#and then there will be maybe three more characters of the “main” cultists | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

unolvrs · 1 year ago

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UPCOMING WORKS? PLEASE? IF THERE AREN'T ANY, IT'S OKAY TOO!

uhh, there are both upcoming works and upcoming updates! i have sneak peeks for each one! but here they are:

少年A　（jjk ft. male!reader; possibly megumi/reader）

In a remote village in Sapporo, a thirteen-year-old first year student in an unnamed junior high school allegedly killed three classmates known to bully his best friend who they had driven to suicide. (Or, none of that is true.)

少年A (or: Boy A) was initially made as an OC out of nowhere. i shared him to a few friends before i realized that the set-up of him being nameless and just being called 'Boy A' was perfect for a reader-insert. and before i knew it, i was already writing everything down and it was really, really fun. the term 「少年A」 is something akin to 'John Doe' and it's mostly a name used to minors involved in a crime. there are lots of criminal 「少年A」 in japan so if you want to read about them, i'd give you a big trigger warning because the most well-known 「少年A」 was involved a horrific case.

2. among dawn flowers (the face of god), an extra chapter

i always get notifications about comments concerning dawn flowers and i've read all of them. thank you for your very kind words! they make me feel very happy every time i read them :D i'll be replying to them soon. but the most common comment is about gojō's... well, reaction to everything and what he truly felt for the main character, and there were a couple of misunderstandings in the comments too. i would normally just leave the misunderstandings be to let people have their own interpretation but i've been getting lots of comments and DMs about dawn flowers all the time, so this extra chapter happened. it has the following AUs too:

zen'in naoya marries tengai-san instead

tengai-san survives

tōji snatches up tengai-san (not at all romantic but a found family of sorts because their dynamics are really interesting! because they're the people who neither needs the least!)

and idk, maybe some more? i'll be reading through the comments again!

3. kirigakure-centric naruto fic

“Kirigakure didn’t need help. They needed salvation.” No one knows anything about the Mizukage. Only that she’s kind. She likes to smile. She likes seafood like every other Mizu-born. And that there’s something inexplicably wrong with her. There’s something wrong with the Mizukage whom the Kiri-nin call a ‘god’. —or, Wataru Wataru was never really a powerhouse, in this life or the last, but she’s resourceful. She knows cults, pyramid schemes, and corrupt politicians like the back of her hand, so of course, she becomes the Mizukage and becomes a god along the way.

it's highlighted because it's undergoing editing... but yes, the mizukage cultist fic that i was talking about a month ago. it currently has four chapters in my drafts. i'm testing the waters on whether or not i can maintain it. so far, i have everything planned... like the timeline... it's too detailed.

4. shintō pjo fic

Beyond the eastern seas, Sen'no Hyōran wages a one-man war. (Or, if all she needs is the Golden Fleece, if all she needs is to steal that damned thing, then she will. Those Greeks standing in her way or not.)

YES IT'S HAPPENING OK!

of course, there's also the writing of kill the goose (3 chapters in my drafts now!), rain on my parade (a very slow rewriting), sunday without god (i wrote the next chapter and it was too long like 8k words and i'm not even halfway done so i'm stuck)! and posting some comm'd works that have been rotting in my drive for months!

some possible fics but no promises:

floating blue (nanami/reader)

Aoi's josei romance manga life starts when she's saved by Nanami Kento after almost falling down the train tracks! (Or, it turns out that Aoi is the main character of a supernatural josei manga! She's so excited!)

starts off as a cliché josei manga set-up bc aoi is a josei manga protagonist! then turns deep :D might become a reader-insert instead but without the [name] insert things. just second pov. this was really meant to be a rom-com than a sudden "omg! i'm in a supernatural josei manga!" might write bc it's a cute concept.

the prostitution of learning (jjk & male!oc)

There is no other main character but Kikuchi Eita. (Or, defeating enemies, exorcizing Curses, facing conservative higher-ups, there’s no adversity that Kikuchi Eita cannot push through because Kikuchi Eita is the main character. That is until Itadori Yūji.)

i made this guy before 少年A and while eita is my favorite oc i've ever created in jjk, 少年A's story is easier to write. but the prostitution of learning is a bit more complicated even just with eita's planned CT and while i'd love nothing more than to write this one, idk if i'd have the time but i really want to!

willow diaries / 柳日記 (kakashi/oc)

Kakashi gets a nobleman's concubine pregnant. Whoops. (Or, I no Yanagihaya's honorable brother-in-law said to surprise him. She did.)

first of all, it's not cheating or infidelity. said nobleman is dead. anyway, i think this is the most likely to be written bc i've written the first chapter a hundred times but couldn't get satisfied. anyway, this one's fun. and i love civilian ocs! especially writing nobility. the research was a pain but i loooove this one.

pls... don't ask me about frog in a well :"") i'm working on it! idk, froggie's become that weird cousin idk if i wanna talk to or not. it's awkward between the two of us right now bc ik i could start writing the chapter anytime and get it done and over it quickly but i've been lazy and focusing on other stuff hehe <3

#問 ━━ answers #aka the monthly “what are you writing rn uno”

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saberamane · 11 months ago

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So I just finished the main story of Assassin's Creed Odyssey, and here are my thoughts for those who care:

Overall the game was good, the story was impactful and there were a lot of things I loved about it.

First of all, ALL the Isu area's were amazing in their own ways. They were all varying degrees of cool or unsettling, and gave off the vaguely 'alien' feel I always thought the Isu things gave off.

The forge area where you upgrade the spear was both familiar and new, and the orange color the lights took on was unique.

The temple for Medusa was eerie, all the stone people outside, the petrified trees, the strange almost 'slowed-time' effect in the area, the fact your horse and eagle refused to enter the area...all very good touches. I suppose the only thing I was disappointed with in this side activity was the fact Medusa had legs and wasn't a Naga. I mean, she teleported anyway, why couldn't she have had a snake half?

Likewise, the Minotaur was really cool and the maze was awesome, how everything was falling apart, the deadends and various bones and corpses, the fact that the rope you're supposed to follow is broken or missing in area's, it was all really tense with the sounds of the minotaur echoing around you. And the dilapidated palace or whatever that was built over top was a good touch.

The Cyclops and Sphinx, however, were kind of a disappointment. The Sphinx didn't have her own 'arena' or temple, even if she didn't attack you. The fact that the area was outside and open to the world (and there was literally a camp with people in it 20 feet away) was a bit 'out of character' in my opinion. Yeah you had to answer the Sphinx's riddles to get the crest or whatever, but were the Isu so sure no one would answer them correctly to leave it to chance? At the very least they could have given the Sphinx an underground temple with trials to pass before even getting to her.

And the Cyclops on the forgotten isle was also kind of...blah. By the time I could get into the area, I'd already tried to enter multiple times through my exploration. And already had fought two other Cyclops who were way cooler. If anything, all three Cyclops should have had a fragment of the crest you needed, so that you'd have to fight all three. What even was the point of the other ones?

The legendary beasts were cool and fun to fight, I only wish you didn't have to kill or be banished by Daphnae at the end of it. Why could she have run away with me?

All the various tombs/temples/sunken area's/forts and just the general world you could explore were very cool.

Now for the things I didn't care for...

The world was WAY TOO FUCKING BIG. Seriously, the main story and exploring the world has me over 147 hours, and only about 3 of those hours was me doing the mainline story missions. So...why would it take me 144 hours? That would mean it took me 48 times the amount of time it took me to finish the story than it did to explore the world... That is too much. And most of the world isn't even used in the main story line either, so there's really no excuse to have such a massive map. You actually travel very little for the main story, maybe a bit more for all the cultists, but even then some cultists were very close to each other anyway, Ubisoft didn't even spread them out despite all the space.

For really a vast majority of the places you have to go out of your way to even see them. If you're just following the main questline, there are area's you will never even go to. In my opinion, the map could have been cut in half, at least, and still be a good game with a large area to explore.

And to tie in with the large map, they made the character levels go up to 99? Why? What was the need? So that you had to continue to go around to forts and such to kill large amounts of enemies to level up so the Mercenaries can't be 30+ levels higher than you? At 147+ hours, I'm only level 79, so another 20 levels to be maxed out, with the exp cap getting larger with each one...how long am I supposed to spend on this one game?

And now another big thing people have heard me talk about before. Why the two different character options, with only 1 set story? As in the character you choose to play as is always a mercenary whose sibling is presumed dead but is actually brainwashed by a cult. This would be fine if Odyssey was a self-contained game, but you have Alexios on the cover of the game, but Kassandra in the majority of promotional stuff, and the 'canon' protagonist who appears in another game!

Basically, Ubisoft made Kassandra too important to the AC universe as a whole to really allow for Alexios to have any space for himself. I mean, Kassandra not only interacts with Eivor at some point, but also lives to the modern times to give the staff of Hermes to Layla. And while I'm sure those parts would show Alexios if you played as him, the point still stands that it's Kassandra who appears in Valhalla.

So in my opinion, it should have been a similar scenario as with Eivor where the name is the same, just the gender is different, or it's a set storyline: You play as Kassandra, a mercenary who travels to find her family and save her brother from a cult.

Or...you know...not have Kassandra travel to other games...

In short, they've made Kassandra so important that Alexios is often an afterthought, and that's sad.

And kind of tying in with that last point, I thought it was really fucking stupid to show Kassandra getting the staff of Hermes, and seeing what happens when someone holds it too long, and then IMMEDIATELY having Kassandra appear in front of Layla to hand the staff over and die. Like, that was so sudden it really didn't have an impact on me? If you had to pull the player out of the animus and have Kassandra show up with the staff right there, why not let Kassandra work with the modern Assassin's for a bit, maybe have a big showdown with Abstergo where Kassandra helps them fight, AND THEN Kassandra gives Layla the staff and dies?

Just one after the other like that was unimpactful in my opinion. Or like...don't show us what happened when Kassandra's dad gave her the staff, fade to black with some ominous words like 'Kassandra, there's something you must know...' and then you think Kassandra's dad gave her the staff and left, so when Kassandra dies when she gives Layla the staff you're completely caught off guard with it because you didn't know for certain what would happen?

It was too rushed. Just saying.

A smaller issue I had...why were most of the romanceable npc's woman? Ubisoft gave a lot of instances where Kassandra could be a lesbian, but playing as Alexios you'd have very little men options... So either lesbians are ok, and gay men aren't, or if everyone was to play strictly 'straight' then playing as Kassandra could be seen as her being a better, more focused mercenary as she wasn't falling into bed with every man she saw, and Alexios would be a womanizer. Who knows, just a strange thing I noticed. I think I got the option with only three or four men to romance them, but like... every woman was dtf Kassandra...

Ok, now just some super small complaints:

-why could lynx's take me off my horse? they're pretty small.

-why were npc mercenaries's tamed animals so much better than mine?

-why could I not hunt whales? they're right there, I can kill sharks.

-why can't I get resources from birds? don't I need feathers for crafting arrows?

-why so many fucking ainigmata ostraka? why so many engravings? I haven't even used any of them...

-what's the point of that forge guy in Hephaistos's Workshop? He never did anything for me, so I stopped going.

-lead cultist was so predictable.

-stop pulling me out of the Animus when things are getting good!

-ugh...why should I care about Layla? I really don't... (bring back Desmond!!<3)

-also just...I find Layla annoying?? I just...can't stand her...Literally don't know why, just never liked her. (my first ever AC was origin's, didn't like her from the start so it's not 'you just don't like her cause Desmond' because...I literally knew her before Desmond...)

-Alexios forgave in ch9 far too quickly. the spear should have showed him what happened that night. simply taking Kassandra and Myrinne's word for what happened is stupid, he's been lied to by a cult his entire life...

-I got the 'best' ending with Nikolaos and stentor at dinner with Kassandra, alexios and myrinne. why is myrinne ok with nikolaos being there? he made up with Kassandra, to myrinne he's still the man that allowed the cult to nearly kill both her children. and stentor is a grown ass man adopted by her shitty husband. whi tried to kill Kassandra. just saying, best ending should not have nikolaos and stentor as part of the 'happy' family.

