#he just isn't immature enough to start a fight with children

[thegreymoon]

The Story of Minglan

Who?

Wasn't she supposed to take Rongjie fishing? This isn't Rongjie, is it?

***

I'm pretty sure these are all new characters.

I mean, yeah, I took a bit of a long break but I don't remember these two at all. They are relatives of the Emperor? Is this the brother whose wife died? But if so, who is the woman?

Anyway, let's get back to the kitchen fight! Imagine embarrassing yourself so badly in front of the Emperor's relatives, LMAO. I'm here with all the popcorn 🍿🍿

***

State Uncle Shen? 🤔

So, not the Imperial family?? I don't understand who she is married to, then. I must have grossly misunderstood something in her conversation with Minglan.

***

LMAO, so many dead birds with one stone 🤣🤣

***

LMAO, you should practise makeup as well 🤣🤣

***

LMAO, I don't think there is enough ability in the world 🤣🤣

Quit while you're ahead, girl.

***

OH MY GOD. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

AGAIN??

***

Oh? 👀

This is new, lol! The ones before here were all, "Give me a path to live, let me fuck your husband!" and this one is the first to go, "Give me a path to live, I really don't want to fuck your husband!" 🤣🤣

***

Minglan is not a doormat but she chooses to be kind when she can.

They are lucky.

Also, I love the implication that this girl had already slept with Tingye's younger brother in the Marquis Manor and that they are now trying to stuff her into his bed too. Gross 🤮

If I were Tingye, I'd be too disgusted to even get it up.

***

I am obviously a much bigger fan of Minglan than Tingye, but I can't help but feel a bit bad for him 😅

Whenever he tries to get her to flirt or teases (hints, lbr 🤣🤣) that she could use her charms to get him to do anything for her, she gets all serious and says, "Never mind, then! I wouldn't want to indispose you!"

He really wants her to lean on him, he wants her to be free and genuine and loving and playful, but she just refuses to bite and keeps him at arm's length all the time. Yeah, she does all her wifely duties perfectly, but she gives him nothing more than that and he wants so much more.

***

Wait, is it Manniang?

Are they talking about Manniang??

Smh, I had forgotten all about her 😠 Things were going too well, of course she had to show up to stink up the place.

***

OMG, Minglan, noooooooo 😬

Poor guy, the way his face drops as he listens to her 😢 From the happy, smiley expression when she acknowledges that he is good to her, to... this.

***

She just keeps digging that hole deeper and deeper 😬

Poor Tingye, is he even aware of how little she thinks of him and how much she insulted him here? He must be, he is Changbai's best friend and he is intuitive enough to know what was going on in that hell house.

***

The amount of damage shitty, selfish, immature parents do to their children is insane.

If they were living in modern times, she would torch her entire relationship with this attitude and a therapist would earn a fortune dealing with her daddy and attachment issues. She has so much contempt towards men in general (understandably) and has definitely started her own marriage out on the wrong foot.

[noirgl0w]

hii lucy, I was wondering if you did any headcanons? If you do I wanted to ask you about John B x Childish! Reader???

well hello anon, I'm a sucker for John B x childish! Reader

☾ He loves it, You're not the type of person who does it in a gross, fetishistic way, you're just more immature than the rest, and that drives him and his dad complex crazy.

☾ Everytime you guys go out and you see a stuffed animal that you like, he'll but it to you, It doesn't matter if you're a kook or a pogue, this man is a gentleman, and he will buy it to you even if that means be a little tight on money that month, because I don't know if you knew, but stuffed animals are expensive as hell.

☾ When you go to the beach it seems like you are going with a horde of children, but no! It's just you (And JJ, that guy is worse than you) And your beach toys, you have countless buckets to make sand castles, even a small fishing net that you call a 'jellyfish catcher' because of SpongeBob, you and John B go to the rocky area of ​​the beach to try to catch fish or crabs, but you always end up returning them to the sea because 'John B, what if they have a family? Baby fish can't live without its dad!'

☾ One time you went to Pope and he didn't know about this rule of releasing the fish, so he kept them in a bucket without water, you spent hours crying and literally weeks without talking to him!

☾ You are not one of those couples that when they get into the sea they kiss and have romantic moments, no, you insult Poseidon to make him make bigger waves, you do cartwheels in the water, one time a wave washed you to the shore and John B panicked because you swallowed water!

☾ JJ and you being practically all-terrain, playing fights and you leaving crying every time because the brute can't control his strength! :(

☾ If you're a Picky Eater, the freezer at the château is full of things like chicken nuggets and frozen fries and your dates are at any cheap pizzeria on the Cut or at Burger King or McDonald's, John B isn't complaining, he's not a big fan of posh food places.

☾ John B has a blanket for you in the twinkie in case you get sleepy!

☾ If you have a special stuffed animal, John B will love him, you will treat him like your son because he is your stuffed animal to sleep with, but you hug him more than him, he will start to feel jealous and will try to put it on the other side of the bed so you sleep hugging it.

☾ He will watch you at all the parties, he knows that you are prone to getting lost and he can't let you go around alone, what if you meet a kook who wants to take advantage of you? Or if you want to go home and he's not there to take you? No, you are always by his side, and at some point he will leave you with Kie or Pope (There is no way he will leave you alone with JJ, you are too chaotic!)

☾ You collect shells and make him necklaces and he always wears them :((((

☾ He's always up for some cuddles when you're in your cuddly mode, or a few tickle fights when you're feeling frisky! If you act too much like a spoiled brat and if you don't heed his sweet words of warning he will give you some spanks, but the words of warning are almost always enough.

☾ You two just love each other so much It physically hurts

ugh I need a John B

[dinoburger]

Mercenaries vs. Conflict resolution

wanted to jot down thoughts about how the mercs deal with team conflict bc I've been thinking about it quite a bit

most of the mercenaries enjoy feeling like they're in a position of authority so there's a lot of clashing egos, maybe the two biggest exceptions being Scout and Pyro

Scout doesn't actually like having authority I think as much as he likes posturing, like if he fucks up badly enough with another of his colleagues he'd be the first to own up to it - he just has a disease called being the youngest sibling and therefore eternally acting like the obnoxious kid brother despite being an adult - but he genuinely doesn't want the others to resent him and most of the time appealing to their own sense of authority is enough to keep him in their good books.

Pyro... Pyro doesn't have an ego, but they do have an agenda. And that's usually "doing what Pyro wants". And if that means sometimes playing up the existing expectations of their teammates, whether they see them as helpless and "in need" or violent and unpredictable, they will do it.

This isn't even particularly malicious, it can be, but for instance it's easier to get the Engineer to stop having another argument with the Spy that's just making him angrier and angrier when he thinks he's doing Pyro a favor and it's not Pyro that's trying to distract him. Or their teammates may find whatever they were arguing about a lot less pressing when the Pyro drives an axe through the table they were yelling across.

Pyro themself is pretty easy to talk down from a fight though, if it's from someone they trust.

Heavy, I think, is not too bad at figuring out when to swallow his pride and talk things out. He does have the reverse problem of Scout, being the oldest sibling, which is sometimes forgetting that treating his colleagues like squabbling children can make them angrier (even when they are acting like squabbling children). He takes to a position of authority easily but he's actually fairly good at staying level headed and compromising when the dust settles.

Sniper and Spy are a lot more flippant about conflict resolution, both tend more towards either light or back-handed apologies.

