#i dont know much about him yet but he's going to be a fire mage

[lucaanis]

i think taash and my (vague undeveloped) adaar would hang

[a-whispering-echo]

The story of The Royal Mage - UE Dust log

(im copy pasting some of the info i have written on my AO3 about these characters, because i have a bigger following here, and i know some people here dont use Ao3, so-) TW: gaslighting, death of loved ones, torture , murder and accusations of murder, classism and racism, and a character who covers their head taking off their veil ( not a Muslim character) if there's anything else, i'm so sorry please tell me!

WATER TYPE

"The Halfway-Unhinged Mage"

Dust - (legally Navarø (Romanized) - Meaning Fallen powder) Half Elf Wizard Rouge -> Wizard Age: 47 (20-ish in human age) Height; 5'2 Gender: (trans) Male he/him

His perception is so high he sees enemies that "Aren't there."

Was once the royal mage, and executioner.

if he had to choose between his scarf and his life, he'll choose the scarf.

thin - Horror says too thin

While working, he was ordered for a bi-monthly check up with the Seer, and they prophesied that he would bring about the death of his brother.

He was immediately imprisoned and tortured on suspicion of plans to murder and treason. And under months of torture, he went mad.

Nüu, hoping to escape his fate, goes to Dusts work room, hoping that he may have made some sort of potion or spell for immortality. To his glee, Dust had a potion in the work for what he believed to be immortality.

Dust wrote all his spells in a language not Common or Dûvan (the native languages to the island.) A version of Old Elvish, taught to him by his father.

Unfortunately, Nüu had mistranslated his brothers words, mistaking "Painful Death" as "No Death" and dies slowly and agonisingly.

When Dust hears the news of his brothers death, he breaks out of jail in rage, and forces as much raw magic into his body as physically possible, in hopes of restring him. It works - in a sense.

He drags Nüu's body to a small local island, before he is recaptured. As the potion Nüu has drank had traces of Dusts magic on it, and knowing the prophesy, they believed he had killed him purposefully, and, under torture, he was manipulated into thinking he had.

As punishment for his supposed murder, his hair is cut (a huge thing for an elven culture, as elf hair is considered linked to their magic, and takes ages to grow, to cut is short is betraying all that is magical of you) and he has all of his potions tested on him in retaliation.

One of these potions makes him endure the feeling of his own death over and over, and for a large portion of time, he genuinely believes himself to be dead.

Until another one is tested, making his magical ability skyrocket, and he breaks out again, kills his captures, sets fire to the castle, killing the queen, grabs what is left of his notes and runs.

Due to this potion, his magic is completely unlimited, but he refuses to use it after what happened the last time.

While he says he doesn't use magic, he's so used to it that he uses it for small things all the time subconsciously. Strengthening the shadows around his hood, making sure Nüu's scarf doesn't come loose, deepening his voice to a more masculine tone, and hiding his chest.

He's still being searched for. He's very aware of this, and is terrified of what will happen to him when they do.

Nüu's body will never decay, and is kept in the mausoleum Dust dragged him to. He is very much dead and cannot be revived, but his body will remain forever due to the large amount of magic Dust pushed into his body.

The ghost is real. A mix between the actual Nüu, and a manifestation of Dusts overcharging magic, which slowly corrupts him as it is incapable of harming Dust in any physical manner. The overcharge turns Nüu very twisted, and makes Dust very tired, yet he refused to use any of it.

Nüu was the head of the guard, which is why it was such a big thing to assume he was going to be killed.

He owns a very shaky version of a teleporting machine, which is how he managed to travel the large body of water between the island of Thuva and the mainland.

He has a large scar across his right cheek, that he refuses to talk about. Everyone thinks this is because its traumatic, when in actuality, he just to embarrassed to explain it from landing of a tree branch weirdly after using his badly made device. Though he has improved these over time with the help from Error, and has them made for the whole team.

The island of Thuva is vaguely cult like. Their plan is to create immortal warriors and take the mainland for themselves, believing it to be their destiny.

The rich stay rich and the poor are disposable. Most people don't know they're being used, due to the strong divide between their rulers, and the settlements being so far away from each other.

The island is mostly full of elves and half- elves ( plus a few humans) but the majority are full elves, who look down of the half and human settlers. All half-elves are made to act according to Elf traditions, while humans aren't allowed to do much, and tend to lack rights. It's horrible place really.

Dust does end up using his magic again, unfortunately it takes extreme measures for this to happen. Killer end up falling off a cliff several years into them being a group, which leaves him out of commission for a long time. He's mostly fine, minus a few more scars in the end, but he breaks a bunch of bones and almost looses his arm. Dust could have saved him from falling, and the guilt causes it to use it again. He uses a lot of magic to heal Killer, with both spells and potions, and continues to regularly use magic again, normally potions he makes from his own herb garden, and spells if they need to attack. - (this story has been written on AO3!)

This also causes Nüu to calm down due to the less overflowing magic, and come back to his senses, and he tells Dust the truth about his death. He tells Dust that what happened wasn't his fault, that his captures had messed with his head, and that he hadn't had anything to do with his death, other than making the potion that was supposed to make his executioner job easier. This messes Dust up for a bit, as his whole perception of what happened had just come crashing down on him.

Despite his innocence, he doesn't stop veiling all the time, mostly just because it a part of him now, but he does take it off more, and lets his teammates see his hair.

Dusts eyes are normally red, but turn blue when his uses his water based elemental magic.

[sieglinde-freud]

36 for the ask game!

36. Share a funny FE-related story, either ingame or not!

allow me to regale you the tale of my most valuable unit ive ever had in any playthrough ever (okay. second most valuable. no one beats odin dark conquest), the most specialest boy youve ever seen!!!

dancer ferdie.

so basically i really wanted the piss color home screen in three houses and for those who dont know, basically you get a “badge of honor” unique home screen in three houses (the same exact screen recolored yellow) on maddening without new game+. i believe you can do this on casual? but im a little tryhard loser, so i picked maddening classic, picked the black eagles (crimson flower doesnt have hunting by daybreak OR a map that forces you to deploy potentially benched in house characters, so that was my pick) and started the run. only to be met with one small problem:

i am a fucking idiot.

three houses maddening isnt that hard once you know what youre doing, but the funny thing about three houses maddening is that it dropped like. six (????) months after three houses dropped just like. out of nowhere. for no reason. and i cannot turn down a challenge so i jumped into it immediately and got my ass kicked. immediately.

my main problem is that i didnt have a reliable damage soaker/tank. edelgard is tanky, but she can only take so much and her stats havent had time to snowball yet. plus, early game has poison strike three range archers, so even if she had the stats, they’d wittle her down. maddening ai is not the same as normal/hard, and at the time i didnt know how to control it, so someone had to go eat all of those hits to bait them over! but adrestia, kingdom of mages, has the durability of a piece of straw. so, we need to avoid taking damage. but we also need to bait out the ai somehow. soooo… how?

i was looking through a couple of classes that might be able to help me out and i notice that ferdinand’s personal skill gives him a certain amount of avoid at full hp. and theres a certain skill line that gives another set number of avoid if you hold a certain weapon. the lighest physical weapon (barring gauntlets) are swords, which he has a natural affinity for. but how do you get sword avoid? literally the only way is through dancer. for some fucking reason. so, i did what had to be done, expecting this to blow up in my face, but as you can tell from the fact that i am making this post, the opposite happened. because actually, as it turns out, having a refresh unit in one of fire emblem’s most difficult game modes that cannot get hit is actually very, very useful.

for the entire game after he went into dancer i chucked him on the front lines right next to edelgard, and he was pretty much a one man army. not nearly as strong physically as edelgard, but much faster and with much more utility. and, hes still ferdinand, so on the off chance he got hit by like a stray 12%, he’d easily eat that hit with his hp stat, only to be physic’d up right back to full. unkillable dancer. baited enemies like it was no ones business AND buffed my entire team just by virtue of being there. i could send my frail ass little mages into a crowd nuke someone, have ferdie dance to let them retreat to safety. edelgard and giant galeforce axe could act TWICE without worrying about dancer positioning. it was just. god. carried my whole game. and he looked GOOD while doing it. he truly is ferdinand von aegir. also took out the final map in two turns no casualties. he did that for me by the way (edelgard galeforce axe)

[prxttybxybxstxrd]

Such was the fate of all who stepped into his world, his narrative. Unless one was truly of the divine, under their true protection, or possessed the mental willpower to fend it off, all would fall into their roles within the 1001 Tales of My Life- the always active Noble Phantasm of the Alter Ego Servant Cassanova Alibaba. The moment she called him forth from the throne and their contract bound, her fate was sealed as far as he was concerned. Perhaps, next time she should have perhaps been more careful in who she called forth without a proper catalyst. The Throne loved so dearly to match those with similar ideals.

One rotten apple deserves another, after all.

"Shhh... Relax, my most lovely Master~" His voice a purr, breath warm against her glistening wet skin. He'd not stop of course. No command seal had been issued and thus, he was not obligated to obey. And how convenient would it be for her to forget she had them to begin with, right? "It shan't be but for a moment. Just long enough to restore your poor Servant's mana." Something to give her hope, a goal to hold on to.

He'd rise up and bring her lower body up with him- was he always this strong?- until the Mage was pinned on her upper back with her legs around his shoulders. Here he'd take his time with her, tongue now dipping down to snake along the entrance to her depths. From the taste alone he could tell she wasn't going to last long and, it was by that he got himself a deliciously wicked idea.

He'd keep going down on her. Tongue dipping in now, eating her out properly as arms wrapped around her hips to better secure her. A single slender finger would continue teasing that sensitive little nub to add to it, to make her break down that much faster. He could already see her face now, screwed up in ecstacy as she broke and begged him to take her and seal her fate.

Closer now. Closer. Until the trembling hips and quivering muscles gave him the signs he needed. Right up to the end, then, right until she would tip over the edge-

And then he'd stop. Still trapped within this position, in his grip and his narrative, but the pleasure of his tongue and fingers denied. "Ah... I think that'll do juuuuuust nicely, dont you think, Master?" He'd let out a cute giggle, a girlish little thing, letting his amusement towards her and her situation be made clear. "Ah, but you didn't finish yet did you Master? Just look at those trembling hips... Your poor body must be on fire right about now."

"I could give you that release, you know..." A slow exhale would follow his words, his breath no doubt downright torturous against her overstimulated sex. "But, you'll have to do as I say for the night. Do you think you could do that for me? Just indulge your pitiful little Caster, and I'll grant you pleasure beyond your wildest dreams."

It was to be a contest between mages, one that required the use of special familiars called servants. Upon her father's request she joined this war and summoned a familiar of her own, what came was not what she expected. The supposed hero of legend seemed more like a young boy who had a way with words rather than weapons. Although confused at first Vladina's whimsical nature soon took over as she found her familiar to be rather cute and endearing in his own way.

All her life, the mage had been more comfortable toying with other women, men often bringing nothing but anxiety and irritation. But this young man, her lovely Caster, was more like a puppy in her eyes. She wasted no time teasing him over his beauty and physique. It was rare for her to have a man who shared her height and rivaled her beauty to boot!

She wasted no time to prod him for insecurities and weaknesses, like a cat poking at a cornered mouse. Even with those she favored her personality was utterly twisted, there was little difference between her affection and her torment. She wanted to see him squirm before her, to worship her, for him to truly understand the meaning of the word "Master".

There was no rush, she was a powerful mage in her own right. She did not fear any other contestant in this ritual or their servants, there was plenty of time to mess around and enjoy her new plaything. She used every weapon in her arsenal to seduce and tease him to hell and back, yet she found little success, something that irked her more than she cared to admit. It was almost as if the young-man was used to problematic women such as her and with his looks she would believe it.

It was fine, she would take her time savoring the boy and breaking him down into an adorable mess that begged for her comfort. So intense where her feelings on the matter that she found herself having quite the heated dream. Vladina's body was far hotter to the touch than normal due to her powers, hence sleeping in her underwear was more of a necessity than a choice. She would drag her new servant into bed and make him submit, sitting on his face demanding worship, she would look down with cold authority until her demands were meet. It did not take long for compliance, the girl hummed in delight as the boy did his best to please her.

"Ah....thats a good boy~" She caressed his beautiful hair as his ministrations grew more intense, fierce even. Suddenly her confidence began to crack, she moaned loudly and bent over, something was wrong, it shouldn't feel this-

Suddenly the dream fades, as tired eyes open softly she stared blankly at the ceiling before realizing she is still panting, her breath raced as the pleasure dint fade, no its was growing in its intensity. "Wha-...Nhhg!" She gasps moaning softly as she looks down at the source of her delight.

