#kobold express
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thenixkat · 9 months ago
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[This post contains spoilers]
See the orcs met Laios and know that he's cool. Weird as hell and kinda creepy but cool.
But how many kobolds heard of Laios' exploits are were a bit worried that the king might eat them for a while at the beginning of his reign?
(Like sure he's making sure yer people have equal rights in his kingdom but he's also a cannibal, and has expressed the desire to eat demihumans multiple times, and is apparently cursed with demonic hunger that can't be sated. It's a lil bit of a gamble.)
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wattsyart · 1 year ago
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some development art for my new favourite idiot
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rudybold · 1 year ago
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Sona update! My stupid face 🥲
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m0thmancore · 1 year ago
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CAUSE THAT’S THE WAY THINGS HAPPEN ON THE KOBOLD EXPRESS
Some kobold clans build their entire society on a large vehicle such as a train or boat and never leave.
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afewproblems · 1 year ago
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Season Two Halloween AU Part Five
Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four
Synopsis: What if Eddie had been at Tina's Halloween Party in Season Two? Featuring Steve!Whump, Stancy Breakup, and Eddie just trying to keep up with all these new revelations about who King-Steve actually is...
Huge huge HUGE shout-out to Jess @strangersteddierthings for being my sounding board and letting me send such long messages full of spoilers!! I can't thank you enough!
***
“Dustin, what the hell are you doing here?” Steve says as he hurries towards the kid, he looks around as though expecting another person to follow behind him. 
“I can’t find Nancy or Jonathan, you’re the only other one who knows about--”
The kid, Dustin, tilts himself to look past Steve at Eddie with suspicious eyes, “you know”.
Steve freezes, his shoulders a rigid line of tension as Dustin steps around him to head for the screen door.
Eddie had to give it to the kid, he certainly had guts just waltzing in here like this. 
“You still have your bat?” 
Steve looks from Dustin to Eddie and lowers his voice to mutter something that has Dustin shaking his head rapidly.
"The one with nails, Steve".
"Your what?" Eddie blurts out, forcing the other two to turn towards him. Dustin full on glares. His eyes narrow in irritation while Steve's face pales before smoothing out in that same guarded expression from earlier.
Dustin steps closer to Eddie and crosses his arms over his chest, "who are you?"
"Dustin--"
"That was a rule," Dustin cuts across Steve, smacking the back of one hand into the palm of the other, "no one else gets to know, and I can't tell Max, so you can't just tell him--"
Steve jerks his head as if slapped, a flush building on his cheeks and ears, "I haven't--Eddie's not, I don't--"
Dustin waves his hand dismissively and turns towards Eddie once again. 
"Look, it's cool that Steve is expanding his social circle but you should leave".
The attitude on this kid.
Eddie holds out a hand at Dustin and laughs but it tumbles out with a tinge of hysteria, "I'm sorry, I'm still stuck on the whole Nail Bat thing?" 
Steve groans, his head swings back and forth from Eddie to Dustin as though he's not sure who to answer first.
He sighs and runs one hand over his face, roughly from the slight wince he makes as he brushes the black eye, "look," Steve barks out, "he's a friend".
Something in Eddie's chest warms at the words despite the incredulous scoff that threatens to tumble out. Steve Harrington, friends with Eddie Munson? 
Dustin snorts, "you don't have friends? I only ever see you with Nancy and Jonathan".
Steve flinches slightly at the words, but Dustin carries on talking, brushing past Steve to the house.
"We don't have time for this, I've been looking for you guys all day and now it's dark and there are lives at stake--"
"Je-sus, okay, okay," Steve takes three long strides to catch up to Dustin and steps in front of him, he reaches out for the kids shoulder but seems to think better of it and instead runs the hand through his hair.
"You said lives are at stake?" 
It's like a switch is flipped in the kid, he whirls around on Steve, a stream of near gibberish falling out of his mouth at a mile a minute, Eddie can hardly follow it.
"And now he's this big," Dustin hisses, throwing his hands nearly two feet apart from one another.
Steve holds up his hands, "okay, Christ, how do you know it's not just a lizard, Dustin?" 
"Because its face opened up and ate my cat, Steve".
Steve looks up at Eddie, meeting his gaze with a nervous laugh, "listen, Dustin, uh, he watches too many B-Monster movies, I'm just gonna take him back to his house".
Now Eddie wouldn't say he's necessarily a, 'go-with-the-flow' kind of guy, but he can roll with the punches --any Dungeon Master worth their salt needed to be able to think on their feet when the time came. 
Which is probably why he opens his big fucking mouth. 
"I mean, life and death situations with cat-eating Kobolds sounds exactly like my kind of night fellas". 
Steve frowns and tilts his head, staring at Eddie while Dustin perks up, his eyes widen in surprise.
"Kobolds? You play D&D?" Dustin says skeptically, pushing past Steve to make his way up to Eddie now.
Eddie laughs at the question, "kid, I run the D&D club at Hawkins High". 
Suddenly it's like there's a different kid standing in front of him, his face lights up in wonder and he opens his mouth to continue when Steve makes a sputtering noise behind him.
"Henderson," Steve bites out, hands on his hips, "I swear to God, if you interrupted us for some Halloween prank, you're dead".
He stands there for a moment scowling at the pair of them before turning on his heel and walking towards the house.
"It's not a prank," Dustin huffs defensively, his arms cross over his chest and his face scrunches into a frown. 
He looks up at Eddie briefly, all good will from the D&D revelation earlier now forgotten as Dustin follows Steve's path towards the door.
Eddie sighs, he could just leave at this point. Either this is the most elaborate way someone has ended a smoke session with him, or the weirdest role playing game Eddie has ever found himself in the middle of. 
But something about the fear in Dustin's voice has Eddie lingering beside the abandoned loungers. He bends down to pick up the forgotten joints and puts them back in his lunchbox before putting the lunchbox back in the backpack. No sense in letting some perfectly good jays go to waste. 
The screen door slides open again revealing Steve, who blinks in surprise, "you stayed?" 
Eddie shrugs, "I said I would, didn't I?" 
Steve nods, and ducks his face, but he can't quite hide the smile that blooms, his eyes crinkle at the corners for the briefest moment before it falls.
"Listen, I know that it sounds like a load of shit--"
"Understatement," Eddie cuts in with a shake of his head.
"Yeah, but you need to know, if you come with us, you're in it. I'm not joking, this is your chance to just walk away". 
It's almost as if Steve is pleading with him, and it's then that Eddie notices what Steve has gripped between his hands. 
A fucking baseball ball bat, studded with nails that have been haphazardly hammered into the end of it.
Eddie looks from the bat, to Steve's face as Dustin steps out of the house now with two walkie talkies in his hand. He reaches for Steve's backpack and unzips it to place them inside before zipping it up again. There's a grim determination on both of their faces that Eddie has never seen on another person in real life and suddenly he's speaking without thinking again.
"Well, what are we waiting for?"
***
Eddie swipes a shaking hand through his sweat matted hair as he watches Steve and the rest of the party move about the Byers living room. 
As though mere hours ago they didn’t just fend off a group of flower faced creatures hellbent on entering their fortified school bus to tear them apart.
It was crazy. 
It was absolutely batshit that all this time there were creatures from another dimension running around their sleepy little backwoods town. 
Eddie shudders at the memory of the sounds they made, the horrible grating wails like metal on metal, echoes in his mind. 
And now…a person was dead. Mr. Newby.
Eddie had met him once while buying a used amp at the Radio Shack just a few months ago. He was nice, asked about the band and what instrument Eddie played. He had even offered to help Eddie get the amp out to his van.
And now, he was dead. 
Mr. Newby would never take Joyce out for another date, he would never walk into his job and help take inventory, he would never offer a helping hand or piece of advice ever again.
Eddie can't help but think about how close they had all come to ending up like Bob, how one of these things had almost crawled into the bus.
What if they hadn't been called away? Bob had a gun and that hadn't been enough to stop the pack of creatures from…
Eddie looks to Steve.
Steve who hasn't stopped pacing the Byers living room since Hopper herded all of them into the house. 
He takes five steps to the window at the front of the room, and five steps back to the door of the kitchen, again and again.
And suddenly, things make so much more sense. 
The strange haunted expression on Steve's face Eddie would see between classes whenever he thought no one was looking.
The way the three of them, Jonathan, Nancy, and Steve never let the kids go anywhere without a ride. 
The way Steve had looked at his empty pool yesterday.
Things happen in the dark, in the woods.
On the fifth pass, Eddie reaches out to Steve and catches the hand closest to him. 
Whatever trance Steve was in dissipates, leaving him to blink once and look down at Eddie's hand before slowly curling his fingers more firmly around Eddie's and squeezing gently. 
"How're you holding up?" Steve asks quietly as he drops Eddie's hand to pull a dining chair up to where Eddie is seated on a beaten up recliner. 
Eddie scoffs at the question and shrugs, "when I figure that out, you'll be the first to know".
Steve nods, a small half smile climbs up his face. 
It drops as he looks across the room at Will.
Jonathan kneels beside the couch, talking quietly to his brother, who stares blankly at the ceiling while Nancy watches on beside them. 
Eddie's eyes follow Nancy's hands, the way she hesitates to touch Jonathan before eventually giving in and draping her hands over his shoulders. 
He looks back at Steve who also seems to be watching Nancy. He breathes out a long sigh and shakes his head, before turning back to Eddie.
"If it makes you feel better, you're taking it better than I did the first time".
Eddie raises one skeptical eyebrow and smirks, "I highly doubt that--"
"I ran away," Steve cuts across him with wide eyes, "I almost left Nance and Jon with a monster, one of those things that took Will," he holds Eddie's gaze for another beat before dropping it to the floor.
"So, don't sell yourself short". 
Eddie opens his mouth to tell Steve he should take his own advice but Hopper suddenly makes his presence known once more as he closes the door to Joyce's room behind him and walks back into the living room. 
"Okay, we may not have backup on route for a few more hours--"
"If they're even coming," Mike scoffs from the corner, "who says they believed you anyway?"
"Listen, until we are told otherwise, we need to sit tight," Hopper barks, sending a glare Mike's way. 
Hopper deflates slightly, as though realizing who he's talking to, and takes a deep steddying breath which he releases slowly through his nose, “we can't just charge in without backup--"
"If we sit here on our asses those things will eventually make it to town, you saw the tunnels Hop," Dustin bites out this time, shooting his own fierce glare at the chief as he stands beside Mike.
"They'll tear everything apart," Max says softly from the floor. She's settled against the back wall of the living room against the collage of drawings that Will had completed in his frenzied state, Lucas sits closer and takes her hand in his own.
"Oh no," Steve mutters under his breath, he spares Eddie a glance before standing up from the chair, "no, no, we can't fight these things by ourselves, we're outmatched here Henderson". 
"Not if we know how they work," Mike insists. He walks towards where Max and Lucas are sitting, nearly stepping on the pair of them in his haste.
"Jesus Mike," Lucas hisses under his breath while Max settles for stomping her foot against Mike's own. He jumps at the sudden pain and the three of them dissolve into vicious bickering and name calling until Steve and Nancy pull the kids away from each other. 
"Okay, just, keep going Mike," Nancy tells him, once everyone has settled down once more. She gestures to the drawings taped up around the room. 
