#but this goes with every Self healing and immortal character

[nymphwriter]

The statement 'I wish I was immortal.' Must have a funny response to someone who is immortal. Maybe like:

"In order to be immortal, you must die. Are you prepared to die?"

[undertale-fic-librarby]

Hello, hope you are having a amazing life!

Anyways, do you have any fics of Dream as the main character??

I don't really care if it is Fluff or Angst.

Thanks if you do find one!!

Howdy, thanks for asking! Here are some fics that might fit what you're looking for!

A Hidden Heart by Clichely (Teen And Up, Complete)

No one knew that Nightmare had a brother. For five hundred years, he wreaked havoc. Until the stone in his basement began to crack. Dream Sans story. I do not own any of the characters in this story. Prequel to Defying Destiny! Because this description is very much outdated by now.

Tales of Sailor Sun by Mutatedbunnies (Teen And Up, Incomplete)

Dream Tsukino is an ordinary high school student. His days are normal; he goes to school, then goes to the arcade after school instead of studying. That is, until one day a white rabbit with a crescent moon on her forehead shows up and gives him a brooch that allows him to transform into the Guardian of Love and Justice: Sailor Sun! With the help of his powers and a few new friends, Dream embarks on a journey of self discovery and one to save the world!

Immortals & Empires by Ari_tan, CelestalStars (General Audiences, Incomplete)

Dream is a good Emperor. He's benevolent, active and his long time in the position of power made so long any challenge for the throne is simply unthinkable. It's a little strange, any outsider might think. Someone in reign for so long, yet so well-beloved? Bizarre. (But they would not understand. Dream's fundamental nature made it impossible for him to be hated.) Completely unrelated, there's a legend that speaks of an ancient being who always protects the Empire in wartime, even from the days when it was a mere Kingdom. He's known as the Protector. Dream knows him as Ink, but also as a fellow Immortal. Ink knows him as Dream, but also as the Guardian. It's fitting to use the, because the other Guardian is long dead. The dead Guardian had been known as Nightmare. He had also been immortal. How do you kill an Immortal? Easy. You kill them with another. But that's all in the past now, isn't it? Isn't it? Someone waits in the shadows; neither immortal nor mortal (not anymore). He is patient. He is waiting. Soon he will become more than immortal or mortal; become a God. Who will stop him?

Turn Back Time by orphan_account (Teen And Up, Incomplete)

Nightmare finally killed his brother. Dream is finally dead. Or so he thought. Dream also thought he was killed. He thought he was dead. But when he opened his eyes he's perfectly fine, unexpectedly. His pain has gone, there's no tendril piercing his body, and his wounds disappeared completely. Then a familiar voice greets him, chuckling softly. “Why are you looking at me like you’ve seen a ghost?” "Night...mare?"

Healing by BubblesLeFishe (Not Rated, Complete)

Dream is utterly exhausted to say the least. He works his metaphorical ass off every waking day of his miserable life just to be rewarded with Ink forgetting him in an extremely negative AU where he passes out to Nightmares mercy. Once Nightmare throws Dream into a cell where the weakened guardian will possibly cross paths with death, will Nightmare finally give in to his conflicted emotions and hear his brother's side of the story that fateful night in Dreamtale?

[shifterglitter]

My Waiting Rooms

The Hord

My first waiting room was inspired by the labyrinth, my love for friendly monsters and my need to live inside of a tree like a pixie.

The reason why I named this "The Hord" is because underneath the roots of my tree house is an elaborate cave system that I can access from my library. In those caves lives a Dragon that hordes all of my memories for current, past, and future lives. That dragon is a reflection of my Higher Self should I need any advice.

Around my tree house is a Labyrinth with serval moon doors, these are magical portals that can take me to any DR that I wish at any time.

Several agreeable monsters also call this waiting room their home and have designated territories.

I do have a non human mental health professional here that fits all my needs.

A few of my favorite parental figure characters of other medias also live here for any needed advice. Like Iroh and Genkai for example.

It has a different biome and mode of travel in each cardinal direction that leads to a different Waiting Room. This is the center of all my experiences and should I die in any of my other realities unexpectedly I would immediately shift here.

To the East there is a horse drawn carriage that goes though grasslands that will take you to Barbie's Mansion. To the south, between two forested mountains, there is a train that will bring you to the Dreamweaver station right outside Haven Village. To the West there is a bioluminescent beach with a yacht that will sail you to a Vacation Resort Island. To the North is a garage with a convertible Jeep prepared for your camping trip into the desert. Should you go far enough you will find yourself stopping at a gas station with strange burritos.

One day I'll post a map of everything.

Barbie's Creepy Dream House

Have any of you been to a Meow Wolf location yet? I have. I am obsessed with this string of immersive art experiences in the American south. I also have a wooden barbie doll house that my uncle made me when I was 8 that I am upcycling into a creepy display piece. This was the inspiration for my second waiting room.

In the fields, meadows, and marsh lands that surround the house I can find apparitions of ancestors and other loving entities on my spiritual team should I wish to speak with them directly.

Because I haven't finished the art project I have not solidified this WR, but I'll get to it in a few years.

The Haven

This inspired by the meditation series by The Honest Guys called Haven and Dreamweaver.

Important people (my core chosen family) in each of the realities I end up in will also be here with our collective memories together. This could be from one life as friends; or multiple, like my siblings. The souls here that have lived multiple lives with me can change their body to appear like any of their DR forms at will.

The soul of my "Kiss Me Again" lover lives here as my spouse in my English cottage with a thatched roof.

I often collaborate with my siblings and lover about who they want to be in my next DR, and who they want me to pull here for them to live an eternity with.

All of my past, present, and future pets live here.

Wii Sport Resort

I use to fucking love the Wii Sports games. SO yeah, I am going to play it forever. With tons of Mountain Dew.

And why not on an island with all my friends from every DR.

My OR biological family will also live here, but they will all be idealized healed versions of themselves.

This will have ALL Wii Sports games among other fun vacation activities, and PC Lounges were we can all play video games too.

Desert Skies

Inspired by a after death fictional audio drama podcast called Desert Skies.

I'm still working on the other details, but this will be a solo adventure of self discovery and processing the loss of each lived life.

*these are all waiting rooms because: they have no plot, are unaffected by time, every living thing is immortal, there are no bugs I dislike, no one ever gets dirty, or experiences any sort of discomfort/harm, we all always smell good, what every your want will appear upon your will of thinking it, you don't need to eat sleep or drink water if you don't want to, there are no ill effects to drugs, you can't get sick, and all of everyone's needs are provided for. There is no suffering of any kind.*

[duckapus]

Horror Comedy AU where Ash Ketchum is an eldritch abomination spawned from an Unfathomable Void, but is still his usual self.

Basically, Delia was an Interpol Agent back in the day with luck just as strange as Ash's, and on her Last Job she got captured by a doomsday cult that was trying to summon a dark god equal to Arceus Itself and bring about the apocalypse. This doesn't work out, both because Delia's Aura awakens and messes with the ritual (I always prefer to think that Ash's weird ambiguous connection to Sir Aaron comes his mom's side even if in most universes she doesn't have a usable amount of Aura), and because the Void God they're trying to awaken helped Arceus create the world in the first place (and the two of Them kind of have a thing going on) so It wouldn't have helped them destroy it even if the ritual had worked.

Instead they only get a "small" fragment of Void Stuff that mixes with some of Delia's Aura to become a living mass of Darkness covered in writhing tendrils and glowing blue eyes that absorbs all the cultists, knocks out every Pokemon in the room, frees Delia, and shrinks down into the form of a human baby. Delia, being a Ketchum and a major character in a crack fic, promptly decides "my baby now" (to be fair she's not exactly wrong?) and leaves Interpol to reopen her late grandmother's old diner in Palette Town. She was planning to do that anyway even before ending up with a monster baby so it works out I guess.

Meanwhile, Giratina actually noticed the massive spike of Void that was Ash's birth and since the whole issue got resolved so quickly it takes a couple months for her to find where her new half sibling ended up (you read that right. She's the god of symmetry, Light and Dark are included in that, so Arceus and Void God both created her. Also I'm using she/her for Giratina because immortal genderless embodiments of universal concepts can use whatever pronouns they want), and when she does she offers to help him learn how to use his void powers...well, mostly. See, in this version of the Pokemon Universe not all Legendary Pokemon are gods and there are gods who aren't Legendaries, and the ones that are both tend to lean towards one or the other, so Giratina who's more Pokemon-leaning and only half-void functions very differently from Ash who isn't Pokemon at all and almost fully void, so there's some things she just can't help with.