"Ah...." Eyes widen in shock, as she contemplated weather she is still dreaming. As their eyes meet she doesn't recognize her cute little pup, no, she was being devoured by a hungry wolf. "C-Caster?....What are you- Mmnn!! Gyaah!" She cant finish the question as the devilish tongue drives her nigh to madness. She would never admit it, but the mage had a weakness when it came to having her pussy licked, one the young man would surely discover if she dint stop him at once. "W-Wait! How dare you do this to your Master you...you little!- Ah!" Her head snaps back as she feels herself about to climax already. "This...This cant be...stop this I- I order you!"

@prxttybxybxstxrd

[molotovmetro]

here is the alternative ending!

Original here

CW: major spoilers for kaeyas backstory and sort of the latest story quests, angst but also fluff, extreme devotion? Idk maybe. Let me know if I need to tag anything!!

WC: 729

In your arms (alt ending)

Although you had been dating the calvary captain for quite some time now, you had yet to see what was under that eyepatch of him. In the beginning you had playfully inquired about it, but he shrugged you off, saying there's nothing weird about hiding one's body parts from view. You figured maybe it was a sensitive subject, so you dropped it. If the eyepatch made him more comfortable, you were okay with that.

Every now and then you tend to remind him that you love him, and would never judge him. You wonder what makes him smile so bittersweetly at you when you say those words.

Adding everything up in your mind, you figure out pretty early on that he had a secret. But, like with the eyepatch, you decide to simply let him be, trusting him to come to you if he ever wants to talk about it.

This wasn't how you expected to find out.

Arriving in Mondstadt after being gone a few days, the city is in chaos.

Everyone is panicking, and you see knights evacuating people. The city is run over with monsters, everywhere you look all you see are abyss mages, hilichurls of every size, and the biggest slimes you have ever seen. The pyro slimes and hilichurls cause fires left and right, you dont know where to look first.

Frantically scanning the crowd for familiar faces as you push through it in the opposite direction, you spot Diluc near the fountain, fighting off three abyss mages at once. Jean is commanding the small army of knights, and you almost miss the flash of red dashing past you.

Quickly reaching out, you grab Amber's arm to stop her. "Amber! What in the archons is going on!?"

The outrider looks at you with wide eyes. "The abyss order declared war. The city is getting overrun. Yo-" She is cut off by a loud bang coming from the right. "I have to go, get out of here!"

It was no secret that the abyss order was planning something, but you never thought they were capable of causing destruction like this.

Mondstadt is falling.

You're making your way up to the higher ground of the city, fighting the monsters in your way to get there. You had to find Kaeya, you had to know he's okay.

You hadn't seen him with the rest of the knights, which was odd, but you couldn't think right now. Too much is happening at once and your mind feels clouded and foggy in panic. You force yourself to focus on your lover and push forward.

Nothing could have prepared you for what you saw.

There he was. Standing on the remains of the Barbatos statue, smiling.

You let out a sigh of relief at seeing him unharmed, and ran towards him to wrap your arms around his waist. As you start babbling about how happy you were to see him, he just stares at you with unveiled confusion.

"What are you doing?" It's as if he expected you to be mad, or scared of him.

"I'm hugging you, you fool. Do you have any idea how worried I was?"

worried? Why we're you worried about him? He's the one who caused all this, the mastermind behind the whole situation, he-

You bring him out of his thoughts by softly holding his face in your hands, looking up as if he is your moon and stars.

"Kaeya. I promised you I would never judge you." He almost tears up at your words paired with the determination in your eyes. "I have always trusted you, and I trust you now. If you genuinely believe that doing this is the best course of action, then I trust you in this too. I would follow you to the end of the earth, if I needed to"

He presses you against him tightly, as if your presence would make it all go away. He's relieved, really. He didn't want to hurt you, but he knew that if would of he had no other choice. He could avenge his people, and have you by his side all the while. He couldn't wish for anything more.

Even with all the destruction and chaos around you, he still holds you as if you're the most precious thing on earth. How could you not feel safe in his arms?

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #203

Today on Fate and Phantasms, we've only got one goal in mind: Golems! Thanks to Avicebron, we'll make just that; lots and lots of golems! Avicebron is a Battle Smith Artificer, so you'll always have at least one on standby.

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

Next up: I did naht kill him, I did naht. Oh hi Mark.

Race and Background

Avvy might not look it, but he's still a Variant Human, giving him +1 Intelligence and Wisdom, plus proficiency with Deception to keep your mentees close and your golem ingredients just as close, plus you get the Servo Crafting feat! You can cast Find Familiar as a ritual, but instead of getting an animal, you build a small golem called a Servo. You can speak with and through the servo, plus sense through it, as long as you share a plane of existence. You can also attack with the servo instead of your wimpy noodlearms once per attack action.

You're also a Cloistered Scholar, which gives you History and Religion proficiency. You are nerd! No duh!

Ability Scores

Your Intelligence should be pretty high, you make golems and you don't afraid of anything, that's what you do. After that is Dexterity, you're better off not getting hit than anything else, and also having 4 arms means you're pretty good at sleight of hand. Wisdom is also pretty good, you're a religious man, and while you don't get power from that you're still wise. Unfortunately we gotta make Strength the next highest stat. I mean, two of your arms are robots, so I guess it kinda works? Your Charisma is pretty low, you just don't care about people that much, but we're dumping Constitution. Trust me, it'll make sense in a bit. (Don't do this in-game, this is a flavor thing, you WILL DIE)

Class Levels

You're 100% artificer, so you start off with Magical Tinkering, letting you stuff minor magical effects into tiny items. I don't know why you'd make a fart sound producing golem out of a pen, but I'm not Avicebron. You also learn Spells. They use your Intelligence score for prep and casting. Grab Mage Hand to build a little drone to carry stuff for you, and Message for a messenger golem. Really you can take whatever spells you like as long as you call them golems, but the most golemy are Alarm golem and Catapult golem. Why throw stuff when you can just make it throw itself? You also get proficiency in a buncha stuff, like Constitution and Intelligence saves, plus Nature to figure out good materials for golems and Arcana to build them!

Second level artificers can Infuse Items, adding cool effects to up to two items per long rest from a list of four options. Grab Armor of Tools so you'll always have your golem-making kit on ya, Enhanced Arcane Focus for stronger golems, Homunculus Servant for a golem, and Mind Sharpener to help keep track of your golems. I can already tell golem isn't even gonna look like a word by the end of this build.

Your artificer subclass is the Battle Smith, which makes you Battle Ready, so your golems can use martial weapons. Of course you're not swinging them yourself, so you can use your intelligence instead of strength when attacking with magical weapons. You also get a second permanent golem, the Steel Defender! You gotta use your bonus action to make it do stuff, but it'll hit people, repair stuff, and protect its allies! Also, you can cast Mending on it to heal it. You don't have that yet, but you will! You can also make The Right Tool for the Job over a long rest, and you also get subclass spells for free. Heroism makes a very pretty golem that inspires all your allies to not get scared and get temporary HP. Shield makes a golem that'll stand in front of someone as a reaction, adding 5 to their AC and blocking magic missiles for a round.

Use your first Ability Score Improvement to bump up your Intelligence. You use it for pretty much everything, so your brain's gotta be good!

Fifth level battlesmiths get an Extra Attack, so your servo, your steel defender, and your sword-holding golem can all attack at the same time. You also get second level spells, like Branding Smite and Warding Bond. Neither of those are golems tho. Grab Rope Trick for the first of many rope golems, and Enlarge/Reduce for later. Adam's a big boy, so you've gotta make a big golem.

Sixth level artificers get Tool Expertise, doubling your proficiency bonus with all tools. Golem making is complicated, the DCs are gonna be high. You also get two more blueprints and one more infused item, like a Spell-Refueling Ring for extra spell slots and a Rope of Climbing for another rope-based golem to help your bad climbing skills.

At seventh level you get so smart you have Flashes of Genius, adding your intelligence modifier to checks and saves near you intelligence modifier times per long rest. Yeah, it's actually just weirdly specific golems.

Bump up your Intelligence this ASI for more of everything you like. Smrt.

Ninth level battle smiths add an Arcane Jolt to their steel defender and magical weapons. Once per turn, intelligence modifier times per long rest, you can either add extra force damage to the hit, or heal a nearby creature. Still not sure how to make those golems, but you'll figure something out, you've got 20 Intelligence! You also get third level spells, like an Aura of Vitality golem and a Conjure Barrage golem. You can also can Create Food and Water golems for gathering, or turn just about anything into a Tiny Servant. For up to 8 hours after casting, you can turn a tiny object into a tiny creature, commanding it as a bonus action. Finally, a spell that makes golems! You can also use Glyph of Warding now, though it won't be that useful for the build until you get fourth level spells. The idea is, you can keep a bunch of these bad boys in your base, all set to trigger against a creature that knocks you down to 0 HP. All of them summon constructs, beating up the guy after you're already unconscious. This is the closest we could get to Avicebron's third skill, D&D doesn't really plan for character death that well. Also, just a correction. I just found out you can't carry glyphs around without them breaking :(

Tenth level artificers are Magic Item Adepts, giving you an extra attunement slot and you can create uncommon magic items for cheaper. You also get the Mending cantrip for golems, and two more blueprints for an extra infused item. The Helm of Awareness will help you stay out of trouble, and the Periapt of Wound Closure makes it easier to not die. Your master strategy is all about getting knocked out, so it would be nice if you automatically stabilize.

Eleventh level artificers can create Spell-Storing Items, stuffing weapons or focii full of first/second level magical goodness. It's like you're casting the spell, but it uses the other guy's concentration.

Another ASI! Bump up your Dexterity for less dying.

With fourth level spells, you can cast all sorts of golems. You're stuck with Aura of Purity and Fire Shield, but you also get an Arcane Eye for a drone golem, plus Mordenkainen's Faithful Hound and Summon Construct for fighting golems.

As a Magic Item Savant you get another attunement slot, and you can ignore requirements when attuning magic items. You also get the Prestidigitation cantrip to make whatever small tools you need for a second, and two more blueprints for one more infusion. Bracers of Defense will help you not die if you don't think Avicebron's outfit is armor, and the Ring of Protection will also do that regardless.

At fifteenth level you get your last subclass improvement, the Improved Defender. Your arcane jolt gets bigger, and your golem gets tougher and can reflect damage, not just deflect it.

Use the rest of your ASI to bump up your Wisdom. Making yourself better isn't in character, so just be wise.

You've got fifth level spells! Banishing smite isn't a golem, but I guess Mass Cure Wounds could be Adam's feet? Idk. You can also use Bigby's Hand for Adam's hand, and Animate Objects for more item-based golems. Now you can turn your trusty frying pan into a-golem. Everything turns into a golem.

Eighteenth level artificers are Magic Item Masters, letting you attune to six items at the same time. You also get two more blueprints, so grab two copies of Arcane Propulsion Arm for the four arms of your third ascension. Arms are cool.

One last ASI, grab more Wisdom.

Your capstone ability grants you a Soul of Artifice, giving you a +1 bonus to all your saves for each magic item you're attuned to, and you can destroy an infusion to drop to 1 HP instead of 0. Remember, getting KOd only helps if you're near one of your glyphs.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

Between your Steel Defender, servo, tiny servants, and animated objects, you don't have to do much. Plus you can just rope trick away and let them take care of everything!

If your DM ever tries to spook the party by fighting you in your own base, you can spook him right back by taking a fall and filling your study with angry golems.

With expertise and flashes to help your repairs along plus mending, you're a great repairman. If the DM tries to block your path with a broken bridge, it won't stay broken for long. Plus, your warforged allies will love you.

Cons:

DONT DUMP CON. You have less than 100 HP at level 20, and your constitution save is really bad (for an artificer). Don't do it. Look me in the eyes, don't. do it!

Having any part of your battle plan being getting knocked out is not going to make you popular with your party members. Maybe you should help out yourself? Nah, golems are better.

All of your infusions and spells are focused on helping yourself, a stark contrast to most of our artificer builds. Keeping all your toys to yourself will not help your party like you, especially with a +0 charisma.

[capri-ramblings]

Can I request headcanons for yandere Riddle,Vil and Kalim with a witch princess s/o that was engaged to them like shes trying to escape them only to fall in love with them while in 'time out?'(isolation) and she becomes more loving toward them afterwards? you dont have to do this if you dont want to I've just had this scenario in my head for a while

I'm sorry this took very long to complete,poisy 💖 the idea was a heavy one to do but I loved doing it!

Please Refer to Pinned Post!

