#I mean we all know the answer: WIZARD HUBRIS

[captainsparklefingers]

What I want to know is why Ludinus is convinced that Predathos will stop with just the gods.

This is what we know about Predathos, with the new information from Downfall:

- It, like the gods, came from Tengar. It wasn't some extraplanar entitiy that came to their home and drove them out, it (or what would become it) was born in the Orchard of Possibility, when Edun picked a fruit from a new tree and went away, becoming this point of lightnessness.

- The collapse of Tengar was this all consuming nothingness growing larger and larger. It wasn't hunting or anything like that, it just drew and sucked things in and made them into nothing. It WAS nothing.

- We can't say for sure, but it's possible that as the nothingness grew, it was forced into a more tangible physical form like the gods were as they fled, but we don't know that. So we don't know is Predathos is still this nothingness entity, or if it's taken on more and is something that can be contained. Well, it's contained now, so something happened.

- It didn't follow the gods immediately to Exandria, it arrived sometime after the Founding, but before the Schism, and the gods sealed it away with the Elementals into what is now Ruidis... but not before it consumed two more gods.

- It's definitely got a more tangible consciousness now, it wants to be awakened and released, but it sounds like it needs some sort of vessel?

- It's (supposedly) got a core of glass with big spikes sticking upwards throughout the moon, and that all is remnants of its last form from when it was sealed...which doesn't tell us much about what Predathos used to look like except that whatever it was was pressurized to the point of forming glass that's similar to obsidian (and magic).

- Ludinus does not seem to be a candidate for the vessel, since he's not Ruidisborn.

- And Ludinus thinks, or claims, when it's released it will be happy with consuming just the gods...which is weird because we just saw it consumed their ENTIRE PLANE OF EXISTENCE RIGHT AFTER BEING BORN.

So with all of that in mind, I once again ask: what makes Ludinus think this can be controlled? What makes him so sure that this will end with the deaths of the gods, that Predathos will be satisfied and malleable?

[toaarcan]

C3E107 Thoughts

Okay first point of order, obligatory screaming about Abubakar flying an ocean to do a surprise return as the Arch Heart, you love to see it.

The Arch Heart's plan is interesting but I think they've either not telling the whole story or they're making a mistake. They assume that, in a moment of panic of Predathos being released early, their siblings will all flee. Except we know Melora would stand and fight, and we know that two of the gods are not Tengarian and therefore they have no past track record to base that thought on. They've got no clue what RQ and Vecna will do when the chips are down.

Of course, it's possible that the Arch Heart is hiding the truth. They said themselves that they are sneaky and that they were there without the knowledge of the other gods. They also kept stressing that they were being honest. Which could well be a lie. DC30 on the Insight check to see through any bullshit. The gods may have a different purpose for putting Predathos into a person.

The reality they've claimed is that the gods are currently in argument over what they should do about the Predathos situation, and the Arch Heart believes that if they have time to come to a conclusion, they will choose to fight. Whether that means war with Predathos or war on the people trying to release it, who can say. Either way, if they all come back, inevitably the Betrayers will try to kill mortals again, and the Primes will fight them. Calamity 2 will happen if mortals take too long to stop Predathos.

Ultimately the idea of cramming Predathos into Imogen or Fearne does not seem like a good one. We just spent the better part of 103 episodes watching Laudna struggle to keep Delilah under control. Delilah is the soul of a mortal fucking wizard. And Downfall illustrated the vast gulf between mortal mages and gods. It also showed max-level mortal bodies being disintegrated by the raw power of an unbound deity forcing its way out from within them. And the plan here is to cram a more-powerful entity into a Lv.13 Sorcerer or Druid and expect Predathos to not immediately escape or hollow them out and wear them like a cheap suit?

Then again, given the way it was being talked about maybe they are aware of this and recognise that whoever becomes Predathos' vessel is functionally or literally dead and doomed to chase the gods across reality for eternity, and that's a sacrifice that some have decided they are okay with. Either way, not a great plan.

The two members of BH that are most happy with the Arch Heart's idea are Dorian and Ashton, who are reacting to it like the perfect answer has finally been given to them. But it's not Dorian and Ashton who are going to be tasked with becoming the vessel. Imogen really does not want Predathos released. Fearne is more curious but Zathuda is actively trying to groom her into the perfect vessel and Shardgate was born out of Ashton convincing her to go with her gut and give him the Shard instead of taking it for herself, and I worry that with them on one shoulder and Zathuda on the other, Fearne may end up going with the plan and dying for it.

As for who the deity that agrees with the Arch Heart is... I don't think it's the Matron. The Arch Heart's words around her appearance are "You've heard my side," as if to imply that she represents the other. She was also one of the more reluctant gods when it came to leaving and building the gate, and she was consistently the "Stop doing hubris" one during Downfall.

The Arch Heart definitely did not have an answer for whether Predathos will harm mortals accidentally in pursuit of its meal. Also there's a probably-god chilling in the heart of the planet who isn't going to be running anywhere so that's not a great sign.

Zathuda and the Unseelie's dissatisfaction with Ludinus speaks to one of the bigger flaws in the Ruby Vanguard's plan. We've seen the gulf between mortal wizards and gods in Downfall, but Ludinus assumes that if he kills the gods then mortals will sit atop the food chain. Except they won't. There are a lot of entities that live in the gulf between mortal and divine, like powerful Fey, and also the Fiends the heroes keep running into. Zathuda evidently looks down on Ludinus and intends to betray him. To chase the gods away will open up the throne they've abdicated again, and it will not be a mortal wizard that sits it (nor should it be), it will be a devil or a demon or an archfey.

[mumms-the-word]

My friend/fountain of knowledge,

I wanted to post about a Mystra theory I had, but thought it may be best to explore it here with you instead! I’d love to hear your thoughts on it. 

It’s probably been discussed before, but the idea is that Mystra’s chosen are selected by her because she sees them as potential threats.

She is an omniscient being, and the Goddess of Divination, so surely she has some kind of prophetic ability or sense of the future? 

It’s mentioned many times that Gale’s ambition mirrors that of Karsus in certain ways, and maybe she was able to see the potential for the repetition of history. (Especially as he displayed an impressive control of the weave at such a young age, and has a tendency to slip into arrogance and hubris.)

I know Gods don’t share the same emotions as mortals, but she must fear succumbing to the same fate as Mystryl - The Goddess who was destroyed by a wizard. 

Maybe this is why she did not remove the orb when Gale proved her right in her fears? She was hoping he would obey her command and destroy himself before he could get his hands on the crown.

The future is never set in stone, even when puppeted by the Gods, and Gale says pretty early on he doesn’t believe in fate. It seems to me the potential to ‘be a moon unto yourself’ was there for him all along, but he was Mystra’s lover because she knew of the threat he could become.

Ironic, that she played a part in his drive for the crown, but I think he would always have been tempted by Godly power whether he was her chosen or not.

I’m gonna answer this on public and you can let me know if you want it taken down!

A caveat: I think that we’ll never know what Mystra was thinking/feeling/knowing before and during the events of the game because I think the game intentionally keeps her motivations hidden. We can dive into the devnotes all we want, and we can advocate for better treatment of Gale as fans of Gale but in terms of what Mystra was planning? We’ll never know for sure.

So with that said, I have a couple of thoughts/theories below the cut! Looong post ahead.

Does Mystra have foresight/divination powers?

Many gods have foresight, although not all of them are gods of divination. Technically Savras, a god not in BG3, is the god of divination, but he is like...part of Mystra's team (wizards who worship Mystra might also invoke him, for example). So like, divination is still sort of part of her domain, but her main focus is the preservation of the Weave and she's given dominion over matters of divination to Savras.

I honestly can’t remember if her having foresight is expressly mentioned in the game (it’s part of her dnd lore more broadly) but regardless, there’s a lot to suggest that her foresight isn’t perfect. Specifically in the context of the game (not full lore). She commands Gale to sacrifice himself in Act 2, not realizing that if he does so, it doesn't actually stop the scourge of illithids. If you sacrifice Gale in Act 2, everyone with a tadpole immediately becomes illithid and you get a game over. It's not the best time for Gale to sacrifice himself. So we know that Mystra's foresight is imperfect, because if she wanted a more surefire win that also means she doesn't lose out on thousands of souls, she would have waited to ask him, knowing there would be a better opportunity later.

There's also the "be a moon unto yourself" and "even the tides of fate can break upon the shores of will" language Elminster uses. Elminster, who has arguably known Mystra longer than anyone else on the planet, who is the closest thing to a mortal-immortal ambassador that can bridge the gap between Mystra in the godly realms and mortals in the Material Plane, even HE doesn't have much faith in Mystra's command to sacrifice Gale in Act 2. What Mystra offers is a potential solution. It's not the best solution. Not even for her. So in terms of foresight...I think she has either a limited view, or she sees potential futures, but nothing is set in stone thanks to the free will of mortals.

(and also maybe illithids are outside her purview of knowledge since they mostly cast magic with psionics and not the Weave and don't have souls that she can recognize?? unclear)

Does Mystra fear destruction or death?

I'm not sure how much Mystra fears death. I mean, I'm sure dying as a god is traumatic in its own right, but she's died multiple times. First as Mystryl, which was kind of a self-sacrifice thing (what Karsus did was cast a spell that would funnel her powers into him, so she basically killed herself to stop the process halfway and everything went to chaos "for a spell"). Even Gale calls it a self-sacrifice. Then she died during the Time of Troubles, was reborn as Midnight, who ALSO died, and then she was silent (but probably not dead dead) for about a hundred years until a few years before the game takes place.

(If BG3 follows dnd lore which, in my opinion, it mostly does, but I know that not all Gale fans agree and Larian is changing up timelines in other respects too so...take everything with a grain of salt)

So killing Mystra is...it just doesn't work. Somehow she's always around, in part perhaps because her Weave is everywhere. Fragments of her will always exist. Which is why Gale's ambitious goal, should you choose to encourage him, is to steal her power. Not to kill her. Even an Origin!Gale says "I'm here for your godhood" if you choose to confront her, not that he's there to kill her.

Which is what makes him like Karsus. Karsus sought to steal Mystryl's powers. Gale is mirroring him in every way if he is persuaded down that path. Now that part...I think Mystra does slightly fear that. Because Karsus almost succeeded...

Almost.

But he didn't and a god-path Gale doesn't fare much better. If you play Origin!Gale and you choose to confront Mystra and steal her godhood? You also fail. Gale dies. Mystra wins.

I don't know how much she fears destruction and death, because I think she has failsafes in place. But it would be very inconvenient to die again so soon after finally regaining her full powers, so I'm sure she's eager to avoid it.

Did Mystra know the orb would be useful?

I think this again speaks to the idea that she has a limited foresight ability. Gale may say that she is omniscient, but I don't think that necessarily means she sees all of time forwards and backwards. I think she can sense everything about the Weave all at once and knows everything all previous iterations of Mystra know (and all that her Chosens know; that's stated in the Elminster novels). But her foresight is imperfect.

So, conjecture time. We're full-on in theory/maybes/who knows territory now.

She knew Gale was going after dangerous Netherese magic when he was looking for the piece of Weave that was locked away because I imagine he used a great deal of magic on his journey and investigation. Her not knowing that Gale was looking for this locked-away piece of Weave is ludicrous. He probably told her his plan and she said no and he went anyway. And she didn't stop him. Why?

My personal theory is she wanted to see what would happen if Gale succeeded. She doesn't babysit her Chosen, though she does occasionally guide them (or command them, rather). As the Lady of Mysterious, she's remarkably (and frustratingly) hands-off. The whole problem with her and Gale's relationship breaking down is because Gale was a) ambitious enough to try and covet a piece of knowledge/Weave that not even Mystra herself could get to (he says it was "sealed beyond her reach") and b) that Mystra never actually talked to him to explain why that's probably a bad idea. Why not? Did she want to see him fail?

I don't know for sure. But I think she was curious. I think she wanted to see if he could even unlock the thing. I think she knew, on some level, that it would go disastrously bad for him, but I don't think she knew that the Karsite Weave would mix with Gale's own dark hunger for power and knowledge and create something that would literally threaten to consume her entire Weave. Why do I think that?

Because that is when she got angry. Not that he was searching. Not when he was deliberately disobeying her by searching (though she was likely mad then too, but she didn't punish or stop him). She didn't seem to care then. She got angry when he failed to do anything productive with the Karsite Weave and the resulting crisis threatened her.