Still, the fact that she's offering to help at all is a big relief for Delia who is doing great so far but would probably be in over her head raising what's essentially a Horror Movie Monster on her own, so Giratina makes semi-regular visits over the years both to help with powers and just to bond with her new little brother (and new mom because there is no way Delia Ketchum doesn't win her over). Also, absolutely no attempt is made to hide Ash's true nature both because I find it funny and because the Pokemon World is already weird enough that Palette Town having a baby demon just living there barely registers as noteworthy.

As far as Ash's childhood goes, it mostly follows the same beats as canon, though there are obviously some weird things that pop up. For one thing, one of his powers is that he can understand any language, including Pokemon. And, because they're sensitive to this sort of thing Pokemon can usually tell that he isn't human even without him using his more obvious powers, and that makes most wild Pokemon more receptive to him than usual.

Except birds. Birds really don't like him for some reason.

Also he turns out to have healing powers, which he finds out during that scene with Serena. Basically, he makes the cloth he ties her injury with out of some of the Void Stuff that makes up his true form, and by the time they get to Professor Oak both the cloth and the injury are gone. There are, however, side-effects, which Serena only finds out about after she moves to Kalos and Ash only finds out about years later when he saves Charmander. (I'll get to that later)

On to the first day of his Journey, things only go slightly more smoothly thanks to Ash and Pikachu being able to communicate properly, and they still get chased by every Spearow on Route 1 because all of them are trying to "Destroy the Void Spawn!" This means they still fall off the waterfall and get fished up by Misty, who gets the Full Horror Experience because after All That Shit Ash is worn out which makes him kind of Melty. And, well, Pikachu is injured, the Spearow are still coming, he can't maintain a coherent enough form to keep going on his own, and this is Season 1 Ash who can be kind of an impulsive jerk sometimes at what would normally be the bike stealing scene, so he kind of...possesses Misty and Books It.

And since this isn't a power he's ever used before and he's using it in a high-stress situation while injured, his control isn't the best, so she catches a glimpse of the Unknowable Truths of the Void, and that combined with her being there for the Biggest Thundershock Ever makes her a little...fanatical about Ash's whole Eldritch God Thing. They're still friends first and foremost and still develop something similar to their usual dynamic but the fanaticism is there, especially at the beginning. At least she's not worried about the bike this time?

Also when Ho-oh shows up he kind of visibly stumbles in midair because he was not expecting the Chosen One to be that! This is why we don't let the local Mew be the only one doing check-ins.

Anyway, Brock and Team Rocket are still their usual selves, apart from Team Rocket deciding to do research into how to fight demons so they'll actually stand a chance at stealing Pikachu so now they've got a Nacli (because salt) and a bit of an Exorcist Schtick going on.

The Charmander Incident goes a bit differently, because they just barely don't make it in time and Ash basically tells the universe NO and brings him back, which is how he finds out that his healing powers have side-effects because this time those effects are immediate. When Charmander's tail flame relights it's somehow black, he has what seems to be a new Ability that makes all his Fire-Type moves also do Ghost-Type damage, and as time goes on his scales darken until he has Shiny Charizard's color scheme. This goes further when he evolves, because he has some clear differences from a normal Charmeleon beyond just his colors, and he seems to now actually be part Ghost.

I also had some ideas for later on, like May being full of Ghosts because she's easy to get into but extremely hard to get out of or control, and Dawn being Akari who ended up as a Hisuian Zoroark and got back to the present the long way, but for now this is what I've got.

[huanlong-yichen]

Huan's Character Sheet

Name: Huanlong Yichen

Alias(es): Youngest of the Tianlong

Nicknames: Huan, Huanlong, youngest, Your Dragoness, youngling, baby dragon, runaway, beloved, my love, smarty pant, big brother Huan, child, sheltered child of the Tianlong, little coward, monster, eerie child, anomaly. 

Species: half-Tianlong, half-human; (immortal) 

Gender: Male

Pronoun: They/Them

Relationship: married Complicated

Family: Hao Yichen (father), Wei Yichen (Older brother), Qiang Yichen (2nd Older brother).

Place of Birth: Celestial Realm.

Home(s): Megapolis, The Tianlong Palace (at times).

Occupation: Employee at Morning Dew, youngest of the Tianlong, college student (formerly), traveler (formerly), Special Guest of The Dragon of the East (formerly).

Affiliation(s): Monkie Kids, Demon Bull Family (at times), The Yichen Family (at times), Celestial Court (at times).

Friends/Allies: Nezha, The Yichen Family, MK, Mei, Pigsy, Tang, Sandy, Monkey King (at times), Macaque (at times), Demon Bull Family (at times), Celestial Court (at times), Celestial Warriors (at times), Azure Lion (past), Li Jing (at times).

Enemies: Spider Queen, Gold and Silver Demons (at times), Not the Mayor, Lady Bone Demon, The Brotherhood, Ink Demons, Nine-Headed Demon (Xiangliu).

Likes: The Monkie Kids gang, seafood, fruits, milk tea, sweets, cutesy stuff, soft stuff, stationery, learning about everything, observing (being creepy).

Dislikes: Celestial realm, the past, his reflection, dream.

Abilities: healing, foresight, dracokinesis, dragon aura, shapeshifting, hydrokinesis, aerokinesis, empathy, eyes of truth. 

Weapon(s): TBA

Alignment: Neutral good

Status: Alive (???)

Warning: self hatred.

Personality: 

Huan is soft-spoken and very attentive to people and their surroundings, always having a smile on their face; tend to stare quietly because of this. They sew everyone's clothes back up whenever the gang trains or fights demons, and also the ones that bring first aid kits and foods that are not just noodles; basically the mom/older siblings of the team. Huan is an animal lover who has a hobby of sewing, embroidery, collecting cutesy stuff, buying large amounts of stationery that will last them a lifetime, writing letters that will never be sent, and gniklat ot na nwonknu ytied nehw gnipeels. They occasionally enjoy some alone time since MK and Mei have a lot of energy. Huan has a weird aversion to meat that slowly goes away as the season progresses, odd. Also, Huan will avoid any and every possible type of reflective surface, except bodies of water. Have a habit of turning a blind eye to small problems or thinking it as a coincidence that, somehow later, turns into a bigger problem. Huan isn’t a pushover, just a people pleaser; this toxic trait has improved greatly. Despite their look, they don't cry that often. They also don’t hold grudges, almost dying once taught them that. An anxiety-ridden halfling who is very close to throwing themself off a cliff, book smart not street smart. They will wear short sleeves and no jacket when it is freezing outside, and not catch a cold from it. Will only goes back to the celestial when it is absolutely necessary, like the New Year banquet, or when Yichen Hao tries to flood all of China just because he misses Huan. They hate themself so much that they want to die, the hate burns so much that they can't even look at themself in the mirror. During Azule Lion's recent attack on the celestial realm, they didn’t care about anything but their friends. When the Jade Emperor was defeated and the sky started to crack, there was an unreadable expression on their face. 

Backstory:

Before meeting the gang and going to the mortal realm, Huan had always looked rather tired and desolate. Huan was outcasted by the celestial beings, they viewed Huan like how they view mortals, as lesser than them. Many treated Huan as if they didn’t exist, while others mentally abused them. The problem was, that Huan took all of the celestial beings' malice like they deserved it. Huan knew that no matter how they acted the celestial beings won’t change their opinion of them, yet Huan still endured it. The celestial who liked Huan said they were too nice or that they were a fool to put up with all of this. Maybe Huan was a too nice or maybe they were a fool, but then Huan snapped. Huan endures the constant malicious from the celestial beings, and they endure Azure Lion's betrayal, but when their marriage with Nezha start to crumble; they couldn't take is anymore. So they ran, where who knows they needed a haven where no one could find them. Noitarepsed si tahw eht nomed deef no. Eht sdoG thgim evah nekasrof meht tub ton sight ytied. 100 years later, Huan was in an incident where another celestial was brutally injured, which resulted in them being punished with one hundred years of house arrest. It was lessened to fifty years by the Jade Emperor.

As a child, they were raised the same way as their older sibling but a bit more sheltered, somehow their personalities came out off; quiet and always fidgety. They were quiet and always looked terrified; the celestial beings thought Huan was an eerie child. After almost dying, they started talking. Unbeknown to most of the celestial, Haun as the ability empathy. Growing up with empathy, they mostly saw gray hazy mist around everyone in the celestial realm, later as they were able to distinguish the emotions the mist starts to change colors. Empathy basically shows what Huan already knew, the celestial beings' malice and displeasement of Huan. The celestials couldn’t do anything since the Jade Emperor had no grievances about the child. During their childhood, Huan was sheltered from the harshness that is the celestial realm, and forbidden to go to the Jade Palace without their father or older brothers; Huan had nothing to do except look down at the mortal realm.

