is not only real but also seems to require the combination of his own expertise and the expertise of his potential love interest who also wants time travel for the same reasons; that Jester is fully aware of his flirting, thinks it's great, and got an answer from Caleb that he (Essek) is not privy too specifically thanks to eyeball powers; and that there are still a whole bunch of monsters after them although they might have all killed each other. He has taken 36 points of psychic damage, has been carried by a flying Caduceus, has been grappled by a water elemental, is probably sopping wet, and now he is in the Astral Sea and what's more he's probably going to be at the front of the pack, because he is a high-level wizard and Caleb is a sheep with intelligence 2 for the moment, unless Tiny Veth decides to bonus action dash*.

This is a lot, and I think the sheer nonstop nature of all of this has punched through the cheerful nihilism I predicted last week, and I am fairly sure the main thing getting him through this is that first, tis a far far better thing, better than he has ever done; and also he was right about the Luxon.

Conclusion: 9/10. I was going to say this is just a countdown to when Essek can finally scream into Caleb's shoulder for an unspecified amount of time but actually Essek seems like the kind of person to lie face down on the floor, also for an unspecified amount of time. Either way it is going to be well-earned.

Yussa Errenis: Again, I find it enjoyable to think that a tiny part of Yussa that cannot communicate meaningfully with Jester's sending or do anything really does still exist within the insanity, watching from the inside and psychically face-palming, which is rich coming from Mr. What does THIS button do. Anyway I hope a tiny surge of hope has arrived, as the party finally enters the astral plane and can hopefully do something.

Conclusion: I already made my Cantorian infinity joke very early on and while I can't vamp about the Dwendalian wizards I can about that, namely, did anyone else read the Number Devil? I think it was originally written in German but I read the English translated edition, and it was about like, basic number theory, geared towards kids, and honestly it was great. Anyway my point here is that there's a chapter towards the end where they go to Number Heaven, where the Number Devils live (the cosmology of the dreamscape in which the Number Devil resides is not really made clear) and they meet Georg Cantor, and he is very strange in a "I thought about infinity WAY too much" way, and now I am imagining the Somnovem as being kind of like Georg Cantor in a children's book from the 1990s about math. Anyway. Yussa is still off the charts but maybe we're a little closer to rescuing him.

*because this is the internet and some people are insufferable I am acknowledging here for posterity both that out-of-combat Astral Plane movement per the DMG p. 17 is not strictly subject to the walking speed = 3 x INT score, and that Beau could also bonus action dash if she wanted to use her limited ki points in the worst possible way, but I am trying to make a very sophisticated joke here, namely hahaha wizard smart sheep stupid Veth tiny.

#critical role #critical role spoilers #shadowgast #essek thelyss #yussa errenis #wizard breakdown tracker #you know what i'm going to just start tagging for characters there's no good reason not to other than my own laziness

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms Anniversary Special

Today on Fate and Phantasms we celebrate our 1 year anniversary! If it wasn't for all our fans we'd probably have given up ages ago, so we're going with a fan-picked character! (Don't worry if yours didn't get picked this time around, we'll hold onto them for another day)

Now we're building Romulus-Quirinus, the divine ancestor of Rome and King of Nation Building!

They're an Order Cleric to make civilization building easy, and an Astral Self Monk to make clearing the way even easier.

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

Next up: Fear leads to hanger. Hanger leads to hate. Hate leads to... pocky??

Race and Background

Despite ascending to godhood, you start as a Human, which gives you +1 Dexterity and Wisdom, proficiency with Religion for obvious reasons, and the Fighting Initiate feat for unarmed fighting so you can punch real good.

You're also an outlander because it's hard to be anything else before the country's built. You get proficiency with Athletics and Survival.

Ability Scores

Everything should be 40, but we're going with the standard array to make arguing with your DM a bit easier. Make your Wisdom super high for a better time ruling people and smiting them, follow it up with Strength because you really like that fancy gold armor. Your Dexterity is also pretty good, because that armor is optional. Charisma helps with ruling people too, so keep that above average. This leaves your Constitution lower than we'd like, but we're dumping Intelligence. You are by no means dumb, it's just the score that affects the build the least.

Class Levels

1. Monk 1: Starting off as a monk is pretty much mandatory so we have a martial weapon for the feat we just took, but this also means you start off with your first ascension's Unarmored Defense, adding your wisdom modifier to your AC while you aren't wearing armor.

Also while not wearing armor you can use Martial Arts, which lets you use dexterity instead of strength for your punches and you can attack as a bonus action if you attack with your main action. It also gives you a d4 martial arts die, but your fighting style is better, so...

On top of all that, you get proficiency with Strength and Dexterity saves, as well as History and Insight. You kinda are history.

2. Monk 2: Second level monks get Unarmored Movement, making you a little bit faster without the giant gold platemail. Aside from that, you get Ki points equal to your monk level per short rest, which you can spend to attack twice, dodge, disengage, or dash as a bonus action. You get something next level that is way more useful though.

3. Monk 3: Third level monks can Deflect Missiles as a reaction, rendering arrows and slingshots slightly less effective. You also gain the Arms of the Astral Self, letting you beef up your arms as a bonus action. Your anchor arms last for 10 minutes, and while active you can use wisdom instead of strength or dexterity to make attacks and strength saves/checks. You also get a long range on your unarmed attacks, and they deal force damage instead of bludgeoning. I'd love it if it was radiant, but force is kind of an upgrade, so I'll take it. The cool part is you can totally use this with armor, which will be useful in a bit.

4. Cleric 1: Oh hey it's useful now. As an Order Cleric you get proficiency with Heavy Armor, as well as Persuasion to make getting those pesky zoning ordinances in order a bit easier.

You also become a Voice of Authority, meaning that if you cast a spell targeting one or more allies, one of those allies can use their reaction to attack, because there's nothing more romantic than giving your all on the battlefield.

Speaking of, you can cast and prepare Spells now using your Wisdom. For cantrips, grab Thaumaturgy for religion funnies, and Resistance to make yourself a bit tougher than is reasonable. You also get the cantrip Hand of Radiance for a shinier punch. It's a melee range spell that deals 1d6 radiant damage if the target fails a constitution save. It's not as powerful as your punches, but it ignores armor!

You also get first level spells, and your freebies are Command and Heroism, great for when you need to build Roma from the ground up. Some other good city-building spells are Ceremony, Create or Destroy Water, and Purify Food and Drink.

5. Cleric 2: Second level clerics can Channel Divinity once per short rest. You can either use the classic Turn Undead to wig out any undead who fail a wisdom save, or you can issue Order's Demand to charm nearby creatures for a round. You can also force those creatures to drop whatever they're holding.

6. Cleric 3: Third level clerics get second level spells, like Hold Person and Zone of Truth. You can also use Continual Flame to make eternal torches, Calm Emotions to settle disputes peacefully, and Spiritual Weapon to not settle things peacefully.

7. Cleric 4: When you finally get your first Ability Score Improvement, bump up your Wisdom for a better unarmored AC, Astral Arms attacks, and spells. You really like wisdom, it's good to you.

You can also use Guidance to make yourself a little better than everyone else at ability checks.

8. Cleric 5: Fifth level clerics see their Turn Undead turn into Destroy Undead, instantly destroying undead of CR 1/2 or lower who fail their wisdom save. You also get third level spells, like Mass Healing Word and Slow. I'd also suggest Clairvoyance for a bit of omniscience, Daylight for the aesthetic, and Spirit Shroud for a bit of power building. It's fine, beating up a god needs power building, so it's in character.

9. Cleric 6: This level lets you Channel Divinity twice per rest, and you become an Embodiment of the Law, letting you cast enchantment spells as a bonus action instead of an action. You can speed things up this way Wisdom Modifier per long rest. Now you can hold someone down and slap the shit out of them in the same turn!

10. Cleric 7: Continuing the trend you've probably figured out by now, seventh level clerics get fourth level spells, like Compulsion and Locate Creature. You can also use Control Water to make your harbor more or less hospitable.

11. Cleric 8: As an eighth level order cleric, your Divine Strike lets you add psychic damage to one of your attacks each turn. Since this applies to a "weapon attack" and not a "melee weapon attack", your fists qualify. Yes, they are a melee "weapon attack", not a "melee weapon attack". Makes perfect sense.

You also get another ASI, which will let you max out your Wisdom for so many good reasons. Punching, spells, AC, they're all a bit better.

Destroy Undead also kills creatures of CR 1 or lower now.

12. Cleric 9: Ninth level clerics get fifth level spells, like Commune and Dominate Person. You can also use your Noble Phantasms on the offensive thanks to Flame Strike, or on the defensive as Mass Cure Wounds or Hallow. The former is basically a giant laser, the middle one is Cure Wounds But Multiple People, and the latter will turn an area into a great spot to build a city. As long as you aren't building a city for Celestials, Elementals, Fey, Fiends, or Undead.

13. Cleric 10: If you're tired of slapping people around with a hand of radiance, you can just use a Word of Radiance instead! It's literally the same thing as Hand of Radiance, but it uses a holy symbol instead of somatic components.

That being said you can also use Divine Intervention now, letting you call up your god (read: you) for a favor once per day. It only has a 1 in 10 chance of succeeding, but if it does the DM's the limit on what kind of help you'll get. After getting help you have to wait a week for it to recharge. You’d think you’d be willing to call in favors for you more often, but I’m not a god, so I wouldn’t know.

14. Cleric 11: Eleventh level clerics get sixth level spells, and sadly we're out of freebies. That being said, you could use Sunbeam for a reusable Per Aspera Ad Astra, or create a Heroes' Feast for a good time on the town.

Also, your Destroy Undead bumps up again to CR 2.

15. Cleric 12: This ASI will bump your Strength up, both so you can have stronger attacks when your Astral Arms are down, and so you can wear full plate armor without an issue.

16. Cleric 13: With the advent of seventh level spells, we finally get the only cleric spell in the game that actually lets you build a structure. Temple to the Gods lets you build a temple of your own design within a 120' square, and while it normally ends a day later, casting the spell in the same spot for a year makes the spell permanent. Honestly 1 building a year seems a bit slow for a city, I'd suggest just building them the old fashioned way. You can also use Divine Words to send extraplanar creatures back to where they came from, and you weaken other creatures with status effects dependent on how many hit points they have left.

17. Cleric 14: Destroy Undead kills CR 3 creatures now. Not fancy, but at least those skeletal owlbears will leave you alone. Also your Divine Strike is better now.

18. Cleric 15: Eighth level spells are always fun. You can now do stuff like Control Weather, cause an Earthquake, shed a Holy Aura to protect allies, or use a Sunburst to launch a big blob of light at enemies.

19. Cleric 16: Use your last ASI to become Tough for an extra 38 HP. The one problem with cleric; super squishy class.

20. Cleric 17: Your capstone level is surprisingly busy. Your Destroy Undead hits CR 4 creatures, and you can invoke Order's Wrath on creatures when you hit them. If you hit a creature with your Divine Strike, you can curse them until the start of your next turn. If an ally hits the cursed creature, they take another round of Divine Strike damage!

And that's not all! You also get ninth level spells! None of them particularly scream "Romulus" to me, but I mean you're a god, you can use whatever you want.

Pros:

You might only have one attack per round, but you really make them count. Each swing deals 3d8+5 damage per hit, and they deal psychic and force damage, two of the hardest types to avoid. And that's all before you get into spells to buff yourself like Spirit Shroud. It's not flashy, but it is consistent.

You've got a maxed out casting modifier and plenty of charming spells, meaning you're pretty good at controlling others.

Embodiment of the Law is huge, it lets you buff and debuff as a bonus action, freeing up your main action for direct support or combat.

Cons:

With only three monk levels, you don't have a lot of Ki to go around. You'll probably have to save all of it for your Astral Arms, as you're a lot weaker without them.

On a related note, multiclassing the way we did is also pretty awkward. The 20th level of cleric is super powerful, and if we spent two more levels as monk you could attack more often per turn and get more ki points.

Your constitution isn't great, meaning you can drop concentration easily and you're kind of squishy for a god. That's especially not good considering your main form of combat is slapping people in the face.

[natalieironside]

Tag: Word Find CCXXXV

Aw yeah I got tagged in a tag game.  Thanks, @zmlorenz  I love participating

 My words were night, near, new, and neighbour 

NIGHT (found in Voidsong: The Witchling, chapter 3: The Night Market [i suppose i am not surprised])

The city of Ny Myrkhimmin took in drifters and outcasts like the eager embrace of a lover.  The streets were bathed in perpetual midnight, the only illumination coming from intermittent and unreliable streetlights and lamps in front of ramshackle buildings.  The air was ever frigid, the dome’s life support systems unable to quite keep up with the gnawing, biting cold of the frozen rock under their feet or the void over their heads.  The air was thick with the reek of smoke and oil and food and garbage and life, and the narrow, tangled streets were ever loud with the racket of the comings, goings, and dealings of travelers from all parts of the galaxy.  The two witches glided through the confusion like ghosts, though Saoirse wanted badly to stop and take in the spectacle.

Helga led her through the maze following the smell of smoke and, soon, of food.  After a while, the impenetrable mire of crumbling buildings stacked dubiously atop each other broke away to a wide open forum cluttered with market stalls.  The buildings along one side all had open patios and bars and flickering neon signs, filling the air with a toothsome smell.  Saoirse gawked at the spectacle like a little girl watching tumblers at a carnival and muttered, “Oh, this is great.”

“Welcome to the night market,” Helga replied with an approving smile.  “Now, what would you like to eat?  We can find anything.”

NEAR (found in Voidsong: The Witchling, chapter 5: Ikayaki.  Three times in succession, golly)

More storm-bolts struck the Black Wolf as it drew nearer to the eye.  The ship shook, the lights flickered, and Nirtovi shouted, “Helga, you have to tell them to fall back!  This thing’s storms are too much!”

“The shields will hold,” the voidwitch replied.

“Loki’s ropes!  Between the shields and the siegebreaker, how much strain can your reactor take?  It must be near to overheating!”

“The shields will hold for long enough.  It is almost over now.”

The Black Wolf stayed fixed upon the injured eye as the wounded beast slowed in its turning.  Soon they were close enough that the eye filled the whole of their vision as storm-bolts rocked the ship from stem to stern, and Nirtovi was sure they were about to ram into it, but as the siegebreaker fired one last time, the Black Wolf banked hard upwards, knocking them all—even Helga—onto their asses as their minds were nearly sundered by a deafening psychic death-rattle.  Recovering themselves, they looked back out the viewports and saw that the light had now died in the kraken’s damaged eye, and that the beast was no longer maneuvering its ponderous mass to present them its arms and beak, but drifted in the void without spark or intelligence.

“Victory,” Helga whispered, a grin spreading across her face.

NEW (showed up in Voidsong: The Witchling’s epilogue, Two Homecomings, so I guess call this a sneak preview)

The dark elves cheered their approval, and Helga concluded:  “But, before that, I would like to augment our skeleton crew a bit.  I would like to make my own little homecoming.”

The dark elves’ cheers of approval turned into gasps of disbelief, and Nirtovi put a hand to her forehead and muttered, “Oh, you’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

“I have never kid anyone before in my life.”

“Helga, other than the many new and fascinating varieties of ice, what the fuck is on Isa?”

NEIGHBOR (I had to hunt far and wide for an instance of the word “Neighbor.”  Out of all my active WiPs, I’ve used it exactly one time, in chapter 3: In the Family Way of my as-yet-untitled sequel to The Big Job so I guess you can consider this yet another sneak preview lmao)

Katya was too nervous to ask questions on the drive north, and Ash didn’t volunteer any information, but a painfully long drive through afternoon traffic on I-75 eventually brought them to a decaying residential suburb adjacent to a sprawl of housing projects.  The house at the end of the lane where Ash parked the car didn’t look any different from its neighbors, save for a sign in the front yard.  It was an obnoxious shade of pink and bore a black Venus symbol ending in a clenched fist.

“Oh,” Katya said, nodding, “this is one of those whatchacallit type places.”

Ash laughed.  “Yes, Kat, it’s one of those whatchacallit type places.  Now, this crew is pretty old-fashioned, and a lot of the signage and stuff is gonna be pretty . . . uh . . .” She snapped her fingers, searching for the right word.

“Cisnormative?” Nix offered.

“Yeah, that’s what it’s called.  But I promise they’re good people, in a couple of relevant ways.  This is where Jackie gets his testosterone.”

They piled out of the car and headed for the front door, which bore only a simple plaque reading “A Place For Women.”  Ash opened the door and strode in like she owned the place, surprising the receptionist who sat behind a mahogany desk in the foyer.  Without giving her time to react, Ash said, “Yeah, hi, we spoke on the phone a little bit ago.  I need to see Dr. Farkas.”

***

Oh heck yeah.  Now it’s my turn uhhhhhh I tag @renniequeer​ @borinquenaqueer @red-the-dragon-writes and anybody else who wants to participate and the words are uhhhhhhhh fight, love, queer, confusion, and sword

#long post #writeblr #tag games #word find #voidsong

[painfulbass]

☾ ˚⊹  ❛❛  GENERAL QUICK CROSSOVER GUIDE

So crossovers are usually difficult for a lot of people. So, because I tend to think about these things, I thought I would make this comprehensive list/guide to writing crossovers with me. This isn’t anything in concrete, but to get the ball rolling or to help make it easier for both sides to contribute to plotting. It can be hard when you don’t know the fandom.

FNF, or Friday Night Funkin’ is a rhythm based game around rap battles. The Protagonist (known as BF) is trying to prove himself and win over his Girlfriend’s (GF) Dad, and it spirals from there. Gameplay style, it is very similar to Dance Dance Revolution, and the music is a fast pasted dubstyle/chiptune soundtrack.

What a lot of people know FNF for, however is the Mods. Due to it being on Newgrounds, and the creators having it be open asset, many creators are able to make their own “weeks” for players to challenge their skills in. Ruv, and those within Mid Fight Masses, are one of those mods. You can find most of their lore scattered in the scenes of their week, or by going on their official FNF Wiki.

Now, what does this mean for crossovers? I put it under a read more, simply because this is going to be a lot. I’m going to explain crossover verses I have. How I make them, and how YOU could have your character be in the FNF verse quite easily. So go under the read more to continue reading.

☾ ˚⊹  ❛❛  RUV IN OTHER UNIVERSES

Here are some just ideas that I came up with. While not EVERY interaction will work with these, they are ideas. They’re meant to kick start ideas and inspirations. I do not consider these full verses until I’ve talked with the other mun to make sure that they are okay with it. These can easily be changed, and swapped out for different things. My main goal here is to try and keep Ruv down to his core elements while fitting into a new setting.

POKEMON- Ruv, along with Sarv run the church- which she has turned into a sanctuary and a Nursery. Much like in Canon, Sarv is supernatural, and Ruv as a run away criminal vowed his life for all eternity to protect her. With church’s going out however, the next next step would be a PokeNursery.           Ruv acts as protector of the Nursery from trainers and groups alike. He usually is seen sitting on the roof, throwing pebbles at kids or passerby’s who irk him in some way. You can always find his Onix, his Low-Key Toxtricity, and his Absol around him or the nursery at all times. He does still have his strength, speed, and other abilities. The “face” he has is also a mask- an attempt to hide his identity as the wanted criminal.

OWL HOUSE- Ruv was a wanted criminal for the longest time. His magic, due to where he was born was a lot less like those around him. He could fit into the covens, but anything he did reflected back on him. Living alone, and learning to just modify himself he became a wanted criminal with a bone breaking shout.            However all of those times soon came to a stop as he met the winged mistress he stays with now. Protecting her (though she is much more than capable of protecting himself) she runs one of the many sects in the area. It isn’t the best building, but it’s out of the way and he usually isn’t spotted. However, unfortunately his past comes back to haunt him. He has no choice, and begrudgingly assists the Guards to repay for his crimes.           Tied to Sarv through magical bonds, he has made it clear to those in charge and to her- should something come between his duty as a guard or her, he would chose her a million times over.

DUCKTALES- Ruv is the petrified remains of the guardian of St. Sarvente. Awoken as the earth was shifted off of it’s orbit and forced into something it’s not, the callous guard is in search of the one he calls Sarvente, whom he claims is the Ruler of Souls and the one he Vowed to Protect. He is, 100% made of stone.

TOONTOWN- Stickfigures aren’t uncommon drawings. One’s as complicated as he and Sarv though usually get a few eyes. Not only that, but video game characters are always treated differently in Toontown. Maybe it’s because of a developers history, or lack there of. The story of Ruvyzvat being a heartless killer however spreads like wild flower, and while he and Sarv will primarily stay at the church... sometimes curiosity becomes too much.

KINGDOM HEARTS- FNF is it’s own world. Keyblade turned into a microphone, Ruv & Sarv are some of the first that would be met. Despite their challenge, they are rather distanced from the troubles of the Darkness and Light and would be semi-good companions. 

THE BLACKOUT CLUB- Ruv is a 16. Any day will be the day that a voice will end up taking over, merging with his mind. That’s fine. Much like how Seed-The-Grudge would want, he’ll just get revenge.

HAZBIN HOTEL / HELLUVA BOSS- Ruv ironically enough is one of the few in Hell who does not make him dead. In fact, in some cases that can make him extremely rare. This crossover he IS able to accompany Sarvente into the Underworld, and follow her on her treks through it. While most assume he is a dead sinner, he usually just doesn’t answer. However something about being here and meeting those who reside within the land sets him off. He’s a tad more feral, and a tad more willing to go to the violent answer.

PORTAL- Violence core. What else is there to say? Alternatively, him being a test subject would be fascinating, especially if he was grabbed post-vow. The man is immortal, and therefore would have messed with the tests just by the fact that there is only way for him to die. Death isn’t the worst thing to happen to a man however, and he does still feel pain.

RWBY- Ruv has the ability to manipulate sound waves, specifically his own). Trained with great strength and and even greater speed, his form of combat is continuously dodging as he looks for a weak spot. Weapons of choice are shot gun snow boots, and his sickle that doubles as a short sword.

DOCTOR WHO- Sarv has the ability to create portals. While they are MEANT to be used to intergalactive travel, but instead parallel world travel that in of itself is monumental for a lot of DW plots. Ruv and Sarv can easily go from one universe to the next, however chose to stay in the church. Not to mention Ruv’s skills in target elimination and his abilities would make for some individuals to repurpose him into a weapon. While they have been approached by UNIT on several occasions, they always refuse. However, enough time has passed that they’re starting to notice that the couple in the church aren’t aging...