"As I was trying to say," Mike sneers at Max who scoffs and crosses her arms, "what if it's all connected, the tunnels, the dogs, Will?" 
No one speaks, the words seem to hang in the air as all eyes move to the couch where Will lays  wrapped in blankets and staring unseeing at the ceiling.
Mike continues, "this all started after that day in the field--" 
"And if he was infected," Dustin interrupts with a gasp as Mike nods rapidly, pointing at him and then the drawings again.
"It's like a virus, connecting him to this, this--"
"Hivemind," Lucas supplies, his voice hollow as he stands up to join the rest of the kids, "like what Mr. Clarke told us".
"Okay, okay, slow down God Dammit," Hopper huffs as he lifts his hand to pinch his fingers into his eyes.
"Hivemind?" Steve says slowly, as though rolling the word around on his tongue, "like bees?" 
Dustin blinks once, his face morphing in surprise, "kind of, it's like a superorganism made up of several others all working together, one collective consciousness". 
"A Mindflayer," Eddie whispers, just loud enough for the kids to turn their heads towards him.
He's been quiet for so long, sitting on the sidelines of this group that had clearly worked together in a crisis before. It was almost like listening to Jeff, Gareth, and Grant in a Hellfire session, watching them work out a trap in real time before executing their plan. 
It would be endearing if there weren't actual monsters running about.
"Holy shit," Mike breathes out while Dustin darts off towards the bookshelf in the corner.
He flips up some of the drawings until he finds what he's looking for and loudly crows, "yes!"
Dustin marches back to the kitchen table and slams the book down on the surface before flipping several pages. He slaps the back of his hand on the page in triumph as he sends Eddie a confident grin. 
"This isn't a game kid," Hopper sighs but steps closer to look at the book nonetheless.
"But it's the closest metaphor we have," Dustin argues back.
"Analogy," Lucas says as he steps towards the table, a shit eating grin pulls at his mouth as he catches Dustin's eye.
"Fine, analogy, whatever!" Dustin mutters, a red flush climbs up his neck until it settles on his ears, he slaps his hand on the books again, "can I get on with it or do you have more vocab for me?"
"Dustin," Nancy sighs, reaching out for his shoulder with one hand, she gives it a slight shake, "what would this even tell us?" 
"Well," Dustin turns to Nancy now and points at a section below a horrifying drawing of a humanoid man with a squid for a head. Four tentacles point in all directions while its hands wield a terrifying glowing orb. 
It's not something that Eddie has thrown at his players in years now that he's managed to figure out how to balance his encounters properly. 
Because Mindflayers…were horrific.
"They're basically from another dimension, and they travel to different worlds to conquer other species that they see as inferior to themselves". 
"Conquer," Steve breathes out beside Eddie who can't help but shuffle closer to brush his shoulder against Steve's own.
Steve gives Eddie a brief smile before looking back to where Dustin and Hopper are arguing once again. 
Eddie lets his gaze drift only to find Nancy staring at him curiously, her sharp blue eyes flit from Steve and back to himself, the weight of her gaze makes Eddie want to pull away from Steve but he holds his ground and stares right back. 
Nancy offers him a tentative smile, which does nothing to ease the sudden tension in Eddie's chest, feeling as though he's been caught. 
He could easily explain this away, despite the rumors running rampant at school about Eddie, there is no way anyone would believe the same would be true of Steve Harrington.
Eddie ignores the unhappy weight that settles in his stomach at the thought, he let himself get way too close, way too quickly. 
Besides, there wasn’t a chance in hell that Steve was, that he could be…
Eddie shakes himself and moves away, lamenting the loss of Steve’s warm shoulder as he lets Hopper's voice pull him back to the matter at hand.
"Okay then," Hopper nods, looking around the room. 
"How do we kill it?" 
***
They have a plan.
Or at least, half of them do.
Going based off a thirteen year olds hypothesis that their friend is basically a spy for a creature from another dimension -which in hindsight is definitely not the craziest thing they’ve experienced today.
Is it something that Eddie would have never come up with in his wildest dreams? Undoubtedly.
But that was before a girl with literal mind-powers showed up and tossed a dead demodog through the Byers window.
Jesus Christ. 
So, with El and Hopper on their way to the lab, the rest of the party busies themselves by packing the Byers Station Wagon for the drive to Hopper's cabin.
They have to flush this thing possessing Will out of him before it's too late and the cabin is far enough out of town that whatever happens hopefully won’t affect anyone else.
Eddie tries not to think too deeply about what that might mean.
He manages to find another portable heater in the Byers basement and hauls it into his arms before turning around to walk back up the stairs.
When Eddie reaches the landing his heart stops for just a moment when he realizes he can't see the kids. He takes another step into the kitchen and breathes out a sigh of relief when he sees the four of them huddled around the kitchen table with the still open Monster Manual. 
Eddie pauses for just a moment when he spots a Hawkins County map beside the book. 
It's covered in red marker.
An intricate design of lines ending with two circles…both around areas outside of the city center. 
Eddie shakes his head and keeps moving, much to the visible relief of the kids as he makes his way to the back door. 
One problem at a time.
He knows that Steve is around here somewhere, he was helping Jonathan carry Will to the car while Joyce and Nancy gathered as much rope from the shed as they could carry.
God, it's so dark now. 
Eddie understands what Steve meant before, the way the trees rustle in the wind and the moonlight catches on animal eyes that shine in the dark. It's enough to put him on edge as he makes his way around the Byers property. 
Every snap of a branch was a demodog prowling in the brush, every distant howl was a monster coming to drag him into the Underdark.
He shivers and keeps moving, fighting the urge to look over his shoulder every few steps.
Eddie finally makes his way to the shed, peering inside only to startle as Nancy's voice floats through the cool November air. 
"Thank you, for staying with the kids," she says quietly.
Eddie freezes where he stands with the heater in hand. He knows he shouldn't be here for whatever this is, listening in on yet another private conversation between Nancy and Steve but his feet remain planted in the earth. 
"Yeah well, I might be a shitty boyfriend, but it turns out I'm a pretty damn good babysitter," Steve hums so casually that Eddie wonders if it's really him speaking. They’re on the other side of the Byers shed, Eddie can almost make out their shapes between the uneven slates of the wood.
"Steve--"
"It's okay, really," Steve takes a deep breath, "you should go with Jonathan". 
"Steve," Nancy's voice is wet this time as she speaks but Steve hushes her with a sigh.
"It's okay Nance,” he pauses for a beat, “all I want is for you to be happy, and I don’t think you’ve been happy for a long time”.
“What about you,” Nancy whispers, so softly that Eddie almost misses it this time.
Eddie hears the sounds of footsteps and the rustle of fabric, a muffled sniffle and several whispered words that he can't make out from this distance. 
The whispering goes on for another minute or two before they fall silent, only the sound of cicadas and frogs echo in the midnight air around them.
Eddie takes this as his cue to begin to loudly walk over, purposefully grinding his steps into the gravel and walking more heavily than he normally would.
He comes around the corner of the shed to find Steve holding Nancy, his head on top of her own as she presses her face into his chest. 
Eddie clears his throat and watches as Nancy steps away from Steve. He lets her go, both of their movements lighter than they have been in days.
"If you guys checked the shed, Joyce said it's now or never".
Nancy nods and walks over to take the heater from Eddie, giving him a warm smile as her gentle hands brush his own, and huh --he kinda gets it now. How Steve could have fallen head over heels for this secret badass girl, Nancy Wheeler. 
"Thank you," Nancy smiles and Eddie sputters, running his now free hands through his hair.
"For what, I didn't--"
She raises a single eyebrow, and looks from Steve, before bringing her gaze back to Eddie.
"For being there, for all of them". 
With that, Nancy walks back towards the house leaving Eddie to feel as though he missed a lot more of that conversation than he should have. 
***
They finish refortifying the Byers house, boarding up the broken window that El had tossed the dead demodog through. Eddie adds one last nail and hammers it in before stepping back to admire their handiwork.
Steve lowers his hand from where he held the board in place and shoots Eddie a grin before he collects the box of nails from the floor and turns to put it on the coffee table.
"Steve?" Eddie says quietly. He doesn’t need to really, the kids aren't paying attention to the pair of them, but this is just for Steve. Eddie doesn't need four pairs of eyes staring at him as he tries to say this.
"I just, I'm sorry about Nancy".
Steve tilts his head in confusion, but Eddie keeps going.
"If we do make it out of this, I don't want you to think you were a 'shitty' anything". 
Eddie winces as Steve's eyes narrow slightly.
"I'm guessing you were standing by the shed a lot longer than we thought," Steve says slowly as he looks back at the kids and takes another step even closer. 
Eddie winces at being caught and nods, “I was looking for you originally to see if you guys needed any more help, and then I heard voices and just,” he shrugs, “I wasn’t sure if you’d be okay or not, after that”.
“And for what is worth, you definitely have changed,” Eddie offers with a sly grin, “I don’t think anyone would have expected Steve-the Hair-Harrington to use Faberge, let alone let us plebs in on his secret”.
Steve’s mouth opens and closes before breaking into a wide grin, a startled laugh falling from his mouth, growing in volume until Eddie can’t help but join him.
Steve raises his hands to run over his face and into his hair as he looks at Eddie, the grin on his face softens slightly the longer he looks.
Suddenly, his eyes harden and the look of determination from yesterday takes over. Steve squares his shoulders and breathes out a strangely broken sigh before he reaches out for Eddie's hands. He takes the hammer from him and sets it down on the coffee table beside them.
"My Nonna told me once," Steve whispers, using his hand to point into the middle distance, "Steven, people will come in and out of your life all the time, and the ones that are meant to be there will stay, and if they go, then it wasn't meant to be". 
Steve breathes out a sudden nervous laugh, "she was so straightforward and I loved that about her".
Eddie doesn’t dare to breathe as Steve shakes his head.
"And you, you stayed," Steve continues softly, "and I just…" 
Eddie's own breathing picks up as Steve leans closer, enough that Eddie can count the freckles on the bridge of his nose.
"Fuck what Dustin said, I think I need more people in my life like that". 
Eddie's eyes widen slightly as the words begin to register. No, no way, this can’t be happening.
He lets out a strangled laugh and leans away from Steve’s space, “more friends in your life right?”
It all happens so quickly after that.
Steve freezes where he stands. His face moves through several expressions, some so brief that Eddie can’t quite tell what is going on before it smoothes out once again into something blank; Steve lifts his hand to pinch the bridge of his nose before dropping it to his side and nodding.
“Yes, right, friends, duh,” Steve laughs but it's not at all like the bright wild one he let out just a few seconds ago.
This one was dull, hollow.
Eddie opens his mouth to say something, anything to wipe away the horrible emptiness in Steve's eyes but Dustin suddenly pushes past Eddie to grab the sleeve of Steve’s jacket.
"Steve!" Dustin says frantically, "Steve, we have a problem!" 
The sound of a car door slamming outside catches their attention and a sinking feeling begins to form in the pit of Eddie's stomach. There's no way Hopper and El would be back from the lab yet, and Jonathan said they would radio if there were any changes. 
So who the hell was outside?
