#Team Windfall

[xdraonarts]

Thinking of opening up commissions at some point and figured lil icons would make a great cheapo tier, Testing out a lineless style and some different shapes with some unintroduced OCs. Left to Right are

Kazuko the Wolf - Mai the Rabbit - Tatsu the Oarfish

[saccharine-curious-4]

boy has been breaded

[sunderwight]

TSCTIR-inspired SVSSS AU.

Shen Yuan was just a regular (ehhh kind of) nerd when the invasions began, monsters and dungeons started showing up, and people started "awakening" as RPG-style superheroes with special abilities, enhanced strength/speed/etc, and ranked classifications.

Shen Yuan's older brother awakens as S-classes. His younger sister awakens as an S-class. Shen Yuan?

F-class.

Of course, chronically ill Shen Yuan told himself he wasn't really expecting any different. But there have been people who have awakened as higher classes despite their own lifelong health problems or disabilities, and in many cases awakening cured them, and so he'd hoped...

Well. It doesn't matter what he'd hoped.

The worst part isn't even that he's not some badass dungeon-delver himself (even though he is wildly curious about all the strange monsters and beasts and demons that have been turning up), the worst part is that his siblings have all but left him in the dust. They aren't just busy, he can tell that they've increasingly been avoiding him, until virtually the only time they speak to him is when they catch him trying to go into a dungeon again and then yell at him about it.

(Of course, his siblings have been increasingly aware of the danger SY is in whenever he's in proximity to them, but no one ever accused the Shen family of having strong communication skills...)

Nonetheless, if there is some possible way for Shen Yuan to increase his rank, he won't find it staying at home. And there are too many mysteries to investigate to just keep himself out of it, even if that would be more sensible. So, Shen Yuan arranges to be on various low-level dungeon teams. Often among the more questionable, misguided ones being attempted by the newly-awakened or by people who are just desperate to try and get some kind of windfall. Dungeons are dangerous, but a lucky item drop can still make someone more money in a minute than they could otherwise earn in a year. It's through these jobs that Shen Yuan meets fellow F-class Shang Qinghua, whose motives for entering the dungeons are definitely more financial than academic.

This is also how Shen Yuan ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time, in a dungeon that has suddenly gone from low-level to a high-level boss, fleeing for his life. Just when it seems like he's about to become mincemeat, his older brother (Shen Jiu) shows up and takes on the dungeon boss. But it's too much for a lone S-class, even one as determined and vicious as SJ, and Shen Yuan can only watch in horror as his brother is killed by the terrifyingly powerful and weirdly beautiful Heavenly Demon Boss.

But the reason SY survived the initial assault, when no one else did, is thanks to his hidden ability. Which temporarily grants him the powers of anyone he has a bond with who has just died, x2. Previously, he had his bacon saved by Shang Qinghua's traumatic death, and when Shen Jiu dies, SY gains enough power to actually take down this mysterious Heavenly Demon boss.

It's a hollow victory. His brother is dead. His friend is dead. Even the boss monster seems inexplicably tragic to him somehow.

And why did SJ show up anyway? Between his siblings, Shen Yuan thought that his brother had grown the most distant from him, that he even hated him now! Why couldn't he have just... stayed away...?

Despite the traumatic horror of these events, killing the boss monster grants Shen Yuan a boon. It isn't a "raise people from the dead" boon, but it does permit time travel! In fact it seems kind of emphatic on that point, like something has gone really horribly wrong with reality and the world is struggling to hold itself together now somehow. Though that could also just be because Shen Yuan's world is struggling to hold itself together...?

Regardless, this new entity called "the system" refuses to let Shen Yuan go back to a point in time before he awakened, or before the dungeons appeared. But he can go back to a point before his brother died, which is definitely good enough. Accept, accept! Who has time to read the terms & conditions? Whatever it is he'll deal with it! Just send him as far back in time as he can go!

As such, Shen Yuan's memories are sent back five years in time. Along with him go a bunch of weird new unlocked abilities, and the system menu, which demands he fulfill certain tasks and complete certain quests as a stipulation of the time travel boon. Succeed, and he gets more rewards to help him keep himself and his loved ones alive. Fail, and he'll be rebooted back to the bad ending, except to the moment before the Heavenly Demon boss died but without any of his power boosts.

So maybe Shen Yuan should have read the fine print.

Though, even if he had, he still would have made the same choice.

Back five years in the past, he's got some thinking to do. Five years is a decent chunk of time. His siblings have both awoken, and begun distancing themselves from him, but their positions are still pretty different. Shen Jiu and his childhood friend Yue Qi had a falling-out over something (they wouldn't say what) at this point in time. Shen Jiu signed on with the Qiu Collective, one of the initial rich adventuring guilds that hired people to go into dungeons. But the Qiu Collective was corrupt even by the standards of a lot of dungeon-oriented corporations, and though Shen Yuan was never made privy to the details, he knew they mistreated Shen Jiu badly and that there were a lot of investigations. The collective ultimately went under when their office was destroyed by a rogue rampaging monster, after an undiscovered dungeon opened nearby. Dungeons that open but aren't found are especially dangerous, as the threat levels will steadily increase without anyone to clear them out, until the result is a dungeon break -- monsters escaping the dungeon and emerging in the normal world, causing havoc and Godzilla-style rampages.

According to the official reports, that was what caused the destruction of the Qiu Collective's head office and the death of their CEO.

Yue Qi, on the other hand, joined the Cang Qiong guild, which had fared a little better over the five year span. Yue Qi eventually even took over the guild, and after the Qiu Collective went under, Shen Jiu made up with him enough to join him there. Shen Yuan had hoped they would reconcile and maybe even answer some of his calls, but things remained strained between all of them even afterwards.

