#this started as a techno as a warlock idea

[cata-strophes]

the dark sbi server had another secret santa this year, this was my gift :}

bit of lore i couldnt add bc it would be ten pages longer:

neapolitan trio are demon brothers, phil is their demon dad. techno is the oldest, and he was taken years ago by evil angels or smth idk, he had his memories supressed and for the longest time thought he was human and joined the war on the angelic forces's side.

tommy and wil are tasked to get him back, and tommy does so first, but he wants some time with his brother who is always busy!! so he pretends to be a human child and follows him around. techno grows fond of him and wants to protect him.

wilbur eventually finds him and tommy refuses to give him victory, so the gig is up!!

techno does spend more time with tommy later on ^-^

#debated a lot whether i post this or just leave it for the people of the server but tbh i havent posted much of anything in quite some time #so here it is #dark sbi #bedrock bros #technoblade #tommyinnit #wilbur soot #secret santa #dark bedrock bros #sbi #my art #tommyinnit fanart #technoblade fanart #wilbur soot fanart #comic #this started as a techno as a warlock idea #refusing tommy's deal #until he was against a sword and a hard place #which is why the sixth page has that composition

[kurt-wagner-official]

Post #51: NM issue 21 and NM Annual issue 1

Dani’s been released from the hospital, although confined to a wheelchair, and the New Mutants celebrate by hosting a party with a bunch of kids from town. At least of them, Weezie, is based on a real person, the book’s editor Louise Simonson, and maybe more are too. It’s the first time this many human teenagers have been allowed in the mansion, and there are plenty of rumors flying around about the weird kids who go to this school, but none of them are true. High above the Earth, Warlock is crashing down to the planet below, and in the process destroys Magneto’s asteroid base, sending him down too. Back on Earth, Rahne is feeling out of place and scared to join the dancing, worrying it’s sinful, and her friends ambush her and give her a makeover. Meanwhile, Sam and Berto are walking back from a baseball game, goofing off and chatting. Berto mentions his father, who used to take him to sports games, and how much he hates and misses him. Sam says that there’s always a chance, and he would give anything to still have a chance with his father. I really love this friendship. A lot of the specifics of the team dynamics from all the teams in this era have been forgotten by later writers, but the Sam/Berto bromance has stood the test of time. When they get home, Rahne answers to door, and Sam doesn’t recognize her after her makeover, which makes her punch him and slam the door. The other girls tell Rahne Sam probably thought she was cute, and she’s mortified, while Sam has no idea what just happened or why. He and Berto go swimming in a lake on the grounds, and are interrupted by the arrival of Warlock, who’s a shapeshifter, appearing to be a meteor that crashes into the lake. Sam and Berto decide it doesn’t look dangerous, but bring it to the lab for later. They walk away while Sam nerds out about sci-fi novels. It’s an interesting detail that shows us how his getting powers and joining the team is the kind of adventure he’s spent his whole life dreaming about. As they walk off, Warlock awakens and starts looking for fuel. As a sentient organic and robotic being, he eats by infecting organic matter, in this case a houseplant, with a techno-organic virus that turns it into a machine which he can then drain the power out of. He’s fascinated by the fridge, which he assumes is an unfriendly alien with a lot of food. Dani’s messing with her friends by conjuring an illusion over their Ouija board, but they’re interrupted when Lockheed attacks Warlock. Illyana follows the noise and summons a demon from Limbo, but Warlock infects and then drains it, and Illyana flees through a teleportation disk with Lockheed. Dani’s pissed that Sam brought a strange alien object into the mansion, and he feels like a failure too. But he decides to fix his mistake and take out Warlock before any party guests discover anything. The New Mutants get him outside and fight him, assuming he’s a demon while he assumes they’re guard dogs for the residents of the house. He gets away and goes after Dani, who realizes he’s sentient and living when her powers work on him, creating an image of his father Magus. He flees in terror, and the team realizes he’s not evil, just confused and scared. He finds the Danger Room and assumes it must be the master of the house, but collapses in despair when it can’t communicate. However, Sam knows who can help, and he flies off to Doug Ramsey’s house. Doug has no idea he’s a mutant (his memory keeps getting wiped when he finds out) but Sam tells him he has the power to understand any languages and flies him to the mansion. I wish we could see how that conversation went, but it happens off panel. Doug is able to speak to him through the Danger Room mainframe and explains how Earth works, and Warlock tells his story: his people are born as assembly line copies of existing members of their race, who they must then fight to replace or be destroyed. Warlock fled instead, and his “father,” Magus, is coming for him. Warlock is ashamed that he tried to eat sentient beings and lies dying on the ground, but Rahne refuses to let an outsider die alone, so she runs to help him. The others try to stop her, but rather than convert her, Warlock accepts her assistance in plugging him into an outlet. Doug manages to create a program to teach Warlock English, and he’s rejuvenated and thrilled to have people that care about him. When Xavier returns, at the same time Illyana and Lockheed reappear ready for battle, they’re shocked that the New Mutants introduce an alien and ask him to be admitted to the school. But Xavier trusts them and welcomes his newest student. This was a very sweet and fun issue. The X-Men, and the New Mutants, stand for the integration of humans and mutants, and in a world like this, the natural next step is to include aliens as well. Warlock and Doug are the final new members for a while, and great additions that’ll flesh out the cast and provide new story opportunities.

The first New Mutants annual focuses on Sam, who’s frustrations with himself have been building for a while. Xavier his powers by having him try to raise up a heavy platform, a transparent analogy for the weight he puts on himself. He can’t move it, but he doesn’t want to disappoint Xavier or himself, so he keeps trying until Dani, on Xavier’s orders, gives him a vision of a Brood that startles him into turning off his power. Xavier lectures him about maintaining control, and he hints at the possibility of Sam being an X-Man one day. I think it’s the first time there’s any indication Xavier would allow that, and it’s an interesting development in how he views his students. Most X-Men who get a lecture like this lash out at Xavier, but Sam just apologizes and internally beats himself up. I think I’ve said before that he reminds me a lot of Scott, or more specifically a version of Scott that has a healthier relationship with Xavier. He does have a family outside of the X-Men, but he took on the role of leader and protector of that family at a young age the way Scott did with the X-Men, and he tries to take the whole world onto his shoulders to keep everyone else from feeling the burden. There’s a brief, weird scene where an alien walks down the street and destroys a poster of rock star Lila Cheney, and then we’re with Dani and Stevie doing physical therapy. She’s frustrated, but Stevie tells her that it’ll take time but she’ll get through. Just then, Berto bursts in to tell her he got the whole team tickets to go see Lila Cheney in concert. Berto knows the tour organizer from his billionaire days, so he’s got them VIP passes, including Warlock, who can shapeshift to look human. They’re watching Lila, who dresses like a stereotypical 80s punk, when her speakers start to fall on her. Sam saves her life, and she kisses him and invites them all to her afterparty. Rahne and Warlock suspect sabotage, which is confirmed when that alien attacks them during the show. Lila sees, and without stopping the song, starts using her mysterious powers to first blow up the alien and then activate a stargate hidden in the amps that teleports her, the band, and Sam away. Warlock absorbs a lot of the residual energy and uses it to activate the stargate again so the team can follow. Sam is in sci-fi nerd heaven when he realizes Lila has brought him to her home in a dyson sphere, which he says (for the benefit of audience members like me) is a sphere around a sun that creates a massive atmosphere. She sends him off with a band member to get a makeover while we learn that the alien was a bounty hunter trying to interfere in his plan to sell the planet Earth. Sam comes back dressed in punk rocker clothes, which is very funny, and Lila starts making out with him while one of her band members is revealed to be conspiring with some of the same aliens to double cross Lila. Meanwhile, the rest of the New Mutants have arrived, after a brief setback where they ended up in deep space but Warlock turned into a spaceship. They get captured by the aliens, along with Sam and Lila, who’s plan is revealed to the shocked Sam, but they get free and a fight starts. Everyone’s making fun of Sam’s new look, which to be fair is kinda ridiculous. My favorite reaction is Berto, who thinks the aliens must have tortured him and gets very angry. They destroy the controls to the big stargate that Lila was gonna use to teleport Earth, which for some reason means it’s gonna self destruct, but Doug is able to interpret the language and do some fancy computer stuff that saves the day just in time. I would like to point out that when they all thought they were about to die, Berto’s last thoughts were wishing he could tell his parents how much he loves them. Anyway, Lila reveals that she also has the mutant power to teleport interstellar distances, so she takes them all back to Earth. She says she was gonna sell the Earth because Earthians sold her into slavery, but now she won’t cause she owes the New Mutants, and they just kinda accept that, which is a very weird way to resolve the story, but honestly I don’t mind some occasional wonky comic book logic in a wonky comic book. She and Sam decide to keep dating. This was a fun annual, although I would have liked a little more development with Sam past the first couple scenes. It is nice to see him branching out in his love interests, though, and we also got a nice showcase for Doug when he saves the world with the power of reading. Other than poor Xi’an, who’s still missing and hasn’t been mentioned in a while, the full gang was together for the first time, and their scenes together had a lot of promise for good stories to come.

#wes reads xmen

[tallaroo]

oh look sbi designs for some dnd au that’s been in my head for months

I’ll put a long explanation under the cut for anyone who’s interested :]

So to start off: Phil is a warlock with a pact to the Raven Queen Kristin. He made an agreement to work for her very early in his adventuring career in return for his life being spared. He has a raven companion that works like a familiar and sometimes Kristin will take control of it to talk to Phil. Eventually their relationship becomes something more as they both get charmed by each other. 

As an aasimar Phil has celestial heritage and can summon a set of wings, originally they were white but after making his pact with Kristin they turned black. He’s the one who’s been adventuring the longest out of the party and has even taken down a few dragons so he’s a fairly well known adventurer.

Techno is a barbarian who takes the phrase ‘techno never dies’ to a whole new level. In his early days he fought in arenas for clout and money, after that lost its flare he became a mercenary, usually working alone on high risk jobs. He met Phil at some village in the middle of nowhere while it was being raided by hoards of undead, they worked together to wipe them out and sparked a kinship. They began traveling together and taking on jobs but they didn’t get to the point of absolute trust until after the ‘incident’.

Techno is a half-orc, he never knew his parents and has no relatives he knows of. He’s been alone most of his life and at a young age was inflicted with the lycanthrope curse from an unknown source.