Part Six
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and for some peeps that I think may be interested! @steddierthings @steddie-there @steves-strapcollection @henderdads @stevesbipanic @spooky-brakers
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i-mushi · 2 months ago
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Fun Halsin/Tav Idea because I finally got Baldur's Gate 3 and it's totally subsumed me. Also, I just got to Act III, so please don't spoil anything:
- The dopplegangers at the circus are dead, the dryad has just tested Halsin and Tav’s love, and they passed. Her palms are still sweaty.
- Halsin goes off to negotiate with a kobold for potions with Wyll, and Gale is trying to sweet talk the necromancer into letting him read some of their books. So Tav goes to look at the statues over in the corner.
- A few things happen before she can fully control the situation: the offering to make a statue of herself or one of the “brave heroes” is made and there’s a discount. Tav heard 25 gold. The merchant said 2500.
- A statue definitely felt tacky to make of herself or one of her companions, but the merchant was being particularly pushy about it, and Halsin really had won this fight. In his bear form he alone took down the evil Dribbles the Clown and another doppelgänger before they could kill any of the onlookers, while Wyll and Tav were busy with the beasts and Gale was ushering people away.
- “I will make this for you!” The female fiend—beast? Demon? Tav had never seen its like—declared, and the image that popped into Tav’s head at the mention of a statue of Halsin was not a statue of him vanquishing enemies. More like him standing in that copse of trees a few nights ago, bare in the moonlight and staring at her nakedness with fiery longing.
- Tav blames that distraction on missing the sensation of the Detect Thoughts spell until it’s too late.
- She tries to explain a better option for the statue, with armor and birds (ducks ideally), and Halsin looking proud and wise and gentle. The artisan clearly didn’t listen to her.
- She tells no one in the camp of her absolutely abysmal merchant experience and suggests moving into the city as soon as possible. Tav imagines she can jsut stuff the statue into her bag and throw it into the river at the next possible change. Assuming it doesn't take months to make, which a proper hand-carved one would.
- It showed up later that evening:
- A life-sized, 6ft+ Halsin made of stone. Naked. Slightly erect. Not a duck or stitch of clothing in sight. Dead center of the camp.
- Yenna is the one that notices it and calmly asks why a stone Halsin is naked, as everyone is gathered around the fire. Withers can be heard chuckling like the sound of dry grass rubbing together behind them.
- When they all troop over to what she’s pointed at, Halsin is, for the first time they’ve ever seen him, genuinely at a loss for words. His cheeks darken, and Tav suddenly feels absolutely awful. She embarrassed her love in front of their whole group, and this is entirely her fault.
- “Well, someone really likes you, huh, Halsin?” Karachi jokes, and saunters off to finish her food. Shadowheart just shakes her head.
- “You may want to watch your back, Tav, as you have competition,” Jaheira jokes. No one makes an off color remark to Halsin about it or comments on his considerable size, though Tav suspects the expression on Gale’s face is slightly envious. Astarion snorts and says, “Cazador has a hundred like this. All better made too.”
- Halsin eventually manages a sound. “I—” he clears his throat when it’s just the two of them. “I cannot fathom how this—”
- “It’s my fault,” Tav blurts out, and then the whole story sounds so much worse as she quietly explains.
- “By the Oak Father, I have never seen someone so had by a merchant. I would joke the best of them would trick you into selling your very socks, but it seems this one did not care for… socks.” The statue looms over Tav the rest of the dinner.
- The sex that night is incredible though. Halsin makes a number of remarks about going back to the artisan to “correct” the half-erect cock, so he can put Tav on it while he fucks her other hole. Gale ends up casting a silencing spell on their tent so everyone else can get some sleep. Tav leaves the tent the next morning with a bow-legged stride to see Karlach inspecting the stone cock then commenting loudly that, “it sounds like the sculptor got it right!”
- They plan to leave the statue hidden under vines when they break camp that morning. Halsin casts the spell and everything. Except when they set up the next camp it appears.
- Karlach tries to move it. Not only is it stone, but it’s magical. It does not move.
- Lae’zel and Gale put together a rig to move it. Nothing. Halsin magnanimously offers to destroy it, but Call Lightning does nothing. Shatter does nothing. It is as impenetrable as stone. Vollo takes a chisel and hammer to it and might as well have been trying to chisel infernal steel.
- It becomes as much a part of their camp as the campfire itself. So much so that every time someone new joins up and awkwardly glances between it and Halsin, Halsin just shrugs. “It is not by my doing that it stands there,” is all he says.
- He never tells anyone Tav was the one who ordered it.
- Someone hangs a vine wreath off the cock. Tav suspects Dame Aylin. No one fesses up.
- Astarion, however, loves to tell everyone more and more outrageous stories about the statue. His favorite is that it is, in fact, a petrified version of Halsin, and the one they see here is a construct, or illusion, or a doppleganger. Or it’s a manifestation of the druid’s celibacy vow. Or, in fact, Halsin refuses to travel without the visual manifestation of his best features.
- Tav quietly saves up the money in a side pouch for the day they are all free from the tadpoles, and she can commission a nude statue of Astarion to haunt him.
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room-surprise · 3 months ago
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IS LAIOS A FURRY? AN ANALYSIS.
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(Laios imagining himself transforming into a wolf in Marcille's mindscape.)
(SPOILER WARNING FOR THE ENTIRE MANGA! This is an excerpt and elaboration from The Essay about cultural and linguistic references in Dungeon Meshi)
WHAT IS A FURRY?
The furry fandom is a subculture interested in anthropomorphic animal characters. Some examples of anthropomorphic attributes can include human intelligence and facial expressions, speaking, walking on two legs, and wearing clothes, but not all of these traits must be present at the same time. Warrior Cats, The Lion King, Zootopia and Sonic the Hedgehog all have huge furry fandoms, to give a few examples.
Many furry fans feel a deep connection to these characters and desire to “become” one through designing their fantasy alter-egos (a furry persona, or fursona), making artwork, role-playing, and if they can afford it, building and wearing costumes called fursuits that allow them to dress up as their fursona in real life.
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(Laios' ultimate monster design, you could argue this is his fursona that he's been dreaming about, and refining since childhood.)
Ryoko Kui self-identified as a furry on her blog a long time ago, saying that she “was a furry in high school.” I’ve been unable to track down the original artwork or blog post that states this in order to cite it properly, but I think by looking at Kui’s extensive history, interest, and skill in drawing animals, monsters, and anthropomorphic characters, one can clearly see the “furry” influence.
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She has a very clear interest in the intersection between humans and animals, several of her characters are furry characters, and a lot of her work appeals strongly to furry fans in ways that work made by non-furries often does not. She even makes an extremely specific joke about the Japanese furry subculture in a comic about Lycion and Laios arguing about authenticity, which I will get to in a moment.
But whether or not Kui has ever considered herself a furry, I think it’s safe to say that she’s on the internet enough that she must be aware of the subculture, and so it’s possible that she wrote Laios with that in mind.
Laios’ intense desire to become a monster, the way he repeatedly fantasizes about being a dog or wolf, his fascination with all animals (but especially monsters), his skill at drawing animals (and lack of skill in drawing people, or anything else), his interest in becoming a beast-man, and his desire to visit a kobold country because they look like dog-people, all paint a very vivid picture of his interests, and his experiences match up astonishingly well with the experiences of many people who identify as furries.
Western fans often call Laios as a “furry,” or a “monster fucker” mostly as a joke, however I think this should be taken as seriously as interpreting him as asexual or autistic, which are other labels fandom commonly applies to him in a more serious manner… And, incidentally, there is a great deal of overlap between the autistic, asexual and furry communities, so if Laios is one of these things, it’s also very possible that he’s some of the others, too… Even if Kui didn’t intend it, and simply modeled Laios after “some people she’s known” without realizing they were furries, autistic, or asexual, or any combination of the three. This happens frequently in fiction.
I think the most accurate broad labels for Laios would be “therian” and “monster fetishist,” because I believe these two terms encompass the canonical behavior we see from him in the manga and extra materials in a way that I think “furry” and “monster fucker” do not.
JAPANESE FURRY FANDOM: KEMONO VS. KEMONOMIMI
Japanese furries use the terms kemonā (ケモナー) to describe themselves, or kemono (ケモノ) to describe the characters they create and love. Both words mean “furry,” as in, covered in fur.
In the What-If comic where Lycion and Laios meet, Laios awkwardly says that Lycion isn’t a real furry because turning into a beast-man didn’t change him into a wolf on the inside.
“Isn’t that just like wearing a pair of animal ears on a headband and saying you’re a beast-man?” Laios asks, to which Lycion derisively tells Laios that he is just a “beast-man wannabe” or “poseur.”
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This is a direct reference to one of the major conflicts in the Japanese Kemono fandom: are characters who are mostly human, but have animal ears and tails really kemono, or do they not count? The general consensus in the fandom is that ears and tail alone are insufficient; these characters are called kemonomimi, literally “beast ears”, like the headband Laios references. Most “cat-girl” characters fall into this category.
A real kemono character includes a muzzle instead of a normal human face and/or an animal-like appearance on the body surface, such as fur, scales, or feathers. According to researcher Inokuchi Tomohiro, this is due to the recognition that "disconnection from humans" is a crucial factor that distinguishes between kemono and non-kemono. He then defines kemono as "an animal that is depicted as a non-human being, but with the potential for mutual understanding/communication with humans.”
By this definition, Izutsumi in Dungeon Meshi is a kemono (furry) and not a kemonomimi (cat-girl), since her body is covered in fur, and she doesn’t have human breasts, but a more beast-like torso. The Winged Lion, the Goat, Kuro the kobold, and possibly the orcs are all kemono (anthropomorphic animal) characters as well.
IS LAIOS A THERIAN?
Though the terminology is very modern, and wouldn’t exist in the Dungeon Meshi setting, it’s possible that if Laios existed in the modern world he might identify as a type of Otherkin known as a Therian. Otherkin and Therians are sometimes part of the Furry fandom, but the two subcultures do not overlap completely.
Otherkin are a subculture of people who identify as nonhuman. Some Otherkin believe their identity derives from spiritual phenomena (such as possessing a nonhuman soul, reincarnation, or the will of God), ancestry, symbolism, or metaphor. Others attribute it to unusual psychology or neurodivergence and do not hold spiritual beliefs on the subject.
Therian refers to people who identify specifically as a real animal of the natural world. The species of animal a therian identifies as is called a theriotype. Therians mainly attribute their experiences of therianthropy to either spirituality or psychology, and often use the term "species dysphoria" to describe their feelings of disconnect from their human bodies and their underlying desire to live as their theriotype. The identity "trans species" is used by some.
Therians may seek out opportunities to perform species-affirming acts like wearing costumes, adopting animal-like behaviors such as making species-specific noises, eating species-specific foods, or moving/performing actions that their theriotype would do.
For example, someone with a horse theriotype may experience joy from snorting and neighing, pulling a cart, stomping their feet, or having a vegetarian diet. Someone with a shark theriotype may want to swim every chance they get, or enjoy eating a lot of raw fish. They may have special accessories they like to wear that make them feel connected to their theriotype, like animal ears on a headband, an actual animal’s tail or a symbolic tail hanging from their belt, an animal tooth necklace, or even just a t-shirt that has an image of their theriotype on it.
