#doing emerald/experience lore? a little

[sharpedgedfool]

i fucking love your monster au design for shadow could we have some lore abt him? (if you want to :])

Apologies for the essay I'm about to drop for your ask jddfgsdkgf, but here's a sketch as a peace offering and I'll drop all the lore I have for you under the read more! Glad people are interested in it cause I'm currently obsessed with it lmao

OK so basically Eggman in this universe is still the mad doctor type, he’s just obsessed with the occult instead of robotics. He’s a mortal human but hunts monsters for experiments and he’s obsessed with gaining supernatural powers to rule the world, and Sonic and Amy with their usual group are his main enemies.

He has a big following of humans (who think he’s trying to save them from monsters) and a rather large army of other monsters who work for him - so he has a ton of resources despite being a 'regular dude', and he’s slowly collecting spellbooks and teaching himself magic.

He finds a rare grimoire, and it unlocks a treasure trove of dark magics. Now his big master plan is to summon a demon to serve him and gain ultimate power, to do this he needs the seven emeralds for the ritual.

Sonic and Amy are the main hero duo in the story, Sonic was cursed with lycanthropy as a child when a pack attacked his village, he was spared because he was young, and went to find a witch in hopes of a cure. The witch he found was Vanilla, her daughter Cream, and Amy who is her apprentice. Before Sonic could be cured he made friends with a few other cryptids who live in the same woods and in the end decided he’d rather stay cursed with them as he had nowhere else to go anyways. He’s not in a traditional pack (all were-creatures) instead they have a rag-tag group with all kinds of different monsters that live with the witches (Tails and Knux are in there somewhere I promise jkfgdhdf). He likes having the werehog strength so he can fight back and protect his new family.

Rouge is a born Vampire, not turned. Her parents were killed at some point and she took over their coven after she avenged them and proved herself worthy. She’s like the Queen of sorts and rules over a majority of the vampires across the world - she has eyes (and ears) everywhere, there's very little she doesn’t know about. So Sonic and Amy ask her for help when they realise Eggman’s planning something big. She has a huge hoard of gems locked up in a big spooky cliffside castle, she’s obsessed with treasure still. She agrees to aid them to overthrow Eggman in exchange for the seven emeralds for herself. She doesn’t want to use them for their power, so they agree.

Everyone teams up to find the emeralds first, but Eggman outsmarts them, and the ritual begins before they can stop him, and once it’s begun it’s irreversible. The only thing they can do at this point is change who the demon is bound to, so Sonic throws himself into the curse (he already has one after all).

Shadow is the demon that’s summoned. Typical demon pacts imply that he’ll do whatever the summoner asks, granting them ultimate power, but he’ll get their soul in return. The catch is if Sonic never asks him to do anything, he’s technically not indebted and Shadow won't get his soul. It’s a game of temptation, but since Sonic was technically an unwilling participant, Shadow's more intrigued than anything - he’s confident Sonic will eventually cave and ask him for something (they always do) so he doesn’t attempt to trick him, he sees no need.

Sonic now has a demon chained to him constantly, and he’s extremely on guard (demons are as powerful as creatures get in this universe) and he’s off put by how genuine Shadow comes across. Shadow asks a lot of questions, and Sonic assumes he’s doing it to learn how to manipulate him - Shadow finds it amusing. Eventually they get used to each other, Shadow and Rouge get along well (though they both tease Sonic mercilessly together so he tries to avoid her but Shadow will nag him to visit) Amy tries to work on a spell to break the bond between them but it's a notoriously hard spell to break (perhaps impossible as they destroyed the grimoire in the fight with Eggman), but eventually Sonic and Shadow are both unsure if they want it to be broken at all…

Sonic starts asking Shadow questions too, and finds out more about Shadow. Originally he was an angel - thousands of years ago he had a mortal friend (Maria) and the two of them were inseparable. Unlike demons, angels rarely interact with the world so her village mistook her good fortune as witchcraft and assumed Shadow to be a demon. They killed her over it, and Shadow was heartbroken - in a fit of rage he lashed out, wiped out their town and proved to them he could be the demon they thought he was. He became a fallen angel, scorned and bitter - not born of pure evil but clearly capable of carnage all the same.

Unlike hellborn demons, Shadow doesn’t enjoy mindlessly committing atrocities - he has to feel it’s a necessary evil or he’ll turn it on his summoner (this makes him dangerous to summon, he’s normally considered off-limits). He’s one of the more powerful demons but he’s hard to reason with to make it worth it. Eggman targeted him specifically because he thought Shadow would side with him as Maria was a distant ancestor of his.

Once the annoyance of being forcefully summoned wears off,  Shadow’s rather pleased Sonic isn’t trying to use him for anything - he’s secretly happy to have someone with decent morals to hang out with (he’s an outcast in hell for obvious reasons) but he’d refused to make mortal contact with anyone willingly after Maria for fear of resigning them to a bad fate all over again.

Again thank you for reading!! I'll have more art to share soon!! :)

[kimberbohwrites]

Alright, I'm officially launching this. It's been a long time coming on this one. Dusk & Honey: Chapter One Next Chapter> Word Count: 4,157 Rated: Overall fic rating is Explicit, this chapter is SFW READ ON AO3 (or continued below) Please don't forget to kudos/comment/like/reblog <3 >Halsin x Tav art by @ DARKURGETRASH on tumblr<

Summary: The story of my OC Tav, Luna and her experience during the timeline of the game, not modifying canon so much as adding more to the Halsin-romance path. Featuring: world-building, action, well-researched drow lore, hurt/comfort, slowburn Halsin romancing, and eventual smut. PLEASE MIND THE TAGS, we'll be exploring trauma in several areas including touching on some of the darker canon trauma faced by Halsin. Tags/Warnings: Eventual Smut, Enemies to Lovers, mildly they are gonna fight, Halsin Romance Route, Named Tav, Character Death, Canon-Typical Violence, Slow Burn, Slow Build, Drow Culture , Half-Drow Tav, Anti-Drow Racism, Anti-Tiefling Racism, Hurt/Comfort, Canon Compliant, Baldur's Gate 3, Cleric Tav, Implied/Referenced S*xual Assault, (meaning the eventual discussion of Halsin's time in the underdark), Pining

Chapter One

Luna had seen a lot in her life but the events of the last tenday had left her unsettled and she didn’t care much for the feeling. It was probably the fact that she’d experienced true terror before in her past and she wasn’t keen to relive it again so soon. She was relatively young for her kind, only 50 or so years old, as a half-drow that settled her in her final years as a young adult. Were she human she might be considered middle aged or even older by the archaic standards by which they viewed women.

I guess that was something the drow do have right, holding our older women in reverence.

She shook the thought away, she knew the cost of that reverence was absolute tyranny under Lolth. Pushing her long white hair out of her eyes she peered out from her bedroll at her strange new companions. Sleep wouldn’t come easy for her and so she silently stood and retreated from the circle of safety in which they slept each night. Their forms were still, save for Karlach who let out a snore and a grunt every so often.

A tiefling barbarian powered by infernal mechanics, an vampiric elf with tragedy in his eyes, a cursed human man with too much mystery to make him simply a harmless wizard, a fairytale prince with a dark past, an alien from a different plane whose hardened armor likely shielded more than just her body, and another half human stuck worshipping a terrible goddess for unclear reasons.

The half smile that crept across her face in the moonlight held warmth. She couldn’t help but already feel a certain attachment to them. Was it too soon to call them friends? How does one describe a group of perfect strangers who are about to risk their lives together?   They were on the eve of storming a massive goblin war encampment. Where hopefully they’d be able to retrieve a Druid who might be able to heal them of the mindflayer tadpoles they’d found themselves infected with at the start of their adventure.

Halsin, they’d called him.

The handsome older tiefling at the grove seemed certain that if anyone could set everything to rights, it would be him. Luna held no love for the Druids of the Emerald Grove for she had seen their cruelty firsthand. While her Goddess, Eilstraee called her to good, it had been all she could do not to rip out the Druid Kagha’s throat when she had discovered her holding a child under the threat of death by a venomous snake. She could have killed a little tiefling girl all over a statue.

As a Cleric, her reverence for her Goddess was absolute but she was certain that the Dark Maiden wouldn’t call on her followers to kill children for removing a statue. Luna wasn’t educated in the ways of Sylvanus but surely he wouldn’t have wanted blood spilled over his idol. With a deep huff, she cleared the memory of Kagha from her mind and gazed up at the moonlight.

Moonbathing was her favorite thing to do since she’d made it to the surface. There wasn’t a moon or a sun in Menzoberanzan — just the Narbondel and the fairie fire of various shades that lit the cavernous spaces and houses, some bioluminescent flora and fauna existed as well. Largely, there was darkness and the bleakness of the Underdark had weighed heavy on her. They’d said it was because she was a “filthy half-breed” and that was why she couldn’t abide the Underdark. But the joke had been on every person who’d pursued her as she’d fled Menzoberranzan. Every member of the party was a full drow, a whole hunting party meant to eliminate her before she could escape the Underdark. Her survival had been mere dumb luck, because as she’d finally made it to the surface they’d overtaken her to discover it was a midday on a brilliantly sunny summer morning. They’d been forced to turn back, some falling to the ground in pain and being left by the group to suffer.

Luna had continued into the sun, her eyes and skin burned against the foreign rays of the sun — but that pain had been all that stood between her and freedom.

That had been almost 30 years ago but the memory still felt like a fresh wound in her mind. She forced the sounds of screaming and the curses chanted on the wind from the Clerics of Lolth. Instead, she let the moonlight kiss her skin as she offered her arms and her troubles up to the visage of her Goddess in her lunar form. Swaying lightly in the breeze as she allowed her muscles to ease and willed the stress and unease away. She scanned the reaches of her mind, her memories for something sweeter to replace them.

Images of perfect ripe berries, sunflowers, the yellowed and worn pages of her favorite book, and silver swords ringing true all flashed across her mind. Her favorite things never failed to bring a smile to her face. But something else, just a flash of something new had been in the mix: kind eyes and the warm words of the very Druid they currently sought to rescue.

The words were easy to know the source of, she had taken Halsin’s journal and his pipe from the Grove while Nettie hadn’t been looking. While she didn’t approve of stealing, she couldn’t help but want to know more about the Elf that everyone spoke so highly of on both sides of the simmering conflict. Besides, she had told herself repeatedly that she would return them to him as soon as she rescued him so it truly wasn’t stealing. Many of her nights were sleepless and reading over his notes and journal entries had been like getting to know the man a through one-sided correspondence. Luna couldn’t help but notice an obvious warmth in the tone of his words, even in something as clinical as his research notes.

The flowers were drawn so lovingly, as were the animals depicted in the quite talented sketches that accompanied many of the notes. She thought of the soft Druid that must have drawn them — probably meek and scared in the hands of their goblin captors. Her resolve strengthened.

The kind eyes took her a moment longer to connect, but after a moment a blush crept across her dusky, storm-blue skin. They were Zevlor’s eyes, of course, the kind and handsome older tiefling that had sent them in search of Halsin in the first place. Luna had always had a soft spot for people who care for those around them who are weaker. Zevlor’s dedication to his kin had been admirable.

She’d wished she hadn’t talked him out of laying out Aradin, that failed adventurer, but alas it has been the right thing to do. Violence was nessecary, yes, but only as a last resort when the time for words was passed. With the new lightness of spirit provided by her meditation came the clarity of the truth before her. It was very likely that unavoidable violence lay on the horizon for Luna. It wasn’t that she was afraid for herself, as a tempest Cleric, her ability to heal and destroy had already made her valuable for her camp-mates.

Luna recalled the stunned look on Gale of Waterdeep’s face when his thunderwave had missed during the battle at the front gate of the Druid Grove where they’d first happened upon Wyll, Zevlor, and Aradin. She had stepped up right after and with a deft hand, thunderwaved two goblins from the top of the outcropping on which they’d chosen to make their stand. The goblins had perished and her party had been able to fight its way to the small group in front of the gate to rescue them from the Worg and Bugbear which had surrounded them.

“What kind of Cleric are you exactly?”

