#feel free to use what you know of the worldbuilding to your advantage. it is (mostly) the same.

[for-quill-with-love]

[caretaker has left]

[twistedquill has joined the game]

I came back into being with a soft pop-- air displacing as my feet hit the ground and refused to hold me up.

My shoulder hit the edge of a fencepost, and I collapsed backwards into a dip in the ground.

It took a long moment for my jackrabbiting heart to calm, the taste of salt and the smell of flowers pulling me fully back to myself.

First thing first, I patted myself down for injuries. Luckily, I hadn't so much as twisted an ankle as I'd dropped into this world. That must've been a rough jump, if I had been running from--

Had I been running?

I was certainly not dressed like I would be if this had been planned. This dress was made of fine, delicate fabric that wouldn't last more than a day if I wasn't careful. I'd already tripped over the hem. And these slippers weren't suited for anything more strenuous then a walk in the park.

I couldn't remember why I wasn't in my normal adventuring gear.

I couldn't remember my normal adventuring gear.

I twisted about, taking in my surroundings. It was the mouth of a mineshaft, but unlike one I had ever seen before. Behind me was a darkness that had my hands itching for an axe. I needed to get out of the shadows before anything came after me.

I pulled myself up, stumbling out into the sunlight. Before me stretched an unfamiliar world, and a chest floating in the water below caught my eye.

Half-stumbling down the hill, I waded into the water to investigate.

All I found inside was a handful of wooden logs, some sticks and a couple apples. Oh, and some basic wooden tools. I was grateful I wouldn't need to hurt my hands by punching trees.

Where had this come from?

I had never set a starter chest up in any of the worlds I'd prepared for myself. I always thought it was cheating, in a way.

Had I stumbled into a world meant for someone else?

I reached for my communicator--

This wasn't mine.

I took everything the chest had to offer, before swimming back to the stony shore.

I shook the majority of the water off, pushing my hair out of my face. This wasn't my communicator. My fingers reached for buttons I was missing, and commands I couldn't remember. It was so plain.

I didn't know what my communicator looked like, but it sure as void and stars wasn't this.

And I couldn't leave-- that whole section of my comm was gone. There were no contacts in my messaging list, and no way to enter any either.

At least I could see I was the only one in the world at the moment.

My thoughts fuzzed. I had been expecting a name there, in both my contacts and in the world's occupants.

Enough of this. I was burning daylight, and unless I wanted to dig myself a hole to hide in until morning I needed to get moving.

I carved up enough stone to get me by until I found a spot to settle down. I found moss growing along the shore, and I practically pounced on it in my excitement to gather some. Moss was invaluable this early in a world.

What wasn't invaluable were these weird creatures crawling around.

I didn't dare get too close. I didn't know if they were hostile or not.

It looked like that mineshaft wasn't the only new thing about this world.

I'd known about worlds like this, once. Worlds on the outer edges of the universe, where the code got wonky and new creatures appeared and new contraptions were possible.

I'd always wanted to explore one, before--

The world was already starting to get dark.

I needed to find a place to spend the night.

[hana-no-seiiki]

BROKEN EXPECTATIONS, NEW ASPIRATIONS (I/III)

⟣┄─ ˑ 𝐈. ✧ yandere! batfam + dc heroes x yandere! alien! reader (ft. ocs of mine, and other dc characters)

synopsis: you weren’t as innocent and benevolent as they thought you were, but that just makes things all the more exciting

tw/cw: dddne, reader is yan (platonic for this part, romantic for future parts(diff people). yandere themes, general violence, torture, sadist reader, incest (one-sided/not reader n it’s a brief mention so it’s not a main part of the story oh god-). reader is half based on jingliu/jingyuan from honkai star rail + laezel from bg3 worldbuilding. and there’s also a bit of malenia/miquella inspirations. reader has a background. reader’s alieness is explored/talked about. op! reader. wish fulfillment.

in short this was an oc insert of mine that i reconfigured for you guys to read. not your thing? scroll past thenks.

[next]

YOU HAVE ALWAYS BEEN THE KINDEST, MOST LOVING PERSON THE BAT-FAMILY EVER KNEW. You were so gracious with your benevolence that each and every vigilante took it upon themselves to take care of you at all moments lest you fall into unsafe situations or the hands of people who would ruthlessly take advantage of you.

Eventually, they forgot the fact that you were the sibling of the notoriously violent DAYBREAK, a vigilante that could be easily called a villain or terrorist instead if it weren’t for his close affiliation and friendship with the old Teen Titans crew when he was younger. He helped once in a while, but only if it meant he had free rein to cause carnage.

“This is useless, they won’t fess up.” Jason grunted as he fumbled around with his weapons, all broken after the battle just moments prior. Aliens and their abilities always made him feel so small in the grand scheme of things, and especially when they completely obliterated his entire arsenal.

Tim groaned, his back ached from the amount of times he was flung away towards whatever wall or ally the enemy wanted him to go to. He was used to being man-handled and even enjoyed that once in a while, but not in that way. “Aren’t they one of your kind? Cant you like… I don’t know…”

Your brother huffed, a pout on his pretty features. Quite similar to yours. Yet, he doesn’t spare the rest a glance. His eyes were trained solely on a restraining spell he managed to conjure as a last ditch attempt to stop the fight before it got . . . irreversible. Usually he’d just disintegrate whatever or whoever even looked at him wrong but even this titan-like intruder was proving to be a pain in the ass. “I can’t believe you, doesn’t mean we’re the same kind or whatever that means that—“

“He’ll be lucky to be even considered as one of us, filthy —“ The massive form spoke. Its metal like body clanging as it struggled in the spell’s area of effect. A soldier from your home planet, not as well trained as your brother — but he was brimming with aetherial ardor. A sort of magic source your people used.

“Okay, that’s it.” [Brother’s Name] groaned, summoning the last piece of his strength to open up a terminal. “Hey mooncake, need ya to do something for me.”

“No, we aren’t letting [Y/N] anywhere near this one. They could get seriously hurt. We were barely even able to—“ Dick held him by the shoulder, only to get burned by your brother’s leaking ardorial energy.

“Relax. Besides I’m not in your team. I don’t have to follow orders from you.”

“Daybr—“ Rachel, her cape almost completely burnt and tattered opened her mouth to admonish him.

But the sound of your sweet voice (more like hoarse, and half awake) silenced them all, “What do you need help with this time?”

“[L/N] don’t listen, go back to sleep, beloved.” Damian moved in from behind, learning from Dick’s mistake and instead using his blade to warn [Brother’s Name].

But if anything, that made the man more excited to annoy the “demonspawn”.

“Oh, mooncake you can’t believe who I stumbled upon today! Smile for the camera why don’t you?”

[Brother’s Name] flipped the terminal to show your face.

“You’re . . . General [Y/—“

And then flipped it back, showing his injured body. “He hurt me real bad. Look.”

Your face does not move nor your voice waver,

“Come back to the base.”

“No.” Black Canary, Dinah, slammed her hands on the table. She couldn’t believe this. It was already bad that they allowed you to be involved in their line of work, now they were letting you come face to face with a being that almost wiped an entire team of experience fighters? What were they thinking?

“That . . . thing is dangerous. We cannot allow this to continue!” Arthur concurred. He saw the state of your brother. A civilian like you had no business with something so dangerous.

“Unfortunately I have to say no to your refusal as well.” You calmly responded, “This situation is under the jurisdiction of the Fleet. It is only right that Daybreak and I deal with it.”

“Father you can’t possibly allow them.” Damian gripped your shoulder as he pleaded with Bruce. He had known you the longest next to Tim. You were barely able to hold your own as a normal student. Not that he was looking down on you, but if you couldn’t even fight for yourself in conversation, how could he let you be around that monster?

Bruce closed his eyes in deep contemplation. He studied your kind comprehensively. He did so for every vigilante and villain alike (Contingencies were his specialty) From how your magic system worked, to how society and customs were like. A lot of his knowledge came from Clark, who had also done his fair share of investigative work into your background.

He of all people in this line of work knew how dangerous you and [Brother’s Name] can be. He had done his calculations based off of what Daybreak could do. But curiosity drove him further.

“Fine.”

“Father!”

“But the whole league will be watching you, alongside the Young Justice and Teen Titans.”

“Sheesh, overkill much?” Daybreak, now plain [Brother’s Name] in a bunch of casts, piped up.

You nodded, quite honestly just aching to get out from this stuffy room already. “That is fine.”

Before you left, you head swiveled to take one last look at your sibling, building up whatever emotions you needed to see the job through, “Get some rest, brother.”

“Are you kidding? I gotta watch this.” Your brother laughed in earnest, almost-too-wholesome-for-him manner. You managed to understand why as his eyes scanned the people in the room.

He wanted to see them react to your true nature.

Your form finally disappeared from his sight as his eyes finally settled on another image of you glued atop a folder. “What are those?” He pouts to gesture at the objects, too injured to move his limbs.

“Files on [Y/N] and the being.” Bruce answered, opening up the screens for the cameras to the interrogation room.

[Brother’s Name] knows you’d give him a sermon for using his powers while he was already banged up but he had no choice. His arms were too broken to open up the folder after all. “You guys work quick.” He commented as the papers levitated and flipped through itself.

His eyes scanned the typewritten document swiftly, smile growing by the moment, “Pffft — kind hearted soul? Who wrote this?”

“It was compiled by me, but our sources vary from vigilante to civilians.” Clark mumbled. As one of the only other aliens, and people who could feel aetherial arbor. He felt your presence, your anger leaking earlier. It was heavy, as if the world was suddenly placed upon his shoulders. Yet he felt no fear for his own safety, only yours.

The gigantic door before you slid open revealing the enemy the vigilantes struggled to subdue earlier.

The soldier stood upright, sensing your presence. The rumors were true it would seem. Many wouldn’t be able to spot it, a testament to whatever you did to conceal your prowess, but they immediately recognized the magnitude of your ardor practically oozing around you.

He was expecting your anger. He knew of your protective nature towards your brother.

“My apologies.” But you didn’t. Instead you began nursing their injuries, repairing their armor, and even initiating casual conversation. “It must have been a long journey. I can’t help but resent whoever sent you here.”

“Your Excellency! I came of my own volition.”

“Oh? But judging from your armor you must be one of the knights.”

“Yes, 512th Squadron of the Imperial Army.”

“Of course, my eldest brother’s . . . “ Your fought to keep your hands from clenching. A gentle smile on your features remained unshaken even by the sudden revelation.

“Y-yes, your Excellency. It took many jumps for me to get here on my own.”

“Alone? What did you wish to come here for?”

“I-I wished to meet you but those Earthlings wouldn’t let me.”

“Mm. And so you fought them. As is right for one of our kind.” You brought out a handkerchief and wiped down your hands after finishing the task at hand. Then you took a seat in front of them.

“You understand! Of course.”

“Actually I came here to bid you to return. The Emperor misses you dearly and wishes to see you.”

“Do you know why he does?”

“N-no?”

You looked down. Voice soft, relaxed shoulders, a solemn tone, and a tremble to add on top. “My brother. He wishes to have a child with me. To use my powers in the form of a future heir to the throne.”

“I am not quite ready to have a child yet.” Nor were you interested with being a babymaker for that tyrant. But that wasn’t an appropriate excuse in the grand scheme of things.

“I understand! Your Excellency is quite young and even then, you have saved countless of lives. You deserve only to do as wish and nothing less.” The soldier slammed the floor in front of it. “Besides, his Majesty had already taken so many concubines I’m sure an heir wouldn’t be needed anytime soon.”

You nodded. A moment or two of silence for your mind to recollect everything that has been said before you execute what you came here for in the first place. You closed your eyes and took a deep breath. “How incompetent must the new Imperial General be at the moment?”

“Pardon?”

“Information is the most valuable asset to any sort of battle. As a general I kept a tight leash on it. Lest it spilled and caused unnecessary ruckus.” My knights were drilled, put through fire and blood, wiped clean before they were thrown back into hell again. And most importantly they were taught to sew their mouth shut or die. You, you just spilled everything I needed to know the moment I showed that I cared.”

“Your Excellency, I —“

“I was only going to punish you for trespassing. A measly act of destroying your Aetherial Helix.” “But in all honesty, I might be doing that brother Emperor of mine a favor by going . . . further.”

“N-no, you wouldn’t, you’re—!” The soldier was about to defend you even in its dying moments. But as it truly recounted all that has been told about you from its peers and seniors, it realizes one truly fatal fact.

You were never known for benevolence.

“Please! I did this all for you! I only wanted you back as my General!”

“Let this be a lesson.”

“No, please ! I- I - I beg of you—“

You looked up to the ceiling, beyond it — the stars and the infinite darkness you once called your home.

“And so I’ll continue to wield your blade, until I cut the stars from sky. I will protect you even from the gods I serve.”

You chant. The blood on your hands once again becoming too visible and distracting.

“Thank you for your service, soldier.” You deeply bow your head to the disintegrating corpse beneath you. Allowing the fallen's drained life essence to cover your forehead. [Brother Name] smiles. To others it may seem to have been a sign of respect — but to your kind, you were simply absorbing the spoils of battle. Taking in the dead and disgraced's remaining imprint on this world.

“My deepest apologies for the mess and time it took. The matter has been dealt with.” You returned. The blood, having dripped down your face, had dried and turned dark.

“I hope this has not soured your view on me.”

“Not at all . . .” Tim was the first to speak at your return. His fingers unconsciously replaying the footage of your . . . execution. Millions of questions already shot across his head as he was eager to probe you on them one way or another.

If anything it only made their obsession with you worse.

“Let me be your sinner, brother. This oath I shall never forsake.”

[helluvabossrewrite45]

Hey. I've seen some of your rewrite of Helluva Boss scenes and I really like them. I enjoy how you fixed the issues with the writing and how incredibly spectacular your writing of the improved dialogue within the scenes are.

Honestly, I feel inspired by your work. I have an idea for my own Helluva Boss rewrite where I not only fix issues the show has (ex. tonal shifts, inconsistencies & plot holes, worldbuilding issues, etc), but also integrate my HB OCs into my rewrite (ex. my main HB OC Alice Lola (Ally for short), who is an assassin at I.M.P. and an aspiring writer).