Demo and Soldier tend towards letting things spiral violently out of control before finding their own ways to make it up sincerely.

Engie and Medic are... stubborn. Both of them very much enjoy the feeling of authority and neither is willing to part with that - Medic more openly, Engie more insidiously.

Medic is very quick to let things go in the name of progress but expects exactly the same of the teammates he charges through and thinks they're being immature if they resent him for that.

Engie is alright at patching things up with someone if they can meet on reasonable terms but in actuality will take a lot longer to rebuild trust with them. If they can't meet on reasonable terms it may very well start driving him insane.

[achocolativorrousartistblog]

We're here again, that means another OC, this one was made for roleplay, but, I kinda loved the design so I gave her lore in my fav sector (Sector Z, gotta post the tons of drawing I have of them later) and that's it, let's go!. (This might be shorter than Heather's, also, yes, every character of mine will be Chilean cause I'm Chilean)

(2/2)

[⚠️ There might be some grammar mistakes, not just because it's not my first language but also because it's 4 AM and I still can't get myself to go to sleep without publishing thing.]

Luz Montero

Luz Montero Wigglestaine is a tall 16 year old female with long curly dyed hair, tan skin, baby blue eyes and round nose.

She's the grade's secretary, though she isn't involved in planning against the KND, she thinks it's immature and nonsense, still she will turn on the alerts and go with the plans they want her to follow.

Ironically, is kind of friends/allies with Cree Lincoln, Luz is the one who cleans up the mess at the teenage ninjas' parties and they collect a dollar from whoever wants to pay (if Cree doesn't say it's for the soda) and that's her salary.

Has fought some KND agents but usually she just immobilizes them and leaves, she gets paid a lot but not enough to fight children just because the others had plans.

At high school she's rather intimidating, her voice is calm but she's usually with a serious or mad expression, since all the work gets thrown to her because the grade president prefers to go to party's than do school job.

She's actually pretty shy, she is passionate about books and if she has a free moment she will lock herself up to read, not as mean with kids, she's not aggressive until someone hits first.

Luz was also known as Numbuh 0.11, occasional member of Sector Z, mostly because they got used to overwhelming themselves with missions and other stuff and weren't taking their health very seriously, also because Luz was bilingual and available to be removed from the medical barracks and placed in a formal sector, since (Headcanon) they were all orphans without legal guardians or an appropriate institution, they lived in their tree house.

She was the medic and specialist in paint weaponry, using her own paint guns to attack the enemy.

When Sector Z disappeared she was sick, so she didn't go on the mission and stayed in her own house, from then on till she was 13 she was super paranoid about what could happen to any others if she was sick, becoming a workaholic in the medical area until she was decommissioned.

_____________________________________________

Very noticeable, she is indeed Father's biological daughter, when Benedict was young he started to have one-night stands with several women, including Agustina Montero, a Chilean girl his age who was on her vacations visiting England and things happen, she got pregnant, but she didn't have his number, nothing more than name and looks, her parents supported her until she could go to United States with a 7 year old Luz, she decided to give the kid Benedict's last name, Why? No one knows.

Luz was raised without a father and that was fine, she didn't mind, it hurt to spend father's day without a "real" father, but she had her grandpa, she didn't care.

Trivia!

She dyes all her hair, eliminating its bluish undertone and adding blonde strands.

For some reason she feels her appearance isn't good, she knows she's her bio father's almost whole copy, but senses something bad about him so she erases what could be similar.

I'm actually used to roleplay with her kid version instead of the teen one, just because, no real reason.

She's bilingual.

You could say she hates The Steve because of how loud and annoying he is for her.

She never speaks up, she just speaks when spoken to and not much more.

If you're friends however it's like buying a bird, she will never shut up.

If she got to meet Nigel, she would probably flood him with candy, toys and Yipper cards, don't ask her how she got those last ones.

If she got to know DCFDTL condition while decommissioned, she would actually not care much, however, if she was recommissioned, she would break down.

(I have to refine her lore, there are things that might not match and I'm not getting, but, for now, that's all, Thanks! Have a good day/night! 💜)

[ambicephalic]

The zombie disease won't necessarily kill you, unless you are elderly or immune compromised or just unlucky. It passes, in days to weeks, though reinfection is possible with future exposure through bites or spittle. Often the first sign is a localized rash, which spreads and intensifies until all exposed skin is inflamed in welts which can progress to pustulent abscesses or scabs. Higher brain function shuts off and patients lose speech abilities, instead growling and grunting, full of rage and singlemindedly intent on attacking any other living person. And sometimes pets, though so far there are no reliable reports of cross-species transmission.

Because it is a newly emerging disease, the evidence isn't in yet on longer term health consequences of infection. While the disease itself is most often not fatal, many have been seriously injured or even killed from an attack by an infected person, most commonly children because of the higher proportion of mauled areas relative to their overall size and the struggle of an immature immune system to heal open wounds while fighting off a systemic infection. Treatment is usually impossible because of the unacceptable risk of coming near a patient in the rage phase of the disease.

Last time Chris had it he gave it to the kids, and while I managed to avoid him and went to stay at my sister's, it was terrifying for me. He is trying to minimize the glancing bite wound he got from another zombie but the rash is there and it's pretty clear he's gotten it again. When logic finally prevails over his denial, he comes up with a plan where he installs wrist and ankle restraints in the car so we can drive to someplace relatively secluded and wait out the rage phase which usually lasts several days. He has tested the restraints and they appear to be strong enough to contain him.

But when we get to the parking lot, he won't get in the restraints, instead strolling around telling me I'm being ridiculous to ask him to stay in the car when there is so much time left before it kicks in and he'll be immobile for days so he might as well stretch his legs now. He hands me a mango, joking that if he turns before he gets into the restraints and I have to run for my life, at least I'd have a snack. When I get panicky about the rage starting, he fucks with me by pretending to turn, and it scares me so much I drop the mango and my phone. The mango rolls away down the road. There goes your emergency weapon, he jokes, you could have hurled that thing at me to distract me while you run.

He walks to the edge of the lot to pee. I can see it starting, the redness creeping up his skin and splotching his face. I yell to him, it's starting now, I can tell! Get in the restraints! One moment, dear, he yells back, annoyed. Then still mid-stream, it happens, and suddenly he is sprinting toward me. I quickly realize the safest thing for me to do is get in the car myself and drive away. I grab Walter, who we brought with us for some reason and get in, shutting the door as he is closing in, turn on the car, back up and then speed off. I left my phone on the ground so I have no GPS and will be wandering the streets for a while until either I happen upon a familiar part of town or I'll have to ask someone for directions.

After a while I drive back just to see if he is still there or if he wandered off, but he is still circling around that same spot in the parking lot, growling in impotent rage, and my phone is still on the ground, screen cracked--maybe I ran it over during my escape? It's too dangerous to try and get it. In a few days he will come to and he won't remember what happened, he'll see the phone and won't know what happened to me and will have no way of reaching me to tell me to come get him.

[yourgamemasterthewhiterabbit]

All of this,

but, not for nothing, another reason why Piccolo gets a free pass a lot for his early behaviour is that while he is reincarnated, he also effectively has the brain of an 8 year old, stuffed full of the memories and personality of someone who was created to be the way that they were and did not get that way autonomously. Good and evil asides, he's like 500 and 8 at the same time, and I think maybe some of us have enough experience being older kids expected to raise younger kids -due to what feels like extenuating circumstances or not- that we understand how it went down the way it did, even if we don't particularity find it good or acceptable.