Gale had done little to disguise the shock in his voice as he asked that question. It was colored with both amusement and surprise. Luna had smiled sweetly at the question and offered her answer. In truth she had barely avoided the wizard and her other companions. She was powerful but like the storms she wielded, her power was unruly and dangerous.

No, it wasn’t herself that she was afraid for.

Zevlor popped into her mind once more, triggered by the memory. His dusky crimson skin, the wrinkles and ridges that adorned his rugged face, and the nervous twitch of his tail as they’d spoken together in private in his cave. With a start, she shook his face loose of her mind and started back for the campfire. Sleep would be important to the success of tomorrow’s battle. She had already let Astarion feed on her, she couldn’t handle any distractions or weaknesses.

She climbed back into her thin bedroll, flat on her back to look at the stars as she let the sweet sounds of the evening carry her to sleep.

—*—*——*—*—

The battles had been trying, but they had lived to tell the tale — but only just. Sneaking in through a weak wall in the temple facade had proven a key strategy, she was grateful for Wyll and his ability to blast down the rubble. It had allowed them to bypass the leaders and goblins within as they’d made their way back to where Astarion had spotted a bear being tortured by the goblins.

It was very likely, this was their Druid but they had no way of knowing for sure.

Only Wyll and Karlach had supported her in her decision to free the bear without knowing fully. But her companions had followed her into battle nonetheless. The large brown cave bear had in fact, been the Druid Halsin and he’d noted her potential madness at freeing a bear with no questions asked.

The moment Luna had laid eyes on him out of wildshape form, something had caught in her chest. Something she’d never felt before. She’d seen many handsome men and women in her time, surely this wasn’t just about Halsin being easy on the eyes. He was an altogether unexpected thing, the soft and meek Druid she had been anticipating was instead an unusually large elf, built more like an orc than any elf she’d ever laid eyes upon. It was another thought for her to bury in her mind for another time. There was additional bloodshed ahead of them and it didn’t look like it was something they would return alive from.

When Halsin had offered to go with them to finish off the goblin leadership and the hundreds of goblins within the ruined temple of Selune, Luna had eagerly agreed. She found the presence of a large cave bear padding softly behind her, oddly soothing despite the way he seemed to unsettle everyone else in her party.

The full drow that had awaited them in an antechamber, Minthara had chilled Luna to the bone. There had been such hate in her eyes and it had forced bitter memories to the forefront of her mind. Like savage childhood beatings from Lolth’s favored that looked just like the cruel drow woman, who they’d come upon plotting the mass murder of the Druid grove with the eagerness of someone picking what to eat for dinner. Killing her had been easier than she would have liked to admit. 

Halsin and Karlach had lead the charge in, with Luna, Astarion, and Wyll on their heels. But Minthara’s focus had lasered in on Luna.

“Oh, whelps like you are quite rare for a reason, half-breed”

The Paladin’s words had settled on her like ice that threatened to paralyze her and she had felt the familiar panic rise in her chest one more. She was never going back, she’d sooner die. Minthara could tell she had hit a nerve and continued her line of verbal attacks, coupled with brutal physical blows to Karlach.

“Usually, someone would do you the kindness of putting an abomination like you out of your misery as a babe, how uncared for you were that they couldn’t have spared you the shame.”

When it happened, her heart had been beating so hard that it pounded in her ears like some artificer’s creation. Her blood ran cold and the rage she felt within had let loose to a blissful emptiness that overwhelmed Luna like the tide pulling her out. What had come next was a surprise to everyone but her, oh she knew what would happen and it had been too late to stop it.

Luna’s power had exploded it out in a violent storm surge of thunder and lightning, like a typhoon contained within a dropped flask — it engulfed everything around it. Wyll and Astarion were lucky enough to be standing far enough back to simply be knocked to the ground and hit with bits of debris from the blast. Minthara, Halsin, and Karlach couldn’t say the same.

The sound of Minthara’s scream growing quieter before fading away completely as she had plummeted to her death in the cavern below them was all Luna could hear as her eyes had tried to refocus from the blast. Tears had already brimmed in her eyes, if Karlach and Halsin had been standing in the wrong place — not even her healing magic could bring them back from that fall.

“Luna! For gods sake, help!” Came Wyll’s voice on the ledge of the pit. His arm had been latched to the unconscious form of Halsin, dangling in the cavern. He had been knocked out of wildshape and was elven again. Astarion was clinging to Wyll’s ankles and pulled back with all of his might to try to stop the warlock from sliding off the edge after the Druid.

She’d bit back the forming tears and dove down to the ledge and spread herself out flat, grabbing Halsin’s other arm. Still, the three of them weren’t enough to haul the Druid back to safety and she could feel them slipping after him.

“We need to let go damnit!” Astarion had hissed as he continued to hold Wyll’s legs.

Luna knew he had meant it to save their lives, but still she had held fast and pulled in an attempt to accomplish the impossible. She was unwilling to let Halsin die alone because of her foolish lack of control. She had been so ready to accept her death, she had just needed to get the other two to let go.

“Take Wyll!”

She’d shouted back at Astarion, hoping he’d choose to save the two of them as opposed to dying. The look of shock on his face had been new.

“No one is letting go, solider” Had come a groggy voice over their heads as Karlach had reached over the edge and grabbed Halsin by the back of his tunic. She had clearly been knocked unconscious by the blast and was bleeding from a large gash on her head. Her arrival was like a hero of old, auspiciously timed when all hope seemed to be lost. Tav wondered if Karlach had become used to having to save the day constantly as a result of her hard decade in Avernus.

Her fingers had still clung to the massive Druid’s arm, his skin slick from the battle but her grip felt more secure. Karlach had begun to slowly pull Halsin back up as the three of them scrambled to help. Incredibly, with her help it had been easy to move him.

Luna scrambled to her feet to make room for the massive Druid’s form and she’d encouraged Karlach to lay down as well.

“Please Karlach, i’m so sorry this is all my fault, let me heal you”

The guilt that threatened to paralyze her had risen like a tide from within. It’s all my fault. She had willed a steady breath into her lungs as Karlach settled before her. The moon controls the tides. She had repeated it to herself over and over. Before long her heart had begun to beat steadier and she had allowed herself to relax after a few moments.

Looking Karlach over had revealed some painful looking, but easily healed superficial wounds. Luna had quickly rummaged through her pouch to find the bottles she kept wrapped in grimy scraps of fabric so they didn’t break.

“Got a bottle of the strong stuff while you’re in there, solider?”

Karlach’s jokes had seemed quick but the wince she had made revealed that the humor was a simple front. Finally she had located the bottles she was looking for, glowing red and freshly brewed by her that morning. She’d always loved herbalism and luckily there were a lot of herbs and other reagents found on the road.

“Drink this, I promise you’ll feel good as new, friend.”

“Bottoms up, mate”

She’d then been able to turn her attention to the Druid, she had found him being tended to by the less capable hands of Wyll and Astarion. The latter being the real culprit. Wyll had removed his jacket and forced Astarion out of his to create a pillow under Halsin’s head. Halsin had appeared awake but only barely, his eyes looking up at the cavern ceiling above him without focus.

His eyes had seemed to try to find hers as soon as she had entered his field of vision when she leaned down to look him over.

“By… Sylvanus” He had murmured “My lady”

She’d found blood pooled on the ground under his head and more running slowly from one of his ears. It was then she bad been positive, her stomach sunk slightly at the truth, the bleeding in combination with the difficulty focusing had meant massive head trauma. Fatal, if unhealed.

“Shhhhh, it’s just a bump on the head, you’re going to be okay”

Wyll had glanced down at the blood pooled on the ground and then back to her, bristling at her obvious lie to the Druid. Sure, it had been much more than a bump on the head — But Luna planned to make good on her promise. There had been no need to panic the large elf. She liked Wyll, he was brave and had the makings of the kind of hero she’d always heard about in tales that had inspired her. But he was also young.

She had shot Wyll a firm look before turning her attention back to the Druid. Luna had then gently eased his head down flat on to the ground and removed the makeshift pillow from under him. She’d tossed them over toward Astarion who had immediately taken issue with the state of his jacket. He’d held the bloodstained garment aloft with a look of disdain.

“Would you look at the state of —“

 Luna had fixed Astarion with one of her harder looks and his sentence had trailed off. While Luna never liked to issue threats of violence unless absolutely necessary — she also wasn’t above letting someone know they were toying with the line, with a single glance. Growing up the way she had and being alone for so long, that look had been a life saving mechanism.

She’d turned her attention to her charge once more and had found him even more dazed than he had been only moments before, a smile had spread across his broad face as his eyes tried hard to focus on her. Something had stirred like a tickle in her chest at the sweet look on the dazed man’s face. What was wrong with her? He was dying for goddesses sake and she’d allowed a momentary distraction.

“It’s you” he’d murmured

“Shhhhh”

“Eilstraee, I saw you in a painting…” Halsin’s voice had trailed off.

Luna had fought back the blush she’d felt at such an obvious but flattering mistake. He was concussed and needed healing, he didn’t know what he was talking about. She’d hushed him gently again and closed her eyes. She had looked to the night sky within her and the beautiful pendant of the moon hanging on its canvas. A deep breath had centered her within her power as she summoned the strongest healing spell she had been capable of in that moment.

In hindsight it had probably wasteful to expend the most powerful healing spell she had on hand before they’d dealt with Dror Ragzlin. Still, it had worked out for the best, the hobgoblin had been no match for a full strength cave bear blessed with the might of her goddess. Of course he’d been helped by a freshly healed and mended Karlach, Wyll, Astarion, and herself.

They’d agreed there would have to be a discussion on what exactly happened when Minthara had pushed her too far. She’d begged for their patience and to respect her privacy. It was the same respect given to all of them. They had agreed with varying levels of ease — some outright vowing to pry it out of her. There was a lot she should have probably said to her new companions but she couldn’t begin to understand how to start. For now she was content in respecting their secrets and begging them to let her have hers.

They were grateful to reach camp and the rest of their traveling companions that night. Gale had prepared a stew of foraged roots and some fish he’d magicked out of the Chinothar. It bubbled on a smaller fire the wizard maintained just for his nightly prepared meals. Always ready for whenever his companions were ready to eat as he lounged in a chair nearby, reading a heavy tome.

Strangely, even now as they began their post-battle and evening rituals, her mind drifted back to sweet moment when Halsin had awoken freshly healed. She’d been holding one of his hands as the spell took hold. As he had come back to full consciousness, his thumb had begun to stroke her hand tenderly. Luna had tried not to think much of the action until the Druid had sheepishly cleared his throat and pulled his hand away from her grasp with an awkward chuckle.

But now, standing outside her tent, gathering her supplies for a bath her mind drifted back to the gentle touch of his large hand in hers. Why did she feel so strange after healing a man she’d just met? Sure, the elf was attractive but she was sure it wasn’t that. She’d taken people to bed before and none had caused such an unusual reaction. Logic clearly pointed to a romantic affliction. However drow were not known for being romantic and in that regard Luna was more drow than human.

Maybe I should just bed the giant elf and get him out of my system.

Her goddess embodied love of all types but romantic love had always seemed beyond her understanding. Eilstraee had been patient always in their meditations, but deep down she worried her goddess believed such a thing beyond her. Not that it matters and I’m missing much, she thought.   She enjoyed carnal relations and had never met anyone to change that to anything deeper. She shook these questions and frustrations from her mind as started off toward the river, sundries in hand.

By the roaring fire, several of her companions had already gathered around warm bowls of food, fresh from their baths. Tomorrow they were due back at the Grove, Halsin having already headed there right after the fall of Dror Ragzlin to set the escalating conflict to rights. She continued past her companions with a quiet smile, polite but quick enough to not invite company.

As she scrubbed the grime and blood of the day away her mind drifted to Minthara again. She’d been a Baenre. After so long free of that nightmare and yet the conflicts and horrors of her people had found her already. A Baenre. Minthara’s family had essentially ruled Menzoberranzan since not long after its founding. Of course Lolth’s will was the final word, but the Matron Mother of House Banere had only the Spider Queen herself above her in station.

