#i just like these aesthetic crystal weapons

[adragonsfriend]

Having an incredible vision of a world where "igniting a lightsaber" is a bit more literal of a phrase, and lightsabers are like blowtorches, where you turn on the gas and then light it with another flame.

Please just imagine count Dooku with a fancy metal cigarette lighter for this purpose,

Anakin always loses his lighter and has to ask R2-D2 to light his saber with the flamethrower he installed,

Obi-Wan always just pulls a single match out of his pocket and holds it up like it's the last one he has but it never actually is

Qui-Gon and Yoda have both lit their sabers with a blunt at some point (idk if actually possible i am not a cool kid but shhh they are space wizards)

Initiates all have to line up to have an instructor light their training sabers

Going to Ilum to get your kyber crystal is accompanied by (another) lesson on fire safety

Wookies and other furry species have some kind of safety lighter probably

Aquatic species use some other form of weapon i guess? or have like sci-fi greek fire idk

Some Jedi believe that if there is no naturally available source of flame than it's not the will of the Force to light their sabers at all

A common gift from masters to padawans is their first lighter or maybe there would be a pair of beads designed to create sparks (kept on padawan braid/strings as a back up)

Mace always uses the spark beads (shatterpoint imagery you get me)

Depa does the same as Mace, for the aesthetic (she didn't get a purple lightsaber but she can have this ok), and teaches Caleb the same (he keeps his beads into the empire, even though he has to hide them)

Luke also uses R2,

Pre-war Jedi don't even light their sabers that often, and this is why those rumors about Jedi all using death-sticks started, since very few outsiders know why they actually carry lighters

Sidious lights his with lightning (which sounds cool but actually it backfires and blows up in his face at least 50 percent of the time)

Maul just has an actual blowtorch he uses to light his saber, which

If the Jedi try and deny the death stick rumors than new rumors start that they're all pyromaniacs, so they don't really bother.

[internalscream1ng]

Twst as Genshin Elements

Okay, you can point and laugh at me now for this.

I play a lot of Genshin and major fan of twst

I am here to dump my thoughts.

Heartslabyul :

Riddle - Pyro - Listen , he uses fore magic the most part. With being passionate about his studies, I can definitely see him using some type of Pyro magic.... He would be a sword user. If not a Pyro user, then he would be a Hydro user, for being the one to lay down the Queen's Laws and hold the rules and justice.

Trey - Dendro - This one is biased, with his green hair. He would be a bow user, to be honest, I am basing this idea off Tighnari.

Ace - To be honest, this was hard to think of. I kind of wanted to say pyro off my head, but I didn't want to make it seem like I was making the whole Heartslabyul a Pyro based dorm. But thinking more I think he could have an Ameno after his out burst towards Riddle in chapter one, standing up and fighting for "freedoms" or against the Queen's Rules. A sword user 100%

Deuce - Pyro, he works too hard , he seems like a hard worker like a Geo user. I might lean more onto being a Geo than Pyro, but I am throwing these off the top of my head. He seems like to use some sort of polearm!

Cater - Definitely Electro do I need to go into detail? He is a polearm user fully.

Savanaclaw:

Leona - Cryo - His mood swings towards being Cryo. But he could also be Electro. He could he a claymore user.

Ruggie - Geo for his hard working personality. Because if he was a Pyro user, he would be a pyromaniac! Ruggie is a sword user, have you seen those arms, he has tried to lift a claymore, but he fell backwards.

Jack - Geo or Hydro, I am not sure how to explain this. So just, trust me bro. He too will be claymore.

Octavinelle:

So I am biased, and I am going to keep in one paragraph or two. The three are Hydro users! I could say Jade as some sort of Dendro user for being in a Mountain Club ( I forgot what his club was called and too lazy to look up) same with Floyd being Electro , his whole mood swings can be seen as misunderstood by other students as violent. But I am biased and since all three comes from the sea, they are Hydro users.

Azul would be a catalyst user, Jade would have a sword, and so will Floyd too as a sword user.

Scarabia :

Kalim - Pyro user, gives off Bennett personality vibes but instead of using a sword, I want him to use a catalyst. Only because I don't think he has good aim with a bow and also with a sword and polearm I think he would do decent, but it isn't his first weapon choice, claymore is for buff Kalim. And we don't have buff Kalim.

Jamil - Cryo ONLY because I want to make both his and Kalim's opposite elements and have more angst for chapter 4 ! Jamil is polearm user.

Pomefiore:

Vil - I am going to say Electro for the aesthetic purpose, he is a catalyst user.

Rook - From Savanaclaw to Pomefiore his element transfer over and he is a Dendro user. I believe he could use that power to help with his hunts...... He is a bow user, I am biased.

Epel - He seems more into Electro , but after seeing his unique magic, it's going to be Cryo only due to the fact he has little ice crystals. He could be a catalyst user like Vil.

Ignihyde :

Idia - He wouldn't be Pyro because of his fire hair - I am more into Cryo Idia myself . You think he would lift something light, nah, he be lifting a claymore.

Ortho - Eletcro would be his element since he is the only robot person we know in Twst! He is a catalyst user throwing beams of Electro from his hands.

Diasomnia :

Malleus - I'm a die hard Cryo for him.

Sebek - He would have Electro from his one card chapter 7 ( if you know, you know) . Or he could be a Geo????

Silver - Anemo would be his, only because I can see him wanting to be like his father.

Lilia - He would have an Anemo element, this man literally has fought in a war and even probably lost a lot of people in the battles too. He seems like the type of person who would have knowledge too, but not Dendro, like an Anemo type.

As for weapons for them

All of the would have a sword as their weapons, except for Lilia who would have a claymore. He could carry it, his weapon in battle was probably heavy.

Now some bonus here for staff, RSA, and Roll.

