#hubert malevol

[thecreaturecodex]

Hubert Malevol

“Undead - concept” © Sergei Dorokhin, accessed at his ArtStation here.

[Hubert the Hunter was a saint of hunting associated with dogs, so making him some sort of undead monstrosity is delightfully sacrilegious. He’s one of the nastier family members in Castle Xyntillan, so I wanted him to be powerful, but not as powerful as Aristide.]

Hubert Malevol CR 11 LE Undead This human man is clearly dead, with blood red eyes, no nose and a lipless mouth surrounded by a matted beard. He wears hide armor and carries a sword and shield with him, a fine hunting horn on his hip.

Hubert the Hunter is one of the most powerful members of the Malevol family. He is Aristide’s grandson and embraced undeath willingly in order to pursue his hobbies—raising dogs and hunting people for sport—for eternity. He lives in Castle Xyntillian most of the time, but has a redoubt in the Indoornesse—the pocket dimension ruled by his father Runclus—and goes out to hunt the ordinary folk of Taldor at least every solstice and equinox. Hubert is loyal to the Malevol family to a fault. He takes a neutral position in most of the conflicts between family members, but takes great glee in dispatching disloyal servants and slaves. He takes trophies, and has taxidermied some of the kills he is particularly proud of.

Hubert is most comfortable in the saddle, and can summon his ghostly steed Redrum (his prized horse when they were both alive) to his side in order to ride around the wider hallways of the Castle. He loves dogs more than people, and has his grandfather or another necromancer in the family raise them as zombies or skeletons when they die of old age or violence. His prized hounds are galleytrots. He owns eight of them, each with the advanced simple template and Shake it Off instead of Mobility as a feat. Encountering Hubert with four advanced galleytrots is a CR 12 encounter.

Hubert Malevol    CR 11 XP 12,800 Variant juju zombie human cavalier (ghost rider) 11 LE Medium undead (augmented humanoid, human) Init +5; Senses darkvision 60 ft., Perception +12, scent Aura fearless (10 ft.) Defense AC 23, touch 11, flat-footed 22 (+1 Dex, +6 armor, +2 shield, +4 natural) hp 109 (11d10+44) Fort +11, Ref +7, Will +6; +4 channel resistance DR 10/magic and slashing; Immune cold, electricity, undead traits; Resist fire 10 Offense Speed 20 ft. (30 ft. unarmored) Melee +1 bastard sword +16/+11/+6 (1d10+5/19-20), slam +10 (1d6+2) or slam +15 (1d6+6) Ranged masterwork light crossbow +13 (1d8/19-20) Special Attacks challenge 4/day (+3 AC, +11 damage), for the king (+3 atk, dmg), frightful gaze (Will DC 18, 3/day), lion’s call (+3 vs. fear/+1 atk, 11 rounds) Statistics Str 18, Dex 12, Con -, Int 12, Wis 14, Cha 16 Base Atk +11; CMB +15; CMD 26 Feats Exotic Weapon Proficiency (bastard sword), Improved Initiative (B), Lightning Reflexes, Mounted Combat, Outflank, Power Attack, Ride-By Attack, Shake It Off, Spirited Charge, Toughness (B) Skills Climb +16, Craft (taxidermy) +13, Handle Animal +14, Intimidate +16, Knowledge (nobility) +10, Perception +12, Perform (wind) +9, Ride +12 (+14 on ghost mount); Racial Modifiers +8 Climb Languages Common, Necril SQ contingency, etheric tether, ghost mount, ghost wind, hunter zombie, spirited mount Gear headband of charisma +2, cloak of resistance +1, rhino hide, +1 bastard sword, amulet of natural armor +1, 4 tangle arrows (as tangle bolts), masterwork light crossbow, 20 arrows, masterwork heavy steel shield, scrimshawed signal horn decorated with hunting hounds worth 75 gp, 17 gp, 60 sp. Special Abilities Contingency When Hubert is reduced to half hit points or fewer, he and his mount (if summoned) are teleported back to his room in Castle Xyntillian. Fearless (Su) Each ally within 10 feet of Hubert Malevol gains a +4 morale bonus on saving throws against fear effects. This ability functions only while Hubert is conscious, not if he is unconscious or dead. Frightful Gaze (Su) Hubert Malevol can use this ability on opponents within 30 feet as a standard action, which acts as a gaze attack until his next turn. Creatures within range that meet Hubert’s gaze must succeed at a DC 18 Will saving throw or stand paralyzed in fear for 1 round. This is a mind-affecting fear effect. Creatures that successfully save against that ghost rider's frightful gaze are immune to it for 24 hours. At 9th level, this ability can affect creatures that are mindless or immune to mind-affecting effects, though it still counts as a fear effect. Hubert can use this ability a number of times each day equal to her Charisma modifier (typically 3/day). Hunter Zombie (Ex) Hubert Malevol is not immune to magic missile spells the way that most juju zombies are, but gains the scent ability.

Redrum CR – Phantom mount LE Large animal (phantom) Init +3; Senses darkvision 60 ft., Perception +7 Defense AC 26, touch 13, flat-footed 22 (-1 size, +3 Dex, +1 dodge, +10 natural, +3 armor) hp 76 (9d8+36) Fort +9, Ref +9, Will +4; +4 vs. enchantment DR 10/magic Defensive Abilities devotion, link Offense Speed 50 ft., ghost wind, phase lurch, spirited mount Melee bite +9 (1d6+3), 2 hooves +4 (1d4+1) Space 10 ft.; Reach 5 ft. Special Attacks magic attacks (evil, law, magic) Statistics Str 16, Dex 17, Con 16, Int 3, Wis 12, Cha 10 Base Atk +6; CMB +10; CMD 24 (28 vs. trip) Feats Dodge, Mobility, Outflank, Shake It Off, Toughness Skills Acrobatics +12 (+29 when jumping), Perception +7 Languages understands Common (cannot speak) Gear masterwork studded leather barding Special Abilities Spirited Mount (Su) Redrum ignores difficult terrain and gains the ability to use water walk at will as a supernatural ability. Ghost Wind (Su) Redrum can use air walk (as the spell, no action required) at will for up to 1 round at a time, after which it falls to the ground.

[thedarkivist]

I've been tagged by the unmatched-at-getting-me-into-things @mothomens to do blorbo wrapped 2023. Let's see who comes to mind!

Blorbos (in no particular order):

Ferdinand von Aegir, Hubert von Vestra, and Dorothea Arnault (Fire Emblem - Three Houses)

John Doe, Arthur Lester (Malevolent)

Murderbot (Murderbot Diaries)

Floria Tosca (Tosca, don't @ me)

Julie and Netvor (Panna a netvor)

Wolfwood (Trigun)

Blorbos-in-law:

Kaveh and Alhaitham (Genshin Impact)

(do blorbos from my friends' brains count? Because if yes, then there's also Ich and Valentino and Teodora and Claire and Henry and Darkling and and and-)

I'm tagging @officialao3fandomlastforever, @calmodata, @kodzukuro, @sebastianfantastic, but no pressure, this is just for fun!

