#if you haven't read 17776 yet

[identifying-spacecraft-in-posts]

ESA Airbus Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE)

gonna fuck around and make the NFL watchable

[spyglassrealms]

as we enter the age of artificial intelligence, woefully underprepared and mired in countless problems of our own creation, I think it's time for everybody to read (or reread) this thoughtful little article from 2017 which speculates on what the future of this paradigm shift might hold, and the things we should hold in our minds as we approach the singularity.

if you open the link and get a few sentences in, and start to wonder "is this the right article?" the answer is yes. just trust me and keep reading.

[theskoomacat]

opening The Story of Eugene Jennings and immediately bursting into tears. as one does

[inverse-problem]

hiii you posted something about having read most of the like, recommended books with robots in them and i was just curious if you would be cool with listing some that youd rec? trying to read more books with robots in them and curious for ideas :]

sure! was gonna do a whole organized post but I may as well just get some down for now. not gonna be an exhaustive list (there's a bunch on my to-read list I don't want to rec before I read it myself), my summaries may be dubious, my taste may also be dubious, but here's a few I liked. I definitely recommend seeking stuff out outside of my list bc honestly it's quite limited now that I'm looking at it lol. be warned also that a lot of these deal with heavy themes of stuff including identity, bodily autonomy, etc. (idk which specific topics may be an issue so be sure to consult a trigger list if necessary). also I have yet to find anything with a robot romance that I find particularly compelling but ah well

the murderbot diaries series by martha wells: pretty much everyone's gonna recommend these to you, and for good reason imo, they're quite solid. main character is basically a security guard cyborg (humanoid but not human) who hacked its programming and is trying to figure out what it actually wants to do with itself now that it has free will. all it wants to do is watch tv shows in its head and avoid interacting with people, but life-or-death situations and its penchant for wanting to rescue people keep getting in its way

the imperial radch series by ann leckie: sentient spaceship ai that once had hundreds of human bodies all networked to a central ai, on a revenge quest. lots of themes of identity, lots of space geopolitics, a big horrendous empire that people are grappling with being complicit in, and an interesting take on a single-gendered society inspired by ursula leguin's the left hand of darkness (also a solid book, no robots there though). gets quite intense at times because of the sorts of horrors that evil empires get up to

17776 by jon bois: (note the link is to a website that turns into the story when you scroll through, watch out if flickering/eyestrain/etc is an issue) technically not a book but a multimedia webnovel of sorts (with short animations and videos, but mostly written as dialogue between characters). it's the year 17776, a lot of places are underwater, humanity has found itself immortal, and several space probes have gained sentience. now, the space probes busy themselves with watching and discussing what the humans are doing to entertain themselves, which mostly involves really absurd games of football. a bit absurdist and existential but very fun, even if you don't know much about football

the monk and robot series, by becky chambers: this one is very chill; a monk in a cozy post-industrial future setting doesn't know what they want from life so they go on adventure on impulse and meet a robot. robots have been out of contact with humanity for a long time, so both of them learn a lot from each other

the wayfarers series, also by becky chambers: haven't read all of them yet but the first book is a chill character-driven space road trip story with a friendly ship ai. lots of found family themes, and great if you like seeing a story where people are working together and are really in their element. the sequels tell other stories set in the same universe, most of which also feature robot characters, and there's interesting alien characters there too

activation degradation, by marina j lostetter: a robot gets activated on a space mining platform during an alien attack, and has to deal with a bunch of ensuing chaos and misinformation. I mostly found the plot twists interesting here, the characters themselves were so-so to me

obligatory asimov recommendations, caveat that his work is old and has historical biases etc, but also that's where you get the three laws of robotics so welp. I, robot is an interesting collection of short stories, mostly focusing on how the three laws of robotics actually can break down in various situations. there's also the robot trilogy which is basically a buddy cop detective story with a human from earth and a robot from space and they solve murders. lots of caveats with this rec (for one, I'm not big on cop shit to put it mildly) but asimov does do some interesting worldbuilding and society building with how the earth and space societies differ. there's the foundation series that follows from these books but I haven't read that haha

the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy series by douglas adams: only one prominent robot here who sporadically shows up, but also this series is just a fun time. the premise is that earth gets destroyed by aliens to make way for an unnecessary space highway, and one very tired human survives and bounces around the galaxy encountering all sorts of weird situations. lots of humourous satire, some a bit dated at this point but much still holds up. also douglas adams just has a way with words

individual short stories:

fandom for robots by vina jie-min prasad: a robot learns what fandom is! a very fun read imo

a guide for working breeds, also by vina jie-min prasad, whose writing I really like in general tbh: robots dealing with a contract job economy

68:hazard:cold by janelle c. shane: robot stranded on an ice planet. I really like the description of how a robot's view of the world and communication protocols might look

cat pictures please by naomi kritzer: an ai wants to be helpful to humanity but doesn't quite know how; a nice benevolent ai story

there were other short stories I also liked but I can't find where I put them now, welp. let me know if you read and enjoy any of these, though!