Crowley - Anemo - Polearm

Trien - Hydro - Sword

Crewel - Pyro - Catalyst

Sam - Electro - Catalyst

Vargas - Pyro - Claymore

Neige - Hydro - Catalyst + Healer, negative crit rate Kokomi style

Chenya - Electro - Bow

Rollo - Pyro - Polearm

Now this is an Extra EXTRA, Grim + the Yuus

Grim - Pyro for his flames, definitely, catalyst

Yuuken ( Heartslabyul) - Pyro - Sword

Yuuka ( Savanaclaw) - Hydro - Polearm

Yuuta ( Octavinelle) - Pyro - Polearm - I am basing him off Xiangling lol

[txttletale]

bundletober #13: blazing hymn

alright i've fallen behind on bundletober (the series of blog posts where i review and talk about a ttrpg i got in a bundle every day) and am hoping to make up the difference by putting out two entries today. this is the first one, and i'm looking at the mecha-piloting, synthetic-armour wearing, blaspheming-against-God-and-his-angels game blazing hymn by peach garden games.

now sadly this game is not a lyric/blackout poetry game about rewriting church hymns to be about gay sex. someone should make that btw. no it's just about wearing highly advanced battlesuits powered by the song of your heart to kill aliens with weapons of pure energy. which is about as cool.

first off, the layout of this game is unique and stylish. there are hexagons everywhere:

the game puts sparse splashes of dreamy pastel colours amid a constantly shifting set of black and white hexagons. it gives the book a visual identity that is at once both visually distinct and also changing massively from page to page. it's a really cool way to mix things up and keep you wanting to turn the page if just to keep seeing what the next one even looks like.

what's the game about? simple. angels have come to earth to destroy it badly. with the power of song, young people can power specially designed battlesuits, called Hymnals, that when not activated collapse down into crystal necklaces. it's a pretty anime concept--the game is pretty open about being inspired by Evangelion and Symphogear, neither of which i've actually seen--but it's cool as hell. the aesthetics of the layout really help bring the aesthetics of the game itself, of technology and ethereal mysticism merged into one thing, to life.

the game uses a pretty simple three-stat system where you build dice pools with a state relevant to an action and can get a full success, mixed success, or failure, depending on what you roll. your characters have two resources, Health, which is what it sounds like, and Gain, which is essentially magical power. because you can swap Health for Gain and Gain for Health at a 1-1 ratio with no restrictions, i'm not really sure why they're separate things--seems like a missed opportunity to not only simplify the mechanics but also create a strong mechanical narrative element by making Gain the only thing that keeps you going--once your song is silenced, you're out.

to create a character, you pick from one of six unit classes--here's where i'd describe the six classes, but honestly, they don't quite feel distinct enough. a lot of the powers you can pick for each hymnal class feel very similar, or are outright overlapping in a lot of cases. this isn't necessarily a bad thing, but the descriptions of the hymnals, while trying to clarify their combat roles, all end up seeming to repeat themselves or say contradictory things. i think some direct ties between those descriptions and their mechanics would have helped--i'd find it a lot easier to remember that, for example, the 05 Xyston type "brutal in combat" if that flavour text was followed by a direct reference to one or more of its abilities. they do all have pretty different stats--which, in a game with a very simple and elegant combat system, means i'm confident they play very differently once you hit the table. but just looking at them, as a prospective player, i struggle to tell the difference.

i don't have that problem with the next character creation mechanic, though, which is choosing the songs you sing to power your hymnal. each song, as well as a thematically appropriate set of stat boosts, also prompts a pair of revealing character questions. they're the kind of mechanic that i want to get my hands on because they make it fun to create characters, giving real mechanical expression to the emotional fundamentals of who they are.

the combat system itself seems really, really good. it's astoundingly simple--you're encouraged to use a map, but there's no fiddly grid or distance tracking, just the ability to move between being Close, Near, or Far from an enemy. it keeps the numbers low to keep it getting silly and doesn't bother with any of the unecessary bookkeeping and fiddliness that plagues TTRPG combat as a whole. no initiative, no separate turns--there's a 'player' turn and a GM turn, and during the GM turn the GM picks from enemy's listed actions until they've done two for each player. players can use their abilities on the GM turn, and the game encourages the GM to take enemy actions that wil lforce them to--so nobody's ever standing around twiddling their thumbs waiting for the whole table to rotate back to them, and having a lot of enemies doesn't mean the players listen to the GM talk for fifteen minutes.

there's two unique mechanics that i think are very interesting-- Civilians and Condemnation. Civilians are--well, exactly what they sound like. on their turn, players can use an action to evacutate up to 5 of them. this extremely small and simple mechanic is fucking genius. so many games tell you they're about saving innocent people, but yet the only mechanical verbs you have to interact with anyone are violent ones. as elaine scarry says in the body in pain:

so in a way i think blazing hymn puts its money where its mouth is in a way very few combat rpgs with emancipatory or heroic aspirations bother. angels are said to attack populated areas--you're sent to preserve life as well as destroy the enemy. it makes the game feel fundamentally different, like despite the questionable ethics of hymnals (after all, they only work on young people, who then have to be sent into deadly combat situations) there is something heroic you can do.

the second cool mechanic is condemnation, a reality-warping toxin that angels use to destroy the places they're sent to. this rocks because it adds a ticking timer to the battlefield, a passive threat that forces the player characters to be proactive. if condemnation gets too high, not only is the fight going to get harder, but civilians are going to die en masse. it's a great piece of game design that gives the GM a great lever to pull for pacing and urgency.

i also really like that one of the steps of the GM turn is to 'change the situation', whether that means something happens in the narrative or something on the map changes (a train arriving is the example the book gives) or more angels attack. in general, one of my biggest complaitns about d&d is that unless a DM takes it upon themselves to design additional mechanics and encounters outside of anything the game actually gives them, combat inevitably turns into two lines of people hitting each other with sticks until one of them dies. i love dynamic, progressing combat, combat where the stakes change moment to moment. and blazing hymn delivers.

anything else? oh yeah, the angel designs are cool as fuck.

god damn. anyway despite a few minor issues with the hymnals themselves, the core of blazing hymnal is fucking good, a nice tight and razor-sharp combat system wrapped up in pulsing pastel crystalline aesthetics. if you like cool anime fights and like having the rules to back it up but hate complexity, crunch, and tedium, this might be the perfect game for you. it's certainly given me a lot of cool design ideas to take foreward into my own projects.

blazing hymn is available for purchase as a digital download through itch.io

[mollysunder]

How Viktor and Ekko are Stuck in the Wrong Genre for Zaun

I've been meaning to say this for a while but Viktor as the Machine Herald and Ekko as characters are out of place in Zaun. I don't necessarily mean their motivations don't fit Zaun, I mean the execution of their character concepts don't fit Zaun's genre.