Wilbur is a crime boy, he casts magic through song and lives to tell stories and cause problems. He spent most of his time making trouble in his home city until he and a friend took their mischief too far. While his friend was able to weasel his way out Wil wasn’t as fortunate and was exiled from the city under threat of lethal punishment. He was forced to leave behind his son with his friend knowing that life on the road wouldn’t be safe for the kid. He tries to get news from the city but the further he travels the harder it gets.

Wilbur meets up with Phil and Techno while they’re in the middle of a job, he recognizes them both fairly easy and tags along with them uninvited. Phil warms up to him rather fast, enjoying his music and stories. It’s Techno seeing Wilbur’s use of magic in battle that convinces him to let the bard stay with them.

And finally Tommy, he grew up in a fairly isolated village, he had his best friend Tubbo and everything was mundane but peaceful. However when he hit 16 his magic awakened, no one had any ideas where it could’ve come from, his family had no history with magic. People were cautious around him after that and Tommy practically became a social outcast over night. He still had Tubbo at least. 

Tommy joins the party after they come across his village raided and destroyed. They find him and agree to escort the kid to the next town. But Tommy is nothing but persistent and annoying and continues to tail them after they drop him off. He reasons that they’re all strong adventurers and that they’d be perfect for being his sidekicks on his quest to find Tubbo and uncover what happened to his home.

#dungeon crawl au #mcyt #sbi #my art #i wrote so much im so sorry

[funky-lady]

Picture taken from the animatic “END OF THE SOUTHLANDS || Last Life Animatic || Grian, Impulse, InTheLittleWoods, Mumbo” by Dropster. Go check it out it’s awesome!!

Leave a Lichen Subscribe

Yes I am adopting Techno’s genius technique by shamelessly promoting my blog, sue me. Or don’t. Please don’t.

The Boatem Crew Boards The Dream Cruise Ship

“Wait, so you're telling me these don’t exist here.” Muses Impulse with a thoughtful frown as he eyes his lichen farm speculatively.

Next to him Phil nods, unwilling to admit the slight wariness he’s feeling at the sight of the scheming glint that enters the man’s gaze.

Phil notices the small, yellow i’s in the centre of the man’s pupils and wonders if Impulse wears contacts or of it’s a weird side-effect of the warlock ritual he went through.

“Yup!”

“That’s so strange… I’ll have to build a shop for it in this world then.”

Phil snorts. “You know they’ll just steal whatever you’re selling, right?”

The smirk that spreads across Impulse’s face is nothing short of devilish. “Oh don’t worry. It won’t be long before they learn not to.”

*

It’s while walking down the Prime Path that Impulse has an idea of how to build this world’s version of the Lichen Subscribe Shop.

He stares at the pristine, white building, plans and blueprints forming in his mind at lightning speed.

He won’t build it here, but Phil told him about this place called Snowchester, where glow lichen would grow very well.

It takes him a few hours to get there but finally he finds the perfect place to build his shop.

With a decisive nod he plonks his shulker boxes containing his building blocks and wastes no time getting to work.

*

After three days of hard work, he’s done with the build.

This shop might’ve taken a while to build, and used up enough blocks that the Boatem crew came by to drop off some more materials, but he’s so glad that he stuck with his idea of building a Lichen Subscribe Shrine as a shop.

Japanese in design while still making generous use of his trademark colour pallet, the shrine is a shop he could be proud of. The inside of it is covered with banners embroidered with a lichen-like pattern.

No need to leave some of his product out in the open for people to take.

The lichen he plans on selling is promptly stored in barrels below the shop, encased in multiple layers of obsidian and rigged to a trap that’s designed to drop anyone foolish enough to mess with his shop into a hole encased in multiple layers of obsidian, lava and water.

That should keep anyone from stealing the goods he’s selling.

For the shop itself Impulse builds a redstone contraption that acts as a distributor of sorts. The design is similar to Mumbo’s potato vendors, only more… classy.

Finally, after a few days of gruelling work, Impulse sits back and admires his work.

He can’t help but grin in satisfaction.

It’s always so satisfying when something he comes up with in his mind turns out to be just as successful once he builds it in real life.

And this build is one he’s definitely happy with.

As he sighs happily and starts putting his blocks away, Impulse stills when a voice sounds from behind him.

“Who are you and what are you doing?”

A/N : A master list for this au and a rough timeline can be found here

@call-me-dj @camilo-madrigal @blueliac @snowstorm174 @neonwizardheehee @kia-kit @who-needs-braincells @achille-s-cum-down @tubb-0

#boatem dreamers au #hermitcraft #dream smp #hc x dsmp #impulsesv #technoblade #prime church #prime path #lichen subscribe shop #boatem inc #boatem crew #boatem #boatem pole #glow lichen #l’manburg #l’manhole

[fl1nt-and-st33l]

Sleepy Bois Inc. Monster AU?

Ok so maybe it’s not a monster au but idk what else to call it 😔 anyways here’s my basic idea that'll probably change a lot:

Sorry in advance for the messiness of this post this is my first draft of the AU.

Starting with Mr. Blade

He has pig ears and tusks that point upwards.

His whole family has animal features because his great great great great great great great uncle thought it would be funny to piss off a warlock.

So yeah

Because of this, the warlock cursed him, and anyone blood-related to him.

Weird champ 

Half of Technos family became farmers to isolate themselves from society so no one tries to burn them at the stake.

The other half of his family became adventurers to try to lift the curse.

Guess what Techno is!

...

Yeah, he's both no surprise.

He farmed potatoes for most of his early life till his cousins dared him to quit and become an adventure with their crazy grandfather

Techno of course shrugged and said sure.

Honestly, it was boring to him.

He enjoyed researching his family history and trying to find out how to lift the curse but being an adventure is a lot more boring than it sounds.

He didn't expect to spend his 13th birthday sitting around all day reading the same material over and over again to find some secret meaning.

Honestly, he didn't care about his features; he was only really trying to help his grandfather because his cousins dared him.

And because he wants to see more of the world outside of his family's potato farm.

 When Technos' grandfather is sleeping or is too deep in his research Techno sneaks out to explore the woods surrounding the cabin.

One day he found a book inside of his grandfather's office on sword fighting and immediately began to read any book he could get his hands on about war, combat, and strategy. 

So when he sneaked out he practiced fighting with wooden weapons he carved.

When his grandfather passed away, Techno packed 2 bags:

The first was with clothes, money, and a little bit of food.

The second had notes he had taken on the books he collected on combat and strategy. Along with notes he had taken when practicing.

He stole a horse he later affectionately called brick from a nearby farm and rode off with his wooden sword strapped to his belt and compass in hand.

Ok that’s it for now but I’ll be talking about Tommy and/or Wilbur later tonight hopefully. Sorry It's such a mess I really wanted to get my ideas out. Lmao one day I’ll actually make a post about this and It’ll be organized and actually make sense.

This AU was inspired by @chandelier-s-notebook Dangerous Pink story and @qyu-archive mcyt scp au. This will probably be the only time I tag them.

#sleepy bois inc #technoblade #monster au #Sleepy bois inc monster!au #I think im going to call this techno #Cursed!technoblade #Yeah I like that #mcyt

[mihidecet]

SBi d&d AU: Tubbo

Aka: Tibi’s MCYT WritingTober, day 20!

From @the-only-gamer-gost ‘s list of prompts, another entry for “Fanmade AU” ahahah And as requested by a super cool anon: “ i'd love to see more of tommy's backstory in the d&d au! especially if we can meet tubbo?” :D

Ask and you shall receive! You can also find Tubbo’s reference sheet made by the wonderful @whatimevendoinhere here! Also, @rigatonipastaroni made a super sweet comic about the reunion, waaay before the chapter was even posted!!

There is nothing quite as sad as a bard with a broken guitar. 

It happens during a fight, a sadly-not-that-unusual spar with a rogue elemental that had decided to mess with a village just because they had been bored. 

Absolutely unrelatable. Tommy's patron had commented, the absolute hypocrite.

Still, the overall business had been quite straightforward: get to the outskirts, find the bad guy, kick their ass, profit. 

Nothing they hadn't done before. 

And like everything they expected to go smoothly, things went wrong. 

Tommy would say that thankfully nobody had gotten hurt, and everyone was perfectly fine, and they'd gotten a particularly big reward for something that standard. 

Wilbur would say, instead, that his guitar had been irreparably damaged, its neck snapped in half and body ripped apart, shards laying on the ground like blood, a gruesome heart-wrenching sight that would haunt him until the end of times. 

Tommy's patron had warned him that his second-degree cousin was a bit dramatic, but maybe it was just standard bard behaviour.

To be fair, the guitar was mostly gone. 

Wilbur had picked up as many pieces as he could and stuffed them in its case, but no amount of mending cantrips had been able to fix it. Phil had tried, but he didn't know how guitars worked and it was hard to discriminate where each shard needed to be placed in order to mold it all back together, like a freakishly hard jigsaw puzzle. 

And Wilbur had been extremely proud of his guitar, as apparently it had been a gift and a memento of his grandiose adventures. Sentimental values and such. 

Not that Tommy could say anything about it, not after the friendship bracelet incident.

For about a week, every time they stopped by a town, they looked for a carpenter first, a musical expert second, and an arcane expert third. 

They never managed to fix it. The thing was, it happened to be a weirdly specific and skill-needing task, so nobody they found was either confident enough or prepared enough to do it. 

So they moved on, and the bard's lament continued.

It gets to the point where one night, the innkeeper approaches their table during one of Will's performances - the tiefling had insisted in keeping the tradition of offering his musical entertainment in each tavern they resided in, now with just his voice and sometimes his flute, but being unable to have music as he sang and vice versa was truly different. 

That night, Wilbur is singing a ballad so sad and tear-jerking that the innkeeper actually approaches them and asks if everything is alright. 

"Oh- oh, yes, my apologies, everything is alright. -" Phil instantly responds, looking quite awkward "- It's just that his guitar broke, and we haven't been able to find anyone to fix it. It was of great personal importance." 

The innkeeper nods understandingly, an expression of deep empathetic sadness on their face, before their eyes light up. 

"You know, I might just have what you need. You guys are lucky, the Fixer Upper just arrived a week ago! If he doesn't know how to fix it, nobody will." 

After obtaining a brief explanation of where to find this infamous "Fixer Upper", who apparently works for free and will probably ask for food, shelter or protection as he moves to the next town over, the innkeeper leaves them be, assuring them that it'll be the solution to all their problems. 

Phil finds himself, despite the overall skepticism, feeling a bit of hope. If nothing, at least he might be able to convince Wilbur to buy a new one - make new memories. 

Even Wilbur is less enthusiastic than usual when they tell him, but after all they've been redirected to plenty of miracle workers that turned out to be unable to do anything.