FNAF- RUVYZVAT and SARVENTE were creations of Fazbear Entertainments as karaoke machines... if we want to go the robot route. If we want to go the normal person route, Ruv was hired by Fazbear’s because it’s one of the few places that doesn’t do a background check, and when he said he wanted to wear a mask as part of the work outfit they were all for it. He runs the karaoke machine though. Stays away from quite literally everyone. While he isn’t the infamous killer of children here, he does have a reputation of his own that he is running from, and that does tend to make him silent.

BATIM- Criminal on the run stumbles into the wastelands formerly known as Bendy’s. Actually enjoys it at first because the cartoon was popular when he was a child. ALT. Stickman drawing of one of the artists come to life. Usually pretends to be Lost One, but when he’s alone with another (Sarvente) they turn into their stickman version selves. Has the ability to jump between 2 and 3 dimensions, but none of the strength or voice.

PSYCHONAUTS- Agent Ruvyzvat, Russian sector. Ruv is working for the Psychonauts in some weird, turning event. Mainly because the sole woman that he trusts and saved his life, Agent Sarvente brought him in. The two are inseparable, and despite Sasha and Nein being infamous for their clinginess, these two take it to a whole knew level. Ruve’s “loud voice” is actually a psychic ability he can use outside of the mind to jumble and confuse thoughts and has no damage on anything physically in the present.

GRAVITY FALLS- Sarvente is a Demon, much like Bill. Where sa Bill desires nothing but chaos and madness, Sarvente is trying her best to keep the world like it is and preserve it’s beauty. Seeing such beauty in a runaway criminal, she and he run to the forests of Oregon. Throughout Weirdmageddon, neither managed to be captured or turned to stone, however Ruv seemingly gained his incredible voice abilities. Now, they live in a semi-collapsed church out in the forest. Sarvente always asking those who come her way to join their church, Ruv is suspicious why such events would happen in such a small town, and is distrusting of most everyone he sees.

DETECTIVE CONAN / KAITOU KID / ANY ANIME OR SERIES LIKE THAT- VERY infamous criminal. Take his “Wanted Dead or Alive” that exists in all other verses, and ramp that up quite a bit. Usually wears a mask whenever he is committing a crime. He does seem to be in it for the fun, though it’s hard to tell with the stoic and expressionless looks. That being said, he does seem to have a very clear goal of what he wants. There are no patterns to where he hits, or what he takes. From wallets of people off the streets, to priceless artifacts. He’ll find where Sarvente went, and how they were able to change her mind in such a way.... how they could corrupt her.

MODERN / NON-EXTREMELY FANTASTICAL- Ruv is honestly a rather down to Earth individual, in some terms. He is untrusting of EVERYTHING, but also due to his own strengths finds little that fear or challenges him. Keep him mind he did make a deal with Lucifer (or his Lucifer) for Immortality for protecting her. While he will always be doing things on his own, a lot of his end goals and motives will come back to her. Without her involvement, he is a walking, talking, machine of destruction with no sway on which side he decides to tear apart.

☾ ˚⊹  ❛❛  GENERAL STOPPING POINTS FOR WANTING TO PLOT

DON’T KNOW THE WORLD YOU’RE FROM / YOU DON’T KNOW MY LORE. - That’s fine. I can get my hands dirty. I can research. In fact I usually would love nothing more to. I love learning about new fandoms, or new media to get into. You shouldn’t be afraid of that. As for mine- It should take someone less than an hour to get through all of the links I have posted in the RESOURCES tab in my bio. I’ve timed it. So if you have an hour to spare, or 15, or just enough time to read his wiki that’s fine. He’s not from a long running show, or anything like that. You can catch up extremely quick.

WELL WHAT ABOUT A BOOK/COMIC? HOW WOULD HE FIT IN?- If we are talking about Super Hero comics, then it depends. 90% of the time I will just play up his wanted status a lot more, and make it more of a reason for an interaction. You just ran into a man who has killed hundreds. If your muse is a super hero, or a vigilante? Would you let him go? What a villain? That might make a good partner.

TV SHOW? LIVE ACTION?- Again, it depends on the type of show. Superhero follows the same above. If it’s investigative, have him be a witness. Or a falsely accused man who can prove he isn’t the guilty party. Is it more supernatural- well he did make a deal with Lucifer and is an immortal now from it. There are a million ways to spin it. Don’t look at making him a big character. Quite honestly, side characters that you pass in the street have just as much backstory, and as long as there is a plausible chance of interactions then we can work it out from there.

☾ ˚⊹  ❛❛  GENERAL IDEAS TO BE AWARE OF THAT MIGHT HELP

HE IS A WANTED CRIMINAL.- Meaning his name Ruvyzvat is known. Despite his crimes going on for decades, he is on the run and never stopped. Several city, state, countries, and possibly nations are looking for him, and looking to take him in.

HE IS ALSO AN IMMORTAL.- While he hasn’t been around forever, and nearly not as long as Sarvente has been, he HAS been around for at least 100 years, give or take some. He can be injured, but even fatal injuries heal in an almost Deadpool like way.

HE ALSO HAS SUPERNATURAL POWERS.- His speed and reflexes alone is not something to be taken lightly. He does train and fight with Lucifer on what used to be a semi-regular basis. He has moved and adapted to be able to make sure no one but the singular person he trusts is able to lay a hand on him. That isn’t to say you can’t catch him off guard. You also have his inhuman strength to worry about, but most of all his voice. His voice which could completely demolish a building, and that isn’t the full strength. He has an amazing control over it, but that certainly isn’t a trait of his to ignore.

HE IS NOT ALWAYS IN THE CHURCH. I MADE SURE OF THAT WHEN I MADE MY BLOG.- He goes on walks, and he goes on errands. He also goes to the Gym on occasion, though not as often. He enjoys walks on the beach far earlier than anyone should be awake at. What I’m saying is running into him OUTSIDE of the church is possible. That being said, meeting him IN the church is your best bet for him warming up quicker. He feels safer in the church, and therefore usually wishes to stay there.

DOESN’T FIT THE STYLE OF CHARACTERS/WORLD? - If he doesn’t fit, then I can work to adapt him into something that WOULD fit. What characteristics about him doesn’t work. This is when I would need plotting help. If, lets say it was an all animal world, we can talk about what he is, his traits, and other such things. I am always happy to not use my icons- I just like to because I think they’re neat and I worked hard on them.

WHAT WOULD HE BE DOING?- Any number of things. He likes throwing pebbles at people. He mainly guards and protects Sarvente and her things, but I know we’re talking besides this. He cannot cook, but he does actually sew, and he does read quite a bit. Working on his fist to fist fighting would be a big one. He likes secluded areas, which especially work for explorer’s and people who walk off the beaten path.

IS THERE ANYWHERE HE COULDN’T BE?- He wouldn’t be at a bar. Ruv doesn’t drink, at all. I also don’t see him at any parties unless Sarv dragged him to them. Writing starters or plotting around those are perfectly fine, but do not expect his muse to be comfortable while he’s there.

HE SEEMS OVERPOWERED.- At times, he certainly can be, but only when he feels it’s necessary. He doesn’t flaunt his abilities, and most he has are out of self preservation. If you as a mun are worried about him and what he can do, the best thing you can do is read my information, look into his wiki, and then come and talk to me. Ruv isn’t someone who will 100% abuse what abilities he has, especially since now he is trying his best to be better for her since it makes her happy.

☾ ˚⊹  ❛❛  GENERAL IDEAS TO HAVE YOUR CHARACTERS IN HIS UNIVERSE

LOCATIONS?- The Church, the back alleys, the karaoke bar (that primarily does rap battles), the Alternate dimension that Sarv made so that he can be loud and not retrain his voice.

MOTIVATIONS?- If your muse is in the FNF world, then be ready for some sick beats to be dropped. Your muse could be rescuing someone from the BBEG and going through the slew of minions to sing against. There’s always the alternative side of this of “what the hell is going on?”

MY CHARACTER ISN’T FROM THERE, SO THEY WOULDN’T FIT IN.- Well I do have a “main” verse which replaces raps with fists. Looking for someone important to them, in the search of a deep and hidden artifact within the search, the rumors of a man born 100 years ago- theres a lot to be found in the library if you looked.

WHAT DOES THE FNF WORLD CONSIST OF?- It consists of Demon Daddies, Singing Skeletons and Pumpkins, Tankmen, a Demonic Lemon Demon, Sentient Video Game Characters, and if you take the mods in you also have Demon, Angels, Ghosts, Deadly Ex’s, Bomb Headed Men-- I promise your character will fit in at the end of the day.

ISN’T HE EXTREMELY AGGRESSIVE AND HARD TO TALK TO?- He can be. He talks in very short sentences, however I do my best to give my reply enough that you can reply to. Actions, and I chose to be very descriptive with his expressions in this case. Ruv spend many years alone, and sometimes with him, actions speak louder than words. When you or your muse figure that out is up to you.

WELL WE CAN’T DO AN ENTIRE THREAD IN A CHURCH.- I never said we had to. He is more than happy to leave the church should he want, and should there be a reason. Usually, (despite what it seems) he does like helping people, so you can lure him out that way ;)

#∘⡊ ☾ ˚⊹ 𝕽𝖚𝖓 𝕬𝖜𝖆𝖞 𝖂𝖆𝖓𝖙𝖊𝖉 𝕸𝖆𝖓 ⊹ — ❛❛ v. crossover. #∘⡊ ☾ ˚⊹ 𝕴𝖙'𝖘 𝕶. ⊹ — ❛❛ resources. #∘⡊ ☾ ˚⊹ 𝕴𝖙'𝖘 𝕶. ⊹ — ❛❛ psa & updates. #∘⡊ ☾ ˚⊹ 𝕴𝖙'𝖘 𝕶. ⊹ — ❛❛ save. #i added all i could think of #just so i could kinda help out when it came to plotting but #even if we don't know each others universes or anything #this is pretty comprehensive so i hope it helps #i spent a while on it and it should be pretty helpful to anyone who wants to write with me but has no idea how #now if you excuse me im going to scream because of how long this took #∘⡊ ☾ ˚⊹ 𝕾𝖎𝖓𝖋𝖚𝖑 𝕰𝖓𝖉 ⊹ — ❛❛ headcanon. #∘⡊ ☾ ˚⊹ 𝕾𝖎𝖓𝖋𝖚𝖑 𝕰𝖓𝖉 ⊹ — ❛❛ meta.

[laryna6]

One of those ‘A Christmas Carol’-based fics with Saotome Eiji.

Kyousuke’s dad appearing warning of the demons of the Sanzu river and the measuring of karma that awaits the dead, and Saotome going ‘I must have fallen asleep/that’s a foreign Buddhist thing’ because of the... heavy pushing of a... propagandized version of Shinto as part of Japanese nationalism building up to WWII.

Instead of Christmas it’s Obon (a festival of Buddist/Confucian origin) ofc.

To fit with ‘the idea that people have to earn the right to live is effed up’ from the original, perhaps as a child he was sent to an orphanage bc his family couldn’t feed him? The additional damage of not knowing who your ancestors were in a culture practicing ancestor worship.

Other students of psychic research inviting him to hang out at the university but he wanted to get an officer position in the army, so needing to avoid undesirable elements.

Saotome’s present day obon, Kyousuke who was raised in China being taught about Shinto because as a half-Chinese person on top of an esper in an era of nationalism... they worry about the kid and he might be safer if he do all the ‘I am a loyal subject of the emperor’ signaling. Two of the espers in the unit canonically come from traditional priesthood families and have OPINIONS about what these motherfucking nationalists are doing to corrupt and twist everyone’s spirituality and traditions and their sense of connection to their families and their people and the land. Making shinto priests government officials?!

Saotome going they’re not proper LoyalTM to the army and Japan

Spirit #2 going ‘was the army ever loyal to them?’

Fujiko and her father discussing how their family is nobility and the need for the nobiiity to give up power and instead bring about democracy if Japan was going to escape being conquered and exploited by imperialists like the countries around them.

Fujiko going ‘but the warrior classes all got positions in the military, and now we’re a military dictatorship and Japan has just become one more imperialist power, it’s disgusting and her father going absolutely, and discussion of duty to their ancestors and their country foreshadowing Fujiko making a choice that according to traditional morality and the noble code of conduct was ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLY HORRIBLY WRONG to the point of disgracing her entire family line because what kind of people could have produced a traitor like that... but because of it in the modern day Japan is the second least awful country in how it treats espers.

Then spirit #3, and Saotome going ‘I’ve seen the precogs, espers going to war with normals, Kyousuke betraying the country/me to serve a queen’

And then it’s the younger queen and two other girls going ‘Minamoto we want to go to a festival with you’ while a harried man basically shoos them out the door with a broom and goes ‘go! Your families want to see you! Here are your boxed lunches and snacks for the trip’ and the girls are espers who use their powers to get to their normal families. the queen and her big sister get in a wrestling match over the cookies and only belatedly realize their mom’s eaten them all while commentating while they dress for the festival. another girl and her normal father engage in some police brutality towards festival pickpockets as bonding. the third girl, at least, is traditional and proper even if she’s performing a ceremony that comes from non-Japanese origins (and yet... it’s still a tradition that ties them to their ancestors and the gods and who they are, and Shinto says that tradition is sacred, it doesn’t say that traditions that first came from outside aren’t sacred)

The man is following his mother around as she chatters with everyone and gets up to shenanigans at the festival. ‘Father couldn’t make it again’ mentioning a grandmother who used to stay with him at these. Looking up at the sparks rise above the fire to send the dead home, lonely even though he’s surrounded by people in his hometown... and then he gets tackled by the three girls demanding he take photos with them while they’re all in kimonos

And then it switches to someone announcing That Bastard is finally dead. Far from the land he was born, with no one in the country he served who cares to claim his body ‘so we should send someone to pretend to be a relative’ and someone declaring that this is now a formal meeting because while obviously they all want to desecrate his grave, they are going to do it in an organized fashion that reflects the gravity of his crimes and pays respects to his innocent victims and continuing victims of that bastard’s legacy of murder and hatred. Eggs and toilet paper are not up for discussion is said with a pointed look at another man, who whines ‘big bro!’

This is the most diverse group of people Saotome has ever seen, people from all over the world united in their hatred of someone who gets referred to with several different languages’ curse words.

And then someone walks in and goes ‘here you are, okay, what are you up to? I’ve been raising kids for half a century, I know that when you’re all quiet and busy somewhere you’re up to no good’ and it’s Kyousuke. The guy who went ‘big bro’ gets his ear twisted, and whines ‘dad!’

It’s revealed that ‘that bastard’ is someone who hurt Kyousuke, who they’re protective of like the unit is (he still looks so young...) but when he gets it out of them he’s no! and there is a whine of ‘dad! He shot you!’ ‘I know’ *bullet scar revealed* ‘I’m the one he shot, so I get to decide what to do with him’

Kyousuke lifting away a sheet to reveal a body old and twisted and crippled. And Saotome’s. Kyousuke is blank an solemn... and sad.

Going through the Shinsosai funeral rites, all foreign Buddhist influences removed as he would have wanted, and maybe there’s a reason the people of Japan for centuries were happy to have Buddhists to help them usher their families into the next world, because he can see the weight of the kegare on him, how Kyousuke mourns him, is the only one who mourns him. Eventually a woman who treats Kyousuke as both an embarrassing younger brother and as a respected father comes to help, to cheer him up, even though she despises Saotome too, for hurting him.

A picture of the unit, in Kyousuke’s family shrine. ‘Now everyone in this photograph but Fujiko is dead... He took my family from me, but he, too, was family.’

Then he grabbed the woman, teleported, and dragged her down with him into the ocean for purification.

...then Kyousuke goes to bully the man from before, who is arguing with the three girls about how yes, they are sleepy, Kaoru nearly flew them into the ground getting home, while making them all tea before he shoves them into their bedroom. When he turns around Kyousuke has stolen the cup that was supposed to be for him, and the man at first automatically raises his hackles, but then looks sympathetic.

Kyousuke looks away, annoyed and pouting, at sympathy from this person.

‘...If I try to comfort you you’re going to shove my head in the toilet again,’ the man says, getting himself another cup of tea.

‘Absolutely’ Kyousuke agrees.

Silence, and eventually Kyousuke says, ‘at first I thought you were his reincarnation, even though he would have been offended at the idea of him reincarnating. Then I found he was with the Comericans, had been since the war, and I thought, it would have been better if he was you. Not for the Queen. But for him. If I hadn’t failed to avenge my comrades back then, he could have moved on to a better life or the otherworld. Not been forced to live on a failure and a pawn in a foreign land, unable to return home. He was a proud man.’ Looking down at his tea, ‘when I met him again, he asked me to kill him.’

‘..in the precog, I know there’s a nuke on the way when I shoot Kaoru,’ the man says, and now Saotome knows where he’s seen him. ‘even though I want to kill her so she can’t leave again and I want it enough to kill her before she stops that nuke from destroying Tokyo, I still know that I have to die for this. I’m just getting the order wrong. I should die before I do that. Having to live with what I do in that precog would be a fate worse than death.’

‘That was why I erased his memories that day. He... there was no point in him continuing to suffer. None of us would have wanted that for him. I thought... didn’t he know our feelings? That we were loyal to him, that we didn’t mind dying for him? And then I saw that he truly didn’t recognize our feelings. Because he didn’t know what it looked like, to recognize when people truly cared for him. But he cared for us, and so when he thought that espers would turn against normals, that it was impossible for us to ever care for him... Those damn precogs. They broke his heart before he put a bullet through mine.’

‘Maybe... next obon?’

a shake of the head. ‘he thought it was too foreign. It’s fine, our comrades will beat sense into him in the afterlife.’ Kyousuke drank the rest of his tea.

‘..Some of the parts of the traditional ceremony... PANDRA loves you, but I think that would have made it hard to force them to cooperate,’ the man said. “I don’t want to hear words honoring him either, but you like to do things I don’t want.’

‘What, are you going to give me condolences for his loss?”

‘I can honestly say that I am very sorry he’s dead, because it means I will never get to strangle him,’ the man vigorously throttled the air, going from kind and patient to a man more than capable of shooting a young woman in love with him, and back, ‘from turning you from such a sweet, good little kid into the godawful brat I have had to deal with.’

Kyousuke snorted.

“Do you want another cup of tea, or a cup of milk?”

“Milk.” Kyousuke said, and when the man was on his way to open a white door, he began, “Utsumi-san said that he graduated first in his class, but he had no family and no background. The esper unit was his proposal, so when he told us that we could serve our country and be accepted, he wagered his own future on the chance that ours could be happy. Utsumi said later that he never trusted Saotome-Taicho, because he knew he didn’t truly care for us. I asked once why he didn’t warn us, if he knew that, but... Utsumi knew his heart, so he knew that Saotome-taicho also was different, was desperately wishing to prove he was valuable enough to accept. He knew what bait to dangle before us because it was the exact same lure that led him to the army. We all wanted him to have that happy future, along with us.’

#zettai karen children #hyoubu kyousuke #saotome eiji #minamoto kouichi #all of the bunnies #I want to turn this into fic but aargh so much work

[tigerkirby215]

5e Azir, the Emperor of the Sands build (League of Legends)

(Artwork by Bo Lu. Made for Riot Games.)

SHURIMA WILL RISE

BOTTOM TEXT

From the empress to the emperor: king chicken himself, bottom of the top, and lord of nerfs. Truthfully there’s a lot to be said for such a unique champion as Azir but all that’s shadowed by Riot’s insistence on having him be absolute bottom tier forever more. Well at least he’s pretty alright in Legends of Runeterra.

GOALS

My soldiers march on - The most important feature of Azir is of course his Sand Soldiers, allowing you to be everywhere at once as you command a legion of one to fight for you.

You need not follow me, but you cannot stop me - Can’t have the sand chicken be a sitting duck; we need to be able to dash to our soldiers for protection at a moment’s notice.

My city lives on - We need to be able to summon turrets... I guess? Look all Azir really does is summon soldiers so I don’t really have much to work with.

RACE

Azir may look like a bird but he can’t fly, so we’re not going to be taking any of the bird races. What Azir truly is however is a sand zombie reanimated by his distant daughter’s blood. With that being said we’re going to be going for a Reborn; a race lineage currently in UA that shall soon be published in Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft.

You can increase one ability score of your choice by 2 and another one by 1: give yourself +2 Intelligence and +1 Dexterity. You also learn a language of your choice: take Celestial to speak like an Ascended! Your Creature Type is both Humanoid and Undead (or Construct, but you were reanimated from the dead so...) and can choose to be either Medium or Small. (You are Medium because you were once human.)

You have Darkvision (which I may as well mention because this lineage doesn’t have much) and your Deathless Nature means that you have a lot of benefits to resist mortal problems like sleep, food, disease, poison, or death saving throws. But your main feature is Knowledge from a Past Life, letting you add a d6 to skill checks you make as you remember something Nasus taught you. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and regain all expended uses at the end of a Long Rest.

IF REBORN ISN’T ALLOWED: This build doesn’t really require a particular race / lineage; Reborn just made the most sense. Feel free to play Azir however you want: his build is very generalized and doesn’t require anything specific.

ABILITY SCORES

15; DEXTERITY - The main reason we’re opting for DEX over STR is because you need to be able to make ranged attacks when you don’t have Sand Soldiers, but your armor does seem rather light.

14; INTELLIGENCE - Military tactics would be Intelligence, as well as magic which yeah: the guy who summons soldiers made of tiny rocks is in fact a mage.

13; CONSTITUTION - Azir is squishy in-game, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have good health for this build.

12; CHARISMA - You need Charisma to lead a nation.

10; WISDOM - Not saying that Azir is dumb, but you did think that freeing the slaves would be a good birthday gift for your super best friend Xerath.

8; STRENGTH - Sand and dust: they both struggle to pick up big weapons.

BACKGROUND

Shurima may be gone, but it won’t take long for you to be recognized as its Noble Emperor once again. With the Noble background you get proficiency with History and Persuasion as well as a Gaming set of your choice (Dragonchess makes sense for a tactician) and a language of your choice (pick your poison.)

You were born into a Position of Privilege, and even if your legacy was lost to the sand most still know to honor your name. You can even use that honor for some political meetings.

