#being an edgy mercenary and all that

[the-blazing-light]

A cat with a gun

[mangalho]

I made this dude to relax bc i read the info on drows on the dnd wiki (i dont know shit abt dnd and im not joking) and thought ‘whoever made these guys is a pervert’ i respect that, but i closed my eyes at the stupider bits of the lore…

i just dont think their society is like. Livable HAHAAH also its stupid asf to have ‘inherently evil species’… apparently they’re steering away from that shit which is great.

He was a man from a non-noble house chosen by a matron of a high house and they were surprisingly happy together for drow standards. Malaggar comes from like a mining/trading settlement, but his ventures took him to Menzoberranzan and thats how he met her. She was smitten by his general honesto demeanor and cute "provincial" accent (okay big City bitch..!)

please note that drows are kind of insane in general but apparently its worse in highly populated noble ridden cities with the strictest social rules so like. To you this was just some guy but to that woman he was so different so quirky ajahjahah

They had a good run, but eventually another matron from another high house came and said ‘i want him’ and since drow women compete like wild animals she killed his OG wife.. demolished her really

He became her bitch AND was miserable. She was happy bc he was like a pretty young thing but soon started getting violent with the guy because he was grieving his first wife whom he actually liked. He was in a rough spot bc he was getting his ass beat on the daily fr.. However his new wife was also a high drow so. He was basically elevating his family just bc he was there taking the domestic abuse (read: normal spider-worshipping drow behaviour)

The new matron was very unkind in every possible way you can imagine, but she didn’t do anything to him that would scar his body, greatest asset and all that. One day he snapped and killed his matron by way of knife and ran away to the surface world. Then he started his life of crime. Went from a little abused noble boy to some cartel mercenary dude who kills ppl and has tattoos. I think they look both really dumb but also sick as fuck, and he probably got them as a way to rebel against his upbringing in a way. But he’s edgy so i bet he thinks he looks sick like no nations no borders no self awareness being embarrassing unites all peoples

he is traumatized by women and is deeply afraid of them! I want his story to develop around becoming more normal and overcoming his grief.. hes from a long lived species so its taking him a while. Also its harder to make real friends if all your coworkers are insane criminals

[mysticstarlightduck]

Supernova Initiative - WIP Intro/WIP Someday Tag

I wasn't tagged for this recently, but I wanted to make a WIP Intro/WIP Someday post for this story in the style of my previous post for Song of Thorns (here). So here we go😅! Feel free to make your own version of this Tag for one of your WIPs, if you'd like!

By the way, if you like this, please reblog, it helps a lot 💕

And tell me if you'd like to be added to any future taglists of this WIP!

Rules: Pick a WIP. Post something about it. On a Wednesday. Or whenever! It can be literally anything! (:

WIP INTRO - Supernova Initiative

Title: Supernova Initiative

Genre: Science Fiction/Space Opera/Adventure & Mystery/Whump

Tags: #wip supernova initiative #supernova initiative

Synopsis/What Is It About?

Jack Tithus, a young and charming intergalactic thief, along with his crew - Vesper Foxx, a feared cyborg assassin; Cassiopeia Tithus, his younger sister who is also a genius engineer; Aleks Keldora, a master in the art of temporary identity theft; and Artemis Zreeth, their edgy new recruit - are the most wanted criminals in this quadrant of the galaxy. Never once caught, the team defies their galaxy's oppressive government by using their combined talents to steal from the government as their own act of rebellion.

However, their luck takes an unexpected turn for the worst when they find themselves set up and arrested after a botched heist. Taken to the most secure facility in the whole Junction, the group expects nothing but problems in the coming future - instead, they are offered a strange deal: if they agree to work for the Junction and retrieve some highly classified files that were lost in a hostile planetary system, they will be spared from execution. With few other options, the group begrudgingly accepts to carry out this heist for the government they spent their lives trying to undermine.

Meanwhile, Jack finds himself trapped in a horrifying web of unethical experiments and illegal bioengineering when, while still having to carry out the heist along with his crew, he is secretly forced to become a test subject to the fearsome Director, head of the Junction's division of sciences, unbeknownst to his crew.

The team will need to count on the help of old allies-turned-rivals such as the cold-blooded mercenary and sniper Deimos Soll, their former crewmate, and the secret agent assigned to oversee their mission, an uptight and by-the-book young man called Noctus - if they wish to complete the most dangerous heist of their lives, and get their freedoms back.

Tropes and Nice Stuff! (Or, a.k.a. What you can expect in this book!)

Found Family/Team as Family!

Space adventure, exploration of unique, uncanny, beautiful, and outlandish alien planets, all the good science fiction stuff!

Robots, cyborgs, and sarcastically friendly AI!

A terrifyingly strict aspiring utopian regime that promises progress and freedom but is actually an unethical dystopia in disguise, with many bloodied skeletons in the closet, if you will.

Intergalactic politics, multiple alien cultures, and a bubbling interplanetary conflict about to explode between vastly different civilizations, each seeking either revenge or power.

Sibling bonds! A lot of this story centers around the siblings Jack and Cassiopeia Tithus, and the struggles they go through to keep each other safe and live another day, among some other notable siblings throughout the book.

Laboratory whump - A LOT OF IT. Also expect a crazy, unethical scientist/politician as a villain who is willing to do absolutely horrid things in the name of progress, even if it means human experimentation.

A suspicious, morally grey antihero with a reputation for being a cold-blooded killer, whom you'd expect is going to betray the group sooner or later, but is actually one of their most loyal allies and HAS A REDEMPTION ARC aaaaaa

Heists! Heists! Heists! And all the good stuff that comes along with this trope!

An edgy rogue-type character who is super impulsive and does not always make the best decisions, who only recently joined the group but would defend them with his life.

Traumatized - and hot - cyborg assassin lady on the path to have revenge on the people who destroyed her life in the past, and who is going to get said revenge in ✨style✨

A conformist secret agent who has always been "the perfect soldier" and follows rules like his life depends on it has an existential crisis and learns that his government has lied to him

A subplot that follows a young cadet from the Junction's Void Program, who discovers a dark secret about their government and starts investigating, but who needs to escape (and ends up meeting the MCs) after the government makes an attempt on his life + his war hero (adoptive) older brother who is a fighter pilot and really just needs a break and was tasked by their parents with trying to keep Pax from getting into even more trouble, but fails successfully.

Outcasts and society's "rejects" decide to make a better future together and it is great

Angst, team dynamics, and a lot of action-packed fight scenes!