#assassin's creed #assassins creed #personal #kassandra #assassins creed odyssey #alexios #kassandra of sparta

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waeirfaahl · 2 years ago

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Early version of the sheeps in demonic form had a bit more sense

The segment with these three lambs was one of the most badly constructed moments of 5 season. Not only as a backstory of “How Jack lost his sword”, but also in the small details. The brightest one — why the magic sword killed them instead of freeing from Aku’s magic, if the sword never hurts an innocent (the same thing with Ashi)? Not to mention the fact, that in 5 season Aku suddenly has an ability to transform living creature into monster, but transforms the lambs instead of Jack for some reason. And I don’t even know, which one of those new abilities, given to Aku in 5 season, ruins and breaks the logic, the character and the setting and story, where he exists, more in comparasion with others. He blows up Scaramouche with the power of thought, but does not use this sudden new ability to immediately kill Jack and Ashi. Earlier Aku restores Scaramouche, using his magic (and he did that in the game also), and this moment makes the entire 5 season even more pointless — Aku just could restore with his magic the armies of robots every time, he could exhaust Jack by doing this and easily kill him. There’s no need in creating the new robots. As well as there’s no need for some random sadist to control the blue alien cubs and there’s no need for some random crazy cultists to birth and raise kids to be killers (not to mention that in 5 season Aku knows nothing about this, since he ignored Jack all these 50 years and only waited his death).

Judging by the image of their faces on the stone slabs, the lambs are the guardians of the time portal. So, here’s my question — if they are guardians, what's the point in giving the prerogative of their transformation into monsters to Aku? They themselves had to transform after the threat to the portal or the destruction of the time portal.

The lambs are transformed into the bulls. And that’s one of the main reasons, why this “twist” is so predictable. They have almost the same fur color as in their normal sheep form and still look like hoofed animals with horns. Also, the scene of how they grow and become large becomes spoiler from the beginning. We already know that these bulls are transformed lambs. Not to mention their red blood, which for some reason doesn’t surprise Jack until he sees how the bull becomes small and turns into the lamb.

In animatic, i.e. early version, they look way better. Some demonic horse-dragon-like creatures with fire mane. This design I like much more. I can say that at least in 5 published animatics (3, 5, 7, 8, 9 episodes — too bad, the animatics for 1, 2, 4, 6 and 10 episodes weren’t published for some reason) some tiny moments, different from the final version, were made better.

The tense and presentation in animatic are also better, ‘cause it contains far less spoilers. In animatic there’s no scene with growing monsters in white glowing of Aku’s eyes. Like, yes, Aku still says “Before I go, I’ll leave someone to play with you!” and his eyes sparkle for 2 seconds, but we can assume that the monsters were teleported to this place or created from Aku’s magic. We only hear roaring behind Jack and then see these running and attacking monsters. And only after seeing the fact of blood in first one or two creatures we start to assume “Ah? Wait a second? Hmm, there are three monsters, and they have blood... maybe they’re those lambs?”. Shortly saying, the path to the “twist” is more clever and subtle.

Unfortunately, both animatic and final version forced Jack to loose his sword in idiotic way. In the final version, Jack, sitting by the dead sheep far from the abyss, dropped the sword from his hands NEXT to him, and for some reason the sword rolled from Jack far away to the hole, hung for a couple of seconds and fell there, while in the animatics Jack HIMSELF THREW the sword towards the hole, the sword hung for a couple of seconds on the edge and after fell into the abyss. And in both versions, the hero is surprised by the fall of the sword and does not try to go down there and return it.

#samurai jack #samurai jack 5 season

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cptsadist · 2 years ago

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Hi hi! Do you mind given some Seiren, Egon and Hauer facts? (lore or hc of how would they be with MC, idk you choose ms/mr creator)

Are Egon and Wraith brothers?

Also your characters of Siren from hell and Rip your heart out have a nickname for MC?

SRRY FOR GIVING YOU TOO MANY QUESTIONS IF YOU CAN'T ANSWER ALL JUST CHOSE THE ONE YOU LIKE °n°

Omg you are totally fine!! No worries at all! I love answering any asks so I'll try my best to answer these the best I can!!

- - -

Okay!! Some lore facts on those three first!

Seiren:

Seiren is an imp, but he is incredibly weak and is sort of trapped in Trance's body (but it is not impossible for him to come out)

Trance is his first person he made a deal with

Seiren is easily flustered and has a thing for stronger demons, but he is genuinely scared of Wraith, Wraith terrifies him

With MC, he would be really nervous at first since he doesn't really have much experience with anything. MC would probably have to get to know him while he was in control of Trance's body, and maybe MC could help him come out of Trance's body so that MC can actually see him. Seiren wouldn't really know what to do for a lot of things relationship-wise and will need to be guided, but he's gonna try his best.

Egon:

Egon is a hard-core voyeur. He loves filming anything from him torturing someone to having his way with someone or simply watching MC sleep. He always has a camera nearby, plus he has cameras set up all over Trance's house that he has access to. He saves any recordings he likes and burns them onto DVDs, which he keeps organized in his bedroom.

Don't ever fuck with or hurt Trance if you don't want to mess with a pissed off Egon.

Egon speaks in a low raspy voice because his throat was damaged when the cultists tried to kill him years ago, and he also has a slight heart murmur from when they tried to cut out his heart.

With MC, Egon may be a bit....obsessive. You're not allowed to leave his room unless he says it's okay and he's with you. You don't need anything anymore, just him. He has a whole shelf dedicated to videos he has taken of you in various situations, but he especially loves watching you sleep. He may still hurt you every now and then, but he reminds you that he's being more gentle than with the others, and he does more threatening than actual inflicting pain now.

Hauer:

Hauer surprisingly has an actual doctorate.

He was diagnosed as a sociopath at the age of 9, but his father (being of a higher status) didn't want the Hauer name ruined, so he had the diagnosis taken off of Hauer's medical record and simply homeschooled him.

Hauer has a very thick German accent and he doesn't always know the English word for things, so he may simply say the German word and hope you understand.

With MC, you will be his main focus and he better be yours. He doesn't want you talking to anyone who isn't him. He will spoil you, shower you with gifts, cook you fancy dinners, etc. He would actually take really good care of you, just don't cross him. He will get easily frustrated when he doesn't understand an emotion of yours, and he may lash out, but he will make it up to you the best that he can.

- - -

Egon and Wraith are not brothers! Wraith is a demon who attached himself to Egon when a group of cultists were trying to sacrifice Egon, but since Egon wasn't pure (at all), it pretty much summoned Wraith and he's stuck around since. Wraith is actually a shapeshifter and that's pretty much his preferred appearance, though he does tailor it a bit to look a little similar to Egon. He sort of acts like an annoying brother to Egon, Wraith has the energy of an annoying frat boy which is pretty much the opposite of Egon's energy.

- - -

What the boys would call MC:

Trance: Sweetheart

Egon: Igrushka (Russian for "toy")

Seiren: Hun/Honey

Wraith: Kitten, babe

Jet: Baby

Hauer: Darling, pet

Ralph: (Doesn't really know any, he'll probably refer to MC by name unless MC teaches him pet names, which he'll gladly use)

Hope you enjoyed this, thank you for asking!! I love answering these tbh

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petrifact · 2 years ago

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Write Your First Adventure Lesson 6: Villains and BBEGs

For this lesson, participants were to describe the villain of their adventure, including the following points:

Which conflict the villain represents (Character vs Character, Character vs Self, or Character vs World)

How the villain personifies this conflict

How the villain may succeed

They were also asked to flesh out the villain using what the instructor called the RATS system, determining what makes the villain relatable, antagonistic, threatening, and special.

(Both those three kinds of conflict and the RATS system were of course explained in more detail in the lesson.)

I kind of went overboard on this one and tripled my work. Here's what I wrote:

Hrm… I feel like in my adventure there are really three villains (not counting the spirit trapped in the stone, which I see is more a tool used by the villains). Still, if one of them is the main villain, it would be the magician who trapped the spirit… though I guess it wouldn't hurt to try this activity for all three villains.

One thing I was realizing reading over this, though, is that in my adventure the villains really… aren't necessarily an immediate threat. The cult may be destablizing the area; if it's left to spread unchecked its leaders could get political ambitions and start causing major problems; but at the moment, aside from the murders by the zealot, it's more of a potential threat than an immediate danger. I'm not sure that's a major problem, though; I think I'll address it in a sidebar, that the adventure as written mostly assumes the PCs are going to be suspicious of the cult and try to investigate it, but if they don't, or if they choose not to do anything about it, then it could grow over time and become a long-term "subplot" of the campaign rather than a one-shot.

Anyway, on to the villains.

The Magician:

Okay, this is going to be a little tough, because while she's really the biggest threat and the main instigator here, of the three villainous characters she's the one that I feel like I have the least grasp of, as far as her motives and personality. I'll have to think about this. Why is she doing what she's doing? What does she ultimately hope to accomplish?

Oh… hey… maybe she does have long-term political goals, which she's keeping the nominal cult leader in the dark about. Maybe she thinks Sartar's current leadership is too soft, and wants to return Sartar to an age of glory… or even to a pre-Sartar state. Hm. (By the way, I've been thinking of her as just a "magician" because, honestly, I haven't been totally sure what her deal is as far as the kind of magic she's using. Wait a second… maybe she's a shaman; she's already been serving an ancient Beast Man spirit… nah; if she's trying to imprison one that doesn't fit all that well. Hm, maybe she is a cultist of a spirit, but not a Beast Man spirit; a different ancient spirit that opposed the Beast Men… okay, that could be interesting.)

Okay, so let's start with the magician.

WHAT CONFLICT DOES SHE REPRESENT? I guess of the three she most embodies a Character vs World conflict--it's not that she's directly attacking the PCs or their allies; it's that she's trying to shape society the way she wants it. (If she's confronted directly, though, she could definitely be a Character vs Character conflict.)

HOW DOES SHE PERSONIFY THIS CONFLICT? Her ultimate goal is to gather enough power for the cult for it to be able to dominate the village, and eventually spread to Dragon Pass as a whole. In the meantime, she's helping the cult leader gather a community of followers around him.

HOW COULD SHE SUCCEED? If the cult isn't stopped and its membership keeps increasing it could grow into a major force in Dragon Pass and the magician could turn its cultists into a conquering army -- leaving the cult leader as the figurehead while she pulls the strings.

RATS:

RELATABLE: The magician hopes to return Dragon Pass to an earlier age, when she thinks it was stronger. The fact that the Lunar Empire was able to conquer the land shows how weak its leaders currently are, even if they recently threw off their Lunar occupiers with the convenient help of a dragon. She wants to return Dragon Pass to a time when its people had no need to fear any oppressors. (Such a time may never have wholly existed, but she's convinced it did.)

ANTAGONISTIC: As the cult gets stronger, the surrounding community becomes weaker, as the cultists devote their resources toward the cult of the shard rather than their community. Existing cults of the gods would also consider the cult blasphemous, and its taking focus from them weakens those cults as well. On a more personal level, if one of the PCs' friends or relatives is enmeshed in the cult, the PCs will likely want to extract them.

THREATENING: As mentioned above, the magician and the cult aren't imposing much of an immediate threat… but in the long term they could be a force to be reckoned with as they try to overthrow the established order. More immediately, though, the magician isn't going to like the PCs looking into the cult, and may set the cultists against them—or if pressed may take matters into her own hands and use her magic against them.

SPECIAL: The magician isn't an obvious villain at first, since she's letting the cult leader be the face of the organization. She's obsessed with history, and will talk at length about ancient wars and civilizations if given a chance.

Okay, let's do the other two villains, while I'm at it. The cult leader:

WHAT CONFLICT DOES HE REPRESENT? In a way, he kind of embodies a Character vs Self conflict—he's trying to convince other characters of the truth of his cult, and change their beliefs.