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

THE BUILD

LEVEL 1 - FIGHTER 1

Making people fight for you is a type of fighting, right? Regardless as a Fighter you get proficiency in two skills from the Fighter list: Acrobatics is good for survival, and Insight is good to know if your slave BFF is starting to harbor resentment for you as the emperor of a nation run by slaves. You also get a Fighting Style at level 1: you need only one hand for your “spear” so Dueling will make that “spear” do more damage.

ABOUT AZIR’S WEAPON (and his Sand Soldiers): Grab a Rapier and a Shield for a DEX-based spear-like weapon... and a shield. This will be your loadout to keep alive as well as the loadout of your Sand Soldiers, which we will get soon.

In addition to survive mid lane you can take the Second Wind rune to heal yourself for a d10 plus your Fighter level as a Bonus Action. Does Azir take Second Wind? Does it look like I know how to play Azir?

LEVEL 2 - FIGHTER 2

Second level Fighters can grab some attack speed with Action Surge, allowing them to take an extra action on their turn for some pro plays!

LEVEL 3 - FIGHTER 3

Third level Fighters get to choose their Martial Archetype. Do you wish to harness the echoes of your nation? Then Echo Knight is a very good bet! As an Echo Knight you can Manifest Echo to create a Sand Soldier as a Bonus Action. The Sand Soldier (which is what I’ll be referring to your Echoes as in this build) has the following stats:

AC equal to 14 + your proficiency bonus

1 HP

Immunity to all conditions

The same saving throws as you

The same size as you

The ability to occupy a space

The appearance of a Sand Soldier (so its definitely not human)

You can move your Sand Soldier up to 30 feet without spending an action or bonus action. With your soldier in its location you have the following abilities:

You can “dash” (IE teleport) to your soldier and swap places with it as a bonus action, taking 15 feet of your movement (regardless of how far you “dashed.”)

When you take the attack action it can come from your soldier’s location.

If someone walks past your soldier you can make an attack of opportunity against them as if you were in the soldier’s location!

In a big nutshell the Sand Soldier acts like an extension of you, and can do basically everything you can. And you can take an additional attack from your Soldier’s location after attacking thanks to Unleash Incarnation, which has a limited number of uses equal to your Constitution modifier.

LEVEL 4 - FIGHTER 4

4th level Fighters get the first of many Ability Score Improvements. Dexterity is tied to most of what we do currently so increasing that by 2 would be beneficial.

LEVEL 5 - FIGHTER 5

5th level Fighters can increase their attack speed and make an Extra Attack with their action. This means two attacks in an action, four with Action Surge, and one extra with Unleash Incarnation. All from either your location or the location of your Sand Soldier.

(Artwork by Alex “alexplank” Flores. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 6 - ARTIFICER 1

So I kinda got all I wanted from Fighter? And honestly if you’re playing in a low level campaign investing fully in Echo Knight is a great way to replicate Azir. But I can’t just cop out and say “Echo Knight 20 lol” for a champion like Azir so... Empires are built on invention. As an Artificer you get Magical Tinkering which is like Prestidigitation but bad. You can make an object glow slightly, make sounds, smell nice: all the sort of things that the magic of the Sun Disk provided Shurimans with daily.

But of course what we’re really here for is Spellcasting! You get two cantrips from the Artificer spell list: Prestidigitation proper will let you do better sand magic, and Guidance will help you help yourself to guide your nation.

You can also prepare a number of spells equal to your Intelligence modifier plus half your Artificer level, which means you can prepare three for now:

Absorb Elements will let you soak up some damage from the enemy laner before dishing it back out!

Faerie Fire will let you light up a target for your soldiers (IE yourself) to strike.

And Detect Magic will let you... detect magic...

LEVEL 7 - ARTIFICER 2

Second level Artificers get Infusions; ancient Shuriman artifacts that you acquired from the ruins to serve yourself. (Though you do have to apply them to existing items.)

Enhanced Weapon will let you make your Soldiers do magic damage, as well as yourself!

Grabbing a Repeating Shot weapon (probably a Hand Crossbow) will let you attack at range from both your own location and your Echo’s location.

The Mind Sharpener is kinda uhhh... dumb? But why shouldn’t an emperor be entitled to succeed their Concentration checks?

An Alchemy Jug will let you bring the waters back to Shurima... or potentially mayonnaise.

Additionally you can prepare another spell, and use those chicken feathers of yours to Feather Fall.

LEVEL 8 - ARTIFICER 3

Third level Artificers can make The Right Tool for the Job from the sands with an hour of work, allowing you to create a set of Artisan’s tools (or Thieves’ Tools) for whatever purpose you need. "You cannot topple Shurima."

But come on: we both know we’re here for our subclass. Now what Artificer subclass is capable of summoning artillery... Artillerist might work? Along with gaining Wood Carver’s Tools proficiency you can summon an Eldritch Cannon as an action. The cannon is either small or tiny: a small one occupies its space and is summoned within 5 feet of you, and you can hold a tiny cannon in your hand. You can create one cannon for free per Long Rest, but summoning additional cannons requires a spell slot of first level or higher.

The cannon has an AC of 18 and five times your Artificer level in hitpoints. It is immune to poison damage and psychic damage, and has 10 in all stats (for the sake of saving throws.) You can also heal it with Mending... which we don’t have. Oops. It’s almost like Artificers only get 2 cantrips.

Regardless: when you create the cannon you determine its appearance, if it can move, and its type. A Flamethrower turret shoots fire (duh) in a cone, forcing a DEX save to deal fire damage to everyone in the area. A Force Balista turret is like a regular Summoner’s Rift turret, shooting at one target within range to deal a good chunk of damage and push them back slightly. And to shield your army a Protector turret grants temporary hitpoints to everyone in its area of effect. Regardless of what turret you create activating it takes a Bonus Action. You can make the turret move up to 15 feet with that bonus action, and can’t activate the turret if you’re more than 60 feet away.

Additionally you get Shield and Thunderwave as Artillerist Spells, to protect yourself or deal some damage.

LEVEL 9 - ARTIFICER 4

4th level Artificers get another Ability Score Improvement. Generally speaking packing Flash is a good idea, so we’ll be grabbing the Fey Touched feat to increase our Intelligence by 1 and get the Misty Step spell added to our spell list (even if we don’t have second level spell slots yet.)

You can also add a Divination or Enchantment spell to your list as well and I’m going to recommend Hex to further increase your damage to whatever target you focus with your soldiers. You can cast both Misty Step and Hex once per Long Rest without using a spell slot, and can cast the spell more times by using the respective spell slot. Speaking of spells you would be able to prepare more of them but I’m going to wait for...

LEVEL 10 - ARTIFICER 5

5th level Artificers can turn a staff (or a wand or a rod, but realistically you’d use a staff) into an Arcane Firearm. When casting Artificer spells through the Arcane Firearm you gain a d8 bonus to one damage roll of the spell...

I’m going to be honest: you’re primarily a Fighter, and especially if you walk around with both a Shield and a Rapier Spear you probably won’t have a free hand for the Arcane Firearm anyways. Talk to your DM to see if they’ll let you add a d8 to your spells anyways. And if not? ...Nothing much lost by ignoring it.

But 5th level Artificers also get second level spell slots which means that they can prepare second level spells! You get both Scorching Ray and Shatter as Artillerist Spells, and can prepare Aid to boost your army for battle!

(Artwork by Zuoan Dong and Kudos Productions. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 11 - ARTIFICER 6

6th level Artificers get Tool Expertise, which is exactly what it sounds like: double your proficiency with tool checks. But more importantly you get more infusions such as the Spell-Refueling Ring to actually be a Mage, and a Repulsion Shield to recreate the push from Emperor's Divide and further break your AC.

You can also prepare another spell like Enhance Ability, so your subjects can build up your civilization! ...But not slaves, obviously.

LEVEL 12 - ARTIFICER 7

7th level emperors can direct their soldiers as a reaction with a Flash of Genius, letting you boost one of their Ability Checks or Saving Throws by an amount equal to your Intelligence modifier. The ability has a limited number of uses but both its number of uses and its total strength increases with your Intelligence modifier. Speaking of which...

LEVEL 13 - ARTIFICER 8

An Ability Score Improvement means we can finally round out that uneven Intelligence score, as well as your uneven Constitution. Nice round number will help you rule over yourself, which will make it easier to rule over a nation.

More Intelligence does also mean more prepared spells, but you’ll have to be patient for...

LEVEL 14 - ARTIFICER 9

9th level Artillerists can make their turret Self Destruct, as the Explosive Cannon causes each creature within 20 feet of it to make a Dexterity saving throw or take 3d8 force damage as the tower self-destructs, only taking half on a success. In addition your turrets deal an extra d8 of damage, or Temp HP shielding if you swing that way.

But to top it off you learn third level spells now! Wind Wall from the Artillerist Spells list will actually serve as Emperor's Divide, since while it does work like Yasuo’s Wind Wall it also pushes people back and stops them from going through it (to an extent.) As for Fireball well... it’s Fireball! Not everything needs to be justified.

Other than that you can prepare Haste to truly go to war (as long as you’re fine with leaving yourself vulnerable if you lose spell focus), and Create Food and Water to... create food and water. A great emperor must care for his people, especially his best friend.

(Artwork by Pang Chengwei. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 15 - FIGHTER 6

Hey Ability Score Improvements are fun! Dexterity is still kinda our “main” stat, since it’s used both for attacking and AC. So increasing DEX by 2 would be the best plan of action!

LEVEL 16 - FIGHTER 7

7th level Echo Knights see everything on their sands thanks to Echo Avatar. As an action you can see through your Sand Soldier, to direct them through espionage. You yourself can not see or hear during this time, and you can end this effect at any time as an action.

While spying through your sand soldier, it can be up to 1000 feet away from you without being destroyed. This does mean that you can swap places with it to get somewhere up to 1000 feet away!

LEVEL 17 - FIGHTER 8

Fighters are fun because while they get they get Ability Score Improvements in some of the places where other classes don’t they still get the standard ASIs at the standard levels. Cap off your Intelligence to have the best of both magic damage and attack speed!

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

LEVEL 18 - FIGHTER 9

9th level Fighters can survive with Ascended strength, as Indomitable lets them reroll one failed Saving Throw per Long Rest. You can still fail however so I’d perhaps only use this on the skills you have a good chance of succeeding in; even the Ascended have their limits.

LEVEL 19 - FIGHTER 10

At level 10 your Sand Soldiers will always be there to defend you, as Shadow Martyr allows your soldiers to defend an ally you can see with your reaction. Your soldier moves within 5 feet of the ally, and the attack is directed towards your soldier instead of your ally. "Nothing is beyond my reach."

LEVEL 20 - FIGHTER 11

Our final level is the 11th level of Fighter for another Extra Attack, resulting in three attacks total or six with Action Surge! Finally six-slotted for max Attack Speed!

FINAL BUILD

PROS

Soldiers, onward! - You can deal tons of damage without ever getting close to the danger between your Sand Soldiers and your cannon, both of which can do the fighting for you as you stay back and direct their attacks.

Challenge Shurima; challenge fate - You also have plenty of utility in both your magic and your soldiers, notably an extreme level of mobility to escape if anyone does actually try to kill you. And in a worse case scenario your infusions can provide you with even more tools to rebuild your empire.

Emperors never die - It was not my intention but... Hey turns out that Fighter and Artificer are both very good at keeping themselves alive. Above average HP, strong saving throws (proficiency in the saves for your low stats help a lot!), and notably some damn high AC by walking around with a spear and shield. 19 AC with Studded Leather and a Shield which can be further increased with infusions.

CONS

My empire lives in every grain of sand - It takes quite awhile to prepare everything for combat. An action to summon your cannon, a bonus action to summon your echo, and then a Bonus Action every turn as long as you have your cannon up.

I will shift as the sands - A general you may be but a scholar you are not. With the exception of Acrobatics and History your skill checks are generally poor, and your ability scores overall leave a lot to be desired. Sure +5 to Religion or Arcana is nice but it’s not going to shatter the sun.

The bounty of Shurima still flows - One thing an emperor must manage is the resources of their kingdom, and you have plenty of limited tools that only come back after Long Rests. Some of them (mostly your Fighter stuff) come back on a Short Rest yes but you have limited spell slots, cannons, Flashes of Genius to protect your allies, and only one use of Indominable per Long Rest. Ration yourself wisely.

But an empire is built upon sacrifice. Conqueror with your soldiers before rebuilding. A nation as great as Shurima can not truly remain gone. But perhaps this time you should pay your workers? Especially if your best friend is the head of the union.

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

#dnd #dnd build #dnd guide #League of Legends #League of Legends Azir #SHURIMA #WILL #RISE #dnd fighter #dnd artificer #egypt #gods of egypt #ancient egypt

[tabletopjourneys]

Session 39 Notes

(Skipping ahead so last session notes are in time for a quick read before next session) The Silver Scale Pack split up: While group A confronts The Superb Owl one last time, group B falls for a cryptid and gets teleported to the other side of Bouldergap from their recon mission. Plus: Shopping. Again. lol.

@gher-bear​ @aradow​ @telurin​ @epimetala

On this day The Silver Scale Pack's split missions get critical. Diem and Ixayl'anu have to battle it out with the The Superb Owl and her mob of charmed Bouldergap citizens.

Ultimately they win by deceit and successfully chase The Superb Owl off, back to The Iron Heights (mountains) without any loss of life or nonconsensual fey abductions.

The Bouldergap citizens are pretty grateful once the distance shakes off the last vestiges of charm and begin getting back to their lives, cleaning up the mess of a spontaneous tournament, and finding/checking on loved ones lost in the crowd and/or forgotten in their bespelled states.

In other words, nobody we know of is angry at us for chasing off the pretty owl. They're all pretty aware it was a spell that made them love and admire her so much.

Meanwhile, group B meet one of the near-mythical cryptids called a ropen up close. This one seems to be super ancient and magically potent with decorative colorful jewelry and tattoos that commonly get mistaken for "colorful plumage" in the rare (and doubted) accounts of sightings.

When first attempting to communicate the ropen (accidentally?) deals 3 psychic damage to the safety-bubbled forms of Rana and Fee. It sounds like the angels from Supernatural. Once it corrects this, it's voice still holds tangible power and sounds like an ancient being of immense power speaking to children.

It tells them both they are not safe here and that they have the situation contained and are handling it. Then puts them both to sleep and sends them safely to the other side of Bouldergap out into a field where they wake up about an hour later.

Just in time to hear Diem communicate through the stone that the owl has been handled.

The pack reunites and reports everything to Lawmaster Eldeth. They agree to gather in the morning for another trip out to Stoneroost with the help of two guards.

Their free night until then is spent shopping for gems and supplies. Afterward, Rana and Fee play a training game with their ratties and chill in the Temple of V'kandis until they wake there in the morning and procure another helper for the trip out in the form of a dwarven priestess who offers her healing skills in exchange for being able to check in on her family in Stoneroost.

Ixayl'anu spent the night in the stables with her newly resummoned elk. Diem went off to find and presumably spent the night with the other disguise-loving storyteller The Superb Owl had suggested they have a nice chat with.

(Read More)

(At Least Group A is Safely in Town…Right?)

The Superb Owl: Capture them! (80 ft reach command)

Initiative order starts with Ixayl’anu and then Diem; Ixayl’anu goes first and casts moonbeam on the Superb Owl (it really is a fey owl; though a typo does turn her into the super bowl instead. Just a thought.). Ixayl’anu then runs her 30ft south along the fence.

Diem has to run to catch up as Ixayl’anu shoots past them. “Fly, Ixayl’anu!”. They cast fly on them both as soon as they manage to catch up to her in about 30ft.

5 villagers jump the fence to try and grab us.

One guy across fence to her right manages to grab Ixayl’anu and yank her a little off balance and out of the reach of the guy coming straight at her who’d jumped the southern fence to follow the owl’s orders.

Two guys of three more guys who also jumped the southern fence manage to grab me - one to each arm.

The Superb Owl not only takes half damage from a save (8dmg) by staring her turn in moonbeam, she actually pretends she created the moonbeam as an awe-inspiring spotlight for attention. She spreads her wings and flies straight up in it, showboating a little, and says, in an enunciating announcer voice: Bring them to me and I will deal with the heretics!

Practically everyone near the owl by the northern gate of the square arena and out in an oval of about 40 ft east and west is gazing in star-struck admiration at the owl.

Ixayl’anu struggles to get loose and succeeds her strength check, gets loose and flies 30 ft up and 30 ft east.

Diem uses fey presence to go all Galadriel-style-you-would-have-a-dark-queen visage and voice to inspire fear (16 wis check): Not me you fools!

This works on four out of five of the guys around them, but the one who resists just happens to be one of the guys holding on to them, who actually tightens his grip in half panic as Diem tries to fly away with him still attached (contested strength check failed). They only succeed in lifting him a few feet off the ground.

Diem to Ixayl’anu: Get out of here, go get the others!

A new guy enters the area from the south gate and helps the first pull me back down to the ground as those other four continue to cower a few feet back from me.

The owl takes 4 dmg starting in moonbeam again and doesn’t care, the barely-felt pain is worth the extra awe-inspiring beauty of her spotlight. She is hovering there at about the same height as Ixayl’anu (about 30ft off the ground): Keep that one contained, I will get the flying one!

She’s sad to leave her moonbeam, but flies after Ixayl’anu and misses both attacks. Screams: Look at me! (tries to charm Ixayl’anu and fails)

Ixayl’anu screams right back at her and lands all 3 attacks plus a level 2 smite: 45 total damage. “Never trust owls!”

The Superb Owl screeches again.

Diem goes completely limp and in the owl’s voice says: I have possessed this one, you can let it go. (23 deception)

Everyone buys it and lets Diem go. They immediately zoom 30 ft up and 30 ft toward Ixayl’anu, flying with her between me and the owl.

Guys who let them go realizing their mistake: Oh shit!

(3D chess for everyone now!)

The Northern portion of the crowd begins surging toward us as well, both guys who had Diem are running after them even though they’re 30 ft up.

Korial, the feathered dragonborn from one of Ixayl’anu’s home islands (who had been in charge of and enlisted in the fighting competition) had come out at some point, disappeared in his tent again, and is now coming out, handing off nets to capable-looking people nearby so he can take a shot with his bow at Ixayl’anu. He hits her for 10 dmg

The Superb Owl screams in Ixayl’anu’s face again and tries to grab at her for a grapple. 18 slashing damage and a strength check of 20 vs 21. Ixayl’anu pulls herself away from the grapple at the last minute, which is ruled one reason why the claws hurt so much - made the wound worse pulling out of the grasp.

Ixayl’anu’s next attack misses, but her 2nd does 15dmg plus another smite for 9 more dmg (total 24dmg).

Diem still doesn’t want to hurt the owl if they can avoid it, it’s chaotic good, but just doesn’t understand the concept and finality of death for mortals or why consent is important for the little honor guard it’s trying to create. They are out of big spells, but still have a lightning bolt in their ring if it comes down to it. However, the people also need to know this fey is willing to kill them for the sake of convenience anyway. It’s not outright evil, but inhuman enough it will kill them as easy as praise them.

As such, totally trying to create some doubts and tarnish the awe, show a little truth in a dramatic way, Diem moves their hands in front of their face as if they’re casting a spell, conveniently blocking anyone able to see their face from seeing their mouth move as they mimic The Superb Owl’s voice again, as loud as they can supervillain style and say: I will kill anyone who fails me! (21 deception).

A good amount of people around the South fence pause a little bit at this, including the guys who let them go during the last deception.

After that, Diem shoots Northwest and up 60ft to get above and behind The Superb Owl without flying close enough on the way to cause an attack of opportunity (essentially 20ft behind the owl to the northwest and 30ft up for a total of 60ft above ground and away from Korial’s bow).

They cast an eldritch blast but their heart still really isn’t in killing this pretty fey creature yet (Ixayl’anu is definitely not holding back for sure). Their first blast of crackling iridescent magic misses entirely as a result, and the other is held back too much, doing only 3dmg.

The guys who got nets from Korial are now close enough to throw them at Ixayl’anu, but both nets go wide without accidentally ensnaring any of the people under her instead.

Korial shoots at Ixayl’anu again, but misses.

The Superb Owl: Get more archers! Stop using the nets!

She disengages from Ixie and flies a bigger circle away. She goes up to about 80ft off the ground and take a commanding view of the whole area.

Ixayl’anu has seen birds of prey do this maneuver - she’s getting height so she can do a dive at Ixayl’anu (from 50ft above her now/20ft higher up than Diem is). Diem is clueless what this means for Ixayl’anu.

Ixayl’anu drops moonbeam and downs a potion (16 healing) on her way to get behind the owl and in front of me, close enough she and Diem both get the advantages of the bless she casts in moonbeam’s place (add a d4 to any attack roll or saving throw for a minute - 10 rounds).

Diem casts message on The Superb Owl, speaking directly in her head in sylvan, using their patron’s voice: Harm my pets and mark my words you will have an archfey hounding your immortality, making sure no one anywhere ever even thinks about worshipping you ever again (Intimidation check of 26).

The Superb Owl’s wingbeat pauses and she dips down a couple of feet in reaction. She’s still for the moment.

Diem yells out as loud as they can, in part for the Northside audience this time (and in their own voice): This is your last chance, do this the right way, no one’s taken by force and no one dies if they refuse!

24 performance for the crowd gets another big circle near enough to hear who are beginning to doubt. This includes Korial who has run forward enough he heard Diem’s yell. He also pauses and shakes his head a little bit.

The owl takes a good look around at the chaos and doubters, she screams an angry and hurt sound: None of you were really worth it anyway!

She disengages, picks up speed by dropping about 30 ft (still about 50ft from the ground though) and books it back toward the iron heights.

Ixayl’anu misty steps after her and crackles lightning effects, swiping at the air in the Superb Owl’s direction, making noises to reinforce driving her away and generally trying to be intimidating “You better run!” style. She rolls an 11 for intimidation. She can’t see the owl’s face for obvious reasons, but feels like she did a good job.