As a child, the only place they would frequently visit was the Dragon of the East Palace. There they made friend with Ao Guang's niece, Longnu, who is currently in the care of Ao Quang. The Tianlong siblings are more or less acquainted with the Dragon of the East dragon; Yichen Hao and Ao Guang don’t particularly like each other but they don’t hate each other either. This relationship was enough to make Ao Guang put his pride aside and ask the Tianlong for help when Ao Bing was defeated by Nezha, Ao Guang pleaded to Yichen Hao to help heal his son Ao Bing, who was bedridden and dying. Longnu was in tears next to Huan, who got closer to Ao Bing. The next thing they knew, a big light appeared. It emits a large amount of dragonic energy large enough to give Yichen Hao and Ao Guang chill, after the light disappeared; Huan was lying on the floor dying. Chaos erupted, Yichen Wei flew quickly in his dragon form to the heave while Yichen Qiang flew to the underworld. Yichen Hao had his Huan in his arm, trying to seal up the dragonic energy that was still emitting from Huan body. After this incident, the Dragon of the East Sea is greatly indebted to the Tianlong dragon and Huan was bedridden for 2 years. Egairram slasoporp erew tnes rof nauH dnah ni egairram. Cracks appear on Huan body and turn into scars, without dragon abilities the celestials now can deem Huan as weak and flawed.

Before becoming an adult, Huan's only activities were embroideries, reading, napping, and his favorite; looking down from heaven at the mortal realm. Huan grew an immunity to blood and gore because of their activity of looking at the mortal realm which was usually, watching the mortals goes to wars with one another. As Huan got older, they was taken to more celestial banquets. This was Yichen Hao's way of easing his child into the celestial courts. However, Huan never makes it more than 30 minutes at the banquets before taking a plate full of food and going elsewhere to eat. It was hard to enjoy the food when a large amount of eyes were on them throughout the banquet. During one of the banquets, they happened to meet Nezha by one of the ponds that occupied the surrounding of the Jade Palace. Nezha holding his spear and looking in the distance. He didn’t seem to want to talk, a good thing; Huan didn’t want to talk either. They did, however, decide to sit just a few feet away from Nezha and also look into the distance of the pond. Huan put their plate in the middle between them and Nezha, taking a piece of moon cake off the plate and eating it. The plate shared between the two was empty by the time Yichen Hao went to collect Huan; something had bloomed that night.

Congratulations on making it down here! This is mostly summarized and less trauma-inducing of Huan personalities and their backstory. The artwork for it will be much more angst-filled. Since you made it down here, let me give you a hint. Look more closely at the bolded crossed-out words; they are significant in a lot of ways.

[murfpersonalblog]

Thornfield Hall, Manderlay, and Louis de Pyromaniac du Lac

I wanna talk about Louis' depression, Anne Rice's grief, and the element of fire in a few iconic Gothic romances/horror stories. (Trigger warning for suicide.)

Bar none, my favorite thing about Louis is his obsession with fire, and how it's linked to his abuse, mental instability, and trauma.

It's so neat how AMC's Louis chainsmokes when he's stressed, and has a hilarious attachment to the incinerator.

His fire obsession's a whole meme at this point, & everyone's excited for Louis going ham with fire in Season 2. I can't wait to see how AMC handles his most iconic book/film moment(s).

But I was rereading Jane Eyre, and thought alot about Bertha Mason (Mr Rochester's archetypal crazy wife in the attic), and Mrs. Danvers from Rebecca (which was inspired by Jane Eyre). And they got me thinking about fire and suicide in the Vampire Chronicles, so walk with me a bit.

Louis is called the most "human" of the vampires, because of how weak he was, compared to other vampires his age (and even younger). His rat/animal blood diet was tantamount to an eating disorder that heavily stilted his growth as an immortal, and for the majority of his life he lacked many of the Gifts vampirism afforded his peers (Mind Gift, Spell Gift, Killing Gift, etc).

However, shockingly enough, AMC decided to give Louis one of their most potent powers: The Fire Gift (pyrokinesis).

In the books it was explained that vampire blood is flakey & highly flammable, and only the oldest and/or strongest of vampires could withstand fire without serious injury or death--let alone use the Fire Gift to any significant degree--hence: BAMF Akasha using it as her signature attack in QotD. 👑

This seriously begs the question about where this show sits in the canon timeline, because book readers know that Louis only gains the Fire Gift, Cloud Gift, Mind Gift, etc etc after the events of Merrick, when Louis tries to commit suicide, and to heal Louis' burns, Lestat gives him a huge infusion of his powerful blood (having fed at length from Akasha in QoTD, and also God/Jesus in Memnoch.)

Lestat's super!blood healed Louis' burns and saved his life, but it also drastically & permanently changed Louis' body, making him more vampiric than he'd ever been, seriously augmenting his powers. This was something Louis had adamantly been trying to avoid--every time the Children of the Millennia/Coven of the Articulate met up, they all offered Louis infusions of their ancient blood, trying to help him power up, and every time Louis refused them all.

Louis retaining his humanity was so important to him, not only because of the Catholic Guilt he felt being a blood-drinking killer, but also because being physically weak allowed him one ultimate ace up his sleeve: if he ever got the courage to end his life, he could always rely on going into the sunlight, and burning to death.

So, while AMC's dust particle effect is very cool, I'd rather see vampires on FIRE--even though the ashes to ashes visuals are rather apropos.

Regardless, I was also thinking about all the other people & places Louis set on fire; and how it all ties in with the Gothic literature Anne Rice was CLEARLY inspired by--namely: Jane Eyre & Rebecca.

Cuz we know Anne Rice wrote Louis and his grief over losing Claudia as a self insert, as a way for her to try handling her own grief over losing her daughter. But she started hating writing as Louis, and being stuck in that depressive mindset, so AR switched to writing from Lestat's POV instead, as a more fun and carefree character for a few books--until Lestat had a crisis of faith in Memnoch and goes into a coma. We then get Armand's book, where in TVL Armand tries to commit suicide by walking into the sun after Lestat gets Veronica's Veil from Memnoch (i.e.: proof that God exists, from the Devil). Immediately after this is Merrick, where Louis enters another depressive episode, as he waits vigil for YEARS beside Lestat, who lies on the floor of a cathedral in a coma. As Louis mourns, he finds Claudia's diaries, which reveal just how much she hated & resented him, and he starts being haunted by Claudia's ghost. By the end of Merrick, Claudia's ghost has convinced Louis that he's worthless, and he agrees.

Suicidal ideation is HEAVY in both Jane Eyre and Rebecca. Mrs. de Winter is almost talked into jumping from the window by the housemaid Mrs Danvers, who hates that the widowed Maxim de Winter remarried (forgetting his first wife Rebecca), and gave Manderlay to the new wife--a girl half his age with no clue how to be a "proper" lady of the estate.

In Jane Eyre, Bertha Mason is literally insane, and was locked up in Thornfield's attic, until she escaped and set the place on fire, then jumped off the roof to her death. In the 2006 BBC version, Bertha sees an owl (a nocturnal bird) fly off the roof, so she follows it; like a free bird taking flight.

Who else does this in IWTV? PAUL with his birds. (Not to mention the PTSD from Louis' drop in Ep5, which would've definitely killed a normal person.)

For years, I thought Claudia's ghost was just an apparition: either one of the demons Lestat unleashed while fleeing Hell in Memnoch, or more likely as a manifestation of Louis' guilty conscience, as his mental state got increasingly worse as he read her journals; on top of him being scared Lestat was dying. But then Blackwood Farm introduced Goblin, and all the later books had prominent vampire ghosts that proved that vampires (and aliens, lol) have immortal souls that can linger. So the ghost was legit, and so was Claudia's deep-rooted hatred for Louis.

I've already said how I think IWTV is a story about (failed) marriages and parenthood dynamics, the power imbalances that ensue, and the resentments that fester. But so are Jane Eyre & Rebecca. At the heart of ALL of them are mental illness & houses on fire. Bertha Mason was violently insane, but she was sane enough to realize that Mr Rochester was tryna marry another woman right under her nose, when it was HER dowry money that bankrolled Thornfield, as his first wife. So in the 2006 version Bertha lights Jane's wedding dress on fire, taking the whole mansion down with her. (In the book she just tears up the dress & veil, then starts the fire.)

In Rebecca, it was Maxim's first wife Rebecca who was cheating, but the (nameless) second wife lived under her shadow & the ghost of her memory--embodied by Mrs. Danvers, who hated her guts, and fed into her deep insecurities over being married to a widower who hadn't gotten over his first wife Rebecca (*cough* little did they know though~! XD). After failing to talk the girl into killing herself, Mrs Danvers had a psychotic break, and set Manderlay on fire, dying in the blaze (joining her beloved Rebecca).

