#DND web show

[swanqueensalad]

day 1 of convincing you to watch demons and daughters by sharing the most gay, heart wrenching, agonising sapphic love confession scene u will ever witness

you do not need any prior knowledge of dnd to enjoy this show, only a desire to see pining teenage regency era lesbians be gay and yearning and feral on a madcap journey to find their missing fathers, fight demons and break free of their patriarchal roles. the show is free on youtube!!

(ps if you watch to the end of the video you will giggle)

[crazygirleddie]

i also think travis does NAWT get enough credit for magnus, sorry!!! like!!! sure, taako moments (by far beloved fan favorite) were incredible and justin is fucking hilarious, but travis came in episode 1 with a full page of backstory for magnus and Used that for all of his interactions and choices for the whole campaign. i just really appreciate that. and if you dont think that magnus and the Voidfish were the best dynamic in all of taz balance. then genuinely dont talk to me

[carrawolf]

Hi. Please use trigger warnings, content warnings, and disclaimers in your art. Please use safety tools in your dnd games. The comfort of your reader or player should always come first. No matter if it’s a trauma based response or just a simple boundary. I try to always add trigger warning to my books. For example I knew someone who personally holds the boundary that they do not want their player character to have a romance of any kind. Even flirting is off the table. It makes them uncomfortable. This isn’t due to trauma. It’s just their personal comfort level. And if you DM or party member that doesn’t respect basic boundaries from session 0, or won’t even discuss them, then that is not a person that you should be playing with. Boundaries built in and out of game are important and you should be able to change them at anytime. Thank you for coming to my ted talk. I just saw a video ignoring the valid reason people use them, and felt the need to say something.

[rootsmachine]

happens to me regularly on Tumblr Dot Com but so many thing people talk about that i ASSUMED were video games regularly and often Turn OUt Not To be

[inthelittlewood]

Hey Martyn, I have a question. Are you interested in DnD (Dungeons and Dragons) and if so, would you DM a campaign??

A campaign would be a huge undertaking and I have only played DnD twice in my entire life (on the Highrollers web show)

I've been learning the Daggerheart system from the Crit Role guys and would quite like to run the beginner one shot one time to see how that fares

[housemdork]

i want to share with you guys the house md web that i’m surrounded by irl. this is how it started:

my sister falls in love with robert sean leonard in december 2024. when i’m home from school for christmas, we watch dps together. i cry. i agree that he’s very cute.

i return to school. i see that infamous “house md out of context” tweet about 4x16. i say to myself, “it’s been a while since your medical trauma. why not give this a go.” i watch 2 seasons in about 10 days.

i tell my friends at work. several of whom have seen disparate episodes. one starts watching it in order for the first time.

my supervisor asks for tv show recommendations if i have any. i tell her to watch house md. she does so, remembering fondly when it aired back in the 2000s.

my sister and i tell our mom, a huge house md fan, that we’ve been watching it in order and that wilson is our favorite. she starts rewatching it in order, along with our stepdad.

i tell my dnd friends since we always share tv show recommendations. i find out yesterday that they got thru season 1 in about 2 weeks.

my sister’s roommate and their mutual friend have both begun watching.

my friends who don’t watch the show but know that i love it are sending me endless instagram reels of edits, clips, etc.

house is everywhere. house is eternal.

[toseesoclearly]

What a “Return of the King-ish ending” for ST5 could mean for Will (and Mike): Part Two, the "(and Mike)"

[this post contains spoilers all of The Lord of the Rings and more importantly for the recent ST5 leaks, make your own choices in choosing to read <3]

read part one here

Stories and Tales: Mike the Brave

There is another indicator that ST may be pulling from LotR in a new way in its last season: the allusions we’ve seen in s5 leaks to stories.

We know that at some point in the season, Mike tells El, “This is our story,”[*] and El declares, “They don't get to write the ending, but we do.” I think it’s likely that this is dialogue from Mike and El’s early season (ep 1?) conversation on the WSQK rooftop, where they also probably discuss whether or not it’s possible that they could “live happily ever after,” and what the end of a journey looks like in a DnD campaign.

The ST cast of course frequently references characters and concepts from comics, movies, books, and, of course, the fantasy world of DnD to make sense of their experiences and emotions. But there isn’t much of this type of language about their story in the show so far.

