#and instead of having a 'guardian spirit' who was the human turned in an eldritch abomination like her dad

[randomnameless]

Forget Holoholo bird, that thing was a piece of cake compared to Guillo -

I legit took 2 hours and a half to beat them like what the fresh fuck

Big reveal was the big reveal -

Sagi's growing more and more doubtful and annoyed with you, the player who's supposed to play the navi "hey listen" like entity because plot wise you're supposed to give him super powers, and yet we keep on fighting battles with plot mandated losses lol

+ coupled with flashbacks where Thoraxn and pals pick the worst option available, and Sagi (nor the player, I tried to pick the "no" option when asked if we were ready to sell our souls lol) cannot influence those events eithers since they already happened : he feels useless in the "real timeline" and in the "flashback timeline" and I thought it was nice to have the protag, well, lash out at the so-called omniscient player

(Imagine if Eliwood, just after Elbert's death, lashed out against Mark because for a supposed tactician they failed him and Elbert, and if they had been better maybe they could have arrived faster to the Dread Isle and saved Elbert!)

Remember how I've said Gena and Sagi's bond was important in the plot?

Granted, it's always the "female character who suffers to make the male protag go berserk" trope, and yet, as opposed to a certain manga that makes us want to believe the protag and his "more or less" stalker are in such a relationship that her death means he loses controls, as opposed to the death of his mentor or of ramen guy (tm), here, as I mentionned in another post, Gena always writes letters to Sagi, giving him pocket money, items, asking how he's feeling, encouraging him to do something he wants, etc etc.

Gena is Sagi's world - hell he becomes a soldier/mercenary because he wants to help his mom and her orphanage!

Short story big story : the evil guys tear her wings out (apparently it spells death if not treated), Gena passes out and Sagi rages and transforms in one of the Eldritch Abominations we've been fighting (and losing against).

The plot continues and once Sagi and the player make up, Sagi gets his power-up and can finally start winning some fights!

However, Sagi is driven by revenge - and while Shanath deserves an ass beating for what he did to Gena - Sagi killing him puts Savyna, Shanath's own daughter, on the path of revenge, with the events we know in BKEWLO.

Enter the "Baten Kaitos character sidequests before the final fight" (tm) - and I nearly ragequit'd for the day after the Seginus fight

Sure it doesn't hit as hard as Guillo does, but fuck, fighting two godcrafts in the same day is a hassle lol

More flashback time where we see the events from 1k years ago from someone else's POV, and how Seph'n'Thoraxn's plan to make a deal with the "Dark brethren" fucked everyone over (them included!), because while they supposedly got a super power to defeat their enemy, well, they didn't and created instead a sea of corpses, poisoning the Earth so much that the only solution for people to survive was to send some parts of the land to the sky, effectively creating the setting's floating islands.

I still have some sidequests to continue with but while the plot is interesting, in the sense that you discover the reasons/secrets/origins (lel) of the first game's plot points and lore events...

Well, the playable character are more engaging plot-wise than the ones from the first game, and yet, the battle system becomes kind of stale.

Sagi got his ultra super duper combo that can wipe 1 enemy, Guillo can do AoE stuff, and Milly... well, she can be used for support and MP charging (so Sagi and Guillo will be able to use their combos).

It's not boring at all, but I feel like I was more engaged with the first game banking on each character's deck and their own stats/equipment.

[cosmiclion]

Hello everyone, this is my way of announcing that I've decided to "fuse" all my little Kuro AUs/ideas (or as many as I can) into one single huge AU:

It’s just easier for me to have one big pretentious project where all arcs are connected instead of going back and forth between AUs 🤷🏻

⬇️Context under the cut⬇️

For those who haven't seen her this is Belmon or just B (any pronouns), the demon OC I shamelessly ship with Grell, I’ve been thinking lately that I really should draw her interacting with other characters 🙂 She belongs to a species of demon that don’t eat souls but instead sustain themselves by absorbing other creatures’ energy, called succubus/incubus or Life Leeches. They’re still immortal eldritch entities beyond human comprehension that originally come from another realm and have limitless shapeshifting abilities, but they’re a little less “otherworldly” in the sense that they experience more human-like emotions and feelings, have concepts of romance, affection, sexuality, friendship and family and can indulge themselves in human pleasures like sleep and food, even if they don’t need them. They also begin their life similarly to humans in that they reproduce sexually, and age like humans during their first years, though they stop aging once they reach adulthood.

When I initially created the AU where I included her, the basic plot was that Sebastian was a familiar demon who had first made a contract with Vincent (which explained why they had a similar physical appearance). The attack at the manor still happened but both twins survived, and then the contract was passed to RCiel and Madam Red, who was also a watchdog, became the twins’ legal guardian. Grell wasn’t a reaper but some kind of spirit of nature who was An’s familiar and they were like sisters, then they met a badly injured and weakened Belmon whose human family had been killed by feral demons, and after taking her in she also became An’s familiar and later fell in love with Grell.

I’ve been making a lot of changes to the AU and scraped most of that. The story so far is that B isn’t anyone’s familiar (and never had a human family) but some demon who has her own place and does her own thing. She’s an acquaintance of Sebastian, they don’t see each other too often but know how to find each other when they need to (at this point in time none of them has met Grell, she’ll come into their lives later). B is a very young demon, in fact at the time this scene takes place she’s chronologically 21 years old, unlike Sebastian whose life spans millennia. So B is pretty much a “new demon”. Despite this, she’s lived among humans most of her life and is an expert on them and their needs.

When Sebastian gets out of the cult’s building with the unconscious Ciel (turns out the conditions the poor boy was kept in gave him a nasty respiratory infection), he doesn’t really know what to do with him. Well, he knows the first thing is to pull the child away from death’s door, but he doesn’t know exactly how to save him on his own, and he has no time to lose. His best choice is to go to B for help, as Life Leeches can not only absorb other creature’s energy but also give them their own energy via physical contact. In fact their supernatural healing abilities are often chosen over (or along with) human doctors for more serious or urgent stuff, they may not be able to quickly and miraculously cure a serious illness or heal a life threatening wound, but they can help a person’s body fight it by keeping it strong. So he basically shows up at her door and hands the child to her like “Plz help ☹️”

Note 1: “Crow” is how B addresses Sebastian before he actually starts going by Sebastian. I headcanon that a demon’s real name isn’t even known to other demons, so they often give each other names based on a color, animal or any other thing that is commonly associated with them. Belmon is actually a shorter simplified version of her real name, and Sebastian calls her Blue.

B absolutely adores children of any species and is more than happy to help nurse little Ciel back to health, she’s just puzzled that a demon like Crow is suddenly acting all motherly and protective 😱

Note 2: I made Ciel’s hair a little bit longer and messier because, realistically, seeing as how the cultists treated the children I don’t think they would’ve bothered to keep them groomed ☠️

(I'm tempted to give the Phantomhive boy so many parental figures but I swear I'll still draw him mainly interacting with Sebas 😂).