Taking the Gothic horror & suspense out--or, hell, INCREASING it--one could easily spin this so that JANE was the one who started the fire when she learned about Bertha in the attic and ran away from Thornfield (in some adaptations the fire happens the same night she leaves). One could also say that MRS DE WINTER burned down Manderlay after cracking under the pressure of becoming a married lady. Both of these second wives were driven crazy by ghosts of the past, and burned down the mansions that had become their tombs.

Cuz I mean...Louis is Lestat's second wife/husband, after Nicky killed himself in a fire. 👀 And Louis and Claudia literally watched as they burned Lestat's sidechick/third wife Antoinette alive, so.... 🔥

TL;DR: I think Anne Rice must've been struggling with a lot of suicidal thoughts around the time she wrote The Vampire Armand (book 6) and Merrick (book 7), to have both its characters do the same thing, one right after the other. Vampires and their vulnerability to fire/sunlight were just metaphors for very real personal issues. After writing IWTV, she walked away from Louis, burying her depression by writing more books as the sunny Lestat, who suntans for fun and is immune to fire by the end of QoTD. But in the back of her mind, AR might've felt guilty forgetting about her grief (Louis forgetting about Claudia--willfully forgetting about Bertha, Rebecca, etc....). So the ghost of this guilt came back with a vengeance in Merrick, as Claudia unleashed all her vitriol on Louis, and he hated himself to the point that he was convinced to light himself on fire--the sole reliable escape from misery he had left.

[coolwali]

-Dream of a post apocalyptic zombie story (CW: self harm)

I had a dream last night that I was playing this game. The best way I can describe it is that it’s like a hybrid between the Oregon Trail and Telltale’s Walking Dead games. Each “run” consisted of me getting a random character in a random situation with the goal of choosing a destination and surviving the experience. The Telltale part came where every time I made a choice, the game would generate cutscenes from a 1st person perspective where I could interact with other characters, make more decisions and “role play” as this new character I was controlling.

Most of my runs did end in failure early on. But there were 2 that made progress. 

The first happened when I realized the “meta” strat was to push for characters that had marine experience and access to sailing/shipbuilding so I could get my characters to sail to an island that was extremely safe from the zombies.

On this attempt, my character rolled with perks that gave him superpowers similar to Marvel’s Wolverine (enhanced strength, speed, senses, reflexes, a healing factor that slowed down aging, and some kind of magical blade weapons that weren’t claws). This helped him solo his way to the island (finally, some good RNG).

The game then entered Telltale mode. The story was that because of the island’s safety, it had been generations since anyone had seen a zombie. My character, because of his lack of aging, was the only person with memories of the zombies on the mainland. 

The island’s community had made farms. One of which was for pigs. The zombie infection apparently reappeared on that farm and was capable of jumping species (I remember thinking during the dream that this reminded of salmonella epp and how it jumped from pigs to humans). The pigs were mostly unaffected but one of them bit this family’s dog. The dog began to turn to the zombie infection. The family refused to put down the dog because they believed it wasn’t a zombie infection. My character kept trying to warn them but he couldn’t give away the fact he was super old with superpowers and had seen zombies before. So he was unsuccessful. So he basically hunkered down in his basement and waited for the inevitable.

Sure enough, the dog eventually turned, bit some humans and the zombie infection spread across the island. My character decided that rather than escaping again to find a new community only to face another heartbreak when the infection reappeared, he would wander the Earth in secret and kill zombies because of his powers making him immune and essentially immortal. Hopefully to help humanity out. His story ends with him setting out on this mission. There’s a small time skip and you see people discussing rumours of a mysterious zombie hunter that goes to zombie infested areas, clears them out and leaves before anyone can see or even thank him. Then the credits rolled.

The second story I remember was apparently set in an alternate timeline to the first one. I played as a younger character with similar powers to the first character. Except in this story, this character was forced to be controlled by these abusive guardians who used him to clear zombies and extort other people. The final sequence before I woke up was from this character’s POV where he was remembering all the people he knew that had died and was considering either running away or committing suicide. I actually started “feeling” this character’s memories and sadness so intensely that I jolted awake.

[noa-de-cajou]

Non-human life expectancy and loss: Comparative thoughts on my ttrpg characters

As some of you may know I tend to make ttrpg characters whose life expectancy goes a long way. I won't talk much about Swan here but I'll look into Lubell (age immortal) and Ether instead (500 years life expectancy). Trying not to spoil too much about Ether for my fellow players.

Lubell has lived thousands of years. She was aged 60 during the campaign and experimented two major losses at 40 and 45 : first her kid that she had to abandon, then her lover who was brutally killed. Lubell is extremely one-dimensional in her grief: everything is her fault and she must atone for the rest of her existence. She used to deemed worthy of living only the people that she loved, all the rest could burn every color of the rainbow for all she cared. Only after her losses did she realize that she made many people suffer the same grief she was experiencing. And she's killed hundreds if not thousands of people as a demon paladin in 45 years. The guilt Lubell feels is not just guilt for abandoning her child and not stopping her lover from getting into a dangerous situation: it's the guilt of a thousands lives wasted she carries. That's what her grief is about. It's the loss of her family as potential validation pattern, it's grieving anything she could have been.

Lubell doesn't want to heal because she believes healing and living on would be unfair to everyone she hurt. That she doesn't have the right to experience anything good because she had her chance and wasted it. (Ironically, she ends up with two of the healers of the party. Something something growth, something something character arc.) She went from not giving value to any life outside of her scope to not giving her own life any value. She was shown that it wasn't the way. Such a mindset only brings more hurt. But before that, Lubell was unprepared for grief because she avoided every good relationships she had (until forced into the party) and was always surrounded by nearly-immortal people. Hence self-sacrificing tendencies, because grief feels like a worse fate than death to her, like a virus her body wasn't used to. To Lubell, loss = self-blame. Killing the BBEG, however, was a mercy that finalized her getting out of that mindset. I may develop on this in another post.

To summarize: Lubell experienced loss and the grief that came with it very brutally, twice, and therefore saw it as a terrifying thing that had to be kept away at all costs.

Now onto Ether.

Ether will be 119 when the campaign starts. Her relationship to loss is completely different: loss is something that's embedded into her, something that's inevitable. Ether lost many people that were very dear to her, and not just lovers. She saw complete strangers age and die while she stayed exactly the same, she saw countries and people and customs change all around her, she witnessed the world after a war. Ether lost people and lost many homes, not all of them to death. Ether expects to lose something the moment it falls into her hands, but can't bring herself to throw it away. Ether sees grief as a constant that doesn't drown out all the good, but to her good is impermanent. There's nothing she can really keep, and the more she ages the more jaded she becomes. Ether can't help but feel like she's *too* permanent. There's the loneliness of not feeling attached to her elven counterparts and never being around people with the same temporality. There's the loneliness of changing more slowly than everything else around you. The loneliness of the world changing as soon as you get attached to it.

Where Lubell sees grief as something to avoid, Ether powers through it because loneliness is much worse to her than loss. If you're grieving, it means you are able to lose things, because you had things and you loved those things. Ether knows grief is the price she pays for love. She remembers many names but starts forgetting faces. Many places to stay but never a permanent home. There's a resignation in her life, knowing she never gets to keep anyone, that she's the first to lose and never the one lost. And yet she tried. She tried, and she's stopped trying. Or she's decided to stop trying but very much failing at it. Ether values life too much to stay indifferent. So she keeps forming bonds with people knowing full well that she won't keep them. But having the slight hope that she will.

To summarize: Ether's life is composed of at least four or five world-shattering losses and of hundreds of smaller ones. She believes she'll just go through it again and again. She tries to go by the "it is what it is" mentality. She doesn't know yet that maybe it doesn't have to be this way.

So we have the one that refused loss and the one who deems it inevitable.

The second one hasn't had her development yet.

I can't wait to see it. :)

[rosemorningstar]

Idk if there’s much crossover between the two fandoms, but I think there’s plenty of crossover between the general concepts embodied by the Daedric princes and the paths embodied by the Aeons of Honkai Star Rail.

For example, Namira gives me the same vibe as IX who rules over the path of Nihility which is basically Nihilism on a universal scale. It’s that same way she drags people down into a state of nothingness where nothing in Nirn matters in the face of decay and rot. Where every failure is magnified as evidence that there was never a point in trying in the first place. IX and their path act much the same way in HSR and one of their primary “factions” called Self-Annihilators reminds a me a lot of the Dro-m’athra.

