#The Four Clans card game

[ticklygiggles]

Rite Duel 2.0

A/N: Big, big thanks to kind @eliankrios for his suppooort ❤️❤️ thank you for being patient with me! I was in some kind of writers block, but it seems okay now lol. I hope you enjoy this and, as always, I hope they're not too OOC nskdkd THANK YOU ELIAN 💕

Also thanks to my girl Ginny for letting me use her fic for reference to this one! MWAH 💕

Summary: After learning that there is a way to actually win against Cyno, Sethos finally takes his chance to try!

Lots of tickling descriptions hehe

Words: 3k+

Sethos was not, by all means, ashamed of losing against Cyno for Hermanubis’ power. If he was completely honest, some part of him told him that he had no chance against General Mahamatra himself, so he was not surprised by the result of the duel, if anything, he felt honored for fighting with him and seeing Cyno's friends dueling with and for him. Having good companions, people you can trust and who always give you a hand was very important in the desert.

Furthermore, being recognized as the heir of the Temple of Silence clan by Cyno and promising a new alliance with the city of Sumeru, was more than he could have imagined... and also gave him excuses to visit Avidya Forest frequently. There were so many things to do, see and eat and so many interesting people that he could talk to for hours on end. 

Many of his new friends were there too. Cyno, Tighnari, the traveler and even that interesting person he had met at the Akademiya. So he always got very excited when he was called by Cyno for important meetings, which usually consisted of him teaching him how to play Genius Invokation and Sethos failing miserably in every single game. 

“You need to practice some more,” Cyno said, beating Sethos for the fifth consecutive time. “Don't you play in the Temple of Silence?” 

Sethos sighed deeply, automatically throwing his cards to Cyno for him to shuffle them. “We, sadly, don't have much time to play like this. We have things to do, you see.” 

His lips spread in a mischievous smile, and although Tighnari and the traveler laughed behind their hands, Cyno simply huffed out a laugh through his nose and rolled his eyes with a little smile in his mouth.

“I see. Good thing you're now in Avidya Forest, so get ready to practice a lot.”

Sethos whined. "Technically, we're in the Traveler's wolrd..." He knew that the general wouldn't let him leave or stop the game until he defeated him at least once. 

“Cyno, you're being too harsh on Sethos,” Tighnari said, propping his chin in the palm of his hand to look at Cyno with that dreamy expression that always made Sethos blush and look away. He was sitting to Cyno's right at the four-sided table. Aether right in front of Tighnari while Paimon floated around them. 

“Yeah.” Paimon nodded. “Sethos has had his head in the sand his entire life, even a game of Genius Invokation is too much for him.”

“P-Paimon…” 

All three men around him turned their heads away, trying to contain their laughter. Sethos felt his cheeks heating up and he fanned his face with his hand.

“L-Listen, I've been attending to my… duties and- and Genius Invokation isn't exactly a popular game in the desert…” 

Cyno cleared his throat. “Anyways, the next round is about to start.”

“You got this, Sethos!” Aether cheered, but Sethos whined loudly as he saw Cyno making the first move. 

There was a time when Sethos won, but they had to play about twenty times and Sethos had only won because the traveler had tickled Cyno to distract him. 

Setho chuckled to himself and Cyno looked at him with narrowed eyes.

Who would've thought General Mahamatra was a ticklish person? Certainly not him, yet again he had never been too fixed on tickling someone, or being tickled himself. That until he met this bunch of interesting people. He still remembered that special training he had with Aether the first time he showed the world inside his teapot, but he still hadn't had the chance to give it a try… could it be that tonight was the night? 

“Hey, tell you what.”

“Hmm?” Cyno mumbled, barely paying attention. 

“Let's have… another kind of duel.” That caught everyone's attention and four pairs of curious eyes landed on him. “If you win this duel… We'll keep playing Genius Invokation until I finally win,” he said with a grin and Cyno arched an eyebrow. “However,” Sethos continued. “If I win, then you'll give me a break for at least the rest of the night.” 

“What kind of duel?” Aether voiced the question in Cyno's expression, his golden eyes shining in wonder. 

Sethos chuckled, “you'll see once we start. We won't need weapons or anything, just our bare hands,” he said, lifting both his hands and wiggling his fingers, trying to give a clue to Cyno, but the only one who seemed to understand was Aether who smiled knowingly at Sethos. “So?”

Cyno pondered for a bit, his eyes traveling from the cards to Sethos face, then back to the cards and then to Tighnari's face. 

“I think a break sounds good,” Tighnari said, his tail swinging lazily from side to side. “You both have been at this for who knows how many- 

“This is the sixth time and I think I'll lose again,” Sethos said and this time even Paimon laughed. 

Cyno nodded. “Fine. I hope you don't mind us using your yard for this duel,” he said kindly to Aether and the traveler shook his head with a smile. 

“Paimon’s so excited to see what's this all about!” 

Sethos had been feeling excited too, but as they got up from the table and walked towards the traveler's large yard, he couldn't help but feel nervous. Aether had told him that this was a good way to beat Cyno, but what if he lost too? It wasn't a thing of honor or anything like that, his brain just couldn't stand that game anymore! 

“Eep!” Sethos jolted when he felt a poke to his ribs from behind, turning around, he was glad it was Aether. “Y-You surprised me, traveler.” 

“Did you finally decide to do it?”

Sethos nodded softly. “Yeah, my head is starting to hurt. Let's see if your special training was of any use.”

Aether laughed. “I wonder too, you lost far too many times,” he reminded him and Sethos laughed when he felt a squeeze to his side. “Just remember all the spots I told you about and do not let him pin you.” 

Whoa, it really sounded like this was going to be even more dangerous than the Rite of Duels back in the Temple of Silence. Sethos nodded as he gulped, finally planting himself in front of Cyno while Aether, Tighnari and Paimon looked at them from the side. 

“So? Is it like a wrestling match?” 

“Y-Yeah, something like that. At the count of three, okay? One… two!” 

“Ack! W-Wha– hey! S-Sehehethos!” 

Sethos almost froze when he heard Cyno's giggles as his hands latched to the General's sides and started to squeeze them gently, but firmly just as Aether had told him.

“Pff– a tickle fight?” Tighnari asked in disbelief, yet a little smile still pulled at his lips. 

“L-Like Paimon said,” she chuckled softly, floating beside Aether. “Sethos has had his head too deep in the sand…”

“Place your bets, everyone,” Aether chirped. “I bet Sethos will win.” 

“No way,” both Paimon and Tighnari said and by the looks of it, it seemed like they were right. 

“AHAHAHA! n-nohoHOHo!” 

It wasn't Cyno's laughter, but Sethos. He definitely understimated Cyno's abilities. Aether made it look way too easy and Sethos was extremely ticklish! How on earth did he even think that was a good idea?! He didn't know how, but he was able to tickle Cyno for exactly five seconds before he was thrown to the soft grass, pinned by one of Cyno's knees against his lower back and both the General's hands clawing at the back of his ribs. 

“Heh, you really thought you'd win against me?” Cyno spoke over Sethos laughter and the poor heir could only kick his legs and flail his arms around. “Did the traveler tell you about this? I'm sure he'll learn his lesson later.”

Poor traveler! Sethos somehow gathered enough strength to lift his body, successfully pushing Cyno off him and causing him to fall butt first against the grass. The general didn't have time to get up before Sethos was straddling his waist, his hands vibrating at the exposed stomach. Cyno threw his head back with a cackle and he tried to fight Sethos hands, but Sethos was agile and he laughed, trying to sound teasy, but just sounding nervous. 

“H-How’s that, hmm? General Mahamatra is seriously so ticklish,” Sethos teased, one of his hands clawing at the middle of Cyno's tummy, around his belly button while the other wrapped around his hip, trying to hold him in place, but also tickling him slightly. “You gotta make sure no one knows your weakness, or else you'll get in trouble~!” 

“S-Stohohohop or Ihihihi- AHAHAHA! WAHAHAIT!” 

Sethos jolted just as hard as Cyno did when he slipped one of his fingers inside his navel. He was surprised by the nearly hysterical laughter he was able to evoke from Cyno as he lightly tickled his navel, simply wiggling his finger around inside the little spot. Sethos giggled softly, tickling really was fun. 

Feeling extra mischievous, Sethos stopped momentarily so he could place one hand over Cyno's stomach, his thumb and index finger stretching his bellybutton nicely as his palm held him somehow in place. 

“Any last words?” He asked with a big grin as his finger wiggled at Cyno. 

Through slightly teary eyes, Cyno looked at Sethos, a silly smile pulling at his lips. “D-dohon't you dahare or I'll- SEHEHETHOS!” 

After teasing the spot gently by simply circling it with the tip of his finger, Sethos finally slipped it back in it, swirling and wiggling and vibrating. Cyno's laughter came out unrestrained, loud and panicky; he jolted and squirmed and desperately pulled at Sethos arms, but Sethos had the upper hand, until he didn't. 

In the blink of an eye, Sethos was facing the vast sky inside the Serenitea Pot and Cyno was straddling him, grabbing Sethos’ hands and pulling them under his knees. 

“N-Noho! Wahahait! Lihihisten! P-Plehehease!” Sethos begged, giggling although Cyno hadn't started tickling him yet, but he didn't have to wait too long as Cyno's fingers quickly did a little taunt above Sethos’ torso before they descended against his ribcage. 

Sethos threw his head back with a tirade of loud cackles. His arms desperately pulled at his trapped hands, but Cyno was firmly pinning him down as his hands roamed freely across his ribcage. Those mean hands traveled from the highest set of ribs, so close to his armpits, to the lowest ones, pinching, poking, prodding and rubbing everything and anything on their way. 

Sethos was nearly seeing stars. Aether tickled him so much during their trainings, but never this viciously. Cyno was determined to win… even if it meant tickling Sethos to death? 

Firm, but gently fingers rubbed at each bone and space inbetween and Sethos was almost sure Cyno was using some kind of trick, (perhaps his vision?), because there was no way his ribs could tickle like that, was it?

Cyno chuckled, “were you saying? Let's hope the people of the Temple of Silence don't know their leader is this ticklish,” he teased playfully. “Or else you could get in trouble.” 

Sethos shook his head, unable to speak as Cyno started to count his ribs out loud: one, two, four– oh no, I meant three, let me start again.

One, two, three… what was the next number? Oh, four right. Let me do it again. 

I'm not sure I counted properly, what do you think, Sethos? I'll start over just to make sure. 

Sethos, where's the twelveth rib? I don't seem— to find it… can you stop squirming? Also, move your arms away, I can't count like this. 

Aether's words resounded in his head: do not let him pin you. Now he understood why.

Sethos’ laughter only grew panickier the more Cyno tickled his poor, sensitive ribs. Tears of laughter already claimed place clinging to his lashes and his flushed cheeks hurt for smiling so hard. If he didn't stop Cyno, he was definitely going to pass out and be forced to keep playing Genius Invokation! 

Growling between his laughter, Sethos was able to raise his hips, making Cyno stop right away with a gasp as he reached forward to stop himself from collapsing above Sethos. Sethos wrapped his arms around Cyno's waist and pushed him to the side, both of them rolling a couple of times before Sethos pinned Cyno on his belly.

Immediately, thumbs dug into the muscle of Cyno's lower back, rubbing deep circles and causing him to giggle brightly and kick his feet as he tried to reach behind him to capture Sethos’ hands, his spine arching up as he shook from one side to the other. Meanwhile Sethos felt like he was trembling after that brutal attack to his ribs, his bones still tingling with tickly aftershocks. 