And more! ✨

Meet The Main Cast! (The good guys)

Jack Tithus

A charming and rebellious intergalactic thief, Jack always sought a better life for himself and his younger sister, Cassiopeia, his only family - and he finally got his chance many years ago by joining a famous space pirate crew and leaving the dusty mining settlement moon he grew up in behind. After that, he took on a solo career - along with his sister and a few friends they had made along the way - and became the most wanted thief in the galaxy. He only steals from the government and seeks to help people who are oppressed or neglected by the system. He has a kind heart and a free spirit, and despite being a thief has a stronger moral compass than most, believing in breaking the rules to do what is truly right.

Cassiopeia Tithus

Cassiopeia - or Cassie, as she is usually called - is a brilliant robot engineer and inventor, able to build even the most complex machines from little more than scraps. She built her first robot when she was a child and has had a passion for mechanics ever since. A part of her older brother's outlaw team, Cassie uses her tech to aid in the heists and allow them to be mostly undetected. Most times. A lively young girl with a fiery personality, Cassiopeia has a lot of passion for what she does and is the glue that keeps their little team of misfits together.

Aleks Keldora

Raised by his two mothers on a struggling planet on the edge of the system, Aleks always wanted to help his family financially and give his mothers the life they deserved. However, struggling with self-esteem issues and often feeling discarded by society, Aleks knew what it meant to be invisible in the eyes of the world around him - with his family being the only ones who ever saw him for who he was. Tired of feeling left out by the world, and wanting to help his mothers - whose business was about to go bankrupt - Aleks decided to take a stand after winning a high-tech device in an underworld completion, a mask that allowed him to shapeshift into anyone he'd like. With the help of this mask and his other talents, Aleks completed his first heist in secret and was able to use the funds to help keep his family's business afloat, though they never knew the truth about how he got the money. After that, finally able to use his feeling of being invisible to his advantage, Aleks became more and more bold, eventually leaving his home planet in search of better heists to be able to continue to support his family.

Vesper Foxx

Traumatized by the day her home planet was raided by a ruthless group of mercenaries - who were hired by the neighboring galaxy's government to establish a Junction colony in Khosmonian territory - Vesper was kidnapped by the soldiers along with her oldest brother, Atheris, after their mother was killed in the raids. After witnessing him be tortured and killed, which scarred for life, Vesper was able to flee in an escape pod, being reunited with her little sister, Lysia, and their cousin, Deya, with whom she left their destroyed homeland behind. Despite settling down in another planetary system with the family she had left, the girl was never able to let go of the past, yearning for justice and revenge. Eventually, she left behind her sister and her cousin to pursue the deaths of the mercenaries who destroyed her life, using cyborg implants and upgrades to turn herself into the deadliest assassin in either galaxy.

Artemis Zreeth

The son of a renowned bounty hunter, Artemis never thought he would ever join their galaxy's criminal underworld, but after his father was betrayed by the crew he trusted the most, Artemis was left to fend for himself. Feeling betrayed by the system he trusted and lacking a purpose in life, Artemis survived by doing some gigs as a mercenary and pirate, a gun for hire in the criminal underworld. After winning a race and accidentally meeting the main cast, Artemis joins the group thinking this would just be another job to pay the bills, but as they spend more and more time together, the teenager finds that this group of outcasts might be the closest thing he's had to a family in a long while.

Pax Stellaryn

A genius young cadet, on his way to becoming the youngest cadet to ever graduate from the Junction's Void Program, Pax always wanted to make his beloved adoptive family proud, feeling oftentimes like a fish out of the water. After discovering a terrifying government intrigue by accident, Pax finds a chance to prove that he too can be a hero, and sets off to investigate more about this and seek a way to prevent the Junction's wretched plan from coming to fruition, after realizing his life too is in danger. However, he may have overestimated his ability to get out of this mess alone.

Deimos Soll

A cold-blooded and practical sniper, Deimos was Jack and Cassie's childhood best friend and their first crewmate. The trio split ways years ago due to conflicting beliefs and a few bad misunderstandings and ended up becoming rivals and competition when it comes to stealing from the Junction. Years later, however, after a harrowing encounter with a cruel and sadistic woman who sought to enslave him in order to force him to join her army, Deimos ends up fleeing to the only people he ever trusted - which unfortunately means having to confront his past and face Jack and Cassie again, who is very confused about his return to the crew - while being hunted down by the insane general he seeks to escape from.

Noctus

Though his full name is classified and unknown to the cast, his reputation precedes him. He is the single most successful special forces secret agent currently in the employ of the Junction - he has never failed a mission, never missed a target. And he always follows orders, always obeys the rules. However, is everything about him what it seems? A forgotten and suppressed part of his memory may prove that the system he fought so dearly to uphold may have actually made him into their perfect living weapon, and there may be many other lies yet to be uncovered

Ethean Mirannir

Pax's adoptive older brother, Ethean is a fighter pilot who has made a name for himself as a war hero and has always been the perfect soldier. Unexpectedly, he finds himself having to choose between his duty to the government and keeping his family safe when Pax discovers a secret that even he had no idea existed.

A few Plot Points, chaotically described🙃 (A.k.a - Badly Summarized WIP Tag but different)

Celebrating a successful heist on a space diner with the homies

I don't know why but I have a feeling this is going suspiciously well for our standards... Are we being set up? Hmm. Nah, I must be thinking too much into it-

Yep. Yes, we were being set up.

🎶Hell to the no, to the no, no, no🎶 WHAT IN THE DYSTOPIAN BULLCRAP EVEN IS THIS PLACE?

"Making shady deals with psycho government officers and bargaining for our freedom - with a bonus of Trauma✨"

THIS JUST-IN: 20-something agent totally done with everything must babysit this group of reckless space pirates that refuse to obey the rules

Cue the most uncomfy space travel in the whole galaxy~

"Hey guys, so yeah, this wasn't my plan either -" Promptly passes out, and everyone has more questions than answers.

Preparing to steal important files lost✨IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE✨ with a plan with came up with at 2AM with three bottles of energy drinks and a dash of improv

Operation "Let's Try Not To Die In Less than 20 Mins" begins and goes about as well as you'd expect

Losing communications with any backup we might have had and having a bit of group therapy because why not~

Things get Oh, so much worse, Special Edition - a.k.a - a not-so-nice crash landing on the worst possible planet ever

Let's improvise again Pt.2

Questionable problem-solving and emergency hot chocolate bottles

Cyborg Girl and Sniper Dude absolutely do not get along for a whole week and make it everyone else's problem

This is nice! Finally, something goes according to plan in this mess. I'm honestly surprised we got this far. Bravo to us!

(POV Shift) "Hi, yes, you're probably wondering how I even got into this mess. Let's start from the beginning."

This isn't a regular doctor's appointment, is it? What is that needle?! What are you doing -

Political drama, espionage, and manipulative teachers

And The Whump Begins

Well, well, well if it isn't the Consequences of my actions striking back at last. I probably should've mentioned this teeny tiny major problem sooner though. Yeah, my bad...