Her heart began to race. Even a Half Drow like herself, kept out of sight as a servant and whipping post, knew about House Baenre. All Minthara had probably ever known was violence and at the end, she’d died a violent death. In her chest, her heart heaved at that thought. Her eyes brimmed with tears, she refused to allow to fall, she wouldn’t cry for that monster.

Am I any better than they are after this?

 As she lingered in the water the tears had fallen anyway, carving little rivers of their own in the blood and muck on her cheeks — the evidence of her guilt. She scrubbed harder at her face in the broken reflection on the surface of the water.

Scrub as hard as you want, the truth will always be there. You’re just. like. them.

[werothegreat]

Azurite Sea - Almost Done!

A few more to go through! I'm ignoring vanillas unless they're neat.

Oh hey that's neat. What a shame all the Nanis cost 5. *flips table*

Nani seems deece though. That's a solid effect you can sink ink into, provided she survives.

So this little shit is the reason why the set numbering has been off. He's experiment 6 (set 6) 2 6 (number 26 in the set) - get it? Our first instance of "fire-breathing" in Lorcana.

Have you ever wanted Deceiver of All to be able to sing We Don't Talk About Bruno twice?

Amber gets their own version of Ice Block! I think this will be most playable in Amber/Ruby, where you have Brawl and the Sisus that do stuff when played, as exerting one of your characters gives you fewer options for challenges.

Not too bad, though the location itself is pretty easy to deal with first.

Okay this is nutty. This is making me want to play Emerald/Sapphire discard slash Basil kindred. Turn 1: play Basil. Turn 2: play Basil. Turn 3: play Prince John, sing One Jump Ahead. Turn 4: shift this Basil onto the 1-drop, ink per turn, use it to force a discard, then this boy can sing Bruno or Let It Go.

Our Lorcana original location! I have a funny feeling "Owl Island" is gonna be the name of set 7. "For each character here, the first action you play each turn costs 1 less. When you play your second action each turn, gain 3 lore." Emerald songs deck, baby!

I am disappointed he isn't a 1-drop. Maybe next set we'll get a second 1-drop Aladdin...

WHAT IS THIS NONSENSE HOW IS THIS INKABLE. These are insane stats for a 1-drop, and why would I care about challenging? Just quest baybee. Plus there are plenty of Captains to play. I also love that she's a Pirate! Perfect shift target for the new floodborn!

This might see play in a location-heavy deck, such as the one with the location-caring-about John Silver.

Slot this right in the Pirate deck.

This is... a worse version of Grand Councilwoman for a different classification.

LOOK HOW HAPPY HE IS. You'll run this in Ruby/Steel Pirate decks and nowhere else.

"Bodyguard, if he has no damage he gets +4 strength" a 5/5 bodyguard for 4 ain't bad at all. However he gets a lot worse once he takes damage. But there is that new Mickey that gives Plutos Resist +1, and you can play him the turn before, so... maybe?

Flexible. The one thing I dislike is that you can't just do 4 to the same character.

And that's it this time around! I won't post again until the rest of the set drops.

[redlemon]

Minecraft Villager Rework Concept !

Minecraft Villager designs are antisemitic. They're huge-nosed, money-hungry, weak and ugly humans who are technologically primitive compared to the player, and they make Golems for crying out loud. All of that is already enough for it to be incredibly obvious, but I really refuse to believe it's some huge coincidence or whatever when they were made by Markus "Believing in race based privilege needing to be checked fits the literal definition of racism" Persson. They're antisemitic. I'm not going to argue with devil's advocates about this.

So, how can we improve Villagers? I thought of a simple change - Make them Piglins! Villagers were originally gonna be Pigmen anyway, so why not? It's the best way to fix this in my eyes. To be clear, their clothing and would stay the same, but they're remodelled to be Piglins instead. Perhaps a more tame variant resembling overworld Pigs?

Illagers and the witch too, for that matter! The Illagers could still be greyskinned, or they could just look more Piglin Brute-like. Obviously, the ominous banner and the many wool-statures of Illagers would also have to change. The Ravager could have a slight overhaul to make it more Hoglin-like, but would stay mostly the same. A twisted Magic experiment on an ordinary pig, perhaps.

The Iron Golems would also change a little bit. They'd stay mostly the same though, they'd just get a slightly more pig-like face and a name change - "The Iron Guardian". (And also, "Snow Golem" -> "Snow Guardian", no visual changes).

It would also have some lore implications that make sense to me. The Piglins likely don't come from the Nether, as they're one of the only Nether Mobs who don't have natural fire resistance. Ghasts, Wither Skeletons, Striders, Blazes, Magma Cubes? All immune. But not Piglins.

So, maybe a culture of Piglins ventured into the Nether, and got stuck. The harsh invironment bred a harsh culture. The trading once integral to their way of life became faster and quicker, as to not waste too much time with it, and to have plenty of opportunity to screw others over for your own benefit, and bartering was born. There's no emeralds to be found in the Nether, so they attributed value to a different treasure instead - gold. They attack the player because they don't know what the hell the player is. They could be dangerous, or an easy mark. It's only when the player wears gold - a Nether-Piglin symbol of power - that the Piglins know not to mess with them. As well as this, the Hoglins could be descended from overworld pigs, adapted to the Nether.

When Hoglins and Nether-Piglins enter the overworld, they very quickly get zombified. This pokes a bit of a hole in this concept and lore, but there's definitely a plausible explination somebody could pull out of their ass. Maybe it could be due to them not having as high a tolerence to the undead virus. Maybe the feature could just be removed, or something else I haven't thought of.

Obviously, I don't expect Mojang to actually do something like this. Whether I like it or not, Villagers are a pretty big part of Minecraft's brand. However, it would be a very cool mod. I might look into modding to see if I can make something like that happen, actually. If I do I'd definitely try to give it compatibility with the Guard Villagers mod.

[somethingsomethingdrawing]

omg lore drop

Ssooo

Bout abunch if centuries ago, before Captain Jasper Cookie became a captain he was just a wee lad following around his father. Course he mostly swabbed the deck n' hosted the sail (Though he was quite frail at the time so it was quite difficult and someone else had to help him). Throughout the time being out at sea he's met quite a few cookies ofcourse, he eventually meets this odd octopus (Cough Cough LARIMAR COUGH) who offered to give him a prize "This little thing will be worth your while young sailor! All you gotta do is win my simple game!" Course it was a riddle game, though not too smart, Jasper Cookie managed to guess the right answer! "Well well well, looks like someone's finally won my game for once, that's a first.. Oh well! As promised, ya get your prize, now scram and enjoy the rest of your life" She said as she handed him the locket before slithering back to the black of the ocean. Course, Jasper wears the locket thinking nothing of it.

He returns to Abalone's ship and does his regular duty of swabbing the deck. And insert the mermaid's tale event happening, Abalone's ship is now SINKING thanks to black pearl (as she should) Jasper is still on the ship, hanging on whatever he can to not get soggy. Abalone is yelling for his son to help him (cuz why not) Of course it's his dad, Jasper wants to help him but something pulls him back, telling him to climb to the highest point of the sinking ship, he listens to whatever is filling his head and leaves his father to die. He gets to the highest point the ship of the ship and jumps, getting away from Black Pearl's raging vortex that swallows the ship (I can't remember if it was a vortex or not). Jasper swims away, looking back at the wails from the sinking ship. He feels guilty for leaving his father to die, but he kept swimming to shore.

After reaching shore, he plops onto the sand and processes the near death experience he went through. And after a long hard thought, he decided from that day forth he'd go on more dangerous adventures and eventually became a captain. During the adventures he found many a treasures, met new cookies and gained their trust, who which became part of his crew. Ofcourse over time he went on a CERTAIN journey with his crew, visiting the duskloom sea. Foolish sailors! People thought, watching as his ship and crew went sailing towards that deadly ocean. Eventually days go by, no sight of their return. Days turn into weeks, still no sign of ship. Weeks turn into months, months into a year. After twenty years of that ship going missing into the duskloom sea, everyone thought that the ship had sank and everyone abroad became soggy and succumb to their fate.

But- What in the world!? What's that blinding light coming from the darkness of that deadly sea!? Why it's a sturdy ship shining bright with crystallized armor! Shining so bright almost as if it were the sun itself! Once the ship made it back to the docks, Captain Jasper Cookie hopped off and gave a hearty hello to the curious cookies who nearly surrounded the entire ship! They were amazed how Jasper hadn't aged a single bit since he left! Course, they also wondered where has he been for the past two decades? How did he survive? Why such a blinding ship? And where was his crew!? Before any of those were answered, he simple dropped a large chest full of precious treasures! Golds, jewelry, emeralds, you name it! Everyone simply became too distracted by the treasures and thanking him they forgot they're questions!

Course, even hundreds years later no one knows the answers except for him! Some rumors spread about, some saying he never went to the duskloom sea in the first place! Some say he abandoned his crew! Even some think he's a ghost due to the ships very pale colors! And the eerie shine it has at night.. Spooky! Though he found himself with a whole new crew! Some of which sharing the eerie shine with the ship! People thought this whole new crew were all ghosts of his previous crew! Such a silly rumor. There was a rumor of a shining cookie helping the sailors escape. What nonsense! A mere cooking saving a whole boat from the wraith of black pearl cookie? Now that's just silly! Some speculate it was the Shining Knight who's rarely ever seen, yet there's hardly any proof of their existence! Only a single carving on some stone of a shimmering light floating between the sea and sky!

Besides that  w e e  ramble

That silly locket Jasper carries with him everywhere seems to be getting eyed at more frequently.. Many of greedy cookies have tried to offer him many things for that locket. But he's declined every offer ever given to him. Quite a few cookies tried to threaten him to give it up, but he simply laughs at their faces and walks off! They've tried to snatch the locket, only to be met with a face plant into the wall or floor! He only laughs at their pathetic attempts to steal the locket and goes on with his day! After a day of threats and fights, he goes back to his ship and sails out with his glimmering crew. No one knows where he goes next, nor when he leaves. He and his crew are quite the mystery! Yet Jasper never aging always baffles cookies! Leaving them to ponder how he does it!

I am NOT good at writing stuff shdkd

I'm still drawing bros crew cuz I decided to make em look COMPLICATED cries

YA GET A P E E K at two of em u3u ✨

[beesmygod]

Bloodborne questions rattling in my head -

Why does the shaman bone blade have shaman in its name? That's such a specific, almost regional term. Just a translation quirk?

How seriously do you take cut content in studying lore? I just learned about the Great One Beast, and there's a hell of a lot going on in that name alone. A Great One that became a beast? A beast that became a great one? Maybe just a placeholder name since file names refer to it as a silverbeast? Or, as it never made it in, should it be essentially ignored entirely?

ok business as usual, pure speculation is in italics.

this first answer is going to suck so bad: i basically don't have a single clue. the japanese word they chose to translate as "shaman" (祭祀者) doesnt appear on jisho or literally anywhere else in the game. like i just did a ctrl-f on the re-translation text dumps and found nothing. they seem equally baffled but one of the two translators notes that it's used to describe people involved in ancestor worship. the full word is "祭祀者の骨の刃". so like literally "_____'s bone knife".

there's no surprise ambiguity in the description. it doesn't resemble anything else in the game. the green goo (not blood, notably) oozing from it is not seen elsewhere. that emerald green color is unique to the blade.

what the fuck! they are also extraordinarily rare: the only place you can find them are in the nightmare of mensis in the "nightmare apostles" (big spider) room, where you can pick up six from the corpse of a healing church doctor in front of a little vestibule containing nothing. the only remarkable thing about this room is that it once contained a cut version of the giant nightmare apostle with the head still on. this is interesting only because it suggests that they're not just giant spiders, they are giant HEADLESS spiders. the connection the player was supposed to draw, perhaps, is that the headless nightmare apostles seen throughout the game have already been harvested for their goods.

this is uninteresting because there's 7 headless spiders in the room, not 6. maybe one broke?

the only other places you can find them are in the pthumerian labyrinth root dungeons in, specifically, treasure coffins. only after obtaining the lower pthumeru chalice will the item be added to the insight shop, so whatever those shamans were doing, it was very secret and very ancient. they are a 5% drop from brainsuckers...except for the ones in the cathedral ward and the orphanage, which are 2%. hey i never noticed that before. so that's where those brainsuckers running around yharnam came from.

the creation of this item is apparently linked to augurs/phantasms.

the spider guys are their own. thing. i haven't even touched them yet because, segueing into your next question, so much surrounding them was cut. there's a bunch of stuff in the game, especially relating to byrgenwerth, about reflections and symmetry that kind of hangs in the air awkwardly unless you start poking around under the hood and start looking at how much spider-related shit there is. and like. isn't a spider an invertebrate. isn't "apostle" another word for "messenger". anyone else seeing this. aren't these things augurs?

not for nothing, but amygdala is referred to as the "lost apostle" in the alpha.

when it comes to cut content, i take a very liberal approach and inhale all of it into my brain where i can sort it and determine what bits are even useful. i think this kind of thing comes entirely down to personal taste; some people think the completed project in its retail form is what should be analyzed on the reasonable basis that it's the story we were intended to experience. i don't disagree with this approach; my approach is like if i wanted to read "pride and prejudice" and decided after reading it to analyze all of jane austen's letters and biographies. like it's absolutely not required to enjoy or understand the story and themes of bloodborne; it's just a good example of how much a reading of a text can differ depending on how you approach it.

i wish we knew why the great one beast was cut because it was basically finished outside the textures being low-res. people have hacked a working version into the game and it looks like a hell of a fight. and you're right, it raises a lot of questions about what the hell a great one is. prior to this it was assumed that beasts were the opposite of great ones. but...maybe beasts are ONLY intended be compared and contrasted with kin. and a kin is not a great one. very mysterious.