He fluttered his fingers up Cyno's spine and dragged his fingertips down that tender spot near his sides, but not quite. He then pinched and squeezed at his lower sides and that place at his kidney area and focused in every spot that made Cyno laugh the brightest. For example, massaging his shoulder blades would make Cyno snort and placing rapid pokes up his spine would make him shriek. 

The back of his neck was fairly sensitive as well, Cyno would throw his head back as best as he would when Sethos wiggled his fingers there and snorty giggles would fill the air. The back of his ears was also- 

“AHAHAHA! CY-CYNOHOHO!”

“Cy-Cy-yehehehes.”

“Ugh,” three beings in the sides rolled their eyes, but no one noticed as Cyno had managed to get a hold of Sethos’ knees and was squeezing them. 

Sethos laughed, squeezing Cyno's waist to make him stop, but Cyno was persistant, his hands moving to squeeze at his thigh and Sethos couldn't stand it. He stood up and tried to make a run for it, but he was able to take two strides before he felt Cyno's fingers closing around one of his ankles, making him fall face first. 

“Aaaaghhh! AHAHAHA!” 

Sethos banged his fists on the ground as Cyno took a seat on his shins and started to squeeze and massage the back of his knees. Sethos screamed with laughter, how was that spot ticklish?! He tried to kick his legs, but Cyno was squeezing his own around him, limiting his movements as his fingers wiggled in the hollows in the back of Sethos’ knees; his thumbs massaging the muscle, making Sethos shriek with laughter. 

“How do you make a knee laugh, Sethos?” 

“Oh Archons.”

“He won't say it, right?” 

“I think he will.” 

“You tickle its funny bone.” Sethos broke into loud laughter as Cyno tickled both the front and the back of one of his knees. “Very funny, right? I'm glad you appreciate my jokes.”

Sethos shook his head, desperately trying to crawl away from underneath Cyno, and shrieking again when now his other knee was under attack. He never knew knees could be ticklish, but of course he had to learn this fact first hand, huh? 

“Uff-!” Cyno quickly moved off Sethos when a leg almost hit his groin. Sethos stood up quickly, but then slumped again when his eyes caught Cyno's foot. General Mahamatra read his intentions, and tried to escape, but he was already tired and uncoordinated, so it was not difficult for Sethos to catch one of his ankles, dragging him towards him. 

“Where are you going, General? The duel is not over until one of us asks for mercy," Sethos said breathlessly and with a huge smile on his face. "Are you suddenly scared? You didn't want me to tickle your feet? What a shame~.” 

Sethos straddled Cyno's ankles, pressing them together between his legs and his blunt nails quickly went to work all over the soles, skittering up under his toes and down to the hollows of his ankles. Cyno became almost hysterical; his toes curled tightly, but Sethos easily pushed them back on one foot with one hand and used the other to scratch at the sensitive skin under and between them. 

“SEHEHETHOS! Hohohold ohohon!” 

“Do you yield? I will only stop if you give up!” Setho yelled over Cyno's loud laughter, his evil fingers not giving the Mahamatra the chance to catch his breath as Sethos tickled his sole mercilessly. 

Cyno was nearly howling behind him, squirming like a little fish out of water as Sethos’ fingers skittered across the balls of Cyno's feet and then to his arches and next to his toes that made Cyno scream with laughter. 

“Your toes are so ticklish,” Sethos commented, not really teasing, but if Cyno felt it that way, that was a plus. “How do you go around life being this sensitive?” 

Sethos was not expecting an answer from the cackling Cyno, he actually thought he was going to give up at any second now… until he felt a hand grabbing his hip. 

“EEK!” Sethos' immediately rose to his feet, brushing his hip to get rid of the tingly sensation that touch caused. “Th-Thahat s-spot is off- off limits!” 

Although breathless and tearing up, Cyno smirked, also getting on his trembling feet. “You n-never said anything… haah… about ‘off-limit spots’.”

Sethos gulped before he started to run away from Cyno; he wanted to say that he did run a lot, but only after three steps, Cyno was catching and throwing him back to the grass before straddling Sethos' thighs. 

“No!” Sethos' shrieked, laughing as he tried to grab Cyno's hands that were taunting him. He wiggled his fingers high, slowly lowering them towards Sethos' hips. “W-Wahahait up! Y-You must have a w-weak spot, s-so–”

“I do,” Cyno nodded, his hands finally descending to Sethos' hips. “It's a shame, for you of course, that you don't know where that is.” 

Sethos couldn't care less about what Cyno was saying at that moment. He was too busy laughing his head off and desperately trying to push Cyno's hands away as the General pinched and squeezed at his hips. Sethos howled in hysterics, he arched his spine and tilted his head back, overwhelmed by the electrifying tickly touches climbing from his hips to his brain. He couldn't do anything against those evil fingers exploring his most ticklish spot. 

“Hehe, how's this, Sethos? Is it ticklish? Look how much you're dancing, you're definitely loving this, huh?” 

Sethos shook his head, squealing and squeaking between hysterical peals of laughter. “NOHOT THEHERE! AH! P-PLEHEHEASE!” He begged, tears falling the sides of his face. “STAHAHAP! P-PLEHEHEASE!” 

“Of course,” Cyno said, chuckling softly. “You just gotta admit you give up. Easy, right?”

“N-Nohoho! J-Juhust– AHAHAFIHIHINE! Fihihine, I gihihive up! PLEHEHEASE!” 

Cyno stopped, lifting his hands off the other's body and Sethos went limp, laughing and giggling and rubbing at his hips to get rid of the residual feeling of Cyno's fingers. 

“I hope you're ready to properly learn how to play Genius Invokation, Sethos,” Cyno said, crossing his arms over his chest and looking down at Sethos with a smirk. “I won't show mercy this time.” 

Sethos let out a whiny giggle, letting his head fall against the grass. “N-Nehext tihihime… I'll- I'll definitely wihin.” 

“Mhmm, of course you will,” Cyno chuckled, extending his hand for Sethos to take. “Now let's go, you won't leave Avidya Forest until you win against me at least five times.” 

Sethos whined, grabbing Cyno's hand and standing on shaky legs. He looked over at Aether and shrugging his shoulders, he smiled sheepishly. 

Next time for sure! 

BONUS SCENE 

“You owe us, Traveler,” Paimon and Tighnari said with a smug grin and Aether whined. 

“I really thought Sethos would win… he still has a long way to go, it seems.” 

“To be fair, it's hard to win tickle fights against Cyno,” Tighnari mentioned, shrugging his shoulders as the three of them made their way back to the table where another Genius Invokation duel was taking place

“I can win against him.”

“Haha, yes, but after how many tries was it?” Paimon teased and she and Tighnari laughed at him. 

Yeah, Sethos really had a long way to go!

[arecaceae175]

LU Links Playing Clash Royale

Wind

He’s so into it

Leader of their clan, called the Chain

Got everyone else into the game

Three of his decks are those annoying low-cost ones that just cycle through buildings and well placed skeletons or ice golems

He wins with well placed royal pigs near the end of the game

He does tournaments and wins

Wild

Goes through phases of playing really hardcore for 2-6 months, then forgets about it for a year

Really likes the events. His favorite is draft battles

Makes Flora build his decks bc she gets really into the statistics of all the cards

Time

Claims not to know how to use the game, but still beats Wind most times they battle

This infuriates Wind

Time will never admit it because he loved to cause problems on purpose, but he loved watching YouTubers play and he used all their winning strategies to beat Wind

He really likes the weird forest creatures

Favorite cards are suspicious bush and dart goblin

Warriors

Knows Time is full of shit but let’s it happen because it’s funny

His deck centers around the Knight. Sue him.

His most used cards include: knight, archers, princess, royal delivery, Prince, mega knight, and fireball

Flat out refuses to play with the dark prince

Sky

Uses the dark prince against Warriors because he’s a little shit (/affectionate)

Otherwise, fliers

His absolute favorite is the Phoenix, to absolutely no one’s surprise

Plays religiously. Sometimes the others make him delete the app for a week bc he gets too emotional about it

Legend

Likes the spell cards and the witches

Gets really into clan wars and makes sure everyone participates

He and Warriors strategize about the wars

Hyrule

Buildings. Buildings.

Uses a bunch of spawners and plays defensively

Eventually gets so many spawners out that the enemy can’t do anything

Four

Loves troops that are multiple troops

He has very well rounded decks, but all of them just include many many troops

Good mix of buildings, spells, and ground troops

Favorite cards include: skeleton army, royal recruits, bats, barbarians, tesla

Twilight

His favorite card is Ram Rider. All his decks center around her

Or sometimes Hog Rider

Likes all the ungulate cards

Also makes good use of rage spell

Malon, Linkle, Ravio, Groose, and most of the Zelda’s also join the clan :D

[talenlee]

Dev Pile 2025-11 — Blood And Bones

Starting next week, I will be in a classroom with a bunch of students talking about ideation and experimentation. That’s going to involve some generative tools and showing them ways that they can use those tools to launch off ideas. My plan is to take them the skeleton of Moonshiners and show them the way that these tools can be used to generate the templates of card faces. Then, when I have those concept assets generated, I can show them the steps I go through to take those ideas and make them into my own.

The aim here is to demonstrate the use of these tools as a kind of word calculator. I use Excel to do math for me, and I use it to generate random things. I use texture libraries and public domain art, I know that there is a value to having convenient things to prime the pump, to set up a template.

Anyway, because I have Moonshiners in a skeletal form, and I want to use that class exercise to demonstrate the process on that skeleton, what I’m going to do this week is talk a bit about progress on Bloodwork.

LaunchTableTop is my current toolkit for game making. This means that I have a good framework for volume of cards I can jam in a box, and, indeed, the box itself. I can look at the example of Cafe Romantica, our game they’ve printed, and use that as my framework for how many pieces I want to go into a box. That’s about 120 cards, and some tokens.

Bloodwork is meant to be an asymmetrical game with symmetrical pieces. That is, the players are both playing clans of vampires, and Old Vampires and Young Vampires treat their resources very differently. The Old Vampires have institutional power and can carry resources from turn to turn, with a slowly growing base of power. They’re supposed to win end games, but also take some time ‘waking up,’ while Young Vampires have to recruit and construct themselves out of what’s available. There’s a common area, called the Street, which has resources in it that players can access, but will react differently based on what gang they are.

Stuff in Bloodwork is meant to be therefore, just a set of player mats, showing the nature of your gang and how to play them, fundamentally:

There’s a vampire that’s a multi-level marketing scam, arranging its cards in a pyramid. The start of the game, this player takes 24 cards, and deals them out face-down in front of them. Each turn, they take one of these cards and flip it face up, then takes an action based on what’s visible in that tier for that clan. Originally, this was going to rely on dice rolls to trigger cascades in the organisation. They still care about what’s in the street, though, because while they can’t recruit, any thralls in the pyramid can be swapped with Vampires in the Street, and, they can exploit figures in the Street to get bonus actions.

There’s a vampire that’s running a cryptocurrency scam. They have a resource that drags Thralls out of the Street automatically, and they follow one of four different fake currencies they have going on. At the beginning of their turn, their weakest cryptocurrency (with the fewest thralls) collapses, losing all its thralls and that’s the amount of resources they get to work with that turn. They have to spend resources to establish a new cryptocurrency to call Thralls back, and at the end of their turn, these thralls are dealt out at random between their currencies.

Then there’s the vampire that’s running a police force. Their organisation is a single line. Every turn, they pick a card in their line to ‘retire’ and it fires off everything on one side or the other, then slides the rest in place. This means that they have their existing power structure, and it does change and have good or bad days, but it’s just a matter of rearranging who’s in charge.