This is either the single most adorable little alien or the most concerningly ugly thing I've ever seen and now I'm confused

Cue existential crisis - "So no one was gonna tell me my whole life was a lie? Cool. Cool. Just checking... WTF"

HEIST! BADASSERY! BAD LIFE CHOICES!

Two tired older brothers try to keep their respective gremlin younger siblings from encouraging chaos and fail miserably

Insane Femme Fatale makes everyone hate her in less than 2 seconds and is so proud of it

Midnight Talks and Crispy Snacks

Things just got serious, Oh No.

How To Keep Two Rival Civilizations from Destroying Each Other 101 - We're still trying to figure it out

Hm. This plan wasn't half bad. Except it was. It was oh, so bad, OMG

To be Continued...

Playlist

Antigravity - Runaground

Superhero - Simon Curtis

Die For You - Valorant

Notorious - NEONI

Fighter - The Score

Glitter and Gold - Barns Courtney

Tagging (gently): @sleepy-night-child, @kaylinalexanderbooks, @smol-feralgremlin, @oh-no-another-idea, @littleladymab,

@winterandwords, @cowboybrunch, @eccaiia, @sarahlizziewrites, @illarian-rambling

@agirlandherquill, @anoelleart

@leave-her-a-tome, @writernopal, @anyablackwood, @unstablewifiaccess, @forthesanityofstorytellers

@i-can-even-burn-salad, @cakeinthevoid

@lassiesandiego, @thepeculiarbird, @clairelsonao3, @memento-morri-writes, @starlit-hopes-and-dreams

@the-golden-comet, @urnumber1star, @ominous-feychild, @anyablackwood, @amaiguri, @lyutenw @finickyfelix @elshells

@thecomfywriter

And OPEN TAG

[kiok0r0]

What are all the outcodes like and how did Hook find Princess? :0?

I have spent some time going through with ones I'm confident to give you info on. Also I realized my handwriting gets super messy when small and clumped so I typed out my notes. This is also a long post because of it but I hope the below answers your questions!

Coal (Ink Papyrus)

Enthusiastic, kind of chaotic, a "reach for the stars" kind of person

Never forgets

Leaves charcoal smudges wherever he goes

Promotes growth and creativity

Has stickers on arms

Uses a large charcoal stick to fight and create portals and attacks

Sumi (Ink Undyne)

Also just as enthusiastic, great sense of justice, compassionate

Can't perform magic like she used to so she uses inks infused with magic along with her brush to help

So many tattoos and has vitiligo

Voice of reason? No Coal and her are enablers

Loves colors so much

Pascal (Error Papyrus)

Finding his home and his friends but he doesn't remember them. He just knows (has a gut feeling) that he has them

Friendly, talkative, lending a helpful hand, though shy and quiet

Loves candy and fizzy drinks

Can easily materialize himself to other places or things out of thin air

Hook (Killer Variant)

Bounty hunter who explores AUs to stop corruption/mishaps from taking place

A flirt with 0 charisma, the one-liner kind of guy, jokes on the job

Working on his trust issues but he trusts his cat, Princess

Previously worked with Sable (My Nightmare)

Very flexible and acrobatic, skilled with daggers

Smoke (Dust Variant)

Works with Sable as his right-hand, loyal but has his own personal goals that fits just nicely with what missions Sable gives him

"plz just leave me alone", incredibly quiet, calculative, selfish, goes and gets what he wants at nothing

Sometimes likes fooling around and/or playing with his targets

Utano (An Outcode Undyne)

Has no recollection of who she is and where she came from. All she knows is a burning rage and knows how to wield her sword

Sword is imbued with crackling electric magic

Has a good commanding voice but is most times reserved, is a bit arrogant and has a great work ethic

Got recruited by Sable for her fighting and was promised of restoring her memory and finding her way home

Loves taiyaki

She and Smoke get along when they play chess

Xander (Cross)

Yeah he's still scared of cows

Currently finding a way to get X!Chara's own body while figuring out how to handle X!Gaster and save his world (X!Gaster's imprisoned but it's supposed to be a short term solution)

Compassionate, a little shy, at times selfish to fulfill his goals, arrogant and reckless, protective of Alphonse

Remorseful and regretful of what he did in previous timelines. It's why he's also traveling to other universes so what happened in his world doesn't repeat in theirs

Alphonse (X!Papyrus)

Compassionate like Xander, hardworking, sarcastic, and silly

"While you were getting babes, I studied the blade" But also being serious, he is skilled when fighting with his bone scythe. He's learning how to do those sword dances but with his scythe instead

Knows Xander is pushing himself to redeem/prove himself so he helps him loosen up. Sometimes it's sparring, sometimes it's jokes and sometimes it's his fine cooking

Rebuilding their relationship since they're both aware of what happened in some of their timelines. He forgives Xander but he knows Xander hasn't forgiven himself yet.

Always dishing out sword facts and sword techniques

Pixel (Error Alphys)

Will not fail at correcting her mistakes and finding her home through any means necessary

Overconfident in abilities and boasts that she's fantastic. Though scrambles when she does make a mistake

With her abilities, Pixel can alter and search through a universe's code at lightning speeds. That also means she's messing up said code which brings the attention of those who are protecting the multiverse.

Mad scientist vibes, in an edgy phase

She still loves anime

Merc (Mercenary!Sans)

A multiverse bounty hunter/merc-for-hire with a penchant for hi-jinks

His attitude may be chill, but his work ethic is the polar opposite. A master of deception

Likes cracking jokes, a smooth talker and sometimes likes to pretend he's a secret agent. Makes the job more entertaining that way

Weapons vary from blasters to his bone staff. It just depends on the target

Con (Mercenary!Papyrus)

A multiverse bounty hunter/merc-for-hire who really loves cowboys

Has a slight southern drawl, is crafty and a smooth talker (though at times there are some social cues where he's oblivious about)

Terrific aim with pistols and his lasso. He made both of them and continues to improve upon them so he can work efficiently. Has done so many repairs

Loves crafting and using traps or luring his targets into said traps. It thoroughly pleases him when his targets fall for his gibes.

Knight (An Outcode Papyrus heavily inspired by a deltarune theory)

A ??? Papyrus who wanders the multiverse to use his powers in places in need of help

Extremely vague, yet self-righteous. Almost noble like though it feels like he's on his high horse

Never shows face until he meets "the heroes of another world"

Still gets into silly shenanigans but only if it'll be at the expense of the people who encounter him

Phantom (Guardian of Nightmares)

To balance his brother's powers, Phantom haunts people's dreams and uses their fears and stresses against them

Extremely quiet, introverted. He's also a recluse. To most, except for some of the outcodes, his brother and Evander (My Dream). He is mostly a nice and relaxed guy unless angered or you just really get on his nerves.