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In Laios’ case, we know that he likes to imagine himself as a wolf, and in the real world he enjoys/is proud of his ability to bark and move like a dog. He’s practiced and performed this dog impression so often and so well that Falin thinks it’s his most noteworthy and amazing skill. He clearly holds hunting dogs in high esteem and admires them, and says that he learned many important life lessons from spending time with them. He enjoys playing with leftovers from monsters they kill (bones, skin, seeds, fur, etc.) and sometimes tries to collect them for either practical or sentimental reasons… And at the end of the manga he takes the pelt of his ultimate monster form and chooses to wear it as a cape, something that he continues to do for the rest of his life, possibly just because he likes to wear it, or because wearing it eases the pain of no longer being the ultimate monster.
It’s also possible that he’s only wearing it because he thinks it is a pragmatic, politically expedient move, but I think Kui very clearly communicates to us that Laios likes his monster cape, and it is the one thing he immediately thinks of when he wants to try and be king “on his own terms.” He’s willing to accept being king… if he can wear his monster cape. Whether or not it’s a good idea to wear it is secondary to the fact that he wants to do it.
Otherkin and Therian are of course both modern names for this phenomenon, but the concept of people strongly identifying with and being fascinated by animals is as old as humankind itself, so it isn’t impossible that Laios may feel this way, since so much of his behavior overlaps with things a Therian might do or feel.
MONSTER FETISHISM
In English, the word fetish originally described an object believed to have supernatural powers. Fetishes are often used in a spiritual or religious context. However, over time the word fetish has been used so frequently as a euphemism to describe a type of unconventional sexual interest that “sexual fetish” has become the primary meaning of “fetish” in English.
Fetishism is a sexual fixation on an activity, inanimate object, living thing, or human body part that is not normally involved in sex. The object of this interest is called the fetish; the person who has a fetish for that object is a fetishist. The current medical consensus is that sexual fetishes are very common, and as long as they do not negatively impact a person’s life, they are harmless.
Like the English word fetish, the Japanese word 趣味 (shumi), has multiple meanings, such as “hobby”, “interests/tastes”, but it is also used euphemistically to refer to “sexual taste, vice, or fetish.” What meaning is intended must be intuited by the context surrounding the word. I believe the other words used to discuss fetishes are the loan words フェティッシュ (fetisshu) or フェチ (fechi), but these are extremely blunt and direct, and shumi is preferred in situations where polite euphemism, ambiguity or plausible deniability is desired, or is perhaps even necessary in order to make a joke.
Shumi is used throughout Dungeon Meshi to describe various people’s interests, including Laios’ interest in monsters.
Meanwhile Namari’s interest in race-specific weapons and gear is never explicitly identified as shumi as far as I’m aware, but she is called 武器マニア (weapon maniac) in the World Guide, and in the Bicorn chapter, Chilchuck labels her as 武具フェチ (armor/weapon fetishist), and uses the English loan word フェチ (fechi) which is very unambiguously “fetish.”
(The official English translation from Yen Press changed this to “armor fiend.”)
It seems odd to me that Namari’s interest in weapons and gear is identified by most readers (though not Yen Press) as a fetish, but Laios’ interest in monsters isn’t always, when their behavior around their special interest is shown to be the same in the manga:
Both Namari and Laios blush while talking about their respective interests, and get embarrassed and/or excited about the subject. In the post-canon comics, Laios blushes, hides his face, and has to be prodded to confess to Yaad, Kabru and Marcille that he wants to have his body eaten by monsters when he dies. He obviously finds the idea embarrassing and titillating somehow, and is too shy to admit it out loud until they force him to do it. He also blushes on several other occasions in the manga while thinking or talking about monsters.
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I think this is because having a “weapons fetish” is normalized: many people have a fetish for weapons or armor and find it sexy. However the idea of a monster fetish makes people uncomfortable because in a story were monsters exist and are a type of animal, they assume Laios having a monster fetish must mean he wants to participate in bestiality.
This is not necessarily true. A fetish of this nature can (and most often does, for reasons of morality and safety) exist entirely in the realm of imagination, and the sexual fixation may not even involve the act of having sex with the fetish object.
WHAT IS A MONSTER FETISH?
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In a world where monsters exist, a monster fetish could involve a sexual interest in the sight, smell, sound and feeling of a monster (looking at or creating artwork of monsters, observing monsters in the wild, wearing a monster costume, or owning monster pelts or body parts that can be safely touched, smelled, etc.), the experience of hunting monsters, eating monsters, the fantasy of being a monster, or the fantasy of performing sexual acts with or as a monster.
The fantasy element could be Laios simply wanting to be a monster, and that giving him sexual gratification without any further scenario being necessary, or it could be imagining himself as a human having sex with a monster, imagining himself as a monster having sex with another monster, or imagining himself as a monster having sex with a human.
All of these possible scenarios would fit under the “monster fetish” umbrella. We know Laios canonically does at least six out of these eight things, but we don’t know whether or not he derives sexual pleasure from them… However, we do know that talking or thinking about monsters makes Laios blush in a way that interacting with other human beings does not, and blushing is often a sign of intense emotion or sexual arousal. Kui’s meaning is intentionally ambiguous, but both meanings should be acknowledged: Laios might be emotionally excited, or he might be sexually excited and Kui is leaving it up to us to decide which it is.
This is, specifically, why I think “monster fucker” isn’t an accurate label. We don’t have enough evidence to assume Laios wants to have sex with monsters, or for monsters to have sex with him. All we can tell is that he becomes excited by the subject of monsters, and often times it is specifically the idea of eating them or being eaten by them that gets him the most excited.
VORAREPHILIA
Because so much of Laios' interest in monsters revolves around eating them and being eaten by them, and Dungeon Meshi's plot revolves around the very concept of eating and being eaten, let me make a brief side-bar to discuss the extremely popular, but niche furry sub-culture of vorarephilia.
Vorarephilia is often used as the butt of jokes on the internet, and very poorly understood by most people, so I felt taking a moment to explain it would be beneficial. Most people are probably not even aware that a fetish like this exists, and therefore aren't able to identify that the things Laios is interested in are something he shares with an entire subculture of real people.
Vorarephilia is a fetish that revolves around the fantasy of devouring or being devoured by another person or creature. The prey can either be swallowed whole and alive, or killed and then eaten... But the former is vastly more popular, and most fetishists imagine themselves as the prey, not the predator.
The fantasy of being eaten or eating someone else is just an extreme form of power exchange. Since vore is an impossible fetish in the real world, it exists entirely as artwork, writing, or verbal role play.
Like in most sex practices, the majority of people want to be the submissive partner, and have someone else do the work of pleasing them. You could compare the "predator" in a vorarephilia roleplay session to a "dom" and the "prey" to a "sub" in BDSM. Incidentally, most predators identify as women, and the vast majority of prey identify as men.
Kui's personal work seems to involve some themes that are similar to vorarephillic art.
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And Dungeon Meshi features a lot of content which appeals to vorarephiles.
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Meanwhile, the many tiny Laioses being eaten by the Ultimate Monster is a classic example of Macro/Micro, another niche furry sub-culture that sometimes overlaps with vore... A giant monster eating mouthful after mouthful of tiny humans is a classic theme.
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The vore fandom is extremely diverse, some of them are furries, others are not, and the exact element of devouring and being devoured that appeals to every one of them can be totally different.
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What the demon does to Mithrun and Thistle, and Laios does to the demon, is specifically a fetish called "soul vore", where someone's personhood/soul/awareness is eaten and (usually) destroyed by the predator via some kind of "digestion"... Often while the prey is conscious and aware of the process.
For many, the fear and pain the prey experiences while dying is essential to their enjoyment... And remember, most people want to imagine themselves as the prey!
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The art on these pages is indistinguishable from things you would pay thousands of dollars for if you hired a furry artist to draw them.
It's also very important to note that on the other end of the spectrum, some vore fantasies revolve around the prey wanting to be loved by someone so much that they would devour them completely, so that they can absorb the prey and keep them with them forever.
Sometimes it's about wanting to become part of something greater that the prey admires or idealizes… the way Laios admires monsters. He explicitly states that when he dies, he wants to become a part of the food chain… While blushing furiously.
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And although it isn't about Laios, I think it's important to note that Mithrun's desire was for the demon to finish eating him. A key part of his depression is the fact that he felt he wasn't good enough to consume, that the demon didn't love him enough to want to eat all of him.
I won't go further into vore or macro/micro, because I want to keep this post as simple as possible, and it's already quite long... But if one wanted to dig even deeper into what specifically Laios' interests are, beyond the very broad umbrella of "monster fetishism", I think vorarephelia would be worth considering.
DO OTHER CHARACTERS THINK LAIOS HAS A FETISH?
Characters frequently notice that Laios gets very excited when he’s talking about monsters: he talks louder and faster, his pupils dilate, he blushes, and he forgets what he’s doing, where he is, and what the appropriate behavior for his situation is. This behavior almost universally causes other characters to react with intense scorn, disgust and disapproval.
I don’t think it makes sense for everyone in the manga to react as negatively as they do to Laios’ behavior unless they think there is something off-putting, unsavory, or creepy about it. Their reactions mean they must think Laios’ interest isn’t innocent. It isn’t just a hobby, but of course none of them will say this explicitly, it would be much too direct and rude, and also it wouldn’t be funny if they started accusing Laios of wanting to participate in something as horrible as bestiality.
Part of the joke Kui is frequently making is that nobody says what they’re thinking out loud. For example, at the end of the manga, Kabru gives Laios a disgusted look and warns him to “not talk about your hobby (shumi)” while addressing the participants of the feast. I think we can intuit that hobby/shumi in this instance is probably meant as a euphemism for fetish, otherwise why would Kabru have such a disgusted look on his face? If he just meant hobby, his expression would probably be much more relaxed. Shumi being a euphemism is the joke.
Another example is the fact that Chilchuck frequently calls Laios a psychopath, sick in the head, etc. Those are extremely harsh things to say if he thinks Laios has a completely innocent interest in monsters. He doesn’t call Senshi a psychopath, even though Senshi is equally interested in eating monsters… Because Senshi doesn’t engage in any of the other, suspect behavior that Laios does. Senshi’s interest in monsters is perceived as innocent, while Laios’ is not.
For clarity’s sake: I am not arguing that Laios’ interest in monsters is canonically a sexual fetish, I am only arguing that there is evidence that it is, and that other characters in the story perceive it to be a sexual fetish, whether it actually is or not.
DOES LAIOS THINK HE HAS A FETISH?
People who have fetishes, especially extreme fetishes that are not normalized, often try to hide them. They do this out of fear of social disapproval, and feelings of shame, because they feel guilty for having abnormal desires. This is true even though the majority of fetishes are completely harmless, and morally neutral.
Most people also know that things which provoke sexual excitement are supposed to be kept private, and it’s not acceptable to express those feelings in public spaces, so even if they see something related to their fetish while in public, they will repress their sexual feelings about it.
Laios, who has difficulty understanding social rules and nuance, is aware that his interest in monsters is socially unacceptable, even though there are many other social things he is not aware of.
Laios has spent most of his life hiding his interest in monsters as much as he can, and it is only during the events of the manga that he starts to express himself openly, because his monster knowledge has become useful for their survival, because Senshi encourages him, and because Falin isn’t there to act as a social buffer for him.