The idea I’m currently brewing here is the idea that any given game of Bloodwork has to feature an Old vampire and a New Vampire building out of a shared common deck, where the Old Vampire has the victory condition in their deck somehow, and it’s the job of the Young Vampire gang to find it out. That means the Young Vampire can be aggressive and have limited ways to handle being attacked, while the Old Vampire can be defensive and have limited ways to handle doing damage. In a lot of ways I’m borrowing from the concept space of Netrunner with this idea.

In the original form of the game, it was based on Liar’s Dice; players would roll a dice and then tell the truth or lie about what in their tableau fired. But you could lie, and another player could call you out, and if they did call you out, it meant you’d given up paying attention to one of a small pool of victory-point jackpots known as the ancient tombs.

In this new idea, the game becomes straight up head to head, but where Netrunner was a game of asymmetrical pieces with a pre-emptive deckbuild, the Old Vampires get a cache of cards to start with, and they view the street as a place to play, a way to deploy threats. They can rile up vampires on the street, making Young Vampires have to deal with them, or fight them, before they can recruit them. They can deprive the Young Vampires of access to Thralls, and choke off their resources.

That means the game is going to feature these Young/Old playmats, then along with that a collection of 120+ish cards. Of those cards, the majority will be Thralls, Vampires, Resources and Events, and then there will be the return to those Ancient Tombs that the Old Vampires are protecting as a base of their power, for consolidation and control. They’ll have the same back as other cards – and depending on what the Old Vampire is doing, those cards will rest in some space or other that other Vampires can try and attack.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[qingyingpocketlirary]

A Loong History Lesson 3

This is a post that has Key information for my Snapshots and Tea Collection series and also for information important to the backstory for The Spider Web Story.

It also contains some HEAD CANNONS. Please take note they are headcanons not Original to the Book JTTW or considered Cannon to the Lego Monkie Kid fandom while reading. 

Thank you!

A recap, for my stories there are five main Dragons, a father and four sons.

Qinglong - The Azure Dragon - Central - Multiple Elements. Ao Shun - Black Dragons - North - Ice Element. Ao Qin - Red/Yellow Dragons - South - Air/Wind Element. Ao Guang - White Dragons - East - Water Element. Ao Ji - Green Dragons - West - Fire Element.

Due to his attempt to rebel and later his attempt to ruin the good will between Heaven and his brothers and son, Ao Guang is now slumbering within a crystalline egg. His youngest son, Ao Bing rules the Eastern Dragon Clan in his father’s stead.

Ao Lie is the son of Ao Ji, and is currently on a journey with the pilgrims to the West.

After being rescued from the Brotherhood and Wukong’s return to the Pilgrims, Ao Lie notes Wukong’s behaviour is different. He does not attack demons on sight anymore, but this leads to more frequent kidnappings and problems, as proven when they pass into the Silken Hollow and instead of warning them of the danger, Wukong lets them get caught and deals with the matter himself by waiting for nightfall. When the Spider Queen Mother dismisses her daughters for the evening and also retires to her bed chamber, Wukong cuts himself free, then frees the Monk, Bajie, Wujing and Ao Lie and then spending a week playing a long game of cat and mouse with the Spider Queen and her daughters until the Pilgrims escaped the Hollow and left the Spiders behind.

This leads to a heated discussion between the Monk, Wukong and Ao Lie, (read, The Monk and Wukong are the ones discussing things while Ao Lie makes sure they don’t get out of hand while Bajie and Wujing keep their mouths shut and stay out of it). There is no resolution to the matter as they are found and attacked by The Lady Bone Demon for a second time and Wukong is badly injured while he shields Bajie and the Monk from an attempt at possession. They only escape because Ao Lie takes on the Bone Demon himself to give Bajie and Wujing time to get Wukong and the Monk away. After this fight, because of how much power and energy Ao Lie used to force the Bone Demon to flee, his hair has turned from black to white.

During the time Wukong is healing from the attempted possession, the pilgrims learn of the destruction of Silken Hollow and shortly thereafter, Bajie asks why Wukong saved them when he knew that with the Monk’s death, he would be free and Bajie had only ever hurt him.

This is when Ao Lie and the Monk learn what happened to Wukong during his banishment and that it was the Merciful Guanyin who, after Bajie and Wujing had told the story of how Ao Lie and the Monk had been taken by the Brotherhood, had given Wukong her promise that no harm would befall them from Heaven’s hands if Wukong sealed the Brotherhood within a Memory Scroll. 

When again asked why he saved Bajie, Ao Lie reminds them that Wukong is a Monkey and the oldest of the group. Monkey troops survive because they protect every member, even if they don’t get along.

(There is more that happens, but that is in the Jttw History to avoid spoilers.)

After the End of their Journey, Ao Lie returned and lived his life for a time traveling between the Eastern and Western Palaces, helping Ao Bing in his duties and maintaining a peaceful life, knowing his fellow pilgrims are still in good health and good spirits thanks to regular letters from them all, as well as the little basket of fruits, biscuits and cakes that turns up every year with a little peach-shaped card.

Until one day, the Monk, Bajie, Wujing and Ao Lie are called upon by the Third Lotus Prince Nezha, in hopes that they can assist in his efforts to help an infant who had been born with something beyond his control. The son of the Demon Bull King had been born with the Samadhi Fire ablaze within him, and after only a brief week of living, the fire had sprung forth and burned continually for the last several months, and though it was his birthright, the baby could not control the blaze and was in a state of constant pain.

Worse, the child was too young to cry or scream, and so instead the sound that came from the child was a choked, haunting laughter, even in times when extortion won out and the flames calmed ever so slightly, the child continued to laugh and cackle with the pain of the fire. After a lot of talking and explaining the matter, Ao Lie contented his Uncle, Ao Qin and with his help, drew up a ritual formula to remove the Samadhi Fire from the babe and form it into three rings.

The problem arose when Ao Lie explained that the ritual required those who had incredible chi and will, and while he was a dragon of fire, this flame was hot enough and powerful enough to hurt even him, and so he was unsuited to try and tame it. They would need someone else to help.

He suggested Wukong, and with some reluctance, the Demon Bull King agreed to it.

Wukong arrived timely, looking over the ritual, the babe and the Demon Bull King he had once called a brother and asked only where they needed him to stand and what he needed to do to help the child.

The ritual to remove the Samadhi Fire from the baby Bull Prince is long and hard, to the point that Bajie and Wujing are drained of their own chi to the point of exhortation very quickly, and thus, Ao Lie had taken over as guard to the Monk while Wukong, Nezha and the Demon Bull King focus on forming the three rings that will house the Samadi Fire. When Wukong is smacked down by a wayward burst of fire from the child who knows only how to laugh as the fire burns around him, Ao Lie sees the stray flame coming at the Monk and redirects some of his own chi to create a fourth, smaller ring within himself.

By the time the ring was formed, Wukong was back up, though he only made it to his knees before forcing the ring he had been focusing on to take more of the fire and allow Ao Lie, Nezha and the Demon Bull King to also push their own rings to form faster.

With the rings fully formed, Wukong stood up and dusted himself off, saying that was fun. Resulting in Nezha scolding the Monkey for a good five minutes before the Monk could ask if the child is safe, and the three parties part ways amicably. 

For a few months, Ao Lie was able to hide the pain the ring inside him was causing him, until one day he lost focus while out on a walk with Ao Bing and collapsed into a shallow river, only for that river to dry up entirely.

When Ao Lie woke, he and Ao Bing were at Flower and Fruit Mountain, the little monkeys hurrying back and forth with cold buckets of water and ice to help cool Ao Lie while Wukong, Ao Bing and Ao Ming worked on creating numbing pills. 

The Fourth Ring of Samadhi Fire could not be removed from Ao Lie’s body, as it was tied to his very chi. Removing it would forever leave Ao Lie weakened or possibly kill him. For many years, Ao Lie lived a calm life, helping Ao Bing and his sister Ao Ming ruling the West and East Seas, taking a mate later in life and siring three sons and a daughter, living happily, until one day, Ao Lie seemed to simply vanish.

No one has seen or heard from Ao Lie in many years.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And that's it for the Loong History in reguard to my works. I know this last post is short but I didn't want to spoil things that are going into my JTTW History

Next up on the list is the lore and how I see jttw in reguard to my works.

[tempcstucus]

( CIS WOMAN & SHE/HER  ) A KRISTEN STEWART lookalike has arrived in Myrkvjord, stepping onto the deck of THE MAELSTROM, their reputation either preceding them or waiting to be made. LIRA “THE STORM” BLACKWATER has survived THIRTY-FOUR years, and their name is already whispered in ports, feared by traders, or cursed by the clans. Some call them RUTHLESS, others say they are DETERMINED, but one thing is certain—their fate is bound to the sea. With their influence growing, they are set to either rule the waves or sink beneath them. You might know them as a FIRST MATE, but soon enough, they will be remembered as more. ( Ooc:  Moth, 28, EST & They/Them | No triggers )

THE BASICS

legal name: lenora ceallaigh

aliases: lira blackwater

nicknames: the storm

date of birth: december 21st

gender: cisgender woman

pronouns: she/her

sexual orientation: lesbian

romantic orientation: homoromantic

current age: thirty four

affiliation: pirates, wolfborn clan(formerly)

occupation: first mate of the maelstrom

known languages: english

INSPIRATION

quote: "envy shoots at others and wounds itself"

label or archetype: the green-eyed monster- desire for something you do not possess, watching others imagining it were you, being dissatisfied in life

tropes: the femme fatale, grass is greener, work hard play hard, deadpan snarker

media parallels: johanna mason (hunger games), vi (arcane), hobie brown (spiderman: across the spider-verse), harry hart (kingsman), summer smith (rick and morty)

theme song: numb little bug - em beihold, vampire - olivia rodrigo, a little respect - erasure

PERSONALITY

positive traits: incisive, forthright, observant, intelligent, resourceful

neutral traits: determined, reserved, idiosyncratic, sarcastic, impatient

negative traits: cunning, calculating, blunt, phlegmatic, opinionated

peeves: disobedience, inconsistency, dishonesty, failing to succeed, feeling inferior

fears: abandonment, losing her sense of self, existentialism, becoming useless

skills: persuasion, hand to hand combat, swordsmanship, strategic thinking, pattern recognition, strategizing, navigation

goals: leaving her family curse in the past, potentially becoming captain of the maelstrom

APPEARANCE

faceclaim: kristen stewart

height: 5' 5" (165.09cm)

eye color: grey

hair color: dark brown

clothing style: tends to dress in messy, tomboyish clothes when not on patrol. she likes to wear cutoff tank tops, but can be seen wearing baggy sweatshirts and cargo pants. also owns a variety of different t-shirts.

jewelry: wears a gold ring with the flag of the maelstrom on her left middle finger, has another ring resembling a compass typically worn on her right ring finger.

marks/scars: countless scars on both hands and knuckles, one running across the bridge of her nose from having it broken, a jagged scar under her left eye from a fight shortly after she became a pirate

scent/fragrance: sea salt and clove.