Shen Ying, his little sister, was sheltered and trained by their older brother until she was old enough to join Cang Qiong as well, but despite being S-rank, her youth and inexperience kept her more on the sidelines. Shen Yuan had thought they might bond over being kept out of the loop, but his last conversation with his sister had made it clear that as far as she was concerned, he was still world's away from her level.

(Read: Shen Ying told him he should keep away from dangerous things, was clumsy about it, and unwittingly fed some of Shen Yuan's worst insecurities.)

On top of that, though, was another consideration:

Luo Binghe.

Among the guilds that could rival Cang Qiong five years hence, the biggest one was Demon Path. Luo Binghe would start out as a member of Cang Qiong guild, recruited shortly after awakening. Shen Yuan had thought he was pretty cool, actually, but there was some bad blood between Luo Binghe and Shen Jiu, and it got bad enough that when Luo Binghe made his solo break he got Shen Jiu embroiled in some kind of legal investigation (something about the wrongful death of another guild member) on his way out. Demon Realm and Cang Qiong remained thoroughly at odds afterwards, and things only got worse when Demon Realm surpassed Cang Qiong's count of S-rank members, and conducted a successful merger with Huan Hua guild. That is, until Luo Binghe just mysteriously vanished altogether from the public eye.

Though Luo Binghe of course wasn't the dungeon boss that actually killed Shen Jiu, he had certainly been trying to destroy him before Shen Yuan reset the timeline.

But going five years back in time... Luo Binghe had been a prodigy, the youngest to become a guild leader. Five years hence, he'd be around twenty years old.

Which means that right now, thanks to the rewind, he is fourteen or fifteen years old and hasn't even awakened yet.

It would be possible to take him out of the equation altogether.

Then, there's Liu Qingge. An S-rank who died in a dungeon under suspicious circumstances, which provided the crux of the investigation into Shen Jiu. He and Shen Jiu had also never gotten along, although once again no one had confided the details to him. Shen Yuan refused to believe that his brother had actually murdered Liu Qingge, though. If Shen Jiu was going to murder someone he'd be a lot less obvious about it.

But it would probably be better if Liu Qingge didn't die at all.

Lastly, there's the matter of Shang Qinghua.

According to Shen Yuan's mental math, Shang Qinghua won't have awoken his abilities yet either. Five years into the future, extensive research and several regrettable moves on the part of various governments and guilds would reveal that even though it was supposedly impossible to increase someone's rank after awakening, how a person awoke their abilities could have a great deal of impact on their rank.

Shang Qinghua was a textbook example of a bad awakening. His skills were mostly oriented towards stealth and item drop bonuses, but his awakening had been violent, prompted by a shady center that promised people an avenue to adventure and riches only to use mortal terror to trigger the awakening process. Being in extreme danger would work fine for those with combat skills, but wasn't so good for everyone else. A lot of people had their awakening stunted by such early methods, which were not only a bad way to go about it but also traumatic to boot.

Shen Yuan has a suspicion that someone like Shang Qinghua would actually be incredibly valuable for stealth missions and item farming, if only he'd awoken at full potential. Instead, he'd struggled to make anything of his abilities due to his lack of durability or access to the kind of high-level items that would compensate for it.

Gathering all this foresight, Shen Yuan sets about altering the future to protect his siblings.

Step one: find Luo Binghe.

Shen Yuan's initial thought was to just kind of, nudge Luo Binghe towards something different from Cang Qiong altogether. Maybe if he started out with Huan Hua guild, he could contain all his trouble there. But when he finds him, Binghe is in a bad situation. The kid's living in foster care with abusive caretakers, his adoptive mother has recently died, and he's waiting tables and picking up trash instead of going to school. His clothes are threadbare, he's too skinny, and he looks like he's been beaten.

Between a rocky introduction and an attack from a Moon Python Rhinoceros thanks to a nearby dungeon break, Shen Yuan manages to convince Luo Binghe to hire him as his agent (fee = 0% of all Binghe's dungeon earnings plus 0% from contracts), and determinedly takes over. The System seems to wildly approve of it.

Creepy. And suspicious.

But Binghe is actually a total sweetheart, as it happens, to the point where Shen Yuan can't imagine what inspired the enmity between him and Shen Jiu. This kid truly is a diamond in the rough. He just needed a little help and some actual guidance, that's all!

With Binghe on the road to a less antagonistic fate, the next most chronologically urgent item on the list is Shang Qinghua. Shen Yuan has a new ability that lets him awaken people to their full potential, and his chosen guinea pig is his own formerly deceased bro. Somehow, awakening Shang Qinghua's abilities ends up involving a near-miss with rescuing him from debt collectors, and running into (and rescuing) the S-class Mobei Jun, who had joined Demon Realm as Luo Binghe's subordinate back in the original timeline.

It's actually quite fortuitous, though, because Shang Qinghua's treasure-hunter and stealth abilities are best suited to him being accompanied by a high-ranking hunter who can pick up the physical slack. Shen Yuan had been thinking that at least awakening Shang Qinghua as a D-rank would make him durable enough to handle some dungeons without turning to sketchy organizations for back-up, but with Mobei Jun, the ice prince can ferry the man right to the most valuable loot!

Shen Yuan's on a roll!

He discovers that some of his new abilities have utility as beast-taming skills, and tackles several dungeons successfully with the help of Luo Binghe, Shang Qinghua, and Mobei Jun. They even manage to rescue A-class Sha Hualing from a sticky situation, and Shen Yuan learns that his abilities can, in fact, help other awakened level up their own rank (previously believed impossible). With enough of his influence, Sha Hualing could become S-rank one day.

