#grief magic

[tothepointofinsanity]

使徒

[feral-ballad]

Joy Sullivan, from Instructions for Traveling West: Poems; “Velveteen”

[shadelorde]

The idea of dark magic creating a void, a darkness inside your soul, paralleled with Aaravos’s star over his heart going hollow after Leola was killed

[ratwithhands]

A few days ago I woke up bleary eyed, sat down at my computer, and spat this out.

Mostly just a bit of goofy sketching but here's magical boy (magical man?) submas

I'm not gonna flesh this out a whole bunch since there's not much I can really do with it, but some rough notes:

Both of them have two soul stones, one in the hat and one in the staff. In their base uniform, the staff's stone is on the back of their gloves, separating when activated

They're only able to activate their abilities when they're with each other. Though they can both separately fight and return to normal, they need each other to begin the reaction and use their powers. Should one of them go missing, the other will not be able to use their abilities

The stone can be removed from the staff, returning to the hand if it is. The purpose of doing this is to replace it with a pokeball, allowing the staff to channel the pokemon's moves along with its standard attacks (electricity for Emmet, fire for Ingo)

Ingo and Emmet can trade (or steal) clothes mid transformation, switching pieces or entire uniforms. Emmet will typically borrow Ingo's darker gloves and boots if he expects to get particularly violent in battle, while Ingo usually takes Emmet's white accessories since he finds them more classy than his full black uniform

They are able to float in their magical forms, mostly using the levitation to run loops around their opponents and pressure them from all sides

The only opponent is literally Team Plasma, this power is reserved solely for beating grunts, sages, or Ghetsis should they ever cross paths (technically the code is to defend the world from evil but for any other issue they'll either settle it normally or with pokemon battling)

This was mostly for shits and giggles but I hope you enjoy 👍

[stutterhug]

Meadow Troll ~

[witchesnet]

I was really, really happy.

[golden-letters]

mum says loved ones who have passed on returns to visit in dreams on the seventh day since their death. it was your seventh day last night. i dreamt of you. i find it poetic and so, so, so sad. i ran to you and hugged you. i lifted you up. i told you we love you and i hope you know it forever. i thought of you this morning in the car. i wept when one of your favourite songs came on. i cried when my mum told me that loved ones who have passed on returns to visit in dreams on the seventh day since their death. i can’t believe it’s been a week.

[spicylove4ever]

Was this the moment he realized he was not going to see his daughter again?

[acourtoffeyandfables]

Lou Wilson once more having greatness (erika ishii shenanigans) thrust upon him

[nellasbookplanet]

In the wake of FCG' fate I've been thinking about death in ttrpgs, and how it kind of exists on three levels:

There’s the gameplay level, where it only makes sense for a combat-heavy, pc-based game to have a tool for resurrection because the characters are going to die a lot and players get attached to them and their plotlines.

Then there’s the narrative level, where you sort of need permanent death on occasion so as not to lose all tension and realism. On this level, sometimes the player will let their character remain dead because they find it more interesting despite there being options of resurrection, or maybe the dice simply won’t allow the resurrection to succeed.

Then, of course, there’s the in-universe level, which is the one that really twists my mind. This is a world where actual resurrection of the actual dead is entirely obtainable, often without any ill effects (I mean, they'll be traumatized, but unless you ask a necromancer to do the resurrection they won’t come back as a zombie or vampire or otherwise wrong). It’s so normal that many adventurers will have gone through it multiple times. Like, imagine actually living in a world where all that keeps you from getting a missing loved one back is the funds to buy a diamond and hire a cleric. As viewers we felt that of course Pike should bring Laudna, a complete stranger, back when asked, but how often does she get this question? How many parents have come and begged her to return their child to them? How many lovers lost but still within reach? When and how does she decide who she saves and who she doesn’t?

From this perspective, I feel like every other adventurer should have the motive/backstory of 'I lost a loved one and am working to obtain the level of power/wealth to get them back'. But of course this is a game, and resurrection is just a game mechanic meant to be practically useful.

Anyway. A story-based actual play kind of has to find a way to balance these three levels. From a narrative perspective letting FCG remain dead makes sense, respects their sacrifice, and ends their arc on a highlight. From a gameplay level it is possible to bring them back but a lot more complicated than a simple revivify. But on an in-universe level, when do you decide if you should let someone remain dead or not? Is the party selfish if they don’t choose to pursue his resurrection the way they did for Laudna? Do they even know, as characters, that it’s technically possible to save someone who's been blown to smithereens? Back in campaign 2, the moment the m9 gained access to higher level resurrection they went to get Molly back (and only failed because his body had been taken back by Lucien). At the end of c1, half the party were in denial about Vax and still looking for ways to save him, because they had always been able to before (and had the game continued longer it wouldn’t have surprised me had they found a way). Deanna was brought back decades after her death (and was kind of fucked up because of it). Bringing someone back could be saving them, showing them just how loved and appreciated they are. Or it could be saving you, forcing someone back from rest and peace into a world that's kept moving without them because you can’t handle the guilt of knowing you let them stay gone when you didn’t have to. How do you know? How would you ever know?

[criticalbeauregard]

thinking about how (even though they definitely didn't know agatha's story at the time) the only time we see agatha cry in wandavision is after she hears wanda say "why do you think talking about it would bring me comfort? the only thing that would bring me comfort is seeing him again." to her (future) love. and then she hears vision say "i've always been alone, so i don't feel the lack. it's all i've ever known. i've never experienced loss because i've never had a loved one to lose." to his.

and i wonder if in that fleeting moment she understood something about rio through vision's words, even if she would never admit as much.

[tothepointofinsanity]

God shattering star.

[Click for better quality.]

[carpethedamndiemdejavu]

Abandoned Stone Hands Sculpture, Japan

[conteur-reveur]

The most fucked up part of mismag 2.3 for me was Whitney allocating himself time to bawl and sob and feel deep loss on a literal timer.

Because I have *done this*. Grief and trauma get fucking weird as hell when you save them for later.

[thefollow-spot]

I know the real reason they put Morgana in all black once she turned evil was to make her look like a witch, but I headcanon that she wears black on purpose, as a symbol of perpetual grief for all the people Uther killed in the purge. Does anyone know this? No! But she walks around feeling like she's Saying Something and Making A Statement by dressing as a perpetual mourner.

[made-my-peace-with-all-the-bad]

No one and I mean NO ONE understands how much I think about this photo