So like, hundreds of years of baggage he didn't chose in the body/brain of an 8 year old, who has had zero social support, ever, raised himself BOTH times he had to grow up on earth now, alone... There is a certain amount of "Piccolo couldn't have really known better because he had no concept of what other people can be for each other, and couldn't have because he didn't grow up with other people the way Goku got to" ...

Like 8 year old with the memories of a 'demon' who has had the end of the world and this kid shoved in front of him, is a very different starting point than "I had this kid myself and signed on, to some degree or another, for the responsibility" and I guess you can read the degree of knowingly having made a child to raise into whatever degree you think Goku actually understood what sex was or that it would make a child.

What raised Piccolo into being strong and independent WAS a harsh and unrelenting world that was actively hostile to him, so even if he really did care for Gohan from the start, he only really had one model to go by, and it was bad. [Think for a moment on how other people might have treated a child who looks like him, is big or strong enough to be a threat, but is visibly alone and lacks social support of any kind]

And whatever you feel about "brain development" arguments applying later in life in terms of expecting good judgement from people, 8 years of brain development is 8 years of brain development, alien species or not, he's still a member of a social species that communally raise their children through their childhood and teen hood the way humans do and given their lifespan I am going to say it probably actually takes longer than it does for us. I am sure -some- people overlook that he was -in some ways- also a child due to him having memories from beyond that span, or because he was shaped like a young adult, but some people really are taking into consideration the "Kid's actual parent VS the older child forced to raise them" dynamic that's partially at play here.

And people can -and sometimes do- try to make arguments that Goku doesn't have the mental capacity or understanding to have known better [ranging from being socially naive to brain damaged, immature in a sense, usually], but the more people do that, the more it gets uncomfortably close to treating adults as children due to developmental differences or mental disabilities, or to making the argument that he's being taken advantage of by being expected to fill the role of father or husband to begin with... and that isn't making the point people seem to think it's making.

I'm not saying Goku's a terrible father, but he could stand to do a little less leaving room for his child to fight the battles of an adult, just because he believes he can. When Piccolo did this it was genuinely because Gohan was the strongest person on earth and no one else could measure up, even himself, and not only did he train as much as he could without prioritizing his own growth, but he absolutely did step in to save him when he had to. And I think it is an understandable stance that someone who chooses to reproduce and make a child to raise should probably be held more responsible for failures to do that responsibly than the people who end up raising that child because if they don't the world might literally end.

Part of the problem is that Akira seems to also like "himbo dad" as a trope and plays it for comedy and drama, and that's about as much the character's fault as any other writing decision ultimately is.

In then end, I guess I am saying that maybe part of the double standard is that a lot of us had shitty parents ourselves and saw how it went when we were forced to raise each other, by circumstances out of our control, while we were still developing and had no support.

What do you think of Gohan and Piccolo?

There is a fandom war over whether Goku or Piccolo is Gohan's "real dad" and the honest truth is that Gohan's upbringing is very much "It takes a village to raise a child". He is the product of Chi-Chi, Goku, Piccolo, and to a lesser extent Krillin's influences.

But. Also. Though Piccolo and Gohan develop a strong emotional bond, it warrants noting that Piccolo's initial contribution to Gohan's upbringing is pretty monstrous, as befits the reincarnation of pure evil.

There's a tendency to be more critical of Goku's choices than Piccolo's because Piccolo was a bad guy and Goku was a good one. Generally speaking, we tend to give characters a pass for behavior that's... within their narrative wheelhouse, if that makes sense.

When good guys are being good and bad guys are being bad, we consider that business as usual. That's just what they're supposed to do. If Vegeta kills a bunch of people, nobody cares because Vegeta is a bad guy. Bad guys kill people. This is not a worthwhile observation on his character.

So there's a tendency in fandom to hyperfixate only on the good parts of bad guys, and on the bad parts of good guys - and to ignore the rest. Those are the only parts that we consider noteworthy, because they're the areas where the character is going against their mold. It's important, I think, not to do this with Piccolo when talking about Gohan, because while we all love seeing Gohan's innocence reach Piccolo and redeem him, the darker aspect of his earlier choices inform his later growth and development.

We need to learn how to consider the villainous part of villains and the heroic side of heroes in equal measure to the villain's redeeming qualities and the hero's flaws.

By the time of the fight with Raditz, Piccolo is less evil than his previous iteration. According to Gohan, that's Goku's assessment of him. Implied to be Goku's assessment of the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai, as that's the only time the two have met since Piccolo's reincarnation, prior to Raditz's arrival.

This is a fair assessment. I've talked about it before, but reincarnating as a flesh-and-blood Namekian with a complete range of morality rather than simply being the embodiment of one guy's evilness had an effect on Piccolo.

Piccolo opposes the Saiyans because he wants to rule the world and doesn't want them killing everyone he means to govern. But Daimao's plan for world domination was just to inflict a 40-year extermination on humanity. Piccolo's original incarnation was just evil, incapable of really thinking about his own ideas and why he wants them the way the newer form of Piccolo has.

Daimao would never have teamed up with Goku to save "his subjects" from extermination. He wanted to kill them all too. This capacity for growth and change was already in motion, already forcing him to reconsider what he actually wants from his own ambitions, from the moment he awoke in his new body.

But he was still a bastard. He'd been Evil Incarnate for 300 years; You don't get over that in an afternoon. He still had all of his memories,a ll of his knowledge; There was a lot of wickedness baked into his personality from the get-go.

Since he was no longer Mazoku, he had a brand new range of moral depth to engage with. But he didn't have the luxury of getting to start over as a brand new person. No clean slate for Piccolo. Now that he was capable of change, he still needed a reason and a will to experience it. Circumstances that would force him to re-evaluate his relationship with himself, others, and the world.

The threat of the Saiyans provided that impetus, by giving Piccolo a plan. A nasty plan. A plan based on strict utilitarian assessment of Gohan's involvement in the preceding fight, with no regard to the fact that this is a four-year-old child.

Piccolo, in this moment, sees Gohan as a resource to be used. He has zero empathy for him or for anyone else.

Of course he doesn't. He was the embodiment of selfishness and cruelty for 300 years. He has a capacity for empathy now but has never been put in a position where it might begin to develop. As he says to Gohan in his dying moments:

"You were the only one who ever really talked to me."

Like. Let's not sympathize too much here; this is more on him than anyone else. He tried to reconquer the world and tried multiple times to kill Goku, the only person he has any sort of relationship with. Even the attack he used to kill Raditz was designed for killing Goku.

The reason nobody ever "really talked to [him]" before Gohan is because Piccolo's only interactions with other people were verbal and physical violence. This is what I was getting at earlier. The guy, at this point in time, is a villain existing in uneasy alliance with the heroes. Let's not forget that. In fact, even his relationship with Gohan is verbally and physically violent.

That sweet scene up there where Gohan confronts Piccolo with the fact that he's not such a bad guy? This is how that scene ends.

This is what we tend to give Piccolo a pass on because we expect this behavior from villains, but it needs to be said that Piccolo's approach to Gohan's training is cruel and abusive. The development of their bond has more to do with Gohan's purehearted innocence than with Piccolo's changing outlook.