[docgold13]

Profiles in Villainy

Maleficent

A malevolent fairy queen possessing vast magical powers, Maleficent considered herself as the mistress of all evil.  Her machinations were responsible for all the misfortune in King Stefan's kingdom. She took great offense over not being invited to the christening of Stefan’s daughter, Princess Aurora.  As such, Maleficent cursed the princess to die by pricking her finger on a spinning wheel's spindle before the sun sets on her 16th birthday.

The benevolent fairies, Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather, learned of the curse and attempted to protect Princess Aurora by whisking her away to grow up in a secretive nook of the kingdom.  Many years past as Maleficent searched her out.  Her familiar, a crow named Diablo, was ultimately able to locate her; hence Maleficent was finally able to enact her curse.

Yet once more the good fairies interceded, altering the magic so Aurora did not die from pricking her finger but rather fell into a deep, dreamless sleep from which she could only be awakened by a kiss from her one true love.  Maleficent then sequestered the sleeping beauty in a high tower of her well-fortified castle.

Aurora’s one true love proved to be Prince Phillip of the nearby kingdom of King Hubert.  Armed with special weapons provided by the good fairies, Phillip invaded the castle intent on rescuing Aurora.  Maleficent chose to take on the Prince herself, transforming into a giant, powerful dragon.  Using an enchanted sword, Phillip was able to piece the dragon’s heart and Maleficent fell to her apparent death.  Phillip then reached Aurora and was able to wake her from her cursed slumber with a kiss.  

Maleficent was voiced by actress, Eleanor Audley, and first appeared in the 1959 Disney animated feature, Sleeping Beauty.

[fantasyinvader]

There's something tragic about Hubert that got erased by the translation.

In his solo ending, it's mentioned that he became a person of blackness, in both dress and his heart, as he did whatever it took to support Edelgard. Now, a lot of Hubert's endings do mention the “whatever it takes” bit, but it's his solo ending that lays out what it does to him as a person. The phrase “black-hearted” is used to refer to someone who is malevolent, malignant or evil (Google translate instead uses wicked of heart, saying that his heart is evil or morally wrong).

But then we get him leaving behind a letter, giving away the location of TWSITD and urging Byleth to defeat them. In Verdant Wind, Claude says that Hubert was better than Claude thought he was. The Japanese says it's his tribute to Edelgard as well as Byleth's duty as the victor.

And what I was thinking of is that Edelgard never revealed TWSITD, even in her last moments. Sure, there's her comment to Seteth and Flayn in the translation, but that seems to be a thing with the translation as I keep getting different results in it, either her saying she won't allow Seteth and Flayn to take Fodlan back or that she'll come back if she is killed (so... Dedue dismembering her corpse is a good thing I guess). If that last one is correct, it would imply that she knows TWSITD can resurrect her and it serves as a hint to the fact that Nemesis and the Elites are hidden in Enbarr.

She knows TWSITD killed her siblings, made her father their puppet, experimented on her, turned people into monsters, was behind Duscur and Hopes says she's ignoring their influence on the Empire, yet she keeps silent and instead tells Byleth to kill her, saying it's the only way to stop the fighting, while activating her weapon. I do believe that she was trying to see if her words could give her the opening she needed to strike Byleth down, just look at the end of Azure Moon how she'll reject Dimitri's hand (which, going by Confucianism, would symbolize her rejecting benevolence with her final act), but it also implies that if she wasn't going to win... she'd let Fodlan burn. She would let the Agarthans go to try this again with the next Nemesis or Loog or Edelgard.

Yet Hubert, despite believing that Edelgard would win, took measures to make sure the Agarthans would be defeated should he not be able to conduct his shadow war.

I think what this all says is that while Hubert was evil, he needed to be in order to serve Edelgard's wishes. That in order for her to get what she wanted, he needed to becoming the Dracula-looking motherfucker we know him as, and that reflects more on her than it does on him. After all, the game does title the event where the Black Eagles and player join Edelgard as “Path of Thorns,” symbolically saying it was a path of sin, so what does it say about them?

And if you're like me and thing Papa Vestra was really a Slither due to his betrayal of Ionius, him selecting Edelgard out to be the one Hubert serves, and the Vestra family battalion being dressed in Slither robes despite Moon pointing out those are not standard in the Imperial army, there's probably another dimension we can add to this. That Hubert had revealed who his family was really serving, and how he was the one to push Edelgard into entering an Alliance with TWSITD. Hubert never fit with Edelgard's who spiel about not being tied to duties or responsibilities because of your birth, so Hubert faithfully serving her felt tone-deaf. But if Hubert was really supposed to serve Agartha, killed his father and instead devoted himself to Edelgard out of his love for her, it does feel more consistent. Plus it explains why he doesn't like to hear his father was a good man, because Hubert knew he wasn't as he was likely the one overseeing the experiments on Lysithea and Edelgard's families.

I really wish there was an option to capture Hubert and recruit him in SS to help fight the Slithers.

It's either Edelgard said she was going to conquer Fodlan and Hubert help her do so in the most evil ways possible, ignoring the blatant contradictions and red flags in Edelgard's tale and therefore pushed her down the path they wanted her to go down, or that Hubert was supposed to be an Agarthan pawn but worked to help Edelgard turn the tables on them while helping her accomplish her goals. Either way, it's not really moral but then again Hubert isn't supposed to be moral. His ending identifies him as being evil, much like how Edelgard's S support is supposed to reveal that rather than being a benevolent ruler she's instead ruled by force and violence.

If anything, their relationship is a toxic one akin to Mikazuki and Orga's in Gundam IBO. Hubert did everything he could so that Edelgard could succeed, whereas the direction Edelgard chose pushed Hubert down a dark path. Yet at the end, Edelgard laughs at Hubert when he confesses his love to her and she doesn't react to his death. It feels like their relationship is meant to be a warning to players.

[mask131]

The folklore of Normandy: Wild Hunts

Taken from Amélie Bosquet’s “The Normandy of dreams and wonders: traditions, legends and superstitions of this province” (1845)

Article: “Les Chasses Fantastiques” (The Fantastical Hunts, the French equivalent of “The Wild Hunt”)

It is said that sometimes, in the silence of the night, a powerful and terrifying noise can be heard through the air. It is not thunder roaring, it is not the whistling of the storm - it is a confusion of sour, booming, discordant, tumultuous noises that suddenly explode and wake up everybody on a very large area.

