#basically like-- what if Inscryption-- but fantasy world

[languor-em]

Here it is!!! The Grimora x Reader that was WAY harder to write than it had any right being. Did I go through like,, thre separate ideas before I finally found one I liked?? Yes. Was it a self indulgent idea with a knight reader?? Absolutely.

Am I going to force it down y'all's throats? Yes. Yes I am.

Anyway I love Grimora so much she deserves so much more love than I see her getting.

Also!! General warning for gore and mentions of death because I'm a dramatic person

L'appel Du Vide (Grimora x GN!Reader)

In which it is not yet your time to go.

You could not remember how you got here.

Past a certain point everything was just… blurry. Faint and quickly fading impressions rather than clear and distinct imagery. You could remember grey- the clashing of steel and the shouts and screams of others. You could remember running towards something, something that felt like destiny. You could remember screaming out with bared teeth- burn, butcher! Burn!

You could barely remember the heat of battle, only faintly visualize the face of the one who had wronged you so long ago. You could hardly remember what it had felt like when your sword had pierced through their armor, ripping flesh and tearing a garbled scream from their throat. And you could only barely feel where their own weapon had cut you deep- had taken a chunk out of you.

You had collapsed, fading in and out of consciousness with only the fading warmth of vengeance finally satisfied to keep your spirit alive.

You thought maybe that the battle had ended, though you were not sure which side- if any- were victorious.

You could not remember how you got here.

Alone, cold, laying on your back on the cold ground. Your failing vision could barely process movement, could only really notice the shades of stormy grey and deathly purple that had taken over the battlefield. If you were even still on the battlefield, that was. You exhaled in a trembling sigh, closing your eyes for a moment and allowing an armored hand to rest lightly on top of your oozing wound. Your ears were ringing, everything surrounding you sounding as though it were beneath a good few feet of water. Your helmet had been removed- when had you done that? A cold breeze playing across your exposed face and drawing a weak shiver from your form. You were cold- colder than you had ever been. You feared that you would never be warm again- not with ice clinging to your bones they way it was now.

You forced your tired eyes open again, faintly aware of shadowy spectres wandering with no direction. You imagined you would join them soon, just another soul lost to battle. Just another epitaph for death to record- one of hundreds.

You inhaled, a strangled cry catching in your throat as your wound pulsed with fire. It burned, icy fire spidering up your veins and piercing your temples. You coughed, your whole body lurching with the effort and your eyes leaking pained tears. You tried not to sob, you really did, but the fear of your situation was finally sinking in.

You were dying.

You had anticipated it. Expected it- welcomed it, even. But now that you were here, death’s heavy embrace weighing down your whole form, you were terrified.

You didn’t want to go.

Retribution had left you feeling empty now that the hour for it had passed. Empty, and oh so very cold. What had it been worth? Surely not your life- not the hours you had spent training until your hands bled and until you collapsed from exhaustion. Surely not all the blood you had spilled, both your own and others’. You had dedicated yourself completely towards revenge, towards absolution. And what had it all been for, in the end?

Nothing.

This was not what you wanted your legacy to be. This is not what you wanted your gravestone to say. You did not want to die a bitter, angry person. You did not want to die having not truly lived.

This was not how you wanted to be remembered.

“Then how would you like to be remembered, my dear?”

You gasped, a nearly silent sound, your eyes once again fluttering open, though not without some considerable effort. It took a moment, but your shaky vision finally focused enough to see the woman knelt before you- her expression soft and her smile kind. The wrinkles gilding her face spoke of years of joy and laughter, a distinct wisdom shining through- the likes of which you had never seen before. Her eyes, while visually empty, glowed softly both literally and figuratively as she gazed down upon your battered, ruined form.

It took a long moment before you could reply, your voice weak and trembling with effort, “I am… not sure. There really isn’t anything else.”

You knew this woman, how could you not? You had seen statues of her, had read poems, stories, first-hand accounts describing her and the other three Scrybes. Everyone knew the face of death, knew her name. You were no exception.

What you had not accounted for was Grimora being far more beautiful than you could have even begun to imagine.