HOW DOES HE PERSONIFY THIS CONFLICT? The cult leader is a charismatic conman who's an expert at manipulating people, and who uses his force of personality to overcome people's doubts in his cult and get them to follow him.

HOW COULD HE SUCCEED? He's already had considerable success in starting the cult, but again, if he's not stopped, he'll grow the cult into a force to be reckoned with. While the cult leader himself doesn't have any real political ambitions, he'll still consider it a success if he's worshipped as a hero by large groups of people… and what they choose to do in his name, well, that's their business.

RATS:

RELATABLE: Ulimately, for all his charm and schmoozery [yeah okay that's not a word sorry], the cult leader really only wants two things: worldly comfort, and people looking up to him. Becoming the leader of a large cult would satisfy both of those goals. Left to himself, he wouldn't do much with his cult other than position himself as its pampered leader, but of course the magician has other plans.

ANTAGONISTIC: He's antagonistic for essentially the same reason as the magician; the PCs are likely to want to stop the growth of the cult. On a more immediate level, though, the cult leader is more likely to confront the PCs personally, at least at first, though that confrontation will be in the form of trying to convert them rather than combat.

THREATENING: Again, the cult leader is threatening for the same reason as the magician—because the cult itself is a threat. Furthermore, his honeyed words and clever speech might get characters to doubt their own convictions…

SPECIAL: The cult leader is well-spoken and likeable, which is much of what makes him so dangerous. He has a taste for the finer things in life, and is reluctant to pass up an exotic meal or some other luxury experience. He's missing his left hand, which he claims to have lost in a battle with a creature of chaos (in reality, it was in an accident as a child, when he was forced to work as a child laborer—an experience which has contributed to his current distaste for any sort of physical labor).

And now the zealot:

WHAT CONFLICT DOES HE REPRESENT? Here finally we have a straightforward Character vs Character conflict. He's killing people.

HOW DOES HE PERSONIFY THIS CONFLICT? The zealot is killing people he sees as threats to the cult. If he realizes the PCs are investigating the cult, they're likely to get added to his hit list.

HOW COULD HE SUCCEED? Well, he could succeed by killing the PCs. Hopefully that won't happen.

RATS:

RELATABLE: He may be murdering people, but he's doing it for what he sees as a good reason. He's a true believer in the cult, completely convinced that the cult leader's fancy rock is a true shard of the Spike, and that anything the cult does is right. Therefore, anyone who opposes the cult is wrong—and must be stopped at all costs.

ANTAGONISTIC: Even before he targets the PCs, the PCs are likely to want to put a stop to the murders. Of course, if they become targets themselves, that's all the more reason to regard him as an antagonist…

THREATENING: The zealot poses a direct threat to the life of those he sees as enemies of the cult—which, again, could easily come to include the PCs.

SPECIAL: The zealot is a former initiate of Humakt, and had the Death rune tattooed on his skin in various places. Since his conversion to the cult of the shard, he's tried to remove or overwrite those tattoos, which has left a mess of scars.

#RPGs #RPG #ttrpg #Write Your First Adventure #Chaosium #RuneQuest #tabletop rpgs #Glorantha #The Cult of the Shard

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maroonghoul · 1 year ago

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Terror Time 2023: Day 20 Thru 24

V/H/S 94 It's been a long time since I visited this franchise and I know I'm still two entries behind. I'll get to them, but in the meantime, I want to talk about how much I like this one.

Holy Hell the wraparounds have always been the weakest part of these movies (sans maybe Viral since I skipped that one) and this is no exception. I don't think i get it. So the female members of a SWAT team are part of a videodrome like cult and tonight they're sacrificing their squad? I mean, OK.

Storm Drain this cliche about reporters going into the lair of the killer is now starting to wear thin for me. Even if sewers weren't creepy (and these ones very much are before the cultists show up), why would you be this willing to wade through literal shit for a story?

That being said, the Ratma effect is awesome. I may not understand how acid puke equals god, but I'm willing to overlook that because these ARE cultists and they may be more we didn't see. The final scene makes all those flaws worth it. It's an all-timer.

The Empty Wake This story easily has the best build up. Funeral parlors are great settings already, but add onto that a storm, loneliness, boredom, and then add sudden paranoia about the body not being dead; whoo boy! And even if that doesn't work for you, the zombie is great. The whole last bit of this plays like one of those stealth horror games in the best way. As a bonus, the zombie doesn't play fair.

The Subject Certainly the most balls-to-the-wall modern update of Frankenstein you'll ever see. It's also probably the best action movie adaptation of it. Also appreciate that as monstrous this version of the mad doctor certainly is, it remembers also he was never the only monster from that setup. I'm starting to feel like we're over the police being the designated heroes in horror films. Good.

Terror Of course when right-wing redneck extremists gain access to a vampire, all they care about is how to use it to blow up or set something on fire. Kinda also like you don't get that it IS a vampire until about halfway through. Good on him for taking revenger, but the best part is they were so stupid about it, they didn't even get the chance to carry out their actual plan. And I though being seduced by them was the dumbest thing you could do.

The Craft: Legacy I chose to watch this one over the original because I heard this one was less anti-women with power. Turns out, I might've been better off with that one.

the characterizations of the other three was so weak, you might as well combine them into one character instead. I don't even know anything about their home lives. The reveal of the main character's mother I guess is big to fans of the original, but it doesn't seem to really add anything here.

As for Timmy, yes he was a jerk, but I'm not sure he deserved getting, as far as the coven knows, brainwashed. Did they even know what spell they casted on him? A Woke spell? How does that even work? Though given his coming out of the closet moment later, I could think they actually casted a bravery spell on him by mistake. And thanks to it, he finally gains the spine to throw the BS he's been taught and regurgitating all his life by the patriarchy out the window. You can certainly see potential in a subplot in how men are benefitted by feminism too, especially bi men. But instead, they cut it short by getting him killed by an asleep David Duchovny. I get the point of his villain, but it's the kind of character that needs either a down to earth approach or a campy performance, and this has neither. I gotta find better pro-witch movies.

Dark City (1998) When I felt like rewatching Body Snatchers, I knew I had to rewatch this one too. It may not be an actual horror movie, but it's visuals take inspirations from some of the earliest ones. An example being the Strangers looking like a race of nosferatu without the teeth. Though honestly, whether I knew what was going on or not, I would still kill to live in a city like this. Granted, I would appreciate there being a beach to escape to plus actual sunlight. The choice is part of the point, regardless which one I choose.

Getting back to my first sentence; In a spiritual sense, this is Invasion of the Body Snatchers in reverse. In fact, I feel that describes a lot of movies released in the late 90s. Pleasantville, Equilibrium, American Beauty, and of course, The Matrix. A world where a few pod people stop and think; "Wait, what's the point of all this? There does need to be more to life." A bit overly optimistic, especially when considering what world event comes later...and the monstrous acts we as a society did in reaction to it. Does changing the world matter if not a lot of people care enough to wake up?

Evil Dead Trap I watched this and the following movie in one day. It's amazing I never lost my lunch. Now I know what inspired Gabriel from Malignant. I don't know how they got away with making this movie back then, but I'm glad they did.

Terrifier 2 As long as you can really stomach the most brutal, bloody, and cruel kills imagined by mankind, this is a good addition to your yearly Halloween watch traditions. As long as you have the time, of course. And I didn't even like the first movie that much.

The Haunted Palace (1963) Remember last year, I said I wasn't going to watch any more Vincent Price movies? Turns out I lied, including to myself. I'm hitting the Poe films of his I haven't seen yet, starting with this one. Yes, it's not really Poe instead of Lovecraft but whatever. The titular palace certainly lives up to the title, and there are a shocking amount of faithful Lovecraft trademarks here (my favorite is the Necronomicon actually have "Necronomicon" printed on it's binding). But overall, I didn't care for it that much. I guess it's a pet peeve when I feel characters are slow to realize someone being possessed or bodyswapped. Also, kind of weird the revenge subplot just stopped halfway through. Everyone knew this was the most fun part of the movie so well, they made two better Vincent Price movies that were all about revenge after this.

The worst part is the ending. Where the servants go? I thought they were fighting Charles? Did they escape or dead? Also, if Curwen is back in control, shouldn't the revenge subplot continue? This ended too soon.

The Blob (1988) This was a mean movie the first time I watched it and it's still feels mean now. I don't know how they got away with making this in the late 80s though I can see why it bombed. I even appreciate the twist where it was a US weapon gone wrong more then I did before (Though did they have to make the human villain one of the only two black people in this movie?) This movie takes the then passable "teenage rebellion" of the original and ups the ante by saying "F the police! F the government! and F date rapists too while we're at it!"

This is the best the blob has ever looked and ever will look. (Especially in today's Hollywood). Mad respect to any movie that takes a silly and taken-for-granted monster and finds a way to show why it scared people in the first place. I'm sad there wasn't a sequel, but at the same time, I'm not sure I need one. There's been plenty of religious horror made since anyway.

#v/h/s/94 #the craft legacy #dark city 1998 #Evil Dead Trap #terrifier 2 #the haunted palace #the blob 1988

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thewanderer-000 · 2 years ago

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The Random Adventures of Daniella "Danie" Spadina

(Note: this'll be random fanfic series with miscellaneous themes, many media themes, other thing and a touch of nonsense)

The neon sign illuminated the back wall of the bar Daniella inhabited, her new friend Sharky invited her to an after party at his cousins Hurk Jr.'s house. What could it hurt, Sharky said the magic word moonshine, a 'shine called Eden's Bliss, made specifically from a cults special tonic- narcotic, or something. But she was curious, what could go wrong, Danie already jumped time-lines already. What could a drink of another cultist beverage hurt? Plus Mayor Hancock gave her addictal stuff that makes addiction less addicting, like.

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"Thanks for driving us Pratt, you're not as much of a dick everyone says you are. Maybe you'd like to try this 'shine me and Hurk made, I haven't tried it yet, but considering you're not on duty maybe you could take a load off" Sharky said as Officer Pratt drove us to Hurk Jr's dads. He kept looking at me as Sharky ramble on, obviously knew I wouldn't from around here, though I could understand the suspicion. Odd characters out there tonight, me, them three brothers that dropped me off at the edge of town were suspicious. Cute but suspicious. Big red asked a lot of questions, felt like a survey so I fired back questions as well. Except the marriage question, people never answered truthfully about that. They're attached to one person, or many, you never know.

"Hey, so you rode with the Seeds?" Pratt asked as we got there, Sharky went to go find Hurk Jr., I was startled since I zoned out reflecting on them three handsome brothers.

"Uh, yeah. Odd bunch, attractive but odd. All of them named with "J" initial, John, Joseph, and Jacob. If they have another brother I'll bet his name is James. The older brother asked a lot of questions, I answered but I asked questions too, it seemed like I passed their survey" Pratt chuckled at my jib, but he looked haunted after a moment which made me feel uneasy. Was that bad? Did I want to ask what it was about, probably best not to, not tonight I wanted to try this 'shine. Couldn't be worse than that brotherhood of steel cultist radioactive juice on Far Harbor.

"Hey! Hurk already started and Nick and Kim and some others are here. Senior is drunk out of his mind, the moonshine is a hit" Sharky said happily, I look and see the truck the three brothers were riding as I get out of Pratts car. I wave just to be friendly since they drove me through mountains and the country side to the edge of town, probably didn't see me but maybe they did.

Lovely people the Reyes, they left early since Nick had to be ready for a couple flight lessons in the morning. They didn't try the moonshine but it was understanding. Hurk senior was put to bed by his son and nephew, that was a shock to them since the old man can handle his drink, I didn't think much of it. But how could I when I kept seeing a few of the Seed brothers here and there when I blink. I drink more and more to see what would happen, Pratt/John/Joseph/Jacob take the bottle from me as I stagger to a lawn chair. And as he goes inside to grab me some water, minutes pass then a big wolf goes running, red lines was set on the head, I go to check on the creature. Grabbing the bottle of moonshine to help the big animal since it wasn't going to help me, except to get drunk.