(The “Victory Speech” No One Asked For)

Diem flies lower toward the ground and makes themself look like an autumn-and-firey-sun themed archfey with a slightly higher voice than their patron’s to address the people around then. Their impulsive goal here is mainly to check on the hostility levels of the crowd while also trying to make sure a the presence of an archfey makes it into some stories. Just in case any of those get back to The Superb Owl in the future. They don’t use their own patron’s looks because they don’t know how their patron would feel getting that credit. They do go for a fiery-autumn look thinking this heavily V’kandis sun god religious area might attribute the deed in story to V’kandis instead, or an archfey follower (vague spur-of-the-moment possibilities for how this story gets retold over the years lol). Their performance is only a 16 for this though and it’s ruled that most people are simply distracted by the charm suddenly getting dispelled, becoming worried about loved ones and children/parents, etc. no longer in sight. Either way, everyone clearly knows what happened now (insofar as being charmed goes). Diem finished the story with what the owl had been planning, that it wasn’t just harmless (to hopefully discourage later retellings from making the owl out to be something to be tolerated the next time it comes around. Like no, it was definitely planning to take people against their will and seriously considering killing anyone merely for refusing to go with it. As they see the mood of the whole crowd shifting toward deflated sadness and seriousness, they end with what they hope is an inspiring message to find their loved ones and celebrate the return of their freedom. Diem knows it’s not their best work for sure, but they think it went over reasonably well for people being understandably distracted by suddenly remembering all the things and people and tasks the owl made them forget. They do notice Korial is standing there just listening and watching, head tilted after the hold on him was also dispelled.

At the end, Diem then pretends, for the benefit of whomever might still be watching, to be released by the mysterious autumn-fire entity who’d possessed them, their own visage fading back in as they get their bearings and look up at Ixayl’anu. They pull out their sending stone and say into it: Owl taken care of, we’re on our way to you guys in Stoneroost, let us know if we shouldn’t.

(Rana and Fee are falling!)

Fee makes a perception or investigation of 23 right before they start falling, they both hear a crack of thunder even though the sky isn’t stormy. Arcana check of 2 - Fee thinks it’s thunderbird thunder, there might be a thunderbird nearby she just doesn’t know.

Rana was showboating a little like “look at my mountains!” before she fell.

They feel cocooned in this nice little bubble of antigravity and have a slow descent that stops right above the trees like levitating above the treeline.

The ropen are following their descent with intent. 30-40 ft away still, it has embellishment on it - what Rana assumed was a natural coloration, it’s a paint/tattoo and jewelry situation.

These details make no difference to Fee.

Rana has an arm extended toward Fee about to cast a polymorph, but then they’re slowing down to a stop. “Fee are you okay?”

“Yeah, you?” Fee was also reaching for her hand and they manage to grasp hands.

When they stop, Fee tries to see if she can swim in the air, but she doesn’t move.

Rana: were you hit?

Fee: No you?

Rana: No

Fee: Can you become an owl again?

Rana: No...well, yes, but not the same way and I don’t know what knocked me out of owl to begin with (Rana is watching the Ropen as they talk - it’s taking its sweet time to get to them like a turkey vulture rather than any bird of prey about to swoop down and snatch you motions.

Fee looks for the ground through the trees and asks something I missed.

Rana perceives 18 trying to see if there are any other ropen around. 100 ft or so and getting closer (overiding the shorter distance earlier). She casts speak with animals and calls out: “Hello!?” (holds her hands out in peaceful gesture, rats freaking out with “What the fuck is happening?!” type chatter in her ears now).

Rana and Fee must make a con save, both fail (7 and 9, respectively). Both begin to hear ringing sounds in their ears - it’s SPN angel speak type noise. It crescendos to the point it hurts, all in their head, past the point of unbearable for a half second before it cuts out and they take 3 psychic dmg.

The ropen is close enough to hover in front of them after that and they both hear an intense psychic voice “This is not a safe place to be so I am going to bring you back to the nearest settlement - you should not be here until we handle it.”

Rana: We can’t go back, we’re here to figure out what’s going on.

Ropen: We’re taking care of it, their invisible bubbles of levitation start moving both Rana and Fee back the way they came.

Rana makes one persuasion check of 6 before the ropen puts them both to sleep. The whole time the ropen made them feel like they were being talked to as a child by an ancient, one that radiates strong magic.

(The zone you tried to access is down for maintenance; have a portal, take a nap)

Both Fee and Rana wake up feeling like it was really brief, but find themselves in a field outside Bouldergap. (Tournament was southwest of Bouldergap, they wake up northeast of Bouldergap - slightly farther away from town, and directly North of the road in.

Wisdom saving throws: 13 Rana, 20 Fee; Rana wakes up without memory of why she’s even here, the last she remembers she was an owl flying to Stoneroost. She tries to point at the empty air like the ropen is still there though.

Rana: Look, look that’s the thing I saw!

Fee: Yeah we both saw it…?

Rana: Yeah it’s right there! (the air is obviously empty though)

Fee: Uuuhhhhh…

Rana: Wait a minute, why are we back here? (She checks on the rats, who she can no longer understand, but that’s okay because she doesn’t remember casting that spell anyway.)

Fee: Oh, I see, what’s the last thing you remember, friend?

Rana: Flying

Fee: And then we were falling.

Rana statues.

Fee: Here’s what I think happened, I think your bird demons have some kind of bubble around Stoneroost because you somehow became not an owl and we were plummeting toward the ground and they slowed our descent and they made this awful noise screaming in our heads or maybe just my head and then talked to us like kids and were like “No we don’t need your help, we got this dudes.” (She retells the whole thing with more words than this but this is all I got transcribed live).

Rana looks doubtful: I think I’d remember that...

Fee: Yeah you would think…

At about this time, Diem’s voice comes through on the sending stones.

Diem: Owl taken care of, we’re on our way to you guys in Stoneroost, let us know if we shouldn’t.

Fee picks up almost immediately: No, don’t go to Stoneroost - fly to the other side of the tournament just out of town, we’re, well...marco polo or something when you get close until you find us and we’ll catch you up on--

Rana interrupts: Meet us at the gate into Bouldergap.

Fee: Yeah. That probably works better.

It will take Diem and Ixayl’anu about 5 minutes to fly to their destination.

In the meantime, as Rana and Fee walk toward said gate, they talk about what Rana doesn’t remember. She is very VERY interested in everything Fee has to say about the ropen. Fortunately for her, while Fee didn’t care about all the details of the ropen, she did take note of them with her high perception and was able to describe them pretty accurately to Rana - including the detail that they aren’t naturally colorful so much as wearing paint or tattoos and decorative jewelry that glints in the sun. Rana doesn’t know enough about ropen to say whether any of this was normal or not.

The lore for them is only that they’re brightly coloured pterodactyl-like creatures. No one’s gotten close enough to realize it’s not a natural thing and Rana thought they were just animals until now.

They do both remember getting just past the area where we saw the abominations on the road before they were stopped and ported away.

(Together again)

As Diem and Ixayl’anu approach and land, they find Fee and Rana both looking pissed, Rana has her map out, half plotting a route through the mountains instead.

Diem: How’d you guys get over here? Nevermind because…(they proceed to excitedly tell how things went with the owl - including the bit Ixayl’anu was not yet aware of about the message spell convincing the owl that their patron promised retribution if their pets, plural, were harmed)

Ixayl’anu preens with pride over her actions and shining moments during the story. We did not highlight, live, that she would be hearing the message that chased the owl off for the first time though, so there’s no noted reaction to that bit.

Rana (after Diem concludes the story): I hope the Ropen gets it.

Ixayl’anu: Ropen?

Rana looks at Fee: Well, since I don’t remember what happened…?

Fee: Yeah...remember how Rana was gonna carry me safely and we were gonna do this recon mission…?

Rana glares into the open air at nothing over the whole situation.

Fee: Once we got a little more than halfway to Stoneroost, just past where we were before we hit a bubble or something I don’t know but that big Rope-Roc bird thing flew in and Rana got switched back and we were falling then we were not falling and then the bird thing screamed in our heads and it hurt. Then was all like, “Don’t come over here I got this.” and then I don’t know yeah that’s when we were put to sleep and moved over here. I guess Rana must’ve been dropped too hard because she doesn’t remember it all.

(Again, there were definitely more words used than this, more things said, all amusing retellings, but this is all I got transcribed live)

Rana: They’ve never stopped me going through the mountains before, so I’m thinking we go through the mountains and hike out there in the morning. (She also notes that they didn’t see abominations on the road though, at least).

We talk about possibly going by road one more time, but this time, coming out silver scale first to see if that gets us in the door with these Ropen. Among our options is Rana just straight flying out there again with one of us on her back, Ixayl’anu riding on her elk, or possibly hiking back out there and flying for the last 10-20 minutes. All with the silver scale and letter ready to show as a potential vip pass.

Diem pulls out their sending stone and starts to catch the guard captain up on everything as we head her way to check in.

Eldeth: Just meet me at the guard house, this is too much to take in over sending stones.

(At the guard house)

By the time we get there Eldeth says she’s heard many different stories but they all start with YOU (here she points at Ixayl’anu) breathing lightning all over the damned thing.

Ixayl’anu (not in the least as guilty as she should be lol): Yeah…

Eldeth: (nods to self like “Alright then.”) Well we hadn’t tried that, but it worked.

Diem fills her in with 25 performance on every little detail of everything tried first and failed and why etc. including visual demonstration of the archfey they tried to put in the story for retelling in case anything got back to the owl at least some versions might have an archfey involved.

Eldeth seems to appreciate all the details: Well, we had a deal and you handled it, but I’m not gonna lie I’d prefer to help you through to Stoneroost in the morning.

She calls in two guards for us though - a dark blue skinned goliath barbarian type named Mash Jufrin who has a pegleg (Mash was one of the dumb guards from the other day) and a reddish older looking warrior tiefling named Tioshikio Ayibi. Eldeth introduces them and says, “These are who I can spare - they’re the best at smashing things.”

Mash (laughing): Yeah I’m best at smashing things.

Diem: Delighted to meet you (to Eldeth after looking at the rest of their party) I’m definitely for the morning though too, I could use a short rest?

The others nod agreement.

Tio: In that case, I’ll go help out with breaking down all the festival havoc and meet you all at the gate out toward Stoneroost in the morning.

As Diem notices no one is telling the Stoneroost route story, they message Fee to ask why they’re not telling their story.

Fee out loud: Oh yeah you should totally do that!

Diem (also out loud now): Me? Oh...okay *tries to remember everything Fee said and does a 26 performance on telling their story*

Only because of that performance do they not laugh at Diem outright for talking about sky bigfoot but Eldeth is still looking at Rana (the local of our group) like “Seriously?”

Rana gives a look back like yeeaaaah...it is though, I know how it sounds. (She’d been wincing and frowning at every mention of ropen during the story.)

Eldeth believes us but points out that she wouldn’t otherwise if not for the owl and everything crazy that’s been going on of late. She recommends Tio to get more supplies to that end from the armory. We all part ways, Diem getting their extra sending stone back after announcing they have a date to get to.

(Free evening for shopping and more!)

We get the evening to do whatever we like. Rana needs a 300 gold diamond, so she’s going to go shopping. Since it’s on the way to other places we’re all headed, we all go with. Rana gets distracted by all the shiny pretty gems, Ixayl’anu has to pry her away eventually. Rana picks up 2 diamonds and can’t help herself, picks up 2 rubies, a sapphire and an emerald. Loose stones that call to her. Handful of rubies and pretty things.

Diem forgot in the live session but since it was determined they were there for the shopping on their way back to Emmen’s festival tent, they have been approved for also picking up some pretty stones and would have been just as enthralled by the pretties as Rana lol. Gem haul (whopping total of 1500gp lol): Includes 3, 10gp titanium rainbow peacock kyanite feathers, a large Iolite/Cordierite sample that is dark blue with white and clear crystal clusters in it at first glance - looking closer at various angles reveals the whites to shift into shades of silver that blend in with the blues that also shift with lighting into shades of black and violet as well (300gp for a small “brick” sized uncut chunk). Another normal-sized sample of this same uncut stone for 50gp, a water opal with an imperfection that looks like a crescent moon, worth 1000gp (the two big ticket items are to be gifts for their patron, if anyone asks), and topped off with a pouch of additional, hand-selected rough cut samples of asst other stones mostly in shades of teals and purples (basically would look like a small stash of rough fluorite, quartz, etc.). They also pick up a little amethyst cat figuring worth 100gp (because gifts to the fey should always come in threes).

Ixayl’anu hauls us out of there before we spend ALL of our money there (I mean for her goddess’ sake, it’s not like they’re the teeth of a rare and impressive beast or something) and goes off to find a shop with healing potions where she buys two common healing potions (100g total).

Diem gets 2 greater healing potions for 150 each.

Rana says she’s going to the temple, everyone but Diem is gonna join her there. Diem splits off from the rest to find their aforementioned “date.”

Ixayl’anu resummons her elk in the temple courtyard. It takes her 10 minutes to do so. He bugles frantically as though no time had passed since he was attacked and Ixayl’anu is there with horse girl hugs and affection that he appreciates as she calms him down.

Mutanamri quietly comes up to her during this: So while you’re welcome to stay here, and we appreciate all your help recently...your steed does have to stay outside the temple...it’s a little bit of a sacrilegious thing, so if you could put it out in the stables please?

Ixayl’anu nods and says she understands. She and her elk continue their affectionate reunion on the way to stables. She spends the night in the stables with her elk, sleeping together.

Rana floats the idea with Fee to do a find the item and retrieve course for the rats outside the temple somewhere. Fee agrees. Rana hands Fee a frickin ruby for this game and uses a frickin emerald for Hamlet, hiding them for retrieval. These are the games of the rich, people lol. Rana casts speak with animals and they send the rats out on their missions. They make animal handling checks of 8 for Rana and 17 for Fee 17. Horatio wins! It does help that he recognizes the “retrieve” game through practice a little better than Hamlet does.

We confirm that tiny animals stopped speaking draconic about a couple miles out of Longview. So Fee can also speak to and understand her rat through her ring.

Afterward Rana settles down by the flame and Fee with her, presumably.

(In the morning…)

In the morning, after everyone’s gotten up and performed early morning mass, Alka Briskfizz, a dwarven priestess in green, gold, and cream-colored robes, her orangey-red hair in pigtails approaches Rana and Fee: I heard you helped with the owl situation and I know you talked to Mutanamri a little bit about that already. I’m actually here right now because I’d like to offer my services for your other trip - I’ve got some family in Stoneroost as well. It would be nice to go up and see them with your group, make sure everything’s alright. I have some healing capabilities.

Rana nods: We’ll take all the help we can get.

Fee: Yeah…

Alka: Good - though...I thought there was more of you?

Rana: Yeah, we have to go collect one of us somewhere in town and the other is sleeping in the stables with her elk.

(some missed conversation for sure)

Fee: Have you heard anything more about what might be going on?

Alka: Every time I’ve been on the road it’s been uneventful, so this is new to me.

Fee talks about how the road was creepy and Alka says that’s definitely not normal for the pass.

Rana talks about what to expect on the road, mentions the ropen but frames it like, ‘yeah, we know it sounds crazy, but with everything else that’s going on, why not an impossible cryptid too?’.

Fee chimes in every now and then.

Alka’s listening politely. Rana insight checks at a 12 on her reactions - she seems skeptical but open to there being something best described, for now, as a mythological cryptid.

They swing by the stable first to pick up Ixayl’anu and that’s where the session ends.

#Fight the owl meet the ropen #Anesh #Bouldergap #Stoneroost #ropen #The Superb Owl #Korial #Lawmaster Eldeth #Mash Jufrin #Tioshikio Ayibi #Mutanamri Sichar #Alka Briskfizz #Autumn archfey disguise #Diem pretends to be their patron #Emmen Hayley alluded to #The Iron Heights mentioned

[brownstonearmy]

2021-06-26: A Symphony of Major Movements (Part 3)

Sunday September 6 (afternoon)

So technically we're starting this adventure a few minutes before the conclusion of the last session, because we're following what Lucky and Hilaria  were doing just before that outhouse/sinkhole fight. Our nigh-inseparable duo is trying to fix the horror that's unfolding at the axe-throwing booth.

Before Brynnan turned the festival into chaos, this little booth was a place of skill and civility. Hit the target; win a prize. Now the axe-throwing booth has turned bloodthirsty. People are volunteering to be strapped to the targets and have axes thrown at them by strangers.

In this case, the rules of "hit the target; win a prize" still apply. It's just that the prize is someone's death.

Lucky has an idea to lessen the body count. "Use these pillows!" she says via Mass Suggestion. Bean bags and other soft objects are swiftly picked up by the participants and a bloodthirsty pillow fight begins. Nobody's gonna die from being bludgeoned by a plush duck, that's not gonna stop them from trying.

It is at this time that Lucky and Hilaria are reunited with Sparkle and Spleenifer. The outhouse/sinkhole fight has concluded, Yula's body is disintegrated again, and Maximum Bidet has left to search for other souls to purify. Now the party turns their collective attention to the stream of blood that appears to be trickling from underneath the final tent at the festival.

A magician in a top hat (because magicians can't NOT have top hats, right?) is preparing to saw a volunteer in half. The magician calls for volunteers via mass suggestion, and Sparkle nearly succumbs to the invitation (but doesn't, thanks to hanging out with Lucky). Hilaria, on the other hand, is delighted to volunteer for a cool magic trick. It's just a cool trick with set decoration that involves several dismembered bodies. Those are decorations, right?

Lucky's got experience for dealing with situations that go pear-shaped, so she sneaks through the audience in the stands and begins warming up her Mizzium Apparatus.

"Are you going to cut her in half?" Spleenifer asks the magician.

"No," the magician says. "I'll cut her into four pieces!"

This is Lucky's turn to shine. She activates the apparatus and triggers a wild magic surge. "I'll cut her into a MILLION pieces!" Lucky says as she poofs Hilaria into a gaseous cloud. A spotlight now illuminates Lucky wherever she goes, even in places where it would be impossible for a spotlight to be, because that's how wild magic works.

It's apparently in poor taste to upstage the primary performer, and the magician commands his thralls in the audience to deal with the heckling of Lucky. Detached zombie hands belonging to the audience members swarm together and converge on Lucky, who uses Thunderstep to attack the swarms and zip away.

Lucky takes a deep bow in the spotlight, as the magician unleashes an assault of psychic damage on her. Sparkle repays Lucky's favor from earlier, with a catchy little Didge-based jingle allowing Lucky to avoid the magician's Mind Fire.

There's a lot of psychic damage and inspiration and rerolls happening, but the party is holding steady. Spleenifer leaps to attack while screaming "I'm going to slather you with a tithe!"

A pair of flying swords zoom into the air from their respective places in barrels on the stage. Lucky is still busy bowing and the swords miss her. It's time to see what's REALLY going on, so Lucky casts True Seeing.

The weird thing is that not much changes. The magician still looks magician-y. The swords are still flying and the zombies are still zombies. But there's one curious addition to the scene that Lucky can now see: a halfling-sized jack in the box bearing a likeness of Brynnan's head.

Meanwhile, Spleenifer tries to grapple one of the flying sword and things do not go according to plan. Wild luck happens to intervene, though, and Spleenifer ends up kickflipping the sword to swing it around and get the business end pointed at the magician.

At this point, Sparkle is blocking the magician's path to Lucky. The magician demands Sparkle step aside, and Sparkle gives a cutting response in the negative. The magician responds by wielding his iron rod and bludgeoning Sparkle with it. Twice. For a big hurt.

Sparkle is almost dead at this point, but the other members of the party are involved in their own struggles against the magician, the swords, and the zombie swarms, and are unable to assist for the moment. Sparkle almost succumbs to a swarm of zombie hands, but Spleenifer summons yet another steed to push Sparkle out of the danger zone.

In case you were wondering, the horse's name was Desire (Also Matthew).

Lucky turns her attention to the weird jack in the box and prepares to cast Chaos Bolt on it. A lot of stuff happens at once here, so read this next paragraph carefully.

The magician sees Lucky casting a spell at what appears to be empty air and flees because he knows what's about to happen. Spleenifer releases the flying sword at just the right moment to have it leap from her hand and impale the fleeing magician. Sparkle drinks a potion to heal a few hit points and hopefully make it back into the double digits again. Lucky's spell goes off, reflects off the jack in the box, and smashes into Lucky. But Lucky uses her reaction to absorb the elemental damage with her sword, Papercut. The stored sonic energy from the chaos bolt is unleashed against the remaining flying sword, shattering it.

Whew!

Once the jack in a box (Brynnan in a box?) got attacked, its invisibility dropped and Brynnan's smarmy voice begins to speak through it. He taunts the party with a rhyme:

I am rubber and you are glue. Catch me and I'll listen to you. The festival's end is in sight But only if you can guess right.

If wrong guesses are more your speed, Then lots of health will be your need. But wait too long and then you'll see My friends have come to play with me.

Since attacking the box didn't work so well for Lucky, the party tries to approach it on foot. Except every time someone comes within a few feet of it, the box says something and teleports somewhere else. This goose chase goes on for a few rounds, so Lucky breaks out the big guns: Universal Solvent.

Rubber is something that can be dissolved with the solvent, so she sprays it on the box to defeat its wily test. The box promptly admits defeat (also in rhyme).

You've caught me now, that much is true. Guess I have to listen to you. What's your wish, and make it quick, My maker still will be a dick.

Lucky's wish is straightforward. She wishes for all the people who died to come back to life. And that's exactly what happens at the harvest festival. The death toll for this event resets to zero.

With the horror contained for today, Lucky throws a shirt in front of Hilaria's gaseous form and makes her reappear in human form. The spotlight is still on her, of course, and there is a round of applause as the adventure concludes for the evening.

Stay tuned next time for more!

#adventure log #dungeons and dragons #shits and giggles #harvest festival #magician #jack in the box #rhyme

[transmage]

a short and unedited character exploration for my mc vincent from @smokeandvelvet-cog‘s game, feat. a likely ooc nico 😂 really though, this game is super good so far, and it inspired me to break out of my months long writing block. check it out if you’re into mysteries, horror, and playable monsters!! actual writing below the cut.

It starts as an itch at the back of your skull. A nagging; someone tugging at a snagged fishing line, desperately trying to reclaim the lure instead of cutting the wire but it holds fast, clinging to whatever it’s latched onto in the murky depths.

You are still underwater.

With a frown you set the plant back on your desk. It seems to stare at you, mockingly, as if it knows the memory you don’t. As if it knows all your secrets.

Your frown deepens. Stupid thing. Stupid needy thing, complaining one minute about too much sun, the next not enough, too much water, too little water, poor soil quality… Why’d you buy it again?

…Right. You’d figured it’d be something “homey” that wouldn’t give away anything personal; after all it’s just a plant, but apparently you were wrong, apparently plants can be pompous and lord all your stolen memories over you.

Geez. Okay. Get a grip.