[raeynbowboi]

The Character Forge: How to Play as Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl in DnD 5e

This is a rather unusual build option, as these aren’t technically characters in the Yugioh series. However, I consider it a fun and unique challenge to try and build them. Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl are the ace cards in the deck of Yami Yugi. Though in season 5 the anime decided they were the spirits of the Pharaoh’s high priests trapped as duel monsters that still serve their king in death. So that’s a fun thing to think about the next time you play one of these cards.

A Heroic Spirit

What race you choose is probably going to depend on which version you want to play. If you want to play who they were before they died, Mahad and Mana were ordinary humans with no superhuman abilities beyond the study of magic. So normal Humans works for who they once were. If you want to play as the duel spirits they became, you could choose Kalashtar because the Dark Magician is the bond of the high priest Mahad with the Illusion Magician spirit. Kalashtar is a race whose body is split between a host and a dream world spirit. Dream world, Duel Monster Spirit World. Close enough. They are also tasked with guarding and serving the Pharoah loyally, which has lowkey guardian angel traits, so Aasimar is a possibility. It’s a bit silly, but they are synthetic beings. Just holograms really. They could be Warforged since they aren’t actually real or alive. Just computer code and projected images of light as duel monsters. They could also be Variant Humans because they’re Shonen anime characters, and the spirits of former humans.

Honestly, they have no alignment and little personality. Make them however you want and go from there. I have never actually seen season 5, so I don’t know the personalities of Mahad and Mana.

For background, Mahad is a high priest and Mana is his pupil. Mahad and Mana are both Acolytes. Dark Magician is the ultimate wizard in terms of attack and defense, so Sage is appropriate, while the obscure (but I think it’s legit?) Student of Magic is great for Dark Magician Girl. 

Powers and Abilities

The Dark Magician’s primary spell is the Dark Magic Attack, and the Dark Magician Girl casts Dark Burning Attack.

As Mahad, he had the ability to summon duel spirits to fight on his behalf, conjuring them through large stone tablets. Mahad also possessed the Millennium Ring, which points you in the direction of whatever you’re trying to find, and lets you place and remove souls from bodies.

Support Cards:

Dark Burning Attack: Destroy all enemy facedown monsters Dark Burning Magic: Destroy all enemy cards. Dark Magical Circle: Add other Dark Magician support cards to your hand. Dark Magic Attack: Destroys all enemy Spells and Traps Dark Magic Expanded: one monster gains +1000 ATK and ignores enemy spells Dark Magic Inheritance: Banish 2 spells to draw 1 DM support card from deck. Dark Magic Twin Burst: DM gains ATK of all DMG on the field and in Graveyard. Dark Magic Veil: Pay 1000 LP to summon a dark spellcaster Dark Renewal: Sacrifice enemy monster and your caster. summon dark caster. Illusion Magic: Sacrifice your spellcaster. Add Dark Magician to your hand. Magic Formula: DM’s Spellbook. Increase DM or DMG ATK by 700 points. Magical Hats: Dark Magician becomes hidden beneath 1 of 4 magic hats. Magical Objection: Counter enemy spell, trap, or effect and destroy that card. Magician’s Circle: when foe summons, you and foe can summon a caster Magician’s Defense: Take half damage while you control a spellcaster. Magician’s Navigation: Summon DM from hand and dark caster from Deck/GY Mystical Box: Dark Magician trades places with another monster. Thousand Knives: Destroys 1 enemy monster

Other Common Cards

Change of Heart: Take control of enemy monster for 1 turn. Dark Hole: Destroy every card on the field. Dian Keto, the Cure Master: Gain 1000 Life Points. Magic Cylinder: Bounce enemy attack at enemy’s Life Points. Magic Jammer: Counter 1 enemy spell card. Mirror Force: Bounce enemy attack, destroy all ATK position enemy monsters. Monster Reborn: Summon 1 monster from either Graveyard. Mystical Space Typhoon: Destroy 1 Spell or Trap card. Negate Attack: Portal sucks up enemy attack, opponent battle phase ends. Raigeki: Destroy all of your opponent’s monsters Reverse Trap: Buffs and Debuffs switch. Buffs weaken, Debuffs strengthen. Spellbinding Circle: Enemy monster -700 ATK. Cannot attack/change positions. Swords of Revealing Light: 3 gleaming swords, enemy can’t attack for 3 turns. Trap Hole: Create pit trap. Destroy monster with 1500 ATK or more.

Class is in Session

Cleric     Arcana: As Mahad and Mana were priests, this is a way to incorporate that religious background with their current powers.

Sorcerer     Divine Soul: Similar to Arcana, Divine Soul blurs the line between magic and religion, and allows Dark Magician to pull power from the holy spirit of Mahad residing within him. Since both Dark Magician and Dark Magican Girl float, the wings this subclass gives at level 14 could be flavored as simply allowing these duel spirits to fly/float without the wings being visible.     Shadow: They are the DARK magicians. Their signature spells are DARK Magic Attack and DARK Burning Attack. Pretty self-evident.

Warlock     Celestial: Again like Divine Soul and Arcana, this option connects Warlock with religion, but the subclass has some Radiant flavor which is a little unusual for the DARK Magicians.

Wizard    Conjuration: When Mahad lived, he used his Millennium Ring and magic powers to conjure the spirits of Duel Monster tablets to play shadow games.     Lore Mastery: He’s “the ultimate wizard in terms of attack and defense”. It stands to reason that his understanding of magic would run so deep that he could alter and bend it to his will. Especially to turn any spell he casts into Necrotic damage for his dark magic attacks.     Theurgy: Mahad was the high priest. So, he could have been a wizard who had studied the religious magic of his day to obtain his powers and to cast both Cleric and Wizard spells with one stat.     War Magic: The ultimate wizard in terms of attack and defense is probably going to be extremely powerful in a fight, so having a build that’s made to fight is right up his alley.

How to Play as Yugi Mutou

Before making this post, I’d tried to make Yugi as a potential build. However, an obstacle I encountered was that I had Yugi as a Conjuration Wizard, and there simply weren’t enough Wizard spells that summoned creatures to fight on your behalf. However, if you combine that summoning focus of Yugi with the magical capabilities of Dark Magician or Dark Magician Girl, and treat them as his Deck Master, they can work together to fill out Yugi’s spell list with DM and DMG spells and fight side by side as effectively one character.

Stats and Proficiencies

In order to be the ultimate wizard in terms of attack and defense, Dark Magician needs the absolute maximum Intelligence and Constitution stats. He needs to be able to deal serious magical damage and shrug off enemy spells. During Yugi and Joey’s duel against Para and Dox, the Dark Magician did a front flip in what seems like medium armor. That shows quite a bit of Dexterity. Beyond that, fill out the other three stats or dump them as you see fit. However, I will admit, the Dark Magician Girl does seem more charming than her mentor, and could be a Sorcerer who casts with Charisma instead of Intelligence.