"Hey, come here boy-, girl? You poor creature come on- back here, you're hurt. Come on, puppy, puppy. Come on- baby" I say chasing this behemoth of a wolf around the Drubman fishing hole, the beast out runs me. I still head in the direction of where I can hear distant foot steps ahead of me once we-, I cross the main road. I chase till I reach a cabin, and it's suspicious and it oddly stinks of the moonshine.

"Oh shit, where'd you go. I can't hear you, baby. Come on, you're hurt-, oh God, I'm outta shape and hella drunk" I looked down and realized that I took off without my boots, that explains why I could feel everything as I ran. I sit on the cabins stoop since I couldn't catch up. Taking a drink as I accept that I couldn't help the big beast.

"Oh, now that packs a punch. I wonder what the survey thing was, I wonder if big red was attached to anyone-" a howl made me jump as I take another long and unfortunate big gulp, I hiccup and burp feeling like I am either very lucky or unlucky for that.

"Hck, shit. Oh- mm" I lay back on the floor feeling weirder than usual and hot, the smell of the green barrels fueling my disorientation.

"Are you ok?" A cool voice said, I look over my form drunkenly and it's big red, I feel a warm tingle after, warm tingle all over. I try to not think about that and suppress it or that warmth would be running down my leg. Not the first time I pissed myself in front of people though this would be the first I wasn't on a toilet. And giving a sample for a bunch of lab coats.

"Why'd you- hck-, look so good?" I say not suppressing the warm tingle, and carefully laying my head back. I close my eyes then that was it as I fell asleep, I had the craziest dreams of mountains and this floating feeling, like I was being carried by the warmest clouds. I go through a door to an office like setting, very familiar like a lobby or activity room. I could only focus on how felt sticky the clouds feel but I enjoyed them since they didn't smell like the green barrels.

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I woke up in a room that I didn't remember entering, I roll out of the bed I was sleeping in and wonder why my pants weren't on. I remember seeing the one balcony door open and someone telling me to "go to sleep", then I think I turned to the voice and obnoxiously cuddled on to them. I don't know what happened after, most likely fell asleep.

I walk over to the balcony door and opened it to see everyone out there moving around and then I heard him, the voice from last night, far off yelling orders and encouragement to people. It was the handsome older brother, I get out and lean on the balcony to see where he was. We made eye contact once I found him, I wave and smile before going back inside to look for my pants and my boots. And that bottle of moonshine, but I might have drank it all.

"Where the hell did I leave my pants and boots? What happened to my socks, they're all dirty?" I say picking them up, at least I think these are mine, I rethink that they were mine. Just then a knock at the door startled me, I drop the random socks and stand as inconspicuous and alluring as possible.

"Come in" I answered quickly. "Jacob" entered, his stare made me realize that I forgot my pants, and the fact his face went a few shades red hinted at it. He immediately looked up so as not to stare at my cute panties, it made me blush because of course I'd forget.

"Well ain't you doing all the good?" Jacob remarked as he went to leave but I cross the room and pulled him back, man is tall and heavy. No easy feat pulling him back but I did it, I had questions and needed answers for what, how and why.

"Hold up, I have questions, nevermind my half dressed bawdy?" I say the last bit jokingly to lighten this awkward situation, though I felt a bit dizzy like the moonshine was still in effect. He made eye contact for the sake of not looking down than needed, I wasn't very tall.

"OK, shoot honey. I ain't got all day" I'm slightly caught off guard with his little southern twang, then I focus because I felt a cool breeze through the open balcony door.

"Where's my pants and boots, where am I and how'd I get here?" I asked hands on my hips, Jacob looked down then up and away.

"Look here. I don't care and besides didn't we sleep together-." I think and grow red as Jacob begins to pinken.

"Uh-, nevermind. You know what I meant-. I'm hungover and just waking up, my way with words has left me" I say just going and grabbing a drawer and grabbing the first pair of pants and slipping them on, my slutty mouth has to say the worst sentence at the moment. Could I make this more awkward, I had to leave before I said more gonk things, I suppose Johnny was right. My talking when awkward or intoxicated is too much, I swear he was the best and worst. How the hell was it cute though, fuck that guy and his Silverhand, it grabbed too hard during sexy times. Well not all the time but sometime. Jacob stood there as I quickly grabbed things that weren't mine, probably confused by the fact that I was grabbing stuff and heading out the door.

"Uh- did you want to? It can be arranged, Danie, if you wish?" Jacob said, I dropped the jacket and looked at him intrigued, not declining but interested. He's got a good physic, from what I could remember, granted I was just using part of him like a pillow. But who knows how long I'll be here, did it matter I'd have to leave this universe too eventually. And he oddly felt familiar but I couldn't place what it was that made me feel a degree of comfort about him.. This wouldn't be the first time I unintentionally joined a cult, hopefully they wouldn't deny. The amount of cults I came across they'd deny it.

"Ummkay, I could stay for a while, then look for my pants later" I picked up the jacket and put it back on the desk and dropped trou-, more like wiggle and boom I was pants less once more. But he quickly pulled them back up and came very close pushing me towards the double doors leading to the hall.

"Come on, I know a place" he said in my ear before laying a kiss below my neck, I immediately suspected this would be a good outdoor trip.

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"What the hell!?" I whisper as I couldn't be more wrong as the tent we fell asleep in, after sexy time activities were done. A bunch of wolves surrounded us, well, me. Jacob must have went out for a bit, I could hear the wolves play fighting with an animal limb or something they hunted, I just seen their shadow. I wasn't ready for that, I was looking for my clothes but unfortunately I can't find them. This is probably what I get for making fun of that TV show about the naked people in the woods in that one dimension. I sift through the sleeping bags and blankets and find Jacob's shirt, I put it on then hear the distant sound of a vehicle. The wolves weren't forgotten just because it got quiet out, till I heard a rustling at the opening of the tent, a wolfy snout pushed its way in.

"Shit, this is where and how I end, or just get mauled a bit more. Jacob Seed, you were great in sleeping bag, and by camp fire" I whisper as the tent zipper gave way with a whole wolf pushing in to the tent as the vehicle got closer and closer. But the wolf made way and clumsily got in sniffling and snuffling, I was expecting hungry, vicious animal. The wolf seemed to be looking for something or someone as the large thing started to paw at sleeping bags and blankets. Then found me as the scent it was tracking was on me or me?

"Oh fuck" I murmur as the large beast snuffle Jacob's shirt, the size of the wolf was humongous, this looked larger than any wolf I saw before. I waited for it to bite and rip me out of the tent but nothing. Plop, she rested in my lap just cozy, I go to pat but she sees and naws on my hand.

"Oh! I'm sorry" I panic for a moment but realized that this wasn't a mad bite but something else. I wonder if they knew Jacob, maybe they followed us and watched us last night. I wouldn't remember or hadn't noticed since I was immensely preoccupied.

"Hm? You are pretty nice, like domesticated and very cute but still dangerous" I say as cautious as ever while the wolf licked and softly naw on my hand as my other hand pet her. The vehicle finally made it, after a moment the engine cut and a door opened and closed.

"Danie?" Jacob called, probably suspected that the wolves scared me off, but this isn't the oddest thing to happen, I've seen odd and experienced it quite a bit.

"Yeah, I'm being weighed down by a large soft girl with the cutest ears" I hear a sigh of relief as Jacob walked over to the tent.

"I brought you some clothes since I didn't know where the wolves took yours. We'll let you change" a sentence I had never heard from anyone, yet, I liked it. Because, well, wolves. Jacob handed me the bag and whistle to the wolf to follow him as he closed the tent.

"Thank you, oddly this isn't new, I lose clothes here and there, and judging by the shirt and jacket they took your stuff too" he chuckled lightly as his shadow displayed him giving affection to his wolves.

"They did, underwear, and jacket. If you're not careful they'll take your important shit, if not them the raven's will take stuff too. And now I have questions as to how, why and where you've lost clothing, sounds like interesting stories and adventures" I ponder on that, as I pull on the donated clothes, which smells like campfire and Jacob's fancy smell good spray. I found it in one of the drawers, I don't remember putting it back in my search for pants. I absent-mindedly left it out to smell later, though once Jacob came into his room it was instantly forgotten.

"I'm aware, wolves, raven's and corvids. All in cahoots, kinda cute. Though. I think I may have too many stories, it's all usually shoes, jackets, hats, though maybe few times I lost full outfits. That's not including the ruined clothes" I step out of the tent while doing a quick braid, I think on my adventures and remember.

"Once, I fooled around with a musician/former military guy. I went to a bar where this after party was, the guy was drunk, flirty and hella forward too. I avoided him at first but then when I was at the bar getting a few drinks for me and the group I befriended, yeah. He shot, his shot, my drunk self said something flirty and insulting an hour later we were getting busy in a restroom stall at the bar. Then I went to his place where it continued on the way to then against his apartment door. So clothes have been shed, sexy times have been had, I wake up clean myself up and as I'm about to look for my clothes I hear him talking to an irate woman on the phone" I stand trying to remember what happened next, being young, drunk and trying to hide from a one night stands significant others is stupidity I gradually learned not be in, in the past. I've been kinda better just had time-line jumping added to my messy mix.

"And shit, she was mad, and for good reason, her friends saw him a couple days before taking a woman to his place. I only grab what I can see, which are my bag and phone, he rushes in and says 'I don't have time for this' wrapped me in his bedsheet and told me to wait on the fire escape. I don't, I go down, duck in the nearest unlocked window grab some random shoes that fit while I hear him and the woman argue. I hear his window open and luckily I'm in some random apartment, I laugh out of regret because I've been in that same situation before. Their fight is louder, I change into some random woman's clothes, because Johnny and his woman are still arguing, even as I'm clothed and leaving out the front door of some apartment. I return the bedsheet, the fight isn't as loud she still sounds suspicious but he's putting on a good enough act to sway her. I just leave the bedsheet on the floor next to his door, and shake my head then leave, I had stuff to do and was so ashamed. I didn't want to add to the number of women she said he cheated with, three other women, ugh. I didn't see him for weeks but she broke up with him then we fooled around some more, I was cross with him but damn was he charming. His band mates seemed unphased, but they were nice like, I only was around for-, I think roughly half a year. Then work took me elsewhere, that was long ago, definitely a time to remember" who could forget a world with robotic like limbs and Night City, what a trip. Jacob gave me a look I wasn't quite ready for, did he know I wasn't from this time-line. I look away thinking of another memory where I lost clothing and nothing too out of the ordinary but that was difficult since I myself wasn't ordinary or from this time line.

"You're not from here, huh?" Jacob said inquisitive tone level as his eyes looked for evidence of my birth home. I see his eyes, searching me for answers, like he could recognize the truth through all my false efforts.

"Hehe, uh. What are you on about, like I'm not from Montana but-" he moved close caressing my cheek in a very familiar way, and like that I remember it. We met before, a long, long time ago, I knew those eyes, we found each other.

"You're Jake, Jake from Juvie" I say softly, remembering how I got picked up by police because the portal dropped me on a cop car. Luckily, they were patrolling kinda slow but the drop still hurt, I think I was 16. 16, no id card, my bag of belongings didn't help me, I was thrown in a juvenile detention facility for putting up a fight with the police. The lady who was my case worker fudged some documents for me, I knew enough but they took my time travel stuff. Plus, I had to wait for it to charge, this universe beat the earth that had human size bugs on it. Or I think it was earth. And there he stood, a husky tall redhead, big, bruised and bloody knuckles. I wasn't sure about this, I had a weakness for boys like him and I was right. We insulted each other but I knew, I knew it would only inspire more down the line.

"Hey, jailbait" I fumed at that Insult, why did guys use that and on me. Johnny Silverhand, Eddie, that Ted boys dad, and my professors snarky assistant.

"And good bye" I turn to leave only for Jacob Seed to laugh then close the space and wrapped me up in his arms. I thought I'd never feel this again or see him or this universe again.