The only thing that feels a bit off, is how Tommy's patron keeps giggling in his head - the way he does when he knows something Tommy doesn't. It's a bother, but Tommy's too tired to try and investigate.

The "Fixer Upper" is staying in a farm just outside the village, apparently sleeping in the barn. 

He comes to the village every couple of months, apparently used to circling back around the same couple of dozen of places, constantly travelling from one to the other and helping out whoever needs something fixed. The innkeeper that recommended him apparently had him fix their son's prosthetic leg, which has been working better than ever. 

The fact that he never asks for compensation is what keeps them all on the defensive: nobody does anything for anyone without coin on the line, so Wilbur is already somewhat expecting to find yet another old relative making deals with young children. 

Yes, he is still a bit bothered by the fact that his second degree cousin spends half of his time inside Tommy's head. 

No, he's not going to bring it up. 

 Approaching the barn, an increasing cacophony of sounds greets them, and Wilbur starts looking less and less convinced and more and more like he wants to leave - not to blame him, the noises are definitely not reassuring. 

They enter the barn, where one side is perfectly fine and the other has a bunch of mechanical and metallic parts strewn on the ground. 

At this point, Techno has a hand on Wilbur's arm, either to instill some confidence in him or to keep him from running away with the shattered guitar.

Then all of them stop, frozen in their tracks, as something completely out of the ordinary appears from behind a wooden wall - that is quite an extraordinary feat, considering the peculiar array of people they are. 

There's a huge block of metal, vaguely rectangular shaped and painted black and yellow, floating towards them. It has what looks like the spinny part of a windmill rotating at embarrassingly high speed over it, and the noise it makes vaguely resembles that of a low hum, or maybe a buzz. 

Two large semi-transparent circles - its … eyes? - emit a soft light that shines against Phil's palm as it bumps against him, the elf cooing with an adoring expression. 

"Hello dear, you're not one of nature's children but you are alive, aren't you?" 

Even Tommy, who has no idea how magic or nature works - he made a pact with a demon for a reason, alright? - can see that it's an impressive display of craftsmanship. 

Wilbur is looking quite confused on Phil's right, but he's no longer needing Techno to keep him from bailing on the whole thing. And to be honest, if somebody's able to make … this, maybe they'll be able to fix his guitar. 

"AH- Visitors! Sorry, I hadn't heard you coming in-" a short figure stumbles in sight from behind a pile of apparently garbage.

The short man, who appears to be human, had wild brown hair, somewhat darker in certain spots where black oil seems to have gotten stuck. There seems to be oil and soot all over his clothes and hands, where bandages cover his fingers.

On his head reside a pair of goggles - multiple lenses of different thicknesses and colours appended to its sides - and he's holding a wrench as if they'd interrupted his work, which would explain the worrying noises. 

The mechanic has a bright welcoming smile on his face when he appears, which immediately falters the moment he sees the infamous mercenary group, expression turning to fear. Which is understandable, given their fame of being quick, efficient and rather costly, unless they're working for the good of all.

Then it turns to shock, when Tommy takes a tentative step forward from behind Phil's back. Which is less understandable.

"Tubbo?" Tommy's voice calls, almost breathless. The boy takes off his goggles and blinks. The wrench he was holding clutters to the ground.

"Holy shit, Toms."

The warlock lets out a strangled yelp, then blinks out of existence in a puff of bright red smoke, reappearing right in front of the other boy and picking him up in a bone crushing hug as he laughs - more joyous than Wilbur's ever heard him - and the two of them fall to the ground.

When Tubbo is still a teenager, he loses his best friend to the prejudice and scorn of their hometown. 

All they need to see are the buddying horns on his forehead, the flames licking at his fingertips, the reddening skin around his eyes, and they banish him. 

They come for him, in the middle of the night, and find nobody but his parents in his home, because Tommy has always been smarter than he let on. 

Half a day earlier, Tommy had said his goodbyes to the last few people that deserved to know where he was going; never once asking for his parents' forgiveness for something he always knew he was going to do - Tubbo had never seen his best friend more sure of anything, even at the worst moments, when the ritual was about to begin, or the few first weeks when he had to use all his coins to buy salve for burns.

And so Tubbo was left alone, left behind. 

It lasted for one day.

Tubbo had never been particularly gifted in the craft his parents had tried to teach him - glass blowing was definitely not his forte, his hands too strong, his grip too tight - and he'd never shown any latent arcane power. Books on the arcane were long, boring and complex, the glyphs all looking the same and mixing with each other on the page. 

But that didn't mean anything to him: he was going to do great things, with or without magic, and he was going to find his best friend again. 

Fate wanted to keep them apart? Tubbo was going to stare Fate in the face and laugh. 

If the glyphs and arcane chants of the mages weren't going to cooperate, he was going to force his hands into the fabric of the arcane plane and pull magic out by himself. 

And again, why stick to prayers and dealings with other entities when he could just make it himself?

To be fair, it does take him a lot more time than the couple of weeks of research and half-and-hour-deal that was Tommy's experience. But Tubbo's always been a quick learner.

The day he finishes his big project, he leaves his home, ready for adventure. 

He has a map of the coast, enough coin to pay for emergencies and a backpack full of the tools he needs to offer his assistance to whomever will need it. 

His marked path will bring him around the same towns. Tommy is bound to pass by at least one of them during his travels. 

Tubbo's going to be alright.

Tommy's eyes are absolutely not, under no circumstances, shining as he tries to squeeze the life out of his best friend. 

Tubbo is just laughing, which is quite rude in Tommy's personal opinion, he should be struggling to breathe due to his impressive strength.

"Look at you! You made it!" The mechanic cheers, squeezing tighter - which, ouch, when did he become strong, it must have been all the working with metal, this is the worst possible outcome. Tommy lets him go for a moment, leaning back to splutter and wave wildly at the mechanical bee still intent on bumping its head against Phil's hand. By the Nine Hells, Tubbo made a living bee with the attitude of a puppy out of metal. 

"I made it?! You made bees!" Tommy protests, feeling a swell of pride for how far his best friend has come. On a completely unrelated note, there must be light shining insistently in his eyes. 

"I know! Aren't they cute! Ah! Let me introduce you to them!" Tubbo exclaims, hurrying to stand up - nearly elbowing Tommy in the gut - and grabbing his hand so that he can drag Tommy towards the bee from earlier. 

Then he stops in his tracks - which makes Tommy slam into his back and get oil stains on his favourite shirt - as he realises there are three other people in the room, all staring at them with varying degrees of amusement. 

"So, what just happened?" Wilbur asks, looking quite shell shocked. 

#mcyt writingtober #sbi dnd au #now sbi&co #dnd au #technoblade #tommyinnit #wilbur soot #philza #ph1lza #tubbo

[relaxxattack]

Sorry if you’ve said this already but are Techno and Dream considered unholy or demon-like in universe (since dreamons are already actually a thing) because in meta they don’t use Twitch? Techno is like a warlock of the blood god (YouTube chat?) and Dream is forging himself as a god. Idk I think opposing forces like that are cool as hell. Like in DND but spicer.

hm, not in my opinion honestly. in my mind the two religions actually coexist. bbh for example is known to be part of both. (although perhaps being a demon, the reason he’s part of both is because he is related to the voices somehow)

i wouldn’t call techno demonic— we don’t know enough about his backstory yet to know of any reason why he can hear the voices.

dream, also, is actually a member of church prime. or he was, and fell from grace.

(fun fact: giving up your items to somebody is against the prime religion canonically. therefore dream was forcing tommy to commit sin every day in exile. also, the egg was forcing sam to commit sin when he was trapped with it.)

i dont think anyone on the smp is necessarily demonic— besides bbh and sapnap, in the physical sort of way.

i have no idea what the blood god is at all, and honestly? c!techno probably doesn’t either. it’s likely related to the voices in some way and they just instinctively start chanting it, and he complies for them, but he doesn’t actually know what they’re talking about 

#church prime

[shyrose57]

For the DM Wilbur AU, do not forget multiclassing, there is no way that a lot of these characters do not multiclass. Techno for example, definitely has levels in Barbarian, and probably some in Fighter, Monk, maybe Artificer(Rocket Launcher) and Paladin(or Warlock maybe and the Blood God his patron and not his deity, it could also be where his Barbarian Rage comes from). Tubbo would definitely have Artificer levels at some point because Nukes, possibly Rogue or similar stealthier class because Spy, maybe Bard because of both Spy and President, etc. I can tell you that this AU will definitely require research to figure out the best classes that fit and other stuff like that.

Basically, when deciding classes, make sure to take what you know about that person and what they can do and then give them classes based on that. You could definitely find better fits with research. The classes I gave probably aren't completely the best fits. Except for Techno having Barbarian and Tubbo Artificer, those have to be a thing because it just makes sense.

Me, staring at the looming piles of research I'm going to do: This is fine.

I definitely agree with you on those two, if Tubbo isn't an Artificer, I don't know what he is.

I'm going to be honest, my knowledge of DnD is compromised of table scraps sewn into a quilt, so I'm straight up clueless on most of this, but hey, that's what research is for, right?

I guess we should probably start with the core class first?

Fundy would be a rogue, perhaps? And I do like Ranger for Techno, but I'm not sure if that's good for a core class. And Artificer would probably come later for Tubbo, so, hm. Druid or Ranger, I think.

Tommy, would be interesting as a Paladin, perhaps? Seeing as C!Tommy seems pretty devoted to Prime?

Besides that, I'm not sure. Any ideas?

#DM Wilbur Soot AU #dream smp #dream smp au

[aion-rsa]

House of X and Powers of X: Key X-Men Comics to Read

https://ift.tt/306iu50

We picked out some key books from Marvel's history to help you understand the big X-Men reboot.

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House of X and Powers of X have done the unthinkable: they’ve made having an encyclopedic knowledge of Marvel X-Men continuity minutiae an asset. Now I have a reason to talk about Xorn’s brother Xorn who was posing as Magneto pretending to be Xorn OTHER than to make someone go away.

This is, of course, a joke. HoX/PoX is remarkably accessible for anyone with any level of background knowledge of the X-Men, from “I like Hugh Jackman” to “remember the time the Sentinels tried to kill the sun because it was causing mutations?” But there is certainly a lot in here that rewards deeper knowledge. And to help you understand it all, we put together a reading list that might help you see the throughlines from Marvel Comics history that help create the comics sensation revitalizing the X-Men books. 