Arcana Insight Perception Religion

Name: Mahad, the Dark Magician Race: Variant Human Background: Sage Alignment: Neutral Class: War Magic Wizard (20) Base Stats: Strength: 8 (-1) Dexterity: 17 (+3) Constitution: 20 (+5) Intelligence: 20 (+5) Wisdom: 8 (-1) Charisma: 8 (-1) Saving Throws: Strength: -1 Dexterity: +3 Constitution: +5 Intelligence: +11 Wisdom: +5 Charisma: -1 Combat Stats:  HP: 182  AC: 13  Speed: 30  Initiative: +8  Proficiency Bonus: +6  Passive Perception: 15  Dark Vision: 0 feet Proficiencies:    Arcana (Sage)    History (Sage)    Insight (Wizard)    Religion (Wizard) Skills: Acrobatics: +3                  Medicine: -1 Animal Handling: -1          Nature: +5 Arcana: +11                      Perception: +5 Athletics: -1                       Performance: -1 Deception: -1                    Persuasion: -1 History: +11                      Religion: +11 Insight: +5                        Sleight of Hand: +3 Intimidation: -1                 Stealth: +3 Investigation: +5              Survival: -1 Equipment:    Arcane Focus: Staff

Spell Slots 1st (4) 2nd (3) 3rd (3) 4th (3) 5th (3) 6th (2) 7th (2) 8th (1) 9th (1)

Dark Magician’s Spellbook

Cantrips                    3rd Level                                 6th Level    Create Bonfire           Call Lightning                           Arcane Gate    Eldritch Blast             Counterspell                            Globe of Invulnerability    Firebolt                      Dispel Magic                          7th Level    Mage Hand               Fireball                                      Conjure Hezrou    Mind Sliver                Magic Circle                              Mord’s Sword    Minor Illusion             Summon Lesser Demons      8th Level 1st level                     4th Level                                     Antimagic Field    Detect Magic              Arcane Eye                               Dominate Monster    Hex                             Banishment                           9th Level    Mage Armor               Conjure Minor Elementals        Prismatic Wall    Magic Missile             Conjure Shadow Demon    Shield                         Leo’s Secret Chest    Witch Bolt                   Locate Creature 2nd Level                      Phantasmal Killer    Arcane Lock                Summon Greater Demon    Crown of Madness   5th Level    Flock of Familiars        B’s Hand (Arcane Hand)    Knock                          Conjure Elemental    Locate Object              Dominate Person    Magic Weapon            Infernal Calling    Mirror Image                Legend Lore    Misty Step                   Planar Binding    Shadow Blade             Synaptic Static                                        Teleportation Circle                                        Wall of Force

Features:

Arcane Deflection: When attacked, as a reaction, add +2 AC or +4 saving throw, but cast only cantrips next turn. Arcane Recovery: Once per day, after a short rest, restore 10 or fewer level 5 or lower used spell slots. Deflecting Shroud: 3 creatures take 10 force damage after Arcane Deflection. Durable Magic: +2 to AC and saving throws when concentrating on a spell. Magic Initiate: Learn Eldritch Blast, Mind Sliver, and Hex. Cast with INT. Power Surge: You have max 5, each surge adds 10 force damage to a spell. Researcher: You always know where to find information or who to get it from. Signature Spells: Cast Fireball and Dispel Magic without using a spell slot. Spell Mastery: Cast Magic Weapon and Mage Armor without using a spell slot. Tactical Wit: Add your INT mod to your Initiative.

keep in mind, the spell list is not conclusive, it’s a personal choice. I chose to have Dark Magician learn all the spells of the Arcane Cleric, and just tried to pick the standard magic spells, especially about anything with Arcane in its name. Because both Yugi and Mahad summon monsters to fight for them, I decided it was appropriate to give Dark Magician a lot of conjuration spells, but that doesn’t mean you have to use the Deck Master Yugi/Dark Magician build I suggested where Yugi does the summoning and Dark Magician handles everything else. It’s not a perfect build, but then, I never expected it to be. Still, I hope you guys found this to be a fun, quirky DnD concept. Let me know if you’d build this character differently than I did. And as always, thanks for joining me in The Character Forge, where heroes are made.

[writemares]

EXCERPT;

❝     I.     In the forest, the fae courts reign. they are shining gods, cunning tricksters, cruel and unpredictable spirits. They are collectors of humans who wander too deep into the woods.

II.     In the forest, two packs are lured into a trap. Only two girls emerge, lost and alone and without allies --- easy prey.

III.   In the forest, a coven strikes a deal with darkness to bring back one of their own. The dark magic demands a price from a rival coven, but they refuse to pay.     ❞

SYNOPSIS;

when eve casts a spell in the forest, she doesn’t expect anything to happen. instead, it resurrects isla, who has been dead for forty years. eve becomes isla’s guardian, protector of the life she’s created. eve isn’t the only creature in the forest who dabbles in magic, though: the fae have felt the powerful effects of her spell and are determined to discover who caused it. while the faery aoife is distracted, declan, stolen by the fae years ago, plots his escape to find his descendants, his great(-great-great-great?) nieces. dervla and roisin whelan have their own issues aside from the reappearance of their great(-great-great-great?) uncle, because the rest of their family have gone missing. they turn to an old family friend to help track the whelans down. and persephone, a witch just like eve, is searching for whoever killed her coven-sister with a powerful enchantment. she thinks she’s found the culprit in eve, but has yet to discover that there are still more witches in the forest, and more than one dead person recently brought back.

STATS;

genre: fantasy audience: new adult started: november 2019 pov: third person, multiple narrative tense: present words: 2k

TROPES & THEMES;

fae, resurrection, serial killers, questionable 80s fashion, meet my undead girlfriend, deception, irish folklore, fake dating, balance, ancient forest gods, royal fae power couples; werewolves, enemies to lovers, farm lesbians, werewolf lesbians, femme motorbike-riding lesbians, they are all lesbians, seriously this one is so gay; eldritch rituals, accidentally immortal boyfriends, chaotic teenage witches, pyromania, balance, light magic, dark magic, a shit-ton of candles, ghosts.

CHARACTERS;

the fae: aoife, fionn, titania the wolves: dervla, roisin, laure the witches: cecily, lux, persephone, ash, piper the up-until-recently dead: emrys, isla the humans: eve, genevieve, declan, poppy

MORE INFO PART I; PART II; PART III;

[hellsinvestigativereporter]

Excerpt from the Journal of Doctor Henry Thomas: Oct 3

“A most, fantastic thing has occurred. As I was conducting my research into the changes of beasthood that plague Yharnum, a creature appeared in my room. It is the most.. ASTOUNDING THING. At first I thought had been dreaming and tried to wake up, but this creature that appeared informed me I was not dreaming, but had in fact emerged from a dream and wished to converse with me. I dare say I thought I was mad at that point but he assured me that such was not the case, but for my personal safety I should keep to myself our conversation. I shall endeavor however to record it in this journal to read back to at a later time. 