What's that supposed to mean? It means that one of the key differences that sets Zaun and Piltover apart is that Zaun takes on the biopunk genre, while Piltover occupies the steampunk genre. While the two concepts have some room for interchangeability, steampunk relies purely on machinery while biopunk is very clearly defined by a focus on the advancement of biological, biochemical, genetic experimentation. It's the reason why the early roster of Zaun's champions are mutants, plus the guy who made them mutants. We can even see that Arcane's writers decided to integrate more champions better into the genre by officially turning Jinx into a Shimmer mutant, enhanced strength and all.

Champions like the Machine Herald fit awkwardly into Zaun because his character utilizes elements that better fit Piltover. The Machine Herald advocates that for humans to transition their flesh into machine augments as a means to erase human flaws caused by the dysfunction of biology. That's all well and good, Zaun can take in another mad scientist but the way he brings his ideology to Zaun is incompatible with the way Zaun operates.

Viktor asks the people of Zaun to change but they already change themselves (with augmentations) through chemtech! In Zaun, chemtech is their accessible alternative to hextech that anyone can use to not just power their machines, but their bodies as well. The process of change in Zaun is a dual experience for flesh and metal to become more similar in function together rather than abandon one mode for the other. Shimmer in Arcane is a new extension of what chemtech is capable for Zaun's biopunk horizons. Meanwhile Viktor's Glorious Evolution doesn't incorporate any of these key aspects of Zaun society, which more closely embodies the steampunk aesthetic and ideology of Piltover. It's no surprise the only other champions that experiment with transhumanism with pure machinery, Orianna and Camille, are both from Piltover.

With Ekko his motivations are once again very Zaun oriented, but the means by which he uses to help other is very out of place for Zaun. I'm specifically talking about his weapons. None of Ekko's weapons incorporate chemtech into them, in fact his signature power as a champion, time travel, is largely divorced from Zaun. Ekko's Z-Drive is powered by a shattered hex crystal which serves to power his other time based abilities. Even Ekko's melee weapon is a clock hand from Piltover, making his color scheme powered by hextech blue clash with Zaun's chemtech green. At least in Arcane they've given him chemtech in the form of his hoverboard.

It's just do odd that these two characters defined by their explicit desire to help Zaun are also given traits that alienate them from the region.

[moustacherie]

Ope, here we go again.

The Battlemaster! Poster child of the A Game of Armored Combat box set, this guy has been in my to-do pile for at least a year, but that Davion Guards scheme is just so satisfying to do.

The keen-eyed may notice that it's not quite 1-to-1 with the original plastic. Despite the longstanding aesthetic tradition of giving mechs huge pistol-like armatures for their weapons, I remain a fan of the integrated approach. So... I very carefully carved the gun off of the fist, chopped off most of the pistol structure, and kitbashed it with some Strato Minis bits I had laying around to give it the vibe of the MWO Battlemaster. That was the easy part. The real flex, however, was carving away the remnants of the gun on the fist -- which is one solid plastic piece -- and etching out the panels and finger lines to match the opposite fist. Also I gave it better looking machine guns and and IWM launcher plate.

Also, Army Painter Highlord Blue speedpaint is top-tier for Davion Guards basecoat. Fuck that canopy, though. Canopy jeweling is a skill that as of yet escapes me, but the crystal acrylic technique came through on this one, especially since gravity helped pool it at the lower edges and give it a soft blending effect.

Ope, what's that? A non-canon mech? The Roughneck is a personal favorite of mine. Technically apocryphal due to being an invention by PGI for Mechwarrior Online, much like the Corsair and Sun Spider, I'm a dead sucker for the aesthetic of industrial machines refurbished into military equipment. Ellen Ripley, eat your heart out.

Check that base, too. Zip ties, window screen, toothpicks, and cardstock.

[dailyadventureprompts]

I was thinking about Duergar after listening to Critical Role S1. I don’t care too much for the blatantly evil brush they used but I still want them to be antagonistic. Reading the Explore D&D article on them I took that and looked for inspiration. I thought a blend of the paranoid police state of Stalinist Russia with the political intrigue and back stabbing of imperial Rome. Vast underground cities of brutalist architecture. A culture of conformity, order and a nihilistic outlook. Atheist philosophy cults of the forge or other practical oriented ideologies. Power by any means is a virtue in this society so mages and warlocks are also prevalent. Holidays and celebrations are scheduled well choreographed events. Individuality is scorned. Even hair styles and clothing are limited and enforced by literal fashion police. Gulags are kept well stocked with routine purges of dissidents and a thriving slave trade. All this keeps their cities nearly impenetrable but also undercuts their expansion. Trade with the outside does exist but it’s extremely bureaucratic. They make FANTASTIC concrete.

Footnotes on Foes: Duergar

The problem with the grey dwarves is that they're a little too close to their surface world counterparts compared to the other underdark Wario fantasy races. There's a literal night and day difference between elves and drow , humans and grimlocks, and to a lesser extent gnomes and svirfneblin, but if you looked at surface dwarves (traditionalist, work in metal and stone, warriror culture) there's really nothing all that different about the Duergar other than a grabbag of magic powers and the Duergar being SUPER assholes all the time, while surface dwarves are only assholes some of the time.

I’ve tried a few different versions of the duergar in my writing including mercenary legions of migratory exiles hunting through the underdark looking to conquer territory, and willing collaborators and footsoldiers for illithid colonies, but I think this ask specifically gave me something cool to work with: A focus on Psionics is what ahould seperate the duergar from regular dwarves, with the totalitarian state described above ramped up to its fantasy world extreme by the fact that the secret police can read your mind, and if they can’t find evidence of thoughtcrime they can use mindfuckery to put it there.  The social conformity is seen as a way of detecting rebellious thoughts as if they were social contagion.