Manifests shadowy nightmares and teleports via shadows

Loves tea and maple syrup on fluffy waffles and berries

Muse (Guardian of Dreams)

To balance his brother's powers, Muse guides people's dreams, using their hopes to aid them

Manifests powerful illusions, manipulate light to be used in battle. He can also fly and disappear into a cloud

Loves hot chocolate and green tea ice cream

Loud introvert, compassionate and a great pep talker

Didn't draw him because I realized at the last minute that I forgot about him but my trickster deity Papyrus! Here's some old art of him to put a name on the face

Slash (Trickster!Papyrus)

He has another name but he likes to go by Slash to deceive others of his true nature.

Aligns himself with anyone who "is the most and will cause the most fun"

Has some fellow deity friends he gossips with after a day/week of work

Loves toying with people like it's his favorite pasttime

He never lies, he is just vague in the truths he speaks

This one isn't fully developed yet but I love the design I gave it. It's old art but I still like it! They only go by the Wandering Void and they came to me in a thought

But anyways, I think I'll answer that second question in another post because this one got long! ^^

[wolfswitcheryanimations]

Seen a lot of bullfrog <--> Ramon swap aus around which are cool, but cmon, let Dolph be the brainwashed Tv host and Bullfrog be the edgy loner whose secretly a dork for once.

Backstories under cut (Tw for cult and suicide mentions)

Dolph:

- Your classic rags-to-riches success story, Dolph started off as a lonely little boy enrolled into Eden's military ranks at 16, in the hopes that he would be able to support his family. He ran up the ranks quickly, showing himself not only to be a great soldier, but an even greater ray of hope for his fellow soldiers. Sadly, his military career ended when he suffered life-threatening injuries from a mine in the Wasteland War, taking away his left arm, bits of his torso and a huge chunk of his head.

- Eden wasn't done with him however, and after being refitted with the fanciest prosthetics money could buy, he became the suave and sultry brand new host of the Eden show, an shining example of what Eden has to offer and a mainstream celebrity overnight.

- Of course, thats not *all* that happened...

Bullfrog:

- Once a prized member of Eden's military, like Dolph, Bullfrog is now a feared mercenary and terrorist, heavily affiliated with an anti-Eden group that believes that they are their deities chosen warrors, born to destroy Eden and bring up a new era of prosperity. He uses stealth to his advantage, using both disguise and the shadows to do his work, to the point where noone truely knows what he looks like under his hood, which he never takes off.

- Of course, this new era can't come without sacrifices, and the group sacrifices Bullfrog for "the greater good", AKA let him be killed in order for them to gain a shiny macguffin they believe will let them be able to summon their god.

- Don't worry, for his contributions to the cult, he will surely be granted the highest honours in the afterlife! In fact, he should be thanking the group for this oppourtunity!

- At least, if he wasn't still alive..

Ramon:

- Made to be a warrior of the Glade, Rayman has decided to turn his grief over not being able to save his previous home to determination to save the new one from the horrors of Eden.

- The only one rescued from dimension X (or, so he thinks), Rayman has become a robin-hood-esque vigilante known in the lower rigs of Eden as a strange, but friendly fella who comforts the weak and counters the strong.

- Never really staying in one place for too long, he has picked up many quirks and mannerisms from the numerous people he has stayed with over the years, and while he has become a bit more abrasive and trigger-happy than he was before, now accustomed to hiding his lack of limbs behind baggy clothing, his will to help people and ultimately make up for his mistakes before still shines bright.

[samsalami66]

Never done this before, but have some rambles about a recent Sandman/Baldur's Gate 3 crossover idea of mine!

Naturally, there are some minor bg3 spoilers following, proceed with caution!

Currently my idea is that as the nautiloid crashes through realms, it also crashes through Earth and snatches up a few people . It's not many, they're gone almost as soon as they appear, and Hob is between one of those very few, probably on his way back from a medieval re-enactment. He gets tadpoled and crashes with the rest of the group in Faerûn. Decides to tag along, not necessarily because he's worried, his husband is an Endless after all, and even if their connection seems to have been temporarily cut off by the tadpole, Dream will find him sooner or later and fix this, somehow. He has a lot of faith in his husband.

Anyway, having a fighter in the group who can't die and has been on the battlefield more times than he could count might be helpful to these people.... and they all seem to need an open ear, someone with a bit more experience to talk to. It's also nice to talk to some Immortal and near Immortal people for once!

Anyway, when the dream guardian comes, Hob can't help but snort. Trying to disguise himself as a dream? In front of the King Consort of the Dreaming? Hob was a Good Consort, he prided himself with knowing all currently active Dreams.

This was not one of them.

A real dream would also recognise him as their ruler. So, who is this person who looks just a bit too much like his husband....? (What a terrible disguise anyway, no dream would dare to take on their creators form, not in front of HIM)

He's mighty distrustful of the Dream Guardian and his intentions, tries to find out just what sort of war is being fought in this other plane.

And when he finds Orpheus (and he's just a bit taken aback by the name, by the fact that he could save someone with this name, even if it isn't the Orpheus he wants to save) he swears to free him, fuck the Dream Guardian and his talk about doom and gloom.

In the end, Hob takes care of his new friends, be it in fights or whenever they need someone to listen.

He bumps shoulders with Mizora and Elminster, later Mystra, holds up Cazador so Astarion has a better angle with his dagger, points out Vlaakith's and Shar's bullshit and pisses off the Dead three (hopefully Death won't be too cross with him for that, but he can't imagine his sister in law is particularly fond of these guys.)

Aware of his connection to the Endless Gods cower before him, much to the surprise of his companions. Even their relentless friend and resident undead Withers seems to take a step back whenever Hob approaches.

And when Hob and the others finally slay their final foe and are freed of the tadpole, it only takes moment for Dream to follow their bond and start fussing over Hob, who he had believed to have been captured.

And as I am a weird person in general and my first thought at 3am was to start a new Baldur's Gate run with Hob as my Tav and Dream as my Dream Guardian...

Hob is a Fighter and due to his extensive knowledge with the blade I have decided to make him a Battlemaster Fighter. His background is quite obviously that of a soldier, his skills as a mercenary being what he uses in battle here. Some details are the moon-earrings, which were a gift from Dream, and a fading neck tattoo of a rose that he got shortly after the flopped 1989 meeting.

Dream on the other hand is just your resident edgy twink, earrings also a gift from Hob!