That's not a slight against Piccolo. It's the setup. This cruelty is what makes it so meaningful when he does change. It's why this moment is so powerful.

The reason this is such a moment that Toei can't stop trying to remake it is because it comes on the heels of all of that cruelty and dismissal. That he would even do this is as much a surprise to Piccolo as it is to everyone else. It violently contradicts and recontextualizes everything he and Gohan have been through for the last year.

Gohan's innocence won out and it changed Piccolo in ways he didn't even realize were happening. When Piccolo says that no one ever really talked to him before, this isn't an indictment against the world for mistreating him. Piccolo is not the Warriors of Hope from Danganronpa. It's validating Gohan for having the courage and empathy to reach him despite it all.

Gohan's training was an idea born of cruel arithmetic. Gohan himself gained some rudimentary martial knowledge but didn't get much else out of it - because Piccolo himself was unsuited to the emotional guidance that Gohan needed. When the Saiyans arrived, he was woefully unprepared for the task that Piccolo expected of him.

What did you expect? It doesn't matter that you taught him how to throw a punch; That boy is five years old. Piccolo pays for this mistake with his life.

But what he does get out of it, what he and Gohan both get out of it, is the development of an emotional bond that will last the rest of their lives - with his dying moment, his sacrifice for Gohan, being what truly kicks off their relationship.

That sacrifice is the reason Gohan goes to Namek.

Gohan, innocent and kind, doesn't resent Piccolo for the things he did. Quite the contrary, he respects Piccolo a lot. By his own admission, he has the same admiration for Piccolo that he does for Goku.

Gohan and Piccolo's bond is now pretty tight, and it remains so through the Namek and Android arcs.

Piccolo grows from his mistake, lets his ambitions for world domination slide away, and he and Gohan now have each other's backs in earnest. The respect and empathy Gohan needed is now there.

It's from that experience (and the wisdom of God now joined into him) that Piccolo's later able to call out Goku for his mistake in the Cell Games.

Piccolo sees the flaw in Goku's plan because he's been Goku. He's stood where Goku's standing, waiting with baited breath for a warrior's hunger to suddenly awaken inside Gohan and for him to fuck this guy up. He had to learn the hard way that that's not who Gohan is, and he brings that development to the table here. He's projected onto Gohan the way Goku now is, and it cost him his life.

Neither Goku nor Piccolo is entirely right here. But neither is entirely wrong either. Goku's plan does ultimately work, but only because of the effort Cell and 16 put into correcting Goku's bad assumptions and finding a trigger that will set Gohan off.

This, I think, is what gets lost in the "Real Dad Goku vs Real Dad Piccolo" debate. It's too binary. Gohan cares a great deal about both of them, they're both prominent influences on him, and they both had a formative effect on his childhood. If you asked him to pick one, he'd probably look at you like you're crazy. The correct answer is:

That panel, that entire panel, is who Gohan's primary male role model is.

Though if you want to know whose kid Gohan really is more than anyone's, it's her:

No matter how distasteful Vegeta might find it, Gohan is his mother's son. He's sensitive, kind, curious, and far more interested in academia than in martial arts; All the qualities Chi-Chi wanted to instill in him. But he nonetheless has a lot of admiration for Goku and Piccolo too, and he carries their influence with him all the same.

(Also, as an aside. Like. Krillin? Kindly fuck off. Gohan may not be as badly hurt as Goku but he was still beaten half to death by both Nappa and Vegeta over the course of this battle. He couldn't even stand up under his own power anymore before he became the Oozaru. Also, he's five and Chi-Chi hasn't seen him, her baby boy, in a year.

It is absolutely valid for her to be way more concerned for Gohan than for Goku.)

But I digress. Point is, Piccolo and Gohan got off to a rocky start and I think that Piccolo's behavior during that time shouldn't be ignored, but also he changed dramatically due to Gohan's influence. Piccolo shaped much of who Gohan was as a fighter in his early years, but Gohan did far more for Piccolo by making him part of a family despite himself.

Now he's in Gohan's wedding photo.

And Chi-Chi isn't for reasons that can only be attributed to Toei's utter disdain for her character.

And he's teaching martial arts to Gohan's kid, with a much gentler hand than the one he once used on Gohan.

There's a real argument to be made that Gohan did more to shape who Piccolo became in the years following their training together than Piccolo did to shape Gohan. Sometimes the master learns as much or even more from the apprentice than the apprentice does from the master.

[romericas]

having thoughts about Arthur, Francis, and Antonio being relatively young teenagers when they start colonizing the world, like Antonio only being around 15 or so physically, Francis somewhere around the same, and Arthur only being like 13. this is not a "feel bad for the colonizers because they were babies UwU" this is a "being an adolescent and believing wholeheartedly that you are correct in your perceptions of the world and those around you and being encouraged by the adults in your government, but still not being mentally old enough to understand the full weight of your actions and then later refusing to acknowledge the full realities of the atrocities you committed at such a young age and the tragedy of that because it's hard"

I'm talking about thirteen-year-old Arthur deciding he's mature enough to take care of a literal child and is startled by how much he's forced to physically and emotionally grow up in the process of trying to raise Alfred only to watch him later follow in Arthur's imperialist footsteps. I'm talking about Francis being a shitty and distant parental figure to Matthew because he was too immature for the responsibility, shedding it at the first opportunity and still not understanding the full extent of the harm he's caused as an adult. Antonio taking on more and more kids because he likes having people who look up to him and don't call him on his shitty actions, who are little enough that he can just ignore them if/when they do and say things that he doesn't like, pretending that he's being a perfect parent to feed his ego and letting the fact that parenting is difficult excuse his shitty actions so he doesn't have to think about them too hard

like also imagine how it changes the dynamic during the revolutionary war if Arthur is barely 18, still a teenager in most regards himself, fighting against a physically 13 year old Alfred and the amount of cognitive dissonance happening for him to say that Alfred isn't old enough to be independent, when he himself was trying to raise a child at the same developmental age

just them being young and thinking that they're doing terrible things because it's all for the right reasons and not knowing how to confront that as adult, especially when faced with their adult children who reflect all their actions back at them

[tv14pluscartoons]

BIRDGIRL EPISODE 1: "PILOT" (April 4th, 2021)

Review edited for me by Glenn Rolón

This show contains discussion of parental neglect, non-graphic death and a hidden severed foot in a bag.

So, funny story, 21 years ago I was 5 years old watching the beginnings of Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law. Was I too young for it? Absolutely. But also it was like, the least inappropriate thing on Adult Swim I actively watched all through its run until I was 12 years old, so it's held a special place in my heart ever since.

All of that is to say, having seen that show is kind of unnecessary to understanding this episode. Which I would hope, given this is a spinoff of a show that began 21 years ago, ended officially 14 years ago, and had its last one-off special 3 years ago.

Birdgirl starts us off with Judy Ken Sebben/Birdgirl finishing up her day job, ordering ramen takeout while venting through the call about how her passions are more with her other life as Birdgirl than with her normal life as Judy, which is the perfect set up for the ultimate point of the episode. It then rushes forward into Birdgirl's fast paced action and awkwardness-heavy night, showing how much more excited Judy feels to do that than her lawyer day job. Though it also shows how RECKLESS she is as Birdgirl.

Judy completely ignores the giant signs of her father's death, seemingly out of cluelessness to the audience as its presented.