For this reading guide, we’re not only going to tell you what’s good and why we like it. We’re also going to try and piece together how it fits into what Jonathan Hickman and crew are doing in today’s series. Because of that, we’re slapping a big ol’ SPOILER WARNING here: proceeding beyond this point risks spoiling big twists from the first half of the HoX/PoX epic.

  FOR GENERAL BACKGROUND: X-Men: Grand Design

Ed Piskor is the indie comix guy who, prior to this book, was best known for a webcomic-turned-prestige-series, Hip-Hop Family Tree, which told the story of the origins of the biggest genre in music (it’s fantastic, by the way). His acclaim for that book, where he would quite frequently homage superhero covers, eventually garnered enough attention from Marvel for them to take a risk on him. In a fit of uncharacteristic ambition, they allowed Piskor to rework thirty years and 300 issues of X-Men or X-adjacent comics into one miniseries. The result is absolutely stunning.

There are retcons involved, but Piskor manages to turn several eras of comics history into one coherent narrative. Retcons become plot points, characters move rationally instead of for post-hoc rationales and slow-burn payoffs are seeded even earlier. It’s all done with a distinctly underground style, which is refreshing and appropriate, since this is the era when the X-Men became counterculture iconography. 

In other words, if you need the best X-Men comics history lesson imaginable, this is the book for you.

Pay close attention to: Anything with Moira Mactaggert. The revelation in House of X #2 that current Marvel continuity was the tenth time Moira had been resurrected and that she had been planning for six lives to protect the mutant race casts literally the entirety of X-Men history in a new light. So now any interaction with the Professor or his students, like, say, when she was watching Jean Grey become the Phoenix on Muir Island, has potentially new meaning. Grand Design is particularly valuable here because Piskor started before the planning for Hickman’s relaunch did, so you are reading source material that the rebooter himself was probably working off of.

read more - The Best Episodes of X-Men: The Animated Series

You may also like: For tone and craft, X-Men: Grand Design is unique. Despite countless reboots and cleanups attempted in the almost 50 years the X-Men have been published, nothing to my knowledge has been this comprehensive or accessible. However, if you like the characters and the idea of a modernized, streamlined origin-esque story, Jeff Parker and Roger Cruz’s mid-aughts series, X-Men First Class, which tells new stories with the original team of X-Men, is worth checking out. It’s a lot of fun, certainly a lot more fun than reading the original Silver Age issues themselves.

start with the first volume of X-Men: Grand Design here.

TO UNDERSTAND THE BIG THEMES: Ultimate Comics: Hawkeye 

No, I’m not kidding. I am absolutely recommending an alternate universe Hawkeye miniseries in an article about X-Men comics. 

On his way to destroying it, Jonathan Hickman was given space to play around with the Ultimate Universe, and he used it, writing a Thor miniseries and relaunching the Ultimates. Ultimate Comics: Hawkeye was the third prong of his overall story and it focused on a fictional country - the Southeast Asian Republic - as Hawkeye and a team of SHIELD agents arrive on site to deal with a civil war. We quickly find out that SEAR scientists have created a virus to eliminate the X-gene, and a serum that gives their own people a virus-resistant mutation. A “paradigm shift,” as one of the SEAR officials calls it.

That government unleashes both prongs of the plan and promptly loses control of the situation, setting up SEAR as a mutant haven for people taking their serum and thus one of the three prongs of a global conflict that plays out in Ultimate Comics: Ultimates.

Pay close attention to: The Xorns. Not because they’re anything like the ones who have shown up in HoX/PoX - the ones in House of X have only thus far been glimpsed, and the millennial nihilist icon from Powers of X is a corpse in an alternate timeline (probably).

read more - Pryde of the X-Men: The Animated Series We Almost Got

No, we’re watching the Xorns in Ultimate Comics: Hawkeye because the idea of mutants as resources in a geopolitical struggle seems central to the conflict playing out between the Krakoan mutants and the humans in the X^1 timeline of today’s series. With all the talk of omega mutants and alignments, you should be able to get a very good sense of what is to come in the mutant conflict by reading this.

You may also like: Ultimate Comics: Ultimates, Hickman and eventual Secret Wars collaborator Esad Ribic’s story of what else is going on in the world while SEAR blows up. That story is mainly concerned with SHIELD being woefully outgunned by the mutants on one side, and evil Reed Richards’ Asgard- and Europe- destroying hyper evolved Children. It’s really good.

read Ultimate Comics Hawkeye here.

FOR A SENSE OF THE TONE: “Days of Future Past”

“Days of Future Past” is right smack in the middle of what Piskor covers in Grand Design. So why read it separately? Because I strongly suspect this is the foundational text of what Hickman is trying to do with his story.

This is one of the all-time classic X-Men stories by maybe the most well liked team in the franchise’s history. In the far future of 2013, Sentinels have taken control of the US and are on their way to taking over the world, because they see human existence as the flaw causing mutation that they are programmed to wipe out. So they kill most of the heroes and round up the remaining ones into camps. Wolverine, Rachel Summers (in her first appearance), Katherine Pryde (not long after her debut), Colossus, Storm and Magneto all team up so Rachel can send Kitty’s consciousness back in time, take over her younger body and prevent the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (led by Mystique and Destiny) from killing Senator Robert Kelly, sending the future spiralling towards extinction.

These two issues function as an effective preview of the conflict that HoX/PoX explores. Humans are irrationally afraid of Mutants, who alternate between trying to be left alone and trying to dominate their progenitors. Meanwhile, the robots say “you both suck” and (presumably before falling into the sun in the case of Mothermold) just start killing.

read more: X-Men Movies Watch Order

Furthermore, “Days of Future Past” is precisely the kind of dystopia that PoX is pushing. The X^2 future has lot of Age of Apocalypse trappings, but its central conflict is between mutants trying desperately to survive and robots who hate everything biological trying to destroy everyone. Surprisingly, though Nimrod is closely associated with this dark future, he doesn’t actually appear in these issues. He comes back in time about 50 issues later, from that future but not seen in it. 

Pay close attention to: The mood and milieu of this story are the important factors, but it’s also probably worth keeping an eye on Destiny and Moira Mactaggart here. The mutant precog had one very...pointed...run in with Groundhog Lady in her third life, and they come very close to each other here. This may be fertile territory for a retcon.

You may also like: Uncanny X-Men #208-209. This is Nimrod’s big battle with the X-Men and the Hellfire Club’s Inner Circle, as Rachel Summers lays dying in Central Park. It’s nowhere near the bleak, oppressive tone that “Days of Future Past” has, but you get some sense here of the sheer power that Nimrod has at his disposal. Also, he’s clearly insane, and as far as things you want from your robots, insanity is not high on the list.

read Days of Future Past here.

TO UNDERSTAND THE MAIN VILLAIN: “The Phalanx Covenant”

The X-Men crossover that introduced Generation X, the second wave of mutant students after the New Mutants/X-Force, also seems surprisingly important. Originally presented as an offshoot of the techno-organic space mutant Warlock’s race, the Phalanx are half Borg, half grey goo nightmare. In this story, they invade Earth to assimilate and destroy it, but find that they can’t assimilate mutants, so they start trying to figure out why by kidnapping the X-Men and a group of teens identified as potential students. They fail, of course, but not before planting phalanx eggs around the planet and killing off a character who became inexplicably popular a year and a half later (Blink, who existed in the 616 for a grand total of 20 minutes before dying. She’s great, but I don’t get why she endured and not someone like Synch). 

read more: The Many Different Versions of the X-Men Dark Phoenix Saga

The Phalanx are the hive galaxy in the X^3 future being called down by the Librarian to assimilate humanity, and it looks like (at least in whatever life of Moira’s this is), they’re finally successful. 

Pay close attention to: Husk and M. I went back and forth on whether to prioritize this or the other comics you might like, trying to figure out which is more important to the narrative, and what sold me on The Phalanx Covenant is the fact that Husk and M are part of the X-Men strike force attacking Mothermold in space in House of X. They’re also two of the more plot-relevant members of Generation X during this crossover - Monet is the one who finally breaks them out of captivity, and Husk’s powers are revealed because one shell is infected with TO virus. That doesn’t feel like a coincidence.

You may also like: Annihilation: Conquest. This is the second mid-aughts Marvel Space crossover, the first helmed by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning exclusively, and the one that launched this line of books into what would eventually give us the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. The galaxy is reeling from the events of Annihilation, and as it recovers, the Phalanx take over Hala and the remains of the Kree empire. This series is good, pure Marvel Space fun. It’s the exact moment where I fell in love with this line of books. It’s also very thorough in laying out the mythology and rules of the Phalanx. 

read The Phalanx Covenant here.

TO TAKE A WILD GUESS ON WHAT IS YET TO COME: “The Dark Angel Saga”

This run on Uncanny X-Force, ostensibly a side book full of stabby mutants (and Deathlok) brought together first as Cyclops’ wetworks squad, then held together by Angel’s money, is without a doubt the best X-Men comic of the last 15 years. It’s also brimming with Apocalypse lore, which feels like one of a couple things left deliberately unstated by the events of HoX/PoX. 

The gang finds an Akkaba enclave in the desert, discovering that they’ve resurrected Apocalypse and are training the now six year old kid to be the evolutionary destroyer they believe he’s destined to become. So Fantomex shoots the kid in the head.

read more: The X-Men Movies You Never Saw

What follows is an extended superhero musing on nature vs. nurture, while at the same time the Death Seed Apocalypse planted in Angel’s back to turn him into Archangel takes over Warren’s mind, turning him into the new Apocalypse. The story goes through all the reasons for it and has Warren reassemble his horsemen. It functions essentially as a deep dive into the reasons for Apocalypse’s ascension and the role that he plays in the galactic ecosystem of the Marvel Universe.

That’s noticeably missing from Apocalypse’s scenes in the new series.

Pay close attention to: The Celestial stuff. Apocalypse in Powers of X was a heroic figure, leading a suicide mission against Nimrod and the robots to get Moira information on Nimrod’s emergence so she could stop it in life 10. There’s no mention of the role he was originally created for, one that exists separate from the Moira cycle because it started thousands of years before she was born: to guide evolution on Earth so the Celestials don’t return and destroy it. How that plays into the man-mutant-machine war seems like a clear fit, but also completely unmentioned.

You may also like: Uncanny X-Men vol. 2 #14-17. Even though it takes place during the utterly dreadful A vs. X, Kieron Gillen’s Mr. Sinister story is the definitive recent take on the master genetic manipulator, and he’s DEFINITELY coming.

read The Dark Angel Saga here.