When thsi gigantic choir gets closer to earth, and that one can hear clearly what it is made of, they will recognize high-pitched screams, and mockeries, and heart-breaking laments, and hoarse shoutings, and frenetic laughter, and deep wailing, and loud strangling, and the voice of over-excited children. 

To all those different human voices (or imitations of human voices), people will also hear the sounds of bird of preys, the howl of dogs, the galloping of horses, and sinister music taken out of horns and trumpets. The mystery of this cacophony is revealed when one sees the strange phantoms that cause it... This is the superstition of the fantastical hunts. 

In Normandy, this phenomenon is called by different names. The most common names are “Chasse Proserpine” or “Chasse Chéserquine”, “Chasse Caïn”, “Chasse Arthur” or “Chasse Artus” (The Hunt of Proserpine, the Hunt of Cain, the Hunt of Arthur). But there are others: Chasse Saint-Hubert, Chasse Saint-Eustache, Chasse du Diable, Chasse de la Mère Harpine, Chasse Hennequin, Mesgnie Hellequin, Mesgnie Herlequin. 

When the peasant of Normandy hears above his roof the vile horde led by Proserpina or Mère Harpine (Mère means “Mother”, Harpine is a word based on “Harpy”), if he ever has the mistake - maybe possessed by some diabolical vertigo - to cry “Part en chasse!” (Go hunt!/ Go hunting!), then the spirits will answer his call and throw a piece of corpse down his chimney. Because this is what this hideous witch goes “hunting” at night - entering cemeteries with her cursed group and digging up corpses out of their graves to eat them and use them in their perverse games. Some of the men that had shouted the forbidden “Part en chasse!” as Proserpina was flying through the air, found the following morning half of a man nailed to their door. The men who found this repulsive offering quickly tried to get rid of it, by un-hooking it from their door and throwing the half-corpse into the river - but as soon as they came back home, the infernal meat was back in its original place. Throwing it again in the river will be of no use. You can do it twenty times, the half-body will still be back on your door. There is only one solution: let the rotting half on your door, where it will become a sign for the malevolent spirit - a sign telling them they can gather around this house... However, if you leave the body nine days on your house, it is said that Proserpine herself will come back to take her “gift” again, upon noticing that it wasn’t consumed or used in any way.

[mothomens]

i've been tagged by the wonderful @voidbeantm to do the blorbo wrapped 2023 however, i haven't had that many hyperfixations this year and my memory's shit so let's see what i can come up with. compared to past blorbos most of them were more. fleeting? but here are some characters i've spent more than average time thinking about:

Blorbos (in no particular order):

Jonathan Sims (The Magnus Archives)

Homunkoloss (The City of Dreaming Books)

Robin Swift (Babel, or the Necessity of Violence)

Istra and Orual (Till We Have Faces)

Arthur Lester (Malevolent)

Jonathan Harker and Mina Murray (Dracula)

The Hero and the Princess or, more accurately, [REDACTED] and [REDACTED] (Slay the Princess)

Yomiel and Sissel (Ghost Trick)

Laudna (Critical Role)

Lottie Matthews (Yellowjackets); tbh half the team could fit on my list

Helly (Severance)

Shiv Roy (Succession)

Blorbos-in-law:

Ferdinand von Aegir and Hubert von Vestra (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)

Astarion (Baldur's Gate 3)

Wolfwood (Trigun)

David Ward (I am in Eskew), I promise I will listen to this one day

also half the cast from Mentopolis, they look so fun

Blorbos in progress:

Moros (Hades 2), I am very excited about this one tbh

i'm tagging @cherrycheering @thedarkivist @faestorian @aceforestnymph and you, yes you, if you want to do it. but really no pressure though, it just seems like fun and i'm genuinely so curious about the special little guys y'all microwave in your heads :3c

[kendrixtermina]

(a meditation on the concept of an insult bouquet) AN IMPERTINENCE - that you even ask, that you even speak, and in the very nature of asking, betray your lack of comprehension. In assumptions implicit. Of my dreams, naught left but a fishbone stuck between your teeth, to you, just an unpleasant taste left in your mouth that you hereby wish to wash out. FOXGLOVE – INSINCERITY peeking through like black spots from a pristine pink sheath. I don’t care if you’ve actually changed this time, there is no means for me to tell how its different from all the others. No reasons to suspect that it will go any different, from the self-repeating madness that is doing the same and expecting a different result Nothing for me to gain from practically invite you to pull away the football all over again. SCARLET AURELIA – AVARICE Like floral-red paint peeling off to reveal the gold, what it is you really covet with your ossifrage claws sharpened your beak, how could you possibly be here for the goodness of your heart? That which I’ve never been shown to exist. So tumble down your claims under the weights of their own contradictions. You’re in it for yourself and thus I shall look out for me, no use relying on you to do it. TURK’S CAP – HATRED like twisting flames of red, punctuating stalks of long long green, the pain you have sown now has blossomed, bringing forth this obscene naked stamens, so was your pollen thrown to the wind to wander where it may. To clog up the lungs and cough forth contaminated slimes. It has been no bed of roses. It was you that brought it forth, now you may lie in it. A REBUKE - don’t think I didn’t realize what you did there, putting the onus on me. The ball thrown in my court. But so what? You’ve already called me worse than the devil, there’s really nowhere lower for me to fall, unless you were to make a superhell just for me. These days I rebuke you mostly for my own peace of mind, because you’re just a convenient, helpful antithesis I’ve long since given up on speaking any sense in the insensate callous mass that is you The loathing is for my sake, not yours. LONDON PRIDE – FRIVOLITY The peak of humiliation is, how you somehow remained a terror even once you were revealed as pitiful and childish. A composite wheel of knicknaks and bright colors, a mobile of nature, so haphazard were they, your words, the way you couldn’t spell the words properly when you were trying to spy after what I was looking at on the internet Your try-hard pretentiousness of copied words. how you fall for those silly conspiracies, how you change like a little banner in the wind based on what your overlords tell you the sheer predictability of your mechanical response - and how it still rent my flesh. You’re Hubert Hubert if he liked adult women LOBELIA – MALEVOLENCE It’s such a nifty stress relief is it, so convenient. So nice to make the problem go away, to just assert your will upon reality, believe whatever you need to any time you’re faced with some argument or compromise, you just shout until it goes away, make yourself impossible to deal with until theyre all sick of it, until the other chose to be the bigger person, until they unfold for you, like a pretty purple petal carpet. and you’ll never lose, since no one who remotely cares could quite sink as low as you Your glucocorticoid levels must look marvelous, you’ll live long and well and easy, growing fat on all of us LABURNUM – FORSAKEN so falls, on this, the golden curtain. She said, once, that if you didn’t change your ways, you would end up forsaken by everybody around you. She proclaimed that she would be first, and I would be last. But for all that you bitched about my absence, you’re still surrounded. I’ve given up the fantasy of you rotting in a hole, comforting as though it is as some cool teething ring to gnaw on, you’ll probably die quickly, honored and beloved, getting away with it same as all the villains of history. THE FLOWERS SHOULD BE BOUND TOGETHER BY A FADING LEAF