Riddle Rosehearts

- "You thought you could step a single foot out of my grounds and I wouldn't notice?"

- The collar clamped around your neck weighed heavily on your shoulders and despite the fumes of defiance running through your veins, your knees buckled and you fell.

- Right at the feet of a red tyrant.

- "What a silly,rabbit."

- Riddle looked down at you with a mixture of anger and pity. The way the two emotions in his eyes spiraled against one another made you recoil with fear.

- You knew better than to have tried your luck at escaping his grasp, but the opportunity seemed rare and oh so tempting.

- And you were never the obedient type

- Not even when your parents demanded you to marry Riddle.

- Your magic affinity and his would lead to a string of perfectly bred mages after all. You couldn't say you didn't understand their enthusiasm and desperation.

- But Riddle was suffocating. Every little detail meant something to him and if you thought your governess was strict, he's proven you wrong.

- Maybe as an outsider you would've seen him as appealing. He was good looking after all, prettier than most of the girls you've ever seen in the village really, and he had his wits about him along with that snobbish intelligence.

- The colour of his hair was unique. Red like roses and eyes as grey as a silver bullet. Sharp as one too, and like a rose,he of course had his thorns.

- You wouldn't know it until you came to hold the bouquet in your hands. The way the thinness of it seeped into your flesh and only ever drew blood once it was pulled out. One wouldn't realize the stinging pain until they had it all over their bodies.

- You couldn't stand him.

- "Look at me when I'm talking" Riddle jerked your chin up roughly, the sweetness of his floral scent wafting through your senses.

- "Why? Are you expecting eyes to have ears now?"

- He scowled at that. Brows knitted furiously together as his eyes narrowed and his grip tightened.

- Snarky. Riddle wouldn't admit it but that fiery spark of yours set not only his temper but his entire being on fire. He didn't know if it was from the desire to tame you into obedience or that if he adores that fighting spirit of yours.

- You weren't the type to let others drive you around your own life, and maybe Riddle preferred that over a meek,young wife.

- Still,you attempted to run away from him and now you're being sharp tongued.

- Of course he was livid. Anger practically fumed out of him then, but surprisingly enough he kept it on a rather strained hold. Was it because he knew you'd try and run from your engagement to him? Or did he started having a soft spot for you? Who knows.

- It only made sense to him that he kept you alive. Your punishment would be in the dungeons.

- You objected. Obviously. Did he think you were some kind of animal?

- Ah,but then he leaned down to your ears and cooed ever so softly that if you refused this punishment,the next one would be at the cost of your family's life.

- That did well to shut you up.

- The isolation was what surprised you. You thought Riddle would've at least sent down people to break you if he didn't do it himself, but instead you were shoved into the dark cells. Food came by everyday,three meals each. You were given a bed and a small closed corner to clean yourself.

- And that was it.

- Riddle never once went down to check on you,no one did really and you began to wonder whether it was because he had his hold on you and that it made him confident you wouldn't try to run again or people had simply forgotten you.

- You didn't care for long though. You didn't need anyone checking in on you, especially not Riddle himself.

- Or so you thought.

- The silent walls of your prison began to sound like static and half the time you swore you'd hear whispers. Your appetite slowly declined as well and sleeping became a reluctance.

- The guard who watched over you said nothing when you asked him if Riddle planned to keep you here forever or if he was going to show up at all.

- As if his lips had been sewn shut.

- It was maddening really,to hear yet not be heard. As if you existed only in your own mind.

- One time you almost wanted to slam your head against the concrete, anything to keep that damned static sound out from your head.

- But then, the door of your confinement rattled opened and Riddle stood in the doorway.

- You had never ran towards someone as quick you did then and even Riddle barely caught you in his arms, as he was forced back by your embrace and almost stumbled on his own feet.

- He felt so real. So very vivid your skin almost felt like burning from the warmth he had.

- "Please...Please... Please...Take me with you.!" You cried, vision blurred by the sudden tears welling up in your eyes. Your hands fumbled to grip on him. Thoughts puddled.

- Riddle bit back the smile on his lips, wrapping his arms around your shivering body as he pulled you closer to him.

- How pathetic.

- You looked like you'd been deserted on an island. Had isolation really tamed that wild spirit of yours?

- Riddle wanted to laugh, to sneer in your face and ask you why a method to break dogs worked on you.

- But then again, it was adorable as well. Seeing how you clung to him so desperately.

- Riddle always did wanted you to submit to him after all.

- "Hm? Take you where?" He asked,voice slick and cruel like a whip, but his hands were gentle and endearing when it came up to caress your cheek, and his natural floral scent sent shivers down your spine.

- "Home." You pleaded, "Please take me home with you. I promise I'll never leave your side again,Riddle. Please."

- His lips curled into a smile then.

- "Of course,my lovebug."

Kalim Al-Asim

- The poor boy is heartbroken.

- How could you have thought to run away from him? Was he not treating you well enough? Did he made you angry? Upset even?

- The questions swirling in his head makes him want to vomit.

- Kalim is quick to have every one of his servants search for you, and with the aid of Jamil, he does it fairly well, finding out your runaway path and dragging you back into his arms within mere hours.

- He doesn't seem angry though, and the way he wraps his arms around your trembling body tells you that he's more grief-stricken rather than angered but there's this hazy look in his eyes that causes an unsettling churn in your stomach.

- When you try to pull him away, to let your defiance spark it's colours, Kalim's grip on you tightens and the painful sensation of his nails digging into your skin makes you cry out.

- He doesn't apologizes, instead he buries his head into your chest.

- "Why did you run?" He asks, voice cracked and dejected as he lifts his gaze to meet yours.

- "Why are you always running?"

- You want to tell him, but the way Kalim stares at you with such a yearning blandness then causes you to flinch, rendering you speechless as you stare up at him.

- He lets out a laugh then, a sound that sends chills down your spine.

- "You look so scared...I wonder why?"

- You wince when Kalim raises one had to tap on your cheek gently,the pad of his thumb cold once it settled on the top half of your lips.

- "It's like you're looking at a monster."

- You were, weren't you? Isn't that why you decided to run away? It has to be.

- Your escape and almost succeeding in it causes a wire to snap in Kalim's mind. The last shred of sanity he held doused in a fire that sets his delusions aflame.

- You've finally brought out the worst in him, and even then he still loves you. Still wishes to keep you in his arms. You should be grateful because if he had grown stale towards you, Kalim would've had you beheaded.

- He still punishes you though, that's a given since you made him worry and caused such a fuss in his home, it was only right for you to amend for your wrong doings.

- The fact that Kalim himself dragged you to the dungeons was something you thought you'd never see, and though he held you by your wrists rather than your hair, this was definitely not the Kalim you knew.

- "It's going to be cold here at nights and there aren't any servants near by but I'll make sure someone comes down to feed you and bring you some clean clothes while you're here." He says this so casually, as if throwing your would be wife in a dungeon deep beneath his family's palace was a normal occurrence.

- But you didn't dare talk back to him. A part of you felt that if you did, a fate worst than this would be your only option.

- So, you stood there, stiff and uncertain as Kalim watched you, head tilted to the side before he extended his hand to run his fingers through your hair.

- "You're so pretty. I hope this helps you to love me...I wouldn't want to hurt you, after all."

- Kalim locked the doors to your cage, the sound of the keys turning in its lock so hollow it almost seemed unreal. Detached from reality.

- "Rest well,okay?"

- That was the last time you saw Kalim, and perhaps you were exaggerating it, but it's been almost two months since you've seen or heard from anyone at all with the exception of the servants who come to give you your meals and spare clothing. And even they don't talk to you, acting as if you were some sort of taboo subject to even spare a glance to.

- The lack of social attention and connection was as infuriating as it was depressing.

- You were never much a socialite to begin with, but you enjoyed a fair share of conversations from time to time. It was only normal,of course. What living creature could live without the presence of others anyway?

- It came to a single point where you actually started yearning for Kalim's bright smile, the way he seems to always want to dote and pamper you

- Though it's true that you never indulged him in it when he was openly offering them to you, now it was a whole other story.

- It was so lonely,cooped up in this dungeon where not even light came through. Food started tasting bland and hard like cardboard and your clothes felt suffocating.

- If only Kalim would come by and visit you....

- The way you sprung up on your feet when Kalim did come visit, had you almost seem like an eager puppy wagging its tail at the sight of its owner's return.

- Kalim seemed pleased to see you too, the bland look in his eyes gone and instead filled with the exact warmth you've craved for months.

- It was almost laughable, really. How easily you came to succumb to your weakness.

- "Sunshine! I've missed you a lot!" Once he came near to the bars of the dungeons, you mustered all your strength to grab at him from inside, your eyes filled with tears and body trembling.

- "I missed you too, Kalim! I'm sorry for trying to leave you...I won't do it again..so please..."

- The rest of your words are slurred and incoherent but all the while you sputter them out, Kalim looks at you with all the fondness in the world and he tells you that it's fine, that he forgives you and he's going to take you back.

- You're already muddied by your broken thoughts, your set of your logics stirred away from all sort of common sense.

- Kalim feels bad that he kept you in a dungeon hexed with a mind break spell but it's all worth it isn't it?

- Now, you'll finally be the loving wife he knows you can be.

Vil Schoenheit

- Vil isn't having any of this disobedience.

- How dare you go around taking advantage of his fondness for you and try to run away from your engagement.

- You were promised to him by your parents. Your dishonour to it is an insult to him, and anyone who dares insult Vil will feel his full wrath.

- The fact that he decided to keep you alive is already another sign of his affection towards you, though you still choose to be stubborn. Throwing your harsh remarks as if he's the villain when really, the one who caused this whole mess was you yourself.

- Vil doesn't get you even throughout the years of growing up with you as your betrothed. While others envied your fate of being bound to him, you acted like it was some kind of chore.

- As if you had no choice and that being married to Vil was a fate worst than death.

- He hated you for that. Who did you think you are? Do you think he liked the notion of being married to a simpleton like you? A witch with no special entitlement?

- You should be grateful.

- And if you refused to even be that, then perhaps you ought to be disciplined. Beaten into submission.

- Vil doesn't mind really. He's been waiting for years for a time when you'd slip on that damned attitude of yours to give him an excuse to act as the wounded husband.

- And it works of course. Your parents are devastated by your little stunt, apologizing to Vil and begging him to forgive you.

- He plays the kind, understanding gentleman part so well, that when he turns to look at you, you almost believe he'll let you off easily.

- But once the audience disperses, Vil's true colours show themselves and you're suddenly engulfed in this sick punishment of his.

- A dance of waltz that leaves you breathless and worn.

- He's always been so suffocating and controlling. Thinking he owns you like some sort of accessory. It was why you were repulsed at the thought of marrying him.

- So, when he came to tell you the consequences of your actions, you laughed.

- Isolation? Was that the best he could come up with?

- Vil smiles at your reaction,his eyes raking in your figure as his fingers twirled around his magic pen. A look of haughtiness etched into his expression.

- The next morning when you wake up, head dazed and limbs sluggish, you're surprised to see that Vil isn't there with you, and once you got dressed and headed down to the dining room, you halted at the door. There was no one here too.

- You let the silence settle in, the unusual emptiness enveloping you like a poorly fit glove.

- You call out,not for anyone in particular yet still for someone. When no answer came, you did it again. And again. And again. And again.

- Until you have to stop yourself from running down the third flight of stairs to the fifth hallway you've entered, and freeze in front of the giant french window overlooking the serene view outside.

- Is this what Vil meant? This was his doing, wasn't it? You didn't know anyone else who could be so twisted after all.

- The sun doesn't even set yet you're already worn and as if summoned by your state of exhaustion, you're back in your room. A chill runs down your spine, and you decide to slip into bed even if you stayed awake the whole time.

- The next day and the day after are all repeats of your first day. Round and round it drives you to a corner and you're wondering why you're even continuing this chase. This game of Maze you found it impossible to win.

- He'd trapped you in some sort of spell, keeping you in a loop until your mind's gone hazy and the frustration of running and screaming turns into a silent pleading.

- You wanted it all to stop. You couldn't think of running anymore, you couldn't actually think in general. The days rewound itself but your body still required rest and though food was never an issue, the way the bags under your eyes weighed down your vision told another sort of struggle.

- When was the last time you managed to sleep?

- What day was it?

- What were you doing?

- ....Where is everyone?

- Where was Vil?

- Shouldn't he be here already? The wedding ceremony was going to start anytime soon, right? It's not like him to be so late. He's always the first to arrive....

- The spell breaks the moment you sit up in bed and lose all track of time and logic.