[hevexns-realm]

Came to talk about Iris from your previous ask and how she is lowkey relatable (father issues part) and been wondering about the lore with your versions of Nazo and Seekladoom (no really where do I start? I’m only more familiar with Nazo)-—

Sees your reblog with superscourge.

Oh ahaha, well it was flattering you thought it was me for a second, but that was not me unfortunately. If they manage to top Glaze’s and Frontier’s AUs though I will be in awe and very scared….

I think it’s safe to say we Scourge Fans tend to really hurt the poor hedgehog when we can I suppose. 😅

On the other hand, hope with whatever we’re going through that we’ll both heal from it. 

-squeals- I AM SO HAPPY YOU ASKED!! 🖤💙🩵

Okay, I have so much on these two in general, I’m going to try and shorten it to keep things from getting out of hand! Because I’ll be here until 9:00PM the next day if I do- (/hj)

Also, I appreciate you being able to relate to Iris. I try to make my characters at least a little relatable, as we’re all human at the base, no matter what we physically look like. We all share similar feelings, emotions, personalities, and blood colors. Why should we judge on one’s physical appearance when we don’t know their lives? That’s at least how I try to think, even if my intrusive thoughts make it difficult sometimes, I always try my best to make sure they don’t affect my morals and hurt others.

So here’s their physical look to describe them as of now.

Nazo is 21 in this AU. Considerably studious amongst everyone else in the group. (with the exception of mephiles and iblis, because they’ve been around much longer than him in this AU.) His fur and quills are slightly darker in color than how he’s seen in Nazo unleashed, and are arguably more soft and fluffy due to his care routine.

Nazo has this mixed style of Old money, Dark academia, and whimsigoth all in one. Lots of simple yet elegant pieces with lots of accessories. He tends to wear a lot of crystal jewelry when he can, and tends to lean towards gold jewelry rather than silver. As it makes the contrast all the more appealing. That doesn’t mean he does experiment with different styles and designs, as he doesn’t care much about societal standards all that much. He wears what he feels comfortable in, and doesn’t mind the stares.

Despite him being a literal being of negative energy, and still being regarded as a villain by most, he’s considered more empathetic out of him and seelka. We also see him have more morals than most of the other villains you see throughout the story, and that’s due to his ability to sense negative energy in general. (Also through Sonic multiverse mayhem, where Nazo shows genuine concern over seelka wanting to burn down an orphanage, so we know he’s got some sort of morals.) as negative chaos energy Isn’t the only thing he feels, it’s negative energy in general, which includes negative emotions.

This negative energy goes into creating his perfect form, which is still obtainable with or without the chaos emeralds now, he just uses them as a power boost.

He loves classic/dark academia literature and history of humans, the scent of rain and earth when a storm is about to hit, and also likes melancholy type of weather. He loves tea, particularly the more sweeter ones, as he does have a small sweet tooth, and prefers to either stay inside or go somewhere quiet. He prefers solleanna’s cathedral libraries, the ones that are open until the late evenings as he drowns out the world in the great minds of the past. The histories of the world as he sees them form in his head. He also loves classical music, as there’s usually no lyrics to them. If there are, they have no cuss words or slang, innapropriate themes of drugs, gangs, SA, etc. It feels timeless to him, and it helps him relax whenever he is angry, or when he’s in the artistry room in their home, either designing something that came from his head, or drawing something that he saw while out and about.

Seelkadoom is 22 in this au, and is almost the complete opposite of Nazo. While he is also quite intelligent in not only books, combat, and street smarts, he’s also quite loud and brash when in particular groups of people. He’s quite extroverted, and is much more physically active than most of the others!

He loves anything grungy or alternative, this goes for both clothing and music. He loves the smell of metal, roses, leather, and rain. He loves comfort foods like soups, cultural comforts like onigiri, shrimp Alfredo, and just anything that’s warm and soft, warm, and filling. Although he’s not afraid of trying all sorts of culinary tastes from all over the world! He particularly likes music artists like Troy, Johnathan young, etc!

Cozy games from independent developers like lost in random, subnautica, and cult of the lamb are some of his favorites to play. Although he isn’t afraid of loading up overwatch or COD if he’s up for it!

Seelka has less morals than nazo, but not so few he’s considered a borderline monster. Even he has his limits and boundaries, and it’s best to be wise and not purposefully cross them too much, less you wish for death.

Seelka is a night owl. You cannot get this man to sleep at night unless you shove melatonin down his throat, which is why he likes to sleep all day and participate in cool stuff at night!

The only real “family” either of them have outside of the gang is seelkadoom’s creator/father, Dr. Eggman. They actually have a good relationship of father and son, and they tend to still hang around him on holidays.

How do they meet? Well, given the context that Nazo doesn’t die and he isn’t immediately taken into G.U.N’s custody, he’s basically Eggman’s right hand man. He’s the one that’s in control while the doctor is gone doing villian shit as he rests and recovers from the huge fight between him, shadow, and Sonic.

Few days later, seelka comes out of his coma after his fight with hyper sonic. With an itch to fight, he starts heading towards the doctor’s chambers to either get a fight out of him, or figure out where Sonic and shadow are to give them a beating maybe.

That is until the two lock eyes, and then the confusion begins. Who is this guy? Why is he in the doctor’s lab? Is he a friend or a foe? And why does he look conviently attractive?

So after a lot of confusion of the two wondering what the hell was going on, Eggman introduces them to the other and makes them work together.

It’s a slow process, but it’s not like they actively hate each other’s guts. It’s the usual strangers to friends thing with a little bit of awkwardness from Nazo. Eventually he warms up to seelka, and they become good friends.

Then a world pandemic happens, and G.U.N requires not only Dr. Eggman’s assistance, but seelka and Nazo’s help as well.

Then after a lot of soft moments while under G.U.N’s care, seelka finally got the guts to confess to nazo, which leads to a very soft and sweet moment between the two of them!

Once the experiments are done, and the pandemic subsides, Nazo and seelka are both paid generously by the government for their contributions and cooperation.

They both expected to get maybe like, $10-$20k, at most $30k. What they didn’t expect was for Eggman to come out crying tears of joy, showing they have almost $20 million in the bank.

So then Eggman takes on the role of seelka’s dad figure and helps them with the adult stuff. Taxes, bills, credit, investments, etc. In return he ends up being gifted $2,500,000 by the two, allowing him to be able to retire and live his life abroad. Not needing to keep fighting Sonic, as they’re willing to be the ones who cause mayhem for him.

Does that stop egghead? Nope, if anything it helps him get started on his empire! But instead of trying to take over the world, he starts with becoming the leader of a small nation, and start from there. Then he uses the money to invest into the people, the country, everything. Plus, unlike in Sonic prime, he’s actually a good and genuine leader, not blinded by the greed of wealth. As he knows wealth builds in the long run, and if he does it right, the world will be his. He just needs to keep a level head!

However, seelka starts getting bored staying inside all night and sleeping all day in their new home. So he eventually decides to take a shot at a night shift job, and is lucky enough to be taken under the wing of solleanna’s most prominent employer in the entertainment industry, Mary Jane the Cat, or MMJ for short.

She teaches him everything he needs to know about being a bartender and a card dealer, and eventually hires him for the job.

And that’s where they are now in my AU! I’m so sorry it took me so long to make this, school has been wacky, so I hope it’s worth the wait anon!

Taglist for any mutuals who want the lore:

@thebreadmeower @hunniegl4zed

[kirbynoodle]

Spider-Man 2099 + Pokémon hcs (part 1)

First of all I have an uncanny talent of being able to make Pokemon AU out of anything. Second of all, thank you @xinakwans for inspiring me with your post about what Pokémon Xina would have.

Miguel

Ariados

He’s Spider-Man right? He’s gotta have a spider Pokémon. There are a few different spider Pokémon I just think Ariados suits him the best.

Miguel raised Ariados for his research and experiments to re-create Spider-Man’s powers. After the lab accident which gave Miguel his powers, he takes Ariados home with him.

Ariados does not like Miguel at first but they do eventually grow closer and make a great vigilante team.

“Its feet are tipped with tiny hooked claws that enable it to scuttle on ceilings and vertical walls. It constricts its foe with thin and strong silk webbing.” – Pokémon Emerald

Umbreon

Miguel has had Umbreon since he was a kid, when they met it was still an Eevee. He was surprised when it evolved late one night.

Eevee is “The Evolution Pokémon”, I think Eevee might have sparked Miguel’s interest in genetics. Unfortunately, there isn’t much money in being a Pokémon researcher…

Salamence

The year is 2099 and dragons are still really really cool.

Zubat

No real reason for Miguel owning a Zubat, my Miguel plushie just sits next to my Zubat plushie on my window and I think they look cute together.

Xina <3 <3

So I think that Xina is one of the better actual Pokémon trainers, never went pro or anything but took training and battling seriously.

Gengar

Xina traded Miguel for his Haunter, and it evolved into Gengar.

Snorlax

I haven't decided if Xina patiently raised Snorlax from a hungry little Munchlax or is she played a mean flute solo in order to capture it.

Kadabra

Xina planned to trade Kadabra to Miguel so it would evolve into Alakazam.

Starmie

When Xina was young, she would train every day in the pool with Starmie.

Espeon

A while ago someone made a poll asking what kind of pets Xina and Miguel would have. I couldn't quite pin down if they were a dog/cat/lizard/squirrel couple but I knew for sure they were an Espeon/Umbreon couple.

Charizard

Xina and Charizard are really close, with Charizard being Xina’s starter Pokémon raised from a Charmander.

Charizard does not like Miguel. Xina may be willing to forgive Miguel but for Charizard it’s an on-sight flamethrower to the face.

Xina can mega evolve Charizard to Mega Charizard X.

Lyla

Rotom

The “lore” around Rotom in the Pokémon franchise itself is interesting. Rotom is a ghost-type Pokémon that can inhabit and “possess” appliances. Rotom originally seemed to be a sort of mischievous poltergeist, but in the latest entries in the franchise it seems to come with and be an essential working component of some electronics like phones and pcs. The Rotom inside the Pokedex even talks.

So essentially in this AU Lyla is a Rotom. She still takes the form of the Lyla we all know and love but the reason Lyla sometimes feels like a sentient being with thoughts and feelings is because…she is. Inside the box that contains “Lyla” there is a Pokémon.

Miguel had no idea that Lyla was a Pokémon until he brought her to Xina.

Lyla-Rotom is an Electric/Fairy type.

Thanks for reading! If you like these I'll drop part 2!