[lastthroes]

i really don't think that my issue with the eizen sq is that eizen dies. sure, i'm biased towards wanting to see my favorite characters earn their happy endings, but most of my favorite tales characters die through the canon so eizen isn't special. i think it's more about how that's a huge point of conflict and drama with an extremely underwhelming resolution that i'd dare say borders character assassination for other characters (ie sorey) because of its execution, because would it really be a yamamoto game if "character assassination for the sake of following the script" wasn't a thing in it? this was literally x2's bread and butter

nothing changes if you use edna in that battle or not, except maybe one or two throwaway lines like "now is the time" (i'm not 100% sure right now and i can't be bothered to go back to an old save and defeat him twice for a post right now). it's a stark difference from fighting van with luke and tear in abyss, for putting an example. there's no new scene, new dialogue, new music, nothing. for how much eizen was hyped through promotion and in the actual game, the resolution he gets is one of the blandest things i've seen in this franchise

if i think about zelos and seles, or senel and shirley and i don't know if asbel and hubert because i wasn't that good at japanese/english at the time and haven't replayed it yet going by my memories, i never felt as... scammed? as i did with eizen and edna. then again neither of those were hyped to that extent, nor are like edna, where her main drive is "saving her brother". this is literally the reason she joins at all, eizen is really most of her characterization

the eizen sidequest just came to me like the team with a killerboner striking again. i guess most people who were fine with it didn't get to go through this kind of disappointment before, but by the time zestiria was released i was already too fed up: besides hearts not being this hopeless for no reason (though i do find a certain death very contrived still), given when it came to what you could call its lore version of the issue of malevolence, zest didn't get to have the same number of emotional beats on the matter that previous games like x2 had (and take a shoot everytime someone, often lailah, brings up "don't feel things too much because you might fall malevolent" in the game about 'passion'). it came with the plotholes despite the larger dev cycle, but there was not enough given to make you... feel for it. i still felt something with x2 despite being some big bullshit writing-wise - when i saw alt milla falling into the abyss i felt something, and when i saw elle crying over victor's body or over the soup ludger made for her in the aftermath i felt something. i didn't have that with dezel or eizen's death, unless "being confused with the sudden infodumping" or "being confused at how it ended just like that and searching if i fucked up and missed something" counts, so it really just boils down to "i feel really scammed"

[foschie]

i dunno how people imagine hubert winking but this is how it goes actually . i'm right .

[thatnamelessbutler]

ooc: (NEVER TALK TO ME AT 3 AM??) (I GOT POSSESSED??) (THE ANCIENT SPIRITS ROSE??!?!?!1?!?1?!)

((ooc: YES YOU CAN SAY THAT BECAUSE IT DID))

[thecreaturecodex]

Ada Shorewalker

Image © @iguanodont

[Another OC, and one of the first ones I came up with before realizing that I could make an entire Monster Girl Summer out of it. Ada is definitely a version of myself, much like Jade Seven is. I tied her to Castle Xyntillian in this flavor text because it seemed like a good fit for for her, either as a powerful ally for lower level players, or as someone in need of rescue for higher level ones.]

Ada Shorewalker CR 8 N Monstrous Humanoid This anthropomorphic seal has long red hair and a gentle, curious expression. She wears a seal-skin cape and carries a spear.

Ada Shorewalker was always more interested in observation than in the actual hunt. While other selkies of her pack preferred to play malicious tricks on humanoids, Ada spent her time in tide pools and beach-combing, paying special attention to those land organisms that came to rest or forage on the seaside. As Ada grew up, she practiced her shapeshifting to emulate the other animals around her, and eventually grew in tune with nature to the point of learning druidic magic. She has now left her pack behind, exploring on land in order to learn more about the life that exists independently of the ocean.

Despite her gentle nature, Ada is especially interested in things like predator-prey relationships, decomposition and toxicology. Fungi are fairly rare in the ocean, and so she is fascinated by fungi and fungal creatures. When she is comfortable with someone, she often infodumps to them about all of the things she’s learned; her idea of “fun facts” is decidedly morbid and sometimes very gross. She views undeath as an aberration, but a particularly interesting one.

In combat, Ada switches from fun-loving to all business. She uses her animal focus to take on aspects like dolphin, orca or turtle, and then closes into melee with her spear or natural weapons. She prefers not to fight in wild shape mode, as Ada usually saves it to take a flying form if she needs to make a quick getaway. Ada is a little headstrong, and is not used to working alongside others, but given time and practice could become an excellent teammate.

Due to her attraction towards macabre topics, Ada Shorewalker has been considering an expedition to Castle Xyntillian. She has heard that Lake Xyntillian is home to an entire population of freshwater plesiosaurs, for example, and unusual plants and fungi grow throughout the grounds. She is confident that she can deal with any undead creatures that she encounters, because she has underestimated the sheer number of powerful undead that live on the grounds. She has no idea, for example, about powerful guests such as The Sickness or Debbie Twice-Born, or that Hubert Malevol the Huntsman has never stalked a selkie before and would be happy to add her head to his trophy collection.

Ada has red hair and a fat build in all of her humanoid forms. She gets along especially well with gnomes.