- Vil ready at your side as you open your eyes and see him sitting on the chair beside your bed.

- He's smiling. You wonder why he's so happy.

- Didn't he hate you?

- "Good morning, Daffodil" Vil reaches out to tuck a few strands of loose hair behind your ear, his voice gentle and soft as he speaks.

- You open your mouth, but nothing really comes out but a weak sigh. God,your head felt dizzy.

- Luckily Vil was there, you felt warm in his presence, and when he brought a damp towel to wipe at your forehead, you leaned into his touch.

- "....Thank you. Happy...I'm happy...Vil is here"

- How cute. You couldn't even form proper sentences anymore.

- Vil would've laughed then but he enjoyed your new sense of submission to him, at least now you're acting a bit more grateful than before

- Yes, this was the right way after all. How things should be between you and him. No more stubborn attitude or ungratefulness. No more frustrations.

- If you continued like this, Vil might even consider teaching you how to talk again.

[theravencawsatmidnight]

Pink Chains

Pt 3

Kyotani owns a grunge /punk apparel shop after leaving the Sendai Frogs after a incident with the Black Jackals. He designs his own clothes and hires Oikawa & Iwaizumi as his employees. Everything goes smoothly for awhile, till you walk in; pink dress, big smile , and bubbly personality. His whole life stops in that moment. 

Punk! Kyotani x Bubbly! F! Reader. ❤️

Kyo had walked you to school after the both of you had calmed down. He hated seeing you cry jesus christ, it hurt him to his core. All he could think about was those tears running down your pretty face down to your fake smile. He was really falling for you, this was a first for him so he had no idea if what he had been doing was right or what.

You skipped ahead of him, he glanced up a couple times and got a big smile on his face. You had on a blue dress with flats and his jacket on, it was too big for you of course but you insisted on wearing it. And that's when he knew he was doing it right. Seeing you in his clothes and having that big smile on your face that was just for him.

“Kyooo!!! I gotta go!”

He shook his head walking to you and putting his arms around your shoulders. “Do you? Skip sweetie.” He teased looking over you to see people staring.

“Kyo!” You gave him an angry face and he just laughed kissing your head. “I'll turn you into a rule breaker yet. Have a good day sweetie.”

“Not uh!” You squeezed him tightly for a minute. “Dont sweat this morning kay?!? I can fight with you, are you working today?”

Your words cut him deep, sure his friends had his back but this was .. different. You were willing to defend him from anything . Hopefully you never had to do that. He ran his fingers through your head and swayed a bit whispering in your ear. “People are staring,”

You giggled just squeezing him more and Kyo smirked , he placed a light smack on your thigh stepping back chuckling at the little yip you did .

“Kyo!”

“Yeah sweetie i work today but im closing early, beach volleyball with friends . Ill text you when i close up shop okay?”

“You better!!” You placed a kiss on his chest and ran off into the school looking back and waving before disappearing.

Kyo waited till you were in the school before leaving. He shot everyone a smug ass grin too as he made his way down the street. Fuck his car was still at the store.

Kyo was not in any rush to get to work. Hell it was his store whos gonna rage at him? No one . Hes the boss. And besides Iwaizumi is most likely there already opening up the store anyway. The heavy rings on his right hand clicked all around while he made his way down the boardwalk strip , hands in his pockets while he eyed all the shops.

Buncha no good stores. If it didn't cost so much to get his brand up and running he could have a bigger building , or at least a better location-… he stopped walking and shook his head. “That's a terrible idea. Kyotani cmon get it together.” He sighed, rubbing his sleeve. “I would never had met her..”

Bbbbbbeeep

“Mad Dog chaaaaaaan!!!!” A car zoomed up to him skidding to a stop . Oikawa peaked out the window grinning.

**

Meanwhile, you were just getting into the first class of the day. Everyone was sneaking looks at you because of the jacket but you had no idea. You were too caught up on last night to really pay attention. Trying to take your mind off it you pulled a red notebook from your bag to doodle while listening to the teacher.

Soon enough the blank notebook page was full of design ideas; red pandas with hats , clothes and big fluffy tails. The designs were really cute , your teacher even complimented them from time to time . But you really just wanted a brand to pick you up, graduation was soon and you did not want to not have a job lined up.

“Y/n.. hey y/n”

A voice next to you alerted you to look up and over to see Kio, the girl who sat next to you in class.

“Oh hey Kio, whats up?!?”

Kio placed her hand on her head with her elbow on the table looking you over in this jacket. She never really talked to you unless she needed notes and was only taking this class for the credit she needed .

“That jacket is so different from what you wear y/n. Where'd ya get it?”

You were about to answer her but heard a snicker behind you , must be Yukio, Kios friend, also in need of credits for graduation. Would probably be best not to mention the store, Kyo did not need the harassment.

“Its my boyfriend's jacket!” You told them pulling it close with a big smile on your face.

Kio and Yukio locked eyes then looked at you .

“Boyfriend?” Kio asked.

“Looks like he has the opposite style as you y/n.” Yukio chimed in , leaning over her table. “Was he that guy with you this morning?”

“Yep!!!”

“He looks.. familiar..” Kio said tapping her pen on his lips.

“He does huh?” Yukio said leaning closer. “Whats his name hm?”

“..Kyo?” You were starting to get uncomfortable with all the questions.

“Oh!!!” Yuki yipped looking at Kio. “Kyotani! The Sendai Frogs!!!”

“..the Frogs? So hes..” Kio shot you a look. “He beat up Bokuto. For no goddamn reason.”

You shuffled around in your seat sneaking glances at the clock hoping it would somehow speed up so you could leave. It was not their business to know the reason behind it. Kyo was a very sweet guy , you had only known him a day but in those hours together you had never been happier; he opened up to you, cried even. Kyotani genuinely feels bad about that incident. He helped you through the tattoo instead of getting upset and brought you around his friend. The smirky smile he threw you always gave you butterflies in your stomach and sent your heart a flutter. He was just a misunderstood guy trying to start over with his friends.

You pulled the jacket off as soon as you heard the sweet sound of the bell and gathered up your bag standing up with the jacket over your arm close to your heart.

“Where do you think youre goin?” Kio got up following you out of the classroom along with Yukio. “Were not done y/n.”

Yukio grabbed your bag yanking it back and You spun around with a big smile and a sweet but slightly angry voice. “Kyo is a good guy and i really like him. I don't care if you two don't. You dont know the whole story either. And please stop following me, its not nice.” You waved at them so they could see your tattoo and you left in a quick pace down the hall . You pulled your phone from your bag texting with shaky hands.

**

Oikawa had dropped Kyo off at his store so he could drive home to shower and change and then go back to start his shift. He was tired and thankful no one could tell he had been crying the night before. Iwaizumi probably knew but he did not say anything, not with Oikawa around.

Kyo had on his shops uniform shirt which was a red dog house on a black shirt that said The Dog House on the back wrapped in chains. The summer line was selling smoothly and Mattsun had let him know that Yahaba agreed to come to the beach volleyball . He helped Iwaizumi unload a shipment while Oikawa was manning the front .

“So how'd it go last night?” He asked, passing Kyo a box.

“I told her .. everything.” The box was set down

“Oh ..? You? You did? What she say?” Iwa got another box groaning from its weight and giving it to Kyo

“Fucking hell.. would it kill them to pack the boots in all the boxes.. she said she was not scared of me. Dammit Iwaizumi she said she would fight with me.” He set the box down cursing .

“Fuck.. Kyotani.” Iwaizumi closed the truck up patting the back watching it drive off. “I know you've only just met her but she seems- Kyo?” He looked at his friend and he was staring at his phone , he looked like he was going to punch something .

Y/n: Kyo.. these girls in my class asked me about my jacket so i said it's my boyfriends and they asked your name cuz you look familiar and I told them and they .. brought up the Incident .

Y/N: i uhm, i did not say anything else but they were upset cuz they like Bokuto i guess but.. i left and they followed me and.. yanked me back. I .

Y/n: i was tough like you would be and asked them to leave me alone and i left. But.. uhm.. can.. can you call me when you can please..

“Iwaizumi...”

“You dont gotta say it. I can watch the front for a minute. “ he put his hand in Kyotanis arm watching his friend huff and puff . “Relax. Take a deep breath. “ Iwaizumi left his friend and Kyotani sat down on a box outside looking at the clouds in the sky with his phone to his ear.

“Kyo…” you sounded shaky and panicked

“Sweetie. Take a deep breath.” He was surprisingly calm sounding. He wanted to explode on the inside though, march right back to that school and take you into his arms and scare the hell out of those girls..He heard you breath in and out a few times till it evened out.

“Alright. Where are you right now Sweetie?”

“The.. outside.. courtyard..”

“Is it pretty there? Tell me what you see.” He leaned back on a box with his back to his shop. He brought one knee up tracing his index finger around in one of the holes in his jeans tugging at the strings making it bigger.

“Uhm… magnolias.. an oak tree.. some students are studying. It is pretty..”

“Sweetie..”

“Yes..?”

“Everything is okay now. Okay?”

“I.. yeah.. I tried to be tough but..i don't know. I said your a good guy cuz you are and I asked them to leave me alone.”

He ripped a few strings in the hole maging it even bigger over his knee. “Do you want me to pick you up after school?”

“Yeah.. i .. i just.”

“Ill be there sweetie.” He suddenly got an idea. “Promise. Now hows my happy girls day going now?”

He heard you giggle and the both of you relaxed slowly while you talked on the phone. You told him about your classes and the doodles you did too and Kyo asked you to send him them, he did not say why though.

“I gotta go sweetie. Ill be out front okay?”

“Kay.. have a good day Kyo.”

“You too Sweetie.” He hung up the phone and got up feeling the fire in him grow again.

After moving the boxes in he went to the front pulling Kawa and Iwa aside to the register explaining what happened. They were both upset over what they heard. Kyotani smirked texting Mattsun then looking at his friends.

“So after beach volleyball you know what we gotta do right?”

“Ou im excitedddd.” Kawa said with a big smile

“I gotta say im excited too.” Iwa said smirking and leaning on the register . “Im sure Mattsun is eager too.”

Kyo looked down reading the text with a side smirk. “Fuck with my girl and see what happens…”

**

@squeaky-ducky @zoppzoop

@haikyuu-but-low-iq @mochababes @kozushiki. @milkbreadcat @derpeedoo

*

[slumberinglabyrinth]

a while back i did a review of the prison chapter in por and it was totally overblown and whatever but i kinda wanna do that again for (what remains of) radiant dawn so i guess i will

I'll be doing them in batches since this got long. In this post: 3-5 through 3-9

3-5: it's been two years and i forget why we have to defend this castle

this was a pretty alright map. the reinforcements were annoying but that's because I generally don't actually turtle all that much on defend chapters and as a result I was Right There whenever and wherever they showed up. I tried to grab the energy drop off the boss but the dude ran away from Heather the moment I created an opening and I didn’t want to reset so :^/

I moved provoke off of shinon and onto Brom for this and its... probably way too strong? like it wasn't a 100% draw rate but there were several turns in a row where he was the only person being attacked which is. insane. and also super fun lmao. I think it's a shame that the hostility mechanics in fe aren't as well documented; on some level it ruins the magic, but in cases like this where you're actively influencing it i think it'd be useful to know to what degree you're actually influencing it

disarm + steal is also a really neat/fun idea that would be a great way to counteract how i apparently will never have any money for weapons while playing as the greilgallia party crew 😔 (not to be confused with the greilgallia polycule, which disbanded around twenty years earlier) but I can also never get disarm to proc and half the things that i was able to get unequipped were too heavy for Heather to actually steal 😔

all around a decent map to ease myself back into playing rd with. I certainly could have played better, but defend maps tend to be easier and I appreciated that here

3-6: dawn brigade returns and promptly sinks into a swamp

god this map sucked. it's really hard to pick where to start with it but while i get that lore dictates that they need to only be fighting laguz right here it was probably the wrong gameplay decision with everything else that was going on. I think maybe making tigers have ~4 less str across the board would have been a nice start since I kinda needed to either never get hit by them at all or to kill them first.

several chapters later I’m also realizing maybe i should have like. started to use bexp lol

fighting laguz is also really weird in terms of like... because they have boosted stats while transformed so you can either kill them while they're untransformed (which is fairly easy but since they don't attack, you have to kill them during player phase which means one per turn per unit), deal chip damage (or none at all) to burn down their gauge so you can actually kill them, or try to power through their boosted stats and hope you don’t die in the process.