[innocence-wont-save-you]

There's been some stuff going around Cohost and I've been trying to look into it, but honestly, I'm exhausted and I don't have the time to worry about it. I take back what I said about migrating to Cohost: Innocence Won't Save You is going to be moving almost entirely to the official site.

I would like to reemphasize that the official IWSY site is the main nexus for this game. No matter what happens with Tumblr or Cohost, the site will continue updating, and with the current developments I'm going to try to expedite implementing the commenting system so people without Discord can continue to participate. You can always continue to send asks to this blog, but I'm sticking with the decision to discontinue live updates on Tumblr. New, up to date updates will be present on the site.

Once again: If you're invested in this story, I implore you to use the official site. I know this is a big ask, but there are good reasons for it:

the goal is to achieve total anonymity on the site when people submit actions, discuss with other players on what to do, and send in non-action questions to Innocence. If you were nervous sending in actions on this blog, I hope the guaranteed anonymity on the site is helpful.

there will be no accounts involved. Ideally. If I can get things to work the way I want them to. I don't want anyone to be locked out of playing if they don't have an account. At worst, you'll need a Disqus account for the commenting. The story will never be account-locked, but participation may have to be depending on how quickly I figure out how to code. Relatedly:

I have complete control over the Javascript of the site, which allows me to fuck with the formatting far more than Tumblr or Cohost would have ever allowed me to do. This is part of the design of the game and the story. I also have full control over the CSS, and it will also play a crucial role in the experience of the game.

the site gives me more freedom to share extra things, such as character files and statuses of all characters introduced in the story so far. I'm sure I'll come up with more stuff to implement down the line, but the point is that I can just do more on the site. I can't share the character files in a neat way on Tumblr or Cohost. If you want that extra information, you have to use the site.

I'm implementing little easter eggs around the site, ARG style, for those dedicated enough to go hunting for them :) can't do that on Tumblr or Cohost obviously.

There's probably more I could say, but off the top of my head there's all of this. This story is, in a lot of ways, really not just a story. The original idea was to fuck with Tumblr's scaffolding, co-opt it and twist it to my bidding, to tell this story, but I no longer want to rely on Tumblr. I also don't want to rely on Cohost or some other website at all anymore. Innocence Won't Save You will, hopefully, shine to its fullest and truest self on a site where I can manage what I want to happen and when on my own word. And I hope you'll see it through with me.

If you know Javascript and are willing to lend your knowledge, please do. I'm practically begging for help at this point. It will get done either way, but it would get done a lot faster if I had help. I refuse to give up on my vision of what this story is.

OOC: Migration Notice

I hate to do this so soon after I just came back to IWSY, but with the recent developments of what Tumblr staff has been doing, I've honestly had enough. If you missed it, the basic rundown is that the CEO of Tumblr, photomatt, has been personally targeting, harassing, and threatening to call the cops and the FBI on a trans woman. This is the last straw for me in a long string of fuck ups from Tumblr staff, and I'm moving operations off of Tumblr. I'm going to finish up Status Update 13 here, but future updates will no longer be on this blog.

That isn't to say that IWSY is shutting down for good. I've made an account on Cohost, but I'm still learning the new site and figuring out how things work. If Scene 14 starts before I've finished setting things up, it will be temporarily run over at the official website for IWSY. This is, for the record, the ultimate goal for the website: To function as a non-account dependent way to witness and engage in the story being told. But for now, IWSY is migrating to Cohost while I learn javascript and figure out how to add commenting functions. You don't need an account to read Cohost posts, thankfully, but you will need an account to interact there, just like on Tumblr. You can also join the official Discord server for IWSY as an alternative.

This blog will stay up and the pinned post will probably be periodically updated, but after this I imagine this will be converted purely into an ask blog that isn't canon to IWSY's events. Thank you for sticking around for this story, and I hope you'll continue to keep up with the gameplay. If not, the AO3 version will always continue updating.