But Laios knows people won’t approve, he knows something about his interest in monsters and the way he expresses it will cause people to react negatively, like in the post-canon comic where he doesn’t want to tell his friends about his desire for his corpse to be eaten by monsters, and the part of the finale where he is hiding in the woods, too ashamed to let people see him because they now know that his greatest desire was to become a monster, and not reviving Falin, which he thinks is the "correct" desire that he should have had.
(This of course ignores the fact that the desires the demon preys on are unconscious, and cannot be controlled by the victim.)
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This likely means that Laios has encountered negative reactions to his interest in monsters so frequently, and they have been so intensely negative, that it has trained him to conceal his feelings. It is one of the social rules that he has learned.
Laios thinks there is something shameful, wrong, and inappropriate about his desires related to monsters so he thinks it is something he needs to hide.
IS ANIMAL/MONSTER FETISHISM ANACHRONISTIC?
Some may feel that being a furry, a monster fucker or a monster fetishist is something only modern people do, and therefore anachronistic for Dungeon Meshi’s setting. However humans have been admiring, dressing up as and pretending to be animals for rituals (including fertility rituals) since the dawn of civilization, and continue to do so in the modern era every time someone dresses up in a “sexy cat” costume for Halloween, or wears a multi-thousand dollar fursuit to a furry convention.
There are many instances throughout history of people wearing pelts, masks and tails in order to “become” animals, poetry and art of people fantasizing about either becoming a beast/monster (modern werewolf erotica), or having a beast/monster ravish them (the many, many times artists choose to depict Zeus turning into an animal to have sex with women), or coming of age rites that involve animal sacrifice and the adoption of an animal-like persona as part of the process of becoming an adult.
The stigmatization of this behavior, where “sexy cat costume” is normal and “fursuit” is weird, most likely originates from the disappearance of religious and social context for it. In the past, the admiration, imitation and idealization of animals by humans was part of many cultures, but the modern dominance of religions that forbid the worship of anything other than one, immaterial god has left no room for such things, and so society can only view it as the deranged behavior of abnormal people, who have something “wrong” with them, rather than a harmless, common human impulse to admire, fantasize about, and imagine themselves as animals.
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madmanzai · 6 months ago
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I'm going to be honest, people who just go "shuro is a slaveowner" with no further discussion kind of make me think they don't want to engage with the worldbuilding surrounding the races and would rather be reductive for a gotcha.
Because the point is Inutade and Izutsumi are not seen as human in their society. The buying and selling of ogres and beastmen (though I believe there are fewer of them) are accepted because they are seen as 'less than human'.
This is a factor that permeates in a lot of aspects in the world of dungeon meshi. Kabru says that adventurers should be killing orcs, as if they were monsters.
The people of Utaya perceived the kobolds as vicious and unable to be reasoned with. In the comic this was mentioned, Kabru even affirms that he still believes this despite having Kuro as a party member (and thinking him as 'docile'). The Toudens also grew up believing the same of the mountain people, even if they *were* undeniably human. At no point is it expressed that these particular views changed at all.
Slavery is not even unique to the East. It's the whole backbone of the Canaries. Committing crimes, to the elves, gives them a reason to force convicts to work in dangerous conditions because in elven society it's the norm to abandon those that don't fit in. (And honestly, forced conscription of children from noble families is not much better.)
Like I could argue until I'm blue in the face that they're not *technically* Shuro's slaves, or that their conditions *are* better than the alternative, but I don't really believe that. Shuro and his family own slaves, but the rest of the ("human") world, and the societies that shape the people that live in them, are no better.
edit: changed beastmen to kobolds regarding the statement about the people of Utaya. i forgot the term
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outofworkderpy · 2 years ago
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Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays Everyone!
From Out of Work Derpy & Kira from Kobold Express!
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mythaura-blog · 10 months ago
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Development Update - December 2023
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Hi folks, a very Happy New Year to you!
In the spirit of new beginnings, Mythaura has entered a new chapter in its development, which we detail in our December development update. We also take time to review what was accomplished in 2023 (our first full calendar year with Mythaura!).
We've also got our color contest winners, the winning Fighter companion, and much, much more. And of course: our demo is now live! We're so excited for you to traverse the Wild Area, a procedurally generated map with monsters for your team of three Beasts to defeat.
Demo Trailer
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Message From The Developers
We're thrilled to share this pivotal update about Mythaura’s development journey, which showcases many of the core features we have planned for this game. Today marks a significant transition: we're shifting from the intricate and challenging phase of game engine development to the exciting realm of feature development.
Since beginning this project, our focus has been on scoping and then crafting robust and core components. Features such as wild areas, battle, and multiplayer systems, not to mention the complex breeding system, passive effect management, player inventory system, and the beast image engine. We've also been diligently integrating these elements with complex user interfaces and ensuring they will work on most devices (an ever ongoing battle). It's been a journey of overcoming unknowns and technical challenges, and we're proud of what we've achieved.
Now, we're entering a new chapter. Our attention turns to fleshing out the game's features, with a special focus on developing an immersive questing and dialogue system, towns & shops, skill trees & progression, and tools for content development among other needed feature development. The hardest challenges have by and large been solved at this stage and our focus can now be how to best deliver an amazing gaming experience by bringing them together. This shift doesn't mean the work is done—far from it. But it's a major milestone that brings us closer to realizing our vision for the game.
We want to express our heartfelt gratitude for your unwavering support and enthusiasm, and look forward to a jam packed 2024.
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Year In Review
This year has been marked by numerous milestones. Below is a recap of our key accomplishments, excluding the latest updates which have been a major focus of our efforts for the past several months.
1. Introduction of 'Supers': Enhanced breeding complexity by introducing 'Supers' as a new mechanic, making well-structured breeding projects more valuable. We started with the debut of our first Super: Tegu.
2. Special Additions: Welcomed the special Panda to our list of Specials.
3. Expressions for Beasts: Implemented expressions for beasts, a significant and ongoing undertaking that gives life to your beasts as they interact with NPCs.
4. Elements System: Introduced the Elements system, assigning each beast a pair of inherent elements. An element page was added that delves into the lore of each element.
5. Beast Sizes: Standardized beast sizes, assigning each beast a unique size within its species' range.
6. Beast Classes: Initial build of beast classes, providing each beast with a class-based playstyle and initial items.
7: Radiant Companions: Unveiled Radiant companions, rare alternate colorations for companions that are bound to be highly sought-after.
8: Deep Dive into Seasons: Explored the planned feature 'Seasons', designed to reward ongoing gameplay.
9: The Weekend Traveler: Designed the Kobold NPC known as the Weekend Traveler, who deals in ultra-rare goods, along with the Kobold non-player species.
10. New Colors on the Wheel: Established a sustainable method to introduce new colors to our color palette, allowing us to add 16 new colors this year (including the 3 contest winners).
11. Ephemeral Inks: Introduced Ephemeral Inks, a way to alter the colors of a beast.
12. Color Wheel Page: Created a dedicated page listing colors and corresponding inks.
13. PvP Battle Demo: Rolled out a demo showcasing our multiplayer technology in PvP battles.
14. Mutations Feature: Added Mutations as a rare breeding-only feature, beginning with our first Mutation: Piebald.
15. Items By You: Crafted 11 sponsored companions (excluding recolors), 5 sponsored apparel pieces, and 2 sponsored items.
16. New Game Engine: Designed a render pipeline that can create the 2.5D effects used in Wild Areas during exploration. Including, but not limited to, dynamic shadows, volumetric fog, real-time lighting, collision detection, special & particle effects, and gravity simulation, all accelerated by your GPU.
17. Granular Settings: Created a UI to manage game settings, graphics settings, audio settings, etc as well as added gamepad support with keybind remapping to Wild Areas.
18. Procedural Map Generation: Developed technology to procedurally generate bespoke Wild Areas.
19. Ongoing Production: Work on ongoing behind-the-scenes features such as worldbuilding, map design, systems design, and the exploration features we showcased on this update!
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UI Update
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You may notice the UI has received an update. This redesign focuses on being accessible for players using controllers, which is something we are working towards supporting on all screens and not just the Wild Area demo. The about page has also been updated. All the links to informational pages you would have found in the left-side menu of the previous design can be found on the about page with the exception of the /species page, whose contents has been moved to the about page.
We have also added an install button to the homepage that will display for users who have browsers which support Progressive Web Apps. This will add Mythaura to your taskbar/home screen for easy full-screen access.
Mobile and tablet users may enable gyroscope to interact with the parallax graphics if they would like.
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Feature Spotlight: Wild Area
Wild Areas are a key pillar of Mythaura’s gameplay, and will be where you can expect to spend a lot of your time.
At A Glance
Procedurally Generated Levels
Traverse through uniquely generated levels with your trio of beasts. Control your adventure with WASD for movement and Space for jumps and shift for sprint. This can be remapped in the settings.
Each Wild Area boasts a series of floors. Your goal? Reach the top (or bottom)!
Your Safe Havens: Checkpoint Floors
Leave the Wild Area without any penalties
Choose to start from any previously reached checkpoint.
Encounter formidable bosses or minibosses at many of these checkpoints.
Prepare for the Journey: The Adventure Bag
Your Adventure Bag is your lifeline. Pack it with essential items for survival and success.
Provision Wisely: Stock up and get ready to face the unknown.
Limited inventory space for both what you bring with you and what you find along the way.
Keep Your Energy Up
Your team's energy is key. Keep it replenished with food from your Adventure Bag or found on your journey.
Running out of energy or facing defeat? You’ll black out, dropping your Adventure Bag's contents. But don't worry, you can retrieve them by returning to your last stand.
Encounter the Unexpected
From unlocking treasure chests with lockpicks to aiding NPCs, each exploration offers unique surprises.
Day and Night Dynamics: Encounter different enemies and events. A full day/night cycle completes every 12 real hours.
Wild Areas have natural water bodies, perfect for a fishing escapade.
Escalating Challenges
Increase difficulty with each New Game+ cycle and encounter new enemies and challenging secret bosses.
Multiplayer Co-Op
Up to 3 players can group up to take on a Wild Area together.
Take on enemies as a group with co-op battles.
See your friends jump and move in realtime, split up to make the most of your exploration while keeping tabs on your team-mates through the text chat and the minimap.
Fledgeling’s Forest Demo
The demo features a single floor of the Fledgeling's Forest Wild Area, with unlimited energy.
Day/Night Slider: Experience any time of day at your convenience. (Note: Creatures that spawn remain the same in the demo)
Currently Disabled: Fishing, lockpicking, loot & foraging, multiplayer, and other events are not available in this demo.
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NG+ Cycle Update
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In last month's update we revealed our plans for Mythaura's New Game+ system. Originally, our plan allowed players from NG+2 and beyond to create any Tier 1-Tier 3 Beast.
We have since changed it so that at the beginning of a player's NG+2 cycle they may make a Tier 1-Tier 3 Beast with up to three Specials, but NG+3 and beyond will not feature any custom Beast creation. The player will instead have access to a pool of NG+3-exclusive items that they will receive items from.
Thank you to our Discord members for all their input, it provided us with a much better direction to move forward with!
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Winter Quarter (2024) Concepts
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It’s the first day of Winter Quarter 2024, which means we’ve got new Quarterly Rewards for Sponsors to vote on on our Ko-fi page!