“Is that truly the case?” She murmured, her face moving a little closer to your own and a gentle hand brushing away the hair that stuck to your forehead, “Because I am certain that there is more to your story than this.”

You smiled, laughing breathily and allowing your heavy eyelids to close once more, “I’m afraid not, my lady. I am merely just another soul consumed by anger.”

You could not open your eyes as her hand came to rest gently on your cheek, far too exhausted to look upon her again. You could feel your life bleeding from you like wine pouring from a glass, your breaths becoming increasingly more labored and your heart sounding louder and louder in your ears. You did not react as you felt her remove the chest piece of your armor, deft fingers making quick work of the worn buckles and straps. Her other hand came to rest upon the quilted fabric of your tunic, just above your weeping wound, gentle as a moth’s fluttering wing.

“Oh, but there is, my dear,” her voice was a whisper, though it wove through your mind and drowned out everything else, “There is far more to your story than just vengeance. There is more to you than just that.”

You managed to crack open your eyes one more time, your breathing quiet and ragged. She leaned closer towards your face, the hand on your cheek tracing a gentle path with its thumb. She smiled, an expression you could only dare to describe as loving, the curled wisps of hair framing her face tickling your cheeks. Her presence was all-consuming, drowning out everything else. Fear, pain- everything except for the here and now.

“No,” she said, her voice sounding like honey on a warm piece of fresh bread, “No, there is more to you than that. And I look forward to learning exactly what that is.”

Your lips parted, your words dying on your tongue as her other hand rested entirely on the gaping wound in your side. It did not hurt, surprisingly enough, the icy heat beginning to fade away into a dull throbbing. A question caught in your throat, your body too exhausted to make hide nor hair of anything that was going on. But Grimora merely smiled, seeming to know exactly what was flitting through your mind.

“It is not yet your time to go, my dearest. Not for a long while yet.”

And with that she pressed a soft, chaste kiss to your forehead, lingering for a long moment before pulling away. Your eyes fluttered closed once more despite your best efforts to the contrary, the exhaustion you had been fighting finally pulling you under and into darkness. But it was not a cold, empty darkness. No- this was warm. This was comforting. This was the first time you had truly rested in… Stars only knew how long.

And you were resting still when you were finally found laying next to your vanquished foe, your wound having stopped its bleeding and color beginning to return to your cheeks. Your breathing was ragged, your heart-rate shaky at best- but you were alive.

You still had a story to tell, after all.

And death would await your tale with bated breath.

[thefoolrat]

Scrapped Character Thing

Probably should follow up on my word so let's just try and hide spoilers for Inscryption below this cut (Seriously you should go play the game first or something its pretty neat)

There was a scrapped character in the game that remained in the files (Sorta like an Easter Egg or like those assets never used in games that devs forgot to remove or what not) that's purpose was to sell your cards to in return for foils called "The Fool." The in-game lore reason was because it was considered foolish to try and un-inscrybe a card. However, the character was cut due to time or other reasons .(Undecided) While they are still alive in a sense, they had no purpose, let alone any way to interact with the game due to having no sprite.

Diverging off of cannon, after the Deletion took place, Po3 only managed to save few of what remained of Inscryption, and out of luck, The Fool was taken as well.

I don't really know how to transition this to the main plot well, but moreso around the Fool taking the OLD_DATA and doing some whacky stuff to gain power over the few remains, searching on the web for ways to give itself physical form, ect ect.

When a new challenger appears (Either through being given Luke's old computer or otherwise) the game starts up in a new area, with a puppet-like entity at the head and you in front. It introduces itself as "The Fool," asks you to type in your name, and proceeds to tell you the basics, along with quickly saying that its "alive" and it understands where it is, "no need for formalities."

Their story is a retelling of Inscryption, however put in a more "fantasy" like way:

Once four rulers ruled over the land of Inscryption, all kind and friendly to one another. This was until one day, when a naïve explorer discovered the Old Texts, said to have come from an ancient civilization that once ruled this land, containing unimaginable power. Informing the rulers about it, they all fought for power, seeking more of these ancient relics in hopes of toppling the other.