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Feature Jim Dandy

Sep 10, 2019

Marvel

X-Men

Jonathan Hickman

from Books https://ift.tt/2ZPW4sO

#aion-rsa #Books

[warlockwriter]

The Case of the Techno Witch

Fandom: The Agency (AU)/Warlock Case Files

Rating: Gen

Word Count: 1975

Summary: Strange multi-colored plant growing out of a computer? All in a day’s work for Dafydd Smith, Warlock.

A/N: This is both a crossover and a story with multiple OCs. My OCs. From my published series, hence the crossover. Blame @snips-snails-skittles for creating the below moodboard (used with permission) and giving me the idea of crossing Witch!Lex with my series. When I mentioned this in passing, he encouraged me to write it. So I did. Enjoy a little introduction to Dafydd, my warlock.

As always, many thanks to @ihaveallthesefeelsokay for the beta.

I was curled up on the couch in what was now our house, me having sublet my old apartment and moved in formally with Paul last week. Gyre and Gimble, my two ferrets, gamboled together back and forth over the living room floor. I hoped Paul wasn't going to mind their whirlwind play in his space.

Paul was giving me a foot rub. Have you ever had a foot rub from a vampire? Probably not, so let me make you jealous by letting you know exactly what you're missing. His hand are cool, a few degrees below body temperature, which feels fantastic after a long evening tracking down the minor demon who had been preying on the homeless population in D.C. We finally ran him to ground near the Air and Space Museum, which was fortunately closed at the time. Only a few people were around to watch Paul wrestle him to the ground and hold him while I did a quick exorcism. I was getting to be quite the expert at those. A couple of month ago we had dealt with a demon witch, and apparently she had let it be known that the nation's capital was a good hunting ground. We've been dealing with the aftermath ever since.

I'd convinced our stunned audience that we were practicing for a movie audition, and we'd hurried for home

Paul had just found the exact spot in my arch which hurt the most when my phone rang. I groaned, partially at his ministrations but mostly at the unhappy thought that someone had found another demon.

"It's Laura," Paul said, glancing over at my phone while not losing his rhythm on my feet.

I reached for the phone. Laura is an old friend of mine. She's a quadriplegic hacker who spends more time in the virtual world than the real one, for obvious reasons.

"Hey! What's up?" I asked as I took the call. I couldn’t help the involuntary groan that escaped me when Paul found another particularly sore spot,

"I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" Laura asked.

"Just the most amazing foot rub you'd ever feel. Oops. You can't feel those, can you?"

Yeah, she and I have been friends long enough for me to get away with insensitive jokes like that.

"Very funny, Dafydd. I need you over here right now, so you'll just have to get your orgasmic foot rub later."

I could hear a mixture of exasperation, annoyance and maybe even a hint of fear in her voice. Paul stopped what he was doing to pay attention. Vampire hearing means he can listen to both sides of a phone conversation with ease.

"What happened? I asked, all joking out of my voice.

"I have a plant growing out of my computer!"

I blinked. "You have a what growing where?"

"You heard me. I have a plant growing out of my computer."

"Umm. Okay." What do you say to that anyway? "So call one of those lawn care companies? The ones who deal with weeds and stuff?"

"No. This is definitely your thing. The plant is purple and gold and kind of sparkly. And did I fail to get across that it is growing out of my fucking computer!"

I had to hold the phone away from my ear at that last bit.

"Yeah. I get it. We're on our way."

***

Paul made record time from Mt. Vernon Square to Laura's apartment in Crystal City. We skipped the elevator and dashed up the stairs. Well, Paul dashed. I kind of huffed and puffed. I am young and pretty fit, sure, but no human can keep up with a vampire.

Laura's door opened as soon as we approached. I tease her that she uses electronics the way I use magic. She always seems to like that.

However, there was no way I was teasing anyone when I walked into her living room. She hadn't been kidding. There was about six feet of purple and gold sparkly plant growing right out of her monitor. It hadn't broken anything. It was just growing out like it was designed to do that.

"Okay," I said. "That is weird, even for me."

Laura had rolled her chair as far from the computer as she could while still being in the same room with it. "What are you going to do about it?" Her eyes were flashing more in anger than in fear.

Paul moved over to take a closer look, all six-foot plus of him stalking around the computer table like a hunting panther. Did I fail to mention that his black slacks hugged his hips perfectly, and his white silk Oxford-style shirt made the image just perfect?

Why yes, I do admire my vampire boyfriend, even in the midst of danger. His ass is something else!

"Stop drooling over Paul, Dafydd, and do something about that thing!" Laura said, her tone vying between amusement and irritation.

Right. I allowed my sight to shift into aura sight, where I can read the energies which make up every living and most non-living things. I say most because technological things like computers don't have auras.

Well, usually don’t have auras. This one did. So did the plant. Not a crazy weird, looks like it's about to bite your head off aura, so not demonic. Which was a relief, considering. However, it did have the color of transformation magic about it. Which meant a warlock, or more likely witch—witches are stronger in transformation magic than warlocks—was responsible for this.

Okay, right. You probably have the wrong idea about witches and warlocks. We're just users of the magical energies that surround everything. Witches are female, and warlocks are what my kind calls male witches. So no deals with devils or other evil higher powers. I could go on for hours about how magic works, but you'll have to read the books about me which my chronicler has kindly penned.

"So, you’re right. It's magic. Probably a witch and one who has combined—" I paused, not really believing what I was about to say next.

"Combined what?" Paul asked.

"Well, combined earth magic with techno magic. Which I didn’t even know was a thing until now."

"Techno magic?" Laura asked, excitement in her voice. Yeah, she would fasten on that part.

"That's what it looks like. I mean, if you combined a hacker with a witch, this might be what you'd get." I walked around the computer desk, wanting to examine it from all sides.

As soon as I got to where I was facing the monitor screen, an image appeared, superimposed as if…well, by magic…on the blank screen. It was the face of a youngish man, maybe a few years older than me. He had brown hair verging on blond, striking amber eyes and…seriously? Long sideburns half-way down his cheeks and a soul patch? What decade was this guy even from?

"Dafydd Smith, I presume?" came a pleasant baritone voice through Laura's speakers,

"Uh, yeah. Who's asking? And what have you done to my friend's computer?"

"I'm Lex, and I understand you were looking to create a coven in the area. I was told that something dramatic was needed to attract your attention." The image waved a hand, encompassing the weird plant. "Does this do it?"

I couldn't help rolling my eyes at that. "Have you been talking to Caitlyn?" I asked.

Caitlyn is my apprentice, and she thought the best way to get my attention was to try to kill a ghoul friend of mine. And yes, I meant "ghoul" friend, not "girl" friend.

Lex's triumphant expression faltered a bit. "Uh, yes. Did I misunderstand?"

Paul had come around behind me. From the way his eyes were crinkled, I knew he was barely restraining himself from a good belly laugh. He does try to be polite, at least until he's been introduced.

I ignored Lex's question in favor of one of my own. I motioned to the plant. "What is this? And how did you do it?"

Laura had rolled her chair closer. "More important. Ask him if he can get rid of it without ruining my monitor. That thing cost major bucks."

I raised an eyebrow at Lex, whose expression was wilting rapidly. "What she asked."

The plant vanished, leaving the monitor apparently undamaged. Lex's image remained.

"That's better. Now to my question. How did you do it?"

He shrugged. "Combined earth witchcraft and techno magic. I'm a witch and a hacker."

I shook my head. "Unless I'm terribly mistaken, you're a warlock, not a witch."

Lex's jaw assumed a stubborn set. "I'm a witch, and you're being discriminatory. My mentor said I'd run into this."

Suddenly, I got it and groaned.

"What?" Paul and Laura asked.

"You were trained by Sam Johnston, weren't you?"

Lex nodded enthusiastically. "You've heard of him?"

I nodded, much less enthusiastically. "Yeah. He trained with my dad under my grandfather, who tried to get that whole 'witches can be male' idea out of Sam the entire time they were training. My dad took up the torch after he started leading his coven, and, to hear him tell it, Sam just up and left one day in disgust and refused to have anything to do with my family. So, if you're looking for your own coven, you may be looking in the wrong place."

Lex indicated where the plant had been. "Have it your way, but then explain why I'm so good at earth magic, traditionally a witch ability."

"And, Dafydd, aren't you particularly good at some witch abilities too?" Laura asked.

Way to have your friend stab you in the back. I glared at Paul, daring him to say something. He raised his hands in a not me! sort of gesture.

Lex was still watching me, an expression of polite interest on his face, sort of how do you intend to explain your way out of this one? look.

Sighing, I said, "Okay. Have it your way. If you want to call yourself a witch, go for it. And yes, I have been looking to form a coven. An earth…witch—" Yes, I had to force the word out. Sue me! "—would come in handy. We've got a witch-in-training, a warlock who channels angelic power and me. We're an odd coven already, so what the heck? Might as well invite you along."

Lex smiled.

I held up a warning finger. "Just one rule, though?"

"You're in charge?" Lex asked.

I shook my head. "Heck no! We make decisions together. No, I was going to say that Laura is my hacker of choice. No replacing her."

"Unless you can teach me techno magic," Laura hastily added.

I sighed. "Yeah, unless you can teach that."

Lex nodded. "Deal. What's next?"

I considered for a moment. "I guess I'll call a meeting of our newly expanded coven. If you're such a hot shot hacker, you should be able to find my phone number and text me yours. I'll call you when we've got a time set up."

My phone dinged, and I pulled it out. Seriously? That fast?

Laura even looked impressed. "That's not bad, Dafydd."

"Fine," I said to a smug-looking Lex. "I'll call you."

His face vanished, and the monitor looked none the worse for its experience. I turned away from it to face Laura and Paul.

"What have I done?"

Paul gave me his most encouraging smile. "Well, you said you wanted one more."

He was right. Okay. I've never been the most traditional warlock anyway. What made me think I'd attract a normal coven?

Paul and I made polite conversation for a few minutes with Laura before heading back home. The universe owed me the rest of my foot rub, darn it!

End

Everything tag: @archangelgabriellives (It’s sort of got Lex, so it’s okay, right?)

#warlockwriter fanfic #warlock case files #lex (the agency) #witchcraft

[sordidpassionsandlockedemotions]

(Part 2- *malec warlock au/Magnus knows he’s Asmodous son* Alec decides to go to Magnus’ club Pandemonium mainly for a drink but also to see if the High Warlock’s around out of curiosity)

Alec walked into the crowded,noisy club full of all sorts of Downworlders and the occasional Shadowhunter. Really not his type of thing he much preferred staying out of everything,and spending his immortal time in his apartment well excursions for coffee along with other things aside. Unzipping his leather jacket moving out of the way of a drunk faeire with bright yellow hair which glowed under the blacklight nearby. Shaking his head but making his way to the counter some werewolf asking him what he wanted to drink leaning on the counter his eyes scanned around before ordering something he could rely on for not making him regret ordering a drink. 