Which concepts would you like to see made into official site items? Sponsors of Bronze level or higher have a vote in deciding. Please check out the Companion post and the Glamour post on Ko-fi to cast your vote for the winning concepts!
Votes must be posted by January 29, 2024 at 11:59pm PDT in order to be considered.
All Fall 2023 Rewards are now listed in our Ko-fi Shop for individual purchase for all Sponsor levels at $5 USD flat rate per unit. As a reminder, please remember that no more than 3 units of any given item can be purchased. If you purchase more than 3 units of any given item, your entire purchase will be refunded and you will need to place your order again, this time with no more than 3 units of any given item.
Fall 2023 Glamour: Ghastly Grin
Fall 2023 Companion: Saddleback Rattlecat
Fall 2023 Solid Gold Glamour: Ryu
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Custom Color Contest Winners
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Last month we revealed the names of the winning colors of our first ever Custom Color Contest--now they've made their official debut in the Beast Creator!
Congratulations again to:
Xander's "Moonstone"
Rhahatl's "Wintergrass"
Andydrarch's "Trench"
We were so impressed by all the amazing entries you all submitted. We'll definitely be running more contests like this in the future, so please stay tuned for them in future updates. Thank you all for participating!
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Fighter Class Companion Winner
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The brutish Domestic Wolverine will be the starting Companion for the Fighter Class! These brave and hardy creatures are perfectly suited to aiding new Fighters. Next month, we will vote on the next class companion: Rogue.
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Meet the Team
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We've gotten to learn so much about our supporters over the past year and a half, we thought it was time to share a little bit about ourselves as well! On our About page you can find short bios on each of the devs, including their favorite Mythaura species, color from our color wheel, and other fun and (very miscellaneous) facts.
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Safari & iOS Problems
At this time, iOS devices like iPad and iPhone are only partially supported. These are the issues that the dev team is aware of and actively working on:
On iOs, Safari forces a refresh if the memory usage spikes, forcing you back to the demo start page. This happens at different times on different devices dependent on its RAM usage.
Sometimes when starting a battle, battlers start shifted down, then snap to the correct position after interacting with a button.
The zoom in on a beast image is pixelated (Safari bug: https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=27684).
On Mac Safari, battle animations showing with a black background. iOS is fine. Solution is to disable battle animations in the settings.
You will need to be running at least iOS 15 and Safari version 15 or greater in order to use Mythaura.
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Mythaura v0.25.1
Improvements to AI Behavior: Improved target selection and behavior profiles for AI enemies.
Class Infrastructure Addition: Added new class infrastructure.
Stat Effects from Classes: Implemented functionality where classes affect stats.
Glamour CMS Process and Fixes: Updated and fixed issues related to the glamour content management system process.
Ability Usage Tracking: Implemented increments in the 'ability times used' counter, enhancing tracking of abilities' usage.
Policy Code Refactor: Conducted a significant refactor of policy-related code, improving efficiency and maintainability.
Item Actions Refactoring and Rename Feature: Refactored item actions and added a new feature to rename items, allowing users to name their companions.
Book Item Type Addition: Introduced a new item type - books, adding to the game's content.
Encounter and Description Fixes: Fixed issues with encounter metadata and corrected miss descriptions.
Shadow Maps Generation: Added tools that allow the system to generate shadow assets.
PHP 8.3 Compatibility Updates: Made updates to ensure compatibility with PHP 8.3.
Queue Configuration and Fixes: Improved the configuration of job queues and fixed related issues.
Fixes and Updates for Battler State: Addressed issues in practical testing and refined the battler state management.
Refactor of Current Effects: Refactored how current effects are stored and managed. Moved current effects to state and resolved turn resolution issues.
Map Generation and Space Management: Improved the map generator to add empty spaces when out of view.
Behavior Selection and Shadow Rendering Fixes: Fixed issues with behavior selection and shadow rendering in battle states.
Party Leader Management Updates: Implemented changes for setting new party leaders upon defeat.
Stat Resolution Enhancements: Updated the resolution of stats, improving the mechanics of stat calculations.
PvP and Demo Battle Fixes: Made fixes specifically for arena PvP and demo battles.
State Management and Pruning: Improved state management, including pruning data when no longer needed by the system.
Species Data Addition: Added species data to the about page.
Rest & Defend Action Health Gain: Resting no longer increases health but does recover more stamina. Defending no longer recovers stamina.
Remade Companion Page: Used the new scene component to improve usability and performance of companion page.
Adjusted Radiant Overlay: This fixes an issue Firefox users had with viewing radiant companions.
Updated Tooltips: Tooltips have been replaced with a more modern library.
Gyroscope Support: The game can use a devices gyroscope to move parallax scenes around.
Websocket Connection Updates: Ensures websockets get cleanly disconnected at the end of every battle.
Improved Hitboxes and Rendering: Objects no longer appear to "float" regardless of their size and their hitboxes have been refined.
Added Global Sound - App can now maintain music across different pages and the settings control master, sound effects, and music seperately.
Enhanced Settings - Greatly improved the number of modular settings a user can use in both graphics and gamepad.
Wild Area Game Pad Support - Wild areas now support game pag usage. Full game pad support is in progress.
Virtual Joystick - Touch screen devices can control movement with a virtual joystick.
General Cleanups and Tweaks: Conducted cleanups and minor tweaks across various parts of the system.
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Thank You!
Our first full calendar year with Mythaura has been one primarily focused on foundation-building. We're so excited to use these systems that we have built to create the content that players will engage with as they travel throughout Mythaura. Again, a heartfelt thanks to those who have supported us through all of this--we really couldn't have done it without you. We hope to deliver an experience that you'll want to revisit again and again.
As always: we'll see you around the Discord!
153 notes · View notes
mayashesfly · 7 months ago
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Thinking about Young Vox sending Alastor fan letters to his radio show when they were both alive.
Alastor was having a bad day after a particularly feisty prey of his messed up his best suit. In hindsight, he should've changed clothes before commiting to his act. However, he didn't have the time and now he has to go to work being seen with subpar clothing by his supervisors.
Not that it matters much to his listeners, no no of course not. After all, radio was still the best way to express ones self even when there were rumors popping out about those rudimentary picture boxes. So he doesn't need to worry much about his appearance for his audience.
However, he still doesn't want there to be any rumors about his home life because of his subpar clothing. Noone needs to know what happens to his personal life after all
As he sits in his station, he readies the script he already prepared and the catalog of songs he was going to broadcast before going on air.
He keeps the smile in his face and in his voice as he performs for his beloved audience. Even when a part of his mind wanted nothing more than grit his teeth as he remembers the small puffs of laughter and snorts when his coworkers saw his clothes.
Truly, it was too bad none of them were as bad as his usual victims. He would've already killed them otherwise.
As the music segment began, he started shifting through the pile of fan letters he acquired. Most were unimportant or junk mail much to his chagrin. But there were a few written by his beloved fans that warmed his heart upon reading them, regardless of how brief or convoluted.
A certain letter caught his eye upon seeing it came from New York of all places, a rather long journey compared to the other letters. The fame of his radio show was rather local after all.
Curiosity piqued, he picked up the letter before carefully opening it.
His eyes widened upon seeing it mention his ethnicity. He swore he didn't say any of the sorts during one of his broadcasts but still- rather than find disgust or any filthy words of the sorts, he found admiration and appreciation.
"It's hard acting like someone else just for your safety. But it makes me happy that I'm not alone in feeling this way"
The letter had said, penned under the name Vincent.
Vincent.
What a lovely name.
He said his mother was of German descent and had told him stories of a "kobold" of sorts among other things his mother had taught him.
He smiled upon being reminded of his own mother.
Before the letter said that his radio broadcasts never fail to put a smile on his face. Happy to hear another's voice with such a compelling delivery of words and stories.
And his heart swelled with pride.
It was a bit humorous, if not slightly concerning, with how much information he can glean from a single letter.
It had warmed his heart nonetheless.
And he found himself smiling more naturally as he finished the music segment and started to offer acknowledgement and appreciation for the fan letters his audience has given him.
Somewhere else, within a cold empty house... a lonely boy smiled upon hearing those words.
"Thank you for the wonderful words you've send me"
"It has really warmed my heart knowing I am not alone"
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toudencestyay · 8 days ago
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You heard of "laios love falin just as much as marcille does" now get ready for "falin is just as much a character foil to laios as kabru is".
It is very important that for this piece of media in which desires are at the center of everything, that it is precisely the point in which the touden siblings differ completely. Laios is constantly at risk of being consumed by his own desires. His feelings for monsters are deep, all consuming and selfish. And what about falin? Falin is content with what she has, she react to the bullying by turning the other cheek, she follows her loved ones wherever they go like a shadow. Falin is the very image of purity and selflessness which makes it all the more shocking when this image is defaced by turning her into a blood thirsty monster. And yet there's a sense that falin is still here. She doesn't attack any of her old party yet she takes pleasure in killing the kobold that bite her like the dogs at home used to do. With an animalistic screech, she tear apart her clothes, freeing herself from human decency. She recognize laios and call for him. It has to be asked what kind of resentment and pain was hiding beneath the surface back when she was human. Unlike laios, she never expressed any negative emotions regarding her othering and poor treatment at the end of other. And yet, out of the two she's the one who get to be free, free of being the monsters that they were both treated as.
And all those parallel culminate to falin's assassination. As falin get to indulge herself to a delicious meal despite sissel's orders to stay put, she then collapse into a deep slumber. Falin is being selfish and doing what she want. Meanwhile, it's laios that take the painful but very much necessary decision to kill his sister. Back when falin was octrasized, laios didn't take it very well. He left the village because he couldn't face the villagers's cruelty. He wasn't strong enough to face his sister's suffering. He ran away from her when she needed him most.
This is why when laios suffocate falin, watching her struggle and agonize while still persisting because he know it's for her own good, it's the most selfless and courageous act of love that laios has ever done in the entire series. "my sister need to be killed and be reborn. I'll be the one to do it. My sister needs me to kill her. My sister needs me". And he wasn't going to fail her again.
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deepdreamnights · 8 months ago
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Kobold Work Crew Tokens
Free art for your campaign.
The image(s) above in this post have not been modified/iterated extensively. As such, they do not meet the minimum expression threshold, and are in the public domain. Prompt under the fold.
Prompt: a kobold, fantasy creature, wearing overalls and a hardhat, gaming token, white background, fullbody image
109 notes · View notes
oh-no-my-hand-slipped · 7 months ago
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An Adventurer’s Cold
****************************
An original fic commissioned anonymously
********************************
Subject: Original Characters By Author
Length: 3,998 Words
Genre: Denial, RPG, Contagion, Stuck Sneeze
Rating: E for Everyone
CW/TW: Slight Food Description, Mild Blood
*********************************
You have entered MARLINE’S MAGIC SHOP.
“Snf…welcobe back, traveler.”
Marline took a worn handkerchief out of her front apron pocket, blowing her nose mightily. She sniffled, leaning against the old oak counter she stood behind.
“Whad can I interest you in today?”
Terra, only half listening, looked at the many mystical items lining the shelves. Dragon’s heart, succubus horns, even a small jar filled with pixie wings for one silver piece each. Not a bad price, considering how hard pixies were to catch.
However, she didn’t have time for browsing today.
“You wouldn’t happen to have a bronze kobold fang, would ya?” she asked, looking through a green eyepiece at the tired shopkeeper.