The Creature that I spoke to, had the body of a man sure enough, only his head was like that of a Cephalopod. It went upward like a squid and at his mouth were several long tentacles that went down to his belt. He was dressed in robes of a most ancient looking fashion and on his shoulders wrapped around him like a cloak were dragon like wings. His skin was of a sea green hue. I inquired of him what he wanted and he said that he had observed my work, in particular my work with the mad houses and was most impressed by my observations. Indeed he said that my insight into such things had grown to the point that he was visible to my naked eye. When I asked him his name, he told me he went by many. The Sleeping one, Mind Flayer, the Eldritch Guardian. He told me however I may refer to him as, Cthulhu. I offered him tea but he politely declined and said he wished instead to speak and converse with me on my research. I eagerly sat down and pulled out my journal to discuss my notes with him. 

We began to speak on the insight of lunatics and madness and how they seem to transform into more horrid beasts. I informed him of my theory that perhaps these lunatics madness freed them of restraining closed mindedness and allowed them be more perceptive, or perhaps it was not madness at all, and was in fact that the things they could see where of a most fantastic nature it only made them seem mad. He confirmed that it was more the latter theory that was true. Lunacy does not mean insight he told me. Rather it is a symptom of seeing the world for what it is. The most frantic of these madmen were simply trying harder than others to escape the truths that they had suddenly been burdened with. But once a thing is known... it is rather difficult to un-know it, hence the decent into madness. I asked him then if these various transformations of eldritch horror, pale faced man, and hound were indeed tied to the level of insight one had of the world around them. He said that this was indeed true. The cause he said of the eldritch horrors the lunatics most often take is a result of them rejecting the truth, they try to force what they know out of their minds and the result is a mental backlash that causes their body to reject itself. He compared it to a hernia of sorts. The stress of rejection causes the body and the mind to damage itself, only this time instead of a damaged organ they have a damaged existence, the strain of exertion to try and restore their previous ignorance results in them contorting their form. It is like when one try’s to solve a very complicated puzzle, they try and try to put all the pieces back together but when they are unable to figure the puzzle out, they cast the puzzle aside in anger, damaging and losing pieces as they do so, and as a result the puzzle cannot be as it once was, and one must make do with what one has left.....and sometimes what happens is they take pieces of other puzzles to fill in the empty spaces but as you can imagine, those pieces do not fit perfectly. The lunatics then are like those who have cast aside their puzzle, only many of their pieces have been cast into the fire and are destroyed utterly as well as replaced not with new puzzle pieces... But with shards of other items entirely, hence the randomness of their form. 

The explanation indeed opened my mind to the world around him, and I noted that my new companion seemed... More in the room now. As if he had gained a much more, solid mass somehow. As if he were more real now than he had been before. 

I then asked him in regards to the hounds and how low insight caused them to change so and why their change and that of the pale faced men were more organized and less chaotic than the lunatics. He explained in great detail that men who become hounds turn into such things because it is what their minds are most akin to. It is not that they are idiots he said, but rather they spend their days doing simple tasks either working in factories or farms mostly only concerned that they are able to obtain that which will feed them, clothe them, and give them shelter as animals are apt to do. Hounds he explained, are not concerned with the goings on of the world, they are concerned only with their basic needs and nothing else. Many do not consider the actions of kings or pontiffs nor do they delve into the mystery’s of science or the world around them. They simply live, or rather as my guest Cthulhu put it: concern themselves with not dying. I asked then why hounds in particular? Why not some other beast as those traits are shared by all the creatures that walk the earth. He explained then that aside from those basic survival traits, man also has a savage blood lust that cannot be sated. When I protested that he asked me a question: What games do children play the most? Games of war... of Violence... of battle. Who are deemed heroes and great men of any age? Soldiers, Generals, men of Violence. Even the actions of men like Jack Ripper have in their own way, a Macabre infamy that deep down many people are mesmerized by. He explained that there is a spirit of violence in all men, that is why the beastly transformation takes the shape of a hound. Wolves and other such beasts have always been romanticized as noble warriors and warriors... are in the business of violence be it for good or ill, and even then, the acts of noble intention are oft times an excuse to indulge in that need for killing. I then realized that these beastly transformations are not in fact biological, but Psychological. That it was the mind that resulted in these shapes, a realization I then found was obvious, and yet I did not make it before. Upon that my new friend again seemed to become more real, more corporeal, more...existent. 

I then inquired as to the pale faced men. If psychology was indeed the means by which a transformation was made possible? As I asked that question the very answer came to me, and again my friend seemed to be even more real than before. I dare say even more real than the room in which we sat, as though reality itself was the illusion and this man the truth. I told him what I realized, that the church became pale faced men because they saw themselves as men yes... but men of a greater stature, that they were human still... but now more than human. They were, the next step of humanity’s evolution. A smile touched the eyes of Cthulhu and he nodded. He confirmed my discovery and congratulated me for it. 

I then asked him the most important question: What was causing these transformations in the first place? What was the cause of these psychologically mandated transformations into monsters, and how might we stop it? He laughed softly and told me: The Arrogance of Man, suckled on the Teat of Ambition. He then vanished and I have not since seen him. 

I do not know if I shall see this man again. But ever since my conversation with him, the world seems to have changed. I can see things that I did not see before. Women with faces a mix of beast and human, Priests with lanterns covered in eyes, Scholars that seem to be perpetually melting like wax and leaving trails of it behind them as they walk. My conversation with Cthulhu as changed my views of the world... they have changed my levels of Insight... They have caused my thoughts... to Ascend.”

[badloftcontracts]

[v7.0] Update Changelog

A helluva lot of change this time around. Everyone using this system will need to remake their characters (though Personal Equipment shouldn’t feel too much of a hit). Apologies in advance.

Attribute Distribution has changed. Characters can distribute a total of 6 points, down from 8, and may only assign a maximum of 3 points to any one score. This should hopefully tone down some roll bonuses, and put more emphasis on the Traits your character has. Speaking of...

The amount of starting Traits has raised to 5, up from 4. Between this bump and the fact that you no longer need to dedicate some of these picks to Racial Traits, everyone should hopefully be seeing more variation in character builds. Choices, choices.

NEW MECHANIC: Defenses may now be ‘sundered’ by various effects, preventing their use. This should add a bit more of a tactical approach to both combat choices and Trait choices, as well as making combat slightly more dynamic. I felt like roll battles versus traditional ‘Armour Class’-style target numbers were a bit of a lacking mechanic by themselves.

NEW MECHANIC: Critical strikes now give characters a choice of dealing more damage or sundering the foe’s defense. Again, another ounce of choice in the middle of combat. I personally think giving allies an opening on a tough opponent is nice, but if I hear that people are really only taking the ‘extra damage’ option, I may tweak this.

Multi-attacking penalties have been increased. Critical damage can’t be achieved while making three attacks. The penalties are now fairly extreme unless someone is specifically trained in flailing their weapon around that quickly, further emphasizing trait choices.

Spell DC formula has been tweaked. Your Spell DC now depends on how many spell slots you’re pumping into a spell. Also, a few changes that hopefully make the act of spellcasting a bit clearer.

Moving a Short Distance is now a main action. You may now do other minor things while running across a battlefield.

Healing DC formula has been tweaked. Similar to the Spell DC change, the difficulty of healing someone is now more dependent on how injured they are.

Rules for Temporary Hit Points have been made more prominent. In my endless attempt to make certain things seem less nebulous. There’s a lot of work to be done. Speaking of nebulous...