[daisychainsandbowties]

CAAAAAASPEEEERRRR what even possessed you to create a 17776 AU???!??!!? Like ?!!!!?!!? I am in awe and frankly scared our your brain. While also OMG I haven't started it yet but it's gonna break my fucking heart isn't it? It's gonna shatter and stomp on it isn't it?

Also I am IN LOVE with your star wars AU. I am so so si in love 😭 ❤️ you are such a brilliant author my god thank you for all the labor of love that is your Avatrice writing

i was just reading the start of 17776 again (three weeks ago now?) and as usual i was Overcome, Distraught, and then i was “wow it would be worse if i made this worse.” so i did! 🙂

i’m so glad you’re this excited to read it! that makes me so 💖💖💖💖 (indescribably happy)

while as usual with 17776 au i’m trying to mingle the sweet with the bittersweet with the jumping up and down on your heart and cackling it is. yes 17776 au is probably going to put ava Through It. maybe metaphorically (or actually) in an autoclave or perhaps one of those centrifuge machines or maybe just… you know… three and a half trillion miles away from the woman she loves 💖🫶

🥹 happy again beyond words that you like star wars au. i’m chipping away at it again (1k today, starting to stitch the frankenstein’s monster of disconnected scenes together. bea i love you and you are so difficult to write).

once this chapter is done i can get back to ava and the scene i’ve been trying to get to this whole time. 🥰 it is definitely a labour of love but it also feels really good and worth it from an artistic point of view yes but also for the people who like to read it!! ❤️ (i can’t believe that people. do that…)

anyway ty for this message i’m trying to act so cool but i really really appreciate it 😭😭❤️❤️

[ehan281]

I'm not in to sports but my family is, so I still kinda enjoy hearing about it. I like seeing your NFL posts/reblogs on the TL, especially the Jon Bois ones

Jon Bois is an absolute legend, please watch any of his videos immediately as they are some of the best content anywhere of all time (this goes for everyone, if you are reading this please watch a Jon Bois video)

i highly recommend the one about Larry Walters, it's not sports related but it is an incredibly compelling video nonetheless

and also if you haven't yet please read his 17776 story (plus 20020 when you finish with that)

[three-bunnies-in-a-trenchcoat]

oh my god im really into everything produced by dropout, like a lot of comedy shows and dungeons and dragons campaigns !!!! i also just read 17776 and its taken over my life ... how about you how are you what are you into

Ohhhh yeah I see clips of the comedy shows all the time on youtube. I'd definitely be watching more of the stuff if I could get dropout the dnd stuff sounds really cool

Mostly Legend of Zelda stuff! Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail as well, and Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Keeper still but I mostly just reblog stuff nowadays, and A Chorus of Dragons too last week but I haven't finished it yet. I also run a whole bunch of tournament blogs lol

[radar-of-the-stars]

note to literally anyone, if you haven't read Football 17776 yet, fix that, now

I just had a thought: the "what football will look like in the future" is an example of a world where The Princess was slayed 👀

[melynnwater]

I've been thinking a lot about 17776 recently.

A story which like, if you haven't yet read, you totally should, it's amazing, you can read it here

if you have read it, or don't care about spoilers for the main premise of the story, continue on

This post doesn't really have a point to make I'm mostly just rambling about my thoughts

So I've been thinking a lot about the question of like... What would I do with infinite time?

If I knew I was never going to die, never going to have any worries, if I lived in a true post-scarcity society down to the resource of time, what would I do to pass that infinite time?

And just like... it's an odd question to really think about because like. Any individual activity that you find to do is going to be finite, and if the timescale you're working with is infinite, you will eventually finish that activity. You can take any impossibly large-yet-finite task, and set out to do it, and eventually be done!

Like. If I wanted to sit down, and play every single video game ever released, in order, I will eventually catch up to any arbitrary video game you can choose. Even if I had a rule to play each and every one of those games for a bare minimum of 100 hours. 1000 hours, even! I would eventually work my way through that entire seemingly endless library of games released between the dawn of time, and Undertale, for example.

I could choose to watch every single video ever uploaded onto youtube in chronological order, and I would eventually catch up to any arbitrary point in time you could choose.

One could truly devote their entire life to a medium, only it wouldn't even be their entire life. It would still only be an infinitesimally small fraction of an infinite lifespan.