LotR, on the other hand, is driven by this consideration: the books are framed as a primary source document from a bygone age that Tolkien is translating, so there is a baked-in meta awareness that the characters are becoming part of the larger "web of story" (history, folklore, legend, and myth).

Sam is the avatar for a particular aspect of that theme, and an important one in Tolkien's project (see Tolkien Letter 131, Sam is the "chief hero...to the theme of the relation of ordinary life...and quests, sacrifice, causes, and the 'longing for Elves', and sheer beauty").

Unusually for a hobbit, especially a working-class hobbit, he loves stories and tales from outside the Shire. And very early on, Sam connects that interest to the idea that he is now, unexpectedly, brushing up against those grand stories. After reciting part of a ballad in Fellowship (his knowledge of which surprises his companions), he says: “There was a lot more, all about Mordor. I didn’t learn that part, it gave me shivers. I never thought I should be going that way myself!”

This thread manifests most prominently in a conversation that Jackson’s films remix a bit from the books, and move up to being the voiceover tying together the acts of our disparate Fellowship during the climax of The Two Towers, and then serving as the button on Frodo and Sam’s journey for middle installment of the saga:

So between Mike having dialogue about "our story," being newly cognizant of their place in a larger narrative, AND the reveal that Mike’s DnD character is apparently named Mike the Brave[*], they appear to be giving at least a couple important Samwise-isms to Mike in s5.

Hope and Heart

Hope, faith, and love are the other core thematic concepts in LotR, also rooted in Tolkien’s religious beliefs, but as depicted in the trilogy have proven resilient in their appeal and resonance for broader audiences (to oversimplify to an absurd degree). That may sound mushy and cliche, but their manifestation in LotR has complex philosophical and theological dimensions that have powered literary scholarship and fan analysis for decades. They form the foundation of Tolkien’s conception of heroism and are “what holds [the Fellowship] together,” to quote Will. 

Which makes hope, faith, and love the LotR equivalent of ST’s heart.

If Mike acts as the Sam to Will’s Frodo in s5, Will gifting him the painting and a renewed sense of purpose in s4 takes on an additional dimension. Especially if, like Frodo, Will loses his own ability to hold onto heart, their shared, most-important-to-the-Party ideal. In Sam Gamgee fashion, it may be up to Mike to carry the hope and faith (or hope and heart) for both of them.

from Patrick Grant's "Tolkien: Archetype and Word" (CrossCurrents 22, no. 4, 1973), which prompted this whole rabbit hole, hat tip to @/threemanoperation for sharing this analysis and therefore causing this rabbit hole <3

There and Back Again

Sam, and Mike, are the "everyman" characters: they encounter the supernatural, are changed by that encounter, and return back home with a new perspective. Frodo is a tragic hero: he experiences the supernatural, is transformed by that experience, and cannot return home. Will is following Frodo's trajectory for the first two beats, but I think he won't have Frodo's tragic ending[^]. This is another place where, imo, the narrative pull of Will's genre coming-of-age supersedes the fantasy archetype that's also in his character's DNA.

But there's another interesting dimension there, concerning part of why Frodo has to leave at the end of the saga. First, from Patrick Grant again, on Sam as the audience surrogate:

The queer readings of Frodo and Sam's relationship are relevant when considering what might need to be resolved for Mike to achieve the Samwise-style "journey's end" wholeness described above...

Hmm.....[^]

[*]I'm not linking to or including the style guide leaks to be (over)cautious about copyright strikes so apologies for not having a real citation for these

[^]That doesn't mean Will won't leave Hawkins, but it won't be with the finality of a metaphorical death </3 (yes I think El is going to be the one to Leave leave)

[leidensygdom]

Your art is so lovely!! And I see you are a fellow drow enjoyer 👀 Show me your favorite drow/dark elf piece you’ve done! 💙

AAAAH thank you!! And honestly I'm not sure how to pick, I've been posting drow on this webbed site for the last decade and I've done quite a lot of them!! So uh, lemme do a compilation instead~

(First one is my guy, Areel, second one is a gift for @kitsubane , third one is for someone in my Dnd group, fourth is for @plaguecleric , fifth is my own characters (Yxala and Urion), sixth is also Yxala, Urion and Relent, seventh is my character too (Yden), eight and ninth are Urion/The Onirist, and last one is a gift for @gorgonheart !)