Fettles have been removed. I wasn’t a fan of how specific those rules were, and how they didn’t apply to certain situations. I encourage everyone who uses this system to improv rules whenever you need to. You have full control over what kind of rolls should go into things such as grappling and weakness.

Rules for Cover have been added to the ‘Additional Rules’ section. They were in the Fettles tab, but they’ve been tweaked and shoved into the spotlight, instead. Well. Maybe not the spotlight. But they’re on the stage.

=====GENERAL=====

Racial Attribute Bonuses are more racist. Races that are naturally gifted with a certain attribute can now have more of that attribute than the other, WEAKER races. Humans are no longer the best at everything, but fit into a ‘jack-of-all-trades’ role.

Many Traits can now be taken multiple times. Some traits increase the effectiveness of  their bonus, others allow the ability they grant to be used more times. This should hopefully let characters specialize a bit more into their character concept, and once again, make builds a bit more diverse.

A new category of Traits, ‘Abnormal Traits’, have been added. These are special ‘subrace’ traits that grant a character both positive and negative effects. These are all pretty drastic changes made to cater to those types of characters.

=====HUMANS=====

'Stand Strong’ renamed to ‘Last Stand’ and tweaked. No longer grants its bonus most of the time, but the bonus now increases as hit points drop.

=====NORN=====

‘Spirit Guide’ changed to ‘Wild Adaptation’. Norn may now use their Spirit’s gifts, if any, in a more immediate and impactful manner.

‘Colossus’ formula tweaked, and can no longer be used multiple times. Taking significant amounts of damage now make it almost impossible to stay standing. Made it a one-time use to prevent further RNG from keeping norn standing forever.

=====CHARR=====

‘Savage Striker’ changed to ‘Savagery’. This trait should no longer result in abrupt insta-kills on relatively healthy targets, while still making critical hits feel appropriately meaty.

‘Tech Mastery’ now makes characters choose a category of charr tech. Charr are no longer masters of every single technology their race has ever made.

=====SYLVARI=====

‘Where Life Goes’ changed to ‘Dreamsight’. Gives a more meaningful and less specialized ability to sylvari players. Not all sylvari are looking for the mines of Moria.

‘Strong Roots’ now  grants temporary hit points every rest, instead of permanent hit points all the time. That hardy bark-shell now requires more time to recover.

=====EXPLORATION TRAITS=====

‘Healer’ now turns single-target heals into bonus actions.

‘Hidden’ now more clearly states what it does for you.

‘Inspiring’ has been changed significantly. Inspired characters may now choose when to grant  themselves a bonus. The bonus now scales with your Charisma score.

‘Leadership’ now states what rolls it grants bonuses to.

‘Ley Conduit’ may now be taken up to four times. For when you really, really want to cast a spell.

’Pack Master’ has been tweaked. It now buffs a specific pet attribute. Its bonus has also been reduced, but the trait can be taken twice.

‘Spell Potency’ has been tweaked following the new Spell DC formula.

‘Well-Equipped’ has been changed to allow existing Personal Equipment to be ‘upgraded’. Personal Equipment should generally only begin with 1 beneficial effect (and, of course, however many negative effects you would like). This change now gives you a clear way to add more than one effect to a single piece of equipment.

The ‘Yak Herder’ trait is now the most powerful trait in the system. All hail the Yak Herder. All hail the Yak Herder. All hail the Yak Herder.

=====COMBAT TRAITS=====

The old ‘Tidebreaker’ trait is now ‘Awareness’, and it no longer grants bonuses to all Defenses.

‘Death Siphon’ can now drain from creatures with 2 maximum hit points, down from 3.

‘Deny the Witch’ can now be made more effective by spending more spell slots.

‘Durable’ now only grants 1 maximum hit point, but can be taken up to four times.

‘Eldritch Battery’ has been tweaked to be a more reliable source of damage negation compared to similar traits.

The penalty reduction from ‘Flurry’ is now 2, up from 1. It pairs nicely with the new ‘Dual Wielder’ trait.

The bonus gained from ‘Furious’ now applies to spell DCs, and the rate at which you gain those bonuses have been back-loaded. You must now be in extremely dire straits to gain the full effect.

‘Selfless’ has been renamed to ‘Guardian’, and is more dependent on your Skill.

The critical range of ‘Precise’ has been reduced, but may be bumped back up to its previous benefit by taking the trait twice.

‘Quick Draw’ was buffed slightly. When taken twice, it should almost guarantee your acting first in combat.

‘Successive Attack’ has been renamed to ‘Reaper’, and may be taken multiple times.

‘Riposte’ no longer grants a counterattack against every single opponent that fails to hit you. ...but its bonus and number of uses per encounter have been raised to compensate.

’Second Wind’ is now a bonus action, and recovers less health. It is no longer a completely free maximum health boost. 

’Smite’ has been changed significantly. It now grants a large accuracy boost instead of bonus damage. Also, the penalty for using it has been made more severe.

The bonus from ‘Stability’ has been doubled to be more impactful.

The penalty inflicted by ‘Taunt’ now scales with your Charisma.

'Witch Hunter’s spell DC penalty is now dependent on the character’s attributes, but should generally be lower.

=====COMBAT TRAITS=====

‘Adrenaline Rush’ has been added. Rewards characters for takedowns.

‘Arcane Reaction’ has been added. Allows for spell opportunity attacks.

‘Backlash’ has been added. Grants bonuses the more your defenses are sundered.

‘Balance Breaker’, ‘Guard Breaker’, and ‘Spell Breaker’ have been added. Allows for non-damage, but more accurate attacks aiming to sunder specific defenses.

‘Battlemage’ has been added. Allows multi-attacks to include a single spellcast.

‘Desperation’ has been added. Being close to death bolsters a single defense massively.

‘Distraction’ has been added. Another way for Charisma to be used in combat. Shout something and screw up an opponent’s roll.

‘Dual Wielder’ has been added. Multi-attacks are more accurate while dual wielding. Pairs nicely with the ‘Flurry’ trait.

‘Momentum’ has been added. Characters are rewarded for successful combat rolls. Rewards can be spent for a sudden steroid boost.

‘Tactician’ has been added. Yet another way for Charisma to be used in combat. Allows allies to follow your orders, potentially acting twice in a single round.

‘Unbreakable’ has been added. Automatically recover a sundered defense at will.

And that’s it. Again, these changes are drastic, and a remake of your characters is necessary. Hopefully you enjoy what comes out of it.

- Baerod

[gretchensinister]

My Top 10 Jackrabbit (Jack Frost/Bunnymund) Fics

Hi everyone! Jackrabbit was one of the larger categories, so there was a lot of variety to choose from when it came to making this list. We’ve got angst, we’ve got AUs, we’ve got smut, we’ve got something for every jackrabbit fan. It was quite difficult to narrow the list down, however, and if you like the ship I encourage you to check out the masterpost.

The fics are presented in chronological order, with the oldest first. 