FAVOURITES

likes: singing shanties, drinking, navigating the sea, reading, playing games with other pirates

dislikes: lack of understanding, unpredictability, memories from her time in a clan, feeling alone

hobbies: stargazing, fishing, hunting, playing cards, whittling, boxing, journaling, chess, knife throwing, self defense, cooking

habits: irregular sleep schedule, procrastinates on cleaning, writes in her journal every day, tends to take the lead, thinks before speaking, engages in risky behavior

AESTHETICS

sight: black - nothing, the beginning

sound: a roar in the distance growing closer

taste: the salty iron of blood in your mouth

touch: the sting of scraping your knees on concrete

thought: the calm before a storm

HISTORY

(death and violence tw)

it's known in the wolfborn clan that everyone in the ceallaigh family meets an untimely fate, they're said to have cursed bloodline. the story goes that hundreds of years ago a member of their family killed a wolf and they've been cursed ever since.

lenora's parents died when she was about 12, in a battle with the ironblood clan. her and her younger sibling were left with their only living relative, conall, to take care of them and watch over them.

she had a few friends in the wolfborn clan, but largely most people avoided her because of the curse association and she had a tendency to get into mischief.

she was a wild child, constantly getting into fights or some other kind of trouble. as a kid, lenora was never where she should be, if she wasn't causing trouble she was in the woods.

at age 26, lenora and her younger sibling went into the woods to hunt, but were quickly overpowered and attacked by a wild animal. her sibling didn't survive the attack, dying from their wounds and lenora only survived because conall managed to find her and save her.

seeing the attack as a bad omen, the wolfborn clan elected to sentence conall to death, slitting his throat and tossing him into the sea. lenora witnessed his death and her violent tendencies only became more intense in her grief, to a point where the clan decided to exile her mere months after his "death".

after being exiled from her clan she changed her name to lira blackwater and became a pirate, nothing was left for her on land. she has been on several different ships and but has been on the maelstrom for 5 years. she started off as a lowly deckhand but gradually worked up to being a first mate.

HEADCANONS

she's had her fair share of flings, whenever the maelstrom is in port lira can be found in a pub ashore, attempting to flirt with her latest romantic interest. being on land only for short periods of time works out for her this way, it means she doesn't have to commit to relationships for long.

after being exiled from her clan lira wandered the land aimlessly for a short period of time, not sure what to do. by sheer chance she ended up in a port with a ship that was looking for extra hands and so her piracy began.

she's close with a few members of the crew, but lira doesn't let many people close to her. this is partially in fear that they'll learn about her past, but also because she doesn't find many pirates to be trustworthy. she can be caught participating in festivities with the crew.

likes to practice sword-fighting in her free time, it's a hobby she's taken up and actively enjoys. she can hold her own in a swordfight with ease and has won a few duels. she's considered moderately talented and is very useful in fights with other ships.

WANTED

exes: people she has been involved with on land or other pirates she's hooked up with

love interest: someone she's met who she really clicks with, they either don't care about her past or are outcasts in a similar way

friends: self-explanatory, can be other pirates or people she knows on land

crew: again, self-explanatory

enemies: people who don't like her for whatever reason, rival pirates, or any other kind of negative relationship

people from her past: people she knew in the wolfborn clan, whether it's old friends or people who disliked her.

[terrortwinz]

WM Night 1 thoughts:

NXT Stand and Deliver >>>> WM Night 1

My babygirl Sol Ruca FINALLY won the Women’s NXT NA Championship (she should’ve been the inaugural champ but that’s a rant for another day).

I knew Hank & Tank would defeat Fraxiom but in all honesty, I’m only ok with it if it means Fraxiom gets called up to dominate the main roster tag team division because they’re electrifying in an otherwise lackluster division.

The fatal four way for the Women’s championship was pretty good but for some weird reason Giulia and Stephanie really struggle with the flow and it takes them a long time to really start cooking with gas. There were no wrong answers as to who deserved the win and Stephanie is well deserving of the win but based on that match alone, Jordynne really held it together and probably earned the win a modicum more. Can’t wait for her to get her push in the future.

That NXT main event match between Oba, Trick, and Je’von was Match of the Night for me. Black excellence on full display. Everyone shined! I was deeply enthralled. Je’von really stepped up his game and proved to me why he deserved that spot. Trick’s best match which is really saying something because he’s gone up against some truly generational talents. Oba said it best himself - he is inevitable. He is my guy.

Jey v Gunther was fine. Decent build. Having Gunther tap out made him look like a bitch - he should’ve just passed out. Hate that finish. Happy for Jey’s success.

New Day v War Raiders wasn’t as bad as I expected. Glad New Day won. I’m living for heel New Day. Poor War Raiders had to dress up like Clash of Clans. I’m embarrassed for them.

Jade Cargill v Naomi was sadly underwhelming. I expected more ferocity from both of them. I wanted more from Naomi but her job was to make Jade look good and it fell a little flat for me. A couple of those final spots looked scary to me - I don’t trust Jade that much. I really hope this heel Naomi bit goes back to Bianca because I’m LOVING it.

Loved the Jacob Fatu v LA Knight match. Not much to say about it but they were well paired and I wouldn’t hate if this developed into a storyline. They have good chemistry.

I hate that I kinda liked the luchador match. I was watching with a bunch of dudes who are proud “brown-card holders” and they fucking love the Grande Americano bit. I was surprised. I think it’s offensive as hell but, you know, if it’s not offending them, then I’ll roll with it.

The Tiff v Charlotte match was very good. Very tense. I knew Tiffy could hold her own but damn did Charlotte take it out on her. Loved Tiffy’s intro so much. I really hope Tiffany didn’t break her tooth. 🤞

Another banger, cinematic triple threat match of the night. I had my money on CM Punk winning. It played out almost exactly how I expected any Roman Reigns match to go. I love how all the greats have a kryptonite and Roman’s will always be Rollins. I love that for them.

Speaking of Jesus Freaking Rollins, the messiah has returned to us on Easter Sunday. How deliciously blasphemous. Seth, you will always be famous.

All of their entrances were sick as hell. Seth literally burning it down and being reborn as the Messiah. Roman strutting down as the forefathers of the bloodline fall behind him on the video screens. CM Punk’s vignette and walk down to Living Color playing Cult of Personality live. Perfect. All of them.

And then the Paul Heyman of it all!!! I’m so interested in this new dynamic. Is Paul - famously Jewish, Paul - now a disciple of Seth’s?!!

Overall - NXT killed it, WM night 1 was kinda lackluster as a whole. Triple threats ROCK.

[jasper-tarot-reader]

Neopets/Skyrim Tarot: VI. The Lovers

The Lovers are...difficult for me to write a summary about. I'm aromantic and asexual, so despite the Lovers being one of my birth cards (alongside the Devil), I don't actually have a lot to say on it beyond its generic keywords. I do want to bring attention to the fact that both of the men in these cards are depicted as being taller and being the big spoon, indicating their positions as the protectors of each duo.

King Jazan the Red Kyrii and Queen Nabile the Pink Ixi are the current monarchs of the previously-cursed city of Qasala in the Lost Desert. Jazan is technically an Emperor and the fourth of his name, while Nabile used to be a member of the thieves known as the Desert Scarabs. The two of them falling in love broke part of the curse on Qasala, and when Jazan's undead father came back, Jazan was able to kill his undead father.

...You know, for a site marketed towards kids that doesn't like letting you say "die" on their forum boards, a lot of the official Neopets plots involve murder and undeath! Like, a lot of them!

Despite the common plot tools of killing off characters, relationships are not a common theme in Neopia. Most of the monarchs rule on their own (Queen Amidala, Queen Fyora, King Altador, King Skarl, King Hagan, King Kelpbeard...) and some are written off as having dead spouses, but most are just single. The only other explicitly romantic relationship I can think of in Neopia would be Hanso and Brynn, and they're on the Two of Cups (which fits those two perfectly, let's be real). So yeah, I would say that Jazan and Nabile are a good duo for the Lovers.

It's well-known that Jon Battle-Born and Olfina Gray-Mane are secretly in a relationship. But...nothing happens in-game in regards to that. You can't do anything with it, nothing is resolved, and it doesn't even seem like their families actually give a shit with how unsubtle they are. It reeks of cut content, but then again, everything in Skyrim reeks of cut content. So much so that people have made mods just to resolve this whole situation.

The Battle-Born and Gray-Mane clans used to be friends as close as family before Skyrim's civil war started. The Gray-Manes are pro-Stormcloak, while the Battle-Borns are Imperial Legion-aligned (and even sold out Thorald Gray-Mane to the Imperial Legion and Thalmor Embassy, which is part of a quest that you can actually play through). Despite the new tension between the families, Jon and Olfina are still close.

Despite the guidebook saying that Jon and Olfina have overcome "their different viewpoints" and found love, but in-game, you never get the feeling that either of them are as serious about the civil war as the rest of their clans. In fact, Jon actively wants to leave to head to the Bard's College and become a true bard (instead of Mikael-the-womanizer, whom Jon calls a milk-drinker, which is what the Nords say instead of calling someone a little bitch) but his parents won't let him go.

But like...who else would be put in here? There's not much in terms of established relationships in Skyrim either - usually the biggest marriage you hear about in the game is yours, provided you do the Mara quests. So how about Mara herself? Her whole thing is that her church enables proper marriage for anyone regardless of gender or...well, species, since even harpies can get married. To the Redguards, Mara is Morwha, the favored wife of Akatosh or Ruptga and depicted with four arms so she can "grab more husbands". To the Bretons, whom see her through the Benevolence of Mara, her temple is partnered with the Temple of Stendarr - another partnership. To the Nords, she is Mother Wolf, Kyne's handmaiden and one of Shor's concubines. Like, this is literally Mara's major thing.

I won't complain too much though, at least we have Skyrim characters on a card in the Skyrim Tarot. That's better than some of the cards coming up later in this deck...

[jeskaim]

Tarkir: Dragonstorm

Now that the entire set has pretty much been spoiled I think it's time for me to share my thoughts. I thought about doing one post for each clan in Tarkir but I decided to just do one since the mechanics of each one don't need much explanation.

These planeswalkers are INSANE, especially Ugin. In colorless decks like Tron you can keep exiling your opponent's permanents which can get out of hand pretty quickly. Then that ultimate can be a game-ender if you have enough mana. Elspeth can also build a board of 1/1 soldier tokens with her +1 and once you have enough you can use her 0 ability to give them +1/+1 counters and flying to wipe out your opponent. Combined with the Mardu mechanic of mobilize or the Abzan mechanic of endureyou can easily get a ton of tokens to overwhelm your opponent.

Back when we first went to Tarkir the Jeskai were my favorite clan and the subject of my first strategic deck built around their prowess ability. This time around I like how they sort of kept the theme of casting smaller spells for big payoffs in the Jeskai ability of flurry. The only difference is that it applies to all spells instead of just noncreature spells to trigger flurry. Taigam, Master Opportunist is a powerful card and I can see being as strong as his lore rival Narset in commander with the right build. Four time counters is a bit much though.

Back when I first got back into MTG the Mardu intro pack (remember those?) was the first one I got so even though they're not my favorite clan I still have a soft spot for them. Considering that the Mardu are based on the Mongolian hordes it's not surprising that their mechanic triggers with creatures attacking. Even if you have to sacrifice the tokens at the end of the turn with enough creatures with mobilize you can slowly chip away at your opponent's life total and win.

One of the cards that surprised me the most from this set was Songcrafter Mage. I mean it's pretty much Snapcaster Mage but for one more mana but you can tap your creatures to reduce the cost of the spell by the power of the creature tapped for it. It's only a few dollars on Cardkingdom which is surprising for me. I guess the extra mana compared to Snapcaster Mage makes a huge difference in constructed formats.

Back when Khans first came out I remember how powerful the Sultai mechanic of delve was to the point two cards with it had to be banned. I'm glad their mechanic of renew keeps the graveyard theme where you fill your graveyard with cards to exile them for powerful effects. It seems like a fitting mechanic for the Sultai.