[entities-of-posts]

Nothing much actually, I just think about this a lot and feel deeply guilty for it.

I frequent a board game store for dnd one-shot a lot, and in their restroom is a fragrance dispenser. I thought it was a hidden camera, although I wasn't really sure what it was supposed to be hidden as, just that it looked like it had a lens in there. I get paranoid about these things, I've had nightmares like this before, and so I turned the dispenser to the wall so that I'd be out of its line of sight. The staff only fixed the costumer bathrooms at the end of the day I'm pretty sure, so when I did this, it'd stay in that position for 5 hours I think. I did this multiple times. I forgot why, but one day I noticed that there was an bright orange growth behind the dispenser. It was distorting the wall behind it, to match its folds and lines; it looked like veins. There wasn't much tbf, but I felt like a fool, like a traitor. Maybe it was the same day or after that I actually saw it dispense perfume right in front of me. It's great that wasn't a camera, but the fact I was unknowingly harboring rot in my favorite game store doesn't sit right with me lol. I'M SORRY! The staff there are great they didn't deserve this at all. Still, I don't have the balls to tell them it was me, that I'm the mold girl.

is this really even statement worthy? Probably not lol. Something something web deceiving me into nursing seedlings of the corruption into this world.

Maybe that mold will come back home with you to show its gratitude:)

[bylerlipglances]

STRANGER THINGS and D&D

Time Magazine Special Edition: 50 years of D&D(2024)

I've highlighted the important details, skip the rest...

Who is Vecna?

So I googled each of them. since s4 pulled from DnD lore, I wouldn’t be shocked if Duffers have more cooked up for s5. (Chris Perkins, the game design architect of D&D, mentioned his favorite villains, which Stranger Things could borrow from)

Vecna – The Whispered One

A former mortal wizard-turned-lich-turned-god of secrets, undeath, and forbidden knowledge.

He ascended to godhood by betraying his own most loyal servant (Kas the Bloody-Handed) and embodies the danger of unchecked ambition and hoarding of knowledge.

Skeleton hand, glowing eye because that's all that's left of him in most stories (the Hand and Eye of Vecna are legendary artifacts).

Cold, calculating, god of necromancy and secrets.

Wants to become the sole deity, ruling over a world of silence, fear, and undeath.

Expect whispers, cults, undead legions, and paranoia-fueled puzzles.

Strahd von Zarovich – The Dark Lord of Barovia

The first vampire, and ruler of the misty, cursed realm of Barovia.

Brooding, elegant, tragic villain.

Obsessed with Tatyana, a woman who keeps being reborn and rejecting him.

He’s a master manipulator, necromancer, and a vampire overlord who controls an entire demiplane (Barovia)

Central villain of Curse of Strahd, one of D&D’s most famous adventures.

He plays with the party before he kills them and death is never the end in Barovia.

Lolth – The Spider Queen

The chaotic evil goddess of spiders, lies, betrayal, and drow (dark elves).

Once an elven goddess, she betrayed the elven pantheon and was cursed into her current form.

Rules over the Underdark from the Demonweb Pits.

She encourages her followers (mostly drow) to betray, backstab, and manipulate, leading to a culture of endless power struggles.

Drow clerics of Lolth are often key villains.

Her presence means webs, traps, illusions, and political sabotage.

Orcus – Demon Prince of Undeath

A demon lord of the Abyss and the patron of necromancers and undead.

Massive, bloated, goat-headed demon with bat wings, wielding the Wand of Orcus (a death-stick of god-tier power).

Wants to replace all life with undeath and conquer the multiverse.

He creates armies of undead, turns gods into 'zombies', and casually obliterates reality when he gets bored.

Even other demon lords hate him.

Epic-tier villain — usually shows up around level 20+

Themes of death cults, necromantic rituals, apocalyptic stakes.

It also features an article from the time of s2 shooting.