Because I hadn't used bexp and almost all my units were super weak, I mostly had to rely on the eff against beasts knife that you can buy in the bargain shop this chapter and also volug, who had enough def (even with halfshift) to not die in one round. Honorable mentions go to noland (a fitting name for this map), jill (with canto!), and zihark, who were able to help pick off untransformed laguz, and to micaiah, who could deal magic damage and actually damage transformed laguz.

this was also the first dawn brigade map! i know lots of people people dont like their maps after act 1 and while i was trying to go into this one with an open mind... yeah, they totally got shafted by this map design. it's not really their fault but this map sucked hard. I know that they generally did one of each class variant (fire mage, wind mage, etc.) and not have duplicates but I think that the dawn brigade would have benefited from another mage of some kind if only so you could have someone who could deal with all these goddamned cats

also bk shows up but since he's not a bonus unit i didn't want to feed him kills so i didnt really use him. maybe that was a mistake. also why couldn't he like. warp someone that wasn't the furthest away from the action.

3-7: hey so we heard you liked the previous map

Zihark is there? fuck this i'm reverting to a previous save and unrecruiting him

3-6: i forgot to mention that this map was a swamp map and also had darkness

I know I've mentioned that the similar map in fe6 (desert+fog) was actually kinda alright but this one isnt that at all. Playing through it a second time helped because i knew where enemies were spawning, but it was still more annoying than fun.

Swamps commit the cardinal sin of forcing everyone that can't fly (in this case: everyone but jill) to suffer massive terrain penalties. Deserts at least let mages move a little bit further (which admittedly wouldn't help much here since it's only micaiah and laura), but here everyone friend and foe alike (except Jill) moves slowly and it makes gameplay just grind to a halt which is never, ever fun level design.

Also Fiona just. could not move beyond the starting island. she couldn't even wade a little bit into the swamp like i did with ed and leo to attack at range and get laguz to untransform. they let you deploy everyone but it genuinely felt like i wasn't handed the tools to succeed at this map. always a great goal to have when designing a game

I don't know how to improve this map. unrecruiting zihark (by flying him up to the northeast with jill and having him talk to mordy/lethe) wasn't particularly difficult (battle saves make it easy enough to scout out where they were, and it's not like i'd ever feel bad about 'cheating' on this map) but... would a greater field of view actually help? would making it not a swamp actually help? would giving you more allied units that'll throw themselves in the face of danger with no regard for their own lives actually help?

I don't know.

3-7: but for real this time

Back to ikequest!

this map is... literally the same map as the previous one, but with a different map objective. and larger. and backwards. and not at night.

it's still a swamp.

Luckily, it's a survive map, and the vast majority of the enemy force does not have the time to actually reach you if you hide up in the corner.

Which is exactly what i did.

Here's the list of the optional units (ike and ranulf are mandatory, which sucks because i don't like using twinks cat laguz and ike's plot promotion feels miles away) I deployed and why I deployed them

Haar: to fly out and recruit Jill

Gatrie: to be carried by Haar and specifically to bait the single thunder mage in Haar's way (and help Haar clean out that area so Jill can be safely recruited). I gave him corrosion two maps ago and it actually fully disarmed a guy on this map! 🎊

Brom: stand near where the swamp ends and draw the handful of enemies that actually make it all the way there away from ike and ranulf and ulki and jaffar (who are auto-recruits in this chapter).

This map is. so incredibly easy to both beat and complete the (meaningful) optional objectives on. I missed a conversation between Ike and Micaiah (which requires you to travel all the way across the map that i just finished saying takes forever to traverse and do it in 12 turns), but as long as you unrecruit Zihark on the previous map (he's.... right in the middle of the main force so good luck if you don't) you can probably do this map first try with no deaths even if you haven't trained haargatriebrom At All

I think that kinda underscores a problem that intsys had with rd which was... it feels like they didn't really have a lot of time to fine-tune stuff? like you're going from the hardest (or at least most unpleasant) map to the easiest one this side of the tutorial and it just. doesn't feel good? like there's going to be some inherent difficulty in balancing a difficulty curve when you're shifting from party to party but. this was bad. really bad.

Also a side observation but it does actually say who units can talk to in battle prep which is pretty useful thing to have! you need to shift the stat spreadsheet allllll the way over, but it's there!

i promptly forgot about it by the time 3-10 came around and was like "hey i should just. have ike run up to elincia, see if they'll talk, and then reset" though lol

3-8: Less-than-Lethal Lava Land

A fairly standard lava cave map. My only real comment here is that it was kinda nice how they made the spots where you'd take damage fairly obvious while still making them appear as natural parts of the terrain. I think it was the durandal map in 7 but its "if you're on these at the end of the turn you'll take damage" tiles looked super out of place while the armads map on the other hand wasn't super self-evident and i'm glad they improved

3-9: still cant use lucia >:(

Another party shift (this time to Elincia), and there was some good use of ledges in this chapter!

Most of your units couldn't use them but it created alternate paths for the ones that could (Calill and Devdan). Previous maps tended to use them more as holes in your defenses than needed to be plugged, but it created ways to progress (and ways for reinforcements to catch up) that are usually reserved for flying units, except now you're interacting with the map instead of ignoring it completely.

I think I've yet to meet someone who genuinely likes ledges as a map element, though I think this map really drives home that the sole (inherent) problem with them is the accuracy modifications (which, as this map also demonstrates when the stairs near the end become a chokepoint, are actually present with all elevation changes). While the +2 damage dealt while on the high ground is reasonable, +50 and especially -50 to hitrate are insane and completely unnecessary modifiers. They should be half that if you even choose to retain both.

Anyway.

the absolute lack of a (player-controlled) healer in Elincia's party was also........ interesting. Annoying, but interesting. Why must allied clerics choose death?1

[thelittlestboi]

For the Inquisitor ask: 2, 5, 12, 23, 26 and 34 if that's not too much? (i just want to know more about Mahanon omay? 🤤)

OKAY SO, I was gonna make a whole comic thingie, BUT panel 3 has a full background to show off the main room furniture, and I realized thats stupid, I just wanna answer these TTnTT  so sorry about the wait, and here is the list if anyone wants to use them: click me!

How did they decorate and structure Skyhold?

So Mahanon has the idea that Skyhold should be a safe place for everyone. A neutral ground, for Mages Templars Orlesians Fereldens, Elfs Humans everyone. So he makes it a point to have a little touch of as many different places as possible. He gave the Main Hall to Dorian, who of course made it Tevinter themed. (Mahanon keeps the Dragon throne, he loves that thing) But the windows are dalish, the drapes are Orlais, Magi banners, ect ect.

Who is their favorite follower and adviser?

That would be Josie! He was always close to her, because she was always super nice to him. They Gossip together, they bond over Dolls and Mahanon respects her greatly and takes her advice often. Leliana is suspicious of him at first, for good reason mind you. However he does becomes close with Leliana after he admits to being a mage. Most war table missions are done through Red. As for cullen... Well, He respects commander cullen. He helps him overcome his addiction, he gives him a dog. But if there was a fire and the three advisors were in danger, but he could only save two? He wouldnt weep over the loss.

Did they drink from the Well of Sorrows? Why or why not?

OH HE DID, Mahanon at the time was panicked and determined to keep the well in elf hands. He doesnt trust Morrigan yet and Solas wouldnt drink so He felt he had to. But he regrets it. (hinted at here lol) If he could go back? He wouldnt drink, he hates the voices. The gaps in his memory, waking up in strange rooms, it scares him.

What do they think is their greatest triumph? 

Before the inquistion, was his “becoming of age” challenge, were he had to fight his Father the Arishok. (joint leader of clan lavellen uwu) after Inquistion? Getting to make out with a demigod no Setting up the college of magic. He takes great pride in being able to help his fellow mages.

What makes them trust someone? 

time. and doing good. Mahanon, to some risk, is very  trusting. As long as you show you are good to your word, and you want to do good, he will probably trust you. If someone does bad things but earnestly wants to do better you get one shot with him. Try your best do good by it, but if you betray his trust, in way that harms him or his loved ones,  or endangers others he’ll consider it his responsibility to stop you. just... be nice to him and hell probably fall in love with you.

How do they cope with the stress of being Inquisitor?

AHAHAHAHAHAHA cope. uh yeah. sex, wine, elfroot, and a big ol heaping dash of DENIAL. He tries really hard not to take every fight personally. everydeath is on his head and he likes to distract himself from that with good company, and good wine. He partakes in familiar drugs, pot mushrooms. hes very careful not to get lost in them, as his responsibility do loom over him constantly. But he is always very close to a mental breakdown, he hides it well just dont prod to hard.

THANK YOU i cant say it enough, that is not too many at all! you are wonderful! I love doing these, I really wish I didnt take so long trying to draw this like a silly =x=

[skyystars]

oc info about all my ethermourne stuff below the cut, if anyones interested! it is. a lot. 

edit: after writing this what the fuck thats so much- if you have any questions about them please dont hesitate to ask but i would not blame you if you took one look at this post and ran HSJDFH there’s like 35 listed and thats still not all of them. zoinks

ethermourne is your typical dnd esque world. theres two kinds of people in the world, commonfolk and enchanted, and enchanted are people that can use various forms of magic. in the current story, a secret underground rebellion is going on against the kingdom, in order to free enchanted and bring justice to the world. theres a million and one characters here so bear w me. all characters belonging to my friends are marked with a *

on the black rock pirate ship,

captain shining - a fierce and protective leader. human. she’d do anything for her crew. commonfolk. damn near unstoppable with a sword. lifelong partner to orion ethermourne

johnathan bramwell - the first mate. human. quiet and reserved but goofy when he opens up. storm mage. lover of the sky- hates being in crowded areas on land. intelligent, loves to read and write letters. eventual boyfriend to nordwood thatch

aspen* (no lastname i dont think?) - boatswain. human. somber and stoic, a bit detached. big on family. half blind. ice mage. acts as a father figure to delphi

calvin - carpenter. old soul. human. does a lot of the heavy lifting for the ship. excellent storyteller. fire mage. usually brings some sort of wisdom or moral to someone on the ship.

nellie - cooper. human. misses her family, but has a heart of gold for the ship. scottish- often times hard to understand. ability to turn invisible. has a crush on tobi

galen* - doctor. timid and polite. wants to help people, will sacrifice his own health and safety to look after someone else. human(?). necromancer. arrived on the ship with enmea and quickly became like a brother to kaido

delphi - gunner. a young girl, easily excitable and a bit of a romantic. human. looks out for the people her age on the ship, acts sisterly to them. able to read a few moments into the future. 

kaido - navigator. young, free spirited, reckless. human. flight and telekinesis. eager to fight or find adventure. causes trouble. protects enmea like a younger sister, and is looked after by galen, who he eventually accepts as an older brother.

enmea* - powder monkey. goblin, steals and bargains with the crew for fun but never means any real harm. witty and sarcastic. illusion and misdirection magic. especially loves to bother bramwell and nordwood with her antics. 

faine* - cook. satyr. loves to be the life of a party. has lived many years and mostly achieved peace but like, loves to dick around. plantaemancer. has a big crush on aspen. 

nordwood percival thatch* - bard. half sun elf. cocky, expensive tastes, confidence, and flirty. magic can summon figures of light/magic to do his bidding/can impact emotions of people in vicinity. hopelessly in love with bramwell.