1.  The Daffodil’s Ghost (Bunnymund/Jack Frost) (5/9): Jack Frost leaves Bunny a daffodil coated in ice as a gift, hoping desperately that he’ll realize what it’s meant for, even though he doubts Spring could love Winter.

2.  The Bower (Bunnymund/Jack Frost) (6/4): Jack comes to the Warren with the intention to have sex with Bunny, but he’s really nervous and is kind of treating it as a thing to get over with. Bunny’s grown him a bower of flowers, and does his best to give Jack a memorable but relaxed experience.

3.  Silver Strands (Bunnymund/Jack Frost) (10/14): Jack is becoming an eldritch being, and can now see the beautiful intricacies of Bunny’s powers. Bunny isn’t ready to hear about how he looks in Jack’s new way of seeing.

4.  No Fighting (Bunny/Jack Frost) (5/9): For a while, Bunny has defeated North in a boxing match to symbolically end winter. One year, it doesn’t work, and Bunny has to go find the new winter spirit. When he finds him, he realizes he very much wants to find an alternative to fighting Jack.

5.  GrowRunGrow (Bunny/Jack Frost) (10/3): While kissing, Jack and Bunny slip into their eldritch personas, which surprises them both.

6.  Not For Hate (Bunnymund/Jack Frost) (1/14): Jack accidentally causes Bunny’s death. When Bunny comes back, he isn’t the same person Jack knew, and Jack is emotionally shredded by this, because he never antagonized Bunny out of hate.

7.  The Burgess Library Genealogy Department (Bunnymund/Jack Frost) (5/11): In a human AU, Bunny is an artist who finds out he’s being haunted by a ghost he can only see in winter. He falls in love with the ghost, and tries to help him finish his unfinished business, though in doing so he may create some of his own.

8.  Hopscotch (Bunnymund/Jack Frost)(1/6)|?: Eldritch Jack and eldritch Bunny leap and play through the structure of the world, both wondering why it took so long for them to reach this point.

9.  One Flower Is Better Than None (Jack Frost/Bunnymund) (4/4): As Winter and Spring, Jack and Bunny will never be able to spend much time together, but both realize that that little time is worth it.

10.  Light and Soft (Bunny/Jack)(¼): With living, mortal senses, Jack is hypersensitive, so his first time having sex with Bunny is full of light, delicate touches.

Interestingly, both the first and last jackrabbit I wrote for the meme are on this list.

Bonus list:

All the fin-de-siecle spies AU that deals with Bunny and Jack together:

1.  Chocolate Shop (Implied Everyone/Jack) (5/12)

2.  The Brightest Thing In The Room (Bunnymund/Jack Frost) (5/19)

3.  Playing With Things That Aren’t Toys (Bunnymund/Jack Frost; Jack Frost/Pitch Black) (7/28)

4.  A Perfect Laugh (Bunnymund/Jack Frost) (3/6)

Other AUs:

1.  First Chance Only Chance (pre-Bunnymund/Jack Frost) (6/6): In a world with millions of guardian spirits, Jack is assigned to guard Jamie, and Bunny is assigned to guard Sophie. The only problem is, Jack is on his first assignment. If Jamie dies, Jack becomes a boogeyman. Bunny doesn’t want that to happen. A short snippet of their first night on the job together.

2.  Live End Street (pre-Bunnymund/Jack Frost) (5/29): On a Constellan-controlled planet, a homeless Jack Frost follows a strange man’s directions to what he expects to be a squat. Instead, it turns out to be a temple with at least one pre-Constellan god living in it.

3.  Aster’s Town (pre-Jack Frost/Bunnymund) (10/21): Set a few years into the Great Depression and Dust Bowl. Jack is an illusionist using real magic, abandoned by his mentor. While travelling, he finds a town untouched by the general misfortune. During his show, he discovers the powerful wizard responsible for the town’s prosperity.

[doctor-roman]

Faces in the Background - Shadows Over Innistrad & Eldritch Moon - Part 1

I hope you’re all ready to get spooky because it’s high time we look at the plane with some of the most popular secondary characters in Magic - Innistrad.

Innistrad’s list of quoted characters is long. Really long. Between SOI, and EMN alone, there are 38 named characters quoted in flavor text. As much as I love Innistrad, I don’t want this to be an eight part series, so what I did was look at all of the named characters in Shadows Over Innistrad and Eldritch Moon, then looked back at the original Innistrad block to see who shows up more than once between both blocks. Those that did will be discussed in this series.

With that out of the way, let’s get spoopy.

Anje Falkenrath

Most of the info we have on Anje comes from SOI block. She was an older scion of the Falknerath family, of which was hit particularly hard with Emrakul’s arrival. The Falkenrath were well known for being some of the most feral vampires on the plane, and Emrakul’s incoming influence on the plane didn’t help much to quell that. Indeed, the vampires of the Falkenrath family became even more crazed and came to develop bat like qualities in their corruption. Those that became especially influenced left the family and stalked the passes of Geier Reach, naming their condition the “Boiling Blood”.

Anje herself was labeled with the condition as well, but instead of leading a solitary existence like those before her, gathered some of the other eldrazi influenced vampires into a hunting pack. She does this because her goal is to retake Castle Falkenrath with the support of her pack from those that inhabit it already.

Anje is quoted in one other card:

Aggravate (AVR) “Barbarians! They burned my favorite chair! We’ll kill them all!" 

Dierk, Geistmage

Oh Dierk. You had so much potential. In the original Innistrad block, you were a geistmage on the run; binding the souls of the departed to your will. Church wasn’t too happy with that.

And then you went and allied yourself with Liliana. In SOI block, Dierk makes an appearance in story with helping Liliana in exorcising the Chain Veil. This attempt fails, but it puts Dierk in the wrong place at the wrong time - after the failed attempt of electrocuting the Onakke out of the Chain Veil, Dierk leaves the lab only to find himself surrounded by eldrazified werewolves.

Liliana resurrects him along with countless other zombies on the way to Thraben to fight Emrakul, and he’s then lost in the crowd.

Dierk is quoted in three other cards:

Dissipate (INN) "This abomination never belonged in our world. I’m merely setting it free.”

Second Guess (AVR) “I see where you’re going with that. I don’t like it.”

Spectral Flight (INN) “The church looks down on binding spirits into armor, but now I can look down on them.”

Ghoulcaller Enslow

Gisa isn’t the only ghoulcaller on Innistrad. Enslow of Nephalia also holds the same title, and practices the same trade as Gisa of raising the dead for personal gain.

In contrast to Gisa, Enslow is a bit sneakier in his practice and uses the passages between grafs - or graveyards - to add to his collection of zombies. With Nephalia being infamous for corpse trade, I wouldn’t be surprised if Enslow was a part of that economic cycle. Selling bodies is easy when you have your product transport itself.

Enslow is quoted in two other cards:

Diregraf Ghoul (INN) “At least this one still has arms and legs. Well, most of its legs.”

Heartless Summoning (INN) “They won’t be winning any beauty pageants, but they’ll do the trick.”

Grete, Cathar Apostate

Okay, I’m cheating a little here, as Grete is technically on a card (pictured here), but it’s not as a legendary creature and I’m not passing up on the opportunity to talk about her.