[transsexualgriffith]

what *is* berserk? i've heard about it/heard the title, but have like 0 clue what it's even about other than potentially "grimdark medieval-esque fantasy"

sexual repression.

okay that was my meme answer, reyni i cannot even begin to tell you how happy I am you asked this. I will be very upfront and tell you that truly even after all the praise I will sing it, i consider it highly unlikely that berserk is a story you personally would enjoy, but I am so glad I get to tell you about it anyways.

the question of "what is berserk" is kind of..infinitely complex. none of the assumptions you have are wrong, infact they're right on the money, and you would be far from the first to have never known berserk to be anything but those things. i don't believe that I knew very much of anything at all about berserk before I myself chose to watch (and then read) it. I went into it basically completely blind and I believe i was better for it, because nothing anyone could've told me about berserk would've been able to prepare me for what I was about to read.

berserk is, first of, and I believe you're interested in manga as how it exists as a medium and of course japanese culture associated with it, one of the most influential manga of all time. it is essentially a manga equivalent of classic lit, and rightfully so. berserk has some of the most incredible art work I have I have ever seen. berserk is extremely thought out and detailed and it changed a million perspectives on manga as an art form by its existing. set an impossible standard for seinen forevermore. it has immense value in being looked at through this lense alone.

and berserk is dark. and edgy. and a product of its time. berserk is incredibly violent, in all ways that a story can be violent, sometimes smartly, sometimes poorly, rarely apologetically. berserk has possibly every trigger warning in existence, it has an abundance of things that are nasty and inappropriate and should not have been written in the way they are, and should not be celebrated for it the way that it is.

and then, berserk is queer. this shocks many people to find out, because in fact the common consensus is otherwise, and berserk has a horrible cishet-male dominant fandom who cannot comprehend even the basic themes of the story, and its queerness is the antithesis to all that berserk is largely understood to be.

but reyni, berserk is so queer.

berserk is one of the queerest stories I've ever read and i really don't say this lightly. queer readings of classic lit are possibly all I have been doing for the past nine years or so of my life and I count berserk among them. berserk is more queer than alot of stories with ""canonically"" queer rep could ever aspire to be, because in berserk the queerness is the driving force of the plot. everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, in nearly four hundred chapters of this manga, has occurred in consequence of two men being unable to reconcile their (sexual) trauma with their emotions, primarily their feelings towards one another. and berserk is not subtle about this. it is honestly the least subtle thing I can imagine.

berserk is the story of an ex mercenary called guts on his quest for both revenge and personal growth, and more importantly it is the story of a young mans struggle with repression, apathy, anger, deep feeling, and desire. berserk is, in this at least, very clever about utilising guts csa trauma as his reason for succumbing to violence. in general I think berserk if treated the right way, is a great case study for the anatomy of male emotion. berserk is the tale of a mercenary bands falling head first into glory and then doom, it is a high fantasy with incredible cosmology lore behind it, it's about political intrigue, its about religion, it reaches the darkest depths of what fantasy can be and sometimes brings it to the highest; there are parts of it I think you might detest and there are whole arcs I think you would love, there are chapters you would never know were from a seinen because its being intentionally written like a shoujo; you forget the darkness for all the light just as often as the other way around; there's a cursed amulet, and there's even bishies. (also they've got blue haired elves which I think u could appreciate.)

i know this has gotten a little long, but I really wanted to give u a real impression of the wonderful immersive hundred-fold that berserk is to me. I dont think I can ever truly put it down into words. I doubt you'll be surprised to learn of my love of white haired bishounen since you have known me rather some time now, and certainly that's a driving motivator but I earnestly didn't expect to ever get as much out of berserk as I did. it's maybe the most I have ever fallen for a story. ty for ur askkkk don't read it

[amiryllisthorn]

I kinda want to talk about this idiot for a bit. I obviously dont want to talk about Valkyra’s character toooooooooo much since a lot of what is up with her tm is a big part of the game’s narrative, but theres a bit of a different aspect I wanted to talk about.

Valkyra lisiri was a character that was really just an awfully written character. She was this too cool for school didnt need any friends hyper competent soldier who was actually written as a bit of a villain. One who would rather defend the status quo rather than actually try to change anything. It was edgy and over the top and just bleh.

So how did she become the main character in the game I am most focused on? Well what ended up happening is I had a lot of ideas for games at the time, and threw this one together as a bit of a throwaway project with these characters as that I didnt really care for anymore and the idea was to make something short and move on as a bit of a prequel to the thing I actually wanted to work on.

(this sprite is two years old now! but you can see that the general look is still similar)

Well that clearly didnt happen, because the more I worked on this short throw away project the more I thought about what I could actually do with these characters. What I could do to make this setting more mine and not just rip off of sci fi series I liked. And as I wrote more and more the more things changed and were altered  to the point where any of it is barely recognizable anymore-and I love that so MUCH! 

It was no longer a prelude for another game I was working on or this half assed setting but has become something that I am incredibly passionate about! I told my self that I would try to focus on smaller projects but I cant keep myself away from this thing and these characters.

(o7 mech game concept we hardly knew ye-the concept was being on the run as a mech mechanic for a mercenary company where the gameplay revolved around fixing mechs)

While work is going much slower than I would like, due to mostly personal reasons, I really am proud with how things are really starting to come together for this project. I didnt really start focusing actual attention on it till probably the past year or so.

I think part of why this project means so much to me, is that it has taken something from a part of my past self that I dont really like, and made it into I think something far more interesting, far more fun, more technically impressive, and just so much gayer. And these once throwaway characters of little regards, have really become the core focus of the project.

Valkyra  Lisiri went from this heartless action hero who could do anything, to a much more general person, struggling through life and trying her best, and often her best was not enough. Those actions of course having their own painful consequences, that shaped her into the character she now is.

Siane Vokir went from this really bitchy agent of the state to someone who at the drop of a hat gives up everything to fight fascism, someone who now has trouble dealing with her past and people in general, and just so many layers to her character.

The game has been so thoroughly ship of theseus’d that all that really remains of the first like year of work is just some characters  have the same name and maybe a similar appearance, and that is just a fascinating and exciting thing to work with!

(the very first concept drawn up for the game. You can also see the original design for siane)

Anyways this post has gotten a little bit all over the place, but I guess I wanted to share some of this project’s history. I dont talk about the actual details as much as I should whenever I post stuff, because I have a pretty hard time with a lot of this stuff sometimes! I wanted to make posts talking more about the setting and the characters but that kinda got uh forgotten.... well maybe I will get back to that at some point.

if you made it down this far thanks for reading! I really do want to talk about all of these things more, and have been working at it. Maybe ill try to do a weekly post talking about game stuff but no promises, my brain is bad so Ill just leave you with these two nerds.

[yunatheintrovert]

Some thoughts on Kim "Horangi" Hong-jin (and why he is my favorite Kortac operator)

König/Horangi shippers DNI.