-

on land,

artemis ethermourne - the king of the empire. sun elf. main antagonist. commonfolk. younger brother of orion and husband to rietta

orion ethermourne - original leader of the rebellion. sun elf. warlock (jack of all trades), considered one of the most powerful of his time. was publicly executed by his brother when caught. left apprentice muriel in charge. partner of shining.

muriel becker* (murr) - aasimar enchanted. missing his halo due to an incident he doesnt mention. wants to become skilled in magic and art. raven symbolism- along with having his own companion raven, keeha. very tired and stressed. secretly dating amaris.

amaris hayles* (mars) - hunter/scout, commonfolk. drow/moon elf. dry humor, but a lot goes over his head. responsible and caring, looks out for much of the rebellion. doesnt talk much. dating muriel.

chevel troubleice - inventor, commonfolk. human. low self esteem but he’s Trying. interested in alchemy and learns more about magic through his teacher, murr.

evercon archer - enchanted rebel scout. wood elf. air magic. considers himself a loner. nomadic, feigns a know-it-all attitude. doesnt like cities. under technical responsibility of amaris. eventually falls for woodrow.

tuka archer - enchanted rebel worker. wood elf. fire mage. responsible for helping safe travel for other through the woods. fur trader. big social personality, loves people and doesnt care too much what anyone thinks of him. brother to evercon and eventual lover to phinehas.

phinehas* - aasimar. i assume hes enchanted but now im actually not... sure....???? omg. anyway he’s soft, kindhearted and a poet. loves to write and is into theater. level headed for the most part. in love with tuka, ex of murr but on good terms!! theyre still friends

woodrow jace andes* - enchanted tiefling bard. extremely sad but makes jokes to cope. sad jokes. the kind that make everyone else uncomfortable. necromancer. lives in a fucking dragon skeleton which is kind of badass. is embarrassingly soft for evercon.

vaughn hayles* - moon elf. idk if he’s enchanted or nah. protector, guardian, soft spoken. looks after a village, family means a lot to him (despite being unmarried). amaris’ dad.

elena bramwell - human, commonfolk, deceased. was small and determined. bram remembers her fondly, and recalls that she enjoyed music and dance, as well as having a talent for making flowercrowns and storytelling. bramwell’s mother. 

tobi* - tavernkeep. commonfolk. he is liddol and irish and knows how to play the banjo. has a massive crush on nellie. i love him dearly

-

on the sundancer pirate ship,

captain sylvan skybridge - enchanted human. light magic. is very tired but patient with his crew. false confidence has kept him going for almost a decade and hes not stopping now. only slightly concerned about... everyone on his ship

paige* - first mate. commonfolk witch, able to just barely cast spells and enchant objects. jack-of-all-trades, cunning, and incredibly clever at problem solving. mothers the crew if anyones in need. has a crush on michael.

michael grey* - doctor. commonfolk? enchanted? we just don’t know. a little disillusioned with reality. can see ghosts and has a small gang that follows him everywhere. sylvan and paige are the only crew members hes vaguely familiar with. has a crush on paige. **note: michael has 4 ghosts that follow him but im not listing them here just yet hh

ashton everett* - gunner. commonfolk human. fearless, exhausted of the shenanigans, genuinely just looking for a hot siren girlfriend and dismantling the monarchy. 

oscar* - boatswain. chaotic, will start a fight- but hes pretty terrible at getting himself out of trouble. needs tucked in at night. inseparable from lew.

lew* - boatswain. calm, collected, used to oscar’s antics. helps take care of the ship, has a turtle. 

rhubarb* - cook. human enchanted. plant powers. just trying to get along with everybody. don’t insult his cooking he’s trying his hardest. probably the oldest on the ship.

waverly* - enchanted human. like a bird selkie, can turn into a raven. spends a lot of her time this way. escaped from a traveling circus and joined the crew to help free others like her. 

cloud* - siren. tried to bring down the sundancers crew to prove herself, failed miserably and ended up liking them all. flirts relentlessly but is god awful at it. 

-

additional notes:

-some of them exist in a modern au, mainly involving bram/nord/mars/murr as a ghost hunting gang who always finds themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. bram and mars form a brotherly bond over time. in modern au elena is discovered to be alive. vaughn winds up falling in love with her (it is very cute).

-i often draw sylvan and captain ryan of the silent requiem. this pirate ship belongs to my friend sept and is placed in her own world, so none of that crew is mine ;w; most of their shenanigans are in a crossover state where a very sylvan begs ryan to teach him what to do as a captain, and ryan looks after him like a son (though he’d fucken deny it). young syl is far too curious for his own good and gets into trouble a lot. sorry dad

creds: galen, aspen, enmea, faine, nord, murr, mars, tobi, phinehas, woodrow, vaughn, and paige are all characters that belong to my friend bee. michael grey belongs to my friend jake. ashton belongs to my friend rueben.  oscar and lew belong to my friend kenzie. rhubarb belongs to my friend pasta. waverly belongs to my friend cal. cloud belongs to my friend sara. 

[semi-imaginary-place]

In which I play maddening classic with only Byleth and Dimitri and liveblog on discord 1/15/20 - 2/2/20

because if I’ve got to see a character die repeatedly, countless times, it might as well be dimitri.  

So I'm on maddening and classic with only dimitri and I’m going to kill off every other character. I heard if they reach 0 hp in part 1 they stick around the monastery and you can talk to them they just aren’t a part of your class anymore. Give me your blessings.

I died on the prologue! ... i dont have a healer... Death count:2

I am definitely new game+ cheating this for professor level and skills. I was thinking magic focused but she can't be too squishy... Gremory would help that. Also why do all the magic classes have bad growths. Give me a moving fortress of magic!

Ashe went down, 7 to go. Ch3 turned into a survival horror... but i made it out

Ch 6 is hell. Any idea for how to kill every last one of them in 25 turns with only byleth? Or alternately get to and take down the death knight. Only byleth and dimitri run. And no dimitri this chapter, Byleth's a thief

My main problem in crowd control. If i had infinite turns then i could agro them 1 by one... Maybe I've built byleth wrong and just don't have the stats. Is the warp route faster? Haven't tried that yet. In hindsight this was a bad idea for my first maddening run. I'm so used to not using byleth much that this is very different. Damn archers...  Got done in by chip damage the first time...

I I dont know what happened... but I beat the death knight.... I was expecting to die becausr i accidentally opened the door so i skipped what actually happened.... Next thing I know game is telling me i got a dark seal What  Did I crit? With a silver sword? Im in shock I DONT EVRN I dont even know if it was a crit! But byleth is thief so lethality is out of the question Maybe I should go give a sacrifice to rng god

so I was in shock but yeah I used the warp route and avoided fighting most of the enemies.

So i'm now at the winter ball chapter and felix is still alive (i've decided to off one character every chapter so Miklan downed sylvain. oh and first time through ch5 i accidentally stepped into range of one of the center archers so every unit rushed me and i died) and i tried felix's paralogue and wowo its impossible. Rodrigue dies in 2 attacks, outruns my healing and likes to charge headfirst into the enemy. My record so far is 3 turns before he dies. Might give up since this is optional.

(i eventually finished the paralogue but gave up saving anyone else so i didn’t even get anything good out of it)

The ally A.I. is sooo bad. Jeralt. Dad. Please stop getting yourself killed

Almightly Father in Heaven preserve me. I'm making dimitri learn reason.  maybe his rationale will start making sense no more moon logic for you boy

Hey. Why wont the game let me make dimitri a dark bishop

I need dark mage certification first? Or is the internet lying to me

Well dimitri is at c+ reason but I'm tired of grinding.  

got dimitri from c+ to b+ in a battle. But the boredom makes me want to cry.  Also might have miscalculated.... Fighting an assassin in a forest.... i have 35% hit and no other weapon. They have like 18% hit....  When will i be free...

I made dimitri into a dark bishop and he beat lysithea in the magic tournament.  Also just the thought of dimitri in slithers is funny to me

wrath is how i survived the sothis paralogue. crit everything

chasing the empire around in the hold tomb with 2 units was actually kinda fun

I cant believe that worked... Final battle of part 1. I charge down the middle. And it works 4 turns for infanty to cross the field... and it worked ... Welp i somehow made it to part 2 intact. Endless waves of reinforcement here i come

(Oh yeah and rng is punishing me right now by giving terrible level ups)

For the bridge is it best to go straight for the commander?

bridge wasn’t too bad but I was convinced to spare dedue so i had to fend enemies off him like ants to a dropped ice cream cone. if dedue reaches 0 hp or you don’t do his paralogue he dies in fhirdiad and I’m trying to get everyone off my party but not dead, soooo he’s along for the ride

I'm stuck on am ch 14 ... how do I defend 4 spaces when I have 2 units... Those pegasus knights keep dodging too... Damn pegasus knights.... without them i could just hold a choke point with 1 unit. I have 4 gambit uses maximum... Another thought I had is to out fly their flyers so I can shift byleth over quickly. if I take out randolf in delusional prince the map doesn't end. It just stops reinforcements right? 

Soo I tried to kill randolf but my movement is too low. It takes 3 turns to reach him...

Yup this is possible. But because I can't do things the quick way. I'll have to do the long way of waiting out the right side and then heading for randolf with byleth all the while holding out with dimitri in the center and hoping rng favors me for lije 20 turns

ALRIGHT WhIcH oF yOuSe a LIAR Sooo .... killing randolph does not stop reinforcements nor does it get you a victory, the fire attack is the only way. Time to go guard another npc with a death wish. Also Gilbert is unkillable in AM

FEAR ME The only way to beat a pegasus knight to to out pegasus knight the pegasus knight Falcon knight bae-by! I am unstoppable I. Am absolute (I am never doing this again)

Finally got past that defend 4 spaces with 2 units and endless reinforcements

I've figured out how to level grind since same level enemies are giving like 7exp each

Alright. Taking suggestions, on how to keep hilda and judith alive in golden deers plea.  Alternately, how to kill arundel in 2 thurns without archers destroying me.  With only byleth and dimitrti.  Right now I'm thibking retribution-> byleth and gunning it. Suggestions for abilities/battalions? My current thought is vantage, alert stance+, renewal, wrath, pavaise, and evasion ring and bridgid hunters

Well i can get to arundel before hilda dies but not judith. I'm starting a campaign to save judith. Please pledge your support on the indiegogo page below

whew judith and hilda and both alive! Stride was a good idea. just make a run for arundel. Kinda sad i didn’t get the aurora shield but eh I got the stat increases at least. I also tried propping up judith with byleth healing them but tanking doesn’t exist in maddening so that didn’t work.

I've been skipping cutscenes because there’s no one else there but gilbert

Things I have learned this playthrough: how to grind skills, how to grind levels, how to save scum level ups. 

I’m actually getting a lot of dialogue I missed before just because Byleth and Dimitri are taking down every single enemy unit

At fort merceus, and i want the black pearl.  And i'd like to avoid lindhardt and caspar.  I'm thinking 1: fly over nab the pearl and kill death knight.  2: wait it out and eliminate every last unit ob the map.  What turn does death knight start running? Or is when you get to a specific part of the map?  Or am i thinking of an entirely different map...

New plan. Forget everything else and kill death knight

I have beaten the death knight. I have beaten the impregnable fortress. 44% crit rate.  But I didn't get the black pearl in the treasure chest and i want my item so... i might redo the battle

Got my pearl. for an idea what the battle is like each turn each of the 2 units needs to be on one specific tile for the best chance of survival, if they die i usually had to restart the battle or change something to get a reroll. and you do this for like 5 turns learning the combinations with a mix of guesswork and trial and error. you also need to move quickly because if 4 units surround you, you’ll be stuck until you’ve defeated every single enemy unit on the map or more likely you die.

Ok story time.  So I'm on ch 21 of AM now and aux battle no longer give me exp so my only way of leveling is healing (the exp curve is brutal). Even with the double use of bishop, i'm running down to the wire getting 1 level up/battle (plus the next battle where they gain stats for its more like 1 level/2 battles). I ran out of healing with like 500exp left to go so i restarted but by the end of the 20 heals and 10 recovers I had a different number and now I’m confused Reddit is telling me turn count? Affects exp gain?

Anyways I'm in enbarr.  One of the many wonderful things about playing with only dimitri and byleth is that you can't change their starting positions in battles

Wow i did that on my first try. O.o  Huh that actually worked... Good thing hubert is squishy. spared dorothea and petra too. huh.

I just had a realization... on the last map of AM. If I apply retribution to everyone... could I kill edelgard with that without having to cross the room? Hmmmm must try it out

Nope cant counter attack. Good thing enemy units on this map are acting defensively and only attack when you go into range.  If they swarmed me I'd be dead (again)

Once you reach a certain tile they do swam... i lasted like 4 turns... need to clear the room to stop reinforcements...

(its impossible to stop reinforcements with 2 units on maddening. once you get to the throne room a new wave comes each turn. but clearing the rooms before hand buys you time before you are overwhelmed). To give an idea of what’s going on aux battles are aprox 10 levels below my units. regular enemies are about the same level (so each is a threat and my 2 units can die on any turn) and bosses are usually a couple levels higher.

Hehehehe I am so powerful I have beaten maddening with only byleth and dimitri (Dedue came along for the ride too but was never deployed to battle)

The final AM wasn't as hard as some of the others (defending garreg mach) but boy is it long.  I think my final turn count was in the 50s.  Also the credit screen character battle  count maxes out at 999

I think I got dimitri and byleth up to like 70 base crit last playthrough. Plus wrath and defiant crit almost garunteed each hit was a crit.

nope it was more like base 120 crit

In the end for both dimitri and byleth I used rng based builts around avoid and critical hits (after i figured out what the hell i was mid way through part 1). dimitri went through the brawler line and then split time between war master and great lord. Byleth went up the thief line to assassin and then falcon knight. for both of them i also got most of the class skills.

considering this was my first maddening or classic run, I looked at 0 strategy guides (like an idiot) and had no idea what i was doing in the beginning, I’d say I did pretty well for myself.

oh and I was mistaken about something, if a unit reaches 0 hp in part one they die off screen during the timeskip (except gilbert to my despair) so there was no real point to sparing dedue. I really do hate gilbert, it seems no matter what you do you are stuck with him all of AM. there is no salvation. and this is why i skipped all the cutscenes this time around.