But longtime watchers of Harvey Birdman will already know he's faked his death multiple times, a point that's brought up when Judy goes to work the next day and is called into the meeting for the CEO Replacement. In which its revealed that her father (who believes Birdgirl and Judy are different people) chose Birdgirl to be the CEO while giving Judy the majority stocks in the company, setting off the real point of the episode, and possibly series: Judy's entire mental disconnect with herself. She feels distraught that her father saw Birdgirl as CEO material and not her more personal, calmer self.

Because she can't bring herself to grieve over her father yet again after the previous times, she goes fully into denial spending more of her time as Birdgirl and neglecting her personal life.

Which brings the concern of the friend she makes with Meredith the Mindtaker, a green telepath played by Negin Farsad.

Meredith is very empathetic despite calling herself "bad at emotions", which might be a side effect of her powers. Speaking of, to make a mental note, I find it refreshing that her powers are treated very intentionally not-invasively as possible, only using them to give therapeutic advice to Judy or physically stopping her to get her to listen. The biggest "misuse" is just her joking to finish Judy's sentences, which while annoying, isn't the same as forcing her way deep into Judy's insecurities she won't admit to herself.

Birdgirl's humor is dry and not scored by music or heavy sounds, aside from the absurdity of Birdgirl's incompetence at fighting crime in denial of her father's death; which is still underplayed compared to other examples I've seen.

The character design feels fitting as a continuation to Harvey Birdman while just being pleasant to look at, while also animating probably better overall than the original or a show with a similar vibe and style like Archer.

I really like how Birdgirl's eyes go from superhero cartoon/comic book white to showing her eyes like a live action adaptation whenever she'll be speaking honestly from the heart while in the mask instead of in denial.

One thing that might become obvious the longer you watch the episode is that, unlike Harvey Birdman, Birdgirl seems like it's not allowed to use Hanna Barbera/MGM/Cartoon Network characters freely, which may explain the abscence of a few old key characters, not showing or mentioning Harvey Birdman, and the fact one of the board members is a cartoon dog that might've been Droopy had they been able to. I don't think this hinders the show at all, but it is noticeable considering the show it spun off from. Might be Warner wanting to keep some characters clean while they try to use them in kid appropriate material like Space Jam: A New Legacy.

Birdgirl is a very calm show, definitely meant for teenagers and older — With the exploration of Judy's personal, mental and emotional struggles brought on by her father's neglect of her when she wasn't being reckless as Birdgirl. However, everything else is very tame; there's fewer than 5 bleeped swears, fewer than 3 mentions of sex and despite there being a people eating machine in this episode, it shows no real gore unlike another show with the same TV-14 Rating.

Birdgirl is for adults not in the sense that it has content inappropriate for children, but in the sense that its story, which seems to be ongoing, deals with issues that are only really relatable to people who are old enough. Despite human waste (heh) being a part of the episode, it doesn't ever feel "immature" in the way that poster child shows like Family Guy or Rick and Morty can feel, or even Tuca and Bertie, which is very mature with an important story, but goes for more crass jokes.

If you're a fan of stories with a woman-centric cast and dry humor, I'd recommend it to you. If you're more into the superhero stuff, I can't say I'd recommend it to you until more episodes have come out for a better gauge of where the show's boundaries will be.

Overall, Birdgirl is an enjoyable superhero empathy ride I hope to see more of and I'm glad I checked out.

[fezgician]

BIRDGIRL EPISODE 1: "PILOT" (April 4th, 2021)

So, funny story, 21 years ago I was 5 years old watching the beginnings of Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law. Was I too young for it? Absolutely. But also it was like, the least inappropriate thing on Adult Swim I actively watched all through its run until I was 12 years old, so it's held a special place in my heart ever since.

All of that is to say, having seen that show is kind of unnecessary to understanding this episode. Which I would hope, given this is a spinoff of a show that began 21 years ago, ended officially 14 years ago, and had its last one-off special 3 years ago.

Birdgirl starts us off with Judy Ken Sebben/Birdgirl finishing up her day job, ordering ramen takeout while venting through the call about how her passions are more with her other life as Birdgirl than with her normal life as Judy, which is the perfect set up for the ultimate point of the episode. It then rushes forward into Birdgirl's fast paced action and awkwardness-heavy night, showing how much more excited Judy feels to do that than her lawyer day job. Though it also shows how RECKLESS she is as Birdgirl.

Judy completely ignores the giant signs of her father's death, seemingly out of cluelessness to the audience as its presented.

But longtime watchers of Harvey Birdman will already know he's faked his death multiple times, a point that's brought up when Judy goes to work the next day and is called into the meeting for the CEO Replacement. In which its revealed that her father (who believes Birdgirl and Judy are different people) chose Birdgirl to be the CEO while giving Judy the majority stocks in the company, setting off the real point of the episode, and possibly series: Judy's entire mental disconnect with herself. She feels distraught that her father saw Birdgirl as CEO material and not her more personal, calmer self.

Because she can't bring herself to grieve over her father yet again after the previous times, she goes fully into denial spending more of her time as Birdgirl and neglecting her personal life.

Which brings the concern of the friend she makes with Merideth the Mindtaker, a green telepath played by Negin Farsad.

Merideth is very empathetic despite calling herself "bad at emotions", which might be a side effect of her powers. Speaking of, to make a mental note, I find it refreshing that her powers are treated very intentionally not-invasively as possible, only using them to give therapeutic advice to Judy or physically stopping her to get her to listen. The biggest "misuse" is just her joking to finish Judy's sentences, which while annoying, isn't the same as forcing her way deep into Judy's insecurities she won't admit to herself.

Birdgirl's humor is dry and not scored by music or heavy sounds, aside from the absurdity of Birdgirl's incompetence at fighting crime in denial of her father's death; which is still underplayed compared to other examples I've seen.

The character design feels fitting as a continuation to Harvey Birdman while just being pleasant to look at, while also animating probably better overall than the original or a show with a similar vibe and style like Archer.

I really like how Birdgirl's eyes go from superhero cartoon/comic book white to showing her eyes like a live action adaptation whenever she'll be speaking honestly from the heart while in the mask instead of in denial.

One thing that might become obvious the longer you watch the episode is that, unlike Harvey Birdman, Birdgirl seems like it's not allowed to use Hanna Barbera/MGM/Cartoon Network characters freely, which may explain the abscence of a few old key characters, not showing or mentioning Harvey Birdman, and the fact one of the board members is a cartoon dog that might've been Droopy had they been able to. I don't think this hinders the show at all, but it is noticeable considering the show it spun off from. Might be Warner wanting to keep some characters clean while they try to use them in kid appropriate material like Space Jam: A New Legacy.

Birdgirl is a very calm show, definitely meant for teenagers and older — With the exploration of Judy's personal, mental and emotional struggles brought on by her father's neglect of her when she wasn't being reckless as Birdgirl. However, everything else is very tame; there's fewer than 5 bleeped swears, fewer than 3 mentions of sex and despite there being a people eating machine in this episode, it shows no real gore unlike another show with the same TV-14 Rating.

Birdgirl is for adults not in the sense that it has content inappropriate for children, but in the sense that its story, which seems to be ongoing, deals with issues that are only really relatable to people who are old enough. Despite human waste (heh) being a part of the episode, it doesn't ever feel "immature" in the way that poster child shows like Family Guy or Rick and Morty can feel, or even Tuca and Bertie, which is very mature with an important story, but goes for more crass jokes.