Ada Shorewalker          CR 8 XP 4,800 Female selkie druid 6 (variant feral shifter) N Medium monstrous humanoid (shapechanger) Init +8; Senses darkvision 60 ft., Perception +14, scent Defense AC 19, touch 14, flat-footed 15 (+4 Dex, +5 natural) hp 90 (12d8+36) Fort +11, Ref +12, Will +14; +4 vs. fey Resist cold 10 Defensive Abilities resist nature’s lure Offense Speed 20 ft., swim 50 ft. Melee masterwork spear +15 (1d8+6/x3), bite +9 (1d8+4) or bite +14 (1d8+6), 2 claws +14 (1d6+4) Ranged masterwork spear +15 (1d8+4/x3) or sling +14 (1d4+4) Special Attacks animal focus (6 minutes/day), aquatic focus, powerful blows (bite), shake, wild shape (2/day, Tiny to Large animal, Small elemental) Spells CL 6th, concentration +10 (+14 casting defensively) 3rd—greater magic fang, neutralize poison (DC 16), speak with plants 2nd—barkskin, bear’s endurance, elemental speech, slipstream 1st—faerie fire, obscuring mist, produce flame, speak with animals 0th—detect magic, detect poison, purify food and drink, stabilize Statistics Str 18, Dex 18, Con 17, Int 16, Wis17, Cha 16 Base Atk +10; CMB +14; CMD 28 Feats Alertness, Combat Casting,Improved Critical (bite)B, Improved Initiative, Natural Spell, Power Attack, Skill Focus (Knowledge: nature) Skills Bluff +9, Diplomacy +9, Disguise +9, Knowledge (arcana, dungeoneering) +9, Knowledge (geography) +12, Knowledge (nature) +17, Heal +12, Perception +14, Sense Motive +14, Spellcraft +12, Stealth +13, Survival +14, Swim +21 Languages Aquan, Common, Druidic, Gnome, Sylvan SQ change shape (any Small or Medium humanoid, alter self), echo of reason, hold breath, nature sense, trackless step, wild empathy +9, woodland step Gear seafoam shawl of resistance +1, pearl of power (1st level), wand of cure light wounds, scroll of lesser restoration, masterwork spear, sling with 10 bullets,coral and pearls worth 46 gp Special Abilities Animal Focus (Su): At 1st level, as a swift action, a feral shifter can take on the aspect of an animal, gaining a bonus or special ability based on the type of animal emulated. This functions as the hunter’s animal focus class feature. The feral shifter can use this ability for a number of minutes per day equal to her druid level. This duration does not need to be consecutive, but it must be spent in 1-minute increments. She can emulate only one animal at a time. This ability replaces nature bond. Aquatic Focus (Su) Ada Shorewalker draws her animal focuses from the list for the aquatic beastmaster hunter archetype. Echo of Reason (Su) A selkie can instinctively alter the intonation of its voice to make anything it says sound more pleasing to those who understand it. When using the Bluff skill, a selkie treats its lies as one step more believable for the purposes of bonuses or penalties on the check. Shake (Ex) On a successful critical hit with its bite attack, a selkie automatically violently shakes a Large or smaller target. The target must succeed at a DC 16 Fortitude save or it is dazed for 1 round. Even on a successful save, the target still takes a –2 penalty on all attack rolls and skill checks for the next 2 rounds. The save DC is Constitution-based.

[lucienballard]

The Velvet Underground’s 30 greatest songs – ranked!

30. Ride Into the Sun (1969)The Velvets recorded two versions of Ride Into the Sun: a fabulous 1969 instrumental laden with fuzz guitar and a hushed 1970 vocal take backed by organ. Somewhere between the two lies one of their great lost songs; Lou Reed’s disappointingly flat 1972 solo version doesn’t do it justice at all.

29. Run Run Run (1967)For all the shock engendered by the lyrics of Heroin and I’m Waiting for My Man, the most malevolent-sounding track on the debut album might be Run Run Run, a powerful R&B groove lent a gripping darkness by Reed’s noisy guitar playing and the screw-you-I-take-drugs sneer of his vocals.

28. Beginning to See the Light (1969)The title suggests awakening, the melody is bright, but the lyrics are dark and bitter. They may have been directed at John Cale, who played on an initial version of the song, which was subsequently re-recorded after Reed sacked him, against the wishes of his bandmates. A ferocious 1969 live version amps up the tension.

27. Foggy Notion (1969)Reed was a lifelong doo-wop fan. His passion usually found its expression when the Velvet Underground recorded backing vocals for their ballads – as on Candy Says – but the tough, rocking Foggy Notion went a stage further, gleefully stealing a chunk of the Solitaires’ 1955 single Later for You Baby.

26. The Gift (1968)In which the band set a two-chord grind that may, or may not, have been based on their instrumental Booker T in one channel and a blackly comic Reed short story read by Cale in the other. “If you’re a mad fiend like we are, you’ll listen to them both together,” offered the producer, Tom Wilson.

25. Guess I’m Falling in Love (1967)Recorded at the White Light/White Heat sessions, but never completed, the April 1967 live recording of Guess I’m Falling in Love – taped at the Gymnasium in New York – will more than suffice. It boasts three chords, a distinct rhythm and blues influence, Reed in streetwise, so-what punk mode and explosive guitar solos somehow potentiated by the rough sound quality.

24. Temptation Inside Your Heart (1968)“It was not Mein Kampf – my struggle,” the guitarist Sterling Morrison once reflected of the Velvet Underground’s career. “It was fun.” A delightful late Cale-era outtake that inadvertently captured Morrison, Cale and Reed’s giggly backchat as they recorded the backing vocals, Temptation Inside Your Heart bears that assessment out.

23. New Age (1970)New Age comes in two varieties. Take your pick from the world-weary, small-hours rumination found on 1969: The Velvet Underground Live, or the more epic studio version that the Velvets biographer Victor Bockris suggested was “an attempt to present some encouraging statements to a confused audience as the 70s began”. Both are superb.

22. After Hours (1969)The Velvets’ eponymous 1969 album ends, improbably, with the drummer, Moe Tucker, singing a song that could have dated from the pre-rock era. The twist is that her childlike voice and the cute melody conceals an almost unbearably sad song, ostensibly a celebration of small-hours boozing, but filled with longing and regret.

21. I Can’t Stand It (1969)Amid the Velvets’ songs about drugs and drag queens lurked the plaintive sound of Reed pining for his college sweetheart, Shelley Albin, the subject of Pale Blue Eyes, I Found a Reason and I Can’t Stand It. The latter’s cocky strut is disrupted by a desperate lyrical plea: “If Shelley would just come back, it’d be all right.”

20. The Black Angel’s Death Song (1967)There is something folky and vaguely Dylan-esque at the heart of The Black Angel’s Death Song, but by the time Cale had finished with it – alternately strafing it with screeching, insistent viola and hissing into the microphone in lieu of a chorus – it sounded, and still sounds, unique.

19. I Found a Reason (1970)It is one of the ironies of the Velvet Underground that the most forward-thinking, groundbreaking band of their era could occasionally sound like old-fashioned rock’n’roll revivalists. Buried on side two of Loaded was one of the loveliest of Lou Reed’s loving homages to doo-wop, complete with spoken-word section.

18. Some Kinda Love (1969)Musically straightforward, sensual in tone, Some Kinda Love is a complex business, part seduction soundtrack, part refusal to be hemmed in by standard categories of sexuality – “no kinds of love are better than others … the possibilities are endless / and for me to miss one / would seem to be groundless”. Killer line: “Between thought and expression lies a lifetime.”

17. European Son (1967)European Son isn’t a song so much as an eruption. It sounds like a band overturning the established order of rock’n’roll, almost literally: after two brief verses, it bursts into thrilling frantic chaos with a verbatim crash, like the contents of an upended table hitting the floor.

16. Rock & Roll (1970)It is hard to see Loaded’s driving, joyous hymn to music’s redemptive power – “her life was saved by rock and roll” – as anything other than disguised autobiography on the part of Reed. The suggestion that music will endure “despite all the amputations”, meanwhile, seems to look forward to his departure from the Velvet Underground.