Another example is an Aeon named Yaoshi who rules the path of Abundance. In that path you’ll see all the “healer” type characters but the path itself also leads to immortality which twists the recipient over time. Yaoshi goes from world to world delivering boundless life and healing but this leads to population and resource crises even if Yaoshi’s intent was seemingly benevolent. To me this feels like Meridia who gifts immortality which wipes away individuality in the process and also champions life energy and light which are benevolent concepts at first glance.

Idk I think it’s a fun mental exercise to connect the Daedra to entities from other games plus I didn’t really think about Meridia in that light of abundance until I compared her to Yaoshi.

[mecharose]

ur not escaping my asks tonight I just need to go digging on ur blog for more about the rando cinematic universe (u or i need to make a shorter way to type that cus my attention span was screaming by the end of rando) brb

im gonna use this ask as an excuse to finally explain the main characters :D

these two are basically the overall "main characters" and appear in all eras (not every story tho):

Gilly (fae): the faerie queen of the forest. she assigned herself to be the immortal protector of a noble family of monster hunters/scholars, the Hawthornes. to her, they're her beloved family... until she's brutally betrayed in the 1890s. usually a helpful/nice character, kinda feral and trickster-y

Eyeball Guy (fae): moon faerie, goes by cool names like The Eternal Night Incarnate and Cosmic Sky Eyeball. accidental creator of vampires, later a vampire hunter. usually appears as an antagonist/villain - he doesn't WANT to be though, and is slowly going insane from guilt and self hatred

most stories indirectly revolve around one of their plot lines - Gilly stories are like tee hee fuck capitalism! :3 and Eyeball Guy stories are TRAGEDY AND MADNESS

the rest are named in chronological order of appearance w a very quick description for each below the cut:

fantasy era (the dawn of time until like early 1900s):

The Vampire Hunter™ (vampire): a 300 year old vampire hunter-turned-vampire. kills or turns any vampire hunters who find her for advice.

Cyn (human): silly goofy vampire hunter sidekick! later, a magic-creature serial killer after finding out their beloved mysterious vampire hunting buddy was secretly a primordial cosmic horror (eyeball guy!)

Luisa (vampire): Cyn's lesbian older sister. became a vampire hunter to protect them from their fucked up tyrannical family, was later turned into one when seeking advice from the Vampire Hunter™.

Montague Hawthorne (human): aka "the gilded age capitalist witch." betrays Gilly, to free his family from being forced to face magical dangers. technically the "BIG BAD" of the fantasy era, bc he turns the Hawthornes into capitalists like the Rockefellers

Caelia Hawthorne (human): ^bros younger sister, victorian mad scientist experimenting on magic and magical creatures >:)

Moira (fae): giant sea serpent. hates humans bc she got captured and imprisoned in a tank. possessive sidekick of evil pirate jesus, unsuccessfully trying to use her to get revenge on humanity

Evil Pirate Jesus (aka Jamie!! she has a name now!!): unwanted child of Cyn and Eyeball Guy, also the first human/fae to exist. has powers to generate & control light, also heal herself. she doesn't care that she has powers or is magically significant and just wants some parental figure to adopt her (cough aka Montague Hawthorne)

modern era (1970s onward):

Nelly (mostly human): 2013-era descendant of jamie. she can see the giant sky eyeball bc she is distantly related to it -- she doesn't know this and thinks she's imagining it, and tries many psychiatric interventions to get rid of it with 0% success

Annie (human): time loop girl! trapped living through the year 2013, 37 times in a row.

The Moth King (fae): sometimes the RCU is so fairytale, bc the moon faerie has a little moth knight :3 controls shadows & exclusively lives in the Fae Realm. maya's monster husband

Maya (human): a renaissance faire blacksmith who gets kidnapped to the Fae Realm and survives off sheer caution and common sense

Irina: massive dumbass who gets kidnapped by the fae **on purpose** bc she wants a hot faerie wife. a very fatal plan indeed

i'm pretty sure that's literally any character i've talked about in any sort of detail. and so I bestow: context :P (thx for reading if u got this far aha)

[fouralignments]

No. 22, 35, 53, & 55

Sorry if that's too many at a time. I just love seeing what direction people’s minds go when they write and how often they step out of their comfort zone.

Are there certain types of writing you won’t do? (style, pov, genre, tropes, etc)

I will never ever EVER write in second person aka self-insert, character x reader. For me it breaks my immersion in a text. Its a pov that really hard to get right. First person also very hard to get right, I only read first person when its a professional author like The Great Gatsby; The Handmaid’s Tale, The Kite Runner or Dumplin by' Julie Murphy.

Magical healing Cock: as an asexual practically offensive and dangerous; its a step along the path and "justification" for corrective rape against the community. Its very preastive in the public consincsuness. I know it may seem that I did this trope in Morning Light, Charles did a lot of things to help heal both Erik and Pietro; Yes Charles is sexual with Erik, but its not the only thing and isn't a cure all.

Zombies: I do not like the sub-genre, I cannot understand FUCKING WHY The Walking Dead of all things become such a cultural phenomenon; just speaking about The Walking Dead plus Game of Thrones shifted the TV landscape into a darker almost grimdark direction. Personally I don't like grimdark, hopeless shows. I don't mind darkness, not every fucking show needs to be.

What is one essential thing to remember when writing a villain? 

There are many acceptations to the rules and depending on what type of villain ranging anywhere from your Disney villains, evil empires, magnificent bastards, and rivals. But anyway, I keep in mind what the villain's motives and worldviews are. I'm not saying you have to agree with the baddie, but don't strawman.

This is something that I learned from Trek, particularly bad Trek message episodes *COUGH* TNG's The Neutral Zone *COUGH* ST: Insurrection. Sorry...must have got a frog in my throat.

The motives and worldview shapes their actions/goals and the audience should understand Why they are doing something and should be able to follow their train of thought when they decide to something different.

How do you spend your time when it comes to fanfiction? Are you primarily a fic reader, writer, or a perfect 50/50 split of both?

My creativity comes and goes and spikes; its effected by mood and weather; so it make my writing uneven. Like I actually have to feel up to writing. Sometimes I have long dry spells.

But would say I'm more like 70/30; I read a shit ton and write every so often. It doesn't mean I'm not thinking about writing, but sometimes I have to go like this:

Of the characters you write for, which is your favorite? Has that choice been swayed at all by your followers/readers’ reactions to certain ones?

I really enjoy writing for young adult! Erik and kid! Pietro, they have such a lovely dynamic. I do have to admit that I'm still not used to writing teenage/young adult Peter, I don't feel like I capture enough of the pop culture and Pink Floyd references; I do feel like I write him out of character sometimes.

However, with my novel writing of My Son Comes Back To Me, I was genuinely shocked of how Sabah Nur was received as a villain, some of my readers don't consider to be a villain. I do enjoy writing his character as I have ton of freedom with it and its very interesting writing an immortal character; his cultural references are different; how he views the world; an older sense of honor; I took refence from B5's Lorien; Leto from Dune. He's a very different character to write to convey just how old he is like I actively look and search archaic words that have fallen out of the lexicon, even try to find older writing because their sentence structure and the cadence Sabah Nur speaks with. Sorry if I can't stop talking about him.

[penrose42]

I think I need a break from TF2

I got so unreasonably angry at an enemy medic using the Vaccinator that I made homophobic remarks and almost got kicked off Uncletopia. I apologized once I figured out it wasn't that particular medic but their other one, but honestly I'm just so fucking tired.

It's not even that the vax is the most OP weapon in the entire game, it's that Medic's balance as a whole is complete and utter bullshit. He's a class that nobody who knows what they're doing wants to play, and the people who do play him either are too new to realize how unfun he is or are in a group and don't give a fuck about the other team having fun at all. It's just a clusterfuck of the problems of the game as a whole; matchmaking needs tweaking to break team stacks, some weapons are in dire need of rebalances, both nerfs and buffs alike, and for the love of god an actual tutorial would be a godsend. These poor baby engies have no idea what they're doing and I just die a little inside every time one of them sets up on last during setup.

But again the biggest problem I have right now is with Medic. He's a chore more than actual fun to play. His playstyle is so stale that I'd honestly argue that Heavy has more variety, and I can prove it. With Heavy you can play as: Default Heavy Fat Scout Boxer Heavy Hoovy All varying means of dealing damage, if that's your objective, and all have varying skill floors. Medic you have: The Meta The "My team is bad so I need to run the Blutsauger and Quick-Fix" Meta And that's pretty much it if you're solo queueing, but if you're with friends then there's: Pocket Medic/Medic Girlfriend

Really it all just boils down to "stand behind someone while clicking on them and right click when you're in danger" and that's it. How engaging. Oh and be sure to turn around because nobody else will because why would you ever spycheck when you can do literally anything else.