I don't think she would have let him pursue the book with the Karsite Weave had she known the details of what it would do once it entered Gale's body. She does intervene, mind you. She's the one that stabilized the orb enough to "allow it to feed on the true Weave." The question is, why didn't she cure it immediately? It was threatening her Weave, literally consuming bits of her Weave. Did she lack the power? the knowledge? Or was she simply keeping Gale around as insurance, a bomb in her back pocket that she could direct at anything she wanted?

I suspect it's mostly the latter (though I suspect she was also angry that Gale's reaction to his actions threatening her Weave wasn't "Sorry I'll try too fix this" but instead it was "I need you to fix this"). Maybe she knew about the mind flayer crisis on the horizon. By the time Gale is suffering the early effects of the orb, Gortash and Durge have likely already stolen the Crown of Karsus from Mephistopheles (some people theorize it happened in 1490 or 1491, and the game starts midway through 1492). Now there are two Karsite problems on the Material Plane. She likely bided her time to see when she could send Gale out to destroy both in one fell swoop while also being personally angry that Gale didn't act/react the way she wanted him to.

It gets REALLY interesting if you believe that Gortash and Durge pulled the crown out of the hells and into the Material Plane in 1490 because then Mystra KNOWS there's a powerful Karsite item in play. If she knew that, and knew that Gale was pursuing the Karsite Weave...well. In that case, it seems much more likely that she was playing him like a pawn on a chessboard, waiting for him to get in position so she could command him to eliminate both threats.

Because again...she didn't stop him.

Honestly, there are multiple theories about why she didn't stop him or cure him immediately or so forth. it all just depends on how much you want to villainize Mystra and her actions, or if you prefer taking a more neutral path.

So to your theory: Does Mystra choose her Chosen based on whether they will be potential threats?

I think...I disagree, but it's a soft disagree. I think Mystra has no qualms about sending her Chosen to eliminate anything that is a threat to her. Elminster is constantly sent to destroy people who are mishandling the Weave, for example, in the Elminster novels.

However, I do think she is careful to select Chosen who will be powerful and to shower them in affection and attention so they don't think about threatening her. Grooming them to love and devote themselves to her so that if they were ever to think about becoming a threat to her, she can frame it as a personal betrayal.

It's what she does with Gale. I don't think she's threatened by Gale. I think she sees talent and power in him. And I think on some level she probably did find Gale pleasant, and that not every interaction between them was her pulling strings to make sure that he would die in X years in a cataclysmic explosion. That, to me, seems counterintuitive, when she could have just as easily withheld the power he needed to even begin pursuing the Karsite Weave in the first place. But I think it's her modus operandi to love bomb her Chosens so that as she grants them more and more power, betrayal is the last thing on their minds. Because they know that losing her favor, losing her love, means losing power.

Elminster didn't live to be 1300+ years old and the most powerful wizard in existence (allegedly) because he pissed off Mystra. It's because he loves Mystra and she rewards devotion and affection. It's why Gale pursued the fractured Weave in the first place: to prove his love.

It's all very complicated. But she can decide whether or not someone is going to be a threat to her. And the fact that Gale, the most likely candidate to be a threat to her given his connections with the Karsite Weave, fails in the attempt is...telling. Even a Godof Ambition Gale who is still eager to dethrone Mystra isn't going to do so quickly. He's going to wait for another millennium or so before he tries. And whether he's successful depends entirely on what happens over the course of that next 1000 years.

So I suppose it's more likely for her to choose Chosens that she can manipulate or at least groom into a cult of love and devotion. It's the rogue people who don't love her that are the threats, which is why I think she's invested in the illithid plot in particular. Illithids couldn't give two shits about Mystra. And that clearly bothers her.

Anyways, long story long, Mystra is an imperfect goddess who, depending on your reading of her and her actions, either set up Gale to fail or cunningly used his failure to her advantage (or both). And despite what a lot of people say, I don't actually think she has a lot of foresight power, because I feel like Gale's actions keep somewhat surprising her. So there's that.

[burningdarkfire]

nearly just hit the unfollow button instead of the ask button . N, R, & U?

awww thank you for the ask (and not unfollowing!) 💕

N - Name three things you wish you saw more or in your main fandom (or a fandom of choice)

N really is my lucky letter because i've gotten it three times thus far so your theme is going to be really specific wants i have about my little guy caleb widogast:

moooore blumendrei; the wizards definitely do have a small and loyal fanbase that i am very happy to be a part of, and also this fanbase is always welcoming new blood 🤗 i think caleb as a character is haunted so much by his past, it's odd to me that so many of his fans don't contend much with it directly

caleb actually being a middle-aged man and everything that entails; i don't think the fandom is really that bad about randomly twink-ifying him or anything, but i do feel like we could often be a little more specific in describing his body, and also i feel like hardly anybody ever deals with what it must feel like to finally have a life again for the first time since you were 17 and now you're like 34. i mean happens to all of us but i do want to read more of it

shadowgast breakup taken seriously; this is very specific because i was spinning ideas for it today but i really do want to read a fic where caleb and essek break up on purpose and it is not actually a grand misunderstanding where if only they had clarified that they still love each other it would all be fixed!

R - Which friendship/platonic relationship is your favorite in fandom?

my hobby is staying up late blurring the already non-existent line between platonic/romantic/sexual relationships so i don't have a real answer for this! and tbh the more i think about it, the more i realize that there are very few "strictly platonic" relationships in critrole that compel me - it's often the mess that makes them attractive

outside critrole my default answer would probably be campal from the locked tomb series, but i would go on record saying that they're the ideal platonic relationship and i think they become very slightly more interesting if we assume there was a sexual component involved

U - Three favorite characters from three different fandoms, and why they’re your favorites

well we all know who number one is going to be

caleb widogast; you were not born with venom in your veins, you learned it!! you learned it!!!!! it's actually almost ridiculous to look back in time at the person i was four years ago before i knew that this fictional character was going to save me. i was a shitty teenager and i hurt a lot of people and i'm going to carry that with me forever! but also maybe there is still a life for me even after all of that! and also he has beautiful hair and unmatched hubris

iron man; i've been casually dipping back into the mcu so thinking about him again and unsurprisingly i'm also here for the unrelenting guilt and incalculable hubris (with bonus daddy issues!) but part of what i like about tony stark so much is that he takes all of his personal problems and makes it the whole world's problems. the whole universe's problems. and i just think that's fascinating

cersei lannister; every single hotd thought i've had this year has inched me ever so slightly closer to reading got again, because sometimes i'm reading fic about women in horrible situationships and thinking about how i could just be reading about cersei instead. like unfortunately tywin lannister's trueborn son and heir was born a girl and she proceeded to make that everybody else's problem as well, and in this way, we are sisters

(send me an alphabet fandom ask!)

[blackjackkent]

Oop, just remembered there's another encounter left before we leave the mountain pass area.

"Ho there, wanderer. Stay thy course a moment to indulge an old man. May I inquire if perchance you retain among your traveling companions a man who adheres to the given name of Gale?"

Rakha could have guessed this man knew Gale even if the name wasn't dropped - they have the same speech pattern. Too many words where one would do.

Knowing Gale, however, does not make this man a friend. They still have the dust of the creche on their boots, after all - a place where Lae'zel's people turned on her.

"May I inquire who is inquiring?" she asks warily.

The strange man nods cheerfully. "Should it be the nature of our acquaintance that interests you, you may safely classify Gale and I as friends. Should it be the nature of your present interlocutor that you desire to drag from the darkened unknown, I shall be glad to aid in your quest for illumination and identify myself as Elminster. Elminster Aumar."

Rakha feels a dull, pulsing ache start to thump in her temple, and it has nothing to do with the tadpole. The beast urge starts to idly contemplate the sound the man's head would make if ripped from his body and hurled into the nearby gorge.

"Now," Elminster goes on, blissfully ignorant of the agitation he is inspiring. "If this answer satisfies you, let us linger no longer in this limbo of indecision, but settle on your knowledge of the individual I seek."

(A/N: Because Rakha has a level in wizard, we get a wizard-specific dialogue option here. Sadly - this is also the ONLY option that we are given to say yes; the other option is to pretend we don't know Gale at all. Neither of these options are Rakha-ish:

Nor, really, is the followup dialogue to say that it would be "my pleasure" to assist Elminster in getting to camp.

So we will skip this whole dialogue and substitute our own...)

Rakha squints narrowly at the wizard for a long moment. His name means nothing to her - although he enunciates it as if it should. So she just shrugs. "Yes," she says curtly.

"Excellent!" Elminster crows. "Might I inquire whether you would suffer an old man's company in the return to your camp, that Gale and I might discuss some matters of great and - dare I say - world-altering importance?"

Rakha looks at him steadily, then jerks her head and turns away without another word.

"That was a yes," Wyll says with a slight smile. "We're very honored to make your acquaintance, Elminster. Rakha isn't one for pleasantries."

-----

"My thanks for your excellent guidance," Elminster says cheerily as they reach the edge of the camp. Astarion and Karlach look up with mild curiosity at the new arrival - but Gale emerges from his tent with wide eyes at the sound of the older man's voice and immediately crosses towards them with a troubled expression.

"Ah," Elminster adds, fixing his eyes on Gale as he approaches. "And yonder I spy the object of my pursuit."

"Elminster?" Gale says cautiously.

There is a lot of weight in the word, weight Rakha can't quite parse. Elminster called them friends, but Gale looks distinctly uneasy. Worried, even.

"The very same, Gale!" Elminster answers. "And a fair bit miffed he is, too, finding himself forced to expose his best pair of boots to so many miles of country road on your behalf."

Gale's eyes narrow. "I don't understand. How so on my behalf?"

Elminster shrugs dramatically. "I was bid to spare neither time nor my own self to find you. *She* sent me, Gale. You know of whom I speak."

Rakha's eyebrows lift. There can only be one she that Elminster is referring to. Mystra. She remembers Gale's mentions of the goddess of magic in the past. His teacher, his 'muse.' His former lover, their relationship shattered by his hubris in pursuit of the Netherese magic that put the orb in his chest.

She sent Elminster. But for reconciliation? Or further punishment?

Gale, too, has gone very still and attentive at this revelation. "But why?" he asks. "Out with it, Elminster. Please!"

Something twists in the old man's expression - regret - and he hesitates, then says airily, "Young man, has your sojourn away from Waterdeep washed away your decorum as well as your patience? Nigh a tenday I've gone without honest fare worthy of the name. Drank naught but what the sky entitled my thirst. Why, some bread, cheese, and a cup of wine would appear unto me a feast! Surely you won't begrudge me a mite of rest and repast before I get 'out with it'?"

He's evading the question. For some reason, he doesn't want to say whatever he came all this way for. Rakha's eyes narrow to slits.

[WIZARD] "Surely you could have conjured any feast you liked," she says tightly. She has little concern for the man's hunger; she wants answers.

Elminster gives an exaggerated sigh. "Alas, such luxuries require the beneficence of time. And time, as I'm sure our friend here will attest, is the very luxury of which we're all too bereft."

"Oh, for the love of..." Gale groans.

Elminster raises his hands. "Fine, fine. I'll turn a deaf hear to the clarion calls with which my scorned stomach beseeches me," he says plaintively. "Graver matters are at hand. Plenty to digest, after all. A good deal to stew over, if you will. Words ladled with import should be savored so as to better absorb their meaning, wouldn't you agree?"

We could push his staff directly through his 'scorned stomach' until it came out the other side... the beast growls in Rakha's head.

Gale, too, seems to be losing his patience. "Elminster!" he snaps.

Elminster flinches and his eyes flick away from Gale to examine the ground intently. "Right. Ahem. You see..." he mumbles. "I, er... that is to say..." His comfortable flow of words has stopped abruptly and he looks suddenly very weary. "Gale, m'boy, I've come to address a most pressing matter. I'll speak as plainly as I can, forswearing the accustomed frills that decorate my speech. I'm here on behalf of Mystra. The message and the charge I bring you are hers."

Rakha's jaw works thoughtfully. This is likely no business of hers, in truth - whatever message Gale's goddess might carry for him. But she feels a flash of curiosity, nevertheless, because she still remembers the strange peace of the moment she and Gale shared together in the Weave, the connection they both share with Mystra's magic.

"What message and what charge would that be?" she asks slowly.