Now for everyone's favorite clan when it came to drafting this set: the Abzan. Considering that the Abzan Houses symbol is a dragon scale to represent their endurance and just like their original mechanic of outlast their ability lets you put +1/+1 counters on your creatures to make them stronger. I like how the endure mechanic also references their worship of their ancestors by giving you the option to create a 1/1 white creature token instead of putting a +1/+1 counter on the creature when it attacks.

Another card that surprised me in this set is a reprint of a classic commander staple: Craterhoof Behemoth. This is sure to bring the price down as well as make a considerable impact on Pioneer. I'm not sure it's fast enough for Standard but it's still a game ender.

For the rare land cycle I was expecting dual lands like we usually get in standard sets but considering that Tarkir is built around wedges dual lands don't really fit and instead we get mono-colored lands for each clan that enter untapped if you control a basic land type of one of the other two colors with an effect that goes with the corresponding clan. I don't see these seeing much play except for Mistrise Village which can come in handy against control matchups. Cori Mountain Monastery also has some potential in aggro decks when you run out of cards in your hand.

That's all for Tarkir: Dragonstorm. I plan on getting some cards for my Sarkhan deck once the set comes out next Friday and the prices start to come down a little because the ones I want are way too expensive. Even the dragon-eye basics are $6.99 a piece. Right now I'm saving up for a playset of Mox Opals and the Jeskai dual lands so once I get those I'll get the dragon-eye basics for Sarkhan. I don't know if I'm going to go to prerelease tomorrow but if I do it'll be to play some commander like I always do.

[avaritia-apotheosis]

Bid A Strong Ghost Stand at the Head Ch. 2

A DPxDC crossover // Read on [AO3]

← Previous Chapter // MASERLIST // Next Chapter →

◆◆◆

It had been twenty-four hours since they brought Danny to the cave. During that period, the entirety of Bruce’s assortment of children and associates had come down to visit the cave in order to gawk at Damian’s brother.

Damian, they learned, was quite the mother hen. He refused to let any of the clan crowd Danny’s bedside, with the exception of Alfred—who knew how to care for Danny’s wounds best—and Cass—because it was Cass.  

Despite it coming at the cost of Danny’s health, it was rather nice to see everyone under one roof and being someone amicable. Tim, Steph, and Barbara, however, couldn’t stay long. Tim and Barbara both had their own work to prioritize and Steph had some assignments she really needed to focus on. In their absence, Dick, Jason, and Cass decided to drag one of the Cave’s smaller training mats near the infirmary to sit on while they played a card game. 

Uno, judging by the amount of swears Bruce heard. 

“It’s weird,” Jason said. 

“What is?” Dick asked.

“It’s weird to see Danny of all people so banged up.” 

“Speaking of, you never really did go into your relationship with him.”

“Well, what’s there to say? He was my trainer. He taught me almost as much as Bruce did— which is really weird considering the guy was like fourteen when I met him.”

“Ok so he’s a ridiculously strong assassin prodigy. Horrifying implications aside, what’s he like though?”

“Well— a +3, Cass? Really? I have ten cards now.”

“Ha!” Dick laughed. “Serve you right for— no, not blue! That’s the only card I don’t have!”

“Fuck you, Dick.” Jason sniffed. “Anyway, there’s not really much I can actually say about Danny. Sure, I spent the better part of a year with the guy but I never really got to know him. Or, at least, he never let himself be known. It’s…honestly a little freaky how good he is at appearing so open and friendly while being so secretive.”

There was a pregnant pause and a shuffling of cards. Bruce couldn’t really focus on the cases sitting in front of him.

“He always looked so untouchable in the League,” Jason began. “He was goofy, yeah. Had puns for days. And the monks loved him; apparently Danny picked up all that inner peace stuff really quickly. But there was this weird, I don’t know, way he looked at things, as if he was nothing more than an observer. Like no matter what shitstorm befell the world, it wouldn’t matter to him.

“You know, there was this one time that the pit madness really got to me and I tried to strangle Danny. Do you know what he did?” A chuckle. “The motherfucker laughed. As if I didn’t have my thumbs digging into his throat.”

◆◆◆

Danny woke at around midnight.

Bruce looked at (your son, the brain supplied. Son is a word he is intimately familiar with. The shape of the letters worn and softened with time, always at the tip of his tongue but never courageous enough to leave it. Son is a word infused with devotion and responsibility. Joy and sorrow. Pride and an endless sea of should’ve-would’ve-could’ve and most of all Love.)

(But this word— this word that is given to him looks familiar but is at the same time not.)

Bruce looked at a son. A son that is his by virtue of blood and genetics and how could anyone deny the boy’s parentage when Danny looks the spitting image of Bruce at seventeen. World weary and lost and looking for purpose.

He watched as the boy pushed himself up onto his forearms, eyes darting across his surroundings—lingering for a moment on Damian’s sleeping face on a nearby cot— before resting on Bruce.

Danny smiled, tilting his head. “Hello, Mr. Wayne.”

Bruce inclined his head “Danny. How are you feeling?”

“Oh, right as rain. Thanks for patching me up. I could’ve done it myself but digging that seed out would’ve been a hassle.”

“It was no trouble at all.”

Silence. 

Bruce bit the inside of his cheek.

What exactly was he supposed to say in this situation?

His eyes slid over to the roll of bandages on a nearby table. “Bandages,” he said. “You’re about due to have them changed.”

Danny’s hand flew to his abdomen, pressed against the spot where his wound would be. “Oh you don’t have to do that.”

“I insist.”

“No, really, you don’t have to.”

“It’s important to replace the bandages often to keep the wound clean and free from infection.”

“Trust me, Mr. Wayne, it’s really unnecess—” Danny sighed. “You know what, fuck it.” He quickly began to unravel his bandaged torso, tossing the wad of gauze into the nearest trash can. Frowning at the neat stitches on his side, he turned to Bruce. “Do you have some scissors?”

“What are you—” Bruce bit down on his question. 

There was…nothing. The hole that Alfred sutured closed was just gone, the skin unmarred except for the rows of black thread crisscrossing over it. 

Danny chuckled. “You know, sometimes I wonder that myself.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Who knows?” Danny shrugged, his hand outstretched. “Now how about those scissors?”

“Not until you answer my questions.”

Danny dropped his hand. “Well Mr. Wayne, while I appreciate everything you’ve done for me, it’s really none of your business.”

“As your father, I’d like to think it is.”

He laughed. “The seventeen years I grew up without a father say otherwise.”

Bruce flinched. “You cannot blame me for your mother’s lies.”

“No, you’re right. I can’t. But it doesn’t change the fact that, well, we’re basically strangers.” Danny slid out of his bed and took the scissors from a nearby tray. “I like you Mr. Wayne, I really do.” He began to carefully snip off the threads. “You’re a hero, you’re a good man, and Damian and mother love you—” he cut the last thread with an air of finality. “But that doesn’t mean that you’re privy to my life.”

Danny pulled out the stitches with careful slowness, and Bruce could see the wounds in his skin slowly knit itself back together.

Bruce’s breath hitched. “You’re a meta.”

“Sure. Let’s go with that.”

“I take it this relates to the green flecks in your blood.”

“Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t.”

“Was this another one of Ra’s al Ghul’s experiments?”

Danny blinked owlishly, tilting his head. “Ra’s al Ghul wouldn’t have been so wary of me if it was. Now, is my shirt still salvageable by any chance? I don’t wanna impose on you anymore than I already have, so if I could just get my shirt back, I’ll be on my way.”

Bruce…Bruce didn’t really know what to think. He rubbed his face, fingers pinching the bridge of his nose. “Why don’t you stay for a bit longer? Damian’s been worried sick about you and it would hurt him if you left without saying goodbye.”

Danny paused. For a brief moment his face morphed into something pained; a cross between a grimace and wary resignation. And for all that youth clung to Danny’s features, there was a moment in time where he looked so old .

Then the moment passed, and Danny once again played the stubborn and petulant teenager that pouted when things didn’t go his way. “Fine,” he groaned with an exaggerated whine. With a huff he sat back down on the cot, legs drawn up and crossed in front of him. “I’ll stay, but only because Damian would bite my head off if I didn’t.”

“Alright.”

“And no more questions. If I get interrogated by the freaking Batman then I’m out .”

“Reasonable enough.”

Danny narrowed his eyes in suspicion but said nothing else, settling into his cot.

Bruce sat back down in front of the cave’s computer and began rifling through cases.

The silence between them stretched like a vast cavern.

Faintly, Bruce could make out Danny’s reflection from the monitor screen. His shoulders were rigid, arms painfully straight and clutching at his crossed ankles. The fringe of his black hair fell past his eyes and was aggressively swiped away.

Poison Ivy remained at large, but she had gone underground. A bit of groundwork revealed that she had gone the Synototech research facility because they were experimenting with suicide seeds— technology that’s internationally banned from field testing and commercial use. And considering the controversy of Synototech’s attempts to create a seed monopoly in agricultural sectors of third world countries by patenting its modified seeds, well… Batman was in no hurry to chase after Poison Ivy.

The bed Danny sat on creaked. Through the reflection, Bruce watched the boy slowly pad his way to Damian’s cot. Danny crouched down, hovering his hand over Damian’s head for a moment before gently running his fingers through the short strands.

“I rarely get to see him like this, you know?” Danny murmured.

Like what?  

Bruce held his tongue.

“He always has that scowl on his face,” Danny said, a smile in his voice. “Almost makes you forget what he looks like without it. He was really cute when he was a baby. All fat round cheeks and gummy smiles. He always loved it when people gave him attention.”

The corner of Bruce’s mouth twitched. He almost couldn’t imagine it. Damian, a bubbly bundle of joy. Damian, with chubby fists and the infectious bright laugher of a baby. Damian turning and crawling and stumbling through his first steps. Damian babbling sounds until he finally learned how to make sense of words and shape them to his will.

He wished—

If only he could have—

“I would have given anything in the world to have been there.”

Danny looked up. Bruce turned his chair to meet his gaze. 

“I know.”

With a soft groan, Danny settled himself on the ground beside Damian, idly petting his hair. “You know, when I was younger I had this crazy idea to take Damian and run away from the League. I thought about it a lot. Had a good couple of plans on how to take Damian out, too. It would have been so easy . I imagined grabbing Damian and scaling the compound walls. I’d strap him to my back and we’d make our way to the nearest village and somehow, somewhere, I’d be able to get a message out. And you’d be able to find us.”

“Did you ever try?” Bruce swallowed the lump in his throat, the taste of the desert fresh on his tongue. Hot and dry and too full of possibilities that could have been.

“Not once. It was a stupid plan with more holes than swiss cheese and more risks than I wanted to put Damian through. Well, the League was risky, too, but that was something I knew. I could predict. Finding a way to contact you when all I knew about your identity was that you were The Batman and having to sit tight while the entire League of Shadows would be hell bent on catching us though?” He chuckled. “We wouldn’t have a ghost of a chance of holding out.”

“And so you stayed.”

“And so I stayed.”

“Will you go back to it?”

Danny shrugged. “Maybe? If mother asked for my help then I will, but the only reason I stayed at the League for as long as I did was because of Damian. Now that he’s out, there’s not much reason for me to stick around there.”

“And…if Damian asked you to stay here?”

There was something almost pitiful in the smile Danny sent him. “You have enough children, Mr. Wayne.”

“It doesn’t change the fact that you are one of mine.”

“In this world.” 

Bruce blinked. “What?”

Danny startled, then frantically shook his head. “No— no, ignore that. I don’t…just forget I said anything.”

Before Bruce could press further, Danny pointed a finger at him.” Remember, you said that you wouldn’t interrogate me.”

Bruce huffed, conceding defeat. “I guess I did.”

For now.