Dedue didn’t have much if any influence on the playthrough. Dedue was never deployed in any of the chapter battles but he did tag along as an adjunct (no weapon equipped) in aux battle sometimes because I felt bad for leaving him out all the time (that and dedue pops up later in battle on the map in part 2 and if he was still a level 1 commoner i would have 0 chance of beating the map since enemies rush him). so him leveling up was to negate the consequences of keeping him alive. If i had gotten him killed i wouldn’t have to worry about keeping him alive later. By the time I got to part 2 the skill gain from tutoring was negligible compared to the amount gained from grinding in battles, also both units were starting to max out on skills (S+) so choosing to explore the monastery gave little benefit. Interestingly, you can’t do a lot of the monastery activities if you only have 1 student (choir, dining, etc). So even after Dimitri stops loafing around, having dedue there for eating meals and stuff wouldn’t have helped and I’d choose battle anyways.

I now know more about how the game works than I ever wanted to... For example the calculations for any probability check (hit/miss, crit, level ups, pass/fail) are long done by the time you see them. so to reroll the dice so to speak you have to go back a certain amount of time (varies for each thing. Level up stats are determined before you enter the battle field so you have to reload a save on or before the preparations screen. Whether you pass/fail a certification is already determined by the time you reach as given calendar date, so you have to reload to before that day. If you divine pulse a 95% hit rate that your unit missed to right before any action is taken with that unit, they will still miss. With only 2 units you will probably have to rewind to the previous turn, but with a full party you need to go back at least a few units but I don’t know the exact number. More or less forcing the game to run at least one different probability calculation than your target will reset whatever result was determined for your target.

When you have an infinite number of iterations, even the most unlikely outcomes eventually come to pass.

This run was  60% luck, 35% perseverance,  4% "grinding", 1% skill, 100% pain

edit: 5/1/2020: looking back, i was a stubborn idiot (as usual) for refusing to look up strategies or other solo maddening runs that people had already done. i can definitively say omegarevolution dealt with the defend map far better than i did. i never even considered +20hit to deal with falcon knights

oh yeah and i don’t have dlc or the nintendo online subscription so i couldn’t use any of that.

[musubiki]

Mochi & Lime Lore/Overworld dump post

➞

- Mochi and lime live in an earth alternate, so like, humans, but not EARTH earth. still working on the name of the continent/region/world they're in, but its gonna be like a botw expansive map with a bunch of different climates and stuff all spread out

- it's probably also a modern-style monarchy. so their gonna have modern technology and stuff but its an excuse to maybe include a royal family (think hmc style ish??). but i don't think the story will delve into politics at all. let's just assume that the gov and economy is ok in this story LOL

- magic and fantasy creatures exist EVERYWHERE, but they hide from most humans and as a result mostly live in forests and such

- the power of magic came as a gift from the stars. the stars are like. i guess what people worship i guess?? so the stars are like the ‘gods’ here (i didnt wanna get into religion too much in this story either, but some plot-relevance will most likely involve some religion-like aspects like priests and whatever)

- technology was developed only because the power of magic essentially disapeared to humans. if witches were always integrated into society, tech probably wouldn’t be a thing

- witches are female only. at the origins of magic, it used to run in both sexes, but the only male with magic ability became insanely powerful and evil and the magic in males died with him. (big backstory, we dont have time to unpack that)

- there's an extensive history (same backstory) of witches not being accepted/feared in society despite being mostly human, so they live WITH humans, but don't expose themselves. 

- (the most valuable spell is the memory replacement spell, which works kind of like that app where you can erase whole people from photos. ie, it takes parts of the rest of your day or similar days to fill in the deleted memory with similar memories, so instead of seeing mochi battling it out with some masked dude, you think you just went to school and came home)

- witches in society caused a bunch of social problems. they had events similar to the salem witch trials and whole plagues started when a witch was discovered. (that crow-lookin plague mask WILL show up in this story i dont care. that shit looked cool and evil and i want it to show up)

- there are some witch ‘haven’ villages: small secluded villages that hide a witch or two within its walls, and don't get many visitors. these villages usually don't have much technology, as they rely on magic. (one of these places is the ocean village where Mochis grandmother lives, and another is where Mochis secret hideout is in the northern mountains)

- there are a bunch of urban legends of witches, bedtime stories, holiday tales, etc. but no one really believes they exist anymore. they just seem like cryptids or superstitions.

- the magical community power scale pretty much looks like this:

...with the cat at the top, followed by the crow/snake, then the spider/toad, and the rest of the witches are more of less equal in power, and then below that are the mages. the psuedo-magic is placed in its own box because it comes nowhere near true magic

- because of this power balance, all the ‘normal’ witches and mages are extremely jealous of the top five (sometimes theres even jealousy within the five)

- ‘mages’ are a broad term of magic users, which can range from humans, to fairies and mermaids. i think the familiars may fall into this catigory too, as they can use a small degree of protective magic.

- mages can be a lot of things, fire mages, water mages, ink mages, paper mages, etc. theres a LOT of them, mostly descending from ancestors who were given power by witches a long time ago, or maybe the offspring of a human and a spirit. long story short its a REALLY broad term.

- every witch, at some point during their magical maturity has to chose a successor. its usually their daughter, but not in every case. once their successor turns 15, together they conduct a ritual to begin the power transfer. (i havent decided if the ritual is when they get their familiar, or if theyre supposed to have them since birth?? probably the former)

- during the power transfer, the magical ability is slowly ‘drained’ from the old witch into the new witch over a period of time, usually about a year or so, and the old witch teaches and trains the new witch how to use magic and potions.

- however this is also the most dangerous time, because as the power slowly transfers, the old and new witches respective power levels are slowly decreasing and increasing respectively, and at the equilibrium (50/50 transfered) the strongest witches power roughly equates to the power of a normal witch 

- (which is especially a dangerous time, compared to say, at a 70/30 balance the old witch is still strong enough to defend the title)

- and due to the jealousy problem within the magic-user circle, this is the ideal time to steal the power of a witch. in Mochi’s case, the cat is highly sought after by other witches and mages, and because of this, cat witches are trained early on to be VERY good fighters, and usually have a few. like. ‘bodygaurds’ so to speak (ie. Lime)

- in rare cases, the power of psuedo-magic is enough to kill a witch at equilibrium as well

- if you kill a witch, all her magical affect on the world (potions, spells, cursed objects) disapears, and the power will either pass to the victor (if she dies by the hand of another witch/mage) or will return to the old witch (if she dies by accident)

- if a witch dies by accident, and she has no remaining female family, the familiar will wander the world in search of a new and worthy witch

- because of the female-only thing as well as the jealousy issue, witches try to only have one daughter, as to not deal with sibling jealousy. especially if they have a son first, and then a daughter, the boy usually sometimes ends up with resentment that they can’t have the same power

- a lot of witch-siblings end up joining the coattails

- for humor and story purposes, im making it so for some idiot reason no one else can figure out where Mochi lives and/or are too dumb to do the obvious plan of attacking her in her sleep or something. so they usually get attacked on the go.

- also maybe everyone understands that high school sucks enough as it is, so they also rarely attack during school hours

- every familiar is a different being, and they stay with their witch throughout their whole lives. they always retain the ability to talk, even after the witch no longer has the main power. after a witch dies, their familiar loses their voice, and either dies with them, or leaves to wander the earth forever

- after a witch loses her power to her successor, she can only do low-level magic and make potions (small levetation spells, foliage growth spells, etc. nothing big)

- there are also a lot of powerful spirits (they roughly fall into the mage catigory) that wander the earth and protect certain sacred places. a subcatogiry of spirits are the cosmic serpants, chinese dragon-looking things that rest in shrines and travel the skies during the night, bringing the elements with them (theres a cosmic wind serpant that protects the forest next to Oscars house, and its always pretty windy there)

- locals pray to the spirits for good weather, healthy crops, etc which the serpants are happy to give them with offerings

- theyre kind spirits, but also very firm and protective of their lands. if they sense any ill-willed trasspassers they WILL destroy them. they only reveal themselves when they want to, but most have mad respect for the witches. 

- mochi gives oscar a medalion with a witches seal so the spirits know not to fucking merk him on his ghost-hunting adventures

- another type of spirit are the forest gaurdians (like the little things in this picture) which care for the forests and animals there. they like oscar because he brings them little snackies like funyuns. 

- spirits are naturally attracted to magical energy, so when mochis around the spirit activity hikes up (que ominous wind gusts during spooky story telling at oscars house) 

- the 5 top witches are pretty well known throughout the magic/creature communities. even if Mochi hasn’t met them yet formally, her name travels fairly quickly that by the time she visits somewhere and introduces herself, they know shes the cat witch

- also, in the top 5, each witch kind of has their own little attributes that makes them, by nature, most suitable for their position. for Mochi, as the cat, she has the biggest heart (cares the most for people, has the most friends). the crow is has the most intellect, the spider is the most creative/detail oriented, etc.

- different regional areas grow rare ingredients, which most of them i will 100% make up since i dont know a lot about actual earth plants, so mochi and lime will travel to all different parts of the world for foraging. everyone kind of teases them about how ‘oooh youre just gonna live in this little city your whole life?? boring!! get out there!!’ and they just kinda look at each other 

[blookmallow]

and heres a pile from That Time I Journeyed Across Half The Continent To Try To Get To Solitude To Buy My Daughter A Dress But Then Somehow Ended Up Involved In A Vampire Conspiracy Instead 

----

i was just MINDING MY OWN BUSINESS when i suddenly got attacked by TWO dragons, ran into that house there to try to get away, but the house was owned by some kind of mage who was very, very angry at me for being in his house so then HE started trying to kill me and was a lot stronger than i was prepared to deal with so i ran away from THAT 

and then immediately ran directly into an angry sabre cat 

what are the ODDS

i forget exactly what all ended up happening here i know i killed the cat and at least one of the dragons. i think the other one flew off somewhere. i killed the mage guy and ransacked his house lmao

it didnt have to be this way buddy you decided it was murder time before you even gave me 2 seconds to explain 

i dont even know this guy he was bragging about being The Best Fighter and challenged me so i punched him a lot until he gave in and now we’re friends. i appreciate him

anyway so this town has a house that recently burned down and the family who lived there all died in the fire except for the husband, who then immediately moved in with a new girlfriend, which everyone in town thinks is Very Suspect but nobody can prove anything so i went to investigate that situation 

oh he fucking did it 

A GHOST!!!!!! I FOUND A GHOST! A REAL ONE THIS TIME

:( she gave me some clues to help find out what happened to her and as excited as i am about ghosts its. really sad

i dont know why the daughter is a ghost but the mother’s spirit doesn’t seem to be here 

i wasnt getting any useful info out of the father other than that hes shady as fuck and i realized i couldnt find his new girlfriend anywhere, i tried waiting outside her house for a while but she just. either wouldn’t come back or wouldn’t come out. i HAD to know what was going on and finally picked the lock and broke in, which was a bad idea bc hroggar and the girlfriend were both there at the time and very, very angry at me for breaking in, hOWEVER,

I FOUND HER SLEEPING IN A COFFIN IN THE BASEMENT SHE’S A FUCKING!!!!! VAMPIRE!!!!!

not sure why a vampire has garlic in her house though

i got killed and debated trying to break in again and be more prepared to kill them this time but decided against it and went back to following the leads from the ghost child. i definitely found this out before i was supposed to lmao

found the kid’s grave, which. had been dug up. im still not clear on why 

ah. yes i see 

anyway so it turned out the girlfriend was a vampire and she had another woman in town who was also a vampire set the fire and hroggar was under her thrall the whole time, which was why he was cool with all this and was acting so weird, they were trying to slowly take over the entire town for their coven but i fucked it up, killed the vampires and released hroggar from her, set the child’s soul at rest, as you do. hroggar didn’t do it and was under alva’s control the whole time but i still kinda dont trust him that much. he later thanked me for saving him from her though 

then we went after the coven leader to make sure they wouldnt come back again

IVE GOT A WHOLE MILITIA COMIN AFTER THIS VAMPIRE WITH ME

or i Did lmao they all enthusiastically followed me out to the cave where the vampires live and then like, almost all of them left me  

only these guys stayed. my loyal followers

thonnir stayed because his wife was one of the vampires (probably turned/taken by alva, i dont think she joined them on her own will or at least he doesnt believe that) and he wanted to get justice for her 

and then, of course, Guy Who Fights For Me Now Because I Punch Really Good 

we killed the leader and i was SO afraid one or both of these guys were gonna get dead in there (i dont rly know them but still) (also thonnir has a son who already lost his mother so like, ) but i managed to complete the quest with both of them alive by the end of it 

i mentioned this adventure to my dad (skyrim is like the Only thing we have in common so its like 90% of what we talk about now lmao) and hes just like “you know it is a Pretend child,” and im like yes father i understand the concept of a video game i am aware it is not a real child but i still dont want his pretend video game father to die at my side and make him a pretend video game orphan let me live :’ | 

also alva’s corpse is still just like. there. in the basement. hroggar’s still living there bc like. his house burned down, alva’s dead, i guess this is his new house now, but. just. didnt bother to do anything about the corpse in the basement. ok 