I was wondering if I could ask you this: do you have any advice & tips you could give for who have an idea for starting an HB rewrite, or a rewrite in general? I ask out of curiosity as an aspiring writer myself.

Feel free to respond back when you get the chance. Thank you and have a wonderful day/afternoon/night. Keep up the great work! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 🤗💕❤️🧡💛💚💙💜💖💕🤗

Thank you, im glad you enjoy my rewrites and of course, I can offer up some advice for rewrites;

I think one of the best things in writing a rewrite is that you can use these minor details the piece your rewriting has and use them to you advantage. For example, I noticed that Octavia listens to music whenever she hears her parents arguing or at the dinner table where her parents would be and probably would have at least some awkward tension so from rewriting seeing stars, I use that minor detail to highlight her character and her arc of using music or the moon festival to ignore her problems even though it clearly doesn't help. It also contrast with Loona in my rewrite ignoring her problems that she later acknowledges and the two would open up, closing the character arcs in a nice neat bow. Another would be that Millie is often depicted as either moxxie's wife or a murder machine and from the little time we see with her and her family, I rewrote millie growing up having to be in her sisters shadow and just wanting to be her own person instead as inferior or someone's tool. This would establish why she has a rivalry with her sister while also giving her more character for her to be explored (which we should've gotten from harvest moon tbh), Any details you find in helluva can be a tool for you to explore whether it be for the characters, world etc...

Something that even I learned is that when rewriting, you gotta plan what your gonna do with the characters, with the worldbuilding you establish, with all of these plots/ideas your rewriting. Most of the problems helluva has is because vivziepop didnt plan the show out until season 2 rolled around and if we wanna rewrite the show to be better, we ourselves cant make the same mistakes. If you already started the rewrite however, i suggest you look back on the rewrite your already doing for as much as you can to remember in order to not fall into the same mistake the show itself has

When planning an oc into rewrites, I think the main thing is to ask what are they doing here, what purpose do they serve to the plot and what is their character overall (their motive, personality, character arc, likes, dislikes, relationship with the characters, how they bounce off to the other characters etc...)

As another aspiring writer who has a lot of original stories in the works (there's even an original story inspired by helluva boss and some of my rewrite ideas for it), I think its important to approach criticism as a helpful tool rather than an insult. Especially when its rewrites. I always want whatever I'm writing to at least be of decent quality and is regularly curious of how people would react to my original stories still in the works so receiving it and even given criticism for it can help, you know? Since you have an established audience and them offering criticism can be your tool that you can use to improve. It should be noted though that their is a difference between criticism and personal bias/subjectivity. For example, if someone wanted to point out a plot hole or a mistake in your work, that's criticism you can use. But if someone just tells you to go touch grass for your rewrite or something like that, then its not criticism, that's personal bias/opinion they have of rewrites in general so it offers nothing you can use to improve it.

That's all I got so far, I hope this helps!

[ragnarokproofing]

author ask tag game

Thank you for the tag, @catchingbigfish! I'm tagging @sarahlizziewrites, @moonandris, and @sam-glade with no pressure, and with an open tag for anyone else who is interested. Apologies if you've already done it, this has been sitting in my drafts for like a month.

All of these answers are in regards to my thesis, which is a large-scale dark fantasy novel with an alternating third-person PoV.

(1) What is the main lesson of your story (e.g. kindness, diversity, anti-war), and why did you choose it?

I don't like to conceptualize my fiction as having "lessons." It's not so much that it's inherently inaccurate as that it's not constructive, or conducive to deep and resonating fiction; I have found that this presentation lends itself to moral absolutism. Furthermore, I don't tend to have my characters learn objective moral lessons, but rather learn or decide something about themselves or the world, and make a choice about how they are going to act in the future.

So to phrase it in that way, "what does your main character realize or decide about himself," my main character Fasenil decides that there is enough in the world that makes it worth saving even though it's largely hostile to his existence, and that he is willing to sacrifice himself in order to save it.

(2) What did you use as inspiration for your worldbuilding (like real-life cultures, animals, famous media, websites, etc.)?

I am very aware that the first thing that any of my readers think of when they read my drafts are Skyrim. While it is an inspiration to some extent, my world is far more inspired by real-life cultures, primarily real-life Viking Age Scandinavia. I take historical research very seriously, and I take great pains to maintain historical accuracy when relevant. I have a frankly massive number of sources that I'm not going to cite here.

That's the main inspiration for the area of my map where the novel takes place; inspirations for the larger world include the Holy Roman Empire, 20th century fascist movements, and more.

(3) What is your MC trying to achieve, and what are you, the writer, trying to achieve with them? Do you want to inspire others, teach forgiveness, help readers grow as a person?

I think that this question runs up against the same problems as the first. I don't desire to teach readers any sort of specific lesson with my fiction. If they take lessons away, that's nice, but it's not something that I concern myself with.

To answer a related but separate question, I hope that some small fraction of readers who feel the same things as I do feel on some level seen; not the shallow "validation" that is so often talked about in online art and fandom spaces, but with the sort of universe-reordering forcefulness and urgency that I've felt so few times in my life. Not saying "you are a market that it is advantageous to target," but "you exist, I see you, and I know." I am writing, in that sense, to my younger self.

My characters both are in an abstract sense seeking to transcend their pasts, and to find belonging. At the beginning, Fasenil is at first balancing his desire for "success" and accolades with the growing threat that visibility presents to him. Hallbjorn is trying desperately to carve out a life that is free from the obligation of violence, but can't seem to do it. I don't consider it my job to pretend that any of these struggles have objectively correct or moral answers. I can only have my characters make decisions, and do their best to forge a way forward.

(4) How many chapters is your story going to have?

I mean, there are thirty in my outline, but that is extremely fluid. It is possible that it will eventually be divided up into a duology.

(5) Is it fanfiction or original content? Where do you plan to post it?

It's an original fiction novel, also functioning as my MFA thesis. I don't plan on posting anything more than snippets and supplemental content (art, memes, etc) anywhere; it will be traditionally published.

(6) When and why did you start writing?

I've been writing since I was a little kid. I've only been taking it seriously as a craft and as a career path for about a year and a half.

(7) Do you have any words of engagement for fellow writers of Writeblr? What other writers of Tumblr do you follow?

I follow many, many writers of tumblr, too many to name here.

The piece of advice that I repeat to myself most often is, "good prose is a renewable resource." What this means is that you must trust in your ability to be able to generate good prose in the future, and not stay married to ineffectual passages just because they are well-written or you are fond of them. My first priority is the function of a paragraph/passage/scene within context, because that is much more difficult to revise than prose itself, which can always be improved.

Also, participate. Write weird essays and post them. Read more. Pick a topic that interests you and read half a dozen papers about it on jstor. Ask questions and offer to workshop people's stuff for them, and then get good at workshopping. Form your own opinions instead of just absorbing whatever's popular in the social media-sphere that you're in.

[thequietmanno1]

TheLreads, Vigilantes ch 89, Replies Part 1

1) “Alright, so, let us try to recover a bit of the lost time. Vigilantes? Yeah, vigilantes. Mirko just started kicking ass? Tricky question, she’s always kicking ass? Okay, so, did the story punched any holes in the worldbuilding or plot? pffft- yeah, I suuuuure it didn’t happen…”-

(L, after reading the chapter)

“NUUURSE! I’ve found a massive hole in this plot! Fetch the band-aids!

2) “Alrighty Mirko, time to show us some badass scenes, if you’re gonna escape persecution from criminal acts I want it to be worth it, aright?|- If there’s one advantage to Mirko, it’s that she’s a guarantee of badassness to ensure, or double your money back, guaranteed.

3) "A person who we don't know the identity of and definitely won't be charged for this even though those event are being transmitted online if I recall correctly "- Given what AFO’s up to, and later resorts to openly stealing Quirks in the chaos, I assume that he cut the feeds at some point when he judged it was time to sabotage the venue and make off with what he wanted from it- in fact, knowing him, he’d already twigged to Knuckle’s infiltration before his match and had pre-emptively  prepared to burn the whole operation to the ground before he’d found anything that could concretely link AFO to the event, hence why he feels secure in (literally) showing his hand in matter now.

For all we know, the feeds were stopped before Mirko burst onto the stage, once “The Ripper” had been taken to the infirmary where he was free to find the incriminating stuff.

4) “Holy shit even the staff? Alright, more meat for the grinder I suppose. Poor bastards.”- They got caught up in the rush, but should have considered where the end result would take them. Oh well, at least this place likely has good dental – AFO had to keep his winning smile somehow, right?

5) “But if we theoretically knew, I bet we would be about to see a true carnage. A one-woman massacre. The Beast of Caerbannog brought to life.”- They’re locked inside a slaughterhouse, and they’re the meat products that need tenderising.

6) “Like I said, a massacre. And glad to see confirmation that this is indeed being shown online, where deeefinitely it won’t remain as a permanent record that can be used to identify her later on, I mean, there’s just so many bunny-people that are on high school and have already been expelled due to illegal underground fights, right?”-  Hmmm, I’m honestly uncertain how much of the event is even being shown anymore. It’d leave too much evidence of AFO’s direct involvement for him to use Kurogiri’s portaling + his Quirk stealing this openly unless he’d already stopped the broadcasting, or put the feed in a closed loop to hide what he was doing, unbeknownst to the actual participants, who are now getting beaten for nothing but Mirko’s amusements

7) “Alright narrator calm down there before she climbs up there to kick your ass as well”- Actually, where the hell is he? He’s still keeping the commentary flow going despite a mass rush of bodies in the cramped confines headed straight for Mirko, so where’s he standing that he can keep an eye on the action without getting knocked over?

8) “Oh yeah it did, but don’t worry, there is enough of it to go around, blood just started being spilled after all

Now rappa, I want you to meet your new best friend forever

god if only Mirko was part of the overhaul raid… “-  Rappa and Mirko really do be sharing the same braincell, just in opposite directions/interests. God but it would have been cool for them to meet/fight in the Hassaki raid again and settle the “Fist vs Kicks” debate once and for all…and I’d actually pay money to see Mirko’s reaction to Tengai’s barrier trciks when he pulled those stunts, and whether or not she could break them by herself unlike Fitgum’s mega-blow. Actually, now I wanna see Mirko and Kirishima interacting, just to see if she’d be up for training his endurance whilst also training her kicks.

9) “ “trying” might be the right word here, because they sure as all hell aren’t succeeding on it.”- An uncoordinated mob vs the most coordinated asskicker in the series, no contest.

10) “Now rappa I want you to apologize to your new best friend because being honest she’s way more “manly” than you. Can’t believe we’ll cancel rappa on shitter due to sexist comments smdh”-  To be fair, he hadn’t spoken to her yet, and I’d honestly find a hard time finding somebody in this series who is more on each other’s wavelength than these duos. I’d also say I ship it, but they love violence more than any romance could hope to compare.

11) “Rappa please, your new best friend is right there and she would actually be incredibly happy to kick your ass into oblivion jesus just get out of Knuckleduster’s dick already”- This is why you should never be afraid to try new dishes on the menu, you might find something you’ll like more than your tried and tested favourites.

12) “oh my god he’s still going after him while casually yeeting people to the side

I can only imagine knuckle back at the office and Rappa outside, holding a boombox over his head like in a 90s romcom.”- That would imply that despite his simple love of straightforward violence, Rappa is skilled enough to track down and keep up with a man whose Quirk is literally all about super-speed, and that’s too funny not to be canon.

13) “I’m sorry, it doesn’t look like knuckleduster is paying attention to what that buzzer was, it looks like he’s so done with this shit he’s disassociating.”- Knuckle is still trying to avert his eyes from the path of the fist, but it will take him down his destined road, one way or another…

14) “Oh boy, is that the proto-trigger? So much for asking consent before giving it to conscious people, right?”- Well, maybe the manager would have asked for consent, but AFO’s not him, is he? Plus, I bet that gas piping was introduced as a “security measure” should the fighting get too out of hand, advertised as a means of sedating the whole crowd at once to avoid ‘incidents’, only for AFO to switch the payload when using it here to his benefit.

15) “Wait, so did the staff knew this was going to happen? But then why would they jump in on the mess? If I knew someone would deploy a quirk-enhancing drug that makes people lose their mind I would avoid going in the middle of a crowd of crazy-ass fuckers”- I’m betting they’re equally confused when people’s Quirks start exploding and spiking in power, but they were expecting the pipes to help sedate them, not push events more and more out of control. But hey, at least it’s really entertaining for AFO, the only one watching from the monitors now.

15) “Alright, so it is trigger alright

So, is this still being transmitted online or did the feed already got cut? Because boy I think it would be hard to overlook this when investigating trigger.”- AFO has definitely cut the feeds, especially since he starts getting ‘directly’ involved now, but it’s unclear as to when he did so.

@thelreads

[kwanisms]

hi this is so random and nerdy of me but i happen to love animals as well as facts about them, their personalities, etc. i hope in another world i’m smart enough to have a career in biology or zoology! but omgg anyway LOL! i’m reading your mingi fic where he is a hyena hybrid and i just want to say i as i was reading i suddenly went “OOO OMG OKAYY BIG BRAIN KWANISM‼️” and stopped reading to run here and ramble to you hehe!

the reason being is that the hyena hierarchy is not in favor of the male hyenas AT ALL. the women are at the top, they’re also more aggressive & dominant than male hyenas. (they are larger than them as well!! :3) male hyenas are at the bottom of the hierarchy and are naturally more weak and submissive than females. they basically must always act right to get a treat, food, literally anything . so yeah, omgg sorry for all of this, i feel like i can’t explain why i found it so neat :( i just thought it was so cool how even if it wasn’t your intention for it to read like that, it still is accurate! which my neurodivergent ass latched onto right away and just had to be annoying about it in anon💔💔 IM SORRY AGAIN :(

sending loves & hugs to youuuuuu🩵

Hi haha I was once in school for zoology so I know a bit about animals and biology as well (｡•ㅅ•｡)♡ I might return to it one day but currently, life is taking me in another direction.