Grete is Odric’s right hand woman and his second-in-command to the Gavony Riders. Or, was, at the case may be. But more on that later.

Grete was originally tasked with transporting Gisa Cecani to Thraben for trial after the conclusion of the original Innistrad block. However, Gisa’s brother, Geralf, intervened, freeing his sister from Grete’s arrest.

Later, in the Shadows Over Innistrad block, Grete helps Odric free Thalia from imprisonment after the latter was falsely held for treason against the Lunarch Council. With this betrayal against the council, Grete, Thalia, and Odric were forced on the run until they found rest in an abandoned church. It was here that Thalia introduced Grete and Odric to the Order of St. Traft, as well as Traft’s ghost himself.

Grete would come to join the Order and take part in the Battle of Thraben against Emrakul, letting herself be possessed by a ghost to shield herself from Emrakul’s whispering madness, whereas her superior and mentor Odric - his spirit broken from his betrayal against everything he had once held dear - remained behind. 

Grete is quoted in three cards:

Avacyn, the Purifier (SOI) “Wings that once bore hope are now stained with blood. She is our guardian no longer.”

Gavony Unhallowed (EMN) “We entered the church in search of solace, but it became clear we wouldn’t find it there.”

Repel the Abominable (EMN) “Fight for a better future, even if you may not live to see it.”

Hal and Alena

Halana and Alena go way back to the original Innistrad block, but it wasn’t until the Shadows Over Innistrad story “Under the Silvermoon” by  Kimberly J. Kreines that we learned that the two women are actually a sapphic couple and travel the Ulvenwald together, protecting it from all sorts of nasty beasties.

In canon, their love for each other is so great that Hal was able to resist Emrakul’s influence through sheer force of will alone, with her driving reason being that she didn’t want to be separated from Alena and leave her alone.

Last we saw of them, they were taking solace in each others company as Emrakul fully arrived on the plane, far away, off the coast of Nephalia.

I have every reason to believe that we will see them again, as since their introduction in the Shadows Over Innistrad story, they have become incredibly popular characters with a high demand for a card depicting them (and honestly, same. I need me a mono-green viable commander that I can build around, Wizards. Or Green-Red. Whichever).

Hal and Alena combined are quoted in a whopping 12 other cards:

For Halana: Tangleclaw Werewolf // Fibrous Entangler (EMN) “What has long, flesh-rending claws and enormous, bone-crushing teeth?” “… because to be honest, I couldn’t tell you.”

Grim Flowering (DKA) “Nothing in nature goes to waste, not even the rotting corpse of a good-for-nothing, blood-sucking vampire.”

Moldgraf Scavenger (SOI) “When I was a child, we worried about picking the wrong mushrooms for the cook pot. Now we must worry about being picked ourselves.”

Vorstclaw (AVR) “Where’d the werewolves go? Maybe that got hungry.”

For Alena: Briarpack Alpha (DKA) “The wolves turned on us and a chill swept over me. The pack had a new leader.”

Emrakul’s Evangel (EMN) “In times like these, be particularly wary of those who claim they can save your soul.”

Flowering Lumberknot (AVR) “It used to eat us trappers. Now it follows us around like some kind of hound dog.”

Hunger of the Howlpack (DKA) “Werewolves are an unholy mix of a predator’s instinct and a human’s hatred.”

Loam Dryad (SOI) “I’ve never known dryads to suffer visitors in their woods. Beware the Ulvenwald when she welcomes you.”

Shrill Howler (EMN) “A werewolf’s howl is terrifying, to be sure. But this … this was a chilling sound I somehow felt. I fear what will reply to it.”

Thornhide Wolves (SOI) “Halana grew brambles to create a barricade around our camp, hoping that it would keep the wolves out. That was a mistake for which we almost paid dearly.”

And that’s it for this week’s Faces in the Background. Next week we’ll continue on with more characters from Innistrad and what they have to say. Stay tuned!

[tumblunni]

Ok gonna expand upon it now cos i may as well try and stay awake.

Chandelure are like pigeons in the same sense that they used to be beloved by humans and kept as pets, bred for fancier and fancier 'plumage' (complex curly patterns and flame colours) to the point that they became quite dependant on human care to survive. And then also like pigeons, the trend fell out of fashion and all of these pets were abandoned en masse, where they became feral and over the years turned into the 'pests' we see nowadays.

I think this is why Litwicks lure humans away into the fog and make them get lost. The species as a whole struggles to live anywhere but urban environments, scavenging from trash like raccoons and roosting in abandoned factories en masse. They still have this innate trust of humans and desire to be loved by them, even after all this time. So they 'spirit away' people just because they desperately want a friend, and dont know any other way to do it. These kidnapped people just find themselves surrounded by wide-eyed baby ghosties bringing them old broken toys and asking to play. Grody old dirty hairbrushes, ancient pet collars from the 1800s...barely-understood remnants of their happy history as passed down by the Chandelure elders. They just want a friend! But you might end up trapped there for days and then when you escape you find that 100 years have passed in the outside world. That's the best case scenario, a lot of people end up being drained of their lifeforce and turned into ghosts too. Feral Chandelures are incredibly dangerous regardless of their sympathetic motives and the fact they arent able to understand that what they're doing is wrong. But spreading hatred and superstition about them being pure evil doesnt help save people from this doom, it just perpetuates the cycle that led to these pokemon becoming what they are today. Scientists who specialize in Chandelure conservation work a very dangerous job capturing and rehibilitating them, and its a thankless job where very few of these elderly ghosties will ever find a new adoptive family. Funding is tight too, because more people support chandelure extermination instead...

Oh and also i dont think that Chandelures are man-made pokemon, or that theyre mimicking lamps? I think that they were around forever and humans in Kalos just based their lamp archetecture on the species during the big pet fad. I think maybe before they became pigeon-ized, they were seen as guardian spirits of nature? Like they first became domesticated because humans created this mythology around will-o-the-wisps representing guiding lost souls and stuff, and they left offerings for litwick/lampent out of the belief that they were sort of a grim reaper? And then over time the pokemon became domesticated, and then completely dependant on humans, with the original "wolf" equivelant species dying out in the wild. I'm imagining that maybe Chandelure is an evolution that only developed from the pedigree breeding stuff, and this wild ancestor would have been like a bigger version of lampent as if it was the final evolution in the chain. Like maybe a lamp post evolution? Big glowy ghostie with a long claw hand tail, and it can stand up on it and look Big And Tall to scare off predators. Also it stands up like that when it sleeps and its babies hang off its arms upside down like bats. Anyway!! This old and more eldritch wild ghostie was domesticated into smol lamps, and people forgot the mythology of revering them and ended up just treating them as trendy pets. That led to fancy breeding and Chandelures in a million variants, and then when they were abandoned they regressed into this feral mutt form that we see today. And people forgot that they were the ones who put them here, and acted as if they'd always been trash pests. They finally have a mythology again, and its all superstition of them being evil jerks...