Part 1: Mapping D&D History

[artforsimps]

Head canons for rescue bots(tw homophobia, old people (died bitter <3))

Chief burns(Charlie):Demisexual, asexual. adopted everyone as they were abandoned in the firehouse but fell in love one time, when he met Cody’s mother. He thinks about her a lot and has never considered moving on because he’s happy with having had that love of his life at least once. Even so, he can’t help but be the sexiest man alive and has to beat them off with a stick. Has gone on only two dates since but is at peace with never bribing kid kids a mother figure again.

Kade: talks like a slut but is actually a huge romantic that wants to settle down with a big family like his dad. Fully expects his siblings to stay close to home. Still maturing but Hailey isn’t gonna be the woman he marries. hate to say it but it’s true. Sometimes when something happens with Cody and he’s rushing to pick him up or help he rants to Heatwave. “When I’m a dad this will NEVER happen I’m keeping them at an arms length!” Heatwave talks about it too since he’s found that kids like him. Kade has definitely included heatwave in his web of family for his kids will know and love. Heatwave is already considered the uncle of his unborn kids.

Graham:huge nerd not only for science but also dnd and startrek. He likes the thought of a relationship but he hasn’t figured out his type yet and all the factors overwhelm him. Never gets past the talking phase. He’s kind of hoping the right person will just find him though it’s not plausible. Secretly hopes he can move away to find himself for a few years or even visit Cybertron to study, though he thinks it’s unrealistic. But boulder would love hosting him and showing him around especially the libraries.

Dani: everyone loves her, she gets a lot of compliments but her brothers always intervene to keep her safe. She could walk down the street covered in cash and not a single finger would be laid on her. She only argues for fun but also puts her brothers in their place when they have their head up their ass or stuck in their head. She helps couch blades through speaking up more with his stresses. Blades helps her mellow out by being a shoulder to cry on and vent. It’s been hard for Dani being the only girl in the family and not feeling like she has anyone to talk to with how hard she works between jobs.

Cody:the towns golden child. Best in his troupe, always willing to help and likes to feel needed but somehow finds himself alone a lot and feels like his friends are outgrowing him. He didnt learn his siblings were adopted until someone let it slip right before the bots arrived. He had absolutely no clue. He did not catch that none of his siblings looked like him he just thought he was built different. He struggles with homework but Francine makes him pass the classes at any cost. Cody feels like the third wheel a lot as the introvert of the family. He’s jealous of how outgoing Francine is sometimes.

Heatwave: dilf self explanatory.

Blades:the most openly affectionate of the group. Hugging, talking freely about literally anything. The second he learns a new thing about humans he tells Sigma-17, the second he learns gossip he tells Dani. Dani helps him a lot through his anxiety since blades helped her grow into a more caring person. Blades collects little trinkets and his fan club are his ride or die. There’s a few letters heatwave intercepted out of either jealousy, or to protect blades feelings. The towns folk just really like blades. Sometimes to an unhealthy extent.

Boulder:always curious and willing to read anything, he’s gone through every book in the firehouse. The second they got the dog he trained them to get books from upstairs and found some of Dani’s romance books. Would not admit he finished them after what happened the first time he let it slip to blades who is now obsessed. Not what he was hoping he’d read but at least blade had a book in his hand. He’s not as innocent as he looks but Went to pride with Graham. Closest to the dog. Elated that he has a pet he can play with.

Chase:obviously he read all of the law books available to him but he’s also read some relationship books to see what he could do to be a better partner. It took a week of Charlie being as red as a tomato before he asked chase if he knew the subtext. Chase decided to slow down. Charlie has had no complaints since. Though there was one time Chase was closing in too slowly with his eyes shut and Charlie asked if he was buffering. He hasn’t tried since. He thinks Charlie wanted to maintain professionalism but Charlie thought he was malfunctioning for a week since sigma17 cracked a few jokes about it being a glitch.

Doc Greene use to date Charlie in high school but they broke up before college and police academy. Grandpa burns made them break up, just so Charlie would carry on the name and become chief. Grandpa can eat my boot. I love Francine and Cody like a daughter and son but Charlie should have been able to be in love. Alternately If it weren’t grandpa it would have been Charlie not experiencing a lot of sexual attraction. Doc greens just very open minded and there’s no shame in enjoying sex. There’s a reason he has two kids. though I hate to say it I’m talking from experience. It’s a sad thing for aces. That’s part of why Mrs.Burns was so special she was kind patient, and also ace and Demi. Cody just happened and they couldn’t be happier. Charlie sometimes experiences this underlying shame for being ace. Something his own mother wasn’t just confused but frustrated with because the “grands” put their blood over loving their own kids. Charlie kept the kids at an arms length from his parents until the grands passed for the kids own sake. It makes him feel bad but he’s glad his parents never knew his wife or Cody. He’s apologized to his kids for his parents before and knew he could never do that again to them. He’s a good parent in spite of his blood.