But of course, it can't be too easy.

When Shen Yuan moves to intervene with the dungeon break that wiped out the Qiu Collective, and seemed to start all the controversies against his brother, he instead finds that there is no dungeon at all. Yet, clearly some kind of attack on the building is underway.

He finds out why when he comes across his brother in a fugue state, murdering his way through his own guild.

Turns out, most S-ranks creep people out. Most average people can barely tolerate being around them even before they awaken. But afterwards? Their oppressive auras and sheer strength tend to trigger everyone's flight-or-fight reflex. Shen Yuan never noticed, because he's grown up surrounded by S-ranks his whole life. Even upon watching Shen Jiu kill the Qiu members, Shen Yuan's chief source of upset is that they were apparently treating his brother so badly that they inspired a murder spree from someone ordinarily much more calculating and clever than that.

Apparently, Shen Yuan should have been taking the opportunity to move against them a lot sooner, rather than just mitigating the whole supposed dungeon-break disaster and then investigating after. His own fault. He thought that keeping his distance would help his siblings, but clearly, letting them hoard their secrets and do whatever they think is best isn't the way to go either.

Does he even know what's really happening with his sister? Or to Yue Qi over at Cang Qiong? At this point in time, his friend had stopped contacting him altogether for several months in a row. When he came back, he was definitely more subdued and even more distant than he had been before. And that's the same guild that Shen Jiu and Shen Ying will eventually join as well, presumably with its own skeletons packed into the closet.

Shen Yuan's going to have to adjust a lot of his plans, it seems.

But first -- he's got a murder spree to help cover up, and an older brother to take home and, uh. Calm down. Or something?

Damn. Maybe Shen Jiu did kill Liu Qingge on purpose. He's going to have to thoroughly figure that situation out too, if he wants to handle it right...

[servantofthefates]

I have always felt The Fates' work.

Way before my initiation into the craft. As early as when I was in Catholic school. And even during my skeptic period.

Windfalls? Miracles? Surprises? That's not them. That's Jupiter. Or Jesus, if he's who you believe in.

The Fates' movements always feel like a disappointment at first, before they reveal their blessing — a blessing in disguise.

In college, I was so upset that I didn't get into the freshman dorm at my university. It was quite prestigious. Instead, I'd been assigned to the all-girls dorm, which was a lot older and quite dilapidated.

But then... I found out that getting a dorm room at my university is a near-impossible thing in the first place. And that as you get older (in your sophomore, junior, senior years), it gets even harder because the slots are extremely limited, and freshmen are always the priority. However... getting into the all-girls dorm in my freshman year meant I was guaranteed a spot in the building until I graduate!

The Fates are like that. They don't give you the shiny thing. They give you the stable thing.

Same as when I started working. I'd graduated magna cum laude at the #1 university in my country. So I wondered why all my job offers came from boutique agencies and not from multinationals. I was so hurt and confused by this. I was the best, so why the fuck were the big players not interested in me?!

And then out of the blue, I got an opportunity to work abroad. My first job offer was SEVEN times the amount I was making back then. But had I been working for a prestigious multinational company, I never would've grabbed the chance to move. I would've stayed home, because I would've felt happy already. Which means I wouldn't have been able to afford all my luxury travel, my weekly salon visits, the Sephoras in my vanity, the Louis Vuittons in my closet.

That's the Fates. They deny you silver, so they can give you gold.

I did eventually get to work for a multinational. I loooved it. My boss and I were soul kin. One mind. One heart. Our work together was phenomenal, unparalleled, award-winning. We were the dream team.

And then he got fired.

I felt like a little girl whose lollipop got violently dragged out of her mouth.

My world came crashing down. I started questioning my faith, my ability to manifest, my power as a lineage witch. I thought I was protected by the divine. What the fuck was this tragedy then?

But... because my beloved boss was out of the picture, that meant I had to do his job for a while. That's when I started presenting to managing directors, to decision makers, to the CEO himself. That's when I earned a name for myself.

That's the Fates. They take away your comfort to give you the spotlight.

Even now, I have a lot of agnostic and atheist friends. I resonate with their critical thinking... their rejection of the status quo... their rebelliousness against authority. I share all of those values very strongly.

But I am not one of them. How can I be, when I have always felt the Fates writing my destiny?

[sitp-recs]

currently reading a hpdm war fic where draco is absolutely useless. and i cant have that. so. do you perhaps have any recs for magically powerful draco? not necessarily powerful, but yknow. useful. 😭. thank you so much

I most certainly have, anon! Love me a competent and useful Draco 🤌🏼 I hope you enjoy these, I also have a spy!Draco list that might fit your request.

The Slytherin Urn by ICMezzo (E, 4.6k)

Nothing turns Harry on quite like redemption.

Wield Me by tackytiger (E, 10k)

Draco Malfoy, blacksmith, is renowned through the magical world for his skill and exquisite creations. He could quite easily spend the rest of his days making pretty trinkets for the fae court, and being handsomely rewarded for the privilege.

Sex on Legs in Six-Inch Heels by Tessa Crowley (E, 10k)

Draco Malfoy is a brilliant freelance cursebreaker and the only one who can help the Department of Magical Law Enforcement with a very dangerous case, but more importantly, he's wearing six-inch heels, and Harry cannot handle it, he really just can't.

This Unexpected Windfall by mindabbles (E, 11k)

Harry doesn’t like it when Draco is called in to work one of his cases. No. He doesn’t like it at all — at least that’s what he tells himself.