Oh and maybe shiny Chandelure is actually like a wolfdog? Like their flame is very "normal" and not "fancy" because they've had a genetic regression showibg signs of the original form they once had before human intervention. So shiny chandelures tend to have behavioural issues, being more easily angered, harder to train to use a litter tray, and needing longer daily walks to burn off all their extra energy. Oh and the purplish colour of regular chandelures is a "mutt" colour from all those different fancy breeds inbreeding in their feral state. The colour often has a mix of blue, green and purple splotches when you look at it up close. And you might see chandelures who have a very pure and vivid colour in something like light blue or green, similar to the old fancy breeds. But since they've been historically devalued, these colour variants arent considered 'shiny' and nobody really takes notice of them. They arent exactly rare after all, you can find hundreds of lampents pecking at your garbage and there's always at least five lighter coloured ones amoung the flock. (Seriously, feral pest pigeons still have such a cool variety of colours and nobody even spares a second glance for them?? Not even those cute white ones with the brown spots??)

Another ghost pokemon headcanon

Chandelures are like fancy pigeons.

[littlestarprincess]

Rambling about a Geist!AU for Team Rak under the cut, I guess. . . . (it’s selfship related so it’s not going in the main tag haha).

Geist as in Geist: the Sin-Eaters, which is a line in the Chronicles of Darkness tabletop roleplaying game. It’s about people coming back from the dead with an eldritch-almost-death-god burrowed into their soul. (It’s the splat for both ghost stories and zombie stories haha)

Bam -- ( Torn / Advocate) I imagine some people try to push him onto the path of the reaper, but the y-splats for Geist are a little confusing. Still, since he came back from the dead the second time, he feels responsible for helping other dead things find peace. He’s the one who notices the haunting at the library or the weird things happening around the park or what not, and insists on investigating.

Bam actually died and came back when he was a baby; he just didn’t realize he was a certain definition of undead until Rachel “killed” him, and instead of dying, he experienced the death of someone else and woke up. He would have assumed he’d just got lucky if Hwa Ryun hadn’t had the news on when he woke up on her couch several hours later. His geist has been silent, however -- all he really ever gets from them is a sense of static. In essence, he’s been bonded with his geist for so long, and from such an early age, that the difference between him and his geist is very blurred; he’s a kid who was isolated for most of his life, but he’s also the spirit of an ancient grudge between a long dead king and a cursed woman. He’d like to know more about his geist, though, and recently has started trying to learn, though picking up the pieces after so long is difficult.

(In this AU, he might very well not actually be Arlen’s son, so much as he’d be the son of Arlen’s reincarnation, or descended from Arlen by several generations. They’re small tweaks, but the timeline in the tower and the way time works for geist don’t line up very well otherwise.)

Rachel was probably his babysitter/tutor when he was younger; he’s the “young heir” to a business that’s really a front for a criminal power play, and Rachel was the only person who treated him as a person instead of as a force of nature. Technically, Hwa Ryun has also been a part of his life for a long time, but that just serves to make Rachel stand out further in his head -- Rachel treated him like a person, Hwa Ryun expected him to act like the heir to this corporation the entire time. However, Rachel eventually tried to escape the hold the company had on her (and possibly her family), which resulted in a struggle that ultimately “killed” Bam, and got Rachel even further in debt to the company. . . .

In this AU the reason Rachel doesn’t like Bam is very clear-cut and decided. Bam also gets over her a bit more quickly because he’s able to see that he’s done her wrong from an earlier moment -- Rachel is forcefully separated from him, and given more dangerous work to do, so Bam resolves not to get involved with people for a while and takes on the burden of guilt. Rachel resents him and taunts him whenever she gets the chance, but they don’t see each other much.

Kun -- ( Silent / Bonepicker ) The son of a very successful business mogul; his father specializes in blackmail and hair products. Recently, the company has also been branching out into things like skin care and make up, but A. A. grew being a bit of an experiment for different kinds of hair dye and shampoos and conditioners and hair spray and hair oils. . . . His hair in tower of god is fantastic. In this AU it’s even more meticulously cared for and managed.

Originally, Kun’s mother managed to make a deal that would have allowed her eldest daughter to inherit a decent portion of the new make-up industry, but Kun rebelled. He was adamant that his father had “another daughter” hidden away -- a girl about his age named Maria. She would appear in the house during the night, and Kun fought with his sister about whether he was making things up regularly, and he was furious that both his parents sided with his sister all the time. He ultimately set out to prove Maria’s existence, and ended up falling into a deserted well for several nights. It’s debatable whether this was according to Maria’s plan or not -- she was there when he died, and she brought him back, and after that point he stopped talking about her. Things between his mother and father went south after that, and his sister blames him for losing their inheritance, which was ultimately divided between Hachuling and another member of their family.

His relationship with Maria is such that he’s reluctant to join a Krewe (which is basically like a supernaturally founded religious cult? It’s complicated, but basically it involves at least three geists joining their souls together in a ceremony, and then convincing people that their way is the enlightened way; the more people join their cult, the more supernatural clout they have), fearing that there would be some judgement in that regard. Maria herself claims to be both his “past life lover” and “unborn twin sister” -- she says that they died in each other’s arms, and that she followed him into this life, but the circumstances of their birth prevented her from being born. Eduan has prevented A.A. from investigating this, and A.A. takes this as evidence on it’s own -- he’s since moved out of that household (even though Eduan hasn’t been sticking around much anyway) and in with Bam & Hwa Ryun (who were rooming together for a while before Kun showed up and turned their lives upside down. Or at least turned Bam’s life upside down. Hwa Ryun’s hasn’t really changed.)

Rak -- (? ? ?) I’m never really sure what to do with Rak in these AUs, other than making him a spirit (since spirits are pretty much a Thing in all game lines, except like. . . Vampire. And I could probably make Rak pretty well in Vampire, now that I think about it! He’d probably be a gangrel and and older vampire that’s taken on more animalistic features because of his age, but I’d have to flip through the book again. Nosferatu would also be a nice option, but gangrel fits better. . . . ) And making him a spirit isn’t bad per se, but if feels shallow to have the other two be from the main splat while Rak is not ;;. However, humanized versions of Rak never really feel solid to me. . . I might try it out again soon to see if I can come up with something I like, but it just doesn’t feel like Rak if he’s not a talking alligator. . . . however, with Geist, if I could find a way to make him a Kerebos of some sort, that would be pretty interesting, and he’d still be tied up specifically to this setting. Maybe a Kerebos who Bam and Kun ended up tricking before, and now he’s followed them to the living world out of sheer tenacity. . . 

I’m pretty sure Kerebos are supposed to be bound to the underworld, but I feel like making an exception for Rak could be fun. So he’s an escaped guardian of the underworld that Kun and Bam have to keep ordering clothes for so he can go out and enjoy the living world for the first time in forever. . . . he’d probably be a lot like Iskander in that regard, because I don’t know how long he’d have been dead for in order to be a Kerebos, but I imagine it would be a really long time. Hwa Ryun has the hardest time adjusting to him, though, because she’s trying to get other things done, and keeps getting pulled in to deal with a giant humanoid crocodile on the subway or whatever, and it’s pissing her off.