"The long-awaited question," Gale says impatiently. "Now, if you please, Elminster, for the too-long-awaited answer."

Elminster sighs, a heavy, sad outward breath. "You know where you went wrong, Gale," he says quietly. "We needn't dwell on that here and now. But even so, you're to be given a chance of redemption."

Gale stiffens. He looks as if he's been struck. "Mystra would consider... forgiveness?" he whispers.

(A/N: Poor guy. Gale's sad-puppy eyes are almost on par with Karlach's when he really gets going.)

"She would consider what *she* considers to be forgiveness," Elminster says gravely. His eyes flick briefly to Rakha. "Mystra is aware of the misadventures that have befallen you both. She knows of your strife with the Absolute, that most insidious of evils."

And now, all of a sudden, Rakha is also paying close attention. Is that why Elminster has come? To help them? "If the goddess herself is aware," she says curtly, "I wouldn't say no to some divine intervention."

"The very purpose of my presence, in a roundabout sort of way," Elminster says, with a hint of dry humor, but it fades rapidly; his expression takes on a dark, serious aspect that seems incongruous after his jovial introduction. "You must know that the Absolute is more dangerous than you can possibly conceive. It threatens all who live - even those who are undying. It threatens the gods, the Weave, the very fabric of the universe itself."

Rakha can almost feel the magic of the Weave as it dances along her skin, seeming to shudder in answer to these words. She has to admit that Elminster's serious tone gives her pause. Up till now, the Absolute has seemed very much like a personal problem - a matter of survival, in removing the worms, and then of revenge, in destroying those who put it into her. But what Elminster is describing is something threatening everything far beyond her - a world she has no memory of, barely even any conception of.

For a moment she is struck to silence by the idea. And then fury pulses through her. I asked for none of this.

"That is why," Elminster goes on, "I have come here to charge you, Gale, with its destruction. It is Mystra's belief that only you can."

Rakha scowls. I will have vengeance on that cult and not even Mystra will keep me from it. [WIZARD] "She'd do well to place her trust in me in equal measure," she growls between her teeth.

Elminster looks at her uneasily, hearing the darkness in her tone but not understanding the cause of it. "I do not doubt your convictions," he says carefully. "But Gale has... an unnatural advantage."

Gale has gone very pale. Rakha can see his hands trembling. "The orb..." he murmurs haltingly.

"Precisely," Elminster says. "Mystra has granted me the power to stop the clock, as it were, on the orb's rush to overpower you. Instead, you will be able to unleash its lethal combustion at will."

Interesting... The Dream Guardian whispers the words within Rakha's mind. She sounds... detached, mildly curious, mildly surprised. This could be help or hindrance. We shall have to see.

Rakha, however, has gone deathly still, her jaw aching with tension. This is Mystra's forgiveness that Gale is so eager for? Forcing him to destroy himself?

Elminster offers Gale a way to stop the orb's progress towards destruction. This power is something Mystra gave him. Mystra has known about the orb the whole time. She could have offered Gale this power at any point. But instead she has ignored him, left him for a whole year to sit in his tower in Waterdeep and suck the Weave from broken artifacts.

Just like Vlaakith with Lae'zel - her power grants nothing to her follower until it benefits her as well. Just like Shar with Shadowheart, she allows her follower to suffer to prove some obscure point.

Perhaps it is a good thing, she thinks coldly, that I remember nothing of any god I ever followed.

Can you imagine, hisses the beast in her mind, how it would feel to kill a creature of such power?

For once she doesn't try to shake away the thought. Impossible though it is, it is satisfying to consider, for these gods that her companions follow seem to bring them nothing but pain.

"Say what you will," she says flatly, "but you can't force Gale to go through with this."

"No indeed," Gale says. She's surprised to hear the sudden echoing flatness in his voice as well. His loquacious nature has been completely squashed by this revelation. "But I think she trusts me to."

"It brings me no pleasure saying this, my friend," Elminster says sadly. "But such is Mystra's will. Yours must be the sacrifice that will undo the Absolute. And for your sacrifice, you will be redeemed. Such is Mystra's promise. With that, I've said my sorry piece, and need only bestow unto thee the charm I was bid."

He lifts a hand, and Rakha watches, fascinated, as the Weave swirls around his hand and outward into Gale in time with the syllables he intones.

"My'Nahastra Mystra'Ryl. E'Deelion Thras'Anas'Tthra."

Gale hisses out a sharp breath as the magic works through him. And Rakha can see that as it buries into his chest, the ripples of magic that always surround him seem to settle into a subtly calmer rhythm - rather like her own darkness soothed into slumber in her moments in the Astral Plane. And she can see the relief in Gale's eyes as the spell completes.

"It is done," Elminster says. "Both charge and charm have been committed into your care." He turns and meets Rakha's eyes, holding her gaze steadily. "To you," he adds after a moment, "I commit into care Gale himself. I count on you to shepherd him well on this strangest of journeys."

Rakha scowls. You pawn him off on me as you would a child. Deep down she suspects Elminster does not enjoy having had to bear this message, but that doesn't seem to matter much - he delivered it, nevertheless, and Rakha is in no way averse to shooting the messenger.

"I am not his keeper," she says harshly. "And I do not accept your charge."

Gale flinches, looks away. "Nor would I expect you to," he mutters. "It is too bleak a task to demand of anyone."

Elminster sighs. "Like moons make swell and wane the nescient seas, so too the sky-strewn gods ordain the tidal fates of mortal days," he says gravely. "And yet - a notion born in lonely hours - come ebb, come flow, come all that is beyond the breadth of our dominion: be a moon unto yourself. Even the waves of fate can break upon the shores of will."

Whatever that means, Rakha thinks sardonically.

Elminster reaches out and rests a hand gently on Gale's shoulder, just for a moment. "Farewell, my friend."

Gale nods, although Rakha can sense the effort of will behind his steady expression. "Farewell, Elminster," he says softly. "I"m glad she chose you."

[radical-revolution]

THE RELIEF OF BEING BELIEVED: ON SPIRITUAL, MEDICAL AND THERAPEUTIC GASLIGHTING

"Grief is brutally painful. Grief does not only occur when someone dies. When relationships fall apart, you grieve. When opportunities are shattered, you grieve. When dreams die, you grieve. When illnesses wreck you, you grieve. So I’m going to repeat a few words I’ve uttered countless times; words so powerful and honest they tear at the hubris of every jackass who participates in the debasing of the grieving: Some things in life cannot be fixed. They can only be carried."

- Tim Lawrence

(“Everything Doesn’t Happen For A Reason”)

*

I love these wise words from Tim Lawrence, and the beautiful quote from Megan Devine at the end:

"Some things in life cannot be fixed. They can only be carried."

I want to say a little about what it means to be supported through tragedy.

When we are sick, injured, in pain, experiencing a shattering of the old life, we can feel very vulnerable, powerless, and we long for answers, solutions. In our desperation, we can be drawn to confident, self-assured people – doctors, masters, healers, therapists, gurus - who seem like they have the cures, answers, fixes, solutions, remedies and magic potions. It can feel like a matter of life and death for us sometimes, this search for relief, for a way to get through the day… or even for just for a moment’s respite from bodily agony.

In such a weakened, defenceless, groundless, frightened state, we can become easy targets for others trying to push their beliefs, theories and dogmas onto us.

“Gaslighting”, simply put, is when a person, or a cult-like group of people, manipulates you into deeply doubting your own reality, questioning your own first-hand perceptions and experiences and memories and feelings, distrusting the things you know in your very gut.

In the presence of such manipulation, you become confused about your own deepest beliefs, and begin to doubt your own inner compass. You feel dizzy, dazed, groundless, lost and alone. Gaslighters do this – consciously or not - in order to destabilise you and have control over you, and ultimately make you dependent on them. They play the guru to your disciple, the powerful “One Who Knows” to your ignorant child, the Wizard of Oz to your Dorothy.

They do this in order to run from their own pain, fear, shame… and lack of answers.

Family members may not believe us when we tell them that we have pains and aches in the body, or uncomfortable or frightening sensations, or that we are feeling fatigued or unwell. They may try to convince us that we are just lazy, or looking for attention, or being manipulative, or self-centred.

“You're not really in pain, it's all in your head! You're so selfish! Why don’t you think about MY pain for once in your life!”

Spiritual teachers may tell us that we have “created” our own sickness, manifested our own cancer, brought our own heart or lung or kidney condition, infection, sickness into being through our unconsciousness. They may proclaim that our pain or misfortune isn’t real, it’s just our fearful ego looking for validation, it’s just our closed heart and our resistance to life manifesting in the body, it’s just an illusion. And if we can just surrender, if we can just “kill the ego” or “rest as Pure Awareness”, or meditate deeply enough, or let go of the body enough, we will be well again.

“Fully awakened beings never get sick!”

Others – healers, therapists, friends, family, often well-meaning and well-intentioned, although not always - may tell us that we are sick simply because we are emotionally repressed, or that our “illness”, which isn’t really an “illness”, is a good thing, a wonderful thing, destined to happen, and it’s all just a manifestation of our unprocessed trauma or unlived life, and when we get in touch with our buried childhood or pre-childhood feelings, and finally face our core issues, all our symptoms will magically disappear.

“You’re sick because of your unresolved childhood trauma. It’s your toxic relationship with your mother… you need to get in touch with your rage towards her right now!”

“Your sickness is a test from the Universe! Embrace it! It’s a wonderful part of your healing journey!”

Such simplistic ideas are compelling.

And... I don’t doubt that getting in touch with and expressing repressed emotions and finding the meaning in our suffering and softening into our pain can be a huge part of the healing process for some.

Religious people might tell us that our illness is some kind of punishment from God, or that we are experiencing the effects of karma, or that we have sinned in a previous life, and so we “deserve” this tragedy in our lives somehow. Medical doctors, too, might diagnose us with certain diseases, physical or psychological conditions, and give us their prognosis, and tell us that that their view is the objective, unquestionable, unshakeable truth. (And I am not against Western medicine at all).

The point is, what is YOUR truth?

Whose path do YOU follow?

Who has the answers for YOU?

There are so many lenses through which to view the body and its aches and pains and imbalances and limitations. There are so many people offering so many perspectives, especially these days. The mind-body connection is truly mysterious, no doubt. But the truth is… nobody really knows the truth! At least, for you. Nobody really knows your deepest truth. You may see a top doctor in London or New York, and they may diagnose you with a certain “disease”… and they may end up being wrong. You may see a trauma specialist who is utterly convinced that your cancer or fatigue or depression or chronic pain has trauma or repressed emotion as its absolute root cause… but they may end up being misguided, wrong, off the mark, reductive in their certainty. You may see a spiritual teacher who just “knows” that your disease is a wonderful gift from the universe, or a “sign” that your body is ready for the next level of enlightenment or the next stage of spiritual evolution… and that may end up being completely, utterly false.

The point is, everyone you speak to is going to have a different perspective on what’s happening in YOUR body and mind.

The honest ones will own their own perspective, humbly offer what’s been helpful to them, but admit that ultimately they do not know for sure what the right path is for you. They will own their own projections. They will give you your authority and sovereignty and freedom, and acknowledge that you are in a vulnerable state, frightened and seeking answers. They will not take advantage of you in that tender place. They will honour your ache and your path. They will not speak for you. They will listen, deeply, to you. They will hold you in Presence. They will grieve with you, weep with you, rage to the heavens with you. They will not invalidate your yearning. You will feel loved, and believed, and understood, and safe, and your nervous system will sense this safety, it is programmed to do this.

The unconscious ones, unfortunately, will force their perspective on you, will claim to know the absolute truth, and will make you feel bad or wrong or guilty or stupid for not believing, not signing up to their cult, not seeing them as the authority. By denying your reality, contradicting you and even themselves at times, throwing in false and half-true information, and minimising or downright ignoring your feelings and perspectives and memories and “symptoms”, they’ll gradually make you question and doubt your emotional, spiritual and physical reality and truth and even your sanity… until you are utterly reliant on them, under their spell, a disciple to their guru, a powerless “patient”, willing to do and be and believe anything they say, repressing your own grief and rage and truth. In your total innocence, you have given your power away.

Medical doctors can be cult leaders. Spiritual teachers can be cult leaders. Psychotherapists, trauma specialists, healers, life coaches, friends and family members can be cult leaders, without ever realising it.