This also gives the grey dwarves a distinct aesthetic that is separate from vanilla dwarves: Crystals, be they shaped into weapons or architecture or floating about the heads of psionic casters, which goes to supplement their already textual psychic powers. As an added means of differentiating them, talk about how duergar metalwork is shit, soldiers wearing slave-foundry pig iron while their commanders wield elegantly carved sceptres of nightmare infused rock.

Also, just to have a bit of fun, have the duergar low-key anxious about the existence of the sky, to the point where many of them believe it's a myth made up to scare them as children.

Hooks:

Despite the draconian control they keep over their own populace, the rigors of living in a realm of ever shifting stone require the Duergar to utilize numerous means to secure the territories around their grim cities: Fortress outposts built to control passage in and out of their cavernous realms, psionicly propelled vessels of iron plate that prowl great tunnels like levitating battleships, treaties and client-state contracts with rival and subjugated creatures set up as buffers. Travelling through underdark controlled by duergar is a different sort of dangerous then normal travel in the below.

Escaping from prison before she could be lobotomized, a powerful psion has made it to the surface world with a gang of fellow thought-criminals, working as mercenaries using their unusual skills and eventually forming a rivalry with the party.

The earth writhes. A series of violent quakes cause damage in several cities across the kingdom, setting off numerous small disasters and the appearance of subterranean monsters that'll keep the party and the powers that be busy for weeks. When the cause is eventually determined, it's discovered that in a hunger for more pisonically charged crystals, a duergar warlord has awoken a primordial which now thrashes against its restraints and shakes the world as its pained excavation continues.

Art

[cerestheinterdimensional]

Winners!!

It's quite scuffed but it took me awhile so I wanted to share it here!

keep reading for alts and explanations of the choices I made!

OK so first, Martyn's role was never an after thought, I always planned him to be "observing" the main picture because he isn't really in any duos, at least none that have made it to the end, also he's the only one in his lore who is being harassed by the Watchers!

Border: the poppies and lilacs are for grian and scar, they were actually the first characters I had in mind when I was first planning out this piece in my head! The snow is because of pearl freezing herself in double life, the crystal's because that just to seem most of people's thing for last life/winner scott.

Pearl: I was going to make her part dog and scott part cat, but cat didn't really fit him and I really liked the moth pearl designs I had seen so I made her a moth. I had decided I wanted to show the astronomical signs for the winners, and so I chose what is supposed to be a weird axe, mainly because I really liked people's moon scythes for her, however I wanted to incorporate her most infamous weapon.

Scott: The main "big" decision for him was to make his sign, the stars, an arrow mainly because I wanted him and pearl to parallel, and because of what might be his most infamous weapon.

Grian: I wanted him and scar to parallel so I decided that they would have poppies and lilac, just in different places. I made him birb because. I got the idea for his shawl mainly because of @cherrifire's thumbnail for the third life compilation and then I thought it would be a great place to put not only a sun reference, but a watcher reference.

Scar: I'm not sure how obvious but I gave him real tears while scott and pearl have fake ones, this is because pearl and scott are supposed to be more stain glass window esq and their tragedy for when they won was, quite obviously, a past season and scar's is from this very season. The reason he is even crying to begin with is because he finally is reunited with grian in the "winner's club". Grian isn't crying mainly because I'd say his character has "moved on" and is putting those days behind him so he can focus more on helping out the life members. decided to give his shawl my favorite of his signs proposed, the earth. Tbh I don't think there is a particular reason except for the fact that a few animatics convinced me and I like the aesthetic of it.

Martyn: while his role and pose in general wasn't an after thought, his sign was. I had gotten to his flat colors and was like "oh. shit.", as to my horror I realized I had forgotten to add any signs of, his sign so I just decided to throw it onto the back, had I not forgotten, it probably would have been an earing. Also I chose mars because that's the only one I've really heard for him, and because of the roman god war.

If anyone has read all this thank you so much 😭😭 overall I'm oddly conflicted with this piece because it was quite a lot for what I usually do and I think a good bit I did really well, at least for me, however I also think I rushed a few bits to much, especially martyn :/ oh well!

[elliewiltarwyn]

5 Character Associations

tagged by @oneiroy

EMOTIONS/FEELINGS

Resolved (absolutely refusing to give in)

Righteous fury (extremely pissed at the world and believes herself justified in doing so)

Confident (knows she's pretty good at what she does)

Easygoing (not very uptight, doesn't sweat the details)

Exhausted (been through a lot and just wants to sleep)

COLORS

Red (hair)

White (mage)

Black (dark knight)

Green (skin, curative magic)

Blue (eyes)

SCENTS

Rain (especially afterwards, the wet soil)

Rust (something that's stood there for a while but is noticeably damaged in doing so)

Steel (a sharpened weapon)

Ocean (an idyllic Lominsan childhood)

Coffee (dark roast, bitter until she lets herself add sugar)

OBJECTS

Greatsword (Cronus Lux, then Shadowbringer [and Abyssos Guillotine non-canonically 😅])

White mage and dark knight soul crystals

Azem's crystal on a necklace

post-EW, two rings - one sapphire, one amethyst

Journal

BODY LANGUAGE

Guarded, protective of herself and others

Brushing locks of hair behind her ear

Exhausted slump

Tightly-curled fists

Relaxed, letting friends rest head on shoulders

AESTHETICS

unsavory knight (doesn't care too much about matters of chivalry)

Scrappiness (very eager to throw down)

Ocean waves (both extremely forceful and a gentle soothing touch)

Fiery determination (never give up, never surrender)

Large presence (it's noticeable when she's not the tallest in the room)

tagging um... I mean this is another one of those games I got to late and so feel like everyone's already been tagged lol, so forgive me if this is a dupe @alliezweihander @sylaurin @viiioca @bnuuywol @sasslett and whoever's interested!!

[lunartearrose]

may you yap..about your..doublevin.. ⁉️

Yippeeee i get to speaketh!!!!!! Hold onto your but this will be a bit long!!!!