But pretty much everything you said is true for spotted hyenas. The females are larger, more aggressive, and socially dominant over males. They run the show. Females even have a pseudopenis which they use to display their dominance over males and other females. It's all very fascinating. Seriously, anyone who is reading this and learning this for the first time, look up spotted hyena social hierarchy. It's really, really interesting.

It's even more fascinating because out of the four species of hyena, only spotted hyenas are like this. Striped hyenas, brown hyenas, and aardwolves are the other three species of hyena and none of them exhibit the same behavior as striped hyenas. Makes you wonder why striped hyenas evolved like this. What was the evolutionary advantage to warrant such a change in their morphology?

Mingi's werecreature is actually physically based on a striped hyena, where the males are larger and more dominant over females. Mingi is large with the potential to be dominant, he's just being Princess Minki here lolol

But that being said, everything I put in my writing has a specific purpose. I do tons of research before I settle on final details for a fic. It's who I am as a person. I will never not overthink my details and search down to the most minute thing. I love worldbuilding and it's an important part of my process.

I hope you like Mingi's fic and you enjoy the rest of Kinktober! ٩꒰｡•◡•｡꒱۶ and thank you for your message! It's always nice to meet other people who love animal fun facts. Feel free to drop in anytime and drop more animal trivia! 🩷

[veenvss]

Magic in Solar Prythian

seasonal magic | main masterlist | worldbuilding masterlist

ACOTAR to me has always had so much potential but it was just ruined by it's execution. however, I am a grown woman (I'm 18) and I also have free time so I though, "Huh, why not do it myself?"

Hi

This is a post on the Solar Courts and their magic.

Prythian is often split into two, Seasonal and Solar, with an area known as the Middle to geographically split them as well. The magic between the courts differs, yet they're also quite similar. Each court relies on each other in order to make their magic effective. Dawn is reliant on the Night in order to be able to bring its light, and Night is reliant on Day to bring the light to it can bring its shadows.

DAWN

The Dawn Court is one of the courts that we see the least. It's the southernmost Solar Court, bordering the Middle and is mentioned by Feyre to be the court of healing. That is all we really learn about the powers of Dawn.

The power of healing is a powerful power, it could be used to heal yourself or others and we never get shown a full limit to what they could be able to heal. If someone were to have a large amount of magic power, would they be able to regenerate limbs or non-vital organs if need be? With healing, there is also the ability to "over-heal". A perfect example of what I'm talking about is in the anime Fairy Tail during the GMG arc. Wendy has the power of healing, however, she is only able to heal others and not herself, whereas her opponent, Sherria has the ability to heal others and herself. Wendy is at a major disadvantage, however, she heals Sherria, along with Sherria healing herself and as a result, boosts Sherria's magical energy to what she wasn't expecting, which resulted in her missing her attack due to the unprecedented level of magic. If tricks like that could be applied to Dawn's healing, then it could make their magic more powerful than before.

Sunrises are known for their spectacular colours. Dawn magic could have the ability to control light, or at least the visible light spectrum and colours. During a fight that could be a good way to disorientate your opponent by altering the colours that they see slightly, gaining a great advantage. Another way of disorientation is through the manipulation of their feelings. Dawn is commonly associated with the feeling of safety, as you're able to see clearly what's around you and any dangerous predators nearby.

Dawn is also often associated with fog and mists, from the water in the air condensing during the cool night, and the cold mornings. This could allow for a very minimal manipulation of water, clouds and precipitation.

People are not awake from the moment the sun rises, which could allow for Dawn to have control over sleep or the levels of someone's energy, as if someone is awake at dawn, they are most likely quite tired. The control of sleep could also allow for the manipulation of dreams or nightmares.

DAY

The Day Court is the only court in the ACOTAR series that we haven't been to, and we know very little about it. The High Lord is Helion, and we know it is the court of knowledge, light, and spells, but other than that we don't know much.

Day being the court of knowledge and 10,000 libraries gives a very broad scope of powers. We see in ACOWAR during the High Lord Meeting that Helion is able to multiply things, as he gives each High Lord a copy of the plans that Tamlin takes from Hybern, however, that could be a general High Lord ability and not one that's specific to Helion. It could allow for Day to instantly learn or memorise things simply by looking at them once. It could also allow for the ability to have an enhanced memory. Knowledge could also allow for Day to be able to sense things others couldn't, such as a form of clairvoyance, and even further than that, allow for a divination skill. It could allow for memory manipulation, which could make Day quite untrustworthy, a pleasant juxtaposition to the safety that comes with the daytime.

Helion's title is Spellcleaver, whether or not that is his title or a hereditary one that comes from his main title of High Lord is unknown. This title allows for us to know that the Day Court does have some ability to manipulate spells, obviously break them, as seen with Lucien in Hybern, when he breaks through Hybern's enchantments to reach Elain, but also possibly create intense spells. If spells in ACOTAR require intense work and drafting to create them, Day could possibly be able to create strong spells without the need for extra work or enchantments. It could allow for them to be less affected by spells, either naturally spells don't work as well on them, or they're able to destroy the spell's defences quicker, again, as seen by Lucien who was able to get through Hybern's defences, despite him not even knowing his true parentage.

The day brings along the sun, which allows for the Day Court to control light. Feyre mentions that it's Helion's ability that allows her to glow and radiate light. They could be able to manipulate light itself, be able to make things incredibly bright or even dark. With light comes the sight and being able to see. Light allows for objects to reflect different colours back at us, such as the green leaves or red nail polish. The ability to control light could allow them to manipulate how people see colour. It could also blind someone, such as when driving at night when someone forgets to dim their headlights, blinding someone with a flash of light could be disastrous, the same way looking at a solar eclipse is dangerous to the receptors in your eyes. The manipulation of light could force someone to become blind, and then at a later stage, also affect how they see and react to light once blind. Quite often, once blind, people are still able to see different reflections of light, which allows them to avoid objects or even see glitter. If someone were to manipulate that light, it would be difficult for someone to react to the objects around them.

Along with the sun bringing light, it also brings heat. As with Autumn and Summer in my seasonal magic post, the ability to manipulate heat could end in the results of droughts and wildfires and also possibly boiling people alive if they were to manipulate the inner body temperature. One thing I didn't mention in my last post, is heat exhaustion and fever dreams. With the increase in body temperature, instead of boiling the target could be forced to endure fevers and the hallucinations that could come along with them.

NIGHT

The Night Court is undoubtedly the court we know the most about. It's split into three separate regions, the Court of Dreamers or Velaris, the Court of Nightmares and Illyria. Its High Lord is Rhysand and its High Lady is Feyre Archeron, the main character of the series.

Despite how much we know about the Night Court, it's actually difficult to think about what is Night Court's powers and what is just Rhys' powers. Obviously, we can tell that the manipulation of the shadows is from the Night Court, but as far as I can tell, that's the only proper Night Court power we see. The manipulation of the shadows also comes with the ability to control people's sight. As people, we rely on light to be able to see objects or different colours. If they were to remove that ability, people would be unable to see

Rhys himself has mind control powers, but those are a separate thing, as we see them with Dagdan and Brannagh. However, one thing that people do the most during the night is sleep, which could allow for Night to have the ability to manipulate dreams and nightmares. It's not exactly mind control but it could be incredibly disorientating for people to experience. Along with the manipulation of dreams, it could also be the manipulation of sleep. With the ability to manipulate sleep also comes the ability to stop someone from sleeping, which is an incredibly dangerous form of torture, as it can affect people's mood and emotions, cognitive function and sleep deprivation can also cause psychosis. I want to think that Night can just manipulate someone's emotions in general. My own emotions go a bit out of tune during the nighttime, which I think would be a good basis for Night being able to induce madness or any unstable emotion naturally. With people's emotions, night often brings a sense of fear, mostly of the unknown, as I mentioned with the shadows or darkness, we can't see during the night, which is why a lot of people are afraid of the dark. It's not exactly the dark itself, it's what we can't see in the dark. I think Night would be able to manipulate and feed on that fear, especially with their control of someone's emotions and sleep.

Once the sun sets, the ground no longer gets its warmth emitting radiation, which is why the night is often colder than the day. With this, I think that Night would be able to control the temperature in a similar way to Winter, with that it would be able to make things colder, and with the colder weather, minimal control of water, as seen with Dawn, as the colder weather allows for the water vapour to condense and create fog at night and during dawn.

i love extensive worldbuilding as fanfiction and not even for my own works. if you guys are ever reading a book like 50 years into the future and some magic seems familiar its cause its me using my acotar fanfic worldbuilding in a real book.

and i say 50 years because thats the minimum time my WIPs are gonna be done at this rate.

i also think that most of this magic is like only reserved for high lords, like the ability to manipulate someone's sleep and their emotions. feyre is insanely overpowered we've honestly got to start talking about that more because imagine if feyre had every single power i mention in this post AND the last??? omg

[rurusayshi]

it starts with his heart

minsung | lee know / han jisung | 9,6k | rated: e | completed tags: alternate universe - cyberpunk, cyborg lee minho | lee know, pirate han jisung | han, angst, porn with feelings, but it's actually a farewell because one of them is dying, a lot of kissing, body worship, to say goodbye, breathplay, dead dove: do not eat, blood and violence, hurt no comfort, sex worker lee minho | lee know, established relationship, guilt, alternate ending, bittersweet, anal sex, unhealthy coping mechanisms playlist

main idea & inspiration

this was a labor of love, born from my current obsession for baldur’s gate 3 and anything with sci fi / dystopia <3 and some heart wrenching angst <3 the hurt was intentional and i don’t feel any guilt heh

baldur’s gate’s is a dnd game iteration, which sets in a medieval fantasy world. in other words, quite different than what i have with ‘it starts with his heart’. however, the concept behind the absolute cult was such a good food that given the opportunity, i didn’t want to let it go. so you get tadpoled? you will be turned into a mindflayer? your previous identity? there is none of that, you are someone completely new with different goals, different anatomy controlled by a netherbrain. it’s better not to delve further into it as i might spoil bg3, but that was the concept behind the chip implanted in minho's brain and our couple’s dilemma with actual death and identity death.

which then brings us the topic of lovers from different statuses. it usually implies power imbalances, for example royalty/commonfolk, employer/employee, etc. freedom is the keyword here: your power is determined by the extent of your freedom. and in this case it is explored in how minho is bound to the land due to his heart implant whereas as a space pirate, jisung is as free as a bird. hence their relation is fated to encounter difficulties right from the start, with numerous unfavourable circumstances working against them.

to my enjoyment, the 'star-crossed lovers' stirs up such intense, raw emotions in the characters. sprinkle your characters with right amount of that and angst, they will suffer yet they will adapt, in a way, in their way. any more than that? well it often leads to a series of unfortunate choices, which in turn finds them even more trapped than they were in the first place. this is what happened with ‘it starts with his heart’.

inevitable death minho knows he will face a form of demise, perhaps not in the physical sense, but his memories, personality, emotions—everything except his appearance—will vanish, leaving behind something he abhors. nevertheless, he retains the power to choose: death by complete erasure or the death of the identity known as "minho.".

guilt & helplessness jisung is consumed by guilt and helplessness, two emotions he is unaccustomed to dealing with. consequently, he finds himself quick to anger, lashing out repeatedly throughout the story because he believes he's at fault. the chaos and confusion surrounding everything stem from jisung's uncertainty, as he grapples with the overwhelming question: what would anyone do upon learning that their beloved will be taken away and replaced by something they've vehemently opposed? 

freedom city gives, city takes. jisung is free to leave, minho’s not. he would die otherwise. his choices are always limited, he can only say goodbye to jisung.

lore & worldbuilding

so, what about the world? why does minho have implants? wtf is a sentinel? what does pirates do? rough notes:

the timeline would be around roughly 200 years later than now, where instead of countries there are different alliances in different scales.

people are not bound to land. there are floating cities with their own ecologies and artificially adapted climate systems. these are newer, and have the advantages and disadvantages of mobility compared to those who have lands in their hands.

usually alliances try to have both land and floating cities because each give different opportunities.

within the alliance system, each country or city has its own set of regulations, which are governed by a broader rulebook.

some alliances are born from power dynamics, some from shared history and some from similar cultures.

minho resides in the largest earth bound city within its respective alliance. it’s a very power hungry one, often resorting to aggressive means to achieve its goals. it heavily invests in scientific advancements and maintains a strong military presence. the city's teachings are rooted in a form of indoctrination aimed at preserving harmony and order among its inhabitants. however, these ideals are inherently flawed, as not all citizens are born into the same social standing. the city is encircled by three walls, each with distinct security requirements for entry. the capital, reserved for the elite, remains out of reach for the common populace, while the outermost ring, known as paletown, conceals a multitude of dark secrets.

so in a way, within a society that places great emphasis on harmony, organization, and power, there exists a pervasive undercurrent of paranoia. this is exemplified by the introduction of heart implants as the initial step, followed by the deployment of brain implants.

nightdancers: i imagined the nightdancers to share similarities with strippers, but they are frequently anticipated to provide pleasure to their clientele, often involving sexual services. these nightdancers are prevalent in the city and are highly sought after for a pleasurable experience. even tourists prefer spending their time with them.

heart implants: not every citizen is equipped with a heart implant. it is typically allocated based on one's lineage or social standing. the recipients are predominantly drawn from the population of paletown residents, criminals, military personnel, orphans, the homeless, and the infirm. this implant effectively binds its host to the city, rendering departure impossible without authorization. the implant's operation relies on the transmission of signals; in the absence of successful signal reception and transmission, it can cease the host's heart within a matter of minutes.

brain implants: brain implants, a more recent innovation, are employed to establish a segment of the population that directly heeds the government, or rather, the city. these individuals are referred to as 'hosts' or 'sentinel of janus' and are devoid of free will. hosts readily conform to the government's directives, adapting to their assigned roles. at times, they maintain their pre-existing personas to covertly spy on the unsuspecting populace, while on other occasions, they serve as sentinels guarding specific locations. the transformation into a sentinel typically occurs within a span of 6 hours to a day, as the implant necessitates this time to acquaint itself with the host's usual bodily functions and gather sufficient data about their identity, occupation, personality, and more, to convincingly assume their role.