Here's some thoughts and a bit of analysis on South Korean operator Horangi with some simpery sprinkled in from a Korean-American perspective:

There's a lot of small details in his uniform that tells some things about his character.

The circled area includes an uncomplete heart (likely a taegeuk [circle part of the South Korean flag] heart and also his own callsign "Horangi" written in Hangul. This in translation reads as "tiger" which is also the meaning of his callsign.

And tbh, it's pretty cute that he wrote his callsign on his own vest right above a little drawn heart.

On the back of his vest are tally marks (which likely indicate kills or the amount of gambling debts he owes) and a colored taegeuk heart, which is the circle part of the South Korean flag (not to be confused with pepsi's logo, which is also amusing).

What's interesting about this detail of the taegeuk heart on his uniform is that it shows a pretty clear sense of patriotism in his character despite him being a former gambler turned mercenary.

Another interesting little detail is that Horangi keeps pens on his vest and those pens are the same colors of his writing and drawings on his vest (the hearts and Hangul).

His uniform has all these little details which helps show the personality of his character.

2. His callsign, "Horangi"

There's a lot of thoughts I have about his callsign. As I said earlier, his callsign means "Tiger" in Korean. The tiger is the national animal of South Korea (which probably also says something about Horangi's patriotism). And well...it's almost like if an American operator took up the callsign "Eagle". Although, in a Korean context, it's a bit cheesy in an amusing and endearing way in my opinion haha.

Furthermore, "Horangi" as a word doesn't sound very fierce in Korean normally. It actually kinda sounds a bit cutesy when said in Korean correctly. So while having a callsign meaning "tiger" probably sounds badass, it isn't quite as badass in Korean.

If anyone wants to hear about how his callsign is pronounced, here's a link to a video pronouncing his callsign is pronounced:

3. Horangi's bio and backstory

The intro paragraph in his operator bio is just so hilarious to me. It literally starts off with all this dramatic and edgy speculation about why Horangi is wearing his mask only to reveal uneventfully that Horangi really is just a dogshit gambler and hiding from his creditors.

No wonder the man's a merc despite his patriotism... He has to make the big bucks in the mercenary business to work on paying off debts while the creditors are trying to track him down.

His backstory actually stands out to me a lot in how unexpected and amusing it is. There's no edgy drama, k pop references, or any typical stereotypes about Koreans. It's just a man who's a dogshit gambler turned mercenary. Sadly, it's kinda rare to see Korean characters in Western media being depicted without any stereotypes or k-pop references.

Anyways, in other words, I'm part of the Horangi Simpery club! I'll be posting more Horangi content over time.

[blubushie]

as someone who loves both sniperscout and sniperspy, you hit the nail on the head with the toxic shippers, not to mention so many of them project so much onto scout or spy that they become practically unrecognizable as characters, like mama, just self-ship at that point and quit lying to yourself pffffft-

OATH.

In my experience toxic SniperSpy fans seem to be worse, though I'm highly aware that I'm biased because my worst experience was with a toxic SniperSpy fan who got a little too into "Blu is IRL Sniper" lmfao. They seem to idolise the absolute worst traits of Spy's character/job—manipulation and deception. This bleeds out into everything else, including their friendships, as they try to act like irl incarnations of their idol. Instead they come off as arseholes because these are the ONLY facets of him they ever end up mimicking. Ooooh so scary and edgy, so mysterious, so fancy. Except they're not scary because they're teenagers, they're not edgy cuz they're liars, they're not mysterious cuz they can't keep their mouths shut enough to be, and they don't have the class of cultural background to be a drop as fancy as they think themselves are. These are teenagers who think "fancy" is just nice clothes they can't afford, sticking your little finger out while drinking things that aren't wine from a wine glass, and not putting your elbows on the table.

My experiences with toxic SniperScout fans have been more limited. I'm sure things are worse on Twitter, but I avoid Twitter like the plague. Most I've seen from that batch on Tumblr is them mischaracterising Scout as uwu-shyboy with Sniper and completely ignoring his loud and brash nature and how readily be flirts with Miss P when his brain isn't stalling.

But they also heavily mischaracterise Sniper too. "Ohh Sniper is so comforting, Sniper would never yell at Scout for being annoying–" Yes he fucking would. He would tell Scout to shut the fuck up for all of five minutes. I know they like to think that Sniper wouldn't do it because it means he would do it to them, but yes he fucking would. His job depends on it, and while some babble is fine, Scout also needs to learn to shut the fuck up when he's supposed to. Because Sniper, who hasn't had a holiday in at least 4 years, puts the job and professionalism above everything, even his partner. And Scout, who's also a mercenary, knows that life or death rides on that.

Basically toxic SniperSpy fans try to become Spy, and toxic SniperScout fans make Scout become them. There's other things surely but these are first to mind. The one thing they have in common is both have to ferally attack and harrass each other to convince people that their ship is superior so that their feelings for Sniper are validated.

Disclaimer: everything stated above is restricted ONLY to TOXIC fans of these ships and traits I've noted being a common trend among them. If you're not harrassing people over your OTP, congrats—none of this applies to you.

[freezing-kaiju]

ALRIGHT I'M MAKING THE POLL!

For my next liveblog, of anime, to run alongside Kamen Rider Ryuki, I'm presentiiiing.... 12 options!

Blue Gender's a scifi with some horror and with mechs, and from what I've heard it has a very cool woman, a loserman with weird cancer disease, violence, and crabs.

Mou Ippon is a show about a girls' judo club, and it would be the first sports anime I finish if I put it on! Got recommended it for being a non-horny girls sport anime, i like the designs, its got rivalries, and ive heard its underrated!

Asteroid In Love is vaguely a yuri, it's got an astronomical theme, I can never locate the manga for it, and I rarely watch slice of life shows so it also sems like a change of pace. Might not be too fun to liveblog tho?

MoNoNoKe is a show ive heard is fucking insane. About a medicine seller who hunts yokai with it all being morally ambiguous, wildly visual, and deliberately bizarre. Seems very fun to blog and watch, though maybe disorienting

SSSS Gridman is the only thing Tsubaraya has that isn't ultraman, and it has evil yuri megatron or so I've heard. Mech show with characters! got kaiju! comes highly recced.

Zetman seems to be both tokusatsu-y and stupidly edgy. That's al I know, that and the title character looks like an utter dingus!