When it comes to the mysteries of the bodymind, nobody really knows what’s best… for YOU.

As Nietzche said, no matter how “right” we think we are, we are all imperfect, and “human, all too human…”

When you’re being gaslit, you’ll most likely feel like you’re going crazy. You’ll feel unsafe, unstable, groundless, dizzy, like you don’t know what to believe anymore, like your whole life was a lie, like you can’t trust your own deepest intuition or senses anymore. You’ll wonder if anything you saw or felt or heard or thought or perceived was real.

But you aren’t crazy. You’ve just silenced the roar in your guts, the part that knows, and let someone else’s projections become your reality.

(Part of you wants to believe that someone else has the truth. Of course! You want to get better. You want to heal. You want to stay safe. You are so innocent. No blame here. Bless our innocent hearts!)

I’m not telling you to distrust everyone, or suggesting that everyone is out to manipulate you or drive you crazy. I’m not saying that some people don’t have answers for you, or at least, helpful teachings, therapies, medications, treatments, insights, and so on. I’m not saying there is no hope for you, and I’m not telling you not to pursue every modality of healing that you’re called to pursue.

I’m not saying that miracles don’t happen every single day.

I’m not even saying that one day, with time and integration, you won’t begin to find your own deep meaning, and even perspective and purpose, in your current tragedy.

I’m just reminding you to stay true to yourself now. Trust your own deepest experience, even if it’s painful. I’m reminding you to listen to your guts, every step of the way, even if you are weak, tired, full of grief and exhausted from the journey. To listen… as if your life depends on it, because it does.

Even if you are made to feel wrong or naïve or crazy for doing so.

Even if they laugh at you and mock you when you follow your own path.

Even if you have to step away from false hopes and promises of Utopia and perfect health, and plunge more deeply into the Dark and Wild Unknown.

Illness is not weakness.

Suffering is not shameful or a sign of failure.

As the great Greek playwrights knew, tragedy and misfortune, sickness and pain, can befall anyone, at any time.

None of us are immune, none of us are protected from “the will of the gods”, and our hubris will be crushed in the end.

The ego has no hope of controlling the chaos of relative existence.

Sometimes there are no easy answers. None.

Sometimes nothing makes sense anymore.

Sometimes we just have to grieve.

And rage at the heavens.

And face the future, bravely, without answers.

Trust your gut, your intuition, your knowing, your deep heart, my friends – these are the Inner Lights that cannot die.

- Jeff Foster

[wetcatspellcaster]

I feel your writing of Rose has offered some pretty excellent insight to everything on the OC Ask List, but I am VERY curious about "monster." I feel "alone" has been touched on quite a bit, but we never SAW what it looked like, only quote-unquote heard about it after the fact. So, "monster" and "alone," pretty please.

monster: Is your OC monstrous in any way? Is there something that makes them monstrous? Are they aware of their own monstrosity? Do they accept it or reject it?

So in D&D lore I know tieflings are perceived as monstrous on account of devil origins, but in my D&D games tieflings are just hot and sexy. That being said, having now dived deep on all the ways that D&D wizards can be SERIOUSLY FUCKED UP I would say that yes, she has the capacity to be monstrous if she gave fully into wizard hubris and divulged herself of her self-restraint. In the Pieces timeline, she is actively aware of it and she has actively chosen to reject it.

(this is a copy and pasted answer from the other people who asked it, not a fun reading experience for those scrolling but useful for those who've asked the same things separately).

alone: How does your OC deal with loneliness? Have they ever been completely alone before? How do they act when there's no one around to see them?

HAHAHAHA.

I mean, yes, you're totally right, I have given insight into this in multiple places! Pre-tadpole Rose deals with loneliness by further self-isolating, until she did in fact feel completely alone (was she ever fully alone? no. she was in a building full of other people. that's the self isolation). Post-tadpole Rose would deal with loneliness by jumping someone's bones bc she has no fear and no anxiety filter and she'd immediately just go after whatever connection she was wanting :')

When no one is around to see them, this is the only way Rose acts in accordance with her true emotions rather than as a people pleaser and the Masking OC (see crying in a cupboard, chapter 1, an honest lie).

[uldren-sov]

39, 35, 27, 9 & 1 (i can't remember which number the one with the party members is but also the dynamics with those party members!)

Hey thank you sm for the ask!!

1 was answered here!

What does your Character think of Raphael? (39)

Despite what he says, there's nothing necessarily better about the devil you know versus the devil you don't. Synne does not trust him but is of a mind that there must be something at play that made a powerful devil reach out to them and make introductions, rather than wait until their little troupe be desperate enough to turn to the infernal as a last resort.

She IS charmed and intrigued as to the attention, but it's more of a puzzle to be figured out now, but she knows it will eventually be a trap they will need to save themselves from before long.

Has your Character done anything that they regret in Act 1? (35)

Literally almost everything. Especially early on in Act 1 she does not want to be here. She was snatched from the streets of Baldurs Gate to play emissary (and to potentially meet someone very important to her and her family...) and instead she's been thrust into adventure. Every step to help the Grove, to help the Tieflings, to be the one to figure out how to take the worm out? Is a step in the wrong direction. She would have much rather let others deal with this and been on her way (maybe after some revenge on the lingering Illithid presence.)

But she mourns her inaccessibility of her old life, she regrets not being able to go back to it now that she's in this adventuring party...

But it's growing on her.

Do you have a favorite member of the Tiefling Refugees? Is it the same as your Character's? (9)

I pershunally loved Mattis, the little hustler. Synne's favorite is Arabella. She adored that she was willing to break some rules to do what she thought was right, and it reminds her of a younger her back when she delighted in the exuberance and chaos of her burgeoning connection to the Weave.

Who ended up in your Character's most used party? (27) (And what are these dynamics!)

Astarion, Shadowheart, and Gale! If we kill things fast enough we don't need to plan for longevity or survivability! In terms of dynamics! :

Astarion: He's the most familiar to her insomuch that she's used to foppish kind of rakes from the high society I imagine she comes from. So even in his casual cruelty he's a welcome familiarity and relief - and also he seems to have as much fun as she does when it comes to adventuring around. Meaning, not a lot at all. She flirts with him, he flirts with her, she's fairly sure the two of them both don't mean it but it's fine, it's fun, and it's once again familiar. But she doesn't necessarily care to see more until far later in the Act, but she moved past all that once the flattery got too on the nose with how little they really mean it.

She does like him but she's not sure if he actually likes her.

Shadowheart: Probably the most similar to herself in disposition. Which makes them butt heads. Out of the rest, she can appreciate SH's stoicism and control when it comes to her interactions; she plays her vulnerabilities and personal thoughts close to her chest and Synne appreciates that because it's what she does. Synne very much earns the title in Act 1 of ice queen, but I believe quicker than the others, she can see the similarities in SH and does not continue to let them be barriers to finding commonality and even a bit of friendship.

The zealotry is a big red flag tho.

Gale of Waterdeep: There was a spark in the initial meeting when she literally was knocked off her feet, trying to pull him out of the ruined portal, upon first meeting him. But then he announced himself to be one of the most cocky, headstrong, definition of wizarding hubris and she could not stand him when they set each other off when it came to their magical capabilities. Imagine championing that you have to work hard to make magic work, and being proud of that fact. Her pride as a sorcerer colored a lot of interactions with him until they both managed to stop belittling one another and instead find commonality in their love of magic...As well as some unanticipated (and first ever) connection to someone that made her understand when he said a "sudden heartbeat" could be worth more than kingdoms.

She was vindicated when she heard about his brand of Wizard Hubris, but finds herself still wanting to help...

[kiki-shortsnout]

Intimacy prompt 34 and 37 for IronStrange pleaze?.

Oh I think Have I Ever is my favorite work of yours in intimacy because there's no way those 2 will get together without being dramatic first haha XD

Hey! Thank you for the ask, and thank you for the compliment, I'm happy you're enjoying these prompts!

Whew! I'm making some progress on these prompts!

***

‘Do you regret it?’

Tony pulled up his sunglasses so he could give him the full effect of his unimpressed stare.

‘Am I supposed to pluck the context out of thin air, Strange? Regret what?’ he asked, flicking his sunglasses back into place, and sinking his feet further into the scorching sand. He heard the breath leaving the wizard’s lungs as he sat up on the blanket, the shift of bare skin across the fibers of it.

‘No, because you know exactly what I’m talking about.’

Groaning dramatically, Tony flung his arms out behind him to support his weight as he leant back, palms stinging from the heat of the sand, glorious, smoldering heat. He didn’t answer straight away, keeping his gaze locked on Morgan leaping through the frothy waves, Peter a few seconds behind her, just as excited.

‘No. No, I don’t regret it.’

His divorce with Pepper wasn’t something he liked to talk about, but their relationship was well past the point of idle chitchat. Hours wedged together on an alien spaceship would do that. They’d stared at death incarnate together, had given everything they could to stop Thanos, and that formed a connection between people, regardless of their backgrounds.

Magical or not.

Tony sat up, inching closer to the shade Stephen had refused to leave the whole time they’d been at Malibu, and taking a moment to eye up his milky white skin. The man looked like he could get sunburnt in the shade. Using magic to tilt the umbrella so Tony could share, Stephen scooped up the seashells Morgan had found earlier, gleaming treasure she had entrusted him with their safekeeping.

It made him smile, how seriously Stephen treated her, and it made an unusual sensation stir in his chest, a feeling he hadn’t felt in a long time, not since he’d first started dating Pepper.

‘I think she loved the idea of me, what I could be, what I would’ve been if not for Iron Man,’ Tony said suddenly, watching his kids screech as the Cloak chased after them, shaking water from its fabric, indicating it’d been dunked in saltwater.

‘I wanted to be that man for her, I really did, and she’s still one of the most important people to me, not because she’s the mother of my child, but because I love her. I always will, just not in the way she deserves.’

‘Tony, this wasn’t an excuse for you to start tearing your self-esteem into ribbons,’ Stephen scolded.

‘I’m not, I’m answering your question. I knew, we both knew as soon as I leapt aboard the alien doughnut that it was over. We tried to work past it, all of us left behind in the five years you guys were gone tried to cobble our lives back together, but it…’ Tony sighed, scooping up a handful of sand and gazing at the millions of sun-kissed gems, fragments that created a whole.

‘I get it, I suppose it’s hard to love a hero, it’s hard to understand…unless you’re one yourself.’

‘I don’t blame her for wanting me to give up Iron Man, I get it, I just…couldn’t. I tried, but as soon as you came to me about Thanos, I knew I had to go…I didn’t stop to think about how it might affect her, jumping on another suicide mission.’

Tony reached over Stephen’s ridiculously long legs to reach his can of lemonade he’d left there earlier, grimacing at the warmth of the liquid, but grateful for the way it soothed his dry throat.

‘What about you, asshole, you got a special lady?’ Tony asked, deflecting the conversation.

‘Nope, no special someone,’ Stephen stressed the last part, watching the kids in the water and inhaling deeply.

Now that Tony didn’t know. He should’ve really, after the flirty little wink he’d given when they’d first met, but Tony had chalked that up to the man showing off his impressive skills. Tony wasn’t arrogant enough that he couldn’t admit Stephen had an extraordinary repertoire of skills, and the man could fight…but he didn’t have to verbalize it.

Strange had a big enough head already.

‘You were right, this…this was needed,’ Stephen said, waving a hand at the beach, indicating the this. Tony was distracted by the tremble in his fingers, the slender scars across his fingers and the back of his hands, revealing the trauma, the pain he must have felt having pins in his bones.

He could understand that, the story scars left behind, the proof of their hubris.

‘Well, I promised you both, didn’t I? Once we got back to Earth and everyone was saved, we were going to have a holiday. No outer space travels, no insane alien overlords trying to destroy us. Just us, the sun, sea and warm lemonade,’ Tony held his up in a toast, grinning as Stephen grabbed his own can and clinked the side of it.

Morgan had stopped running in the sea and was now digging a hole in the sand with her bare hands, watching as the tide came in and filled it, trying to create a moat of sorts. Lifting her head, Tony watched the briny breeze tease her salt-crusted tangles away from her face. His love for her startled him at times, how he could love another being as much as this. He loved Peter too, the kid had been his driving force to discover the trick behind time travel, and he’d risked everything to bring him home.