Some techno music was playing eyes watching the dancing club goers with amusement before spotting Magnus Bane right as eyes landed on him from way across the club. Naturally the other was all dressed up,seemed to reflect light and was surrounded by a lot of people. Finishing off his drink Alec weighed going over but then spotting somebody he knew dancing got a different idea. Taking his jacket off which if it got lost or whatever not that big a loss setting it down because much he seemed cold blooded didn’t want to be in a mass of dancing bodies while wearing it. 

Once in the crowd found himself dancing to a really fast paced song,really couldn’t make out the lyrics who cared though not what a party was about. And he was having fun especially because he naturally repelled the company he didn’t want to keep. Eyes looked back where Magnus-had been then spotted him dancing with some other guy yeah obviously more in his element that being said Alec resumed dancing with a vampire nearby who was a fairly attractive guy if one wasn’t currently occupying his brain. 

Unsure when exactly it happened but he and the High Warlock wound up near each other maybe because they locked eyes a few times,or somebody just really wanted to see the two dance together. Not really room for talking not that they were entirely dancing together since Magnus was a bit prone to moving around while Alec mainly stayed in one place vaguely aware of how much energy he was spending. Almost cracking a smile when a ringed hand briefly brushed his own before vanishing as the other male danced. Trying to keep up a challenge of his own making maybe but still could lose it.

Then came on a pause the start of a slow song which of course meant for a change in atmosphere and crowd. People leaving,others grabbing somebody close of course that’s when Magnus stood in front of him before could walk away to rest or just leave maybe. “Care to dance?” 

Alec was aware of a skipped heart beat that wasn’t because of how much dancing he’d just done. Sure he could dance slow dancing was not his favorite thing got few opportunities and just a bit too much of offering his heart up in some cases. “Was going to sit this one out,sure you could convince somebody else after all is your party Bane.” A foot moving slowly as if to get on his case for trying to decline body in revolt. 

“I could,though now I bet you couldn’t manage it anyways Alexander.” Oh so that’s how it was going to be and no way was he just going to back out of that bet. Knew the motive which the whole thing made him actually crack a smile because in that case why would he want to leave when his heart really wanted to stay around. 

“And if I can keep up?” Hadn’t expected that but Magnus moved closer as thought about it seemed unnaturally long how silent the music had been song having yet to play so either somehow was because of the other or more likely gossip around the club making the dj pause the music. After all he was aware of the fact wasn’t just him tuning it out. 

Magnus moved within closer than arm’s length fast,gracefully sparkling in an outfit which would take Alec’s breath away if wasn’t still recovering it from the pounding of his heart even now when having nothing to do,little motion. “If you keep up I’ll kiss you.” Which could be considered a bit cruel everybody knew Magnus Bane was a dancer,and Alec realized the competitive nature really was more for fun than anything. 

Music started he felt electricity with each hand slowly resting on either side of his waist. So close his feet could nudge the other’s expensive shoes with his boots or step on his feet. Panic rising slowly as in really what was he doing this was going to be a disaster and-hands off his waist slowly draping his arms over the sparkling rather broad even underneath a few layers shoulders before returning back where they had been. 

As Magnus started moving his body instinctively much his brain was trying to process,the slight bouts of panic aside managed to keep up with the swaying and feet moving seemed unaware for once of everybody else. Of course slow or fast quickly found out the High Warlock managed to tease with ever so slight movements and naturally he returned it in kind. This was the case when the song switched to something fast aware of people watching the empty space around them. 

He hated being in any gossip or attention at all but it wasn’t present as his eyes watched the golden eyed warlock who with every movement was purposely saying ‘if you keep up I’ll kiss you’. Driving him crazy so when the other warlock stopped to answer his apparently going off phone Alec moved so close could feel the other’s breath. “So about that kiss Magnus.” 

They were just a few inches,leaned in close when somebody came up to them apologizing embarrassed before saying was a commotion that couldn’t wait. “I owe you one,got to go now though but drop by my loft a promise is exactly that.” Then off the duo wandered meanwhile Alec shook his head running a hand through it before making his way back to the bar where he actually managed to reclaim his jacket before leaving the club.

#malec au fic #malec au fics #malec au fanfic #malec au fanfics #malec fic #my fanfics

[mihidecet]

SBI d&d AU: Tommy (1)

Here it is! Tommy’s pov really put the hamster inside my brain in a splendid mood, so his story is currently split into two (might be three, depending on how much more I’m willing to indulge my craving for found family dynamics). I’m probably going to post the second part in a couple of weeks (I’m trying to stick to a schedule, but uni has started again today so who knows).

Thank you all for your likes, reblogs and comments on the last post, I really appreciate them!

Also, as some of you might already know, I’ve been working on character sheets for all of them too. I’m working on the written backgrounds at the moment, but if all goes right I should post the first one next week! Who would you want to see first: Techno, Phil, Tommy or Wilbur?

[Also I should mention, there are a handful of swears, mentions of blood and a not-so-quick description of a dagger, but not as it’s being used for anything bad. Let me know if you’d like me to highlight anything specific to make it easier to skip.]

You should kneel down soon, kiddo. The voice in his head tells him. Usually one would not have voices suggesting what to do or do not, but that was the life of Tommy since he'd agreed to eat a bloody apple and suddenly gained horns and a tail. That was just something that happened to him nowadays. But again, one was not necessarily made to follow said suggestions: he usually either ignored whatever had been said or sassed back - that was just the kind of relationship he had with his patron.

I'm not a child, old man. He answered, in his mind in order to avoid Wilbur's curious glances, and only heard a distorted chuckle in response.

I'm just trying to help you out! You should, totally, profit is guaranteed! Tommy rolled his eyes, huffing out in annoyance at both his insistence and the warped voice he was currently talking in. Go figure that, of all the demons he could have made a pact with, Tommy had chosen the most annoyingly nagging one. Who even used their godlike power to change their voices to unnatural pitches?

Come on, Tommy! Trust me on this! Come oon! The dragged out "on" was extremely aggravating, but just because his patron was bored he wasn't going to amuse him. He had more important things to do, like planning out what to do once they'd reached the apparently haunted mansion in the middle of a forest they were heading towards. If one was to ask Tommy, he'd say that it was just the job of a bunch of thieves, maybe an enchanter, using the abandoned mansion as a base of operations and scaring away wandering people. Everyone had seemed to agree with his idea - hell, even Wilbur had said it had been a good hunch!

Five ... Four ... Didn't he have some other poor soul to torture? Some unlucky fellow to trick into a deal? And was the echoey voice necessary? Did he really need to sound as if he was shouting from inside a cave?

Come on kiddo- Three ... Two ... Almost there! One ...

"ALRIGHT!" Tommy yelled out, stomping his foot down in anger, flames bursting out his hands as his eyes flashed golden and - despite what his stubbornness told him - he bent down.

He hadn't even fully bent his knees when an arrow lodged itself into his hood, which was slightly raised in respect to his head due to the quickness with which he had moved.

"Ohshit-"

"Who the fuck is attacking us?" Techno asked over him, tone impassible and as monotone as always, holding another arrow just in front of his face; he seemed more bothered by the thought that someone was trying to attack them than the fact that somebody had shot an arrow at him.

You're welcome, kid. His patron quipped, finally in his normal voice, before retreating to the back of his mind as Tommy summoned energy between his hands, ready to blast into nothingness whoever had been dumb enough to try to kill him.

Tommy wakes up one morning, and the first thing he sees is the sky. This is because, since he agreed to sell his soul for instant magical powers, he has a distinctively cumbersome pair of horns, which prevent him from sleeping on his side comfortably. A small price to pay, since honestly, who even has the time to spend years studying when you can just shake hands, eat an apple and be set for life?

Since they've stopped being a couple of stubby nubs on the side of his head, he also has to wear a pair of muffs over them, in order to avoid destroying his pillow in case he moves more than an inch while he sleeps. He's gathered enough evidence of how much damage he's able to cause to last a lifetime, so he endures Techno's chuckles at his hand-knitted, sock-looking muffs - damn Wilbur for using wool, it's not like his horns ever get cold.

Anyhow. The first thing he sees, is the sky. The second thing he sees is a knife sticking out of the ground next to his head.

Tommy stares at it, figuring he's either still dreaming or his patron has gotten better at his dream-messages - on top of annoying him during the day and giving him advices once every blue moon, he also enjoys sending him extremely cryptic messages through dreams, which Tommy usually forgets by the time he's awake.

He figures it has to be a dream, because sticking out of the ground next to his head is a perfectly clean and sharpened Technoblade Dagger. Thin, sleek, made in a peculiar metal that looks completely black at all time, as if it was capable of absorbing light. Rumors say it was forged with the core of a fallen star; others say it's made of the blood of his fallen enemies which Tommy finds extremely disgusting and definitely unpractical. The handle is simple, with no added leather - Technoblade always says that leather stains easily and is more a bother than anything actually useful.

But the thing is, that's not all.

Tied to the knife is also a string of white, orange and red strings. A small onyx bead is woven inside.

Aww, look! You got yourself- the voice in his head starts, but Tommy is quick to put a stop to it.

Shut up, this is important. He states, tone firm and serious, just like he was when he demanded his pact a few years before. His patron and him joke around and annoy each other a lot, but he knows that tone, so for the next few moments everything is quiet. Around him, the only sound is of the wind, flowing through the leaves, and the crackling fire, courtesy of Phil, who is probably preparing breakfast for all if the delicious smell wafting over is any indication. Tommy hears everything and nothing around him, while all his attention is focused on 1) the token of friendship innocently sitting next to him 2) trying not to yell out at the pure joy he is feeling right now. This is approval. This is acceptance. This is the confirmation that he is, in all ways, part of this team.

I know, kid. I'm glad you found yourself some good friends.

Tommy huffs out a breath, unable to stop himself from smiling - he does not need his patron's approval, but it is still very much appreciated. The demon's helped him a lot, in his own weird demonic way.

The warlock snatches up both items and mutters an excuse as he quickly makes his way towards the river next to their camp.

The first thing he needs to do is find a good place to keep the bracelet.