[relleytrots]

So, i'm making a list out of all the stuff people recommended for V:TM but also i'm interested to see what fans say. I guess this is your "please info dump to a newbie if you have time" card. Like anything at all you wanna share about V:TM I'm 100% open to reading! I'm particularly interested in the Salubri clan for some silly reason so especially if you have anything related to them I'd love to hear it!

I don't do so great with "anything at all" as a prompt, my brain ain't wired that way, but you gave me SALUBRI and that I can do something with.

Salubri fascinate me as a writer/developer/storyteller kind of person because they're one of those concepts that is... fascinating as a game function, and a metaplot element, but kinda hard to break down into an actual character? To the point that, when V5 first reintroduced them, it basically said: concept doesn't matter. The fact that they are Salubri is going to be enough to bend the chronicle around them. They are vanishingly rare, hunted to extinction because they taste good and have been subjected to centuries of propaganda, and Who They Were is massively less important than What They Are.

This flies in the face of everything Vampire: the Masquerade tells you a player character should be, especially V5. When the Companion came out, Justin Achilli all but sat you down, put a fatherly hand on your shoulder and said "you're not supposed to play these, but this layout is how we communicate information." Because that worked so well before. Everyone who has ever Posted about wanting to play a Baali or a Blood Brother or a Harbinger of Skulls, raise your hands.

And in the past, I too have tripped and fallen over this root in the ground. The Salubri PC in my very first Dark Ages game was a big part of that game's failure. I was in my late teens and had absolutely no idea how to manage a PC with a secret that must be kept but was also tied to core operations of their characters and the high octane introduction blew the whole secret sky high and that game was, in short, a wet fart.

But I have seen Salubri played. My friend and illustrator @sluggybunny had a genuinely monstrous Salubri OC who was driven by the same compulsion to help as the rest of his clan, but did it in the stupidest possible way. He was one of the Seven - the Salubri Embraced by elders whomst they then diablerise, coming into vampirism as a member of the eighth generation and far more powerful than the average fledgling - and he took that as a template. Eating souls made him stronger. It would make you stronger. Diablerie was the answer to all of your problems. He was everything the Tremere propaganda said the Salubri were, and he was also a stupid sexy white trash twentysomething who looked great in a mesh top, fucked like a jackhammer, and mostly communicated in emo lyrics. Total villain protagonist.

And I think that's the key to playing a Salubri. Their circumstances demand that they hide - their Blood and its powers literally compel them to help. The Player's Guide has both their rules and four good hooks for hanging a character off. The Seeker after Truth would fit right in with my Dark Ages coterie, the Reluctant Healer is not a million miles away from one of my friends (you know who you are), the Monster Against Monsters is the classic "paladin in a party of murderhobos" odd man out and the Spy For Hire is the mercenary flip on that, asking what kind of skills a Salubri would accumulate to survive and what else they might do with them.

You will need to do something quite crucial, though. Salubri, as a clan, are tied to the concept of Golconda. The concept of Golconda is very badly defined in the game, for reasons that I've written about before, and you are going to have to do the work on figuring out what Golconda is for you (and, hypothetically, if you actually want to play one, for your Storyteller and the people at your table, because that's something that needs to be consistent for everyone).

I hope this is good. I don't tend to Consume Content about Vampire or recommend that as an approach - you'll learn more from closely reading the rulebook and thinking about your favourite vampire stories and why they work and then reading good historical fiction and scholarship. It may also help to watch/read the stuff that's atomic to Vampire, or emblematic of it because of parallel evolution. Here's some movie recs to get you started.

If you'd like a Salubri character sheet knocked up, I could do that! That's a thing I do sometimes. Let me know.

[ecofmaster]

Making actually good updates to Clash Royale every day until Supercell fixes their stupid game

I teased this idea before but this much of a hot mess is hard to fix

Day 9: Clan Wars

Clan Wars is hot garbage. There is no better way to describe it. It's just a mess.

Change 1: Leveling

Clan Wars is actually very different from the main game (shocker, I know) and one of the main differences are the decks. In Clan Wars, you have four decks that can only be used once every battle day. But each card in those decks use the levels the person playing with the deck has for those cards. Most f2p players only have the resources to upgrade their main deck, which means a grand total of 12 severely under leveled cards will be in the clan decks. This is such a dumb system, and it would be much better if all cards in Clan Wars were level 11, aka the "challenge level".

Change 2: Boat Battles

Remove boat battles. They are not fun and half the player base doesn't know they exist.

Change 3: War Battles

So another big difference between the main game and Clan Wars are the battles. There are two ways to battle; boat battles (which I said just to delete), and the event challenges. Clan Wars is basically the only place you can play Clash variants like touchdown or infinite elixir against people besides your friends. But only a few of these are available at a time. I propose a different system. Players can choose between any variant available in Clan Wars today, or they can play a different mode that picks the variant for the players. The picking mode would award much more progress in the war than a game where you pick the mode, do you can design a deck specifically for one mode and play try your hand at that, or use a general deck or something you are good at to see if you can win the harder random mode challenge. Also remove the three deck game. It's not fun, and random variant mode can just take its place.

Change 2?: Boat Battles

Ok so the reward system for Boat Battle wins is actually pretty cool, but the actual games are horrible, so I'm going to try to fix this, but it may still be trash.

So in Boat Battles the levels matter a lot more. Not only are your troops levels the same as their actual levels, but your king tower level also affects the Boat turrets. So just like before, everything has to default to level 11, except the turrets.

A level 11 turret is kinda trash, so they get a rework. Boat defences now use tower troops instead of turrets. The tower troops are the exact same as they would be at level 11, expect for the health, which is 3x what it is in regular games. Each boat defense also produces elixir at 1.5x regular elixir production speed, but they all have 4 less card slots, so use those wisely.

Boat Battles are already pretty hard, usually taking multiple decks for a full clear, but I probably made them so much harder by upping the elixir production of Boat defences, so I'm giving the attacker more time (3:30 to be exact) and every minute will higher the player elixir production.

Lastly, because card levels don't matter, Boat defences should now all be worth the same and should need to be attacked in order. But if one Boat defense has already been attacked, it has to be finished off before you can move to the next.

Change 4: Aesthetics

The theme of Boat Wars doesn't really fit with the rest of Clash Royale in my opinion. There are at least a million different ways you could solve this, but in my opinion an aesthetic change is needed for Clan Wars.

Let's see if this Clan Wars 3 idea is as bad as the other two.

[corals-corner]

Headcannons it is :D

Starting with Queen:

She is a Clash of Clans goddess (look the game up if you don't know what it is)

She's responsible for making some of the most difficult Geometry Dash levels--again, look up the game if you SOMEHOW don't know what it is xP

Despite being a Windows XP computer, she can somehow change her own background theme in Hometown, causing anyone who sees it to get utterly confused and distressed

She cares for Noelle so much partly because she can sympathize with her on a level nobody else can

Going off the previous hc, I think she may have had a parent of hers die when she was young, assuming she had parents lol Idk

She secretly thinks Berdly's pretty cool despite all she did to him

She knows things about Kris, Susie, Berdly and ofc Noelle, partly because all of them have used her Lightner computer form at least a few times

Water wouldn't harm Queen, she's too OP for that

Queen didn't show up in Card Kingdom until she was in her early 20s, and likely didn't stay there for even a decade

Queen's in her early 30s by the time we meet her in-game, in my eyes 31-33

Now for Spade King, some might be the same as yours :>

Spade King didn't have the best parenting growing up and was always under heavy scrutiny/criticism, likely from a combination of anger issues and his parents having super high expectations

He hung out with the other kings but always felt like an outlier and felt left out, but never mentioned it to them. He never fully trusted them in terms of leadership skills and general competence

Spade King's parents either passed away or vanished somehow when he was a late teen and he had to learn how to be a ruler at a younger age. I personally think all the kings come from royal families, and Spade King's parents were the first to go. This forced Spade King to cooperate with the other, much older royals, which he did not like at all

C. Round was kinda Spade King's version of a family pet and one of the very few Darkners he actually enjoyed hanging out with as a child, and because of this he later let C. Round roam free as it pleased and never put any restrictions on it

Spade King absolutely hated Jevil even before Jevil went insane. I like to think Jevil went insane while all four kings were in charge, and before that often did acts for the kings' parents. Jevil would often target and tease Spade King when he was young, albeit in a silly and playful manner, but Spade King always held grudges against him for it

Seam is one of the very few Darkners Spade King respects, hence why Seam is just chillin' in their shop with no need to attack or imprison Kris & Susie in the first chapter. Spade King always liked Seam because Seam would often interact with him in a calm and compassionate manner when he was a child

Spade King always tried to make room for Lancer despite his very busy job, and was often the one who cooked for his son

Spade King knew how incompetent Rouxls Kaard acted but always believed Rouxls had tons of secret potential he was wasting away, hence why he promoted him to Duke of Puzzles in an attempt to get Rouxls to show his true colors, albeit it didn't work lol

Spade King mandated that all Rudinn Rangers wear visors to protect their faces so they don't accidentally hurt themselves with their longer knives, guards aren't really competent if they accidentally harm themselves all the time xP

One year for Halloween Spade King had Lancer dress up as a pumpkin while he himself dressed up as a blueberry, who says kings can't have a little fun sometimes?

Spade King's in his mid-to-late 30s in-game, likely around 34-37

Spade King is a coffee addict, Idc if you don't like coffee you have to admit the guy needs something to keep him functioning during the day

That is all :)

A LOT :DDDDD

Queenie my beloved

1. As someone who used to play that with certain hacks and cheats, she would absolutely spend hours attacking other clans and villages whenever she was bored. She'd like the Pekas and maybe the Archers

2. I will never forgive her for her crimes against my eyes and self esteem when it came to those levels.

3. Hehe she likes confusing people

4. AUGH FUUUUCK. Ok, this reminds me on the trans Noelle hc people have, and that with my own trans Queen hc, I can totally see queen maybe seeing a bit of herself in Noelle and wants to help her in many other things

5. Personally, my hc is that her parents were quite neglectful, not usually out of melisious intent, but because they didn't really understand how to take care of a child, but she always held them close to her heart, so despite everything, she would have still been really upset when this happened

6. BERDLY! Ngl, I always imagined that she wouldn't have minded spending more time with him, but because her objective required Noelle and not him, she kinda pushed him away in order to achieve her goal.

7. What has she seen in these guys search history

8. Thank god. Lancer would probably have done the water bucket above the door prank lmao

9. I always imagined darkners could travel between dark worlds, but I do see her not going to Card Kingdom until later, most likely due to a arranged marriage with King

10. That's actually pretty close to where I see her, but I tend to see her and King in a similar age, so personally I'd say between 35-40, but you're age seems more likely lmao

Now to Kingy :D

1. Abso-fucking-lutely. This man did not have a stable childhood which affected him with how he patented Lancer. Not even the previous monarchs liked his parents too much

2. I feel like he and the other king fought alot, both as kids and as adults. None of them fully trusted each other

3. Yeah, I imagin he was crowed between 17 or 18, so he was still very young and waa definitely not suitid to rule, epessilly along side monarchs he would have otherwise avoided. Not to mention they probably dismissed him since they were all older and experienced in ruling and didn't think he had any good input.