Yours Truly by skeptique (M, 15k)

Every single one of Harry’s exes has gone on to marry the next person they date, and with the upcoming nuptials of numbers six and seven to each other, Harry’s feeling exhausted by it all.

Countdown by dysonrules (M, 15k)

When the Wizarding world is plagued by random outbreaks of Dark Magic, the Ministry assigns Curse-Breakers to assist Auror teams on their missions. Harry shouldn't be surprised when Draco Malfoy is assigned to his team, but is Malfoy a Curse-Breaker, or a curse-bringer?

The Pain From an Old Wound, anon (T, 30k)

Getting hit with a mysterious blood curse is all in a day’s work for Harry Potter. Having to work with his former colleague, rival, bully, and boyfriend, is not. Harry’s not sure which is going to do him in first: the curse sucking his magic dry, or Draco Malfoy, as frustrating, condescending, and painfully attractive as he’s always been.

measures of our days and nights by flimsy (E, 40k)

Draco returns to London to help the Ministry decipher a spell, but things aren’t quite as simple as they seem.

Heal Thyself by astolat (T, 47k)

"Are you going for the course?" Lovegood asked. "You have the NEWTs.” “What course?” Draco said, then, “No, don’t be ridiculous,” when he realized she meant the notice pinned up on the board he’d been staring at: Applicants To The Introductory Mediwizard Course For The Coming Term Shall Present Themselves In The Chief Mediwizard’s Office By August 24th.

The Boy Who Only Lived Twice by lettered (E, 54k)

Harry Potter is an Unspeakable. Draco Malfoy is the wizard who shagged him. Adventure! Intrigue! Secret identities, celebrities, spies! It's all right here, folks.

Reparations by Saras_Girl (E, 87k)

Harry is about to discover that the steepest learning curve comes after Healer training, and that second chances can be found in unexpected places.

Any Instrument by dicta_contrion (E, 131k)

Draco Malfoy wouldn't go back to England for anything less than an exceptional case. Being asked to figure out why Harry Potter can't control his magic might be exceptional enough to qualify.

[agentem]

Three of Pentacles

I keep hearing people complain that the "sisterhood" of the Coven in Agatha All Along was a sham because they only exist to support Billy, the lone male.

But that's not true. *stamps foot angrily.*

They are Lilia's coven. In her reading, the "reason for her quest" is community. They are the reason she is on this journey. And she is the one who writes the names down and choses the team (although maybe she should've reconsidered writing Alice's name since she dies but what exactly happens when she writes the names down--and the lights flicker--seems to be differen than the time gaps. It also happens when she sees what William will become. It seems almost involuntary? Also Lilia mentions the "path behind" are lessons learned so Alice dying might be important to Lilia accepting her own death? She mentions the path behind is "lessons learned." And that might have something to do with the repeated "Death comes for us all" line. Not sure.)

Anyway! TLDR, she's the Nick Fury of these Witch Avengers.

I think she needs this group (Agatha, Billy, Jen and Alice. Rio and Sharon are not included on the list) to help her through her end. To accept her fate. And he's important to that, to helping her think outside of herself. But he's "the windfall" the thing that might happen, but only if Agatha's trauma can be overcome. Jen is the guaranteed "path ahead."

Agatha's lines about not being able to divine when Death will come, heal Nicky or protect him suggest that she also needs a Coven. But she never embraces this particular group like Lilia does when she tells them she loves them. Agatha does show growth by sacrificing herself for Billy and then joining him on his quest. (The reason for his quest is The Sun/Reunion and it isn't achieved by the end of the series.)

Although I do get that the ending feels a bit... unfinished and some people are unhappy with that. Lilia is the only one who completes her "quest." But I don't think Marvel wants to be done with Agatha or Billy yet.

[sensualnoiree]

astro notes: jupiter through the houses pt.3

Symbolizing wisdom, luck, and spiritual growth, Jupiter guides us through journeys of abundance and higher learning. As it rules Sagittarius and Pisces, and co-rules Pisces with Neptune, its reach extends to philosophical pursuits, foreign travel, and spiritual exploration. From its exaltation in Cancer to its debilitation in Capricorn, Jupiter's placement illuminates our beliefs, aspirations, and sense of justice. Throughout this exploration of Jupiter's journey through the houses, we unravel its transformative power and guiding light, embracing its blessings of prosperity, abundance, and divine guidance.

Jupiter in the 7th House:

With Jupiter gracing your seventh house of partnerships and relationships, you are blessed with a deep sense of harmony and balance in your interactions with others. Your marriage or partnerships tend to be supportive and mutually enriching, and you may find that your spouse or significant other plays a significant role in your personal and spiritual growth.

Your ability to see the best in others and cultivate a sense of fairness and equality in your relationships makes you a valuable partner and friend. You may find that you are able to resolve conflicts and navigate challenges with grace and diplomacy, fostering deep bonds of trust and mutual respect.

Business partnerships are also favored with Jupiter in the seventh house, and you may find that you are able to attract opportunities for growth and expansion through collaborative ventures. Your ability to see the bigger picture and inspire others to work towards shared goals makes you a valuable asset in any team or partnership.

However, it's important to guard against the tendency to become overly dependent on others or lose sight of your own needs and desires in the pursuit of harmony. With Jupiter's influence here, there may be a temptation to seek validation and fulfillment through external relationships, rather than cultivating a sense of self-worth that is independent of others.

Overall, Jupiter in the seventh house blesses you with harmonious relationships, mutual growth, and a deep sense of partnership and collaboration. Embrace the blessings of love and connection, and use them to create fulfilling, supportive relationships that nourish your soul and spirit.