Marline smiled. “You took thad request for the rabid fairies, I take it?”
“Yep! They’re some nasty critters, but we’ve got a potion that should stun ‘em -”
“Hah-! hhhhp’TSHIEW!”
Marline bent over the counter, her long red hair spilling over her face. She groaned, taking her handkerchief out again. Terra lowered the eyepiece.
“Good health, Mar. Though it sounds like it’s a little late for that.”
Marline blew her nose with a loud honk. “I was bushroom hunting during a rainy spell ereyesterday - snf! I believe I bay have lived to regret it.”
“I’ll say,” Terra said, frowning. “Have any faeleaf? It doesn’t taste great, but it’ll set you right again.”
“Not this week, I’b afraid. I wasn’d the only one who fell ill after the storm. I would harvest sobe byself, bud I…hih! hhh’PTCHIIEW!”
“Hey, no worries!”
Terra reached into her traveling bag and pulled out a small, bitter-smelling burlap pouch.
“I always keep some with me for emergencies.”
Marline shook her head. “You busn’t – hih’PSHIEW!”
Terra set the bag on the counter.
“Listen, if anybody has an emergency, it’s what you’ve got. Besides, I haven’t caught a cold since I was a kid! I don’t think I’m going to start getting one now.”
Marline gave a knowing smile, but took the herbs with no more opposition.
“Stday in good health, kind traveler,” was all she said before stuffing her handkerchief back into her apron pocket.
“I will!” Terra replied, not noticing Marline’s expression. “The spirit of adventure will keep me warm! And a little mead, if I can get it.”
Terra chuckled, and turned on her heel to leave.
“Ah! Your kobold fang!” Marline called after her.
Terra spun around again, putting her hand on her forehead.
“If my bow wasn’t on my back, I’d forget that too,” she said, reaching for her belt. “Let me just get my coin purse, and I’ll -”
Marline shook her head. “No, no, dear traveler, please. Your kindness has been paybent edough.”
She reached into her apron, pulling out a sharp, yellow tooth with a purple tint at the crown. She held it out to the adventurer.
“Don’t mention it,” Terra said, accepting the tooth.
Suddenly, Marline’s handkerchief was retrieved again, and she sneezed into it yet again, sniffling with a quiet groan. Terra suddenly realized that the tooth must have been next to the shopkeeper’s many handkerchiefs throughout the day. That would explain its uncharacteristic shine.
She shrugged, putting the tooth into her satchel. She’d touched worse bodily fluids.
KOBOLD TOOTH is now in your inventory.
“Get some rest, Marline!” Terra called behind her as she left.
“I shall,” Marline said wearily. “Fare thee we-heh! hhhh’PCHIEW!”
**************************************
You have entered the DARK FOREST.
“I believe this is the place, if my master’s geography is correct,” Vin said, peering at a dusty, yellowed scroll. “Though the topography may have changed since he made it.”
“Eh, how much can a bunch of rocks move?” Terra said. She squinted above her, checking the branches of the surrounding trees for glittering wings or beady eyes between the leaves.
Vin adjusted their glasses with a mechanism on the side of the hinge. “Quite a bit, actually. Earthquakes, battles, magical events, even the migration of animals can-”
ENERGY has decreased. You are now FATIGUED.
Terra yawned, rubbing her suddenly burning eyes. Vin scowled.
“You can at least pretend to be interested.”
Terra started. “Huh?”
“We have been walkin’ for a while,” Norif said, hoping to placate the scholar. “We ought to set up camp – it’s gettin’ dark anyway.”
Vin hmphed, but didn’t have any objection.
Suddenly, Terra noticed that there weren't as many sounds of footsteps as there were before. Her worn brogues, Norif’s dwarvish leather boots, Vin’s cork soles…
Terra turned around.
Frederick had completely stopped, and was looking up at the sky, which had just begun to show the pinpricks of summer stars. His wide, moonish eyes stared, unmoving. Then, with a slow motion, he lifted a thin arm and pointed a finger to the trees, his other hand moving inside his cloak. Terra instinctively rubbed her hands together, preparing her magic.
The others soon followed suit, grabbing their own weapons and standing at the ready.
Their preparedness paid off, as, before the party knew it, a swarm of angry fairies descended upon them, snarling and screeching.
Norif swung his ax at the creatures, taking large clouds of them with a single blow. Vin, with a scraping of iron, loaded their crossbow, the many cogs and mechanisms firing the arrows directly into each fairy heart. A thin rope attached to every arrow jerked them back into place with a satisfying clack. The practical Frederick fired his revolver quickly and without mercy, leaving every target a blood splatter on the dark soil.
But even with these efforts, the fairies quickly overtook them. Frothing mouths and gnashing teeth soon surrounded the adventurers.
They had expected this – after all, fairies could only be kept at bay with magic, as was their birthright. They all looked to Terra, their resident mage.
Taking this as her cue, Terra retrieved the kobold tooth from her belt, crushing the hollow bone in her palm until it was a thin powder.
A simple wind spell would spread the tooth, subduing the fairies until Terra could harness lightning to defeat them for good – electricity was the only natural element they had no control over.
Terra took a deep breath, and a howling gust of wind blew through the forest as she puffed out the ground tooth. A white cloud swirled around her. The rest of the party kept their distance, both out of reach from the spell and the rabid fairies. The cloud overcame the swarm, and, as they smelled the scent of their natural enemy, went limp and hovered in the air.
Exactly as planned.
Terra stretched her fingers, feeling the warm pulse of magic flow through her hands. To the knuckles, to the joints, then to the tips it went.
But, before she could cast the final spell, her breath caught.
The KOBOLD POWDER is tickling your throat.
Terra tried to will herself to focus on the spell, but it was no use. The powder was making her eyes water and her throat dry. She hacked out a cough, still holding her hands in front of her to cast. The spell buzzed uselessly from her fingertips.
No matter how much she wheezed and croaked, Terra couldn’t keep upright long enough to cast her spell. The cloud was starting to settle, and one of the bigger fairies shook itself from its haze, baring its fangs. It dived into a thin part of the cloud towards Terra.
“Watch out!” Norif called, but it was no use. Terra could hardly hear herself think, much less anyone else over her hacking.
Terra looked up just in time to see the fairy rear back an arm and sink its claws into her cheek. She yelped, stumbling back. A tree root caught her heel, and she tumbled to the ground. She lifted herself onto her elbows to the fairy growling a low growl, preparing another, deadlier attack. Green venom dripped from its fangs, and its yellow eyes dilated. Terra held her hands in front of her, trying in vain to ward off the creature.
“N-Nice fairy…snf…”
Unbeknownst to the mage, the tickle in her throat had slowly traveled to her sinuses. Her freckled nose began to twitch.
You need to SNEEZE.
“Deh-Don’t…hih-!”
A small group of black clouds gathered above them, and Terra’s hands began to crackle. Thunder crashed. The fairy started, looking up with wide eyes and a whimper. Terra squeezed one watering eye shut.
“A-Almost…gih-!”
The clouds grew thicker, the thunder louder. The tree branches trembled in the wind. The other fairies, still hovering, looked up at the rumbling sky. Terra hitched, curling her fingers.
“HAH-!”
KSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSH!
You used CALL OF LIGHTNING.
Lightning flashed, hitting every single fairy with a bolt of white hot magic. They fell to the ground, singed and lifeless. Barely contained, bolts began hitting nearby trees, giving them black, round burn marks with red centers. If the rest of the party hadn’t gotten out of range of Terra’s magic, they would have surely been struck as well.
It was VERY EFFECTIVE.
Once the spell had run out of targets, it ended, and the dust cleared. All that was left in the now barren clearing was Terra, stunned and still holding her hands in front of her. A light drizzle began to fall.
There was a long pause as the party stood still in front of the clearing, afraid to join the fairies littering the ground.
“Cogs and corkscrews,” Vin murmured, their usually narrowed eyes wide.
Norif gingerly stepped into the singed circle, keeping the blade of his ax above him just in case.
“Y’alright?” he said, taking a torn rag from his breast pocket.
Terra blinked, and a nervous smile shook on her lips.
“I, uh…the spell kind of got away from me, huh?”
“I’d say so,” Vin said, earning him a glare from Norif, who had begun dressing the wound on Terra’s cheek.
“At least the job’s done,” he soothed. “No one in their right head would want fairies caught alive.”
Terra nodded. “Yeah. That’s right. Just - koff! - give me a sec and I’ll -”
ENERGY has decreased. You are now EXHAUSTED.
Terra fell back against the tree trunk, wincing. Norif rubbed her shoulder.
“We’ll make sure the fairies don’ seep back into the soil. You did your part. We’ll do ours.”
Hardly in a position to argue, Terra leaned her head against the tree trunk, closing her burning eyes.
Before she knew it, a pair of strong arms lifted her up from the ground. All she heard before she dozed off was Vin complaining that their glasses would get rusted in the rain, and there wasn’t a blacksmith for miles, and was it really necessary to do a lightning spell of all things…
*****************************************
You have entered GWALT’S INN.
“A c-couple rooms, if ya would.”
The innkeeper peered over at the counter at the adventurers. Terra was standing, as she had insisted on entering the inn on her own two feet. However, she had a hand on Frederick’s shoulder for support.
The innkeeper raised an eyebrow. “On whose account?”
Terra looked around. Instead of drunken workmen or soldiers recounting battle, the fine oaken tables were filled with nobles politely chatting over honey mead or aged wine. A few of them had turned to stare at the soaked, mud-covered party in varying degrees of confusion and disdain.
This wasn’t an adventurer’s inn, but a place for those of higher standing to feel a clean ruggedness, a false sense of bravery as they “conversed with the locals.”
This wasn’t a place for them.
However, before they could return to the stormy darkness, Frederick held up a hand and reached inside his cloak. He retrieved a thin card, one side silver and the other gold. A few words that Terra didn’t recognize were engraved into the metal. Frederick laid the card on the counter, pushing it towards the innkeeper with the tip of his finger.
To Terra’s surprise, the innkeeper began to sputter, his waxy face turning red.
“Of course, sirs! Madams! His majesty’s brave battalion!”
The nobles began to whisper among themselves, their disgust turning quickly to awe and reverence.
“I am terribly sorry, no, outraged that you had to travel in such dreadful weather!” the innkeeper stammered, showing them up the stairs with a low bow. “I will have your clothes washed immediately, and perfumed of course! And whatever of our selection of humble morsels you may like, if thou wishes.”
Terra raised her eyebrows, looking at Frederick. He only nodded solemnly.
It wasn’t long before the mage was in a pair of silk bedclothes, laying in a large bed with frilled sheets and a thick quilt.
However, she wasn’t sleeping.
“Ih-! Hih…!”
You need to SNEEZE.
She sniffled, then, with a sigh, blew her nose. Mounds of tissues surrounded her, all provided by the inn staff, of course. However, no matter how much she snuffled and sniffled and rubbed her nostrils with the palm of her hand, she couldn’t bring herself to sneeze – though the need grew ever more powerful.
Unable to doze for more than a few minutes, she tried to plan the next few days' journey with Vin and Norif, but to no avail.
“If we - snf! - take the high road,” she wavered, keeping a tissue at her nose, “w-we can…meh-!...make good time.”