Ex-Arm is a trainwreck masquerading as a yuri masquerading as a cyberpunk masquerding as a trainwreck masquerading as pornography. Few things have looked more funnybad on visuals alone. Also Zero Berzerker seems to be there

Agatha Christie's Great Detectives is an old show about both Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot occurring at the same time. Seems to be an interesting way to connect two series of mysteries. Also there is a bird and a girl

Spiral: Suiri no Kizuna is a mystery show with a beautifully grating OP about some sort of murder, some people called Blade Children, a class reporter hounding a protagonist to see if he's a murderer maybe?? There appears to be a kaworu and a misato. It compels me

Air is about a puppeteer searching for a Winged Maiden and I have absolutely no clue what it's doing in my list. Look at this cool art i found

Ajin is a 3d grimdark? anime about zombies slash Orphnochs being hunted by the government and its got horror and gore. and ghost?

Canaan is a TYPE-MOON work, though doesn't seem to be in the Fateverse or the Tsukihimeniversity, it has mercenaries, violence, hopefully yuri, and even more hopefully the Nasu Dialogue we all know and love.

Regardless! These are the choices for the anime to stand alongside Kamen Rider Ryuki in liveblogs once i'm done with Vampire Miyu!

And if you wanna pick more pls tag your extra picks ^_^

[tarydarrington]

Eadwulf Grieve is done with politics.

He runs as far as he can get: takes a road trip to the edge of the continent and takes ship to Tal'Dorei, takes a few odd jobs that mean nothing much to anyone in particular, then buys passage on a trade ship heading miles and miles away.

He finds a city big enough to get lost in and settles there. The first time he goes a month without hearing the words Cerberus and Assembly next to each other, he buys a round for the tavern. The elf-orc with the fiddle follows him to bed; parting ways when the morning comes is quick and uncomplicated.

A few years pass, and things start getting a little weird. He takes a mercenary job from some old man, only to be brought to a manor where the head of the household–a second old man–handily beats Wulf and the others with a cane. He begins to hear whispers of disappearances in the city, and buys better locks.

Then, one day, in the middle of a job hauling cargo, Wulf swears he sees– no, that doesn't make sense. This is halfway across the world from the Empire; there's no reason for any of these crates to be marked with the symbol of the Cerberus Assembly. He finishes the job, quits, and puts it out of his mind. He ignores the moon, which has begun to act much less moonlike than he'd like.

A week later, he hears about a group of newcomers attacked in the street by furniture, and writes that quarter of the city out of his immediate plans. His new route takes him past a fancy-looking manor with an H over the gate, and Wulf does a proper double-take, one morning, at the sight of a figure disappearing through the front door. Long white hair, blue and silver robes, elven ears. It couldn't be, though. He's imagining things. There is no reason for Ludinus Da'Leth to be here.

He writes it off as paranoia, and rubs at his arms all day.

A tower explodes, because of course it does. There are whispers of werewolves involved, of all things, and no matter how hot that sounds, he's not touching any of it with a ten foot pole.

He meets a robot in the market, the next day. It wishes him a smiley day and rolls away after a woman who looks more than half a corpse.

Wulf reevaluates his booze budget.

It's all bearable, he thinks over his fourth drink, as long as he doesn't get involved. Even if the Martinet himself is here animating silverware, it doesn't have to be his problem. There's no Astrid here to give him orders, and no Caleb to give him puppydog eyes.

He does miss the free pastries that came with being in proximity to the blue one, though. City this big, there's got to be a baker somewhere.

Eadwulf stumbles through the streets three sheets to the wind, following pointers from the locals into a dark alley. Odd place to find a patisserie, but he does call himself the Shadowbaker. Edgy-ass title. He must be pretty flexible to be able to bake with his head so far up his own ass, but Wulf won't be picky.

The Shadowbaker takes one look at him and goes so wide-eyed with surprise that, just for a fraction of a second, his disguise flickers.

The two of them stare at one another like a pair of skittish cats. Then Wulf turns on his heel without a word, finds his way to his landlady's door, and informs her that he'll be gone by Grissen.

[zeroducks-2]

Okay the plot that’s been running in my head around the Age Swap Sladin is the following:

We have a Dick Grayson who was never taken in by Bruce so the Court of Owls eventually got to him. After a few decades Dick becomes sick of being Talon and of the Rich assholes of the court, so he goes rogue and becomes a free lance assassin bc lowkey that’s all he knows and while he doesn’t like the court he sure loves his job.

After making a name for himself he runs into a young startup meta merc who’s fresh from the army and looking to make a name for himself. Slade Wilson, being cocky and feeling invincible due to the super serum, thinks he’s can take out one of the best assassins to date.

Slade gets his ass handed to him, obviously. But his obsession with trying to outdo Dick starts to grow rampant. (He’s 23, he’s young, he still hasn’t figured out that sometimes you don’t want to be the person of your obsessions, you want to fuck them). Dick thinks the kids annoying but still extremely entertained by him nonetheless.

Eventually, Dick starts ruining Slade’s contacts and missions bc he likes the way the kid’s temper gets the best of him. And he also starts to teach Slade the ropes of being a mercenary. Slade refuses to admit that Dick has taken him in as an apprentice, and Dick just wants to see how long until Slade is begging to get into Dick’s pants.

While they fuck and fight and Slade starts to fall for his new mentor, the mystery behind Dick’s life starts to unravel itself when Batman (their Damian or Terry - take ur pick) track down Dick for his help with the Court of Owls.

If you want to throw in some BruDick to make Slade jealous and edgy, go for it. Or even have Slade think Dick is trying to get him involved with the court of owls as their new talon to replace dick, even better. I think a good and heart ranching twist to this fic would be related to Dick being an ex-talon. Like because hes technically undead, he can’t really feel complex emotions and sensations (e.g like love and pain), so when Slade falls in love with Dick, Dick is incapable of returning the feelings. And while he says it doesn’t bother him, it breaks Slade’s heart.

But also, Dick is hella possessive of Slade and for Dick that’s basically the closest thing to love.

Anyways 😝

IF ANYONE WANTS TO WRITE THIS FIC GO FOR IT!!