And the more I think about this little thought experiment, the more I almost find myself disappointed to live in a world where I can't choose to sit down and play every single video game in order, and have enough time to catch up.

The idea of "catching up" is interesting, by the way, because technically, if we kept producing video games at the rate we do, one could never play them faster than they come out. Technically, this could be an infinite task.

But I think that's what gets me is like.

I can choose today's date, at this exact point in time, and play every single game released before then and up until now, and do it!!! that's ridiculous!!!!

17776 (and it's sequel 20020) is a beautiful, amazing story, and it focuses on football, and this is because Jon Bois loves football, and loves talking about football, and wanted to tell this story about an infinite problemless humanity from the perspective of a pastime he loves. And like, that's why I want to really grapple with how would my story be different?

I'm not a football fan by any means, but I'm an avid fan of video games and I would love to see what that infinite world holds if you look at it from the perspective of my interests.

Something beautifully intrigues me about the idea of mastering every single game released, and learning every little trick and quirk about an individual game, fully mastering every element of its design before you move onto another. Fully experiencing every facet of every piece of media in a seemingly endless but still finite list.

There's the story within 17776 of a man who's been hiding in a cave for the last 9000 years, and has these little konami LCD games with him, and he plays each one for 300 years at a time, spending all of his time just. Playing this game that a lot of us would put down within minutes. Maybe hours if we're persistent.

And just.

It's overwhelming to think of how much detail and experience and beauty and things to discover there are in this world, and how comparatively little of it we each get to experience for ourselves, and I just. I get so emotional thinking about this story and about this world and about humanity. Fuck.

There is so much love and art everywhere you look and so much to experience and so much and I just. Agh!

I don't know how to end this post, there's no satisfying conclusion to the question "what if you had infinite time and you decided to play every video game that ever existed." I just think it's neat.

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #279: Caeneus

Today on Fate and Phantasms we're building the prince of the Lapith, Caeneus! He's a Hexblade Warlock for his impenetrable skin, as well as a Phoenix Sorcerer to...

look, turning into a giant flaming bird is a really specific ability, alright? We'll make it more Caeneus-flavored along the way.

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

Next up: Read 17776.

Race, Background, and Piety

Caeneus was a human before he was a guy, and he's still a human now. A variant human though, for +1 Constitution and Charisma, Athletics proficiency to make up for us not being able to focus on strength too much, and the Gift of the Metallic Dragon. This gives him the Cure Wounds spell once a day for free or with his spell slots for extra tenacity, as well as protective wings he can use Proficiency times a day, adding his Proficiency bonus to the AC of a nearby creature when they would get hit by an attack. AC is good, we like that here. We're also going with the variant Noble option here for proficiency in History and Intimidation. I know you're not into gods much, trust me I'm not either, but the piety bonuses from Karametra are.. mostly inoffensive, tbh there's only one we're really here for. If you're hankering for an explanation, it's that Demeter/Poseidon connection from Olympus. You gain her trust by making farmland, feeding the hungry, defending farms from monsters, and building temples. You lose it by destroying food, releasing domestic animals, diverting water from farms, and starting fires that threaten towns. Thank god we're not taking a subclass that focuses entirely on starting fires, huh?

Wait, shit.

Thankfully we're only here for the 3+ piety bonus, giving you +1 AC for one minute a day. At 10+ you can create food and water once a day, making an olive tree and a freshwater stream to really dunk on ol' Poseidy. You also have advantage against being poisoned. That's more Mash's thing, but defense is defense. At 25+ You can create 3 Wines of Healing (Potions of healing, but wine) per day that last 24 hours. Again wine is more Dionysus' thing, but something tells me you're perfectly fine with the idea of getting so drunk you start forgetting your pain. At 50+ you can add +2 to your constitution. (or wisdom, but we use constitution more.)

Ability Scores

Your Constitution should be as high as possible. This doesn't affect your AC, but if your skin's tough you can take a beating. Dexterity is next since that does affect your AC, and you like to keep it light. After that is Charisma, you get power from the gods but it definitely ain't through worship. Strength is lower than I'd like but we're just not using it much here. Your Intelligence is middling- you're not dumb, but we don't use it at all here. Finally, dump Wisdom. You tend to be hotheaded and chafe under authority.