If you're a fan of stories with a woman-centric cast and dry humor, I'd recommend it to you. If you're more into the superhero stuff, I can't say I'd recommend it to you until more episodes have come out for a better gauge of where the show's boundaries will be.

Overall, Birdgirl is an enjoyable superhero empathy ride I hope to see more of and I'm glad I checked out.

[fly-pow-bye]

DuckTales 2017 - "New Gods on the Block!"

Story by: Francisco Angones, Madison Bateman, Colleen Evanson, Megan Gonzalez, Christian Magalhaes, Ben Siemon, Bob Snow

Written by: Megan Gonzalez

Storyboard by: Sam King, Kathryn Marusik, Stephan Park

Directed by: Jason Zurek

Does this episode have the right stuff?

Scrooge and company have reached the Helmet of Hengis Khan, which is currently being guarded by a bunch of giant silkworms! Just take my word for it. However, Scrooge is ready, and knows that his nephews and honorary niece are up to the task to take on those mere worms. He's got Huey, the planner, Dewey and Webby are good as the distraction, and Louie is just good at doing something greedy like snatching the helmet while the silkworms are distracted. They lock hands together, a universal showing that they are an inseparable team, and Dewey does one of his classic one-liners to start this amazing fight scene.

In fact, the fight scene was so amazing, it just couldn't be animated.

Instead, we suddenly cut to the kids walking through the door of the Manor, where we learn that the fight scene would have amazing for the silkworms rather than the Ducks, as they have apparently failed. Outside of a few lines suggesting that Huey's inability to predict the unpredictable was a major factor in it, they don't go much further than the mission was a failure. They didn't seem to get any battle damage from them at the very least. I'm obviously not expecting blood, but I would think their hair would be a little messed up.

While Della couldn't predict that this mission would be a failure, as she had confetti cannons and a giant banner ready for what she assumed would be their triumphant return, she does tells her kids exactly what happens when Scrooge fails, something she should know from participating in countless adventures with him. First comes the wallowing, then the anger, then he just shakes it off and comes up with a new plan. Webby decides to add to that; each failure is just a reason for the team to grow. Scrooge tells Webby that is a great idea: he should grow the team by getting better, more experienced people to join it!

In other words, after trusting Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Webby ever since they proved themselves in the first episode, this one failed mission that didn't even get a scratch on their clothing gives Scrooge a reason to abandon them for a different team. On one hand, a team of non-children would be better for Scrooge's PR, but on the other hand, this just feels like an overreaction to make this plot work. Della seems to agree; she tells the kids that they would be able to handle whatever is going to barge through that door. No, she did not put it that way, but she may as well have.

In comes Zeus, Selene, and Storkules, a trio of gods from the Greek pantheon. The moon goddess Selene and the demi-god Storkules have successful taken the now former god of lightning/king of the gods Zeus's godly wreath, and now he's merely just a powerless jerk rather than a jerk that can smite people. As Selene says, he hasn't done anything good since locking up the Titans, a reference to the original myths, so it was coming to him.

Why are they here? Because they now need a god who can take his place in the Olympus pantheon, and they each have their own idea that happens to currently be in the Mansion. Storkules thinks it should be Donald, Selene thinks it should be Della, and Zeus thinks it should be himself. I can't help but think Storkules and Selene are not even trying to hide who their true loves are among the mortals. Nobody tell Penny.

As the children mope about how the gods surely wouldn't choose them if even Scrooge couldn't, Della decides to reject it and say her kids and kids' friend deserve it instead. What Della would do if she had the powers of Olympus will forever remain a mystery. Selene is convinced because, while they're children, they're still less immature than her father, who still threatens to smite people with lightning despite not having any powers anymore. I still like this slightly more accurate to the original myths version of Zeus.

As the children mope about how the gods surely wouldn't choose them if even Scrooge couldn't, Della decides to reject it and say her kids and kids' friend deserve it instead. What Della would do if she had the powers of Olympus will forever remain a mystery. Selene is convinced because, while they're children, they're still less immature than her father, who still threatens to smite people with lightning despite not having any powers anymore. I still like this slightly more accurate to the original myths version of Zeus.

Storkules wasn't there to see this plan change, as his candidate for godhood was still in the houseboat preparing his houseboat. After Donald takes out the garbage, Storkules bursts through the door and gives his friend of friends the biggest hug, and is impressed that he even prepared a celebratory feast as if he knew what Storkules was about to offer him.

Much like Della, what Donald would do if she had the powers of Olympus will forever remain a mystery, because he's got bigger plans on this day. That celebratory feast was actually him preparing for a big date with the only person who can stand his singing.

Don't worry, Storkules takes his friend of friends going on a date with someone else very well. Maybe a bit too well, and it's not just to Donald's chagrin, as he decides to do a labor worthy of being among the twelve he did that one time: make the perfect wedding feast! Anyone who knows this character will know where this is going.

It's also pretty predictable where the other half of the episode is going, even if I did think at least one of them would have done better than the others. Selene decides to give Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Webby each a chance to prove their worth on being in the pantheon. They each decide on an ability similar to the ones in the myths, they get a little test run at a random location, and, if they fail, Selene can just clap or snap her fingers and everything reverts back to normal. Even if she didn't reveal the last one, it would be just too good this early on if we had any victors here.

Louie wants to be the God of Fortune, so he gets the Louie Touch, which he instantly trademarks despite being a clear knockoff of a certain king's. This is most likely because he never really heard of the tales of King Midas's golden touch, as he ends up turning the entire park he was put in into gold. This includes a dog. Not a dog-person, a dog much like in real life.

Huey wants to be the God of Intuition, so he gets the power of prophecy, similar to Cassandra minus the "nobody believing him" problem. In fact, he has the opposite problem; Huey doesn't seem to catch the hint that telling the misfortunes that are going to happen to people aren't going to make people happy. It doesn't help that his powers are causing his brain to expand.

Webby wants to be the Goddess of Friendship Sunshine Get-A-Long Time, so she ends up being able to control the weather. Oddly enough, controlling the weather was one of Zeus's specialties in the original myths, so this should give her the biggest chance out of all of them since this is supposed to be "who is going to replace Zeus." Unfortunately, just giving the boardwalk a sunny day and getting Glomgold off of a kiddie ride he had been hogging doesn't cause everyone to hug, so she ends up striking everything with lightning in the end. With Webby becoming mad with power in the span of a minute, I don't wonder how Zeus ended up the way he did.

Dewey apparently wants to be the God of Dance, and tries to woo the judge with a dance. Even if he didn't manage to torment a random location to the point where it would have to be reversed by a moon goddess's snap, the lack of any god powers disqualifies him as well. I know it can barely be seen in that screenshot, but that reaction from Selene makes this whole scene even funnier.

It's not like these abilities aren't fitting, but it's such a foregone conclusion that they were going to fail these tests spectacularly that it just felt predictable.

While these trials are happening, Zeus decides to call up one of his more notorious brothers: Hades, god of the underworld. Despite only showing up as an unknown number, which would make sense even if Zeus was calling from a cell phone of his own rather than Scrooge's house phone, he picks up to hear the voice of the guy that trapped him in a world surrounded by bones. He's not too happy about his situation, needless to say.