You turn pointedly away from it, squinting out the window instead, as if ignoring its presence will teach it a lesson, make it less smug. This is what you’ve come to, huh. Mental arguments with a peace lily. Maybe Nico should mark this down on your medical chart. Or maybe you shouldn’t be thinking about Nico at all, given the history between you two that he can remember and you can’t.

Sometimes you wish he would just pretend to not know you at all. That’d be easier to deal with than the sadness you see when he smiles at you. You’re not sure what you are to him — a ghost? A criminal? Damaged goods?

…What were you before?

He’s never said. You suspect he never will. A memory to haunt him while the absence haunts you, you suppose. You wish you knew if you had been a different person before the…incident. Kinder, perhaps? Friendlier? Though that’s not exactly the type of person the world has hammered you out to be. Maybe you haven’t changed at all. Maybe that’s why Nico looks at you with those sad eyes; still an asshole, after everything.

Your breath is heavy with a sigh as you lift a palm to rub at your eyes. It’s been nearly a year and you’re frustrated. Constantly. No closer to answers, no closer to comfort. You can’t even sleep these days. Thank you, trauma-induced nightmares. Really pumping the adrenaline back into life, huh? Because getting nearly mauled to death by a rougarou wasn’t enough.

A sharp pain pulses through your side at the thought, leaving you wincing, a clawed hand instinctually lowering over the scars you’ll likely have for the rest of your life. If it hadn’t been for your damn fevers and the infuriating fact that you couldn’t use your fire for risk of being sent back to the Yard —

There’s a knock at the door.

You recognize the scent before you open it — Nico. Of course. Like some damn psychic. You swear, if he asks how you’re feeling one more time…

“Vincent?”

Your hand pauses on the door knob and you wonder, briefly, if he ever used to call you Van. …Stupid thought. Stupid nickname. Stupid assumption of intimacy. You open the door a moment later, attempting to plaster on a neutral expression, but your tail is bristled in a guarded display of defense — hopefully Nico isn’t that up to date on hellhound body language.

And if he is, he doesn’t show it. Doesn’t even look down. He has to look up slightly to see your face anyway, his expression as neutral as yours. Neither of you usually keep it that way when in the presence of each other — you’re far too adept at pushing his buttons. Getting on everyone else’s nerves has kind of become your thing.

“Yes…?”

There’s a long beat of uncomfortable silence. He seems reluctant to speak further.

“…I wanted to check in. You left ab—”

Your groan is loud enough to interrupt him, and you roll your eyes, fighting back the urge to slam the door in his face. “I’m fine. It was just a headache. I don’t need you constantly hovering, okay? You and the others can quit with all your glances, I’m not some glass doll, Nico.” The last words roll into a growl, echoing in the back of your throat, your lips unintentionally curling upwards to expose sharp canines.

Nico, for his part, seems unimpressed by the display. You can hear the stifled sigh, the brief close of his eyelids as if to regain composure. Tired. He’s tired. Of you? Well, who wouldn’t be?

“Is it really that hard for you to accept that I — we — care about your wellbeing.”

“Yes.” You thought that was obvious.

Your tail raises slightly. Nico does glance down at that, his lips pursing into a tight line for a moment, some emotion crossing his face you can’t read.

“Are you in pain?”

The new approach throws you off guard. You don’t answer, and fuck, there’s those sad eyes again, as if he can’t help but look at you and see…two different people.

“Danny’s making lunch. You should join us.”

Some type of non-committal grunt is your only response. Nico seems to take it as the end of the conservation, and you waste no time in closing the door in confirmation. A deep exhale follows the click of the knob locking into place, and you press your forehead against the wood as your eyes flutter shut.

Abrasive. Aggressive. A hundred different adjectives for unlikeable you could apply to yourself, yet Nico keeps trying. Fatima and Danny do too, you realize dimly. Isla likely doesn’t care one way or another how you act. Still, you wish they’d just give up and let you rot in this room to —

No, you don’t.

Oh, come on. Was that the goddamn plant? You whip your head around to glare at the unassuming thing. Alright, maybe it’s official. You’re losing your mind. This lily is about to become your therapist. What joy.

Go join them for lunch and maybe you’ll calm down.

“Oh, are you really about to patronize me?” Shut up Van, don’t fucking talk back to it.

It resumes its smug silence. Somehow, that’s worse. You press your palms against your eyes and rub your fingers over the fur on your head — fine. Fine! You’ll go to lunch. You’ll socialize.

What’s the worst that could happen?

#my writing #smoke and velvet #smoke & velvet cog #vincent tag #this isn't even GOOD but man it felt so good to actually write something again instead of staring at a blank document #and it's been ages since i posted something here #i'm quickly becoming very attached to my hellhound lmao even if he's an aggressive asshole

[reddeaddamnation]

"Frienemies” - Noctis Lucis Caelum x Reader

“Have you two been bickering again?“ Ignis asked in a tired-of-all-your-shit voice, adjusting his glasses on his nose. You have been traveling with the king and his entourage of guardians since you met them at Hammerfell one day and got along with all of them perfectly, but in all your fantasies, you never would have known you and Noctis wouldn’t say two sentences to each other without fighting. You didn’t regard his title for anything, therefore didn’t hold anything back to hurt him with your words and he did the same. Of course, there were times when you would talk normally and surprisingly, you two had a lot in common. But there was always something to fight over - his recklessness, his moping which drove you crazy, a plan which could get you all killed, a training session or (mainly) whenever he drives, instead of Ignis... It was all rather amusing to Gladio whenever you snapped at each other and sent various stinging comebacks back and forth, Prompto usually distanced himself from it, but Ignis could only tolerate so much... 

A couple of weeks ago, he decided to put an end to it once and for all and all hell would break loose if he caught you two at each other’s throats. He didn’t yell or say anything in particular, no, but the icy glare he sent your way, the stoic expression that hinted him not tolerating you saying another word and the seemingly calm stance, which as if dared you to continue in front of him instantly made you and Noct back away and even hug, laughing and exclaiming how you’re the best of best friends through awkward smiles and frightened looks if this could convince the royal adviser not to kill you.

“No!“ you instantly exclaimed “We were just...“ then Noctis cut you off from your lack of words and stuttering and continued instead of you “Ah...Discussing...“ he smiled awkwardly at Ignis. “And what, pray tell, were you discussing?“ Ignis raised an eyebrow expectantly. The truth was, of course, that you weren’t discussing anything. You were currently at the Galdin Quay and while you were eating at the restaurant, talking about the iron giant you defeated earlier, Noctis just had to say that you are predictable in battle and from there he stated that you’re predictable overall. You would have snapped, called him an idiot, a buffoon and anything really, but then you looked at Ignis, who was calmly cutting up the fish in his plate. Noctis kept prodding at his patience by giving various examples to rest his case of how predictable you are. How you always bite your lip when you’re nervous, how your eye twitches when you’re mad, how you always take two steps back before attacking, how you always order the same thing when you go to a restaurant and how you always taunt the enemy to make them more mad. 

Then, mid sentence, Ignis kicked the boy under the table to make him shut up, and thankfully he got the hint quickly. “I was just...giving advice!” Noctis smiled awkwardly, forcing himself to chuckle “It’s good to have your enemies not know your next move.” You grinned evilly and spoke in a silky voice “My, my, king. Very clairvoyant of you. If I didn’t know, I’d say you were stalking me.” From there, Noct blushed furiously and practically jumped in his chair, yelling out “I would never! You’re just so obviously easy to predict!” And only caused you, Gladio and Prom to laugh out loud. You stood up from your chair and walked over to him “Predict this then.” Then, you wrapped your arms around his shoulders and kissed his cheek, making him gasp and blush even more if that was possible. Gladio whistled loudly and soon, the boys erupted into a new fit of laughter.

Even after dinner, when the mood seemingly returned to normal, the king didn’t leave things the way they were. Your smug smirk and cocky behavior were something he didn’t intend to let go soon and when the boys went to bed, he found you at the pier, leaning against the fence and staring into the water. “I knew I’d find you here.” Noct stated. “Well if it isn’t the psychic himself.” you turned to look at him with a smirk, ready to lash out now that Ignis wasn’t around. “I can’t believe you embarrassed me in front of the whole place!” he raised his voice, waving his hands around angrily, but you merely laughed “Now I rest my case that you’re stalking me.”

The argument went on for awhile, until Ignis himself suddenly appeared and looked like he knew everything which was going on. And that was how you got yourself in this situation. “We were discussing...” the king stuttered, wondering what to say “Training!” you finished “Yeah, training” Noctis put his arm around your shoulder and let out a pretend cheerful laugh, making you cringe “We want to train together and were discussing the various weapons.” Ignis wasn’t buying it. His raised eyebrow and unimpressed face gave it away. “That was a rather loud discussion, don’t you think?” he asked sarcastically. “Okay, it was more of a debate really.” You played along, bringing your hand up and with a friendly laugh, slapped Noctis on the back, just like friends would do. Only, you did it harder and almost knocked the boy king over “What do you think, Ignis? Daggers are quicker but aren’t as powerful, while swords deal more damage, but are slower to swing.” Again, Ignis wasn’t impressed and saw right through the nervous smile.

“Hm.“ The adviser adjusted his glasses again “You are right. Although with a dagger you can deal devastating damage if used correctly.“ You and Noctis sighed out in relief quietly. Success, you thought. You averted his attention! “Alright then.“ Ignis clapped his hands, cracking a small smile “Gladio insisted we do some training before continuing our journey. You two will join us.” his piercing gaze was back, as he suspiciously looked you over, as if daring you to object “Provided, of course, you don’t kill each other.“ You and Noct laughed awkwardly again “What?“ you said in unison “Of course not!“ And with those words, you started wobbling back towards the hotel, arms wrapped around each other’s shoulders “We’re the best of friends, aren’t we, [Y/N]?“ Noct asked you, voice almost cheerful “Oh, yeah! Couldn’t imagine a better friend even if I tried.“ you lied through your teeth.

Just as promised, at the crack of dawn, you exited your room, tired out of your mind, to go training with the man you couldn’t stand. But for your own sake, you knew better than to make Ignis mad. He was just the kind of person, who you don’t want to make mad or disappoint, even if he doesn’t exactly do anything to arouse fear at first glance. Of course, you loved your friend, but just a warning glance could send you running for your life and freeze the blood in your veins. You met Noctis just outside the hotel, looking just as tired as you felt. “Hm...what was the name of that one daemon...” you wondered out loud, tapping your chin “It walks around at night and doesn’t let you sleep, eats all your fries, along with the nerves in your body and is widely known for being obnoxious and making the people around it hear only ‘blah, blah’ whenever it starts talking.” you grinned at him challengingly, reminding him of how he always woke you up with his loud steps and fidgeting and when he ate all your fries when you were out camping. That was awhile ago, but you weren’t going to forget it “Hint: It appears during the day as well and is called Noctis.”

He simply glared at you, lips in a tight line and was about to answer, until the all too familiar voice of Ignis caused him to change his behavior entirely. “Good morning!” he exclaimed cheerfully, as if it wasn’t four in the morning. You and Noct immediately donned on your own smiles and greeted him and Gladio, who followed behind. “Glad to see you two are finally getting along.” Gladio winked at you. “Well, of course!” You exclaimed and as if automatically you and Noctis hugged like you did last night in front of Ignis, arms around each other’s shoulders “Best friends, am I right?” You shared a small, uncomfortable laugh. Gladio had to hold in his own chuckles, while Ignis simply raised an eyebrow. “Alright...” he said slowly “Well, on with the training, then.”

It took you some time to respire, because you were just so tired and at first, the training session was a bit sloppy and the sand on the beach made your movements worse because it was so slippery. But Noctis’ constant remarks made your blood boil and soon you gained enough strength to duck under his sword and violently kick at his legs, sweeping him from the ground and making him fall. Noctis groaned and stood up slowly, eyes fixed on you in a piercing glare. “Oh, I wonder what that one daemon’s name is.” he smirked devilishly “It sucks the life out of you and has the ability to piss you off instantly, always has something to say. Special ability: being such a massive bi...” Again, he was cut off by Ignis, who quickly caught up to where this was going, even though he and Gladio were several meters away from you, sharing a cup of coffee and observing what was going on. “Ah, ah!” he scolded. “But Specs!” Noctis whined “I didn’t start it!”

Gladio groaned, bringing his hand up to rub his temples “Oh, for fuck’s sake!” he suddenly exclaimed “Just confess your crushes on each other already!” You and Noct froze in your places, staring at Gladio, mouths agape. “You think we don’t notice?” Gladio continued “How Noct is always noticing everything [Y/N] does and of all things, he exposed himself last night? If you hate each other so much, why do you always stare whenever the other one isn’t looking?” A heavy silence stepped in, during which neither you or Noct looked anywhere else but the ground. “Noct calls you predictable, but I call it him having a huge crush and memorizing every little thing you do because he doesn’t want to look anywhere else.” Gladio told you, smug about his estimation and proudly took a sip of his coffee. 

Noctis nervously stepped around in the sand, biting his lip. “Yeah, I...I guess you’re right, Gladio.” he finally said, before turning his attention to you “Listen, [Y/N]...I never meant to be so hostile...I guess I was just in denial of my own feelings.” he shrugged his shoulders awkwardly. “Mhm.” you nodded “I actually...” you began, but then remembered the two other people, listening to your conversation. Of course, you respected the boys and could tell them anything, but this was a conversation for you and Noct alone and having an audience was a bit weird. “Guys...do you mind?” you looked at Gladio and Iggy and the second quickly got the hint, before motioning for his companion to leave you alone.

“I guess I actually thought you’re out of my league.“ you turned to Noctis again when the others were far away enough “I mean...You’re a king and I...“you bit your lip, fidgeting with your hands. “That was the case with me too.“ Noct rubbed the back of his neck “I mean, I always thought you hated me and that I could never have a chance with you.“ Silence stepped in again. “I guess all this could have been avoided if we said something earlier.“ you giggled quietly. Noctis smiled and stepped closer, gathering you in his arms. “That doesn’t matter now. The important thing is that we can have something better now.“ he smiled and kissed your lips gently.

You and your new boyfriend took your time before going back to meet with the others back at the restaurant. Ignis smiled when he noticed your intertwined hands “Well, I’m glad this issue is finally resolved.” he spoke “And you have Gladio to thank, as he was the one to knock some sense into your oblivious heads.” Gladio put on a smug smile and shrugged his shoulders “Just doing my job.” You all shared a laugh, before you and Noct noticed the missing fifth member of the company. “Where’s Prompto?” Noctis asked, looking around. “Still asleep I recon.” Gladio answered.

Then, as if on cue, the blonde in question walked up to the table you were sat at. His hair was still a mess from sleeping. “Sup.” he greeted through a yawn “Did I miss anything?” Ignis smirked allknowingly and him and Gladio silently agreed to let him catch on himself. Prom was quick to notice the change in atmosphere and especially you and Noct sitting next to each other... without fighting... hands intertwined. “Woah!” he exclaimed happily with a grin “How long was I out? Does this mean I don’t have to be scared for my life now?” Everyone shared a cheerful laugh and Noctis looked at you in the eyes “Yeah. It’s safe to say that time is in the past now.” he squeezed your hand reassuringly.

#final fantasy xv #final fantasy xv noctis #noctis lucis caelum #noctis lucis caelum x reader #noctis x reader #noctis imagine #noctis x reader imagine #final fantasy xv gladio #gladiolus amicitia #final fantasy prompto #prompto argentum #final fantasy xv ignis #ignis scientia

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #84: Arjuna

Today on Fate and Phantasms, we’re making the Hero of the Endowed and one of the leading players in the Mahabharata, Arjuna! Arjuna is, of course, the perfect hero, so he’s a great pick if you want to be good at just about everything except dealing with your crippling impostor syndrome.

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

Next up: The hero we need right now.

Race and Background

Arjuna’s human, but he’s also the son of the lightning god Indra, so it’s a pretty good excuse to make him an Air Genasi. This gives him +1 Dexterity and +2 Constitution. He also gets Unending Breath, because you can’t prove Arjuna can’t hold his breath indefinitely while conscious, and Mingle with the Wind, which lets him levitate when it’s time to use his NP. You can only cast this spell once per long rest, and it uses constitution as its casting modifier.

The Indian caste system probably doesn’t map 1:1 with D&D backgrounds that well, but it’s pretty safe to say Arjuna’s a Noble, giving him History and Persuasion proficiency.

Ability Scores

Your highest score should be Dexterity, archers tend to be pretty good with a bow. Well, Archers don’t, but you do. Second is your Charisma, you’re the most popular sibling in a family with two kids who are exclusively called “the beautiful”, and you somehow convinced everyone that the upstanding Krishna keeps telling you to do bad things. Third is Intelligence, you have to be pretty smart to keep your book straight, it’s dense reading. Your Constitution’s a little low, but it got bumped up by racial bonuses. We don’t need Strength, but we’re dumping Wisdom- you’re not known for your ability to resist temptation.

Class Levels

1. Fighter 1: First level fighters come pre-packaged with proficiency in Strength and Constitution saves, as well as two fighter skills. I’d go with Intimidation and Perception, just make sure you don’t pick any physical skills, we’ll get those later.

At first level, you get to pick a Fighting Style, and the obvious pick here is Archery for an extra +2 to all ranged attack rolls. You also get a Second Wind (ha ha, air puns), letting you heal up as a bonus action once per short rest. Sadly, this doesn’t charge your NP like Hero of the Endowed, but we’ll work on it.

2. Fighter 2: Your Action Surge lets you add an extra action to your turn once per short rest. If you try again before the turn’s over and you succeed, it’s like you never failed in the first place, right?

3. Fighter 3: I know a lot of people are probably expecting arcane archer, but Arjuna has tons of magic items, not magic skill. We’ll make our weapon fancy in a minute, but first we have to get a solid foundation with the Champion subclass. When you take this option, you get an Improved Critical, letting you score critical hits on 19s and 20s. 

4. Fighter 4: Use your first Ability Score Improvement to become a Sharpshooter, letting you fire at long range without disadvantage and take a -5 penalty to a ranged attack to gain a +10 bonus to that attack’s damage. You can also ignore all but full cover.

5. Fighter 5: Fifth level fighters get an Extra Attack with each attack action, letting you make two attacks per turn, or four with your Action Surge. Now that your basic attacks are covered, let’s have a chat with Agni about getting a worthy bow.

6. Warlock 1: Continuing this build’s metaphor of Genasi = elemental demigod, elemental gods would be Genies, which just became official warlock patrons in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. Agni would be an Efreeti, and striking up a deal with him gives you a Genie’s Vessel, a tiny object that you can use as a spellcasting focus, and has an AC equal to your spell save DC (8 + proficiency + charisma modifier), HP equal to your warlock level + proficiency bonus, and is immune to poison and psychic damage. You can spend an hour while resting to replace a lost or missing vessel, and you’ll want to keep it with you because it comes with plenty of benefits. While touching the vessel, you have access to a Bottled Respite, spending an action to enter the vessel, with an interior space that you can store items in. You can enter the vessel once per long rest, and stay in there a number of hours equal to twice your proficiency bonus. You can also invoke the Genie’s Wrath once per turn, adding  an amount of Fire damage equal to your proficiency bonus to anything that involves an attack roll. This means you can add it to your arrows or spells. Versatile!

Speaking of Spells, you get pact magic from your patron that uses Charisma to cast, and your spell slots recharge on short rests. For cantrips, Eldritch Blast gives you some magical arrows before you even get your magic bow, and True Strike helps you aim better but not really. For spells, Detect Evil and Good will let you know when the Kurus are up to something (they always are), and Charm Person will keep your ridiculous disguises from failing.

7. Warlock 2: Second level warlocks get Eldritch Invocations. Spend one on Armor of Shadows, because you’re clearly not wearing plate mail, and save the other for next level. Also pick up Cause Fear, because who wouldn’t be afraid of you?

8. Warlock 3: The Pact of the Blade gives you a magical melee weapon that you can summon as an action, and the invocation Improved Pact Weapon lets you pick a longbow as your pact weapon, gives it a +1 to attacks and damage, and makes it a spellcasting focus to boot!

Now that you have Gandiva by your side, grab Scorching Ray for more fiery arrows.

9. Warlock 4: Use this ASI to improve your Dexterity for better AC and accuracy. Also pick up Friends and Suggestion as your spells this level. A fun thing about the Mahabharata is that if someone of sufficient power says something will happen, it happens. We can’t make it so you’ll definitely win against your brother, but you should be able to apply this to smaller scale events.

10. Bard 1: If you want to be good at everything, you have to become a bard sometime. At first level, you get another set of Spells that use your Charisma to cast. Unlike most casting classes, multiclassing in warlock doesn’t mess with your spell slots, so just use whatever the books says at each level. You also get Bardic Inspiration, a number of d6 equal to your charisma modifier that you can hand out to allies to improve their attack rolls, checks, and saves. Finally, you get proficiency in any one skill. I think it’s safe to assume that living in The Forest for over a decade would help anyone’s Survival skills.

For your spells, Light and Message help you put on a light show and communicate on the battlefield. Animal Friendship will help you get that cute monkey friend of yours. Command continues the Speak and It Shall Happen effect from last level, and there’s enough talking animals in the Mahabharata that Speak with Animals should be a given. Also, you disguised yourself as a eunuch named Big Dick for a full year and no one called you on it, so I assume Disguise Self was in effect somehow.

11. Bard 2: Second level bards become a Jack of All Trades, adding half your proficiency to all checks you’re not proficient in. It’s not Anime Protagonist levels, but it’s still pretty good. You also learn a Song of Rest, adding a d6 to healing done over the course of a short rest.

For more of a healing factor, pick up Cure Wounds.

12. Bard 3: For your first and only round of Expertise, double your proficiency in Perception and Survival. You’re a pretty good archer, and you didn’t die in those twelve years. I think. Please don’t spoil it for me, I just got to their exile. You also get to pick a college, and the college of Swords lets you add some extra effects to your arrows to make them even more magical. When you take the attack action, you can add 10′ to your movement speed for the turn. When you hit with an attack, you can expend an inspiration die once per turn to add a Blade Flourish to that attack. Add the inspiration die’s roll to your damage, and then pick one of the following: a Defensive Flourish adds the roll to your AC until the start of your next turn, a Slashing Flourish deals the same amount of damage to another creature within 5′ of you, and a Mobile Flourish pushes the creature away, and you can react to move up to your walking speed closer to the creature. Amazingly, despite being called Blade Flourishes, none of these require a melee weapon, so have fun with them.