OK SO back when they meet like first first met pre rank king. Vintage got his teammates by beating the ink out of them at rank mode! Double didnt think a shrimp and his sister could beat him and honestly had a sort of rider mindset that he could be the only good at rank guy on the team to make things work and like. Bet his whole position as leader of his own team for the fight against vintage. We can even go yugioh villain mode and say he used to like to be an edgelord and break people's main weapons if he won bets against them

Of course double gets his shit absolutely wrecked in a 1v1 and got absorbed into the xblood team. At the point vintage is a power hungry and scorned by skull sort of jerkass so it's not the most comfortable settling. Despite this, he felt because he was so awesome he should get to have times where he could fight alongside his old teammates for non-serious matters

But BECAUSE he sort of surrounded himself with other rude fucks they only humored him so they could mock how hard he fell from grace and be told how little respect they had for him in the first place. Vintage had stopped by to remind double about practice in person while this went on (he forgot to trade numbers) annnd he overheard the bullying and saw double get smacked and grabbed and stuff.

Because he's still very fresh in his own pain at this point he decides to jump these fucks and fistfight them for fucking with his teammate. He's big mad and the old team stands no chance against the both of them so they dip. He helps Double up who is a little shocked Vintage had a caring (???) Side to him and ofc edgelord king just says fuck you i just wanted to beat those hoes not help you now buy me ramen. And i mean - vin did save him so he does

They go through this stage of like half bitching at each other and half respecting one another for a while, especially before blue team but post blue team they start definitely settling into a sort of friendship which is nice! In my mind goggles grew out of pantsing after the first incident with rider (and even then it was a tripping accident but this aint abt him) so while vintage and double were having that heart to heart on stage it was more embarassing clownery than embarassing pantsy

Annnd the more they spend leisure time together the more they start. To notice. Things about one another.

Double jokes to himself about vintage being so warm because he always eats spicy food. He's nice to be close to and he gets shivers easily despite his warmth and oh the little tipped up ends of his bowlcut. Are those trying to be horns? Its cute! They're almost more cat ears than horns!

Vintage will find himself staring for longer and longer at double,slowly getting comfortable and normal brained about it and then- oh my god. Just under his jacket - is that… a tail??? A little puffy sea bunny tail?

He tries to not be weird about it but also as double paces and rants about some jerk shoving him its like. How did he not notice it? Is it soft??? Are the bigger spikes on his spikey hair nudibranch feelers shaped into horns for the team aesthetic? He also definitely notices double talking in less tense tones with him compared to others now and its. Soothing almost.

He almost touches the tail before like smacks himself and catches double's attention doing that.

“You good?”

“No. But you can keep talking”

and just eventually does he ask after figuring out how to and yeah double is half nudibranch because inkfish dna due to liquid crystal bullshit from 2000 years ago is adaptive shit

They develop in this space of good friends and though they mutually like each other SO SO FUCKING BAD vintage is surpressing it because hes afraid of fucking up and Double is like visibly attempting to be romantic and vintage is unfortunately dense because he is trying so hard to give friendefit of the doubt

Things with vintage in agent business heat up in years after the grand festival. They get a lot of reports of illegal modified weapons being used by distinct people, some of them even using them to cause harm outside of turf war. Shit like 30 round in one shot stringers, snipers that have shots that can round bends to hit their targets. It's dangerous stuff being used in both inkfish territories and Vintage is in the market of protecting his city and friends.

Essentially? He does get in an altercation with a modder. He took down a guy with a roller that is not only heavy but burn damaging, and it bashed him hard in the lower back while he was chasing him down as the other agents dealt with putting out the arson.

He did NOT learn from his younger days of seeing rider over exert himself and almost die when he was still a purple teamer and he let the injury fester. The incident and his putting off of getting checked out left him with lifelong damages and the need for limits on everything he does, and it sort of collapsed both his careers for a long while due to how limited he was now. It was either do the fucking PT or lose full use of legs and more and vin didn't want that. Whatever counts as a spine for inkfish in his body is shot! Bad as fuck!

As it turns out though, Double and his other teammates supported vin well through this low. Even when vintage sort of berated himself about how dumb he was for not getting help and that double should probably take over and get a replacement so they didn't stagnate like him, double refused because Vin is his leader, always, and he's done on serious battles because of that he doesn't care. He. He really means it.

It doesn't make everything magically better when they do finally kiss and get together, but it helps! And vin gets two surprises with years between them

1. Double blindfolds and drives him somewhere and when he does get to open his eyes BOOM ITS THE FUCKING TACTICAL WHEEELCHAIR WITH A SPLATTLING EXTENSION AND ALL THE WORKS ITS FIRE AND VINTAGE FUCKING CRIES (HAPPILY) (EVERY ONE OF HIS FRIENDS AND AGENT COWORKERS SAVED UP FOR THIS FOR HIM)

2. this little 14 y/o octoling covered in burn scars on one side of their approaches him and asked to be trained in combat. Eventually vintage learns this is one of the people he helped to save in the incident that crippled him and this little mimic admires him like crazy and struggles in ways he does and. Oh why tears again???

anyways as life settles down between his husband who still loves carrying him despite tactical wheelchair freedom and his ability to walk a liiitttle bit and this youngin that kinda is like adopted by him a bit begrudgingly. And like. Hes feeling purpose and feeling loved and also he and double absolutely do a shop that's piercings and tattoos. People get scared when he comes at them to do their hoops and stuff but they're paying him to injure them and its great 👍 he's good at it

And for sure because he and double are gay like that they have a tattoo that goes together. Something something metaphorical attached at the hip with a sewn looking x design and he and his teammates collectively have matching xblood team tattoos

Anyways thank you for allowing my ranting!!!! These gay fucks lift each other up!!!!! He's never fucking being an agent again and he fucking loves it. Many nights of warm embraces and disabled gay loverness. Double loves his boyfriend so fucking much and he cuddles vin and you can see his stupid little tail wag its great

EDIT: forgot to specify that vintage worked his way up to being a part-time wheelchair user so he can walk around his house and short distances but the pain ebbs and flows so somedays he will need chair and other days its a preventative measure for his wahoo world trips with double :3

[ralith]

HELLO, MORE ON BAY RATCHET EATING ROCKS?!?! Can just imagine someone like Ironhide holding him back like "you're our only medic for Primus's sake! Just make someone disposable do it- like the TWINS!"