Jupiter in the 8th House:

With Jupiter gracing your eighth house of transformation and rebirth, you are blessed with a deep sense of inner strength and resilience that allows you to navigate life's challenges with grace and courage. Your spiritual journey is profound and transformative, leading you to a deeper understanding of the mysteries of existence and the nature of the soul.

Your ability to embrace change and let go of attachments makes you a powerful agent of transformation, both in your own life and in the lives of others. You may find that you are drawn to explore the realms of the occult or engage in practices such as meditation or energy healing, seeking to unlock the hidden wisdom of the universe.

Financially, you may experience periods of expansion and contraction, as Jupiter's influence here can bring both windfalls and losses. However, your innate optimism and faith in the abundance of the universe allows you to weather even the most challenging of financial storms, emerging stronger and more resilient on the other side.

However, it's important to guard against the tendency to become overly fixated on power and control, or to use your spiritual knowledge and insight for selfish or manipulative purposes. With Jupiter's influence here, there may be a temptation to seek power and influence through secretive or underhanded means, rather than embodying the principles of integrity and authenticity.

Overall, Jupiter in the eighth house blesses you with profound spiritual insight, inner strength, and a deep connection to the mysteries of existence. Embrace the blessings of transformation and rebirth, and use them to embark on a journey of self-discovery and spiritual evolution that will lead you to greater levels of wisdom and enlightenment.

Jupiter in the 9th House:

With Jupiter gracing your ninth house of higher knowledge and spiritual wisdom, you are blessed with a profound thirst for truth and a deep sense of curiosity about the world around you. Your love for learning knows no bounds, and you may find that you are drawn to explore a wide range of subjects, from philosophy and religion to travel and cultural exploration.

Your expansive worldview and broad-minded perspective make you a natural seeker of wisdom and truth. You may find that you are deeply inspired by teachings from different cultures and spiritual traditions, and that you are constantly seeking to expand your understanding of the universe and your place within it.

Travel is especially favored with Jupiter in the ninth house, and you may find that you are drawn to explore distant lands and immerse yourself in new experiences. Your journeys are not just physical adventures, but spiritual quests that allow you to deepen your connection to the divine and broaden your perspective on life.

However, it's important to guard against the tendency to become overly dogmatic or self-righteous in your beliefs. With Jupiter's influence here, there may be a temptation to become rigid in your thinking or to insist that your way is the only right way. Remember to remain open-minded and receptive to new ideas, and to embrace the diversity of beliefs and perspectives that exist in the world.

Overall, Jupiter in the ninth house blesses you with a deep love for knowledge, a thirst for adventure, and a profound sense of spiritual connection. Embrace the blessings of higher learning and cultural exploration, and use them to embark on a lifelong journey of discovery and enlightenment.

follow for more astro insights like this and support me over on instagram @sensualnoire or yt @quenysefields

[anim-ttrpgs]

A.N.I.M. Team Bi-Yearly Payments

It’s the end of July, a new patreon update for Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is coming this week, and the A.N.I.M. team are getting ready to pay ourselves with the Kickstarter money. We’ve already paid our freelance artists @chaospyromancy and @qsycomplainsalot for all their work in advance, and they’ve produced some pretty incredible art for us already, some of which you can see if you check out their blogs.

The rest of the Kickstarter and patreon money is to be split up among the permanent team members on a twice-a-year basis, with percentages for the first payment calculated from the amount of money we have on July 31st.

I’ll cut straight to the point, we’re poor and though this is going to be a bit of a windfall for each of us, it for sure isn’t enough to live on. We all have other jobs, and A.N.I.M. takes a lot of our time.

If anyone wants to donate to our ko-fi, subscribe to our patreon, increase their existing patreon subscription, etc. in time for our team’s payout on the 31st, that would be greatly appreciated. Even if you’re seeing this after July 31st it would still be appreciated because then that money goes to our ability to advertise, hire artists, and pay ourselves in the future.

As a reminder, we run the A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club as a way to inject life into an industry/hobby that is being flattened under the weight of WotC's monopoly, and currently have a patreon milestone set for expanding it.

Signing up for our patreon at $5 or more gets you access to regularly updated beta copies of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy, plus adventure modules and short stories!

Also as a reminder, for a limited time, you can currently get a beta copy of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy completely free just for joining the A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club!

Elegantly designed and thoroughly playtested, Eureka represents the culmination of three years of near-daily work from our team, as well as a lot of our own money. If you’re just now reading this and learning about Eureka for the first time, you missed the crowdfunding window unfortunately, but our Kickstarter page is still the best place to learn more about what Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy actually is, as that is where we have all the fancy art assets, the animated trailer, links to video reviews by podcasts and youtubers, and where we post regular updates on the status of our progress finishing the game and getting it ready for final release.

Beta Copies through the Patreon

If you want more than just status updates, going forward you can download regularly updated playable beta versions of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy and it’s adventure modules by subscribing to our Patreon at the $5 tier or higher. Subscribing to our patreon also grants you access to our patreon discord server where you can talk to us directly and offer valuable feedback on our progress and projects.

The A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club

If you would like to meet the A.N.I.M. team and even have a chance to play Eureka with us, you can join the A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club discord server. It’s also just a great place to talk and discuss TTRPGs, so there is no schedule obligation, but the main purpose of it is to nominate, vote on, then read, discuss, and play different indie TTRPGs. We put playgroups together based on scheduling compatibility, so it’s all extremely flexible. This is a free discord server, separate from our patreon exclusive one. https://discord.gg/7jdP8FBPes

Other Stuff

We also have a ko-fi and merchandise if you just wanna give us more money for any reason.