15. Candy Says (1969)No one else in 1969 was writing songs remotely like Candy Says, a stunning, tender pen portrait of the transgender Warhol superstar Candy Darling set to a gentle doo-wop inspired backing. Its melancholy seems to presage the note Darling wrote on her deathbed in 1974: “I had no desire for life left … I am just so bored by everything.”

14. Sunday Morning (1967)Sunday Morning was written at the behest of Wilson. He wanted a single that might conceivably get on the radio; he got a haunting, melancholy sigh of a song, its battered wistfulness and undercurrent of paranoia – “watch out, the world’s behind you” – the perfect encapsulation of morning-after regret.

13. What Goes On (1969)Morrison maintained that the studio incarnation of What Goes On wasn’t a patch on the live versions the band performed with Cale on organ. Maybe, but the studio incarnation featuring Cale’s replacement, Doug Yule, is great. It prickles with nervous energy, Reed’s guitar playing is amazing, its churning coda takes up half the song and it still feels too short.

12. Femme Fatale (1967)Apparently provoked by the damaged, doomed Warhol superstar Edie Sedgwick – with whom Cale had a brief affair – Femme Fatale is as beautiful and fragile as its inspiration. The story of a wary, ruined former suitor warning others off the titular anti-heroine is lent a chilly edge by Nico’s delivery.

11. I Heard Her Call My Name (1968)In the Velvets’ early days, Reed purported to be “the fastest guitarist alive”. A berserk claim, but his Ornette Coleman-inspired solos on I Heard Her Call My Name are some of the most extraordinary and viscerally exciting in rock history, frequently atonal, spiked with ear-splitting feedback and pregnant pauses.

10. Ocean (1969)The Velvet Underground recorded Ocean several times – one version is supposed to feature the return of Cale on organ – but never released it in their lifetime, which seems extraordinary. It is among the greatest of their later songs, its atmosphere beautiful, the epic ebb and flow of its sound completely immersive.

9. I’m Waiting for the Man (1967)An unvarnished lyrical depiction of scoring drugs tied to music on which Reed’s rock’n’roll smarts and Cale’s background in minimalist classical music – the pounding, one-chord piano part – meld in a kind of relentless perfection. Amusingly, there is now a pharmacy at the song’s fabled location of Lexington 125.

8. I’ll Be Your Mirror (1967)A song about Reed’s affair with Nico that could just as easily be about Andy Warhol’s approach to art, I’ll Be Your Mirror is one of those Velvet Underground tracks that makes their initial commercial failure seem baffling. How could a pop song as wonderful as this fail to attract attention? Nico and Morrison on stage at the New York Society for Clinical Psychiatry annual dinner in 1966.

7. White Light/White Heat (1968)A delirious paean to amphetamine, its subject reflected in the lyrics – “I surely do love to watch that stuff tip itself in” – and the turbulent, distorted rush of its sound. The band appear to be barely in control as it careers along; the chaotic finale, where Cale finally loses his grip on the bass line, is just fantastic.

6. Heroin (1967)Heroin was the deal-breaker at early Velvets gigs, provoking a “howl of bewilderment and outrage”. The shock of its subject matter has dulled with time, but its surges from folky lament to sonic riot still sound breathtaking. Oddly sweet moment: Reed’s chuckle as Tucker loses her place amid the maelstrom and suddenly stops playing.

5. Pale Blue Eyes (1969)“High energy does not necessarily mean fast,” Reed once argued. “High energy has to do with heart.” Hushed, limpidly beautiful and almost unbearably sad, Pale Blue Eyes’ depiction of a strained, adulterous relationship proves his point. In its own vulnerable way, it is as powerful as anything the Velvet Underground recorded.

4. Sweet Jane (1970)Sweet Jane started life as a ballad – see the versions recorded live at the Matrix in San Francisco in 1969 – but, sped and toughened up, it became as succinct and perfect a rock’n’roll song as has ever been written, based around one of the greatest riffs of all time.

3. Venus in Furs (1967)For a band who inspired so much other music, the Velvet Underground’s catalogue is remarkably rich with songs that still sound like nothing else; they were as inimitable as they were influential. Venus in Furs is a case in point: umpteen artists were galvanised by its dark, austere atmosphere; none succeeded in replicating it.

2. Sister Ray (1968)A monumental journey into hitherto-uncharted musical territory, where a primitive garage-rock riff meets Hubert Selby-inspired lyrics and improvisation that sounds like a psychological drama playing out between Reed and Cale, all at skull-splitting volume. Fifty-three years later, it is without peer for white-knuckle intensity.

1. All Tomorrow’s Parties (1967)Ninety per cent of the Velvet Underground’s oeuvre consists of no-further-questions classics. The astonishingly high standard of almost everything they did makes picking their “best” song a matter of personal preference, rather than qualitative judgment. So let’s go for Warhol’s favourite, on which the sour and sweet aspects of their debut album entwine faultlessly. The melody is exquisite; the music monolithic and unrelenting, powered by Cale’s hammering piano and Tucker’s stately drums; Nico’s performance perfectly inhabits the lyrics, which turn a depiction of a woman choosing what dress to wear into a meditation on emptiness and regret. It is original and utterly masterly: the Velvet Underground in a nutshell.

source

[randomnameless]

My uncle works at nintendo and um actually told me the plans for dlc is that rhea gets the custody papers for billy and tells jerry to fuck off, and she brings billy back to her warm sunning rock and cyril and flayn are happy to have a new big sibling. Hubert is seething but he can’t say much becausd he has to hold ladle’s hand all the time now in enbarr and is forced to leave the church alone. Seteth writes a lot of children’s books and is relaxed and goes on a lot of wyvern rides. Rhea gets a lot of happy visits from duscur and sreng and faerghus people because they’re all best friends now and help each other alot. Alois is back as the knight captain and he’s the best. Rheas kids spend their free time together fishing and flower crowns and tea parties (hresvelg grey is forbidden)

How horrible.

Hopefully Clout is here to kill her, because she promotes IsoLaTiOnIsM and is the reason why Fodlan cannot get along with its neighbours.

On top of stealing children - no Billy didn't come to her side following their own will, nope, their dad said they had none and are "not normal" anyways - she forces them to make flower crowns for her?

Thus pushes responsabilities on them?? Hello?

Mounting a "Liberation" with Supreme Leader - he promised her he'd spare Billy-sensei - Clout, the new King of Leicester, drafts the Almyran army and Supreme Leader's vassal Brigid, and together they harass Albinea, saying their fish is disugting, and by the way, Rhea said they are godless savages. For real, she legit said that.