sentinel of janus: janus is the roman god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, frames, and endings; often depicted with two faces. i thought the name would be fitting because janus is embodiment of duality. when an individual undergoes the brain implant procedure, their former identity ceases to exist, marking an ending. within hours, they are reborn as an entirely new person, akin to a newborn, signifying a new beginning. these people are part of the society, yet they are not entirely themselves.

station fortuna: another name derived from roman mythology. but i love it! anyways, station fortuna holds more political significance than a religious one. it's akin to a museum, much like the british museum, housing relics and trophies from the city's conquests. it serves as one of the gateways to access the capital. why fortuna? well, fortuna is the roman goddess of fortune and luck. although this society isn't primarily religious, they still hold on to the belief that preserving their good fortune will help them grow in power.

interestingly, jisung originally hails from an earth-bound city, but his early years were a nomadic existence, divided between land and sky, thanks to his parents' deep-rooted religious convictions. their lives were dedicated to appeasing the gods, which led them on a journey through various places in communion with nature. tragedy struck when a devastating flood ravaged a town, claiming his parents' lives. however, jisung's uncle, who happened to be a pirate at the time, stepped in and adopted him, setting the stage for the person he would become.

pirates: defining pirates is a bit of a slippery slope, as it largely depends on the specific alliance's regulations and definitions. generally, they earn the title 'pirates' due to their involvement in activities such as trafficking people between cities, dealing in illegal information, or pilfering valuable items. motives behind their actions can vary – some are driven by a cause, some chase wealth, and others seek revenge or their alliance's interests.

deleted scenes

With one swift move, Jisung manhandles him like his muscles weight nothing, and they turn around, trade their positions, the pirate’s back against the moss covered wall, Minho half up half kneeling but right above the younger’s face. Minho hisses as Jisung's hands pull apart his ass cheeks and then moans, no, *wails* aloud as the pirate’s tongue breaches him. Beyond the unfiltered moans fall from the older's mouth, filling up the alleyway with obscene sounds are the scrabbling of fingernails on the wall, tearing up the posters as he goes.  He drops his forehead against the wall. He is panting, breathing harshly, and his legs tremble underneath his weight. Jisung tastes him like he is a treat, like he is something worthy of being worshipped. His tongue slides up and down, in and around his hole, licking every inch of it with feverish strokes.

some of my favourite lines

“Why does it matter?” In his eyes, this is the merciful way. “There may be a place where you will welcome me for everything I am, yet there will always be me who is this, *this monster*, that our very lives battle against. I can’t let you see that, I can’t let you look at me and grow with bitterness, Jisung. I don’t want that.”

for minho, the idea of living devoid of his own will, essentially perpetuating a massive deception, is unacceptable. in his view, death is preferable if it means rendering himself useless to the government and to their manipulations. he refuses to become an obstacle for jisung; his greatest fear is transforming into someone jisung detests, and inflict pain upon him. we saw how that plated out in ending 1.

“There was never an ending,” It is a confession, him scraping it out of his heart and laying it bare at the nightdancer’s feet. *Forever*, he doesn’t say but Minho hears it very well. His breath catches on the next inhale. *But this is the ending*, Minho thinks and says, “Jisung, can you…*Can you kiss me more?*”

jisung stubbornly clings to denial of the truth, and there's minho, whose resolve to stay away from jisung crumbles entirely. after all he is human too, he desires to be with jisung as much as he can.

“Slap me,” is what leaves his parted mouth, lifting Minho up, pressing their bodies together, gazing upon his eyes, not daring to look away even for a second. “Bite my skin, dig your nails till I bleed, *claw my eyes out*,” It is his prayer to the hollow ache in his core roaring with anger, with sorrow. “If I can’t be buried in you, then leave something of you within me.”

this is his guilt talking, and some unhealthy coping mechanism. yet isn’t there something oddly romantic about it? he wants minho to leave scars behind because then he can still have a piece of minho within him.

“*Fuck if I know!*” Jisung is a jar, he can’t contain it all and it breaks. “I have no idea what the fucking hell I’m doing!”

this is the idea lol he longs to put an eternity into mere minutes, and this is the result.

‘’You think you are worthy of my time, pirate boy? Better leave and run back to your little ship.’’ The nightdancer nibbles a bright red apple, its juice covering his fingers. A kaleidoscope of confetti under their shoes digs deeper into pavement cavities, each step giving out the same noises over and over. ‘’Oh I know I am, that’s why I will wait.’’ Comes a cocky reply from the younger. Dark strands falling on his forehead have grown longer, almost touching the brown of his eyes. They are a mess but Jisung is content when Minho’s fingers caress them. Minho, though, laughs. ‘’You will wither and die.’’ He reaches for the tin flask of expensive mead the pirate got for him but never offers a sip because he is just like that. ‘’You are a good cause to die for.’’ When he is done eating the apple, they stop at the entrance of the pier, Jisung a step behind. “I will play with your heart.” The nightdancer says. “I’ll give it to you on a silver tray.” The pirate answers. “I will cut it into little pieces.” The nightdancer warns. “Make sure they have nice shapes.” The pirate suggests. “And feed them to the fish.” The nightdancer decides. “Then I’ll be the ocean that’s in love with you.” The pirate claims. “Jisung,” Minho turns his face to him, lips pressed into a taut, thin line. “nothing good comes from loving a whore.” “They say the same for pirates. But you love me anyway.” Jisung smiles and takes Minho’s hand between his own to run a thumb across his palm. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” “So you want me to spell it for you? I guess it starts with—“

this entire part of jisung being stubborn and in love af and not letting minho give him excuses. i think this is my favourite part in the fic.

What the hell am I going to do without you, he wants to ask. Why are you not upset with me, he wonders. How are you so forgiving, he questions.

because he loves you idiot, and because he knows you did everything for him. but i understand. not everyday you learn your actions might cause your lover’s inevitable death and ofc you would expect some resentment, some anger. anything but not this. yet minho is very selfless when it comes to jisung soooo

*And I want to live*, Minho wants to say. *With you*,

minho never wanted to die. maybe before he met jisung, he was less hopeful about his life but he always wanted to live.

“Yet you did before, many many times before Jisungie…” There is no accusation, no bite in Minho’s tone. “You chased kisses after kisses, and when it was time, you left for where you belong. It doesn’t have to be any different.” “*Where I belong?!*” Anger fires in Jisung like a lighter, like a paper cut, quick and growing, roots tangled in despair. “I wanted to be with *you*! Where I belong is with you!” The edge of hurt in Jisung’s voice leaves sparks on his skin. But he absorbs, letting everything sink in. “But would you have stayed if I had asked?” Something flickers in Jisung’s eyes, for a brief moment. The nightdancer sees his hesitation, his doubt. Before he can find his words, Minho’s voice follows. "You shouldn't have, Jisungie. If I ever asked, you should have never said yes." It feels like a threshold, what he says that is. “You wished to give me freedom, how could I possibly have asked the opposite? A cage remains a cage, even if it is as vast as a city.”

another long one but this one is important to me. in minho's shoes, they had bid each other farewell countless times before. however, it was always minho who grappled with nagging worries, haunted by 'what ifs.' he fretted over jisung's safety, pondering the possibility of injuries, or even worse, jisung's untimely demise. this is precisely why jisung gifted him the earpiece, a small but meaningful gesture to provide minho with the comfort of knowing he was safe. all the while, minho never wished the same fate upon jisung, acutely aware of the burden of being trapped in an unlikely prison, one that appeared to be a vast void of opportunities, but was anything but.

Jisung bites down on his tongue until there's blood in his mouth, bitter and coppery. “Would you forgive me if I tried?" He asks, voice thick and hoarse, the sound is wound into his words. Minho’s gaze lingers on Jisung's gun, forgotten on the ground. “Would that make any difference?” Then eyes his right hand, right arm. Remembers what he is to become once again. “You’ve already decided.”

jisung is a stubborn one, even from the beginning this never changed. he plans to come back and take minho with him, this time without the heart and the brain implant.

Jisung expects the worst, his eyes are running all over his lover’s body. “What’s wrong?” He retreats to Minho’s side. ”Are you hurt hyung?”

what’s wrong indeed.

final thoughts

oh boy, i spend most of my days writing this piece and it took sooooooooo much of my time so now we have love/hate relationship. kidding, i love this baby so much. not really sure about the amount of angst i put together but yeah. this was supposed to hurt, and i believed it hurt? especially after the second aka alternate ending. even that is not a happy ending ik ik. it was actually tiff’s idea WHO prefers to read fluff > angst but here we are lol

but yeah, there were so many gun references in the fic and following chekhov it should have been fired at one point. my main dilemma was whether it should be jisung and his stubbornness or minho and his determination. now we have both versions.

i guess this is all? if you made it till here, tysm! have a cookie <3

[alinacapellabooks]

Thanks to @freedominique for the tag!

✦ What motivates you to write?

Easy question, I write because writing is the purpose of my existence. I love creating fictional worlds, and I love creating characters. They're like the adult version of having imaginary friends. I want to write, all the time, whenever I'm not writing, I'm thinking about writing, and everyone I've ever shown my writing to has said that I'm great at it. Writing is to me what nuclear fusion is to stars, ergo, it's what allows me to shine.

✦ A line/short snippet of your writing that you are most proud of/happy with. If not, maybe share a line of someone else's work you love (just please credit them):

Sure thing! Since The Tengu And The Angel is coming out on Sunday, I'll show you a snippet from that!

“I don’t know. I guess I don’t understand how someone could like the one thing I hate about myself,” I sigh, “Or at least, the one thing that everyone else hates about me.”

✦ Which OC makes you smile every time you think/talk about them, and what are they like?

Nathaniel, easily Nathaniel. He is the purest, kindest, sweetest cinnamon roll you could ever want to meet, and I LOVED writing the Nathaniel-centric chapters and scenes, because seeing him go from spineless to having a titanium spine made me feel like a proud mama. He's still a sweetheart by the end of the book, but he's learned to grow a spine, and to not let bad people take advantage of him in the name of 'love'.

✦ What process of writing do you enjoy the most?

Writing explosive scenes. Declarations of love, fights, big arguments, misunderstandings, anything that furthers the development of characters and their relationships in a big way, I'm down for.

✦ What part of writing do you think you are the best at? (Yes stroke your own ego it's okay)

Writing the second draft. I'm good at recognising my own faults in my writing, so it's easy for me to look at the garbage I wrote in the first draft and go, 'There's a diamond somewhere in this garbage, and I think I know where, so let's dig through the garbage until I find it!'

✦ What is something in the writeblr community that is most enjoyable?

TAG GAMES! I don't have any writer friends IRL, and I worry about boring my friends and family when I talk about my OCs, but tag games give you a free pass to wax lyrical about your OCs, and that's why I love doing them/making tag games of my own.

✦ A writing tool/device you use that helps you with writing? (It could be speech to text, a writing program etc)

Don't really have any tools in particular that I use.

✦ A piece of worldbuilding that you like in your own story? (It could be the magic system, a particular place in the story, a law, etc)

Can't really answer this, because The Tengu And The Angel is set in reality, and my current WIP's magic system hasn't been figured out yet.

✦ Tag some people whose works you love/have been your biggest supporters:

Tagging @sm-writes-chaos, @jezifster and @abbieswriteblr

Writeblr Positivity Tag

Hi @inkovert! Thank you, as always, for the tag. Just a quick shout-out; if you don't know Inkovert yet, please please please go check out their WIP, My Dearest Enemy. Also, do you like having in-depth discussions about writing with other up-and-coming authors? Participate in @inkovert's Spilled Ink Saturdays. The first session (on book-to-screen adaptations) was a lot of fun!

✦ What motivates you to write?

I agree with @inkovert. It's not that I'm motivated to write, exactly... It's more that I feel I... have to? There's a sort of internal inertia that keeps pulling me back to fiction. Maybe it's obsession? Maybe it's Maybelline? 💃😉 No, but seriously, I think it may be connected to this weird instinct I have to document things? To give you an idea of what I'm talking about, when I was in my mid-twenties, I went through a terrifying break-in. I kid you not; there was a literal man with a balaclava crouched in my shower in the middle of the night. How did I respond? By screaming, obviously. But after the screaming? I called up my boyfriend and narrated every single detail of what I saw and heard while trying to escape the house with my family. In my mind, I felt it was critical to tell him what was going on, not because I thought it would help catch the culprit(s) (we didn't know if there were more), save us from whatever bitter fate awaited, etc., but kind of in the same way people carve "I was here" into walls? If I was going to die (which was a possibility; a friend's father died in similar circumstances at around the same time), I needed someone to know what I'd seen, to know that I'd seen... So, do I write because I'd die if I didn't? No. I write because I'm going to die anyway. Because I know I'm going to die.

✦ A line/short snippet of your writing that you are most proud of/happy with. If not, maybe share a line of someone else's work you love (just please credit them):

I can do you one better! Because @inkovert kindly tagged me, I'd like to return the favour by referring you to their Wattpad page, where you can read their current WIP, My Dearest Enemy

✦ Which OC makes you smile every time you think/talk about them, and what are they like?

Haha, I don't know if any of the OCs in The Sorcerer's Apprentice make me smile. They all worry me a lot. By accepting an apprenticeship with the sorcerer Valeriano, Altaluna is heading straight into a nest of venomous vipers, and they are going to maim her; they are going to maim her for life. Every time she feels optimistic or wow-ed by the glitz and the glam of her new environment, I cringe internally. My poor, sweet summer child! Valeriano, on the other hand, is a monster, so it's hard to smile when thinking of him. Hmm... maybe the only character I genuinely smile around is Cucufate, the talking monkey. He's the only character whose behaviour and snide comments can be underplayed as just 'animal antics,' which means he's the only character who can get away with giving people a little of what they truly deserve. It's hard not to love him for it.

✦ What process of writing do you enjoy the most?