You also get another Fighting Style. You probably won’t use it, but Two-weapon Fighting will let people know you’re ambidextrous.

For your last bard spell, Enhance Ability will make your skill checks even better, giving you advantage on one kind of skill check for up to an hour. There’s also a couple extra bonuses for choosing physical checks, but this level’s already dragging on.

13. Fighter 6: Back in the fighter levels, use this ASI for higher Charisma. This gives you better spell saves and more flourishes per long rest.

14. Warlock 5: Bounce back to one last level of warlock for the third level spell Fear as well as the invocation Eldritch Smite, which adds 4d8 Force damage to a weapon attack by eating up one of your very limited warlock slots.

15. Fighter 7: Okay, back in fighter for real this time. At seventh level, you’re a Remarkable Athlete, adding half your proficiency bonus to physical skill checks you’re not proficient in, and adding your strength modifier to the length of running long jumps. By combining this and Jack of All Trades, you’re now pseudoproficient in every physical skill, plus initiative, without any of the effort.

16. Fighter 8: Use this ASI to finally max out your Dexterity for the strongest AC, arrows, and initiative.

17. Fighter 9: Ninth level fighters are Indomitable, letting you reroll a failed saving throw once per long rest. Failure is for people without the weight of the world on their shoulders.

18. Fighter 10: Tenth level Champions get an Additional Fighting Style, and the new Superior Technique option from Tasha’s lets us grab a battle master maneuver and pick up a d6 superiority die at the same time. The precision attack lets you add that d6 to an attack roll, for when you really can’t afford to miss your shot. You regain the die on short rests.

19. Fighter 11: At eleventh level, you get another Extra Attack, letting you nock a third arrow in a single action.

20. Fighter 12: Use your final ASI to strengthen your Charisma even further for better skill checks, stronger spells, and more flourishes.

Pros:

You’re good at ranged combat, with the ability to attack from afar with your longbow or medium range with spells like Eldritch Blast and Scorching Ray. Being able to use flourishes from 600 feet away also opens up opportunities for messing with enemy placement from a safe distance.

Thanks to Jack of all Trades and your plethora of social spells, you’re very good at dealing with problems outside of combat as well, opening up new opportunities for your party.

By having flourishes and smites on standby, you can deal a lot of burst damage when you deal a critical hit, which should happen often thanks to your increased chances and extra attacks.

Cons:

Your damage types mostly focus on normal arrows and fire, which tends to be resisted by a lot of enemies. Considering most of the Kurus are technically part demon, this could be an issue for you.

You have a few spell slots per rest, so you have to make your spells count. This is a similar problem for your flourishes, but you’re still better off than arcane archers.

Your low wisdom means you’ll fall for temptation pretty easily. Keep a good friend on standby to help you through the hard times.

#fgo #fate grand order #D&D 5e #Arjuna #Fate and Phantasms

[samwchster]

( jared padalecki, 30, cismale, he/him ) Well if it isn’t SAM WINCHESTER. Rumor is that they’re a HUMAN from SUPERNATURAL and they found their way to Devil Hills, KS 15 DAYS AGO. They can be a bit SELF-DESTRUCTIVE& REBELLIOUS, but some of that is made up by their tendency to be SELFLESS & COMPASSIONATE. One of their top played songs is NOW AND THEN by ELIZA RICKMAN. Some sights and sounds that embody them are THE SMELL OF OLD BOOKS, A TATTOO ON HIS CHEST, A DEMON-KILLING KNIFE IN HIS POCKET, FINGERS PRESSING ON A SHAPELESS SCAR ON HIS LEFT HAND. Hopefully they pick the right side of things or stay out of the way.

__________________________

Samuel (William) Winchester was born on May 2nd 1983, to Mary Winchester and John Winchester. Being the younger of two (at the time), his brother Dean was only four years old, but had to take on the role of protective older brother sooner than anyone would have expected. On November 2nd, when Sam turned six months, tragedy struck after a demon killed Mary and set the baby’s nursery on fire. Baby Sam escaped thanks to Dean, who carried him outside and John. From that day on, everything changed. Their father, took upon him to avenge the death of his wife and became a hunter (and one of the very best at that). His obsession took a toll on the brothers and while Dean, obediently followed dad’s orders, Sam was always rebellious of his plans, often clashing with him, unable to follow blindly. He was 9 when dad gave him his first gun; only twelve when he started hunting and once he reached the age of 18, he wanted to be normal and live a regular life. After a huge falling out with John, Sam left for college. With an incredible score on the LSAT and a full-ride to Stanford, he didn’t look back. Until a couple years later, when Dean came knocking on his door after their father’s disappearance. 

Everything has been a blur ever since and he stopped counting the years once he realised there was no going back. Death followed him everywhere he went and when demons killed his girlfriend just to ‘keep him on the right track’, he knew there was no going back. He fell through the rabbit hole, followed his desire for revenge like his father did, but even after dad sacrificed himself and even after Dean killed Azazel, the yellow-eyed demon, evil never stopped. 

THE BOY WITH THE DEMON BLOOD;

As if destiny decided to pull a prank on him, he realised there was a much bigger picture and a much more devious plan behind everything. Azazel’s plans for Sam unfolded when he found out the demon had given him his blood as a baby. In time, the demon blood in him started changing him; giving him psychic abilities and darker thoughts. With every action he stepped closer to the edge of a cliff and when he took the final step, he unknowingly freed Lucifer from its cage. With the devil walking the earth, the apocalypse started and angels and demons fought for power over each other. His guilt ate him up and nearly broke the bond he had with his brother, but he managed to atone for his wrongdoings when he became Lucifer’s vessel and held him inside long enough to open his cage. Jumping in with Lucifer inside of him and the idea of being trapped with the devil in its cage for eternity seemed like a small price to pay. 

Nonetheless, fate had him saved - yet again - after the angel Castiel pulled him out of the cage and later on Death, the black horseman itself, gave him his broken and tortured soul back. The mental and psychological damage was permanent though and those mental scars will remain with him forever, no matter how many times his body is put back together. He has died, countless times, he lost his soul, he was tortured for hundreds of years in hell by the devil itself and yet, here he is, still. 

This time, he really thought they were onto something. Finding a way to shut the gates of hell forever seemed too good to be true but thanks to Kevin and his translation of the trials, there was hope. Ever since the first trial, when he killed that hellhound and felt himself change day after day, Sam never thought about quitting. Even after the second trial weakened him beyond belief; even during the third trial, when he could have actually died. He was ready for it and fully at peace with his choice if it meant that everyone could be saved and the world would be at peace. And yet, in true Winchester fashion, things went awry. With Crowley escaping and opening a gate to hell, freeing every demon and every monster in purgatory along with Metatron and his megalomaniac ideas, casting every single angel out of heaven, he feels like he broke the world again. It doesn’t matter how many times people tell him he was doing the right thing, he still knows he failed and now, another apocalypse is upon them.  

Currently, Sam is severely weakened after completing two trials and half of the third. Rest alone seems to be a slow solution that is not agreeing with him, especially because he insists in going out to hunt nonetheless now that every monster seems to be roaming around. He hasn’t seen Castiel in two weeks, but he has heard word of the falling angels and has been trying to reach him -- with no luck so far. Dean has been trying to keep Sam in the Man of Letters bunker and get him to heal, but he’s not been successful so far, so both of them have been taking cases and hunting as much as they can.

PERSONALITY:

More than anything, Sam takes things to heart. He’s the more sensitive out of the two brothers and definitely the one who expresses himself more. When it comes to talking feelings, Sam has no problem admitting his short-comings and blatantly say how he feels. As for asking for help when it comes to solve those problems, now that’s a different story. In his head, he needs to figure things himself, heal himself when he’s hurting and tend to his psychological wounds. It’s mostly because he doesn’t want to burden anyone nor worry them more than necessary, so he’ll deal. Sam is selfless despite having had moments of weakness. As he is now, he is the first to admit that he screwed up pretty bad more than once, but he’s trying his best. He is loyal, caring and loving; so much so that he has trouble letting go of people who have yet to leave his heart despite not being physically in this world anymore. He has a tendency to blame himself if he doesn’t let people know what he feels, for fear that he might lose them before they know they are important to him. Sometimes hidden, the little Sam that idealised something better and the Sam that still hopes and believes is still much alive in him. All and all, he just wants to protect those he loves and save as many people as he can. 

CONNECTIONS:

family-wise, his brother Dean; (maybe even John and Mary now that souls are rampant) and I would die if anyone brings me a Henry Winchester (the real OG let’s be real) and Adam. Give me Bobby, give me Abaddon!!, Crowley and Lucifer (how much torture is enough torture here, poor Sammy); bring Castiel and Gabriel, Donna, Jody, Charlie! and Sully!!! (sam’s imaginary friend from childhood), anyone from the Roadhouse ... bring everyone honestly, Sam has connections to every-single-person in the spn verse but he’s super open to anyone outside of it and all the OC’s; this boy is an easy one to establish things with. gimme all the plots tbh. 

#dh;intro #❝ i'm a whole new level of freak「 about 」 #i tried to summarise this as much as possible but... THAT still happened #i'll add a page with bulletpoints or a chrolological timeline to his blog later for faster reading but yeah shortening sam's life events #is near-impossible

[setaripendragon]

Trapped in the Amber - 1x03

Book 1 :: 01 - 02 - 03 Not a lot to say about this one, except that, on watching this episode for the first time, I was severely disappointed that Sam and Dean went to all that trouble to make those Homeland Security badges, and didn’t even think to use them to, oh, I don’t know, stop a plane from taking off? (Also, ngl, so mad that the continuity didn’t remember that they’d had Dean dealing with poltergeists before when they got to the episode Home.) Also, Moonfiends are completely made up by me, based on this one little bit of folklore I found about young women who look at a blue moon getting pregnant from it and giving birth to monsters. SPN lore is surprisingly limited for a show with hundreds of episodes, so I’m going to be tossing in more of my own lore to fill in the gaps in this story. (This being mostly self-indulgent nonsense, there’s going to be a lot of lore, a lot of ethical debates, and at least some linguistics.) And this chapter is dedicated to everyone who’s liked the last two parts, I absolutely wouldn’t have had the courage to continue posting this without you. Especially @spideypoolalways, and @lyratalus​ and @millieccino for those lovely comments <3

Allentown, Pennsylvania – Saturday 3rd December 2005

Meira makes Dean tell her about the poltergeist on their way to Pennsylvania. It’s a good story, and it’s also a reminder that John Winchester is a real person, her grandfather by blood. She knew about him, of course, but he was long dead by the time she came into the world, and honestly, she’d never given him much thought. Now, she’s suddenly aware that if it was her in her dad’s place, she wouldn’t be half so composed.

They don’t even stop to find a motel before heading to the airport where Jerry works. He greets Dean with no small amount of relief, and then shakes hands all around. “And this must be Sam, right?” He asks when he gets to Sam.

“That’s right.” Sam confirms. “And this is Meira.”

“Pleasure.” Jerry says, sincere but perfunctory, before leading them inside. He reminisces a little on the way to his office, and Meira listens in fascination, but once they get there, it’s right down to business. “Okay, listen to this.” He says. “It sounded like it was up your alley. Normally I wouldn’t have access to this. It’s the cockpit voice recorder for United Britannia flight 2485. It was one of ours.”

At first, it’s just a crackly recording of a may day signal, and then it fuzzes out to be replaced by a sound that makes Meira reach for her blade on pure instinct. Pain lances through her, and she flinches hard.

“Hey, are you okay?” Jerry asks.

Meira nods. “Took me by surprise, is all.” She says dismissively.

“Alright, well, it took off from here.” Jerry explains. “Crashed about 200 miles south. Now, they’re saying mechanical failure. Cabin depressurised somehow, nobody knows why. Over a hundred people on board, only seven got out alive.”

“Seven people survived?” Meira echoes in surprise.

Jerry’s eyebrows furrow. “That surprises you?” He asks carefully.

Meira shrugs with a grimace. “That sounded demonic to me. Sometimes spirits can affect radios and such, but it’s usually just static, psychic residue. That was way too loud to be residue. And demons aren’t known for leaving survivors.” It isn’t like she can tell them that she understands Hellspeech well enough. It isn’t like human languages, which she’s always been able to understand, but Crowley was one of the few creatures in existence that hadn’t thought she was an abomination. Or, he had, it’s just he didn’t have a problem with abominations, so he’d taught her how to understand his, heh, ‘native’ language.

Yeah, she definitely isn’t telling these two hunters, who aren’t yet her dad and uncle, that the King of Hell, or King of the Crossroads as he is now, taught her how to understand demons. Or that this one is fucking gloating on the radio of a plane it had just caused to crash.

Jerry pales. Sam and Dean both turn to stare at her, eyebrows raised. “Demonic?” Jerry asks, quiet and strained.

“I can’t be sure.” Meira lies. “But that would be my guess, yeah.”

“Well,” Sam says slowly, “we’re going to need passenger manifests, a list of survivors, and-”

“And any way we could take a look at the wreckage?” Dean interjects.

Jerry takes a breath to marshal himself, and Meira is actually impressed by how well he  “The other stuff is no problem, but the wreckage?” He shakes his head grimly. “The NTSB has it locked down in an evidence warehouse. No way I’ve got that kind of clearance.”

Dean nods slowly, and then shakes his head in dismissal. “No problem.”

Meira has to bite back a grin, and once they’ve gotten the lists of passengers and survivors from Jerry and they’re leaving, she nudges Dean with her elbow and asks, “No problem, huh?” Dean just grins back, smug and cocky, and, oh, yeah, this is going to be good.

A short drive and an endless wait later, which Meira fills with reading a paperback she picked up from a bookshop across the street, and Sam passes with pacing and frustration until Meira gives in and starts reading aloud in an over-dramatic fashion, Dean returns with brand new fake IDs for all of them. Sam, of course, immediately remembers his impatience, and huffs, “You’ve been in there forever!”

“You can’t rush perfection.” Dean retorts, flipping one of the cards over to Meira, who catches it between the pages of her book, then retrieves it eagerly.

“Homeland security?” Sam asks incredulously.

Meira whoops. “Oh, man. Yes.”

“See?” Dean says to Sam. “She knows an awesome idea when she hears one.”

“The doors this baby is going to open.” Meira agrees in delight. “The prank opportunities will be endless and glorious.”

Sam rounds on her, while Dean bursts out laughing. “Pranks?”

Meira blinks at him in feigned wide-eyed innocence. “Don’t tell me you’ve never wanted to scare the shit out of someone by threatening them with charges of treason or something.” She points out. She wishes Pabbi were here, or Jace. They’ve always been better at coming up with the truly hilarious pranks. Sam just shakes his head and gets back in the car. Meira and Dean share a grin, and then follow to discuss the case and plan their next move.

Which turns out to be interrogating the passenger in the psychiatric hospital. Meira keeps quiet and lets Dean and Sam do most of the talking, wishing she could see the state of the man’s soul. She doesn’t really need to, to know he’s disturbed by what he saw, but it would be nice to know how disturbed. Whether he’d prefer the illusion of normality, or if doubting his own perception is doing more harm than good. In her own, limited, twenty-five years of experience with human souls, she’s never seen anything so damaging as doubting their own perception, but in some cases, she has to admit that the lie does seem to help people hold it together through otherwise traumatic incidents.

“It’s okay.” Sam says, as Meira considers everything she can read from Max Jaffrey’s body language and comes to a decision. She’s pretty sure Sam and Dean are going to hate it, but they can suck it up and deal. “Just tell us what you thought you saw. Please.” Sam entreats, and it works.

Max sighs, and starts, haltingly, to talk. “There was… this- man.” He begins, stops, licks his lips nervously. “And… uh, he had these… eyes.” He gestures vaguely towards his own face.

“Black eyes?” Meira asks.

Max’s head jerks up and he stares at her with wide eyes, while Sam and Dean both turn to stare at her. “Y-yeah. How did you…?”

Meira takes a step forward from where she was loitering, and claims the last open seat, opposite Max. “You weren’t seeing things.” She tells him simply.

“Meira.” Dean growls.

“Man deserves to know he’s not crazy.” Meira replies without looking away from Max, who’s shaking his head.

“That can’t have been real.” He protests. “I saw him-”

“Saw him what?” Sam prompts gently, although the look Meira sees him direct at her out of the corner of her eye is hard.

Max’s next breath shakes. “He- he opened the emergency exit. But that’s- that’s impossible. I mean, I looked it up, there’s something like two tonnes of pressure on that door.” He insists, looking between the three of them, pleading for an explanation, any explanation, that makes sense.

“Do you really believe you were seeing things?” Meira asks him.

He stares at her, then swallows hard. It’s several long, long minutes before he finally answers. “No.” He says, so quiet Meira almost can’t hear him. “Some-something made the plane crash, right? And if it wasn’t- wasn’t what I saw, then… what was it?”

Meira smiles at him, gentle but proud. “It was exactly what you saw.”

“But how?” Max demands.

“The black eyes are a fairly good indicator that the man you saw was possessed by a demon.” Meira informs him, and Max’s eyes widen in belated fear. “Demons do possess far greater strength than your average human, so one could absolutely open the emergency exit while the plane was still in the air.”

“Oh.” Max says thickly. “Demons actually exist.”

“I’m afraid so.” Meira agrees wryly. When it seems Max is too busy processing that to have any immediate questions, she nods. “Do you have your phone with you?” She asks. Max shakes his head wordlessly. “Do you know your number off by heart?” She asks, not hopeful.

But, it turns out, there are some benefits to being stuck in 2005. People aren’t quite so used to their phones doing their thinking for them, and some of them do, still, memorise their own phone numbers. Max rattles his off without a problem, and Meira whips her own phone out to save it. Then she sends him a text. “There. Now, when you get out of here, if you have any questions, you can call me.” She explains.

Max nods. Then he shakes his head. “You’re not Homeland Security, are you?” He asks.

Meira grins at him. “Special branch.” She tells him, then raps her knuckles on the table, and stands. “Don’t worry, Mr Jaffrey, we’ll get the thing that did this.” She assures him, and a little of the fear in him melts away as he nods.

It isn’t until they’re out of the hospital that Sam rounds on her. Meira honestly wasn’t expecting it. “What the hell was that?” He demands. Meira stares at him incredulously. “Why did you tell him that? You scared him half to death!”

“Um, no.” Meira snaps, indignant at this false accusation. “I didn’t. The demon did.”

“And he was perfectly fine thinking he’d imagined the whole thing, so why did you-?!”

“Checking yourself into a psychiatric hospital is the exact opposite of fine!”

“He would have gotten over it! And then he could go home and carry on his normal life, but instead, you had to go and drop demons on him!”

“You have no guarantee that he would have gotten over it!”

“You have no guarantee how well he’ll handle demons, but that didn’t stop you!”

“Oh, so we should have just joined in on gaslighting him, then?”

“Whoa! Okay, time out!” Dad barks, physically inserting himself between Meira and Rob- No, it’s Sam, Sam who is not yet her uncle and Rob hasn’t been born yet. Meira blinks rapidly as she backs up a step, and then another. She didn’t realise how in each other’s face they were getting until Dad intervened. Dean. Until Dean intervened. She closes her eyes for a moment, trying not to feel too much like her family’s been ripped away from her all over again. “Okay, let’s all just chill.” Dean instructs firmly. “What’s done is done, Sam.”

“It shouldn’t have been.” Sam insists through gritted teeth. “People shouldn’t have to deal with all this unless they don’t have any other choice.”

“Hey, man, I agree with you, but there’s no helping it now.” Dean repeats. Sam scowls.

“He already had to deal with it. It nearly killed him.” Meira points out. “I’m not going to go around shouting it from the rooftops, okay. Not least of all because people would think I’m nuts, but… Do you know how hard it is, to have the whole world telling you that you’re the problem? That there’s something wrong with you, not something wrong out there? No one deserves that!”

Sam sighs heavily, pinching the bridge of his nose, and it’s a gesture that’s going to carry through the rest of his life, all the way until he’s in his sixties and a father and an uncle exasperated with his oh so headstrong niece. But instead of patiently and logically ripping all of Meira’s dreams of chaos and glory to shreds, he just shakes his head and heads for the Impala without another word. It leaves Meira feeling strangely like she’s the one who just lost that argument. Or maybe lost something more important by winning it.

“You know, Sam ran away.” Dean says suddenly.

Meira startles, and is half an instant away from saying something really stupid, like ‘yeah, I know, Dad, you’ve told me this story about a dozen times’, but manages to stop herself just in time. “Oh?” She asks instead, her voice wobbling slightly.

Dean glances at her and grimaces faintly in apology. “Yeah. He wanted to get away from hunting, from the supernatural, be normal or whatever.” He shrugs as if to say the notion baffles him. It baffles Meira, too, but then, she never has been and never will be ‘normal’, and she’s never really felt like her life was missing anything. “Then the thing that killed our mom killed his girlfriend.”

“Ouch. I’m sorry.” Meira says, trying desperately to remember that this is supposed to be news to her, not ancient family history.

“Yeah, well, it makes it pretty hard for him to argue that you should’ve let that guy live in ignorant bliss. He tried that, and it came back to bite him, it could come back to bite this guy, too. But I think he wishes the world worked that way. It ought to. People shouldn’t have to be afraid of the monsters in the dark.”

“People shouldn’t have to be afraid of robbers, either, but we still lock our doors at night.” Meira replies softly. “If people knew, if it was common knowledge what was out there, yeah, maybe they’d be afraid, but maybe they’d line their doors and windows in salt, and get anti-possession tattoos, and then go right on living their normal lives.”

Dean huffs a laugh. “Yeah, maybe.” He doesn’t sound like he believes it, though. Meira can’t exactly blame him. There’s a reason the supernatural has stayed more or less hidden for the last several hundred years, and it’s because most people don’t want to believe it’s true, so they refuse to see it. “Still think it was kind of shitty to just drop demons on him and then leave.”

Meira pulls a face, hunching down against a lecture she knows probably isn’t coming. “I gave him my number. And once we’re done with this, I’ll probably call him if he doesn’t call me and give him the full lecture on demons and theology as it applies to reality.” Somewhere Dean and Sam can’t hear her to question her in depth knowledge of the workings of Hell.

“You hunted demons before?” Dean asks in surprise, finally starting towards the Impala as well.

The answer is yes. On a normal day, demons wouldn’t really be difficult for her. She is anathema to them, after all. “No.” Meira lies.