Uncle Woodrow rarely visits because the firehouse is too much for him. Being a bi man, he got the brunt of his parents opinions. While the kids over wrote most of Charlie’s past in the house Woodrow doesn’t have that luxury of fresh happy memories. He didn’t have kids because of his parents. But Charlie gives him hope he could be a good dad. Just not now. Charlie feels bad he couldn’t protect him. I think Woodrow would have struggled with substances with how much he traveled. He got sober after his parents died to be there for Charlie and reconnect with his brother. That’s why he eats so much outlandish food to try and stave off cravings. Brothers day is the anniversary of Woodrow getting clean.

[neverforgetyouremyfavorite]

Turned a dnd OC of mine into a gym leader for funsies, I wanted to try and make a team based around the concept of an ecosystem/food web using as much canon pokedex info as possible :3 Thought process notes under the cut!

Pose referenced from @albanenechi check out their stuff it’s great :)

Okay so in terms of the team the sunkern to spearow to ekans chain is basically canon from pokedex entries. Zangoose eating ekans isn’t but they do have a rivalry with seviper and their abilities are all about resisting poison (plus they’re a mongoose) so it isn’t too much of a stretch to say they’d eat another poison snake. Do I think this would be a great team in battle for real? No lmao probably not, but I’m not a team building expert I’m a use whatever I catch that I like kinda player

The badge was inspired by trophic pyramids, the diagrams that show how energy moves up through an ecosystem as well as honeycomb patterns because of her Combee and the original version of the characters connection to bees. It’s called the web badge because well… food webs.

In terms of the character design I was shooting for like a scientist researching out in the field vibe? I wanted her to wear a camouflage gilly suit thing to help in her research on Pokemon ecology without influencing the Pokemon she’s observing.

She’s kind of a grump who’s far better with Pokemon than people, and I like to think her goal is to teach kids going through the gym challenge about the complexities of the natural world. She’d start off scaring them a little bit about how nature can be savage and dangerous, eat or be eaten kind of world but eventually end with the idea that it’s possible for any Pokemon/person to grow through friendships with others. After all, her Pokemon would normally be at each other’s throats but because of the bonds she’s built with them they can coexist as friends. (She leaves out that her team is frequently squabbling)

Bonus second team if you fought her later in the game again like in scarlet/violet that’s maybe a little better in terms of real utility. This one I didn’t worry about canon and went for more of a jungle ecosystem. In this team the main chain would be tropius, primeape, seviper, liepard. Swoobat fills the pollinator role in this team, and instead of decomposer there’s Mandibuzz to be a scavenger.

This was a very nerdy passion project, I hope someone gets some value out of my thoughts here I think it’s fun to talk through 👉👈 thanks so much if you bothered reading this!!!

[anonym-potato]

Nein Again - 2x10 "Waste and Webs"

Last we left off, the Mighty Nein got to know each other a little better, and accepted probably the single official Dwendalian Job they will ever perform. Spoilers Ahoy!

I rate this Sam Riegel DnD Beyond Ad 8/10 I really like this one and the spectators cowering in the foreground really adds to it.

"Is that hard for him, cause he's not technically...recognized?" Sure Fjord that's the r word you were going to describe the Traveler as.

Canonically they have PO Boxes in Felderwin. I mean it is pretty rural.

WEIRD SHIT REPORT (A): Nott has the Ring of Water Walking now! I'm sure she'll give it back.

Sam is determined to torment everyone this episode

Eeeeeewww even the magic smells down here

Wow I forgot how gross the Sewer Rats are

Poor Beau Monks don't get their poison resistance for like 6 more levels.

Molly sounds weirdly delighted at the thought of a spider-rat

I'm kinda sad we didn't see much more of Schmidt. Unseen Servant is such a fun spell.