"Don't be like that. You know, I never thought I'd see you again, I actually hoped that I would again. And for awhile I pushed the idea you ever happened away, for a long time, I looked all over for you once I was well. But the information given was false and the case worker had passed on, I only knew you by Danie. But any trace of you was gone like that light" I hold on to his hands, it's been too long since we been close. Too long, I seen his one coat had been from the army and I wonder what life he lived once I left.

"I hoped to see you again too, I never thought I would, sadly. I just had to keep moving, well, more like I had to buck up. Moving wasn't my choice, I wished it could be my choice" Jacob let me go to turn me to him, I did and look into his eyes and I felt like the teenager I met before was back in front of me. Then realization hit me, we were both 16 in juvie, Jacob looked older, I wasn't 40. Shit, shit, shit.

"So what's it like time traveling?" Jacob asked, I felt like my soul left my body, he wasn't going to beat around the bush. At least I won't have make up a long ass lie, besides I don't think I could make up a lie to cover the fact I am very much in my twenties. Late twenties but still, I smile at him not being freaked out, though he probably was freaking out before he returned to this here campsite.

"Ah, yeah. It feels confusing and I don't know how I got back to "this", this time-line. And the fact that we met in our teens. And it's given me more questions but I'll figure it out, and if I find my professor I'll have to talk about this and a hypothesis on why my device brought me back. The bonds maybe tied to this, we bonded while in juvie before I jumped-." I say giving it plenty of thought on it.

"Huh? Well, we did more than bond from what I remember back then" I blush, male ego. But can't deny he was my first relationship, amongst other things. I could choke him, or smother him in kisses, I try to think of something, anything else but how could I? I was fixing to take him with me, we'd have been jumping through time. Almost to adulthood but shy off 2 years, instead of a car I had a time traveling device that could take me to any point. All that stuff is the past now. We had some catching up to do till the particles magnetize and put me somewhere else. And who knew when, I had a reader for it but sometimes it moved faster than I could keep up at times.

"I'm almost surprised that we didn't get caught sneaking out or were caught going at it. You were always so loud, still are actually" Jacob rolled his eyes but smiled wickedly. I knew what that meant, I stepped back only to be lifted as Jacob roughly snuffled me while rubbing his beard into me. I scream and laugh, he stops to steal a few kisses.

"You're not going to make me say uncle? Are you, I kinda don't mind this as opposed to that stubble you had back then" he grimace at me then laugh.

"I think I'll shave now, thank you" I gasp, knowing I should have just enjoyed it and not said anything, I'll be sporting beard burn now.

"So rude, you're lucky you are handsome" Jacob stuck his tongue out.

"And you're beautiful, even when covered in beard burn and hickies" I couldn't help but blush at the prospect of doing that again, we could have some fun before I have to leave this universe/ time-line.

#alternate universe #Time line jumper #Jacob Seed #Far Cry 5 #The Random Adventures of Daniella 'Danie' Spadina #Daniella Spadina #old fallout 3 character #didn't get a last name till recently #mentions #Fallout 4 #Cyberpunk 2077 #writing

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grailfinders · 3 years ago

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Fate and Phantasms #207

Today on Fate and Phantasms, we're making one of the great teachers of heroes and presumably the only babysitter in ancient Greece, Chiron! He's an Arcane Archer some seriously long-range shots, and a Peace Cleric to teach his students right from wrong. Honestly yeah I'm surprised Chiron and Artemis have the same subclasses too.

Check out his build breakdown below the cut, or his character sheet over here!

Next up: He's a self made man!

Race and Background

Chiron's a Centaur, so that's another point for weird races you wouldn't think we'd fit in here. I know his first two ascensions look like a human, but it's hard growing a horse butt later. Centaurs are a bit weirder than the other races. They have 40 feet as a walking speed, and they technically don't count as humanoid, since they're Fey instead. I'm sure that'll drive the cultist who tries to use your blood to summon a demon bonkers later. Anyway, they can Charge by moving 30' in a straight line and attacking, letting them make another unarmed attack as a bonus action. You make that unarmed attack with your Hooves, so your unarmed strikes deal 1d4 bludgeoning damage instead of 1. You also have an Equine Build, so your carrying capacity is doubled at the cost of climbing being five times as slow for you. You also get proficiency with Medicine right off the bat, which is nice.

The closest thing DND has to a teacher background is the Sage, which gives you proficiency with Arcana and History. Yay, more subjects to teach!

Ability Scores

Chiron's a bit all over the place, so forgive me, but we've gotta go point buy for this one. Roll if you want to, just make sure you roll well. Wisdom will be your highest stat at 15. You're a teacher, teachers are wise. Also, it's your main casting modifier. After that, your Dexterity and Intelligence are tied at 14. Your arrows use both of those, and again, teacher. Your Strength and Constitution are going to be lower than I'd like, at only 10. Turns out making a build that requires three good stats means the others aren't spectacular. You do lose to Achilles in that pankration match, so it's probably fine for the character. Finally, dump Charisma. Nobody's really friends with their teacher, and you're everyone's teacher.

Class Levels

Fighter 1: We got enough mental stuff from the startup, so we'll start with fighter for the more physical proficiencies. You get Strength and Constitution saves, as well as Athletics and Acrobatics. Centaurs might be unwieldy, but you do some sick flips when you have two legs. Starting off as a fighter also gets you a Fighting Style, and of course we're going with Archery for a +2 to ranged attacks. The archer class really is made up of archers after all. Finally, you get a Second Wind, for a bit of healing as a bonus action. Self care is smart. You're smart, so you practice self care.

Fighter 2: Second level fighters can use their Action Surge once per short rest for a second action in a turn. Attack again, dash again, whatever. Killing everyone who stands in your way is also smart. You're smart, so yada yada yada, you get it.

Fighter 3: Third level fighters get their martial specialty, and as an Arcane Archer your archery skills are just a bit better than everyone else. You learn Arcane Archer Lore, which means proficiency in Nature and the Druidcraft spell for your trouble. Why they coded this class to be so druidic but still force you to use intelligence is beyond me, but maybe your DM will be kinder. What do you use your intelligence for, you might be asking? Why, your Arcane Shots, of course! Twice per short rest, and once per turn, you can infuse an arrow with one kind of arcane energy, giving it all sorts of fancy effects. A Piercing Arrow pumps up your arm power, making the arrow strong enough to bore straight through creatures for 30'. Every creature it hits needs to make a dexterity save (DC 8 plus your intelligence modifier plus your proficiency) or they take the arrow's damage plus an extra 1d6 piercing damage. Alternatively, you can fire off the real reason we're here: a Seeking Arrow. As long as you've seen the creature in the last minute, they're still in range, and there's a possible path your arrow can go, you can force them to make a dexterity save. If they fail, they take an extra 1d6 force damage and you learn where they are. If they succeed on either Arcane Shot save they take half the damage, and they don't deal with any extra effects.

Fighter 4: Use your first Ability Score Improvement to bump up your Dexterity for a better AC and better normal arrows. Fancy arrows are nice, but consistency is key.

Fighter 5: Before we hop over to cleric, we wanted to stay here long enough to grab an Extra Attack. Attacking more often, that's smart.

Cleric 1: First level clerics can cast and prepare spells using their Wisdom. For cantrips, Guidance lets you quickly tutor one of your students in pretty much any topic, adding 1d4 to their next ability check. Spare the Dying spares the dying, stabilizing creatures at 0 HP, and Mending lets you fix up small tears in things. Do you have any idea how hard it must be to find centaur shaped clothes? Keep those things looking good. You also get first level spells, including the freebies Heroism and Sanctuary. Any spells involving healing or protection from poison are good picks, but you can also grab the spell Bless for group projects, giving several creatures 1d4 once per turn for an attack or saving throw. Also, pick up Inflict Wounds. Your unarmed attacks aren't going to be that good, but at least we can get the same effect with a spell, making a melee attack to deal damage. Also at first level, you can create an Emboldening Bond between a number of creatures equal to your proficiency bonus. As long as they're within 30' of another bonded creature, they can add a d4 to an attack roll, check, or save once per turn. You can do this proficiency times per long rest, and it lasts for 10 minutes. And yes, it does stack with Guidance or Bless.

Cleric 2: At second level, clerics can Channel Divinity once per short rest in one of two ways. Turn Undead is a staple, but those dragontooth warriors are a pain to fight with arrows so any other way to deal with them is appreciated. You can also create a Balm of Peace as an action. During this action, you move your speed without triggering opportunity attacks, and you can heal creatures you get within melee range of by 2d6 plus your wisdom modifier. There are many benefits to being a centaur, and extra healing range is just one of them.

Cleric 3: Third level clerics get second level spells. Your freebies are Aid and Warding Bond, but the big draw here is Enhance Ability, the perfect spell for intense study sessions. For up to an hour, one creature you touch gets advantage on one kind of check. If you choose Strength, their carrying capacity is also doubled. If you choose Constitution, they gain temporary HP. If you choose Dexterity, they don't take falling damage if they fall less than 20 feet. You can also use Lesser Restoration to heal diseases, poisons, or some status effects.

Cleric 4: Use this ASI to bump up your Intelligence for more accurate magical shots. Accuracy is kind of your deal, y'know? You can also Toll the Dead for a bit of necrotic damage normally, or even more if the target's already hurt. Just because you're a teacher doesn't mean all your lessons have to be nice.

Cleric 5: Fifth level clerics can Destroy Undead of CR 1/2 or lower if they fail the turn undead save. You also get third level spells like Beacon of Hope and Sending.

Fighter 6: Bouncing back to fighter real quick grabs another ASI, so use this one to turn into a Sharpshooter. You can take a -5 penalty on your attack to add 10 to the damage of ranged weapons. You can also attack at long range without disadvantage, and ignore all but full cover. Again, accuracy. Big deal for you.

Fighter 7: By this point you're probably fighting some big deal enemies, and Magic Arrow is there to help you. Your arrows are now magical for overcoming resistances, so you can fight devils no problem. You also learn how to make Curving Shots, so even when you miss, you don't. Use your bonus action to curve the shot towards another target, making another attack against them instead. Speak of shots, you can now poison your arrows, turning it into an Enfeebling arrow. The target takes an extra 2d6 necrotic damage regardless, but if they fail a constitution save, their attacks also deal half damage for a round.

Cleric 6: At sixth level, clerics can channel divinity twice per short rest. You can also turn that emboldening bond into a Protective Bond. When a bonded creature takes damage, another bonded creature within range can react, teleporting next to the first and taking the damage instead. This is also a great way to get around your awkward horse body- if you need to climb a wall, get one of your two-legged friends to climb up and stub their toe. Boom, instant transportation for the horse.

Cleric 7: Seventh level cleric, fourth level spells. Your freebies are Aura of Purity to completely screw over poison users and Otiluke's Resilient Sphere. There really aren't any spells I want for this level, aside from the obvious healing spells, so just rejoice at the stronger Inflict Wounds.

Cleric 8: Use this ASI to bump up your Intelligence so your magic arrows are just as deadly as your normal ones. Destroy Undead also affects creatures of CR 1 or lower, and your Potent Spellcasting adds your wisdom modifier to your cantrip damage. A nice level all around.

Cleric 9: We stuck around cleric this long for your fifth level spells; Greater Restoration is great for big problems, like petrification, curses, and stat reductions. Rary's Telepathic bond is something most servants should just have in general, tbh. It doesn't get brought up often, but they can just kinda... think at each other. The big reasons we're here are for Holy Weapon and Legend Lore. The former makes your weapon flashier and deadlier, and also it explodes when the spell ends. (That last part isn't super useful for an archer, but it's good to keep in mind. The latter lets you teach a class on just about anything you can name, as long as it's important enough to have legends about it. The more you know about it, the more you'll learn, and given your intelligence and proficiencies I think it's safe to say you'll learn a lot.