Ratchet, who is used to going out digging up crystals, learns of the wonderous world of crystal shops. "You mean to tell me the crystals are already unearthed and polished, ready for consumption?"

Ironhide has to be the one to inform Ratchet that certain minerals are dangerous just to be around, which backfires spectacularly because Ratchet is now very intrigued as to what makes these rocks so dangerous.

(I forget what crystal it was, but last time I was at the store there was a crystal axe, and I think if Ratchet showed Ironhide you could shape crystals into weapons, the soldier would come around to appreciating their aesthetic.)

[howlingday]

Últimamente me estado aventando todo yugioh gx y hasta ahora me llamo más la atención que el original, lo cual llega a mi pregunta y sería que tipo de deck tendrían rwby?

Ruby es la más fácil teniendo en cuenta el deck de rose y su respectivo dragón así cómo probablemente red eyes dragón por el tema de los ojos o barrel dragon porque bueno ruby

Jaune creo que tendría un deck compuesto por guerreros legendarios como gilford y por caballeros como buster blader, en general una mezcla de los monstruos de yugi y joey

Weiss podría tener a un deck ice barri por el hecho de que desconozco otros deck de ice además probablemente tendría cobertura con el deck de Alexis de cyber girl

Winter me gustaría pensar que tendría el deck de mai de harpy y deck crystal beas junto a rainbow dragon por el tema de las minas de dusk

Pyrrha, aquí también es fácil teniendo en cuenta que ay un deck amazon junto a los magnet warrior siendo que hay como 2 o 3 tríos de ésos

Nora tiene un deck basado en valkirias que no recuerdo a quien pertenecía pero era un antogonista creo y con coberturas de electricidad

Glynda tendría un deck tipo dark magician girl, además del hecho de que son algunas de las mayores waifus de sus fandom's que se me hace divertido que la estricta profesora tenga como carta insignia a la entusiasta aprendiz

Ozpin, ozpin es difícil uno de mis temas sería el deck alchemy perteneciente a un antogonista que se creaba nuevos cuerpos cómo un tipo de inmortalidad (si, pasó) aunque también ay un deck de fairy Tale

Acepto sugerencias

Lately I've been looking at everything yugioh gx and so far it caught my attention more than the original, which brings up my question and that would be what kind of deck would RWBY have? Ruby is the easiest considering Rose's deck and her respective dragon, as well as probably Red Eyes Dragon, because of the eyes, or Barrel Dragon because, well, Ruby. I think Jaune would have a deck made up of legendary warriors, like Gilford the Legend and knights like Buster Blader, in general a mix of Yugi and Joey monsters. Weiss could have an ice barrier deck because I don't know any other ice decks and she would probably have coverage with Alexis' deck from Cyber Girl. Winter I would like to think that she would have the harpy Mai deck and Crystal Beast deck along with Rainbow Dragon for the Dust Mines theme. Pyrrha, here it is also easy considering that there is an Amazon deck next to the magnet warriors since there are like 2 or 3 trios of those. Nora has a deck based on Valkyries that I don't remember who it belonged to, but it was an antagonist, I think, and with electricity coverage. Glynda would have a Dark Magician Girl type deck, in addition to the fact that they are some of the biggest waifus in their fandom's, I find it funny that the strict teacher has the enthusiastic apprentice as her flagship card. Ozpin... Ozpin is difficult. One of my topics would be the alchemy deck belonging to an antagonist who created new bodies as a type of immortality (yes, it happened), although there is also a Fairy Tale deck. I accept suggestions.

--------------------------------------------------

Hoof, I, uh... I gotta be honest, I'm not as big a fan of fan of Yu Gi Oh as I used to be. In fact, GX was kinda where I dropped off, and even then, the card game got way more complicated than I would have liked. But, I'll give this the ol' college try and see what ya got!

Looking at Ruby, I do like the theme of black monsters being her go-to since it's her aesthetic, though I can also see her using machine monsters since she's also a weapon-nut. Honestly, the most edgy you could take Ruby, I think with my limited knowledge, is Darkness Metal, the Dragon of Dark Steel.

For Jaune, I agree that his deck should include a lot of warrior monsters. Along with that, though, I also think his monsters should also come with spells that boost themselves, though Jaune won't really know what to do until the time hits just right. That said, I think the most fitting option for Jaune would be CXYZ Barian Hope, since it has 0/0 BUT the effect means that if you attach certain cards to it, it gains 1000 ATK for every card you attach, utilizing Jaune's reliance on his friends to become as strong as he can be.

Looking at Ice Barrier, I would say the aesthetic does fit with Weiss' early aesthetic as the "Ice Queen". I can see her pulling a win with her Leviathan, Wyvern of the Ice Barrier to unleash a devastating blow with the help of it's special effect in which you can add cards with Ice Barrier in their name to your hand and add their ATK to Leviathan, similar to Weiss' ability to summon defeated Grimm to her aid.

Mm... I don't know about that with Winter, since she left the Schnee Dust Company to forge her own path. However, I can also see her using the Crystal Beast deck at first because it was a gift from her father, who uses this very same deck. But a funny thought just came to me; what if Winter had a Penguin deck, which she uses with the most stoic expression possible, and somehow manages to beat everyone with this deck. I won't limit it to all penguins, but I do find it a hilarious idea that she adores the penguins above all other cards.

For Nora and Pyrrha, I'd like to combine them into having a sort of Yugi/Joey deck that blends well together, mostly so they can use magnet warriors AND fusion summon Imperion Magnum The Superconductive Battlebot, with Nora being gifted Valkyrion the Magnet Warrior by Pyrrha. And, yeah, throw some Magnet and Thunder Warrior monsters for them, too.

There's plenty of Dark Magician cards, Girl or otherwise, and I can definitely see Professor Goodwitch utilizing them and other spellcaster monsters with excruciating effect. She's not the deputy of Beacon Academy for no reason. Along with that, I can see her being especially strict on students who ogle her cards for too long, especially if they try to peek on her Dark Magician Girl the Dragon Knight.