Thinking about them both made other feelings surface too, black oozing things that he tried to suppress, negative feelings about why his own father couldn’t have felt the same, if one day he would treat Morgan and Peter with the same cold-hearted disregard.

‘Tony, hey douchebag, you alright?’

The sun overhead burnt his gaze gold as he lifted his eyes, leaving him dazed and blinking back tears.

‘Yeah, sorry, I’m good.’

‘You drifted away there…anything you want to talk about?’ Stephen asked, his tone careful, trying not to probe.

‘Nah, Doc, just my daddy issues rearing their ugly head again.’

Stephen looked at him then, his aquamarine eyes glowing from the sun’s reflection, and Tony felt like his gaze was burning back the layers he swathed himself in, piercing his body and reading his mind. He couldn’t explain it, but he’d always had the sense Stephen knew more than what he revealed, that he could see things in the fabric of the universe that Tony was blind to.

Fourteen million futures, each a glimpse of a possibility, how many more of them were out there? What else had Stephen seen?

‘Tony, you’re a wonderful parent,’ Stephen argued.

‘How would you know!’ He regretted the snap, knowing it was part of his self-defense mechanism, but Stephen didn’t know him that well yet to recognize it for what it was, and he opened his mouth to apologize when he suddenly found a trembling hand across his mouth.

‘Because I’ve watched you with them. I saw you with Peter on the ship, the sheer horror in your eyes when you thought you’d brought him to his death, I could literally hear your brain trying to think of a way to send him home. With Morgan, Tony, you worship the ground she walks on, you’re caring, attentive…’ Stephen trailed off, a slight redness to his cheeks as he let his hand fall.

Tony went to warn him that he was burning from the sun when he caught sight of Stephen’s gaze fixed on his lips. Feeling daunting, he let the tip of his tongue come out to wet his bottom lip, suppressing his laugh when he saw Stephen’s blush deepen, his gaze turning back towards the sea.

He could do one of two things here. Ignore what had just happened and go back to the carefree attitude they were enjoying at the beach, or address the issue and explore the possibilities of what it could mean for them. Despite how quickly his brain tended to work, the way it could create possible scenarios and see them through in order for him to select the best one, Tony found himself hesitating.

‘When you said it’s hard to love a hero…were you referring to yourself?’ Tony asked.

Stephen didn’t answer for a moment, his gaze now on the Cloak shielding the kids from the worst of the sunshine, its collar dipping down as it tried to examine the castle Peter was building beside Morgan’s moat.

‘It’s not hard to love you,’ Stephen answered, his words nearly lost in the breeze.

‘I’ll have you know it’s near impossible to love me,’ Tony joked, his mouth moving faster than his brain. ‘I’m a mess, I forget about people when I’m inventing, I’ll always put the safety of Earth before my partner-’

Stephen’s mouth on his made his ramblings stop, the touch of shaking fingers on his jaw felt like wind brushing over sunburnt skin, blistering and soothing in equal measure.

‘It’s because of those things that I like you,’ Stephen murmured against his lips. ‘It’s not the idea of you I love, Tony Stark, I know who you are. Fourteen million versions of you.’

Despite the surprise he felt at this revelation, the clench in his gut from the anticipation of what this could mean, Tony smiled against his lips, leaning closer.

‘Sorry I didn’t ask,’ Stephen whispered across his mouth. ‘Can I kiss you again, Tony?’ His free hand covered Tony’s on the sand as the other continued to sweep across his jawbone, down to his throat and back again.

‘I could be persuaded,’ Tony agreed with a laugh, pretending to fight off Stephen’s tongue invading his mouth, falling back to the ground dramatically. ‘Why, Doctor Strange, I didn’t know you had it in you!’ he mock gasped, wriggling away from Stephen’s lunge, and getting to his feet as he scrambled down to the water.

‘Prepare to eat seawater, Stark,’ Stephen growled from behind him, giving chase.

He’d never seen himself in this position five years ago, hadn’t been able to see past the frigid metal walls of the doughnut ship as he hurtled forward on his suicide mission, but he was glad events had led him here. Looking over his shoulder at Stephen’s skin gleaming in the light as he pelted after Tony on the beach, he screamed for Morgan to save him, cackling as she ordered the Cloak to stop the Sorcerer Supreme.

This wasn’t where he saw his life at all, divorced, a beautiful daughter, an all but adopted mutant child, a sentient Cloak and a potential wizard boyfriend, but he was happy.

For the first time in years, he could say with complete honesty that he was content with his life.

[utilitycaster]

What do you think of the Floating Jrusar Theory. Someone mentioned that they're smuggling in Brumstone and using the Shade Creepers to dig specific tunnels to attempt to lift the city into the sky like the magicians of Aeor.

Why. Like, seriously, why. What does this narratively achieve? Given that at least two floating cities are known to have crashed during the era of the Calamity, and the fall of Draconia was within living memory, who would be that stupid? I mean, there's wizard hubris, but you don't even really gain anything from this? Air travel to and from Jrusar is quite feasible given the skyport and simurghs and I don't think there's any significant threats from the outside. Given that the problems in Jrusar are, indeed, indicated to be coming from within Jrusar, how would one even justify this? Or if the goal is to use this to take over the city...seems like a high risk low reward prospect.

This also brings in the question: what's Ira doing then? Why is Armand fostering relationships with the Paragon's Call and making deals with fey? Why is he trying to create werewolf supersoldiers? We know these are all connected and lifting the city into the air just...doesn't fit. Do we even know that shade creepers dig tunnels? It seems like they're using existing tunnel systems rather than making new ones.

Finally, it seems like they were using the brumestone so that the Shade Mother could move around. Like, there's already an answer, and to be honest, that answer is far more interesting to me.

I'm not going to pretend I'm not guilty of speculation just because of what I personally want to see, nor that I'm not uh, pretty critical of that kind of speculation (you'll have to take me on faith but I do extend that criticism to myself, so I'm not a total hypocrite here, I've eaten my words on my thoughts re: the end point of campaign 2), but this is just...it doesn't even fit the vibe of the show? Am I watching Up or something? There's literally no reason and it doesn't sound fun.

[imperiuswrecked]

So are the atlanteens really a genetic off shoot of humans or are they just aliens I remember reading Namor best defense it’s shown the atlanteens are aliens so dose this mean namo half alien

Marvel's Atlantis is, how should I say this, fractured. I mean that in the sense of what exactly is canon and what isn't has changed so many times over the decades that we are left with several different accounts of how Atlanteans exactly came to be. This is an older post I made explaining some of Marvel's Atlantis. I will have to update it when I have more time but basically Marvel has stated in the comics that there are 3, now 4, different versions of how Atlanteans came to be:

Version 1:

Homo Mermanus just appeared out of nowhere in the oceans/have always been in the oceans and merely settled from a nomadic lifestyle in the ruins of Atlantis and thus became the Atlanteans, they were humans who adapted to life in the sea.

Version 2:

There was a war between the Lemurians and the Atlanteans involving the Deviants and the Celestials. Shockwaves from a nuclear cataclysm caused Lemuria to sink into the sea along with Atlantis, again somehow Atlanteans evolved to live in the sea, no one knows how, maybe magic.

Version 3:

Poseidon reveals that the reason Atlantis fell was due to its own hubris. That the rulers of the past began to grow lazy and neglectful of the city and its people. Unwilling to even fight since they believed fighting was beneath them they hired the Amazons to fight for them. Rather than pay the Amazons their fee the council of wizards chose to kill them all. There actions caused Atlantis to fall.

Version 4:

Atlanteans are Vodni, an alien aquatic race who traveled to earth via wormhole portal tunnerls underwater and some stayed there. This is from the Best Defense comics.

Version 5:

Something happened to cause the Cataclysm, some big magic happened and Atlanteans could now breath under water

So as you can see, many writers have tried to make their own version of Atlantis canon but it's all become mixed up in a big old soup of nonsense.

A Marvel Universe Map will be released in November 2021 and a preview shows a page about the History of Atlantis.

Here you see they have taken The Best Defense: Namor, lore of the Vodan and instead of saying they are Atlanteans, (which was never really confirmed in the comic, just stated that Atlanteans came from Vodan) this new books says that the Atlanteans were already in Earth's oceans and when the Vodani arrived via portals, the two people met and some got together and had offspring. So it's saying that there are Atlanteans who also have some Vodani genes.

I know this is all confusing, but Marvel never really cared enough to world build Atlantis nor to set down a defined and complete History & Lore of Atlantis.

Anyways to answer your question of "Is Namor half Aquatic Alien", no, he is Half Human, Half Atlantean, he has not been stated to have Vodani genes, and seeing how the royal family were descendants of Neptune it's unlikely they married or had children with anyone from Vodan.

[fourteendoors]

The Queen of Akzetha and the King of Crete

Image credit to Denys Tsiperko on artstation. Most modern stories about the Minotaur suck. I’m allowed to say this because I’m an Artist, and therefore objectively correct about everything. These stories suck because they focus on Theseus, a boring prettyboy whose only real talent is murder, instead of the much more interesting blend of divine retribution, personal tragedy, and general horniness that underlies the creation myth of the Minotaur. So, before we go any further, let’s have a quick refresher of the story, and then a dissection as to why I like it so much.