Again, I have to agree with @inkovert. The editing process means no blank page, and no blank page means (rejoice!) no existential suffering. My first drafts are always shit and a disappointment. But my second drafts? Dost thou want to live deliciously? With the second draft, I know where I'm going, what's happening, where to trim the fat and everything I need to make the story what I wanted it to be in the first place. Usually, I downright discard the first draft and write the entire story from scratch, but better, so much better. And editing the second (or sometimes, third) draft? Pure, unadulterated bliss. Goodbye, low self-esteem, goodbye doubts; cue me some Nina Simone, why don't you?

✦ What part of writing do you think you are the best at? (Yes stroke your own ego it's okay)

Editing, re-drafting. I'm good at figuring out what's wrong and have no trouble whatsoever massacring my darlings.

✦ What is something in the writeblr community that is most enjoyable?

The community! I love participating in tag & ask games, reading people's work, celebrating my mutual's triumphs, and sharing my progress. I don't have any writer friends outside of Tumblr (apart from academic writer friends, though they're a very different kettle of fish), so I really appreciate being able to log on and be met with all this creativity.

✦ A writing tool/device you use that helps you with writing? (It could be speech to text, a writing program etc)

Okay, so first thing first: I have ADHD. Any thought I have is an explosion that simultaneously sends spin-off thoughts in every imaginable direction, which, in turn, send spin-off thoughts in every imaginable direction, and so on and so forth, and on and on, until some of the spin-offs reach a dead end and their line withers, and/or I reach the limits of my capacity to hold all these thoughts in my mind and spontaneously combust. Instead of trying to fight this multi-generative tendency (this leads to a state of paralysis where I can't do anything), I've found a way to let the 'explosions' take the lead without overloading my systems, so to speak. Basically, I figured that if I stored every direction my mind went in somewhere other than my mind, I could let it do its thing without risking burnout. For that, I use MindNode, a visual brainstorming software. And let me tell you, it's been a life-saver. Now, when considering a scene, I document every possible route available to the characters and/or the setting, assign each ramification a score (for example, +1 Worldbuilding, +1 Foreshadowing, +1 Symbolism, +1 Character Development, -1 Cliché, -1 Undermines Tension, -1 Repetitive, etc.), and then choose the one with the highest score to write out. This method is obviously quite time-consuming, but it does have some unique strengths beyond helping me deal with my ADHD: (1) it ensures that there are no superfluous scenes in the grand design, (2) it ensures that all scenes are layered and fulfil multiple story functions at once, (3) it discourages going with the first option that presents itself (usually cliché, in my case), (4) it encourages out-of-the-box creative thinking, (5) and, finally, it's likely to lead to scenes that surprise you, the writer (for example, I was shocked by how many routes led to my character's death, lol). So, yeah, MindNode has been very helpful to me.

✦ A piece of worldbuilding that you like in your own story? (It could be the magic system, a particular place in the story, a law, etc)

I love the magic system, but I'm not sure I'll reveal anything more about it before publication than I already have in this post. You're just going to have to wait and see ;)

✦ Tag some people whose works you love/have been your biggest supporters:

I follow TONS of talented writers on this site, among them: @inkovert, @that-chibi-writer, @tate-lin, @kingkendrick7, @ettawritesnstudies, @blind-the-winds, @aquadestinyswriting, @avrablake, @alinacapellabooks, @lordfenric-writes, @moonscribbler, @cee-grice, @sender-paulson, @sarah-sandwich, @liv-is, @athenswrites, @junypr-camus, @rubywrite, @winterandwords, @salmonandfox, @merlina87, @songsofsomnia, @words-after-midnight, @lucianinsanity, @talesofsorrowandofruin, @nanashi23, @sam-glade, @at-thezenith, @kestalsblog, @kaatiba, @theunboundwriter, and so many more!

[measlywritingblog]

If you're doing worldbuilding wednesday:

What's the religion and mythology in your WIP like? How does it affect the culture, characters, theme, and plot? If your WIP has prominent mythology and or religion in it, what are the main deities and what are some popular myths? How to the people in your WIP feel about the deities they believe in? If there's a popular religion, how widespread is it and are there any well known leaders? Any common practices and or teachings? What about people who don't follow the most common religion, what's it like for them in your WIP? etc etc etc.... (you don't have to answer all of the questions, they're just ideas for what you can share)

*if this is a double ask and I already sent you a question for WBW, feel free to ignore scatterbrained me today :P

HOO BOY WELCOME TO MY WHOLE WIP

BIG BIG BIG POST BELOW THE CUT

Big fat TL;DR at the top though:

Big powerful magic dude wrote himself as god in order to conquer humanity, and he succeeded. Most people think he's doing a good job at being their god. Those who don't are forced to convert, be space nomads, or die. Fun times! My protagonist, being an idol of worship in this religion, has a complicated relationship with this religion that defines literally every single one of her character conflicts, so that's cool.

Soooooo, as you might know if you've been following this blog for any length of time at all, my entire setting has been conquered by one guy who instituted Himself as god!

He calls Himself the "God-Father". He markets Himself as the god responsible for every world religion prior to Him coming into power. Depending on who's asking, He's the second coming of Christ, the final prophet, the awaited reincarnation, and so on. However, connecting Himself to the old world religions has become less important the longer His reign has continued. His holy book, the Holy Word, mostly mythologizes His actual life instead of attempting to tamper with older scriptures.

(Important note: this dude is very white. Very. A lot of His interpretations of non-Abrahamic religions are laughably incorrect. The bulk of the resistance against His rule, also known as "heretics", are Hindu, amongst other traditions, of course.)

The Holy Word is primarily concerned with psychics. It offers an explanation for why humans began to manifest psychic powers, and provides standards for how humans with psychic powers should carry themselves, and how they should be treated in society. It also acts as a history book, chronicling what bits of old world history that He considers important along with recording all that's happened since the founding of the religion. He revises the book about every hundred years or so, and making sure He doesn't accidentally contradict Himself is an enormous chore (that He's recently passed down to His eldest daughter.)

The most famous parable in the book tells of how the God-Father once came upon a town being oppressed by a powerful human psychic who was using her powers to control everyone. The God-Father swooped in, disposed of the dictator, and decreed that no psychic would ever use their powers to oppress their fellow man again. The lesson taken from the parable by the bulk of the population is that psychics should remain humble servants of the rest of humanity despite their power advantage. (Most remain completely oblivious to the hypocrisy of the story. The ones who do recognize the hypocrisy, but also want to keep their lives, often point out that the God-Father is different in that He's a god, not a human, so He's allowed such rule.)

The rest of the popular stories passed around depends heavily on where in the solar system you are:

On good ol' Earth, most of the stories told about Him are small, personal, and deeply reverent. They're about little miracles- Him appearing before sick children and healing them, showing up to random worship services and personally blessing them, etc. This is because Earth is His favorite planet by far, and before things got really busy for Him, He used to spend a lot of time walking about the people. (This also means that pretty much everybody has a story about their grandma or great-uncle or whatever having personally met the God-Father, only a small fraction of which are actually true.) Earth is also home to the most dividing sects of the religion. The God-Father isn't a fan of these divisions, but given how He founded this religion by absorbing all of the others, this was inevitable and He's decided to cut His losses in trying to unite them.

On Venus, the stories almost entirely center around how He almost single-handedly terraformed the planet to make it habitable. This one is actually mostly true. Venusians are quite proud to live on a colony that exists solely due to His craftsmanship.

On Mercury, the stories are much more about His wrath. Mercury has a problem with heretics, who seek refuge in the sun's scorching heat to avoid detection. Followers who do live on Mercury are much more of the "god-fearing" kind.

The people of Mars has a complicated relationship with faith, and it's evidenced by the fact that most of their stories about the God-Father are about Him having to be absent in order to protect everybody from a greater evil. A common sentiment is not that things are better now that He's here- it's that without Him, things would be much worse. The truly resentful, though, feel that He has abandoned them entirely. Mars is the home to the "missionaries", also known as the secret police who enforce belief in the religion, and this does not help the resentment problem.

Settlers of Jupiter's moons have a much more creationist bent, emphasizing how He made the planets for humanity to explore and exploit. The primary reason for expansion to Jupiter was for mining and resource exploitation. Being the richest colony other than Earth means that serious religious devotion kinda takes a back seat, in the exact opposite (and much less "troublesome") way it has on Mars.

Saturn was the old frontier for a few hundred years, and there's a very sharp divide between the large urban population of Titan and the smaller population that lives amongst the rings, harvesting water to make oxygen to supply the star-ships with. However, both populations tend to emphasize His humanity over everything else, and particularly prize a parable from the Holy Word where He goes through a period of fasting in the wilderness.

Uranus and Neptune are closely kindred planets, being tied in their isolation. With space travel being half reliant on solar sails, it's easy to get to these outer planets but more difficult to return. A lot of people seeking a better life, usually from Mars, buy one way tickets. There's similar themes in their stories, emphasizing how much He sacrifices for humanity.

Finally, there's Pluto. Considered a planet and the true last colony of humanity, it really is the final frontier. It's also the front porch to the vast number of heretics that reside in ships in the Oort cloud. It's a lot like Mercury, except lacking the security that Earth is only two planets away- the followers who make their home in this remote location are "god-fearing" people, with plenty of paranoia about heretics hidden in the midst, and very strict rituals to try and root them out. These guys are the Jehovah's witnesses of this setting lol.

Speaking of heretics- anyone who doesn't believe in the religion is labeled a "heretic" and are considered criminals. "Missionaries" are the name of the secret police that hunt down heretics, using various unfair tactics like telepathy to root them out. It's almost impossible to be atheist (even in hiding!) on a settled planet, especially on Venus, Earth, or Mars, which is why most heretics, upon losing faith, try to flee to either Mercury or Pluto as fast as possible.

The bulk of heretics live on vast ships in the Oort cloud. They disguise themselves amongst the debris, and try their best to make a life out there. Because so few psychics go heretic (due to government intervention shenanigans,) these guys have to rely on actual technology to survive. It's difficult, really difficult, but they get to believe what they want.

There's a few major factions, most notably the Free Abrahamists and New Bharat, and they've been around since the God-Father's initial conquests on Earth. They've been bullied around for 800 years- every time they thought they'd outrun His empire, it would expand. They were (despite what the propaganda would tell you) the first humans since our current modern day to reach space, and they were the first settlers on Mars. For a little while, the God-Father was content to appease them, but He eventually broke His promise and forced them off-world.

(This is the reason that Mars has so many problems. When it was conquered, a lot of heretics who were tired of running were subsumed into the religion. However, that kind of sentiment doesn't disappear overnight, and has since festered. And when there's that kind of social instability, opportunists have sprung up to take advantage of it. Hence the "missionaries", trying to enforce the religion and the law, in brutally authoritarian ways that don't actually work in the long run.)

Going back to the technology- when the heretics first fled from Earth, they took a lot of old world culture and technology with them. Heretic ships are the one place in the universe where you'll find copies of the Bible and the Quran, but also medical imaging technology- unheard of in an empire where the usual solution to any health maladies is calling up one of sky daddy's clerics to blast you with magical healing energy. Heretics are the only ones with actual doctors, which they might be better off about.

(The ideal healthcare in this setting would be a mixture of actual doctoring with said healing magic, but in the religion, implying that you would need different/more treatment than what sky daddy is serving up will get you burned at the stake. Not that medical technology has been totally lost within the empire, but pain pills and first aid are about as far as allowed outside of secret government labs.)

Finally, finally, finally, to narrow down on my protagonist:

She's just about the only person in this setting who can get away with not believing everything the God-Father's religion is peddling. This is because it is mandated by said religion that she herself be worshipped, which heavily colors most of her interactions with other human beings. There's only three people in her life who don't put her on a pedestal, that being Father Himself, Hayes, and Omegon, in ascending order of hereticalness.

Everyone else can't legally say "no" to her, and constructive criticism is on thin fucking ice. This goes about as well as you can expect- as much as she uses it to her advantage to get away with things, it also causes serious problems. She becomes the commander of a military fleet at age 14 through pure nepotism, and nobody around her is willing to correct her terrible commanding strategy until she literally forces them to.

As a (frankly natural) result of this treatment, she has a bit of a god complex and draws a distinct line between herself and "humans", despite the fact that she's just as human as they are. She struggles with seeing people as NPCs, and sucks at getting to know new people better. Omegon helps keep her humble, but not nearly enough.

However, however, despite all this chafing making her resent the religion, Alphara still sees her dad as a god. Worship might be a strong word, but she still refuses to see the writing on the wall that He is not divine and is, in fact, just some guy with strong magic powers. She wants to believe in His goodness and His empire and His Plan. This is her biggest point of conflict with Omegon, who is a staunch atheist. It makes their interactions spicy!!

Oh, and Hayes is in the weird position of worshipping the God-Father but also being His closest best friend. So like, he should know better than to think that Father's actually omniscient and all-powerful, but he's in denial about it. This denial doesn't get shaken until Alphara's almost sort-of assassination, which kickstarts his heretic arc in the second book!

[authorofemotion]

Ooooh, please tell me ALL about your WIP??

:DDDDDD Okay SO I hope this is at least slightly coherent

It takes place in your typical medieval fantasy world (which I have a map for somewhere), and magic is forbidden in the kingdom we start off in. I do have worldbuilding reasons as to why but that’s a long explanation and not strictly necessary and I already know this is going to be so long. BUT! The neighboring kingdom practices magic! DUN DUN DUNNNNN

And the main character (Lillian) lives in a small village/commune off of a reasonably sized town near the border, which means that sometimes travelers will come and tell stories of magic that don’t paint it as evil. So she still has a very child-like view of magic and spends all of her free time wandering in the woods daydreaming like the absolute nerd she is.

Okay here’s where the actual plot starts:

Lillian is having on-going fighting with her family because of their differing views on magic, so when she finds a boy (named Alastor)hiding in the woods who can do magic, she hides him out of rebellion.