Thank you for sharing! Also @magiwou-meowvin asked for fic recs if you have any, feel free to let us know your favorites :D

[confluencechimera]

Top 5 list of your own OCs. (｀∀ ´)Ψ

OUGH this is a GOOD QUESTION. I really had to narrow it down because I have so many babies but I think I got something solid

1 - Malech H'owl, an OC I made for St*r W*rs. she was based off an old chimera fursona of mine that I turned into a unique alien species and aaa I love drawing her SO MUCH. she's my go-to doodle char. she has a whole entire society and backstory where she was a ruler and a gladiator fighter and a tactician and a mercenary. because I got really into her. she is so self indulgent but that's probably why she's my favorite. I'm so attached to her I've thought abt making her a totally original universe recently divorced from the source media just for meeeee ✨

2 - Ace, who I've been trying to get a ref sheet done for for the past year and a half or so. He looks like a basic old furry on the surface but he's apart of a much larger sci-fi story where his species are trying to preserve history for future generations by inserting memory-recording ships into different members of their kind and then beaming all that into a supercomputer hidden somewhere in the galaxy. Ace comes from a middle generation (the first gen were adults who had the procedure done, the middle generation were fairly young, the newest generation are cubs), so his chip doesn't work entirely as well as the newest gen, and he gets weird deja vu moments of seeing other people's memories. He's also a mercenary. He has a cool spaceship and lives on his own on a barren icy planet. This is the best photo I have of him atm

3 - Howlite, another OC I made for a media (this one being TF!). I'm trying to redesign her atm so I don't have as many pics to show off. but he turns into a plane and later a big old SUV. she's got an insanely long backstory as well: loses everything in a big war, goes on a revenge quest, realizes she wants to live for something more, gets almost killed (twice) and then wakes up on Earth where she finds her old partner and learns to start a new life there. he's a Certified Strange Girlboy Bi Thing. here's a real edgy picture of her after killing a bunch of ppl.

4 - Glitch and Error, two REALLY old OCs of mine who I recently revived from my old dA days. They're personified computer viruses apart of a giant hivemind sort of setup, where the larger viruses "kill" and "consume" smaller ones to become bigger and stronger. The strongest virus rules over the entire hivemind and uses the smaller drones to go out and find electricity to feed on. Not a lot of super solid universe/hard-set rules for this story, it was just something I made for fun, but these guys have endured in my brain for over 10 years so they deserve a shout out.

5 - Comet, a very new character for me (and one I haven't entirely fleshed out yet), but a simple little black wolf furry. Her aes/story is a mixture of Stray Gods, a dash of Hi-Fi Rush, lots of Norse mythology and hard rock (Breaking Benjamin in particular) music. She's the lead singer of a band called Fenrir's Chains, and one day on her drive home from a local show she gets swept up in a Wild Hunt that actually gets her to meet Fenrir. The whole story is meant to be a sort of analogy for dealing with mortality but I'm still working the themes and kinks out. So, I only have a few sketches, plus the plushie she's based on in real life. (She's next to a plushie I plan to turn into Ace one day too!)

[roipecheur]

So like. Further issues with Deathstroke Inc. I didn't really like the art style and the earlier part with TRUST was kind of boring and didn't really have any stakes, and got resolved way too quickly for how much they wanted to build it up. The entire concept of Deathstroke Inc is....ok, get he was possessed by the darkness or whatever, but playing with others isn't really something Slade does. He's a mercenary, not a mastermind. He wants to do his job, ideally alone or with maybe Wintergreen, and get paid. He doesn't want to command an army. Given that he was possessed or corrupted or what the fuck ever the darkness was supposed to do for at least half of it, how much was this Deathstroke run even about him as a character?

I'm also going to take issue with wanting to destroy the world and kill his children because that's....not what Slade does. Back in Forever Evil, he worked with the heroes to save the world because if the bad guys win forever, there's no need for someone in his line of work, and Slade needs his line of work to function. I kind of have to chalk this and Dark Crisis up to something pulling out the worst and most fucked up bits of Slade and corrupting them, including but not limited to making him cut his hair into a mohawk.

And Deathstroke Year 1. Minor gripe, Wintergreen was about 20 years older than Slade in preboot and had already gone grey the first time they met, and I'm not a fan of deaging him in reboot. Major gripe, there are so many more interesting ways to write Slade's layers of denial and self-justification for being Deathstroke and maintaining his family life, and writing him as a cold-blooded killer that never cared about his family, was annoyed by Grant being sad that he was going to leave on a 'hunting trip', and keeping his family as a 'good cover' is boring and lazy. If Slade didn't really love or care about his family, felt trapped with them, and primarily thought of his wife, son, and their unborn child as a 'good cover' by the end of year one, why would he care so much when Grant died trying to be like him? Year 1 Slade seems more likely to be annoyed with Grant for trying and summarily discard him. It kinda really fucks with his original story.

Slade's early years are better if it's him coming up with a convoluted justification of how being Deathstroke allows him to keep his family that he actually does love very much in his own fucked-up way. If he had to work a boring, regular job as a security guard, he'd go nuts, and he does feel cooped-up in suburbia, so being Deathstroke allows him to blow off some steam and be a better husband and dad when he is there. He's also making enough money to set his kids up for life, so he further justifies what he's doing by believing they'll be fine if something did happen to him, and that it's no different than if he were at war. And he thinks whatever precautions he has in place are good enough to protect his family, and he ignores any and all evidence to the contrary until Joey has to pay for it.

Still unbelievable to me how each new writer tries to have their super edgy take on Deathstroke, and none are as good at the original from the 80s/early 90s lmao.

[girldong]

Howdy! Im working on a paper about systems of morality in TTRPGs. Think like DnDs alignment grid or FIST and the mercenaries. Like different explicit or implied ethical systems. Anyway, im looking for games to read. Please rec some games. Thank you stay frosty

AHHHH ty ok ok

as for systems:

LANCER, ICON, Heaven's on Fire, FIST, Blades in the Dark, Beam Saber, Armor Astir, Mork Borg/Cy_Borg, Mothership (lot of things im forgetting here also)

lots of words under the cut:

Blades in the Dark is a great one to look at for a game that more or less as its baseline conceit has players play """bad""" people who will be breaking the law

i find how it does this more interesting than the usual cyberpunk/shadowrun type stuff, as it is less of a power/heist fantasy like those and more actually interested in operating as a criminal in an environment that will react accordingly to how you conduct yourself (rival gangs, killing random people or wanton destruction generates a lot of heat, etc) as well as rewarding playing to character tropes

I also don't think they're very good games, but looking at the old 90s editions of Vampire the Masquerade is worthwhile on this subject, because they're obsessed with ideas of counterculture and playing "evil" characters in a way that is very emblematic of the shitty edgy stuff in the late 90s/early 00s tabletop scene

in general most modern stuff has actually ditched alignment and gone for something i find far more interesting- rewarding characters roleplaying in a certain way based on their class/archetype

and of course D&D and all the Gygax-isms are very colonial in nature because they're fundamentally not interested in the sort of reactivity that I've mentioned above, there's no GM tools for that. They're written like "go into the EVIL RACE'S spooky dungeon, kill them, and take their treasure." Baldur's Gate 3 can get away with being D&D (well. mostly) because it's a curated prewritten experience and was written with that "reactivity".

D&D offers no tools in its vanilla text for the GM to make the players feel in a real world with depth and consequences, and even goes as far as to keep the fucked up black and white morality of "evil" races and every other prickly trope. Of course WOTC knows this and tries to backpedal on it, but still just like. Keeps the black and white morality of the old editions.