Norif rubbed the end of his beard. “I don’ think we’ll be leavin’ this inn for a while. On account’ve…”
He cleared his throat.
“...the weather, a’course.”
“The rain’s never stopped us before,” Terra said. “A-And we won’t - snf! - have to stop for washing! We’ll just let the rain…c-clean - HI’HIH-!”
“Would you be quiet?” Vin hissed, not looking up from the map. “I can hardly concentrate.”
Norif slit his eyes at the halfling. Terra growled in frustration.
“You made me lose it again!”
She reached for another tissue, but, finding there to be none left, she buried her nose into the neck of her shirt.
“Disgusting,” Vin said, recoiling and putting the map in front of their eyes.
Terra ignored them. “Maybe some of the kobold tooth got into my nose…I’ve neheeded to sneeze since we bagged the fairies.”
She sniffled.
“Or maybe it’s a curse? But what curse makes you n-need to sneeze?”
Before Norif could answer, the door opened, and Frederick came in, arms full with packs of tissues from the innkeeper. He moved carefully around the bed, handing one of the packs to Terra. She ripped them open with one hand – as the other was more than occupied – and put almost half of them to her streaming nose.
“Thangk you,” she said with a blow.
Norif moved the quilt up to Terra’s shoulders, gently pushing her head onto the mountain of silk pillows.
“Well, until this, er, curse passes, it would be best to lay yourself down for a bit. Maybe Vin could find a cure for ya. Yea, Vin?”
Vin raised their eyebrow at the pointed request, but said nothing to refuse.
“I’ll be fine,” Terra said, propping herself up on her elbows. “And we’re - snf! - leaving tomorrow, rain or shine…!”
She yawned, settling back down again.
“Curse…or no curse.”
******************************
The innkeeper had insisted on breakfast before the party left. An array of meat, pastries, fresh fruit, wine, and mead were brought before them – a king’s feast.
But Terra could hardly touch it.
Having been kept up almost all night by her burning sinuses and aching head, she could only lean against the back of the wooden chair, shivering as the chilly morning air drafted through. Her coat was made to be warm, even in the most frigid northern wind, but it seemed like the cold was leeching into her very bones.
She was only awoken when Norif put a hand on her forehead. The warmth of his rough palm felt her head, then either side of her neck. She heard him whisper something to the others, but the only thing she could hear was her pounding temples.
“Mmn…is it tibe to leave?” she murmured, trying to push her chair back from the table. Her sore joints were too weak, and the chair’s back legs clacked back onto the floor.
“Ah! Not just yet,” Norif saud, an odd tone of urgency in his voice. “We need’ta…er, Vin’s gonna go to a library nearby. T’cure your curse. There’s really no use ‘n you goin’, it’s all dusty books and scrolls.”
“Don’d have tibe,” Terra croaked. “Back to the guild.”
Norif gave Vin a pleading look, and the scholar fumbled with their knapsack, taking out a few tattered papers and maps.
“Eh, w-well, we are a few days ahead of schedule. We needn’t be back for at least another week, and it only takes three days to - ”
Terra was already up from the table, ignoring Vin. Without much choice, everyone else followed suit. After yesterday’s battle, they were afraid of what might happen if they tried to force her back to bed.
The weather had much improved since the day before. Though it was still a bit gray, the sun peeked out between the clouds, sending rays of light through the raindrops still left on the leaves.
Despite her weakness, Terra took the front as usual, plodding alongside Norif. Shivers ran up and down her spine as a cold wind left from the storm began to blow.
As the group walked near the edge of the woods, the clouds grew darker, and the sun disappeared again. Terra put a thumb on the underside of her nose.
You need to SNEEZE.
Terra sniffled and rolled her eyes. As if on cue, her nostrils began to tremble, and a burning tickle flared in her swollen sinuses. But, this time, the urge grew so great that it made the mage stop in her tracks.
“Hih…? HIH-!”
Attempt to STIFLE? > YES NO
She put her hands over her nose. A slow tingling made its way from her nose to the rest of her body. Soon, the air around her crackled with blue sparks of magic.
“Terra?” Norif said, reaching towards her before thinking better of it.
Terra tried to answer, but it was taking everything in her to keep the magic contained. Thunder rumbled in the clouds as she squeezed one watery eye shut.
“I-I’m…guh-! HUH-!”
She desperately waved to her friends to stand back – she knew that this sneeze was coming, one way or another. The party wasted no time, running behind the treeline with whatever they could carry above their heads to protect them.
“HihihHIH-!”
Terra leaned her head back, the magic coming to a peak inside her. The air was suddenly silent – a calm before the storm. Until –
“HIYA’TSHIIIIIIIEW!”
A circle of lightning flashed around her, and thunder rumbled loud enough to shake the earth. Smoking burn marks smoked around her.
But, before the rest of the party could join her again –
“HYESH’IIIIIEW!”
Again and again Terra sneezed, with each sneeze bringing another ring of lightning and another round of thunder. All of her lost sneezes from the night before seemed to finally come to fruition, and she couldn’t stop for some time.
Finally, though, Terra did stop. She lifted her head, dazed and with singed hair, and sniffled thickly.
SNEEZE COMBO x15!
Snottiness Rank B! Power Rank A+!
Bless you, TERRA!
One by one, her comrades came to join her – Norif first, of course, then Frederick, then, after some convincing, Vin.
The thunder had subsided, but a heavy rain had begun to fall. Terra started to shiver again, her trembling breath visible in blue puffs of steam.
“Ya poor thing…” Norif said, taking off his own fur-lined cloak and tying it around her shoulders. “You really oughta’ve stayed in bed.”
Terra rubbed her nose on the back of her damp sleeve. “Bud…th-the guild…we need…koff!”
She began coughing into her arm, and Norif fastened his cloak tighter around her.
“Ya need do no such thing,” he said firmly, though not unkindly. “You’re sick as a gnome in the rainy season. And almost half as wet –”
“And the sooner you put aside that hero complex of yours,” Vin interrupted, “the sooner we can get inside the inn, out of this weather! I’m already soaking, and we certainly don’t need two people ill in this party!”
They crossed their arms, and lifted their chin.
“Furthermore,” they added, “we wouldn’t want you catching pneumonia. That’s quite a bit harder to treat than that disgusting cold. And I will be significantly more furious with you if I catch it.”
Frederick took off his combat gloves, then put them over Terra’s red-tipped hands. He looked over his glasses and gave her one of his rare smiles. Putting his palms on either side of Terra’s hands, Frederick rubbed them together, trying to warm them.
“Ya feelin’ better, Terra?” Norif asked.
Terra sniffled. “C-Cold…”
“Well, no wonder!” Vin said, scoffing. “Heat is mostly lost through the head. If she had some sort of covering, then, perhaps…she could…”
Vin stopped. Everyone was staring at them. Or, rather, their scholar’s beret.
“I mean…or, rather…” they spluttered, then threw their hands up. “Oh, fine! But it had better be returned to me in the exact condition I lent it. It’s irreplaceable, you know.”
They took off their hat, stiffly handing it to Frederick, as if through ceremony rather than a favor.
“Your sacrifice will be remembered through th’ ages!” Norif said, chuckling.
Vin glared at him. “My patience has already been tested enough. Do not test it further.”
“Aye, aye.”
Terra could feel a slow warmness spread through her, and her eyes suddenly felt heavy as iron.
“Alright, up ya go. Let’s get ya out of the cold.”
Terra was heaved up again, and, surrounded by the warmth of her friends, drifted into a dreamless, sneezeless sleep.
FRIENDSHIP LEVEL +1!
********************************
You have entered MARLINE’S MAGIC SHOP!
“Welcome back, traveler! Might I interest you in our wares?”
Marline smiled at the returning Terra, who replied by blowing her nose into a pink tissue.
“How’s it going, Mar?” Terra said, sniffling as she looked at the glimmering displays.
Marline’s smile faded. “Are you not well, traveler?”
“I’m weller than I have been. Just a liddle sniffly now. Snf!”
Marline put a hand to her mouth.
“Oh, Terra…it must have been my chill that you caught. And I left you without any faeleaf!”
Terra rubbed the back of her neck. “About that. You wouldn’t happen to have any more of that left in stock, would you?”
“Ah, yes, a fresh bunch! Why-”
Suddenly, a large, dwarvish sneeze came from outside the shop, followed by a chorus of harsh coughs. Marline put her lips together underneath her hand, keeping back a giggle.
“Oh, dear.”
“Yeah,” Terra said sheepishly. “I’ll take three pouches.”
She furrowed her brow, counting on her fingers.
“And a few-”
Another sneeze rang out, this time small and high-pitched.
“Okay, a lot of tissues. We’re gonna need ‘em. Maybe some tea? I guess? That’s what Vin gave me when I was sick, anyway.”
Marline winked. “I know just the thing.”
She disappeared behind the shelves for a few moments, coming back with many packs of tissues, two pouches of strong-smelling tea leaves, a few pouches of faeleaves, and a thick blanket.
“May your party be blessed with a quick recovery,” Marline said.
Terra started to reach for her coin pouch, but Marline stopped her.
“I gave you and the others my cold. I’m going to cure it as best I can.”
Terra opened her mouth to argue, but closed it again. She began to put the items in her bag.
“You’ll have nothing to sell at this rate, Marline,” she said.
Marline tilted her head. “Well, I can always deal in colds.”
Yet another sneeze came from the doorway, raspy and shuddering.
“It appears I’m quite good at it, I’m afraid.”
“I am too, if being an adventurer doesn’t pan out,” Terra said, turning to leave. “See you later, Marline!”
“Goodbye, dear traveler! And good health!”
Marline chuckled as Terra joined the others.
“Though it appears it’s a little late for that.”
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thenixkat · 9 months ago
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It is interesting to me that Laios never expresses the desire to eat orcs or kobolds because he does express the desire to eat goblins and as far as we get to see/know about goblins in this setting is that they're people enough to wear clothes, use weapons, and presumably trade and they're even more human looking than kobolds.
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syn0vial · 1 year ago
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maybe i'm crazy, but as someone who has completed astarion's entire questline twice now, i swear there are extremely subtle differences based on his approval of your tav. in my first playthrough, i never broke out of "neutral" territory with astarion and in this playthru, i'm romancing him and have him at "exceptional" approval. differences i've noticed:
in my neutral!astarion playthru, when listing off the "non-thinking" creatures he drinks from, astarion emphasized "kobolds" with a smirk, like he was trying to get a rise out of my paladin. in my current playthru, where he was already friendly with my ranger at the time, he said the same line without the emphasis or the smirk.
in my neutral!astarion playthru, i never got the scene where he puzzles over his scars in camp. instead, raphael revealed his scars by poofing away his clothes in the last light inn and then during the next long rest, every time i went to talk to astarion in camp, even though it was about unrelated topics, he just looked profoundly sad. i made a confused post about it at the time, with screencaps. i never experienced astarion looking that sad around camp in my second playthru.
in my neutral!astarion playthru, astarion did not smile at all while confronting cazador. in my current playthru, he grinned when he told cazador, "i'm not the one in the dirt," and directly before stabbing cazador to death.
so, there are a couple of possibilities here: either my memory is shit and i'm misremembering all of these—OR even things as subtle as a character's facial expressions and tone of voice can vary between playthrus based on your tav's relationship with them.
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