We hope to see you there, and that you will help our dreams come true and launch our careers as indie TTRPG developers with a bang by getting us to our base goal and blowing those stretch goals out of the water, and fight back against WotC's monopoly on the entire hobby. Wish us luck.

[skyfullofpods]

Happy audio drama Sunday, friends! It's been a busy week! The @re-dracula team launched their Carmilla miniseries, @worldgonewrongpod came in swinging with a kaiju, and Windfall provided some jailbreaking shenanigans!

[nayatarot777]

{your next blessings ✨💫} • pac

• pile one •

cards: 8 of pentacles, 10 of wands, 6 of wands

your next blessings are related to a practical project or a work project that you’ve been really putting a lot of effort and energy into. it seems like you’ve entered an obsession almost due to wanting to perfect and master whatever craft this is. you’ve taken on a lot of responsibility for the sake of manifesting your vision into a reality, however, i’m seeing that your next blessing is going to be a lot of supporters to help you with all of these responsibilities. they may have become major burdens for you. i’m feeling like a lot of workaholics are in this pile - or you’ve stepped into workaholic energy even if that’s not you usually. but with the 6 of wands, you’re gaining a whole lot of new supporters within your work. your hard work won’t go unnoticed. this is a group of supporters that are set in stone for you and your work.

• pile two •

cards: 10 of pentacles, 3 of pentacles, 5 of pentacles

this blessing is definitely monetary or materialistic, due to the fact that every card is a pentacle card. a group of people who you’re working with is going to help you to achieve some major financial or materialistic abundance. some type of financial windfall or something significant to your physical world - and this is going to be a long term thing. long term stability - whether that’s financial stability, a home, a career. you could be in this 5 of pentacles energy currently. feeling a lot of lack in the physical world. but some type of team work with others who are helping you to achieve a common goal will really bring in a lot of tangible success that you can see or feel or touch. it’ll be the completion of something that you’ve been working hard towards for a long while. i’m also seeing that after you gain this major physical stability, your other blessing could be keeping some low vibrational people away from you thanks to this. if you’re living in a home that’s full of toxicity, this is you gaining a huge amount of abundance and leaving people out in the cold (where they belong). this could also pertain to an actual work project. this major financial windfall could also be an inheritance for some of you.

• pile three •

cards: ace of pentacles, 6 of pentacles, 9 of pentacles

the energy of materialism and money is strong in this pile, just like it was for pile two. so you could be attracted to both piles. your next blessing is a new job that’s being given to you. i feel like you don’t even have to chase after this or do much to acquire this. i believe that it’ll be handed to you by someone in a more privileged position than you. i’m also seeing that for others of you, you could straight up be given some money. some money to invest into yourself - whether that’s for self-care, bills, whatever the case. i’m seeing a lot of generosity towards you guys though, from this 6 of pentacles. whichever blessing fits you guys, this will lead to your self-sufficiency and a greater amount of self-esteem and stability. whatever this is, you’ll enjoy it thoroughly. especially if this is a job. i feel like it’s going to be one that you feel extremely comfortable in, and you might find it quite easy to do.

[writingquestionsanswered]

how can i make a fake framed traitor out of an extremely kind, virtuous and genuine character that the main character trusts wholeheartedly? what could i use to make the MC and reader be like ‘yes this is unlikely but unfortunately makes sense’ just to make a reveal later?

Making a Framed Traitor Seem Genuine

There are three things you can do to make a framed traitor seem like they're genuinely a traitor...

1 - Make the Motive Make Sense - Any traitorous act must have an underlying motive... the reason that anyone would commit the traitorous act to begin with. So the key is to find a way to make that motive make sense for that character, no matter how random it may seem. Like, maybe a side benefit to committing the traitorous act is a cash windfall, and maybe the framed character also happened to recently mentioned being in need of cash for some legitimate reason. It may not mean they're guilty, but the motive fits.

2 - Sweeten the Pot with a Little Plausible Deniability - Try to think of some additional coincidental thing that will make them look even more guilty, but which also gives them some plausible deniability. Like, maybe one of the orchestrators of this traitorous act also happens to own a popular night club in town. And maybe the framed character is known to never go to night clubs, ever, but maybe one night they were peer pressured into attending a barely known co-worker's bachelorette party, and during that party they got separated from the group and had to wander into several different nightclubs trying to find the group again. And maybe they happened to wander into the bad person's nightclub without even knowing it, and were spotted going into said nightclub by one of the about-to-be-betrayed friends, which obviously looks very bad for the framed person. Because now, in addition to having a reasonable motive for the betrayal they are accused of, they've also been seen in a place that suggests an association with one of the other perpetrators. And although they have the plausible deniability ("I didn't go there because I wanted to... I was looking for the group I was with...) there's no way they can prove that's true.

3 - Drop a Few Other Subtle Hints - That may be enough to make your character look guilty when they're not, but if you need to, you could drop in one or a few other hints earlier on in the story that accomplish the same thing on a more subtle level. Something that will look bad in retrospect but hardly be noticeable at the time. Like, maybe one of the soon-to-be-betrayed friends invites them to their slam poetry reading, and the framed person texts at the last minute that they can't come because they have to work late (which is actually true), and then later the group will learn that Team Bad did some big thing that night. At the time it seems like nothing, but in retrospect--thinking that framed-character was involved in the traitorous act, now it makes sense that they missed the slam poetry night because... of course! They were actually with Team Bad doing the bad thing they did that night. Again, this wouldn't occur to the characters or reader at the time, but when connecting the dots in retrospect, it all adds up. Of course, the reality is it was just a coincidence and they really were at work that night.