[totaleclipse573]

I've talked about there needing to be some changes in Terios' lore post to match the more current ideas before, yall want to hear about one of them? (Bit of a rant warning bc ofc, its oc universe)

So for a while I was thinking about how to make sense of Terios also being around during the events of Sth2005 in this au, since here both technically happen together. What I came up with to have this work is kind of simple (to me, at least,) but I think it works well

In the actual game, Doom wants Shadow to collect the Chaos Emeralds, right? In the au, Doleon uses Terios to help him find the Shards of Chaos. Doleon may not seem like it sometimes but he's smart as shit. He KNOWS about the Chaos Emeralds. Sure, they could never come CLOSE to the power he knows the Shards of Chaos possess, but its still A LOT, especially ADDED to what he already had planned! Two little hedgehog puppets, two sets of all-powerful gems at his disposal, to use as he pleased, if all goes as planned (which it WILL, he's 100% sure of that.) How perfect would that be?!

So, he basically just plays gaslighter on both of them, simultaneously (keeping with his manipulation of Shadow in the actual game.) After sending Terios out on a task, he'll check in on Shadow. And Shadow? He's PERFECT for this. He doesn't go astray…usually. Doleon has found him to be rather stubborn. But, at least its better than Terios, always getting sidetracked, failing, he raised him better than that! There IS that possible risk of them accidentally meeting too early…but Doleon is sure to be cautious of that. Keep their directed locations far apart, and the chances of that decrease significantly.

THEN SOON ENOUGH, after both have made a good amount of progress, Doleon sends them out to fight one another. First he goes with Terios, he's easier to manipulate and control. This is it, this is all he's been training for. Go and show no mercy! But haha, you know, just in case you need a reminder!! You know what happens if you fail me again.

Then he goes to Shadow. Oh, you're doing well with the Chaos Emeralds, yeah, but we have a problem lol. This hedgehog? Black and white? Long tail? He wants to stop us. And I need YOU to stop him first, got it? SO GO DO THAT. And he goes to do that.

And I've had this random scene in my head when they face one another where Shadow finally gets a good look at the "hedgehog" he's fighting and is like you look like me??? A lot??? The thing is that Terios has kind of never seen himself? Ever? Is this supposed to be a distraction? Because it won't work! He'll just fight back harder, what an insult!

A bit after that, the whole experience was FOR SURE strange to Shadow. And when Doleon goes to face him again? Well, Shadow's strong will and stubbornness really shines here. After that, and a lot of stuff before, he remembers THINGS. So bro is going to rebel against Doleon now. He'll get him back, soon enough. For now, he still has Terios, he can still get the most important set of gems he needs. He could get the Chaos Emeralds at a later time, be it through Shadow, or on his own.

(Bonus bc after Terios decides to join the heroes, at one point, he's finally able to see his own reflection. He's not really concerned about the blood or the bruises or any of that...that was kind of normal with Doleon. But what catches his interest? His general look. The black fur, the stripes, the fur on his chest, the quills...he does look like Shadow. In a lot of ways. And it scares him.)

[raccoon-eyed-rebel]

To become one

Masterlist

A/N: When @geralts-yenn sent me the 'nice day outside' comfort-prompt, I was ecstatic, because I get to write for Melot! (I love him.) Then - of course - it turned into... 4 thousand words of smut. With a little plot and a little lore that I feel I hid quite well, so as to not disturb everyone's porn-consuming experience 😜

Credit for the moodboard/title/banner/what do we call this?/thing goes mostly to @geralts-yenn as well, so thank you again for making that, hon. 🥰🥰🥰

This is a little more purple prose-y than what I usually do, so I hope that went well 🥰

(This was written from a promt from this ask game!)

Characters: wood elf!Prince!Melot x dryad!OFC (unnamed)

Summary: The elven Prince Melot and his dryad lover share a lovely afternoon together in the forest.

Word count: 4.3k

Warnings: 18+, SMUT, NSFW, MINORS DNI, oral (m and f receiving), p-in-v sex (unprotected. Be smarter!), voyeurism/exhibitionism, a smidge of a mention of feet..., dirty talk, playful chasing and teasing. Possibly an age gap of several decades if not centuries, I don't know.

@deandoesthingstome @geralts-yenn @ellethespaceunicorn @mayloma @keanureevesisbae @summersong69 @ylva-syverson @peaches1958 @sillyrabbit81 @livisss @peyton-warren

“There you are,” a bright and welcoming voice chimed through the thick forest, and into the small clearing. As she emerged from between the trees, he watched her every step closely from where he was laying on the ground. She gracefully roamed the clearing, leaving gentle dents in the moss that covered the ground, finally halting near his head, where she playfully nudged his chest with her bare foot. He grasped it suddenly and firmly, before gently trailing his fingers along the sole of her foot, while pressing his lips to the top. Slowly, his hand slid up her leg, to her calf, and his lips began a path that trailed in the same direction.

One moment he held her, the next she was gone; vanished into the roots of the trees that she had been standing on, and reappearing at the edge of the clearing once more as though she had never ventured near him. He raised himself on one elbow, allowing him to lustfully gaze at her beautiful form. Light seemed to emanate from her, beckoning him closer and freezing him in place at the same time. His eyes raked over the beautiful features of her face, where bright green eyes teased him from afar. Long dark hair fell in supple curls around her face, and spilled onto her back and over her shoulders, a single strand lost between her full breasts.

In his presence, she was covered, but as her kind had no true grasp on the concept, the fabric of her gown was a silky material so thin he could easily see the contours of her nipples. It clung to her, to every beautiful curve and dimple in her skin, it’s dark emerald colour a striking contrast with the pale, slightly green hue of her skin. One at a time, she pushed the straps of her gown off of her shoulders, baring her breasts to him.

“Play a game of hide and seek with me, Melot?” she whispered kindly, her voice echoing through the trees, allowing him to hear it. Before he could scramble to his feet, she vanished again. With careful steps, he walked towards the edge of the clearing, tentatively stretching out a hand until his fingertips connected with the bark of the tree she had been standing next to. Of course, she was no longer there.

He listened for her, knowing it would be almost impossible for him to find her, unless she moved. She could be anywhere. He knew her to be kind, and, despite her playful ways, the furthest thing from cruel one could possibly imagine. Thus, he concluded, she wasn’t far away from him. Never would she let him enter into a game he couldn’t win, for she, too, relished the consequences of his victory too much to allow him to lose.

After a while, he felt her as she shifted from one tree to another, then another, and he began his pursuit; easily avoiding trees and roots as he tracked her through the dense forest. As he went along on his chase, deeper and deeper into the forest, their pace slowed. His, because it was impossible to move quicker as the forest grew thicker and the space between trees narrower, and hers, because this was her favourite part of their game.

The trees were so close together here that Melot could hardly turn around without touching them – precisely as she had wished.

“I can feel you.” A dark undertone laced his voice as he spoke. Though she wasn’t moving, she was so near him, and the trees were so close to one another, that he felt her pulse radiating through them. A chuckle rolled through the air, carried by the soft breeze, audible only as the rustling of the foliage above him.

“Come to me,” he demanded playfully, knowing his query would yield nothing.

“Capture me, Melot,” her voice echoed all around you, “if you can.” A tender hand briefly trailed his back before disappearing as suddenly as it had appeared. From then, she moved swiftly through the trees, each time reaching out her hand to touch Melot; stroke his cheek, or arm, tap him on the shoulder to get him to turn around.

“You know I can’t, my love,” he answered her plea, his voice barely above a grunt as her hand grasped his clothing from behind and pulled him against the tree she resided in. He knew all too well that it was impossible to pull a dryad from a tree. Her hand disappeared from his back and her arm wrapped around his middle instead, the palm of her hand flat against his abdomen as she pulled him against her. Her other arm reached around him, fingers working to loosen the laces of his shirt collar before sliding her hand over his bare chest. As sudden as the other movements had been, her face appeared next to his, and with her nose, she carefully moved his curls out of her way. Melot moaned softly as her tongue trailed the edge of his ear, all the way to the top, where she gently bit down, careful not to hurt him with her sharp teeth.

“Oh, those elven ears... So sensitive,” she mused softly into his ear before continuing her ministrations until she had had enough. “Follow me.”

He chased her once more along a non-existent path through the thick forest, his feet as nimble as ever, never stumbling, never clashing with a tree or a low hanging branch. The forest was his home, too, and it had been the home of his people for thousands upon thousands of years. He followed her to another clearing, where she tauntingly walked circles around a birch that stood a little further away from the other trees.

This clearing, like many others, felt magical – a kind of magic that became most apparent when one tried to step away from the trees, towards the centre. Melot struggled to put his foot on the ground, and raise the other to take the next step, as a strange force pulled him backwards, preventing him from breaching the border of the clearing.

“What is it, my darling?” she taunted. The harder Melot tried to step forward into the clearing, the more difficult it became. He drew ragged breaths from the exertion, and his eyes begged her to stop doing whatever it was that she was doing.

“It isn’t what I’m doing so much as what I’m not doing,” she giggled as she walked towards him and reached out her arm. Lifting his arm to take her outstretched hand in his, also proved more difficult than it should have been under any normal circumstances. As soon as he held her, she smiled deviously. “Please, come visit me.”

As soon as the words passed her lips, the magic that had before so longed to keep him away from this place, seemed to vanish – and so did she. Melot looked around the clearing, taking in the beautiful surroundings as he searched for his lover. The glade was unusually round, and surrounded by trees – which was unsurprising – five of which were vast, mighty oak trees, eerily similar in size, and very evenly spaced around the parameter of the space.

“Home Trees,” he muttered softly, and immediately, his suspicions were confirmed by her soft chuckle that echoed through the clearing.

“Find mine, and you’ll have your reward,” she teased once again. He drew in a deep breath, and listened – waited, as slowly the beating of her heart became apparent to him again. Without thinking, he turned on his heel and trod across the soft green moss that carpeted the clearing with determination. Less certain of himself was he when he raised his hand, his trembling fingers hovering over the bark of the tree he believed to be hers, apprehensive to touch it. Suddenly, her face appeared before him as he slowly emerged from the oak. She leaned gratefully into his touch, smiling at him as his fingers caressed the side of her face.

“Found me,” she giggled as she leaned forward until her lips almost touched his. Almost… And then she was gone again. Behind him, coming from the centre of the glade, Melot heard her voice once more: “Come and get me, Melot.”

Naturally, there was no need for her to tell him a second time. When he turned around, she untied the waist of her gown, revealing every curve of her full, naked form as it dropped to the ground. He once again went after her; biting his lip as he drank in every inch of her body, treading slowly and carefully as were he a predator stalking his prey. He came to a halt right in front of her, his eyes mirroring the ever-growing desire that coursed through his veins.

“Kiss me,” he said, his voice already dripping with impatience. When she denied him, and then a second time, and a third, he roughly placed his hands on either side of her face and pulled it towards his.

“Do not deny me my reward, you wicked little minx.” His words were a playful yet threatening growl, her response was rendered inaudible as it was swallowed up by his rough kiss. His cold demeanour melted somewhat as he felt her give in to his touch; lips less forceful, hands less demanding… His tongue slid along the seam of her lips – a subtle order she hastily and eagerly obeyed by parting her lips. Moans escaped both of them when he deepened the kiss, reaching around her to squeeze her ample behind, luring more noises of pleasure from her as he kneaded her soft flesh.  

Finally, Melot pulled away, breaking the kiss, and with small, languid strides he circled her, delivering a swift spank to her bottom as he walked behind her – then he stood still, placing his chin on her shoulder. “I found you. I won you.”

She didn’t speak, nor did she move when Melot’s hands gripped the sides of her hips roughly, and dragged her back until her body was flush against hers. His fingertips dimpled the soft, supple flesh he held so fiercely as he ground his hips against her.

“Do you feel what you do to me?” he said as the new friction caused his erection to swell even further with desperate need. She turned around in his arms and smiled a devious smile at him that sent shivers cascading down his spine. Her fingertips brushed gently past the tips of his ears, making him bite his lip and moan with pleasure and anticipation.

“The thought of your touch, my dear Prince,” she spoke slowly and in a sultry voice that made it difficult for him to keep from abandoning all manners, “has been on my mind since I felt you set foot in our forest.” Once again, she turned around, this time freeing herself from between Melot’s hands and taking a few steps away from him as she continued to speak: “Do you know what those hours of waiting did to me?” She sank down onto a moss-covered rock in the middle of the glade, spreading her legs wide for him to see, and running her fingers through her folds. “Do you want to find out?”