Fighter 8: Bouncing back to fighter for one last ASI. Get that Dexterity up for an even better AC and better archery skills. Technically you can wear any armor you'd like, but you're in a toga most of the time so I assume you won't start that now.

Fighter 9: Ninth level fighters are Indomitable, so you can re-roll a failed save once per long rest. Save it for something you should be good at, like dexterity saves or death saves.

Fighter 10: At tenth level, you take a page out of Emiya's book and learn how to overcharge your arrows, turning them into Bursting shots. After you hit your target the arrow explodes, dealing 2d6 Force damage to all creatures within 10' of it. Just because you're the teacher doesn't mean you can't learn.

Fighter 11: Your capstone level is an Extra Attack. Attacking's good, attacking three times is better.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

You have 600 feet of range and are slightly faster than most other characters, which makes fighting you a goddamn nightmare if you've got enough space to move. It also makes running away from you equally nightmarish, especially with your seeking shots. It's your noble phantasm, but better. You can use it twice in one night, it doesn't have to be outside, and you learn the exact position of the idiot you just hit. (As an aside, with Holy weapon up and seeking shot, you can deal 18d8+1d6+1d4+84 (average: 171) damage in one round. There's a reason sharpshooter is so damn scary.

Despite your damage output, you're also pretty good as a Healer, with a little extra mobility from your speed, bonds, and balms, you can get where you're needed when you're needed for a bit of TLC. (That stands for tender loving centaur, of course.)

You're really good at supporting party members in and out of combat, with bless/guidance and emboldening bond stacking up to add 2d4 to an ally's attacks, saves, or checks each turn. Plus you get enhance ability, making their checks even stronger thanks to advantage.

Cons:

This build is MAD as hell, requiring three abilities to work properly. Most of your spells are buffs and healing, so your wisdom doesn't have to be great, but it still eats up the ability points you have available.

This means you don't have a great Constitution, even for an archer. With barely over 100 HP, you'll want to keep your distance from the action. Which means you'll be stuck without your own bond most of them time in combat.

You also have a Low Charisma, so even when you can figure out exactly what an ancient artifact does, good luck getting someone to listen to you. Good thing you're friendly with a certain charming carrot, I guess.

#fate grand order #fgo #DND 5e #D&D #Chiron #Fighter #Cleric

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lytefoot · 2 years ago

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So I’ve been making a bunch of OCs for a story that I’m... not actually writing but making a lot of spreadsheets about... using a picrew that @t4tichihime posted some characters with the other day--I swear he’s got some magic secret to finding the good picrews. (The picrew is Murmur Character Creator.)

From left to right, Aaron, Elijah, and Naomi.

They are... feral nerds, is the short summary. Aaron and Elijah are brothers, Naomi is their childhood friend, their mothers were friends before they were born. They’ve got an awful lot of dead parents, as is obligatory for YA protagonist types, and also some dubious alive parental figures. They're hackers, code breakers, and may or may not have gotten a lot of their early education from a maybe-ex-cultist that wants to make sure they’re ready when the aliens turn up. Among other things, they do a bunch of SETI stuff, and break into file systems that might have alien-related data. (I do not know whether there will ultimately be aliens in this story, but maybe-aliens is where I go when I want to make stories go.) They’ve clearly gotten into something; at least one organization has made meaningful attempts to have them killed, anyway.

And, their dubious parental figures, whom I haven’t gotten around to naming yet, since this is one of the rare picrews that can at least approximate making people who are over 30!

Naomi’s grandfather, a retired inventor, and substantially less feral nerd. Not a particularly dubious parental figure, all things considered, although he has let them get up to a lot of trouble. He was their only alive and actively parenting ancestor for a number of years. He’s sadly unavailable for parenting during the main timeline of the story... haven’t worked out exactly why yet... I don’t particularly want to kill him off.

Their (former) teacher, who has an extremely sketchy past. She strenuously denies that in her youth she was trained as a KGB assassin, but some people definitely recognize the fighting style she taught the kids. She also may or may not have been a member of one or more terrorist groups and/or cults at the end of the last century. She has a sheep farm in Texas with her husband, and gives off distinct “nice old lady” vibes.

And the agent, who got sent out by an unspecified agency/organization to recruit the hackers that kept breaking into their servers, expecting... not three unattended teenagers... and had an “oh, no, guess I’m a dad now” moment. He genuinely wants to make sure the kids are well cared for and minimize the degree to which they’re being exploited by the as-yet-unspecified agency. But also, like, the unspecified agency really does need as many genius code-breaking hackers as they can get. And also it can be challenging to be a parental figure to feral geniuses who are fully convinced that They Are Adults Thank You. The agent is tired, and has not had a good day in several decades.

Not actually writing this thing--don’t really have a “plot” in mind--but I’m having an awfully good time with the picrew and spreadsheets.

#writing #ocs #picrew #going on about my ocs #hope this came out reasonably coherent #its late and im rambling

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dmsden · 4 years ago

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Natural One, Naturally - Finding Fun in Failure

Hullo, Gentle Readers. This week’s Question from a Denizen came to us from an Anonymous source. That source said, “I'm trying to find a post where the DM talked about not losing momentum even if the player rolls a one. They fail in a way that doesn't grind the quest to a halt. They essentially help the player in an unexpected way like rolling a one while picking a lock still picks the lock, but also sounds a hidden alarm. Anyone know what I'm talking about??”

While I know I’ve written such an article, why not take a fresh look at the subject of failure?

Failure can be frustrating, sure. When you’re trying to move things forward, for example in combat, it can be frustrating for players and DMs alike to have that 1 spin to the top on your D20. While I’ve never been one for Critical Failure charts (I mean how plausible is it that you actually cut your own head off while missing an enemy...and isn’t missing in combat punishment enough, really?), I think failure can be its own source of story.

You never want to completely stymie your players. If they need a clue to move forward, or to get through a locked and trapped door to continue with no other alternatives, then that’s bad adventure design. Instead, you can choose for failure to become “success with consequences”.

If the PCs absolutely must get through a door in order to continue the adventure, and you’ve decided that door is locked and trapped, because you’re trying to give the party’s rogue a moment to shine, then be prepared for how things can move forward if the rogue fails all their rolls. Maybe an alarm triggers as the door unlocks, allowing the group to move forward, but instigating a tough fight. Or maybe a guard comes to investigate the noises, forcing the party to try and subdue him through a portcullis, in order to get the keys on his belt. If the PCs are on a timer, perhaps trying to stop the sacrifice of the king by a group of devotees of the Elder Elemental Eye, then failure, necessitating the spending of more time to try to pick the look again, can become its own consequence, as time slowly ticks down.

The Call of Cthulhu game is a game that stresses exploration and research in order to find out what’s going on, and often to stop it. In earlier games, crucial information was often hidden behind skill rolls like Library Use and Spot Hidden. In the current edition of the game, however, more emphasis is placed on making sure the PCs can find what they need without skill rolls. If they need to know a specific piece of information in order for the scenario to proceed, then it’s best to make sure they get that info, rather than letting things stall out because no one in the party has the Archeology skill.

I used a “Success with Consequences” sequence recently in my home game. The PCs needed a magic-item that was held by a tentative ally. Said ally asked them to undertake a dangerous diplomatic mission to speak with a recently emerged self-proclaimed medusa queen on his southwestern borders. I set the situation up as a skill challenge, but, if they had made enough failures, it would’ve triggered a very tough combat instead. The PCs managed to make some pretty cosmic skill rolls, so diplomacy won the day, but I was prepared for the failure.

Another scenario I used recently involved a trio of riddles and a trio of sphinxes. For each riddle the PCs solved, one sphinx stepped out of the fight. Solving all three riddles meant no need to waste valuable resources fighting the sphinxes to gain access to the chamber beyond. But either way, there was a way to move forward.

In general, I recommend avoiding situations where something like picking a lock, finding a secret door, solving a puzzle, or engaging in a social encounter is completely a pass/fail situation that stops things from moving forward. Failure to pick the lock might mean that the PCs have to take the long way around in the dungeon, having more random encounters and wasting more resources on their path to fighting the main villain. If they don’t find the secret door, they won’t fight a magic-item. Failing to solve the puzzle might put a curse on the PCs, making the rest of the dungeon harder. If they fail the social encounter, maybe the captured nobleman thinks he’d rather take his chances with the brainwashing cultists and calls for help. All of these make the PCs lives harder, but they don’t stop things in their tracks.

If possible, the DM should create some good narrative around failure, trying to make it as entertaining as success. In combat, the DM could just say that the PC misses, or he could say something like, “You swing your sword in a deadly arc, but the hobgoblin raises his shield, letting it skitter along the domed surface, sparks flying. He leers at you, then launches a counterattack...” It helps a little to improve the overall feel of the game.

Sometimes narrative of failure makes a story just as memorable as a resounding success. I still chuckle about the time a character in a game I was in blew a stealth check and ended up with a decorative pumpkin stuck on his foot.

Anonymous, I hope this article helps. Failure can be as entertaining and rewarding as part of the story as success. It’s all in the consequences and the narrative.

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benisasoftboi · 4 years ago

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Unorganised thoughts on Trails of Cold Steel IV:

WHY ARE THEY CALLED CLASS VII?

WHO ARE CLASS VI?

Anyway - I started playing Trails in August, and I’ve finally, finally caught up (yes I know Hajimari I can’t read Japanese) and like... what do I do now?

It’s a fantastic series and I’m so, so glad I picked up Trails in the Sky on a whim last summer

This game was long. Is it longer than the other ones? It felt that way

The best part was the first chapter because Rean wasn’t in it and yeah I still don’t like him!!! But seriously, it was astonishing how much more I was enjoying things without him

I audibly groaned when goddamn bonding points returned in the second chapter

Actually that was a lie, the best part was Any Time My Angel Estelle Was On Screen

I missed her so much

I let her get the final hit of the game against the boss because she’s the best

Speaking of angels I caught three Wazy cameos!!!

Also Gilbert came back and if there had been a camera on me... I quite literally teared up a little I was so thrilled

I hate the curse it is dumb and rips all the nuance out of the characters. People do not need a goddamn evil curse to be swayed to extremes by overzealous nationalism. Trails I know you are better than this, I played Sky and Crossbell

Fav new location was Milsante (liked Alster too, though). I really like going to tiny little outposts and villages in JRPGs, they make the world feel more real

What the hell was up with the Osgiliath Basin? As in, Giliath Osborne??? Is this going to be a Hajimari thing?

Oh yeah, HOT TAKE, Alan Richard >>> Giliath Osborne. I was reading an LP of Sky FC while playing the game, and Richard’s motivation is clearer and less over-complex, more sympathetic, and he’s just generally a far more human character

Alan Richard best political antagonist in the series fight me (Rufus Albarea distant second)

For best supernatural/cult-y antagonist I’m stuck between Weissmann and Joachim. Or maybe Campanella lol

Oh uh speaking of characters named Georg I will never not hate everything about the George and Angie subplot. Angie should have died and George should have stayed evil, or it shouldn’t have happened at all. As it is, it was a complete waste of time - you could take it all out and NOTHING would change

Angie would have been the perfect character to sacrifice as well, she’s just important enough that it would feel like ‘oh shit’s getting real’ but not so important that it’s unbelievable

(like Olivier. I could not fully believe they’d actually kill him, and the moment Laura told me ‘they never found the bodies’ I was like, oh, so they’re definitely all still alive, cool)

I mean, it would be a Bury Your Gays, but honestly... there are things I like about Angie, but is anyone really looking to her as a lesbian role model? I hope not. Yikes

So yeah I guess I hate George now for getting my hopes up and then being boring. Shame

I did the Towa romantic ending, of course. I genuinely think she’s the best match for Rean, of all his love interests

Chaaaracters

Rean: Still the least interesting person. Not a good sign when I’m sadder about the robot dying than the main protagonist yeeting himself into the sun (side note, the two endings thing? Unnecessary and dumb). There is no reason girls would like him this much, blah blah I’ve said it all before. Liked his new hair. Honestly would have respected it if they’d had the balls to kill him off. I basically never even used him in battle lol, Juna became my new team leader

Juna: Honourary protagonist imo. I’ve changed my mind since CS3, she’s my fav new Class VII without a doubt. She’s just really good and full of personality and depth and OH GOD WHY IS SHE CRUSHING ON REAN WHY FALCOM WHY

Kurt: pls falcom don’t try to force this aroace king into a nonsense ship with Sully I liked her but what are you doing, anyway Kurt is great and he got cool new swords and he got to hang out with Mueller, who I adore, I love Kurt

Altina: I also love this little bunny. Her relationship with Millium is so lovely and seeing her grow and become her own person made me so happy and OH GOD WHY IS SHE CRUSHING ON REAN WHY FALCOM I LITERALLY SAID SHE HAS THE BEST RELATIONSHIP WITH REAN OF ALL THE GIRLS BECAUSE SHE DOESN’T DO THAT IN THE LAST GAME WHY DO YOU HATE ME????