The Minotaur is a creature entirely born from the fuck-up of King Minos of the Isle of Crete. Upon ascending to the throne of Crete, Minos was having trouble consolidating power, and as such asked the sea-god Posideon to send him a snow-white bull to show that the gods favored him for leadership. Posideon asked Minos to sacrifice the bull to honor him, but Minos valued the bull so much that he instead sacrified another instead. Angry at this, Posideon caused Minos’ wife, Pasiphae, to become incredibly attracted to the bull, at which point she begged the inventor Daedalus to build her a bull-shaped armature so that she could have sex with it. Upon doing so, she became pregnant with the half-man, half-beast Minotaur, who, being divided between two species had no natural source of food, and so (logically) was only able to subsist off devouring human flesh. Although Pasiphae attempted to take care of it for a time, eventually Minos imprisoned it in his Labyrinth, constructed by Daedalus. There’s a ton of interesting things here. Firstly, that the Minotaur was entirely born out of hubris and spite. He’s not a monster because he was made by an evil god, he’s a monster because he was made by an incredibly petty one. The detail about the wooden cow is incredibly choice, but not really gameable (although I am begging someone to prove me wrong.) It’s interesting that Minos chose to imprison the beast, rather than kill it. If you can contain something enough to trap it in a giant maze you had your inventor friend build, surely just straight-out murdering it wouldn’t be impossible? I like to imagine that Minos felt some guilt about what he’d done to his son, and couldn’t bear to have it killed on his own orders until Theseus arrived. Anyway. Here’s a Minotaur-variant you can stick in your own games. ------ The Queen of Akzetha The Kingdom of Akzetha is a small city-state on the Sea of Silk. It’s not a Kingdom anymore- it hasn’t been for the past few decades- but the Council currently in charge of the city is absolutely resolute that Akzetha is a kingdom, and will be known as such. (They tried to issue an official motion to transition the city into the Republic of Akzetha. They had to suspend the vote because of the nightmares.) For its size, Akzetha is fairly wealthy. This is mostly due to the exploits of its founder, Vrantearn the Serpent, a legendary Yncol pirate who terrorized the Sea of Silk for nearly a century. Upon his retirement, he took the hand of a legendary songstress in marriage, and bought the island where he would found his Kingdom. Vrantearn’s hoard funded the fleets of trade ships that now ply the Sea of Silk, making the early years of the kingdom very profitable for The Serpent and his loyal crew. There is a story about his death, and the story goes like this. Vrantearn and his lover had a daughter after Azketha’s founding- a clever and bright-eyed girl named Xurah. Vrantearn truly loved his child, and spoilt her with exotic trinkets from across the known world. One night, while Xurah was being tutored in poetry by a Cvess philosopher, a bedraggled man approached Vrantearn’s throne. He claimed to be a priest of Rhulenkaath, the goddess of blood and birds and contracts, and asked after a certain artifact that had come into the Pirate King’s possession. The artifact was of grave importance to the priesthood, and if Vrantearn would turn it over they would consecrate a new temple in his honor. The Serpent simply laughed, saying he had no need for the assistance of a goddess who could not protect her own subjects, and turned the man away. Ill omens followed. Traders at port found that the touch of gold opened cuts on the skin of their palms. Vrantearn’s prized monkey died, bleeding black ink from its eyes. And Xurah grew strange and distant, keeping odd hours and odder habits. The people whispered of the wrath of the goddess, of the folly of the Pirate King. One day, Xurah entered the royal bedchambers and devoured both her parents whole. The girl hungered for blood, and although the guards fought valiantly they found that she healed from any wound they could give her. It was only through the wit of the King’s advisor that they were able to Xurah beneath the palace, in a network of secret passageways that had been built if an escape was ever needed. The entrances were sealed, but for a single accessway, watched day and night by guards to ensure the monstrous child would never escape. This is what the story tells. It less often discusses what happens next. Although Xurah is monstrous (guards report glimpses of feathers and talons and wide, dark eyes), she is intensely intelligent, charismatic, and persuasive. The art of statecraft seems like an intriguing game to her, and it is one she is very, very good at. And although the Council would never admit it, in matters of politics they still often answer to her. It goes like this. The most heinous criminals in Akzetha are sentenced to the worst fate imaginable: to be devoured by Xurah. They will not go willingly, of course, and so they’re often given a soporific beforehand. Under the soporific, a question may be tattooed on their back- ‘should we go to war,’ perhaps, or ‘how do we cure the blight.’ They are cast down into the dark, and they are not seen again. The answer will usually appear by the next morning, either in a dream, whispered on the wind, or (in one particularly unpleasant case) spelled out in animal viscera on the floor of a Councilman’s estate. This is the price for the questions of state. For questions of one’s own life- the Councilmen’s aspirations, their relationships, their future- Xurah demands flesh from one’s own body. In recent days, a change has occurred in Xurah’s behavior that terrifies the members of the Council. It’s not that she’s began to try to escape- far from it. Xurah’s entire life has been marked by escape attempts, each more elaborate and unpredictable than the last. (The Council has spent a fortune hiring wizards and engineers to try and keep up.) Rather, it’s the fact that in the past year, Xurah has not tried to break free once. The more optimistic members of the Council speculate that her will is broken, that she is now utterly resigned to her fate. The more pessimistic members say that she’s only biding her time, or even perhaps that she’s realized that staying trapped beneath the earth can inflict more cruelty upon them than her release ever could. And in the dockside inns and on the cold beaches at night, you will sometimes hear the commoners speak of a queen that speaks in dreams, a queen whose crown is wind and blood... ------ How To Use Xurah In Your Games: Xurah will take an interest in your PCs, because your PCs are likely interesting. What this interest will actually mean is entirely up to you. Perhaps she’ll want to eat them (if that’s what she’s doing), and will convince the Council to frame them for something heinous and cast them down into her lair. Perhaps they’ll end up serving her, knowingly or unknowingly, following the cryptic words on the wind and the voice in their dreams. (She can pay them well- there are caches of pirate treasure all over the island, and she knows each and every one.) Maybe she’s not even interested in escaping anymore, and is instead looking for the PCs to assist her in her newest scheme- perhaps killing the old rivals of her father, or serving the interests of the god who made her. I wrote Xurah’s followers as acting on her behalf, but I actually like it better if they’re not, instead misinterpreting random dreams as signs of divine prophecy. Of course, when Xurah tries to drive them away with nightmares, that’s just more signs that the prophecy is fulfilled. This gives Xurah, the Council, and the cultists a push-and-pull aspect, each ostensibly allied with the other, but secretly working on their own agenda.

[nestofstraightlines]

The Dæmon-Cages

I went to a preview screening of episode six of His Dark Materials,’ The Daemon Cages’, followed by a Q&A with the senior creative last night.

I’m not even going to give broad expectation spoilers for the episode above the cut (I’ll include a bit right at the end under the cut just giving a broad overview of whether I liked it or not).

As for the Q&A, it was very interesting.

The team were asked several questions (by a very positive audience) about themes and research; things like ‘how did you decide which of the many themes to focus on? Did you go back to the inspirational material of the books such as Milton and Blake?’ and I would characterise the answers as a slightly defensive ‘we just went back to the book’.

Call it confirmation bias, but for me that tallies with what I’ve perceived of the writing/creating flaws of the series.

Because what does that mean?

I’ve been going back to the book for 22 years now and unpacking more depths and more angles. It really did feel like there was a rejection from Thorne and series Exec Producer Jane Trantor that adaptation would involve unpacking something and repacking it into your own storytelling form.

Their tone was much more enthusiastic when it came to discussing detail: they talked about wanting to know exactly what every moment of Lyra’s day at Jordan would be, what she would do for breakfast etc. And that’s got merits; it can suggest nice images (I’m guessing this is where the idea of Roger bringing Lyra breakfast every morning comes from).

But for me, in general, it’s an approach that fits badly with Pullman as a source material. Pullman writes intuitively, discovering the story as he writes is.

At one point in Northern Lights he uses the metaphor for reading the Alethiometer that it is like climbing down a ladder in the dark, and trusting that, though you can’t see the next step, it is there. I believe that he was describing his writing process there too.

He writes indirectly, using negative space to let the reader infer a fact or an idea. For example, with daemons. We are told a little and shown a lot. Pullman is showing himself the story too.

I don’t believe Pullman knew when he was writing Northern Lights what Lyra would do for her breakfast every morning. But if the story had wanted to contain a scene set during her breakfast, he would have known.

And okay, different writing processes, whatever. But actually it is fundamental to the text and I think where the problems have crept in.

Genre storytelling can be broken up into two rough camps: character-led and ideas-led. The senior creatives of this programme, almost inevitably coming from a British TV background, fall into the wrong one - character-led.

Now both camps contain both things: if I call a story idea/s-led it’s not saying its characters aren’t important and good or vice versa. It’s about which is the ultimate point o fthe story.

For instance, Harry Potter is, for me, character-led. Its fantasy trappings are rather unpacked or picturesque dressing used to heighten basically mundane human interpersonal drama. Yeah, it’s good versus evil, acceptance versus discrimination, but those topics aren’t explored, they’re not a priority, they’re a situation to throw the characters into.

Where Thorne has worked in genre shows before, the same can be said. There is a specific situation, even a mission statement, but these are not shows constructed around telling an idea as story, but rather focusing on interpersonal drama. The premises are settings, real or imagined, which are already neatly packaged for the audience. They’re not about inventing fantasy, they are about using it to tell small-scale human dramas. Events serve nothing larger than character and relationship drama.

In Pullman’s His Dark Materials, character and relationship drama are a but not the greatest priority of the series, they are in service to broader ideas and themes.

That’s the other camp of genre fiction, where the fantasy is not a static setting used to heighten charater stuff, but an active agent used to tell a particular story.

Calling this camp ideas-led sounds like its an inherently grand sort of a category, and His Dark Materials is of course an example that is grand and important and epic and so on. But for a show to be ideas-focused, it doesn’t have to be a Big Important Theme with Big Important Execution.

Some ideas are ‘what is it to be human?’, some ideas are simply ‘whodunnit?’ or ‘what if a monster got into your house?’

Anyway.

Pullman’s HDM is ideas-led. He creates a world (and later worlds) of things we need to pay attention to. This is not Harry Potter – school, castle, wizards, you pretty much got it – this is unconstructed fantasy. And it’s not constructed for picturesque ends either. Pullman isn’t inventing this stuff because it’s independently cool or pleasing or whatever, or at least not only that. He is creating it to express a set of ideas through the medium of a story.

So story and world are perfectly bound together. And he understands the difference between convincing a reader and making your world CinemaSins-proof. It’s a story, not a world.

The series is over-invested in the details; over-invested in the tools, and misses what they are used to build in the book/s. Sometimes it even breaks what they are meant to build.

I think the failure of daemons is the biggest casualty of this.

At the screening the creatives talked about the challenge there, the unprecedented challenge of making a show in which every human character is accompanied by a unique CGI creation. They mentioned the impossible budget challenge this presented as well as the challenges in visual storytelling and presentation. I.e. even if one can afford to put a whole crowds of daemons in every wide shot it looks impossibly cluttered and like Doctor Doolittle.

And yes, of course, but it baffles – and frankly annoys – me that the imagination seemed to stop there. Or rather, the understanding of storytelling stopped there.

They talked about having spitballed pragmatic adjustments to daemons, such as making them be semi-invisible, flicking in and out of visibility. But in the end they ‘wanted to stay true to the book/s’. Again, I think we’re looking at a profound lack of understanding of what ‘true to the book’ even means.

Creatives more suited to the material would have found creativity borne of limitation. They would have had a deep and confident enough understanding of the idea they were dealing with to find the solutions from within their own storytelling field, to create daemons for screen in a way which worked.

It feels like this teams’ reaction to the challenge has been ‘to do our best and tell people they don’t understaaand it’s haaard when they complain we haven’t got it right’.

I’m sorry if that sounds harsh. But they took on this challenge and there’s a little hubris in that. I’m not sure what made them feel they were the people for the job here, but they’ve failed to convince me of that fact.

People have been telling fantastical and profound stories on screen for a long time before CGI became so photorealistic. And I think CGI has both a limiting effect on the imagination, and it encourages directors and writers with a limited sense of visual storytelling to imagine that they are equipped to deal with stories that they perhaps aren’t, because they can unthinkingly assign fantasy ideas to the ‘literalist CGI’ box.

I just get the feeling that none of the head creatives, as a mix of character-focused storytellers and details-people, really get what daemons are in a storytelling sense.

They mentioned that when they had conversations with Pullman, he advised them not to focus on daemons, that he novel included them only when they were important. And that’s true, and I can’t put words in Pullman’s mouth, but it’s my belief the TV series team misunderstood what he was getting at, and I’m basing that on stuff Pullman has said elsewhere (such as in his essays and speeches collected in Daemon voices) as well as my own reading of the book/s.

Daemons don’t appear important but the story is carefully constructed, without ever seeming to be on the surface, to explore the idea of the daemon.

It’s a practical issue too. You employ people to write and direct this stuff who are used to stories made up of human characters interacting in rooms, and they’re going to lack experience in showing stuff which is vital to this story, which includes the relationship between the human heroine and her shape-shifting animal-shaped companion, a giant talking polar bear, a city in the Aurora Boreales, fights with demons during a hot-air balloon fight and so on.

A lot of the stuff that matter in HDM isn’t just mundane drama in fantastical settings. The most vital emotional scenes include a girl interaction with a giant talking solar bear; the threat tot he bond between a person and their shape-shifting soul-manifestation etc

 The human/daemon relationship is like a lot of things at different times and in different ways: human/animal, siblings, friends, parent/child etc. But it’s not a mundane human relationship clothed in light fantasy disguise. It's an idea and thus needs careful building for screen just as it did on the page.

Russell Dodgson, the head of VFX on behalf of Framestore for the series, talked about how fans always focus on daemons while there are so many more ideas in the book. ‘People love talking animals, I guess.’ He joked.

And OK, he was being off-the-cuff and deliberately glib, and in any case he’s not the writer and thereby not responsible for getting the overall imagining of daemons for this series right. But he’s so off the mark here in a way which helpfully sums up the misses of this team.

Daemons are not talking animals in the book and that is what the series has rendered them as through this lack of understanding that they amount to more than an emptily whimsical note.

EXPECTATION SPOILERS FOR THE DAEMON-CAGES:

... Having said all that; a really great episode! Best episode of the series yet.

It benefits from coming from a part of the book which is perfect for an episode of TV: it is very dramatic and climactic, while also being something of a great self-contained story in form. Lyra goes into a situation with very clear parameters of tension, fears, goals and a ticking clock. The production plays on all of those very strongly.

The weakest element of the episode is predictable given what the weakness element of the adaptation has been all along: daemons of course. As with last week my feeling is that while the show is so far from doing justice to certain ideas and moments it might as well be on a different continent, it finds enough strengths in other areas to stop the bottom dropping out of the episode.

The production design is absolutely incredible. It’s the boldest imaginative leap from the book so far. The staging of some of the events plays out differently due to a differently imagined Bolvangar and I adore the new approach. Again, I’ll have more to say when the episode has aired. I can’t wait to get into the detail of this!

[mobius-prime]

65. Special - Sonic Live!

Previous / Table of Contents / Next

The Last Game Cartridge Hero

Writer/Pencils: Ken Penders Colors: Karl Bollers

*deep breath* …oh boy.

So this issue is kind of infamous for being, well, terrible. At least, this first story is. Even I, usually being willing to put up with a lot of crap from Penders, think this story is just a royal mess. You'll see what I mean in a second.