Melot answered her query with an eager nod, stepping towards her once more, and finally dropping to his knees in the soft moss before her – never lifting his gaze from her glistening petals. She reached for the richly embroidered collar of his shirt, and pulled at it, prompting him to pull it over his head and toss it to the side. With two fingers, she gently lifted his chin so he would look up at her.

His eyes never left hers as he took one of her legs and put it over his shoulder. From there, he started with a tender kiss to the inside of her upper leg, by her knee, his soft lips leaving a damp trail as he kissed higher and higher until he reached the apex of her thighs.

“A truly sweet reward,” he chuckled before pressing a soft kiss to the delicate skin before him. Her lips parted to let out a frustrated groan as he moved away from her core and kissed her stomach and hips, then her other leg all the way down to her foot, and back again. A gentle breeze cooled the wet marks his kisses had left on her skin, causing gooseflesh to erupt all over her body as she whined and squirmed beneath the touch of his fingers and lips. Then, finally, as she thought she would go positively mad with desire, he grasped the back of her thighs, spreading her legs even further, using his thumbs to part her petals and reveal her desperate, weeping core.

Just as she was about to revel in the sensations of Melot’s capable tongue against her most sensitive parts, she noticed something…

“We have an audience,” she said softly as she placed a hand on Melot’s forehead to stop him from moving further with his endeavours. Experience had taught her that elves had a tendency to consider intimate relations a private matter – something she and others of her kind could hardly fathom.

“Let them watch,” he growled, taking her by surprise. Melot pushed the hand she held to his head away and continued doing what he had been doing before. His tongue found her hidden pearl with ease, and before long, she poured down exclamations of pleasure and praise over him as he gently lapped at and suckled on her swollen clit.

“Do all dryads finish so easily?” he asked after he had gently guided her down from her first peak. Two of his fingers found her entrance, and without awaiting her answer, plunged into her drenched core. She found time between zealous utterances that alternated between praise and profanity, to answer his question affirmatively, while he relentlessly pumped his fingers into the snug heat of her body. She cried out his name when he added a third finger, breathing heavily as her velvet walls struggled to accommodate the cumulative girth of his digits – her second orgasm followed swiftly.

Behind them, from the edge of the glade, others – mostly of her kind – watched as Melot continued his efforts. A few of the dryads stayed mostly hidden in the trees, while some others approached matters less subtly, and settled down on the moss-covered floor of the glade, making no attempts to hide their own amorous activities – be they alone or with others. As strange as it was for him to admit, Melot secretly revelled in the attention of their prying eyes – though he doubted his feelings were really a secret to her: if his rising heartbeat didn’t give away his true sentiments regarding the situation, the fact that he continued lapping at her sopping core more vigorously than he had previously done surely would have clued her in.

Shortly after her third climax, she set a foot on his shoulder, pushing him off her as she fought to catch her breath.

“My turn,” she said with a wicked smile on her lips as she gently pushed Melot onto his back, nimble fingers wandering his exposed chest until they reached his trousers. Within seconds, she had undone them, and her eager hands wrapped around his hardened length, giving him a few strokes as she positioned herself in a way that allowed her to wrap her lips around him. She took his cock deep into her mouth with both devotion and ease, coating his shaft with saliva. As she moved her hands along his length, aiding her lips in their efforts, she elicited decadent moans and content whines from Melot as he continued his writhing, further succumbing to the pleasure she brought him with every passing second and every tender swipe of her tongue.

One of his hands weaved itself into her dark curls, and she happily let him guide the rhythm of her ministrations. She thought herself incredibly lucky to have found an elven lover, known for both their long lifespans – meaning a vast wealth of experience in lovemaking – and their stamina – which made him almost as insatiable as she was. As she looked up, she immediately recognized the burning desire in his eyes. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that hers held the same expression; she could feel the heat of her passion on her skin.

“Do you want me?” she asked after pulling her mouth off Melot’s cock – not an easy feat, as she found herself quite fond of servicing him. Her voice was hoarse and thick with lust, her bottom lip quivering with anticipation.

“More than anything,” he panted, his lips curling into an arrogant smirk as he witnessed her impatience; she hadn’t been able to wait for his answer before ridding him of his trousers completely. Upon her return, she all but dove into his arms, straddling his hips as she leaned forward.

“Then take me,” she whispered, laying her forehead against his, waiting for him to find her entrance. Instead, he pulled her off of him, and rolled on top of her, his hardness pressing against her slick folds, making her mewl and beg for him to enter her.

“Is that what you need?” he muttered against the skin of her neck as he littered the sensitive area with kisses and relished the writhing of her body beneath his. A dark growl rumbled within his chest, and he spoke in what was almost a vicious snarl: “Gods, I want nothing more than to bury every inch of myself inside of you.”

“Then why don’t you?” she whined, fretful cries escaping her as her attempts to angle her hips in such a way that his rigid length would slip into her all proved fruitless.

“Because I want you to beg for it,” he growled into her ear. “Beg for me, my little nymph.” It wasn’t often that she saw Melot so completely overcome with lust, so it stood to reason that she would wish to savour every moment of it. Soon, she heeded his request, loud pleas spilling from her mouth, urging him to break into her so that her lust might finally be slaked. Melot, however, seemed to have other plans entirely, and focused his efforts on her breasts, kneading one of them with fervent ardour. He took the nipple of the other in his mouth, swirling his tongue around the stiffened peak, sometimes suckling, or even biting down softly, repeating his treatment on her other breast, while her pleas fell on deaf ears.

She had always thought herself to be too proud to cry, but as Melot continued his cruel denial of her deepest desires, tears appeared, which, with every passing second, threatened more and more to break free from the confines of her eyes. The eyes of their spectators were all trained on her face, waiting for the moment she would finally succumb to the pressure of her carnal urges, casting aside her pride…

“Melot, please!” she cried out so loud that anyone who hadn’t yet been occupied with their performance was sure to turn their head now. “I beg of you, please fuck me!”

Melot hesitated for a final moment, knowing very well what it meant to lay with a nymph in the glade that she called home, but there was nothing more in this world that he wanted than to be hers for as long as fate would allow him to be. A few members of their ‘audience’, as she had called it before, cheered briefly as he drove his cock into her tight, drenched core, but he paid them no mind. To him, there were only two beings on this whole planet, and anything else didn’t matter in the slightest.

His thrusts were slow at first, as he savoured her constant whining and begging for more, but he ran out of patience and restraint much quicker than he had hoped. Both of them were completely enraptured by the sounds of ecstasy they let out as they continued to ravish each other. Her fingers dug into the moss flooring of the glade, seeking purchase to help her withstand his onslaught on her body, each of his wild thrusts luring a moan from her lips as her velvet walls stretched to accommodate his girth over and over again.

Her cries became louder as he hoisted one of her legs over his shoulder, allowing him to plunge even deeper into her wet heat. His thumb found her clit with ease, drawing circles around the swollen little pearl, coaxing her to her next climax. A few strokes sufficed, and before long she cried out from pleasure as she once again reached her peak.

He leaned down to kiss her, and she gladly let him, so that she might revel in his attention as he whispered praise and sweet nothings in her ear. She knew he wasn’t finished with her yet, which is why his next query was hardly a surprise to her.

“Will you let me take you from behind?” The sound of his voice was almost a whine. She happily indulged him, naturally. She was a nymph, after all. Once again, she vanished from beneath him – almost causing Melot to lose his balance, but he caught himself just in time – only to emerge again a few feet away, on her knees. She swayed her hips enticingly as she leaned forward until her chest was on the ground, and arched her back. For a moment, Melot admired her and the way the sunlight danced over her skin, before he made his way over to her.

He sat behind her and ran his fingers through her slick folds, spreading her open as he leaned in to seek her clit with his tongue. Swiftly and with great ease, he brought her to another climax on his tongue. Melot chuckled softly under his breath. From the beginning of their tryst, he had found his dryad’s ability to orgasm time and again very intriguing, and if he was being honest, it was quite satisfying to unravel her time after time. Oftentimes, he lost count of the amount of times she finished, other times, he challenged himself to make her come a certain number of times... She seemed to have plenty of fun either way.

When he was done, she found he took too long to proceed. With impatience clearly evident in her voice, she begged him once again for his cock, not appreciating it when he teasingly ran its tip through her folds, holding her hips to prevent her from pushing herself onto him. It was in that moment that she realised Melot did not just appreciate her writhing – though there existed no doubt in her mind that he thoroughly enjoyed watching her in her current state, beside herself with lust and longing. No, Melot, she noticed, revelled in the attention of the spectators on the edge of the clearing.

“You like that we’re being watched,” she spoke softly, biting her lip to choke back a moan as Melot dug his fingers into the flesh of her hips and pulled her closer, finally giving her what she had been waiting for.

“It’s growing on me,” he admitted as he thrust into her – slowly at first, then increasing his pace to a vigorous rhythm that made her cry out. Once more, she noticed how he relished the reactions from some of the onlookers as he sheathed himself inside her core again, how his erection seemed to swell even further inside of her, how there was a faint sense of arrogance and pride to the way he handled her that sat in stark contrast to their earlier encounters, which had consisted of hours upon hours of gentle lovemaking. Of course, even then, they had sometimes been caught by the occasional curious passer-by, but at the time, nothing had suggested that that was something Melot found particularly arousing.

Her thoughts were interrupted when another orgasm built inside her. It arrived quickly, almost taking her by surprise as she called out his name. This time, her clenching walls were too much for him, the sensation of her quivering muscles gripping his cock bringing him to the brink of orgasm, the sound of her cries of ecstasy the final straw that lured him over the edge, where he spilled his seed deep inside of her before collapsing next to her on the ground.

For a while, they lay there silent and spent. She rolled into his side, draping her arm over his stomach, and gently stroking his side as they slowly came to their senses again.

“I feel a little exposed,” Melot muttered softly enough that only she heard him. With one swift move of her hand, she conjured a blanket out of the moss flooring of the glade and draped it over his hips. The gesture immediately seemed to put him at ease.

“Your father won’t be happy about this,” she said after another while of silence, at once painfully aware that she had stolen the elven King’s son.

“My father will have no choice but to accept our union. Besides, it cements good relations between our kinds,” Melot responded plainly, seemingly deeming het concerns baseless.

“What if he tries to take you away from me?” she said, fear suddenly striking her as she realized what that would mean for her.

“He can’t,” Melot said, but his words did not yet put her mind at ease. “Wood elves are bound by the laws of nature. He might oppose our marriage, but there is nothing he can do to disband it.” His words brought her comfort, as did his lips, which he pressed briefly to her forehead.

“Rest, my love,” he muttered softly to her as fatigue took hold of her and her eyes began to fall shut, “my wife.”

[youredreamingofroo]

me to an irl friend: hey i wanna build u a house in mc for no reason at all, what do u want your house based on irl friend: idk,,, crystal-y witch hut? me: ok >:)

So I've been building houses for some of my irl friends and here's the third and prolly last one!! I went WAYY overboard but idc I got adventurous and I love it (it's also a MAJORRRR wip rn)

Here's a bit of rough lore I have for this area :D I like to think this is an abandoned witch hut (all of the houses kind of are bc none of my friends will ever live in them) because of a couple experiments gone wrong, those experiments being massive crystal shards getting launched into the earth, and those experiments caused the witch to be exiled from Eunia (rando region name I chose) :)

extra pics of the crystal pits and some more yapping under the cut <:P

So I still have one more crystal pit planned and it'll be the smallest one of the other three, this one will be orange/yellow, I'm probably gonna add some more crystallization around the house, considering the fact that my friend said "crystal-y" witch hut.

Also yes I KNOW the pits dont look very crystal-y considering they are conceived of like 99% different blocks and then 1% Emerald/Amethyst, but it's all about the *look* and what it conveys... which doesn't rlly make sense tbh oops LMAO

I like to think that the sheer heat from the crystal shards making impact with the land caused miniature pits of lava/magma, hence the little pockets near the bottom with magma blocks/"out-of-place?" blocks

[spinningbuster98]

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles (Knuckles) Part 3: Hyper not living up to the hype

Unfortunately I had to cut this one short because I had to stop the session, so it’s just me Emerald hunting

So while we’re here what about those Super and Hyper forms for Tails and Knuckles?