“Then how do you know enough to give the full lecture?” Dean asks, giving her a look as he opens the driver’s door. Meira doesn’t answer until they’re both in the car with a sulking Sam, and once they’re in, Dean doesn’t give her the opportunity. “You said you don’t really hunt, but you’re a freaking encyclopedia. Moonfiends?” He prompts.

Meira sighs, and resigns herself to cobbling bits and pieces of the truth into a coherent whole, because infinite angelic memory isn’t something she’s going to bring up. “Okay, that one is because my best friend is a moonfiend, so I got a first person account.” She defends. “But my aunt and uncle keep- kept a supernatural library, and I read a lot as a kid.”

“Huh.” Dean muses as they pull out onto the road. “Okay, I’m just gonna ask. You best friend is a moonfiend?” He sounds incredulous.

Meira pulls a face at him through the rear view mirror. “Azura.” She confirms defiantly.

“What exactly is a moonfiend?” Sam asks, turning to look at her, putting aside his irritation in favour of academic curiosity. Meira beams fondly at him, because this is why Sam has always been her favourite uncle. “I know you said they’re kind of like mothmen, but mothmen are a really specific type of vengeful nature spirit.”

“Well, no, they’re more like furies. They’re not spirits, they’re corporeal, but they’re born from… desecrated ground. Furies are born from human sins against humans, mothmen are born from human sins against nature.” Meira explains, leaning forward as she gets into explaining. “A moonfiend is actually more like a werewolf in metaphysical characteristics, but like mothmen in physical characteristics.”

“So, they’re subject to the phases of the moon?” Sam checks.

Meira nods. “A moonfiend is born when a virgin, and that’s not just a sexual virgin, but a magical and metaphysical virgin, too, stares too long at an unfiltered blue moon.”

Dean actually takes a moment away from watching the road to turn and stare at her. Sam gapes for several minutes, until he finally manages to ask. “Blue moons happen every three years. Why aren’t they everywhere?”

“Well, half the time the pregnancy kills the mother before the baby is viable. Or the mother kills the baby after she’s given birth because, well, it’s pretty obviously not human. All that on top of just how hard it is to count as a metaphysical virgin these days.” Meira points out. “Or what counts as unfiltered. I mean, glasses, smog, clouds, astral disturbances.”

“Astral disturbances?” Sam questions.

“Okay!” Dean says loudly, interrupting Meira before she can even start to explain. “I’m glad you two have made up, you nerds, but can we figure out our next step here? I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve never hunted demon before.” Meira has to sit back and let the weirdness of that statement wash over her. This is her Dad’s first ever demon hunt. Weird. “Are we even sure it is a demon?” He asks, glancing back at Meira and sounding like he wishes he could hope, but he doesn’t. “I mean, this doesn’t exactly seem like demon MO… does it?”

Meira grimaces. “It’s not tempting mortals to sin, sure, but… they like to spread pain and suffering, death and destruction. It’s like a hobby.” She chirps, all dark humour.

“And this one’s hobby is plane crashes?” Dean demands incredulously. “That seems a little… I don’t know, modern.” He mutters, and Meira snickers. “Jesus. Okay. Evolving with the times or not, it’s still gotta be possessing someone right?” Meira nods when Dean’s eyes flicker to her in the mirror. “Great, so it could be anyone right now. How the hell are we gonna find this thing?” He asks, and Meira’s heart leaps into her throat. It’s stupid, she knows that Dean’s never done this before, but he’s her dad and he sounds overwhelmed and that scares her.

“Dean?” Sam asks, obviously picking up on the same thing. “What…?”

Dean sighs. “I don’t know, man, this is kind of out of our league, don’t you think? Demon’s aren’t like the rest of the shit we hunt. Even wendigos, they still- there’s still rhyme and reason to what they do, you know? Demons, man…” He pauses and sighs, hands going white-knuckled on the wheel. “This is… this is big, Sam. I wish Dad was here.”

“Yeah.” Sam agrees quietly, staring intently out of the wind-shield. “Me too.”

Meira swallows and doesn’t say ‘me three’, even though she really wants to. She wants all of her dads. She wants her grace free so that she’s not quite so helpless without them. “Hey.” She says, and ploughs on even though her voice shakes a little. “We can do this. Okay, it might be an entire order of magnitude bigger than a vengeful spirit, but it’s the same basics, right? So, how do we find our monster once we’ve figured out what it is?”

“We figure out what it wants.” Sam says practically. “Because that’s how we’ll know where it’s going to be.” Then he shakes his head. “But if all it wants is to cause plane crashes… I mean, do you have any idea how many flights take off from even just one state every day? There’s no way we could find it.”

That is a good point. Meira grimaces. She’s still trying to figure out how the hell they can do anything about this when Dean slams a flat palm against the wheel, making both her and Sam jump. “Son of a bitch.” He swears sharply, in a tone of revelation. “The survivors.”

Meira blinks. “Dean?” Sam asks, in equal bewilderment.

“The message, on the voice recorder. The demon, it said-”

“‘No survivors.’” Sam echoes. “But there were, there were seven.”

“Yeah, and if this were a vengeful spirit…” Dean trails off pointedly.

“It’d want to finish the job.” Sam realises, nodding along. Then he dives on the bag at his feet to pull out the list of passengers and survivors.

“It was gloating.” Meira interjects, a touch amused. “Prematurely. It’s gotta be so pissed it failed to kill everyone on that flight. I mean, talk about embarrassing.” Dean snorts. “So, now we know what it wants. Now we’ve just gotta figure out where it’s going to be.”

“Do you think…” Sam begins, tapping a finger rapidly on the side of the sheet with the survivors on it. “I mean, if it was a spirit, I’d say for sure, but… Do you think it’ll want to stick to killing them in plane crashes? Because that would be a way to narrow down who it’s going after next.” He points out.

“Sounds like a lead to me.” Dean agrees, and Sam immediately pulls out his phone and starts scanning over the list, before dialling a number.

“I mean, demons basically are vengeful spirits, just ramped up to a thousand on a scale of one to ten.” Meira muses to Dean while Sam hangs up and tries another. “So, yeah, some patterns of behaviour probably do carry over, at least a little.”

“That is so not comforting.” Dean mutters.

“Hey, Jerry, it’s Sam.” Sam greets. “I was just trying to get in touch with the pilot. You said he was a friend, so I thought you might-” He trails off, and then snaps “Dean.” so urgently that Dean automatically takes his eyes off the road to look over at him on high alert. “The pilot’s going up in less than an hour.”

“Shit.” Dean swears, and floors the gas.

“Look, Jerry,” Sam is saying into the phone, “is there any way you can get in touch with him, convince him not to go up?” A pause. “Please try. We’re on our way.” He hangs up, jaw tight. “How soon can we get to the airfield in Nazareth?”

“Forty-five minutes.” Dean announces, then somehow makes the Impala go even faster. “Forty minutes.”

“Okay, so we need to figure out how to get rid of a demon in forty minutes.” Sam states.

“Exorcisms?” Dean suggests.

“Do you know any by heart?” Sam retorts.

“I do.” Meira offers. It’s not exactly hard when one’s fluent in the language of angels and can invoke the name of god in it. Pretty much anything becomes an exorcism then. ‘Go away’ could count as an exorcism, as long as you followed up with ‘in the name of the lord’ or something similar.  “Do we have any holy water?” She asks, not daring to hope.

“Uh, no.” Dean replies.

Meira winces, and amends her request. “Do we have water and a rosary?”

“Rosary is in the boot.” Dean tells her, while Sam retrieves a bottle of water from his bag. After about five minutes of bickering, Meira convinces him to pull over so that she can hop out and grab the rosary. Dean’s peeling out of the layby before she’s even got the door closed again, and then she screws the top off the bottled water, dumps the rosary inside, and sets about blessing it. She really, really hopes this works, and isn’t contingent on her grace being able to affect the world beyond her skin. She’s never officially been ordained or anything, but active grace or not, she’s still a fucking archangel.

“That should be holy water now.” Meira says once she’s done, handing the water back to Sam.

“Should?” Dean barks.

“I’ve never done this before, okay?” Meira shoots back, unable to keep a hint of defensive panic from her tone. “I have the qualifications for it, but I never thought I needed to check that it would work!” Dean pulls a face, but lets it go. Meira swallows down her fear. “You should- you should check on the others while we have the time.” She says to Sam, and he nods. He spends the drive going through the list of survivors and pretending to be a United Britannia Airlines survey. While he’s doing that, Meira calls Max, which turns into an impromptu explanation of how to identify demons.

By the time Meira’s off the phone, Sam’s gone through the rest of the survivors. “I still can’t get in touch with the flight attendant.” Sam states, hanging up the phone again.

“Given her job, I’d say that’s a bad sign.” Dean says dryly.

Sam snorts. “Yeah, no kidding. I’m going to call Jerry, see if he can tell me when she’s working next.” He explains, and then does just that. After a brief introduction, he gives Jerry the woman’s name, “Amanda Walker,” and waits a couple of minutes while Jerry does the research he can’t while he’s stuck on the highway. “Oh?” Sam says, an edge to his voice Meira really doesn’t like. “This evening? Look, Jerry-” A long pause. “No, I understand. Okay. Yeah, we’re on our way. Bye.”

“She’s working tonight?” Dean asks in dismay.

“Yeah. Flight leaves at eight. And there’s no way Jerry can ground the flight.” Sam adds in dismay.

Dean takes a bracing breath. “We’re just going to have to stop this son of a bitch before he can get that far.” He announces, and Meira tries to bolster her own confidence with his.

Nazareth, Pennsylvania – Saturday 3rd December 2005

By the time they get to the airfield, there are already two men walking across the tarmac to a small plane. “Shit.” Dean swears, and they all fling themselves out of the car.

“Mr Lambert!” Sam calls as they jog over. Security inevitably tries to stop them, but Dean flashes a badge at them, almost too fast for them to see more than that it looks sort of official, but it is enough to get them past. “Mr Lambert!” Sam calls again, and one of the two men nudges the other, and he turns.

“Yeah?” The second man says, so he must be Jerry’s friend, the pilot.

Meira looks at the other one, who’s watching them with a sort of sceptical hostility. She holds her hand out to him. “Agent Meira Geyad.” She greets, watching him closely, but there’s no reaction except a raised eyebrow as he takes her hand. Oh, hell. She starts to turn, but then a fist meets her face with enough force to send her sprawling.

“Shit!” Dean swears.

“Chuck!” The other man shouts in horror. “Wha-” He’s cut off by an awful crunching noise that makes Meira’s stomach turn over in guilt. It’s followed by a splash, and the hissing of corruption being melted away by a holy blessing. Holy water worked then, thank God, Meira thinks dizzily, finally healing enough to look up.

The demon grabs for Sam, getting him by the throat, and Dean yells his name in desperation. Meira starts to spit out the simplest exorcism she knows, but before she can get more than three words in, the demon has dropped Sam and kicked her in the ribs hard enough to wind her. Hard enough to break ribs, actually, but those heal quickly like her fractured cheekbone did. It takes a little longer to catch her breath, and by then, the demon has abandoned its meatsuit, streaming out of Chuck Lambert’s mouth and leaving him to collapse to the ground.

“Jesus.” Dean breathes. “Sam?”

“Fine.” Sam rasps.

“Meira?” Dean checks, dropping to his knees beside her. “You alright?” Meira groans, and takes the hand he offers her, letting him haul her up into a sitting position. “I’m guessing that wasn’t how an exorcism is supposed to go.”

“No, it realised what I was trying to do and left before I could send it back to hell.” Meira huffs, rubbing at her side just to check that her ribs are back where they’re supposed to be.

“Why’d it flinch at your name?” Dean asks curiously.

“Ge-Iad is one of the names of God.” Meira explains.

“Never heard that one before.” Dean says, eyebrows rising. “I thought you used Christ to test for demons.”

“The more often the name is used without faith, the less power it holds over the demonic.” Meira replies. “You can amp it up by using a language like Latin, which is both dead and stuffed full of religious ritual by now, but, you have any idea how many people say ‘Jesus Christ’ as an invective, without a thought as to why they swear that way?”

“And Ge-Iad, that’s, what? Never used?” Dean asks.

“Never without the proper reverence.” Meira corrects, and then tips her head. “Until today.” She adds with a pointed look, which earns her the best devil-may-care grin in her dad’s arsenal.

“Guys.” Sam calls, solemn. “Chuck’s dead.”

“Oh, that petty son of a bitch.” Meira grouses, flopping back down onto the tarmac.

“Uh-uh. Come on, up.” Dean instructs, getting to his feet and holding out his hand again. “We’ve still gotta stop this son of a bitch before he brings another plane down.” Meira whines, but takes his hand and lets him pull her to her feet.

“And we’ve got company.” Sam adds, as the airfield security descend on them.

Sam and Dean both look like deer in the headlights of a semi, so Meira takes charge. She orders security to inform the police of the incident, flashes her fake ID about, and then leaves with Sam and Dean on ‘important business’ before the police actually arrive. “Back to Allentown?” Dean checks, and Sam nods, already on the phone.

“I still can’t get in touch with the flight attendant.” Sam tells them several minutes later.

“We can’t let her get on that plane.” Dean insists.

Meira thinks about the fake IDs they’ve been using and has a really, really bad idea. She’s pretty sure Pabbi would approve. “I have an idea?” She offers. Sam turns to look at her, and she grimaces as she holds up her fake ID. “But… we’re going to need to look the part.”

Sam blinks once, and then his eyes widen. “Oh, no.” He says quickly. “No, there’s no way we can pull that off!”

“Why not?” Meira challenges.

“What?” Dean asks, glancing in the rear view mirror. “What’s the plan?”

“What’s TSA going to do if Homeland Security shows up and tells them there’s a terrorist on that plane?” Meira asks rhetorically.

Dean stares out the windshield for a long moment. “Okay. Monkey suits it is.” He says in a tone of resignation.

“And then what?!” Sam demands, a little hysterically, in Meira’s opinion. “We ground the plane, that’s great, and then we’re in the middle of an airport, surrounded by TSA, and we’re going to have to produce a terrorist for them!”

Meira shrugs. “Not necessarily. We just say we got a tip, or a suspicion that there might be, and when there isn’t, well, can’t be too careful in the pursuit of terrorists, right?” She points out. “We won’t even be lying if we tell them we have a suspicion that someone on board is planning to sabotage the flight. It’s true.”

“And how are we going to do an exorcism in the middle of all of this?” Sam demands.

“I’m not sure.” Meira huffs. “If it was just a case of getting the exorcism out, that would be one thing, but we have to make sure the demon sticks around for me to use it. Easiest way would be a devil’s trap, but it’d probably be a bad idea to go around scrawling pagan voodoo on the walls in front of TSA, huh?” She muses.

Dean snorts. “Okay, here’s the plan.” He says briskly. “Once we’ve got the plane grounded and all the passengers and staff isolated for interviewing or whatever, we’re going to insist on talking to everyone separately, and then whatever room they offer us, you two are going to keep everyone busy while I put a devil’s trap… on the ceiling, probably. Somewhere that’s not glaringly obvious, anyway.” He pauses, glancing back to make sure both Sam and Meira are on board. Meira nods enthusiastically, and Sam sighs in surrender. “Okay, so, what’s a devil’s trap look like?”

“Pentacle.” Meira answers easily. “You can make them more complicated, if you need to hold a stronger demon or a specific demon or you need to limit specific things within it, but… basic devil’s trap is just a pentagram in a circle.”

“Right, easy enough.” Dean agrees.

They stop to get suits at the first place they see. Dean looks hilariously uncomfortable, and Meira really wishes there was something she could say to help, but given that it’s a feeling that persists all the way through his life, she figures there’s not much anyone could say to make him feel better. “Should’ve got one with a waistcoat.” She says instead.

“Why the hell would I want extra layers of this bullshit?” Dean demands.

“Waistcoats are sexy as hell.” Meira informs him, smoothing down the front of her own.

Dean pauses and looks back at the shop with pained consideration. “Nope, no time.” Sam informs him. Dean makes a face at him, but doesn’t protest.

Allentown, Pennsylvania – Saturday 3rd December 2005

The plan goes off without a hitch. Meira knows that the most important part of pulling a prank like this is confidence, so she turns hers up to the max, channelling her pabbi and every archangel instinct she has, and TSA goes along with it. In fact, Meira is honestly a little shocked by how quickly everyone responds, until she remembers that, of course, it’s been four, not forty, years since the whole 9/11 thing. The flight gets grounded, TSA agents scurry about searching people and, helpfully, dragging them to and from the room they let the three of them conduct ‘interviews’ from. Meira is honestly having a ridiculous amount of fun, playing the scary Homeland Security agent looking for terrorists.

“You’re having fun.” Sam accuses under his breath, once they’re done with the passengers and about to get started on the staff.

Meira flashes him a wild, reckless grin. “I told you the prank opportunities were going to be glorious.” She murmurs back. Sam gives her an incredulous look, but doesn’t say more because the door is opening. Meira gives it a minute before she turns around, because if this is their demon, she doesn’t want to spook him before he’s sitting right on top of Dean’s devil’s trap, which he drew in magic marker on the bottom of the chair.

“I don’t see why this is-” The co-pilot cuts himself off when Meira and Sam turn around, his eyes flashing black as the demon loses control of itself for a brief moment in its shock. Or rage. Either one. “You again.” It hisses.

“Us again.” Dean says leaning back against the door.

The demon tries to lunge upwards, but the chair, conveniently bolted to the floor, doesn’t move, and the demon can’t leave it. It looks down, then back up again in outrage. “Who are you?” It demands, looking directly at Meira.

She smiles. “Zirdo zizop ol Ge-Iad, od lis ip darb ziri.” She informs it, and watches it recoil in horror with no little satisfaction.

“That’s not Latin.” Sam comments, looking at her in surprise.

“Nope.” Meira agrees cheerfully enough.

“You, though, you I know.” The demon adds, looking at Sam. He and Dean both go very still, staring intently. “I know what happened to your girlfriend, and if you let her do this, you’ll never find out why.” It taunts, a nasty smirk curling the host’s lips.

Sam stiffens. “Wait.” He says, and the demon grins.

“Sam.” Dean warns.

“What do you know about Jessica?” Sam demands.

“Let me go and I’ll tell you everything.” The demon promises.

Sam splashes holy water in its face, and it recoils with a yell, steaming. “Tell me, or I’ll-”

“Or you’ll what?” The demon spits, mocking. “What do you think you can do to me that’s worse than that?” It jerks its chin at Meira, who arches one eyebrow. “Let me go, or no deal.”

“Sam, we’re not letting this thing go.” Dean states. “It’s probably lying anyway.”

Sam’s free hand clenches into a fist. After a minute in which he doesn’t move, Meira gently pushes past him to stand in front of the demon. “Bols ma a’aiom, pa’aox il adohi ol Onsamir.” She instructs, and the demon hisses and thrashes, actually cracking the floor where the chair is bolted to it. Meira reaches out and puts a hand on the demon’s shoulder. It stills, tensing, staring at her with wide black eyes. “Niizo i etharzi, ammal, od yinay ma doal.” She says gently. “Oyi gohe Zire.”

Holy light suffuses the vessel, and the essence of the demon pours out of his mouth in the form black smoke even as it’s forced from this plane of existence, vanishing in midair.

Sam turns away and punches the wall. Dean watches him carefully, but when Sam just stands there, breathing hard, he goes to check the slumped co-pilot’s pulse. “He’s alive.” He reports. “So, do we need to carry on this farce, or can we just…?” He jerks his thumb at the door.

Meira takes a moment to hate the demon, because Sam’s mood is going to suck all the fun out of this. “I think we should finish. Let’s not give them a reason to get suspicious straight away, yeah?” She prompts, and Dean reluctantly nods, then shakes the co-pilot awake. He comes awake with a jolt, and immediately panics at the memory of the demon. “Calm down, you’re fine now.” Meira assures him.

“And if you want to stay fine, you’re going to act normal and not talk about this, or the nice TSA agents are going to arrest you for being a terrorist.” Dean adds, which doesn’t exactly help the guy’s fear, but it does redirect it nicely.

It’s a little tedious, going through the same rote questions with the rest of the staff, but there’s few enough left that Meira doesn’t mind. It’s worth it for the opportunity to bitch, in a restrained and professional manner, to the TSA agents about wild goose chases and bad information, and how she’s going to complain to her superiors about their lax fact-checking. The agents are so busy reminding her that ‘better safe than sorry’ and that it’s important work that they don’t even stop to wonder about a whole plane being delayed for what turned out to be nothing. Then the three of them are back in the Impala and driving away clean.

“We should have questioned the demon properly.” Sam says abruptly.

“Dude, Sam, seriously. It probably didn’t know jack shit.” Dean insists. “These things like to play with your mind, you can’t let it.”

“And even if it did know something, torturing information out of demons is hard, Sam. Not to mention ethically dubious given that the host suffers everything you do to the demon, too.” Meira points out, and Sam flinches, but his hard glare doesn’t waver. “Do you really think you can torture someone worse than Hell can, Sam? Someone innocent, just to find out what the demon riding their soul knows?”

Sam whips around to glare at her. “Yes.” He bites out, and then looks away, nausea twisting his expression. “No.” He capitulates. “I don’t-”

“Look, Sam. We will find this thing, alright? We will. And we don’t need to drag innocent people into it to do it. We’re better than that. Better than them.” Dean insists.

Meira smiles, bracing her elbows on the back of the front seats and lacing her fingers together to rest her chin on. “Damn straight.”

Marion, Indiana – Sunday 25th December 2005

It’s stupid, but it never occurred to Meira that Sam and Dean might not do Christmas. When she’d asked, a few days ago, Dean had just shrugged and said sure, they could do a present exchange this year, like that was optional. It’s only just sunk in, lying in the dark in a lonely motel room, that there just isn’t going to be Christmas this year.

No tree, no lights, no elaborate Santa traps, no cake for not-bro Jesus so entirely stuffed with candles that you could kill a wendigo with it, no trip to Scandinavia to have snowball fights in ancient pine forests, no stories of hunting pagan gods through the festivities. She’s alone, bound beneath her skin, with no possible way of finding out who did this to her, never mind what they did, or how to get home. She could pray to Pabbi, but he couldn’t answer, not without revealing himself to the Host, and she won’t do that to him, won’t force him to make that choice.