Following in the footsteps of not following the Disney version of the Greek pantheon besides Hercules being treated as a 100% god, Hades is more like a goth who doesn't really care about anything. He doesn't go with Zeus's idea of causing an undead rebellion, reminding Zeus that he's too busy keeping the Titans locked up, which gives Zeus a different idea. Hades won't be involved with this idea, as, other than revealing that one of the few things that delights him now is Zeus being powerless, he decides not to do anything else. Despite this, it's neat to see this amount of world-building with the pantheon, and it makes me wonder if we'll see him again.

Being failures at being Scrooge's teammates and Greek gods, we get another mope scene. Scrooge actually calls this his "special ops" team, which makes me think that Scrooge actually wanted a different team for different situations, and it seems like they're hinting at an ending that would cast Scrooge in a better light: he was just planning a B team. Such a shame that doesn't really come up anywhere else.

I think the other plot is better, with Hercules acting like the unwanted friend getting in the way of Donald and Daisy's date, and it eventually falls apart. Even with Storkules in the background holding a tied up Cupid, a part of one of his earlier plans, one can really feel Donald's pain as he floats in a garbage-filled pool. This feeling of pain is even shown in-universe, as the normally oblivious Storkules decides to get some help.

Sadly, he goes to his father, Zeus, completely devastated that he had forsaken his best friend, and asks what he could do to help out two people in love. Zeus tells a story about how Hera fell in love with him after he defeated the titans, and that if Storkules can defeat one of them, maybe they'll be impressed. He laments that it's too bad there's no god with god-like strength that can unleash one of them.

To make a long story short, Storkules hits the ground, a titan comes out, Scrooge and the rest come out to see this madness, and the titans ends up eating Donald right in front of Daisy's eyes. I love this line that reveals, among other things, that Donald is still okay:

Storkules: (keeping the titan from eating Daisy) Don't worry, we can salvage this!

Daisy: You killed my boyfriend!

Donald: "My boyfriend"? (reveals to be in the Titans see-through stomach, still indigested) Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!

It reminds me of that scene in Coco. I can't spoil it, but there's a similar line there that also made me smile.

Della and Scrooge are climbing up the titan, Shadow of the Colossus style, where they talk about the other plot. This is their way to get the plots to converge, and it’s a good idea. In fact, while this goes against the idea that Scrooge was merely trying to expand his team rather than remove his kin from it, Scrooge getting confronted with his negligence while trying to deal with an even bigger problem is a pretty powerful moment.

The stakes are set pretty high, as the titan manages to turn pretty much everyone except for Daisy and the kids into dinner. Even Selene, the one that could reverse problems with the snap of her finger and the character that was pretty much treated as the Queen of the Gods until now, as Hera is only mentioned, manages to get caught in the titan's grasp, dropping the godly crown on the ground as she joins the rest of the party in this titan's stomach. Considering all of this eating of his fellow gods and mortals, maybe this titan is meant to be Cronus. He even manages to do what Cronus wanted to do in the original myths.

Whether or not that generic titan is Cronus or not, that victory doesn't last too long, as we get this really cool scene where Daisy manages to startle the titan with her own roar, and, using that as a distraction, Webby takes the crown, splits it up, and gives herself and her friends the god powers they wanted. While I wasn't that much of a fan of this plot, I can safely say it ends really well. Not only does Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Webby prove themselves as helpers of Scrooge, but kids worthy of have the powers of Greek myth. The latter doesn't last, of course, but still, it's great.

In the end, everything seems to work out just fine, and I really do mean everything, as the other plot also ends very well. While I don't want to ruin the moment, I'll say this: I find it very funny that Zeus ended up helping with Storkules' problem in the end, even if it wasn't his intention.

How does it stack up?

At first, I was a little miffed on this episode; I just don't think Scrooge would just throw away his team just because they failed miserably on one mission, especially in an episode after he trusted them so much, and especially after the episode after the one where he outright recruited one of them to go through his deadly danger dungeon. However, this episode has plenty of ways for me to forgive that: the scenes with Donald and Daisy, the cool god powers in the end, and Zeus being Zeus all throughout.

Still, this ended up being just merely in the middle for me.

Next, we get to see an Scrooge adventure with young Della for the first time outside of the IDW comics!

← The Split Sword of Swanstantine! 🦆 The First Adventure! →

[bubblelliot]

Here's my second character! I will also present their teammates a bit since the crew is much more like a family this time! (Might also add pics of the others in following posts and MAYBE of his animals too)

Særos Sandiel and The zookeepers

(This art is a picrew which I do not have the rights on, here is the link to it: https://picrew.me/image_maker/62745)

The name of the team mostly comes from a joke saying that "Mama Lyræ is our zookeeper and that we are the Zookeepers to a ton of pets. Also, Yarina can shapeshift into beasts sooooooo yeah.

Technicalities:

Særos is my very first character played in D&D. We actually started playing on the other game I talked about last time, but we switched to D&D. His character sheet is actually available on DND beyond, but I'm still gonna give details here.

Those are his attributes. (He actually got an additional point of charisma after I wrote this and was too lazy to take another screenshot sorry x) )

He is recorded as a high Elf, but is actually of two different bloodlines. He is VERY young for an elf, but his exact age is unknown (well yes but know, you'll see). He has 5 wizard and 2 cleric levels, making him currently level 7.

Equipment:

I am NOT gonna go through everything Særos has, cause that would be VERY long. He has a heavy armor, he has a staff of healing and a shortsword, but he mostly uses his magic. He also has, in his spellbook, a collection of dried flowers.

Familiars:

Særos has a TON of pets he acquired through the different quests the party went on. The first one is a frog named Lepiota he found wounded and saved. He then bought an old black cat he named Persephone (even if the cat is a male 😂). Finally, he also bought two ferrets (fluffy noodles ❤️❤️) which he named Elton and Freddy (this one was as a reference to one of our former player who really loves Elton John and Freddy Mercury). He loves them with all his heart and will absolutely kill anyone who tries to hurt his babies.

Allies:

Særos' main ally is, obviously, his twin, Edran. They are very similar, but Særos is usually pretty well kept with his short hair always brushed and his braids made every morning, whereas Edran is a bit shorter, more immature, usually pretty dirty with blood all over their clothes (which are poofy dressed he hides poison in 😂) and messy hair. There is also Lyræ. She is a paladin coming from far away lands. She is a human with elf ancestors and dragon blood. She has a wife and children and thus, she is pretty much the mom of the group. (The DM literally gave her two custom attacks she can use in RP: the flick of anger that gives 1pt of bludgeoning + 1pt of psychic damage and the disapproving look that gives 2pts of psychic damage everytime she does it + makes the target intimidated). Then, there is Finian, a human assassin. Finian and Særos are pretty neutral about each other, but Edran is in absolute admiration of him, so Særos is grateful that Finian doesn't just shatter his sibling's trust. The last member, who was actually someone that was rescued by the party, is Yarina. She is a very shy aasimar and is pretty much the definition of being pure EXCEPT she is obsessed with daggers (no joke, she has 23 of them). They were recently joined by a rogue elf called Adressin who actually attacked them at first.

Appearance:

This picrew is already pretty accurate. Særos (as well as Edran actually) has blond almost white hair, but it's actually fluffier than on the picture. He has two braids, one in front of each ear, a few freckles and red-pink eyes. He is very pale, quite small and very frail. He looks pretty androgynous and rather young, though he usually passes as a bit older since he is an elf.