Musse: Yeah I’m still not sold on Musse but I liked her better this time! I like a smart, confident girl! Just stop being weird about your teacher and we’d be golden!

Ash: Good boy. Sweet boy. Ash and Joshua game now Falcom

Alisa: Still cannot believe she’s presented as the deuteragonist by the marketing - but you know what? Solid arc, she got some closure with her parents, maybe she and Jusis can get together for tea and complain about their messed up families. She’s never going to be a character I like all that much, but I don’t dislike her. I just wish she hadn’t clearly been written as ‘Rean’s love interest’ before anything else

Elliot: I love Elliot, I really do. I mean, I wish he hadn’t been flanderised to the point of speaking in music puns half the time, but he’s a solid, consistently pleasant character

Laura: Goddamnit Falcom please give Laura anything resembling an emotion regarding her dad dying. Also you tell me she’s kind of oblivious and stuff but we never see it. I like Laura but she really could have been more

Machias: I love Machias, fight me fan base. He’s so funny to me. It feels like, at this point, all he really wants is a nice office job, near a nice coffee shop, where he files papers and sometimes gets to yell at corrupt rich people, but NO, he has to run about in dungeons and fight monsters, and are you FUCKING kidding me, ANOTHER crazy snake cultist!?!? It’s great, he’s the only one who’s just done with it all and love it

I low key headcanon that he and Jusis are kinda dating at this point, but we don’t see anything because the games are from Rean’s POV and they don’t want to tell him because they know he’d be weird about it

Jusis: I still really like Jusis! He’s interesting, and his surrogate brother-sister relationship with Millium is so sweet (yes, I saw that bouquet catch, Falcom, and I hate it, stop it, gross). Awesome to see him confront his brother, obviously I let him have the final blow. Rufus was a great antagonist. Jusis has some of the best development over the games, and is also really fun to use in battle (apparently I am the only one who feels this way though :/ ah well)

Fie: I was surprised by how much I liked Fie’s confession scene, seeing as I don’t like Rean/Fie at ALL. Fie finally gets to have feelings about her dad, and we see her working with Zin at the end! Very happy for Fie, best girl

Emma: Ahhh I still find Emma kinda dull and exposition heavy, but she also had a nice arc, I liked her relationship with Rose, all good

Rose beat me at Vantage Masters for 40 minutes lol

Gaius: It’s still extremely funny to me that Gaius became one of the most important people on the continent *off screen*. And he still doesn’t really do anything. He has his own airship now, I guess. Justice for Gaius

Sara: Kind of faded from relevance after CS1, but I do really like her all the same. And I loved her speech at the end

Crow: At the end his hair got darker and everyone was like ‘you’re back to normal!’ and I literally did not realise he was meant to have been looking different

But anyway Crow is a really good character and I literally never didn’t enjoy him. I love the bit where Jusis and Machias team up to call him a cringy edgelord, because they are right. Crow is fantastic

Towa: Towa has never done anything wrong in her life and all of Erebonia should pay for her therapy

Patrick: I cannot believe how much I love Patrick now, compared to CS1. He’s just such a sweetie. Good boy

Elise: Take her to the sun with you, Rean. Pointless character

Alfin: Is she the heir now? I hope so. She’s such a funny character, not my fav, but I enjoyed her

Angie and George: Should have died, moving on

Celine: I love her, but did she really need a human form? No, no she did not. Great character though

Tita: Special mention, because you know what? I do not like this version of Tita! Like I said, I was reading FC recently and she was so much better there! Now a third of her lines are just her saying ‘Agate’ in various different tones. And it feels like she’s lost a lot of her confidence, where’s the little girl who followed us up Carnelia Tower? I would have preferred them to just not bring her back at all

Duvalie: Haha I love Duvalie she’s great. Stop implying that she’s crushing on Rean. Literally WHY would she. Ugh

Rose: Everything about Rose is great, I would play a full game about her backstory. More Rose

Ships!

Obviously I like Machias/Jusis because I am BASIC

I didn’t like Olivier/Schera back in Sky, but you know what? They sold me. It’s cute (even if I feel Schera’s character was neglected in favour of Being A Love Interest, sigh). Though I’m not sure when Olivier made the switch from ‘Schera is one of many people I flirt with’ to ‘Schera is my one and only’?

But am I the only person who’s kinda on the Oliver/Schera/Mueller train? I’m not normally into OT3s, but Olivier and Mueller have one of the best dynamics in the series, and Schera and Mueller would probably get along great if they were ever allowed to properly interact. And you know Olivier would be down

Like I say, I do not like Jusis/Millium at all, it’s not a ‘I like another ship better’ thing, it just massively skeeves me out because of the maturity difference

Ash/Tatiana was unexpected but adorable

Patrick/Elise, because I want Patrick to be happy and Rean to be mad

Also Elise/Alfin, sorry Patrick

I hope Anton and Sharon really do get together. Sharon deserves unconditional love and Anton deserves a happy ending

Sharon also deserves to hook up with Sara like once

I also sort of feel like Sara/Claire would be fun

I’ve actually like Gaius/Linde from CS1, I’m happy it’s kind of a thing now!

If Lila/Maybelle is the LET’S GO LESBIANS Trails ship, then Emily/Theresia is LET’S GO BABY LESBIANS

Vincent/Margarita. They’re both horrible people. At least this way no one else has to deal with them

Joining my Kloe/Josette in the ‘crack ships I love that have very, very little canon basis’ is Fritz/Kairi, based on their interactions in that one mission and then that they’re eating together at Mishelam. It’s pretty much just a height differences thing, lol

Miles/Elnan. I have literally no justification for this

Other stuff There was this one scene where Gaius says how nice it is that Mueller cares about Olivier and Mueller just snaps his head round and the scene ends, and I don’t think it was meant to be funny but I laughed for like a full minute

The intro to the music at Mishelam is extremely creepy to me

I love the Pom Party mini game a whole lot

There were... a lot of typos in the second half of the script. It’s massive, so I’m not mad, but I hope there’s a patch at some point

BERYL BERYL BERYL BERYL BERYL I love her

Uh if we’re still doing romance next arc please give us a gay option, no Crow did not count

I hate divine knight battles! I really do! That last one against Ishmelga was really hard and not in a fun way! In a ‘this is bullshit fake difficulty’ way. Please don’t bring them back!

The true final battle, though? FANTASTIC, now THAT is a final boss! One of the best in the series, like that’s such a fun gimmick!

I got it trapped in break state and spammed Heaven’s Kiss/Quick Star, because I’m a strategic gamer

I am embarrassed by how long it took me to recognise Lucy

KLOE CAMEO!!!

Oh and I assume Kaela is going to be important next arc, since it’s in Calvard?

I love Thomas??? And Rosine???

Why was the grandmaster reveal hidden behind watching the ending twice, why do that? Great scene, though

My theory is that she is Aidios, I will cling to this for as long as possible

I probably have like a million other things to say that I’m just not remembering right now. Look forward to random shouts into the void about it in upcoming weeks, followers

I really enjoyed this overall, despite the problems I mentioned above. It was just fun, I like the cast, the gameplay is great... just a solid game

Trails is a really fantastic franchise - not perfect, but what is? I’ve had such a fun time with it over the past half-year, and I cannot wait to see what happens next. Thank you, Falcom, the localisation team, the VAs - stellar job all around

This is normally where I’d end on a joke but like. Nah, I’m just happy. Cue ‘The Whereabouts of Light’

#long post #cold steel #cold steel 4 #trails of cold steel 4 #cs4 #cs4 spoilers #cold steel 4 spoilers #trails of cold steel #kiseki #kiseki series #trails series #:)

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tren-fraszka · 4 years ago

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Fandom5k 2021 Letter

Dear creator,

Thank you for taking your time to check my requests. I know my requests can sound a bit tricky, but please don’t be discouraged. I wish you will have good time writing first and foremost!

My AO3 is Tren, if you wish to check it out.

Likes: comedy, casefics, canon compliants, AUs, time loops, bodyswaps, roleswaps, “being hoisted by your own petard” plotlines, snark, pettiness, rivals, enemies to friends to lovers, violence, friendships, and character bonding,

DNW: explicit sex (makeouts and fade to black is okay), A/B/O, mpreg, rape depicted as positive (so no “it’s okay, because the other person enjoyed it/it was what they truly wanted”), trans headcanons, soulmate AUs, stories ending with surrender to fate/destiny, fourth wall breaking in canons where that doesn’t occur, character has cancer or other real-life terminal disease AU, word “queerplatonic”.

Also, I included what ships I’m okay with in each fandom. Please do not include any ships that aren’t canon and I have not allowed in those sections (if you feel really strongly about a ship I haven’t mentioned, you can always ask through mods just in case).

On a separate, but similar note, I’m okay with OCs as long as they don’t overshadow the characters I requested.

Additionally, while I almost never request fanart as possible medium, because I prefer my main gift to be fic, I would be very okay with receiving fanart treats. Also, feel free to peruse my old letters if you get your hands on them. I never stop being interested in fandoms, and if I requested something once I will still want it in the future.

REQUESTS

MARIMASHITA! IRUMA-KUN

I read new manga chapters as they get translated so feel free to incorporate anything from the manga that’s available in English.

Kirio Amy/Suzuki Iruma

There are many good ships with Iruma, but this one just has a lot things I like. I love enemy ships with both sides being way too emotionally invested into each other so this was inevitable. I love how this relationship starts as this really wholesome friendship and school festival preparation, except Kirio turns out to be a bit messed up and wants to blow up everyone. But then they both accept the outcome and go on with their lives still thinking about each other. Iruma goes through a lot of trouble to keep the club operating even though Kirio has been pretty much expelled. And then Kirio is now obsessed with Iruma as his anthitesis and perfect enemy.

I’m okay with the potential story happening at any point in the canon. I would love both a story set before the festival while Kirio is still hiding his true colors or a story set after it. Maybe Iruma runs into Kirio somewhere after he escapes prison and instead of calling an adult, he tries to stop Kirio from causing trouble on his own. As for pre-festival story. Maybe some upperclassmen steal important parts from the club and Iruma and Kirio set out to get them back.

Naberius Callego & Suzuki Iruma

I love Callego for being a much better take on Snape than original Snape ever was. The second the series made Callego Iruma’s familiar I knew this was about to get good. And it was. I love how Callego slowly warms up to Iruma, even if he is still allergic to his and Sullivan’s antics. I love that Callego is actually a competent teacher who cares about his students, but at the same time he would rather eat a whole lemon than admit it out loud.

For prompts, maybe Sullivan ends up having an important business and Opera isn’t available so he dumps looking after Iruma on Callego for a few days. Or Iruma is struggling with studying since so many things are new for him, so Callego ends up forced to help him catch up with the material (if you are following manga inclusion of Balam is always welcome). Or maybe Iruma gets into usual trouble ends up stranded somewhere and the only one he can call for help is his familiar.