He offers to teach HER to do magic (because anyone can) so, being an idealistic teenager, she accepts (no hate on her I would too). EXCEPT that he starts manipulating her and drawing her further and further away from her family! He tries to convince her to stage a coup with him to return magic to the kingdom and she’s trapped in this choice between him and her family. The obvious choice is her family, so why does she seem to keep choosing him?

From here I’m going to try and simplify the events a little in hopes that if I ever actually manage to publish this it won’t be completely spoiled (I’m on my third draft and it’s 78,000 words!) Also I should mention that his magic takes the form of ice and hers takes the form of fire, and you can form a bond with another person who does magic where you can speak inside each other’s heads for a while. But you can ONLY DO THAT if you tangle yourself magics together. They have to collide and combine.

She ends up moving to the capital city with Alastor and her younger sister Meg. Meg is angry and done with Lillian’s crap so they have a big falling-out and she leaves to go live with a family friend. That completely isolates Lillian with Alastor and his manipulation EXCEPT that she meets the youngest prince, Prince Emory, who loves to write and tell stories (and his sarcastic manservant Hector, who is actually one of a group of secret magic users in the castle who are trying to protect the royal family)

But if Emory finds out she can do magic then she’ll be executed.

I know this all sounds really cliche but I promise there’s a lot of other really interesting stuff going on. There are magical murders going on that Alastor is framing the royal family for and using that to gain a following of communists who he’s going to use in his uprising, and Meg joins them but then her friend gets murdered and she recognizes Alastor and then SHE almost gets murdered but she’s saved by Hector and he asks for her help in saving Lillian from Alastor and she has to confront her personal biases about magic and *deeep breath* a lot of other stuff

In the end Lillian confesses her magic to Emory and chooses him, and he’s cool with it. Cause he’s a cool guy. Then she goes back to confront Alastor and he’s NOT cool with it (though he does start throwing ice at her so idk maybe he is). She tries to fight back but remember how if their magics collide then they’re bonded for a bit? That happens. But Alastor presses his advantage and uses that in to take full control of her. Like, possesses her. Then, because she’s close to the prince, he makes her go try to murder him.

Meg found out about it along with the castle mages, so they’re letting things proceed as normal so they can use the royal family as bait and stop Lillian before she does anything. Meg thinks that’s unfair so she goes and tells Emory what’s going on, and the idiot RUNS T O W A R D S Lillian and almost dies because of it. The mages try to stop her without hurting her, but some of them are trying to save the prince with no regard to her safety so they’re fighting among themselves, and Emory is refusing to fight back.

Finally he manages to get through to her and she gets in control enough to tell him that Alastor is far enough inside her mind that if she were to die, he would die too. Emory is like, “absolutely not. next” but then the royal guards get there and see a girl with a knife attacking the prince so before anyone can stop them one of them stabs her!!

And Emory discovers his magic just in time to save her life but Alastor gets away

I have the plot planned out for two more books and I feel like this is such a bad representation of the plot but here you go!

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ASKING <3333

[your-brilliant-lady-m]

Part 3 - Basic Concepts of Miraculous Ladybug: Transformations, Potions and Power-Up's

Welcome to my analysis of basic concepts in Miraculous. Let's talk about transformations, potions and power-up's. This one is going to be interesting.

Apparently, only child superheroes have a time limit and can use their power only once. And adults can use their powers many times and maintain their transformation.

I don't take Thomas Astruc's Twitter statements seriously, but he said that adults don't have to detransform because they can feed the kwami with their energy. What happens when energy runs out? Does it mean that holder of the miraculous dies and transformation drops? Or does transformation drops when the kwami grows tired enough? However, according to "Silencer", transformation can't be released until the holder says detransformation words or uses their power (applies to children only). Is that why Master Fu doesn't transform these days? Because he is old and doesn't have enough energy for Wayzz.

At the same time, Bunnix/Bunnyx held her transformation for several thousand years in "Timetagger" and she was still alive. Moreover, not only she was still alive, she hasn't aged a day. Alix still looked around 25 even after spending so much time in stone. Her sanity was also still intact. Does that mean that as long as people are transformed they are immortal and can't die of natural causes, can't get sick or be killed? Does the Miraculous pause all inner processes? Do people stop ageing when they are transformed? Does that mean that prolonged transformations essentially slowed down puberty for Marinette and Adrien because every Akuma attack (their transformation during this attack to be precise) acts as a pause for their growth process? Does that mean that transformed heroes don't need food, sleep or oxygen? And Alix doesn't experience any negative side-effects after prolonged transformation. A lot of questions must be answered here.

But apparently, the "adults can use their power many times without detransforming" rule does not apply to Gabriel. In "Heroes' Day" he turns Nathalie into Catalyst who gives Hawkmoth the power to "release as many akumas as he desires". Does that mean that he can't normally do it? On the other hand, in "Queen Banana" he creates another Akuma right after the fight with akumatized Chloe ended.

Do you remember this? In "Origins" we find out that akumatized butterflies can multiply. That's why Ladybug needs to purify them. So, does that mean that Scarlet Moth and Catalyst weren't necessary?

Hawkmoth's plan in "Heroes' Day" was actually very smart. However, it can fall apart when you remember that butterflies can multiply. How does that work? Why do they multiply? Could Gabriel akumatize Nathalie into Catalyst (akumatized object is something not very valuable, like a piece of paper), then break the akumatized object and release the Akuma into the world? Would that turn people only into copies of Catalyst? I wouldn't call this thing a plothole, exactly. I'm just curious because it's an unclear moment. Perhaps you could explain it as the element of a soft magic system with unclear rules. Because the magic system in Miraculous is a mix between the hard and soft system.

Adults without time-limited power have a serious advantage over children. Why does Master Fu give Ladybug and Black Cat to teenagers then? In the beginning, Fu doesn't know that Butterfly holder is an adult. Isn't it safer to give 2 most powerful Miraculouses to adults just in case? If Butterfly Holder is a child then 2 adults with more powerful Miraculous would win much faster. If Butterfly Holder is an adult as well, then the fight is more even.

We know the out-of-universe reason for doing this. There would be no story then. Miraculous holders have to be kids since it's a kids show. But in-universe it doesn't make sense. In "Furious Fu" Su Han even says that children are not allowed to handle the Miraculous at all according to the rules of the Order. Fu knows that children have a time limit. It looks like he deliberately sets them up for failure. Why?

Is that because children are easier to manipulate as they are most likely to trust Fu's judgement no questions asked? This reasoning doesn't look good for Fu, who is supposed to be a wise and kind mentor. Is that because children won't abuse their powers? Find a trustworthy adult then. Give us some kind of in-universe explanation!

If you can't explain it then do something with the time-limit rule. It's an important plot device, which contributes to tension and raises the stakes during fights. So, removing it is unwise. Consider giving adults a time limit as well then.

Or you can create different rules. Maybe Black Cat and Ladybug can't be wielded by adults, unlike other lower-tier Miraculous? Maybe Miraculous and Kwami can choose the wielder in some capacity, and this magical bond can't be changed? Do Kwamis feel a pull towards several people and Guardian then chooses the final holder? If there's no pull whatsoever, then Kwami won't be able to grant powers to this person? How much weight does the decision of a Guardian have?

I actually like this last idea the most. It makes sense and avoids plotholes at the same time preserving the time-limit rule. I spent less than 20 minutes figuring this out.

This way Fu gave Ladybug and Black Cat to children because he didn't have a choice. Plagg and Tikki gave him suggestions but these people didn't pass his tests. Marinette and Adrien are the last ones and they do pass. It adds some tension and showcases desperation on Master Fu's part. Magical pull doesn't always mean that potential holders are good people. That's why Miraculous sometimes end up in the wrong hands.

Insert a conversation between Marinette and Tikki or Plagg and Adrien about this choosing process, have them wonder about the bond Nooroo and Hawkmoth share.

Then add more information about bonding. The magical connection can be formed just like people form relationships if human and Kwami spend some time together. It nicely adds up with the reason why Master Fu gave Ladybug and Black Cat to teenagers. He could have given both jewels to adults without a bond and waited for the connection to form but alas, there was no time. He needed active holders right now, and waiting for some adult to come around wasn't an option. But here's the catch. Only decent, kind people with good intentions can earn and create a magical bond. And this has the potential for a truly delicious scenario (more on that later).

It's a very tricky situation. But these rules must be stated and figured out in the very beginning. Because it can create plotholes down the line.

Unification

Combining several different Miraculous is an interesting concept and fusion of powers has been used for a long time as a storytelling element. It's important for the plot in several episodes of seasons 3 and 4.

However, there's "Kwamibuster", where the worldbuilding is broken one more time. It is awfully inconsistent within itself just like "Chat Blanc", "Timetagger" and "Furious Fu". (How do writers keep doing this? I have no idea. But then again even "Avengers: Endgame" contradicts itself numerous times. It's truly miraculous how they managed to do this with their budget, I'm impressed).

For a moment let's ignore all absolutely awful priorities that Marinette has in this episode as well as the rule "you can't know the identity of your partner or else you will have to give up your miraculous". This rule is literally never mentioned again before or after this episode. It's just there and it doesn't make sense. I know it's hard to ignore, but one must try. Instead, let's focus on this dialogue below.

Master Fu clearly states that you can't merge the Miraculous. It could make you lose your mind. The only more or less acceptable unification is that of Ladybug and Black Cat.

What happens next? Marinette puts on every Miraculous without any problem just "to free Kwamis" and transforms into Multimouse. The only sign of her discomfort is a moment of dizziness that's gone in a few seconds. Moreover, it never happens again, it's never mentioned. Then she does the exact thing that Fu told her not to do and starts merging Miraculous left and right. She continues to do so in season 4 every other day. What? Of course, how could I forget Shadowmoth? Gabriel merges 2 Miraculous every time in season 4. He doesn't lose his mind.

You can't tell us that merging can make you lose your mind and then in the next scene show us the complete opposite. That's bad writing. If you need the concept of unification to work then cancel the "lose your mind" rule and instead say that the merging process tires you out. There's no lasting harm, just that you will be very tired. If you want to raise the stakes, then say that wielding more than one Miraculous requires a strong will and practice. It's possible, but you can't perform unification just like that.

In this case, you lay the groundwork for the plotline of Marinette and Adrien for season 4 and 5. This plotline is about mastering unification. Show us how our heroes practice with different combinations of Miraculouses outside of Akuma battles. Show how they are improving. Maybe, Ladybug and Chat Noir nearly lose in the season 3 finale because the unification still drains them. However, in season 4 they put more effort into their training and by the time season 5 rolls around they are good at this. They became a stronger team and partners because of that. Their training sessions are also a good set-up for the development of the love square. Nothing like this will happen, but a girl can dream.

Look, I get it. You want Marinette to be special. Unfortunately, you have made her too special. She starts to break the laws of your magic system. We don't see the process. One moment she has 0 knowledge about something and then she is already an accomplished master of the thing in question and often it happens in the same episode. Marinette somehow just knows about the properties of every Miraculous on-screen, but her training happened off-screen. We as the audience are left confused and wondering. Wait, how does she know this? Was there a missing episode? Was this mentioned in some comic? The audience keenly feels the lack of plot-relevant content and explanations.

Potions and Power-Ups

They are a marketing ploy to sell more toys and merch with character transformations. That's it. Are they useful for the story? Yes, they are sometimes. Do power-up's make sense as a worldbuilding element? I'm sorry to tell you this, but no.

Miraculous Grimoire contains lots of potion recipes for Kwamis. I liked that Kwamis can't read the grimoire to avoid giving information to malevolent holders, which implies that they can't lie to their holder about their powers. I talked about this in my previous posts.

Let's start with Ice Transformation. Apparently, in-universe its only useful characteristic and the thing that sets it apart from normal transformation is skates. Maybe, this transformation also has additional protection from the cold. Maybe. Miraculous makes heroes nearly invulnerable and enhances their physical abilities. I find it hard to believe that protection from elements is not included in the package. And that's it. If we remember that Miraculous holders have subconscious control over transformation's appearance, we can also assume that a person can have conscious control as well. The laws of the magic system in Miraculous allow Marinette to ask Tikki to create skates for this particular transformation. Potions aren't necessary for this. This way you can still sell new toy, but in-universe this works better.

Our next stop is Aqua Transformation. It gives heroes the ability to breathe underwater and fins. That's all. In "Syren" it appears that this transformation also makes them more agile and fast in the water. However, Ladybug's yo-yo worked just fine before Aqua form when she tried to drag Kim to the surface. Her movements underwater weren't restricted either with normal transformation. So their fighting ability is not affected by the potion.

Kwami can live without oxygen. I mentioned earlier that Bunnix with normal transformation in "Timetagger" spent several thousand years in stone without oxygen and probably in some kind of stasis. Do transformed heroes need oxygen? No. Then their inability to breathe underwater doesn't make sense. Therefore, a potion isn't necessary for this.

Next, let's talk about fins. They could appear through the conscious desire of the holder just like skates.

Honestly, "Timetagger" and "Chat Blanc" completely destroyed worldbuilding in Miraculous. These episodes just shouldn't exist. They aren't even consistent within themselves, nevermind the rest of the show, which is why I still don't understand why fandom has such a weird hard-on for them and for Bunnix. Oh, wait. On second thought, I get it. They were just fanservice after all.

Cosmo Bug an Astro Chat. Space power-up give heroes the ability to fly and exist without oxygen. Ancient grimoire had the recipe of space potion, apparently. And humans got into space in the second half of the 20-th century. Ok. That totally makes sense.

If ancient people invented a space potion, that could also mean that back in Ancient Egypt Ladybug and Black Cat holders could use advanced technology. But Su Han in "Furious Fu" is surprised to discover that Ladybug can just call Chat Noir. He assumed she would send a bird with a message. That means that unconscious control over transformation extends to the weapons of heroes. For Marinette and Adrien communication means smartphone with navigation, messages, trackers and Bluetooth earbuds. That's why magic gives them smart weapons. Su Han's words prove that the invention of the space potion is not possible. Unless space potion was also subjected to unconscious control over transformation. People couldn't imagine the possibility of space travel in Ancient Egypt, but they could imagine flight. So, perhaps, for heroes back then space potion simply meant wings.