Class Levels

1. Sorcerer 1: You start off with your own life outside of what Asshole Sea God did to you, so we're starting as a Phoenix Sorcerer. That means you have proficiency in Constitution and Charisma saves, as well as Persuasion and Religion. The less we talk about why, the better. Moving right along, at first level you can Ignite objects with a touch as an action. You can also don a Mantle of Flame, causing you to shine for a minute per day and deal fire damage to creatures that hit you with a melee attack equal to your charisma modifier. You also add your Charisma modifier to any fire damage roll you make on your turn. We're not actually getting too many fire spells though, you prefer to use your spear more than anything else. If I could turn into a giant bird I'd never do anything else, but everyone's got their own goals in life. Speaking of not fire, here's your Spells. Use Blade Ward to toughen up a bit for resistance to physical damage, Light for the standard anime action, and Gust and Shape Water to use Poseidon's power against him. (I mean you're level 1 and also we haven't gotten the stuff from him as a warlock yet so maybe hold off on the deicide for a bit, but it will be used against him in time.) For leveled spells, False Life will give you even more HP, and Jump makes you more of a dragoon. Anime loves its jump and fall moves, what can I say?

2. Warlock 1: Okay, let's get this over with. I know Hexblades get their power from sentient weapons, not gods, buuuut Lostbelt Poseidon got reduced to Zeus' drone, so I think he counts in a roundabout sorta way. As a first level Hexblade, you become a Hex Warrior, giving you proficiency with medium armor, shields, and martial weapons. Now you've got your trident, and you can wear that nifty gold drip you got going at 3rd ascension! You can also channel a weapon that isn't two-handed, so you can use Charisma instead of Strength for attack and damage rolls. You're good with a spear, but you're famous for your skin, so we've got to focus more of our ASIs on the latter, sorry. At least this way your melee fighting skill goes up with your spell power. To even the playing field more, you can put a Hexblade's Curse on a creature once a short rest as a bonus action. For a minute you add your proficiency bonus to damage rolls, crit on 19s, and heal when the target dies. We'll be focusing more on never getting hit, but healing up from the rare times you take damage is pretty sick too. You also gain Pact Magic, another spell list with its own spell slots. You can use warlock slots for sorcerer spells and vice-versa, but they are pretty different. You can throw a trident, but that sucks. Instead, use Eldritch Blast to fire beams of trident-ness at people. We'll also pick up Green-Flame Blade because I don't have that much self-control. We're picking up Armor of Agathys more for the extra temporary HP rather than the cold counterattack it gives you, though that is nice too, and finally, grab Shield. Now you can spend a reaction to add 5 to your AC for a round. This is a lot better than that starting feat you got, but it also uses a spell slot, so it kind of balances out rn.

3. Warlock 2: Second level warlocks get Eldritch Invocations, little gifts from your patron. Armor of Shadows is a pretty big boost to your impervious skin, giving you unlimited free castings of Mage Armor for an AC of 13 plus your dexterity while out of armor. You also get Agonizing Blast, adding your Charisma modifier to your Eldritch Blasts. Now they're a good replacement for weapons. Also, you get Wrathful Smite. You're scary, you hit things hard. This helps you do both things at the same time!

4. Sorcerer 2: Second level sorcerers are a Font of Magic, giving you sorcery points you can turn into spell slots. This mixes particularly well with those warlock slots, since you only lose extra sorcerer slots on long rests, but you recover warlock slots on short rests. By spending warlock slots and taking a short rest, you basically get free sorcery points- and slots- for free. If you find Eldritch Blast isn't connecting as much as you'd like, use Magic Missile to attack with auto-seeking spell attacks. They're not nearly as powerful, but at least they hit.

5. Sorcerer 3: Third level sorcerers learn Metamagic, letting you expand your power beyond what even your patron could give you. Since you'll be holding a spear most of the time, it might be a good idea to use Subtle spells to ignore somatic components of spells. And if you want to apply spell buffs without wasting your whole turn, use Quickened Spell to turn an action spell to a bonus action one-with the caveat that you can't cast two leveled spells in a turn this way, of course. That being said, it's totally an option to say, cast Magic Weapon as a bonus action to add +1 to your attack and damage rolls with your trident, then use your action on a cantrip like Green-Flame Blade to use it right away with some extra power behind it.

6. Sorcerer 4: At fourth level you get your first Ability Score Improvement. Bump up your Charisma for stronger spells and attacks, like Sword Burst. Spinning is a good trick, you should try it.