Rhea and the Knights of Seiros have to defend themselves against Clout, Supreme Leader, and their allies.

When she asks them why the frick are they attacking her, Supreme Leader replies that she doesn't understand what Rhea is talking about, while Clout adds that it's to stop her reign of malevolence and xEnOpHoBiA, because hey, she's fighting foreigners here, isn't she? It doesn't matter who started the hostilities, of if the "foreigners" are drafted under his army, Rhea fights people who aren't from Fodlan thus she's bad.

(and she also fights against HUMANS, which reveals that she never cared about human life at all, since she is NOT HUMAN)

Catchy music plays, and Rhea dies to the sound of her cries, while Supreme Leader and Clout high-five each other and the sun rises.

Teh end

[mairen-marionette]

★ - sad headcanon for Ranbutler :D?

He and Hubert were close, Moon looked up to and trusted him a lot, and Hubert really was fond of the kid. He taught them everything he knew, always made sure he was okay. When the Egg started getting more demanding, more malevolent, he promised Moon that he'd always be there for them- and then he ran away.

And even though Moon knew it had something to do with the Egg, he couldn't help but feel so utterly betrayed- Hubert had promised to always be there only to break that promise so easily. Moon had already been separated from his family once and that alone was devastating, but to have someone he considered family seemingly just leave was heartbreaking.

He couldn't understand why Hubert would just leave like that- it wasn't like him. He and Billiam didn't know what happened to cause Hubert to run away so suddenly, to not even try to take them with him. It was just so confusing, and it hurt so much.

They didn't know what had happened between him and the Egg to cause him to act so strangely in the weeks before he ran, and that vague note he left certainly gave no real answers.

Just, Moon and Hubert were close and Hubert running away really hurt him a lot, basically.

[doctorcanon]

Tales of Mash Up: The Eleth War

The Eleth War from 2405 Enim Adventia (A Bastardization of the Latin Phrase for After the Advent) to 2426 E.A.

2405 E.A.:

Fendel starts making aggression on the Hyland Kingdom in Strahta.

Strahta takes massive losses, reporting the discovery of “terrible machines” 

A Massive storm hits the coast of Reize Maxia, awakening the Malak Milla Maxwell and killing several Elympion refugees. 

There are few survivors including the Mathis Family.  

2406 E.A.:

Strahta’s president is assassinated. 

Hyland’s capital Windor is directly attacked in a declaration of war. King is gravely injured.

Hyland reaches out to Gand who does not respond at first. 

Windor’s Wind Crystal or “aer krene” is attacked and nearly drained of Cryas.

2407 E.A.: 

Hyland petitions Gand yet again and receive aid in the form of Shepherds and their Malaks

Fendel takes heavy losses as a result.

An armistice is expected.

2408 E.A.: 

Fendelian ally Elympios introduces Spirix machines designed to manipulate and drain Mana.

Gand takes heavy losses. High Shepherd Celica is killed and her husband Arthur is badly wounded, Elder Zenrus is killed.

Immominant, Maotelus and their caretaker Sister Velvet Crowe go missing.

The First manifestation of malevolence is recorded. 

Asbel Lhant goes missing and is assumed to be kidnapped by Fendalians. 

Hubert Lhant is sent to Strahta to study in Sable Izolle for his own safety under the name Hubert Oswell.

2409 - 2414 E.A.: 

The Darkest Period in Hyland’s History

Asbel becomes a Knight under an assumed name.

Humanitarian crisis ensues, Reize Maxia sends relief. 

Fendel’s people are starving in the wake of the war effort.

Gand gains much influence in Strahta, claiming the Water Crystal. 

Hyland’s King is assassinated. 

Prince Richard and Princess Alisha disappear. However, Alisha returns to the capital near death several months later.

Luke Fon Fabre is born.(2410)

2415 - 2416 E.A.:

A small force from Windor and Strahta including The Tales of Graces Protagonists undergo a mission to find Prince Richard with the information Alisha was able to provide.

Major cities in Fendel start to collapse.

Prince Richard is recovered but has been driven insane by Fendel’s continuous attempts to forcibly Armatize Malaks and Humans.

The city of Fendalian city of Fodra is destroyed in an Spirix explosion. 

The Malaks Little Queen, Protos Heis and Lambda are discovered. 

Elympios unexpectedly withdraws. 

Yuri Lowell joins the Rolance Imperial Knights.

2417 E.A.: 

Fendelian Generals surrender.

Asbel Lhant returns home to become Lord of Lhant in his father’s place.

Strahta peacefully secedes from Hyland and is voluntarily occupied by Gand.

Fendel is annexed by the Hyland Kingdom.

Hubert Oswell leaves his position in the Strahtan Military due to his dislike of Gand’s theocratic politics. 

The rebuilding of Fodra begins. Malik Caesar is placed in charge. 

Rowen Ilbert of Reize Maxia leads humanitarian effort in Hyland

2418 E.A.: 

Maotelus and Innominat are restored to the throne but Sister Velvet is presumed dead.

Hyland withdraws from global politics.

Kimlasca forcibly annexes Lanvaldear.

Malkuth advances on outlying Rolance Empire territories. 

Drellin Food Riots end after a hostage situation goes wrong. One of the hostages and Bakur’s youngest son, Ludger Kresnik suffers a traumatic brain injury rendering him selectively mute.   

2419 E.A.:

Naval Battles between the Empire and Malkuth ensue.

Fontech and Spirix become used in battle more and more.

Rolance reaches out to their allies, with Hyland still economically devastated, only Reize Maxia responds.

Elympios takes notice of Reize Maxia 

Malkuth is cowed for the moment and starts building more advanced Fontech.

2420 E.A: 

Emperor Peony and Captain Jade Curtiss marry in secret.

Brother Sorey of Izuchi joins the priesthood as one of the youngest Shepherds in history.

Yuri Lowell establishes Vesperia as a Mercenary Guild and quickly gains notoriety.

Jude Mathis graduates from the Amarcian Enclave.

2421 E.A.:

Guy Cecil is named Chief Engineer of Kimlasca but works for Malkuth.

Kimlasca/Maluth Alliance cemented. Naval attacks on Zaphias commence.

King Nactigal pulls Reize Maxia from their alliance with Zaphias. 

Gaius Outway starts negotiating alliances with Zaphias officials, including Vesperia.

The King of Kimlasca unexpectedly dies. No foul play is suspected.

2422 E.A.: 

King Nachigal of Reize Maxia is assassinated by Gaius Outway

Outway fakes his assassination at his coronation.

Elympios moves in to attack and is crushed by The Schism.

King Asch the Bloody and Natalia Lanvaldear are married. Ludger Kresnik is in attendance. 

2423 E.A.:

The Prophet of Kresnik makes his first appearance at King Gaius’ side.

Reize Maxia and Zaphias start pushing against Elympios.