The thing is, he can't keep it on his wrist. They get into too many nasty places, he is definitely *not* going to let it get soiled by dirt, blood or sewer water - Tommy also does not want to think about the sewers ever again, but that is a rather common and expected reaction. His ankle is also not a good choice, because of all the walking and trudging in the mud they do.

He's not going to keep it in his pack either, he want it close. He's sentimental about it, sue him.

Do not even start. He thinks intensely, anticipating what his patron could have said about his previous thought, but he gets no answer. Whatever. It's better that way.

His arm, he figures, could be the best choice. The bracelet seems to be long enough for him to be able to tie it around his upper arm, and that way his shirt would keep it covered constantly. Not to mention, his cloak also rests over that area. It would be safe and sound, and nobody would be none the wiser!

Tommy sits down by the river and starts working on it: he struggles a bit with actually tying the knot to keep it in place, but after a couple of minutes he's sure it will hold.

Then, satisfied with his work, he stands up and tries to throw the knife in the air and catch it. He does end up letting out a small yelp and letting it tumble to the ground, but he's sure he'll be able to pull it off in time.

"Technoblade!" He calls out loudly, coming back to the round space they decided to call a camp for a night. The thief doesn't even look up, but he does let out a questioning "hmm?" as his ears twitch up.

"Thank you for the wonderful gift! I'll use it wisely!" Tommy exclaims, pointing the dagger straight at his face. Techno turns towards him, nonplussed, and stares at him through the dagger. A moment passes, then Techno raises an eyebrow and moves the point of the blade away from his face with his index finger.

"Great. How about you start by remembering not to point it at allies?"

"Pfft, of course, of course! It was merely a display of how much I'm already able to use it! I bet I could even defeat you, now!" He declares, turning towards Phil's already ready breakfast and digging in, ignoring Techno's rebuttal of him needing to train for many more years in order to have a chance at defeating him, and most importantly Phil's amused and endeared expression.

The druid can read him too well: he already knows. For what Tommy knows, being an elf he probably has a way of seeing the bracelet under his sleeves from like, the way the material bends around it.

But as he scarfs down his food, he's already hatching a plan. Because while he wants to flaunt his newly gained social status, he does also want to keep this ... for himself. This isn't something he wants to share with the world. The fact that he went from being an annoyingly persistent kid to a friend of Technoblade is a personal success. It's just ... His.

What he can do, instead, is brag about having one of Technoblade's daggers. And what if he exaggerates a bit on how he got it? Who's going to correct him and say that it was actually just a mean to deliver to him a friendship bracelet?

Nobody, that's who.

Of course, he needs just one test to make sure it's going to work. It takes some time, but they eventually reach a small town. Wilbur takes care of securing a room for them all, and a discount in exchange for him performing.

Then, one late evening, they're waiting for their food to be delivered at their table, and Tommy is idly playing with Techno's dagger - he has now gotten extremely better at it, and can now not only flip it in air, but also balance it on the tip of his finger.

A bulky man with a coarse looking mustache brings them their dinner, and eyes Tommy as he keeps playing.

He meets his eyes, and his plan falls into place.

"Did you know, good sir, that this is one of the infamous Technoblade's daggers? My prize for besting him in a duel."

Next to him, Wilbur chokes on his beer and spits it all over his fresh loaf of bread. Phil is laughing as he pats his back, and the bartender eyes him suspiciously, apparently ticked off by his teammates's reactions.

"Is that right?"

"Absolutely! Isn't it, Techno?"

Everyone falls silent - except for Wil, who keeps coughing up beer for a while longer - and turns towards Techno, who seems startled at the sudden amount of eyes on him. This is it, the moment of truth. Everything comes down to what Techno answers now, because this could either be Tommy's best, most glorious moment, or a simply rather awkward instance. A moment passes, then-

"Absolutely." Techno's monotone voice answers, and the suspicion on the bartender's face changes to surprise, then impressed respect as he nods towards Tommy.

"Good job, kid." He says, then leaves their table, and Tommy couldn't be happier.

The game is on.

#tommyinnit #technoblade #wilbur soot #philza #ph1lza #sbi dnd au #sbi au #dnd au #my writing #also #jschlatt #not mentioned by name #but he's tommy's patron #it fit too well alright

[mihidecet]

SBI d&d AU: Tommy (2)

I’m back! This is the second part of Tommy’s POV for the au, and it’s directly connected to the previous part!

There is a third part coming, probably in a couple of weeks! ((I’ll be a bit busy due to Writober starting today, but I really want to keep adding to this AU! Also, if you maybe want to check out what I’ll be posting … You’ll find them on AO3, even tho they’re not mcyt related))

Also!! Soon we’ll have another character sheet! A special thanks to @spout1nk for bouncing off ideas with me about Techno’s, which will come in the future!

And as always a special thank you to @whatimevendoinhere , who is an amazing and incredible friend and also a super poggers artist!

There are slight trigger warnings for this chapter: there’s characters getting injured twice, and mentions of blood. There’s also a brief example of d&d level of violence. Let me know if I should add more or underline possible triggering parts!

Thank you all for readign and for all the wonderful support, all the follows and likes and comments! It really means a lot and it gives me so much encouragement to keep writing!

For the next couple of months, rumors of the kid that beat Technoblade - the shadow thief, the most infamous assassin of the realm - spread like wildfire. 

At first, it’s just Tommy coming up with stories. 

He vaguely mentions besting Techno in hand-to-hand combat, then says he’s had it since they met and it’s the reason why he was allowed into the group. One time, he states he stole it from under his nose. Another time, he tricked Techno into drinking a sleeping potion and pocketed it as he was unconscious. 

His personal favourite is: one time, as they were sparring, he backflipped over Techno’s head and grabbed the knife from his very hand; Techno was so impressed by his moves that he gifted it to him out of respect. Phil wheezed so hard when he heard it that he lost his voice for almost half a day, and because of that nobody believed his story, but it was still worth - just for hearing Phil laugh. 

Then one night, in a squallid tavern, Will sings the song of the young warlock who tricked the thief, sold his soul just to steal a knife, and it kicks off a whole new wave of rumors. 

And everything goes perfectly well. 

Everyone focuses on the rumors, the stories. Their popularity increases, their job offers multiply. 

Tommy gets to show off half of his present, and get to keep what’s really meaningful all to himself.

It works perfectly well, up until it doesn’t. 

With fame comes a peculiar kind of danger, one that is born from the mind of really, really dumb people that like to think that if they’re prepared enough, they might have a shot at defeating them - as if an ancient black dragon hadn’t already tried his best against them and failed. 

Still, this one particular time, the whole team realises quickly that whoever is trying to get to them has come prepared. 

They attack in the middle of the day, which is unusual but efficient: everyone in the team can see in the dark, so attacking at night would be useless, or even detrimental if whoever was attacking had to rely on torches. 

They also attack in the middle of the street of a crowded town. Techno and Phil had realised they were being followed a couple of days prior, and they’d decided to head to the nearest village in hope of covering their tracks, or at least buy themselves some time to find out how many and who was tracking them, assuming whomever it was wouldn’t attack them out in the open. 

Instead the first knife flies directly towards Phil during a late morning, while they’re looking for a place to eat. Phil dodges, then curses and raises a hand to still catch the dagger, which would have otherwise hit a farmer he had been talking with - blood splatters on the poor man’s face as Phil yells at everyone to get away. 

With the crazed crowd of a Monday market, most of the team has to restrain themselves. Tommy can’t really summon a demon in public, Phil won’t be able to transform into a bear and Wilbur will have to rely on his swordmanship, instead of destroying his enemies’ eardrums and minds. 

Still, it’s not like they don’t have anything else at their disposal. 

The Tommy of two years prior would have never been able to survive, but while his stories of beating Techno are mostly false, the two of them have been sparring for a long time. Techno is an incredibly strict teacher, but that just means that he has more control of where his spheres of fiery eldritch power land. 

He sees Phil direct a handful of people away from the danger, while Wilbur makes sure to attract most of their enemies’ attention by hurling insults at them - one of them stumbles back, hands moving up to clutch at their head as Will’s words echo inside their mind. 

There’s a flash of colour, then a figure falls to the ground: Techno stands behind them for a moment before throwing one of his daggers at an incoming enemy. 

Seeing him fight is always an incredible spectacle, but this time Tommy doesn’t allow himself to be distracted. 

There’s nowhere to hide in the big, empty square they’re fighting in, and there are still innocent people trying to escape. Phil is expending spells left, right and centre, creating walls and shooting out healing magic in order to prevent people from dying and getting targeted - Tommy sees a figure jump in front of a cobbler, blade drawn, and then lock up, muscles freezing as Phil takes hold of his body with a clutched fist and a shaking arm. Techno swoops by a moment later, taking care of the paralyzed fool before disappearing again. 

There are enemies appearing from all sides, and it gets more and more clear that this is not only a well organized group but also a group with enough money to spend on people willing to be cannon fodder for them. 

Tommy keeps his distance, shoots anyone that approaches him and picks off enemies that threaten his teammates (family) whenever he can. Each time someone falls to the ground, he hears a joyful whoop ring inside his head, usually followed by an exclamation of “another one for my collection!”, and feels his strength increasing - small wisps of flames circling around him, and he knows his eyes are glowing after the fifth one.

It takes some time - there are a few moments when Tommy knows that if he weren’t so focused he would be getting bored - but eventually the number of goons approaching starts to dwindle, and then stops. Tommy only needs a quick look at Wilbur’s heaving chest, Phil’s limp and Techno’s tired frame to decide he’s going to get up close and personal to finish the last three remaining enemies. 

One would think that someone, seeing a half-demon glowing with fire and shooting spheres of dark red energy, would back off with the rest of his retreating friends. Apparently that is not the case, as one of them is dumb enough to try his hand at fighting him the moment he sees him approaching the group. 

And the thing is, normally Tommy wouldn’t even blink and incinerate the man, but he has been casting a lot more spells than usual in order to keep everything at bay, and he is in the process of shooting a ball of fiery energy at another dumbass cornering Wilbur - who’s clutching at his rapier with both hands, arms shaking with exhaustion. 

So the attack comes out of nowhere, from his left, and he only notices the man when it’s too late: one moment he’s there, the next there’s a thin, vertical gash running from the edge of his elbow up to his shoulder. 

The pain is there, but not much - he’s young, yes, but he’s also been an adventurer for a while - but then he feels a small pressure alleviating from around his upper arm. 

Oh no. No no nononono- 

His mind is suddenly filled with shock. Then rage, as he unleashes the ball of energy he’d been in the middle of casting right into that bastard’s face with a loud snarl - one for him, and one just a moment later straight to the leg of the bastard threatening Wilbur. 