We've established that heroes don't need oxygen. So, a potion isn't necessary for this. The ability to fly also could be achieved through conscious transformation.

That's all for this part of analysis. Let me know what you think. Stay tuned for the next meta. See you!

[incorrectlumityquotes]

FULL REVIEWS: “Adventures in the Elements”

So you guys already know the whole story of how the episode aired in another country and all that jazz and I’ll be honest I’m totally one of those people who decided to watch it anyway.

It was an Amity episode! The temptation was too great. 

I’m going to do a fave five episode list after I’m done with these reviews so I don’t want to spoil it but this episode is probably going to be number one or two. I almost didn’t have to watch the episode to review. That’s how often I’ve watched this one. 

I’ve already said how much I love the cold openings for this show. Not only do they set up the start of the plot, but they also have some of the best jokes in the episode. 

“Hey, freeloaders!” If I ever have kids, that’s how I’ll greet them whenever I enter a room.

Luz is excited to start Hexside but Eda is more excited about her latest batch of human garbage. She dreaming of all the cool things she’ll get to do until she remembers that she has to meet Amity to get her Azura book back. Nice of Luz to lend her the book for four or five episodes. Big brain no count right now.

Luz meets up with Amity and we get the best kind of prize: a surprise. The twins are back! According to Amity, they’ve been trying to make up for what happened in Lost in Language. It’s good to know that the twins know the difference between humiliating your sister and almost getting her killed. Hooray for values I guess.

Another reason I really like this scene is because we get to see Amity really try her best to be friendly to Luz. She’s been antagonistic in every previous episode, so this is the first time we see her try to be friendly to Luz. We get to see Friendly Amity and Friendly Amity is more...protective than I expected her to be.

“Edric, Emira! Stop bothering her.”

Her raised brow and tone of voice also tells me that she was NOT expecting Luz to enroll in Hexside for the next semester. She’s really putting effort to be nice and helpful to Luz. I don’t think I’m wording it right, but I hope you get what I mean. Since Luz made the first move to making their relationship better Amity feels like she would do the same. Sorry, baby girl but that’s a slippery slope that you’re about to slide off in a few episodes. ;)

Amity the one who has to tell Luz that classes at her level require a placement exam and mastery of two spells and Luz remembers that we haven’t done a lot of magic learning in a show about learning magic.

Luz confronts Eda about it, but Eda doesn’t really care until Luz takes advantage of her pride. Eda decides it’s time for magic boot camp and that idea sets off King’s B-plot. Eda takes Luz to The Knee!

So powerful, it defeated John Cena. See if you were a wrestling fan you would have found that hilarious.

According to Eda, early witches came to the knee to develop their magic due to its strong natural magical energy. It’s times like this that remind you that everyone is living on a giant corpse. For kids!

But they’re not alone. The Slitherbeast also lives in the knee, but it won’t mess with you until the third act. And there’s also...

“I’m trying to beat Ed and Em’s highest score on the exam.”

We get more insight into Amity and the Twins. Even though we saw that in Lost in Language the twins were troublemakers who cut class, Amity still has to train to match their score. So Amity has to really work hard to get to the top while the twins (who before this had always given Amity a hard time) are naturally very talented. This actually explains so much about Amity’s freak-out back in Covention. I’m guessing that Amity doesn’t think that’s fair but it’s the hand she’s stuck with.

Luz continues to use the laziest plot device in all of fiction and lies about knowing powerful spells. Luz sees Amity training with a cool wand and Eda does this:

Even the twins have concerns.

Eda’s training does remind me of some philosophy I’ve been studying. What I took from the scene is that Eda does believe that magic should be wild and natural. It’s why she tells Luz to study rocks and eat snow (stay AWAY from the yellow snow). She’s trying to tell Luz that magic comes from the island. It comes from nature. Like The Force from STAR WARS. It flows freely from nature; that’s why she calls it wild magic.

Eda definitely prefers it over using Amity’s “wack training wand.” She probably sees things like that and The Emperor’s coven system as ridged, manufactured and other words that mean fake. Even the wand looks like it’s battery powered. 

Luz, however, is still an impatient kid. She wants to listen to Eda, but her lessons seem odd and Amity’s training looks more like what she was expecting. So Luz pulls another lazy plot device that I’m surprised they don’t more in a show with Eda in it: stealing.

Meanwhile in the B-plot, King wants to do his own boot camp but has no one to do it with. Except Hooty but he says nuts to that noise. King uses Eda’s potion to bring the toys to life. Unfortunately for him, King gets more Chucky than Toy Story.

Luz steals Amity’s book and training wand and can do magic! Eda catches her and they get into a little argument before Luz launches a fireball and hits the only other creature that has been introduced on The Knee. What are the odds?

The Slitherbeast gets so pissed he grabs Eda and the twins. Amity decides to try to go help them and traps Luz in a barrier. 

“You’ll only get hurt.”

Amity is angry with Luz for taking her stuff and putting her siblings in danger, but she’s still putting the effort to be nicer to Luz. Even so this is were we first see the seeds of her crush. It’s not a full blown crush yet but there is a change in her behavior. It’s starting but it’s so small even Amity hasn’t noticed yet.

The B-plot has some of my favorite Hooty moments that really made me laugh out loud.

Back to the main plot (that I don’t have shots of. Come on, Owl House wikia) Luz is stuck in the barrier Amity put up an notices that the stars make the shape of the light glyph. Luz figures out that magic in The Boiling Isles comes from nature because here magic is nature. Since magic can not come from her, it has to come from the island. Even the snowflakes are all tiny individual ice glyphs. 

Luz uses her newfound knowledge with Amity to free Eda and the twins and put the Slitherbeast to sleep. 

And the episode ending is just...just great. 

“I’ll be haunted by my actions forever. Hoot.”

FINAL SCORE: 5 - Loved it.

This is my favorite episode so far. I really want to finish watching all the other episodes before I decide if this is my favorite ever but it’s up there. Like top three. We get worldbuilding, character building, jokes, lore, Amity, Hooty, Twins. It’s fun and meaningful. The revelation that magic comes from the island is something that I know is going to mean a lot to the main plot later but we’ll have to wait and see.

The B-plot here is one of my favorites because I just love Hooty and his weirdness. Every choice they make with him is hilarious. And after this we really get into the lumity zone. Stick around.

[ganymedesclock]

do you have any thoughts on mentor archetypes in general? i looked it up and most of the analysis was about how they invariably die...

I have a lot of thoughts on mentor archetypes, particularly considering it is arguably my job to be a mentor (I am an early childhood educator)

I really love mentoring as a character trait, but I can really hate some of the ways that it applies. There are two problems I think that tend to consume mentor characters (and I’ll add a bonus thought to make three), though they aren’t exclusive nor exhaustive:

mentorhood as a get out of jail free card

mentorhood as the only important thing old people can do

mentorhood as an isolated special incident

1. Mentorhood as a get out of jail free card

I get it. The introduction of Yoda as a character was influential to many people’s childhoods mine included. We love our hard knocks montage. But the fact of the matter is, both educationally and morally speaking, there’s like. a lot of reasons you should not be a dick to someone you’re teaching, and why if a character is being a dick to a student, in particular a student who is younger and needier than them, this should be a character flaw.

(A GREAT example of this wielded effectively as a character flaw: look at Shifu in Kung Fu Panda! Half of the first movie is examining that Shifu’s tough love schtick not only created Tai Lung as a villain by his own admission, but hurt Tigress personally, and Po who was already pretty willing to give up on himself, gave up more until Shifu had a realization and got his ass in gear; and it is made clear in the later movies that it’s because he was grappling with a lot of emotional issues)

Basically it shouldn’t be a joke that the mentor is strict, or harsh, or cruel. Especially don’t make jokes about corporal punishment, which we have better and better science pointing to that it is abusive and fails to teach. 

And part of this is tricky, because a lot of the mentor tropes we’re fed are abusive or flawed mentors, and if you exclusively load the cannon with that sort of material, that’s what’s gong to come out of you unprompted. It’s important to think carefully about what’s actually being taught and being learned. And there should be, bluntly spoken, a reason why these people like their mentors, and if they don’t, that will hurt their progress. There’s no niche so precious that you just HAVE to put up with them. If a mentor is the legendary best in the land, but a terrible person to put up with, it’s not inconceivable that the protagonist is gonna pack their stuff and go talk to the second best in the land who isn’t such a pill. And if the hero stays, then, it’s become an enduring character trait that they will tolerate maltreatment in the interest of a higher goal and that’s not necessarily a good thing.

2. Mentorhood as the only important thing old people can do

This is simply an elaboration on my previous post which I presume inspired anon’s question, but your setting doesn’t simply have a handful of old masters who were young and skilled some long time ago but are now old and beyond doing anything important- or, if it does, there’s a story there. For example, in one of my personal projects, Bevy, there are very few veterans in a particular organization because the organization is fairly recent and because it had an extremely high mortality rate at first- so the few elders that are there, all know each other, and tend highly skilled and highly respected. They’re the survivors of a bleak time. 

And even then, that’s going to be a mixed bag. The elderly grandmother-type who is one of the major characters contrasts against a fashionably middle-aged former knight who keeps the main bastion of the organization safe and running smoothly.

Basically, it’s important to consider that old people are simply just people who’ve been people for a long time. They are still doing everything that younger people get up to. Not every old person is weak or infirm. Not every old person who does have disabilities gained them because of age. Not every old person is entrenched in all their skills and passions because they’ve been doing them for years- people pick up new things all the time, and that’s a by-product of being alive, not of being young.

Old people are allowed to still give a shit about their own life and progress- rather than simply lying back and abdicating to the young on the idea they already have one foot in a grave. This is especially harsh in series where the mean age is low- it might seem funny to joke about how the one 25-year-old in a cast of 10-year-olds is old, but the frank and brutal reality is that if a thirty year old is acting like they’re retirement age something’s brutally wrong here. 

Basically, treat elders in your stories like they’re full people. Any society or organization that’s been around will have old people! This is a thing about worldbuilding that I find highly incredulous sometimes- almost no populations will exclusively be 18-30 year olds. Anywhere people have been for a while, there’ll be old people, and anywhere people intend to stay will have at least a few kids. 

And “old” is not a personality trait- the old people won’t all be limited to wise elders or lonely twilight wanderers or indulgent grandparents and even if they have those qualities they sure as hell won’t be a vacuum. Maybe the lively, playful shopkeep that the detective gets some important intel from is pushing seventy. 

3. Mentorhood as an isolated special incident

Teaching should really not be a matter of training montages. The fact of the matter is, and this ties strongly into the above- in any context, at any time, people will have an uneven level of experience. We are a highly social species. We are wired to take advantage of the fact that we’re usually in groups, and even when not in groups, we can observe or understand what came before us and synthesize personal experience from secondhand experience.

To me, I feel like if there’s a big weakness with the archetypal Mentor, it’s that there’s only one, and all they do is teach. Some people do make teaching a career, and that’s important! But guess what, when I took my job, I’d never learned how to change a diaper before. I was taught, on the job, by my coworkers. I didn’t check into a monastery to practice rigorously on baby dolls before I ever approached an infant.

This is something that comes more easily once you’ve done the work- if you have a cast of characters with diverse ages, backgrounds, and levels of experience, a lot of teaching will just happen organically. Person X will go to do something, realize person Y doesn’t know how, and so person X will show person Y. X doesn’t need to be older, or A Mentor Archetype, or anything in particular.

People learn from each other, constantly, and for a lot of reasons. And learning is often more meaningful when we integrate it into our daily life. 

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #183

Whew, all those racers are finally done! Now we can kick back a bit, all we have to make this time is a literal god.

Anyway, enough self pity! Today we’re making Parvati, one of the many wives of Shiva, but also his only wife, because all the other wives are a part of her, I guess. Hindu gods make our sense of self look vanilla by comparison. She is an Oath of the Ancients Paladin for some godly protection, and a War Cleric for when it’s time to Durga it up a bit.

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

Next up: Like fire, Hellfire, this fire in my skin!

Race and Background

Like many pseudoservants, Parvati is one half god, one half human, so a Fallen Aasimar will keep that in mind and also let her scare the crap out of people when she lets Kali loose. This gives her +1 Wisdom and +2 Charisma, as well as Darkvision, Celestial Resistance to radiant and necrotic damage, the Light cantrip, and some Healing Hands to help people as an action without having to slit your throat.

“Wife of a god” isn’t a common background, but I assume it’s pretty similar to being a Noble. Lots of politics, deciding the fate of peasants/mortals for them, that kind of thing. that gives you proficiency in History (makes sense-you’re immortal) and Persuasion (you were somehow able to convince Guda to eat an entire cow-sized chocolate in a single sitting).

Ability Scores

Make sure your Wisdom is as high as possible to help take care of everyone’s problems (except for Kama’s). After that is Charisma- she’s the wife of the gods, it only makes sense for this to be really high. Her Strength isn’t that high, but a god who is bad at fighting is still a god. After that is Dexterity. It should be higher to deal with the whole “fighting in a sari” thing, but we needed the other three for multiclassing. Her Intelligence isn’t amazing, but we need everything else more for the build. That means we’re dumping Constitution. Honestly she should be tougher, but one of her big myths involves hurting herself for the sake of others, so that’s going to knock her down a couple points.

Class Levels

Paladin 1: Starting off as a paladin will get you more HP than a cleric, but you also get proficiency in Wisdom and Charisma saves, and the skills Religion and Intimidation. You’re a god, and I’m not sure how you convinced Guda to eat a chocolate cow, so now all your bases are covered. You also get a Divine Sense to suss out extraplanar goodies and baddies as an action 1+your Charisma Modifier times per day. You also also get even more healing thanks to Lay on Hands, which gives you a total pool of healing equal to five times your paladin level per long rest.