Crocell Kerori | Kuromu/Gyari

One of the last thing I expected to get this year was a canonical yuri romance in this manga, but here it is and it’s perfect. I love how it is pretty much built on mutual pining. I love how Kuromu loves Gyari, but refuses to reciprocate her feelings, because she knows that she needs to remain unattainable to keep their relationship alive, and I love how Gyari is never ever going to give up.

I would love to see more of the time when they worked together. We know it was love at the first sight for Gyari, but I would love to see how Kuromu’s feelings grew. Those hours they spent together practicing, maybe a not-date where they sneak together to scout a venue where they will be having their first big concert, or maybe a small contest that would sow the seeds for their future rivalry. I would love any and all of it. Also, Gyari doesn’t seem to be aware of Kuromu’s civilian identity, so I would love a story where Gyari meets Crocell Kerori rather than Kuromu. Does she recognize her? Or does Kerori manage to successfully trick her? Maybe Gyari makes a full investigation after hearing rumors that Kuromu is attending Babylys. I would also love any sort of future fic for those two.

AUs and ships

I love the worldbuilding around the demon world, so I would ask that if you decided to write an AU that it still incorporates demons. I would definitely love an AU where rather than getting summoned to demon world, Iruma accidentally summons either Kirio or Callego into the human world. Maybe Iruma’s parents try to use him as an offering, but instead he ends up bound to a demon. I would love to see Kirio excited to unleash suffering (even if his weak powers severely limit him in that regard) onto human world just to discover that he made contract with the biggest pacifist possible. Or Callego being torn between wanting to return home as soon as possible (he has classes to teach!) and wanting to somehow help the weird human child that just keeps getting into trouble. Any other demon-focused AU is also welcome. For Gyari and Kurmou, maybe one of them is a human who ends up summoning the other as a demon. How different would their relationship be then? I’m also fine with any sort of AU divergences scenario. Maybe Iruma keeps accidentally sabbotaging Kirio’s terrorist plans without realizing it. Or Iruma ends up summoning Callego more often as his familiar when he gets into trouble. What if Gyari also attended Babylys.

As for ships, I’d rather avoid any love triangle scenarios for this canon, so please focus on just one pairing per character (competing for Iruma’s attention is normal for this canon, I’d just rather not see outright romantic competition). It’s self-explainatory for Kirio request, but if you want to include some shipping elements into the other requests I also ship Iruma/Amelie and Callego/Balam.

RE:ZERO

I watched the two season of anime, as well as the two OVA. Please don’t include any spoilers for events that haven’t been yet adapted. I’m fine with mentions of stuff from the light novel that adaptation has skipped, just please make sure to establish them properly, as I haven’t read the light novel.

Natsuki Subaru/Otto Suwen Natsuki Subaru & Felix Argyle & Julius Euclius & Reinhard van Astrea Roswaal L. Mathers (Re:Zero)

Echidna the Witch (Re:Zero)

Feel free to mix and match my requests (or cut off parts of the requests and stitch them together). Or include any other characters, I love all of them.

Natsuki Subaru/Otto Suwen

I came out of second season with a burning desire to see Otto and Subaru getting together. Otto was the MVP of the second season. Like sure, Emilia killed it in the last few episodes, but none of it would happen if Otto didn’t slap Subaru in the face when he needed it the most. Subaru even commented that Otto was like a heroine in a game at one point. They just care so much about each other and I would love to see them actually get together.

I would love to see them going on an undercover mission. Maybe they are trying to gather the information about witch cultists. Maybe they need to pretend to be a couple for the sake of their investigation. Or Emilia sends the two of them on a fake mission that actually consists of them visiting places of relaxation to make sure Subaru finally gets a break. And Otto’s mission is to make sure that Subaru actually rests and doesn’t get in trouble, but this proves to be a much more difficult undertaking that he expected.

After first season I had a working theory that Otto is actually a sin archbishop who is pretending to be a normal person for some unknown reasons (or maybe has a split personality). Season two pretty much disproved it, but I still adore that idea and would love anything with it.

Natsuki Subaru & Felix Argyle & Julius Euclius & Reinhard van Astrea

I immediately loved the queen candidates’ knights and the relationships between them. I would greatly enjoy seeing them work together. Maybe someone is plotting to harm queen candidates and they join forces to bring them down. Or maybe the queen candidates are busy with some bureaucracy and the bored knights decide to spend a night at town, which ends with all sorts of shenanigans. Maybe Subaru and Julius decide to have some sort of competiton that hilariously goes out of control. Or Reinhardt and Subaru rope everyone into helping some poor grandma, but her straightforward request ends up becoming much more difficult to execute than anyone predicted. Also, at the end of second season Subaru officially became Emilia’s knight and I would love to see other knights throwing an unofficial party for Subaru to celebrate this achievement. Or maybe their planned celebration doesn’t go as planned and Subaru ends up accussed of a crime he didn’t commit. Luckily, there are three very handsome and equally capable knights who believe in him and are willing to help him clear his name.

Feel free to also include Aldebaran into the group if you want. He had very little screen time in anime, so I didn’t want to make this request more difficult than it already is, but if you want to write him too I would be very happy with his inclusion.

Roswaal L. Mathers (Re:Zero)

Roswaal was incredible in the second season. I loved the parallels between him and Subaru! I loved his unrequited crush on Echidna! I loved Ram’s unrequited crush on him and how her actions ended up affecting him! I loved how Emilia made him apologize! He just had so many great interactions. I would just love to see more of Roswaal.

We know that Roswaal attempted to undertake the trial, but was rejected. What if by some quirk of fate Roswaal could undertake the trial. How would it go? Would he be able to accept the past? I would also love a deeper insight into his thought process during the Sanctuary arc, but also earlier arcs. How did he feel about Subaru and other characters? What happened to him after the Subaru failed? (we don’t know if Subaru dying creates new timelines or if there’s one that gets reset, while this prompt leans on former, I’m fine with both interpretations) I would also love to see if maybe Ram had attempted to destroy Roswaal’s book or shown her feelings for him before. On a different note, I would love Roswaal being a bit too interested in Otto (after he had changed the fate written in the book) and trying to figure out how he had achieved that. Honestly, I would love to see Roswaal interact with anyone. You could write him and Reinhard meeting in a bakery and I would love it.

Echidna the Witch (Re:Zero)

Echidna is best witch (at least until anime shows more of Sekhmet who I can already tell is my spirit animal witch). I loved Echidna’s character, the aura of mystery she built around herself, and her plans involving Subaru. She was just incredible.

I would absolutely love to see Echidna holding trials for other characters. It doesn’t matter who. Maybe Garfiel ends up completing all of them. Or maybe by some twist of fate Otto gains qualification and takes up the trials. Or Ram, or really anybody else. I just loved how personalized the trials were and would love to see them for other characters and what Echidna would think of them. I would also love to see more of her interactions with Subaru. Maybe Subaru makes deal with her, but belatedly realizes it was a bad idea and tries to find a way to break it. I would be also very okay with seeing more of her interactions with other witches. Or Emilia. I will gladly take 5k words of Echidna being completely done with Emilia’s positivity. Maybe Echidna finds a way to escape her deadness, but she needs to enter a contract with Emilia and now she is her familiar like Puck was.

AUs and ships

I would prefer no setting changes for this story. Any other AUs are fine. I especially love Subaru’s reset mechanic, so feel free to abuse that if you want. If you want some AU ideas, maybe another character starts remembering bits and pieces of the reseted timelines.

I like Subaru/Emilia, but the show is doing such a good job with it that I’m not craving more. As such I’m okay with acknowledging Subaru’s canon crush on Emilia, but if you are planning to do any other pairing involving Subaru I would prefer to reframe Subaru’s feelings for her as friendship. I’m okay with pairing Subaru with pretty much any other guy in the series (especially other queen candidate knights) or leaving who he will end up with ambiguous.

SOUSOU NO FRIEREN

I read new manga chapters as they get translated so feel free to incorporate anything from the manga that’s available in English.

Frieren

I love how this manga is a slow-paced fantasy dealing with loss and inevitable passage of time. And I love Frieren for being one of the best depictions of an elf whose long life actually affects their outlook on life and actions.

I would equally love the insight into Frieren’s present with her charges and the past with hero party. What other shenanigans they get into on their journey? What kind of weird magic Frieren pursued? I would love to see more of her mentoring Fern and Stark. I also love to see her interactions with the hero party. Maybe some more insight into how they fought with demons, since Frieren seemed to have picked up a number of enemies during that time. For some more specific prompts: maybe Frieren accidentally stumbles ona cursed item that erases her memories (or just her memories of Himmel). How would it affect her? What would the party do to help her? Or maybe a demon kidnaps someone from Frieren’s party?

Feel free to include any other characters, they are a colorful bunch.

AUs and ships

I’m fine with AUs as long as Frieren’s long lifespan is preserved. Her perspective is very much shaped by how long she has lived, so I wouldn’t want that aspect to change. An AU with mythological creatures or similar could be interesting. I would also love a roleswap where Himmel is an elf, while Frieren is a human, and exploration of how both of them would be affected by having a different lifespan.

I would very much love Himmel/Frieren, though I also enjoy how the manga softly builds on their connection. I also enjoy the budding romance between Fern and Stark.

HATARAKU MAOU-SAMA!

While I made this request mostly with anime in mind, I also consumed the original novels up to (and including) volume six. So feel free to include anything from the novels up until that point if you want, but nothing beyond that.

Maou Sadao/Ashiya Shirou

If Demon Lord’s right hand man/strategist turned into a househusband isn’t one of the most shippy ideas then I don’t know what is. Fics are just writing themselves. I just love seeing utter domesticity and loyalty Sadao and Ashiya have (and trouble they have with their prodigal not-son Urushihara).

I would love to get some insight into their relationship before they had to escape into another world. Maybe Ashiya realizes he is actually happy with the current arrangement and feels shame over indulging himself, while his lord is working hard to earn money and regain their powers. For some more specific prompts, maybe instead of becoming househusband he ends up working in MgRonald’s alongside Sadao. Or maybe while he’s doing shopping he ends up winning a lottery organized by some local shops and receives tickets for an onsen visit for two, so he and Sadao go to have a much deserved break. Or alternatively a story where they don’t get a break and need to face some new enemy.

Maou Sadao/Sasaki Chiho

I love Chiho Sasaki. She’s one of my favourite renditions of a normal person accidentally becomes entangled into a supernatural plot I’ve seen. And amidst it all, I love how she keeps supporting Sadao, even after learning that her MgRonald’s senpai is in fact a demon lord from another world.

I would love to see more of them working together in MgRonald’s. Maybe a precanon story where Chiho is still learning her ropes at MgRonald’s, while Sadao is still not completely used to passing as a human, so he keeps accidentally mentioning things about his demonic past and then has to quickly amend them into something more human. Or maybe a “tragic” story of Chiho who instead of applying to MgRonald’s goes to Sentucky Fired Chicken (I don’t mind changing it so SFC opens earlier than in the canon). Even though Sadao works for the rival store Chiho still falls for him and his impeccable work ethic and so she keeps counting days until her contract ends so she can apply to MgRonald’s instead (bonus points if the Sariel’s plotline happens during that time and Chiho gets increasingly distreased that Sadao will hate her even if she successfully moves to MgRonald’s). Alternatively they both go on some sort of training or charity action for MgRonald’s employees. Or maybe a more fantastical adventure where a new threat appears, so Sadao and Chiho work together to neutralize it.

AUs and ships

I would prefer no setting changes for this story, because this shows premise is just way too good. I’m fine with any other AUs. One slight exception (since it’s a bit of borderline case between a setting and divergence AU) would be that I would love to see Sadao and Chiho working at a coffee shop chain instead of MgRonald's.

Please only focus on one pairing requested when writing. I’d rather not have a triangle situation and see either Ashiya or Chiho rejected (requested character feeling slight jealousy over Sadao getting along with someone else is fine, I just don’t want a full on rivalry). I’d also rather not see Sadao paired with anyone beside the requested characters.

#exchange letters

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