They’re lame

I don’t understand why Sonic gets to have a unique design, but Tails and Knuckles (and later Amy, Mighty and Ray) only get to glow a little. They don’t even fly! Tails is especially egregious because he still needs his tails to fly and can still get tired!

Not only is it lame from a gameplay perspective (Tails’ invincible flickies would be great if not for the fact that he himself is already invincible thus making it much faster to kill enemies yourself, and Hyper Knuckles is literally just Super Knuckles except he has a wall smash attack that is nowhere close to being as versatile and fun as Hyper Sonic’s hyper dash), it also makes little sense from a lore perspective

I know that the whole “Sega said only male hedgehogs can turn Super” has (from what understand at least) been proven by a member of Sonic Team itself to be misinformation, but this is one of those cases where I think the games themselves don’t do themselves any favors because look: Sonic, Shadow and Silver get proper Super forms, all the others only have them in the Classic games and they just glow a bit, while in the modern games no one else ever turns Super and that one time in Heroes Tails and Knuckles only receive Super Shields from Super Sonic. The only exception to the rule being Blaze really. It’s easy to imagine, even from an outside perspective, that the super forms of most characters that we see in the classic games are a purely gameplay related thing and not story canon. I’m not claiming that’s the case, just that that would be an easy conclusion to come to just looking at the material on its own

Furthermore it just doesn’t make sense period: Knuckles should have more proficiency at handling the Emeralds given his ties to the Master Emerald, honestly he should be second only to Shadow! I remember reading somwhere that the reason why Tails needs the Super Emeralds to transform is because he has little experience. I wanna stress that I don’t know if this is official or fan theory, but either way it’s just nonsense: oh sure he doesn’t have the ability to handle the powers of the Emeralds, but their more powerful versions? He can handle those no issue!

And if we really wanted to follow this type of logic then, again, Sonic himself should have trouble using the Emeralds, because he, by this point, has only encountered them 3 times, and the first time it wasn’t even the full set! Yet he can totally use their full power by his second adventure with them, while Tails for some reason still has issues and Knuckles, the guy who’s spent his life guarding the biggest Emerald of all, can just do the bare minimum with them?

And for the record: no I’m not saying I want everyone to spam Super forms all willy nilly. But when I see Sonic go Super to fight the latest threat while the others just stay back and cheer him up I would really like to know why exactly it’s always just him and maybe one other guy who’s turning Super instead of the whole gang which, y’know, would be more practical? (I mean look at SA2: Sonic and Shadow turn Super to fight the Biolizard while Knuckles, the guy who should also be able to go Super according to S3, just stays there literally slack jawed)

[selfproclaimedunicorn]

⭐ for the director’s cut meme!

Going off of something vague 🤔. I can work with this, though! Enjoy me lore dumping my Extra Tyrells 💚💛

Ella’s eyes trailed down from his face, to his emerald green doublet, and the golden rose and ring of thorns of the line descended from one of Lord Bertrand’s bastard sons in the center of it.

- Rhaella 6: Be Not A Bed Of Roses

SO, the bastard line. When I got convinced to have her marry a Tyrell I immediately had to scramble to make it make sense within the preexisting lore for that part of asoiaf, where the lord of House Tyrell was a literal one-year-old during The Dance, so I was looking through the wiki & George mentioned Lord Bertrand Tyrell having boocoo bastard sons. My brain latched onto that, because if George is going to make note of that, I will use it. I made a whole family tree to puzzle through it (the notes on it are partially updated for the next chapter, so ages are one year off from introduction)

So what's going on there, is that Lord Bertrand’s son & heir [Gareth] just was not having sons for years, & in misogynistic desperation he petitioned King Jaehaerys to legitimize one of his half-brothers, just to have as a backup. This, naturally, went over well because Jaehaerys hated women's rights. Lord Gareth wound up having a son, so his half brother never inherited anything, but he did get to have a household & form a cadet branch of House Tyrell.

So this cadet branch resides at "Thorn Hall," & has "The Knight of Thorns" as a sort of hereditary title. And they're only on generation 3, so the fact they exist as "backup inheritors" is still pretty fresh in the minds of the main Tyrells. Like, if somebody is struggling to have heirs, a Knight Of Thorns could probably start pushing for a claim to High Garden if he was well liked enough. It's all very delicious & needlessly complex drama I did not need to add. So, y'know, my favorite thing to do (I mean, you've heard about my main asoiaf au).

Plus, it let me introduce a betrothed for Ella that's still smarter politically than her initial arc's trajectory. And he's Canon Sexy. With nothing but his slutty little waist, his sexual experience, & a bit of forethought, he can achieve his dream of being a trophy husband!

[styrmwb]

I beat World of Warcraft: The War Within (for now)

Every single word I am about to write I do so with the fear of god that none of it will age poorly

(also wow this is a long one sorry that my ramblings keep getting more rambly)

The summer of 2024 is the summer of "why do I have two separate MMOs that I want to play I hate myself", cause I already had FFXIV Dawntrail a bit ago, and now we got WoW, my first MMO love who I have had a horrible relationship with During BfA and Shadowlands and All That Blizzard Shit I was like Jaina in the scene of Warcraft III with the Culling of Stratholme "I'm sorry Arthas, I can't watch you do this." But then things (as far as I know) in real life are getting better, and then they did Dragonflight which in game was getting better and I'm over here tentatively having fun with a smile on my face ready for it to go bad at any time, and that's how I felt about War Within: This looks cool, are they going to be able to do it, or am I going to be disappointed once again?

And god. PLEASE DON'T LET THIS AGE POORLY BUT HOLY SHIT THEY LANDED IT SO HARD, I LOVED THIS EXPANSION!!!! I want to talk about why!!!! And like I said in Dawntrail MMOs obviously release more content (hell by the time I beat my set goals a raid came out (I did not do the raid), so I considered "beat" to be Loremaster (all the quests), all the dungeons, and all the delves so DON'T COME AT ME WITH "BUT YOU DIDN'T DO NERUB'AR" I WANTED TO WRITE A BEAT A GAME POST FOR AN MMO LEAVE ME ALONE

Story

This is what I was scared of. I love Warcraft, I love it so much I love the world, I love the lore, I love the everything, and obviously this game has had a... Not Great experience with respecting its own universe with... good writing. So I am understandably hesitant! Even Dragonflight which was a step in the right direction still didn't grab me in some ways and was a little cheesy I did really like the avengers assemble in the emerald dream though I'm not above that; so I didn't come into War Within expecting the best thing ever, but I really did appreciate how they did this.

Everything fits pretty well within the world, nothing feels like it contradicts previous info, it actually takes a lot from the existing world and expands on it; Xal'atath and the sword was Legion, Earthen have been a thing since Wrath, Nerubians have been around since WCIII, they got Kobolds, they got a healthy amount of previous guys you know from Dalaran/other people who happened to be on Dalaran (lmao) to really make the whole thing FEEL Warcrafty and not something kind of disconnected, despite the new concepts being introduced, which made me very happy.

The story itself was great. I felt invested fighting against Xal'atath because she fucked with my mans, and I really liked how much of a presence she was; involved in everything, but not to an annoying amount, and it didn't feel like the conflict with her was bullshit like the Jailor (they can still fuck this up we got several patches to go). I enjoyed learning about the Earthen, the Arathi, and the Nerubians, and like I said it all fit really well and I didn't have any moments of like "wait what the fuck why this"; even the Arathi felt pretty well explained "oh there's an empire somewhere else we haven't seen" cool and awesome, doesn't contradict anything already existing and opens up a new place in the future.

I think the one thing that was strange was how short the main campaign was. I hard focused it on my main and it wasn't enough to get me to max. But once I did all the Sojourner achievements I could see where the rest of the writing meat went, because so many of those side stories were amazing; some I'm genuinely surprised WEREN'T in the main campaign (the Haranir got like 2 steps in the main deal and then never showed up?? do the side quests to figure out anything about this person we put in the teaser cinematic; this is like my one beef with the main campaign, anyways). So many heavy emotional hits, stories that actually made me feel. The old Earthen losing his memories I think was a highlight for me.

What I really appreciated about every quest I did was the focus on emotions, on internal processing; like yeah, this is World of Warcraft. We fight a lot. There's a lot of fighting. But this expansion takes its own title to mean more than just being in the world, and focuses a lot on trauma, fighting with yourself, accepting yourself, connecting with others after trauma, and I really really appreciated that a game like this actually managed to slow down and question these little large things that it never really did in the past. Also, even with the deeper, more serious tones being so strong, the humor this time around is really great. There are a lot of moments in the main story and in the side quests that actually got me laughing out loud. Overall, I was really satisfied with all the story they gave me and I cannot wait to see if they are able to continue this upward trend to finish the expansion off.

I also want to say "stay a while and listen"s have been the greatest thing this game has ever introduced to give nerds like me more good writing while letting other players not have to suffer through it if they don't want to.

Characters

This is also an important section which was really hard to separate from the above; like I said, Warcraft does not have a great track record of how it treats its beloved characters who can be amazing at the highest of times (COUGH SYLVANAS SHADOWLANDS AS A WHOLE COUGH), so I was worried here. But the way our returning characters were treated, on top of the new characters, was really surprising.

Our Returning Friends:

Anduin - My fucking boy. I love Anduin, he is one of my favorite characters, if not my favorite character, in all of Warcraft. Seeing his struggle with himself hit really hard, and I really appreciate how they did it, it didn't feel disrespectful, he got moments to bring him up, he got moments that validated his current state; it hurt me to see the optimistic prince in such a state, and I love where his journey is taking him. He also calls me friend and that makes me happy Anduin if you were real I would be your friend

Alleria - I think her story is going to be cooked a little longer in the future, cause for this expansion she was often in the background hunting, but I love that despite the internal AND external things trying to keep her alone, she's not so far gone as to be separated from the people she cares about; I am actually excited to see how she'll play out. The fact that her and Turalyon still clearly love and care for each other despite the circumstances makes me happy.

Moira - I very much enjoyed that the Bronzebeard-Thaurissan family got such a spotlight this time around. It was great seeing Moira continue to prove herself as a leader with the action taken + the diplomatic role she placed herself in with the Earthen. The sidequest where she gets Fearbreaker was really a place for her to shine on her own. While I was a big fan of the trio of her, Magni, and Dagran, I can't help but feel like her portion didn't stick with me as much as the other two, but that could be a me flaw rather than a game flaw. I do hope she continues to get more screentime to show off.

Magni - Did not at all expect where this man was going. Depressed and angry speaker was an interesting way to start the expansion, and I enjoyed seeing him be able to reconnect with his family, to be freed from his prison (they hatched him!), and to really start his grandpa arc/hopefully make a relationship with his daughter arc.

Dagran - If you told me that the 3 polygon baby in Ironforge was going to be one of the best characters in a future expansion I would have been very surprised. He's such a nerd but in a really enjoyable way, and the connection he has with his family + Brinthe is really heartwarming to see. I want more of this 🤓 motherfucker

Brann - Not really a character in the main story, but he's here and I love it, except when he tells me that those webs will summon Nerubians, and not to stand in them. I hope he gets more uncle moments.

Khadgar - Fuck. This old shitty wizard is also top contender for favorite Warcraft character, so the way this expansion started gutted me. I was actually real life mad I wanted to destroy that stupid purple elf and all her spiders; I am so happy that he's fine I am going to put him in the best retirement situation possible and he can get his girlfriend and live the rest of his life happy DON'T YOU FUCKING DO THAT TO ME AGAIN BLIZZARD.

Jaina and Thrall - Did not get to be there lmao. Thrall really got the short end of the stick being on the loading screen. The Horde as a whole could have gotten more love this expansion, and this is coming from a man loyal to the Alliance. But also you guys got a lot in the past so uuhhhhhh fuck you lmao

Side note, where the fuck is Muradin; your brothers, your niece, and your great nephew are here, your brother hatched, Where Are You.