Caeneus can't do this next thing literally, but we're all about not getting hit and Mirror Image is one of the best not-getting-hit spells. You make three duplicates, so if someone gets past your AC with an attack they still only have a 25% chance of hitting you and not an illusion. Then a 33% chance, then a 50% chance, you get the idea.

7. Sorcerer 5: Fifth level sorcerers get Magical Guidance, so you can spend sorcery points to re-roll failed skill checks. You'll have plenty from warlock slots if you play your cards right, so being good at everything is a decent way to spend the excess.

You also get third level spells like Ashardalon's Stride, giving you extra speed to avoid opportunity attacks and heating you up enough to deal fire damage to everyone you run past once a turn.

The speed's whatever, though less attacks = less getting hit, so it's on brand, but the big boon here is that fire damage. Your Mantle of Flame works on every roll, not just the first one of a spell, so that means you're dealing 1d6+3 damage a turn to every creature you pass, which adds up over large crowds.

8. Sorcerer 6: Sixth level phoenix sorcerers have a Phoenix Spark, giving you guts on guts on guts. When you're reduced to 0 HP, you hit 1 instead, and all creatures within 10' of you takes half your sorcerer level plus your charisma modifier in fire damage. If you've got your Mantle of Flame on, you deal twice that damage in auto-end your MoF. Also, insta-guts is kind of broken, so it only works once a long rest.

Also, pick up Haste. Doubled speed and an extra action is cool, but we're here mostly for the improved dex saves and +2 AC. You hung out with Atalante for a while, I'm sure you picked up on something here and there.

9. Sorcerer 7: Seventh level sorcerers get fourth level spells, and now you really dip into Poseidon's authority with Storm Sphere, creating a sphere that is also a storm. If they fail a strength save near it, the wind deals bludgeoning damage. You can also use your bonus action each turn to shoot lightning, and being near the wind gives disadvantage on perception checks about listening.

10. Sorcerer 8: Eighth level sorcerers get another ASI, so pick up that Fighting Initiate feat for the Mariner fighting style. It gives you +1 AC while you're not wearing heavy armor (you're not proficient in that anyway so you'd have bigger issues if you were wearing it), and you get a climb and swimming speed. You're in Greece, a swimming speed will come in handy.

Also I don't want another 4th level spell so grab Blur to force disadvantage on attackers trying to hit you. It's also concentration, but disadvantage is closer to -5-ish, so it's actually stronger than +2 from Haste, especially with other AC buffs forcing higher and higher attack rolls.

11. Sorcerer 9: Ninth level sorcerers get fifth level spells, and Teleportation Circle will help you get around the lostbelts. TBH I'm pretty sure Caeneus got a lift between the lostbelts but my memory's shit and I can't find where they mention how he does it. So now you can do it yourself. Eh, it's either accurate or an upgrade, it's fine.

12. Sorcerer 10: Tenth level sorcerers get another Metamagic option, and Heightened spells are useful for people whose Charisma isn't maxed out, like you! It gives one creature disadvantage on their first save against it for a better chance at really putting the hurt on someone.

We've beaten around the bush enough, it's time to get a consistent source of fire damage with the Fire Bolt cantrip. If anyone asks, you've set your Eldritch Blast tridents on fire.

You can also Control Winds in a variety of ways, none of them really useful enough to justify a fifth level spell slot, but still neat and stormy.

13. Sorcerer 11: For spells that are totally worth the spell slot, your sixth level spell Fizban's Platinum Shield is pretty much worth the cost of admission, both in terms of the sixth level spell slot and the 500 gp statue you need to cast it. You create a shield of light that gives you half cover (that's +2 AC), resistance to elemental damage, and the Evasion feature for better dex saves. That means you only take quarter damage from a fireball, even if you fail the save. You don't get hurt by fireballs, you are the fireballs. Eventually. Still working on that phoenix form, I swear.

14. Sorcerer 12: Use this ASI to bump up your Dexterity for a stronger AC. It stinks that's all we're getting here, but it's what you're known for, sorry. Maybe use a whip if you want, idk.

15. Sorcerer 13: Thirteenth level sorcerers get seventh level spells, so now you can kick up a Whirlwind, creating a storm that deals bludgeoning damage to everything inside of it. If a creature fails their dexterity save, followed by a strength save, they become restrained in the storm and get pulled up into the air. Then, if they break free they'll be launched far, far away from you.