Boy this spider's lair is really creepy.

Travis is so proud of himself for remembering Relentless Endurance

Honestly I'm surprised they don't use an actual lollipop for Jester's Spiritual Weapon I think it would be to scale.

I do love all the gross descriptions of Molly's blood magic. Wonder how much they'll be able to get away with in the cartoon

I like Matt's little risk-reward gambit with that attack from Beau. I'm stealing that.

Molly mocking the spider to death will never not be funny

OH GOD FUCK THE BABY SPIDERS EW EW EW

"I don't need to roll an insight check to know that's bullshit." Yessss Beau

Also I believe thieves' cant is a coded language so Nott and Neck Tats were talking about like...a flower shop right then

"Does anything about his tattoo irritate me?" It took me an embarrasingly long moment to realize what that was about

And the money fight apology! Oh it's so sweet.

The only good part about Molly getting up in Caleb's face is Laura's giggling

At this point I'm kinda surprised Jester never sought out taxidermy lessons it would've come in handy with Sprinkle

This poor Crownsguard and his terrible name

Liam actually dropping the accent to explain Keen Mind to Marisha is weirdly funny.

WEIRD SHIT REPORT (B): Caleb has also stolen a set of Mariner's Armor. After some negotiation, he trades it to Fjord to for the Glove of Scorching Ray.

This is the first time Caleb and Fjord do something Real Homoerotic and Marisha just sits there like 😏

Everyone say thank you Matt for explaining the bathing infrastructure of his D&D setting.

Nott and Molly's dynamic is. So deeply underrated. "What is this?" "It's a blank piece of paper." "Oh, fuck you!"

Ulog shows up like "Alright bitches playtime's over the DM has plot for you to do"

I hope the Cat Kicker is the Obligatory Mercer Town Guard. Also did Jester canonically pick the wings off flies because that explains a lot.

In Conclusion: I hate spiders.

[strangersteddierthings]

What's Eight Plus Seven?

Part One🦇Part Two🦇Part Three🦇Part Four🦇Part Five

"Did you ask about my sandwich?" is the first thing Robin asks him when he falls through her window. Only after the question has been asked does Robin turn on the lamp beside her bed.

"Ow," he replies, because he's landed on her shoes. One is digging into the center of his back and the other his buttcheek.

"I'll take that as a no," she swings her legs off the side of the bed, sitting up to look down at him. "You know, with the amount of noise you just made, you might as well have used the front door."

"We both know your parent's know I'm here, anyway. The use of your window is to avoid conversation with your mom. She always asks if I'm planning to propose before you go to college, or after you graduate."

Robin gags. "Don't remind me. Now get off the floor and tell me when I'm to expect lunch delivered by Eddie to Family Video?"

Steve does haul himself off the floor, then, because the shoes are painful. He joins Robin on the bed, shoulder to shoulder, and leans against her. "Sorry. I forgot to ask about your sandwich."

"I forgive you. Now, to the secondary issue of the night. Show me your knuckles."

"What!?" Steve usually prides himself at being able to keep up with Robin and her random thoughts, but this is so out of left field.

Robin just grabs the hand closest to her for inspection. It doesn't take her long to drop it and reach across him to grab his other hand. "Hmm. No signs of physical damage. Did you smother him to death with a pillow instead?"

Ah. "Har har. No. There was no violence of any kind. There was some yelling, at first, and I got the last word in-" "the most important part of any argument." "-because I screamed fuck you and then ran to my room but then... then he looked so sad about it. I even tried to a pick a fight, twice!-" "Yes, yes, your self-destructive tendencies." "-but Eddie really seemed upset by it all, which, he should. If he hadn't been a dick then I wouldn't be holding a grudge. But..."

"But you were also a dick back the rest of high school, so maybe the hurts can like... even out and go away?"

"Well, we didn't word it like that but that was the, like, ending we came to, yeah. Dustin was right. He's a dick, but like, in the same way I am, I guess."

Robin leans away from him so she can sway her body back, bumping her shoulder against his. "So, to summarize...?"

Steve shrugs. "We talked it out, I told him about Christopher and like, glossed over my parents leaving me alone all the time but I think he picked up on it. Especially after I told him your theory about why I was so attached to a cousin I saw for three to four weeks once a year."