Ozpin is kind of a tricky one, since he's the oldest character in the series, though I do like your Fairy Tale theme. If I might suggest, maybe he uses the Fairy Tail cards to start before shifting to more powerful cards like Vera the Vernusylph Goddess and similar fairy cards. As an added bonus, you could have Salem have Underworld Goddess of the Closed World and Hex Trude to also add Fairy Tale flavors to this.

If anybody else has any suggestions, feel free to add on to this!

[opinated-user]

what the fuck? lily compared the crystal gems having a star aesthetic to nazis branding jewish people with davids star is fucking disgusting! and yeah, i did a bit of digging on steven universe and the diamonds didnt do that. they didnt mark their enemies. i cannot express how fucking disgusting that is! im not even a fan of steven universe, but jesus

oh no, this is well beyond being a fan of the show or not. this is willfully spreading misinformation, lying and smearing a jewish creator because she dared to make a cartoon that LO didn't deem good enough for her thirst for underaged lesbians "sophisticated taste." i'm really starting to believe that LO would have never even said that, thought about it, much less record it for a video that she hoped other people would see, if it wasn't because Sugar was jewish. just like she accused EssenceOfThought of being a TERF, knowing full well that she's a transfemme against terfs. LO loves to weaponize bigotry against whatever marginalized people she dislikes. i still don't know why she has that obsession with Sugar, but she does and Sugar is jewish, so why ever think about better criticism against her that implying, over and over and over again, that she forgives or sympathizes with nazis specifically? speaking of sympathizing with nazis, remember when LO did exactly that? how about this? or when lied to blame everyone else? or how about that time that LO told Jewish people that she knew Jewish principles better than they do because of one google search?

LO has never been an ally for Jewish people. her extremely antisemitic takes only further prove it.

[the-ninja-legacy-whip]

so how does jesses metal ability work i know it has to do with changing the shape of naginata so is the ability to warp metal by channeling his powers through it and if it is why does it need to 2 crystals im sorry if that was explained in his powers post but i cant find that

Jesse's Powers Post | Naginata Plans | Naginata Forms post

Soooo I was gonna save the explanation for when we actually get to the point where Jesse get the weapon, buuuut...

TL;DR; Yes, Jesse's Effect of Metal is his ability to shift his Naginata into different forms. Jesse's weapon needs a Blue Crystal to stop the Chronosteel in his Naginata from ripping out his Elemental Power. He doesn't necessarily need two crystals for this, just one ultimately, but the two pieces of crystal happen to make it easier for Jesse to channel his element through Metal (think of it like a power amplifier, in this very specific case)

Anyway, long answer!

Jesse struggles with finding his "Effect of Metal" because, pre-Full Potential, the only way he can use his powers is by channeling through another Element. And...he never could quite do that with a piece of metal, lol

He tells this to Kai and co. one day, along with his desires for his own weapon, which gives Kai the inspiration for his extra credit assignment (which he and the other ninja are assigned in the next chapter heyo)

Kai talks it over with Karlof (who Kai still doesn't know is an EM because he's so stressed the signs are going over his head), but knows he's open to speak about the Elements, and asks if there's a metal compatible with elemental power. Karlof reveals the rumored existence of Chronosteel, though ofc mentions how rare it is, how hard it is to work with, and the risk of stripping a person of their elemental power. Karlof has the connections to get Kai some, but Kai still has to solve the issue of "ripping out an EM's powers" (and what weapon he wants to make out of it to begin with)

The solution comes when Wu (upon his return) introduces the Blue Crystals to the group (thanks to Mystake), and gives each of the Ninja one. And Kai, out of the kindness of his heart, realizes that this might be the perfect counterbalance to the Chronosteel for Jesse (and it is, since this is also the same way Chen's Staff works —double future parallels here, heyo)

The reason there's two crystals is because it's actually one crystal divided into two. Kai does this for ~the aesthetic~, but it also has the added benefit of making it twice as easy for Jesse to move his powers through the metal (as he can channel them from one crystal to another to enable a form-change faster), with also adding the ability for him to straight up divide the weapons into two parts should he so desire.

And specifics for each of the forms is detailed in the third post-link above! :3

[blazenfire223]

[ID in undercut]

My reverse AU Darlings Part 2: Zaraphim 🥰🥰

If you have any questions about them feel free to ask. I'd love to answer them :] Also his main hair and sunglasses are different now compared to when I originally drew this because I still had no idea what I was doing with his design.

[ID: A character sheet of my Reverse AU Crowley, Zaraphim. They are the angel from Heaven stationed on Earth in London. He has a half up style, gold sunglasses, freckles, a gold nose ring, gold earings, white and blue angel bites, and a gold cross necklace. He also has a tongue piercing and wears various amounts of rings and bracelets and colored nails. Her clothes consist of a grey turtleneck, a muted or olive green cardigan, tan trousers, and grey zipped boots. There are various doodles around the main full body; A profile of him with short hair and lipstick, a front facing head with their tongue sticking out to see their piercing, a close up of their eyes which are multicolored and change depending on Zaraphim's mental state, A potted plant with gems surrounding it, a chibi doodle of them with their wings out, they are black with stardust covering them and eyes all around them and fiery glowing hair, another chibi of them on their knees and crying gold tears that go up, another chibi of Zaraphim chilling, A close up of their hands that are covered in accessories but only one is important and that is a sapphire with pearls surrounding it, a close up of Zaraphim's ass that has a tattoo that says "Frostie" in white, that is Zaraphim's pet name for Ario, and a final chibi of him looking surprised because they picked up Ario's flaming sword. There is a big box with more information; Phillip Z. Zaraphim (P.Z.Z) During the war: Avoided most of it because they were painting stars while it was happening. He didn't take the idea of angels fighting amongst themselves seriously. She genuinely thought it was a joke she just didn't understand. It wasn't until later when another angel finally came to look for her, that she realized what had just occurred. They were put in as a recovery angel and helped to heal all the angels that were hurt during the war. Ex Star maker. Found Ario's sword and gave it to Adam and Eve. They were originally supposed to be given a weapon but they never took it because they thought nothing could hurt them. He works as a bartender at a nearby pub and is good friends with the owner. When they pass away Zaraphim promised to take the place. Her flat is an aesthetic piece of comfort covered in plants, art, and trinkets. It is more of a storage than a home but it makes her happy. Truly channels their inner office angel when dealing with their plants. They don't like slack offs and will make them suffer through a lecture/ 'talking to' or angry screaming (depending on the plant) if needed. Some of those rants will turn into terrible motivational speeches. He does give praise out but only to the most worthy of plants. Just generally talks to their plants, they know all about Ario. He collects crystals and gems and such. They know all about what they do but he doesn't use or buy them for those reasons. They just like pretty things. They met Madame Tracy at an occulty type store and they became friends. That's how they know Shadwell. She loves making art just as much as they love collecting it and they have dabbled in tons of different artistic mediums over the years. The Bentley is alive and her name is Daria. She is a troll and we love her. /End ID]