4. THATS SO CUUUTE!!! I can see baby king outside playing with c.round trying to teach him silly tricks and showing him off

5. Ngl, I see why you(and alot of other lol) think this, but personally, I like to think they were close. Historically, kings and jester were actually pretty close and the kings allowed jesters to do alot, so I like to implement that into dr.. it is fucked that he went after King when he was just a child. That is fucked and I understand why King held grudges (I would too lmao)

6. Lowkey, I love imaging that Seam is old as fuck and they often took care of baby king, sort of the same way Rouxls cares for Lancer, and he began referring Seam as a parental figure, sometimes accidently calling them "Mom" when he was tired

7. YES KING ALWAYS TRIED TO MAKE TIME FOR LANCER DESPITE HIS JOB IDC WHAT ANYONE ELSE SAYS HE LOVED HIS SON. Also hc king loves cooking for Lancer and always tried to cook himself, though it was rare considering he was usually busy

8. My man thought. Rouxls is definitely op but he's also pretty stupid when it comes to his powers and doesn't know how to use them to his full ability, despite the help and, let's be honest, threats from King, or hell, maybe even the other kings.

9. Now I'm just imaging the Rudinn Rangers out there fighting without any protection and the king are like "That's fine" while king flips his shit over their safety.

10. PUMPKIN LANCER AND BLUBERRY KING!!! King crying every time he sees Lancer in the costume because he's so god damn adorable. And King in a bluberry costume because fuck those people who think kings are always supposed to be serious and not have any fun

11. Absolutely. A chaotic son as well as a naturally chaotic kingdom and castle? He needs something to keep him going. This with his sweet tooth means he would Absolutely love mochas because of the added sugar and chocolate.

Oh boy this was long :'DDD

It was fun though :D

[thecommandertable]

Lost Caverns of Ixalan Artisan Set Review: Part 1

Which common and uncommon cards in Lost Caverns of Ixalan might make their way into your Artisan Commander decks? Part 1 will cover the monocolor cards, and Part 2 will cover the multicolor and artifact cards. Let's take a look:

White

Manglehorn is an existing card but doesn't see much play in Artisan. Making your opponents' artifacts enter tapped has a larger impact in regular EDH where it hits mana rocks like Grim Monolith and Mana Vault, not to mention slowing down big treasure makers like Dockside Extortionist and Smothering Tithe. In all, I don't expect to see too much of Dauntless Dismantler in Artisan games.

Blue

An upgrade over Supreme Will, which sees some play. Putting the extra cards into the graveyard instead of the bottom of the library is relevant for spells decks with payoffs that count the number of instants/sorceries in the graveyard: Crackling Drake, Gandalf's Sanction, Rise from the Tides, etc.

Black

The closest comparison is to Infernal Grasp. Bitter Triumph can hit planeswalkers, but there aren't very many of those in Artisan. The larger difference is the flexibility in the additional cost: when you don't want to pay life you can discard a card instead and vice versa. Some decks, such as reanimator, want discard outlets anyway. I expect to see Bitter Triumph at similar rates as Infernal Grasp and Go For the Throat.

A Deadly Dispute that creates a Map token instead of a Treasure. A lot of decks that run Deadly Dispute will want this card too: Juri, Gut, Thalisse, etc.

This card's pretty interesting. It has shades of Deadly Wanderings to it, except that it only needs you to attack with a single creature instead of controlling only one creature, which is a pretty significant difference. Obviously, you'll want to put this in a deck that can attack with a single large creature. This card's not worth running over a card like Ancient Craving if you're not going to profit off the front side. I'm thinking something like Yargle or Rael Rilsa.

Ichor Wellspring is played in lots of decks that like to sacrifice artifacts. Mephitic Draught is essentially a second copy for black decks.

This card's not far from Doomed Necromancer, which has always struck me as a rare that's ripe for a downshift. The finality counter and sorcery speed are a bit of a bummer, but Soulcoil Viper is something to consider when building Barrowin of Clan Undurr, or if/when they downshift Alesha, who Smiles at Death (fingers crossed)

Any self-mill deck that can easily get four or more permanent cards into its graveyard will like this little guy. Deathtouch means you will often be able to find someone to attack who doesn't want to block, and in a pinch you can leave it back to dissuade a big creature from attacking you.

Red

I'll talk about Caparocti Sunborn when I get to the multicolor cards, but yeah, if you plan on discovering a lot, this card seems deece.

It's a red Prying Blade except: A) it's indestructible, B) it gives an extra point of toughness, and C) gives you the treasure on attack, not when it hits an opponent. Overall that's pretty good.

This card looks excellent in an artifact-heavy deck. It can provide creatures haste in a pinch on its front side, but flipping it shouldn't be very hard, in which case it turns into a land with a very powerful activated ability. Even if you never use that second ability, it's still a card that ramps you.

It's going to be fairly difficult to trigger descend every turn, even in decks that go out of their way to sacrifice stuff. Keep in mind that tokens are not cards, so sacrificing treasures or Eldrazi Spawn tokens or whatever won't trigger this. That said, getting just two or three treasures out of a two-mana creature is pretty good, and it has two relevant creature types.

Sunshot Militia is yet another creature that goes infinite with Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator and a way to turn it into a pirate. Aside from that, it's still a card with a ton of potential. It works great with Curiosity effects, for one thing. But any deck that has lots of stuff hanging around, be it treasure tokens, food tokens, equipment, or dispensable creature tokens could use Sunshot Militia to deal good chunks of damage at low cost.

Great for my Syr Carah deck.

Green

Ok so a lot of these dinosaur payoffs I'm skipping over because the red-green signpost dinosaur legendary doesn't look very compelling as a commander- I'll get to it in Part 2- but Earthshaker Dreadmaw is a house.

This card reminds me of Afiya Grove, which not only is a rare but also on the reserved list. And Explorer's Cache is... better? It enters with one fewer counters on it, but gives you a lot more control over when you dole out the counter (a big mark against Afiya Grove is that you have to give the +1/+1 counter to an opponent's creature if you don't control any creatures), and of course, it recoups counters if your creatures die. I'd put Explorer's Cache into any deck that has a lot of +1/+1 counter synergies and proliferate. It also works very well with Kami of Whispered Hopes.

Poison Dart Frog looks like a decent mana dork/rattlesnake card. Pretty nice that it can block a creature with flying, then tap to help pay for its own deathtouch ability. That said, I wouldn't run a two-drop mana dork if I don't need the mana fixing; if I just want to ramp, I'd go with Llanowar Elves/Elvish Mystic/Fyndhorn Elves instead.

This is the biggest, baddest green mana sink we've gotten in Artisan. Previously the best was probably Centaur Glade. Sachi decks will be able to use this, and maybe(?) Rishkar and/or Tatyova decks. If you're making infinite mana with something like Devoted Druid + Vizier of Remedies, I'd recommend putting that mana into something like Goblin Cannon for the win; as cool as turning all your lands into 7/7s is, you have a limited supply of them, and they don't have trample-- you don't want to pass the turn only to have them all destroyed by a Slaughter the Strong or Kirtar's Wrath.

Alright, that's all the monocolor cards! See Part 2 for multicolor and artifact cards!

[colleenmurphy]

"If something happens to me I want you to look after Dolly for me, Bear."

His younger brother's use of both his own pet name and Gator's girl's nickname alarmed him. Gator wasn't the soft type, he never could afford to be except around Colleen Delaney who lived down on Whitehouse Road. Her large green eyes and long dark hair made her look almost fae like. She was a manager down at the one and only gas station mini mart in town Red Apple Convenience, known by the locals as Pop's as it was owned and operated within the Delaney family for nearly as long as Okeechobee, the town of Copperline's closest neighbor, was founded. Col's grandad, Rabbie Delaney won the land in a card game and set up shop when he found out just how busy the tract of land alongside it now known as the State Route 78. Going on fif-seven years now every single Delaney within Robert James 'Rabbie' Delaney's direct family line has served behind the counter or out in the garage by the fuel pumps or in the tiny cook house where almost all of the food served there is made fresh daily and seasonally. Col was the eldest and only granddaughter and descended from the Sheehan clan maternally, a serious stern faced warm hearted quick tempered bunch from over the line into the hills of Georgia, moonshine runners. The Delaney side was equally quick tempered but the fire the slowly built and they could sniff out a liar and cheat in a second. Given her innocent large green eyes, an Irish ancestor throw back and her creamy complexion Gator had taken to calling her Dolly way back in Miss Keating's first grade class and it stuck. Just last week there was an attempted hold up situation on Dolly's shift and the would be robber was left with a gunshot wound to the leg, a shattered kneecap and badly grazed shoulder. Not a single penny was taken or a hair on Dolly's or her fellow cashier's head, a local stoner by the name of Hemple Coyne, were out of place. The cops showed up once Mrs Kathleen Flannery from the house down the road called in hearing gunshots coming from Pop's. Bear, his given name Royal James Lerner the third...or sometimes simply Roy Lerner, was the one and only sheriff's deputy and had been the one to take the report as Dolly's godfather, Harvey Starling was out on a much needed vacation.

"I hate to break it to ya, Little Brother but Dolly can take care of herself. Ask Ronnie LaCoy over in Okeechobee county jail..."

Roy passed the hand rolled cigarette of his brother's finest flower back and exhaled slowly. Gator was the quick dark eyed dark haired tanned one of the two. Mellow yet alert. Bear, the larger taller slower moving of the two was light eyed and ruddy haired lighter in the summer to a warm blonde and darker red in the cooler autumnal months. He had the strength of three grown men and the patience of four until he'd been pushed too far.

"It's not what I mean, Roy. I mean...if I go back there and I don't make it home please take care of her. She lost her Mama last year and Jigger Jim's not too far behind. Two of her younger brothers are making their way out in the oil fields and the other one's in County awaiting sentencing. I'm all she's got."

Gator didn't make it home. Bear was there when Dolly got the letter and wouldn't ever forget it as long as he lived. His little brother was brought back state side and given a proper military funeral along with a proper hillbilly wake. Tomato wine and the Delaney's finest moonshine were buried with him along with Col's finest handkerchief with a lock of her hair carefully wrapped in tissue paper with a pressed coral honeysuckle.

"D-I...I dunno what to call you..."

Sticking her hand out the green eyed girl gave him a crookedly sad smile.

"I'm Mary Colleen....but you can call me Colly."

[radiantmorningstar]

Marius' Chronicle 1

System: Vampire: Alone in the Darkness (blended with Vampire the Masquerade 5e, Beyond the Supernatural 1e, and various other supplements).

* DM Note: I had previously posted the first four episodes of Marius' chronicle here, but I noticed there were a lot of typos, since I was summarizing the game as I was playing it. I took them down for editing and now will be gradually reposting them as a prelude to continuing Marius' tragic story.

The story so far:

Marius was a German journalist on a night flight to India in May of 1973, when the plane struck high-tension wires on approach to Palam Airport and crashed. 48 of the 65 passengers on board were killed in the tragedy. However, one of the passengers was a vampire named Mohan, a 10th generation Baital (one of the lesser-known, unbound clans outside the Camarilla). Severely burned in the crash, the vampire embraced the nearest passenger, who happened to be Marius impaled on a piece of twisted metal and dying. For some reason Marius has never fully understood, the Baital took pity on him (if one prefers to think of it like that), fed Marius some of his own vitae, told him his name and that they would meet again, and then disappeared.

Later that night, having made a miraculous recovery, Marius escaped the hospital and wandered into the streets of New Delhi to begin his un-life. He barely survived but, over time, his dark gifts emerged and he was able to acquire enough resources, experience, and self-awareness to elude a group of vampire hunters and stow away on a freighter from Madras to the Port of Manilla, where he broke into a shipping container and entered torpor. Months later, the container was placed on a transport to Honolulu.

Marius awoke when a single drop of blood from a dockworker’s hand dripped into the rusted container and landed on his lips. He rose, drained the worker, then methodically drained several others that night, stacking the bodies in the container and locking it. The corpses were not discovered for several days. By that time, Marius had entered the city and taken up residence in the sub-basement of a power station.