Anyway, the customary intro page of this issue makes some kind of allusion to Sonic being about to enter some strange other zone that's unlike anything he's ever experienced before. Indeed, the beginning shows Sonic rushing to try to rescue Sally, who's been captured by Robotnik, only to be blasted by energy bolts from behind - which, as we all know from when this exact thing happened to Robotnik in StH#21, just means he'll be catapulted into another reality instead of killed. Which reality is that, you ask?

Ha. Haaaaaa.

Oh yeah. That's right, folks. It's one of these. Kenders actually recruited both his real life son and niece to be photographed and placed into the story of the Sonic comics as actual characters. Luckily this only lasts for this one issue, and they weren't made recurring characters or something, but like, damn. These children are grown-ass adults right now. I wonder what they think of this? What they think of their father/uncle respectively? If they cringe looking back at this, or look back on fondly as a cool thing they got to experience as kids? Side note as well, as I've mentioned before Ken had never played a Sonic game while he worked on the comics, nor did he own a Sega console. That's why, when Steve "dies" in the game the screen simply appears to turn off, and, if you look closely, he's not holding a game controller, but rather holding a regular TV remote sideways. Oh, Ken. Why this? Why?

Well, anyway, Sonic finds himself floating in a strange void seemingly unable to move or see anything, until the faces of these kids start looming in his face and talk about seeing him in the TV as they try to turn on their game. Sonic, worried they're going to try to turn off the TV and I guess strand him in there for longer, somehow reaches out and pulls them in instead.

Great going, Sonic! Now these two kids who have no superpowers of their own are stuck in a dangerous war zone with you. Indeed, this goes as well as you might expect. He and the two kids are able to breach back into Sonic's home zone, where Robotnik has captured the rest of the Freedom Fighters and is planning to launch missiles into space to create… some kind of doomsday device? It's not really explained well beyond "killer satellites," but either way, Sonic doesn't like the idea of this, and so he starts beating up the swatbots in his way. This stops briefly when Robotnik decides to take his villainy to the next level and threaten to shoot the two random innocent kids just because they happen to be with Sonic.

Of course, the swatbots aren't as fast as Sonic, which begs the question of how they even managed to blast him at the beginning of this story in the first place, and he beats the rest of them up and escapes with the kids. He takes them to the control center to shut down the missile launch, which has begun its countdown due to Sonic accidentally knocking Robotnik down onto his launch remote. Great job, buddy!

They manage to shut down the missiles, but just as they do, Robotnik, Snively, Sonic, and the two kids are all pulled into a strange beam of light. Once Sonic and the kids get their bearings, Robotnik begins gloating, since apparently, during the split second between when he entered and when Sonic entered, he contacted a bunch of alternate universe copies of himself and got them to build him a big mech suit shaped like himself. Apparently, they're in yet another strange zone, and Robotnik realizes he can conquer the whole multiverse from here, not just his own version of Mobius. At least… I think that's what he's implying. Honestly, it's so unclear and all the dialogue so scattered, it's hard to even properly tell. Anyway, Robotnik throws Sonic and the kids in a prison cell with several other… humans?

While Robotnik suddenly finds himself threatened by the other versions of himself, not content to be used for slave labor, Sonic has a chat with these people. Apparently, this isn't just any old zone - it's the kids' home zone, AKA, Earth! Now, this definitely isn't our Earth. These guys claim to be the designers of the Sonic games, but for one, they're decidedly not Japanese, and two, there's no mention of Sega at all. Apparently, the concept art for Sonic the Hedgehog in this world was created when they received strange interdimensional transmissions showing images of him, and they decided to make a game out of it. Not only that, but now these video game designers slash scientists have apparently created a weird prototype device that was responsible for sucking Sonic and co. into this world through a strange dimensional link. Yyyyyeah. Go ahead and try to make any sense out of this crap.

Well, anyway, Sonic and the kids notice Robotnik and Snively about to be vaporized by the angry other-Robotniks, and decide to step in and save them from certain death, or maybe just another instance of zone-hopping. Come on Sonic, this is what, the third or fourth time you had an opportunity to let this guy die and have all your problems be solved? How many other people have died in this war because you refuse to let Robotnik be killed by his own hubris? Of course, the swatbots and other Robotniks don’t like this, and so to save themselves, Sonic and the kids need to shut down the prototype linking them to this world. Turns out the way they do this… is through Sonic game cheat codes!

The code recited by little Steve here is actually a real code, something I'm mildly surprised about given Ken's weird disdain for the Sonic video games. It's the level select code for the original Sonic the Hedgehog game on Genesis (non-Japanese version). If you've got a Genesis and a copy of the first game, try it yourself and see. In this world, however, it's apparently the shutdown code for the swatbots, and thus everyone is saved. The game designer scientist guys use the prototype's dimensional link to send Sonic, Robotnik and Snively back to their own zone, and Sonic has a happy reunion with his friends, who have been mysteriously freed from captivity in the meantime.

Oh, boy. Someone needs to tell Kenders that the Sonic games don't actually depict Sonic from the comics. These kids aren't gonna have any idea what the Sonic they were traveling with is up to, because all they'll be doing is playing as a different, more turquoise-colored Sonic, battling some weird dude called "Eggman" and collecting seven multicolored Chaos Emeralds to save a planet that definitely isn't called Mobius. Shame.

The Substitute Freedom Fighters

Writer: Rich Koslowski Pencils: Art Mawhinney Colors: Karl Bollers

So you may be wondering. How exactly did the Freedom Fighters even get captured in the first place, and how did they escape while Sonic and the others were stuck in the "real world"? This story is here to answer our questions! Apparently, while Sonic is just off derping around somewhere else, the others are watching Rotor create a new micro-cam that he can attach to his bandolier, working kind of like a body cam so they can review footage of battles after the fact and learn from them. Fortunately for them, some swatbots immediately show up to let them test out their new invention. Unfortunately for them, they get overwhelmed and dragged back to Robotnik.

Hey, look who it is! Larry Lynx has made his comeback, and he's noticed everyone's disappearance… as well as the ongoing live feed from Rotor's micro-cam. Realizing everyone is in danger, he rallies the first people he sees training - Cyril Eagle, and Sally's old recruits. They team up and fight their way into Robotropolis, Larry using his famous bad luck to make sure the swatbots lose every time, and they're able to eventually find the captured Freedom Fighters and liberate them. After finding Sonic as well, they head back to Knothole, where Sally forms the six of them into a new team, the Substitute Legion of Freedom Fighters, as a backup squad that can continue the fight against Robotnik if the Freedom Fighters are unable to.

This is cute, but it does bring up an interesting point. Clearly, the Freedom Fighters are not always able to win their battles, and it's dire enough that Sally's started forming backup teams. It's not said directly that it's in case the main team dies or is roboticized or something, but we know that's a very real possibility in this war. Makes you wonder how this war was even fought when they were all tiny kids, and if something like this has ever happened before…

Knuckles Quest 2

Writer: Kent Taylor Pencils/Colors: Pat Spaziante

Well, no need to worry about that. Knuckles is at it again! This time, he's found his way to a strange cottage in the forest, and is set upon by a bunch of vicious mythical creatures, most of which he names off and mentions hearing in fairy tales. It's interesting, because as far as I'm aware, none of these are real-life mythical creatures, which means we're getting a tiny bit of lore and worldbuilding regarding the kinds of mythical creatures Mobian children are told about in this world.

Anyway, Knuckles is totally confused about why he's fighting all these creatures that are supposed to not even exist, but eventually reasons that they indeed can't be real, and are magical projections. Once he announces this, they dissipate and he finds himself talking to an old fox wizard, who directs him to continue his search elsewhere. He then reveals that he used to serve the king in his youth, and that his name is…

…Merlin Prower? Any Sonic fan worth their salt knows that Tails' real name is Miles Prower and that "Tails" is just a nickname, indicating that this strange wizard may be somehow related to Tails. Hmm, wonder if we'll ever hear any more of him…?

[sieben9]

“and they lived…” impressions

{Quick request to anyone reading: I’m watching OUaT for the first time, and I want to avoid spoilers. So, if you want to discuss something spoilery, I’d be grateful if you could start a new post for that. Thank you!}

You know. Season finales tend to do a number on me. Show finales, turns out, are even worse.

Or better. Depends on how you want to look at it.

Shouting of various kinds under the cut. And spoilers of various kinds. Also, everybody should watch Wonderland, it’s straight-up excellent.

Ho. Ly. Crap.

This was fantastic. Like, I didn’t have much time to watch this episode, and I thought “well, maybe I can watch ten minutes now to take off the edge of the cliffhanger and watch the rest tomorrow” and nope, I absolutely could not. I mean… how do I love this finale. Let me count the ways:

We have symmetrical storytelling.

We have a thematically appropriate defeat of the villain.

and with a Disney mythology gag thrown in there, as well

We have some tragedy…

…but not pointless tragedy.

We have True Love’s Kiss!

<TLK>

And we have all the Happily Ever After.

Just all of it. This is so good. In thirteen episodes, these characters have been through so much bullshit, and now their story ends in what I’d almost call a “maximally happy” way. (With one exception. I’m getting to that later.)

Apart from all that, we had a zombie army, grand speeches, hilarious banter, and some quality Rabbit Family content. I love it. It’s wonderful. Absolutely no pun intended.

“And this is where Cyrus’s spleen fell out!” —actual dialogue, no joke necessary

Alright, since I could spend the entire evening gushing about this show, I’ll try and narrow it down a bit to maybe two or three things that were The Best:

Amara’s swan song and the defeat of Jafar, the conclusion to Ana’s and Will’s story, and the Happilogue, which is absolutely a word and you cannot convince me otherwise.

Amara’s part in the finale was both awesome and heartbreaking. Because she knew, right from the first moment, that she was going to die soon. If they said it oud loud, I must have missed it, but it was still pretty clear that the moment she returned the water to the well, she’d die herself. (And Cyrus seemed to suspect something, at least. Him grabbing her hand wasn’t “no, what are you doing”, it was more “wait, I’m not ready to let you go” and yes, I cried.) She knew she wouldn’t live to actually be Alice’s mother-in-law, and she was trying to find out as much as possible about this woman her son wanted to spend his life with. And she clearly liked what she saw. (Which proves she has functioning eyes, but never mind that.) Like I said. It was sweet.

Some special love to the resurrection scene. Mostly because of Mrs. Rabbit’s “Well, if you’re going to do it that way…”, because that’s honestly some good composure when someone is violating the laws of reality on your living room floor.

And, of course, there was the whole scene at the well.

is it just me or is there an awful lot of water imagery in this show?

::sad noises:: Look, I knew it was coming, but that doesn’t mean I was happy about it. Still, the way they defeated Jafar was pretty amazing. Not only was it a clever plan that utilised Jafar’s own hubris/overconfidence, it also contained a nice little Disney-mythology nod (Jafar becoming a genie) and had Alice at her most badass, even though—or maybe especially because—she wasn’t hitting people with a sharp thing at a time.

facing the realms’ most powerful wizard with nothing but a cocky grin. Will would be so proud.

Although, in maybe one of the better instances of having your penny and your bun, Alice still got to do the dramatic Speech to the Troops™, neatly juxtaposed with Jafar’s. I’m not complaining, mind. “Alice the Action Hero” is an important facet of her character, and comparing her and Jafar this directly made for good groundwork before going into the final act.

And when they came back to the palace and Cyrus’s brother asked if it had been “all for nothing” and he replied “no, it was for everything”? Dead. I was dead. If the rest of the episode hadn’t slain me, that would have been the moment. Goodbye, cruel world, and all that.

So, what was the bit that actually murdered me, you ask?

Well, take a wild guess.

God. These two. Just… everything about them, especially this episode, because even after the big damn kiss last episode, there was still some amazing emotional payoff to be had.

The whole Scarlet Queen sequence, I have to say, kind of stole the show from Alice’s earlier defiant declaration that not even Jafar changing the past could ever destroy her love for Cyrus, maybe because it… didn’t happen. If there’s one thing I can fault this episode for (well, one other thing; please see below), it’s that Jafar never went through with his threat, instead just turning to Ana for answers.

Oh, this also answers my question: yup, Jafar does just like to see people in pain. Especially Will, for some bizarre reason, though I suppose that’s just because Will is completely at his mercy and can’t really fight back

Still, enough complaining, because overall, I loved this storyline. And Will got to summarise their relationship in this beautiful, earnest, and completely heartbroken speech.