The Oscore Plant is destroyed, gravely wounding Bakur’s son Victor and killing his youngest son Ludger and granddaughter Elle. 

Reize Maxia refutes these claims as the Plant wasn’t in operation yet. 

2424 E.A.: 

The War enters an uneasy slatemate. The Schism keeps the Elympions separated from the World but they continue the onslaught against the wall. 

Jade Curtiss and Guy Cecil leave for an official conference in Elympios and don’t return. 

2425 E.A.: 

The Prophet of Kresnik is captured in a Sting operation led by Bakur’s Middle son, Julius. Elle is found alive in Kanbalar.

Elympios claims the Prophet killed Ludger and is executed for his crimes

Despite their claims, Elympios’s strategies haven’t changed and they still can’t locate the location of the Blastia powering it.

Julius returns to Elympios with Elle and without the use of his left arm. 

A funeral is held for Ludger Kresnik.

2426 E.A.:

Major Victoria Bell is murdered in cold blood, her killer claims to be Velvet Crowe.

[hotheadhero]

The first thing Caspar realized when he woke up was: This isn’t my ceiling.

In another context, that might not be so alarming - every so often he’d crash on Linhardt’s bed instead of his own when he was just too worn out to climb the long flight of stairs back up - but what he saw above his head looked so completely unfamiliar to him that he promptly bolted upright in his bed.

He should have clocked himself into next week, he came at that too-hard, too-close steel-wooden frame so fast, but instead his head passed right on through and he was greeted with a field of pitch-black, glinting randomly in places like metal. Caspar squinted - somehow the simple reflex did much to improve his night vision, but still, none of it was anything he recognized. Packed cotton, thick twine here and there, and several heavy coiled springs interspersed throughout... If he didn’t know any better, he might think he’d ended up inside his own mattress somehow. A self-deprecating laugh escaped him, and he absentmindedly raised a hand to pinch himself. Some crazy dream, right? He’d never even seen a bed mattress be assembled; how would he know what one looks like inside--

No pinch. No pain. Caspar took one look down at himself, and screamed.

“SHIT, what--?!?” Shock and terror sent him flying into the rafters (higher than he had any right to be), and he realized that he’d never actually left his dorm room at all. What’s more, his sight was wreathed in faint glowing cyan and he was floating, digging incorporeal fingers into and through the planks as if doing so would keep him grounded in this world he’d so prematurely left. There was no body in his bed; the sheets were rumpled but showed no sign of having been slept in; and he was pretty sure there’d be no body underneath his bed even though he knew now that was where he’d woken up this morning. 

I’ve been turned into a ghost. The rest of him already knew it but his head and heart were still in denial. Still, there was little other way to explain this literal out-of-body experience. Only - where was his body? The one book he could recall ever reading about ghosts had said they were malevolent spirits chained to the world of the living by some lingering regret, usually embodied in some physical object that needed to be destroyed to release their prisoner. But what about reversing the spell? He didn’t want to go away just yet; he still had so much left to do! He hadn’t even managed to accomplish his dream!

“Oh, what do I do, what do I do, what do I DOOO--!!”

Frustration and panic tore from him in an unearthly sound he hadn’t even known he was capable of making. He could feel his heart - or whatever passed for it in this ghostly form - racing, literally threatening to blow him to pieces. Could ghosts even blow themselves apart with their own evil energy? Scratch that - he didn’t want to find out.

Caspar had never been known for restraining himself, but with his very life on the line, somehow he managed to wrestle his fear down to a low boil. Think, Caspar. There has to be some way out of this. This had to be a curse of some kind, right? Or a spell? He could brainstorm all he wanted, but only a mage could give him any definitive answers, and that was assuming they even knew what had caused this mischief in the first place. 

Hubert. Linhardt. Celica. One of those three had to be able to help him, right? Hell, he’d take anyone with a magical enough look to them, as long as he could sleep in his bed like a normal human again. Or eat. ... Oh, goddess, did ghosts get hungry? Would he ever get to enjoy the dining hall’s food again?!?

Fuck - That tearing sensation again--

No. Don’t get distracted. Try not to think about that... or the way you don’t need to open the door to go right through. Mage. Find one.

It was night out. Here and there a lamp-flame flickered. Silence. Odds were low that he’d find anybody wandering around campus right now, but maybe the library would have some answers. Or the mages’ dorm rooms. He didn’t know how long he had to reverse this, but time was short - either one of them would do. He’d simply have to try his luck.

...

Non-IC thoughts and rules below the cut.

Spontaneous April Fool’s writing, just because Caspar has a name-alike. Also, the mages named above are only there because Caspar has had canon and/or TOA interaction with them - I am by no means narrowing his interactions to just those three. If all this intrigues you, feel free to interact with ghost-Caspar however or with whoever. I’ll take asks, submits, or reblogs of this scene-setter/starter. Just be sure to get your ideas in my inbox, notices, or DMs before April 1, 11:59PM PST (might be flexible with long thread ideas). I left open where he goes first, but ghost Caspar can be found anywhere he normally hangs out as well as the above stated other locations. Or anywhere at all, really.

Given that this idea has only existed for as long as it took me to write this, I don’t have a lot of premeditated constraints for ghost Caspar other than the following:

He’s effectively made of mana/an energy-being here. If he’s stuck in this form too long, he may need to leech off someone’s magical (or life?!?) energy.

What happened to his body?!? Could be stolen or transmuted or something else entirely; you decide! (Or it might differ by interaction?)

At base, he looks like himself but glows faint cyan (like his hair, but electric). He’s easier to see at night and near impossible to see in day. Magically attuned people OR people observant enough to notice a “heat mirage” effect when the temperature really isn’t hot enough to have one may still be able to see him even in daylight, though.

If he gets too emotionally distressed, his form distorts and fuzzes out - think old TV static meets Photoshop Liquefy/Shear. Same happens to his voice - the latter scream could be likened to a banshee’s.

He can talk to anyone who sees him, or to anyone who doesn’t via dreams/possession. Possessing someone in broad daylight (e.g. to hold conversation, though theoretically it could be done to frighten someone?) might manifest physically, e.g. host feels their body temperature drop, or their eyes change color.

He can move physical objects if he concentrates. This might look like repeated attempts to grab/clench an object if you can see his full incorporeal form, or a cyan wisp of variable thickness/opacity if you can’t. 

Ironically, being made of pure mana here, he might have an easier time casting spells than he would normally. Too bad he has no affinity for dark magic. (Fire and wind could blow apart his form; he retains his fear of thunder and lightning; and he might be able to pull off a supremely weak “Sagittae” if it ever came up... e.g. one "arrow”, and more a stylus at that.) Nosferatu would come surprisingly easy thanks to the whole mana vampire HC.