I FUCKING FINALLY MADE IT OUT TO SOLITUDE THOUGH :’) it is a beautiful city i like it very much. i havent explored a whole lot yet though its big. apparently there was a big execution scene happening when you first enter the city but i came in through some weird side door and couldnt figure out where all the yelling was coming from and just kinda ignored it and missed the whole fucking thing lmao  

ok you’re the one out here with a hairstyle that makes you look like you’ve got two horns growing out of your head but go off i guess 

the palace is really beautiful too 

please im gay 

forget the men though ive been out there in the taverns and let me tell you there is nobody you want to talk to in those 90% of the time

,,,thank you thats very threatening 

boots boots boots boots boots boots boots boots b

BABY GOT HER DRESS IN THE END THOUGH :’) 

i brought a doll or something back for lucia i forget. i like her green dress i havent seen any other kids wearing that one 

as much as i love my daughters the kids in skyrim all. look. kind of the same :’) lucia’s hair is different but like. gonna be honest i like being able to tell which kid is mine lmao i might get sofie another dress that stands out better 

i dont rly like the yellow one as much but it’d be. distinct. i dont want to make them both wear the same clothes so 

[americankimchi]

i!!! saw the tags on that solas post u recently reblogged and like. i feel u man. to be completely honest i can't stand romancing solas but i KNOW it's worth it for the plot aspect and it adds a whole other layer to the whole thing but i just can't hack it dude lol but also who are your favourite romances from all the games??

his condescending holier-than-thou attitude is INSUFFERABLE when you play a dalish elf like my dude tone down it the fuck down how anyone gonna want to bone you when you’re puking microaggressions left and right smh

“i don’t consider myself a part of your people” YEAH YOU SURE AREN’T MY DOGGIE YOU TORE THE WORLD APART AND THEN DECIDED TO TAKE A MF POWER NAP!!!!!!! AND YET HE STILL HAS THE AUDACITY TO CALL THE CULTURE THAT SPRUNG UP IN PLACE OF AN APOCALYPTIC EVENT, A CULTURE OF OPPRESSED PEOPLES DOING ANYTHING THEY CAN TO CLING TO A HISTORY THAT WAS REDUCED TO ASH AND RUBBLE, A PEOPLE WHO CHOSE FREEDOM EVEN IF IT MEANT A NOMADIC LIFESTYLE ON THE FRINGES OF CIVILIZATION, A PEOPLE DESPERATE TO SURVIVE AND HAVE SUCCESSFULLY DONE SO FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS CHILDISH AND IGNORANT LIKE MY DUDE……………….

instead of spending all that time wandering about trying to hit that mf reset button why dont u use all that energy and knowledge and power and TEACH the dalish about the past like i’m losing my mind this dusty ass raisin really THINKS……………..

don’t get me wrong i like solas a lot i think his character’s pretty interesting and actually really enjoyed having him around for my first playthrough (circle mage who looked up to solas as a mentor figure… and then he GHOSTED her ass like oh my god dude i gave u dragonbone equips… at least RETURN THOSE smh) but i also think he desperately needs someone to rip that massive pole out his ass and beat some sense into him with it like lord mercy this dude is truly off his mf rocker if he thinks my dalish inquisitor’s going to let him set fire to the world after she JUST got done fixing it like……….. nah. NAH.

needless to say that playthrough is still unfinished ghjkfhgj

as for my favorite romances…….

i mean do i even have to say it y’all know how much zevran means to me……….. love that antivan elf :’>

other notable ones that make my heart warm: leliana, alistair, fenris, dorian, iron bull, josephine, 

POURS ONE OUT FOR WLW CASSANDRA………… MY HEART WILL NOT GO ON……………..

sera’s romance woulda been up there too except it would only be the sera romance i wrote in my head and not the one we got in game because while it was aight that’s all it was. aight.

i never finished blackwall’s but from the glimpses i got in game i think i’d really like that one too :>

[captaingondor]

Okay, but if you're still looking for romantic prompts, how about Character A saying I love you to Character B without using the words "I love you." (Through actions, or an "as you wish" situation. That kinda thing.)

Thanks for the prompt!!For this, I wrote about probably my favorite of my OC ships. Tragically I probably won’t be able to show as much of their relationship as I’d like in the work itself, and neither of them is the perspective character. This is fortunate in that  I can write whatever I want for self-fanfic without stepping on the main narrative’s toes, and unfortunate as I want to just write their whole relationship basically which made this a little hard to pare down. Hope y’all love them too!If you want some dramatic irony, also read this piece I wrote with Corrianne earlier. And, if you are curious, the correct way to pronounce her name is ‘cor-ee- AHN,’ with a French R sound.

How Empress Corrianne Learned to Speak Her Husband’s Language

When they married, Corrianne could not speak to her new husband.

Like most nobility around the continent, she had never studied Pelasian. Even centuries later, the fears birthed by the Speaker Wars lived on. No mage could twist your mind to his will if you couldn't understand the words he needed to do it. (Of course, now Pelasia had grown to power anyway without the use of mind-altering magic, so maybe it had all been for nothing.) And the Emperor, it seemed, had never bothered to learn any language but his own native tongue.

Corrianne studied and practiced until she was able to carry on something of a conversation with him without going through her ladies-in-waiting or his translator. The Emperor could not even say her name right.

But chipping away at the language barrier was not aiding their communication to the level that she had thought it should. True, she did not mind the extent to which he left her to herself - she had encouraged it. No, the Emperor was simply a hard man to understand. So she told herself, and so she held firmly in believing.

She could not have said when she first started noticing a difference.

***

He knocked at the door between their suites late in the evening, when she had retreated to hers from the court but not yet prepared herself for bed. He always knocked - these rooms remained hers, not his. The first few times he’d done this, she’d sent one of her maids to answer instead and give her regrets. When he proved unfailingly polite to them, and did not push past her excuses, she decided this could be allowed and came to the door herself. He never demanded her presence, or even requested - a request from the Emperor was little less than a demand. He merely gave an offer - he had ended his work for the day and would be in his sitting room, and would welcome her company if she wished to join him.

“I usually take this time for some quiet when I can… read for a bit by the fire, have a glass of wine… but if you would like to talk instead -” His eyes flicked to the maid murmuring all his words in Corrianne’s ear. “Perhaps practice your Pelasian?”

He had not offered to practice his Ruveldin, or even Idan, so that time she had refused. But she didn’t really want to spend the rest of her life married to a man that she would not talk to, so the next time she had accepted.

She’d been worried about his intentions that time, though he’d never touched her without her permission. But he really had just sat by the fire with his book and offered her a glass of wine, and did not press her unduly for conversation when she opened her own book. They made a few simple comments to each other on their day, and what they were reading, and spent the rest of the evening in silence together. She wondered how many times he’d had two glasses brought up, hope. She wondered if he’d left a few dregs in each to keep the servants from talking. She felt a little bad, but only a little.

She’d come over many times since then, and it had almost become a little ritual between them. They did not always spend the time reading silently - she truly did wish to practice her Pelasian, and he proved a patient conversation partner.

This time when he knocked, she answered with a smile and stepped through before he even needed to make his offer. She carried a book with her, but did not open it immediately when she sat down, and so he did not reach to pick up his own.   “Thank you for joining me.” Even now that it was a regular occurrence, he thanked her. “I enjoy your company. I have little time to myself, but this has been an improvement on solitude.”

She had not thought the Emperor one to seek out solitude. He demanded the attention of the world. Perhaps she had misunderstood him. She smiled politely and asked him about his day. He was a man of routine; she knew the words he would use to speak about that well enough to follow, better than whatever that declaration had been.

***

They were at dinner, which was rarely a private affair. There were always people at court to entertain. But today was no great feast or party, only a regular meal, and while the Emperor’s attention might as ever be demanded at any time, at present Corriane and her husband were left to converse among themselves as they ate, should they choose to.

They did not always. Corrianne preferred practicing her Pelasian when they were in private, and going through a translator was more clunky than casual dinner conversation with her husband ought to be. And besides, it was dinner, and their main focus was eating.

But today, he chose to strike a conversation up. “Have you heard from your sisters lately?”

She’d received a letter from Everrie just that day. Perhaps he’d had mail come in from Ruveld as well, or seen the messenger bring it in. Or perhaps it was a lucky guess, though that seemed less likely. “I have.”

“And how are they?”

A few times, early on, when the Emperor had asked about her family, she had wondered if he were fishing for information on them, for his schemes or politics. But that had been silly. Surely he had plenty of sources for that without her.

“Both are well. Also my father, and -” She paused. She did not know the proper word for stepmother or half-brother. But he knew that they were her stepmother and half-brother, of course, there was no need to explain it to him. “And his wife, and Alairon.”

“Glad to hear it. Your younger sister’s birthday was coming up, wasn’t it?” He didn’t try to say her name - maybe he’d seen Corrianne wince as he mispronounced hers too many times.

“Yes, they had just celebrated it when Everrie wrote me.”

“She could handle planning for it without you, then?”

Oh. He had remembered, from the last time Everrie wrote. She had told him how Everrie was used to following her lead for social events, how she had been so frantic about taking it on herself, how she had wanted to prove she could step up to the task without leaning too heavily on their stepmother. She hadn’t passed on all of Everrie’s pouring out her heart - she did not think she’d have like the Emperor to hear all of it - but she liked to talk about home, and it was a good subject for her to use in practicing her conversation. And, she realized, her husband had been very attentive in asking her about her sisters. He had been since the first time she brought it up.

“It was as I told her, she -” She hesitated, and finished the sentence in Ruveldin for his interpreter to pass on. “She is more competent than she gives herself credit. She just needed to get her time of worrying out of the way and put her mind to it.”

“Still, they must miss you at home. You light up my court so, I can see it would be hard to lose you.”

She hardly knew how to respond to that, and took a bite so that she would not have to.

***

One of her ladies reported to Corrianne that her husband had had a gift sent to her rooms, so she came to them and found the box set on a table. She opened it to find a delicate golden hair comb, set with many small, deep red gems. Beautiful, and very much to her taste. She wondered if he had picked it out himself.

It was hardly the first gift he had given her. Fine cloth for her dresses, a dark bay riding horse, expensive jewelry, books - ones that he thought she would enjoy, or Pelasian translations of ones she had to help in her study. Some she had written off as no more than what might be expected from the Emperor to his wife. The others had confounded her. What did he mean by them? Was he trying to buy her affections, to keep her and thereby her father’s kingdom sweet? Did he wish to flaunt his wealth and power?

But none of those thoughts came to her now - only a desire to find her husband so she could thank him for it.

She made a few inquiries and was glad to be able to find him alone, going over his correspondence. He looked up, and smiled when he saw her. She’d never noticed before how different that smile looked from the one she saw him wear in public, how his eyes brightened with it. He nodded at the comb she clutched in her hand.

“You like it?”

She nodded. “It is -” It is lovely, she wanted to say, but could not find the right word as she filed through her Pelasian vocabulary. “It is very nice.”

He stood up from his desk and walked over to her. “I thought it would look well with your hair.” His eyes lifted to the honey-gold braids crowning her head as he spoke. He hesitated a moment, and then held out his hand. “May I?”

She passed the comb to him, and he slid it into her hair as though he were one of her maids. Her husband stood back, and looked at her admiringly for the space of several second, before frowning.

“I’m sorry - I don’t have a mirror here for you to look at it -”

She smiled softly. “I am sure you put it in straight. Thank you.”

“I’m happy you like it, Corrianne.” He stumbled over the r, and tried again. “Cor - Corrianne -”

It still was not right, but she smiled anyway. “I understand, Seyetto.” And she set her hands on his shoulders, pushed herself up on her toes, and kissed him.