Just be careful not to go too far in making them look really guilty. You don't want to weight them down with so many coincidences that look bad that they always look a little guilty, even once absolved.

Happy writing!

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

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[kidflashimpulse]

There is a high chance I asked this already (and another high chance that you already answered it…) but if I didn’t: what do you think the Outsider’s positions would be in a soccer/football ⚽️ team?

u have and i have been hoarding it in my drafts like a dragon hoards gold because i’m not exaggerating when i say that it’s probably one of the most important questions i had ever received in my life LOL i spent forever on my response but wasn’t happy with it so i kept it in my drafts, i’m so sorry 😭

yeah i wasn’t quick with it… A THOUSAND APOLOGIES ☠️

anyway here’s the gist of what i was writing:

so what i wrote for garfield stays the same

jaime reyes: continuing from what i was saying he’d make a powerful offensive goalkeeper who’s essentially an additional teammate on the field. He can practically make the game from the goal, has great judgement of the pitch and navigation of his own teams defence and against the opponents attacks. + strong durability and precision to catch goals, he’s the best goalkeeper i could think of.

bart allen: midfielder and/or second striker as a winger, depending on the offensive played - his position needs to be agile/fast to pick up on swift changes in the game and to open up opportunities as well as quickly adapt. as a winger he also needs to be able to endure high intensity moments with lots of stamina, his central purpose is to provide assists but he has strong footwork so he can easily be a traditional striker but his personality is too all over the place for him to be like that it would probably bore him and then he’d lose the ball lol he prefers backhanded trick work to support a strike and keep his head in the game lol

virgil hawkins: capable midfielder who has a great sense of reading the match + complemented by his equally strong offense and defense he’s an asset to have in the midfield because by reading the match he can do his best to control and assist its development

cassandra sandsmark: CAPTAIN (she’s got the headstrong personality) and a powerful striker, she’s versatile in her capabilities (can fallback to provide incredibly strong defense and has the stamina for that) but for the formation she’s key as a centre striker

eduardo dorado jr: the man and the legend and the reason why we r having this conversation in the first place (peep the no. 10 i’ve got u edu) anyway i see him as a traditional forward striker, he’s got the height and technical skills to his advantage and from where he is by the wings he can read the match well and is quick to adapt

tara markov: easily defense by the wing

forager: defense no brainier

tim drake: his performance and strategic skills makes him a calculated asset as a centre defender, especially since among the defence mentioned he probably has the most height advantage

courtney whitmore: sub midfielder

windfall: defense

livewire: sub striker

looker: sub defense

conner kent: easily a strong defense and he can rush to the midfield/front whenever his team is playing heavy on the offense

anyway here’s the formation 😂 i’m more than happy to hear yalls thoughts lol

[blueiscoool]

‘Horrible’ Painting Found by a Junk Dealer Could Be a Picasso Worth $6 Million

An Italian family had long debated throwing away the unconventional portrait.

It’s not often you sit down to read a book about the greatest masterpieces of art history, then look up to find a stellar example hanging on your own wall. Yet this was apparently the experience of Andrea Lo Rosso, who began raising questions about a peculiar painting in his parents’ living room at their home on Capri in Italy. Could it possibly be by Picasso, the forefather of Modern art himself?

For years the man’s parents had argued over the unconventional portrait, which was discovered by his father Luigi Lo Rosso in the cellar of a villa in Capri 1962, given a cheap frame, and put on the wall. This did not please his wife, who despaired at the female sitter’s strangely contorted face. The scrawled name “Picasso” in the top left hand corner meant nothing to either of them.

“My father was from Capri and would collect junk to sell for next to nothing,” Lo Rosso told the Guardian. “He found the painting before I was even born and didn’t have a clue who Picasso was. He wasn’t a very cultured person.”

“My mother didn’t want to keep it—she kept saying it was horrible,” he added.

The family sought out the counsel of the Arcadia Foundation, which carries out art attributions and appraisals. A member of its scientific committee, Dr. Cinzia Altieri, a trained graphologist or handwriting specialist, studied the signature on the painting. The foundation also enrolled the help of famed art detective Maurizio Seracini, who led a chemical-scientific analysis of the work.

As a team, these experts have confirmed the attribution to Picasso. The painting has been identified as a portrait of Dora Maar, the French Surrealist photographer, painter, and poet who was at that time Picasso’s mistress.

It is believed to have been made some time between 1930 and 1936 during a trip to Capri, where Picasso often visited, although he first met Maar in late 1935 or early 1936. The pair had a relationship lasting nearly nine years and, though she was an artist in her own right, Maar’s work has only recently received the attention it deserves. In 2019, a landmark retrospective of over 250 works by Maar was presented at the Centre Pompidou in Paris and Tate Modern in London.

If the attribution turns out to be true, the Lo Rossos can expect a financial windfall. The Arcadia Foundation has valued the alleged Picasso at €6 million ($6.7 million).

The artist painted many portraits of Maar in their time together, and several reside in major museum collections today. The auction record for a painting of Maar by Picasso was set in 2006, when Sotheby’s New York sold Dora Maar au chat (1941) for $95.2 million, according to the Artnet Price Database.

Unfortunately for this team of Italian art sleuths, their rediscovered modernist masterpiece piece is unlikely to fetch in the millions until it has been legitimized by official Picasso authenticators.