Paladin 2: Second level paladins get a Fighting Style, but since you’re not actually that good at fighting we’ll grab Interception instead. While wielding a weapon or shield you can react to block attacks going towards creatures near you, reducing the damage by 1d10 plus your proficiency bonus. You also get Spells that you can cast and prepare using your Charisma. Since you can switch them up every long rest the exact spells you take aren’t that important, but I suggest Detect Evil and Good for more godly senses and Command to put mortals in their place. Alternatively, you can use Divine Smites to add extra radiant damage to your attacks using your spell slots. It’s not lightning yet, but... wait, are we making two lightning-based lancers connected to the Indian pantheon in three builds of each other?

Paladin 3: At third level you get to become the Maid-sorry, Kouhai of Light (mixed up my vaguely sci-fi works of fiction with sprawling and nonsensical worldbuilding there) as a Oath of Ancients paladin. When you take the subclass you get Oath Spells, which are automatically prepared for you. You get Ensnaring Strike and Speak with Animals. The former isn’t that in-character, but there’s enough talking animals in Hindu mythology for the latter to just be an automatic include. Third level paladins also can Channel Divinity once per short rest in two flavors. Nature’s Wrath ensnares an enemy if they fail a strength or dexterity save (DC 8 + proficiency + charisma modifier), repeating the save each turn until they succeed. Weirdly enough, there’s no time limit, so if your magic’s strong enough and they’re weak enough it’ll just last forever. Alternatively, you can Turn the Faithless, forcing a wisdom save on all fey and fiends nearby, forcing them to flee for up to a minute and making it unable to disguise itself. One last thing; your Necrotic Shroud makes you really scary as an action once per long rest, forcing a charisma save on nearby creatures that’ll frighten them if they fail. Then, for a minute afterwards you can deal necrotic damage once per turn equal to your level.

Paladin 4: Use this Ability Score Improvement to bump up your Constitution. Even if there’s a thematic reason for it, it’s just too painful to leave you with a negative health modifier.

Paladin 5: Fifth level paladins get an Extra Attack as well as 2nd level spells! Your freebies include Moonbeam, which does damage and also forces creatures out of disguises, and Misty Step, which lets your teleport around. More in character, you can use Find Steed to qualify for the rider class with a cool cow, or Magic Weapon to make your spear a bit cooler than the rest.

Paladin 6: Your new Aura of Protection adds your charisma modifier to all allied saving throws within 10′ of you for a little grace of the goddess.

Paladin 7: Not to be outdone, your subclass also chips in with its own aura, the Aura of Warding, which gives you and everyone around you resistance to spell damage. Unlike most paladin auras, this one does not require you to be conscious.

Paladin 8: Use this ASI to round out your Strength and get cool new features at the same time thanks to the Piercer feat. Now you can re-roll a die of piercing damage you deal each turn, and critical hits with piercing weapons deal an extra die of damage!

Paladin 9: Your last level of paladin gives you third level spells, like Plant Growth and Protection from Energy. All well and good, but you also get spells that aren’t free, like Create Food and Water so you don’t have to slit your throat next time someone is thirsty and Elemental Weapon so you can finally have an electric spear.

Cleric 1: Being all sweet and motherly is nice, but we also need to be able to channel Durga when we need to. Durga’s a War god, so that feels like a good place to start. War clerics become a War Priest first thing, letting you make another weapon attack as a bonus action if you attack as your action Wisdom modifier times per long rest. Yes, this does mean you’re technically better at fighting than a paladin. Congrats. You also get another set of Spells you cast and prepare using your Wisdom. Grab the cantrips Guidance to be a bit better than everyone else, Spare the Dying to take care of them, and Thaumaturgy to actually appear godly when you need to. You also get more freebies, like Divine Favor for a worse but cheaper Elemental Weapon and Shield of Faith for a boost in AC. Technically you’re fighting in just a dress, so you’ll really need this if you’re playing to character. Also, grab Guiding Bolt so you can actually lightning some fools while helping out the party. Deal radiant damage and give the next attacker advantage.

Cleric 2: Second level clerics get Channel Divinity, and also giving us a chance to talk about what happens when you multiclass like this. You don’t get extra uses of CD, but you can use it in all the ways you get options for. So you can use your one use per short rest to instill Nature’s Wrath, Turn the Faithless, Turn Undead, or for a Guided Strike. The former forces a wisdom save on all the nearby undead, turning them if they fail. The latter adds 10 to an attack roll you make. You’re a nice person, but sometimes you just gotta get Kali on their asses, you know?

Cleric 3: Third level clerics get second level spells, like Magic Weapon which we already went over and Spiritual Weapon, which lets you forgo your not good strength score to attack with a big glowy weapon as a bonus action. If all this bloodshed is getting you down, you can also use Calm Emotions to try to end things peacefully.

Cleric 4: Use this ASI to bump up your Charisma for stronger paladin spells and auras. You also learn the Mending cantrip for some mending.

Cleric 5: At fifth level, clerics can start to Destroy Undead instead of turning them if they’re CR 1/2 or lower, destroying them instantly if they fail their save. You also get third level spells like Crusader’s Mantle for a widespread worse elemental weapon and Spirit Guardians to create those other two Parvatis for your NP. Alternatively, you can cast Life Transference to give some of your HP to your allies. It’s not quite as bad since you resist the damage, but I doubt there’s many people on your team who need health more than you do.

Cleric 6: At sixth level, clerics get a second Channel Divinity each rest, and you can use that to give out a War God’s Blessing, giving +10 to nearby ally’s attack roll.

Cleric 7: For your freebie fourth level spells you get Freedom of Movement and Stoneskin to help with your less than amazing physical stats. You can also use Aura of Life and Aura of Purity to make life around you just a bit nicer.

Cleric 8: Use your last ASI to bump up your Wisdom for better cleric spells and more cleric beatdowns with War Priest. Also, Destroy Undead kills CR 1 creatures, and you get a Divine Strike, adding 1d8 damage to a weapon’s damage once per turn.

Cleric 9: Ninth level clerics get fifth level spells, like Flame Strike and Hold Monster. It might not be a lightning bolt, but any wrath of god is a good wrath of god in my book. You can also use spells like Summon Celestial to phone a family member for some help, or Hallow to make life a bit better in a single place for 24 hours. There’s a lot of effects to pick from, so make sure you check them out on your own time.

Cleric 10: Tenth level clerics get another cantrip, so grab Resistance to buff your saves just a little bit more. You also get Divine Intervention once per day, giving you a ten percent chance of a god saving your ass when you use it. If you succeed you can’t use it again for a week.

Cleric 11: Your capstone level bumps your destroy undead up to CR 2 creatures, and you can cast sixth level spells like Heroes’ Feast. Heal people up and make it even harder for charms to effect them thanks to an empowered wisdom save, what’s not to love?

Pros:

Frontline fighters tend to be pretty bad against magic, but thanks to Parvati’s auras they’ll have a much easier time when they’re fighting near her.

Despite her stats, she’s also not that bad at fighting thanks to all her magical support. Thanks to being a war cleric she can just slap +10 onto an attack to make sure it hits, and thanks to being a paladin she can make that one hit really count. She also gets more hits per turn thanks to War Priest than either a paladin or a war cleric would get alone.

Even with that fighting and regular gish spells, she still has a varied and flexible set of spells thanks to both her classes being prep based and clerics just being good in general.

Cons:

She still only has a strength score of 14, so she can’t use heavy armor well even if she wanted to, and it also eats into her damage a bit when you’re not using smites.

When she’s not using magic she’s really easy to beat up, with barely over 100 hp and an AC of 11. She should probably be in at least chainmail if you seriously want to play as her.

Most of her martial prowess is built into features with limited uses, with Guided Strike only usable twice a short rest and War Priest four times a long rest. Also, stuff like Stoneskin and and Shield of Faith are concentration based, which isn’t one of her strong suits.

[depizan]

100 Days of Writing

@the-wip-project‘s 100 days of writing

Day something or another (I’ve lost track again): more babbling about worldbuilding

One other worldbuilding thing I’ve pondered a bit is medical care. It’s one aspect of the Star Wars universe that I feel got vaguer over time. The original trilogy didn’t say a whole lot about medical care, but what was shown felt like something that could be extrapolated from in a reasonably sensible and consistent manner. (And some Legends stuff did.)

I’m not sure if it started going sideways in Legends before Revenge of the Sith introduced ever so much what the fuck, but by the time SW:TOR rolled around Star Wars medical care was incoherent, and also magic. Add in aesthetics and the question of exactly where the story/gameplay divide is, and it’s enough to make a fan writer cry. Or go “well, if canon isn’t making sense, I’m just going to invent my own sense.” (Which, I suppose, brings us back to Director Furying canon. Though in this case, it’s less that canon made a stupid-ass decision and more that canon opted to make no decisions whatsoever.)

There’s dialogue in game and in tie-in material to support basically whatever you might want medical care to be capable of…or not capable of. Half the stuff talks as though kolto is the treatment, for everything. (Which matches up to the Legends works that solved everything by sticking people in bacta tanks, regardless of whether that made sense. (Bacta being the successor to kolto, with both poorly explained healing fluids being treated very similarly.))

The only way dunking someone in a tank of liquid to fix broken bones and/or internal injuries could possibly work as the only treatment is if kolto (or bacta) were sapient. And had a medical degree. Pretty sure that’s not what’s meant to be implied. (Though I suppose it could be entertaining...)

I treat kolto as part of medical care. Sure, it’s highly useful, and canonically both eases pain and speeds healing (and if injected, acts as a sedative), but you’ve still got to do the hard medical work of putting people back together first! Surgeons are very definitely a thing, as are replacement parts, mostly of the cybernetic or otherwise non-biologic variety, but some things are also lab grown. I mean, come on, as I noted when talking about bounty hunting, this is a universe where they can duplicate people, redo their genetics, and all kinds of other things. I think there are going to be a lot of options for how you put somebody back together after an accident or battle.

But those options are going to depend greatly on where in the galaxy you are. I tend to assume that both the Empire and Republic have some form of universal medical care, but logistics and bureaucracy and nepotism and a million other things means that that care isn’t equally good for everyone everywhere. The care available on Coruscant or Dromund Kaas is going to be far better than the care on some fringe world. The Empire’s going to sink more into putting an Intelligence field agent back together than a low level clerk. A Republic senator will have more care options than a farmer. Etc.

What’s available on independent worlds and systems also varies greatly, depending on how that government operates and what it considers important or not. You might have universal healthcare, you might have for profit medicine, you might have some order of Force Sensitives that fixes people up. Who knows.

And then there’s Hutt Space and the galactic underworld, where things are exactly the mess you’d expect them to be. There are for profit medcenters. There are cheap surgeries in some dirty back alley office where you can only hope the medical droid doing the work has had its programming updated sometime this decade. (And that’s assuming you’re not crossing your fingers that the person doing the work has – or had – a medical degree from somewhere, at some time.) There are truly excellent independent clinics who do absolutely cutting edge work…as long as you have the money, or don’t mind owing a Hutt, an Exchange boss, or some other crime lord for the rest of your life.

And, sure, there are actually independent actual doctors who do good work and are operating in the fringes either because they were born there and they managed to pay off their Hutt indenture or because something unrelated to their medical skill caused them to leave the Republic or Empire or wherever they came from. But they’re harder to find, and you’re still going to need to have ready credits.

You do also get the occasional Jedi or other do-gooder providing free medical care on Nar Shaddaa or one of the other trade hub worlds. As long as they’re focusing on the lowest of the low and not cutting into anyone’s bottom line too much, they usually manage to stick around for a bit. But they almost always eventually run into that bottom line problem (or, in the case of some Jedi, draw a bit too much attention to themselves) and get booted off the planet.

(Okay, so maybe I kind of treat Hutt Space and the galactic underworld as Shadowrun in space.)

All that’s just the how. What about the what? How does medicine work in the galaxy far, far away?

I could answer that better if I knew more about how medicine works in the here and now. Unfortunately, I don’t even play a doctor on TV. All I’ve got are vague science fictional ideas.

You’ve got your cybernetics, both replacement parts and enhancements. Strictly replacement parts have the potential to look pretty much like your original parts, just with different care regimens. Enhancements tend to be more obvious. So are your options on the cheaper end of things or out in the boonies. That’s where you tend to get less pleasant options like people using discarded droid limbs and the like.

Broken bones that can’t be repaired can be replaced. Skin can be grown in a laboratory. A whole lot of things just aren’t a big deal if you’ve got access to a well-equipped medcenter. Galactic medicine can cure cancer, make you a different person, put you back together after a horrible accident, all that good stuff. If you’ve got access to a well-equipped medcenter.

And, of course, there’s the downsides or complications of all this. Sure, you can probably save a badly injured person by stuffing them in a kolto tank and hotfooting it for a major world. But I don’t pity the medical team that has to deal with whatever horrors the kolto wrought during the journey. If you’ve got fancy cybernetics, there’s always the chance you’ll run into someone who wants them very, very badly. People can be turned into perfect (or very near perfect) duplicates of other people.

On the flip side, people still die because they were too far from the nearest medcenter when they got injured. Battlefield medicine – and emergency medicine in some places – tends to be more focused on saving life and limb than having things look pretty afterwards. Kolto might do a great job of reducing or even entirely preventing scars, but only if you get it applied soon enough. (Though, for those last two, cosmetic surgery is always an option.)

Soldiers don’t always fix scars, because they’re proof you did get fixed up in the field – which is proof that you were in battle and survived. Similarly, it’s not uncommon to see bounty hunters and mercenaries with scars. (Whether actually from battle or not.) And people just make different decisions. A person who lost their legs in an accident might get cybernetic replacements… or they might use a hoverchair.

In one ficlet, Savler thinks about the trade-off between having a perfectly lifelike replacement eye vs. one that could do significantly more than a human eye. Both have advantages and disadvantages in her line of work, and it’s clearly a decision she revisits from time to time.

I’ve left it unclear if Kyrian made the most practical choice when it came to his injured hand. (Actually, no, I’ve kind of suggested he didn’t. A good cybernetic hand wouldn’t result in any of the minor problems he’s just going to have to live with.) But he’s hardly the only person in the galaxy made that choice.

You know, I’m not sure I’ve so much replaced canon as worked out a lot of justifications to explain canon. (Well, aside from the kolto tank weirdness.)