But he’s not even aware of that because this guy *just broke Techno’s friendship bracelet*.

The stranger falls to the ground silently, lifelessly, but Tommy’s already sitting down on the ground, frantically tearing at his cut open sleeve as he mutters curses to himself, tears of frustration pricking at his eyes. 

A moment later a pair of hands are on his, and he looks up at Phil’s worried but reassuring eyes. 

“Don’t worry Tommy, it’s just a scratch-”

“No no no you don’t get it! He- he cut the bracelet!” Tommy protests; he hates how his voice pitches up and how Phil’s eyes soften, but at that moment Techno and Wilbur join them, also looking worriedly down at his bleeding arm, and Tommy slips the bracelet free of his arm. The onyx bead is still hanging on by a thread, and the young warlock has to carefully keep the whole thing in the palm of his hand - the edges where it got cut are already undoing themselves and Tommy is so *angry* about it-

“You kept it?” Techno asks, having the gall to sound surprised, and Tommy can’t help but sputter in indignation, waving his injured hand around - because his non injured one is cradling the broken bracelet, despite the frustrated hum Phil lets out as he prevents him from cleaning the wound. 

“Of course I did! What did you think, that I threw away your gift?! I might be rude but I’m not an asshole!" 

"Point taken.” He mumbles back, and after a moment of quiet awkwardness Wilbur elbows him in the side. The two of them share one of those silent eye-conversations that they love to take part in, which Tommy is absolutely not jealous of. Then Wilbur claps his hands together and announces he’s going to call the guards and make sure no townsperson got injured. 

Techno lets himself sit down silently as Phil grabs his arm and starts cleaning up the gash. The thief lets out a tired sigh: Tommy can see from the corner of his eye how tired he is - being the only one of the team used to up close, one on one fighting in urban streets, probably made him feel like he had to compensate for all three of them. Which is true, he indeed had, but Tommy knows he’s probably more tired from the adrenaline and anxiety that though caused than the actual fight. 

“… I’m sorry it got cut up. I thought if I kept it here it would be safe.” Tommy comments at one point, while Phil is unrolling a gauze from his healing kit - the fact that he’s not using magic to close the cut is a testament to how hard that fight was. Or maybe he’s just being cautious, in case the goons change their mind and decide to come back, or in case there are more coming soon.

“I mean, we can always make another one.” Tommy’s head snaps up so fast that he almost gets whiplash.

“We can?” He asks, unable to mask the excitement and awe in his voice - it’s worth it, because it does bring a small smile to Techno’s face. Phil finished tying the bandage around his arm at that moment, letting out a huff of breath and standing up.

“After we’ve gone back to the tavern and eaten. We’re laying low for a while.” The elf states, staring both of them down as he offers Tommy a hand to help him up. 

“Alright, dad.” Techno sasses, rolling his eyes, but Phil’s face just lights up and the thief instantly looks pained and regretful.

“Right, I forgot that’s not an insult to you.” Phil’s grin just gets more brighter as he pats the thief’s back and nods towards where Wilbur is approaching them, followed by a handful of guards.

“Come on, sons, let’s go get your brother.”

#sbi au #sbi dnd au #dnd au #tommyinnit #wilbur soot #philza #ph1lza #technoblade

[aion-rsa]

First New Marvel X-Men Crossover Revealed

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Marvel announced the first major crossover of Jonathan Hickman’s Dawn of X era of X-Men. X of Swords will tie all the X-titles together in a ’90s throwback, 15-part crossover touching every single book in the line. 

“One of the cool things we are able to do now, because we’ve established the X-line and really know where we’re going, is that we’re able to try some different things out,” Hickman said in a statement. “X of Swords will be an old school crossover that meanders through the entire line. It’s almost like chapters of a story.”

Hickman, you’ll recall, reinvigorated the X-Men line with House of X and Powers of X. And like Powers of X, X of Swords is using the Roman numeral X as a sort of low-nerdy double entendre. Where Powers of X examined four time periods of exponential scales, X of Swords heavily implies a focus on the mystical (the Ten of Swords is a not great tarot card – it depicts a man lying face down on the ground with ten swords in his back), and the promotional artwork seems to hint at that being the case. 

As he did for HoX/PoX, Mark Brooks drew a pretty interesting promotional piece for X of Swords. Take a look, but be warned: Past the picture, there will be spoilers for most Dawn of X comics, as we try and look at who’s on the piece, and almost as importantly, what swords they’re holding.

Starting in the top left corner and moving clockwise:

Eye Boy, created for Jason Aaron’s underrated Wolverine and the X-Men and slated to appear as part of Leah Williams’ and David Baldeon’s X-Factor. That book has Trevor as a part of the team that investigates mutant deaths so the resurrection protocols can be initiated. He’s wielding some kind of eye sword.

Gorgon, the ex-Hand leader who once killed, resurrected and brainwashed Wolverine into being a Hand agent. Since joining the mutants on Krakoa, Gorgon was personally recommended by Logan to be one of the four Great Captains of Krakoa, responsible for the protection of the mutant ruling council when they leave the island. He’s holding the Godkiller sword that he’s carried since he was in Hickman’s Secret Warriors. The blade was created for Zeus but lost, and eventually made its way into Gorgon’s hands.

Next to him is John Greycrow, formerly one of Sinister’s Marauders, and slated to be a member of Hellions, an upcoming book from Zeb Wells and Stephen Segovia. Greycrow is a master marksman who honed his talents in war (originally World War II, but Marvel Time means his service dates have been moved up to Symkaria or something) and has technology powers. He’s carrying some kind of technological gunsword.

Below and to the right is Brian Braddock, formerly Captain Britain but now titleless (I believe) after ceding the Amulet of Right to his sister Betsy in Tini Howard and Marcus To’s magnificent Excalibur. He’s holding the Sword of Might, one of the two artifacts offered to potential Captains Britain. When captured and corrupted in Otherworld by Morgan Le Fay, Brian gave up the Amulet of Right to Betsy to help her stop Le Fay’s attack. He’s currently suffering through a crisis of confidence now that he’s left with only the sword. It also feels important that he’s textually not a mutant.

Below Captain Britain is Psylocke. This will stop being confusing in a couple of months – Kwannon (the woman who was body-swapped with Elizabeth Braddock back in the late ‘80s, then died of the Legacy Virus in Betsy’s old body) was resurrected during Wolverine’s return before HoXPoX. She was most recently in Fallen Angels running down ex-family and trying to kill Apoth, a self-aware AI drug dealer. Psylocke is carrying a fairly standard-looking sword. 

Above him is Rachel Grey, another member of X-Factor, carrying the Blade of the Phoenix, the Shi’ar sword used by the Death Commandos to wipe out her bloodline on Earth.

Below her is Charles Xavier, carrying the sword Magneto made for him out of the broken shards of the Cerebro helmet he was wearing when he was shot in the head in the pages of X-Force.

Next to him is Cable carrying a sword I recognize but can’t name at the moment. Cable is set to appear in his own book, from Gerry Duggan and Phil Noto, but has spent much of Dawn of X on family vacations with Cyclops, Jean Grey, Rachel Grey, his uncle Gabe, his dad’s boyfriend Wolverine, his dad’s other wife Emma Frost, and their island home’s estranged sister.

Above Cable is Doug Ramsey, Cypher. Doug was most recently running around Shi’ar territory trying to get to Chandilar to visit with Cannonball in Hickman and Rod Reis’ New Mutants. He’s back on Earth and back to functioning as Krakoa’s voice now. The sword he’s carrying looks like it’s a techno-organic extension of his arm, but it could also be his best friend, Warlock the Technarch, hiding from Cyclops. Confused? Go read X-Men #7.

Next to Cable and Cypher is Betsy Braddock, the newest Captain Britain. She is attacking with her telekinetic sword that’s a manifestation of her powers, and she’s dressed in her snazzy new Captain Britain uniform designed by To for Excalibur.

Next to Betsy is a yet-unnamed sidekick to Angel who’s set to appear in Vita Ayala and Bernard Chang’s Children of the Atom, starting in April.

Read more

Comics

X-Men: Who are the Children of the Vault?

By Jim Dandy

Movies

Marvel Movies Release Schedule: Complete MCU Phase 4 Timeline

By Mike Cecchini

Down and to his right is Domino, sporting a fancy wooden stabbing sleeve crafted by Forge to heal the parts of her that were skinned by the Reavers to allow them to pass undetected through Krakoa’s defenses in early X-Force. 

Below her is Cyclops with a laser sword. You don’t need much more than that.

In the bottom right corner is Armor, Hisako Ichiki. She debuted in Joss Whedon and John Cassaday’s Astonishing X-Men, and has been a leader of that era of students since. She’s currently spreading the good word about Krakoa to mutants around the world in the pages of New Mutants.

To the left is Wolverine carrying the Muramasa blade. This sword cuts through anything and disrupts healing factors – it’s one of the few things that could potentially hurt Wolverine enough to kill him.

Next to Logan is Magik, Ilyanna Rasputin, carrying her Soulsword. More on this in a second, but Magik has most recently been in space with Cypher and the rest of the New Mutants, in her case trying to make out with all of the Shi’ar Death Commandos.

To Magik’s side is Storm carrying some kind of long lightning kunai.This is one of my favorite sentences of all time.

Below Storm is Nightcrawler, the first Pope of a new mutant religion (again, read X-Men #7, it’s bonkers) carrying a fancy looking rapier. Nightcrawler has always been modeled (and modeled himself) after Errol Flynn, and the rapier is a big part of that.

Next to Nightcrawler is Storm’s Marauders teammate Iceman, ready for some Stabbing…and…Chill…? I’m sorry, once I thought of it I had to type it.

And finally, above Iceman is Apocalypse, the man who ended the Bronze Age. Apocalypse is pictured here holding one of the jagged scimitars he was last seen carrying in a flashback told by Cypher about Krakoa’s ancient history. Krakoa was once Okkara, one big island, until an invasion from another plane forced Apocalypse to sacrifice his first Horsemen to seal off that invasion, and half of Okkara. Arrako, the sealed off sister island to Krakoa, reappeared in X-Men #2, and with it the daughter of one of the Horsemen. 

This was one of the most exciting dangling ideas from House of X and Powers of X. The fact that Dawn of X has been just as casually stuffed with new concepts and deep examinations of the changes wrought by Krakoa and the Five’s resurrection abilities, while also making time for fun superhero punch ups and picking up ideas that have been left on the ground by the introductory series is what’s making the X-Men line so exciting right now. 

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X of Swords kicks off in July.

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