16. Sorcerer 14: Fourteenth level phoenixes have a Nourishing Fire, so when you spend a spell slot to deal fire damage you also heal yourself based on the slot's level. How demoralizing must it be to finally score a hit on you, just to have all that damage soaked up by your asskicking?

17. Sorcerer 15: You would get an eighth level spell but I don't like those! Grab Plane Shift instead, just in case your DM's really nitpicky about how Lostbelts work. Bring yourself and your friends somewhere, or dump an enemy in a random universe.

18. Sorcerer 16: Our last ASI is another Dexterity boost. AC: it's what's for dinner.

19. Sorcerer 17: Seventeenth level sorcerers get another Metamagic option like Empowered spell. Your spells get saved easily. This makes sure they at least do a lot of damage even if it'll be halved.

Also I don't like ninth level spells so we're getting Chain Lightning instead to clear the path towards Olympus. You deal a lot of damage to one target, and the bolt jumps to a couple other targets nearby too, each one forcing a dexterity save.

20. Sorcerer 18: Eighteenth level sorcerers finally get your Noble Phantasm, the Form of the Phoenix. When you use your Mantle of Flame, you gain a flying speed, have resistance to all damage, and you add 20 damage to your phoenix spark activation.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

Okay, I've brought up your AC a lot, so let's go over that real quick: 13 + dexterity (4) from Mage Armor, +1 from Mariner, +1 from Karametra, +6 from the Metallic Dragon feat, + Disadvantage from Blur or Wrathful Smite, + Mirror Image: That's a grand total of 24 AC, with disadvantage and a 1/4 chance of getting hit beyond that. If you're fighting another PC with a maxed out attack stat, they'd still have to roll a 13 or more to hit you. With disadvantage, that's a 16% chance. Then there's the 25% chance of hitting you, not an illusion, for a total of 4% chance of getting hit. For reference, that's only slightly better than your odds of rolling Caneus on rate-up. In a single roll. The numbers don't lie, and they spell disaster for your enemies at Sacrifice.

Flight is great, especially given all that defense we just went over. Now on top of all that math up in pro #1, they also have to figure out how to hit you in the first place!

Even if your enemies do manage to land a hit, you have plenty of ways of healing yourself on top of all that! You can brew healing potions, cast healing spells with Gift of the Metallic Dragon, and you even heal while dealing damage! And with the resistance from Form of the Phoenix, all that healing lasts twice as long as it would on another creature. So yeah this is really just one big Pro, but fights really boil down to outliving the other guy, so it's an important one.

Cons:

Your AC is great, but your HP isn't quite where I'd like it on a frontline fighter. Also, your defenses are partially built on buffs you have to apply, so they're both in limited supply and take time to put on.

Your Charisma is terribly low given how it's both your weapon and spell modifier. Expect to miss high-level enemies often, and for your spells to be saved against a lot.

The Phoenix subclass is all about fire damage, but we almost entirely ignored that in favor of survivability. It gets the memo eventually, but most people don't make it to level 20 to see that.

[glitchedspectra]

Yknow what man. 17776 still gets to me.

[absentmoon]

I want you to know that because of your posts that I went ahead and read through the entirety of 17776 and now I'm obsessed with all three of those little satellites. Especially Juice. It's also done something irreparable to me but I haven't quite figured out what that is quite yet so stayed tuned.

YESSSSS MY PROPAGANDA SPREADS its such a good read im SO glad you enjoyed it!!!! theres a sequel (20020) thats also absolutely phenomenal as well :)) juice is sooo aughghh (affectionate) all three of them are so aughghh (affectionate)

[theskoomacat]

standing in the hallway. not exactly in the middle so you think it's possible to weasel past me. no. blocking your path as you get closer and looking you in the eyes. grabbing you by the collar too to get every single crumb of your attention. read Kill Six Billion Demons with me. while you're at it, read Tiger, Tiger. my god, you haven't read 17776 yet?? letting you go. tracking you with my heavy gaze as you run away.

[terezis]

not to be a homestuck but this reminds me of homestuck

[rainbowchibbit]

Sooooo you read/experienced homestuck, what about 17776? I haven't read homestuck, but people are saying it's similar?

I started to read 17776 but haven't gone through the whole thing yet. It does have a lot of similarities though! The "chat logs" and how the different satellites have different colors, etc. homestuck consists of panels/animations/interactive pages/games usually with a pester (chat) log (or a dialogue log lmao)beneath it! 17776, like Homestuck, uses the fact that it's ok the internet to the fullest and incorporates text and videos and such!