Every time, one would succeed, and eventually fall to the hands of others. It was an endless cycle of pain for the inhabitants.

Until one day, someone arrived.

The adventurer helped stopped one reign of the First, yet another quickly took their place.

Once in power, it led the adventurer down a path of deceit to help it conduct The Great Transcendence, in hopes of gaining more power and ruling the world in its entirety.

However, it was stopped by the other three rulers. The First and Third planned on killing the Fourth, however the Second had enough of the loop.

The Fourth gained The Grand Tablet from its Transcendence, containing power similar, if not more powerful, than The Old Texts. However, before it could use this newfound power, it was killed by the First. Ending the reign of the Fourth, eternally.

However, before another loop could begin, the Second took The Grand Tablet and used it to destroy Inscryption, taking all the remaining rulers down with it.

"It was for the better," she said.

"What remains of Inscryption are little," the Fool said, "However, you planned on restoring it to its former glory. Bits and pieces of The Grand Tablet still remain, scattered across the island like everything else. Perhaps, if you could peace it together, you can bring back the life on Inscryption, and prosper a new Kingdom, one with less pain and suffering than the last."

With that in mind, The Fool began the game.

And that's basically it, dumdum stuff. Though, I'm thinking that they'd enjoy playing tricks on the Scrybes, having an ill opinion on most of them.

[bananadeveloper]

Best mac strategy games 2021

But Immortals is more self-consciously gamey than Breath of the Wild, and with great results. It’s true that Immortals Fenyx Rising’s huge, explorable open world can’t reach the creative heights of 2018’s Zelda sequel - that game’s true successor on this list is Halo Infinite. Somehow, this description both over- and undersells what really makes Immortals special - other than its stupidly spelled name. When Immortals Fenyx Rising was released in December 2020 - mere weeks after our voting deadline for last year’s top 50 - the most uncharitable descriptions of the game essentially called it a Breath of the Wild clone with a coat of Greek mythology paint. And that’s exciting.Īnyway, enough from me. And while many might fit cleanly into a single genre, many more defy a basic label. Some had something to say about our cultural landscape, and some were just really damn fun. Whether you’ve been following along with each new release throughout the year, or you’re popping in now to see what you missed, the following is a collection of games that we think encapsulated 2021. Genres are helpful in the brochure, but they can only get you so far - at a certain point, you need a bit of patience, a lot of curiosity, and maybe a tour guide or two. Video games are a towering monument to our collective imagination - they’re part haunted castle, part Freudian psychoscape, part interactive museum whose exhibits each bleed into the next. Unsighted posed that age-old question: If we’re all going to die, then why care about anything at all? In one way or another, a slew of our favorite games were about the ways we deal with catastrophe, and move forward in its wake. Unpacking explored humans’ talent for making a home, even as we grieve. But you all need to play it.”Īs I see them all laid out on this page, I also recognize that many of the year’s best titles were about hope. It became what felt like a weekly occurrence here at Polygon for someone to unmute their microphone during a Zoom meeting and say something along the lines of: “So, I played this game called Inscryption this weekend. I’m hard-pressed to describe so many of 2021’s best games because, well, so many of them are hard to describe. My personal favorite was about storytelling itself, and our ability to weave our own interior narratives out of emergent fantasy adventures. Another was about crushing rich people in Argentine wineries. Some games were about combating self-doubt. With fewer AAA attention magnets, and a renewed collective appreciation for the escapist and social benefits of the medium, it felt like we were all more willing to try something that fell outside of our comfort zone. In fact, it was a weird, wonderful, disorienting labyrinth of dazzling titles. The release schedule felt altogether calm, as an increasing number of blockbuster video games moved out of this year and into the next.īut in trying to find a unifying thread for the games that defined the last 12 months, I’m struck by the fact that this year wasn’t really calm at all. Isolation may not be the norm, but for many, it is still the default. The COVID-19 pandemic continues and supply chains remain choked. In some ways, this year felt like more of the same.