Our New Friends (and Enemies)

The Earthen - Initially, incredibly off putting. Why are they not scottish. But I really grew to love these robot dwarves. The council was all surprisingly great, Merrix has his whole sidequest where "oh he's a bad guy" no not at all he cares about his people, Baelgrim warms up to you and is the Obligatory Sacrifice Character, Adelgonn really showed the humanity these people can have, Brinthe was surprisingly funny and charming, and I loved to see her grow closer to Dagran (new aunt unlocked let's go). Overall, it was really cool to see this race of people show both their construct nature mixed with the free will they've unlocked. So much more interesting than I expected.

Faerin and the Arathi - Definitely the strangest part of this expansion, but incredibly cool to see. I was unsure going in, did they really feel like the fit in, their vibe seems a little separate from Warcraft and more Diablo-y or a different franchise, but I was really interested in their culture, the genuine nature their society had despite the traitors (like I was totally expecting Steelstrike to be evil not to have a cooking quest with her and her family); Faerin was likewise a surprise. I see the name "Lothar" and I'm like oh geez how are they gonna mess this up and I was instead greeted with a kind yet tough warrior who Has feelings and struggles with loss and is a wonderful friend to Anduin (the quest where you sit down with Faerin and Anduin might be one of my favorite sidequests ever).

The Nerubians - Ok so yeah we're all used to these guys being Bad Spiders Go Kill which they were def introduced as, but then you get to their zone and they're presented as their own society in such a cool way?? These are people! They're spiders, but they're people! The Severed Threads are a fun trio of characters that I enjoyed talking to. Honestly, surprisingly enough the Nerubians as a whole are like, really funny? There's a bunch of really good comedic moments, some played straight which hit the hardest. (Mr. Sunflower my beloved) I loved the split in society shown, the dislike, the Reason for dislike shown between the Ascended and the normal Nerubians, I could really feel the reason for dissent against the Queen (I haven't done Nerub'ar like I said but I do wish she was more present.)

Xal'atath - I said my main opinion earlier, she was a great presence in the story and I very much enjoy her as a villain. I really like the bonus dialogue you get if you've interacted with her before. I really think she has the potential to be one of the best major villains we've ever had if Blizzard plays their cards right (I am scared).

World (of Warcraft)

Dragonflight's zones were cool; but. Nothing really WOWed me (funny joke). Going into TWW, I thought underground was cool, but I wasn't sure at first. Looked at the little pictures for each zone, still unimpressed. Once I actually got Into the game and played it though, these are some of the best zones in the game.

I have these four screenshots, my favorite parts of each zone, and I still feel like I am not doing them justice. They're huge, they're so incredibly varied, and you feel like you can still breathe despite being underground (and they're confining when needed). I've always said that despite the lows, Blizzard's art department hard fucking carries the game, and they continue to flex. The cities are getting so much better at feeling sprawling and lived in, an evolution from the tiny Stormwinds of classic WoW. I love Khaz Algar so much. One of my favorite parts of my playthrough was when I entered Hallowfall for the first time, during the Beledar shifting event (not the story one! the random one), and I was amazed and confused. I don't think I've felt this mesmerized by the game since I was like 10 walking through Teldrassil. Something really special I also loved about Hallowfall (might be contender for top 10 zone of all time) is yes, this feels outside. There is grass. There is water. There is sun. But then you look at the land, you look at the rocks, the stalagmites, you look up and it reminds you that you're underground. There's so much spectacle here and I feel like I could go on and on and on about each zone and how amazing they are. (I'm ending this section now but I have to say I love Bug Suramar)

Music

Piggybacking off the last section, the music this expansion has been absolutely incredible, I haven't really hooked onto as much of the soundtrack as I have since BfA; Shadowlands really just had Maldraxxus and Revendreth and I honestly don't remember much of Dragonflight's, but here it's so strong. Isle of Dorn's windy outdoor flutes, The Ringing Deeps' sound of echoing mining, Hallowfall's beautiful choir, and Azj-Kahet's plucking spider sounds, it's all so strong, so memorable and unique.

Cutscenes

Really small section here but I love the cutscene work they've been doing. The fact that we get what used to just be in the prerendered ones in game??? The models look so nice there! Yeah sure my character looks a little awkward doing default standing they haven't mastered it like FFXIV yet but I LOVE the cutscene work. Even the lower quality ones have shown a lot of character. I think of the scene with Elrich and Brinthe, he still shows off and feels like an asshole, and you can clearly see the humorous frustration Brinthe feels at being interrupted. It's great.

Gameplay

I am the least excited to talk about the gameplay here, but I really do enjoy what they're doing this expansion. I love Delves and the solo content they're doing, I think their quest design continues to be engaging and fun (even though I was a little tired of the shout instruction randomly to get item/do task and all of the pulling slowly mechanics), and even though I'm not really a dungeon guy each one was incredible, they all excelled in presentation and vibe. The mechanics didn't really get me like I think Dawntrail's dungeons did, but I imagine they go harder in Mythic which I will not be doing.

The classes I played during my session of goals were Warrior, Evoker, and Warlock, which I had fury mountain thane (later slayer), arms slayer, augmentation chronowarden, and demonology diabolist. I really enjoyed the flavor they all brought, and in the case of diabolist it's SO fucking fun holy shit. I know not every class got something cool, and I will be playing those eventually (haha two of every class split between factions I have a problem haha).

Speaking of alts, I love Warbands. The fact that I got to work on loremaster, level Brann, and work on renown across 4 separate characters is an absolute godsend.

Last thought here; Skyriding is amazing. Yeah it was introduced in Dragonflight but I really just needed to be able to fly Invincible everywhere. The fact that Blizzard finally embraced flying and made it engaging by just making the zones huge is the best path ever.

I Have Talked So Much I Am Sorry

yeah i hate this expansion isn't it clear

I really truly desperately hope that WoW continues this upward trend, continues this energy forward. I want to be able to hit each patch, to look back, and still feel the same happiness and excitement as I do now for the game. WoW is a game I have loved for most of my life. I want it to succeed. I want to say that I love it and not be embarrassed. If we continue to have more times like what War Within is at launch, I have no doubt that those things will be the case. They just need to not prove my fears right. With all of this very very very long post said;

9.5/10. The most love I've had for Warcraft in a long while. Honest competition with Legion for favorite expansion. Please Don't Fuck This Up.

please help me i still feel like i could have talked more

[footballffbarbiex]

Copycat snippet

Series: Just A Taste / Copycat (prologue) Player: unnamed Words: 2101 Warnings: vampire threat, slight dub/con (bc yknow, she realises he’s a vamp and is scared but her pussy is like LETS GO).

Next chapter picks up where this left off, and it does include blood feeding and sexy times.

Click Just A Taste (Copycat - prologue) to read this in full. Unsure if will be coming here. Series has themes of submissive vampire.

-

The concept of vampires wasn’t something new. They were no longer a scary story that children were told and very few dressed up as one for costume parties or Halloween for fear of being drained for mocking. There was no sparkling in the sunlight, no bursting into flames and no flurries of bats when they appeared or disappeared. The reality of vampires wiped out lore in a heartbeat.

Heatwaves and temperatures over 20c were no-gos. There were no longer long afternoons in the parks with BBQs or in beer gardens, concerts were difficult especially in crowded places when everyone is naturally getting warmer in confined places, you’re offering yourself on a silver platter to them. Some braved it, mostly those who refused to believe and though a few made it out alive but lacking a pint or two of blood, most were not so lucky.

Sunlight wasn’t a death sentence to them, but more so to you. Heat seemingly triggers something in a certain type, sending them into a feeding frenzy. They would either drink until sated, maybe a little more, in our terms it would be feeling tipsy on alcohol. But vampires couldn’t stop not until they’d fallen blackout “drunk” and left little more than remains of their victims and it was these types which you didn’t want to cross - day or night.

With no vampires willing to give themselves up to be a science experiment, preferring to be the one creating pin cushions than be one, it made things harder to understand. There were no tests they could do to deny entry into certain establishments, but the thought of trying to refuse a vampire entry somewhere filled you with both amusement and fear.

Tonight was a risk and you knew that. With work arranging a fancy dress, you’ve decided, foolishly or bravely, to take a chance and wear a stunning dress designed from the 1700s. With ruffled sleeves, a tight waist corset and a large flowing skirt with plunging neckline, you turned heads. A medium sized thick cross lays just above but placed between your breasts. Cased in silver and adorned with fake rubies and emeralds, the cross makes a statement for the religious time period.

It gave you a feeling of sexiness, almost a sense of regality. You hold yourself differently, and every so often, you’ll catch your tongue or your lips on the false fangs and it gives you a slight rush of power; even though these clip off at the end of the night and you’re back to normal within five minutes. But the confidence that you felt showing them off with each smile and fake hiss became more potent with each recoil that you received in response.

You’ve drank, eaten your way through three courses of excellent food and danced until you’d been forced to take off your shoes and continue bare foot; even if it meant you had to ignore whatever the sticky substances were on the floor. You’re dancing with faeries, sexy nurses, undead doctors, Marvel characters, DC villains, women in masquerade and slutty versions of Disney and storybook women. Some have brought their partners or friends as their plus one, and though you can tell who the majority of the people are, there are a few who make you wonder who they are.

One of which, you’ve noticed has been staring at you several times throughout the evening but you’ve simply put it down to the provocative choice of costume. Had anyone else been wearing it, you’d probably be doing the same too. It’s certainly raised a few eyebrows and become a talking point for sure.

But it’s not until you’re at the bar that you hear in an unfamiliar voice, “I have to ask, with you dressed like that, are you hoping to get bitten?”

[lords-of-fortune]

Asking for the ones I know less: Alding, Darien, Nennril:

-How much has your OC traveled? Do they have a favorite region outside of their home one?

-What animal do you associate with your OC? Why?

Ohh boy, it's a good thing I already refreshed myself on Darien lore lmao

Okay let's see. Alding is a noble *and* the son of Eleanor Cousland so I imagine he's not only done a lot of traveling but also a lot of sailing. I think he's been all over Ferelden, sailed to the Free Marches, and at least interacted with some cool people from Rivain and Antiva if not actually been there pre-origins (though actually now that i think about it, his sister-in-law is Antivan so its possible he got to go there as part of the prenuptial preparation!) He's probably even been on a diplomacy trip or two to Orlais (not as the actual Diplomat but just shadowing his parents) Post-origins he also has gone to Antiva since with Zevran and I think he's fallen in love with it just as much as Zevran loves it, so that's his favorite region that's not Highever.

Darien has really mostly only traveled all over Ferelden and then Kirkwall and he doesn't like anywhere better than his home region. Kirkwall was Bad for him looking back on it and Ferelden is Home. All he wants after da2 and his brief inquisition experience where he doesn't get left in the Fade is a nice Fereldan house that he can stay in with his loved ones and just be safe and happy and comfortable.

Nennril has done a lot traveling by virtue of being Dalish. I think they've been just about everywhere the Dalish have reached and don't really have a region they consider home to be honest. I think their favorite place (though in a weird, sad, solemn way) are the Emerald Graves? When not being attacked or thinking too hard about who's in charge of it now, it's a peaceful place, somewhere they feel more connected with the elves who came before them. It makes them a little homesick for their clan but not in a negative way.

As for animals... hmm... I mean for Darien it is straight up just. Hawks lmao. I imagine his version of Malcolm to be very affectionate and heavy on the nicknames for his kids so he always called the "hatchling" or "eyas" the latter of which is the scientific term for a baby hawk (this same google search would also go on to provide me with Tierce's name since the scientific name for a male hawk is a Tiercel. The page I initially looked at though had a typo and didn't have the L at the end and I was like oh. That's a great name for a future Hawke)

Nennril and Alding I haven't thought of too much? Maybe a Fox for Nenn? Since they've got big ears and red hair and they're a little mischievous? Alding... I feel like he's just a dog lmao. As son of the Seawolf and with the nickname Pup? He's not exactly a wolf like his mommy I think he's more of a golden retriever with the anxiety levels of a much smaller dog lmao

Phew! This one was an exercise of recall and improv since it's been so long since I've thought about Darien and Nennril in particular.