Backstory and campaign:

So the campaign isn't really a big story like in Rhodrag's case, so I'll tell the party's story, but not the quests.

The twins' first memory is waking up in a bed, only knowing their name. They meet with the lovely wood elf lady who save them, and learn they were found in the sand by a nearby river. For that reason, they are given the last name "Sandiel".

They live a relatively normal life with her, for around 10 years, until they are attacked by drows. Their adopted mother successfully hides them by using magic and they learn they are wanted because they are part drow and part high-elf, meaning pretty much every every elven races will want to kill them. The woman successfully protects the twins. She is taken out of the house and, to this day, the twins don't know what happened of her, whether she was killed or taken.

They left and reached a nearby city. There, they survived by stealing and being street entertainers (for example, even if he has no rogue level, Særos is proefficient in stealth, sleight of hands, deception, etc. He also is proefficient in performance. He learned to sing, the art of divination and a bit of magic.)

One night though, Særos came back to their hiding place to find his sibling dead. All he could understand was that they died of both malnutrition and hypothermia.

Out of desperation, he tried every spell he knew, but nothing happened. He tried reanimation, but it had been to long. Out of despair, he prayed any god possible to help him, saying he couldn't live in this unfair world without Edran.

A god did answer. He is actually a god from the other game we started the campaign in before switching to DND.

He is called Nuodai the Trickster.

He offered a deal to Særos: he would bring back Edran and even guarantee him power and success, and in exchange, when Særos would be powerful enough, the Trickster would take his elven traits which hold part of his powers, as well as 200 years of his life. Out of desperation, Særos accepted.

He woke up the next morning. His sibling was by his side, clearly not dead, but not entirely alive. They were now a revived.

Things went on, Edran not knowing, and Særos eventually stopped thinking about the deal, only happy to have his twin back. They moved from the city, trying to reach a bigger one, and were, once again, attacked by drows. He used a spell to put his twin in safety and attacked the drows, but was, if course, neutralized.

He was taken and they made him a slave while they tried to capture Edran to kill them together.

Fast forward, Edran is taken into an underdark prison. He meets again with his brother and both if them are beaten up. They successfully defend though and they are thrown in a cell as it is decided they're are to be executed the next day. This is where they meet Lyræ and Finian.

They plan to escape as well as a few other NPCs. They are able to leave the cell and steal a bit of stuff while a vrock attacks the guards. They escape and reach a teleporter. There, Særos successfully brings everyone back to the surface. Newly free, they all start to look for a village. After properly introducing each others, they finally reach a tiny elf village. The twins stay as stealthy as possible but end up being noticed and attacked by guards. They then have a choice: they could be changed into simple would elves or they have to leave. Særos knows it's not gonna work on Edran, and bargains to be able to stay. At first, the headmaster threatens to kill him for that, but he ends up agreeing to let them in the city, guarded, until the night falls.

They then shop and leave the city.

They end up in a forrest Særos realizes is corrupted. There, they were attacked by a HUGE snake touched by the corruption. At first, everyone tries to kill it except Edran and quickly, Særos and Finian join them. Særos finally cuts the tip of it's tail where the corruption was and Edran and Finian calm it.

Lyræ is terrified of it and finally lets them all know that her best friend was killed by a giant snake who ate her alive. (This is freaking terrifying yo.)

In the end, a fight starts and Særos, enraged, leaves everyone and runs towards the center of the corruption. There he is attacked by corrupted elves and tree creatures we happily called Groots. Edran joins him and Særos basically rages (he used they most powerful spell he had and literally exploded them.

Edran, while attacking, starts gaining weird memories.

Fast forward to the end of the quest, Særos is happily searching for animals and flowers when he and Edran hear strange noises coming from a tree. Edran climbs it and a wood elf girl falls from the tree, before Edran jumps on her from the too of the tree.

The team introduced themselves to her and she happily talks to them. So yeah, that's how we met Nayhru.

The team reaches a weird village and after the whole snake incident, leaves the party for a while, promising to find them again soon and assuring she would always be closer than they think.

They reach the village which reveals to be a village of gnomes and there they meet with a gnome (who's player inspired the names of my furrets x) ) and a Goliath travelling together. They all find the village empty before being attacked by a troll and... Metal gnomes?

They kill them, uneager to die, and search the village. They find flowers in the middle of the village and Særos takes one for his collection. Særos and Edran are attacked by an ooze and at some point, the ooze attacks Edran just before being killed by Nayrhu. At that moment, Edran starts turning into a robot as well, with the corruption growing from their arm. Særos tries to cut off the arm, but us unable and the corruption takes Edran's whole body.

They leave the village and are able to find a Druid eager to help them make a cure for Edran and the gnomes, but he needs Elder sage. He describes it and Særos shows his flower to the Druid, who confirms it is Elder sage. They go back to the village to get flowers, cane back and turned Edran back into a flesh being.

And that's when they remembered dying and being brought back to life. Edran and Særos cried in each other's arms and then continued on.

They got in a cavern near the village from where the trolls always came. There, the found a girl, chained, with glowing wings. They freed her and she introduced herself as Yarina. (Fun fact: Yarina's player is my SO, and both Yarina and Særos have the spell suggestion, so when the crew found a the boss hiding something, we just made it run away. Nice. )

The team found a clockwork dragon and helped it. They then left again. Finian had to leave a couple times, and at some point, the team realized that, even if they are young, the twins were actually a lot older than they thought: They assumed Edran's death happened when they were around 13 and that it had been around 6 years, meaning Særos was actually around 19.

They were reunited with Lyræ and began other quests. In one of them, the team encountered a wishing fountain that filled any wish you had under certain conditions. Særos asked to know his whole story, from the lives of his parents up to now. The fountain gave him a magic book that tells his story and updates. It has no name so Særos just calls it The story book.

Some time passed and the team continued on. They were traveling to the capital until one night, Nayrhu and Edran caught a thief about to steal their stuff. They quickly stopped him and realized he was very young. Instead of kicking his butt, they woke up the whole team and decided together to bring him to the capital and help him make money to survive there. And that's how they met Adressin.

The zookeepers reached the capital where they are supposed to find Finian who joined outlaws he met in another quest.

Before finding Finian, they decided to do a few quests to earn money with Adressin.

Everyone through the day kept noticing Særos bring super bold, a lot bolder than he usually is, for example, telling Yarina who was wearing a magic dress that she looked "Incredibly beautiful" as if she was "made if pure light". No one really thought anything of it though and just shoved it away.

One night, they decided a drinking contest was a good idea and everyone joined except Adressin. The next morning, everyone was doing good, maybe a tad nauseous, except for Lyræ and Særos who were absolutely fucked up. They both used spells to heal their hangover, but Særos remained mildly unwell, choosing to go on their quest anyways.

Symptoms were the following:

-A headache that was mostly located to the top front of his head

-His low back itching and hurting a LOT

-His eyes feeling dry

No one really knew what was going on, some didn't even really notice.

As they went on with their first quest, they started noticing weird stuff about Særos' appearance: His hair looked more golden than white, as they used to, there were two bumps appearing on his forehead around the location of his headache, his eyes looked.... Weird...? But no one really saw anything peculiar, his skin, usually also white, now looked kinda pink.

He doesn't really notice the changes and doesn't understand what is happening which utterly FRIGHTENS him, but he hides it. Yarina started understanding what was happening and Edran out all the pieces together and now they know everything.

To be continued...