Andrea Lo Rosso said that, so far, the Picasso Foundation in Malagá, Spain has refused to even assess the work, which it believes to be a fake. The foundation declined to comment publicly on the work when contacted. It reportedly receives hundreds of authentication requests every day.

The Picasso Administration in Paris has also been reached for comment but did not respond by publication time.

By Jo Lawson-Tancred.

[oensible]

Here's a little behind the scenes on my shrambling empire. This is what my NHL66 stats look like as of the NHL Christmas break.

For anyone who is unfamiliar with NHL66, they have two systems: 1) (the important one for our purposes) their betting simulator where you start out with $1k and can bet up to 3% of your current balance on each match that day, and 2) predictions is where you just assign up to four points based on how confident you are in your favored team for each match.

edit: just realized this looks long af in the tag lol, continued under the cut

I always just bet the max on the Sharks and make smaller bets on a handful of my other, less floppy teams that are playing that day to hopefully subsidize some of the losses when the Sharks lose :P (which is often). As you can see, this strategy has a net loss of $142.62, putting me at a balance of $857.38 at time of this post! I have been at a net loss ever since pretty much the start of the season, except for a few days when I had a net gain from the massive windfall of the SJS@NJD lobster shutout ($80.01 return on a $29 bet) and also a lot of Columbus wins.

I don't care about prediction stats at all because the leaderboard isn't important to me, just the shrambling empire bit. I still do them because I love to click on buttons and I always put 4/4 predictions on all available matches (which is usually only like half of them for some reason), since prediction points are unlimited and I don't have to conserve funds for the Sharks like I do with the betting simulator. I included them here because I think it's really funny that my prediction stats aren't too shabby; I've guessed 50.42% of 357 points correctly lol. Anyways, I don't care about prediction stats, BUT I do think it's kind of funny to see the disparity between that and how badly I'm doing in the betting front due to my shrambling.

In conclusion: sports gambling is further confirmed to not be a sustainable way to make money lol, and real life shrambling would be equivalent to actively pouring money into a bottomless pit 👍 would not recommend!

[glitter-stained]

this is me dropping it and also coming off anon: i've been toying around with the idea of a teen team for jason primarily comprised of the few teen heroes who actually were present/active during the early/mid 80s, and one of the characters who literally has No dynamic with jason canonically but has crazy potential to is wendy jones (aka windfall). walk with me here

windfall is a former villain (member of the masters of disaster. side note i love all the gimmick villain groups barr introduces in outsiders comics theyre so fun) being abused by her sister, new wave. she eventually switches sides to fight alongside the outsiders towards the end of the outsiders vol 1. where i start arguing for the basis of a relationship with jason is that around this time, they seem to be of similar age? halo is introduced precrisis and towards the end of the volume is still in high school. i read her as being 17-18ish? and wendy definitely seems like she's being drawn and written as slightly younger than halo, but still high school aged, so like, from 14-17, during a time when you can argue jason as being anywhere from like 13-15. so they really can be like. The Same Age or quite similar!

and THAT fact sets up the potential for an interaction in that towards the end of outsiders vol 1, bruce REJOINS the outsiders. and is hanging out with them. in california. across the country from gotham. it's not inconceivable to me that jason could have tagged along during one of these visits and had a convo with her. additionally, during postcrisis jason's time as robin, batman's return stint on the outsiders, and wendy's time with the team, millenium happens, which basically gathers 3 of the existing hero groups in or near L.A. at the time (green lantern corps have a citadel there, infinity inc are based there, and the outsiders had their base there)+ the justice league international, and for the first issue, we SEE all the heroes there... except wendy and jason. i personally hc them as having a convo somewhere up in the rafters or in a different room or something. and then because of millennium, the outsiders break up.

i dont think they COULD have been besties because opposite sides of the country, and also isolation being such an important driving factor in jason's decisions that lead up to his death. BUT. i think the bones are there for them to be somewhat ACQUAINTED with each other prior to jason's death.

TW for SA on this paragraph: eventually she leaves the outsiders, and goes to college. she gets sexually assaulted by members of a fraternity and is denied legal justice, so she kills them in retaliation, goes to jail, ends up on the suicide squad, and dies. this is still all in post-crisis continuity, so i Do feel like she could be out there somewhere in rebirth. and i feel like she and jason could have an interesting dynamic going and i feel like it could really give her a popularity boost!

Extremely based, immediate addition to the roster!!! I love you so much Wendy Jones 😭 also love Windfall as name especially for an ex-villain who's killed people i love it so much

[the-storm-caller-witch]

PSA: YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE AN ADULT TO WRITE LETTERS TO YOUR CONGRESSMEN, TO THE WH, TO YOUR GOVERNOR

If you are an American and you can write, you can send emails. Do not stop. For the kids on this site, this is YOUR future, your scared of losing, let's team up. Kids, you don't wanna grow up with 12 years of Republicans, that once a democrat finally pops up everything feels crazy from how good things get. We cannot let it slide backwards.

When I was a kid, elections were hard to navigate because, online kids get pressured to do things they can't. Like, try to convince their parents to vote. No one tells them what they can do.

AND REMEMBER, WE VOTE A LOT THIS YEAR, TURN THOSE RED STATES BLUE, PURPLE STATES, BLUE, LET'S TURN THIS RED WALL INTO A BLUE WINDFALL.

We put the muzzle on the dog, we can fight him!

Those outside the US, help us out, with bringing awareness to your circles, so Americans in your circles, can fight. We're currently on our own, no one's coming for us, except us. The US has had a long history of kicking bullies down, let's not stop at an orange fatty.

WE WILL NOT GO SILENTLY INTO THE NIGHT.

WE WILL NOT GO BACK