The absolute worst part is that I've played Overwatch, and while TF2 blows it out of the water in so many ways, this is one area where I honestly think it's vastly superior. You have a choice of a dozen support characters who play and feel so unique to one another that I'm honestly itching to go back simply because I like the variety of their support characters. Ana is not Moira who is not Brigitte who is not Mercy, but that's actually one of the best parts of the game! Every character has their own playstyle and it's all great and unique and fun! Saving my teammates from certain death because I threw Baptiste's Immortality Field at the last second is really, really satisfying! Going on a massive killing spree as Moira and jumping out of existence is exhilarating! Wall riding as Lucio, shield bashing as Brigitte, heal sniping as Ana, it's all so varied and fun! You hear that, Valve?! Healing can be fun!

Meanwhile in TF2 we have the Medic. Sure Engineer is there, and Heavy can throw a sandwich, but it all pales in comparison to Medic. The class nobody wants to play until you're forced to. The class that decides games, but you need to sacrifice your own sense of fun by doing so. And sure clutch crossbow bolts are satisfying and require skill, but there goes one out of your two weapons that are supposed to be good for short range self defense, which I'm not even going to blame you for because the Syringe Guns are just so heinously bad at what they do that they're a fucking joke.

I know they need to be bad, but Jesus fuck at least make them good at their intended job. Passive reload would be all that's needed. Just that. Let me stay alive without needing to rely on my dipshit teammates who are too stupid to know the difference between their ass and a hole in the ground.

And before I forget, I recall from a Shounic video something that just irritates me to no end. Apparently either during development of TFC or TF2, they were thinking of implementing destructible environments, which Demoman could break to enter certain areas of the enemy base, but scrapped it because they didn't want to force people to switch to Demo just to access that area and switch back to whatever they wanted to play. But they didn't consider that when they designed Medic? The class nobody wants to play but someone fucking caves in to play because you're getting absolutely fucked over by the enemy team who knows what they're doing while everyone on your end is a fucking gibbous vision who's A posing staring at the wall? Well fuck me then.

I'm just so tired. I see nothing but new players playing Medic and I change to help but they change the second I do. I want to have fun but I can't with how dull and repetitive his gameplay is and of course, if I don't play Medic, nobody who knows what they're doing will. I understand why people like the Vaccinator. Sure it's just one more button but at least it's something different from "stand behind person while clicking on them". I swear Medic needs just something new. Idk if it's just the game's age coming through or what, but Medic just needs something. I don't know what that would be. New unlocks? Reworking existing weapons? Both? Neither? I have no clue.

What I do know is that for the first time in the 3 years I've been playing I've uninstalled the game. I just need a break.

[duplicitywrites]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love 💖

also tagged by the lovely @phantomato, @purplewitch156, and @cauldroncake, thank you all!

i don't think i really have favourites... i tend to write things and then forget about them. these are five of my favourites out of what i have completed thus far.

—

Break and Burn and End | M | 17.3k

i keep coming back to this one, idk, i just think it has a lot of meaning. i like the themes i explored in regards to life and immortality.

Summary:

Past and present, Harry and Voldemort are connected. A tale of two immortals and the question of what it means to have an adversary when forever is in the cards.

—

Difficulties | T | 1.8k

first person pov, this is a character study on a modern!tom and his relationship with harry. i still think about it often.

Summary:

I tap my fingers on my desk, I watch the screen of my phone for messages. I distract myself for a time with this thing or that, then return to thoughts of Harry. Is he thinking of me as I think of him? Do I haunt the darkest corner of his mind like a childhood monster? I would let Harry devour me; all that I am, all that I will be. I would let him know every hideous, vile thought that ever crossed my mind if he were to ask after them.

—

Eudaimonia | E | 15.6k

this hits that sweet spot of supremely interesting and supremely fucked up. i think if i were to rewrite this, i would give more attention to the ending. but, on the whole, i like how it is.

Summary:

Harry travels back in time to save Merope Gaunt from dying. He takes her in, heals her illness, helps her when she gives birth to her son... and then falls prey to her love potion.

Tom grows up with mother and father both, in a household that might generously be called a happy one. When Merope insists that Tom not attend Hogwarts, Harry reluctantly agrees to homeschool their son himself.

Despite his lack of exposure to the outside world, it doesn't take Tom long to realize something is off about his parents' marriage.

It takes even less time for him to decide his loving father deserves better.

—

Shining Just For You | M | 21.8k

an older work of mine. the loose concept is one i always wanted to write, and i'm glad i did. it's heavy on codependency, so in that way i kind of see it as a comfort fic.

Summary:

Smashing a mirror gives you seven years bad luck.

For an eleven-year-old Harry, it gives him seven years of Tom Riddle.

—

No Body, No Crime | M | 20k

this story is one i imagined, quite vividly, as a movie. the dark, small-town mystery vibe was fun to dabble in.

Summary:

Harry works as a car mechanic in a small town. He and Ginny are best friends, their close bond the product of a traumatic event that scarred them both as children.

Now that they are adults with separate lives, it seems inevitable that they will drift apart. That is, until Ginny confides in Harry that she thinks her husband—the charming, enigmatic Tom Riddle—is cheating on her.

A day later, Ginny goes missing. Harry is convinced that Tom is behind her disappearance, and becomes determined to exact justice by any means necessary.

—

ask me again in a month and my answer will probably change 💀

not sure who to tag who hasn't already been hit by the love bullet

@goldenzingy46 @isleoffanfiction @twelfthcenturyname @god-of-dust @keidaught if you want to!

[laurancezvahlslefteyebrow]

Ok so I’m already planning on doing this with at least the major arcana, so here are my character to card assignments:

The Fool: Aphmau- Represents potential, freedom and confidence, innocence, spontaneity, beginners luck, unexpectedness, naïveté, taking risks, new beginnings, having faith in the future.

The Magician: Dante- Represents energy and potential, having to tools to manifest your future, personal growth, motivation, tapping into one’s talents, taking action, fulfillment, communication, resourcefulness.

The High Priestess: Irene- Represents duality, balance, reflection, and union, sacred knowledge, things yet to be revealed, divine feminine, observing, unconscious abilities, insight, higher power, using one’s intuition, secrets, trusting one’s inner voice.

The Empress: Kiki- Represents caring, nurturing mother figure, divine feminine, peace and fertility, natural world, relaxation, purity of spirit, abundance, connection with nature, respect, can represent pregnancy, healing.

The Emperor: Garroth- Represents stability, discipline, divine masculine, respect, leadership, protection and security, motivation, authority, practicality and logic, progress, ambition, father figures, power, social status.

The Hierophant: Zane- Represents spiritual figures, institutions, religious leaders, high expectations, conflict, change, education system, can represent marriage, traditions and society, religious beliefs, ethics and morality.

The Lovers: Donna and Logan- Represents two sides, choices made from the heart, romance, duality, harmony, balance, strength of two together, temptation of the heart, strong bonds, experimentation, soulmates

The Chariot: Aaron- Represents being on the right path, travel, moving quickly, taking action, determination, victory, control, willpower, hardworking, resilience, pushing down past barriers.

Strength: Lucinda- Represents authority, taking control, self-respect, influence, endurance, self-love, infinite willpower, courage, gentle strength, mastery, action, accomplishment, respect, changing views, morals, recovery, love and compassion, tapping into personal strengths.

The Hermit: Travis- Represents finding answers within, looking into one’s soul, wisdom, healing, looking for self-inspiration, dreams, cold, secluded, discrimination, criticism, finding the light within, tired, breaks needed, needing time along, guidance, meditation and contemplation.

Justice: Katelyn- Represents being judged accordingly, not being swayed by external factors, fair decisions, using one’s mind, cause and effect, competition, what goes around comes around, can represent legal systems, equality, rationality, fairness, honesty, status and power, opposites.

The Hanged Man: Vylad- Represents not making rash decisions, wisdom, prophecy and divinity, intuition, taking a pause, surrender, release of old patterns and beliefs, martyrdom, different perspectives, growth, sacrifice for good, letting go, mindfulness, trails and tribulations, waiting to receive more information first.

Death: Shad- Represents next level, new stages, spiritual traditions, deep spiritual changes, shedding the old, immortality, being reborn, opening up possibilities, reincarnation, past lives, change, increased self awareness, transformations.

Temperance: Hyria- Balance of situations, healing, moderation, preparing for the future, change, seeing every perspective, cooperation, managing one’s emotions, staying true to one’s life purpose, staying grounded, balance of divine feminine and masculine, staying calm, divine timing, patience,

Devil: Shad (along with Sasha and Gene)- Represents negative attachments disguised as positive, physical pleasure, material world, ambition, discipline, being trapped in a toxic cycle, something having control over one’s self, entrapment, needing to take responsibility, temptation, addictions and obsessions, ego, illusion, toxic relationships.