Now he is learning to survive in this new terrain. He has stolen enough for weekly rent on a run-down studio apartment in Chinatown above a bicycle shop—an accomplishment that took several months of thievery, manipulation, and street fighting. And he’s paranoid that the group of hunters, who staked and beheaded Chandra, a Tremere he was close to back in Delhi, are on his trail.

The HPD have issued a press release that a serial killer is on the loose, but Marius isn’t worried about them. He isn’t even worried about the Camarilla. He’s worried about the Gaki tribune, Terrence Lassen, who runs the local legion out of a card room on Hotel Street (also in Chinatown). Marius isn’t certain, but he thinks Lassen might not be aware of him yet; though, it’s inevitable that they will cross paths, since the signs of a new vampire in town are obvious to those with eyes to see.

Marius’ current goals are to avoid entanglements with Lassen and his legion, avoid the Camarilla, and gather information on any local hunter groups tracking him (so he can take them out).

[maguro13-2]

Demons Unleashed ~ Origins of the Ink Demon Gaiden Pt.1 ~

"Ruler of the Underworld Dark Nebula has been defeated..."

"The Galaxy is at peace..."

"But the Planet is still in Jeopardy."

[Let the Winds Blow (PSO EP3 Theme) - Kenichi Tokoi]

"The Dreamcast Era...I'll never forget it."

"It was the era when those grisly attacks were not the caused by human terrorists, but monsters or so-called "Gods" of mobius had went on a rampage or set their hearts to darkness completely filled with death and destruction. The major roles of the Dreamcast Era were the incidents that occurred near the near end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century. The first one was the Chaos Attack, the incident that occurred between 1998 and 1999 about a God of Destruction named Chaos that murdered the entire Knuckles Clan and was responsible for the destruction of Station Square. Second was the Space Colony Ark Incident, where San Francisco became a battlefield, Sonic framed for a crime he did not commit, and A Space Colony Ark that was programmed to put the planet in omnicide, but failed due to the heroic efforts and Shadow's redemption."

"Five years after those incidents, a 14 year girl of the brutal and monstrous Phantonian Race, mistaken for an incident that a ravenous demon in black made of ink attacked the American Public and for the city of Tokyo, the one they call it was the Ink Demon. Captured by the Mobian Death God Grim, the girl who was captured goes by the name Maka Albarn, the so-called hero of Soul World, was placed in a special room in Hang Castle Zone, to be hid away from the public giving a somewhat sentence of 10 years in a special room at the Reaper's palace, Hang Castle Zone."

"During her time in the Reaper's castle, the mad scientist Dr. Eggman used a powerful device that triggered Chaos Emeralds to break Sonic's world into pieces, but that was no oridnary chaos control that broke his world in seven pieces, but the planet mobius itself was imprisoning ancient evil that spreads the darkness, the creature lives inside of Mobius's core was Dark Gaia."

Soon after the Metal Sonic and Gizoid incidents, Sonic was transformed into a vicious creature that contain Dark Gaia power and werewolf DNA that originated from his ancestors and has the power to turn into a ferocious beast known as the Werehog, a mixture of hedgehog and werewolf."

"Then finally, with the Black Arms invasion ended and Eggman Nega is on the loose, the Dreamcast Era was finished that finally comes to a close into the Modern Era."

"ORIGINS OF THE INK DEMON GAIDEN : DEMONS UNLEASHED"

"Four years have passed since the incident in San Francisco."

[ Extra (My Destiny) - Mariko Nanba, TAI-HEY]

"After saving Jupiter from the clutches of Dark Nebula, we decided that all things must stay in order and kept well lively."

"However, Soul World not's the type of world that we expected from the likeness of Japan."

"Real World AU is just Real World AU, and who knows that Maka Albarn cannot even pull that Courage crap. It was never about Courage, it was about honoring with Valor and virtue."

"I'm Soul Evans, leader of the Shattered Soul Army organization. I used to be the cool that who calls my self Soul Eater Evans, but they don't call me Soul Eater for nothing. And I heard Sonic has been kept lively with his world it's a been an amazing start here in the new year, 2007 A.D. 2007 would be a great start for Sonic since the 06 was a complete failure to him, same goes to his game that it's storyline and plot was retconned and erased every single evidence from the Solaris Incident. No wonder his Creator Yuji Naka prevented the blame for Sonic 06's failure and left sega after Riders. 2006 would've been cool year for Sonic and that was Sega's own fault for rushing it during development."

"Word is that Eggman Nega himself in the year of 06 wanted turn Sonic's world into a card so that he could bring omnicide to everything, but his plan was foiled. They say Eggman Nega himself is dealing with a chao-eating demon and leading army of pirates to steal a scepter from Blaze's World."

"2007 seems to be a head start for new things and we must bind them to do something different."

Soul Evans : Maka Albarn...It is been so long since we first met at the city we used to be. Our city was San Francisco, the place you grew up and now thanks to that, our ability to turn into weapons was ceased to function and I'm just mere human with powers that I have must did. Wish we could've get to known each other again.

Shattered Soul Soldier : Hey, man. How are you feeling today?

Soul Evans : Oh, I'm fine. I just got a little something usual that isn't emootinal sickness, who says anything about showing the world her courage, it's not her courage, it's "Valor" with a capital "V". That was the time when we saved the Galaxy back in the year 06.

Shattered Soul Soldier : Yeah, the year of 06 was one hell of a year last time, Pluto no longer a planet, Winter Olympics 06 in Italy, and what was that other thing that is worst video game of all history. Alright, Sonic 06. Yeah, that game was a total nutjob, a dumpster fire in the eyes of Sega and Sonic himself would never forgive his creators for rushing it's development, well I heard that PSO successor Phantasy Star Universe is kicking up a notch, they say that it's the best 06 game that is ever made by Sonic Team.

Soul Evans : Those guys? Yeah, they were the ones who helped Maka during our journey to save the planet she was born on Jupiter. Nothing's too much personal. Do you believe in anything what I did in the 06, first of all, everyone we known in Soul World have never met their demands with the heartless since the Black Arms Invasion two years ago.

Shattered Soul Soldier : What else did we have in store for us? Any obligations, we could see the day that DWMA is going down in the sewers or should I say down into the fire! That's what the author get for being too stubborn to realize that his future adaptation will have the worst ending written by a writer in studio bones by the year 2009, it'll be two years from here to there.

Soul Evans : Heh. You got that "Wright". Don't use the name to buy that joke.

*ELECTRICAL ZAPPING*

Soul Evans : Huh? Hey, What the--What's going on? Who turned out the Lights?

(sounds of crashing are heard)

[GUARDIAN : NINJA - Tomoya Ohtani]

Soul Evans : Hey, did you hear that? That sounded like someone just infiltrated HQ

Shattered Soul Soldier : It could be an enemy intrusion, sir. Do you know what's in the current status of this situation? We'll check the surrounding areas to find the intruder.

Soul Evans : This could be strange, but okay. Let's go and find out.

(sounds of men being attacked)

Soul Evans : That sounded like my group's being attacked by some intruder. Come, follow me! (the two runs off) You sure it's some kind of enemy attack?

Shattered Soul Soldier : Good thing it's not the work of the heartless is it? We've seen some heartless attacking more people since the Gorgon Sister were involved of attacking the legacy that has been on this planet in Real World AU since it appeared.

Delta Team Member : (via radio) Commander, this Delta Team! Bravo Team is being attacked by a strange creature! We don't know where it came from, but we do know is that it's attacking headquarters!

Soul Evans : How are the defenses coming along?

Delta Team Member : (via radio) Working well, sir. But the creature is still defending itself from our attacks and---No, stop! Get away! Don't come any closer! Oh God! Don't eat me! *GUNFIRING RAPIDLY*

Soul Evans : Delta! Come in Delta!

Delta Team Member : (via radio) *screaming in agony*

Soul Evans : Delta! *Radio Buzzing* Damn! Delta has been attacked by some creature. We better check it out!

Shattered Soul Soldier : Roger!

*SA1 SFX : Stop*

Soul Evans : What's all this?

(we then show a massacre of soldiers that have been wounded and killed after the attack)

[Phazon Mines Ambience Theme plays]

Soul Evans : My men! What happened to my Men!? Who did all of this!?

Shattered Soul Soldier : It's quite obvious that all of our men, have been attacked by one creature and this will may be the circumstance of our kind to see what will happen if humans would concern about demons attacking the entire place.

Soul Evans : I beg your pardon. So if it's not the attacks that are caused by enemy intrusion then who caused all of this?

Iris : So, yo finally noticed didn't you? Don't worry, I finally may have found the solution that you are looking for.

[Mystery Girl - Takahito Eguchi]

Soul Evans : Huh? What the--Shinra's Beloved Iris. Is that you?

Shattered Soul Evans : But didn't she died about 1000 years ago when the Time Eater annihilated everyone before it destroyed the Ohkuboverse?

Soul Evans : How did you know?

Shattered Soul Army : It's because Shinra spreaded the influence from his world to the Real World, and I know why you existed into our world, Commander Evans. You've been under a spell to that will and Maka was under his influence. Truth can be spreaded out and exposed DWMA for hiding the truth from us.

Soul Evans : Wait, I just remembered now. It was his stupid legacy that started Soul Eater to exist, why that lousy author of mine, who does he think he is!? This is the real reason the witches were enemies to our kind, a boy named Shotaro has been using Ashley's people as scapegoats! So I was right all along! This is the girl that died about 1000 years from the Ohkuboverse, no wonder why humans and witches have been an arrogant species on earth.

Iris : You wanted to make it so sure that Shinra wanted to spread the influence for your kind and his kind, we are all but one, all in this together. Society has feared Ashley's people for being scapegoats to realize that they were mistaken by his own son Death, and to realize that the son he created did not exist and Shinigami is not ever real.

Soul Evans : He's not even Shinigami and did you say that he didn't exist?

Iris : Precisely. So in order to prove the lying from Shinra Kusakabe, why don't you seek the truth to find out those answers. You humans and witches are such a foolish race to think that you fight against each other's kind with hate? You're only beginning to understand that your hatred against witchkind is bringing the heartless' attention to destroy my beloved's legacy. So it's best for you, to suffer the same fate that I did just like what the Time Eater did to us! (converts into it's true form; a black horned bulky demon with sharp-pointy fingers)

Soul Evans : What the hell!? Fire this thing right now!

Shattered Soul Soldier : Roger! *GUNFIRING RAPIDLY*

Soul Evans : Did you get it?

Shattered Soul Soldier : Damn! It's too tough! So that's how Iris died from the Ohkuboverse 1000 years ago. Something must've done this to her body or somehow must've resurrected into this creature. I guess it's process for that matter!

Soul Evans : It's getting away! Follow it! Don't let it get too close for ya!

[Demon roaring]

*GLASS SHATTERING*

Soul Evans : Darn! It got away! So that creature was Shinra Beloved, Iris was it?

Shattered Soldier Army : Affirmative, sir. We don't know how did it appeared and we don't why did it attacked us, including all of our men. I tell ya men, demons have been unleashing their instincts and this could be a problem.

Soul Evans : (v/o) Shinra Kusakabe, you will pay for hiding the truth from us. I'm gonna make sure that the world of Soul Eater shall be nothing more to exist and this time, I want something to be real in this world, Real World AU cannot be destroyed by your foolishness and I will get my revenge for being under your influence! Whether you like it or not!

[Inky Jr Laugh evilly]

~ DEMONS HAVE BEGUN TO UNLEASHED ~