“You had real love once, and you know it’s not that simple. Love is messy. It means arguing and making up and laughing and crying and struggling, and sometimes it doesn’t seem worth it. But it is. And at the end, when you’re in love, no matter what happens, you forgive each other. I forgive you, Ana, for what you did to me. Because I love you. And if there’s any part of you that has a shred of love left for me, then please, help us.”

And more than just summarising their relationship, it’s also one of the best “takes” on True Love this show has ever provided, as well as a short version of Will’s own arc. He was rightfully angry at Ana for what she did to him, and he was just as right in forgiving her. And he knows that. I also love how this little speech is set up, because Will tries to distract Ana with some ridiculous and very transparent trick before, and when it doesn’t work, he immediately starts pouring his heart out. And obviously part of that is because he has a heart to pour out, but I think a larger aspect is that… well, the worst thing possible has already happened to him. He’s seen Ana die and wasn’t able to save her. No point beating around the bush, is there?

And that little “yup, she’s back” on his part was all kinds of adorable.

Now, I’m not 100% happy with Ana’s second resurrection, mostly because Nyx giving out the water wasn’t on-screen. It’s emphatically not a deus-ex-machina, because the properties of the water were well-established, and we’d seen the wrong use of it already bring down punishment twice, so showing the stuff work as intended was only fair. But it still felt a little out of nowhere and could have easily been fixed with a thirty-second extra scene. I suppose it was a time-issue, and it didn’t really hurt the story, so I’m hardly going to complain, though. These two have suffered enough. They certainly deserve an “easy” out for once.

One thing was left unresolved, though, and it will just bug me to the end of time.

Hey. Hey, writers. Writers? You gotta get her out of there. Listen. Listen. You can’t just leave her there! She wanted to be free! She wanted to stop being a monster, how can you just leave her there?

Somebody fix this, or so help me, I’m gonna do it myself.

Leaving the unhappy monster behind… the Happilogue!

OK. Look. I’m… ambivalent on big, cheesy weddings, for several reasons, but I will freely admit that this one was set up well, and executed in a way I can absolutely get behind. Because while Alice and Cyrus never complained about their unquiet life of adventure—after all, they were together, so what more could they want?—it was established early on that Alice never wanted anything so much as a stable home where she was welcome and loved. They always wanted to settle down, and now, after being through hell together (as the Rabbit very aptly noted), they finally get to do that. It’s good! I like it! And I love  that the wedding was as weird as you would expect from two people who came from two completely different worlds, fell in love in a third, fought to protect that world and came out of the whole thing with lifelong friends everywhere.

And all in all, I am very glad the show took the time to show all of the characters in this happy moment. They’ve been through a lot, and so has the viewer, and watching them like this is like a chance to exhale. It’s good now. They made it.

Oh, and for some more crying:

OK, I wasn’t completely sure about this one at first, because Alice’s father realising that his dream was so much more than that could have been such an amazing on-screen moment, but I also get the need to keep up momentum (generally speaking, the defeat of the bad guy, reconciliation with the relationship character, achieving the story goal, and bringing down the curtain should happen in as quick a succession as possible), and this was still a beautiful moment. Not only that they’ve reconciled, but also that Alice’s father still recognises how badly he fucked up, and how much effort it was for Alice to forgive him. The “it was all a dream” reveal was an excellent bit of storytelling, and could have used its own conflict resolution, but I still adore this little scene for showing the result of their reconciliation.

And then there were the goodbyes.

so many tears. and in the show, too.

I don’t even have that much to say, except that I loved to see how cordial they all were with each other, how Ana made clear that this wasn’t forever, and they would see each other again, soon, and…

“Hold on to your heart this time.” “You hold on to yours” —these two goobers, clearly not talking about the hearts in their chests

This. So much this. From the first perfunctory “alright, goodbye then” hug to Alice running after Will and barrelling into him, because they are one of the most important people in each other’s lives, and they’ve been through so much together, and just… ::happy sigh:: Have I mentioned that I adore their friendship? Because it’s really, really good.

The actual epilogue was very sweet, but almost unnecessary. We already knew these two would live happily, and possibly ever after, but seeing what became of Will and Ana, and that Alice really does still visit Wonderland from time to time, was a nice bonus. Also worth it for this precious little bean:

It’s weird. On the one hand I can’t believe this show is over, because I really don’t want it to be, but on the other, it’s been such a wonderfully concise, well-crafted storyline that I also absolutely can believe it. So, just as a closing note, thanks to everyone who got me into watching this. It was (pun fully intended) wonderful.

[miamaroo]

Northern Migration- Chapter 22 (Notes + Preview)

Here it is! The ever fated next chapter of Northern Migration. Through some twist of fate, it manages to actually not be a really bad anime filler episode despite the fact that it’s all just me trying to finish up a plot point my hubris accidentally created. If I had only outlined this story, then maybe I would’ve seen all of this happening. If only.

Anyway, make sure to read the new chapter before giving this a check out. Or, if you have never read this fic before, read these notes for an out-of-context idea of what you’re missing out on. Whatever floats your boat on this wild Friday night.

Spoilers Ahead!

I feel like I’m at a bit of a crossroads with some of my Taako subplots, but the one about him getting used to his body again in particular. On one hand, it’s more than logical to presume that three years without any physical touch is enough to mess someone up. On the other, he’s an elf. Three years doesn’t feel like that long to him. I don’t know. I think I read a fic once where a similar idea had to be done, and I remember thinking that all of the angst in it was voyeuristic. If you think I’m underplaying Taako getting used to his senses again, that’s why. One bad fic experience, and I can’t get it out of my head whenever I want to acknowledge Taako and touch anymore.

By the way, none of anything I said right there is meant to be a diss. I just have very specific tastes in fanfiction and it ruins my life on a daily basis.

I ran into a quagmire with the Magnus and Julia reunion scene here. They need to have a fulfilling moment where Julia’s injuries and sacrifices are acknowledged. But Lucretia is also dying, so I had to make it much shorter than I wanted. I definitely kinda skimmed over Magnus learning about Davenport as well, so I agree that those areas are definitely the weakest parts of this chapter. If it’s any comfort to you, I’m not done with either plotline yet. I still have a couple of character moments planned for Davenport and Julia in this upcoming interlude surrounding their sacrifices.

Remember that Stevie and Taako scrap I posted a while ago, and I said that I was most likely not going to ever put it back into the fic. I hope you can now see why I had to cut it. Honestly, shame on me for writing it all out in the first place before realizing that Lucretia was just lying there, almost dead,

One last apology for not jumping right into Taako’s emotional arc like I wanted to. Again, accidental plot point happened and I had to solve it ASAP. I did my best to leave little crumbs of what’s to come though, including Taako’s feelings of estrangement from the rest of the crew.

If you haven’t been able to tell by now, the accidental plot point itself was the fact that Lucretia needed a healer and Merle wasn’t there. When I had realized that, everything spiraled as I realized how Neverwinter was going to be like towards the ship and all that good stuff. There was a point of time where I almost just wrote a loose summary of having to sneak into Neverwinter, but in the end I think this chapter proved to actually be something the story needed. Merle running off to Barry now has more consequences, we can immediately see how the public opinion plot is developing, I can fulfill the sprinklings of a plot thread Magnus meeting Bane a bunch of chapters back started, and I also got Stevie to the emotional place I want her to be at before the next John scene. So in the end, this chapter is honest to god a blessing, and I really have to pat myself on the back for accidentally fixing a bunch of potential hiccups this story was going to have.

I had the misfortune of having to debate how to handle Garyl’s first scene in this fic. I’m personally not that big of a fan of him, but I know a lot of people are. It really wasn’t until I was proofing this chapter that it occurred to me that there’s probably going to be more than a few people peeved that I skimmed over the coolest phantom steed like that. And to those people: I’m sorry. I should really know better.

The orc woman is hands down the best character in this fic.

Magnus and Stevie versus the militia is the highlight of this chapter. I was really excited to write it, and I’m happy with how it turned out. It hit a lot of writing tricks that I just love to use, including the repetition and inevitable inversion of a phrase or idea (this one being the sentence “she’s ten). There’s a lot more about this I could probably say, but I’m just going to leave it there.

I tried to use Magnus’s speech to Stevie afterwards as an in-story hey look at this thing moment, but in case that wasn’t clear enough: Stevie saying that her parents fighting Kalen is her inspiration for wanting to be an adventurer is a significant marker of her growth because when we first meet her, one of the first things we learn about her is that the Power Bear is her favorite story. Stevie’s arc is 100% a coming of age story, and as I get older, I realize more and more how much I love those things.

This Isaak scene is interesting because the first part with Noelle’s family was actually written months ago. It’s actually a draft of his introductory scene that I had scraped in favorite of writing him discovering Phandalin instead. I never thought I was ever gonna get to put it back in, so I’m really happy that it just so turned out that now became a good time to throw it back in (in no short part due to the fact that he disses the militia and this chapter has a lot of Militia Doing Bad Stuff).

Another reason why I’m so happy we got to see Noelle’s family is because of chapter 4. That chapter starts with a long sequence of various side characters who will become important to the plot seeing the Hunger’s spies and reacting accordingly. It mentions Angus, Hurley and Sloane, and Noelle’s family. After I trashed their scene the first time around, it really bugged me that they only got that one mention, especially since that mention was placed in there in the first place to serve as an entryway for Isaak. But now order is restored and I can be at peace.

I also adored writing that rowdy bar scene. If you haven’t been able to tell by now: I love rowdy bar scenes and people being drunk.

Also I finally got Carey and Isaak where I want them. First interlude chapter, and I already got the first part of the next relic arc set up…

As I mentioned in the chapter notes, this is going to be the last of the long chapters for a while. I really don’t want to spend a month between updates again, so I’m going to go back to the 2-7k word count limits. That will most likely mean that not every chapter will have both major character and major plot developments. There might be times when there’s going to be a chapter where there’s only going to be one of them, or even just minor developments. That’s going to be infuriating for a while, but I ultimately think that doing the smaller chunks will be better for the health of this story and myself.

Thank you. And without further ado, here’s the preview for the next (short) chapter:

The Hammerhead base is on fire. Militia tape already seals off the street, a combination of battlewagons and sheer manpower pushing back the crowd of spectators. Wizards cast dampening spells over the warehouses as none-magic users rush water from the canal by the bucket-load. The stench of smoke makes Taako gag and, despite the hot weather, he pulls his scarf up and over his nose.

“How the hell did Merle manage to do this?” Magnus asks. He has Stevie on his shoulders, holding her calves in place as she scans the crowd. When his eyes finally reach Taako, a brow arches. “You doing okay?” The amount of care on his face is disgusting, especially when he and his wife are still in the middle of some kind of argument.

Taako doesn’t get it. He was there when it all went down yesterday, with the healer situation and all. Somehow this version of Magnus is still furious. At least, Taako thinks he is. Between getting his first proper night’s sleep in three years and having to trek across Goldcliff with Magnus, he’s hasn’t had enough time to scout out all the details of this marriage-arrangement-thing. But he knows that he’s already caught Magnus sleeping on the couch, which makes Julia a bad person in his books.

“Taako,” Magnus says, as if he didn’t brush away every word his wife sent his way before taking their daughter with him into this jaunt into Goldcliff.

“Peachy,” Taako finally grumbles back, rocking onto the tips of his toes to peer over the crowd’s shoulders. “Why the fuck can’t that old perv just answer his stanking stone for once?”

“Found him!” In her excitement, Stevie almost falls off Magnus’s shoulders. She grabs his hair, causing his to shout in pain as she pulls herself upright again. “Hey! Merle!” She waves her hands high in the air. “Over here! Uncle Merle!”

“Uncle,” Taako says, craning his neck for any sign of the dwarf.

He can hear the light smile flit across Magnus’s face. “Technically, you’re her uncle too.”

He glowers. “Fantastic.”

Between the legs of two spectating orcs, Merle weaves through. He looks ripe as rain, a cup of coffee in one hand as he throws a wave up to Magnus and Stevie. “Hey, you two.”

“Uncle Merle!” Stevie jumps off Magnus’s shoulders, causing him to swear and grab the back of her shirt before she can hit the ground. The moment he places her down safely, she throws her arms around the dwarf and squeezes.