Midnight comes and goes, and the only way Meira knows is because she’s watching the shitty digital clock on the bedside table. She can’t feel the turn of the earth through the cosmos, can’t feel the ripples of time as billions and billions of humans make choices and change things. All she has is what’s trapped under her skin, and it’s nothing. Nothing compared to what she used to have. A family, and an entire universe to share with them.

Unable to bear it any longer, she rolls out of bed, gets dressed, and heads out. Once there, she goes to the vending machine and buys one of everything that looks like it has a cavity-inducing sugar-content, and carries it all over to the Impala. Then she hops up onto the hood, lies back, and starts in on her stash while watching the stars. “Hey, Granddad.” She says, out loud while opening up a pack of skittles, because who gives a fuck. “Looks like you’re the only family I’ve got for Christmas this year. Well, you and not-bro. How’s the garden, Josh? Sorry about no cake this year. It’d feel like… cheating, somehow, if I tried to get Sam and Dean to do it with me. Like I’m stealing something from their future, you know? Even if I bet Dean would get a kick out of it.”

She takes a deep breath, suddenly finding it hard not to cry. “You know, I always got why you fucked off, Granddad. Why you won’t interfere. I don’t think anyone else in my family really does. Except maybe Jace. He might’ve figured it out, but I bet he’s still stuck on the free will thing. That you won’t interfere because we’ve gotta do it ourselves, we’ve gotta make choices, and we can’t do that if the Father of all Father’s is looming over our shoulder. And that’s part of it, yeah, but it’s more than that, too, isn’t it?”

She has to sit up, because otherwise she’s going to choke on her own tears. Skittles spill across the hood of the Impala, and she doesn’t give a shit. “You won’t interfere because you love us. All of us, even the worst of us.” She says to the sky. “Even the actual devil. Even pond scum and slime mould and every last demon. Even me, even though I’m a blasphemy, an abomination, the devil reborn.” She pauses to gasp a few wet breaths. “I always knew, you know? You weren’t there, because you’re everywhere. But I don’t- Sorry, Granddad, but I don’t feel very loved, right now. I know you don’t like to- to interfere, but… but I could really use a miracle right about now, and I don’t know who else to turn to.”

She waits, but of course nothing happens. The stars don’t move, the world doesn’t shift. There isn’t even a change in the wind. Meira smiles bitterly, blinking tears onto her cheeks, and pulls her knees up to wrap an arm around them and bury her face in them. She gasps for air and lets it out in silent screams, with nothing left to pray for. Somewhere in the motel, a door opens and footsteps crunch across gravel.

“Meira?”

Meira’s head jerks up. Dean is standing there, looking sleep-rumpled and a little bleary, squinting at her in concern. Then his gaze drops to the mess of sweets scattered around her, and he snorts. He shoves them more towards the middle of the hood so that he can hop up to sit beside her, and snags a pack of M&Ms out of the pile for himself. “Can’t sleep?” He asks, and there’s a veneer of carelessness to it, like it’s an idle question and he didn’t just find her bawling her eyes out in the middle of the night, but he’s asking, and he’s there.

Thanks, Granddad. Meira thinks, as she tips over sideways to drop her head onto her dad’s shoulder. “I miss them.” She says quietly. “Never done Christmas without them before. Didn’t realise… how hard it’d hit me ‘til I got here, and suddenly it’s like I’m the last person on earth, it’s so lonely.”

There’s a long silence, but Meira doesn’t mind. She just watches the stars, and retrieves a skittle, and then starts in on the haribo. After a while, Dean shifts, but only enough to get his arm free so that he can put it around her shoulders. Meira shudders with another sob, and is so desperately glad when he doesn’t take that as a sign that he shouldn’t have done it.

“I felt the same, after Sam went to Stanford. Me and Dad were hunting separate, and Sam was gone. I knew I could just drive to Palo Alto, and he’d be there, but… That felt further than the moon, when he’d chosen to be there, instead of here.”

Meira nods a little against his shoulder, to let him know she’s listening, and she understands. “Pabbi used to dress up as Santa.” She says, sniffling and trying to put a little cheer into her voice. Pabbi didn’t so much as dress up as Santa as conjure one out of the ether for them, actually, but close enough. “And he’d have this huge sack of presents, right? But he’d only leave one. The rest, he’d say, we had to get for ourselves.”

Dean bursts out laughing. “He made you steal from Santa?” He asks, delighted.

“No, he made us hunt Santa.” Meira corrects, laughing a little herself. “Traps and tricks. A present would magically fall out of the sack every time we scored a ‘killing blow’.” Dean gasps out a startled curse, laughing too hard for anything else.

Once he’s calmed down a bit, he wipes at his eyes, still chuckling, and steals a few of her haribo. “Man, we never did anything that fun.” Dean bemoans, but not too seriously. “Most of the time Dad wasn’t even there for Christmas, tell you the truth, since monsters don’t stop just ‘cause it’s Christmas. One year Sammy gave me this, though.” He adds, lifting a hand to snag the cord around his neck and lift an amulet out from under his t-shirt. “Best Christmas present ever. Though, if you tell him that, I’ll put itching powder in your underwear.”

Meira catches it in the palm of her hand to draw it closer. It’s dark, but as she peers at it, she recognises it, despite never having seen the actual thing before in her life. Recognises it from her dad’s and qaada’s stories, and from some deeper well of knowledge that’s from the part of her that should have been nothing more than the Angel of Thursday, the remix, and instead ended up a little bit archangel.

And maybe it’s just lingering body-heat, but it feels warm in Meira’s palm. She grins, and lets it fall. “It’s pretty awesome.” She agrees. “And my lips are sealed, I swear.”

Love you too, Granddad.

#Supernatural #time travel #next generation #original character #Supernatural retelling #Dean Winchester #Sam Winchester #SPN 1x04 #Phantom Traveler #Meira Winchester #Trapped in the Amber #I'm so sad I didn't get to include Amanda in this #Enochian is THE WORST #seriously #on a scale of 0 to Tolkien #Dee is about -4 with how well constructed his conlang is #there's NO consistent grammar #there isn't even consistent spelling #'no i's in the angelic alphabet' Dee says #and promptly spells ever other word with an i #STILL I DID MY BEST #So have some translations #'I am a vessel of the lord and you will obey me' #'be not amongst us and return to your kingdom of hell' #'go in peace demon and do no harm' #'thus sayeth the lord' #Is Meira praying to Chuck when she prays to her granddad? #¯\_(ツ)_/¯ #Idk I like Prophet!Chuck and God!Chuck about the same tbh #I'm leaning towards Prophet!Chuck for this

[agentwallflower]

Supernova: Chapter 10

Hey, I made it to the end of August. Yay.

Good news on the writing front, I’m up to 16 out of planned 27 chapters. Just 11 more to go and this will be done! The back end of the book moves pretty quickly, so I’m probably going to get through it faster. Then again, that’s all new material so... I don’t know what the hell is going to happen.

That’s what happens when you’re rewriting the rewrite of something you wrote in 2012. 

Also, I finished second round edits of my other novel. That’s right, I did it. I got past where I stopped in Blister. Maybe there’s hope for me yet. I’m going to let it sit a month before doing some more edits. Once it’s done, off to my readers it goes. Not y’all. This one’s a secret project the internet doesn’t get to see.

I gave up on my anthology draft, but not because I was frustrated. A friend pointed out it would do better as a longer work, so I’m going to possibly use it for my fall Nano material if I don’t feel like writing book 2 of the trilogy. I should probably do that one tho... we’ll see.

Anyway, I have strep throat and I should be in bed so I’ll stop blabbing. Next chapter is going up on September 5. You’ll get it in time for Labor Day if you’re in the US, yaaaay....

Thanks for reading as always, and I’ll see you in the next chapter.

“So, are you ready for your first training session?”

He was still getting used to being awake at this hour, forget being ready for anything at this point.

Angel yawned underneath his visor as he wished he could rub the sleep from his eyes. It wasn't really all that early – just after 9 in the morning. Problem was, he was a college student. He was pretty sure those hours were against the Geneva convention.

Across the table from him sat Ember, geared up despite the fact it was her day off. Normally around the base she could be a little more casual, but something about a new face had everyone pulling out the stops. Even Scanner had their mask and visor on, which had become something of a rarity since stopping on the ground duty.

Honestly, it was kind of weird. Being paranoid about masks was his thing.

“I'm as ready as I'm ever going to be.” He yawned again, eyes watering. “Whose bright idea was it to make this so damn early?”

His team leader frowned, and the room felt a little cooler. That was typical with pyrokinetics, even with one as well trained as she was. Their emotions were often tied to their powers, so it didn't take a genius to figure out something was bothering her. It wasn't big enough to cause an ice age, but it was something.

“That... would be Andromeda's mother.” Ember hesitated as she spoke. “She is...”

Angel didn't even need to read minds to finish that one. “A massive control freak?”

“A lawyer.”

Same thing.

Scanner was already pulling up family records on screen. “The lawyer who defends the idiots we have to beat up, to be exact. It's a miracle she let the kid come in at all. Don't you know her from when Nova was around?”

There was that name. Ember winced and the temperature took a sudden spike before settling down. It was enough for sweat to bead on the back of Angel's neck as he adjusted his position. Scanner didn't exactly look comfortable either – they rolled back a bit.

“Sorry,  I know - “

Ember shook her head. “It's been 20 years, it's time to adjust I suppose. And yes, I know her from back then. She wasn't nearly as bad as she was now, but I guess dealing with a marriage breakup and being stuck in Bear Paw can't be pleasant.”

Oh, Angel could see plenty of arguments about that as the psych part of his brain overloaded the psychic center. His adviser would have had a field day with that one, it was practically her research topic. Then again, to even bring it up he would have to explain a lot of weird shit. That was probably off limits.

Damn, and he loved giving Dr. B something to chew on for her next book. He was so close to getting some credit.

“So she's deflecting her bitterness over her career goals onto her kids, good to know. Bet that's why she's a defense lawyer.” Angel shrugged. “Whatever, as long as she gets Andy here on time I don't care.”

Thanks to the visor blocking his line of sight, he got an eyeful of Ember looking at him as though he had two heads. Scanner was used to this shit by now, so they kept typing on the keyboard like they always did. They were a good friend that way.

“Speaking of, I spotted her and PT on a nearby cam. They should be coming up soon.” Scanner was grinning at him. “Have fun schooling the newbie, SR.”

Oh, loads. He was only dealing with a alien, how hard could it be?

---

“Did you sleep at all last night? And don't give me that thing you do when you're trying to avoid revealing biological facts to those scientists, I know you. I've stepped on your leftovers.”

Jeez, you leave crumbs once...

Still, Andy shrugged her shoulders as she adjusted her seat belt. It wasn't bothering her, but her shoulder spike was definitely sharp enough to cut through the material. Honestly she didn't need it either; if she got thrown from the car, she'd break the road rather than actually damaging anything. The only reason she kept it on was the fact her aunt was a sticker about this sort of thing.

“Not really. I kept thinking about today.”

Her innards were bubbling up in a way they didn't often do. It wasn't the way she felt when faced with the scientists and their tests. If she had to guess, she was excited. It was understandable, given what was waiting for her.

Though... how were they going to control her?

Andy looked down at her hands as her aunt continued to drive. Miri was probably saying something, but it wasn't registering. She could still feel the power coursing through her entire body, and just how explosive the shot had been. Then she had been outside, with plenty of room to aim. As far as she knew, the Union was inside.

And what if that feeling came back?

That was really what had kept Andy up that night. If she could avoid anything, it would  be the numbing sensation of being out of control of her own body. Something about that just left her feeling cold in a way she couldn't put words to then. Maybe she would learn them in time, but until then... cold worked just fine.

“You paying attention?”

Miri's voice broke Andy out of her thoughts. She picked up her head and turned to face the hero. Somewhere in the midst of her mood, they had stopped driving. They were in the city now, in a part she sometimes saw on aerial shots. It looked... normal. There were buildings and sidewalks, with people walking by and cars driving past. Nothing about it hinted at what it held in one of those fronts.

Leave it to the Union to design their base well.

She shrugged her shoulders and unleashed her seat belt. “Sorry, did I miss something?”

“It's rare for you to be acting like a space cadet.” Miri smirked a little as they left the car. “I was saying we're here.”

She wasn't wearing her mask, but she did have something in her hand. Andy followed along as they walked down the sidewalk, eyeing the buildings. One of them had to be it, but which one was it? Maybe it was the one with the red flowerpot, or the closed windows. It could have been the one that looked darker than the rest. That seemed thematic, right?

“Here we are.”

Or maybe it was the completely freaking normal looking one that didn't stand out at all, smack dab in the middle of the block.

Her aunt smirked as she stopped moving. “I love when people do that.”

She slid her hand down a lock near the doorknob – Andy caught the flash of a white plastic card with her motion. The lock beeped, and then the door swung open. Inside, it looked like any normal entry way; there were heavy looking winter boots lining the side, left over from the winter. Someone had left a bright blue umbrella there, and a mirror on the wall reflected back at Andy as she stepped through the door.

And then all that went away the minute the door closed behind her.

'Yep, she's your niece. Must have ice in her veins or something.'

They were in an elevator, one that was rising quickly. A voice from a speaker brought Andy back to the present. She had heard that voice before, usually calling her aunt away from their time together. The tech; it had to be them.

“She's got a killer poker face.” Miri's tone was bland, but there was a light in her eyes that the camera wouldn't pick up that was just for her. Andy's shoulders shook a little as she waited for the door to open to wherever they were going. It was easier to focus on the joke than the closed space.

Unsurprisingly for someone of her size and background, but she really hated small spaces. Elevators were probably her worst nightmare. She wouldn't start hyperventilating like a human with claustrophobia, but her core was bubbling uncomfortably as she kept her eyes on the door.

Just a few seconds... she could handle that. The walls weren't totally closing in or anything.

It felt like a lifetime, but the door eventually slid open. Andy was probably a little too enthusiastic to get off, which was what earned her a frown from the woman behind her. A comforting hand snuck around her spike to find her hard, bony shoulder.

“You ok?”

Her concerned face and tone made Andy's core stop bubbling as much. The alien nodded as she carefully turned to face her aunt. Had she been a little too rough, the woman's hand might have been shredded. Not a good look, especially when she was still playing human.

“Yeah. I'm still not big on small areas.” She shrugged. “Of course when you're me,all areas are kind of small.”

Miri patted her shoulder as she pulled her hand back. “There's stairs you can go up next time once we have you keyed into the system.”

“I hope that's not by DNA or anything...”

The silence was deafening as the two walked the short hall. Andy probably would have been sweating by then if she was able to do that. Instead, she kept her eyes focused on the door in front of her. On the other side was the Union.

She was so close.

Miri opened the door for her. Just as she thought, on the other side were the heroes, waiting for her. The one by the computer wall had to be Scanner – they were smaller than she expected, even with the chair. And they didn't turn to face her, just kept working.

“Good to see you PT.”

A woman approached, in her full hero gear. Even if she had been in plain clothes, Andy would have known who she was. Her amber eyes were practically glowing, and she seemed to radiate warmth in a way that the alien couldn't manage. Hers was just hot – this was authority and self-assured know how in one.

Just what the leader of the Bear Paw Union needed.

“Took us a while getting here with construction and all. Nice not to be the one causing it for once.” Miri gave her a nudge forward. “Got her here in one piece so you can make the introductions.”

Ember smiled at her, and Andy felt a weight in her nonexistent gut dissolve. One thing she hated was being a burden – she was unfortunately good at doing that. “Nice to finally meet you, Andromeda.”

“Just Andy is fine.” She nodded her head. “Nice to meet you too. Aunt Miri says a lot of good stuff about you.”

Seeing her aunt turn pink and duck out was worth it, as was the smile she got from the pyrokinetic. The room felt a little warmer, but it was in a comforting way. People on the news had said Ember's ability was linked to her emotions, but feeling it was completely different.

Definitely someone nice.

“Probably nothing she'd repeat in  front of me.” She laughed a little – it sounded like a bell. “You can call me Ember. I'm afraid I can't give you my actual name at this time per the rules.”

Andy nodded at that. “I know, I grew up around Aunt Miri and Uncle Leo. They drilled it into me.”

Even mentioning the man got the whole room to straighten up. She swore she heard the tech's spine snap into place like Lego bricks, and Ember grew a half inch even though she was standing pretty straight. The only one it didn't seem to affect much was the one on the couch. Sky Rider was still sitting there, like nothing was going on.

He... looked ok, at least by her guess. In full costume it was hard to see if he was bandaged or in pain, but he was at least in one piece. Whether or not he blamed her for all this she didn't know, but she was probably about to find out. If he tried to slam her into a wall during their training, that was probably a pretty good sign.

No pressure, right?

“Well, then we won't have to go over much then.” Ember was good at moving things along. “You know Sky Rider, and this is our tech Scanner.”

The figure in the chair never turned, but raised a hand. “Don't get mad I'm not looking at you, I don't do new people well.”

That made two of them. Andy nodded her head in their direction, before turning back to Sky Rider. He had gotten of the couch and was walking over to them with a laid back pace. His steps were even, so at least he wasn't limping.

Then again... she had heard gun shots. Maybe they had missed him?

Sky Rider was still short, but she was used to people being shorter than her. The lack of visible emotions because of the helmet was honestly helpful in this situation. With all these people, her head was starting to spin a little.

Ok, it wasn't a lot of people... but it wasn't like she got to meet a lot of people. Most of the time, anyone new was wearing a lab coat and trying to get data out of her. They could forgive her for being a little people shy.

“Don't worry, Scanner only eats Cheetos.”

Scanner's typing got a little harder. “Very funny, SR.”

“Just trying to make the new guy comfortable.” His body language suggested he was enjoying this. “I can take it from here, Ember. You can get going if you want.”

Ember's body language relaxed a little. “Are you sure? I can stick around if you want.”

Ah... someone was in on their day off. Andy hadn't considered that. A weight dropped into her gut once again as she tried to figure what the woman might have been missing. Miri's days off were rare and far between, so... she had given up a lot.

Was there a family waiting for her? Shit... she was already screwing things up.

Sky Rider gave them both a thumbs up. “Get out of here and enjoy your day off. We'll let you know if she blows anything up.”

That was probably the least likely way to get anyone to leave, in Andy's opinion. She opened her mouth to assure the woman she wouldn't do anything like that, but there was no need. Ember was chuckling a little as she headed towards the door.

“I'll hold you to that. It was nice meeting you, Andy.”

And then she was gone, leaving a very confused alien in the grips of a bunch of weirdos. Still, she was there. It was probably better to just make the most of it. She still didn't feel entirely comfortable as the masked hero motioned for her to follow him towards a door off to the side.

How the hell could they keep her contained in a residential building anyway?

===

If you like my writing and want to help keep making it happen, I have a Ko-Fi!

#Supernova Collision Trilogy #Writing #novel #Ember's gonna go home to her girlfriends now #Gee Ember how come your mom lets you have two- shit sorry

[calleo-bricriu]

All right, I’ve had my couple of drinks now.

Two of Pentacles starts the whole thing off wobbly, trying to find balance, resourcefulness, ups and downs, adaptability, flexibility, profit & loss, partnerships that are probably as volatile as the rest of the card. This one looks like economic nonsense, which nobody paying any attention to the world's economies in general would be surprised by.

Queen of Cups pops up next; usually represents a person. Psychic--so probably a legilimens, or at least someone good at reading body language and pattern recognition--emotional woman, feminine, warm, sensitive, kind, daydreamer, beautiful, creative. It can also be a reminder to be mindful of how you treat yourself and others (on account of getting to say hello to everyone you stepped on on the way up while you're on your way back down), and you're probably more sensitive than you let on.

Knight of Wands is up next and that bastard revolves around being hasty, taking risks, shameless flirt, charming, fearless, rebellious, revolutionary, moving country, being full of energy and confidence, I hate that this one is always going with "Probably a fire sign" mostly because I'm a fire sign and all of those things sound exhausting. Do you know how much energy and time it takes to move about, do rebellious or, Merlin forbid, anything approaching revolutionary, and do it all while at least still pretending you're charming and full of energy when you really just want to go and have a nap?

Then again, it does tend to refer to someone about half my age when it's talking about a person.

I hate that card turning up on the rare occasions I'll indulge some self-proclaimed--whatever the hell people who read these things for a living call themselves, Muggles, usually--and them going on about how it's definitely about me. Do I look like I have that much energy? If I do, would you like to borrow my glasses?

Sure, maybe it was 35 years ago right now it's just making me tired to even listen to the description. I'll take the open minded, free-spirit, and fearless options but the latter is only because I burned those pathways out as the result of 40-some years of studying the Dark Arts without a break.

"You can't scare me" isn't boasting, it's me telling you I have a high degree of neurological damage that prevents me from actually feeling fear.

That was just a side rant spawned from the context of the preceding and proceeding cards.

Moving on.

Knight of Swords follows that and--oh, not more big changes and rebellious, revolutionary, chatty, impulsive, daring, ambitious, 'go against the status quo' exhausting people. At least when it's Swords instead of Wands it gets elements of 'leadership' tacked onto it which means if my deck is being a collection of cackling nonsense as it usually is, it means I at least don't have to do any planning.

Would anyone mind if the Knight of Wands clubbed the Knight of Swords over its head to get it to settle down?

With the Eight of Wands we've got--fuck's sake, really? We're doing this again are we?

At least Temperance decided to show up to put the brakes on, because Eight of Wands just reiterated exhausting to read Eight of Wands backing up the Knight of Swords and Knight of Wands.

Not that it'll do much good long term, according to the Eight of Cups and I bet it's the Ministry's fault somehow; it's always the Ministry's fault.

I'd really be more inclined to pull this deck out more frequently if its main entertainment didn't seem to be sarcastically shouting the same warnings at me over and over.

I know.

I get it.

I'll deal with it when it gets to that point.

I'd say I need to keep on top of my finances but I've got such a wide circle of people who are so much better at managing that aspect of my life than I am that I'd probably just make an entire mess of it if I tried to get more involved than I already am. I’m also contractually obliged to stay out of large parts of it for those reasons.

Anyway: My life is likely to remain generally annoying on account of one person (( @absintheabsence​ )) , the already in shambles world economy is only going to get worse and probably be one of the main catalysts used by several people to do things that wouldn't otherwise be tolerated, and I'd still prefer to simply nap through the whole mess but that's unlikely.

I’m sure if he sees it, Monday morning will be interesting.

#It should be socially acceptable to hiss at cards #maybe it is if it's done in private and nobody sees you #tarot #divination #v: ftbawtft #1926 #hp rp