The Tower: Laurance- Represents upheaval, the rug being pulled out from under you, destructive events due to happen in time, change, options, determination, spiritual awakening, power, aggression, sudden shifts, unexpected chaos, revelations, relapse, unforeseen changes, elimination, danger and crisis, lack of safety and security.

The Star: Cadenza- Represents faith and hopefulness, hope after chaos, inspiration, rebuilding gradually, listening to one’s inner voice, gentleness, ability to grow, optimism, independence, friendliness, overcoming obstacles, life purpose, peace and healing, renewal of happiness, serenity, success.

The Moon: Malachi- Represents hidden secrets, illusion, psychic abilities, traumas and painful memories, resurgence or bottled emotions, dreams, mental health, emotional and mental obstacles, the occult, high intuition and emotions, deception and trickery, anxiety and fear, shadow-work, the subconscious mind.

The Sun: Levin- Represents high energy, positive outcomes, life purpose, trust and security, materials assets, innocence and safety, playfulness, inner child, inner spirit, warmth and love, growth, abundance, purity, confidence, children, happiness, success, optimism.

Judgment: Irene and Aphmau-Represents gaining clarity of situations, higher knowledge, balance and reflection, overcoming obstacles, receiving answers, looking to the past for lessons, rebirth, power, evolution, transformation, clearing mistakes and regrets, truths being revealed, high levels of success, an awakening.

The World: Zoey- Represents the completion of a cycle, travel, belonging, global awareness, culture and foreigners, looking to one’s past to acknowledge how far they’ve come, freedom, trust, celebration, feeling whole, can represent children and career, fulfillment.

someone should draw the miencraft diaries cast as tarot cards

pretty please?

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #276: Sei Shonagon

Today on Fate and Phantasms we’re building one of the 72 immortal poem writers, it’s Sei Shonagon! Sei is a Glamour Bard to write poetry so evocative it can leave you in another world. We also dip into Banneret Fighter a bit to pick up Sei’s unique fighting style while still keeping the party alive.

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

Next up: I’m on my way, I don’t know where I’m going.

Race and Background

Sei Shonagon is a Human, surprisingly enough. But once again power creep strikes, so she has a Mark of Making. This gives her +2 Charisma and +1 Constitution, a Maker’s Gift for proficiency with Calligrapher’s Supplies, and an Artisan’s Intuition to add a d4 to Arcana and Artisan’s Tools checks. On top of that, you’re a Spellsmith, giving you the Mending cantrip for free to patch up torn poetry and the Magic Weapon spell with added benefits. Well, one benefit. It doesn’t use concentration, though in return you can only cast this special Magic Weapon this way once a day. Weirdly enough it doesn’t say you can cast Magic Weapon for free, so it’s a good thing we’re a spellcaster, huh?

Also there’s some Spells of the Mark that add to your spell list. It’s a lot so we won’t go into all of them here, though they’re all on the character sheet. We’ll just go over what we need when we need it.

She’s a Guild Artisan, giving her proficiency in Insight and Persuasion. Your poetry truly shows your knowledge of the people around you. Also you managed to keep those people from forming a mob while you kept deriding them in poem form.

Ability Scores

Number one is Charisma. I mean, duh. Your power literally comes from reciting poetry. After that is Dexterity, since floofy dresses aren’t really armor around here. Also because of those heels how the hell do you fight in those? Third is Strength. You’re not a beefcake, but you can throw a cellphone hard enough to do damage. Your Intelligence is honestly lower than I’d like, but we’re not using it here. That being said we’re not monstrous enough to dump Constitution, so that honor goes to Wisdom. You’re pretty flighty all things considered, and despite everything you have some serious trouble reading the feelings of your fellow writer.

Class Levels

Bard 1: Starting off as a bard is cool, you get proficiency in any three skills you want. I’d pick Performance for poetry reading, Acrobatics to fight in those heeeeels, and Perception to know when something poem-worthy is going down. You’re also good at Dexterity and Charisma save to protect your poetry from fireballs. Speaking of poetry, you can hand it out to your allies as a bonus action to give them some Bardic Inspiration. They’re d6s they can add to a check, save, or attack for up to a minute, and you get a number of them equal to your Charisma modifier per day. You can also use your Charisma to cast Spells! Pick up Prestidigitation to make ammo to throw and Vicious Mockery to chastise those in power. For your leveled spells, Charm Person will help make people more susceptible to your Noble Phantasm later. Trust me, it’ll make sense. You can also inspire some Heroism in your allies, and you can pull out your umbrella to create a Floating Disk (it might be Tenser’s, still not sure what’s going on there) to ride on, or to Feather Fall, letting you float to the ground all peaceful-like.

Bard 2: Second level bards are Jacks of All Trades, adding half your proficiency bonus to every check you’re not proficient in. I’d call you a renaissance woman, but you were born 600 years before then. I guess the renaissance was a real Sei Shonagon moment. You can also perform a Poem of Rest over short rests, adding a d6 to your party’s healing during that time. On top of that, your Magical Inspiration means your inspiration dice can be added to the damage or healing of spells. Sei can do a lot, and she can do even more thanks to Disguise Self, giving her an easy way to perform costume changes on the fly!

Bard 3: At third level Sei becomes a Glamour Bard, so she can put on a Mantle of Inspiration as a bonus action. By spending an inspiration die you can give temporary HP to a couple creatures and let them move around without provoking opportunity attacks. More importantly, you can use an Enthralling Performance to turn a poetry slam into a brainwashing session, charming a couple nearby creatures into being your best friends. The effect ends if they take damage or you and your friends try to attack it. Otherwise, it lasts 1 hour, and you can do this once a short rest. You can also Enlarge/Reduce creatures. Making a chicken big enough to trample people is a really niche thing, but you can do it, so here. One last thing: you get Expertise in two skills, doubling your proficiency bonus in Performance and Insight.

Fighter 1: Your writing’s coming along nicely, but we still need a little more physicality. And that’s why we stopped off in fighter- at first level, you get a Fighting Style, and the Thrown style adds 2 to all damage done by thrown weapons, plus you can pull them out as fast as you can launch ‘em. It’ll come in handy when we have multiple attacks- pelting someone with garbage is more quantity over quality. One other thing: you can now spend your bonus action on a Second Wind, healing yourself for a bit. You get discouraged easily, but also encouraged easily. Just take a breather and you’ll be back on your feet in no time!

Bard 4: But if we want to throw random stuff at people, first we gotta improve our aim. that’s why we’re spending our first ability score improvement on the tavern brawler feat! this’ll round up your strength for more accurate and painful tosses, and it’ll make you proficient with improvised weapons! (i’d call your umbrella a quarterstaff, but everything else definitely counts.) Also, your unarmed attacks deal 1d4 damage, and if you use your action to make an improvised or unarmed attack, you can use your bonus action to grapple that target. I am not sure how in-character that last feature is, but the other three are mostly why we’re here. You can also use a cellphone for more than violence by casting Message to get in contact with a nearby ally. We’ll also pick up Magic Weapon proper so you can make your umbrella a terrifying force for more than one hour per day.

Bard 5: Fifth level bards gain a cavalcade of useful features. Your Bardic Inspiration dice increase to a d8, and your Font of Inspiration means you recover inspiration dice on short rests as well as long ones! On top of all that, you gain third level spells like Conjure Barrage! We’ll get a less spell-based option for item-throwing as we go, but if you want the most projectiles thrown in the shortest amount of time it’s hard to beat this spell.

Bard 6: Sixth level bards can Countercharm as an action, giving your allies advantage on saves against being charmed or frightened. This feature isn’t very powerful, but it is finally in-character! You’re energetic, but that doesn’t mean you’ll fall head over heels for every pretty face that comes your way. If you’d rather have other people fall head over heels for you, check out your new Mantle of Majesty feature. You can spend a bonus action to Command a creature without spending a spell slot and transform for a minute. During this minute, you can keep casting Command as a bonus action each turn. Also, any creatures you have charmed automatically fail their save against these commands! You can use this feature once a day. if you have a third level spell slot free and want to blow Countercharm out of the water, check out Intellect Fortress. It takes up your concentration and only works on one person per cast (unless you upcast), but the upside is it gives you advantage on all soft stat saves, plus you get resistance to psychic damage! And it lasts an hour, instead of taking up your action every turn!

Fighter 2: We’ve got all your skills set up now, and since your NP takes like 9 more levels to get we’ll go back to getting your attacks set up now. At second level, fighters can take an Action Surge once a short rest to add an action to their turn. Now you can throw two things a turn! Or cast two spells, that’s pretty useful too.