[docholligay]

I'm curious, you've said what you would like to be different about Sailor Moon's narrative, but, what would you change about their aesthetics? It could be color palette, uniform design, acessories, transformation even their power and element if you would like to go there

This is so hard for me because by and large I am such a story person over aesthetics. I would have watched Crystal with all the production values of Detective Pony if the story had been good. I would have loved it. I'm also not at all artistic, so thinking of these things is really hard for me. But I'll try!

Really, first and foremost desperately wish the girls didn't have the same outfit palette-swapped. I get that it makes producing merch insanely easy* but it really wants for something when it comes to representing each of the girls as her own person. I would probably go with something deeply different a la Madoka, instead of a Revue Starlight thing (Though I think Revue Starlight did an exceptional job of having outfits that were similar but different.)

When I was noodling about how you'd adapt Sailor Moon in America, one of the main fun things about the idea was that America has an insane level of diversity, and so the girls could be insanely diverse. My general idea was that when Serenity fucked them all over sent them to Earth, the shard of what made a girl a soldier waiting to awaken went everywhere, and not just Japan. So, in their uniform you'd have a reflection of where that shard fell. You could draw from potentially anywhere, Melting Pot Ahoy.

EVen in the universe I DO write, and not some spec one, I like to give them Actual Practical Weapons. I think it makes more sense and it makes fighting more interesting I thought pretty in depth about how I wanted it to work both as a question of fighting style and of whatever we might be able to glean from canon. So Mina has a big old sword**, because Mina has a big old sword, and I think it's fun that both she and Haruka have a sword. Specifically I like to give Mina a Montante because it's extremely showy in battle, it relies a lot on quickness and momentum the way many large swords do not, which I think she'd be used to from the chain, and also giving Haruka a roman-style short sword then is very very funny. Mako a giant motherfucking military spear--she was probably the most fun because we have somewhere between very little and no suggestion in canon otherwise so I just got to fuck around, and I love the idea of a weapon that draws so much on power and "strikes" in the same way as the storm element.

Oh speaking of which! Big element change, in that I want us all to stop lying to ourselves! HARUKA'S ELEMENT IS EARTH. Her fucking attack is World Shaking. She is very much an earth element type. Her element is earth. It is not wind. Stop that.***

I don't have a problem with the palette in general per se, thought if I were making Doc Holligay's Sailor Moon: An HBO Original Series, I would probably tone it down some. I guess if it were like, "There HAAAAVVVVEEEEE to be skirts", I guess we could go with some sort of Roman military flavored thing.

BOY WAS THIS A RAMBLE THAT BARELY ANSWERED THE QUESTION ENJOY.

*And yet, still, so many of them do not come in Neptune. What. How. Are you allergic to teal and/or my money.

**technically I give her a chain, Go Go style, until after the Talismans Incident, and then she gets her sword, but that is more detail about my long ass and scattered universe than anyone really wants.

**Putting a pin in this as I've just had the thought, but being as Ami's element is actually ice *Eyeroll* imagine her and Michiru fighting and Michiru smiling, and saying, "Oh my, but did not you not realize? The sea doesn't freeze."

[doxxol]

Blue Diamond Au

First post, yay. This is scary. Anyways this is my thoughts and reasoning on how the blue diamond au would work in canon for Steven universe. I'm just going to be rambling, so sorry if you get bored.

So the diamond authority, the very beginning. I think that the first big divergence in the main plot is that blue diamond gets earth as a colony or that pink has earth first but after her want to stop colonizing earth, blue decides instead to take control of earth compared to pink starting a uprising. So blue has earth now, either way works, but how do we make blue sympathize with the organic life forms? Well she sees the ways that animals and human communities are so emotional driven. So now that she's liking the the organics, she wants to protect them. Another thing I want to point out is that the diamonds authority and it's leadership is the same, so the diamonds have the same shape. So the crystal gems are formed, I think that blue would still have her pearl that she has in the show as she wouldn't be the one to physically lash out as pink did to volleyball. So blue pearl is there. Then I think amethyst would stay relatively the same personality wise, she might looked a bit different to fit the aesthetic of the others. I think garnet would be the same too because garnet form the show was part of blue diamonds court, I imagine the fusing and recruitment would play out differently but we would have the same sapphire and ruby. Maybe garnet is more like sapphire, physically and aesthetically? Tell me you ideas in the replies?

So we got the main group, white, yellow, and pink did the mega blast. I think instead of a star symbol for the crystal gems, it's a heart because blue is so emotional that it would make sense visually for a heart. I think that blues weapons would be a estoc or tuck sword with a treat drop handle. I think that the time between the end of the war and greg is relatively stays the same, maybe the temple in in a forest near beach City or if it is by the beach, then the statue would slightly different? Anyways, I think that blue still ends up at Greg but maybe Greg is in a different profession, like into more classical instruments. I find that Steven would be tall and with black hair, emo. And blue would have been transformed into a lapis lazuli or s blue hally agate. Anyways, tell me what you agree with and disagree with. Got some of my ideas from diamonds au video form the roundtable

Buh bye.