"Hey, don't do that. Don't downplay how you're feeling or smack talk your own emotions. Those are my jobs and I'll not have you leaving me unemployed. Now come on. Let's lay down, and you can be the little spoon, and tell me all about it."

"You just don't want to see my ugly cry face."

"I don't want to see your ugly cry face," Robin parrots back as she clicks off the lamp before they lay down and do exactly as promised. Steve retells the whole night in as much detail as he can remember and Robin does spoon him, patting at his head and giving his stomach a little squeeze every time his voice goes watery.

Eddie left Steve's house with his entire worldview shifted. He hasn't felt this rocked about events since learning monsters were real. And the thing that has rocked him the most isn't learning that Steve had essentially been abandoned by his parents when he was fourteen, or even learning about the tangled web inside Steve that consists of his love for fantasy, curiosity for DnD, and grief for the loss of his cousin.

No, what has rocked Eddie, what worldview has shifted, is his perception of himself and how he has been viewing the world. Him and his fucking Munson Doctrine.

It had served him well, back when he'd first learned the word 'doctrine' in sixth grade and made his own then and there. It let him draw clean and clear lines between what hurts and what doesn't, what keeps him safe and what didn't. Befriend the lost sheep, avoid the jocks. Flight was the superior fight or flight response.

And he had made changes over the years; as a rule, don't tell the cops shit about anything, ever. Make yourself the target to help the little guy (if you're the weirdest kid in school, the others might get overlooked). Slash the tires of everyone who dunks your head in a toilet.

Those kinds of changes.

Around junior year, Eddie started selling because they needed a second income. He'd put in application around town, first, but hadn't received a single call back. Hell, four the places he applied straight up told him they wouldn't hire him so he could quit checking in on his application. He knew Reefer Rick wouldn't turn him away. Not when Eddie could get to the high-schoolers Rick knew would pay too much for too little a hell of a lot easier than Rick could.

It came with the added bonus of bullying ending for him, when the same people who used to shove him around or knock things out of his hands ended up wanting to buy some drug or another, and instead of finding Reefer Rick waiting at the picnic table in the trees out of view, they found Eddie.

This added a new point to the doctrine: charge jocks double. He'd held to that until Chrissy, who had seemed so much more like one of his sheep than a jock.

And, well, everything after Chrissy should have ended the Munson Doctrine completely. Because he'd used it to put people in nice, little boxes that made sense in his mind and that was fucking blown to pieces.

Nancy Wheeler, badass gun-owner who he watched make a sawed-off shotgun? She'd in a box labeled 'Priss, Prim, and Proper' and wasn't that a fucking lie.

Robin Buckley, who he knew withstood Russian torture and willing walked into Hell to save the world? He hadn't ever even given her a second thought. She wasn't a jock, a nerd, or a customer, so she just didn't really exist. Which is so shitty of him to realize.

And Steve. Steve fucking Harrington, who ripped a goddamn giant bat demon apart with his bare hands after biting it and then spit the blood out like every horror movie fans wet dream? Like Eddie's wet dream. Well, he'd been a real dick most of high school. That was a fair box to place him in, at the time.

But because of that goddamned Munson Doctrine, he'd been a dick to Steve first. He'd ruined any chance at even being Steve's friend.

Or he had, before tonight.

It's a really fucking humbling thing, to have your own biases thrown in your face. Don't get him wrong, at first it absolutely made him livid. It hurt, and made him defensive, when Steve didn't just accept his apology. He'd instead shot back, something about him not being wrong about who Steve turned out to be and then Steve... Steve had said 'lashing out at me first, at my reading ability, and mocking me for not being quick at math' and Eddie had felt his stomach drop.

He hadn't remembered that day, not nearly as clearly as Steve did, but Steve's words had brought the moment back to him. He couldn't recall exactly what he'd said but he remembered the feeling of satisfaction at humiliating Steve some random jock that day. Satisfaction at flipping the script and getting to be the one who wasn't hurt. He'd laughed at Steve with the other people who had gathered to watch Steve struggle to do simple addition. He'd retold the story to everyone in Hellfire after school and they'd all cheered about it, told Eddie he was right to do what he'd done.