Fighter 3: At third level you become a Banneret, turning your Second Wind into a Rallying Cry- when you use it, you can also heal up to three other creatures around you. You’re the life of the party- literally, now.

Fighter 4: Fourth level fighters get an ASI of their own, so we can round up our Constitution and Charisma for a lot more health and stronger spells.

Fighter 5: Fifth level fighters get an Extra Attack each attack action. Now that’s four things getting thrown a turn if you use your action surge!

Bard 7: Alright, that’s enough short levels. Now you can use Hallucinatory Terrain to paint a scene in your reader’s mind and, more importantly, in the literal landscape around you. You can’t add in man-made structures, but you can get that classic Japanese Landscape Porn going at least.

Bard 8: Eighth level bards also get an ASI- max out your Charisma so you can Charm Monsters with the best of ‘em. Your NP doesn’t specify humanoids, so now you can bring just about anyone with you.

Bard 9: Ninth level bards get a d8 for their song of rest, plus fifth level spells like Legend Lore. You’ve written about people enough to really get to the meat of things, at least when it comes to people important enough to be considered “legendary”.

Bard 10: Tenth level bards get another round of Expertise- boost up Perception and Acrobatics for more idol-y skills. Your bardic inspiration also becomes a d10 now. On top of all that, you get the Light cantrip for a phone flashlight, plus some Magical Secrets- two spells from any spell list. This time around we’re keeping things simple- grab Mage Armor so you can fight in those poofy dresses you like so much and Shillelagh to power up your umbrella further. With this spell you can make your umbrella magical, it’ll always deal at least a d8, and you can use Charisma for your attacks instead of anything else. Combine this with an upcast concentration-free magic weapon for one hell of an improvised weapon! You’ll go from a +7 to hit all the way up to a +12!

Bard 11: For your sixth level spell, pick up Heroes’ Feast. Extra Health, a bonus to wisdom saves, and you and your buddies can’t be frightened or diseased. Not entirely sure how a poem about food does all that, but I’m also not sure how food does all that, so... eh?

Bard 12: Use your last ASI to bump up your Dexterity for more AC. I really hope you were using medium armor before we got mage armor, your bast AC isn’t good.

Bard 13: Thirteenth level bards get another boost to their song of rest, but tbh an extra 1d10 isn’t that huge. Definitely not as huge as your NP, Dream of the Blue Veil, that is. After a 10 minute casting time, you and up to 8 creatures fall unconscious for up to 6 hours, or until one of you takes damage. If they stay asleep for the full six hours, they’re taken to another world. Sei’s NP is all about getting lost in nostalgia, so trapping them in a 3.5e game would be appropriate. Now, some qualifications- you need a magical item or creature from the world you’re going to for this spell to work, so make sure you start this build by asking for an innocuous trinket from your DM. Or hope a really good poem about a world will suffice. Also you have to follow them into the new world, but then you can cast this again to get yourself out, leaving them trapped forever. Like this isn’t even a “they might find a portal and come back” kind of trapped, they’re just there. Also they need to be willing creatures for this to work, but that’s why we got those charming spells earlier. Just ask ‘em “Hey you guys want to see this really cool poem I’m working on?” then trap them in another module. Classic trick.

Bard 14: At fourteenth level your Unbreakable Majesty makes you a little more evasive. You can transform as a bonus action for a minute, forcing a charisma save on everyone when they try to attack you for the duration. If they fail, they have to pick a new target. If they succeed, they have disadvantage on all saves against your magic for a round. So goad someone into slapping you, then charm them and trap them in another reality for all time. That NP is kind of fucked up now that I think of it, huh? Also this feature works once a short rest. On top of that, you get another round of Magical Secrets. Mirage Arcane will let you create any kind of landscape, buildings included. So sight-see in another world, then show off your vacation photos in the most extravagant way possible. You can also use Skill Expertise to cheer on your friends when they’re doing something they’re good at, giving them expertise in one skill for the duration.

Bard 15: Our capstone level gives you d12s for inspiration, and the ultimate form of your Meeting Checkpoint in Osaka, Mind Blank. This spell gives its target immunity to psychic damage, mind reading, divination, or the charmed condition. You’ve got more important things to do than check out that succubus all day, dangit!

Pros and Cons

Pros:

You have enough random little skills that you can almost always be the at the center of the party, and I don’t just mean thanks to your +17 to performance. You can heal people, buff them, gather lore for the party, and even do a little bit of healing.

This all ties into your bigger strength, your sheer variety of options. You deal damage, fight with weapons, make better weapons debuff enemies, and even take them or the party to other dimensions.

Also, unlike a lot of charm-heavy builds we’ve done, you’ve got solid weapon skills to fall back on, with a powerful umbrella and fling-no-jutsu meaning you’re never completely harmless.

Cons:

You can do a lot, but not everything you do is useful. For starters, being good with weapons doesn’t help much when your AC is bad and your HP is barely above 100. Also, Blue Veil will only work against charmed enemies, and not at all if your DM isn’t cool with it. And improvised weapons don’t do much, so Tavern Brawler isn’t that great a feat.

You also have low wisdom, so when you’re not using those magic defense options you’re pretty easy to charm yourself.

Again, a lot of your features hinge on charming people, and anybody scary enough to warrant dumping in another reality over fighting them is probably immune to that.

[bubonickitten]

Who’s your favourite character in the magnus archives?

Ooooh that's a tough one. Probably sounds like a cop-out but I genuinely found things to like about all of the main cast?? One of the things I latch onto the most is character development, and they all had some really amazing journeys in that way.

My favorites to write and analyze in depth are Jon and Martin, so I might say they're my favorites...?

[TMA spoilers below the cut]

Like, Jon's ADHD ass is first of all very relatable but more than anything I love the GROWTH he goes through?? This man went through so much trauma and faced such unimaginable cruelty and he STILL never stopped caring. He hurt people, yeah -- p much everyone in the podcast does at one point or another -- but he acknowledged it when he did, and even when it would've been easy to just... give in and be monstrous, to just say "fuck it" and live up to the expectations everyone had of him, he made a concerted effort to do better, even when no one acknowledged his progress, even when no one was willing to support him or encourage him or believe he was worth saving.

And I can never say enough about Martin's diehard "so what if the universe doesn't care, that just means we have to pick up the slack" stance towards nihilism. It's not even toxic positivity, it's fully "yeah shit's fucked, the heat death of the universe is inevitable, but I'll STILL fight Jon's shitty self-esteem AND all fourteen, possibly fifteen cosmic evils on the hill of Our Experiences Matter, and the entire time I will be delightfully bitchy about it, no I do not take constructive criticism', who wants to go first?"

Of course I also love Georgie and Melanie and everything about WTGFs. And Gerry, my beloved. And, god, I love Tim and Sasha (I thrive on S1 before-shit-hit-the-fan archives crew content!! and everyone lives/nobody dies AUs, and literally anything involving reconciliation btwn Jon and Tim).

And Basira -- as much as I'd get mad at her sometimes, her words and actions always made sense to me within the context of her characterization and situation, and I love how she and Jon are sort of on the same wavelength re: dark humor and being incorrigible nerds. (I'm having a lot of fun writing them in my current time travel AU, because given the time to heal and the space to actually communicate, I feel they could be friends. Not outwardly affectionate per se, but like... idk, their platonic love language would probably be something like picking apart the flawed methodology of a shitty study and half-jokingly writing a scathing letter to the editor about how wrong the authors are until Daisy gets bored of being the third wheel and demands they all play Mario Kart or something.)

And I'm obsessed with Jon and Daisy' weird post-Buried friendship and just... they were literally the only two people in the Archives who really understood the struggle to resist feeding their respective patrons, but they also didn't make excuses for each other, and -- I genuinely loved the confirmation that Jon never actually forgave her and didn't sugarcoat her past actions. They probably never would have become friends under any normal circumstances, but given what they had to work with, they built something based on mutual support and accountability and a refusal to engage in the sort of denial that the people around them occasionally did.

In terms of side characters, I still maintain that if Adelard Dekkar knew Jonah's plans from the start he would've astrally projected himself into Elias' office and strangled him to death with his own tie, pseudo-immortality be damned. Replace every Chuck Norris joke ever written with Adelard Dekkar, I s2g.

I also must give an honorable mention to our second ever statement giver, the trope-subverting MVP of "I Am Not LOOKING, I Do Not See It", the king of NOT fucking around and finding out, our gentleman of perpetual staying in his own lane: Joshua Gillespie, gold medal winner of NOT being the first to die in a horror story. What a legend.

aaa I'm rambling. Basically there's a lot to love, both in an 'I am fond of this character's delightful quirks' way and in a 'wow this is good character development from a writing perspective' way.