What he remembers even more, though, is coming home to Wayne and bragging about it. Thinking of the responses he got from his friends. But Wayne didn't congratulate him. Wayne had nodded softly along with the story and then said, 'you can't be the one to hit first, Edward. You throw one to many punches and soon enough yer knuckles don't feel the pain anymore.'

Eddie had puffed up, defended himself, yelled at his uncle for defending a jock and Wayne had interrupted him there.

"He mighta been the jock, but you were the bully."

That had hurt almost as much as every punch his father had ever thrown at him. And did Eddie even learn from it?

No. He doesn't think so.

Eddie had a shit life until his Uncle stepped in, stepped up, and showed him that love was unconditional.

And he's just spent the whole evening learning about Steve, and how the love of his parents had always been conditional. (And never in a way Steve could achieve. Not that Steve had said their love was conditional, but you don't abandon a kid you love at fourteen.)

Steve's every decision until the Upside Down had happened was based on what his parents would think or want. Trying to earn his dad's respect or some shit.

Steve's dad might not have hit him, but Eddie knows an unloving father.

Jesus, all this thinking makes Eddie want a cigarette. He drags himself off his bed and to the window, which he yanks open and leans half out to smoke because this is a new trailer and Wayne asked him to smoke outside when they moved into it.

He left Steve's house feeling like they could be friends, which is great. Way more than Eddie expected. It was just also... a lot to process. A lot to take in.

Jesus. He'd never expected Steve to really be willing to play 20 questions to get to know him, either; that he was willing to set his grudge aside and try, even with his anger at Eddie wrapped up in grief for Christopher. Eddie wouldn't have been able to do it.

Not with his Doctrine in the way.

He doesn't need to change everything about himself, but he definitely needs a deep dive into who he is verses who he wants to be, or has thought himself to be. Steve admitted to bettering himself and Eddie wants to be a person worthy of being around Steve.

And being honest with himself in the quiet of his room, Eddie wants be a person worthy of being with Steve.

He's allowed to be a little delusional about it all, he thinks.

[sp1d-d3rr]

Haiiiiii Haiii haiii thx for checking us ouutttt!!!!!

We're Seth!! Like it says we're 19 and identify as a nonhuman (on account of our trait blur) ftm being, we live in the 🇺🇸🦅,and we're trying to learn German (kinda it's been a bit) but our native language is English!

This blog is kinda just whatever interests us in the moment, we try to stray away from NSFW but..well...not always happening,..and well there's gore and death and weapons and violence and gays and suic!de mentioning and really just a lot more that you may feel free to look at!!!

(You can find more of our many many names and other information on our pronoun page, and we've got a Pinterest for those who are interested in looking!!)

On the NSFW aspect we will clarify we personally don't like rape and we don't really have a thing for piss. BUTTT we do enjoy CNC and sadism (and a bit more stuff but we digress), we try to keep an open mind when it comes to other things, like piss kinks, since as long as every participant is into it and/or simply willing to go along 🤷

-Long lasting interests-

• Animals (like canines, felines, birds of a few kinds, hoofed animals, a bit of reptiles and amphibians, and finally arachnids and insects [personally our traitblur makes it hard to pinpoint exactly if we're otherhearted or otherkin so we put both as tags when it comes to some animals on here...])

• Shows, movies, and short films (Bluey, My Little Pony, Dexter, Spider-Man, Deadpool, Anime [Like Dungeon Meshi and others])

• Books and writing (Warrior cats, Shakespeare, Wings of fire, web/reg-comics, and manga [unless we can count that with anime])

• Video games (things like rn Skyrim, Minecraft, Roblox, Postal, Baulders Gate [DND in general], Sonic, Stardew Valley, and Animal Crossing)

• Art (Things like music [singing, dancing, instrument playing, Rock, Metal, Industrial], painting, drawing, sculpting, coloring, poetry)

And clearly more!

[omamorens]

SUMMARY: A wizard duel.

TAGS: Canon-Typical Violence, Body Gore, Toxic Relationships

RELATIONSHIP: Adaine Abernant/Oisin Hakinvar

🗡️ my dnd combat experience is based on watching a show and playing a computer game dont boo at me. also please please please mind the tags and the content warning at the start of the chapter. ok that is all goodbye enjoy flame me in the comments (dont i will cry)